My Aunt Mary (May) Saskowski Fleck (1890 - )

My father had a sister, May or Mamie, who married a Bill Fleck and lived in Mercer, Wisconsin.  This must be Mary.  We remember trips to Mercer, near the border of the Michigan U.P.  Tom remembers that the fishing was terrific and the smell of cut pine was so sweet.  Judy remembers there was a souvenir store nearby which sold things like Indian war bonnets.  They had 2(?) sons.  I couldn't have been more than two years old but I remember picking up pine cones.  Aunt May had health problems and died fairly young, seemingly unexpectedly according to Judy.

My Aunt Julianne (Julia) Saskowski Grutza (1896 - ? )

My Aunt Julia lived in Milwaukee not too far from our house.  She had a large family.  For some reason, the name Knitter is associated with her but the records I found show her married to a Harry Grutza.  I'm guessing that one of her children married a Knitter but I couldn't find any links in ancestry.com.....yet.

In 1930 when my dad was 23 years old and still had the surname Saskowski, he was living with Julia and Harry in Milwaukee.  

The household at that time included the following members and ages:

• Harry Grutza,  33
• Julia Grutza, 34
• Esther Grutza, 12
• Jeanette Grutza, 9
• Richard Grutza, 7
• Harry Grutza, 6
• Bernadine Grutza, <1
• Walter Saskowski, 23

We think this picture is of Julia.  

One of her sons in the Navy may have been killed in World War II.  Here's a picture of Harry Grutza and one of their sons.  Richard?  He went MIA in the Pacific.

 My brother told me that Harry liked cigars.

Coast Guard

We think the next two pictures are of Julia and Harry's daughter, Esther, who would have been about 22 in the wedding picture.

Here's a nice family picture with Aunt Julia, Harry, children and grandchildren, some named Knitter (?).  Apparently the address for one of the sons is written on the back of this picture.

My Uncle John/Jan Saskowski (1885 - ? )

My dad's oldest brother, John, seemed to go by the name of Jan in some of the ancestry.com records.  The Federal Census records from 1920 and earlier seemed to be full of spelling errors and/or phonetic spellings.  So, I'll use John/Jan when referring to him.  He was 21 years older than my dad so that could be why I never knew or heard about him.

He married Helen (LNU), 1884-1962.  I came across other family trees in ancestry.com that were linked to my Uncle John/Jan that I'm still trying to sort through.  There are family trees for Myszkowski, Ehlert, Stelling, and Mozejewski.  John/Jan and Helen had 5 children and I expect this is where the other family trees are coming in.  The picture below is from a printout I took from ancestry.com showing my Uncle John/Jan's side of the family tree.  Uncle John/Jan is circled in blue with my paternal grandparents above him.  My dad is circled in pink (not sure if he would like that).  Everything below that line is Uncle John/Jan's family tree that has been documented in ancestry.com with the family relationships mentioned above.

Uncle John/Jan's Family Tree

I am getting deeper and deeper into this.  It's exciting to find new relationships but I can see its going to become a big time-sucker.  Today I wrote to two of the people on ancestry.com that have links to my Uncle John/Jan Saskowski.  The way ancestry.com works is that you don't email directly to others but through ancestry.com so they have to log on to see your email.  One of the people I wrote to seems to be on pretty regularly.  Cross your fingers.

Gertrude Severson, Daughter of My Aunt Martha Saskowski Kolodzieski

Here's what I found on Gertrude Severson, my dad's sister's daughter.  In ancestry.com, I found a record for John Kolodzieski, Gertrude's father.   It all fits in if you accept the fact there was a spelling error on the record;  her mother's maiden was listed as  "Lack" but should be "Sack".  Martha Sack used to be Martha Saskowski.  She was the daughter of Joseph and Mary Saskowski and my dad's sister.  That would make Gertrude my first cousin.

I remember seeing Gerty and Wayne one time, when I was quite young.  They were going to take the ferry across the lake from Milwaukee to Michigan.  They were going to take me along but I ended up not going because they thought I might get seasick.

Wayne was a cop and, if I remember correctly, he had a Harley.  Could that be where I got my love of Harley's?  Tom remembers a memorable ride in a patrol car with Wayne and what a terrific guy he was.

Severson, Gertrude R. Born 3/18/1928, Died 1/18/2012 Gertrude “Trudy” R. Severson, 83, of Neshkoro passed away Wednesday January 18, 2012 at St. Agnes Hospital. She was born March 18, 1928 in Milwaukee a daughter to John and Martha (Lack) Kolodzieski. On August 4, 1956 she married Wayne Severson in Milwaukee. She was a homemaker most of her life. Trudy and her husband owned the Chit Chat Tap Bar in Princeton.   She enjoyed playing bingo, doing crossword and word search puzzles, feeding the birds, spending time with her family, friends, and especially her grandchildren. Survivors include her four children: Bev Wade of Milwaukee, Mike Severson of Milwaukee, Barb (Ron) Stibb of Neshkoro, and Chris (Bradley) Roehl of Neshkoro; eleven grandchildren: Greg (Melissa), Jenny (Joe) and their daughter Chloe, Carrie (Brandon), and Melissa (Troy) and their son Devin, Becky (Andy) and Katie, Tiffany (Nick) and their baby Winnie, Amanda (Elliot), and Dustin, Collin and Logan; also survived by other relatives and friends. She is preceded in death by her parents, her husband, and one son-in-law Russ Wade. Private family services will take place.

Tom and Judy Pictures

Santa does NOT look happy.  LOL 

Dog Named Rex?

I'm guessing the following picture, based on other pictures at the time, was right around the time I was born, 1948.

More Tom and Judy pictures, some up at the County Hospital:

Half-Sister Vivian

Vivian Sack

I've been trying to reconstruct the history of my half-sister Vivian who was born in 1931. That would make her 17 years older than me!  I think she died sometime between 2005 and 2010.  The information I found is from ancestry.com.

In the 1940 Federal Census, my maternal grandparents, Thomas and Anna, were living at 4625 Maple in Brookfield, IL.  By that time the Shultze surname had been changed to Schultz.  Living in the household were:

• Thomas Schultz, 60
• Anna Schultz, 55
• Lester Schultz, 23
• Vivian Sack, 9

The 1940 Federal Census showed that my mother and father were living at 921 North Milwakee Street in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with no dependents in the household. Apparently Vivian lived with my grandparents in Illinois off and on.  She did have the last name of Sack so she must have been adopted by my dad at some point.  Maybe.

This must be her confirmation picture:

Rock River

Maybe 10 or 15 miles from the County Hospital was my aunt and uncle's cottage and boat house on Rock River.  Many summers were spent out there, jumping off the cement pier, swimming with real inner tubes, picking off the suckers, catching bullheads, swinging on the front porch, and just generally enjoying everything.  Because of the swimming suits, these may be pictures from out there.  I don't know all the people but there's my dad and mother with Tom and Judy and my cousin Carole Jean Klink on the right.

Lester Schultz (Sylvester Shultze)

My Uncle Lester was born in 1918 and was my mother's younger brother.  

The Dodge County Mental Hospital

Yes, that's what they used to call these places.  After my dad died in 1960 when I was eleven, I went to live there with my Aunt Isabel and Uncle Vinnie who were the superintendent and matron.  Here's what it looked like back then:

Holidays were big events at the County Hospital with the 4th of July being one of the biggest.  My cousin, Jack, had wired one of the most grandiose stereo systems and John Phillips Sousa would be blasting away on the 4th.  All the patients would gather out in the yard.  Balloons, pinwheels, sparklers, and ice cream would be passed out to everyone.  There was probably supper but I don't remember that.  My nieces from Appleton would be there I would especially look forward to seeing Butchie, my half-sister Vivian's oldest daughter.  She was one or two years younger than me and we would always have one heck of a good time.  

We always got to have cap guns and those little round strips of caps.  We could play for hours with that stuff.  Here's a picture of my father on July 4, 1948, giving out balloons.

Here's a picture of him and my Aunt Isabel dishing out ice cream with Homer (one of the patients) getting the cone.  Homer was still there when I went to live there 11 years after this picture was taken.  I really don't know of any patients getting "released" from the hospital until things started changing in the late 1960's and patients were mainstreamed into society.

Here's one more picture from the same 4th of July celebration in 1948.  The women are Grandma Klink, Grandma Schultz, and Mayme.  Grandma Klink, my Uncle Vinnie's mother, died before I got to know her.  I have no idea who Mayme is.

Except for breakfast, the family's meals were always formal.  We had white linen tablecloths and napkins, china, crystal and real silver silverware.  There was a dumbwaiter that brought the food up to the pantry from the kitchen below.  One of the trusted patients, most often Rosie, stood in the doorway between the pantry and the dining room, waiting to get us more water, pass dishes, etc.  For holidays or special occasions, the table setting got even fancier, with candles and more crystal.  Here's a picture of one such occasion, my twin cousins' 8th birthday.  Left to right are Aunt Isabel, my cousin Karen, my cousin Carol Jean, and my cousin Kenny.  Aunt Isabel always sat to the left of Uncle Vinnie who always sat at the head of the table with his back to the pantry.

On the hospital grounds (which covered hundreds(?) of acres), there were about ten 10' x 20' flower beds on the way to the hospital, designed and managed by Aunt Isabel.  There were seating trellises covered with beautiful roses in the summer.  And there were gazing balls on stands which probably explains where I got my love of gazing balls.

My aunt had a big greenhouse out back of the hospital and every spring she started boxes and boxes of annuals.  I remember alyssum, beautiful sweet peas that she covered with cheesecloth to protect them from the hot sun, and my favorite, cockscomb.  The flower beds were masses of color and maintained by my aunt and some of the patients.

Here's a picture of my niece, Butchie, and me, standing by one of the trellises.  It was probably about 2 weeks after my dad died and my aunt convinced Butchie and me to let her give us permanents.  I don't think Butchie ever got another permanent after that.

Judith Marie Sack

What a CUTE baby!

And a cute little girl!

Thomas Joseph Sack

I think they really liked dressing Tom military style because there's another one further down when he's a little older.

Tom's school in Milwaukee:

I think this is Brownie.  We got Brownie after Measles got hit by Kenneth Franz, my first grade teacher, and the person who is responsible for me ever learning to read.  That doesn't mean I've forgiven him for killing Measles.  :-(

Beverly Jean Sack

I was born in Milwaukee on September 29, 1948.  I'm positive I'm here but I can't find a single record on ancestry.com to verify that.  

I'm not sure but I think this might be the first picture of my dad and me:

I think these next 5 pictures are pictures of me.

Me with Karen Klink in the background

I'm guessing I was about 2 years old in this next picture.  

I can still remember my mother being mad at me for wiggling while she was cutting my bangs.  Well, darn it, that hair falling on my nose was itchy!

My brother took this picture with our little Brownie 127.  I remember making the scarf in 4-H.  It was a heavy dark brown linen-type material, not very attractive but it was an easy project and it kept my head warm.  All we had to do was cut a square of fabric, sew around 1 inch from the edge, and pull out the threads to fray the edge.  Our second 4-H sewing project was to make an apron out of gingham.  I think mine was turquoise and white.  I also remember drawing and coloring a poster of the food groups for some 4-H event.  We lived out in the country so scheduled activities were few and far between.

Here's an aerial view of the farm where I lived from the time I was 2-1/2 until my dad died when I was 11.

I went to a one-room schoolhouse in the country, Gahlman Grade School, several miles from our farm.  I went there from 1st grade through 6th grade.  There was no pre-school or kindergarten.  I walked to and from school every single day, no matter what the weather was like.  During the winter, if we wanted hot lunch, we packed our soup or spaghetti in glass jars and the teacher put them into a pan of hot water on top of the big boiler(?)/heater in the classroom so they'd be warm by lunchtime.

Here is the entire classroom in 1960. That's me in the upper-left.   

Going to Juneau Public School after my dad died was a very awkward time in my life, made even more so that I joined Band and had to use my cousin Kenny's old coronet.  I included the following pictures taken at the Dodge County Hospital because, "...it is what it is, it's not what it should have been, not what it could have been, it is what it is." (Quoted from a famous actress's dad.)

I was never very good at the coronet.  I would have liked to play the flute but I was too shy and intimidated to ever suggest that.