Joseph Paris Steinberger was born Apr. 27, 1881 in Madison IN. He was
the son of
Ignatious "Samuel" Steinberger and Katherine/Catherine (Schnell)
Steinberger.
When Joseph Steinberger was born, Rosemary said that Catherine
handed him to her mother, Clara, and told her that it was her job to
take care of Joe. Clara was very partial to him, Rosemary said they
all loved Uncle Joe. Her mother and Joe wrote back and forth when he
was in Washington and they always stayed in touch.
Joseph married Bertha Cecelia Zapp on July 27, 1905 at St. Patrick's
Catholic Church in North Madison, Jefferson County, Indiana. George Crawley
nephew of Joe Steinberger was best man at Joe’s wedding
Marie Crawley, niece of Joe Steinberger was brides maid. They were
children of Josephine Steinberger Crawley, who was a sister of
Joe's.
Joseph and Bertha moved from Madison, IN to Indianapolis, IN in 1910.
9/12/1918 Joseph draft registration. The house
where they lived at 2151 Avondale Pl in 1918 was torn down and is a
part of the Martin University Campus. Here is place where the house
stood and also the house that would have been across the street.
Joseph and Bertha had 5 children, George Andrew Steinberger, Kathryn
Agnes "Toots" (Steinberger) Gahan, Francis Bernard "Frank"
Steinberger, Mary Louise "Mary Lou" (Steinberger) Werner and Bertha
Clare "Tiny" (Steinberger) Johnson.
In the 1920 Census, Joseph is listed as head of house, living at 2151
Avondale Pl, working at Motor Co, and the 3 oldest children, ages
13.11 and 7 are listed as newsboy and newsgirl with their own route.
Both fathers born in Germany, and Prussia written after Germany for
Bertha's. His mother born in Germany, with some place written after
it, and German as her native tongue. Indiana is written for Bertha's
mother's place of birth.
Joseph went to Canada to become a lumberjack and then moved to
Seattle, WA to become a longshoreman, retiring in 1956, and moved
back to Indianapolis.
From a letter written by Kathryn Gahan, "No,
Dad did not keep in touch with me when he was in Washington but sent
to mother buckets of honey, sorghum molasses, silver dollars and
newspapers, including comics for the children."
In 1930 Census, Bertha is head of house at 1930 Delaware St with her
children, youngest is age 10 and Larry and Kathryn, her brother and
sister are living there. She said she is renting and made $5,000 per
year as a dressmaker at home, her father was born in Germany. Larry
is a druggist, Kathryn a stenographer and George is a delivery boy
for the drugstore.
In WWII, Joseph handled carloads of ammunition. He handled explosives
that were so dangerous that work was volunteer. Joseph loved working
in his flower gardens.
