52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - 2025; Week 18 "Gravestones"

CLEANING A GRAVESTONE:

I am not necessarily a fan of social media per se but I do use Facebook for the many "research" related groups that are available on that site.

One of the groups that I belong to is devoted to memories of living in Benton Harbor and Saint Joseph, Michigan and contains a wealth of information on the history of my home town.

Recently there was a post on the site from a gentleman who announced that he had a "Gravestone Cleaning" business that he had just  begun and he was interested in spreading the word on this service.  He offered the first person who would respond a free cleaning of a family gravestone.  I responded to his post and, amazingly, he answered me that he would be willing to clean a gravestone of my choosing for free.  

My maternal grandparents, Joseph and Ella (Kolberg) Kijak, are buried in the Lincoln Township Cemetery in Stevensville, Michigan and I selected their gravestone for cleaning. I exchanged a few messages with this gentleman, who told me his name was Samuel, and he agreed to clean my grandparent's gravestone.

My grandparents bought the burial site and gravestone in 1955.  My grandfather passed away on October 23, 1960 and my grandmother on May 29, 1973.  Since I moved back to the area in 1997, I have visited their grave many times each year, placed flowers there every summer and have noticed the stone becoming more and more faded.  They had selected a stone at that time, with the engraving on both sides, and both sides were definitely seeing the effects of the weather and the last 70 years.

Kijak gravestone, 2025, before cleaning:

After Samuel finished his cleaning the results were amazing.

Kijak gravestone, 2025, after cleaning:

These are pictures from each side of the gravestone taken by Samuel.  I went to the cemetery the next day and the pictures don't even do the results justice, as the final results were perfect; just as though the stone was just placed.

I was very pleased with the work that Samuel did and I was happy to give him permission to use my pictures for his advertising.  

I wish him much success with his new business venture and I may use him in the future for the gravestone of my great-grandparents.

Joseph and Ella Kijak, August 8, 1945, Ella's 50'th birthday:

copyright 2025, Cheryl J. Schulte 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - 2025; Week 17 "Favorite Place"

THE PORCH SWING:

My earliest memories of visiting my maternal grandparents include their porch swing.  Though I was born in St. Joseph, Michigan, where they lived, my parents and I moved to the Detroit suburbs when I was a toddler and only visited St. Joseph in the summer and on Easter week-end.  I was always excited to visit my grandparents because their home and the town were happy places to be.

My grandparents had a two-story home on Pleasant Street in St. Joseph.  Kitty corner from their home was the local Catholic church and school and directly across the street was the Catholic convent where the nuns lived.  The street wasn't very long, perhaps containing 10 homes at the most, between Court Street and Church Street.  Being in the downtown district everything of enjoyment was within walking distance. 

St. Joseph, Michigan downtown State Street: 

There were the stores to shop or browse in:

Murphy's Dime store with the wooden floors (which still exists today under another name) where my mother had worked right after high school.

Gillespie's Drug Store and Soda Fountain where we would get an ice cream sundae. 

St. Joseph Band Shell along the Bluff of Lake Michigan and the St. Joseph River where Sunday performances were held by the St. Joseph Municipal Band:

We could walk down a staircase from the bluff to the railroad tracks and a little further we would be on the sand by Lake Michigan.  

There was also Silver Beach with the famous Carousel (which has now been restored).  

Wilbur's Ice Cream on Broad Street which had the best assortment of flavors and where we would stop on our way home from the band concerts.

Wilson's Bakery where my grandmother would visit at 6 am on the mornings when we were visiting in order to purchase some tasty treats including the 7 sisters coffee cake that my mother loved.

Along Main Street, just steps from my grandparent's home was Bittner's Meat Market where my grandmother would buy fresh meat and poultry to make meals for us.  I always thought her roast chicken was the absolute best and now I wonder was it because (1) it was a fresh chicken or (2) was it because she used a gas oven.  In any case I have never been able to replicate her roast chicken.

But the thing that gave me the most pleasure was the porch swing that hung on my grandparent's front porch.  It provided a place to sit in peace and quiet, a place for reflection and calm.  It resembled this swing:

There were other chairs on the porch and my grandparents would graciously allow me to sit on the swing while they would take the chairs.  We would talk and they would always be interested in what was going on in my life.  After my grandfather passed away when I was 12, whenever we would visit, my grandmother and mother would sit on the porch with me and we would just relax and enjoy the flowers my grandmother had around the house.  I spent countless hours on the swing myself reading and relaxing.  

When I was around 16 I decided that I wanted to live in St. Joseph.  I dreamt about it constantly, made journal entries about it and even after I was in my 20's and my grandmother was also gone, I would take vacations to St. Joe and stay with relatives.  It was the place where I was the most at peace and the happiest.

The years went by and in 1997 I finally achieved my dream when my mother and I moved back to St. Joe after the death of my father.  My mother was able to enjoy 19 years back in her home town and it is now 28 years since I have been back here as well.

The house on Pleasant Street is gone. That side of the street was demolished and a banking complex was built in it's place. (The Catholic church, school and convent building still exist on the opposite side of the street.)  I have walked the street many times trying to picture just where the house was and have determined it had sat where the drive-up lane of Fifth Third Bank sits today:

But in my mind's eye I can still see the house as it was when I was growing up and I can picture the porch swing that I spent many hours relaxing on.  Unfortunately the porch swing is not shown in this portrait but I can see it in my memory:

Good memories of happy and peaceful times along with continuing feelings of contentment and joy living in my home town.

copyright 2025, Cheryl J. Schulte 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - 2025; Week 16 "Easter Memories"

EASTER MEMORIES ARE THE GREATEST:

With Easter just a few days away, it is a perfect time to write about my favorite yearly holiday - Easter.  While other holidays were special in their own way, Easter was the holiday that I have the most intense pleasant memories of.

I was born in St. Joseph, Michigan.  My mother was from St. Joseph as well where she grew up while my father was from Detroit.  When I was a young girl we moved to the Detroit suburbs where I grew up and where my brother was born.  We took summer vacations back to St. Joseph to visit my grandparents and all my mother's many relatives and they were fun times.

Easter was the special holiday every year where we always went back to St. Joseph to celebrate.  Two of my mother's brothers and their families also came from the Chicago area to spend the holiday as well.

We had traditions that never failed to excite me even as the years went by.  We always dressed up and went to church as a family group and my grandparents were so proud to have their family together.  Even after my grandfather died in 1960 we continued to gather as a family with my grandmother and church was a special occasion.  The church was always crowded on Easter and one year the uncles were dragging their feet about leaving the house and when we arrived at the church there were no pews left.  The service was also being played through the speakers into the basement and we had to sit in the basement fellowship hall for the service.  The uncles never made that mistake again!

My grandmother always had Easter decorations around the house.  A glass hen candy dish was always filled with chocolate covered eggs and it sat on the buffet in her dining room.  I have this candy dish now and continue to fill it with Hershey's chocolate eggs each Easter:

There was always a lamb cake as the centerpiece on the dining room table; a white frosted cake my grandmother made from a lamb mold and which was covered with coconut.  I have this mold today and my mother and I have made the cake a few times over the years.  It is not the easiest to maneuver when removing the lamb.  Those little ears don't seem to want to stay on and we have been known to use toothpicks under the frosting to keep them in place; we just need to remember not to bite into the toothpick.  Here is "Lucy Lamb" in 2000; the chocolate fudge version:

The centerpiece on the buffet, however, was my grandmother's home made Easter egg tree.  In the 1940's she boiled eggs and colored them, poked holes in the ends and blew out the insides, cut a small opening in each egg, filled with artificial flowers, etc and with the insertion of pipe cleaners hung them on the tree using branches she collected from the grounds around Lake Michigan.  This was displayed in a large vase every year without fail.

Today the eggs are down to 23 which is amazing given they are over 80 years old.  I treasure these eggs and wrap them carefully.  A few years ago I had them on my buffet in my living room and the windows were open with a nice breeze blowing in.  Suddenly I heard a big crash and when going into the living room I was horrified to see the Easter egg tree had fallen onto the carpet.  Amazingly not one egg was broken!  I know that was my grandmother in heaven making sure that her decoration was still safe:

This Easter I will again have my grandmother's Easter decorations on display, and though Easter is much different now, I still have the greatest memories of this holiday as well as great memories of my special grandmother.  

This is Easter, 1961, the first Easter after the death of my grandfather when my family and the families of my two uncles gathered again in St. Joseph with my grandmother. 

Leslie Kijak, Ella Kolberg Kijak, Eloris Kijak Schulte and Harris Kijak, Easter, 1961:

All are gone now but the memories remain!

copyright 2025, Cheryl J. Schulte 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - 2025; Week 15 "Fortune"

MY GRANDMOTHER, THE LANDLADY:

This week's topic in the "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks" challenge is "Fortune".  My post will be a different take on the word "fortune".

My maternal Kijak grandparents had many homes in their life.  Most of the homes were rentals; they purchased a home and farm property in the early 1920's, and my mother was born in this home, but during the depression they lost the home and property.  It wasn't until later that they were able to purchase their own home in St. Joseph, Michigan.

The home was large - it had 2 bedrooms and a bath, living room, dining room, kitchen on the main floor but another 4 bedrooms and a bathroom on the second floor.  At first my mother's 3 brothers each had a bedroom on the second floor and my grandfather's father, who lived with them, had the 4th bedroom.  But as their sons grew and left home, and after my grandfather's father passed away in 1945, my grandparents decided to rent out the upstairs rooms to make a little extra money.  "Little" is the operative word here!  I will say that there was a separate entrance to these rooms so that nobody passed through the house itself on their way to their rooms.  

818 Pleasant Street, St. Joseph, Michigan:

These rooms were offered strictly as a sleeping room with no meals offered.  The rooms each had a bed, dresser, closet and the shared bathroom down the hall.  Because of the shared bathroom she only rented to men. My grandmother made the beds each day, changed the linens and towels and cleaned the rooms.  For that work she charged the mammoth price of $1 per day or $7 per week.  I will say that she always had all 4 rooms rented.  Many of her renters remained for many years until she sold the home in 1970 and moved into a senior citizens complex.  When her family would come to visit, such as on Easter, she would inform her renters that her family was coming for x amount of days and they would find other accommodations for those days and then would return after we would all leave.  

Yes, the cost of living was much lower in the 1940's but $7 a week per room did not add much to my grandmother's income.  She was a hard worker and a pleasant landlady and she never had any issues with her renters.

UNTIL...one tenant came and stayed quite a while with no issues.  He was agreeable and followed the rules.  However, when he chose to leave he left behind something that caused a big concern for my grandmother.

In cleaning his room after he vacated my grandmother noticed a box left behind on the shelf in the closet.  In looking through the box she was perplexed - what were all these apparatuses?  She asked the husband of one of her nieces and he told her that it looked like coin counterfeiting equipment and he advised she call the police. 

The police were called and indeed it was equipment used in counterfeiting coin.  My grandmother answered questions and this progressed to a federal case.  She eventually had to go to Kalamazoo, Michigan to the Federal Court Building to testify in this matter.  

Whatever happened to the perpetrator I don't know.  But I do know that it frightened my grandmother to think that such activity was going on in her own home without her knowledge. 

Fortune - My grandmother certainly never made a fortune in her lifetime despite hard work and dedication.  But she did have the experience of seeing somebody else's interpretation of fortune albeit in a felonious manner.

copyright 2025, Cheryl J. Schulte 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - 2025; Week 14 "Multiples"

THE SCHLUESSLER TWINS:

In all my years of genealogical research I have not uncovered evidence of many multiple births in my direct line.  Recently I did learn from newly released church books from Tangen, Kreis Bütow, Pommern, Preußen (now Tagowie, County Bytow, Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland)  that my 4th great grandfather, Joachim Kautz was a twin.  Joachim and his twin brother, George Kautz, were born August 12, 1759 in Tangen to parents Joachim Kautz and Anna Marie Jarke. This was an interesting discovery for me and only the second set of twins in my direct line.  Definitely more research will be needed on these twins to see if I can flesh out more information on them.

For the purposes of this post, though, I am featuring my great-grandmother and her twin brother.  Emilie Auguste Christina Schluessler and her twin brother, Albert August Christian Schluessler, were born November 25, 1876 in Sterling Township, Macomb County, Michigan to parents Wilhelm Schluessler and Emilie Schauer as their 4th and 5th children.  As I was 15 when my great-grandmother passed away I did know her well and she often discussed the fact that she was a twin.

Both Emilie and Albert were baptized on December 3, 1876 at St. John's Lutheran Church in Fraser, Macomb County, Michigan.  It is interesting to note that their two middle names mirrored each other.  Each baby had 3 godparents but none of their godparents were family members.  

Eventually Emilie would marry George Wellhausen on February 14, 1895 at St. John's and twin brother, Albert would marry Anna Auguste Quandt (Annie) on September 4, 1909 in Detroit.  Both families settled in the Utica/Sterling Township, Michigan areas and raised their respective families there.  

Albert Schluessler passed away on November 7, 1944 in Utica and he is buried in Utica Cemetery.  His wife, Anna (Annie), 14 years younger than him lived to the age of 102 passing away on February 25, 1993 in Utica, Michigan.  She is buried with Albert in Utica Cemetery.

My great-grandmother, Emilie Schluessler Wellhausen, passed away on May 25, 1963 in St. Clair Shores, Michigan and is buried with her husband, George Wellhausen, in Utica Cemetery as well.  George Wellhausen died on April 8, 1938 in Utica.

Left to right:  Emilie Schluessler Wellhausen, Annie Quandt Schluessler, Albert Schluessler, Helena Schluessler Herz Rine and son Edwin Herz, Catherine Quandt (mother of Annie Quandt Schluessler).  Picture was taken before 1928:

This is all pretty much dry material in the research on one's family.  While names, dates and places are vital, other interesting facts add flavor to the story.

When I began my research in the 1970's, I questioned my grandmother, Ella Wellhausen Schulte, about her family.  She mentioned to me one day that she still had an aunt living.  This surprised me as my grandmother was then 82 years old herself.  She explained that the wife of her Uncle Albert (her mother's twin brother) was still living as her aunt had been much younger than her uncle.  In reality Annie Quandt Schluessler was only 6 years older than my grandmother.

I suggested that we go and visit her aunt but my grandmother didn't feel inclined to do that.  She made excuses such as "Aunt Annie won't remember me", "I haven't seen or talked to her in years", etc.  I took it upon myself one day to just telephone Aunt Annie in Utica.  I explained who I was and she was very gracious and pleased to hear from someone in the family.  Of course, she knew who my grandmother was and she invited us to come visit her.  She also mentioned another niece, Helen Steffen, and wondered if she could come with us to visit her as well.  I set it up with her and THEN told my grandmother!

Once everything was arranged and my grandmother was assured that her Aunt Annie was eager to see us my grandmother was on board.  We contacted my grandmother's cousin, Helen Rine Steffen, who was also excited to pay Aunt Annie a visit.  

We found Aunt Annie, at 88 years young, to be gracious and pleasant.  She had baked a cake and served us cake and coffee.  She had a beautiful home where she still lived independently and showed us her beautiful flower gardens that she tended herself.  Her daughter-in-law had come to visit as well and we had a wonderful afternoon.

Aunt Annie Schluessler (in center) with nieces, Ella Wellhausen Schulte and Helen Rine Steffen in 1978:

Not long after my grandmother gave me a box of old photos and what did I find but a photo of these same 3 women, standing in the same position, dated 1918 - 60 years previous.

Aunt Annie Schluessler (center) with nieces, Ella Wellhausen Schulte and Helen Rine Steffen in 1918:

Undoubtedly they had seen each other during the 60 year interval but it was an interesting photo in any case and another example of "multiples"!  

copyright 2025, Cheryl J. Schulte