To: Mr Gustaf Ekman, Galeton, Box 342, Potter Co, Pa
From: Gerda (sent from Chicago, Jun 9, 1908)
Käre bror! Undrar hur du mår. Jag är nu på landet, detta är platsen som jag arbetar, men den är så otydlig. Du väntar nog på bref, jag skall snart skrifva. Här är så vackert, jag önskar du vore här. Jag har just varit och badat i sjön idag. Kära hälsningar frän syster Gerda.
Dear brother, I'm wondering how you are. I'm now in the countryside, this is the place where I work, but it [the picture] is very blurry. You will be waiting for a letter, I will write soon. It is so beautiful here, I wish you were here. I have just been to the lake for a swim today. Love, sister Gerda
To: Mr Gustaf Ekman, Galeton, Box 342, Pa.
From: Gerda (Lake Geneva, Wis, Jul 23, 1909)
Käre bror! Jag är nu på landet, och jag har ej hört någonting från dig på så länge. Jag undrar hur du mår. Jag mår fint. Jag minns ej om jag skref till dig innan jag lemna Chicago, så kanske är min tur. / Här är förtjusande vackert, jag önskade du kunde komma hit. Jag kanhända lemnar här nästa vecka. / Min adr. är c/o Mrs Seipp, Lake Geneva, Wis.
Dear brother, I'm now in the countryside, and I haven't heard from you in so long. I'm wondering how you are. I'm fine. I don't remember if I wrote to you before I left Chicago, so perhaps it's my turn. / It's charmingly beautiful here, I wish you could come here. I might leave next week. / My adress is c/o Mrs Seipp, Lake Geneva, Wis.
After a few shorter employments in Chicago, my great-aunt Gerda ended up working in the household of a well-known physician, Otto L. Schmidt. (Among other things, he was prominent enough to be one of 25 citizens to have his name engraved on The Illinois State Archives building in Chicago in 1938. He was also the first physician in Chicago to use X-rays.) His wife was Emma Seipp, daughter of a wealthy Chicago brewer, Conrad Seipp. They were both of German heritage; and had three children: Ernst, Alma and Clara.
I have written about them before on this blog (some of the posts not linked to Sepia Saturday). For example, you can read more about Otto L. Schmidt in a post from September 2012, and about his wife Emma and the Seipp family in a post from April 2021.
Here, I'll just repeat that it seems the Schmidts (and at least some of their servants) used to spend the summers at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, where Mrs Schmidt's mother had a house - or even two. An article I found online says that the Seipp family built a summer home there in 1888, and after the death of Conrad Seipp, his widow (Catherine Orb Seipp) added a rather large and more modern "cottage" in 1905 - "to also accommodate her large and growing family".
I have also come to the conclusion that the two photos below of Gerda together with other servants were probably taken at Lake Geneva, on two different occasions. My guess is that both these photos show the summer staff at the Lake Geneva houses, consisting of Mrs Seipp's own servants + those that Mrs Schmidt brought with her from her own household in Chicago. (In case you are wondering, Gerda is standing in the middle of the top row in the first photo, and sitting down on a tree stump or a rock in the second.)
The second postcard above (with the boat) shows the residence of a Mrs. Otto Young. I also found an article about Otto Young and his stone manor. It seems that Young was another German immigrant who arrived in New York in the 1850s, worked his way up in business (involving jewellry and real estate) and ended up very rich. He had a stone manor built at Lake Geneva, and died there in December 1906. I suppose that after his death the manor came to be known as the residence of his widow - and so named on this postcard.
To finish off this post, I recently noticed two more postcards of residences along Lake Geneva, Wis., in Gerda's collection of unwritten cards. I have not yet done any research on those names - maybe I'll return to them some other time... (I'm already late with this post as it is!)
In all the pictures I've seen of Gerda she was certainly an attractive young woman with what appears to have been a happy demeanor. Of the lakeside mansion postcards, the Mitchell estate would be my favorite. Unlike the others, while certainly grand, it looks warm and friendly. :)
ReplyDeleteGail, one thing that strikes me is that they're all different.
DeleteGreat to have postcards, the photos including her writings. She certainly was prettier than most of the other servants. What a lot of people it took to look after the households then!
ReplyDeleteIt certainly did, Barbara. And Gerda seems to have been rather determined (as well as successful) in working her way "up"...
DeleteI love those postcards where all the space is used to write text. It is also striking that the stamps are missing on both cards. The mysterious stamp collector has struck again!
ReplyDeletePeter, I think the mysterious stamp collector must have been either the original recipient ( Gustaf) or else my own father. (Gustaf had no children of his own, and the postcard album was probably inherited by my grandmother when he died in 1952.)
ReplyDelete