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Family stories say that Louisa Sommerville was born in Ireland, probably in Dublin, and that she came to the United States when she was only 11 or 12 years old as a servant to another family. According to my Aunt Josephine:
"Louise Summerville was born in Dublin, Ireland. At the age of 12 she came over here, possibly taking a route through England, with a family her folks knew. When they got to America she worked as a maid, either for that family, or someone else. Much later, she met and married Richard Thomas Rappleyea. It was a late marriage, and Grandma wasn't born until Louise was in her 30's."
Different sources disagree as to her date of birth. I checked passenger lists for New York and indices for Baltimore, Boston, and Philidelphia and did not find her. I have a photograph of two women (probably relatives of Louisa's?) in dresses of mid-1860s style that was taken at Millard and Robinson Photography Studio, 39 Lower Sackville Street, Dublin. There is nothing on the photograph that indicates the names of the two women.
I could not find Louisa on the 1870 census.
Chicago Daily Tribune, May 18, 1879, list of marriage licenses, shows for Tuesday: R.T. Rappleyea, age 29, and Louisa Sommerville, age 23, both residing at 54 Green Street. 1880 Chicago City Directory lists at this address a boarding house operated by Mrs. O.C. Jenner.
Her marriage certificate of May 18, 1879, shows age 23 (born 1856), and that she is Irish. The marriage certificate shows that she married Richard Thomas Rappleyea with H.W. Thomas, minister of the Gospel, presiding. Both were shown as being from Chicago, and she is referred to as "Miss". The Chicago City Directory of 1879 shows H.W. Thomas as the pastor of Centenary Methodist Episcopal Church at West Monroe Street near Morgan. I wrote to the church archives in Evanston, but they had no further information on her.
I could not find her on the 1880 census, but I found her husband in a boarding house, shown as single!
Her daughter's birth certificate of March 5, 1883, shows Louisa's age as 30 (1852), and her nationality as Irish.
The 1900 federal census shows that she immigrated to the U.S. in 1867, was born in April, 1855 in Ireland, and had been in the U.S. for 33 years, and that both of her parents were born in Ireland. This agrees with family story that she came to the United States at age 12.
Her only child, Mary Josephine, married Henry Fred Hobein, Sr. in 1903, with a Presbyterian minister presiding.
I could not find her with daughter and son-in-law on 1910 census, in fact did not find either her or her husband at all in Illinois.
At some point, Louisa left her husband, who was an alcoholic, to live with her daughter and son-in-law. She lived in their home in Elmhurst (DuPage Co., IL) until her death in 1925.
1920 soundex Illinois, Vol. 140, E.D. 20? shows in the household of H.F. Hobein: Louisa Rappleyea, mother-in-law, age 70, (1849), born in England, father born in England, mother born in Ireland.
Her death certificate shows that she was born on April 2, 1847 in England, that her father was born in England and her mother in Ireland. The informant for her death certificate was her son-in-law, who was less likely to know the facts than informants for the earlier records. He may also have been the informant for the 1920 census.
Mary Hobein, Woodridge, IL, USA. E-mail:
This page prepared by Urs Geiser. Last updated April 19, 2007