Louisa Zecha
Francisca Louisa Zecha (1848–1939), usually known as Louisa Zecha, was a prominent, colonial Indonesian community leader and the Indo-Bohemian matriarch of the Lauw-Sim-Zecha family, part of the 'Cabang Atas' gentry of the Dutch East Indies (today Indonesia). She attracted significant attention due to her controversial interracial marriages to two Peranakan Chinese magnates, Lauw Tek Lok, Luitenant der Chinezen of Bekasi and Sim Keng Koen, Kapitein der Chinezen of Sukabumi. The posts of Kapitein and Luitenant der Chinezen were high-ranking civil administration positions in the Dutch colonial bureaucracy. Zecha's community leadership, philanthropy, personal bravery and longevity earned her widespread respect and admiration in colonial society by the time she died in 1939. Biography Born in 1848 in Batavia, Java, Francisca Louisa Zecha was the daughter of a Bohemian engraver and adventurer, Josef Zecha. Her first husband, Lauw Tek Lok, was a prominent and wealthy landlord who served as the Luitenant der Chinezen of Bekasi for 28 years from 1854 until his death in 1882. The couple had five children: Christian Tjeng Soey Lauw-Zecha, Maximiliaan Theodoor Tjeng Kiet Lauw-Zecha, Louis Tjeng Bie Lauw-Zecha, Emilia Joe Nio Lauw-Zecha and Cornelia Sebastiana Gobang Nio Lauw-Zecha. After her first husband's death, Zecha married his former