Mary “Louise” Louisa Lawen

Born Mary Louisa Hagemann, she was the fifth child (of five) from the second marriage of parents, Joseph Hagemann and Louisa (Winkelmann) Hagemann. She was baptized at the Catholic church of St. Joseph's in Peoria, IL who note in their records of her birth on 1 Oct. 1873. Leaving Peoria, the family traveled West to the Uniontown WA area in Whitman County in 1873 where they began farming.

Mary Louisa (Louise) was married to Mathias LAWEN (1868-1949) on 21 April 1896 at St. Boniface in Uniontown, witnessed by Anna Schwenne (her step-sister) and Henry Krick. Four children were born of this union: twin Joseph Lawen (1897-1898), twin Maria Magdalen Lawen (1897-1898), Katherine Lawen (1898-1940), and Francis Joseph Lawen (1901-1991). The twins died from a toxin in their milk (the cow ate bad weed). Mother Louise died from pneumonia in January of 1906. Husband, Mathias Lawen , continued farming in the Ferndinand area for a few years, as the two remaining children were reared elsewhere. Many years later, both Mathias and daughter, Katherine Lawen, appear in Auburn WA. Here they both died of pneumonia and are buried at the local cemetery in Auburn WA. The Louise Lawen marker is partially in error and reflects the state of mind of her distraught husband at the time of her young death. There are no known photographs of Louise Hagemann Lawen.