Sepia Saturday- Sort of a love letter

Like most men of my father's generation, he didn't often express his feelings. I was surprised to find this "semi" love letter among my mother's keepsakes.  It was written in 1944.

Apparently my mother (and we three kids) were staying with relatives in her hometown of Dixon, Ill. while my father was in Watseka, Ill. where he worked.  He was looking for a house. These cities were quite far apart so they weren't seeing each other very often. He must have been very lonesome and he made reference to my mother being despondent.

Since this is a little hard to read I'll tell you a little of what it says:

He had written his last letter at work and everyone marveled that he would write such a long letter to a "mere" wife and that if it was a girlfriend it would be different. He replied that she WAS his girlfriend.

He goes on to say that my mother's card playing friends thought he looked lonely and he said he was lonely but none of them took the hint so he thought he was going to keep "baching".

I told you it was a "semi" love letter.


It goes on for 6 pages but mostly about work and house hunting. He mentioned that he looked at a house for $4000 that he thought could be had for $3500. Those were the days!!!

For some reason he enclosed the phone bill and there was a call to Dixon for $1.45 which must have been a fortune in those days. So apparently they were also talking on the phone a lot.

He always ended his letters with a drawing for the kids.

 

He wasn't much of an artist but I love these anyway.

 The happy couple before they were married.

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SEPIA SATURDAY- Napoleon's Body Guard

Barthomeus Theiss and Margaret Zillis Theiss- my great great
grandparents.

At Niederhilbersheim, Germany, on October 14, 1782  Bartholomaeus Theiss was born.  He served with the army for eight years in its struggles against Napoleon before he was taken prisoner by the French. Napoleon reviewed his captives and asked each soldier his former profession. When asked, Bartholomaeus presented his sword and said, "This Sire." "We must take care of this man," said Napoleon and transferred him to other quarters. He soon became a member of Napoleon's guard and served the master he idolized through campaigns in Italy, Prussia, Austria and Russia. 

Bartholomaeus rode a splendid black charger. So long had man and horse been together that mutual understanding and devotion existed between the soldier and his mount. In the midst of the terrible saber fighting his right hand was severly injured by a stroke of the enemy's sword. Instinctively recognizing his master's plight his horse backed out of the line of combat to a place of safety where the rider could wrap the injured hand in his neckerchief, wind the reins around the useless arm and firmly grasp his saber in his left hand. Then without command or guidance the horse tore back into the battle where the soldier fought with all his left handed might till his strength ebbed. Three times the unurged horse retreated till the rider recovered, then again charged into the fiercest fighting, carrying the wounded man safely in and out of battle till French victory ended the bloody encounter and the wound could be attended. 
(I suspect this story might be a family myth- but who knows?)

When Bartholomaeus left Germany he said he didn't want his sons to be soldiers and wanted to get them to America because he could foresee years of struggles in the various European territories. This vision was accurate because the wars continued throughout Europe at regular intervals. 

At the time, however,  his sons were bound for military service and were not permitted to leave the country.  So he used a common means of securing passage for them. He drilled holes in four trunks, put the boys in and took them on board ship and released them once out to sea.

Bartholomaeus Theiss came to Sublette, Illinois  in the year 1846 with his wife, four sons and two daughters. Members of the Theiss family built the first Catholic church in Sublette, now known as St. Marys church. Both the church and the adjoining cemetery are kept beautiful to this very day by the descendants of the original Theiss family. 

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SEPIA SATURDAY- Four generations

Four generations on my mother's side:

My great grandmother, Katherine White;  my grandmother, Bessie Reis; my mother, Arleen Reis;

my great great grandmother, Rosa Daehler (about 1916)

My great grandmother, my mother, grandmother and me. (1940)

My father's side: My grandfather, Petrus Finwall (the one who was killed in an accident with a fire truck [story in a previous post, Feb. 20]),  Great Grandmother, Josephine Mefford; Great Aunt, Ella; Grandmother Della Finwall; Uncle Glenn (the one who saved the family in the accident with the fire truck). See more about heroic Glenn on March 18 post. This photo is taken in back of the house that my Grandfather built in Chicago.
My sister and I went to see this house a few years ago and it was still standing. I made an altered tin using this photo, another photo of the front and the census page listing the family at this address in 1910.

My father's maternal side; Great Grandma Mefford; Me, Grandma Gilbert (Finwall); my father, Gil. (About 1940)



The Sepia Saturday Site is actually on vacation today for the Easter Holiday.  So, if you go to the site it won't be as complete as usual, but I think some people are still posting.
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SEPIA SATURDAY-MY FATHER IN THE CIVILIAN CONSERVATION CORPS

The Civilian Conservation Corps was a life saver for unemployed young men during the depression. Wouldn't it be wonderful if it could be resurrected now?

I'm not really sure that this is a photo from the CCC's  but I don't know what else it could have been. My father wasn't able to join the military because of a heart condition.  It seems odd that they would have issued the CCC boys rifles with bayonets.  I do know that he was in the CCC's, though.  He enjoyed the experience.

It looks like they must have put on "amateur theatricals" at the camp. Or else they were a bunch of "cross dressers".  This is my father on the left and his brother, Bob, on the right.
Don't they make beautiful women?

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a public work relief program for unemployed men, providing vocational training through the performance of useful work related to conservation and development of natural resources in the United States^[2] from 1933 to 1942. As part of the New Deal legislation proposed by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR), the CCC was designed to aid relief of the unemployment resulting from the Great Depression while implementing a general natural resource conservation program on federal, state, county and municipal lands in every U.S. state, including the territories of Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The CCC became one of the more popular New Deal programs among the general public, providing economic relief, rehabilitation and training for a total of 3 million men. The CCC also provided a comprehensive work program that combined conservation, renewal, awareness and appreciation of the nation's natural resources. The CCC was never considered a permanent program and depended on emergency and temporary legislation for its existence. On June 30, 1942 Congress voted to eliminate funding for the CCC, formally ceasing active operation of the program.

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SEPIA SATURDAY- My mother helps convict "The Mad Poet Of Amboy"

My mother's father left his family of five children during the depression. My mother was the oldest so she started working at a very young age.  Her first job was cleaning houses but she worked her way up to being the secretary for the State's Attorney of Lee County, Illinois.  She had gotten a college scholarship after high school but the family didn't have the money for transportation to the college.  

I don't remember her telling us about working for the states attorney or this case but this copy of "Inside Detective" (1935) with her picture in it is with our family photos.

This was an interesting crime story about a poet who apparently killed the girl he was enamored with.

It kind of reminds me of the story I posted about last week. A poet was hit and killed by a school bus while drawing a flower in chalk in the street in front of his girlfriend's house. Well, I guess they're only a tiny bit alike- they both involve a poet and a girlfriend.

I'm not sure when this was taken. Pretty smile, pretty dress!

My mother moved to the big city of Chicago, worked as a secretary there, met and then married my father who was attending The University of Chicago.

The next time she was ever involved in the criminal justice system was about 20 years later when we lived in Pomona, California and she was the secretary to the warden at the California State Prison at Chino.  She had some interesting experiences there, but that will have to wait for another Sepia Saturday.
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SEPIA SATURDAY Beach Party

My Uncle Glenn, Aunt Phyllis, Unidentified Floozy, and Uncle Bob at Sunova Beach. (About 1937)

You met my handsome Uncle Bob a couple of weeks ago and My Uncle Glenn was mentioned a week before that.

Uncle Glenn was the 11 year old hero who steered the car to the side of the road after his father was killed by being hit in the face with a piece of a fire truck tire.

Uncle Bob was put into an orphanage with my father and their other brother, Don, so that their mother could go to work after she became a widow. Uncle Glenn was the oldest and went to live with an aunt and uncle.

I don't know why my Aunt Phyllis was completely clothed while the others are wearing fashionable bathing attire.

Don't you love the name of the beach?

Uncle Glenn was the oldest of the Finwall boys and the most long-lived. He almost made it to 100.
He died in 2006 at 99 years old.
We dedicated one of our painting books to my Uncle Glen.

One of his paintings titled "The Old Miner"

A self portrait.

SEPIA SATURDAY The ghost of things to come

 

When I first saw this photo I was startled to see myself dressed in a vintage dress and holding a baby on my lap. It's actually my maternal great grandmother (Katherine White)  but she looks eerily like me. My grandmother is in the middle of the picture. On the wall in the background is a portrait of my great- great grandmother. 

Jesse Edwin and Katherine White on their wedding day and their 50th anniversary.  She doesn't look so much like me in either of these pictures.  

A poem written about their life was published in a booklet given out at the anniversary party. Here's an excerpt: 

Once Edwin took her for a ride

but she almost did skin his hide:

for river waters she did feel

when Edwin's buggy broke a wheel.

But this young Edwin, he was brave

and to his sweet, one day, he gave,

as proudly as some foreign king,

 the nicest little diamond ring.

Now Katherine dear was very shy,

she could not look him in the eye:

but with a low-toned voice she said:

"The sooner the better, if we wed".

Whoever wrote this was really stretching to make things rhyme. I'll spare you the rest and just say that they lived on a farm in Sublette, Illinois and had 12 children. 10 of them lived. 

 Jesse's ancestors, William and Susanna White came over on the Mayflower.  One of their sons, Peregrine, was born on the ship while it was anchored off of Cape Cod. His cradle still exists and is in the Pilgrim Hall Museum.

My ancestor was Peregrine's older brother, Resolved. 

William died the first winter and Susanna then married Edward Winslow who later became a governor of Plymouth.

SEPIA SATURDAY- Uncle Bob

 

This is my Uncle Bob who was in the orphanage with my father.(see last Sepia Saturday)

They both turned out O.K. after their traumatic experience. My father graduated from the University of Chicago and became an engineer. My Uncle Bob also graduated from there and then joined the Air Force and became a pilot. Unfortunately while on a training mission over the ocean in Alaska his plane went down and he was never found. This was certainly another traumatic experience for my father as they were best friends as well as brothers and had been through so much together.

This is my uncle's desk in Alaska with a picture of me on it.

SEPIA SATURDAY

I've joined a group called Sepia Saturday http://sepiasaturday.blogspot.com  Every Saturday (when I remember) I'll post a photo from my ancestry.

When my father was 3 yrs. old he was riding in the car with his family. A speeding fire truck drove by, it's tire came apart and hit his father in the face, killing him instantly. His brother, Glenn, who was about 11 years old,  grabbed the wheel and steered the car to the side of the road.

His mother, my grandmother, had to then get a job to support the family.. There were no day care centers for children so she sent the oldest boy, Glenn to live with his aunt. She had no one else to take in the younger boys, my father, Gil, Don and Bob. Her only solution was an orphanage.(Gil and Bob are 4th and 5th from the left in the front row. I don't know which one is Don.)

My father told us sad stories of standing at the front window waiting for his mother to come and take him home. Of course, she visited as much as possible and brought them home as soon as she was able.

My favorite part of this picture is the little boy second from the left in the back row.  I don't know if my father pointed this out to us or we discovered it ourselves but we were astounded to think that that long ago there was such a thing as giving the finger. We loved it! When we should have been feeling sorry for my poor father's predicament.