Thompson, Blanchard, Edelmann, Kraemer, Sparenberg, & Serbe:Information about John Kraemer

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Home Page |Surname List |Index of Individuals |InterneTree |Sources

John Kraemer (b. 1824, d. March 29, 1875)

John Kraemer was born 1824 in Germany, and died March 29, 1875 in Baltimore, Maryland. He married Catharine Ann Metzdorf on May 13, 1851 in Baltimore, Maryland⁸⁸.

Notes for John Kraemer:
Saint Alphonsus Church, a landmark at Saratoga Street and Park Avenue in downtown Baltimore since l845, designed by the eminent architect Robert Cary Long in Southern German neo-Gothic Style, was once dubbed "the German cathedral." It is included by Dr. Phoebe Stanton in her book, The Gothic Revival and American Architecture (Johns Hopkins Press), as a notable example of that style in America. For seventy-two years, the church served a German community, while the attached rectory functioned as provincial headquarters for the Redemptorist Fathers and Brothers.

In 1917, with the German community dispersed and the Redemptorist provincialate moved to New York, Saint Alphonsus was acquired by the Roman Catholic Lithuanian Parish of Saint John the Baptist, which then assumed the name of the church and reopened the school, functioning across the street since l847.

For generations, Saint Alphonsus Church served by archdiocesan priests, has also served downtown workers, shoppers, and visitors to the city with conveniently scheduled services, especially the Novena to Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal. It is the rare Catholic who has lived in Baltimore during this era who has not prayed in Saint Alphonsus Church. Even first-time visitors remark about the prayerful atmosphere of the church.

Saint John Neumann lived in the present rectory as rector, master of novices, and vice-provincial. Another rector, Father Francis X. Seelos, C.SS.R., is a candidate for beatification. If he is beatified and canonized, Saint Alphonsus will be the only parish church in this country, and perhaps in the world, to boast of two former pastors as canonized saints.

Moreover, Blessed George Matulaitis once visited Saint Alphonsus, as did Archbishop Teofilius Matulionis, a possible candidate for beatification as a martyr. St Alphonsus Parish: where saints have prayed! This makes St Alphonsus one of the great "treasures" of the Catholic faith in our country......a shrine, a place of pilgrimage, a sign of hope, a powerhouse of prayer!

Today, Saint Alphonsus has less than one thousand registered parishioners scattered throughout the state of Maryland, only about one-tenth of whom frequent Saint Alphonsus. In 1994, the church was designated as an Archdiocesan Shrine.
Saint Alphonsus School, which in 1998 will be marking 150 years at its present location, has been merged with the Basilica School and serves 210 pupils, almost entirely African Americans from all over the city and surrounding counties. Besides, providing the building rent-free, Saint Alphonsus Shrine also subsidizes the school at the level of $5,000 annually, although not a single pupil is from the parish.

Along with supporting the school, the mission of Saint Alphonsus is to minister to a far-flung Lithuanian community and to those who feel the need for more traditional services (Saint Alphonsus is the designated home to the Tridentine Mass, every Sunday and Holy Day), while reaching out to a new generation downtown, a link between old and new Baltimore.

More About John Kraemer:
Burial: March 30, 1875, St. Alphonsus Cemetery, Baltimore, MD.
Occupation: 1860, Journeyman, Brickmaker.
Personal Estate: 1860, $300.

More About John Kraemer and Catharine Ann Metzdorf:
Marriage: May 13, 1851, Baltimore, Maryland.⁸⁸

Children of John Kraemer and Catharine Ann Metzdorf are:

Margaret Kreamer, b. 1855, d. date unknown.
Kate Kreamer, b. 1857, d. date unknown.
+Johann G. Creamer, b. September 22, 1859, Baltimore, Maryland, d. September 27, 1935, Baltimore, Maryland.