11/02/2026
Carl/Charles Sayewitz/Simons (1846-1898)
Today, we would like to officially welcome a new resident to Shady Lane Cemetery. No, it’s not someone who was recently buried, but instead someone we have just documented as being buried at Shady Lane. It’s a fascinating story and an example of how challenging documentation can be. Since we have only partial records of burials at the cemetery, we rely on detective work and family lore to help us build our database of residents.
Our newly documented resident is Carl Sayewitz, who was born in Germany on May 11, 1846. Carl demonstrates how names can be surprisingly slippery concepts as you delve into historical records. His last name shows up with a variety of spellings, including Saiewicz. However, once he immigrated to the U.S. around 1884, it appears that he simplified his name to Simons (sometimes seen as Simmons). To add to the confusion, he was also sometimes referred to as Charles instead of Carl.
While still in Germany, Carl married Wilhelmina “Minnie” Bannisch, probably in 1873. The couple had at least six children: Adam (1878), August (1880), Mary (1884), Anna (1886), Carl/Charles (1891), and John (1896). The older three were born in Germany, while the younger three were born once the couple settled in Scranton.
Of course, all of these children did not necessarily live to adulthood. Little August died in Scranton in 1885 at the age of five, and was buried at Washington Avenue Cemetery. His brother Adam joined him there when he died in 1892, at the age of fourteen. Then, in 1898, Carl himself died of tuberculosis and was laid to rest with his two sons. We believe this to be at Washington Avenue Cemetery, though the newspaper reports (under the name Charles) say Petersburg Cemetery.
By the time Carl died, the family was living at 1811 Cusick Avenue, where they would remain until Minnie’s death. In the 1900 Census, the family name shows up as Sarewith, with Minnie listed as May M. Sarewith. At that point, teenagers Mary and Anna were both supporting the family by working as silk spinners, while Charles and John remained at home with Minnie. Four-year-old John makes no further appearance in the census, so either he died young or he was placed with another family to be raised, a common practice for struggling widows.
By 1910, Charles was old enough to help support the family and was working as a driver for a dairy, while Mary and Anna continued to work in a silk mill. But Charles was apparently ready for adventure. By the time he registered for the draft in 1917, he was working as a machinist for Harley Davidson in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. That’s where he met Elsie Eschenburg, who he married in 1918.
At some point prior to 1920, Anna apparently married Edward C. Transue and established her own home with him. By 1920, Minnie was living alone with Mary in the Cusick Avenue house. Charles’ wife Elsie died in 1925, and he subsequently married Dixie White, with whom he had a very large family. He and Dixie returned to Scranton for a time in the 1930s, but by 1940 they were back in Wisconsin and then moved on to Minnesota.
Mary, who stayed single, was clearly the one her mother depended on as she aged. So it was Mary who dealt with her mother’s rapid deterioration in November 1927. Minnie, who was possibly bedridden, developed pneumonia and pulmonary edema. She died on November 12, 1927, at the age of 76.
Faced with the necessity of burying her mother, Mary appears to have decided that the family needed to establish a new location. She was undoubtedly thinking not just about her mother, but about the need to provide a place for her own eventual burial. She chose the Upper Pine Section at Shady Lane Cemetery as the location for a new family plot.
Mary had her mother laid to rest at Shady Lane and had a beautiful monument with her family’s original name, Sayewitz, carved on it. Then, in 1928, she took steps to reunite the family members. We know from existing records that she had her two brothers, August and Adam, removed from Washington Avenue Cemetery to be reinterred at Shady Lane. Unfortunately, we have no records regarding Carl. So how can we assert that he was ever moved?
Luckily, a relative of Carl’s recently contacted us and shared some vital information. According to family lore, the three bodies were moved and reinterred, and when this was done, the remains of the two boys were placed in the coffin with their father. It had been thought that this was done when the remaining graves at Washington Avenue Cemetery were moved to Dunmore Cemetery in 1999. However, we now know that this could not have happened.
We have the burial cards for when August and Adam were removed from Washington Avenue Cemetery and reinterred at Shady Lane on May 5, 1928. If family lore is correct about the combination of the remains of August and Adam with their father Carl, then he must have been removed to Shady Lane as well. The remains would not have been combined at the time of Carl’s death, since the sons died years earlier. They could not have been combined in 1999, as we know the boys were placed at Shady Lane in 1928. So our conclusion is that Carl now rests with his wife and children at Shady Lane.
Anna Simons Transue died in 1953 and was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in Dallas. Charles, now referred to as Carl Wilhelm Simons, died in Minnesota in 1963 and was buried at Acacia Park Cemetery. Mary herself, who lived in the family home until 1967, died in 1968. She was laid to rest with her parents and two brothers in the family plot.
We can now confidently assert that Carl/Charles, Wilhelmina “Minnie”, August, Adam, and Mary Simons/Simmons/Sayewitz reside together at Shady Lane Cemetery—may they rest in peace!
