Marsha Hosfeld Rockford, Illinois (photo
attached - taken in a cemetery in Ireland, 2006)
My grandparents, Mary Elizabeth "Elsie" Schwermer and
Ted Cowen, Sr., met and married (1910) in the Dorchester
- Abbotsford area. As soon as he was old enough, my
grandfather went to work for the railroad.
My grandmother's parents came to the area
from Germany (her father, John Schwermer) and
Austria-Bohemia (her mother, Mary Hollmann). Both
families farmed in the Dorchester area.
My grandfather's father (Frank Cowen)
moved to Wisconsin from Illinois when he was a child.
His mother (Mary Ann Doernenburg) arrived in Wisconsin
from Germany at about age three. Their families had
adjoining properties near Abbotsford; they married in
1882 and lived in the area for the rest of their lives.
So, the names I am interested in are:
COWEN, SCHWERMER, DOERNENBURG, HOLLMANN.
And branching out into their aunts,
uncles, cousins and in-laws: