Greetings from Lake Geneva, Wis. (Sepia Saturday 736)

 

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!)

Linking to Sepia Saturday 736

 

G.043.03 - Country Club, Geneva Lake (1909)

 

Country Club, Golf Grounds, Geneva Lake, Wis.

To: Mr Gust Ekman, Galeton (Box 342), Pa.
From: Gerda (Chicago, Sept 9, 1909)

Jag är nu i Chicago igen, men tycker ej mycke om det ännu. Jag saknar landet så mycke, och sjön. Jag kan ej simma här. Men jag blir väl snart van vid stadslifvet igen. Kära hälsn, skrif snart. / Syster Gerda / Jag vet jag är skylding dig bref, men jag är så upptagen med arbete nu för 2 veckor. Jag önskar du sänder mig ett kort snart. 

I am back in Chicago again, but I'm not liking it much yet. I miss the countryside so much, and the lake. I can't go swimming here. But I suppose I'll soon get used to city life again. Best wishes / Sister Gerda /  I know I owe you a letter, but I am very busy with work now for 2 weeks. I hope you will send me a card soon.

It seems that the Schmidt family, for whom Gerda was working, was in the habit of spending the summers at Lake Geneva, where Mrs. Schmidt's mother, Mrs. Seipp, had a house (or even two). See G.043.01 - Lake Geneva 1909 (recent post from April 2021).

From finding Gerda in the 1910 US Population Census (post from August 2012) I know that her employers in Chicago, Dr. Otto Schmidt and his wife Emma, had three teenage children: Ernest, Alma and Clara. Besides Gerda, the family had three more female servants + a chauffeur with wife and two children also registered at their address in Chicago. How many of their servants they took with them when they went on holiday, I don't know! In my imagination, I'm thinking that perhaps the Doctor, quite a prominent Chicago physician, had to spend more time in the city, while Mrs. Schmidt and the children were able to spend most of the summer at the lake, with perhaps only one or two of the servants to accompany them.

Svenska

Med hänvisning till ett tidigare vykort från Gerda till Gustaf i juli samma år (1909) drar  jag slutsatsen att familjen Schmidt, som Gerda var anställd hos i Chicago, hade för vana att tillbringa somrarna vid Lake Genva, där Mrs. Schmidts mor, Mrs. Seipp, ägde ett hus (eller t.o.m. två). Från folkräkningen 1910 vet jag också att Dr Schmidt och hans hustru hade tre barn i tonåren (Ernest, Alma och Clara), och att familjen förutom Gerda också hade ytterligare tre kvinnliga "servants", samt en manlig chaufför med hustru och två barn skrivna i sitt hushåll. Hur många av tjänstefolket de tog med sig på semestern vet jag inte. Men jag föreställer mig att doktorn, som var en framstående läkare i Chicago, antagligen behövde tillbringa betydligt mycket mer tid i staden, så att det antagligen främst var hustrun och barnen samt kanske en eller två av tjänstefolket som vistades hela sommaren vid Lake Geneva. Det framgår inte av folkräkningsprotokollet exakt vilken position Gerda hade i hushållet jämfört med de andra. Men tydligen var hon i alla fall en av dem som fick flytta med till landet på sommaren. 

G.043.01 - Residence of Mrs Otto Young, Lake Geneva, Wis. (1909)

 

Residence of Mrs Otto Young, Lake Geneva, Wis. (1909)
R.B. Arnold, Lake Geneva, Wis. No 112

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. 

***

So, just like last summer (G.038.01) Gerda is spending some time at Lake Geneva. The address she gives on this card seems to confirm that she was there with the family she worked for in Chicago. Compare an old post of mine from 2012-09-03:  Otto L. Schmidt, Gerda's employer in Chicago 1910.  Dr. Otto Schmidt's wife was Emma Seipp, daughter of Conrad Seipp, a Chicago brewer. 

On a whim, I also googled "Mrs Seipp, Lake Genva, Wis." (... even if that was 112 years ago...) This led me first to a magazine entitled At The Lake - Geneva Lakes Area Magazine, and an article from Nov 20, 2017, entitled In Her Own Words. This article turned out to be about one of the daughters of Otto and Emma, Alma Schmidt Petersen. In 1914, as a young upper-class woman in her early 20s, Alma was travelling in Germany to visit relatives there when WWI broke out; and she kept a journal and wrote letters, which have been preserved and are held at the Newberry Libarary in Chicago. 

This strikes me as quite a remarkable coincidence, as I know that when WWI broke out, Alma's parents' former maid Gerda was in France (and got 'trapped' there during the war). As far as I know, Gerda did not keep a journal (or if she did, I've never heard of it being preserved). But there are some WWI postcards sent from France, which will turn up here later on, if I manage to keep up the blogging.

The same Google search also took me to the website of Wisconsin Historical Society, and a photo of what seems likely to be the very house that the Schmidt family (including their maid Gerda) visited in the summers: Bartholomay House* - built in 1905 for Emma Schmidt's mother, Catherine Orb Seipp. (Follow the link to the website for more details.) 

 

As for the building featured on this postcard, entitled "Residence of Mrs. Otto Young", a search on that takes me to a blog article from 2010 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 jewelry and real estate, and ended up very rich. He had this 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.

Really, once again I'm amazed at how much history can be "hidden" in a simple postcard. 

 

The 1933 Chicago World’s Fair

Panoramic view of the 1933 Century of Progress World's Fair (Wikimedia Commons)

In The 1933 Chicago World’s Fair – A Century of Progress by Cheryl R. Ganz (Google books preview), Otto L. Schmidt is mentioned (p 141 and 146) as first vice president of the German Group of the World’s Fair. During America’s neutrality phase before the First World War he had been a spokesman for German patriotic support in Chigaco . When the US joined the war, German Americans were forced to downplay their German heritage and language. During the late 1920s, they gradually recovered from these negative experiences and began to reassert themselves.

At the 1933 World’s Fair in Chicago, diplomatic problems arose as supporters of the National Socialism wanted the fly the German swaztika flag, while other members of the German American community objected.  The German Group of the World’s Fair took active stand against it. Among other things, the president and the first vice president (Schmidt) of that group refused to attend an event held in connection with a much-discussed landing in Chicago of the German airship Graf Zeppelin (October 26, 1933).

Photo of the Graf Zeppelin (Wikimedia Commons)

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I’m not sure if my great-aunt Gerda got to visit the 1933 World’s Fair in Chicago. What I do know is that she was in the United States that year, see the post Gerda, Pleasantville, July 1933; and by then (evidently)in the employ of Estelle and Folke Bernadotte. 

Folke Bernadotte did attend the Chicago World Fair in 1933. He gave a speech there on behalf of King Gustav V of Sweden (his uncle) on the Swedish-American day.

In 1933, Folke and his American wife Estelle had two sons: Gustaf (born 1930, died in 1936) and Folke, born 1931. Whether or not Estelle accompanied her husband to the World Fair, also bringing two boys aged 2 and 3 might not have seemed like the best idea. My guess is the boys stayed at Estelle’s parents’ estate in Pleasantville, New York; with Gerda to keep an eye on them. I think I may have photographic evidence to support that idea … Coming up soon!

 

Sammanfattning på svenska

År 1933 var Chicago-läkaren Otto L. Schmidt (Gerdas arbetsgivare år 1910, se föregående inlägg) engagerad för den amerikansk-tyska gruppen i världs-utställningen i Chicago. Han tycks dock ha tagit avstånd från nationalsocialistiska symboler och propaganda i samband med detta. Bl.a. bojkottade han att delta i en tillställning som gavs i samband med att luftskeppet Graf Zeppelin landade i Chicago under utställningen, och där sådana symboler och propaganda var inblandade.

Jag är inte säker på om Gerda fick tillfälle att besöka världsutställningen i Chicago. Jag har dock fotobevis på att hon befann sig i USA år 1933, i Pleasantville, där familjen Manville (Estelle Bernadottes föräldrar) hade sitt gods.

Folke Bernadotte deltog på Chicago-utställningen och representerade Sverige med ett tal å den svenske kungens vägnar (Gustav V var hans farbror). Folke och Estelle hade vid denna tid två söner, 2 och 3 år gamla. (Den äldste, Gustaf dog ung, redan 1936.) Även om kanske Estelle följde med Folke till Chicago, så verkar det troligt att pojkarna lämnades kvar på morföräldrarnas gods tillsammans med Gerda. Jag tror jag har ett foto som stöder den tanken – återkommer till det i ett annat inlägg.