Grandma Gross

The Philip Schultz Family

Today, I want to write about my Mother's Great Grandmother-Grandma Gross, born Matilda Ottilie Schultz.  She is in our Direct Maternal Line...her Maternal Grandmother, Hannah Dickmeier is our most distant known direct Maternal Line ancestor.  That is the DNA that is passed Mother to children, then passed on by the daughters.  My Direct maternal line is My Grand Daughters 1, My Daughter 2, Me 3, Mom Barbara Carolyn McKenrick 4, Grandmother Mildred Elsie Veronica Schieberl 5, Great Grandmother Caroline Mary Agnes Gross 6, Great Great Grandmother Matilda Ottilie Schultz 7, Great Great Great Grandmother Caroline Dickmeier 8, Great Great Great Great Grandmother Hannah Dickmeier (I think her Maiden name was Weitzel but have no proof) 9.

Matilda Ottilie Schultz Gross, her Daughter Caroline (Carrie/Lena) Gross Schieberl, her Grand Daughter Mildred E.V. Schieberl McKenrick and her Great Grand Daughter, my Mother's older sister Patricia Imogene McKenrick

Matilda was born on 25 May 1848-just 100 years before I was born.  Her parents were both German immigrants.  Her Mother Caroline (German pronouniation Carolena) Dickmeier was born in Hanover, Germany in 1830..."in a village near Hamburg."; she and her parents, Conrad and Hannah Dickmeier  (early on it was spelled Dickmeyer)  and siblings immigrated in 1840.   Her Father, Philip Schultz  was born in Minfeldt, Bavaria, Germany.  He immigrated with his Mother, Ottilie, Sister Ottilie and Brother, Johan Wendell but I am not sure of the date.  I cannot find a Death record for Philip's Father Anton, although I have his Baptism record, his Marriage and the Baptisms of his children.  I do not know if  Anton died in Germany and the Widow came to the States with her children or if the Family immigrated and he died here.   I cannot find them on a passenger list.   Philip and Caroline Dickmeier  married on 15 Feb 1848.  Therefore I assume he arrived at least 9 months before their daughter's birth in May.  They were married at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Cincinnati that Caroline's Father Conrad Dickmeier helped found.  Phillip however, was Roman Catholic.  I do not know what religion their children were raised in, but Grandma Gross (their eldest daughter) married Catholic German-Alsatian Immigrant Martin Gross and raised all of her children Catholic. The 1st time we meet Matilda Ottilie Schultz is as a 2 year old on the 1850 Census for Cincinnati Ohio.  There are 3 Ottilie Schultzes in the household as Philip's Mother, sister and daughter are all living there.

The Mother and Grandmother of Matilda Ottilie, Caroline Dickmeier (Dickmeyer)  Schultz and Hannah (Hanne in German) Possible Weitzel Dickmeier.  These ladies are my Great Great Great Grandmother and Great Great Great Great Grandmother-this is as far as I have our Maternal Line.  (I think Matilda looked amazingly like her Grandmother Hannah)

 On the next Census 1860,  they are in Davenport, Scott Co, Iowa.  Philip is a Barber.  2 more children have been added to the family-Emma is 4 years old and John is 4 months, our Matilda is 11 years.  Emma's birthplace is listed as Ohio, John's is Iowa so the family must have moved to Davenport between 1856 and 1860.  I do not know where in Davenport they were living at the time of the 1860 Census, but the family Homestead was later listed as 214 East 2nd St-right smack in the  middle of what is today Downtown Davenport.  They had about an acre of land...Philip's Barber Shop , where several sons eventually joined him was at the home address.  The Schultz family eventually had 7 children-Matilda, Emma, John, Carrie, Philip, Charles and Joseph-although there were several years between Matilda, the eldest and Emma, the next born so there may have been lost babies.  Those children who did not marry lived in the family home  until they died.  The home and  land was inherited by Matilda after her sister's death in 1917 but I do not know what she did with it.  (Need to do a Title Search, I guess!)

A crackly Tintype of Martin and Matilda Schultz Gross-Probably their Wedding Photo

Members of the Schultz family at the family home t 214 E 2nd St Davenport, IA.  Great great great Grandmother Caroline Dickmeier Schultz is seated at left.  I cannot identify any of the others.

Matilda is not on the 1870 Census with her family.  She and husband Martin Aloysius Gross (subject of the next Maternal Post) married in Scott County, Iowa on 7 June 1870.  Martin, a German- Alsation immigrant,  was a Tinsmith by Trade; he eventually went into Sheet metal and Cornice work and had his own company.  Matilda and Oliver (one of many names Martin used) also had 7 children:  Joseph. George, Emma, Caroline (Lena/Carrie, my Great Grandmother), Louis, Philip and Matilda.

Matilda's (Grandma Gross's) Father Philip Schultz died at age 66 in 1890; his wife Caroline Dickmeier Schultz 4 years later.  Their youngest son Joseph (Josie)  died  in 1899, in  his late twenties of Tuberculosis.  He also was a Barber and died apparently at work at a Rock Island Hotel.  Tuberculosis is a very contagious disease that would spread rampantly among family members living in close proximity  4 more of the Schultz children would die of TB-Emma in 1903, Carrie in 1917 and John and Philip on the same day in 1904.  I think the only thing that saved Grandma was her early marriage which got her out of the Household.  The only other sibling to survive young adulthood was Charley who did not marry until 1903 so I guess his immune system was stronger than that of his siblings.  Of the 7 kids, only Grandma, John and Charley married and had children.  Philip married but was divorced after a very short time.  Emma, Carrie and Josie never married.

Death notice of Philip Schults and brother John Schultz on the same day in 1904

A page from my Great Grandmother's Autograph Book, from her Uncle Josie, who died in his 20's from Consumption

I heard a lot about Grandma Gross when I was a child.  She lived to be 94 years old, dying in 1942.  She lived next door to my Mom, who was a teenager.  Grandma lived with her daughter Lena (Carrie, Caroline) Gross Schieberl and her Son-in-law Emil Schieberl  and the Schieberl's daughter Mildred Schieberl McKenrick and family lived next door.  Mom actually was the one who, at 14, found Grandma when she passed away.

L-R G.G.Grandma Gross, G.G. Grandma Huber (their daughter and son Lena Gross and Emil Schieberl married) and  Emma Gross  Ehmke

Matilda at about 50

For some reason, Grandma Gross was a great source of comedic material for my Dad.  The ribbing would start with her name-according to Dad it was Matilda Otilda.  (Apparently we thought that was really her name, because my Mom's cousin had it that way on her family Tree)  I have since discovered her middle name was Ottilie (pronounced Ottilia) which has the variants of Odile in French, Odelia, Delia.  I actually like the name-it was a very popular German name.  Anyway-Dad would go from the name to the fact that apparently Grandma Gross saw or said she saw Abraham Lincoln walking down 20th St in Rock Island, IL.  Now, Lincoln died in 1865-he was here in the area during the Black Hawk War from April to July 1832.  Grandma was born in 1848.  He reportedly was here in 1856 as the Lawyer of the "Effie Afton Steamboat hits Bridge Case".  The Trial itself took place in Chicago but the story goes that Lincoln came to Rock Island to investigate.

According to Hell Gate of the Mississippi: The Effie Afton Trial and Abraham Lincoln's Role in It by Michael A. Ross University of Maryland                             (http://ir.uiowa.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1361&context=annals-of-iowa)

    Lincoln, the story goes, was the only lawyer with the good sense to actually visit the Rock Island Bridge to assess the danger it posed. Armed with that knowledge and his own experiences on Mississippi flatboats, he was able to argue convincingly that pilot error and mechanical failure, not the bridge, doomed the Effie Afton. Riney debunks those accounts by casting doubt on the evidence others have used to prove that Lincoln visited the Rock Island Bridge before the trial. Most of that evidence, he finds, was generated well after the trial by the railroad company, which wanted to be tied to Lincoln lore. Riney also reminds readers that Lincoln’s arguments failed to win the case. Despite the pro-railroad predispositions of most of the jurors, some were not convinced. The trial ended in a hung jury. It was not until separate litigation launched against the bridge by steamboat men in Iowa reached the U.S. Supreme Court in 1862 that the Rock Island Bridge’s future was secured. By then, Lincoln was president...

So, the jury is out on whether Lincoln was here in 1856.  Matilda Schultz (Grandma Gross) would have been 8 years old.

In 1858, Lincoln, a Republican was running for US Senator from Illinois, held 7 famous debates in 1858 with his Incumbent opponent Democrat Stephen Douglas but the closest the Debates came to Rock Island was Galesburg, Il some 50 miles away.

I cannot verify that Lincoln was in Rock Island during the Presidential Campaign of 1859.   The Republican National Convention was held in Chicago but that is rather far from 20th St in Rock Island...so I guess it was possible that Matilda as a young preteen MAY have seen Abraham Lincoln in Rock Island, Illinois between 1856 and 1960.  Remember too that she lived in Davenport, Ia  across the Mississippi.  People were not as mobile back then-there was no car to hop into for a quick drive to the Illinois side of the River-there also were no bridges.  It would have involved a horse ride to the ferry, then another horse ride or a long walk to get to 20th St.  Logistics suggest it may not have happened!

One story about Matilda and her family that did turn out to be true was the story Mom remembered hearing as a child about Grandma Gross's little brother being run over by a beer truck.  I found this story in The Daily Argus dated January 11, 1877.  Philip survived his ordeal.

The daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1873-1877, January 11, 1877, Image 4

Image provided by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL

Matilda's husband Martin apparently died sometime between 1905 and 1908.  I do not know where he is buried. When his wife dies almost 40 years later, she was buried in Davenport's Fairmont Cemetery with her parents and siblings.  It was like her kids forgot where they buried Dad!?  The records are very good at Fairmont-Martin is not there.  I have him in a 1905 City Directory in Houston Texas.  Did he die there?  I know his business took him to Texas-I think it may have started in the aftermath of the 1900 Great Galveston Storm and the rebuilding efforts there.  I have him on the 1900 Census with Matilda in Rock Island and on 1910, she is a widow.  I have Oliver and Matilda sitting on the front porch of the new home of son Joseph J.  The 1st time Joseph and his wife are listed living at the address of the new house was in a 1908 City Directory, so Oliver (Martin) was alive then but gone by 1910.  Matilda lived until 1942; for awhile she lived alone, then with various of her children.  Her youngest Child, Matilda (Tillie) died young, leaving a small son, Raymond Carlson.  Grandma raised him for several years until Tillie's husband remarried.  She lived for many years with her Daughter Lena and husband Emil Schieberl  This was on the corner of 30th St and 15th Ave in Rock island,, across from what is today the Ace Hardware Store.

Oliver and Matilda with son Joe about 1908 at 3215 10th Ave Rock Island, IL

Matilda's stone at Schultz Family Plot Fairmont Cemetery Davenport, IA

Page from the Funeral Book of Grandma Gross

Descendants attending Funeral...the daughter of George N. Gross, Olivet Gross, listed above  married Lee Mohr-thus our connection to Lee's Bar and Liquor Store.