Skilled tradesman take years to hone their crafts. Often they use heavy tools to produce goods and provide services. But those two tradesman were of a delicate nature. They worked with needles and thread while crafting their goods. They started in different places but came to the same town. Their stories are quite different, but they receive equal footing in my family tree.
Born in England in 1844, Isabella Anna Couchman immigrated to America ten years later after the death of her father. Settling in Manhattan, New York City, she was trained in the art of dressmaking. (Details of her work and employment are unknown to me.) At the age of 22, she married William Henry Stevens, a Civil War veteran and fellow English emigrant. With their family of nine children, they eventually settled in Kill Creek Township, Osborne County, Kansas, in 1871…a long way from the big cities they had known. Since the mother of the family was responsible for their clothing, her dressingmaking and sewing skills were an asset. Isabella became my 2nd great grandmother.
Born in 1828 in the Alsace-Lorraine region of France, Maria Magdalina Kraemer immigrated to Manhattan, New York City, in the early 1840s. (The details of her parentage and immigration are unknown to me.) She was trained in a convent school in the delicate art of fancy needlework and embroidery. She worked in Manhattan. At the age of 15, she married Amos Howell Boultinghouse who was stationed in the U.S. Army at Fort Columbus. He was ten years older than she. Once discharged, they lived in DuPage County, Illinois. During the Civil War, Amos reenlisted. They, too, eventually settled in Bloomington, Osborne County, Kansas, in 1871. Her needle skills were an asset to her family in making clothes. Maria became my 2nd great grandmother.
Isabella and Maria would meet when Isabella’s daughter Naomi Ruth married Maria’s son Lafayette Edward on 1 January 1894. So once upon a lifetime, two women from different countries in Europe with the same trade skills would meet and intertwine their lives on the plains of Kansas…and eventually mine.
Once Upon A Lifetime: Tales And Vignettes Of My Ancestors 