Magdalena “Lena” M. Schwenne

Magdalena Hagemann was a twin (sister was Catherine Hagemann (Mrs. Frank Kemper) born 4 March 1855 to Joseph Joachim Hagemann (German immigrant) and Theresa (Rohmann) Hagemann in Peoria, IL. Their mother (Theresa nee Rohmann) died in 1859 when the girls were but four years of age. We find the two girls and their father in the Peoria, IL census of 1860. Their father, Joseph, remarried to Louise Winkelmann and five additional children were born to the union. During her younger years, she worked as a servant girl in Quincy, IL. Here she met and married Frank Schwenne (another German immigrant). One child was born to them in Quincy, IL and an additional two children were born in Seneca Kansas as the family migrated to the West. Ultimately a total of eleven children were born to this union. Magdalena had a poor heart and she died at age 49 in 1904 after birthing 11 children in her marriage. Her husband remarried within one year in order to raise the children. (His new wife was the widow Anna Heitstuman Kettmann)