Ida Köhn

Ida Karoline Henrike Olga Köhn was born on April 27, 1878, in Dargun, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany, and was baptized on May 26. Her father, Johann, was 32, and her mother, Dorothea, was 30. She married Ernst Carl Johann Köppen on March 5, 1896, in her hometown. They had five children in 15 years. She died on May 9, 1964, at the age of 86.

After completing seminary to become a midwife, Ida was called to her first birth on August 27, 1900. Until a maternity ward was set up at the hospital in Dargun, she looked after eight villages, often walking in the middle of the night. In her 60 years of service, she helped birth over 5,300 children.

Two of her children, Hermann and Hertha, moved to Milwaukee, WI in 1923. A sister, Bertha (Franz) Wiegert, immigrated to Racine, WI in 1893 and two brothers also immigrated to the US. Her brother, Karl, moved to Sheboygan, WI in 1892. The Koehn family were some of the first settlers in Sheboygan and a street was named in their honor, Koehn Avenue. Another brother, Paul, arrived in 1907 and settled in Oregon.