Return of the Turners

Yesterday I received information from Shirley Schwoerer of the Redwood City Library, that said my ancestor, Carl August Janke, was instrumental in establishing a Turnverien in Belmont, and the Bay Area. Was it the first?

“He erected the old amusement hall of the Turnverein, and managed this for several years.”

Janke may be the first real estate developer in the San Francisco bay area.

“In 1849 the family came around the Horn on an old Clipper ship, and Mr. Janke brought with him on the trip the material for six portable houses. He set up these houses, and at once engaged in a successful business, as a building contractor.”

This information confirms my theory that the Tanforan cottages in the Mission, are the Turnverein cottages that Janke brought around the Cape in order to establish a German comminity of Freethinkers in the New Western Land of the Free -free of…