Researching an early Broomfield family

18 September 2004

With Broomfield Days today, I thought it would be fun to see what I could find about one of Broomfield’s early families. I picked the Scheurn family because they were one of the first to settle in the area, around 1884, then left about 1901.

I started out with copies of the 1885 Colorado State Census of the Broomfield area (Broomfield is not mentioned by name but is part of the Boulder County Enumeration District 1) and the 1900 U.S. Census for Broomfield, Boulder County. A summary of the Scheurn family from these two sources is as follows: Peter Scheurn, born in Germany January 1853 married Annie Mary about 1878 in Germany. Annie was born April 1851 in Germany. The couple had seven children: John A., born November 1878 in Germany; Carl, born November 1880 in Michigan; Jacob F., born October 1882; Peter C., born March 1884; Henry, born January 1886; Annie L., born November 1887; and Katharina, born June 1890. The last five children were all born in Colorado.

My goal was to learn what had happened to this family after they left Broomfield. I used the Internet to conduct my preliminary investigation. The first Web site I used was Ancestry.com. The search for the surname Scheurn returned 143 matches in the Ancestry.com databases. There were 34 census record matches, 37 vital record matches, 2 military record matches, 19 directory matches, 1 land record match, and 43 tree matches.

I followed up with the Denver Public Library free online databases, Google, and the Colorado Marriage 1859-1939 CD.

The following information is what I learned about the Scheun family. Peter, Annie, and son, John immigrated to America about 1878-1879. Peter was naturalized in 1883. Their second child, Carl was born in Michigan in November 1880. Jacob, their third son, was born October, 1882 in Colorado. By June of 1885, they were living on their homestead in Broomfield.

Some believe that Peter and Annie Scheurn divorced in 1901 but they did not. Annie filed for divorce in Boulder County Court in 1901 but she had the charges dismissed and she never went through with the divorce. In 1910, Peter and Annie were living at 4219 W. 46th Avenue, Denver and Peter was an employee at Denver City Hall. Peter worked at 4219 Raleigh, Denver as a florist in 1913 and lived at 4361 Vrain, Denver. Peter and Annie continued to live in Denver and can be found in the 1920 Census living at 692 Bryant St. Annie probably died between 1920 and 1928. Peter married Sophie Beruhardt on 5 June 1928 in Weld County. They were living at 2735 W. 20th Avenue, Denver in 1930. Sophie Scheurn died January 1940 and Peter died in June 1940 in Denver.

Between 1900 and 1911, six of the children married: Jacob married Emma Matzke in Weld County, 1904; John married Marie R. Gajefski in Denver County, 1906; Peter married Lucy Myrtle Lehman in Weld County, 1908; Anna married Clarence Boles in Denver County, 1908; Katharine married Charles T. Herran in El Paso County, 1910; and Henry married Adova White in Jefferson County, 1911. About 1917, Carl married Edna Day.

In 1918, when the World War I Draft Registration was taken, Peter C. was farming in Weld County, Carl was working for a farmer in Windsor, John was living in Los Angeles and Clarence Boles was living in Red Mountain, California (Annie had probably died by this time since she was not listed as the nearest relative on Clarence’s draft card).

John and Marie Scheurn moved to California before 1918. John died in California in 1966 and Marie died in 1986. They had two sons, Kenneth and John Michael.

Carl and Edna Scheurn moved to California about 1928 and Carl died there in 1966 and Edna in 1981. They had five children: Margaret, Marie, Carl Jr., Francis, and Albert.

Jacob and Emma divorced in 1912. Jacob was living in Denver in 1930.

Peter C. And Myrtle Scheurn lived in Weld County until they divorced in 1932. They had three children: Katherine who married Perry Gill; Dorothy who married Walter Thompson; and Donald. Peter moved to California and died there in 1962.

Henry and Adova Scheurn moved to California where Henry died in 1957. He is buried at Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Salt Lake City, Utah. Adova died in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1982.

Clarence and Annie Boles had two children, Clarence and Robert. Annie probably died before 1918 when Clarence Sr. moved to California with the two boys. Clarence died in California in 1948.

No further information was discovered about Katherine and Charles Herran.

The only documents collected were census and World War I Draft Registrations. The other information was taken from indexes so follow up is needed.

The steps to continue this research 1) collect the marriage records from the various Colorado counties, 2) do a complete Denver City Directories search and retrieve Peter and Sophie’s obituaries at Denver Public Library, 3) check Denver cemeteries for Peter, Annie and Sophie, 4) order obituaries from California newspapers, 5) check the Germans to America indexes, 6) locate Peter’s Declaration of Intent or First Papers, 6) contact the submitters of the online family trees.

I wonder if the descendants of Peter and Anna know that their ancestor helped to build the Colorado’s 64th county?

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