Wayne County MI Archives News.....Hard Work for a Long Life 1929?
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Denise Abrams dabrams17@yahoo.com August 13, 2006, 12:13 pm

A Detroit Newspaper 1929?
Plenty of hard work is the best formula in the world for longevity, Mrs. Anna 
Koenig told 26 relatives who were guests at her home, 1403 St. Antoine Street, 
Friday evening.  She was speaking with the authority of her 88 years.  

The scene of her birthday supper was on the second floor of the two-story brick 
building at the northwest corner of Clinton and St. Antoine Streets.  On the 
first floor is the Koenig grocery.  

Turning to her Bible, Mrs. Koenig examined the records therein of births and 
deaths and other events.

With Mrs. Koening interpreting the Bible disclosed she was born in Westphalia, 
Germany, coming to this country when 19 years old.  A year later she married 
Henry Koenig and the two went to Eagle Harbor, in the Upper Peninsula, where 
they lived for several years.

In 1865 they started their grocery at St. Antoine and Clinton.  In 1870 her 
husband, then 41 years old, died leaving her with several children, one Henry, 
only 19 months old.

"Our store building was the largest structure around here," reminisced Mrs. 
Koenig.  "Pasture land with a few small cottages was all one could ses around 
here.  Clinton Park was a cemetery, from which the bodies were not removed 
until 1869."  

Today the store building, which once dominated its surroundings, is dwarfed by 
the great structures all about.  St. Mary's Hospital, the Court Building, 
County Jail and the Police Headquarters Building loom up about it.  It is 
difficult to conceive of the neighborhood being pasture-land.

But Mrs. Koening, closing the leaves of her Bible, smiled gently as she 
said, "Thus it was when we came here, in August of 1865."  

Veterans of the Civil War were boys then, many of them.  Detroit was a pleasant 
residential city, with tree-shaded streets.  There was no hurly-hurly of 
traffic.  Residents had flower gardents in front of their houses, back of 
picket fences, and at sunset watered the old-fashioned flowers.

There were great public problems of course, such as the reconstruction after 
the Civil War.  But in retrospect, those days seem as peaceful and quiet, with 
the colors of old prints, to Mrs. Koenig.

Her son Henry is now 55 years old and manages the grocery his mother operated 
for so many years.  There are 10 grandchildren and 26 great-grandchildren 
living.  Besides her son Henry, Mrs. Koenig has a daughter, Mrs. Anna Hartman, 
1381 Marlborough Avenue.  Three other daughters died.  

Mrs. Koening, however, does not live in the past but is decidedly of the 
present.  She is vigorous in her old age, and does all her housework.  "For, if 
you want to live long, there is nothing like hard work, plenty of it", she said.


Additional Comments:
Anna Dueweke Koenig

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