Little Chute Historical Society

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Susanna Karls

Female 1858 - 1897  (39 years)


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  • Name Susanna Karls 
    Born 21 Aug 1858  Trier, Trier-Saarburg, Rheinland-Palatinate, Germany Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender Female 
    Occupation Racine Dominican 
    Died 30 Nov 1897  Green Bay, Brown, Wisconsin Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Buried St John Cemetery, Little Chute, Outagamie, Wisconsin Find all individuals with events at this location 
    • Old/7/4
    Person ID I260351  Little Chute Genealogy
    Last Modified 12 Nov 2018 

    Father Matthias Karls,   b. 13 Oct 1820,   d. 02 Jun 1890, Dane County, Wisconsin Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 69 years) 
    Mother Barbara Marie Kirchen,   b. 24 Feb 1822,   d. 27 Apr 1902, Dane County, Wisconsin Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 80 years) 
    Family ID F127624  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Notes 
    • Sister M. Angela Karls, OSD
      Born to earthly life: August 21, 1858
      Religious profession: August 15, 1880
      Entered eternal life: November 30, 1897
      Susanna Karls, daughter of Barbara Kirchen and Mathias Karls, was born in Schillingen in the
      Diocese of Trier, Germany on August 21, 1858. She was only four years old when her family
      emigrated and settled in Dane, Wisconsin in August of 1862.
      In the early spring of 1875, Susanna’s sister Anna, already a candidate and teaching in Mineral
      Point, was asked to go to Roxbury to help prepare a namesday celebration for Father Adelbert
      Inama. Afterward she traveled to the motherhouse, taking Susanna with her. That was March 2,
      1875. Susanna was not, however, received into the novitiate until more than three years later.
      Then, on August 6, 1878, she received the Dominican habit and the name Sister Mary Angela of
      the Blessed Sacrament. She pronounced her first vows on August 15, 1880.
      There is no record of Sister Angela’s ministry assignments until 1882, when she was went to
      teach at Saint Mary’s in Oshkosh. This absence of a specific record, however, usually indicates
      that a sister was stationed at the motherhouse. Again there is no record from 1883 until 1886,
      when she was assigned to Saint Andrew’s in Knowles. The 1888–1889 school year found her at
      Holy Name School in Racine, after which she taught at Saint Mary’s in Racine for two years. In
      1891 she was called to teach at Saint Catherine’s
      Academy. After a year there she was sent for the first
      time to Michigan, to Saint Clement’s in Center Line,
      where she taught for two years. In 1894 she was again
      at Holy Name in Racine, and two years later at Saint
      John’s in Little Chute.
      She was thirty-nine years old and just beginning her
      second year at Saint John’s when she died in a Green
      Bay hospital of complications from surgery on
      November 30, 1897. Her sister, by now professed as
      Sister Helen, must have been there, since she would
      later describe the event in some detail. “Father
      Knechtle gave a wonderful sermon, and said she was a
      saint. The funeral was very large, with people coming
      from the surrounding towns. The sodality girls, dressed
      in white, marched in front of the coffin.”
      Sister Angela was the first of three Racine Dominicans
      to be buried in the parish cemetery in Little Chute. The
      simple cross which at first marked her grave
      was eventually replaced by a stone. It can still
      be found there, a bit to the left of the central
      cemetery road in the northwest section. Just
      twelve years later, twenty-nine-year-old Sister
      Antoinette Williamsen would be buried next to
      her.