It's really F"aller. I am told he was very strict.
Interview of Jane Allan by Barb Jenkins and Shorey Allan, 2001:
J: Wait, maybe I can say, you have a better memory of it cause you think more about those things than I do. (laughs) I'll lay it out to you so it might be a little more clear for you. The Follers I knew very little about. I Do remember Grandmother Foller, Mildred Foller. And she came from England, Maidstone Eng. And when we were on our trip over there in the British Isles, we went to this darling little, little teeny tiny town called Maidstone. And that was where she was born and raised. And then she married Charles, … wait a minute, here ... she married Peter, ... Peter Foller. She married Peter Foller, long long after... She was quite a little bit younger than he was ... and, a ... they came to the states. And that's all I know. You know. How it happened, or how he got there, or, I think he had something to do with the railway, didn't he?
B: Uh Hum, I think I heard that too.
Aunt Helen:
Anyway - I don't know when my grandparents came to this country. They must have been young. Mothers father, Peter Paul Foller (used to be Faller in the old country) - came from Baden Baden in Germany - probably when he was 17 or 18. I know nothing of the "old country" life except that I think his family was Catholic. He, when he married Grandma Foller (Mildred Lamkin), became
Episcopalian or as it was first called - "Church of England".
Grandpa Foller (my mother's father) worked for the Pennsylvania R.R. + they lived in Oil City, Pa. He was let go, just before his pension was due so they moved to Buffalo where he once more found work with a R.R. - this time the Lackawana. Their original house in Buffalo was in a shambles around the 1920's when Aunt Jessie (my mother's sister) insistend on going out to see it. Aunt Jessie never lived there - she was already married to Wm. Young - + continued to live in Oil City. The old hous was on Swan St. Buffalo which became a slum area. The house (I think perhaps a rented flat, as I recall only an upstairs - + I was about 4 yrs. old at the time) on Laurel St. in Buffalo was their last residence until 1919 when my Father died + they moved into the Utica St. house.
From an article on the web photocopied from an Oil City publication from 1896, which contained a poor quality photograph (poor quality in the photocopy at least) too:
(http://www.libraries.psu.edu/do/digitalbookshelf/30674124/30674124_part_0 3.pdf#page=8)
PETER P. FOLLER - A Recent Acquisition in the Ranks of our Substantial Citizens.
Peter P. Foller, master mechanic W. N. Y. & P. shops, was born in the state of Baden, Germany, June 29 1844. He migrated to America with his parents in the year 1853, and settled in the town of Dunkirk, N. Y. In March, 1861, after having received a common school education in the district schools, he began as a machinist apprentice in the machine shop of the New York & Erie R. R., at Dunkirk, N. Y., and served five years. Since then he has been connected with the following corporations: Cleveland & Erie R. R. shops, Cleveland, Ohio; Pittsburgh & Erie R. R. shops, Erie, Pa.; Oil Creek R. R. shops, Corry, Pa.; Fulton Iron Foundry, San Francisco, Cal.; Lake Shore & Michigan Southern R. R. shops, Buffalo, N. Y.; West Shore R. R. shops, Buffalo, N. Y., and with the Western New York & Pennsylvania railway, as master mechanic of the Pittsburgh division, since January 1, 1894. Mr. Foller was married to Minnie Lampkin, of Dunkirk, N. Y., November 5, 1868, and has been a resident of South Oil City for the past two years. To this union three children have been born, a son and two daughters, Charles S, Jessie May and Ethel Mabel, aged respectively 20, 17, and 7 years.
June 1854, the ship Elizabeth Denison brought Faller Cxx (45), Susanne (32), Peter (9), Conrad (4), Veronica (4), Malburga(?) (1/2, died) from Antwerp, Belgium to New York.