Entry #19

I am a week behind with my post. I have just returned from vacation in Costa Rica. Pura vida!

My great-grandmother Julia Magdalena Stephan was married before she wed my great-grandfather, Gottlob Maier. It is her first husband, Charles P. Solger, who is the subject of my week 19 post. Julia (sometimes Lena and sometimes Maggie) can be found living in a large boardinghouse on Sycamore Street in Cincinnati in the 1880 census. She was working some place as a servant. Partway up the page is “Chrest” Solger, a cigar packer from Maryland (hard to read). Is “Chrest” really Charles, or is he a relation of Charles? His marital status is designated as married and he is 35 years old, meaning he was born in about 1845. At any rate, Julia Stephan married Charles Solger on 9 November 1880. They had two sons together, Charles (born 7 August 1881) and Philip (born 4 May 1884). Charles died of Bright’s disease (chronic nephritis) on 29 December 1889. His burial record says that he was 51 years 11 months old at the time of his death; so if correct, he was born closer to February 1838 and nearly 17 years older than Julia.

To this point, Charles Solger did not seem particularly interesting until I happened across the equivalent of a personal ad in the Cincinnati Commercial Tribune from 3 May 1884.  It read:

Girl Searching for Her Father – To the Editor of the Commercial Gazette Indianapolis, IND., May 2 — Will you please insert the following as a reading item and oblige? Miss Lucille Solger, daughter of Charles Solger, would like to hear of her father’s whereabouts. Mr. Solger is a cigar packer, and came to Cincinnati about four years since from Chicago. If this item reaches his eye, or anyone knowing his whereabouts, they will greatly oblige his youthful daughter by letting her know. Miss Lucille Solger 32 S. Mississippi Street, Indianapolis.

I searched for Lucille and found her in the 1880 census as Luci Solger. Carl Solger, her father is 47, from Bremen, and a cigar packer; her mother is Eliza. It is not a stretch to imagine that a wife whose husband recently disappeared might say that her husband was living in the household. Carl Solger apparently had 6 children. There are listings for Carl Solger in the Chicago city directories as a cigar packer from 1877-1880.  In 1881, the listing says “laborer” and by 1882 there is no listing for him at all.

Hmm…I have Charles Solger as a cigar packer in the Cincinnati city directories for most years beginning in 1880 and running through 1888. In 1888, Lena (Julia) is listed as selling candies and in 1889 Charles is listed as a confectioner. Charles, of course, passes away at the end of 1889. In 1890, both Lena and Eliza Solger are listed as widow of Charles in the Cincinnati city directory. (Reinhold is the son of Carl by Eliza)

In 1891 both women are listed by their names with no mention of Charles and in 1892 neither are listed. By this time Julia/Lena had remarried. It also appears that Eliza filed for a Civil War pension. I have more research to do on Carl/Charles Solger. He appears to have lived in New York and possibly Michigan as well. One more important note is that there was never a name like Christ, Chrest, or Christian Solger in the Cincinnati directories.

I have pretty much convinced myself that Carl and Charles are the same person. Readers, what do you think?