MySource:Lbernhard/Letter: Dorothy Dunn to Lynn Bernhard

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Information from Dorothy Dunn 17 Sep 1978 by letter

MARY MEISTER ** Believe she first lived in Maryland but I just can't think of the City

Christopher H. SCHMILLEN Born: October 9, 1853 Died Aug 11, 1929 Where: I know he lived in Oberweiler, Germany before coming to the U. S. at age of approx. 18 yrs.

Married? Buried at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery -- it may now be located in a suburb of Chicago

MARGARET GERTRUDE MEISTER SCHMIILLEN (feel reasonably sure her middle name was Geraldine) Born: March 17, 1862 Died: July 26, 1927 Buried: Holy Sepulchre Cemetery Her father was LOUIS MEISTER Born:? Died July 5, 1889 - Colfax, Illinois

Mother: MARY MEISTER ** Born: August 28, 1836 Died: Oct. 11, 1912 - Colfax, Ill.

As a young girl, she came to the U.S. all alone from Austria. I understand she was a very brilliant woman and was the brains of the General Store they operated in Colfax with ROSS MEISTER, son, the baker; and MARTIN MEISTER, son, the shoemaker making shoes from scratch and the matriarch herself running the entire business. As a child, my mother often visited there and she'd be watching Ross making bread and putting the loaves on long handled paddles which he'd shove into ovens. She'd become so engrossed in the operation that he'd occasionally roll a piece of dough and throw it at her and she'd run screaming to her grandmother.

LOUIS and MARY MEISTER had the following children:

Elizabeth Meister Wagner Born: June 5, 1864 Died: Oct. 9, 1945

Mary Meister was a convert to Catholicism and wouldn't allow Aunt Lizzie to marry the man she loved because he was a non-Catholic. Aunt Lizzie married Uncle Body and they were married in Church. Understand the next time he was in Church was when they carried him in horizontally I have the names of Aunt Lizzie's children and some of their birth dates, etc., but doubt if you would want that line for your record.

ROSS MEISTER Born March 30, 1860 Died: ? (2 children, I think)

MARTIN MEISTER no children April 28 1858 Colfax, Illinois

LENA MEISTER Born: Nov. 8, 1869 Died: Oct. 27, 1941 I don't know where they fit into the Picture or what relationship they have to the Meister clan.

Also a MAMIE MEISTER who died in Sept. 1939

MARY MEISTER Born: ? (Apparently in 1869 Died: Sept. 15, 1888 at age 19 MARGARET MEISTER SCHMILLEN - married to CHRIS SCHMILLEN (noted above)