Anna Marie Engel Fuhrhop Elling, Immigrant

After her husband, Johann Friedrich died in 1871, Anna Marie Engel (called Mary or Marie) continued to live with her son, Fritz, and his youngest sister, Anna. By the 1880 census, Anna was gone from the home and Fred Elling, 26, farmer, was named as Head of the Household with Mary, age 67, his mother, keeping house there. Another person was living with them - Henry Elling, age 16, laborer, born Ohio, parents born in Prussia. No relationship was stated, so I really don't know who this is.

The communion records, 1885 - 1891, of St. Paul Lutheran, Napoleon Twp. show Fritz and Marie Elling and Marie Elling taking communion there, not always on the same dates, but usually twice a year. (Fritz had married in 1884 another Marie.)

Sometime between 1880 and Mary, the immigrant's death in 1893, a case went to court to declare lunacy for Mary. The records are sealed in probate court so I couldn't look at them, but it is my speculation that Fritz was having his mother declared senile and himself named as trustee for her.

The image above shows the Death Register from the records of St. Paul Lutheran, Napoleon Twp.

The Deceased: Elling, Anna Marie Engel, the legitimate wife of Fried. Elling

Day of Death: March 24, 1893

Buried: March 28, 1893

Cause of Death: Weakness of Old Age

Age: 79y 5m 24d

"Estate": 4 children, 17 grandchildren and her Bible verse, Romans 6:23

Pastor Louis Dammann

She actually had five children, but at her death, the record states four...another support for the idea that son Henry died early at the age of 16. I believe the other children were all alive at the time of their mother's death.