Jun 3, 2012

Whatever Happened to Little Miss Preuss?

While reading old newspaper articles, I ran across a story about the niece of my Great Grandmother, Minnie Preuss Schaar.  Rosa L Preuss was the daughter of Frank and Hannah Preuss. Frank Preuss immigrated from Germany in 1894, 3 years before his parents and siblings, and settled in Lansing Michigan.


LITTLE MISS PREUSS WANDERS OUT NIGHTS
LANSING 13-YEAR-OLD GIRL STAYS AROUND SUMMER RESORTS ALONE
Lansing, Mish., May 31 -- Lansing has a 13-year-old girl, Rosa Preuss, who seems to have a mania for staying around summer resorts late at night alone. Twice in two days has Rosa been taken from summer resorts and to her home in North Lansing by the police and the officers are beginning to wonder what is to be done.
   At midnight Sunday a telephone call from the watchman at Waverly Park, three and one-half miles west of the city, notified the police that a small, bareheaded (?) girl was wandering about the park alone. The patrol automobile was sent and carried Rosa to the home of her father, Frank Pruess, a meat dealer. On the way the girl told the officers that she wanted to stay in the park, so she would have an early start for the Memorial day celebration. She said she was not afraid of the dark. The parents said she had left home early in the evening.
  Monday midnight the watchman at Pine lake resort, nine miles east of lansing, sent in a call. The patrol made this trip and again Rosa was wandering around the deserted park. The parents do not seem to be greatly concerned over the girl's escapades.
(Kalamazoo Gazette, June 1, 1910, p.2)
The incidents did cause concern to the patrolmen, because she ended up in court:
GIRL RUNS AWAY FROM HOME
Say's She's Tired of School and Wants to See World.
Lansing, Mich., May 31 --
Rosie Preuss, the 13-year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Preuss, will be taken before the judge of probate this week on a charge of incorrigibility.  Three times in less than a week the girl has run away from home, but each time has been caught in a nearby town and returned. She gives no excuse for her actions except that she is tired of going to school and wants to see the world. Monday she was found at a farm home near Pine Lake, ten miles from home, having walked the entire distance, she said.
(Saginaw News, 5-31-1910, p. 3)


I found Rosa in the 1900 and 1910 Census', but she would have been 23 years old in 1920 and is not listed with her parents. A quick search didn't turn up a marriage or death record, either. So I wonder... did she finally get away to see the world?




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