The Hafenstein Family
Karl and Karoline
Karl & Karoline Havenstein were married in 1849 living in Brandenburg, a district of Prussia. They began their family of twelve in the small town of Petersdorf at a time of great political unrest and religious persecution. In 1884 Karl & Karoline left Germany to join their family who had immigrated earlier and settled in Kansas; upon arrival some of their children changed their last names to either Hafenstine or Hefenstine to be easily identified.
The Palace Guard, The Chambermaid & an Arranged Marriage
Minnie Scharcufski was born September 9, 1859. Over her life, she shared certain facts with her children and grand-children about her childhood. She lived in what is now Poland as a child, her mother was Jewish and her father was a Jewish rabbi priest; wearing a long black robe and cap reading from the Bible all day on their holidays. Her father was executed in Poven, Poland as a political show of force dying steadfast in his faith and commitments. After the death of her father, the Kaiser Wilhem II took Minnie to his Palace to work as an upstairs chambermaid. She would make up the beds and clean rooms in the palace.
In an attempt to subsume the power of the Catholic Church in Germany, a civil law in 1874 was enacted that required marriage of German Jews who interacted with German non-Jews. By 1879 it became known that Minnie was Polish, Jewish and unmarried living and working under the Kaiser Bill, he knew he needed to find someone for her to marry. William Hafenstein born November 22, 1858, was the personal Palace Guard for the Kaiser and unmarried. Minnie and William were the same age, Kaiser Bill arranged for them to marry. Minnie had been seeing another man and making plans to marry; however the Kaiser did away with that man. Minnie & William met on a Sunday and a week later were married in the Palace on Nov. 9, 1879, a match ‘made in heaven’.
In March 1887 they received permission from the Kaiser to leave Germany for a visit to the United States to visit Karl & Karoline, Will’s parents and his oldest brother August who had come to ‘the New World’ in 1884. They left Hamburg on April 24, 1887 via the ship Lessing and on May 7, 1887 the family landed on Ellis Island, New York. Minnie persuaded William to never return to Germany making their new home in Alma, Kansas with their four children born in Germany that traveled with them. In total they had eleven children; five children born in the state of Kansas, two children did not live to maturity.