Robert married Living. [Group Sheet]

Maurice married LOUISE in ABT. 1938 in IL. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

John Sonnenberg woked for Standard Oil in Aruba. He and another employee, Mr. Kerrigan, invented an improved method of processing crude oil.

Obit--

John J. Sonnenberg, died at the age of 65 at his home in Elizabeth, NJ. Mr. Sonnenberg was a groceryman in Hartford, IL and was then employed at Std Oil Co. in Wood River, IL at the time of its construction, then later at the refinery in Aruba until being transferred to Elizabeth, NJ. He was one of the 11 children of the late George and Anna Sonnenberg who predeceased him, as did 5 brothers, 2 sisters, his wife, and 2 children. He is survived by 2 sons, Hudson Sonnenberg of Linden, NJ and Morris Sonnenberg of Lebanon, Il and 4 sisters: Theresa Owens of Wood river, Elizabeth Hemmer of O'Fallon, Margaret Mayer of St. Louis, and Alberta Biggs of St. Louis.

Note: a female was born to John Joseph Sonnenberg and his wife Estella Hawk Sonnenberg, it was apparently sometime before the birth of Hudson, but nobody knows anything else about it other than that she did not survive.

John Sonnenberg was born in KS but moved to Il as a small child. He was living in Franklin County at the time of his marriage to Estella Hawk in 1912, it is supposed that he was there with his uncle, Daniel Sonnenberg. It is not clear how John and Estella met, she had recently moved from Iron County, MO to Madison Co, IL, perhaps they met there but this is only a guess.

During their early years, John and Estella owned a grocery store in Hartford, IL and lived upstairs with their 3 children. The store went out of business eventually, most likely due to the depression and the inability of people to pay their bills. After closing the store, Estella opened a restaurant and John worked for Std Oil.. They were relocated to Aruba about 1931, and then transferred to NJ about 1938. John and Stella owned a large house in Elizabeth, NJ and rented out some rooms for extra income.

John married HAWK Mary Estelle on 11 Nov 1912 in Franklin County, IL. Mary (daughter of HAWK William and LONDON Martha A) was born in Feb 1894 in Ironton, MO; died in May 1949 in Elizabeth, NJ; was buried in St. Gertrude's Cemetery, Colonia, NJ. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

For most of her life, Mary Estelle was known as Stella. She reported that she had been so small and sickley when she was born that they put her in a shoe box and filled it with cotton and placed the box by the stove to keep her warm. Stella did survive and grew to be a healthy 5' 6" tall.

Stella, her mother, brother, and younger sister Bessie moved to Madison Co, IL sometime shortly after 1910 where they are still found on the Ironton census records. Stella met and married John Sonnenberg in 1912, and her younger brother Jessie lived with them until his sudden death in 1928. Stella was known to all as a kind and generous individual who took care of her family and helped strangers in time of need.

The death of her youngest son, Jackie (Junior) in 1945 was devastating for Stella and she never seemed to quite recover from it. She attended church 2 times each Sunday, saying she was going once for Jackie and once for her. Stella died 4 years after the death of her son, from cancer which had spread throughout her entire body.