Leo Kraemer was born in 1905 on a farm in Wilson Creek, Spring Green Township, Sauk County, Wisconsin. He lived to be 97 and died from old age at The Meadows in Spring Green. He came from a family of 14, three of whom died as children. He never knew his mother as she died when he was two years old. His aunt raised him for the next three years and he returned home at age five to a rude awakening with his new step-mother. He was the youngest of the children that lived, separated from his next oldest brother, Ben, by three olders sisters and eight years. He married the first and only girl that he kissed, Lucy, and celebrated 70 plus married years with her. He worked 45 years for Edward Kraemer and sons as laborer, truck driver, power shovel operator and foreman on road construction projects all over Wisconsin. He was a quiet man, with great dignity and although a loner, he was well-liked and respected.
The authors stumbled upon an unsolved mystery far away in the homeland of their ancestors, in a small village named Tiefenbach, set among the beautiful rolling hills in the Oberpfalz region of eastern Bavaria, Germany. The mystery involved a unique stained-glass church window with an intriguing inscription, "Kraemer in Amerika." Setting out to discover the meaning behind the inscription, the authors found themselves faced with many unanswered questions: - Who did "Kraemer in Amerika" represent? - Where in America did this Kraemer live? - Who donated money for the Kraemer window? - In what year was the window inscribed? - Could there be a fascinating story behind the donation? Research in Germany led to the discovery of several Kraemer families who lived in the Catholic parish of Tiefenbach. One of these Kraemers, namely Paul (the great-great-grandfather of author Ken Kraemer), worked as a weaver in the nearby village of Irlach. Paul left Irlach in 1866 and eventually settled on a farm in Wisconsin. Some of his descendants, the "Wisconsin Kraemers," established prosperous construction and road building firms in Sauk County, Wisconsin. The authors were astounded to find out that another Kraemer had ties to America Paul's distant cousin, Michael Kraemer, worked as a tobacco maker in Tiefenbach, and had three married sons who immigrated to America as early as 1852. Could the three brothers in this line of Kraemers provide the missing piece of the puzzle of the stained-glass window? The three brothers were some of the early rugged pioneers in Stearns County, Minnesota. The oldest brother, named after his father, Michael, was a kindhearted Minnesotan whom everyone called "Papa." He created a town, built a Catholic church in the name of his wife, and left a legacy of multiple Century Farms, businesses, and descendants in the state. The middle brother named George experienced the worst kind of grief when he lost three of his children in the 1881 smallpox epidemic, which affected nearly every family in Stearns County, including the family of his brother Michael. George never fully recovered from the tragedy. Nikolaus, the youngest of these brothers, started out as a cigar manufacturer in St. Cloud, Minnesota, in 1862, then later uprooted his family to Los Angeles, California; his eldest child remained in St. Cloud. This distinguished bearded Californian left a legacy through his five beautiful and talented daughters and a son, and became modestly wealthy in the 1890s land boom in LA. In 1900, an unexplainable tragedy befell the family. The daughters survived through successful marriages and bonds of sisterhood on ranches in rural Los Angeles. This book reveals the identity of the "Kraemer in Amerika" mystery, and details the struggles, tragedies, and ultimate triumph in the new world of the "Minnesota Kraemers." The authors have filled the chapters with family history, original documents, and family photos, along with an extensive index of names, places and occupations.
This book examines the evolution of the computer industry in the Pacific Asia region. It explains the key factors that account for the different levels of success among the nations in the area, and explores the strategic implications for the United States and the Asian Pacific countries as they compete in computers in the emerging network era. This book is intended for academics and computer professionals.
