Anna Maria Sophia Spoering Marksch - The Second Daughter

Another of Grandmother Ida Spoering Elling's older sisters--

 Called Sophia, Anna Maria Sophia Spoering was about 5 when she accompanied her parents to America in 1882.  Born on December 10, 1877, in Lehrden, Germany, she was the second child of Hermann Heinrich and Katherine (Floke) Spoering.

The family settled in Monroe Township and was enumerated there in the 1900 Federal Census.  Sophia lived with her parents at the age of 22, amid ten other siblings.  It was noted that she could not speak English.

In the meantime, another family had immigrated from Bremen, Germany, to Baltimore, Maryland, in 1883.  Gottlieb and Elisabeth Marksch brought their three single sons: Wilhelm, 16; Gottlieb, 14, and Ernest, 6, with them, along with married son, Wilhelm and wife, Minna Marksch, and their children, Carl and Pauline, both 6.   Three generations of the Marksch family traveled in steerage on the S.S. Strassburg to create a new life in the United States.

Carl Marksch and Sophia Spoering married on July 14, 1904. They lived in Richfield Township where Carl farmed and Sophia kept house.  In the 1910 census, Carl, 30, and Sophie, 32, had three children: Ernest, 5; Adelia, 3; and Clara, 1.  The enumerator noted that Carl could speak English, but Sophia spoke only German.  In 1916, the Farmers' Directory explained that Carl had 80 acres with 3 horses and 4 cows.

The 1920 Federal Census was taken in January and the Marksch family was enumerated on their farm in Richfield Township.  Carl's birthplace in Germany was written as Pollger, but no village has been found with that name. ( Perhaps it could be Behlingen?  Still to be determined.)  Sophia now could speak English and her birthplace was reported as Jeddingen, unlike Lehrden as on a previous source.  Their children were Ernest, 14; Adelia, 12; Clara, 10; Helen, 8; Martha, 6, Esther, 4 and Fred, 9 months.

Tragedy struck the family later that year when Carl became ill and passed away just before Christmas on December 11, 1920.  Death records noted typhoid fever as cause for his demise at age 41. Now Sophia was left with seven children to raise and support, the youngest just a year old and the oldest 14.

Carl's obituary appeared in the Deshler Flag on December 16, 1920.

"PROMINENT FARMER PASSES AWAY
Carl Marksch, a well known and prosperous farmer, residing six miles northwest of Deshler, died at his home Saturday morning, after an illness of two weeks with typhoid fever.
Mr. Marksch, at the time of his death had reached his fortieth year and leaves a wife and seven children.
A son of fourteen years and a daughter of twelve have contracted the disease and are seriously ill at their home.
Funeral services were held Tuesday morning from the Marksch home, Rev. Peters officiating.
Interment was made in the church's cemetery."

On June 2, 1927, Sophia and children suffered another loss - the death of the youngest son, Frederick Wilhelm.  Just shy of a year old when his father died, young Fred was only 8 when he died of diabetes. (Insulin was discovered to help diabetes in 1922, and it was still being tested in the 1940s.  Before that, only diet was used to control diabetes and it was often a fatal disease.) Little Frederick was buried, as was his father, in the St. John Lutheran church cemetery near Deshler, Ohio.

By April 11, 1930, when the enumerator for the census came around, he or she found Sophia and her children in Bartlow Township, Henry County.  They rented a house there.  The young widow was 52 with no occupation, but her oldest son living there, Ernest, 24, had a job road building.  Also in the home was Esther, 14.

In 1940, Sophia was back in Richfield Township on the South Township Line.  This census, taken on April 29th, revealed that Sophia had attended school only to 3rd grade.  Now she owned her own home and lived alone. 

Sophia died of apoplexy (a stroke) on May 10, 1955, at the age of 77.  Her obituary appeared in the Deshler Flag on June 16.

"LAST RITES MONDAY FOR MRS. MARKSCH

Mrs. Sophia Marksch, 77, a resident of Deshler, passed away at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Ernest Plassman, 858 Hobson street, Napoleon, with whom she had been making her home the past two years.

Funeral services, conducted by the Rev. Otto Ehlen, were held on Monday at 1:30 at the Wesche Funeral Home, and 2:30 at St. John's Lutheran church in Bartlow Township.  Interment was made in the church cemetery. 

She leaves one son, Ernest D., of Deshler; five daughters, Mrs. Otto Panning, of Bartlow Township; Mrs. Ernest Plassman of Napoleon; Mrs. Herman Miller of Flatrock Township; Mrs. Arthur Ohlrich of Richfield Township, and Mrs. Esther Barnes of Wauseon; 23 grandchildren; eight great-grandchildren; one brother, George Spoering;and five sisters, Mrs Anna Helmke, Mrs Frieda Lange, and Mrs. Lydia Loudon, all of Napoleon; Mrs. Kate Tietje, Hamler, and Mrs. Emilie Schlagel of Traverse City, Michigan."










The children of Sophia and Carl were:
Ernest David Heinrich Marksch (1905-1970)
Adelia Maria Wilhelmine Marksch Panning (1907-1965)
Clara Anna Bertha Marksch Plassman (1909-1994)
Helene Anna Katharina Lena Marksch Miller (1912-1977)
Martha Dora Ida Maria Marksch Ohlrich (1913-1973)
Esther Maria Frieda Marksch Barnes May (1916-2004)
Friedrich Wilhelm Marksch (1919-1927)


 

St. John Lutheran Cemetery near Deshler, Ohio