Part 3: Petersen in Belle Prairie and Hebron NE, Chicago IL, Kenosha WI

Three weeks after arriving in America in November 1878, Catherine Petersen, just sixteen, posed with her twenty-nine year old husband Hans, her first cousin, in their wedding finery. First-cousin marriages were common in Europe at the time and were entirely legal in Nebraska then. Many years later Catherine joked to her grandchildren that she didn't have to change the monogram on her linen when she married...but she also occasionally remarked that first cousins should never marry. Make of that what you will!

Note that Catherine followed the custom of the era and her homeland by wearing a dark colored wedding dress, probably blue, green, or brown velvet, with a billowing veil and lacy crown, and a drape of orange blossoms over her shoulders. Her trousseau must have been sewn in the old country, preserved carefully and transported on the ship she and her family sailed on to the United States.

Hans and Catherine's first five children (Louis, Peter, Elise Christina, Elise Margaretha, and Margarethe) were born in Nebraska, where Hans and his father Lorenz worked as farmers on their own land. The two Elises died before they were three and were buried in Hebron. Around 1889 Hans, Catherine, their children, along with Hans' father Lorenz and Lorenz' second wife Eliza Hamberge, moved to a Chicago suburb, then called Lake. Hans and Catherine lived at 4735 South Paulina Street, a structure that still stands today.

Hans and his father Lorenz worked as laborers in Chicago, as did Hans' elder sons Louis and Peter. Lorenz died in October 1891 in Chicago. He was buried at Greenwood Cemetery, now called Mt. Greenwood Cemetery in Blue Island, a quiet suburb of Chicago near their home. Lorenz was only 66 years old.

In Chicago five more children were born: Johann Christian (1890), Edward Andreas (1892), Alfred Emil (1894), George (1897), and Marie (1899). Johann and Edward each died before age two and joined Lorenz at Mt. Greenwood cemetery, but Alfred, George, and Marie thrived.

We can see the family enumerated in the 1900 U.S. federal census in Chicago, but shortly thereafter the family joined Catherine's brother Andrew in Wisconsin, settling in Maunton, south Milwaukee, then Brookfield where they farmed. Hans and Catherina's last child, Clarence, their eleventh, was born in Wisconsin in 1904. The 1905 Wisconsin census records the family there, erroneously listing them as Norwegian, but with a mystery man called Peter Petersen, a cousin. His birth year was 1838. Could this actually be Hans' older half-brother Paul Christian, who was in fact born that same year? It's a tempting theory but so far unproven.

The couple had lost four young children to illness in the 1880s and 1890s, all of whom were buried back in Nebraska. Then tragedy struck again when in 1903 their eldest daughter Maggie, only fifteen, died by suicide. In 1905 Hans Petersen, himself unwell, died in a drowning accident near the family home in Brookfield. He was only 55 years old.

Catherina returned to Chicago later that year to live near her eldest son Louis, now married to Anna Majoros with a growing family of their own. Pictured at left are Catherine's younger children Peter (seated), Alfred at right, and Maggie in back with her sister Marie on the left.

Within a year Catherine was being courted by Thomas Mikkelsen, an automobile and trolley mechanic with roots in Ladelund, Schleswig-Holstein, a town just a few miles from Catherine's birthplace, Leck, and close to Hans' home town of Süd-Klixbull. Thomas had been married Helena Sievertsen in Ladelund in 1876 and they had four children. After emigrating to the United States the marriage failed and Helene returned with their children to Ladelund.

But Thomas remained in Chicago and his children eventually returned to Chicago too, where Thomas married a Maria Hansen in 1889. Maria died in 1902. When Catherine was widowed in 1905, Thomas was available, and he knew Catherine and her family, of course. She was Helene Sievertse's first cousin.

Catherine and Thomas Mikkelsen married in November 1906 and they had one daughter together, Florence. Thomas' work with automobiles intrigued Alfred, George, Clarence, and even Marie, all of whom grew up with an ardent interest in cars. By all accounts it was a happy blended family. When Alfred (later Alva) married and had children of his own, his first son was named for Thomas.

After fifteen years with Catherine, Thomas died in 1921. Catherine remained in Chicago close to family, kept in touch with her brothers in Nebraska and Wisconsin, and became a much-loved grandmother to her children's progeny. She died at the age of eighty-one in 1944. She's buried, with so many other family members, at Mt. Greenwood Cemetery.

Petersen: The next generation

Louis Peter Petersen, born in Fremont, Nebraska, married Annie Majoros (sometimes listed as Annie Simon) in Chicago in 1900. They had ten children. Louis was a laborer and worked in Chicago until his death from pneumonia in 1926.

Peter Heinrich Petersen, born in Mason City, Nebraska, married Martha Krohn in 1906. They had six children, born in Chicago: Germaine, Margaret, Myrtle, Evelyn, Lawrence, and Alvin. Peter, a laborer, died in 1916. Martha moved to Milwaukee to raise their children and remarried Herbert Allen in 1928.

Margaret (Maggie) Petersen, born in 1888 in Nebraska, lived in Chicago and Milwaukee with her parents Hans and Catherine until her untimely death at age fifteen by suicide. She is buried near her father Hans at Pilgrim's Rest Cemetery in Brookfield, Wisconsin.

Alfred Emil Petersen, born in Chicago in 1894, changed his name to Alva Elwood MacLaughlan around 1914. He married Marie Caroline Jatho in Chicago in 1914 and had four children. He worked as a cost accountant and security guard and died in 1957 in Whittier, California, a year after his wife's death in 1956. His tale is told in greater detail here.

George Christian Petersen, born in 1897 in Chicago, worked as a laborer, restauranteur, and real estate salesman. He married Agnes Majoros (sister of his brother Louis' wife) in 1917 in Cook County. He and Agnes had two daughters, Violet (1919-2001) and Georgia (1933-2003). George died in Yolo County, California in 1962; his wife Agnes died in Placer County, California in 1994.

Marie Catherine Petersen, born in 1899 in Chicago, married George Schmidt in Chicago in 1917. They had a daughter Louise Catherine (1920-2004). Marie worked as a clerk and died in Chicago in 1976.

Clarence Friedrick George Petersen, born in 1904 in Wisconsin, worked as a mechanic and general store owner in Chicago, Bedford, Arizona, and Date City, California. He married Dora Hamblin in 1927 and they had two sons, George (1928-1987) and Fred Calvin "Pete" (1931-1998). Clarence died in 1962 in El Centro, California, Dora died in 1966 in Imperial County, California.

Four of Hans and Catherine's children didn't live long enough to make their mark on the world but we'd like to honor them here:

• Eliese Christina Petersen (1882-1885, Nebraska)
• Eliese Margaretha Petersen (1886-1887, Nebraska)
• Johann Christian Petersen (1890-1891, Chicago)
• Edward Andreas Petersen (1892-1893, Chicago)

May their memories be for a blessing.