The Worst Year of a Mother's Life

As of a couple days ago, I knew that my 3rd great grandfather, Fredrich Holzgrafe, died in 1867 at an early age leaving his wife, Caroline, with four young children to raise alone including my 2nd great grandfather, Henry Louis Holzgrafe. It seemed as though the family moved for some reason from Evansville, Indiana to the small town of Darmstadt just to the north just before Fredrich died. So, yesterday I looked at the records for the Trinity Lutheran Church in Darmstadt for the death record of Fredrich. At first I saw "Holzgrafe" in beautiful handwriting and thought I had found it! But when I looked closer, this was not a death record, but a birth record for another son in 1867. Under the parent's names of this child, I found Fredrich and Karoline, but under Karoline's name - the word "widow". Confused, I looked up the death records and found two individuals with the last name Holzgrafe, but neither were Fredrich. After piecing things together, this is the sad story of the worst year of a mother's life.

Life was normal. Karoline and Fredrich lived a happy life. They attended the Trinity Lutheran Church in Evansville, Indiana. Together they had FIVE children with one on the way. Fredrich worked with his brother, Henry August, in his brickyard making and laying bricks. Everything was fine until one day in early 1867 when Fredrich passed away for a reason unknown to me. Devastated and with five and a half children to care for, Karoline moved to Darmstadt to get help from her family and/or friends. There she attended another Trinity Lutheran Church. As her pregnancy progressed, Karoline could not take care of her children like she wished she could. On July 10, 1867 at 10:00 am, her 3 year old daughter, Karoline Marie, died. The next day, at about 4:00 in the afternoon, little Karoline Marie was buried in the Church cemetery. One half hour later, at 4:30 pm, Johann Anton Heinrich Holzgrafe was born. The poor child's health waned quickly. Karoline had her newborn son baptized in her home on July 21, 1867. Johann Anton Heinrich Holzgrafe passed away the following day at 11:00 am and was buried alongside his sister on the 24th at 4:00 in the afternoon.

What more could go wrong? In less than seven months, a happily married, pregnant mother of five became a widow of four young children. Though her trials and pain must have been very difficult to overcome, Karoline re-married the following year to a widower by the name of Henry Schurmeier in what I've called The Great Merger. Together, Karoline and Henry had two more sons who became a doctor and a pastor. I'm sure Karoline had many more hard years throughout her life, but I'm almost positive none came close to comparing with 1867, the worst year of her life.