Time to Change Gears!

Up to now, I have dealt with mostly parents and grandparents who I knew more about. Now, it’s time to start delving into the lesser-known ancestors who were farther back in time. Even though this blog is called “Schell Seekers”, I will be telling you about other families in the paternal line including Markus, Husam, Kolker, Jacobskoetter, Scheiner, and maybe a few others as I find more about them. All of these other families are important “pieces” to the genealogical puzzle. There are some great stories here including a Civil War soldier, an immigrant who nearly died off the Jersey shore, an encounter with Washington Irving, and a soldier serving Napoleon. And remember, if that ancestor had died on the Jersey shore or if that Civil War soldier had not made it home, I wouldn’t be writing this and, if you are a member of the family, you wouldn’t be around either! These “little” twists of fate are so interesting! Enjoy the upcoming blogs about these people from our past; they deserve to be remembered!

Beatrice Mary Juliana Markus- A Life of True Devotion

One thing that I have definitely learned about my paternal grandmother was her strength of character. She was a very devout Catholic and I can remember her going to mass most mornings.... not just Sunday. Her strong faith carried her through some very difficult times. Can you imagine losing your husband and father in the same month? June of 1935 had to be an absolutely dismal period. Her husband, Carl, died on the eighth of June and  her father, William Markus, was lost on the twenty-ninth. And the two families were living in the same residence at 1615 Broadway with seven children ranging in ages 17 years to 17 months. Later, in the early 1940s, I am certain that she called upon her faith again as she had four sons serving in the military during World War II. She also had a brother, Norbert, who served in World War I and was badly wounded during that conflict. 

St. Mary's Hospital

Beatrice would eventually take a job in 1947 as nurse’s aide at St. Mary’s Hospital which was located just a few blocks from her home. She worked there for 14 years and was there when I was born at that same hospital in 1948. Not only was she a caregiver at the hospital, she also took care of her mother, Mary Anna Husam Markus, at home. I can remember visiting Great Grandma Markus in the upstairs front bedroom whenever I was in Quincy. She was nearly blind as I recall. I didn’t get to Quincy often and I would have just turned 9 when she passed away; so, I , unfortunately, don’t remember much about her.

She had five siblings: two sisters and three brothers. One sister,

Confirmation

Alvina, and one brother, Lawrence “Laurel”, died very young. Arthur was an older brother and Norbert was a younger brother. She had a younger sister, Virginia. It seems to me that she was always referred to as “Aunt Jinky”. By the way, Arthur’s daughter, June Hoopes, did a lot of genealogical research including some trips to Germany. I have been able to use her research extensively in researching the Markus and Husam families. 

It appears to me that Beatrice and Carl had a pretty active social life in Quincy. I have several pictures of them with siblings and friends on outings in and around Quincy. She was a member of the Third Order of St. Francis (Catholic Church) and of the Catholic Ladies of Charity. I don’t know much about these groups but knowing Grandma, I am most certain she was a very active member. She was a very loving, giving person and she lived her faith throughout her life.
 

Carl Joseph Schell

339 S. 4th St.

Carl Joseph Schell was born on October 21, 1891 in Quincy, Illinois. He was the fifth child of Reinold and Sophia Kolker Schell. I never really knew him; he died in 1935 about 13 years before I was born. I really don't remember Grandma talking about him; how I wished I had asked her about him.  My dad would have been only 9 years old when his dad died. And Carl died quite young being only 43 at the time of his death. During much of his youth, the family had lived at 339 S. 4th St. The house is no longer there but a picture of the house survives. He graduated from Quincy High School in 1911. He was employed as a salesman for the Kohl Grocery Co. for 18 years (1917-1935). We found a picture of the Kohl staff taken in front of the store. Carl was in the picture along with his sister, Coletta, and a young Jim Schell, his first son. The picture is located in the Illinois Room of the Quincy Public Library. He was a member of the Knights of Columbus and the St. Joseph Young Men’s Society of St. Boniface Church. 

Carl and Beatrice-Wedding

Carl married Beatrice Mary Julianna Markus on June 21, 1916 at St. Francis Catholic Church. They made their home at 1615 Broadway. I had previously mentioned that home in an earlier post; all of us who remembered being at that house have fond memories of it. They would eventually have 7 children.... six of them being boys! That house must have been pretty lively! And remember, Grandma raised them pretty much by herself. The oldest son would have been only about 18 years old when their dad died. That's quite an accomplishment for a single parent...... during

1615 Broadway

the Great Depression!  

A Life Well-lived, but All Too Short

Waterloo Corrugated was a great place to work. Actually I think he did a lot of his work at home so he could “play” during the day! He had quite a reputation for being a practical joker. One of the funniest, and there are many, jokes he played was on an employee who was in the National Guard. The Guard would have their annual training encampments and this guy would always take along several ‘luxuries’ such as a portable TV and radio, etc. Well, he made the mistake of telling dad this. Dad got a newsletter from our local Congressman and cut out the letterhead. He went on to write this official looking letter with the Congressman’s letterhead explaining that guardsmen should not be taking these ‘luxuries’ to these encampments. The guy didn’t take anything like that with him. Imagine his surprise when he later found out it was a joke! Or there was the time when he had an actual casket that he had to develop packing for. As you probably already imagined, he climbed in the thing and had someone close it. I don’t remember if it was one of secretaries or one of the office guys who opened it, and much to their surprise!

Dad was an avid cartoonist. He did these funny family tree books with all these fake Schell family ancestors. He made quite a few and I think some of them are still around. He, of course, made up funny stories to go along with these trees. This is NOT where I got the idea to research  genealogy.... or was it? When the local hockey team started out in 1962, he wound up drawing some comical explanations for the various penalties that would appear in the program. Hockey was new to Waterloo and fans needed to be educated and this was a funny way to do that.

He loved car racing and made several trip to the big races in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. John Ewers, one of the Waterloo Corrugated bosses, had a model race track built in his basement; he had dad make all of the landscaping . He built buildings and viewing stands out of balsa wood. And as Staci pointed out after reading this, he made quite a few of the cars. They were made of a fiberglass-like material that had to be baked.  At home we were quite aware of the car-making because the smell of these  models baking in an oven permeated the house! It was quite a track. There was a group that got together on the weekend to race these models cars and they had great fun.

He took an active part in the Dad’s Night productions at Castle Hill Elementary School. The PTA dads would put on these elaborate skits and they were quite a hit. We kids never got to attend these, but the one that stands out in my memory was the take-off on the “Jack Paar Show”. Their version was the “Jack Poor Show”. I don’t remember who played the parts, but dad did a lot of the set work. Staci remembered him dressed up like a clown once. Go figure! There used to be films of these but I fear they are long gone. It would be great to be able to see those today.

We lived at the hockey rink in the winter. If one of us boys was playing hockey, he was almost always there to watch. There was public skating on the weekends and all of us kids went, but we could never convince dad to join us on the ice!  We went to all of the Black Hawks hockey games; mom and dad always sat in the same place with the Brooks (Dale and Gwen). The kids usually scattered and hung around with their friends. It was always a great time at McElroy, the arena’s name.

We had wonderful times on “Walton’s Mountain” on Greenview. Sherwood Park was a great place to grow up; some of us returned there to live as adults. But, alas, Sherwood Park is no more-- too many really big floods. The floods of our childhood were actually always fun! They were always small and didn’t cause damage- they were just a minor inconvenience. But it was fun to play in the water and out in the woods. Mom and dad created a good life for us there and I don’t think any of us would have wanted it any different.

We lost dad way too early in life; he was only 53. He was diagnosed with cancer in June, 1978 and had a tumor from his left arm removed. He had to go back to Rochester’s Mayo clinic in September where they operated again; he had a tumor the length of his spine. He also contracted a staph infection later. It just proved to be too much and he died on October 18, 1978. We had to have the funeral in one of the largest churches in Waterloo and the place was packed, actually there were many people standing.  The line of cars going to the cemetery was endless. It truly  was a testament to how well he was known,liked, and loved. We miss his smile, we miss his jokes, we miss his caring, we miss him.

Bill’s Early Working Years in Waterloo

Quincy College (now university)

After getting out of the navy in March of 1946, he returned to Quincy where he made use of the GI Bill and enrolled at Quincy College.  He and mom would marry a little more than a year later on May 30, 1947. They married at St. Francis Catholic Church and their reception was in the backyard of Great Aunt Irene and Uncle Elmer Schutte. Aunt Irene was my maternal grandfather’s sister. There was a film taken at that wedding with mom doing some fancy knife work as I recall. I wish that film were still around, but I fear it is lost to history. They were living at student housing at Quincy College when I came along on March 8, 1948. Aunt Martha regales in telling stories of babysitting me; I am certain that some of this will come up in Staci’s “My Funny Family” blog <www.myfunfam.blogspot.com>. So, I will skip over that! After dad graduated from college, they moved to Waterloo. Mom had lived in Waterloo since 1936, when grandpa had moved here for a job. Mom came back often and spent summers in Quincy. We have asked around but have never learned about how mom and dad actually met. We are kind of wondering if the Schell boys hung around with the Schutte boys-- they all had about the same kind of sense of humor. That certainly could have been how they met for the first time, but, again, that’s another fact lost to history.

When they moved back to Waterloo, they lived with mom’s parents out in Sherwood Park. Dad said he would NEVER live in the Park, but mom related in some notes she left that after a few floods, he became a true “river rat”. He would sit on the front porch and shoot at bottles and cans as they floated by. He worked as an assistant manger at the Paramount Theater in downtown Waterloo. I’m not

Downtown Waterloo by Sears, 1940s

sure how long he was there, but he then went to work at Sears. He would eventually get a chance to apply at Waterloo Corrugated Box Co., where he wound up working for the rest of his life. We don’t know the circumstances of why he went there, but when a couple of the owners of the company, John Ewers and Jim McLaughlin, found out that he was from Quincy, they took an immediate liking to him. John and Jim were originally from Keokuk, just up the Mississippi River from Quincy. He started there in 1952 and became a sample maker.

This is a good place to break. I’ll finish his story in the next blog. Then it will be on to tell about the ancestors I have found. One who nearly didn’t make it here alive. One who had an encounter with a famous American author. And one who was on Sherman’s march through Georgia in the Civil War. Stay tuned!

Sonarman Bill Schell- the War Years

It has been really exciting finding some of this naval history because dad never really talked much about it. And dumb us, we just never asked. Do I ever wish I had though!

Aunt Martha told us one time that dad was not 18 when he enlisted. She was absolutely right! He was close, but not quite 18. He was actually 17 years, 11 months, and 14 days old when he enlisted on August 28, 1943 at Springfield, IL. I did a little investigation and found out that they would take 17-year olds with parental consent. I don’t know if he got that consent or just fudged on the numbers. I suspect he had consent, but then we are talking about Bill Schell--- maybe he was creative even back then!

He was assigned to the destroyer escort USS Eugene E Elmore and the earliest date I have for him connected with the ship is February 4, 1944 in Boston. On April 22, 1944 the USS Elmore joined the anti-submarine group sailing with aircraft carrier USS Block Island in the Atlantic. On May 29, 1944, as the fleet was heading back from Casablanca, the carrier and the USS Barr were hit by torpedoes from the German sub U-549. Another escort, the USS Ahrens was assisting the the stricken Block Island when they located the U-boat. As they were already engaged with the carrier, the Ahrens signaled the Elmore and the Elmore made the kill. This is all pretty neat stuff, but it got better as I dug into the log books of the Elmore. I knew that dad was aboard the ship, but then I began to wonder if he might have had anything to do with the sinking of the sub as he was a sonarman. I came across the page for June 1, 1944 and on that page was a special commendation for four sailors

who were on duty that day- one was dad! I know that this had to be pretty special because in looking through all of the log books, there are very few places where individual sailors are mentioned by name for anything.

In November, 1944 the Elmore was on its way to the Pacific theater. They arrived at Hollandia (now the city of Jayapura) on the north coast of New Guinea on December 11. There they joined the 7th Fleet and helped escort men and supplies to Lingayen Gulf in the Philippines. They arrived at the gulf on January 12, 1945 and helped provide anti-aircraft fire for the assaulting ships for two days. Then it was on to San Pedro Bay, Philippines to prepare for the assault on Subic Bay on January 29. After the fall of Subic Bay, it was on to escort men and supplies from the Philippines to Okinawa. On September 3, they arrived in Okinawa for occupation duty. This would have been after the main assault on the island had taken place.  After that the Elmore escorted transports going to Jinsen, Korea. And finally on October 15, 1945, the USS Elmore was on its way home to San Diego where she was decommissioned on May 31, 1946. That, of course, means he was in the area when the atomic bombs were dropped on Hirosima and Nagasaki. If he was in Okinawa at the time, that was about 450 miles from Nagasaki and about 625 miles from Hiroshima. 

I have traveled over the bridge near Martinez, CA that goes over Suisun Bay north of San Francisco many times on my way by train to visit the Wachsmans in Sonoma County. As you go over the bay, just to the north were all of these naval vessels that had been retired. There aren’t as many there as there once were, but you can still see a few on Google Earth. I often wondered if the old USS Eugene Elmore was sitting out there on that bay. What a history she had!                                                     

The ghost fleet in Suisun Bay, CA

Bill Schell- the Early Years

Before I get into my story, I have noticed that if you get email notifications of new postings that the actual post is in the email. I find it much easier to read the post if you click on the blue title in the email. That will take you directly to the post in an easier-to-read format.

My dad, William John Schell was born in Quincy, Illinois on September 14, 1925. He was the son of Carl Joseph Schell and Beatrice Mary Juliana Markus. Unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of stories about his growing-up years in Quincy, although there must have been quite a group of boys in the neighborhood around 17th and Broadway. The picture here shows the “Rat Gang” in 1933. This was provided by my Uncle Chuck who is pictured in the front row on the far right. Dad is in the front row, third from the right- looking down. Between them is a name we heard often growing up- Artie Clarke. They caught these rats in a lumberyard that was located nearby. I am not certain what they did with these rats, but apparently from the picture, they did not become pets! One of our favorite stories about Artie Clarke involved shaving off eyebrows. I guess there were a group of friends who decided for, God only knows what reason, to all shave off their eyebrows. Well, I guess poor Artie was the first one to do it, and as you might have already guessed, he looked so ridiculously funny that no one else would do it! Some friends, huh? I’m not sure how old they were, but I’m guessing after having taught junior high school, that would have been about the right age.
Dad’s family consisted of six boys and one girl- poor Aunt Martha, she must have been pretty tough to put up with six brothers! Cindy knew the feeling for a little while. She had to put up with us four brothers until mom and dad evened the score at four each.

Pictured here is the family home on Broadway in Quincy. It was a great old house built around 1893 by my great grandfather, William Markus. I found an announcement in the paper saying it was built at a cost of $2,500. Using an inflation calculator, that translates to a little over $61,000 in 2011 dollars! It became a two-family home. My great grandparents, William and Mary Husam Markus, built the house and my grandparents, Carl and Betty Markus Schell raised their family there. Tragedy struck this home in June of 1935 when my grandmother lost not only her husband  but also her father. Carl died suddenly on June 8 and my great grandfather died June 29. Dad was not quite ten years old when he lost his father and grandfather. I cannot even imagine the grief. It is a testament to her strength that Grandma Schell was able to raise such a  great family and did it as a single parent. And remember, this was 1935, during the Great Depression! 

Like I said before, it was a great old house. I would kill to have a pantry like grandma had. There was a large formal dining room just off the kitchen. In the front, was a living room that may have been called a parlor in its day. There was a large room off both the dining room and the parlor. I’m not sure what they called it, but I do remember the large, wooden sliding doors that disappeared into the walls. I remember pretending that they were elevator doors- we were so easy to entertain when we were children! I do remember going up to see Grandma Markus in that front bedroom upstairs whenever I visited. She was nearly blind and in her mid-eighties by then. I cannot say I remember much about her since she passed away in 1957 and I was about nine. And that leads to the big problem with genealogy- we don’t get interested in it until it’s too late to ask the questions that we really would love to have answers for. 

'Nuff said for now!