Anna Maria Dueweke
1837-1932
Born: Baden, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
Died: Detroit, Wayne, Michigan, USA
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1837-1932
Born: Baden, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
Died: Detroit, Wayne, Michigan, USA
Wayne County MI Archives News.....Hard Work for a Long Life 1929?<br>************************************************<br>Copyright. All rights reserved.<br>http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm<br>http://www.usgwarchives.net/mi/mifiles.htm<br>************************************************<br><br>File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:<br>Denise Abrams dabrams17@yahoo.com August 13, 2006, 12:13 pm<br><br>A Detroit Newspaper 1929?<br>Plenty of hard work is the best formula in the world for longevity, Mrs. Anna <br>Koenig told 26 relatives who were guests at her home, 1403 St. Antoine Street, <br>Friday evening. She was speaking with the authority of her 88 years. <br><br>The scene of her birthday supper was on the second floor of the two-story brick <br>building at the northwest corner of Clinton and St. Antoine Streets. On the <br>first floor is the Koenig grocery. <br><br>Turning to her Bible, Mrs. Koenig examined the records therein of births and <br>deaths and other events.<br><br>With Mrs. Koening interpreting the Bible disclosed she was born in Westphalia, <br>Germany, coming to this country when 19 years old. A year later she married <br>Henry Koenig and the two went to Eagle Harbor, in the Upper Peninsula, where <br>they lived for several years.<br><br>In 1865 they started their grocery at St. Antoine and Clinton. In 1870 her <br>husband, then 41 years old, died leaving her with several children, one Henry, <br>only 19 months old.<br><br>"Our store building was the largest structure around here," reminisced Mrs. <br>Koenig. "Pasture land with a few small cottages was all one could ses around <br>here. Clinton Park was a cemetery, from which the bodies were not removed <br>until 1869." <br><br>Today the store building, which once dominated its surroundings, is dwarfed by <br>the great structures all about. St. Mary's Hospital, the Court Building, <br>County Jail and the Police Headquarters Building loom up about it. It is <br>difficult to conceive of the neighborhood being pasture-land.<br><br>But Mrs. Koening, closing the leaves of her Bible, smiled gently as she <br>said, "Thus it was when we came here, in August of 1865." <br><br>Veterans of the Civil War were boys then, many of them. Detroit was a pleasant <br>residential city, with tree-shaded streets. There was no hurly-hurly of <br>traffic. Residents had flower gardents in front of their houses, back of <br>picket fences, and at sunset watered the old-fashioned flowers.<br><br>There were great public problems of course, such as the reconstruction after <br>the Civil War. But in retrospect, those days seem as peaceful and quiet, with <br>the colors of old prints, to Mrs. Koenig.<br><br>Her son Henry is now 55 years old and manages the grocery his mother operated <br>for so many years. There are 10 grandchildren and 26 great-grandchildren <br>living. Besides her son Henry, Mrs. Koenig has a daughter, Mrs. Anna Hartman, <br>1381 Marlborough Avenue. Three other daughters died. <br><br>Mrs. Koening, however, does not live in the past but is decidedly of the <br>present. She is vigorous in her old age, and does all her housework. "For, if <br>you want to live long, there is nothing like hard work, plenty of it", she said.<br><br><br>Additional Comments:<br>Anna Dueweke Koenig<br><br>File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/mi/wayne/newspapers/hardwork33gnw.txt<br>