Mysterious bones found in 2024 explained by the "Milwaukee Herold" in April 1887 ...

"Where the Prospect and Maryland Avenues meet in Ward 1, a new school building under the direction of Contractor Danischefski is being built. It is not a flat surface, but a large, grassy place in which an infinite number of depressions can be seen; namely graves, which were once raised above the surface, but now have sunk down.
The site was used for more than twenty years as a burial ground, and funerals were held there in 1863. Twenty-five years ago, it was covered with gravestones and monuments.
Although a sanctified place, it was always neglected, as most of the bodies entrusted to the earth were those of "paupers"* and dying homeless, upon whom the tears of a loving mother had earlier fallen." [*The cemetery served the 2 orphanages across the street.]

Die Verlobung von Fräulein Nettie Lederer von hier ...

It's that time of year! Engagements and wedding announcements are just a small sample of what's found in Milwaukee's German-American press. A part of the genealogy community is obsessed with the social columns that might include engagement or wedding notices; yet they ignore wedding anniversary clippings (that requires more work!).

Spread between Milwaukee's multiple German language newspapers, reportage of nuptials is not as representative of the diverse German immigrant community as it is in smaller towns.

In 1893, while at art school in Philadelphia, Milwaukeean Nettie Lederer (daughter of Abraham and Dorett Lederer from Forchheim, Bavaria) was engaged to artist A. Stirling Calder. The couple married in 1895 in New York. Family or friends may have called in this news accounting for misspellings. Son Alexander Calder was the result of their marriage.

The art work one of at least one these now world famous Calders is found in a Milwaukee Art Museum collection, and around the world.

Hints of integration within Milwaukee's 19th c. German community ...

 

Miss Celia Kantorowitz and Mr. Samuel Shulskin were married at Tempel Beth Hamidrosh Hagodel on N. 5th Street, followed by a reception at the Deutschen Männervereins-Hall on N. 8th St. and W. State St.

Ein Ueberbleibsel aus Milwaukees Jugendzeit.

This folksy wood-craft summer house is a lost feature on the grounds of the Alexander Mitchell estate that fills the W. 900 block on Wisconsin Ave. The property became the Deutscher Club, then renamed the Wisconsin Club. This summer house photo is not found in any public collection that I've found, but you can see just a little bit of it in this 1870s illustration insert. The cruciform footprint of the structure is indicated on the Sanborn Fire Atlas map (1894). A windmill shows in the left hand side of the newspaper photo. There was a photo of the windmill in the mpl.org Digital Collection ... at least, until I brought these lost features up to them. But shortly after, the windmill photo was removed (?!?).

Keine Herren, keine Knechte - Gleiche Pflichten, gleiche Rechte! (Milwaukee, WI 1878)

No masters, no servants - same work, equal rights!

The concept of the "servant leader" was bandied around in the 1990s by an academic, and it continues to be talked about today.

https://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/kwo/win05/departments/book3.htm

Socialisticher Maennerchor celebrated 50 years in 1926!

When Milwaukee's Socialists weren't busy cleaning up the corruption of previous decades (after the 1910 Mayoral election), they were celebrating their history ... dating back to 1876?
The article includes their full concert program and names additional choral and orchestral groups from near and far that participated in the event.

More politically enlightening history can be found by clicking here:

Milwaukee's history of Socialist Mayors

Mrs. A. Sweckle shares a postcard ... Das Brautpaar in Potsdam.

Mrs. A. Sweckle, 1216 24 St. shared her postcard of German royal newlyweds with the local newspaper. For that gesture, Louise, (Mrs. Albert Sweckle) gets an entry in the index of Milwaukee's German language newspapers.

The wedding of Prince Ernst August of Cumberland and Princess Victoria Luise, only daughter of the Kaiser, is remarkable as it "ended the decades-long rift between the Houses of Hohenzollern and Hanover. The wedding of Prince Ernest Augustus and Princess Victoria Louise was also the last great gathering of European sovereigns before the outbreak of the Great War.".

The complicated story of the long rift between the Houses of Hohenzollern and Hanover is told here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Augustus,_Duke_of_Brunswick