Marianne Schurz

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Marianne Schurz (b  March 1858 in Watertown, Wisconsin; d 1929 in New York) was the second daughter of Carl and Margarethe Schurz. She was named after her grandmother, although her friends and family called her Pussy. Her father described her as having “the same large eyes as her sister.” (3, p. 64) William was friends with the entire Schurz family, including Marianne.

Marianne Schurz was one of five children and the sister to Agathe, Carl Lincoln, and Emma, who had died at age three, and to Herbert Schurz, who died in 1900 in London.. By 1895 Marianne was Corresponding Secretary of the German Frauen Verein of New York with Mrs. Ams, President. (2)

William Steinway had known the Schurz family since 1872 and had made a point of including the family in many private and public social events, even in his boat excursions (Diary,1874-05-02, 1891-06-13). He dined with Schurz and his daughters, invited them to Liederkranz performances and visited the Schurz household often, many times to play skat. In 1891 Marianne gave her time and effort to the Artists Festival (Künstlerfest), being held to help cover the deficit of the Centennial Celebration (Diary, 1891-12-03), to which William Steinway gave $1,000 (1). Marianne again called on William to help fix the program for the 50th Anniversary Frauen Verein benefit concert to be held at Carnegie Hall on March 26, 1895. Marianne, like her sister Agathe, never married (3, p. 286) and is buried at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Tarrytown, N.Y. not far from her father and siblings. 

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Sources:

1. “Final Accounting for the Artists Festival”, The New-Yorker Staats-Zeitung, March 27, 1892,  p. 11 

2. “The Frauen Verein”, The New-Yorker  Staats-Zeitung, March 24, 1895, p.1

3.  Trefousse, Hans L., Carl Schurz – A Biography, Fordham University Press, New York, 1998, p. 64; p. 286, 296