Bleimes Family History
Chapter 17. Eddie
Uncle Eddie might qualify as a family Black Sheep, but I do not believe
he was a malicious person – more of a ne’er-do-well, to use
an old phrase. Named Edward Fenton Robinson at his birth in 1882, he was
just Eddie to all.
We think he went to Columbus with his mother when she remarried, but
he might have just stayed in Little Rock with his grandmother. In either
case he married Sophie Anna Kranz (known as Annie) 18 December 1900 in
Benton, Arkansas. He was 18 – she was 15, but gave their ages as
21 and 18. They had two children: Eva in 1903 and “Little Eddie”
in 1905. By 1907 Annie had divorced him and got custody of the children.
In 1908 Annie married Arthur Hoffman, a widower with three children.
Like his grandmother, Eddie moved around a lot. Perhaps on the basis
of a moving target being harder to hit-? With gaps, his traces follow:
Enlisting in the Army at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri in 1908, he gave
his address as 511 S. State Street, Chicago and his previous employer
as The Nelson Hotel in Rockford, Illinois. The Army assigned him to the
Coast Artillery in Fort Worden, Washington. We have his date of discharge
as January 31 1911 at Jefferson Barracks, still a Private. He was back
in Little Rock at least by 1920, the year he and Annie got back together.
Mr. Hoffman had died in 1917, and so the story goes, Grandma Amrhein influenced
or coerced the re-union which occurred 11 October 1920. The document records
his home as Columbus, Ohio. The re-newlyweds got an assignment to go to
San Francisco to minister to Grandma Amrhein one more time. Emelie was
88 and very ill with bronchitis etc. Ed wrote to his mother telling of
what a royal pain his grandmother was and that she refused hospitalization
until her death there in December. Ed and Annie then moved to Chicago
and he got a job with the Automatic Electric Co.
I remember visiting the Robinson’s on more than one occasion at
3941 West Fillmore Street, in Chicago in the ‘20’s. Their
children grew up and married in that city. “Little Eddie”
had two marriages, neither of which bore fruit. He died in Chicago in
1960.
Daughter Eva married Harold Burmeister in Chicago in 1928 and had one
boy. After retirement they all moved to St. Petersburg, Florida and lived
long lives in a nice house on a lot with a couple of grapefruit trees.
On one of our visits there Eva gave us copies of some interesting pertinent
papers dealing with her ancestors, such as an ownership deed for one of
their slaves.
Meanwhile Annie is not able to curb Eddie's thirst and dropped him again around 1930. This is the only example - in our extended family - of a couple getting married and divorced twice. In this period Eddie was in some kind of trouble with the Law. We have an official Cook County card, dated 10 Oct 1928, that directs Edw. F. Robinson to report to his probation officer on the 10th of each month for ½ year - "-in order to give you an opportunity to reform without punishment." The offense is not known.
Annie had employment through WW II, working much overtime and still participating in war bond drives. She made it through the war and died in Chicago in 1948. After the second divorce Ed sought out his mother again and came to live with us. I do not remember him having a job. He said he invented things, and made odd gadgets which he sold door-to-door, or tried to. The gadgets included needle threaders, pearl stringers, key protectors etc. The last was an item to hang on your door knob shaft, through the eye of the (skeleton-type) key to prevent the key from being pushed out of the lock by a burglar. They were made by bending pieces of coat hanger wire around a template tool. I believe they sold for 10¢. Somewhere along the line he joined a circus as a clown, but where, with whom and when is unclear. He got loaded on the day after Christmas 1936 and was crossing South Fourth Street on foot, headed for his sister Birdie's house, when hit by a car. His skull was fractured and he did not survive. |
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