Johann Frederick Theodore Fluegge, was born February 5, 1834 in Altoona, Germany, the oldest of the three children born to Johann Andreas Gottlieb, son of Paul Jacob and Dorthea Maria Linders Fluegge, and Margaretha Maria Wordemann. He was confirmed in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Altoona, the same place where his parents were married July 1, 1834. His brothers were Hans, born in 1838 and Gustave, born in 1839. In 1842 a great fire ravaged the Hamburg area, it started in Altoona Germany at the shipyards. That year on June 29, 1842, Johann Andreas Gotlieb and Margarethia Maria Wordemann Fluegge died leaving the small boys alone. Their grandparents, Paul Jacob, a carpenter and Dorthea Linders Fluegge took them in. In 1853 he emigrated to America with an uncle.

In 1863 he met and married Heneritta Maria Fredrike Bruhn in Morrison, II. They moved to Jefferson., II (a farming community, where DePaul University is now that was later annexed to the City of Chicago.) They attended St. Paul Evg. Lutheran Church, on Fullerton and Orchard in Chicago. They had three children, Anna Maria Henrieritta who married John Mitchell. a Chicago, Train Conductor, Wilhelmina Christine, who married Arthur Horn Whitworth from England, and they had one son, Arthur Whitworth, Jr. and Edward Herman Karl, who married Agnes Heavey, and they had three children. Theodore Fluegge worked at several jobs while raising his family; he worked as a florist, a cigar retailer at a shop on Rush and the river in Chicago and as a farmer. Henneritta Bruhn Fluegge died around 1870.

In 1900 Dena's father gave a portion of land that he owned to Dena and Theodore. The family moved to Bensenville, IL. March of 1905, Theodore Fluegge died. He is buried in Frieden' s Cemetery in Bensenville, IL.