Louisa, Reinhold and Martha Create a Family

Once upon a time, there was a wealthy farmer named John Hart (or Hardt). John was not only wealthy, but he was generous and kind. He hired a young man named Reinhold to work on one of his farms.

Reinhold Zielke
Age 21

This generous, wealthy man also wanted his wife to have help keeping their home and hired a young woman named Louisa to come live with them and keep house!

Louisa Staffeldt

"'Til the one day when the lady met this fellow..." Well, you know how the song goes. Reinhold and Louisa met on one of John Hart's farms and although they didn't come into marriage with children of their own, they did marry, they had children and began the family that now belongs in the Zielke Zone.

Louisa's and Reinhold's Wedding

Reinhold and Louisa were married when they were both 22 years of age on 11 March 1903. Reinhold would turn 23 on May 30th; Louisa would turn 23 on December 14th.

John Hart was still a part of their lives, loaning Reinhold the money to buy his first farm with no money down! Reinhold must have been a hard-working, trustworthy young man to have earned that kind of confidence from John. Reinhold was not a well-educated man with no formal schooling beyond the 3rd grade. Aunt Grace remembers that he could not read well and could only write well enough to sign his name, but he was very good at mathematics. She also remembers that he was NOT mechanical, at all, which will become more evident in future stories in Grace's blog.

Shortly after they were married, Louisa's younger sister (by 10 years and 4 days!) Martha came to live with them. Aunt Grace believes that she went to live with them because the family was unsettled, moving quite a bit and moving in with Reinhold and Louisa would give her better access to school and confirmation instruction. Martha always wanted to be a nurse, but the family couldn't afford the formal schooling and she was only able to go through 8th grade.

Martha's Confirmation
Presumably 1904

Reinhold and Louisa had three children: George William (2 Apr 1905), Henry Fredrick Carl (27 Aug 1908) and Bertha Meta Martha (6 Dec 1911). After Martha had completed her confirmation instruction and left school, she found work as a housekeeper. 

Henry & George
Early 1909

Martha returned to live with Reinhold and Louisa during Louisa's 4th pregnancy as she had been ill throughout the pregnancy. (Aunt Grace remembers being quite ill during her own first pregnancy with daughter Kathy. One day during her pregnancy she was with Grandma, sitting on the step. Grandma looked at her and told her that she reminded her of Louisa! Not quite the thing a first time mother wanted to hear!) Louisa, unfortunately, did not survive the birth and died along with the baby on 7 March 1917. Records attribute her death to pneumonia. Aunt Grace says that no one ever spoke of the baby that was lost. Louisa and the baby were buried together on Reinhold and Louisa's 14th wedding anniversary.

Martha stayed on after Louisa's death to help Reinhold, caring for the house and children. They eventually married on 20 Nov 1918.

Reinhold's & Martha's Wedding

Five more children were born to Reinhold and Martha: Helen Minnie Ruth (15 May 1919), Raymond Carl Fredrick (27 May 1922) Grace Louise (23 April 1925), Marjorie Mae ( 29 July 1927) and Dorothy Ann (22 Dec 1933).

Helen, Grace & Ray
1927

 I'll spare you all the math; that's a 28 year age difference between George and Dorothy! In spite of the age differences, though, Aunt Grace says they were all close and they were all one family. Grandma never separated the older three from the younger five or differentiated between her birth children and her niece/nephews. They were all hers, probably in large part because they remained at home to help on the farm for quite awhile. 

Bertha's Confirmation
Probably 1928

George was home until he married Emily in 1933 at the age of 28. He did work in the gravel pit, but always turned his paychecks over to his father. Henry did leave home to farm in Wheatland before he married in 1935, but was home long enough to build a good relationship with his younger siblings. He and Ray were always especially close, in spite of the 14 year age difference. "Berdie" worked in Aurora as a housekeeper for Dr. Sloan and stayed there most of the time, but when she came home, she would always bring the younger kids candy. Aunt Grace remembers that when they would see Berdie walking up the lane to come home, they'd all run out to meet her, knowing that she'd have candy for them.  

Ray & Berdie

While they all got along, there were sibling spats, as there are in all families. Aunt Grace remembers being frustrated that Marge ALWAYS got to wash the dishes while she ALWAYS had to dry! In fact, she remembers there were several chores (like milking cows) that she had to do, but Marge never had to! Marge could do no wrong in Grandma's eyes; possibly because she was "the baby" of the family for 6 years until Aunt Dorothy came along. Then again, Ray could do no wrong in Grandma's eyes either, being her only birth son. In spite of that, Aunt Grace has MANY memories of Ray begging her, "Don't tell Ma!" Apparently he got in trouble often enough that he didn't want to get in trouble if he could avoid it.

Now, the stage is set. The family is complete and we're ready to dive deeper into Aunt Grace's memories of life on the Zielke homestead! Stay tuned!


(Note: Unfortunately, I don't have any professional photos of Bertha, Marge or Dorothy as young children. If anyone does, please post them to the Zielke Zone so I can add them to this post)

They're Coming to America!

Before we cover too many more of Aunt Grace's personal memories, it might be a good idea to explore the history of the family and how we all came to be here. Of course we all know that we are descendants of Reinhold Zielke and his two wives, sisters, Louisa and Martha Staffeldt. But what do we know of their families? Thanks to distant relative, Arlene Staffeldt, we know a lot more about the Staffeldt side of the family than we do the Zielke side, but let's go over what we DO know!

Reinhold was the fourth child born to William and Bertha (Guse) Zielke. Records indicate that William was born 24 March 1843 in Pommern/Posen, Germany while Bertha was born 30 March 1845 in Poznan, Poland. This is an area that frequently changed hands belonging to Germany sometimes, Poland sometimes and even Russia at other times as my girls and I learned when we visited Poznan in 2016. Posen and Poznan, from what I've been able to decipher are the same area, which also means William and Bertha were born in the same general area. They came to America in 1865, although there was some discrepancy in family history. According to Rudolph's daughter Bernice, Bertha arrived later, in 1868, but Aunt Grace is quite certain she remembers her Grandma telling her that she and William met on the ship coming to America in 1865. Since we haven't found documentation yet to prove or disprove this fact, we decided we're going with this story; it's pretty romantic. Don't you think? Besides the romance, Aunt Grace is quite certain her grandma told her she was twenty-years-old on the ship and they were married 27 March 1868 in Chicago. That would have been a difficult accomplishment if she didn't arrive until 1868 and they  had yet to meet!

Bertha & William Zielke

William had two brothers and one sister that Aunt Grace knows of: Louis Zuehlke (who retained the original spelling of their last name), Ludwig and Elvina. Louis had a daughter, Minnie Mueckler who  had daughter, Eleanor Rosenthal that Grace met once in the 40s. Ludwig was married to Augusta and they had a son, Gustav, who never married. Elvina had a son named William Elke. "Bill" worked in a candy factory and when he came to visit,  he always brought them chocolate covered cherries! (Bill was younger than Reinhold but older than Uncle George, so he was born somewhere between 1880-1900)

We have no records (yet), but it's possible that Bertha had a brother, Paul, for whom William and Bertha named their oldest son. 

William and Bertha had six children who lived: Ida, Paul, Meta (aka Aunt Mate), Reinhold, William and Rudolf* (aka Rudy). Paul died in 1928 and William died in 1945. Aunt May lived into her 90s, but Aunt Grace isn't sure if she made it to 95!

William worked in a factory sewing feed bags. Aunt Grace said that she saw him classified as a tailor somewhere, but that's a bit of a stretch for sewing feed bags! Bertha cleaned houses. They lived in Chicago until William purchased a farm in Lemont, Illinois in 1882. Everyone but Reinhold stayed clustered in that area until Argonne National Laboratory bought them out. Reinhold ventured out on his own.

Argonne National Labs on land
originally owned by William Zielke & family

Now, let's take a look at the Staffeldt side of the family. Carl Johann Christian Staffeldt married Johanne Sophie Charlotte Hacker on 11 November 1842. Carl was born 13 August 1816 in Grunow, Mecklenburg, Germany and "Sophie" was born 17 March 1816 in Usadel, Magdeburg Strelitz, Mecklenburg, Germany. They had five children: Johann (John), Karl, Wilhelm, Fred and Wilhelmina. 

Our line of the family comes through Wilhelm (aka William), whose full name was Wilhelm Karl Johann Friedrich Staffeldt. William was born 20 December 1850 in Roedlin, Mecklenburg, Germany. He married Wilhelmine Friederike Caroline Arndt, who had been previously married to a Carsten. She was born 7 July 1852 in Usadel, Germany. William and Wilhelmine left Roedlin, Mecklenburg, Germany for the United States on 31 August 1885, 20 years after the Zielkes. They brought their oldest six children with them: Fritz (12), Wilhelm (6), Augusta (5), Louisa (4), Anna (2) and Friederika (aka Frieda, 9 mos). William and Wilhelmine lost five other children between Fritz and William, Jr) They had four more children and lost two others after settling in America: Carl, Martha, Frank and Emma. They lost four more children after Emma. I have noticed some different spellings for the girls' names, but Aunt Grace told me for a fact that she knew ALL of the girls' names ended in the letter "a."

The William Staffeldt Family
Back L-R: Frieda, Frank, Martha, Emma, Louisa & Fritz
Front L-R: William Jr, Wilhelmine, William, Anna & Augusta

William and Wilhelmine came to America quite awhile after his brothers and parents who came between 1871-1877. Aunt Grace shared that our Great-Grandfather William was considered the "black sheep" of the Staffeldt family. While his brothers were all businessmen, William was unsettled and moved the family from farm to farm. He was also an alcoholic who was so desperate for a drink one day that he drank wood alcohol (similar to denatured alcohol which is used for removing paint or fueling small camping stoves). Drinking the wood alcohol had an immediate, life-long side effect which caused him to go blind. 

Emma, Wilhelmine &
Martha Staffeldt

So now the Zielkes and the Staffeldts have made it to America from Germany, they're settled and the scene is set for our parents' generation! That's where we'll go in the next post of "Everyone Needs a Little Grace," but before I publish this post, I HAVE to share the following video, because this song has always touched my heart as I imagine our great-grandparents leaving their homeland, possessions, friends and family to come to America to set the stage for the life we've been blessed to live.

Neil Diamond: "They're Coming to America"

* Rudolph Zielke had three daughters and one son: Norma, Bernice, Lois & Richard
He also had two stepchildren from his wife's first marriage: Marshall & Mildred

A Day to Celebrate!

2-year-old Grace

Today, April 23, 2020 seems the perfect day to begin this celebration of Grace's life and memories! 95 years ago today, 23 April 1925, Aunt Grace entered this world and the Zielke family, the third child born to Reinhold and Martha Zielke. I'll admit, her birthday has always been easy for me to remember. I could say it's just because she's so memorable and I love her so much, but the fact that she was born the exact same day as my mother's sister (which was apparently exciting to my dad as well, since he had to wake Grace up to tell her about it after he found out) probably had a bit more to do with it. The fun part was, according to my mother, one of my grandmothers said it was a beautiful, sunny spring day with the birds chirping, while my other grandmother said it was a miserable day with a late season snowstorm! Perspective, I guess.

So, let's take a little walk through the years to see how she's changed, or not, through the years and learn about just a few of her birthday memories.

Young Grace

Aunt Grace says that for the most part, birthdays in the Zielke family were just like every other day of the year, but with a cake! There was still school and there were still  chores to be done. The exception to this was her sixth birthday when she got to have a real birthday party! She still remembers walking all over town to hand-deliver all of the invitations to her party to the kids from her school class. She doesn't recall gifts from her classmates, but does remember her main present was a prayer book. She specifically remembers playing Pin-the-Tail on the Donkey and assumes there was some rope jumping and Hide-and-Seek going on. How about party favors or gifts for the guests? Aunt Grace thinks the winners of the games got some candy!

A vintage 1930s Pin the tail
on the Donkey game

Now, fast forward ten years. Grace is sixteen and it's just another day. She remembers that a few days before, she and her friend Norma went to Aurora on "the Dinky." The Dinky was a train that made two round trips between Streeter and Aurora, Illinois each day. Norma needed to go to "the dime store" (for you younguns readin' this, "the dime store" always referred to the local "five and dime," usually a Kresge's or Woolworth's store which were the precursors to Kmart and Walmart) to pick up some anklets for her cousin.

Ladies Ankle Socks
aka Anklets

Some of you might think of Norma as a down right liar, 'cause those anklets were NOT for her cousin; they were for her good friend Grace who was there when she bought them! Sneaky girl! But, it was for a purpose. So, now it's April 23, 1941 and Grace is asked to babysit for the Zentmyer family. It wasn't unusual for her to care for this family of 6-7 kids, but this day the parents weren't getting home and they weren't getting home and there was no food in the house and, doggone it, Grace was getting hungry! Being raised by Grandma, she was used to a solid three meals a day AND she still needed to walk home before she'd get any food! Well, the Zentmyers finally got home and by the time Grace had walked from their place to the farm, she was tired, grouchy and STARVING!!! All she was thinking about was getting something to eat when she opened the door to an enthusiastic "SURPRISE!" from her family and closest friends, including Norma with those anklets. Unfortunately, Aunt Grace doesn't remember much more about her special surprise party. (She may have been too focused on what there was to eat...) She does, however remember her two gifts. Those anklets and an expandable bracelet with her initials that was given to her as a group gift from everyone. She says she suspects that Mary Ellen was somehow a part of acquiring the bracelet and bringing everyone in on it.

Grace: Senior Year

Now, we need to fast forward A LOT, because Aunt Grace doesn't know I'm writing this special birthday post and she didn't volunteer information about any of her other birthdays. Nan and Jeanine were kind enough to react immediately to my last minute idea and supply birthday pictures that they have of her birthdays through the years, but I'm afraid I don't have the back story behind the pictures that will follow. So, if YOU happen to have any stories or information about the pictures below OR about any of her birthdays between 1941-2020, I hope that you'll share those memories in the comments below OR on the Zielke Zone post that links to this blog. (Note: Zielke Zone is a private group on Facebook so only family members invited are able to see it.)

Grace and the Grandkids 1986

The photo above captures Aunt Grace around the age of the younger Zielke cousins, meaning MOST of us are already older than she is here and some who already have children growing close to this age! So, here she is celebrating her 61st birthday with Todd & Jill Phillips, Nikki Mecum, Matt Creviston, Lisa Phillips and Leah Mecum in 1986. Nan shared her surprise at the fact that Todd was wearing a hat in this photo. Apparently Grandpa (aka Uncle Austin) didn't approve of gentlemen wearing their hats in the house!

1989 "Kiffy Cake"

It's my understanding, that Nan would frequently get cakes baked and decorated by our cousin, Marilyn Kifowit and her husband Jim. Delicious and creative, it sounds like these Kiffy Cakes were always a hit.This particular Kiffy Cake was to celebrate Grace's 64th birthday and granddaughter Jaclyn's 2nd!

1993 March/April Birthdays

Moving ahead 4 more years, Grace celebrated her birthday with 3 other family members! Jim Mecum (Apr 11), Jaci Creviston (Apr 18), Nikki Mecum (Mar 29) and Grace.

#69 in 1994

Aunt Dorothy joined the party in 1994 along with foreign exchange student, Marjanna Nikula and, of course, Grace's girls! The hairstyles change, but somehow these ladies always look the same! This is probably one of the last family photos to include Aunt Dorothy as she passed away a few months later.

#70 in 1995

A great family couples shot above with Jeanine & Steve, Kathy & Roger, Grace & Austin, Nan & Ray, and Marcia & Jim to celebrate Grace's 70th birthday in 1995.

Grace & Marge 1995

A special family day to celebrate Grace's 70th birthday included time with Aunt Marge.

#75 in 2000

The turn of the century brought Aunt Grace to 3/4 of a century herself!!! Her photo cake sported the well-know family photo of Grace at 2 years old, with older siblings, Helen and Ray.

#90 in 2015

Fast forward again fifteen years to Grace's 90th birthday celebration!!!  I was fortunate enough to attend this one myself with my son, Barton, and his little family. What a wonderful day that was with so many "Zielke" cousins in attendance to celebrate our family matriarch!

Grace's Garden of Love 2000

A special part of the 90th birthday celebration was "Grace's Garden of Love" which featured art and photos of her great-grandchildren!

2019 Easter/Birthday Celebration
L-R: Lincoln, Landon, Grace, Taryn,
Grayson, Oliver & Lucas

Last year, 2019, the family celebrated Grace's Birthday on Easter Sunday (April 21). An interesting bit of birthday/Easter trivia is that her birthday has only fallen on Easter Sunday one time in her life and that was her 75th birthday in 2000. The next one will be in 2079!

Now it's 2020! Another milestone birthday reached and, as usual, her girls made sure she was well loved and appreciated!

18 Signs from 18 Greats

The girls began plans for the celebration months ago when they reached out to friends and family, asking us all to send an email with a special memory or two of Aunt Grace. The goal was to gather 95 memories for 95 years.

Masked & Safely Distanced

Plans had to be altered somewhat when everyone realized this birthday would be memorable for a different reason! No one could have foreseen that this birthday would be in isolation due to the Covid-19 virus; that no one would be able to go into her home or be able to give her a special birthday hug, but rather see her sitting alone on her porch, behind her birthday barrier with her masked friends and family maintaining "social distancing!" 

A Royal Wave to Friends and Family

In spite of all that, Aunt Grace took it all in stride and enjoyed the love and attention showered on her for the past week!

Greats, Mackenzie & Jason enjoy
birthday treats on the lawn!
(Rumor has it that Mackenzie helped
her Grandma Nan make those treats!)

As I did my video chat with her on Tuesday to add to my collection of her memories for this blog, she was excited to share with me all the attention she had already received for her birthday. She gave me a virtual tour of all the cards, emails and flowers she had received already, but I don't think she knew what her girls still had in store for her! 

Birthday Parade past her house!

Probably one of the most exciting events of the day was the 40-50 car parade, led by the Harvard Police and Fire Departments with signs, honks, waves and tons of well wishes!

I'm not usually one who is at a loss for words, but I truly can't come up with words to express how much Aunt Grace means to me and I suspect, many of my cousins feel the same way. I will say, however, that I have truly loved and appreciated how, over the last ten years, I have been able to renew my relationship with her, that my children have had an opportunity to get to know her and that, through her, we will all get to know more, not just about her life, but also the lives of our parents, grandparents and even great-grandparents. I thank you, Aunt Grace for trusting me to write your stories for generations of Zielke-Staffeldts to come! With that, I'll close with this video from your birthday celebration and add my wish for God's blessings to you! With lots of love!