All around are Nature’s calls to me, Imploring to hear, feel, smell, taste, sense and see; To quaff great gulps of her beauty. To come and walk and sit and connect my soul, and with joy surrounding me, make myself whole.
–Nature’s Call, David Kuhns
I feel Nature’s Call as she reaches out to me like an impassioned lover, begging me to enjoy her gentle touch and caress, the sweet fragrance of her scents, the beauty of her woods, lakes, streams, rivers fields, her flowers, her flora and fauna, the cacophony of sounds emanating deep from within her soul like a symphony wrapping me and taking me higher.
For as long as I can remember, I have had examples and mentors to help me recognize and answer Nature’s calls. One of my earliest memories is sitting on the banks of a stream in the high Uintah Mountains of northeastern Utah, watching my father fly fish the mountain peaks and quaking aspen groves. I recall struggling, as a four-year-old, to cross a tiny rivulet, and seeing a brightly colored brook trout swim upstream under my feet.
Later, my Grandmother Bertha and Aunt Mary provided the example. As I would stay with Grandma in her lakeside home in central Wisconsin, she taught me well. No matter what she was doing, no matter how busy she was, if she heard sounds of the harbinger birds of spring, the wild Canada geese flying, or if she got a call from my aunt, or from her niece Fern, “the geese are flying”, she would put down whatever she was doing, quickly throw on a coat, and head out for a walk in the crisp spring or autumn air, looking heavenward, listening for the sounds of geese by the thousands, gleefully pointing them out as they flew overhead in their familiar V formation.
Even in the last week of her life, having suffered a minor stroke a few days earlier, and mere hours before the massive stroke that would put her into a coma from which she never awoke, she walked, with my sister, down the path from my folks’s home to their dock on Lake Winneconne. There, she faced west, as she had thousands of times before, to watch one final sunset. With her brain barely functioning, and her mouth hardly able to form the words, she looked at the sky resplendent in its painted glory and said simply, but truthfully, “Beautiful.”
Led by examples like that, from men and women who showed me and came with me on hundreds of canoe trips, sailing trips, boating trips into the sunrise or the sunset, loudly singing and proclaiming “Oh What a Beautiful Morning”, people who trapsed with me over fields and marshes and through Woods of Wisconsin, is it any wonder I now — and still — heed Nature’s call?
Who would wonder why, even when alone, I’ve set out across glistening snow-covered fields in sub-zero weather, watching the full moon sparkle on white crystals? That I woke up at 2 in the morning in Utah’s canyonlands and couldn’t sleep as I watched Orion’s Belt set beneath the Colorado River canyon rim? Or that I paused on a long, painful backpack hike out of out of the depth of the Grand Canyon to watch the full moon set in the pre-dawn hours over the painted south rim on the Kaibab Trail? Or that now I lean with my back against a prehistoric old woman of the woods oak tree, or sit on the banks of the West Chickamauga above a gurgling and laughing rapids created by a Native American tribe who built their fishing weir out of the limestone rocks found on the land? Or that I wander seemingly aimlessly, but focus on the small colorful flashes of movement and the music of dozens of birds as my wife gleefully captures their images with her camera? As I teach her, in new ways, as others taught me, to answer Nature’s call?
Sometimes I feel like John Muir as I sway with swelling breast full of joy and fire, or like Walt Whitman as I turn my head towards the sky and pull out of the depths of my joy-filled soul that that barbaric Yawp to thank the sun and the trees God and nature for the beauty of the day and everything that I saw and heard and felt in it.
It was Muir who gave the example of heeding Nature’s call, showing and explaining to people how to love the land and nature. It was Henry David Thoreau and Aldo Leopold who formed my earliest philosophical impressions and love of being in nature, who helped me recognize that what I was feeling as a young man with the joy in my soul was not unusual, and that I was not alone in it.
And really, examining all of history, many of the great philosophers, scientists, and religious people gave the example of going out into nature because, as others have said, our souls are connected with Nature’s calls. We are interwoven with the earth, and we seek to connect with it, even down to the taking off of our shoes on the beach or in the dirt. In our souls, we understand that we must remove the shoes from our feet, for the ground upon which we walk is Holy Ground.
Even God, as He created the earth, at the end of each day, stood back and said: “It is good.”
Save The Earth, Heal The Planet, Through Love, Not Shrieks
Compare Nature’s calls, those peaceful, joyful feelings and that love, with the shrieks and cries of politicians and activists telling us: “How dare you!” Warning us if we don’t change, the earth will be destroyed in 10, 20, or 30 years. And that it’s the governments’ and big businesses’ responsibility to make that change.
What Muir and Thoreau and Leopold and Whitman and others understood was that change and protection of the environment and the earth will not come because of somebody screaming and yelling and threatening. Change will not happens by insulting or belittling or shaming. Fundamental and permanent change will come from Love. That change will come when every person connects in his or her own way with Nature, not because of some government or organizational edict, but when they feel Nature’s call, personally, to them, when they sense deep within themselves what my father and grandmother and aunt and uncle and I and my siblings have all felt, that passionate love for Nature, for Earth.
Even Teddy Roosevelt, who created Yellowstone National Park, did so after connecting with it. Acommpanied by Muir, he set out on horseback through the land of a thousand smokes. He was so moved by it and by the description that others had written about it, he came back to the halls of power in Washington, DC and created Yellowstone National Park. But it wasn’t because someone threatened him, it wasn’t because someone said: “You have to do this or you’ll destroy Nature.” It was because he stood there in the midst of it and felt and heard and sensed Nature’s call.
There is an old saying that says you can attract many more bees and butterflies with honey than with vinegar. In the modern era, this is the message we have forgot. We shriek loudly and throw our hands in the air in anguish and sob huge crocodile tears about climate change and the rape and pillage of the environment. We beat our chests and bemoan the demise of our beloved Earth. And we point fingers at corporations and governments and big business. But when have you ever seen anyone who is trying to make these changes, admonish people to get out into the woods or into nature, to follow the admonition of Muir who said: “And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my Soul!”?
Instead these politicians and activists come by plane and car and train, walking on paved streets and sidewalks through huge guarded doors into giant steel and glass temples of government and power. They pound their fists on steel podiums in sterile rooms with comfortable chairs and processed air and no windows, telling all those who will listen, either in person or staring at some plastic and glass electronic screen, that we must save Nature.
And where is Nature in all of this? Nature’s call resounds not loudly from microphones on steel podiums, but in the still whisper of the morning breeze, or the lapping of the waves on a mossy shore at sunset, in the thousands of voices of our fellow creatures, in the flickering of the lightning bugs dancing across a misty patch of wildflowers.
This Nature’s call now becomes my soul call, the way I see to approach helping and saving the Earth. My answering Nature’s call is to love her. And how can you love something that you do not know? Can you love when someone yells at you from a stage of nations and says “How dare you!”? Can you love if somebody throws out what they proclaim to be scientific fact in some Green New Deal? If someone threatens you and all humankind with eminent destruction? Will YOU answer Nature’s call when people tell you it’s the government’s or big business’s or corporation’s problems?
Or will you love if someone simply opens a door in a humble cottage, in answer to the Nature’s call they hear, and says: Come, see. Come here and hear. Come, sense. Come, smell. Come, feel.
UPDATED 2 October, 2024: Wir werden in Falkenberg bei Tirschenreuth, Oberpfalz, Bayern, Deutschland, 8-12 Okt., 2024 sein. We will be in Falkenberg, Bavaria, October 8-12, 2024. Siehe neue Familien Namen unten! See new family names below. UPDATED FEB. 15, 2022, with new information. (see below)
From July 16, 2016, 1:09 pm: As I write this, I’m shedding tears of joy and disbelief. Since my high school days (1973-74) I’ve tried to find the KUHNS family link to “the old country” (Germany). I would take the bus during my high school and college years, during the summer, down to the Milwaukee County Historical Society, to do census and resident research. I discovered that my grandfather George’s father, John, was a carpenter at the Pabst Theater. I learned that John’s father, Eugene, lived in Milwaukee, and was born in Germany. So I kept trying and trying to find how Eugene “came over” from Germany, and where in Germany he was from. My research in Milwaukee — which spanned decades — always came up with only “Germany” as his birthplace. Three years ago, I learned — through census records — that Eugene and several of his siblings had lived in Hartford, Washington County. I went to the Hartford Library and historical society, where some volunteers helped me find several newspaper articles about some KUHNS family. I made copies of the articles, but as I was short on time, I never really read them. In fact, I thought they were probably NOT related to me, because they mentioned another John KUHNS who was an early settler of Hartford, builder and owner of the “Old Wisconsin House” (aka “American House”) So I put the newspaper articles away in deep storage. Eventually, I discovered that Eugene’s father, John, and his mother, Victoria, were buried in Hartford. At the time, I wrote this piece: https://cyranowriter.wordpress.com/2015/09/12/six_generations_later_they_done_good/.
Alas, all censuses of this family simply said “Germany” as their residence before coming to the USA. I was still no closer to finding WHERE in Germany the Kuhns line came. Recently, I pulled the articles out and brought them to Wisconsin. They sat on the bunkbed for months, as I only glanced at the headlines: “Old Settler Dead” and “Death of John Kuhns”. Today, I brought them out and showed them to my father, who read them with interest. They talked of John Kuhns’ (Grandpa’s great-grandfather, NOT his father) life in the mid-1800’s in Hartford, builder and owner of the Wisconsin House / American House. But again, I never read the articles. As I took them back into my room, for some reason, I decided to completely read them. I read of John and Victoria’s son Matthias, who died fairly young. I read of my grandfather’s grand-uncle, from Madison.
I read of the death of “the Old Settler” John Kuhns, the first Kuhns from our family in Wisconsin. Then I read this: “The deceased was born in Falkenberg, Germany, in 1810.” I stared.
In the next article on the copied page was this line: “Mr. Kuhns was born in Bavaria …. 1810 … and came to this country … in 1845.” Falkenberg. Bavaria. Germany. There is a town. A name. My KUHNS/KUNTZ line has a location. FALKENBERG in Oberpfalz, Bavaria. OR is it THIS Falkenberg, only a few miles north of where I studied German in Ebersberg, at the Goethe Institut? Four decades of research flash into a time warp of insight and inspiration, take me back to the old country, 50 kilometers east of a city I spent a cold November night in 1980.
Schwetze mi UrGrossEltern Boarisch? Wiss nid!
But my Kuhns/Kuntz family line seems to have a home in Falkenberg, Oberpfalz, Bavaria, Germany, northeast of Munich, east of Nuremberg, near the Czech border. And I’m in tears. PS: In the same article: “He was married in the old country, Feb. 2, 1836, to Victoria Mormk.” More information, a last name we never knew before.——
PPS: Not so fast: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Falkenberg-Lower-Bavaria/109293779090341?fref=tsThere’s a Falkenberg in Lower Bavaria. Which one is it? I guess I will have to do more research!… but we’re getting closer!
UPDATE, Feb. 15, 2022: I haven’t been able to rest recently. Several family researchers, distant cousins, keep coming up with more data on the KUHNS line in Milwaukee. So, for some reason, late last night I started doing research on Falkenberg, to see if I could determine once and for all, what part of Germany the Kuhns/Kuntz line immigrated from. This time I did a search for “KUNTZ Falkenberg Bayern”. A website came up I’d never seen before, a private genealogy website, in German, “Familienforshung – Kunz, Weiden in der Oberpfalz“. Interesting. The researcher talked about Konz, Kontz, Kunz, Contz and other similar names from the Oberpfalz area. Normally, these names don’t get me excited, because they are SO different from the KUHNS / KUNTZ line I research. But something made me look.
Side Note: My wife later pointed out that, had I not gone on a mission to Switzerland and Germany in the 1970’s, and studied German in 1980 near Munich, I would have never been able to “see” the hints that appeared on the page. But because I know German, there were words and phrases that jumped out at me.
Quellen = Sources for Falkenberg KUNZ Research
For example, on the home page, the word “Quellen” seemed to jump out. “Sources”. So I clicked on the link, which took me to a list page of sources the researcher (Alfred KUNZ of Weiden, Germany, may he rest in peace) had used. As I scrolled down, a particular line jumped out at me: b) Staatsarchiv Amberg: Nordamerikanische Auswanderer aus der Oberpfalz (1839 – 1871) — “Immigrants to North America out of Oberpfalz (1839 – 1871). Something in my memory stirred. My ancestors left “The Old Country” some time around 1840. I downloaded this record, a LARGE PDF file with hundreds of pages, thousands of listings. I searched KUHNS. Nothing. KUNTZ. Nothing. I wondered if I searched for “Falkenberg” if something would show up. Several listings, but not many. I determined to look at them all. Suddenly: “Johann KUNZ”. The next line: “Ehefrau + 6 Kinder”. “His wife + 6 children”, registered to leave Bavaria for North America.
Something stirred. It was the wrong spelling, but still: How many of their children were born in Germany? I knew my genealogy file had the answer, so I looked up his family tree. Six children were born in Germany.
Another column showed the date this family left Germany: April, 1845. My heart sank. I was certain my family had arrived in Wisconsin in 1840. Still, one should always check the records. SURPRISE! The obits, the census records, and other records I’d recorded made it clear: The family arrived in Wisconsin in 1845! Still a possibility! I read other columns from the PDF record. “Occupation: Glasermeister”. Master of glass. Something stirred in me. Why did that sound familiar? I scanned through the obit in FamilySearch.org that I had posted. Nothing. But something said “There’s more.” I looked in my “Kuhns_KuntzOldNewspaperClippings” file. There was an obit I hadn’t posted on the website. “Old Settler Dead”. And it said: “In 1845 Mr. Kuhns with his family came to America to live. … In his native country he followed the occupation of glass cutting.”
There it was! A man with the correct first name, John (Johann), similar last name, KUNZ (instead of KUHNS or KUNTZ) leaves Falkenberg, Germany (a very small village, population in the hundreds) in 1845, arrives in Wisconsin the same year with his wife and 6 children. He and his wife are from Falkenberg, Bavaria, where he is a glass cutter. ALL those items (names, number of children, location, occupation) are substantiated on both sides of the ocean, both in Bavarian records and Wisconsin records.
I have found our family’s “Heimats Ort”, our home town. Of course, I have to research it! I find this: Hertzlich Willkommen in Falkenberg! A cute little Dorf (actually, a Markt) in the Tirschenreuth district of Oberpfalz, Bavaria.
Again, I’m weeping. I bi Heim!
As I was discovering all of this, I made a video, which I will post here later.
More Falkenberg KUNZ Information
I wrote a long email to Alfred KUNZ, (unfortunately, Herr KUNZ passed away in the summer of 2024, before I could meet him), thanking him for his website and explaining my excitement. The next morning, he’d responded with a photo of an official notice from the Bavarian Kingdom Intelligenceblatt, an official notification for all persons concerned regarding the immigration of Johann KUNZ and his wife and six children to North America. The rough translation:
#343, published 13 March, 1845 “Let It Be Known. Johann Kunz, Glassmaster from Falkenberg, has the intention, with wife and 6 children, to immigrate to North America. It is required that all those who have dealings (or things to do with) this family, should appear Saturday, 12 April, morning 9 o’clock, under the _____ of the area/regional office, and register. (Listed) Tischenreuth on the 7th March, 1845, Royal (Bavarian) Landregion Tirschenreuth, ______ (Zimmer? Wimmer?)”
Alfred Kunz later wrote more of an explanation for the published notice: “Wer im 19. Jahrhundert nach Nordamerika auswandern wollte, brauchte dazu eine behördliche Erlaubnis, die beim zuständigen Gericht (Amtsgericht Tirschenreuth) beantragt werden musste.” “In the 1800s, whoever wanted to immigrate to North America had to get an official permission from the local authorities (Official Office Tirschenreuth).”
“Männer mussten ihren Militärdienst geleisten haben und die Auswanderer durften keine Schulden zurücklassen. Deshalb wurde ihre Absicht auszuwandern im Intelligenzblatt veröffentlicht.” “Men had to have fulfilled their Military Service requirement, and the immigrants could not leave behind any debts or obligations. For this reason, their intention to immigrate was published in the Intelligenzblatt (newspaper).”
“Und eine Frist gesetzt, damit Ansprüche und Forderungen an die Auswanderer geltend gemacht werden konnten.” “And a bail posted, so that requirements and debts against the immigrants could be financially paid off.“
AMAZING!
PS: If you are related or are from Falkenberg, Tirschenreuth, Bavaria, please contact me at da.kuhns at gmail dot com, or naturesguy at naturesguy dot com. Put in the subject line “Kuhns / Kuntz / Kunz family history” or something similar
HEIMATS ORT — HOMETOWN FALKENBERG — MORE UPDATES! Feb 16, 2022
I’ve gotten a lot of information from Alfred KUNZ and his website. He has also emailed me directly. We do not yet know if we are related, but he has been very helpful. I’ll continue to post updates here.
Yesterday he sent me a list of houses in Falkenberg, as well as their “new” address. He wrote: “nach der Häuseraufstellung Falkenberg von 1840 wohnte ihr Vorfahre Johann Kunz im Haus-Nr. 91. Die Anschrift ist heute: Marktplatz 4.” “According to the Census of Houses in Falkenberg from 1840, your ancestor Johann Kunz lived in Haus Number 91. The address today is: Marktplatz 4.”
In the 1840 census, Johann KUNZ and his family lived at Marktplatz 4 in Falkenberg. Using GoogleEarth, I was able to put in the address and find an arial view of the house, across the street from the back corner of the church in the center of town. Using a street view, I was also able to see the front of the house.
Marktplatz 4 is in the upper left corner of this photo, near the back of Pfarrkirche St. Pankratius in the center of Falkenberg. The Burg Falkenberg (castle, fortress) is just off the top center of the photo..Street view of the front of Marktplatz 4, in Falkenberg, the home (in 1840) of Johann KUNZ. The back of the Pfarrkirche St. Pankratius church is visible on the left.
Directions to Falkenberg, Tirschenreuth in Oberpfalz, Bavaria, Germany
Now, of course, our family wants to go to Falkenberg. For reference, it is in the Oberpfalz area of Bavaria. NOTE: There are several “Falkenberg” towns in Germany, including a few in Bavaria. The best way to find the Kuhns / Kuntz / Kunz Heimat is to look on Google Maps for the County Seat (Landkreis) Tirschenreuth, Bavaria. Tirschenreuth is about 150 miles north-northwest of Munich, about 40 miles east of Bayreuth, and about 115 miles (by car) west of Prague, Czechia.
Falkenberg, which lies on the river Waldnaab (Bavarian: “Woidnaab”), is about 6 miles west of Tirschenreuth, on Highway 2167.
Another Bavarian Family Connection: Familie MARK und VOLLATH
About the same time (specifically, 18 February, 2022), I found someone on Ancestry and Family Search who was working on the same line as I was — with A LOT more information. So I wrote him. Hallo! Ich weiss nicht, ob Sie Deutsch oder Englisch kann. Ich bin Amerikaner, so werde auf English schreiben. Hello! I don’t know if you speak German or English. I am an American, so I will write in English. (Falls ich muss auf Deutsch, kann ich das auch.) I was looking for the parents of my ancestor, Viktoria Mark, of Bodenreuth, who married Johann KUNZ of Falkenberg, Bavaria, in Falkenberg in February, 1836. One of the witnesses was Johann Baptiste MARK, which you have listed in your family history, and the parents are Mathias Mark, Bauer in Bodenreuth und Anna Maria, geb. Vollath von Pleisdorf. These are the people listed on your records. How are you related to them? Johann KUNZ and Viktoria MARK are the great-grandparents of my Grandfather. They immigrated to Hartford, Wisconsin, USA from Falkenberg in 1845. I am going to add your Mark and Vollath family records to my records, and I look forward to hearing more from you! Please contact me … and thank you!
A few days later, I got an email from Gerhardt RASP, a tax preparer from nearby Tirschenreuth (the county seat of Falkenberg, Tirschenreuth, Oberpfalz, Bayern, Deutschland).
Through various emails, and much research at the Pfarrkirche Falkenberg (Katholische) Kirche, he sent me many records, allowing me to take my KUNTZ/KUNZ family history WAY back, into the 1500s! THAT is amazing! He is truly a God-send, and I am blessed to have found him and Herr Kunz.
Relationship between Gerhard RASP and David KUHNS:
Georg Mathias Mark (born 1756, Bodenreuth, Tirschenreuth, Bavaria, Germany) married Anna Vollath (born 1763, Pleisdorf, Neustadt an der Waldnaab), in the Pfarrkirche Falkenberg 24 Jan. 1790 (Gerhard Rasp and David Kuhns common great-great-great-great-grandparents)
Common MARK und VOLLATH ancestors from Kreis Tirschenreuth, Bayern, Deutschland
Familien Namen aus Falkenberg und Kreis Tirschenreuth, Bayern, Deutschland
Other Family Names from Falkenberg and Kreis Tirschenreuth and Neustadt an der Waldnaab, Oberpfalz, Bavaria, Germany
Family names included in the records from Falkenberg and the surrounding area of Kreis Tirschenreuth, and Neustand an der Waldnaab, Oberpfalz, Bavaria, Germany, include:
KUNTZ (ca. 1845 in Wisconsin, USA) KUNZ (*1766 Falkenberg), CONTZ (ca. 1740),
FAHRNBAUER (ca. 1740, of Falkenberg)
MARK (before 1500, Geißenreuth, Plößberg, Tirschenreuth)
VOLLATH and VOLLANDT (1500, Wurz, Püchersreuth, and Dietersdorf, Windischeschenbach, Landkreis Neustadt an der Waldnaab, Bayern, after 1619, Schnackenhof, Plößberg, Tirschenreuth)
WEIß (*1590, Gumpen, Falkenberg, Tirschenreuth),
HÄRTL (ca. 1495, Gründlbach, Tirschenreuth),
SCHNEIDER (ca. 1769 and ca. 1745, Wiesau),
TREMLER (vor 1630 Ilsenbach, Püchersreuth, Neustadt an der Waldnaab),
HÖNING (vor 1719 Albersrieth, Waldthurn, Neustadt an der Waldnaab),
SCHARNAGL, ca. 1590, Stein, (later Schönthan), Plößberg, Tirschenreuth)
These are all names that, until October 2024, I’d never actually written down and looked at. They’re all from around Falkenberg, Wiesau, Tirschenreuth, and that area, except for a few around Neuhaus, Landkreis Neustadt an der Waldnaab.
UPDATE: Wir Reisen Nach Falkenberg! — We Are Going To Falkenberg!
We are going to Falkenberg! 8-24 of Oktober, 2024, Marnie and I will be traveling in Europe, mostly to visit family history sites in Germany and Switzerland:
8-12 October: Falkenberg, Tirschenreuth, Weiden in Oberpfalz Bavaria, Germany
12-14 October: Nieder Schönfeld, Ober Schönfeld, Altöls, and other areas in Kreis Bunzlau, Schlesien, where “Granny Geerdts” (Bertha Starke Geerdts, my grandmother Bertha Geerdts Kuhns’ mother) was born and went to school and church. It is now Krasnik Dolny, Poland)
15-16 October: LDS Temple in Freiberg, Germany
16-17 October: Prague, Czech Republic
18-21 October: Switzerland, including Lustdorf, Stein am Rhein, and Zurich, where Marnie’s ancestors are from (15th and 16th century), including Hans R. Lavater, Bürgermeister (Mayor) of Zurich
21-24 October: Other sight-seeing and flex time
If you are related to the KUNZ, KUNTZ, KUHNS, MARK, VOLLATH, STARKE, DAUSEL, DEHMEL lines in Germany (or Wisconsin), or the LAVATER, von SULZ, von WYSS, or WOHNLICH lines in Kanton Zurich or Thurgau, please let us know!
Even in the last week of her life, having suffered a minor stroke a few days earlier, and mere hours before the massive stroke that would put her into a coma from which she never awoke, she walked, with my sister, down the path from my folks’s home to their dock on Lake Winneconne. There, she faced west, as she had thousands of times before, to watch one final sunset. With her brain barely functioning, and her mouth hardly able to form the words, she looked at the sky resplendent in its painted glory and said simply, but truthfully, “Beautiful.”
Then I read this:
