Our German Roots Part 3
Continuation of Anton & Annie's family
DOROTHY BRUEMMER
We now come to the fourth child of Anton and Annie Bruemmer, named Dorothy. Born on September 19, 1907 Dorothy was their first born daughter but sadly died at age 2.
Looking up the history of public health in Illinois at that time, it appears that pneumonia, tuberculosis, diphtheria and typhoid fever were the three main diseases of the early 1900's. Check out this ad from the Chicago anti spitting campaign.
It would not be until 1907 when the State Board of Health received a $15,000 appropriation to provide for distribution of diphtheria antitoxin.
A law would soon be passed to give the State Board of Health authority over quarantine matters, to establish its duty to investigate the cause of dangerously contagious or infectious diseases, and to maintain a chemical and bacteriological laboratory.
However by that time, it was too late for sweet little Dorothy who died on May 25, 1910. The picture below is not her but an image of young girl around the same age.
Her obituary from The Quincy Daily Herald dated Thursday, May 26, 1910 reads the following:
Dorothy, the young daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Anton Bruemmer of 613 Jefferson street, died last night of bronchial pneumonia. The child was born in this city September 19 1907, and was therefore 2 years, 8 months and 6 days. Besides the parents, two brothers and one sister **survive.
The sister ** they refer to is the fourth child and second born daughter named Mildred Elizabeth Bruemmer who had been born earlier that year on February 23.
MILDRED ELIZABETH BRUEMMER
Mildred's first husband was George Alexander "Alex" Cleesen. Born on April 7, 1906 in Stover, Morgan County, Missouri, George was one of four children in the family of George William and Frances "Fannie" Leota (Fogle) Cleesen.
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Fred W (1904–1965)
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George Alexander (1906–1927)
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Jesse Jasper (1911–1933)
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Robert William (1917–1982)
Their father George William worked for the Robert Gair Paper Mill (see story below) as a crane operator. It was on one unfortunate day when George had been loading straw (to make paper) when suddenly an enormous bale of straw fell on him, causing him to fall from two stories up. The newspaper notices mentioned George as a good worker and well liked by his colleagues.
Although no photos could be found of George William, I was able to locate one of his wife Fannie. Below is Fannie with her second husband Clemens Bernard Jansen.
Robert Gair (photo below) is famous for the invention of the card box! Below are a few photos and the brief story of how the factory began!
In 1901, Martin R. Williams erected the first paper mill in Piermont. The rail yards on the pier, built in 1840 by the Erie Railroad, provided transportation for supplies in and out of the village. Fresh water, needed to produce paper, was supplied from the nearby Sparkill Creek. The Piermont Paper Company began production in 1902 and for 18 years the plant produced cardboard. Its principal customer was the Robert Gair Company.
In 1920, Robert Gair purchased the mill. He had become a leader in the paper industry in Manhattan and Brooklyn after the Civil War. In 1879, after a worker accidentally cut through 20,000 paper seed bags, Gair developed a method to cut and crease cardboard in a single operation introducing the world’s first affordable cardboard box. A full day's production was reduced to a mere two and a half hours.
Mildred and George Alexander were married in 1926. Yet not barely seven months into the marriage -another tragic accident would happen within the Cleesen family! George Cleesen would drown in the Mississippi river. Below is the story possibly written by a family descendant on the website, FIND A GRAVE
"George and his brother Jesse Cleesen, along with Carl Dickinson, rowed to the Missouri side of the Mississippi river to search for wild grapes on shore. That afternoon they decided they would swim in the river while there. George was pulled into a current. Mr. Dickinson, not a strong swimmer, tried to help him; but George Cleesen in his panic pulled him under, twice. The current pulled strongly upon George Cleesen. Jesse Cleesen frantically rowed toward them, and was able to save Mr. Dickinson, barely; but was not able to save his brother, George, who had disappeared too far under the surface."
These are excerpts from the newspaper - The Quincy Herald Whig, dated Friday, July 29, 1927:
A seventeen year old widow, who was a bride less than seven months ago, sat in the Read - Beck undertaking parlors, and wept bitterly, Friday morning, while companions told a coroner's jury of the drowning of her husband, George Alexander Cleesen, 21, in the Mississippi river, Thursday afternoon.
Cleesen was drowned near the Missouri shore, opposite the foot of Harrison street, at about 3:30 o'clock Thursday afternoon. He was swimming at the time with his younger brother, Jesse, and with Carl W. Dickinson, who was nearly drowned in a futile attempt to save the other man's life.
The body was recovered early Thursday evening. It was actually removed from the water on the Illinois side of the river, which placed the inquest under the jurisdiction of Coroner Louis Terlisner.
Only four witnesses testified, and the inquest lasted but half an hour, the jury returning a verdict of accidental drowning at 10:30 o'clock.
Mrs. Fannie L. Cleesen-Jensen, mother of the drowned man, told the coroner's jury that her son was born in Morgan county in southwestern Missouri, April 7, 1906. She was the last witness called.
George Alexander Cleesen came to Quincy with his parents about fourteen years ago, and had lived here ever since. He was married to Mildred Bruemmer in January of this year, and, since his marriage, had been living at 515 Payson Avenue.**
He was employed in the Gardner Governor company. His mother, three brothers, and a sister, all that survive him, live at 1325 South Front street. They are: Mrs. Fannie L. -Jensen, and Fred, Jesse, Robert, and Opal Jensen.
His father was killed in an accident at the Robert Gair paper mills, less than two years ago.
**The House At 515 Payson Ave.
Below are two pictures of his siblings, Robert and Opal (taken from her obit but hard clean up).
How absolutely devastating it must have been for Mildred, who was also pregnant with their first child. Their baby was a girl named Georgiann Mildred Cleesen born born on August 2, 1927. I am certain it took a lot of time to grieve and mourn the loss of her husband at such a young age.
However, Mildred would find love again and marry Harry Edward Brown.
The Family of Burther Edward 'Bert' and Sara Elizabeth Brown
Florence
Jennie
Harry
Eleanora
Harold
Burther Edward
Sarah Elizabeth
Harry Edward Brown was one of six children in the family of Burther Edward 'Bert' and Sarah Elizabeth (Moore) Brown.
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Florence Ethel (1900–1951)
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Jennie Elizabeth (1907–1988)
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Harry Edward (1909–1974)
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Harold E (1913-1974)
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Eleanora M (1916–)
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William Albert (1917–1919)-not yet born when above photo was taken
Born on April 9, 1988 in Kinderhook, Pick Illinois,their mother Sarah Elizabeth Moore was quite the beauty as you can see from the photo below.
Sarah's husband, Burther Edward 'Bert' was also born in the same town on September 13 in 1880. As shown in this 1918 draft registration Burther was a baker for the Bueter Bakery Co.
From my research online, it appears that Bueter's Bakery began as a bread shop and then continued to expand into a full bakery. It was quite well known in the area. especially during WW2, but later went bankrupt in 1976. The original Bueter's Bakery promotional materials from the 1930's-1940's can be found on ebay and are worth up to $140!
Harry as a young boy and the only known photo of him.
The date of marriage for Mildred and Harry was sometime around 1928-1929. A 1930's census shows Mildred working a presser for a local laundry business called, The Weems Laundry Company. For a time Harry worked there as well.
A 1940's draft registration, shows Harry working for Wm L Barrell Company Inc.
At some point prior to 1960, Mildred and Harry divorced. Mildred passed away on September 23, 1977 at the age of 67.
Her daughter Georgiann Mildred Cleesen married a James Fred Schultz (born March 8, 1924). They moved to Bloomington, Hennepin, Minnesota and had three boys Richard Lee, Gary and Roger. Georgiann passed away at age 60 on March 22, 1988. Her husband James lived to age 79 passing away on September 15, 2003.
VIRGIL HERBERT BRUEMMER
Virgil Herbert was the fifth child (and third born son) of Anton and Annie. Born on January 5 1913, Virgil had blonde hair, blue eyes and stood at "5 10". This WW2 draft registration shows Virgil working for the once popular Boekenhoff Bakery.
Boekenhoff Bakery.
In 1928, Virgil would marry Clara Carrie Wieprecht of Warsaw Illinois.
Born July 30, 1914, Clara Carrie Wieprecht was one of five children in the family of Louis C and Katherine (Koeppe) Wieprecht Sr.
Her father Louis was born December 14, 1874 in Witzenhausen, Werra-Meissner-Kreis, Hessen, Germany. Witzenhausen is a small town in the Werra-Meißner-Kreis area of northeastern Hesse, Germany as shown in the map below.
CHILDREN OF LOUIS AND KATHERINE
Her mother Katherine Koeppe was born on March 21, 1882 in Wilhelmshaven, a coastal town in Lower Saxony, Germany as shown in this map below.
The Wieprecht family immigrated to America in 1883 and the Koeppe family in 1890. Like so many of our German ancestors, they too lived in Quincy Adams Illinois.
To my absolute delight, I was able to find pictures of the family as shown below. Thankfully one descendant of the family made sure to put names on all the family members in these photos. My favorite photo is the one of two sisters and two sister in laws who were all pregnant at the same time!
Virgil and Clara were married in 1928. At that time, Virgil was 15 and Clara 14. While their ages may seem quite young, keep in mind that in the state of Illinois, during that time age of marriage from 1819-1974 was as follows:
Males 21 and Females 18.
With parental consent, 17 for males and 14 for females. Changed to 18 for males and 16 for females in 1905. Virgil and Clara had no children.
Sadly, on January 28, 1957, Virgil passed away at the very young age of 44. Exact cause of death is unknown.
At that time, his older sister Mildred was no longer married to Harry Edward Brown.
Three years later, guess who got married to each other?! That's right Clara married Harry Brown on March 4, 1960. So she became a sister in law twice, in the family with two husbands!
Harry Edward Brown lived to age 64 and passed away on July 1, 1974. Clara lived to age 95 passing away on December 22, 1995. They had no children.
Harry Brown
LEROY BERNARD RUSSELL BRUEMMER
Born on August 21 in 1919, Leroy was the 6th child and fourth born son of Anton and Annie Bruemmer.
A WW2 draft registration, describes Leroy as 6 feet in height,with blonde hair and blue eyes! In 1940, Leroy worked for the U S War Dept Civilian Conservation Corps.
As described by the website Wikipedia
"This was a voluntary government work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28.
Robert Fechner was the first director of this agency, succeeded by James McEntee following Fechner's death. The CCC was a major part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal that supplied manual labor jobs related to the conservation and development of natural resources in rural lands owned by federal, state, and local governments. The CCC was designed to supply jobs for young men and to relieve families who had difficulty finding jobs during the Great Depression in the United States. The largest enrollment at any one time was 300,000. Through the course of its nine years in operation, three million young men took part in the CCC, which provided them with shelter, clothing, and food, together with a wage of $30 (equivalent to $1000 in 2021) per month ($25 of which had to be sent home to their families)."
In 1937, Leroy married, Helen Elizabeth Bunte.
Helen was one of six children in the family of Samuel Charles and Myta (Williams) Bunte. Both parents were born in Adams County Illinois. A 1920's census describes Samuel Charles job as a merchant working on the Street Railway. The website, Encyclopedia of Chicago wrote this about the Street Railway itself:
Chicago had one of the largest street railway systems in the world before it was replaced by buses in the 1950s. In 1929 on the eve of the Great Depression, red streetcars operated by Chicago Surface Lines (CSL) were a familiar sight on arterial streets and carried almost 900 million riders—more than the city's other transit systems and automobiles combined. Yet within 30 years the streetcars were gone.
Omnibuses, large carriages seating up to 30 people, first appeared in Chicago in 1852 to haul travelers between the new railroad stations and hotels. The first street railway, or horse car line, opened in 1859. Horse cars, which typically seated 20 passengers on benches, were pulled by one or two horses along rails laid on the streets. They survived on lightly used lines until 1906.
Leroy and Helen had no children. Leroy died at age 69 of natural causes on July 19, 1989. A card from the U. S. Department of Veterans' Affairs, BIRLS File- had this inscription:
Leroy was skilled in baking. He enlisted as a Private on January 18 1943 in. He served in the U. S. military from January 18 1943 through January 17 1946.
Helen died at age 77 on June 9, 1996.
The last child born to Anton and Annie was a son, they named Arthur Edward Bruemmer. Born on June 26, 1923, this young infant lived only three days, passing away on June 29th. He is buried with his siblings and parents in the Calvary Cemetery, Quincy Adams Illinois.
ARTHUR EDWARD BRUEMMER
