The Family of August & Dorothea Sitz

August Sitz was born in Posen, Prussia (present day Poland) on May 19, 1814. He married Dorothea (Dorothy) Utke, who was born on December 9, 1817, in Schneidemuhl, Prussia. August took up a position as a manager of a large farm in his native county, the duties of which he followed for seven years, and as compensation for which he received 50 dollars per year, his house rent, the use of one cow, and the wool from two sheep, this product being spun at home. At least four Sitz children were born to August and Dorothea while still in Germany:

• Louisa (Loise) was born on March 2, 1842, presumably in Scheidenmuhl like her mother and younger brother, August. Louisa later married Christoph Liefke, Sr., on February 18, 1867, at St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church in Ridgeville, Wis. Liefke was born in Kreis Kolmar, Regierunsburg, Bromberg, Posen Province, Prussia on January 14, 1839. The couple had ten children. Louisa died on November 21, 1897, and is buried in the St. John Cemetery. Christoph died on November 26, 1914, and is buried in the same cemetery.

• Ludwig Sitz was born on June 2, 1844, and baptized June 16. He died February 9, 1845, and was buried in Posen.

• Henriette Luise Sitz was born on March 3 1847, and baptized March 5. She died before the family emigrated to America.

• Johann August Sitz was born on June 24, 1851, in Scheidenmuehl, Prussia, Germany, and later confirmed at St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church in Ridgeville, Wis., on April 14, 1867.

The Sitzes Come to America

In 1853, August Sitz, Sr., emigrated to the United States of America with his family, arriving on the George Washington of Boston at Ellis Island on August 15. They settled in Milwaukee where he engaged for some time in general work. Later he rented a farm in Milwaukee County, which he cultivated for four years. In 1864, he and his family moved to Monroe County, Wisconsin, and bought a farm in Ridgeville, near the town of Tomah. There August, Sr. would live out his remaining years as a hardworking farmer and faithful members of St. John Lutheran Church, Ridgeville. 

After the Sitzes arrived in America, they added a third daughter, Augusta Pauline. Her birthdate is unknown, but a marriage record in the St. John, Ridgeville parish register indicates that she was born in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Since there is no exact birthdate recorded--and the family is not otherwise known to have lived in Green Bay--it suggests that she may have been adopted. The 1910 U.S. Census records her as being 52 years old, indicating a birth year around 1858.

Augusta was confirmed at St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church in Ridgeville, Wis., on March 26, 1871. According to the St. John parish register, she married Franz Carl Martin Zarling on December 13, 1881. The couple had at least one daughter, Amanda Louise Sophia Zarling, born February 20, 1883, and baptized at St. John on March 26.

According to a biographical sketch of her brother August, published in 1916, Augusta later married August Spangler and lived near Brainerd, Minnesota, where her husband worked as an iron molder. It seems evident that either her first husband was deceased or the couple had divorced. She was still being referred to as Mrs. Zarling by the Tomah, Wis., newspaper at the time of her mother's death in 1899, while the 1905 U.S. Census has her living as Mrs. Spangler with her husband August, who was more than ten years her junior. Augusta died on June 19, 1932, in Hennepin, Minnesota.

Awaiting the Resurrection in Ridgeville

August Sitz, Sr., died on July 3, 1880, and his remains were laid to rest in the St. John Lutheran Cemetery in Ridgeville on July 5. Dorothy Sitz died at the home of her son August at New York Mills, Minnesota, on Monday, March 27, 1899, after a few weeks of illness from peritonitis. Her remains arrived in Ridgeville the following day, accompanied by her son August and daughter Augusta. Funeral services were held at St. John Lutheran Church on Wednesday, March 29, and her body laid to rest in the cemetery at Ridgeville by the side of her husband. According to the local newspaper, "Mrs. Sitz was an old resident of Reel's Valley, where the family settled in 1866, and where she lived until about a year ago, when she went to her son's home in Minnesota. The relatives wish to express their thankfulness to the friends here who kindly assisted them at the funeral and burial."