Little is known about Katharina. We believe that she was born in the Stuttgart area. She may have come to America as a domestic or a nanny for a family to Brooklyn, New York while quite young, possibly in her teens. One family story says she ran away from a job as a farm worker. It is not known if this was in the U.S. or in Germany.
Katharina may have met her husband in NYC when he was passing through to the seminary at Springfield, IL. or, Georg Dirksen may have known the family that she was employed with in Brooklyn.
The wealthy (possibly Jewish) family that she worked for bought her wedding dress for her.
Her grand daughter, Lucile Welch-Place mentioned that she thought a member of Katharina's family may have been an artist. Another recollection is that Katharina may have been employed by the Anheiser brewing family while in New York.
(Tante) Maria (or Marie?) Kremples of Cleveland,Ohio is thought by Katharina Brenner's grand daughters, Joyce Rivers-Roache and Lucile Welch-Place to be Katharina's older half-sister. Tante Maria was also married to was Carl Holzey (or Holsey). She had a daughter named (Alvera) Vera Catherine Holzey. Vera was born August 8, 1899 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and died in the Cleveland, Ohio area September 21, 1988. I do not believe Vera ever married. (DKR)
According to the 1900 U.S. census (Cleveland, Ohio) Katharina had emigrated to the USA in 1894. The census also says that the Dirksens had been married for 5 years.
Daniel Roache
Katharina Magdalena
Brenner
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