Saint Boniface Cemetery, Chicago, Illinois
John Paul Dreiser
1821-1900
Sarah Dreiser
1833-1890
Paul Dresser
1858-1906*
*John Paul Dresser Jr. was born on April 22, 1858 in Terre Haute, Indiana. He was baptized on May 24, 1858 in St. Joseph Catholic Church, Terre Haute.
— posted by Roger W. Smith
October 2022
In February 1886, L. A. Hopkins stole cash from his employer, Chapin & Gore, in Chicago and fled with Theodore Dreiser’s sister Emma.
The couple wound up living in New York.
The story provided the factual basis on which the plot of Sister Carrie is based, as did the two persons involved. Emma Dreiser became Carrie Meeber (Sister Carrie) in the novel, Hopkins became Carrie’s lover George Hurstwood.
The full name of L. A. Hopkins was Lorenzo A. Hopkins. His dates were 1847-1897. He died in Brooklyn, New York on December 21, 1897 and is buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery, Maspeth, Queens County became a borough of New York City in 1898.
Lorenzo A. Hopkins grave, Mt. Olivet Cemetery, Maspeth, Queens, NYC; photograph by Roger W. Smith
Descendants of Johann Paul Dreiser
descendants of Theodore Dreiser
Descendants of Johann Paul Dreiser
Descendants of Henry Schnepp
Descendants of Theodore Dreiser
This post contains three reports (downloadable PDF files above) showing the genealogy of branches of the Dreiser and Schnepp (aka Schänäb) families.
The Schnepp or Schänäb family were ancestors of Theodore Dreiser’s mother, Sarah Maria (Schnepp) Dreiser, and of his second wife, Helen Esther (Patges Richardson) Dreiser.
These reports were generated using genealogy software. Each report shows the ancestor going back to a beginning point, so to speak, and then shows that ancestor’s descendants for a few generations down to the present (to the extent known).
The report entitled “Descendants of Theodore Dreiser” merely shows genealogical facts about the author and his spouses. There were no descendants.
— Roger W. Smith
September 2019; updated May 2020
Margaret Dresser (born Margeruite May Steinman in 1867) was Theodore Dreiser’s sister-in-law. She was the wife of Dreiser’s brother Alphons J. Dreiser.
Theodore Dreiser seems to have had minimal contact in later years with his brother Al, Margaret’s husband.
In his The Last Titan: A Life of Theodore Dreiser, Jerome Loving states (footnote pg. 448): “The last known address for Al Dreiser was in 1934, at 1235 Muirhead Street, Los Angeles; he had apparently written Dreiser about his share of the royalties from the publication of The Songs of Paul Dresser.”
State of California
Department of Health Services
Certificate of Death
Margaret Dresser
died August 7, 1961 at 7:25 p.m.
Female
Caucasian
birthplace, Ohio
date of birth, February 2, 1867
age, 94 years
occupation, Housewife
Widow
Place of death, Camarillo State Hospital, Camarillo, Ventura Co., Calif.
length of time there, 8 years 9+ months
last usual residence, Hillhaven Sanatorium
cremation, August 9, 1961, Westwood Memorial Park Crem., Los Angeles
cause of death, Arteriosclerotic Heart Disease
Associated with Senile Brain Disease, with Psychotic Reaction
Theresa Dreiser Davis (1864-1897; born Mary Theresa Dreiser) was Theodore Dreiser’s sister.
She was married to Edwin Davis, a scenic artist, and lived in Chicago.
The attached article about her death at a train crossing is from the Chicago Daily Tribune of October 23, 1897.
Chicago Daily Tribune, October 23, 1897
George Kates Nelson (1892-1955) was Theodore Dreiser’s nephew.
His wife, Gunda Ryerson Nelson, was born in Norway and died in Freeport, Nassau Co., NY on December 7, 1944.
George Nelson was born in Manhattan on April 25, 1892. He took the surname of his stepfather, John Nelson. He gave his father’s name as John. Yet, he was the son of Dreiser’s older sister Emma and her (common law?) husband Lorenzo A. Hopkins.
— posted by Roger W. Smith
March 2016
Gertrude Amelia Hopkins (1894-1973) was Theodore Dreiser’s niece. Below is an image of her death certificate.
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Note: The late Harold J. Dies gave me a copy of Gertrude Hopkins’s death certificate. I would not have been able to obtain one otherwise, since only relatives can obtain such a record from the state of New York. It is an invaluable document. Gertrude was Theodore Dreiser’s favorite niece and knew Dreiser and his second wife Helen well. See my article
“Lorenzo A. Hopkins, Emma Wilhelmina Dreiser, and Family”
posted on this site at
Roger W. Smith, “Lorenzo A. Hopkins, Emma Wilhelmina Dreiser, and Family”
— posted by Roger W. Smith
March 2016
Lorenzo A . Hopkins (d. 1897) was the first husband (perhaps common law husband) of Dreiser’s sister Emma Wilhelmina Dreiser.
Hopkins and Emma were the real life prototypes of Hurstwood and Carrie Meeber in Dreiser’s Sister Carrie.
— posted by Roger W. Smith
March 2016
.
George Kates Nelson (1892-1955) was Theodore Dreiser’s nephew. He was the son of Lorenzo A. Hopkins and Dreiser’s sister Emma Wilhelmna Dreiser.
The date of his birth is accurate here. John Nelson was his stepfather. His father was Lorenzo Hopkins, not Nelson.
— posted by Roger W. Smith
March 2016
obituary , Mrs. Helen Esther Dreiser
New York Times, Saturday, September 24, 1955
Helen Dreiser was Theodore Dreise r’s second wife. She was born Helen Esther Patges in 1984 in Oregon. Her first husband, who she married in Oregon, was Francis Dawson Richardson. She married Theodore Dreiser in the state of Washington in 1944. She died at the home of her sister in Oregon on September 22, 1955.
New York Times, Saturday, September 24, 1955
Roger W. Smith's Theodore Dreiser site 