Wiser or Wyser
BRUNO WISER OF NIEDERGÖSGEN
By Kurt F. Laube
Nov 28, 2004 - 5:31:00 PM

Businessman

Bruno Wiser, son of Alois Wiser and Katharina Herzog, was born on November 6, 1841 in the town of Solothurn, where was also Christened.  He grew up with his brothers and sisters in Solothurn and developed into a businessman. 

At the end of 1862 he left Switzerland to settle in Montevideo, Uruguay where he married Elisa Schoenhals (daughter of the evangelistic vicar Johann Schoenhals of Simmersbach, Hessen Darmstadt) on February 3, 1869 in the German-Evangelistic Church.  (Fannie's birth certificate, however, shows a date of marriage of October 16, 1866.)

The couple had seven children:

1.  Ida -- illegitimate daughter, born October 31, 1867 in Montevideo.  Click here for a copy of Ida's Australian marriage certificate (to Albert Widmer).

Ida Wyser (1909) - Courtesy Cathy Key

2.  Maria Constantina -- born December 31, 1871 in Aarau/AG

Maria (Mary) Constantian Wyser Burns - Courtesy Cathy Key

3.  Emilia Katharina (Lily) -- born April 5, 1873 in Niedergösgen

Lily Wilkinson (left) and Maria Constantian Wyser Burns (right) - Courtesy Cathy Key

4.  Alfred Alois -- born May 24, 1874 in Niedergösgen

5.  Otto Edwin -- born October 6, 1875 in Sao Paolo, Brazil

6.  Bruno Otto Wiser (also known as William W. Wilson) -- born about 1883 in Australia, died December 1, 1947 in San Leandro, California.

7.  Fannie -- born in Glebe, Australia on September 29, 1884.  Married Jack N. Jurgensen in Hawaii (?).  Fannie died March 28, 1971 in Oakland, California.

On October 25, 1862 Bruno received a travel pass to America and left Switzerland.  He lived in Montevideo for nine years before returning to Switzerland.  He then lived in Aarau/AG and later Niedergösgen.  After a five year stay in Switzerland, he emigrated to South America and went to live in Sao Paolo.  There is very little information about his stay abroad in the files of the archives of Solothurn. 

The 1887 marriage certificate of Ida and Albert Widmer shows Bruno's occupation as carpenter.

There is information about his trip on the S.S. Australia on July 1, 1895 from the ship's manifest.

He died on December 7, 1895 in San Francisco.  Nothing has been found about his estate in the Swiss archives.

Obituary of Bruno Wyser

His grave is at Oahu Cemetery in Honolulu, Hawaii.  It is not clear to me why his body was transferred from San Francisco back to Hawaii following his death.

Grave of Bruno and Eliza Wyser, and Lily Wilkinson - Oahu Cemetery, Honolulu, Hawaii

 



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