Edith, Margaret & William Stuckey, Ogle & Rock Island County

The Stuckey siblings came to Oregon, Ogle County on April 24, 1882. William was 11 years old and was indentured to David Boyle in Rochelle, IL. Edith was 7 and was indentured to William S. Blake, with whom she lived for 10 years in Mount Morris, Ogle County. Margaret was just 7 years old and was indentured to William Munger.

Edith and Margaret first appear in official records in 1880 in NYC with parents John and Margaret Stuckey. Their father, John, was a baker from England and their mother was from Scotland. Both of the girls were born in New York. Their brother William did not appear in the census in 1880.

In 1889 William Stuckey's guardian reported that William had been released from his indenture and that William planned to go to Connecticut to live with his aunt. According to the asylum records William was eighteen years old in 1889.

Edith lived with the William Blake family in Mount Morris IL from 1882 and in 1892 she was assigned to the Elijah Blackman family near Rochelle IL. In her 1889 letter she stated that she had not seen her sister for six years. Margaret was in Rock Island and William had been in Rochelle. Those two cities are 92 miles from each other, a major distance in the 1880s for dependent children to travel. William had visited Edith the previous week, and although his employer thought William was going to Connecticut, to Edith he only said he was "working out." Perhaps William wanted to avoid any tears that might be shed over a more distant separation.

Margaret lived for at least 10 years with the William Munger family, as they moved from Oregon IL to Rock Island and then Princeton, IL. She was born in 1876 and came to live with the Mungers in April of 1882. In the 1900 census the Mungers had a daughter named Margaret who was 22 years old. In 1880 they did not have a daughter. It appears that Margaret Munger was Margaret Stuckey. She married William A. Lovett and had one son with him, William. Margaret died in 1965.

Edith married Guy Ehrhart, a farmer, in Pasadena, CA in 1904. They never had children. She died in 1955.