San Francisco 1906 Earthquake Marriage Project - Darwin Otto Reinhold and Clara Elvira Phoedovius

San Francisco 1906 Earthquake Marriage Project
by sfgenealogy.com

Darwin Otto REINHOLD (24 Nov 1883 - 04 July 1957)
Clara Elvira PHOEDOVIUS (27 Dec 1884 - 24 Apr 1972)
Married: 29 April 1906, San Francisco

REINHOLD

On November 24th, 1883, the Reinhold Family of Girard (Crawford County) Kansas welcomed another son into their growing family. They named him Darwin Otto Reinhold.

The father, Otto "John" Reinhold was born in 1833 in Zwickau, Saxony, Germany and came to America before 1860. The mother, Anna Pauline Meyer, was born in 1853 in Switzerland and came to the United States in 1871. The Reinholds had been married in Girard in 1876, and had eight children (Johan Max, Anna Pauline, Dorothea Elizabeth, Elisa Johanna, Darwin Otto, Georgia Helen, Carl Edwin and Joseph Valentine). Two of the children, Johan and Elisa sadly died in infancy.

Sometime around 1896 they decided to take their large brood to San Francisco, where their youngest child was born in 1897. Mr. Reinhold died in 1900, leaving his wife Pauline to support her family as a seamstress and mistress of a boarding house on Kansas Street in the Potrero Hill area.

PHOEDOVIUS

On December 27th, 1884, the Phoedovius Family of San Francisco added a daughter to their family whom they named Clara Elvira Phoedovius.

William Phoedovius was born in Memal, Germany in 1847 and came to America in 1865, at the age of 18. His wife, Mary Jane Crandall, was born in Buchanan County, Missouri in 1850. They were married in San Francisco in 1877 and eventually had five children (Daniel, Louise Frederika, Clara Elvira, Frank Harry and Arthur).

The family lived at 1046 Kentucky Street (now known as Third Street), between 17th and 18th Streets. Clara's mother, Mary Jane, died of tuberculosis when Clara was just six years old, leaving the young girl to learn at an early age to take care of the rest of her family. Many years later, in 1966, Clara wrote a short memoir that vividly described the neighborhoods in which she lived.

The Reinhold and Phoedovius families had been neighbors for many years at the time of the 1906 Earthquake and Fire. According to her granddaughter Dolores, Clara never forgot how frightened she was as she watched from Potrero Hill while the City burned in the days following the earthquake. Eleven days after the initial quake, Darwin Otto Reinhold and Clara Elvira Phoedovius were married.

Darwin and Clara Reinhold with son George, circa 1907 On May 2nd, 1907, Darwin and Clara had a son they named George Darwin Reinhold (shown in picture with parents at right). Another son, Edgar Crandall Reinhold was born on November 26th, 1908. With the help of Clara's brother Frank, Darwin built a house at 520 Day Street (which still stands) and the family lived there for many years. Darwin was a self-employed pattern and model maker with his own shop at 1041 Folsom Street. George graduated from Mission High School where he excelled in track. Edgar developed a remarkable talent for the arts.

Both George and Edgar worked at their father's pattern shop for a time. George met a young woman named Beatrice Ramona Bino one day at Washington Park in Burlingame, where they had both gone to enjoy a game of tennis. Beatrice (who had been born in Cupertino on July 28th, 1911) was the second daughter of Italian immigrant Angelo Bino (1879-1972) and San Francisco native Victoria Corsiglia 1884-1965). George and Beatrice were married, and in 1942, at the age of 34, George was drafted into the Army. He served as a sharp shooter in the South Pacific from 1942 to 1945. Beatrice worked in the billing department at Reynolds Tobacco Company.

George and Beatrice had a daughter they named Dolores Armida Reinhold. Dolores has three sons: James Michael Tretheway, Frank Edward Bonifacio and Robert George Bonifacio. James Tretheway's children are Jamie Michele, James Michael, Jr. and Amanda Lynn Tretheway. Frank Bonifacio's children are Zachary Wayne, Ryan Robert and Patrick William Bonifacio. Robert's children are Briana Michele and Brandon James Bonifacio.

Reinhold Family Scrapbook

Mr. & Mrs. Darwin Reinhold and granddaughter Dolores

Credits: Information and family photographs provided by and used by permission of Dolores (Reinhold) Valadez, granddaughter of Darwin Otto Reinhold and Clara Elvira Phoedovius. Other information gathered from public records.

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