Carl Stange always wondered what became of his beloved sister Marie (her five older brothers called her Mariechen), so far away in America. From their brother Albert he knew that she had married Heinrich Peterson in 1865 and moved to Chicago. Then his letters came back and he assumed that they had died in the Chicago Fire of 1871. And indeed, Marie’s house did burn down, but the family survived and soon built another house in what is now Old Town, Chicago.
Marie became a housewife and had 4 children, Emma (b. 1866), Helene (b. 1868), Hugo (b. 1869) and Eduard (b. 1871). Her husband worked as an expressman and driver. But life wasn’t too good to Marie. In 1894 her son Eduard died of tuberculosis, only 22 years of age, 1897 it was Hugo who died of the same disease, only 28 years old. In 1905 Heinrich died and only six years later her daughter Emma passed away of Graves Disease. Marie lived alone with her daughter Helene, who worked in a candy factory. In 1911 she died of Myocarditis in the age of 73, having outlived her brother Carl by fourteen years.
Carl’s granddaughter tried to find out more about Marie but did not succeed. Due to the internet and some help from a Chicago genealogist (Thank you!), his great-great-granddaughter managed to trace Marie and finally found and visited her grave at the Waldheim Cemetery in Chicago. Carl would have liked that!
