Adolf Lewis Sanger

Adolf Lewis Sanger was probably my first cousin, four times removed. I don’t have direct proof of this, but here is why I believe it is true:

• This relationship hinges on the possibility that he was the brother of Theresa Sanger, my 3rd great grandmother.
• They did share a surname, and most probably another sister – Henriettta Sanger Jacobi.
• They all were living in New Orleans at the same time and came from the same place in Germany.
• David Sanger married Clara Hess.
• Theresa Sanger married Levi Hess.
• I suspect that Clara Hess, Levi Hess and Abraham Hess were siblings.
• Abraham lived in New Orleans as well.
• Abraham married Emily Jacobi.
• Simon Jacobi, David Sanger, and Levi Hess were all in business together at a dry good store in New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
• DNA?

Adolf was born 8 October, 1843 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The son of David Sanger and Clara Hess (Clara was the sister of my third great grandfather, Levy Hess and David Sanger was the brother of Theresa Sanger Hess, my third great grandmother).

Adolf’s father David Sanger died 10 September, 1848 in New Orleans. His mother Clara remarried Jacob Goldsmith and the family moved to NYC in about 1851. Adolf was eight years old at this time. In the 1855 NY Census, he is living with his mother and stepfather, his step-siblings, Louis and Samuel, his cousin Sarah Hess (dau of Theresa Sanger and Levi Hess), his step-grandmother Sarah Goldsmith and his grandmother Rachel Hess, and 3 servants. 

He attended the College of The City of New York (a.k.a. Free Academy), and also Columbia Law School. He was admitted to the bar in 1865 at the age of 22.

Adolf married Sarah Levy on 15 December, 1870 in New Orleans, Louisiana. They had four daughters, Eleanor Nellie L Sanger Schuhmann, Clara Sanger Glover,  Marion Frances Sanger Frank and Sarah Sanger Frank, but Sarah Levy Sanger died of pneumonia, on January 1, 1879, at the age of 27. After their mother died, the oldest daughter, Eleanor (Nellie) went to stay with her grandparents in New Orleans, and the three younger daughters went to stay with their grandmother Clara Hess Sanger Goldsmith and step-grandfather Jacob Goldsmith. Adolph became a boarder at 146 W. 43rd Street in NY about a block away from his children who were at 147 W. 42nd St.

Adolf was an acting attorney as well as President of the Board of Education, President of the Board of Alderman in New York City, and chairman of the committee who received French officers who brought the Statue of Liberty to the United States. He and his law partner, Meyer S. Isaacs, had a law office at 115 Broadway.

Adolf died suddenly of pneumonia at the age of 51 on 3 January, 1894 in New York City.