2024 #52Ancestors, Week 14: Least Favorite Recipe

My grandmother was Sicilian, so she had plenty of delicious recipes.  Her Sunday sauce was, of course, top notch.  Honestly, I'm not sure anyone could pick a favorite recipe from her repertoire, but I can tell you that my father's least favorite recipe was/is something called escarole and beans.  As a kid, I didn't know what it was.  I just knew it must be awful because it was the only food my dad admitted he hated eating as a kid.  Even the mention of it had my dad putting a hand to either side of his head and groaning dramatically, "Ack!  Escarole and beans!"

Escarole is a bitter leafy green which Dad claims is inoffensive enough when it is served raw as part of a salad, but something sinister happens when it is cooked...or maybe the sinister part is when the white beans are added.  I'm not sure.  Everything I've read says that cooking escarole minimizes the bitter taste, and the rest of the recipe consists of broth, garlic, onion, olive oil, salt and red pepper. Those are usually safe ingredients to add to most any dish.

Anyway, as my father tells it, any time Grandma Rose prepared steak and fries for dinner, Dad and Aunt Chris knew the dreaded escarole and beans was also on the menu. This unpalatable item was served first and had to be consumed before the much more desirable steak and fries could be eaten.  Alas, Dad couldn't even sneak the unpleasant slop to the dog under the table.  It wouldn't eat the escarole and beans either, and even if it were so inclined, the dog was only the size of a teacup.  Not much help when it comes to getting rid of food.  I asked Dad if he ever managed to make it to the steak and fries.  He said he did eventually, but by that time, it was already cold.  He also pointed out that there weren't any microwaves back then, though I doubt microwaving a steak would improve it any.  😞

Here's the funniest part of the story, though.  When I graduated from college (at least, I think that's what we were celebrating), we all went out to a great little chain Italian restaurant called Buca di Beppo in the suburbs of Chicago.  They had escarole and bean on the menu.  My dad, in a fit of optimism, decided to order it, thinking that maybe his palate would have changed since he was a kid.  Sadly, it had not. 😆

2024 #52Ancestors #Week13 Worship

Among the many denominations that came into being after Martin Luther nailed his thesis to a famous door, was the Dutch Reformed Church with an official founding date of 1571. The earliest record I have for my Dutch ancestors in the Netherlands in from the late 1600s, and many extended family members are still parishioners at churches in NW Iowa and beyond.

My great grandmother Elsie (Alice) Ten Kley Winkel was a faithful adherent for all of her days, her baptismal record found in her childhood homeland, Emmons County, ND where she appears to have been baptized (or at least recorded) with a number of her siblings. The first Dutch Reformed Church in NW Iowa was founded in 1871, 300 years after its European inception. I know very little about her faith life, or of the traditions of her church except that this sect was quite conservative. Women were forbidden from cutting their hair, and dancing and music were likely on the chopping block as well. My grandmother remembered long ago her dislike of her duty of washing her mother’s long hair. Grandma herself never had hair below her shoulders, at least not to my knowledge.

*from the website of the First Reformed Church, Sioux Center, Iowa

Peter Winkel, Elsie’s husband, wrote of his upbringing in the Calvinistic tradition and of learning its' cathecism, but chose a different path while the children were still young and all at home, causing a considerable amount of tension in the home.  I’ll write about this in detail at a later date.

The couple’s four children all chose paths of their own as adults, likely due to a variety of factors not the least of which were the influences of World War II and wider views of the world.

Dorothy, the eldest, adhered to her husband Richard's German Methodist faith (at least early in the marriage. They were divorced after 10 years together). Dick and wife Mary were among the congregants of the Methodist Church. 

David Winkel married Carole, a Catholic, while he was in the Navy. They had 9 children, and their oldest daughter was a nun for many years. Margaret married a Norwegian Lutheran, and she and Grandpa (Clint) were members of Central Lutheran Church in Minneapolis for many decades. I have fond memories of coloring in a pew next to Grandma, and of visiting the Sunday School. Both lived in a care facility named for Martin Luther himself.

Back in Iowa, the town of Sioux Center where Grandma spent her childhood, has a mere 8,000 people, but 5 Dutch Reformed Churches.  No less than three of Grandma’s 50 first cousins (sons of Uncle Henry) became ordained pastors of this denomination in North Dakota. Other cousins served as deacons.

2024 #52Ancestors, Week 13: Worship

I don't have much in the way of information concerning when and where my ancestors chose to worship.  I do know that the Swedish Lutheran churches kept fabulous records, and I have appreciated their diligence on several occasions.  For this post, though, I thought I would look at this 1954 news article that discusses the 50th anniversary of my great grandparents, Frank and Santa Palermo.  It reports that they celebrated a renewal of marriage vows in the same place they had been married in 1904 - St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in St. Louis, Missouri.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 28 Feb. 1954, p. 16.

I had hoped to find that the church on Locust Street still existed, but research uncovered that it was demolished several decades ago. St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church had been founded by Father Caesar Spigardi in 1900 at Nineteenth and Morgan streets in the area known as "Little Italy."  However, Father Spigardi soon began looking for a larger building to house his increasing number of congregants.  By 1902, he was able to raise enough funds to purchase the former St. John's Methodist Church on Twenty-Ninth and Locust Streets. An Italian from Mantua, Italy, Father Spigardi's parish consisted of a large number of Sicilians.  My Sicilian great grandparents had been in America 7 years (Frank) and 1 year (Santa) when they married in 1904.  This church, with its familiar people and language, undoubtedly felt welcoming to them.  

 

Photo Credit

As Frank and Santa were married in March of 1904, and their son, Antonino, was born before the end of 1904, it is likely he was baptized in this church along with the myriad of brothers and sisters who followed in later years. Father Spigardi passed away in 1931, and by this time, the number of active families had decreased from 1,500 to just 100.  Based on those numbers, it seems likely that the Palermo family had moved its worship elsewhere, but perhaps not.  After all, Father Spigardi was followed by another Italian, Father Fiorenzo Lupo.  Either way, the parish must have meant enough to Frank and Santa that it was important for them to renew their vows there.  Sadly, Santa passed away just nine months after their vow renewal.

St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church (pictured above) on Locust Street closed in 1982.  

For more information on the history and architecture of St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in St. Louis, go here. 

Additional Sources:

"A Catholic Church That One Man Built," St. Louis Star and Times, 20 Nov. 1933, p. 15.

2024 #52Ancestors, Week 12: (Radio) Technology

Although radio technology had been around in some form or another since the late 1800s, entertainment broadcasting didn't take off until the early 1900s.  According to an article on the PBS American Experience website, "The period between the late 1920s and the early 1950s is considered the Golden Age of Radio, in which comedies, dramas, variety shows, game shows, and popular music shows drew millions of listeners across America."    In Chicago, in 1924, the Southtown Economist newspaper had a radio station with a WBCN call sign.  It was on this radio station that you could hear the dulcet tones of my great grandma Lena's brother, Berger Wedberg. 

Suburbanite Economist, 29 Apr. 1926, p. 5.

He frequented other radio stations as well, and his radio popularity led to many other non-radio jobs.  Newspaper articles tell us Berger sang at at a football benefit for the Maywood Boosters in 1926.  In 1929, Berger was supposed to sing at a police benefit, but beforehand, a thief made off with his overcoat and sheet music.  It seems that Berger was still able to perform, though.  In 1928, he sang at the Greater East Chicago-Indiana Harbor Exposition. An article detailing the exposition referred to Berger as the "golden-voiced tenor who is known to radio fans over the entire country."  In 1934, Berger even sang at the funeral of Hammond, Indiana's locally famous boxer, Jimmy Clabby.

The Times (Munster, Indiana), 22 Jan. 1934, p. 1.

In his later years, Berger switched to a slightly older 'technology' to work for the railroad.  (If you've followed this blog at all, you'll know that railroads were a dangerous place for my relatives.  Among other incidents, one of Berger's brothers, Nels, lost one of his legs to a railroad accident.)  The article below details much of Berger's musical life, and I imagine not all of it would have been possible if not for the advent of the radio.

The Times (Munster, Indiana), 7 Apr. 1952, p. 3.

Sources:

"The Development of Radio," PBS, www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/rescue-development-radio/. Accessed 22 Mar. 2024.

"Sings a Maywood Booster Dance," The Times, 23 Nov. 1926, p. 18.

"Theft of Tenor's Coat and Music Endangers Ball," The Times, 12 Nov. 1929, p. 15.

2024 #52Ancestors #Week12 - Technology

There was some work involved in finding an appropriate topic regarding advancements in technology as it relates to my Dutch Iowan ancestors. 

Dirkje Bosch Winkel was a victim of the "sugar diabetes" as I've heard it referred to by folks from previous generations.  There is no indication about how long she may have been ill but her last days were prolonged enough that family was able to come from Minnesota to see her before her passing.

While a person with a Type 2 Diabetes diagnoses may have a slightly shortened life span (by about 3-6 years depending on various medical sources) it is now possible for that person to live just as long as a person without the diagnoses. Dirkje was 66 years old when she died which was a respectable age for an "old lady" in 1916. 

During the 2nd decade of the 1900s, common alleviants for sufferers with excessive sugar were sold in glass bottles labelled "Diabetic Cure" to kidney pills in tiny paper tubes. In the years around my great-great grandmother's death, the "starvation diet" was popularized. This method seems to have been somewhat effective, but I certainly wouldn't advise it (strong recommendations for a lot of asparagus which I love but perhaps not at the quantity thought to be helpful).

Insulin and metformin were developed and became available in 1922. Some of those who had seen success with the starvatrion diet were among the first to be treated with the new drug. It came just a bit too late to be helpful to the Winkels, but several of her descendants have benefited from these and further advances.

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When Dirk Winkel became a cobbler in the Netherlands, he was very likely a teen and picked up the skill or was perhaps even apprenticed to a family friend or other relative as his own father was a locksmith. When he was practricing his trade, he likely amassed his own kit of tools over time, perhaps carrying them in a canvas or leather case: shoe forms, hammers, wrenches, scissors and awls in differing sizes, as well as leather and tough thread were all necessary to have on hand.

Cobblers spent their days sewing, cutting, dying, stitching, patching, sanding, polishing, sealing, as well as performing repairs. It was fine work, no doubt many decades of this were terribly hard on their fingers and hands.

At least three shoe-repair shops existing in my small city alone when I was much younger. Now there are none, although there is one in a neighboring town. Shoes are made with synthetic materials in enormous factories, although US data shows approximately 7,000 craftsman still making shoes. Shoes made by a single individual, of leather or wool are often a work of art. In addition to making a living I'd love to know if great-great grandfather Winkel thought of himself as an artisan.

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OLD MAN WINKLE (1995 Sioux County Newspapers)

In the southeast corner of Dries van Gortel’s store on the east side of Main Street, Old Man Winkle had a niche where he mended shoes. Winkel was an artist at mending shoes. Almost never was a shoe too far gone for Winkle to mend. He could put almost invisible patches on holes in the uppers. A spare man, straight, tall and perky, he swung his upper torso jauntily as he walked. Twinkling eyes and a wry expression bespoke a sense of humor and a love of life. I was not surprised to hear, long after I left Sioux Center, that he had retired from cobbling to an active life of walking and fishing, and that he lived to nearly a hundred. - Writer recalls early days of Sioux Center

 

2024 #52Ancestors #Week11 - Acheivement

Survival on the open prairie is something I've already written about however I have a few stories and lists of facts that sometimes cause my brain to spin a bit while taking in the sheer grit of my people.

When Dirk and Maggie TenKley arrived in America, they'd already spent 20 years of married life living primarily on a houseboat, travelling with their wares and loading and unloading at each stop. They had certainly seen factories and perhaps been inside several as they delivered goods.  They certainly hadn't done factory work, typically a very long day in close and frequently unsafe conditions. Yet this was the work available to them on arrival in New England.  They did not stay long in this situation.

Neither did the family have experience in farming, but they set out for Iowa, stayed briefly and then journeyed to North Dakota to build a life. They had some experience in transporting livestock but had arguably never worked in a field or managed an entire barn full of animals. What they did have was a close community of fellow Dutch both on neighboring farms and in church, and I would guess that in building community, they assisted one another in building their homesteads.

Cousin Peter TenKley wrote about their sod house, one end functioning as a barn. While the entire family was newly settled in the sod house, there was a vast prairie fire, and a scramble to secure the children and animals securely into the safety of their new home. I hope this was their only experience with a large fire!

Another experience that I don't like to think of as an achievement, but certainly fits the definition when applied to "effort" and 'courage" is the devastating loss in nearly every family of at least one small child.  Aunt Minnie also lost her first husband when they were still very young. These great-aunts and uncles didn't have a choice. They survived, and many of them thrived.

Dirk and Maggie TenKley are described as well-to-do retired farmers in newspaper articles featuring the family, as are at least two of their sons. Quite the feat for a couple that began their farming career in early middle age. Maggie was in a newspaper write up as having knitted a spectacular number of stockings for soldiers during World War I. Two daughters hired out (as family history states incredibly talented) seamstresses. And Aunt Jennie, who lived in Michigan away from the rest of her family, divorced her husband in 1916 and raised several children on her own.  She never remarried.

Peter Winkel and his brother Dick became managers of farming co-ops and elevators at young ages. Their youngest sister was a businesswoman in her own right, and older sister Mary was another single mother, having lost her husband to illness 2 short months after moving into their new home. Their father, for his own part, worked as a shoemaker well into his dotage, and took frequent solo walks of many miles across the county well into his 90s. 

I don't think it's hyperbole to say the above information leads me to feel mightily privileged, and perhaps more than a bit lazy!

2024 #52Ancestors, Week 11: Achievement

In 1914, the Veterans of Foreign Wars Auxiliary was formed to honor and support veterans.  The aim of this organization was to improve the lives of servicemen and women and their families through community assistance programs. 

Carmela (Aloisio) LaCagnina - Aunt Nell, as she was affectionately called - was my Grandma Rose's sister.  Aunt Nell's husband, Salvatore - Uncle Sall - was a veteran of World War I.  Aunt Nell's brothers, Bud and Pete, were World War II veterans.  Both brothers served in the 104th Infantry division known as the Timberwolves.

I don't know if Aunt Nell's family directly benefited from any of the VFW Auxiliary services (which include - but are not limited to - medical care, scholarships, and monitoring legislative concerns specific to veterans), but the program must have meant enough to her that she felt compelled to run for a post in the VFW Auxiliary in her area.  Just before the end of World War II, in April 1945, Aunt Nell became president of the Queens County VFW Auxiliary.  The picture below shows her looking on as the new commander of the Woodhull Veterans of Wars Post is installed.

Long Island Star-Journal, 26 Apr. 1945

I am uncertain how long she remained in this post, but the newspaper clipping below indicates she was still president as of April 1951.

Daily News, 29 Apr. 1951

Neither do I know what she 'achieved' during her time in this post.  What I do know is that she must have been well-respected as part of this organization.  When Nell's mother died as a result of a house fire, two different VFW Auxiliaries made donations to the Nassau Medical Burn Center in Sophie Aloisio's honor - the State of New York Ladies Auxiliary VFW and the Queens County VFW Auxiliary of which Nell had been president.

Furthermore, while I don't know of any personal achievements in this post, Aunt Nell will forever be associated with the greater achievements of this organization. According to the VFW Auxiliary site, from 2019-2021, the VFW Auxiliary provided over 660,000 volunteer hours in VA Medical Centers and other health-related services, made over 200,000 legislative contacts regarding important bills affecting veterans and their families, awarded nearly $300,000 in scholarships, and distributed more than 600,000 U.S. flags.  Not every achievement is an individual one.

2024 #52Ancestors #Week10 - Language Ban

When my Grandma Margaret started school in about 1922, she related to me decades later that she didn't have much English" as her parents, siblings and other relatives spoke exclusively Dutch at home. As her older siblings had already been at school for a while, Grandma must have picked up the occasional English word, but living in a mostly Dutch community (which had also had Dutch schools for the children for some time) made it easier for the people to preserve their culture and their language.

However, shortly after my grandmother was born, World War I began, and U.S. hostilities toward those with German ancestry had already been on the rise. A 2018 article in the Des Moines Register by Bryce Bauer and Dan Manatt gives details of former Iowa Governor William Harding's "Babel Proclamation" proclaiming English as Iowa's official language.

Harding's proclamation banned the use of foreign languages in schools and in "conversations in public places", as well as use in religious services. The governor didn't appear to consider that was far from any German wartime activities, and that the state's citizens had fled their homeland to escape its government and policies. Throughout Iowa, teachers were fired for teaching German. Some towns even changed their names. German beer gardens and social clubs were shuttered. Banks and German newspapers were vandalized, and fewer than a third of the newspapers were still active after the war. German books were thrown into fires across the state.

In one town, an immigrant farmer was tortured. In another town, a German Lutheran minister only escaped lynching when his wife collapsed at the prospect. Prohibition, enforced with the 18th Amendment, had been pushed in large part by the hatred of German-Americans and their breweries in Iowa. Prohibition was being enforced in Iowa by 1916.

In 1920, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Nebraska language ban (Meyer vs. Nebraska) and by association, the Babel Proclamation.

Clinging to one's heritage and language, then being told that the latter was a crime, affected the Dutch as well as the Germans. The governor hadn't been satisfied and even expanded his edicts to include Danish-Americans as well. This discrimination was surely heartbreaking to my great-grandparents, and confusing for their children. Watching sons or nephews who were old enough to be at risk of being shipped overseas to the fighting would have been an additional angst.

When I was in late elementary school, I remember checking out grade level pictoral dictionaries from the school library and asking Grandma to teach me some of the words.  At that point, she remembered only the most scant words, but we were able to teach my children, many years later to recite a family favorite: "War ist da grunthe winkel?"  Loosely, this is "Where is the green grocer?"

2024 #52Ancestors, Week 10: Language (Grandma's Sayings)

Me and Grandma, 1982ish.

Last Christmas Eve, I posted on Facebook about my Grandma Rose.  My daughter had asked us what she was like, and what transpired was a flood of remembrance that centered around some of Grandma's oft-uttered sayings.  After I posted it, my dad and my cousins all chimed in with the sayings (and one unfortunate driving incident) they most remembered.  It seems that Grandma left her mark through her use of language...and in more than one language!  For this week's post, I thought it would be fun to record everyone's recollections here.

I told my daughter that if Grandma Rose were still here, there are two sayings that would be ingrained in her mind.  At least, they were the sayings ingrained in my mind.  First, you never used the word “hey” to get Grandma’s attention. She would look at you, probably raise a dainty eyebrow, and respond, “Hey/Hay is for horses.” That ended the conversation before it even started. Two, if you happened to ask Grandma, “Why?” she would respond with, “Because y is a crooked letter.” Still not sure what she meant by that. In fact, I even tried to Google what the saying meant, and opinions were varied.  Everyone agreed, though, that whatever its potential meanings, its intent was to put an end to an irritating string of 'why' questions.  Sounds like I was an inquisitive child...

Cousin Tracy, and later Cousin Michael, offered their favorite - "I may not always be right, but I'm never wrong." I honestly don't remember hearing that one, but it doesn't matter.  It's just the sort of thing that Grandma would say.  She would have said it quite matter-of-factly and without even a hint of irony.   

Slightly less humorous (and certainly more than a little macabre) was another Cousin Michael offering - "When the devil caresses you, he wants your soul."  Again, I didn't remember that one, but Brandy clarified that Grandma would say it in Italian - Quannu u diavulu ti accarezza, ti voli l'anima.  If I was around when she said it, no one ever translated for me.  This is apparently an old Italian saying used to warn about the dangers of flattery.  Essentially, flatterers want something from you.

Finally, Brandy contributed this one.  "Man may propose, God will dispose."  When I looked up this saying, I discovered it was actually a paraphrase of The Bible, Proverbs 19:21, and it essentially means that you are welcome to make plans, but that God decides how things turn out in the end. I think I was just too young to appreciate the lessons behind many of Grandma's favorite sayings, but at least they are now recorded for posterity.

2024 #52Ancestors #Week9 - Names Changes

Dutch names on paper look a bit like tongue-twisters, but just a short lesson reveals that the names are really very straight forward. 

In reverse order, my Ten Kley grandparents had 10 living children, all of whom married and contributed to a total of 54 grandchildren.

The youngest, Gerrit, had no useful nickname or Americanization. He was named for his grandfather.

Albarta, first child born in the U.S., became Bertha.

Elsje became simply Elsie, although per her grandson and many newspaper clippings, she was frequently Alice (it seems she used both names throughout her life).

Alart became Albert, and perhaps he assisted in the naming of his younger sister. I believe he may occasionally have been called Al, but does not appear to have entertained "Bert".

Margjen was the fourth daughter, and her name is the same as her mother's.  Both women were Maggie, and my own grandmother Margaret was likely named in honor of both.  The latter never shortened her name in any way.

Derk was the next-eldest and firstborn son, named in honor of his father, and the first in the family to go by the moniker "Dick" although many others would follow.

Gerritdina was the third daughter, and although she did have a niece called Gertie and there is evidence that she used the same nickname, she was most frequently Dena.

2nd eldest was Jantje, perhaps named for her maternal aunt Jannetje.  My great-great aunt was called Jennie.

Eldest child and daughter Willempje became Aunt Minnie.  She was actually the 2nd Willempje as her elder sibling was born a year prior and died before her first birthday.  It was common to use the name again, although something most wouldn't do in today's times. I've wondered if Aunt Minnie could also have become "Willa."  This full name is the only one that I don't see repeated either prior to Minnie or after. A nod to WIlliam of the Netherlands, I think. He was very much alive when she was born.

As for the surname, there is a documented trail from "Ten Kleij" to "Ten Kley" and for children of Henry, "Ten Clay". The pronunciation hasn't differed for some 400 years.

As for the Winkels, there was some evolution of the surname.  Peter Winkel's grandfather (also Peter) was Slotwinkel, basically translating to locksmith, which was his occupation.  Dirk Winkel was a shoemaker, and Peter the younger was a Farmer's Cooperative manager.  Pronounced "vinkel" in Dutch, I have no idea when "Winkel" began to be pronounced as it is spelled, sometime after arriving in Iowa I presume.

The naming repetition continued in this nuclear family as well.  Peter Winkel's parents were first cousins and they named both of their daughters for their mothers. Neither woman lived long enough to see any grandchildren. A pattern I just noticed in this family, thought, is that together, Elsie and Peter's parent's initials were D-D-D-M.  As were the couple's children, Dorothy, Dirk (Dick, once mistaken by non-family for Richard), David and Margaret. Research has shown that the human brain looks for patterns, and they certainly found one.