The 82 year-old Edwin (Ed) Oechslin has multiple family connections to Einsiedeln. These connections need a lot of sketches and explanations for an outsider to understand. To make it short: Ed’s grandfather, an Oechslin, was from Einsiedeln and his grandmother was from a large Kaelin immigrant family from Euthal and his mother’s parents, also a Kaelin, was an immigrant family from Willerzell. In Ed’s story it becomes clear that the original family members who emigrated to Louisville from Switzerland in the 19th century had very close contact with each other - unusual family ties still bear witness to it today!
Denise Oechslin Hill, 59 year-old, maintains contact with relatives in the old home country actively: “I am connected via facebook and e-mails with them.” Who was the first of the Oechslin family to emigrate from Central Switzerland to America? Ed: “My grandfather Louis, a farmer’s son from Bennau, came to Louisville in 1891, along with his brother Mathias. They came because they hoped for a chance of a better life here. Moreover, many emigrants from Einsiedeln had already settled in the Louisville area. Louis never returned to his old homeland.”
and children.
Louis D. Oechslin was born in 1867 in the “Scharten” in Bennau and grew up on the family farm together with six siblings. At the age of 24, he and his brother Mathias, age 17, sought their fortune in far-away America. They had a job waiting for them in America before they left Switzerland. They were to work for Dominic Zehnder on his dairy farm in St. Matthews milking cows. Both brothers met their future wives while working at the Zehnder dairy farm. Mathias married Matilda Zehnder and Louis, in February 1897, married the orphan Katherine Marie Kaelin - both women were from Louisville.
When Katherine married, she was finally able to leave St. Joseph’s Orphanage, where she and her ten siblings lived after their parents’ early death. The couple bought a 60 acre farm in Jeffersontown, Kentucky for $2000. There they operated a dairy farm and grew onion sets on a large scale. Here they also raised their six sons and two daughters. Ed Oechslin: “My grandparents hardly ever went to a grocery store; they were totally self sufficient.
I still remember them both well; both were kind and very hard-working people. My grandfather often spoke Swiss German.” Farming life also influenced the next generation, Ed’s father, Edwin Benedict Joseph, was the fourth child of the family. He lived on the farm until he was 30 years old and married - again - a Kaelin, but from another family, of course, no cousin! Josephine Louise Kaelin, his mother, was the youngest of sixteen children, whose parents emigrated from Willerzell to Louisville. “I remember that my mother still spoke Swiss German but not with us as children.
My parents were dairy farmers but also grew potatoes.” They all lived on the farm of Anton Jacob Kaelin, his mother’s father - along with the family of his mother’s brother, Carl Kaelin. “I was born on the Kaelin Farm - and spent a lot of time with my cousin Gilbert Kaelin. He is the youngest of ten children, and I am the oldest of six, and we always got along very well. On the farm there were always many Swiss relatives coming to visit on Sundays, that was wonderful. I remember very well that we also spent a lot of time at Swiss Hall. Specifically, Gilbert and I dated two sisters, we later married. I have three children, Denise, Kevin and Lori with my late wife, Mary Jean.“
Ed spent the years 1957 to 1959 as an instructor in the US Army in Ft. Belvoir, Virginia. “Denise was born during this time. Later, I spent fifteen years with General Electric as an electric motor repairman.” In 1971, he opened his own electric motor repair business, Quality Electric Motor Service. “My children are grown and several are employed by me: my daughter Denise, her husband Mike Hill, my son Kevin, my grandson Matt, my sister Jean and my nephew Paul Nichter. We repair all kinds of electric motors; and I’m still working five days a week at the age of 82.“
