Charles J. Pfiffner

Charles J. Pfiffner was born to Alexander Pfiffner, a Catholic Swiss immigrant, and Lucinda Bevert in November 1865 in Illinois. Charles is my 3x great grandfather on my paternal grandfather’s side.

His mother, Lucinda died at about 40 in on August 28, 1875 in O’Fallon, St. Clair, Illinois. Charles would have been nine when he lost his mother. In 1880, fourteen year old Charles was living in St. Clair, Illinois with his 53 year old father, 23 year old brother Alex, 20 year old sister Kate, 16 year old brother Louis, his uncle Joseph Pfeiffner, and cousin Edward Miller.

Charles was married to Emily Anderson on April 20th, 1896 in St. Clair, Illinois. And fathered my 2x great grandmother, Irene Rose Pfiffner on January 8, 1897 in East St. Louis, St. Clair, Illinois. In 1900, he worked as a laborer and still lived in St. Clair.

In 1901, Emily and Charles had a son named Eugene Charles Pfiffner and in 1906, another son named Harry A. Pfiffner was born.

On February 21, 1910 Charles died of Pneumonia leaving his wife and three children behind. On the 1910 Census, Emily is listed as widowed and head of household to their three children; Irene, Eugene, and Harry. Emily went on to marry Charles’ older brother Louis, but was buried next to Charles upon her death in 1958 (48 long years following his death).

“We’re Swiss?” Alexander Pfiffner

Alexander Pfiffner was born November 25, 1796 in Weisstannen, St. Gallen, Switzerland to Johann Josef and Maria Anna Pfiffner. Alexander is my 5x great grandfather.

He married Anna Barbara Schneider (born October 8, 1796 to Johann Joseph Schneider and Maria Barbara Albrecht also in Weisstannen) on January 18, 1819 in Weisstannen – they were both 22.

The union produced the following known children: Joseph, Anna “Marianne”, Barbara, Catharina, Alexander, Marie, Agnes, Elizabetha, Regina, Franziska, Anton, and Amanzia.

On May 19, 1843, the Pfiffner family arrived in New Orleans aboard the Bark or Barque Eliza Thornton from Le Havre, France with many other Swiss immigrants. Alexander bought 60 acres of land April 10, 1848 in Bond County, Illinois. On the 1850 census Alex is recorded along with his eldest son, Joseph, as living with the Bleisch family in Marine, Madison, Illinois working as a cooper and is most likely widowed.

Most of the family, including my 4x great grandfather, also named Alex Pfiffner, seem to have stayed in Illinois. Alex settled in Belleville, St. Clair, Illinois prior to serving in the last year of the civil war.

52 Ancestors #2: Irene & Elizabeth, Mother and Daughter

Irene Rose Pfiffner was born on January 8, 1897 in Belleville, St. Clair, Illinois. The eldest child of Charles J. Pfiffner, a miner, and Emily Anderson. Irene was a quarter English and a quarter Swiss. She is my 2x great grandmother.

Charles died in 1910, leaving Emily to raise their three children. Emily eventually remarried Charles’ older brother, Louis L. Pfiffner.

Irene married John Douglas Jenkins prior to 1913, they had four children. First Elizabeth, followed by Harry, then Dorothy, and last born was Kenneth around 1921. Irene and John fought often, and eventually were divorced by 1930. Harry lived with his father in Illinois, the girls with their mother, and Kenneth was sent to Belleville to live with his twice widowed maternal grandmother Emily.

Irene and the girls moved from St Louis to Chicago following the divorce. In April 1930 she was married to Joseph (Jesse) Preston Bender, born in Mercer, Ohio in October 1892.

This is where Irene’s story becomes more confusing and difficult to tell. By the time of the census in 1930, seventeen year old Elizabeth was the mother of Jack Bender… Her stepfather’s son. Jack was not listed with the family on the census. It’s unclear how or why this family became such an odd family unit, even to Jack.

On May 9, 1932 a little girl named Irene Bender was born in Chicago. On her birth record her parents are listed as Irene Jenkins born St. Joe, Missouri and Joseph Bender. I know that Irene was born in Illinois… But Elizabeth was born in St. Joe. It’s possible the record was falsified as part of a coverup… Or that Elizabeth’s middle name was Irene. Irene Bender passed away on May 11. Due to family stories I know that Elizabeth did give birth to a daughter during the depression, she never saw her baby and claimed Joseph had sold her or had her taken away. Baby Irene was buried in an unmarked grave somewhere in or outside of Chicago.

Irene must have eventually decided enough was enough, she divorced Joseph Bender and married Louis Dominick, moving with him to Wisconsin where they operated a boarding house in 1940 before moving to Hollywood, California. Irene’s youngest daughter Dorothy eventually followed them and was laid to rest in the same cemetery as her mother and second stepfather.

By the time Irene left for Wisconsin, Elizabeth and Joseph had five living children; Jack, Harold Eugene, Charles Michael, Richard, and little Helen.

For more about the family of Elizabeth and Joseph, and to learn about how they tragically lost their only living daughter and youngest son read Richard and Helen’s Story.

Finding Richard and Helen, 70 Years Later

Elizabeth Jenkins, my great grandmother on my dad’s paternal side, grew up with big dreams according to family stories. A devout Catholic, she wanted to be a nun. Instead, she became the mother of 5 children fathered by a man almost twenty years her senior, her mother and sister moved to California, and she lost two of her children in a tragic fire.

“Four year-old Richard Bender and his sister, Helen, 3, died in a fire in their Nankin township cottage last night while their mother was absent and their father was at work on a night shift.” – 7 November 1942, THE DAILY TELEGRAM, ADRIAN MI.

On the morning of November 7th 1942, The Daily Telegram of Adrian, Michigan contained a blurb of the incident above. Adrian is about 55 miles from Nankin Twp., a historic suburb of Detroit. I was even more surprised when I found that the same morning, the Ludington Daily News, 240 miles from Nankin had made mention of the tragic deaths of my young great aunt and uncle.

I had heard talk about the fire from my grandfather’s brother, Jack. But I couldn’t find anything on a fire in Chicago in the early 1940’s, turns out that was because Uncle Jack left out that the family moved from Chicago to Detroit between 1940 and 1942. I actually found the records of death because I neglected to enter the location into my search by accident. I haven’t yet found where these little ones were laid to rest, but that will come after I find the death certificates. What I may never know is why Elizabeth wasn’t home when it happened, or if the other three boys were home at the time.