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Putting a human face on an ancestor

News Photos by Diane Speer Bob Lyngos, special collections librarian at Alpena County Library, shows some historical materials to Jim and Sharon Skouge, who came from Hawaii to do research on Jim’s long-deceased great-grandfather, Casper Aspern of Alpena.

News Photos by Diane Speer
Bob Lyngos, special collections librarian at Alpena County Library, shows some historical materials to Jim and Sharon Skouge, who came from Hawaii to do research on Jim’s long-deceased great-grandfather, Casper Aspern of Alpena.

Jim and Sharon Skouge already possessed a keen interest in genealogy when last year out of the blue they received an email containing detailed information about Jim’s great-grandfather, who spent the last 33 years of his life in Alpena. The previously unknown background about his long deceased relative came from Marcia Simmons of Harrisville, a seasoned genealogist who specializes in researching Civil War veterans with ties to Northeast Michigan.

That email prompted the Skouges to make a recent road trip to Alpena to dig up even more about Jim’s great-grandfather, Casper Alpern. Road trip takes on added meaning, however, when considering the couple traveled all the way from the state of Hawaii to get to Alpena.

“We love to travel,” said Jim, taking a pause from conducting research Tuesday in Alpena County Library’s genealogy section. “We came here last year for just a day and met Marcia, but this time we came back for a couple of weeks.”

Jim said the experience has really sparked his imagination when it comes to his great-grandfather. This is what he was able to find out thanks in large part to the efforts of Simmons:

Casper Alpern first came to America in 1857 at age 16 from Prussia aboard a clipper ship crowded with other emigrants. After more than 50 days at sea, Casper and his father landed in New York City where another Prussian family invited them to stay with them until they could get settled. The family live in a tenement building in a Polish neighborhood in the Bronx.

Casper had heard talk of a town called Houston in Texas and decided to strike out for there. Jewish by faith and speaking mostly Yiddish, he’d also heard that Houston was a welcoming place. Within a few days of his arrival, he landed a job as a clerk in a dry goods store and found lodging in a rooming house.

Casper began to fashion a life for himself in Houston, but by 1861, the bitter winds of the Civil War abruptly changed his life again. Texas joined the Confederacy and Casper joined the Texas heavy artillery company where he performed clerical duties.

Casper served until the war’s end. Life next took him to Mobile, Ala., after a fellow veteran invited him to move there and work in his family’s butcher shop. What he encountered in Mobile was a city reeling from the destruction of the war. Ultimately, after receiving a letter telling him that his sister had immigrated to America, gotten married and moved to the Michigan port city of Alpena, Casper decided to relocate there as well.

Casper came in 1873 and soon made a name for himself in Alpena. Hard-working by nature, he invested in the fishing business, first as a fish broker and distributor and then as owner of a fishing fleet of his own. His Alpern Fish Co. eventually employed 27 men.

It was in Alpena that Casper met and married a Jewish widow, Minna. Together they raised seven children, including Jim’s grandmother, Fannie Alpern-Sias, who after marriage moved to Minnesota where she raised her family of five children and never mentioned a word about her Judaic heritage.

In Alpena, Casper also found a place with a welcoming Jewish community. He became a founding member of Temple Beth-El, the reform Jewish synagogue constructed in 1889 that still exists today on White Street. He also led the effort to establish a Hebrew cemetery in Alpena where he, Minna and two of their children are buried.

Additionally, the couple learned that Casper was a member of the local Masonic Lodge and the Elks. He also served as an alderman of the First Ward from 1861 to 1892.

Jim and Sharon are ever grateful for the information and help provided by Simmons.

“I cannot thank Marcia enough for her scholarly research into the life of a family to which she had no personal connection other than a shared love for her beautiful Alpena, its history and its great Lake Huron,” Jim said of Simmons, who also has been researching the life histories of the founding members of Temple Beth-El, which included Casper.

The Skouges spent part of their time in the area visiting the Hebrew cemetery, Temple Beth-El and the location where Casper and his family built a large Victorian home on Dunbar Street. That home no longer exists today. They toured locations where other family members operated businesses or were involved in the community in a variety of ways.

Jim and Sharon also spent time at Alpena County Library looking through documents and old newspaper clippings to glean more information about Casper and his family. Of particular meaning to them was the copy of a letter handwritten by his grandfather that special collections librarian Bob Lyngos provided.

“Both Sharon and I are really grateful to be here and see the little pieces of my family’s puzzle partially solved,” said Jim, a retired professor at the University of Hawaii. “It’s also wonderful that this town has such a resource at the library.”

Jim and Sharon’s journey to find out more about the past has enriched their lives – they have made a good friend in Simmons, they appreciated the beauty and welcome spirit of Northeast Michigan, and they treasure the human face their trip put on a formerly little known forefather.

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