Jeannette Loewenberg

From the Chicago Tribune, Mar. 23, 1888: ONE HUNDRED AND ONE YEARS OLD

Mrs. Jeannette Loewenberg of This City Lived to That Age.

Wednesday a few minutes before midnight Mrs. Jeannette Loewenberg, whose span of life exceeded a century, died at the residence of her son-in-law, E[manuel] Alexander, at No. 2 Park Front. She was born in Rogasen, Prussia [Rogozno, Poland], June 15, and lived 100 years nine months and six days Her maiden name was Levinson [Lewinsohn]. When twenty-five years old she was married to M[arcus/Mordechai] Loewenberg in Breslau, Silesia [Wroclaw, Poland]. At the time of the breaking out of the German revolution in 1848 the family determined to emigrate to this country and Mr. Loewenberg came ahead. He located in New York. The next year his wife and her two sons, two daughters, and son-in-law, Mr. [Emanuel] Alexander, came over and joined him. Mr. Loewenberg died in 1852. Two years later the widow and the family moved to Wisconsin. For a while they lived at Berlin [Green Lake County, WI], and afterwards in Milwaukee. Subsequently Mr. Alexander moved to this city, and ever since 1870 Mrs. Loewenberg made her home here. One of her daughters [Fannie] was married to F. [actually Marcus] Markwell of Milwaukee. The two sons [Levy and Jacob] went to Mississippi early in the fifties. One [Jacob] died there during the prevalence of the yellow-fever epidemic in 1854. The other now resides in Vicksburg. Mrs. Loewenberg was a woman of robust health, and retained all her faculties until about two years ago, when her hearing and sight failed her. She had an exceedingly retentive memory, and was fond of telling anecdotes and incidents of the Napoleonic wars.

She saw the "man of destiny" as he passed through Breslau on the retreat from Moscow.  As she told of the sufferings endured by the French troops, and depicted their miserable condition, her voice would falter, and like them she would say, "Mon Dieu, Mon Dieu, Je suis malheureuse." Her kindly sympathetic nature was sorely grieved at what she saw during those terrible times, and the picture on her memory was not dimmed by the lapse of years.  About fifteen months ago her bodily health began to fail, and she gradually declined day by day until her life faded out.  To mourn her loss she leaves two daughters, one son, ten grandchildren, and fifteen great-grandchildren, and a large circle of friends and acquaintances.  The funeral services will be held this morning at 10 o'clock at the residence of Mr. Alexander, and the remains will be removed to Waldheim Cemetery for interment. The accompanying portrait is from a small photograph made in Milwaukee seven or eight years ago.