Kurt William Leucht grew up in the tiny village of Zaulsdorf, Germany. He came over to America on 7/29/1914 (age 18) with a sponsorship from Pastor Jass of Christ Lutheran Church in Peoria, Illinois. According to Ellis Island Records, Kurt arrived in New York on The Vaterland, which was the largest ocean liner in the world between 1914 and 1921.
Kurt settled in Peoria and married Verna Irene Pickard. They had four children: Betty Joyce Leucht (now Stimeling), Jack Dean Leucht, Thomas Otto Leucht, and William Kurt Leucht. After Verna Irene's death (2/20/1943), he married Alberta Stone (5/16/1903 to 4/1982).
Kurt was very artistic and even owned & operated his own sign shop in Peoria. He also was very active in the Peoria Cinema Club and was president of that organization for a period of time. He was also member and past president of Peoria Parks Senior Summer Band Parents Club.
Kurt brought his parents over from Germany in 1926 and they also took up residence in Peoria. Kurt's brother, Walter, also came to America and lived in the Peoria area. Kurt is buried in Swan Lake Memory Gardens in Peoria.
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Notes about Zaulsdorf:
My dad & stepmom visited Zaulsdorf a few years ago, and they asked some people there if the Leucht house was still there and the gentleman they asked said no, but he kept referring them to the "mueller" or miller and his house was still there. And the Leuchts were the millers of the town for many generations. Yes, it was small, there was a one lane road into the village.
Roland Drexler who owns a vacation rental in Zaulsdorf writes:
Zaulsdorf lies in a valley approx. 460m (1500 ft) above sea-level. The ground is a bit undulating and is rising till the mountains of approx. 900m. (3000 ft)
We live since 1996 in Zaulsdorf. I feel differently about the Vogtland (region of the federal state Saxony), the area where Zaulsdorf is. It is a beautiful area, but it has disadvantages too, for example a lot of cloudy, rainy days, snow, ice and smooth roads in winter.
In the year 2003, we had 675 years of Zaulsdorf, therefore we made a little chronicle and we know that the mill was till 1902 owned by a family Leucht, then, till now, the owner is a family Halbauer. But I must tell you since 1986 the mill doesn't work, today are only dwellings (flats) in the mill house. The chronicle is unfortunatelly only a collection of different facts and curiosities of the history about Zaulsdorf. It's a matter of copies out of paper, no electronic facts, in German.
On the Google map of Zaulsdorf, the mill-house is the middle house on the left side on the highest (North) road called An der Muhle. The mill-house is across from the circle pond you see on the map. The mill in Zaulsdorf was using water to work like others, too, which the water came from a brook on top of the village and was guided in a pipeline to the mill. There the water flowed through a turbine and then ca 200m under the building in the brook again. So the drive ran inside of the building and wasn't visible on the outside. In the mill, people grind grain to flour. In the past ( 150 years ago ), there were a lot of mills in Germany, because the farmers had only little pieces of land and couldn' t transport their grain across long distances. However when time went past, today the transport is much easier, the agriculture went down, the land one farmer could cultivate grew up, in fact of this the number of mills were going down more and more, moreover the individual plants grew up. Since 1970 there were hardly any mills whitch were carry on of familys.
Only a few days ago I have talked with the people, who are living in the former mill, but unfortunatelly they don't speak English and haven't any computer. Nevertheless I will help you and will try to send you some old photos they'll show to me. The oldest people who are living in the former mill are more than 80 years old, well they are born after the year 1922. I am sorry, but there are no memories about the family Leucht that I could give back to you.
The big, white wind turbines ( 3 ones ) you see in the photos are producing electricity, they were built in the year 2000. In Germany such wind turbines must guiding the electricity into public nets. The owner gets a fixed payment per kwh current. On that way the government trys to support the alternative energy. In the last few years, people built a lot of such wind turbines in Germany.
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Questions to be asked/answered:
Is there anyone in Zaulsdorf who remembers the Leucht millers? Did they leave anything behind that is still around? Any good stories?
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Notes about Leuchtenberg:
My mom & stepdad visited Leuchtenberg a few years ago, and in this town there is a painting in a restaurant of a man on a horse. The man in this painting, I'm told, bears a striking resemblance to my father, William (Bill) Kurt Leucht! If you haveany idea who the man in the painting is, please let me know.
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Notes about the Leucht name and origination:
Andrea from Plauen/Vogtland writes: The name Leucht appears very early in our part of Saxony, the Vogtland. It's mentioned even in the first citizen list of Plauen (1388). Of course it's possible your ancestors came from Franconia but in case that happened it was probably before 1240. "Leucht" is the newer (and High German) spelling of the name. In dialect people still say "Leicht" and that's the way they also spelled it in former centuries. It sounds very similar to the English "light" and it means just the same. Leicht means "light" (weight) but "easy" too. Maybe your oldest ancestor was somebody who took life not too serious. You can find Leuchts/Leichts in our area in many towns and you can trace their lines back to the beginning of the church books (about 1640) but sometimes even much farther back. Many Leichts were farmers, some millers and in bigger towns they werealso senators (members of the council) and mayors. Since you know your Gottlieb Leucht was a miller it shouldn't be too difficult to come some generations further back. (Imagine, there is still a "Leuchtsmühlenweg" in our town, named after a mill who belonged to a miller Leucht centuries ago. No,there is nothing left from the mill. It's just a street's name.) You just should start with the church books of St. Jacobi in Oelsnitz. I just suppose your line could go back a little farer east from Oelsnitz and Zaulsdorf (because of the Petzold name that appears usually in the Treuen/Lengenfeld area). There were Leicht millers too in Altmannsgrün close to Treuen in the 17th century.
Kurt William Leucht wrote this awesome journal when he came to America from Germany in 1914. It's been translated to English and lots of wonderful historic information has been added, including many historic photos. In this journal, he details his trip across the ocean, his trip to Peoria, and his new life and new experiences in Peoria. It's truly an interesting read!
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Media
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Kurt Leucht in 1913 (M89) Type: Photo
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The Leucht family in 1913 - Anna, Kurt, Julius, Walter (M86) Type: Photo
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Zaulsdorf old mill panorama from the South, 2006 (M19)
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Zaulsdorf old mill from the North, 2006 (M18)
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Zaulsdorf from the North-East, 2006 (M17)
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Zaulsdorf from the West, 2006 (M16)
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Zaulsdorf panorama from the East, 2006 (M15)
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Oelsnitz & Zaulsdorf, from 2006 Google satellite map (M14)
Individuals - Genealogy from The Peoria Leuchts
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