John Conrad’s father died on the boat on the way to America. When they arrived in New York, John’s mother (according to Mom):
said she would marry the first man who asked her - even if he had an oxenkauf - ah, an ox’s head - oxen head, see - a cow’s head or an ox’s head, see - so, I don’t know where she met this man that she married, but she married - oh dear - a man from Raway.
So Great Grandfather John Conrad
grew up in Raway and I know the next child that was born was also a boy and his father wanted him called John too, so they called him John and they always knew one as Little John and the other as Big - ya know John and Little John - they were half brothers. I remember the name of my Grandfather’s stepfather - it was Schwindinger. - My mother’s father’s stepfather was Schwindinger. Got that? And there was quite a family of them - and that’s the one that had the Little John. I don’t know whether my Grandfather was called Little John or the other John - I would imagine that the baby - the youngest - would be called Little John.
I have pictures labled George and Adam - but no John - so the pictures are mislabled or I am missing a picture of John Schwindinger.
They had a nice family and I remember when I was little - I was old enough to remember - my Mother and I went to Rahway - just the two of us - I don’t remember whether it was by trolley or by train - but we got to Rahway, we visited an aunt - one of my mother’s aunts - who must have been a half sister to my grandfather - and I remember they had a boardwalk to their house and I found a penny on the boardwalk - and I was so thrilled and somebody told me that pennies grew on the boardwalk - I always remembered that, ya know - Raway, and I remember that they had just harvested a lot of peaches and they were peeling peaches that day and making peach preserves and they had made apple butter and of course we had samples of both to take home. I don’t know whether we stayed overnight or not - it’s so far back - but I do remember the boardwalk.
When Mom said boardwalk, I immediately thought she meant on the ocean, but she said:
No, no no no. People didn’t have sidewalks. I can remember my own Grandmother’s house when she lived on 18th Avenue in Newark and they had from the sidewalk back into their backyard was a wooden walk - and this was in Newark when I was little - but I remember lots of people had these wood walks - they just built these wood walks - now they have - lotsa places used stone or even gravel, but they carried dirt into the house so they built those wood - and the walks could be swept off ya know - the wood could be swept off
But I remember even after I was grown up - well grown up - I think I was married and had children - going into the postoffice in Newark and seeing one of the clerks - the sign on his window said Schwindinger - and I can’t remember what the first name was, but I asked him if he happened to be from the Rahway Schwindingers - and he was - so he was related somehow to us - course I didn’t get all the details.
Schwindinger Family
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