The photograph above shows my great-grandmother, Clara M. Stahler Tillotson (b 1853, d 1925), wife of James Francis Tillotson. The note accompanying this picture says Clara was 52 years old at the time it was taken. She looks much younger to me.
Clara's parents were immigrants from Germany (Prussia at the time), Jacob Stahler and Katharina Thurk. Jacob's name also appears as Jacobi, and Katharina's name is also spelled several different ways in different documents. Clara's daughters, my grandmother Eva Jane Tillotson and her sister Jennie May Tillotson, spelled the names as Jacob Stahler and Catherine Turk. For convenience, those are the spellings I use below.
There is also considerable disagreement about how the last name Stahler was spelled. It appears as Stahler, Staller, Staeller, Steller, Staeler, Staler, and Staehler. Even the marriage certificate (80K) for Clara and James presents both "Staller" and "Steller" in different lines. At least one of Clara's sisters, Elizabeth Stahler Rossman, used Stahler, which is the spelling which appears in the birth certificates for Elizabeth's children. Clara's daughters, my grandmother and great aunt, also spelled the name Stahler. Older relatives remember the name pronounced both as "stay-ler" and "shtay-ler." The name appears as Staehler on my grandmother's delayed certificate of birth. Perhaps the original form was Stähler. Some of the other descendants of Jacob and Catherine still use the Staehler spelling.
Jacob Stahler was born about 1807. Catherine Turk was born about 1817. Jacob had the following children. The first few were probably children of an earlier wife, Anna Maria Rill. She appears on the death certificate of Jacob Stahler, Jr. which lists his parents as Jacob Stahler and Anna Maria (Rill) Stahler. All of these names appear in multiple spellings.
Catherine Stahler was born about 1832.
Margaret Stahler was born about 1836.
Jacob Stahler was born March 30, 1839 in Nassau, Prussia. Jacob married Katherina Sänger, widow of Nicholas Hentges (also spelled Henches). Katherina was born November 25, 1843 in Germany. She emigrated to the United States with her parents in 1848 and married Nicholas Hentges in 1859. He died in 1861. Katherina and Jacob were then married on February 9, 1862. They had six children, all born in Scott, Sheboygan County, Wisconsin.
Katherine Stahler. She married Peter Schilz.
Matthias Stahler was born August 25, 1863. He married Katharina Mueller, daughter of Jacob Mueller and Elisabeth Rinzel, on January 28, 1896 in Auburn, Wisconsin. They had at least two children.
Frances A. Staehler was born June 24, 1904. She married George J. Backhaus on October 15, 1923. George died January 20, 1961. Frances later married Theodore J. Schneider on June 18, 1966. Frances died April 2, 2002 in West Bend, Washington County, Wisconsin.
Gertrude Agnes Staehler was born March 10, 1908 in Kewaskum, Washington County, Wisconsin. She died December 7, 1976.
Katharina died August 19, 1917 in Kewaskum, Washington County, Wisconsin. Matthias died June 15, 1949 in West Bend, Washington County, Wisconsin.
John Jacob Staehler was born April 9, 1866. He married Elizabeth Rodenkirch, daughter of Mathias Rodenkirch and Elizabeth Schnitzler, on January 10, 1893. John and Elizabeth had at least nine children. I only know the names of eight.
John Jacob Staehler family.
Left to right: Alois Staehler,
unknown,
Alma Staehler, Marie Staehler,
John Jacob Staehler Sr., Sylvester Staehler,
Elizabeth (Rodenkirch) Staehler,
Roman Staehler, Rose (Staehler) Mueller,
Andrew Staehler, Joseph Mueller,
perhaps William Staehler, John Jacob Staehler Jr.
John died December 12, 1942 in Kewaskum, Washington County, Wisconsin. Elizabeth died April 25, 1958 at Enders Nursing Home in Glenbeulah, Sheboygan County, Wisconsin.
Jacob J. Staehler was born April 7, 1868. He married Gertrude Berres, daughter of Casper Berres and Maria Lotter, on February 19, 1903. Jacob died August 25, 1950 at his home in Scott, Sheboygan County, Wisconsin. Gertrude died November 11, 1980 at her home in Polk, Washington County, Wisconsin.
Theresa Stahler was born March 16, 1870. She married Louis Nicolaus Seefeld, son of Gottlieb Seefeld and Johanna Engel, on October 28, 1890. Theresa died at home on March 29, 1906. Louis died June 21, 1909 at Emergency Hospital in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Christina Stahler was born February 22, 1872. She married Edward Seefeld, brother of her sister Theresa's husband Louis, on November 25, 1899. Christina died August 21, 1946 in Beechwood, Sheboygan County, Wisconsin. Edward died March 1, 1964 in Sheboygan County, Wisconsin.
Katherina died February 10, 1912 of the dropsy (presumably pulmonary edema). Jacob died of pneumonia on January 25, 1915 at the home of his son John Staehler in Kewaskum.
Katharina Julia Stahler was born in Friedhofen nerz, Prussia (now Westerwald, Germany) on May 22, 1845. She died December 5, 1920. Katharina is the first child we know for certain was a daughter of Catherine Turk. She is clearly a different person that the Catherine/Katharina born in 1832, who was still living in 1850. Giving children the same first name with different middle names was a German custom of the time. Katharina Julia Stahler married Mathias Theisen.
Mary A. Stahler was born about 1847. She was the first of the children born in Wisconsin after the Stahlers moved to the United States. They settled in Fredonia. Mary married Joseph August Gross. Mary and Joseph had four children.
Elizabeth Stahler was born in 1850, probably in Saukville or Fredonia. She married Henry Rossman.
Clara Stahler, my great-grandmother, was born August 6, 1853, probably in Saukville, Wisconsin. She married James Francis Tillotson.
Christina Stahler was born (presumably prematurely) February 15, 1854 in Fredonia, Ozaukee County, Wisconsin. On July 4, 1876 she married Mathias Schladweiler who was born February 5, 1855 in Strohn, Rheinland, Germany to Mathias Schladweiler and Genovefa Willems. Christina and Mathias had three children.
Philip Schladweiler was born November 5, 1876 in Auburn, Font du Lac County, Wisconsin. On May 1, 1906 he married Mary Elizabeth Fellenz, born March 25, 1881 in Scott, Sheboygan County, Wisconsin to Henry Fellenz and Susanna Schaeffer.
Philip Schladweiler died at home on April 4, 1928 in Farmington, Washington County, Wisconsin. Mary Fellenz Schladweiler died at home on July 18, 1948 in West Bend, Washington County, Wisconsin.
Susan Schladweiler was born November 19, 1879 in Auburn, Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin. On September 22, 1904 she married Patrick Hogan, born about 1872 in Ireland to James Hogan and Hanna Power. They had one daughter together.
Susan Schladweiler Hogan.
My grandmother Eva Tillotson Burns, first cousin of Susan, knew Susan and Patrick well because they lived in Chicago.
Susan Schladweiler Hogan died September 17, 1935 in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois. She is buried in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Chicago.
Jacob P. Schladweiler was born October 8, 1882 in the town of Auburn, Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin. On November 21, 1911 he married Elizabeth Schneider, born June 12, 1890 in Farmington, Washington County, Wisconsin to Nicholas Schneider and Mary Klunke.
Jacob died July 8, 1948 at St. Joseph Hospital in West Bend, Washington County, Wisconsin. Elizabeth died March 6, 1974 at the same hospital.
Christina Stahler Schladweiler died November 20, 1882 in Auburn, Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin.
Mathias later married Margaretha Meeth, who was born in Kewaskum, Washington County, Wisconsin to Johann Joseph Meeth and Katharina Uelmen. Mathias and Margaretha had an additional fourteen children.
Mathias died January 23, 1927 at his home in Kewaskum, Washington County, Wisconsin. Margaretha died at home on August 20, 1927 in Kewaskum.
Stahler family portrait.
Standing left: Elizabeth Stahler Rossman
Standing right: Clara M. Stahler Tillotson
Seated left: Mary Stahler Gross.
Seated middle: Probably one of the older sisters, Catherine or Margaret.
Seated right: Katharina Julia Stahler Theisen.
Katharina died in 1857 and is buried in Little Kohler, Wisconsin. Jacob died in 1865 and is buried with Katharina.
Clara M. Stahler Tillotson died in Chicago on December 14, 1925. She is buried in Mt. Olivet cemetery. See Clara's death certificate (95k) for more information.
Clara Stahler Tillotson.
Clara Stahler Tillotson in old age on a farm in Wisconsin.
My thanks to Bob Theisen and Marie Roskopf Webber for information about Katharina Stahler Theisen. Tylor Munson provided the photo of the John Jacob Staehler family.
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Last modified by pib on July 9, 2010.
