Heinrich Fritz Belitz and Helen Catharina Schlichting (Sheboygan 1-48)
Married Oct. 17, 1853 in civil ceremony in Town of Sheboygan Falls, Sheboygan County
Heinrich Fritz Belitz
Son of Christian Belitz and Wilhelmina
Born in Germany
Teacher in City of Sheboygan
Helen Catharina Schlichting
Daughter of Johann R. Schlichting and Elise W.
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Belitz, Helene Catharine –nee Schlichting – 1910
On Friday at the asylum in Manitowoc where she was brought many years ago, Mrs. Helene Catharine Belitz died at the age of 79 years, 5 months and 6 days. The one who passed away was one of the women who, as a faithful wife, lived through the turbulent times of the first development of the state of Wisconsin. The deceased was numbered as one of the first settlers Kiel, and was born in Oldenburg, Germany on March 13, 1831. She came to America with her parents in 1851 who immediately settled in Kiel, which was then Town Schleswig. In 1853 she married Colonel Henry F. Belitz, who, after coming to America because of the Revolution of 1848, was one of the founders of Kiel, and established a saw mill here with others. In 1850 he came from Seehafen, in the Uckermark. At his side the now deceased had to face the hardest struggles of existence. In spite of this, their home was wide open to hospitality and was well known as a society center of the time in those pioneering days of the small settlement. Music and singing were cultivated and the graces in culture and education were never forgotten or set aside. Mrs. Belitz was a friend of the poor and afflicted, and contributed much to charitable causes. The marriage was blessed with nine children of whom three preceded their mother in death. The remaining children are: Mrs. Dr. J. Honer and Mrs. Dr. H. Lammers from Chicago, Mrs. Dr. G. A. Hipke and Dr. Alfred Belitz from Milwaukee, Dr. W. Belitz from Cochrane, Wisconsin, and the lawyer Arthur Belitz from Madison, as well as a step daughter Mrs. Reinhardt Schlichting from Chilton. After her husband, who in 1864 as Colonel of the 47th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment, which was almost entirely recruited from volunteers from the counties of Manitowoc and Calumet who went to the Civil War and then died in 1878, she began to become sick and finally she became mentally weak and had to be taken to an institution, where she could never leave alive. The cost of her care there was not paid by the county as she received a pension. The body was brought to Kiel on Monday afternoon to be laid to rest beside her husband at the Kiel Cemetery. Professor W. H. Luehr from Manitowoc gave the deceased an appropriated eulogy.
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HELEN CATHERINE BELITZ

Pioneer Woman Dies
In the death at Manitowoc, Friday, August 19, 1910, of Mrs. Henry F. Belitz, widow of the late Colonel Henry F. Belitz of Kiel, there passed away one of the best known and most highly esteemed of the early pioneers of Manitowoc and Calumet counties.

Helene Catherine Belitz, nee Schlichting, was born in Oldenburg, Germany, March 13, 1831. Caught in the great stream of emigration that left the German fatherland as a result of the revolution of 1818, her family found themselves among the pioneer band that founded Kiel, Manitowoc county, where October 1853, she was married to the late Henry F. Belitz, afterward colonel of the 45th Wisconsin Infantry. Col. Belitz was a man and citizen high-minded and singularly public spirited and his wife was in the truest and widest sense his companion and helpmeet. The Belitz' were widely known for their wide open hospitality and their hearty interest in everything that made for the public welfare.

Col. Belitz was a man of rare culture, a splendid musician and deeply interested in the drama and literature even in the early days of Kiel. A singing society and an amateur threatrical society were the result his interest awakening and fostering a love for the culture side of life. In all this work Mrs. Belitz enthusiastically seconded her husband's efforts. Never, even in the days of pioneer primitiveness and hard, relentless struggling, were the graces of culture and refinement ignored or lost sight of in their home. Like her husband, Mrs. Belitz was ever ready to assist those in need and minister to those who were suffering.

Nine children came to bless their union, three of whom, Lilly, Franklin and Henry, preceded their mother in death. Six, Mrs. J. Hoyer and Mrs. H. Lammers of Chicago, Mrs. G.A. Hipke and Dr. Alfred of Milwaukee, Dr. William of Cochrane, Wis., and Attorney Arthur of Madison besides one step-daughter, Mrs. Reinhard Schlichting, of Chilton survive.

Not long after the death of her husband in 1878, her health began to fail, and this in turn in the end brought on her mental breakdown from which she was destined never to rally or recover and for the past thirty years she was an inmate of the County hospital at Manitowoc.
Foot-sore and weary with the long, long journey, all unconscious of the great affliction which had befallen her - an affliction tragic almost as death itself- "God's finger touched her and she slept."
Mrs. Belitz was buried at Kiel on Monday, W. H. Luehr of Manitowoc, and old friend of the family, delivering the funeral oration. - August 27, 1910

Father was Johann Reinhard Schlichting.
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