Great Grandmother Dorothea Marx Hillmond Treise
I don't know about you, but sometimes I put things away because I want to "protect" them from damage or because I just want to store them for a while until I have time to deal with them. A few years ago, I put aside a book which contained a wonderful carefully folded black ribbon with a lovely design. It was a piece of decoration from a hat or bonnet worn by Dorothea at her baby daughter Pauline's funeral. The note accompanying the ribbon which was pressed between the pages of an old book was probably written by my grandmother, Winnie Treise Schaeffer. The book, for years, was on a bookshelf in the living room of Winnie's home. &nbs If, indeed, the year 1865, is correct-----Dorothea was living in Germany and given the information I've found in my family genealogy search, it would mean Paulline (sp) died soon after or near the time her father died. Dorothea's first husband, Eduard Carl Friedrich Hillmund may have died about 1864 in Prussia, while serving in the military.
In the Grant County History there is a short biography of Dorothea's life before marrying Jacob Treise ca 1870. He had been living in Philadelphia for several years but during a visit to his native land, Jacob was united in marriage to Dorothea. Her late husband had been proprietor of a large hotel, and for five years a soldier who had died some time before. Dorothea was the only child of Jacob and Fredericka (Kunemont) Marx, the latter of whom died when her daughter was six years of age. In 1873, Jacob Marx came to the United States with Herman Hillmund, his grandson and Dorothea's son. They joined the Treise family in Raymond Township, Stearns County, Mn. Winne and her older sister, Charlotte aka Lottie, as well as a little boy, Amiel, who died in infancy were born in Todd County. They later moved to Stearns County but in 1883 they moved to Pomme de Terre in Grant County and later into Elbow Lake. I have been fortunate to have a number of artifacts that belonged to previous generations of my family. It's always such a humbling realization to know that I am holding and treasuring items that are 100s of years old! It makes the stories of my ancestors very real and meaningful.
