Bleimes Family History
Chapter 11. George (2)
This is our immigrant Bleimes. Both he and his wife Katharine Meyer were German-born folks who met and married in Chicago in 1859. To date we have nothing on Kate's origins except that she was said to have been born in Herdern, Baden in 1840. I have found two Herderns: one is an environ of Freiburg, in the Schwarzwald,- the other is adjacent to Waldshut-Tiengen on the upper Rhine.
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George had been born and baptized in the Catholic Church in 1835 in the small farmer town of Birresborn, Prussia, as Georg, son of Bartholomaeus and Gertrud Stumpfs Bleimes. [George Bleimes (2) Ancestry Chart] The locale is the western Rheinland. There is speculation that he, with his parents, immigrated to the US about 1845, but to date we have no proof. If he came alone, the time would more likely be mid to late 1850's, as an adult. His earliest known activity in Chicago was shown in the 1860 city directory as living at Division and Market, a clerk, MCRR. That is probably the Milwaukee Central Railroad. Next - 1862 and later - he lived at 15 Clybourn, near Mohawk, and was a ticket agent. He gets missed by the directory people for the years 1865-1867, but pops up again in '68, and until 1874, being listed with Katharine at his residence of 58 |
Clybourn and his saloon at 65 N. State St. (corner of Randolph). In modern times this is the site of Marshall-Fields main store. We cannot account for whatever disruption must have occurred to their business and lives due to the great Chicago fire of 1871; we will assume it was considerable.
George survived the big fire, but did not beat a problem with dropsy (edema). It took him in 1874 at age forty. Kate carried on with the saloon at 58 Clybourn. She must have had her hands full, having six surviving children and a business. [George Bleimes (2) Family Chart] Her problems were over in 1881 at age 41, also having had dropsy.
George and Katharine’s children, all born in Chicago:
- George (3), born 1860 – has his own chapter.
- Elisabeth “Lizzie”, born 1862, died unmarried in 1880.
- Maria Elenora, born April 1864, died at 3 months.
- Maria Theresa, born 1865, called Theresa. She married a Charles Ryder in 1890. Probably died in 1929, according to a vague statement in a letter by Lyde.
- Ernst Jacobus, born 1867 called Ernest John later. (Has his own section.)
- Catharine Olivia, born 1869, known usually as “Ollie”, married at 18 to Thomas Alexander Ferguson. They had one son, Ernest, born in 1889. Alex died in 1900 – she followed in 1905. Ernest’s family moved to California and has not been tracked.
- Henry George, born 1872, married Grace Spalding in Chicago in 1898. He had hired in as a postal clerk in 1892, and retired as a postal clerk in 1933. The job mostly entailed sorting mail on a railroad car. The couple moved to St. Petersburg, Florida and lived at 811 14th St., North. Grace died in 1945 and it appears that Henry was despondent enough to commit suicide the next year. While in his bathtub he got in two shots to his chest, setting his clothing on fire. Apparently they had no children. Both are buried in Florida. – At some point they had lived at 1341 Ardmore, Chicago.
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At about age 15 my Great-uncle Ernest took a job with the North Western Railroad. Fifty-six years later he retired from that organization, having advanced to become their Chief Purchasing Officer. His job longevity was worth an article in a Chicago newspaper. In that span of time he married Alice May Pearsall; had four children [Ernest John Bleimes' Family Chart] and two grandchildren. The family had more than their share of trauma. Alice May died at 37 of heart disease in 1909. Alice Ann, the first born, became a teacher of piano, but had heart problems and died unmarried at 22 in 1914 at 4908 Indiana (Ferdinand). |
Gertrude Kathryn chose to marry a jockey in 1911 at age
17. At her divorce hearing she testified that one day he “-got on
the (street)car and didn’t ever return”. The court gave her
the divorce and her maiden name back in 1914. She did better with Number
Two: His name was William Whitfield Ford and was called “Whit”.
They lived with Dad at 1037 Lawler. Had a daughter, Alice Marguerite in
1916. Sometime in the 1920’s the Ford’s all moved west and
lived out their lives in the states of Oregon and Washington into the
1970’s.
Ernest Edward arrived in 1896 and acquired the nickname
of “Boy”. What a rotten handle to put on a kid! He served
in the Coast Guard during the World War. Later he was employed as a salesman
by the gas company.
At an undetermined date – probably before his marriage
– Ernest E. and a friend agreed to advertise that they were going
to walk from Chicago to San Francisco.
They had these postcard-sized cards made with the trek proposal on them along with a solicitation for 25¢. We have no information beyond that point. - In the early 1920's he married Ethel Sagehorn. They had no children. E. E. died in 1955; Ethel in 1975.
Edna Melba Marie was Ernest and Alice's last born - joining the group in 1898. Most of her short life is hazy and open to speculation because of conflicting information. Cousin Flo said one time that Edna had a child out of wedlock, but that is possibly not true.The child was born 26 Feb 1919, and is shown in the 1920 census as Shirley Brown, age: 11/12, father's birthplace: NY. Donald (? Not quite legible) Brown is entered on Edna's death certificate as her husband - but then the informant was her father, Ernest. My request for a marriage record in Chicago came back negative. Of course, she could have gone to another area. The possibility exists that Mr. Brown was an invention of the family to maintain propriety. If so, they carried it all the way, as she was buried under the name of Edna Brown in Ernest's lot in Mt. Carmel Cemetery.
Shirley Brown was taken in by her aunt, Gertrude Ford, who reared her right along with Alice. In fact Shirley used the surname Ford. I made contact with Shirley in her later years when she was living in Oregon with her husband, Carl Christiansen .Later, they and the Ford's moved to northern Washington State. The Ford's both died in 1970 and were cremated. - Now, one last twist: Nobody seems to know where their ashes are located.
In 1928 Ernest J. married Adelaide Diesing French, a widow, who was called "Lida". (Not to be confused with Lyde, George's wife). 1929 was memorable, not only for the stock market crash, but for Ernest J.'s car crash in which he suffered a broken arm. He retired in 1938, then moved to Florida. They lived at 1511 5th Avenue, N., St. Petersburg, where he died at 81. Lida shipped his remains back to Chicago for burial in his lot, and she was the informant for his death certificate. In the block for Father's Name she entered just 'Bleimes'. In the block for Mother's Name, she entered just 'Birresborn'. We have to assume that Lida never absorbed much about Ernest's family background and therefore was much misinformed. This wild document error caused real confusion in subsequent research. Oh, well. She stayed in St. Pete until her death in 1967.