Gathering Roots

This is a continuation of the SCHILCHER story. To revisit the SCHILCHER history, please see our story The Bavarian Bootmaker and His Wives.

Paul Schilcher and Sadie McAleer

In 1901, Paul SCHILCHER married Sarah Veronica “Sadie” MCALEER, in Wilton. Sadie was born in New York City in late 1879, the youngest child of Catharine KELLEY and James MCALEER. The Irish Catholic couple had eight children, but only three daughters would grow to adulthood. Her paternal grandparents – John MCALEER and Margaret OWENS – had separately emigrated from Ireland to New York in the early 1800s, arriving in 1821 and 1834, respectively. Sadie’s mother, Catherine KELLEY, had also emigrated from Ireland as a child.  

In 1880, when she was a baby, Sadie’s family lived in Manhattan, at 952 1^st Avenue. Her father worked as a boatman and her uncles John and Alex McAleer, who lived in the home with the family, worked as teamsters.[1] Her mother died in the summer of 1880, leaving the father and uncles to raise the three living daughters.

Sadie’s childhood in New York City exposed her to remarkable events in history. In 1883, when she was not quite four years old, the East River Bridge (now Brooklyn Bridge) was dedicated – a phenomenal engineering achievement spanning the East River that provided for transportation between Manhattan and Brooklyn.[2] The city celebrated with fireworks and parties long into the night. The family’s proximity to the East River from their home would have afforded them a view of the new bridge each time they stepped outside their door – Sadie and her older sisters, Kate (b. 1873) and Annie (b. 1876), likely were among the thousands to walk across it in those first days and weeks.

In 1886, the family again celebrated with their city as New York unveiled a new statue in the harbor: “Liberty Enlightening the World.”[3] The sculpture, by artist Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi with a metal framework by Gustave Eiffel, was a gift to America from France and had taken over 20 years to bring to its final home. The dedication ceremony was held just days before Sadie’s birthday and included a nautical parade and a speech from President Cleveland. Due to weather, fireworks were delayed until November 1 – so the party continued right up to Sadie’s 8^th birthday![4]

In March of 1888 a blizzard struck New York City that lasted for two days. The days leading up to the blizzard had been unseasonably mild, windy and rainy, but the temperature dropped more than 20 degrees overnight on March 12, and the snow fell for over 24 straight hours. Overall, the city got approximately 22 inches of snow, with drifts twice that. The East River froze solid, so that people were able to cross from Manhattan to Brooklyn on foot. Transportation was delayed throughout the northeast for weeks, causing food shortages and nearly 200 deaths.[5] Sadie and her family survived this storm likely because they were well-stocked and well-prepared.

By the turn of the century, Sadie’s sisters were married and living with their own families in the greater New York City area. In 1901, Sadie married Paul Joseph SCHILCHER. Paul was 30 years old and living and working as a “milk baler” at the turn of the century in Wilton, Connecticut with his widowed mother and his unmarried sister.[6] For more on the SCHILCHER family heritage see our story The Bavarian Bootmaker and His Wives.

After the marriage, the young couple took up residence in their own home next door to Paul’s mother and began a family. Joseph Paul was born in 1904, followed by daughter Katherine Frances in 1906. Vincent (b. 1911), Ralph (b. 1916) and Carlton (b. 1919) all followed the next decade. Paul SCHILCHER took on a job farming, and he eventually became superintendent of a local private estate.

Sadie’s father, James MCALEER, was noted in the 1910 census living with the SCHILCHER family. However, in February of 1913, after receiving public relief during a stay at Fordham Hospital in the Bronx, James was admitted to the city home for the aged and infirm, no longer able to work due to his sickness. He was discharged in June and died in December of that year at the age of 73.[7]

The SCHILCHERs raised their children in Wilton, and eventually raised a granddaughter as well (for more on this see our story on the BURCHARDs). The youngest son, Carlton, enlisted in the army in 1943 to serve with the 106^th Infantry Division and was assigned to the Reconnaissance Troop on the western front. In December of 1944 he was captured at the “Belgian bulge” and taken as a prisoner of war by the Germans, held at Stalag 3-A in Luckenwalde.[8] He was rescued by American forces and returned to America in spring of 1945.

Paul SCHILCHER died in May 1946, just a year after his son returned home from the German Stalag. Sadie died in 1953.[9]

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[1] 1880 U.S. Federal Census; Place: New York City, New York, New York; Roll: 893; Family History Film: 1254893; Page: 400C; Enumeration District: 559; Image: 0803.

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooklyn_Bridge

[3] King, Moses. King’s Handbook of New York City. 1892. Page 42.

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Liberty

[5] https://www.nycsubway.org/wiki/The_Blizzard_of_1888;_the_Impact_of_this_Devastating_Storm_on_New_York_Transit

[6] Year: 1900; Census Place: Wilton, Fairfield, Connecticut; Roll: T623_135; Page: 5A; Enumeration District: 114.

[7] New York State Archives; Albany, New York; Census of Inmates in Almshouses and Poorhouses, 1875-1921; Series: A1978; Reel: A1978:129; Record Number: 29/922.
New York Municipal Archives; New York, New York; Almshouse Ledgers; 1758-1952. New York, New York, Extracted Death Index, 1862-1948.

[8] https://norwalkctheroes.org/2021/02/21/private-carlton-john-schilcher-u-s-army/

[9]
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/95738350/sarah-veronica-schilcher