Anna Maria (Schmitt) Stenger - 177nd Birthday - 14 October 1842

My great great grandmother, Anna Maria (Schmitt) Stenger is 177 years old today.

Relationship to me: me > mom > Clementine (Stemger) Miars > Joseph L Stenger > Anna Maria <Schmitt> Stenger.

Anna Maria Schmitt was born in Dromersheim, Germany to Jakob and Maria Juliana Pfeifer Schmitt.  She was their second living child and oldest daughter. She was baptized at Sts Peter and Paul Church in Dromersheim the next day.

Baptismal Font - Sts Peter and Paul Catholic Church, Dromersheim Germany

In early 1852, when she was about 9 years old, she and her family left Dromersheim and started their very long journey to America.  They made their way to England where they boarded the ship, Northumberland, bound for the US. The Schmitt family arrived at Castle Garden in New York City on 1 April 1952.  From there they made their way to Kickapoo, Illinois where other families from Dromersheim were living.

It was in Kickapoo that she met another immigrant from Germany, Frank Stenger.  They were married on 26 January 1862 there.  Their farm was south of town and it was here that they raised their 9 children.  Today the property is at the northeast corner of the Kickapoo exit off of Interstate 74.

Frank and Anna Maria Schmitt Family
Back row - Joseph L, Elizabeth, Henry, Barbara, Michael, Anna, Frank Jr.
Front row - Jacob, Frank, Sr., Anna Maria, Julia
From the Arlene (Stenger) Callear collection.

Anna Maria watched three of her children move to Nebraska in the 1890s to live and raise their families.  That must have been very difficult. The Nebraska family did come back to Kickapoo from time to time for visits. Frank and Anna continued to live on their farm until the end of their days.  Their son, Henry, took over the day-to-day running of their family business and he and his wife Emma and their children lived in the home with Anna Maria and Frank.

Frank and Anna Maria (Schmitt) Stenger home
L-R: Anna (Stenger) Volz, Anna Maria (Schmitt) Stenger, Frank Stenger, Joseph L Stenger
From the Arlene (Stenger) Callear collection.

Anna Maria died on 10 May 1910 from an abdominal aortic aneurysm.  She is buried next to her husband in the churchyard cemetery of St Patrick's Catholic Church in Kickapoo, IL.

St Patrick's churchyard in Kickapoo, Illinois

Memorial window in St Mary's Catholic Church, Kickapoo, IL for Frank and Anna Maria (Schmitt) Stenger

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