Hans Kaufhold came to America in search of a better life. He was only 23 at the time, could not speak the English language and had no money.
What Kaufhold did have was hope.
“The U.S. was still seen as the land of opportunity,” said his oldest son John. “He was hoping for an opportunity like most people did when they came to the US.”
And Kaufhold, who was born and raised in Germany, having fought for the Germans in World War II, created that better life through a combination of persistence and determination to always strive for more. Kaufhold, the longtime owner of Peterborough Marble & Granite Works, spent the final 60-plus years of his life in Peterborough before passing away on Tuesday, March 23 at the age of 93.
It was August of 1950 when Kaufhold and his two brothers Erich and Werner arrived in New York City by ship. The three brothers had been sponsored by his aunt and uncle, who owned a dairy farm in upstate New York, to come to America. And it’s where he went to night school to learn English.
“It took a lot of courage,” John said. “Our lives are so easy compared to what they had to go through.”
After a year working on the family farm, he ventured to Vermont in search of a job that filled his skill set. At the age of 15, Kaufhold was trained in the trade of stonecutting, one suggested by his father due to his abilities with clay, and sought to find work where he could pursue his passion. It took only one day to find employment at the Vermont Marble Company in Proctor.
“You had to go to Vermont. That’s where the industry was,” John said.
And while Kaufhold had initially been on his way to Barre to find employment, it was almost fate that he found the job he did because it was in Proctor where he was introduced to his wife Roberta. Kaufhold worked with her father, Orfeo Mutti, and was invited over to the family home one day for rhubarb pie. They were married in 1956.
“It was like love at first sight,” John said.
His father, mother and other brother Henry came to the U.S. in 1952, but his father passed away just three months later. They, along with Erich and Werner, later joined him in Proctor and all of them moved to Hudson in 1955. After the two got married, they found an apartment in Nashua. At the time he was working as a machinist, and even though he went to school to learn the trade, his heart was in stone.
“They always worked toward a better life, a better opportunity,” John said. “And being a machinist, that’s where the future was. The industry was booming.”
When the machine shop went on strike, Kaufhold was told about an old-timer in Peterborough who ran a monument business. He spent six weeks lettering headstones in local cemeteries, but when the strike ended he returned to the machine shop. But a year later, Charles Warren, owner of Peterborough Marble & Granite and grandson of the company’s founder Hubert Brennan, asked if he wanted to buy the business. It was the kind of opportunity that Kaufhold could have only dreamed of while making that trip across the Atlantic.
“He didn’t know if it was going to be successful. He took a chance,” John said. “He had a lot of drive. Continually looking for something better.”
Kaufhold bought the business in 1958 and moved to Peterborough the following year. He and Roberta bought a property on Summer Street with two homes on it, renting out the other for income. He was renting a building for the business in town, but when the the second home on Summer Street was vacant, Kaufhold decided to use it as the business’s shop. With a growing family – he and Roberta had six children together – they moved to the Concord Street location that has served as both a family home and business since 1966.
“Everything he did was always for the family,” John said.
Kaufhold had a way of working with stone that John just marveled at.
“He was very creative, more so than I think any of we are,” he said. “Dad was a natural artist. He just had a natural ability and talent. I was amazed all the time.”
And it wasn’t just his working with the stone that John learned, but his way of interacting with people, many of who had recently lost a loved one.
“It can be a sensitive line of work,” John said. “A memorial can have a lot of meaning. He taught me we’re not salesman, we’re helping people create something for their loved one.” In 1999, he was selected to represent New Hampshire in the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington DC for his stone carving skills.
Together John and his dad took a wood carving class through the Sharon Arts Center. It came so natural the instructor told Kaufhold he should be teaching.
“I almost can’t believe how talented he was,” his daughter Valli Hannings said.
Kaufhold owned the business for 31 years before selling it to his oldest son John. Each and every one of the six children helped in some capacity and he taught them all an important lesson along the way.
“If you’re going to do a job, you might as well do it right,” Hannings said. “Take pride and do it well.”
That insight extended to the family garden, where the kids were expected to water it before anyone left the house for fun. Working hard was just ingrained in him.
“He came to this country with nothing and was able to buy a business, have six kids and a garden that would feed us,” Hannings said. “He was from the generation where men provided.”
Family was the most important thing for Kaufhold.
“They wanted a big family and that was their priority. Everything else came second,” Hannings said.
Owning his own business just across the driveway from the family home allowed him to be present.
“He would stop in the middle of a job and start playing soccer with us in the backyard,” John said. He built tree forts and ice skating rinks for the kids.
As they got older, Kaufhold would be at every event and game, working into the evening house to still get his work done. When grandkids came along, he did the same for them because it meant so much to be involved
“My dad was just always there for us,” Hannings said. “We were fortunate that he worked just across the driveway.”
Jeff Allen knew Kaufhold for more than 30 years and one thing always stood out about his friend.
“He’s one of those people if someone needed help, he’d be there. Whatever needed to be done, he’d do it,” Allen said. “He was a great man. He always had a smile on his face and a kind word.”
Kaufhold was born in Germany, the third oldest of five, on Easter Sunday, 1927. He grew up toward the outside of Hamburg with a family garden, raising rabbits for special Sunday dinners. He was just 12 when World War II began. The ensuing years were filled with opposition planes flying over head and bombings of his native city, including one that landed just across the street from the family home. In January 1944, Kaufhold was drafted into the German Army and taught anti-aircraft defense of the cities, stationed in Neuss Am Rhine, about 30 miles from Dusseldorf. Just over a year after entering the military, Kaufhold was taken as an American prisoner of war, just one day before his 18th birthday. He spent two months in less than favorable conditions before the war ended.
In Peterborough, he was a longtime member of the Independent Order of Fellows Lodge of Peterborough and the Altemont Masonic Lodge #26 where he rose to the position of Master in 1965.
“That was a way to become involved in the community,” John said.
Allen was also a member of the Masonic Lodge with Kaufhold and had a deep appreciation for his craft.
“He was an absolute artist in stone,” Allen said. Allen greatly enjoyed the time they spent together.
“He may have been one of the most interesting people I’ve known,” he said. And his love for family was so evident. “You could see the light in his eyes when family was around.”
He loved to dance with Roberta and were quite well known for their steps on the dance floor. They traveled a lot, visiting 49 of the 50 states, before later in life wintering in Texas.
Allen said he got a chance to visit with Kaufhold over the final months of his life and he will forever be grateful.
“We are really going to miss him,” Allen said. “It’s a loss for all of us.”