Christian Wilhelm Menge My third Great Grandfather on my Mother's Side

Alfeld City Hall from Google

Christian Wilhelm Menge is my third great grandfather. I estimate that he was born about 1779 in Germany, probably in Alfeld, but have yet to prove either of these suppositions. Wilhelm was the son of Casper Heinrich Ludolph Menge. According to a note on his son’s marriage document, Wilhelm was a white tanner in Alfeld. A white tanner works with high-quality soft leather, which would have been suitable for making gloves. Wilhelm’s son Heinrich Christian was a glove maker, so I think it is likely that Wilhelm also made gloves and possibly other products from his leather. Historically, the profession of tanner had a negative connotation, because the processing of leather involved working with animal hides and various chemicals to treat the leather. These were odoriferous and potentially harmful to workers’ health. But by the 19th century, power-driven machines were being used to complete most of the noxious tasks, and less toxic chemicals were being used, so the profession was more well regarded.

Tanning is a multi-step process that starts with receiving hides from the butcher, scraping off the fat and blood, tanning with chemicals, drying, smoothing, dressing and applying oils and color All this is completed prior to cutting and stitching each pair of gloves.

According to the FamilySearch tree, Wilhelm married Johanna Sophia Vos, the daughter of Ernest Friedrich Vos. Sophia was born in Bad Pyrmont, Niedersachsen, Germany. They had at least one child, Heinrich Christian Menge in 1809.

Wilhelm lived during the American Revolution when Germany sent troops to America to support the British, and during the French Revolution when France invaded Germany. Wilhelm was a young man at the end of the Holy Roman Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. The Holy Roman Empire existed from 962 to 1806. During that time the Kingdom of Germany was the largest territory.

Old Latin School in Alfeld, now a museum

Alfeld is 20 miles southwest of Hildesheim on the Leine River and is the second largest city in the District of Hildesheim in Lower Saxony. The town was founded in 1214 and for many years was a small village. It prospered from trade in beer, hops, linen and yarn, and grew `before the Thirty Years’ War in the 1600s. The town is known for the octagonal tower on its town hall, which was built in 1586; the Church of Saint Nicolai; the Fillerturm, a medieval watchtower; and the Fagus Factory, which was listed on the UNESCO World Heritage site in 2011. 

Sources for this Post: Wilhelm's son's marriage record, FamilySearch tree, and online research.

Lottie's Photos: Cute Photos of Terry and Kathy 1946

Terry and Kathy holding hands in the garden

Taking photographs was a life long hobby and pleasure for my mother. It all began when my father gave her a camera for their first Christmas together in 1938. That was when Mom started to document our family life. Not only did she take the photos and have them developed, she dutifully pasted them into photo albums and annotated each volume with captions and later she added stories that explained what was happening in our lives. She gave detailed accounts of holidays and family trips – where we went, when and what we saw.  

All the photos I’ve used to illustrate this blog series so far have been from volume one of her massive collection of albums. This photo of Terry and Kathy is one of very few in the album that is in color. This photo is one of the images she captured on her first roll of color film. It was taken in 1946.

 

This album includes several photos of my two siblings as infants and toddlers and includes many wonderful shots of the two of them together looking incredibly cute and angelic. I scanned nearly 200 photos from volume one. Terry and Kathy are the stars of 33 of those shots and most notable to me is that in ten of those shots – nearly one third the two of them are holding hands. Now, how cute is that?

 

Volume one covers the period 1938 to 1949 and is my favorite of all my mom’s photo albums despite the fact that I’m not included in it. I cherish this book because it depicts my ancestors and many of my parent’s friends during the earliest years of their marriage. Volume two covers 1950 – 1957 – a seven-year period compared to eleven years in volume one. Volume three covers 1957 – 1961 – only four years. That pattern continues and in later years some volumes are devoted exclusively to one major trip that took place during a single year.

 

Working on her photo albums gave mom a lot of pleasure. Sometimes she took an album with her on a motorhome trip when she would have time to sit beneath a tree by some California lake and put her latest batch of pictures in her album. Near the end of her life, she would ask my brother Terry to retrieve one of her older books and then she would enjoy looking at her photos and reminiscing about all the things that she and my father enjoyed together. Now, these albums give me pleasure and hopefully, they will continue to delight Lottie’s descendants via this blog.

Elizabeth "Lizzie" Vetter Wallace 1890 - 1965 My Grandaunt on my Father's Side

Elizabeth Vetter as a young woman

Elizabeth “Lizzie” Vetter was the fourth daughter born to George and Katherine Vetter. Lizzie
also known as Rosie was born on February 22, 1890 when her family was living at 1328 W. 20^th Street in Chicago, Illinois. She had two older sisters Kate and Mary, one having died at 5 months, and two younger sisters Emma and Anna, my grandmother.

When Lizzie was ten, she appeared on the 1900 census with her family. At that time, they were living at 409 21^st Street in Chicago and Lizzie was attending school. About four years later they left Chicago and moved all the way across the county to settle in Los Angeles. Shortly after arriving in California Lizzie’s mother Katherine died at the age of 57 leaving Lizzie, age 14, and her sisters alone with their father George. Apparently, George struggled as a single parent because, as my grandmother told it, she was mostly raised by her older sister Kate. Each of the girls left school early and went to work or got married and their father remarried in 1910.

L-R Anna, Elizabeth, Emma and Mary Vetter

Lizzie attended elementary and two years of high school – leaving school when she was sixteen. At nineteen she married Paul Clifford Wallace in Los Angeles on June 5, of 1909. Her sister Emma was a witness at their wedding. Paul was the son of George W. Wallace and Mary Adella McGuire. He was born on July 20, 1884 in Cincinnati, Ohio and was a machinist working in Los Angeles at the time they were married. The following December their first child was born – a son named Robert Leroy Wallace, followed by Helen Pauline Wallace born in 1911, and Paul Wilbur Wallace in 1917. All three children were born in Los Angeles.

Paul Clifford Wallace

Lizzie’s son Robert married Helen McCollum and they had six children. In 1940 they were living in Oakland on Melrose Avenue. Robert died in Tracy which may be why his mother is buried there. Helen married George Wellman, had at least two sons and died in Calaveras County, California. I don’t know much about their youngest son Paul Jr.

When the 1910 census was taken the Wallace family was living at 3851 N. Broadway in Los Angeles. Paul was employed as a machinist at an ironworks plant – the same type of work that my grandfather John Roger Thornally did.

In 1920 the family was still in Los Angles living at the corner of Arthur and Orchard Streets. Lizzie registered to vote as a Republican in 1922 at which time she was living at 3032 Tom Street and identified herself at a housewife.

By 1930 they were living at 3816 High Street in Oakland in a rented home. Paul was identified as being employed as a Chief but it did not say in what industry. The census showed that Lizzie’s daughter Helen was 18 and employed as a saleslady and Paul Jr. was 15. In 1938, Lizzie’s voter registration showed that she was living at 2916 Courtland Avenue in Oakland.

Birth record for Rosie Elizabeth Vetter

When the census was taken in 1940 Lizzie and Paul were living with their son Paul in Castro Valley, California at 19185 Center Street which is very close to where my parents lived starting in 1949. Paul senior was working on a goat farm and their son was employed as a mechanic. In the mid1960s Lizzie was living in Oakland again at 3844 14^th Street. She died at Stockton State Hospital – a psychiatric facility on July 21, 1965 at the age of 75, and is buried at Tracy Memorial Cemetery in San Joaquin County, California.

Lizzie's Death Certificate

Historic postcard depicting the Stockton State Hospital
found on Google

2916 Courtland home in Oakland

19186 Center Street, Castro Valley

3816 High Street in Oakland