Dora Magerkurth Woodburn

Dora Magerkurth was the wife of Harry Agar Woodburn. Dora met Harry while working as a secretary at Mackey, Nesbit & Co. She was the daughter of German immigrants, Charles Magerkurth and Anna Catherina Simone.

She was born in Chicago, Cook, Illinois, on 28 July 1882. At six weeks old, the Magerkurth family moved to Vanderburgh County, Evansville, Indiana. Dora’s daughter Sara Elizabeth remembers her grandfather Charles telling her about the train ride that brought them to the area: “Your mother was six weeks old and rode on my knee the whole down.”

The Magerkurth family moved to Evansville, Vanderburgh, Indiana, to assist in Charles' bother's saloon and brewery business. Although that never came to pass, Charles thrived in his own antiques and upholstery work. He had even upholstered for the Queen of England at one time.

Because of Dora's plumpness as an infant, her parents nicknamed her Tusnelda, after the plump Queen of Bavaria. Dora graduated from Evansville High School in 1900. She taught at an Evansville school for one year before beginning work at Mackey, Nesbit & Co., where she eventually met Harry.

Dora was the fourth of eleven children: Anna Margaret, Albert, Edward, Meta, Elizabeth, Marie and Carl (three children died at a very young age, namely CHarles, Rose and VIolet). Harry and Dora wed 12 October 1907, in Evansville, Vanderburgh, Indiana.

All of her surviving children (three women in their 90's!) say she was a wonderful person. She died 30 October 1972.