NY NY - Elixes Stockburger, 15, Albany, 1919

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Elixes was born in 1904 to George Stockburger in Albany, NY. She disappeared and was never heard from again in 1919. The words "STOLEN AWAY" appears on a page from a family Bible, written by my Great-Great-Grandfather Fred Stockburger (on my mother's father's side).

It is not known where she would have gone; she was apparently 15 years old; she could have run away ('stolen away') or actually *been* stolen - hard to know from this information.

My Great-Great Aunt Elizabeth Stockburger wrote: 'and to this day (1990s), have never heard whether dead or alive, they lived in Albany at the time - I do remember the talk about it at the time. . .'

Apparently, no photos of her exist. It's a stab in the dark, but maybe someone knows *something* about Elixes Stockburger?
 
You could try searching the 1920 census by first name only (it is a very unusual first name, even for 1919). I'd also search the 1930 census.

New York issued birth and death certificates early on. You could try and see if you can locate her birth certificate, and with that information you could see if she ever applied for a Social Security card.

ETA-I don't currently have access to Ancesty.com's databases, but I found an Alexis Stockburger who lived in George Stockburger's household in Oneida, New York in 1910. Her birthdate is off (they are listing it as 1908) and the spelling's weird, but that's not unusual for the transcribed census.

On the 1930 census I found an Elixes Wesnersbio in Pennsylvania who was born around 1903. She sounds like she could be a good match.

Stolen away could mean that she married or ran away with someone her family didn't approve of.
 
Stolen away could mean that she married or ran away with someone her family didn't approve of.

That's the first thing that popped into my mind. Like, she met a guy who wooed her - as is often common with teens even today - and she was persuaded to leave her family and go with him.
 
I wonder if she was ever found? Who took her? Maybe a victim of White Slavers?
 
Here's the answer, couldn't copy and paste but if you read down...

http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPa...s&handle=hein.journals/glj28&div=83&id=&page=

I think it's too close a name not to be the 'Elexis' IMO anyway.
Here you go.
ViewImageLocal


I am always fascinated by these old cases.
 
United States Census, 1910 for Alexis Stockburger


Name:Alexis Stockburger
Birthplace:New York
Relationship to Head of Household: Daughter
Residence:Utica Ward 8, Oneida, New York
Race :White
Gender:Female
George A Stockburger
Nellie B Stockburger
Esther M Stockburger
George H Stockburger
Frederick B Stockburger
Alexis Stockburger F 2y (this would put dob as possibly 1908 or so)
Alexis Dowd
Ellen Dowd


Just posted it, not new info. Just in case OP comes back and doesn't have the info.
 
I found the below buried in a bunch of other information that can be seen at: http://newspaperarchive.com/reno-evening-gazette/1923-03-16/

I gather it's the information on the front page... but in the format I could access, it only had a single snippet:

"In 1919 Alexis Stockburger twelve-year-old school girl disappeared while on her way tp meet her sister and has never been found"
 
Also found a couple elexis stockburger mentions when I entered it into google...

http://fultonhistory.com/newspaper%2010/Chatham%20NY%20Courier/Chatham%20NY%20Courier%201919%20Grayscale/Chatham%20NY%20Courier%201919%20Grayscale%20-%200249.pdf"

http://fultonhistory.com/newspaper ...field Springs NY Mercury 1919-1920 - 0272.pdf


Basically, both said that she was abducted from her home. One says her family offered a reward.
 
I found some more details on her disappearance, as well as what sounds like a very similar-sounding case from two years later.

A fuller account of 'Elexis' disappearing (her name seems to be spelt differently in every story, which makes things trickier) here:

Albany Child Lost
New-York Tribune, August 27, 1919

The Police Department yesterday received word from Chief of Police James L. Hyatt, of Albany, asking that search be made, especially in all gypsy trains passing through the city, for Elexis Stockburger, a twelve-year-old girl, who disappeared from her home, 12 Chestnut Street, Albany, on August 14. A reward of $500 is offered for her recovery and $1,000 for information leading to the arrest of her abductors.

A gypsy caravan passed through Albany on the day of her disappearance. She is small for her age, has black eyes, dark hair and a slight scar above the left eye. She wore a green gingham dress, black patent leather belt, white stockings, brown shoes and a blue coat.

Another from four days later here ('Albany Girl Still Lost After 4 Days'):

No trace has been discovered beyond the assertions that two men saw a child answering her description riding through the city in an automobile with gypsies.

But it also mentions that the gypsy theory has been 'scouted' (from the context, I'm thinking this means 'scrapped' or 'discarded'?):

Suspicions that gypsies have kidnapped the child are scouted on the grounds itinerants have plenty of their own offspring and would not select for ransom a white child whose parents are not beyond moderate financial circumstances.

Then in 1923, this one, titled 'Stockburger Girl Missing For Four Years To-Morrow: Mother, whose hair has turned gray, firmly convinced that daughter is dead'. This one describes her disappearance in more detail, and there's even a picture of her although the scan quality is too poor to really work out her features.

The child, as had been her custom, left the Chestnut street home at about 11:45 o'clock on the morning of Aug. 9 1919, to meet her sister, Esther, at Washington avenue and Swan street. She never met her sister, nor did anyone see her after she left her mother at the front stoop. Her mysterious disappearance is just as puzzling to-day as it was a half hour after she left her home, and a general search immediately after failed to reveal the slightest trace.

But she's also mentioned in this story from March 1, 1921, about another disappearance of a girl in Albany: 10-year-old Harriet Menten, who was last seen heading for a school on the same street where Elixes was last seen.

The article about Harriet also mentions a man "loitering" outside Harriet's school a few weeks before she disappeared, who had been "seen to try to talk with some of the girls and boys" and "had attempted to engage two little girls in conversation". The article continues here, under the title 'Mystery Marks':

Late this afternoon a man between 55 and 60, who said he lived on Hawk street, and who refused to tell the police his name was taken to police headquarters to be questioned. Three pupils at school 2, according to the police, identified him as the man who had tried to talk with some of the pupils. The man told the police that he looked after several furnaces on Chestnut street. He said that he liked children, and for that reason had talked to them.

After considerable questioning the man said his name was John Hoffman, and that he lived in the basement at 3 South Hawk street. He admitted, according to the police, that he knew the Menten girl, but denied that he saw her yesterday. Later Captain Lasch told Hoffman that he could return to his home.

Harriet was last seen setting off for school, and her mother says in that article that her usual route to school was "down Jay street, over Swan and down Chestnut". Alexis was last seen setting off to meet her sister, heading from Chestnut Street to the corner of Washington Avenue and Swan Street.

I can't find anything else about Harriet Menten, so maybe she turned up safe after all? It's strange she wouldn't have been mentioned alongside Elexis in that later article otherwise. But if she didn't, I can't believe that the cases aren't related.
 
''The man told the police that he looked after several furnaces on Chestnut street. He said that he liked children, and for that reason had talked to them''

Mmm, I think I might have sifted a few ashes from those furnaces.
 
Bump.

Gonna read up on this tomorrow when my eyes aren't so tired.
 
I'm having trouble trying to figure out her actual age, along with the proper spelling of her name.
 
I'm having trouble trying to figure out her actual age, along with the proper spelling of her name.

me too... and what date she went missing.
 
I can't find anything else about Harriet Menten, so maybe she turned up safe after all? It's strange she wouldn't have been mentioned alongside Elexis in that later article otherwise. But if she didn't, I can't believe that the cases aren't related.

I doubt she's been found. I think if it hadn't been for Harriet's disappearance looking like a possible pattern, Elixes wouldn't have been mentioned again either.

It would seem more likely that something else would be found in the newspapers if she had been found... MOO is that they just never had any new leads, thus nothing to report. :(

I've sent an email to Albany LE to confirm the status of both Elixes and Harriet. I have a feeling they're going to have no clue what I'm talking about.
 
A little bit more information here -
http://whereaboutsstillunknown.wordpress.com/2013/08/24/elixes-stockburger/

''After checking city directories from 1921, the address Hoffman gave of 3 South Hawk Street matched up to a Lillian Adelhoven. No other residents were listed at that address, and the only John Hoffmans in the directory were listed in different parts of Albany, most were married with their own families, none had occupations relating to furnaces''
 
I wish I had a better memory -- there might be yet another child abduction/murder on Chestnut St in that era -- the name wasn't Harriet, IIRC. Wracking my brains atm to try to recall the case. I am sure it's the same street, a young girl set off to do an errand and was found dead some time later.

Just wanted to say - awesome sleuthing, WS'ers. There's something so rewarding about digging up information on these old cases, isn't there?

Good job, all.
 

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