Manuscript Collection 3: Kraus Family Papers

Kraus Family Papers, n.d., 1836-1971 

MS 3 

ACCESS AND PROVENANCE

The Kraus Family Papers were found in the collection of the Jewish Museum of Maryland in May 2003 without an accession number.  Unable to reconcile the collection with an existing accession, it has been assigned accession number 2003.053.  Erin Titter processed the collection in May 2003.

Access to the collection is unrestricted and is available to researchers at the Jewish Museum of Maryland.  Researchers must obtain the written permission of the Jewish Museum of Maryland before publishing quotations from materials in the collection.  Papers may be copied in accordance with the library’s usual procedures. 

HISTORICAL SKETCH

The Kraus family and its ancestors lived in the Fells Point section of Baltimore in the mid to late nineteenth century.  In 1851, William Floss purchased property near the corner of Bank and Bethel Streets in Fells Point.  William Floss married Sarah (d. c.1873) and they had two children, Simon W. and Hellen.  Simon W. Floss married a woman named Emma.  Hellen (d. c.1895) married Henry Adler.  Hellen and Henry are buried in Baltimore Hebrew Congregation Cemetery.  Simon and Emma did not have children as of March 26, 1887.  Henry and Hellen had at least two children, Sara F. and Gertrude B., although they may have had a third, Mattie, who died as a child.  Gertrude B. Adler married George W. Kraus and they had at least three daughters, Hellen, Edna, and Mabel.  It remains unclear how the Korte family is related to the Kraus family, but it appears that Matilda and Frederick Korte were at least good friends of Henry and Hellen Adler.  

SCOPE AND CONTENT

The Kraus Family Papers contain documents from three generations of the Kraus family, which lived in the Fells Point section of Baltimore.  The bulk of the records are deeds, mortgages, wills, and other probate records, however personal letters, certificates, and report cards from Western High School are also included in the collection.  Through these records, one can piece together a general family tree of the three generations included in this collection.  Also of interest are the personal letters written to Matilda Korte from her husband Frederick while fighting with the Union Army near Bermuda Hundreds during a failed attempt to march on Richmond in 1864.

This collection is divided into two series:

Series I.  Personal Papers, n.d., 1836-1971 includes all letters, certificates, wills, mortgages, deeds, report cards, and citations.  Folders are organized alphabetically by the last name of the individual.

Series II.  Photographs, n.d. includes all photographs previously known as PC 7, Reverend Leopold Kraus Family Photographs.  Like the papers, these photographs were found in the collection without an accession number.  Recognizing that the photographs are an extension of the papers, they received the same accession number as the papers.  Most of the photographs are unidentified. Folder titles were left the same as was the order.   I have added the generic title “Family Photographs” whenever another title was not provided.  Dates, where given, were estimates provided on the previous folder headings.