Margaret Anna Ackerman

1843-1924

Margaret Anna Ackerman
Margaret Ackerman Crosby

Margaretha Ackermann was born in 1843 in the village of Frankenstein, in the Palatinate of the Kingdom of Bavaria, about 56 miles/90 km southwest of Frankfort. Her father was a blacksmith. She and her family migrated to the US when she was about 12 years old and settled in Syracuse, New York, where many other German families settled. Margaret had two younger sisters and four younger brothers, though one died as an infant. 

As a young woman, Margaret was a dressmaker. Somehow she met Hiram Benjamin Crosby, a successful lawyer and businessman originally from Norwich, Connecticut, who had been a Union Army officer during the American Civil War. He was already married and had a son, but it appears that Margaret and Hiram started their relationship and raised a family of 10 children in New York City without Hiram legally divorcing his first wife. See the story below.

Father: Daniel Ackermann (1817-1883)
Mother: Elisabetha Mueller (1820-1887)

Spouse: Hiram Benjamin Crosby (1831-1900) 

Children: 
  • Hiram Bedford Crosby (1872-1948) 
  • Margaret Acherman Crosby (1873-1941) 
  • William Carew Crosby (1875-1943) 
  • John Spencer Crosby (1878- ? ) 
  • Helen Bancroft Crosby (1879-1952) 
  • Thoman Gresham Crosby (1880-1932) 
  • Constance C. Crosby (1883-1945) 
  • Alpheus Dixi Crosby (1885-1956)
  • Gertrude Crosby (1888-1891) 
  • Elizabeth Ackerman Crosby (1891-1939) 

Timeline

  1. 1843

    September 17 - Born in Frankenstein, Kaiserslautern, Palatinate of the Kingdom of Bavaria. The first of 7 children born to Daniel and Elisabetha (nee Mueller) Ackermann.[1]

  2. ~1855

    Immigrates with her family to the US.[2]

  3. 1872

    July 24 - Son Hiram born.[3]

  4. 1873

    July 4 - Daughter Margaret born.[4]

  5. 1875

    October 9 - Son William born.[5]

  6. 1878

    February 6 - Son John born.[6]

  7. 1879

    August 4 - Daugher Helen born.[7]

  8. 1880

    November 26 - Son Thomas Gresham born.[8]

  9. 1883

    January 12 - Daughter Constance born.[9]

  10. 1885

    February 22 - Son Alpheus Dixi born.[10]

  11. 1888

    May 30 - Daughter Gertrude born.[11]

  12. 1891

    April 6 - Daughter Elizabeth born.[12]

  13. 1891

    May 18 - Daughter Gertrude dies from cerebrospinal meningitis 12 days before her 3rd birthday.[13]

  14. 1900

    October 7 - Husband Hiram dies aged 68.[14]

  15. 1924

    October 20 - Dies in Mamaroneck NY, aged 81 years. [15]

Stories

Hiram Benjamin Crosby and Margaret Ackerman Hiram Benjamin Crosby’s Two Families

Hiram Benjamin Crosby’s Two Families

Photo Galleries

Hiram & Margaret Crosby family photos

1880s Hiram & Margaret Crosby Family Photos

Margaret Anna Ackermann aged 16 years
Margaret Anna Ackerman, aged sixteen 

Margaret Ackerman in furs
Margaret in her winter furs

Footnotes and Sources

  1. [1] Her death record gives her date of birth, her father's name, her mother's maiden name, and place of birth as "Germany". This information enabled the identification with confidence of not only her birth record but that of her siblings and match them to the family group in the US and NY censuses in Syracuse NY:
    • Death record: Record of Deaths, Margaret A. Crosby, Mamaroneck, Westchester County, New York, Registered Number 1924-20, filed 21 Oct 1924; informant unknown.
    • Birth record: "Deutschland Geburten und Taufen, 1558-1898", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NTSG-PHW : 25 March 2020), Margaretha Ackermann, 1843.
  2. [2] Assuming that Margaret, her parents and siblings migrated together as a family group, I believe they left their home town of Frankenstein sometime after the death of her infant brother, Adam, in May 1854, and arrived in New York before the birth of her sister, Mary, in March 1857.
  3. [3] Two sources:
    • Hazen and Spear, A history of the class of 1854 in Dartmouth college, page 20.
    • Marriage certificate no. 14941, dated 6 Oct 1898 for Hiram Bedford Crosby, Jr, and Ella Dolores von Hausson; State of New York, County of New York, Borough of Manhattan. PDF of original obtained from https://a860-historicalvitalrecords.nyc.gov/view/7913907
  4. [4] Hazen and Spear, A history of the class of 1854 in Dartmouth college, page 20.
  5. [5] Hazen and Spear, A history of the class of 1854 in Dartmouth college, page 20.
  6. [6] Hazen and Spear, A history of the class of 1854 in Dartmouth college, page 20.
  7. [7] Hazen and Spear, A history of the class of 1854 in Dartmouth college, page 20.
  8. [8] Two sources:
    • Hazen and Spear, A history of the class of 1854 in Dartmouth college, page 20.
    • "New Jersey, Births and Christenings, 1660-1980," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/FCVD-34F : accessed 7 April 2012), Thomas Gresham Crosby (1880).
  9. [9] Two sources:
    • Hazen and Spear, A history of the class of 1854 in Dartmouth college, page 20.
    • "Register of Births in the Town of Westchester, County of Westchester, State of New York", New York, New York, U.S., Vital Records, Births 1847-1897, Marriages 1847-1903, Deaths 1798-1900, Pages 16 & 17, registration number 140; Ancestry.com
  10. [10] Two sources:
    • Hazen and Spear, A history of the class of 1854 in Dartmouth college, page 20.
    • "Register of Births in the Town of Westchester, County of Westchester, State of New York", New York, New York, U.S., Vital Records, Births 1847-1897, Marriages 1847-1903, Deaths 1798-1900, pages 38 & 39, registration number 353, Ancestry.com
  11. [11] Two sources:
    • Hazen and Spear, A history of the class of 1854 in Dartmouth college, page 20.
    • "Register of Births in the Town of Westchester, County of Westchester, State of New York", New York, New York, U.S., Vital Records, Births 1847-1897, Marriages 1847-1903, Deaths 1798-1900, pages 76 & 77, registration number 711, Ancestry.com
  12. [12] "Register of Births in the Town of Westchester, County of Westchester, State of New York", New York, New York, U.S., Vital Records, Births 1847-1897, Marriages 1847-1903, Deaths 1798-1900, Ancestry.com
  13. [13] Register of Deaths in the Town of Westchester, County of Westchester, State of New York, pages 218 & 219, registration number 1232; New York, New York, U.S., Vital Records, Births 1847-1897, Marriages 1847-1903, Deaths 1798-1900, Ancestry.com
  14. [14] Two sources:
    • Death record for Hiram B. Crosby, State of New York, City of New York, Borough of the Bronx, certificate no. 3492, dated 9 Oct 1900; informant was the attending doctor.
    • New York Tribune (New York, NY), 9 Oct 1900, Tue, p7, Newspapers.com
  15. [15] Record of Deaths, Margaret A. Crosby, Mamaroneck, Westchester County, New York, Registered Number 1924-20, filed 21 Oct 1924; informant unknown.

Last updated: 19 April 2026

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