The Legend

Every old family has its legend. The Kiefers' begins around 1650 with a Dutchman named Nicholas van Nidda, who — the Saga says — married the daughter of a German knight and took the name von Kiefer zu Grötzingen. The family arms showed a knight's helmet and a man swearing an oath, in red, white and red.

From there the Saga traces a line through Baden: a John Jacob Kiefer who was mayor of Durlach; a son said to have married a daughter of the Margrave of Baden; a Joseph Kiefer who ran a crepe mill in Karlsruhe; and Dr. Ludwig Kiefer, a Heidelberg physician who received the Cross of the Legion of Honor.

The best story belongs to Ludwig. According to the family, Napoleon gave a gold snuff box to the Elector of Baden, and the Elector passed it to his doctor. In 1951 Edgar W. Kiefer wrote that the snuff box was in his own keeping.

Ludwig's son, Dr. Conrad Kiefer, was a court physician and district health officer who lost his posts after the revolution of 1848. In 1850 he brought a young woman named Franciska Kehle across the ocean to Detroit — to marry his son.