Sophie Lange's Life in New Orleans

Life in New Orleans
Part I (1853-1859)

The Lange family first settled in downtown New Orleans, affiliating with what was then known as the First German Evangelical Lutheran Congregation of New Orleans (today's St. Paul Lutheran Church).

The first evidence of the family's presence in New Orleans is the confirmation of Wilhelm Lange, which took place at the church on Sunday, 10 April 1853. Sadly, only four months later, Wilhelm "William" Lange died. His death was reported by his father, Friedrich Lange, then residing at 143 Craps [today Burgundy] Street in the Third District. He died at five o'clock in the morning on August 9, 1853. He was 13 years old.

Friedrich Lange reported the death of his son Wilhelm and signed the record with just his last name. This is the only known example of his signature in New Orleans.

No. 143 Craps Street may be where the Langes first lived in New Orleans. Craps Street is today known as Burgundy Street and No. 143 is from an early numbering system that started at Esplanade Avenue, where Craps Street began. This address was in the Faubourg Marigny, an early addition to New Orleans, just downriver from the French Quarter. The Faubourg Marigny was also known as "Little Saxony" because of all the German immigrants who settled there.

Detail from Norman's Map of New Orleans, 1845

By late 1854, the Langes may have been living at 266 Greatmen Street in the same area. (Greatmen is now Dauphine Street.) A "Fred Lange," who may have been Friedrich L. Lange was listed there in the 1855, 1856, and 1858 city directories.

During these years, three of the Lange daughters were married:
          19 January 1854     Friederike Lange married Heinrich Bardt
          22 July 1854           Sophie Lange married Franz Xaver Betzler
          9 August 1856        Wilhelmine Lange married Wilhelm Scheuermann

St. Paul Lutheran Church as it appeared from 1843-1860.

All three of these marriages took place at the First German Evangelical Lutheran Congregation of New Orleans, located at the corner of Port and Craps (later Burgundy) Streets.

St. Paul Lutheran Church as it appeared from 1843-1860

There was no Fred or Friedrich Lange in the 1859 or 1860 city directories. This suggests that he died perhaps in 1858. He was deceased by the time of the 1860 federal census, which was taken beginning in early June. No death record for him has been found.

The census record shows that Friedrich's widow Johanne and her young son Christian were living with her son-in-law and daughter, Henry and Friederike Bardt. After the Bardts had married, they had moved to Tchoupitoulas Street in uptown New Orleans, where Heinrich Bardt worked as a tailor. By late 1857, they had moved to Levee Street near General Taylor in Jefferson City, which was then in Jefferson Parish and was later added to New Orleans.

Perhaps while living with the Bardts, Johanne Heitefuss Lange died on 18 June 1866. Her death was recorded at what was then known as the German Evangelical Church on Milan Street (today's Salem United Church of Christ). The cause of death was given as "Wassersucht" [edema]. Her remains were interred in the Firemen's Tomb in the Valence Street Cemetery. Her youngest child, Christian, probably continued to live for a time with the Bardt family. (He remained unmarried and died in Charity Hospital on 29 June 1900.)

While Friederike Lange Bardt and her family were living in Jefferson City and uptown New Orleans, the other daughters remained downtown. Wilhelm Scheuermann, a shoemaker, and Wilhelmine Lange Scheuermann had ten children, the first three baptized at the First German Evangelical Lutheran Congregation of New Orleans (today's St. Paul Lutheran Church) and the other seven at the Second German Presbyterian Church (later Peace Presbyterian Church).

About 17 October 1861, the youngest daughter in the Lange family, Juliane, married Johann "John" Scheuermann, also a shoemaker. (He was Wilhelm "William" Scheuermann's younger brother.) They had six children. They also were first associated with the First German Evangelical Lutheran Congregation of New Orleans, later moving their affiliation to the Second German Presbyterian Church.

As noted earlier, Sophie Lange married Franz Xaver Betzler at what is today St. Paul Lutheran Church. The church record [Marriage no. 111] shows that Xaver Betzler was from Neuler, Oberamt Ellwangen, Württemberg and Sophie was from Ortshausen, Amt Lutter, Herzogtum Braunschweig. The date of their marriage was 22 July 1854.

Detail from 1854 church marriage record.

A larger image of the entire record is here.

When Xaver registered the birth of his first daughter in 1856, he gave his address as No. 42 Union Street [today Touro] Street, at the corner of Love and Union Streets. City directories show that "X. Betzler" was living at No. 70 Love [today Rampart] Street from 1856 to 1859.

Taken together, it would appear from these directories that in the first years of their marriage the Betzlers lived near the corner of Union [today's Touro] and Rampart.

In the 1861 city directory X. Betzler was living at No. 70 Levee Street. This may be a mistake and should have been No. 70 Love Street.

Detail from 1883 Robinson Map, Plate 18

A year after their marriage, on 6 July 1855, the Betzlers had their first child, whom they named Sophie Dorothea. No baptism record has been found.

The father signed the record as Xaver Betzler.

A tradition in this family was that around this time the Betzler family lived in Mississippi, perhaps Biloxi. No record of this has been found in Mississippi. However, the Betzlers second daughter, Julianna, born 9 September 1858, was listed at the time of her marriage and death as being a "native of Mississippi."

Some time before 6 June 1860 (the date of the 1860 federal census), Xaver Betzler had died, as Sophie was listed in the census as "Widow Betseler." She was living with her two daughters, Sophia and Julia. At the time of the census, they lived close to the Bardt-Lange family in Jefferson City, as they were on adjacent pages in the census.

The full page of the census record can be found here.

After being a widow for more than a year, Sophie found a new husband in Philipp Jakob Geeck.

There is no way of knowing how Sophie met Philipp, but one possibility is that they may have lived close to each other in uptown New Orleans. Another possibility is that Philipp may have moved downtown to pursue his work as a shoemaker. Sophie had two sisters downtown who were married to shoemakers, so perhaps they were introduced through one of the Scheuermann brothers.

The story of the rest of Sophie's life is found in the story of her marriage to Philipp Geeck.

Go to next section: Life in New Orleans, Part 2

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