Andrew

Birth

Andrew Jackson Stauffer was born in the winter of 1869 in Van Buren County, Michigan (the county west of Kalamazoo), to Joseph and his second wife, Mary Ann (Tenant, from her previous marriage to Isaac Tenant; her maiden name was Price [Preis]).

The family lived in the Mennonite-rich counties around Elkhart and Fort Wayne, Indiana. The story, according to my parents, is that Mary Ann's mother lived in Van Buren County, Michigan. So apparently, Mary Ann was visiting her mother when she went into labor. Perhaps, since Mary Ann was 45 (she was 46 in the 1870 census), she was having a tough pregnancy and went there for help from her mom and other family members to deliver the child.

Andrew was the youngest of what appears to be 15 kids--two of them Mary Ann's from a previous marriage and nine of them Joseph's from a previous marriage. The first three were born between 1834 and 1838 in Ohio. The rest (before Andrew) were born from 1840 to 1867 in Indiana.

Death

Andrew died at age 79 at Kankakee State Hospital (Kankakee, Illinois) on September 17, 1948. He was buried there on the hospital grounds (if I'm reading the death certificate correctly) on September 20th, 1948. There's a number associated with that entry--#3036--possibly a plot number.

The death certificate had him born in 1875 (no month or day, though). Interesting, but not surprising.

Marriage

Andrew was married twice. Here's the info on his marriage to my grandmother:

STAUFFER, ANDY

ALEXANDER, MARY MYRTLE

4 Sep 1909

Vol. 2

page 86

license number 5058

Brown County, IL

Andrew was 40 and "Mary Myrtle" (we knew her as Myrtle Mae, b. 30 Jul 1891) was 18. The children from this second marriage are:

Joseph Edward Stauffer b. 19 Feb 1911

Moneta Mary Frederica Stauffer, b. 9 Mar 1913

Gladyce Marie Stauffer b. 18 Oct 1917

Jack Alexander Stauffer b. 16 Dec 1919

Phyllis Nadine Stauffer b. 28 May 1922

Barbara Jane Stauffer b. 11 Oct 1924

Robert Lee Stauffer b. 13 Mar 1927

Mary Edith Stauffer b. 27 Feb 1930

(Dad) Curtis Eugene Stauffer b. 29 Aug 1932

Note: This is the first generation of Stauffers in this line who didn't speak German. Andrew would have grown up speaking English and Deitsch (Pennsylvania Dutch/German) and Mae, whose mother was from Germany, grew up speaking English and German. The first two children, Joseph and Moneta, died in childhood. By the time Gladyce came along, World War I made it rather unpopular to speak German in places like Kirkwood, IL.