Louis Noe and Eva Fickeisen Noe
Early Life
Eva
Fickeisen Noe (March 4, 1857) was my great grandmother. The picture
to the left was taken around 1946. This is how I remember her. She lived
with us until she died in 1951.
My mother has showed me the birth record that notes "Eva Fickeisen, Tochter. Ehegatten: Abraham Fickeisen, Margretha Müller. Tauf-zeugen: Karl Reinheimer, Christine Bach (Glorifina)." The 1860 Census doesn't show her in the family home. This could have been a mistake, or possibly she was being cared for by someone else when the census was taken. The 1870 Census shows her in school and 13 years old. My mother has her confirmation certificate, dated April 14, 1872, Liberty Twp., P.F. Weigand, Pastor. She's still listed in the family home at age 23 in 1880.
My mother was looking over the Berg Church records with me and when we came to the entry of Jacob Biehl, she told me a fascinating story. The entry says "Jacob Biehl, son of Ludwig Biehl and Katharina Schultheiss, born February 22, 1857, Fearing Twp., died December 25, 1880, a few minutes after 8:00 pm, buried December 28, 1880, at 11 am., age 23 yr 10 mo 25 da. Peace and rest to him bought after a short but hard death." My mom said that great grandmother Eva was dating him, and that grandma had said "I loved him and he loved me, but his folks thought the Fickeisens were not high class enough." They had a little code they used to signal that they were to meet in their secret meeting place. On one date they had it began to rain. He caught pneumonia and became gravely ill. He called for grandma on his death bed, but they didn't call her. She found out that he was dead after it happened. She pined for a year, then realized that she had to go on.
We don't know much about "Lou" Noe's childhood. His parents, Andreas Noe and Carolina Harth married June 23, 1859 when Andreas was 23 and Carolina was 18. Both Andreas and Carolina had immigrated with their parents as children, she at age 5 in 1846 and he at age 19 in 1854. My great grandfather, Ludwig (Lou) Noe, was just barely born in wedlock five days after the marriage of his parents on June 28, 1859. This was an inauspicious start to a relatively short and frustrating life.