Those Dang Stangs

Everyone has that line or two that just won't go anywhere. For me it's the Stange/Stang line.

My granddad, Robert Lee Stange, was born on Nov. 15, 1918, in Washington, D.C. Here he is as a lad.

He was a very principled man - a loving husband and father and an inspiration to all who knew him. He lived his faith in a quiet way, always working behind the scenes to help others, although you would only find this out secondhand. I know he gave blood regularly during his life, and was an organ donor. He was active in his church as a trustee - he was often the one making repairs, arriving early to set up or staying late to clean.

He worked as a machinist with General Motors. I know for a time he worked for Sears doing auto repair. He was a perfectionist. His garage was full of tools and nothing was ever broken in my grandparents' house for more than about five minutes before he would have it fixed. He was into body building and physical fitness. He worked out or played tennis every day.

I had heard that my grandad Robert and his brother William spent time in an orphanage when they were children. His father, Jacob Herman Stange (Dec. 11, 1893 - Dec. 4, 1931) had contracted tuberculosis and had to leave his family in the Baltimore/DC area while he went out west to a sanitarium. The family said he had gone to Arizona. Evidently his mother was unable to take care of her three children, at least for a time. In the 1930 census, Robert, age 11, was living with his mother, Faith Julia Stange, 42, and his brother, William, age 13, with their Aunt Ellen Montgomery, 51, and several other people in Washington, DC.

I found a record of a Jacob Stange who was listed as a boarder in a house in Denver, CO, in the 1930 census, along with 43 other people, all with different last names. I had thought that this might have been a hospital or sanitarium, but the boarder's occupations are listed, and most of them recorded that they were actively working, or had worked during the last working day before the census. Jacob Stange is listed as a salesman for Frigidaire. He listed his age as 36 and that he and both of his parents had been born in Maryland.

Of course there is no way to know for sure that this Jacob Stange is our ancestor, so at present I have not included this census in my records. The details all match, but without more information it's not possible to know for sure.

How can we know for sure that Robert Stange's father was Jacob Herman Stange? This name was originally given to me when I was a kid, first beginning to research the family. I also have some census records that confirm the relationships.

1920 census, Washington, DC, lists Jacob H. Stange, age 30, born in MD
                                                          Faith J. Stange, age 30, born in NY
                                                          Ellen J. Stange, age 6, born in MD
                                                          William H. Stange, age 3, born in VA
                                                          Robert L. Stange, age 1, born in DC.

Those familiar with the family names will recognize this as Robert Stange's family. They lived at 208 Eastern Avenue, which is now near Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

There is a draft registration card for a Jacob Herman Stange dated 1917/1918. His birthplace is Baltimore, MD. The date of his birth is listed as Dec. 11, 1888, rather than the 1893 which has been recorded elsewhere. He records his occupation as a salesman with the Elliot-Fisher Company of Washington, DC. He claimed exemption from the draft because he supported a wife and two children. Other than the birthdate, these details match our ancestor. He also listed that he had had two years experience as a private in the "Coast Art" in the Maryland National Guard. He is listed as medium height, medium build, with grey eyes and light brown hair. Here is an undated photo that was generously given to me years ago.

If this is our ancestor, and it sure sounds like him, why would he have listed his age as five years older than we find it listed elsewhere? I'm going to speculate, which is a dangerous hobby for a historian, that he did not want to be drafted into the Great War, as he was supporting his wife and two children. If he was born in 1893, as reported on more than one census, he would have been about 25 years old in 1918, during the time of the draft registration. By stating that he was born in 1888, that would have put his age at 30, which I'm guessing would have bumped him back in the likelihood of being drafted. Of course I can't prove this. It's just a theory.

Jacob Stange married Faith Julia Judge. I do not have marriage info at this time and I will address the Judge family in a later post.

For thirty years I could find no other information on the Stange's. I finally broke through to one additional generation when the 1900 census records came online at familysearch.org. This 1900 census for Election District 4, Precinct 4, Baltimore, Maryland, United States lists a Jacob H. Stange, birthdate December of 1893 in Maryland, as a seven-year-old son living with his family. The names are

George W. Stange, head of household, age 31, born in MD
Anna Stange, his wife, age 26, born in MD
Jacob H. Stange, age 7, born in MD
Lillian M. Stange, age 5, born in MD
Florence A. Stange, age 3, born in MD
John W. Stange, age 1, born in MD.

The families had told me that Jacob Stange's mother was "a Fuhrer." I wrote this down at age fourteen but did not really know what that meant. The 1910 census for Baltimore Ward 19 shows an Annie, born 1875, married to Lewis W. Fuhrer and living at 1628 Baltimore St. The clincher here is that the children are listed as follows:

Jacob H. Fuhrer, age 16, born in MD
Florence A. Fuhrer, age 12, born in MD
John W. Fuhrer, age 11, born in MD
William E. Fuhrer, age 6, born in MD
Lee A. R. Fuhrer, age 4, born in MD
Evelyn Fuhrer, age 2, born in MD
Ruth A. Fuhrer, age 0, born in MD.

The first three children listed are clearly the Stange children (Lillian Stange is missing, but at about 14 years old may have already been employed and living elsewhere) from Anna's marriage to George. George must have died shortly after the 1900 census, as Anna was remarried with a son by about 1904. We can account for the Stange children being listed as Fuhrer because of the large family, with the husband and wife both being Fuhrer's. Whether the census taker was in a hurry or maybe the parents didn't bother to list the Stange children under their birth father's name, it probably didn't seem like a big deal to just list them all under their stepfather's name. We should note that Annie listed both of her parents' birthplaces as Maryland. Jacob, age 16, was listed as a driver for a bakery.

Annie and Lewis (spelled Louis this time) Fuhrer appear again in the 1930 census for Baltimore. Annie, now 54, has two children living at home, Irving B. Fuhrer, age 18, and Vernon Fuhrer, age 16, both born in MD. On this census Annie lists her mother's birthplace as Maryland and her father's as Germany.

Confused yet? By the time my grandad Robert Stange was born in 1918, his grandmother Anna (Annie) had been married to Lewis Fuhrer for at least a decade, so Robert never knew his grandfather, George W. Stange.

There is a George W. Stange buried at the old Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church cemetery in Baltimore. While I can't say for certain that this is our ancestor, the church belonged to a German congregation and was active through most of the 19th and early 20th centuries. There are quite a few Stanges there, including Englehardt and Elizabeth, who had a son named George W, although there is no way to know for sure if this is the same George. This is Trinity Evangelical Lutheran in 1905.

Although the facade has been drastically altered, part of the building appears to still be extant, seen here on Trinity Street between High St. and Exeter St. in Baltimore.

I continue to work on this line but it doesn't give up its secrets easily. Considering that Annie had so many children, we may eventually find a step cousin from the Fuhrer line who may be able to give us more information on Annie's lineage. Baltimore was a major port for German immigration, and the German immigrants there in the late 19th century seem to have kept within their community. I have some leads on George W. Stange but nothing solid enough to publish yet. All of the records mentioned here can be accessed at familysearch.org.

If anyone reading this has any info, please leave it in the comments below (preferable) or email me at janisbmom23S@yahoo.com.