Stephen Luecke’s second wife was Marie Weigel. She was my 4th great aunt, the sister of my 3x great grandfather Herman Weigel, and for a very long time I thought Marie was the first wife of Stephen Luecke. Marie died tragically young at just 45 years old from pneumonia leaving Stephen with four children ages 12 years to 10 months old. Stephen married again after Marie’s death – just four months later – to Catherine Mullenbach who was 15 years his junior.
I had known from my family history research that Marie and Stephen had married in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and had lived there for a time before coming north to Wood County, Wisconsin in the early 1880s. The couple had hosted Marie’s brother Herman when he arrived in the US from Germany at their home in Milwaukee before he, too, removed to the Marshfield area. I had found the 1877 ship passenger list for Marie and her brother Paul Weigel when they came to Wisconsin from their home near Munsterberg in Germany. Marie married Stephen Luecke in Milwaukee in February 1880 and their first child, a daughter named Marie, was born in April of the same year.
I eventually found Stephen’s 1842 birth in Westphalia from information on his marriage record to Marie. I had been searching for Stephen’s arrival in the US when I came across an unexpected record in Milwaukee from 1869. There was another marriage record for Stephen “Luke” listing the same parents’ names as had been on his marriage record for Marie Weigel. At first, I attributed the record to the probability that there was another Stephen Luecke who lived in the same area and had German parents with the same names. Milwaukee was a rapidly growing city at that time and German immigrants were pouring in. Like any family historian knows, it is part of a reasonably exhaustive search to try to trace the “other” Stephen Luecke and, if I can find him living in Milwaukee with his wife Anna Maria while “my” Stephen was living many miles away with HIS wife Marie, then I would be likely able to say that these were two separate men who shared the same name.
The 1870 US Federal Census found Stephen “Lucke”, a laborer from Prussia age 30, and his wife Anna M. living in Granville, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin with a 2-month-old daughter Maria. This family group would seem to match the marriage record between Stephen “Luke” and Anna Maria Elizabeth Durke who were married 12 September 1869 and it appeared they had a child by approximately May of 1870. I have been unable to locate a birth record for this child.
In the 1875 Wisconsin Census, there is a “Stephan Lucker” in Milwaukee, WI who is the head of a household consisting of 3 male and 2 female members. In the 1874 and 1875 Milwaukee City Directories, Stephen Luecke is a laborer at Phillip Best Brewing Company (later Pabst Brewing Company), at that time the largest brewery in the US. I can find no Stephen Luecke in the 1876 Milwaukee City Directory, but by 1877 Stephen Luecke is a saloon keeper at 231 W. Water Street. He remained at the same address in the 1878 and 1879 city directories. By 1880, the year that “my” Stephen Luecke and Marie Weigel were married, Stephen, a saloon keeper, appeared at 140 Clinton Street in Milwaukee. This is consistent with his address on the 1880 US Federal Census where he was enumerated with his wife and their daughter Marie born in April of that year. There are no other Stephen Luecke’s either on the census or in the Milwaukee City Directory in any of the years previously noted. Since I didn’t know when “my” Stephen arrived in the US, I really didn’t know when -or even where- to start looking. It was possible that Stephen was living in another city prior to his marriage to Marie Weigel, or that he had only recently arrived in the US and that I would not find an address for him prior to the marriage. It was also possible that Stephen had been in the US for a long enough time to have been married before he married Marie Weigel in 1880.
Since I had found only 1 Stephen Luecke on the 1880 census in Milwaukee, I needed to see if I could find out what happened to the “other” Stephen in Granville who had a wife and child. There was no matching person in the 1880 census in Granville, and no Mrs. Luecke, but since I knew the maiden name of that wife – Anna Marie Elizabetha Durke – I could search for her. “Mary Derk” was living with her widowed mother Caroline Derk in Granville in 1880. Her age and birth location of Hanover matched the information on the marriage record that I had found for her and Stephen. Her mother’s name was also a match. In the same home, there were also three children – a daughter Hanna, age 10, son August, age 8, and son Fred, age 5. Remember that the 1870 census had listed a daughter “Marie” living in the home with Stephen and wife Anna M so, although the names were not an exact match, there was enough similarity to keep searching. Interestingly, the 1880 census also reported that “Mary Derk” was divorced.
It was beginning to appear that these two Stephens might actually be the same man. There was no overlap in their locations based on the census data or the city directories. Based on the location data and the age of the youngest child, the divorce (or separation) would have been most likely around the time that Stephen Luecke appeared in Milwaukee for the first time – 1876. The youngest child was born about 1875 according to the census. It would make sense that a single mother would have moved in with her mother to have help and support with raising children and running a household. The 1880 census does not record any information regarding income, home ownership, or home value so it would be difficult to know the financial situation of the family at that time.
A newspaper search returned an interesting mention of a divorce between Mary and Francis S. Luecke on 17 January 1880. The case was first mentioned in the papers in November 1879 and was listed as Francis S Luecke v Mary Luecke – meaning that Francis was the plaintiff. I had never seen the name Francis associated with Stephen Luecke, but the timeline was a very good fit for a divorce from wife #1(a month before marriage to wife #2) and the name of the wife matched the information I had gathered so far. The next hurdle was trying to find out of there was a record of this divorce that still existed somewhere and if/how I could get a copy of that record.
The lovely people at the Milwaukee Historical Society were very helpful and I was able to order a search of their records to try to find this case file. Thankfully they were able to find it and sent a copy of the file to me. I was hoping that my intuition was correct as I opened the file and that I hadn’t paid for research for someone else’s family tree. Happily, when I saw the name of Francis Stephen Luecke at the top of the page, I knew I had guessed correctly and that this was our man.
The case file was an interesting read. Francis Stephen Luecke of Milwaukee served Mary Luecke of Granville divorce papers in September 1879 requiring her to appear in court. Francis stated that he had been a resident of Wisconsin for more than five years, that they were married in the fall of 1870, that they were still legally married, and that he had performed all of his marital duties including providing a comfortable home. He alleged that in the spring of 1875, Mary left their home for no reason and had refused to return ever since then. He was requesting a divorce based on willful desertion. It should be noted that Wisconsin law at the time allowed for divorce on the grounds of desertion, cruelty, and a voluntary separation of more than five years.
Mary’s response in October 1879 was to deny all the allegations from Francis; except she agreed that they were legally married and that she did leave his home. Mary counter- claimed that Francis was guilty of cruel and inhumane treatment, drunkenness, adultery. She added that she had no means to support herself and her three young children who were born to the marriage and that Francis had refused to support his children for several years. Mary alleged that Francis had a large business property on Clinton Street in Milwaukee and that it was valued at more than $1000 (about $32,000 today) and his monthly income is more than $150 (over $4000 today). Mary offered that she had at least 8 people she could call as witness to her living situation, but since they all lived over 20 miles from the court house in Milwaukee, it would have cost her at least $25 dollars to have those people come to the city to testify. She asked for some financial support from Francis during the duration of the divorce proceedings and was required to appear in court to present her case to a jury of 12 men.
Francis’ response to Mary’s allegations was that she was lying about his treatment of her, his drunkenness, and the value of his property and monthly income. Francis claimed that he owned no real estate or personal property except the clothes on his back. He stated the property and business was owed by Franz Falk (this could be Franz Falk owner of Bavaria Brewery which was on W. Water Street in Milwaukee) and that he was the manager, but he had to use his profits to pay a bartender, domestic, and cook, and that he also had to pay rent and for other incidental expenses monthly. Francis said that after his expenses were paid for the month, he only had enough money left to live in a “frugal manor”. Further, he alleged that Mary took all his personal property out of their home when she left him and left him only his clothes, their bed, and a bureau. Francis stated in his affidavit that he did pay Mary $50 the first summer after she left him and $450 the following summer. Francis does not make even a passing reference to his children in any of his statements. He signed the affidavit “Stephen Luecke”.
Mary’s affidavit in response to Stephen’s was that they were legally married in the fall of 1869, that they were residents of Wisconsin for five years and that they had three children together: Hannah, 9, August, 7, and Fritz, 5. She alleged that several times during their marriage, she was beaten and abused and that he had threatened to kill her. Mary stated that she had to leave and stay with friends or neighbors to stay safe. She accused him of drunkenness and cruelty to the children. Mary said that only days after the youngest child was born, Stephen made her get out of bed and back to work. She said he told her multiple times that he wished that she and the children were dead and that he threatened that he would get rid of them all even if it meant that he would have to go to state prison for it. Mary said that in the spring of 1875 she could no longer take his treatment of her and her children and that she fled their home. She further alleged that Stephen had an affair with a C. Staab who lived on Chestnut Street sometime between December 1875 and May 1876. Mary asked that she be the person who would be given care of the children and stated that she had managed their household well. She also had to work outside the home which had contributed to the overall prosperity of Stephen.
The case finally went to the jury and the judge ruled that there was no proof that Stephen committed adultery and that, by the judgement of the court, she willfully abandoned him and so the divorce was granted. No mention of the children at all. No mention of financial support. No mention of the physical abuse. It is no wonder that Mary had to move into her mother’s home. The newspaper reported that Mary made no defense in her case.
I will leave it up to the reader to decide which party was closer to the truth in their version of events. I will say that there was a notice in a Milwaukee newspaper on the night of a large fire at an organ factory in February 1876 of Stephen meeting a witness at Raab’s Saloon at midnight and that he was employed by Best Brewing at the time. Another paper ran a notice about Stephen buying out the shares of his business partner on Water Street in October 1876 and running the saloon himself. It should also be remembered that Stephen Luecke married Marie Weigel in Milwaukee in February of 1880 and that their first daughter was born in April – making Marie about 7 months pregnant at the time of their marriage. She would have been about 3 months along when Stephen filed for a divorce.
Stephen and second wife Marie Weigel moved from Milwaukee to Marshfield, Wisconsin by the time their second daughter was born in January 1882. I found another newspaper notice from July of 1881 for a suit against Stephen for $88.42 owed to Victor Schlitz (nephew of Joseph Schlitz the beer magnate). Stephen was to appear in court and his property was to be sold to pay the debt. This was perhaps the deciding factor in the family relocating to Marshfield soon after. Marie’s brothers Paul, Joseph, and Herman were already living in Marshfield, and her brother August would join them later that summer. I don’t think we can ever know for sure if Marie Weigel even knew about Mary Durke and Stephen’s first family.
Thu, Oct 07, 1897 ·Page 8
Stephen Luecke went on to be a semi legendary figure in Marshfield history going from a wild saloon keeper to a city alderperson in his lifetime. He was married at least three times and fathered at least nine children. Stephen donated money for one of the stained glass windows that still exists inside St John’s Catholic Church in Marshfield. He was killed in a buggy accident in 1897 leaving Catherine and their one year old son Ralph along with four year old son Stephen Jr and 14 year old son Paul from Stephen’s previous marriage to Marie Weigel. Son Herman, age 11, went to live with his namesake uncle Herman Weigel after Stephen’s death and daughter Marie, age 15, is still unaccounted for but I suspect she went to work as a servant in someone’s home.
I did find Mary Durke once more on the 1885 Wisconsin State Census. She was still living in Granville and she was the head of a household of 2 male and 2 female members. This would be consistent with Mary and her three children. Mary’s mother was still living and was listed in a separate household next door. I have tried to find out what happened to Stephen’s first family and the only success I had was locating the death of his son August in 1886 at the age of 14 from measles. I can find no further information on Mary or her two remaining children.
To read more about Stephen and his time in Marshfield go here.
