52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - 2025; Week 31 "My Grandmother, The Poet"

MY TALENTED GRANDMOTHER:

My maternal grandmother, Ella Emma Louise Kolberg Kijak, was a very talented person.  Not only was she an excellent wife, mother and grandmother, she was a talented cook and baker, a landlady, a volunteer at her local hospital and at her church, a gardener and exceptional at crafting, sewing and even a poet in 2 languages.

Ella Kolberg Kijak with her flowers:

My grandmother was very loyal to her church, Trinity Lutheran in St. Joseph, Michigan.  She took part in many of the organizations and activities there.  One of her activities was as a member of the Ladies Aid Society.

On more than one occasion, over the years, the Ladies Aid would present a little skit to the members as the entertainment for that month.  My grandmother came up with a unique presentation multiple times for this group.

She found a men's tuxedo at a rummage sale and she would put on the tuxedo and recite the following poem to the delight of the ladies in the group.  She would also do it with a bit of a German dialect which added to the performance.

Here is her poem:

I vill tole you bout dat gal of mine, she looks so neat, she dress so fine, she came from Deutchland on the Rhine, a couple of vks ago.

She crossed de salty vater sea, und come unto America, she left her own dear Germany, because she lofts me so.

Her eyes ver blue like green, she's the sweetest ever seen, und I love that gal completely, und I know she lofts me, too.

So give me your attention, und a couple of facts I'll mention, I vill tell you my intention, ist to stick to her like glue.

She's got such a funny name, but she ist not to blame it's a name dat she got from her vater all da same.

It's Katerina, Wilhelmina, Leibensteina, Magdalena, Dinglingsbender, Hochenbenzenslager vas her name.

Her vater he don't like me, ven I come around he fight me, mit a great big club he strike me, und he hit me on de mouth.

But I love dat gal like life, I vill make dat gal my vife.

Goodness, gracious,ain't it nice, don't you vish dat you vas me, for she ist my whole attraction, I'm as happy as can be!

Over the years, I heard my grandmother recite this poem many times until I was able to memorize it and can do so to this day.

In 1993 when I made a trip to Germany to visit my brother and his family who were stationed there, I remember teaching my 10 year old niece this poem as well.

Memories - carried down from generation to generation!

copyright 2025, Cheryl J. Schulte

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - 2025; Week 30 "Pets"

MY LOVE FOR POODLES:

Even from an early age, I had a great love for poodles.  As a tribute to my most current pet, a beautiful female black poodle, named Chloe, who I just lost a few weeks ago, I decided to write a post on the dogs that I have loved.

Chloe on May 16, 2025 at the age of 14:

As a young child I can remember the first dog we had while growing up in East Detroit, Michigan.  I don't remember where the dog came from or where my parents adopted it from but he was a male cocker spaniel that my brother and I named "Sparkles".  He was strictly an outdoor dog, we had a nice dog house for him and he was happy to be outside.  I can remember one winter when it was horribly cold out that my brother and I begged to bring Sparkles in the house.  My parents relented and that poor dog was petrified in the house, shaking and unhappy.  The following summer, Sparkles was found dead in our backyard.  My father was sure that the horrible neighbor living next door had poisoned him as the neighbor had caused issues with the entire neighborhood.  I remember my father calling the police to pick up Sparkles, which they did.  How he was disposed of, I have no idea.  Unfortunately there is no picture of Sparkles to help me remember him.

In my early teens, my parents surprised my brother and I by bringing home a miniature silver male poodle.  My brother and I were delighted as was my father as he had a great love for dogs as well.  We named the poodle Pierre and called him Pepi. They had bought this poodle from a pet store that I remember was on 8 Mile Road and Dequindre in Detroit.  My parents took Pepi to the vet to have him examined and the diagnosis was that he was a very sick puppy.  Back to the pet store went Pepi with my brother and I begging to keep him.  Pepi was replaced with Pepi #2 from the same pet store and he became a part of our family.  When he was 6 months old he began having seizures which were diagnosed as epilepsy which is an illness affecting dogs that are inbred.  Obviously the pet store was not selling quality dogs.  We did keep Pepi though and his seizures were controlled with Phenobarbitol. We all loved him and he was a great pet for our home until the day when he was 10 years old and he bit my mother on her hand. This caused my father to inform me that I would be taking Pepi to the vet to have him put to sleep because my father was too emotional to do it.

Towards the end of 1967, I decided I wanted a poodle of my own and I went to a pet store at the Oakland Mall in Troy, Michigan where I adopted a beautiful miniature chocolate brown female poodle puppy that I named Coco. Coco had been born on Veterans Day of 1967 and she was the sweetest, most well behaved dog and a loyal companion.  I had her as my career took off and she moved with me to several apartments over the years in the Macomb County area.  I can remember her looking out the window of my 2nd floor bedroom as I would leave for work and when I would return home 9 hours later, she would be looking out the same window.  I always wondered if she stood there all day.  One day, when she was 14, I came home from work to find she had completely shredded her cute dog bed and the bedroom was covered with all the stuffing from her bed.  Evidently she was tired of being alone all day!  I had her the longest of any of my poodles; she lived until April, 1983 when she was 15, and her heart began giving out.  

A close girlfriend recently sent me the following photo of myself, holding her little girl, Holly, with my Coco on my lap.  I honestly do not remember this photo nor do I ever remember taking Coco to another person's house but obviously I did.  

Holly, Cheryl Schulte and Coco in 1977:

In November, 1984, I adopted my next poodle, who had been born on Halloween that year.  She was also a chocolate brown female miniature poodle and I adopted her from a pet store on Gratiot Avenue and 10 1/2 Mile in Roseville, Michigan.  I named this poodle Nicolette and called her Nikki.  She was as equally sweet and loving as Coco had been and she adjusted to my home quickly.  Unfortunately, Nikki also was found to have epilepsy but she did well over the years on Phenobarbitol as well.  She was so smart and agreeable that I could call her and tell her it was time "for your pills" and she would come up to a kitchen chair I would pull out, jump on the chair and let me open her mouth so that I could put the pills down her throat.  My father was a barber and we were even able to groom her ourselves every 2 months without  having to take Nikki to a groomer.  

In 1996, my father passed away and my mother and I moved the next year, across the state, to our hometown of St. Joseph, Michigan where I still live.  My mother sold her house, I moved from my apartment and we brought Nikki with us. Nikki was with us until July 20, 1998, when she was 13 and broke her kneecap when jumping off the couch.  The damage was severe and it was time to say goodbye to Nikki.  She had been a wonderful companion and I missed her terribly.

Nikki with myself, my parents and my niece and nephew in East Detroit, Michigan in 1991:

Nikki and my mother with my niece and nephew in St. Joseph, Michigan in 1998: 

Knowing myself, I could not be without a dog too very long.  Now my mother and I were living in St. Joseph, Michigan and there was a pet store at the Orchards Mall in Benton Harbor.  At that pet store I found a little toy female poodle called a "party poodle" as it was black with a white chest.  The doctor I was working for at the time educated me on the fact that I had a party poodle; I had never heard of such a color before.  I named this poodle, Zoya, and when I found out she had been born on July 20, 1998, the same day my previous Nikki had died, I knew I had to adopt her.  The pet store had to keep her for several weeks due to their policies and every day on my lunch hour I would drive to the pet store and spend some time in a private room with Zoya.  When I was able to bring her home, she added so much enjoyment to our home.  She was the first poodle I crate trained and she was so intelligent that she would take her paw to open her crate when she wanted to go inside to rest.   

There was a photographer who would go periodically to a pet store in St. Joseph and take photos of people's pets.  She did amazing work and here is a photo of Zoya taken one Halloween:

I had Zoya until March, 2011, when she was 12 and she became vicious.  It was so out of character for her and the vet diagnosed her as having a brain tumor.  It was a very sad day when I had to take her to be put to sleep.

I began to research on the Internet poodle breeders in Michigan.  I found one such breeder in Brown City, Michigan across the state from where I live in St. Joseph.  In conversations with this breeder I was informed that she had a chocolate brown miniature mama poodle who was expecting a litter in May, 2011.  She also had the father poodle who was black.  I put down a deposit and waited for the birth.  The breeder told me that the mama had had several litters before and all the puppies were chocolate brown.  In the middle of May the breeder contacted me that the puppies had been born on May 16th, 2011 - 2 black females, 2 black males and 1 chocolate brown male.  I wanted another female and I agreed to adopt one of the black females.  In July of 2011 my mother and I traveled across the state of Michigan to Brown City where I met and adopted my beautiful miniature black female, Chloe.

Here is Chloe with her sister, Gidget.  Chloe is the puppy sitting up:

Ever the genealogist, I had to also get a photo of Chloe with her "birth" parents:

Chloe has been my loyal companion and my shadow all through these years.  She was with me through the end of my career, my retirement, my year long care of my mom and the loss of my mom.  She was with me moving to my current apartment and she was the best and most well behaved dog.  She was well loved by the majority of the 50 neighbors in my senior apartment as she loved people and was always willing to greet them around the building.  At the groomers every 8 weeks she had to greet the various members of the staff and they all loved her.  She had the most velvety feeling black fur and she was very precious to me.

Here are a few professional photos of Chloe over the year at various holidays:

Last month, quite unexpectedly, Chloe developed a large lump on the left side of her face.  A trip to the vet revealed a diagnosis of oral malignant melanoma, a fast growing cancer that spreads rapidly.  I was heartbroken and the vet was very sorry as well.  She had been an extremely healthy dog all of her life and he explained that this was a cancer that frequently affects poodles.  I had to make the very difficult decision not to let Chloe suffer as she was already bleeding from her mouth.  She left me on July 10, 2025 and my home is extremely quiet and lonely.  She was a loyal and much loved companion for all of her 14 years.  I will not forget her.

Chloe's last day at the vet:

copyright 2025, Cheryl J. Schulte

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - 2025; Week 29 "Family Gatherings"

FAMILY GATHERINGS:

When thinking of holidays in the past, I remember those holiday celebrations with my paternal family.  It became tradition that each Thanksgiving my father's family would gather at my paternal grandparent's home to celebrate.  The group would include my grandparents, my father's brother and his family, his sister and her family and my grandmother's brother and his family.  It was an every year occurrence and something we looked forward to.

In going through some old photos I came across seven different photos of myself as an infant at the Thanksgiving celebration in 1948 when I was just 2 months old and the Thanksgiving celebration in 1949 when I was 14 months old.  

Here are some of those photos with the various members of my father's family: 

1948:

My mother, Eloris Kijak Schulte, with me:

My father, Mylen Schulte, with me:

My uncle/godfather, Melbourne Schulte, with me:

My grandfather, Elmer Schulte, with me:

1949:

My grandmother, Ella Wellhausen Schulte, with me:

My grandparents, Elmer and Ella (Wellhausen) Schulte, with me:

My aunt, Virginia (Reske) Schulte, with me:

My parents had lost their first child, Kathy, in 1947 when she was only 6 weeks old.  I was born 11 months later and though we were then living in St. Joseph, Michigan, we would frequently travel back to Detroit, where my father's family was, to visit the family members there.  As it turned out, I was to be the only niece and granddaughter in my Schulte family and I remained very close to my father's family throughout my life.

I am pleased to have many photos of my early years as my parents were proud owners of a camera and they used it constantly.  

These photos have stood the test of time but not so much the Polaroid photos that came out some years later.  It proved to me that "newer" is not necessarily "better"!

copyright 2025, Cheryl J. Schulte

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - 2025; Week 28 "Four Generation Photos"

FOUR GENERATION PHOTOS:

My paternal grandmother, Ella Anna Helene Wellhausen Schulte, had a long and productive life, living to the age of 93.  During her lifetime she was photographed three different times in four generation photos at three different stages in her life.

Today I will present photos of her as a granddaughter, grandmother and great-grandmother.

Here is Ella Wellhausen Schulte in 1921 holding her oldest son, Melbourne M. Schulte.  Sitting next to her is her grandfather, Wilhelm Schluessler, and on the far right is her mother, Amelia Schluessler Wellhausen.  This is a special photo of mine, as not too many photos exist of her grandfather, Wilhelm:

In 1948, 27 years later, my grandmother is again pictured in a four generation photo this time as the grandmother in the photo.  She is on the far left with her mother, Amelia Schluessler Wellhausen in the center and my mother, Eloris Kijak Schulte, holding me as a 2 month old baby.  To make this a "true" four generation photo my father should be holding me in the photo instead of my mother as my grandmother and great grandmother are really my father's mother and grandmother.  But I can take creative license in my blogging and it is a four generation photo in my opinion:

In 1983, 35 years later, my grandmother again appeared in a four generation photo.  This time she is the great-grandmother in the photo at the age of 87, with my brother, Jeffrey Schulte, in the center holding his daughter, Diane Schulte, and my father, Mylen Schulte, on the far right:

A humorous sideline to this photo is that my father showed this photo to a casual friend who asked him if the woman on the left was his "wife".  My father was insulted and remarked "that is my MOTHER".  He felt that he must look old enough to be married to the woman who was his mother but perhaps the friend thought his mother looked young enough to be his wife!  In any case it was the cause for much laughter in the family.

My grandmother was indeed blessed with a long life as evidenced by these two photos.  The first shows her with her older sister, Gertrude, when she was 3 years old and the second shows her at age 87 holding her great-granddaughter, Diane:

 

copyright 2025, Cheryl J. Schulte

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - 2025; Week 27 "School"

TRINITY LUTHERAN SCHOOL, 1932-1933:

When my mother was growing up, the family church was Trinity Lutheran in St. Joseph, Michigan.  Both my mother, Eloris Kijak, and her younger brother, Leslie Kijak, were baptized at Trinity Lutheran, attended the grade school, were confirmed there and my parents were married there as well. 

In the grade school year 1932-1933, a school picture was taken outside in front of the school and church and the picture was something that many families had.  My mother kept her picture, which was rolled into a scroll, all her life.  I have that scroll now.

Because of its size and the heavier stock of the paper the scroll has seen some of the ravages of time.  I was able to scan the scroll into two images and enhance it so that it is a little easier to see.

The children were arranged by grade.  In the bottom row, at the far right edge is my uncle, Leslie Kijak, who was in the 1st grade.  I have marked his name under his picture.  He appears on both images on the right end in image number 1 and on the left end in image number 2.  I did this so that I could be assured that I was cropping the scroll appropriately.

My mother is in row two as she was in the 2nd grade at that time.  I placed her name ABOVE her picture and her picture is centered under her name.  I didn't want to obscure any faces of the children so it was not the easiest to mark her photo.  

Many of my mother's Kolberg cousins were also in the photo all the way through to the 8th grade.  It is fun to look at these little faces and try to point out the various cousins that I only knew as adults.

I would love to know who the little boy in the 4th row from the bottom is as he is yawning as the photo is taken!  I'm thinking his parents were not too happy with him.

I would love to have this photo restored in some fashion but have been unable to find any company able to do it.  In any case I have it securely in a large art porfolio where it lies flat.  

It is a really special piece of my mother's history.

copyright 2025, Cheryl J. Schulte