Elisa Catharina Appel
By: Leslie Stahlhut
Tags: Family History, Genealogy, History, Family, Glass

The other thing that grabbed my attention was the year: 1839.

My brain had (and continues to have) trouble processing the idea that I am related to someone who was born that long ago, and I consistently mistype the year of her birth as 1939 instead of 1839.

It was (and is) hard for me to imagine the world my great-great grandmother was born into.

Eighteen thirty-nine is the year that Louis Daguerre was credited with taking the first photo of a person using the daguerreotype process of photography named for him. His invention had not yet morphed into what it would become — a form of documentation that includes both Google’s street view and the now ubiquitous selfies — and I have as much trouble imagining my great-great grandmother’s world as I expect she would have imaging mine.

1840 United States Census

The only people named in the 1840 United States Census are the heads of household. The name of my great-great-great grandfather — “George Apple” — is recorded in a column on the far left. To the right, the existence of himself and the rest of the members the family are recorded by a number in a column corresponding to the person’s age range, sex, and color

At the time of the census the “Apple” household lived in Bonhomme Township in St. Louis and consisted of 5 people who were enumerated as follows under the notation “FREE WHITE PERSONS, INCLUDING HEADS OF FAMILIES”:

males: 5 & under 10; 1

males: 30 & under 40; 1

females: Under 5; 1 (this is the future grandmother Hill)

females: 5 & under 10; 1

females: 40 & under 50; 1

It is the first United States Census in which my future great-great grandmother appears, and as it happens, it will be the last for her sister whose age is somewhere between “5 & under 10.”

1850 United States Census

On October 3, 1850, the “Apple” family, as noted by the enumerator, lives in District 82 of St. Louis County.

One that date, the mysterious (to me) Eliza (without whom I wouldn’t exist) is twelve years old. She lives in in a household of seven that includes her father, George W., age 49, her mother, Christiana, age 50, an older brother Henry W. age 20, and three younger siblings: Wilhelmina, age 10, Charles, age 8, and Adam, age 4.

Missing from this count the Female Free White Person from the 1840 Census who was then at an age that fell between “5 & under 10.” At this point, I don’t know if she has married or died. I also don’t know her name. The only thing I do know is that she existed.

The census shows that the three oldest “Apples” (George, Christiana, and Henry) were born in Germany, and the four younger “Apples” were born in Missouri.

While many people in the in the 1850 Census have moved up in the world by being enumerated by name, the words that are chosen to be capitalized and which are not reveals much about what was (and was not) valued.

As male persons over the age of 15, George and Henry’s work as farmers is documented. Christiana’s work as a farm wife, however, gets no mention.

A Tuesday in June

On June 21, 1859, the marriage of Eliza Catharina Appel to Friedrich Louis Hill — which had taken place two months earlier — was duly certified and recorded in St. Louis County.

Eliza and would head east with her husband Friedrich across the mighty Mississippi to Madison County, Illinois — a place I have seldom been, but one which I also consider home.

1860 United States Census

On July 30, 1860, the enumerator, a W. B. Dorsey, noted Elisa Catharina Appel has been transformed by her marriage to Freidrich Louis Hill in into “Lizzie Hill.”

Lizzie and her husband Louis had made their home in Township 5, Range 8, Fort Russell Township in Madison County, Illinois. The designated post office was Paddocks Grove.

While professions and trades of both males and females over the age of 15 have a place to be noted, the enumerator does not assign either Lizzie or her husband Louis, as he is known, a profession or trade. Their assets are listed with the value of the real estate at $2,200 and the value of the personal estate at $600.

Another item of interest: listed five households above my great-great grandmother Hill’s is that of Conrad Stahlhut. One hundred years after this census is taken, I will come by my last name through his then two-year-old son, Henry.

1870 United States Census

Ten years later, on June 14, 1870, Eliza and Louis still live in the same household they occupied a decade earlier, but something things have changed.

In addition to each other, they now have three children: Charles, 9; Mathilda, 4; and Edward, 2.

There is also a farmhand simply designated as “Yelton, F.” Like Louis, he is from Prussia.

The value of Louis and Eliza’s estate has also grown. Real estate holdings are valued at $10,000 and the personal estate is valued at $794.

The value assigned to the personal estate hints at a personal quirk I have. I don’t think in increments; I think in specific values. So to me, 7:13 p.m. is 7:13 p.m. While a valid case can be made that it is also quarter after seven o’clock, I am not able to make that argument.

Louis occupation is listed as “Farmer,” and Eliza’s status has been elevated to “Keeps House.”

The neighborhood has also changed a bit. The Stahlhuts who will figure into my life and whose name I will carry and spell from the day I am born forward, are no longer five households from the Hills. But just four households away is Charles Appel, Eliza’s 8-year-old brother from the 1850 census.

He and his wife Julia, along with their daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret (ages 2 and 2 months respectively) live nearby. Like Louis, Charles is a “Farmer” and like Eliza, Julia “Keeps House.”

1880 United States Census

Ten years later, as recorded on June 10, 1880, by a J.A. Robinson, all three of Louis and Eliza’s children live with them.

Louis is still farming, Eliza still keeps house, and their oldest child, Charles, as the enumerator notes, is 19 and “works on farm.” Their two younger children, Tilly, age 14 and Edward, age 12 are simply described as being “At Home.”

Eliza’s brother, Charles, no longer lives as near to them as he once did, and his household, which now includes four more daughters, is not enumerated by J. A. Robinson until June 15, 1880.

1900 United States Census

On the 16th of June, 1900, S.W. McKittrick was apparently in a hurry to finish the task of enumerating, and he forgot to put the date or sign the page where my great-great grandmother Hill’s information is collected. Fortunately, he did remember to completely fill in the form for both the page directly before and directly after, so I was able to learn when this enumeration took place.

My great grandmother Hill is, at this point, 61 years old. She and her husband Louis have moved into the town of Edwardsville, Illinois, and are living on St. Andrews Avenue, with their youngest son, George E. Hill (previously enumerated as Edward).

Louis is 62 and retired from farming. They own the house they live in free and clear, and their son, George Edward is 32, single, and a practicing lawyer.

I also pick up a bit of information previously unknown to me; Eliza had given birth to four children, but only three are living in 1900. Like Eliza’s sister from the 1840 census who seems to have disappeared, I have stumbled on yet another distant relation whose name and fate I do not know.

1910 United States Census

On April 29, 1910, Maud M. Amos was the enumerator who showed up to 217 Hillsboro. By this time, Louis and Eliza had been married for 51 years. The home they lived in was rented, the farm having long since gone to their daugther Mathilda and her husband, George Buchta. Louis is still retired while Eliza’s occupation is listed as “none.”

1920 United States Census

On January 13, 1920, Mrs. Emily D. Geers stopped by 217 Hillsboro Avenue in Edwardsville, Illinois, to do her work as a United States Census enumerator.

There was exactly one resident: Eliza Hill.

She had been widowed for three years, her husband Louis having died on September 11, 1917.

After 80 years of life on this earth my great-grand grandmother was the head of her own household. She lived alone at 217 Hillsboro Avenue with her nearest neighbors being a married couple at 217 A Hillsboro Avenue. The two-story brick building that was then home to the two households still stands, and today is next door to “A Little Taste of Heaven Bakery,” located on the corner of North Kansas St.

The 1920 United States Census is the last census in which my great great grandmother would appear. In three year’s time, she and Louis will be reunited.

Morrisonville, Illinois

On July 10, 1923, Eliza Hill was visiting her older son, Charles, when, as the Decatur, Illinois, Herald & Review reported that she was “taken ill with a paralytic stroke.”

Epilogue

One-hundred and sixty is a long time in glass years, but that is how long the six water tumblers that first belonged to Eliza and which now belong to me have been traveling this earth.

Having learned more of the story of my great-great grandmother Hill, I am impressed that they have made it all the way from the St. Louis County, Missouri where they began their journey in 1859 to my living room hutch in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 2020.

They are well traveled and sturdier than they appear having weathered a civil war, a world war, and the loss of a child — and that was just the first 63 years.

For now, the traveling days of the water tumblers are paused, but one day, I will pass them along as my great-great grandmother Hill did, and maybe — just maybe — I will have a nosy great-great grandchild who will be curious about me and want to know the story of the six glass water tumblers.