Mathilda was born in Brandenburg, Germany in 1862. The only clue to her maiden name is the 1920 census in which she was living with her nephew, William Krebs, in Chicago.
At the time of her immigration to the United States she was married with two children and pregnant with a third child. I have found no record of her husband and assume that at this time he is dead and that is her reason for immigration. Her brother is living in the Chicago area in Whiting, Indiana. It takes a woman of courage to travel across the ocean with children and expecting a baby leaving everything she knows behind for a fresh start.
Port of Breman ca 1890
She departed from the port of Breman (Germany) on August 17, 1893 on the ship Dresden with her daughters, 5 year old Johanna and 9 month old Auguste. The Baltimore Passenger List (Passenger Manifest of the Breman) list her last residence as Nanendorf, (Transcriber’s interpretation) Germany. The spelling cannot be made out for sure on the original list and could possibly be Neuendorf.
I cannot imagine what she endured those 14 days crossing the ocean. Conditions in steerage were crowded, dismally dark, unsanitary and foul smelling. Often the dining facilities were either shelves or benches along the sides or standing in the passages of the sleeping compartments. The air was foul with unattended vomit of the sea sick, the odors of unclean bodies, the reek of food and the stench of nearby toilet rooms. How would you care for a 9 month old and a 5 year old in these conditions?
SS Dresden
They arrived in New York on August 30, 1893 and departed from the ship in Baltimore in September. Her brother had paid for her passage and purchased her tickets to South Chicago. She arrived with $7 for a fresh start in a strange new country.
This is the only record for her daughter, Auguste. Her name never appears on any census records so I’m assuming she died before the 1900 census. Minnie Emma was born in December of 1893 in Indiana. On March 1, 1895 she married Herman Heller who had also emigrated from Germany. They were married in Cook County, Illinois. Herman’s wife, Emilia Feldt Heller, had died the previous year on April 16, 1894. Herman had three children: Bertha, Reynold and Emma. From the 1900 census and forward Mathilda’s children, Johanna (Hanna) and Minnie were listed with the Heller surname.
The merged family settled in the Warren, Illinois area (Jo Daviess County) on a farm. A daughter, Elsie was born on April 26, 1896 and she died on July 4, 1898. A son, Leonard, was born June 1, 1898 and a daughter, Martha, was born on March 23, 1900. Martha is my grandmother. A son, Richard, was born June 18, 1901 and he died on October 3, 1901. Both Elsie and Richard are buried at the Zion Cemetery in Lafayette County, Wisconsin, along with Herman’s first wife, Emilia. A son, Frank, was born on September 13, 1902; daughters, Edith (Ida) in 1905 and Agnes in 1906. Sometime after 1910 and before 1918 they moved to a farm in Lafayette County, Wisconsin.
But life must have been hard for Mathilda. In 1918 she filed for divorce from Herman. The children remained with Herman. In 1920 Mathilda was living with her nephew William Krebs in Chicago. Sometime before 1930 she moved in with her daughter, Martha and husband, Arthur (my grandparents). On both the 1930 and 1940 census she is listed as living with them so I am assuming she remained with them until her death in 1944. Mathilda Heller is buried at the Elmwood Cemetery in Warren, Illinois of Jo Daviess County.
Ginny's Genealogy Gems 