Release date: January 10, 2025
A long history of family china
I have a lot of china. So much china, in fact, that when we built our home, we added custom-made drawers in the kitchen so I could keep four different sets of china handy at all times, and included a special storage room for dishes over the garage. Overkill, I know, but we all have our weaknesses, right?
My passion for china most certainly comes from my grandma, Elvira Stelljes Semerau, who always set a beautiful table whether we were eating kippers and Saltines or a traditional Christmas dinner.
Some of my favorite childhood memories revolve around Grandma’s table and helping her straighten the table linens, arrange the cutlery and make sure each plate was correctly placed.
Grandma’s every day china was Baltic Blue by Adams, a pattern she picked up in the 1970s, and the only pattern I ever remember using at her house. When she passed away in 1996, I inherited her set of 8 and have expanded it to 16 complete settings over the years thanks to the good folks at Replacements.
Grandma’s Baltic Blues now have permanent claim on one of those four china drawers, and I couldn't be happier.
Side Note: Grandma and Grandpa got married in 1933, and, although I know they received a silver set for their wedding – National Silver’s Princess Royal, which I regularly use – I have only a vague memory of Grandma mentioning her wedding china and don’t remember coming across it when we packed up their house after they passed. My guess is she regifted it outside the family when they retired, downsized and moved to northern Minnesota in 1962.
Although Grandma only used one china pattern at her table, that didn’t mean she didn’t have other patterns and pieces in her expansive collection. She had a coffee and tea set in Hall’s Autumn Leaf pattern which she likely bought from one of the door-to-door salesman who hawked the dinnerware sets across Minnesota during the 1930s and 40s. And she also had a lot of beautiful older pieces — serving dishes, hot cocoa sets, and dozens of delicate teacups — which she’d gotten as gifts, purchased at the many antique shops she and Grandpa loved to explore, or had inherited over the years, nearly all of which ended up with me.
Among the more interesting pieces in the collection I inherited from Grandma, however, are a saltshaker, a salad bowl and a creamer and sugar set each featuring a colored image of a school, and an odd marking on the back:
Wheelock
Made in Germany for M.A. Drott, Park Falls, Wis.
Dresden
Martin, Johanna and the M. A. Drott china
Born in June of 1868, Johannah Louise Semerau was the first of 11 children born to my 2x great-grandparents, August Semerau and Caroline Schroeder, in Goldau, West Prussia. Johannah’s father was a guild carpenter and her mother the village midwife, and she grew up surrounded by extended family that included grandparents, aunts, uncles, in-laws and cousins. A review of Goldau birth records shows that nearly three-quarters of all births between 1870 and 1880 were to someone related by blood to the Semerau family.
All that changed, however, in 1887 when Johannah’s parents and three brothers — four others siblings hadn’t survived infancy — made the decision to emigrate to America, joining other family members who had already made the journey.
It’s not known why, but 18-year-old Johannah stayed behind in Goldau, not joining her family in Wisconsin until 1889.
Four years later, 25-year-old Johannah married 22-year-old Martin Arnold Drott, the eldest son of Union veteran Martin Drott and his wife, Elizabeth Sanders. The wedding took place in Butternut, WI, where both families lived and where the newlyweds would establish their first home.
Shortly after their marriage, Martin and Johannah opened a small general store in the nearby unincorporated settlement of Park Falls. That store would one day become a grocery store and meat market, and establish the Drott family as successful business owners and community leaders.
But before all that, Johannah and Martin set about establishing their family. Between 1894 and 1906, they welcomed four children into the world, Nora Caroline, Arnold Martin, Armella Johannah and Marveline Clair-Bell, all of whom would become active in the family’s grocery business in some way, shape or form.
Sometime after 1902, a traveling salesman for the Wheelock China Import Company in Janesville, WI came to Park Falls and made his way to Drott’s Grocery and Meat Market. By then the store was well-established, profitable and an important part of the growing northwoods community, and Martin was seen as both a savvy businessman and civic leader.
A new high school had just been built in Park Falls, and the salesman suggested Martin commemorate his community’s historic event with custom souvenir china pieces featuring hand-painted images of the impressive structure. Souvenir china was all the rage, and the coveted German-crafted pieces could be given away as an in-store promotion to valued customers.
Then the salesman set the hook, promising Martin that the beautiful china pieces would become treasured family keepsakes, ensuring that the name M. A. Drott would be remembered in homes far and wide for generations to come.
Martin was sold. A deal was struck and the rest, as they say, is history.
Family history.
So many unanswered questions
There are, sadly, a lot of unknowns about the four M. A. Drott china pieces I inherited from my grandma and which are now part of my china collection.
Between 1890 and 1916 Wheelock China Import Company catalogs featured nearly 1,500 pieces of china in various shapes and sizes, and boasted of satisfied customers all across America and the world. Their niche was souvenir china, and the market was booming — those years weren’t called the “Gilded Age” by accident!
Eager to be emulate the opulent lifestyles of Old Money folks like the Boston Brahmins and New York’s nouveau riche, families across America decorated their homes with imported carpets, silk drapes and porcelain china.
It’s possible Martin had complete table settings made as part of his commemorative school promotion – my salad plate would suggest the existence of at least a dinner plate but likely also a bowl and maybe even a bread or luncheon plate, and the saltshaker would almost demand a companion pepper shaker.
But the folks at Wheelock also made tea and hot cocoa sets, milk and water pitchers, toothpick holders and candy dishes, as well as more decorative items like ornate miniature plates which would be hung on the wall or displayed in a hutch, trinket boxes and even delicate porcelain shoes– all of which may have been handed out to customers of Drott’s Grocery and Meat Market at some point.
Exactly when the Drott china was made is also unknown. The four pieces in my collection all feature images of the “new school” in Park Falls, which, as mentioned earlier, was completed in 1902. It seems likely my pieces were made to commemorate that event, so they probably came out around that same time. But I’ve also found several other pieces of M. A. Drott china online which just feature just flowers and decorative borders, suggesting Martin and Johanna likely offered their customers different designs, maybe at different times. When and for what purpose are TBD.
And finally, I’m not even entirely certain how the four pieces of Drott china ended up in my hands. It could be Johanna’s mother, Caroline, was the original owner. She lived just down the road from Johanna in Butternut, and photos suggest the two were very close. Maybe Johannah and Martin gave Caroline the china when it first became available, and the pieces were divvied up when she passed away in 1931, with some ending up with her son, my great-grandfather, Rudy.
Or maybe Rudy was the original owner. Although he’d left Wisconsin before 1902, I have a bunch of family photos of him – and later his wife, Minnie Meinke, and their children – which were taken during visits to Wisconsin after his move to Minnesota. Maybe he was gifted the pieces on one of those visits, either by his mother or his sister and brother-in-law.
Side Note: I’ve checked with all the other Semerau lines, and sadly, none have any pieces of Drott china, nor any passed down memories or stories about the souvenir china. I, however, remain hopeful.
Minnie died in March of 1953 and Rudy followed her to the grave 18 months later in September of 1954, and, regardless of how or when they’d come into Rudy’s possession, that’s likely when the M. A. Drott pieces passed to their son and my grandpa, Howard.
I don’t recall seeing the souvenir china displayed at my grandparent’s home, but Grandma did love china and she displayed various pieces throughout the house in rotation, so they might have been there at some time and I just don’t remember seeing them. When my grandparents died in 1996, the Drott pieces were likely boxed up with the rest of their antiques, and spent the next 17 years stored in my parent’s garage. When Mom died in 2013, the boxes ended up with me, and I eventually found the forgotten Drott china and began tracking down their lost story.
Today, my four pieces of M. A. Drott china are displayed with other cherished family heirlooms in my home. Their stories have been written down, preserved and will follow them to their new homes when the time comes; making good on that Wheelock salesman’s promise to Martin that the name M. A. Drott would be remembered in homes far and wide for generations to come.
Genealogy as proof of existence
Growing up, I didn’t know Johannah’s line of the Semerau family even existed. I asked Grandpa once about his family, and remember him telling me that he and his sisters, my great aunts, were the only Semeraus left. Looking back, it’s hard to imagine he believed what he said. I have photos of Grandpa at several Semerau family gatherings over the years, including one which took place in 1948 when he and my grandma were 40 and my mom was 14.
My guess is Grandpa just lost touch with his aunts, uncles and cousins and didn’t know how to explain how that had happened to a curious little girl.
And he wasn’t alone.
Several months into researching my family history, I made contact with at least one member of each of the seven surviving Semerau lines, and to a person, no one was aware that any of the other lines were still around. I eventually did connect with a second cousin once removed who remembered spending time with her Semerau cousins as a child, and even attending Caroline’s funeral when she was four. She was a definite outlier.
But not anymore.
Today, more than forty of us are connected. Some of us have met and shared meals, others have spoken on the phone or exchanged photos and emails. We know each other’s names and stories, and how we all fit into the bigger history of our Semerau family.
I’ve even written an entire book about us, Seeking the Semeraus, which serves as tangible proof that we all exist, just in case our memories fail again.
And to further future-proof our family history, I’ve sent complimentary copies of our family history book to the local historical societies in more than three dozen communities across the US were family members lived at some point between when Caroline and Aug arrived in 1887 and 1941, the last year covered in the book due to privacy concerns.
Memories may fade, but well-documented and intentionally preserved family history will (hopefully) last forever!
Your turn and your stories
What is the most cherished family keepsake in your possession, and why is it meaningful to you?
Do you know the story behind a particular heirloom in your family? Write down the story as you’ve heard it and reflect on how it connects you to the past.
Think about a family object that was lost or broken. How do you feel about its absence, and what might it have represented if it were still around?
What heirloom or keepsake would you most like to pass down to future generations? Why does it feel significant, and how do you hope it will be remembered?
Have you ever discovered a family keepsake you didn’t know existed?
Do you associate any keepsakes with specific family traditions or memories Reflect on how those objects enhance your connection to those moments.
What role do keepsakes play in preserving your family’s story? Consider whether they hold more emotional, historical, or practical value for you.
Copyright 2025 Lori Olson White
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What a wonderful collection of family heirlooms you have collected Lori #GenStackCoterie
Well written! Four sets of China…..yes….i think I have 2 of my mom’s, one of her aunt’s, two of my own and a partial Christmas set. Fourth generation in the same house. How hard to divide up all my mom had preserved. She’s been gone 4 years and still things remain at my house. Hard. Rewarding. Puzzling. Writing the story might help as I’m the eldest now.