Disaster (#52 Ancestors Week 9)

I don’t have a lot of details on this story but it’s too good not to share. So here goes.

Herman Peterson

 In 1956 my great-grandfather Herman Peterson decided to travel to Sweden to visit relatives in his home country. He booked passage on the M.S. Stockholm, traveled to New York City, and set sail for Europe on Wednesday, July 25, 1956.

The Stockholm sailed east out to the north Atlantic. The night was foggy, and around 11 o’clock, south of Nantucket, all of a sudden another ship loomed out of the fog. Neither ship could avoid the impact. The Stockholm rammed into the ship which turned out to be the Italian luxury liner, the Andrea Doria. The Andrea Doria was mortally wounded by the impact; she listed and eventually sank. The Stockholm stayed afloat and helped rescue the Andrea Doria’s passengers. Many other vessels, including another cruise ship the Ile de France, came to the rescue of the Doria’s passengers. 51 people died that night, but over 750 were saved. [I have included a few web links below that tell the story in more detail]

The Andrea Doria

The Stockholm limped back to New York City on Thursday evening with her original passengers, Herman Peterson among them, as well as some of the rescued Andrea Doria passengers. How did Herman react to this disastrous experience? Thanks to cousin Michele who shared a letter from her mother Alice, Herman’s youngest child, we know some of the details of what Herman did when he returned to New York City.

Alice Peterson Stevenson

“Hi, Everybody, My, haven’t we had an anxious, exciting week-end - or if YOU haven’t, you are more calm than I!” (At this time Alice was working for the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.) “I had half the Pentagon, PLUS the Swedish Embassy, checking on Dad on the STOCKHOLM...I called the Swedish-American Line in New York to see if they had info on one Herman Peterson, but found they had little information....I kept a constant vigil at the ticker-tape machine here in the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and got the latest info that way. Well, aren’t we happy that no more were injured or lost.” What a different picture from our world of instant newscasts today!

Alice finally got some answers on Friday when she spoke on the phone with “Gladys” in New Jersey (does anyone know who Gladys was/is?), who reassured her that her dad was OK. Alice continued, “I asked her if Dad had said that he would telephone home, but she said he had said, yes, he would let them know he was OK, that he would WRITE them. I really got a bang out of that....good old steady Dad will WRITE! Oh that I had inherited a similar nervous system!”

Alice found out that Herman had alighted from the Stockholm and immediately booked passage on the Bergenjhord, a Norwegian ocean liner, that was leaving on Wednesday. Alice went to New York on Sunday to see her dad who told her that he wasn’t going to let anything keep him from visiting Sweden. He also told her that his roommates, two men from Michigan, went straight back home to stay put.

Alice recounts another anecdote that is worth sharing here:

“When I was with Dad in New York he took me to the headquarters for the Stockholm passengers - a room off the lobby of his hotel....While in the hq we were chatting with the man in charge there and he told Dad that the Swedish-American Lines was hosting a cocktail party on Monday evening for all the Stockholm passengers...I looked at Dad thoroughly expecting to see a scowl come over his face, but to my complete surprise he smiled and said ‘Yah, I’ll be there.’ I nearly fell off my chair. Later we found the invitation in his mailbox and he opened it. I was kidding him and asked what he would drink at the cocktail party, that I didn’t want any rumors floating back to the Swedish Embassy that he had gotten tipsy in New York, etc. etc. He laughed and said that he would probably drink orange pop. I asked him if he liked ginger ale, and he said yes he liked ginger ale. So I tactfully suggested that he might ask for that instead of orange pop. I got so tickled at him.”

So Herman survived his night of disaster on the sea. He probably drank a ginger ale toast with other Stockholm passengers that Wednesday evening, and then turned his attention to getting to Sweden. As far as Herman was concerned, the disaster with the Andrea Doria was just a detour from his main objective, seeing his family in his homeland.


Sources, links, etc.

The Story of the Andrea Doria from the History Channel 

The Last Voyage of the Andrea Doria
A National Geographic Documentary

Pictures of the MS Stockholm

Prosperity (#52Ancestors, Week 8)

I never thought there was anyone prosperous in my family until I found this headline one day:

Capital Times (Madison, WI) July 17, 1953, p. 1

I was researching one of my favorite ancestors, Bruce Foley, whom you may remember from my "Favorite Photo" post in week one. Bruce's wife Esther and daughter Esther were candidates for last week’s “same name” post, and one day I will write more about Bruce, I promise. But today it’s his daughter Esther’s turn, because she is the one who married an Italian count. Here is a little bit of her story.

Esther Foley was born in Michigan on May 18, 1915 and married Byrlton Lohmiller, a physician in Madison, Wisconsin sometime in the mid-1930s. During World War II Brylton was an army air corps doctor. He died after the war, in 1946, in a drowning accident near Biloxi, Mississippi. Their daughter, Mary Esther, was 14 months old.

After her husband’s death Esther remained in Madison and worked as a bookkeeper and then as office secretary in a doctor’s office. One day in 1951 Professor Gian Orsini (a Comparative Literature professor from Italy teaching at the University of Wisconsin) and his wife Margaret introduced Esther to a graduate student from Italy. His name was Alessandro De Asarta. Count Alessandro de Asarta.

Capital Times (Madison, WI)
July 17, 1953, p. 1

Capital Times (Madison, WI)
July 17, 1953, p. 1

Esther’s life was never the same after that. Her relationship with the count flourished and they were married in Italy on May 21, 1953. But this wasn’t just any wedding. They were married in St. Peter’s cathedral in Rome (by the same priest who had married Tyrone Power and Linda Christian, if that means anything to my readers!). The wedding ceremony was an intimate affair but the reception hosted 250 at Alessandro’s residence in Rome, and the guests included Italian royalty.

St. Peter's Basillica, Rome, Italy
image from Wikimedia Commons

Esther returned to Madison in June of 1953 to wrap up her affairs there. Then she literally set sail for her new life. She and Mary Esther departed from New York to Genoa, Italy on July 22, 1953 on the Italian luxury liner Andrea Doria (whose maiden voyage had just taken place in January of that same year. This ship will make another appearance in this blog soon). 

Andrea Doria
image from Wikimedia Commons

Evidence of Esther’s prosperity popped up again in a 1961 passenger list from a Pan American airplane coming back from London. Esther's address is on Madison Avenue in New York City, just a block away from Central Park. Did she live there with Alessandro? I don't know. I wish I knew more about her life as an Italian countess. I can find that she visited the States from Italy once in a while, and then eventually she and Alessandro moved to the United States and settled down in Florida in their later years.

Central Park, New York City
image from Wikimedia Commons

 I wonder if  Esther's daughter Mary Esther is still out there? Mary Esther, wherever you are, I would love to hear about your childhood growing up as the step-daughter of an Italian count. I hope that you and your mother shared a life not only of prosperity but of happiness and fulfillment.

Favorite Discovery (#52Ancestors, Week 7)

I’ll never forget the day I discovered Emil Pierson.

I was researching Carl Pierson, my great-grandfather Herman Peterson’s uncle with whom Herman said he was coming to stay when he immigrated from Sweden. The Pierson family had immigrated several years earlier and were settled on a farm in Shelby township, Bureau County, Illinois.

As I researched Carl I came across a passport application, but the application wasn’t for Carl, it was for his son Emil. So I looked through the document. The information verified Carl’s immigration then went on to tell more about Emil: permanent residence is Princeton..."where I follow the occupation of “U.S. Army...” What?! Emil was in the army? Here's someone in our family that’s “regular army,” as they say on M*A*S*H.

Insignia for Colonel, U.S. Army

I kept reading.

“I am about to go abroad temporarily; and I intend to return to the United States within 4 months…I desire a passport for use in visiting the countries hereinafter named for the following purpose: Belgium, England, France, Italy, Switzerland, on 'official Business' and Holland, Sweden, and Denmark for the purpose of 'touring.' ” He planned to leave on May 5, 1921.

Well, isn’t that something. I looked at the next page (always look at the next page!) and there was a physical description of him with a picture at the bottom of the page!

Emil Pierson, 1921 (U.S. Passport photo)

Was there more? Oh, you bet! Turn the page again and I found a typewritten letter to Emil from J.M. Wainwright, Assistant Secretary of War. 

1921 U.S. Passport application, Emil Pierson

More pages followed, including permission to leave the United States, by order of the Secretary of War and a note that verified he was appointed in the United States Army on June 14 1907 and had been continually an officer of the Army since date of appointment. The request for the special passport (below) noted that he would be accompanied by his wife (!) 

1921 U.S. Passport application, Emil Pierson

Hannah Peterson Pierson, 1921 U.S. Passport application

Even though Emil was not a direct descendant, he looked like he had an interesting story. I eagerly went “down the rabbit hole” to find out more about him, and this is what I discovered:

Emil graduated from West Point in 1907.

He married a Princeton girl, Hannah Peterson (no relation to me) in 1909.

He fought bandits on the Texas/Mexican border in 1916.

He was a machine gunner instructor during World War I, or, “the World War” as it was called at the time

He was in charge of the settlement of claims in Europe following the World War.

He was a diplomatic attaché in the 1930s and was presented to the Danish royal court.

In 1941 he was named head of recruiting for the army in Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky and Indiana.

He died in Princeton, Illinois on November 3, 1951.

The usual documents have given me the outline of Emil’s life, but other sources give me an insight into who this man was.

Here is his 1907 West Point yearbook entry. It sounds like he was a meticulous young man with an optimistic view of humanity in general. 

1907, Emil's photograph from The Howitzer,
the West Point U.S. Military Academy yearbook

1907,  entry for Emil Pierson from The Howitzer,
the West Point U.S. Military Academy yearbook

In 1933, after his time as military attache to the Scandinavian countries was finished, he spent some time in Princeton and paid a visit to his old high school. It sounds like he could probably tell a good story.

Princeton Bureau County Tribune,
February 10, 1933, p4

In 1941 his photo appeared in numerous newspapers in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana (including my hometown paper, The Muncie Star!) as his new recruiting duties were announced.

The Muncie Sunday Star,
May 18, 1941, p1

Emil and Hannah never had children. They visited Princeton fairly regularly, and when they did they stayed with Hannah’s sisters Amy and Minnie Peterson. Subsequent articles indicate that sometime in the early 1940s Emil was wounded somehow (although I don't have any indication that he served overseas in World War II). Emil died on November 3, 1951 in Princeton and Hannah died several years later on February 10, 1959.

There is still more research to be done. I have yet to find Emil and Hannah's Princeton obituaries. I want to know more about the "claims settlements" that he was in charge of after WWI. I am also curious about the last ten years of Emil's life, how he was wounded, if he retired, and if so, how he spent his last days. However, I think I've found enough so far to give a picture of the man that, until recently, I never knew resided in our family tree.

I love Emil’s story. He came to this country from Sweden as a twelve-year-old who spoke little if any English, and he ended his days as a Colonel in the United States Army, respected for his character and quality of work. I am proud to call him an ancestor.

Same Name (#52Ancestors, Week 6)

There's sort of a funny tradition in my dad's family of giving a father's name as the son's middle name. It worked for my paternal grandfather, Harry Nels (Nels was his mother's father's name), and for my dad, Stanley Harry. My parents switched it up a bit with my brother, Stanley Christopher, but he always went by Chris to the family. 

The only other same name in recent memory is my maternal grandmother’s brother Leonard Graf who named his oldest son Leonard, after himself, and his second son John, after his father.

Back row: Leonard, "Young Leonard," and  John Graf; Verna Graf Falk and  Burt Falk, Raymond Smith
Front row: Martha Graf, Peter Smith, Martha Smith, Sarah Falk, Martha Ann Smith, John Graf

What surprised me, though, as I looked through our family tree, are the number of women who named their daughters after themselves: 

My maternal great-grandmother, Martha Bonin Graf, named her daughter Martha.

My maternal great-grandmother’s daughter Marguerite named her daughter Marguerite.

Esther Foley, my maternal grandfather’s aunt, named her daughter Esther.

What’s with all these women naming their daughters after themselves? I didn’t think this was very common but it sure is in my maternal grandmother’s side of the family!

Each mother/daughter pair has an interesting story to tell, but the pair I choose to write about today is the Marthas.

My maternal grandmother was Verna Graf Falk. Her mother, Martha Bonin Graf, immigrated to America from Germany when she was a young girl. As the story goes, Martha’s mother died shortly after they arrived, leaving Martha to take care of her many younger siblings. Her father Herman Bonin remarried and had many more children who Martha helped take care of. I don’t know how, but Martha met a German immigrant named John Graf and they were married in DuPage County, Illinois in 1895. Martha and John’s first child was a son, Leonard, then came Marguerite, Irma, Verna (my grandmother) and Martha. (Irma’s sad story is told elsewhere in this blog).

Martha Graf with her daughters Verna (left) and Martha (right)

Verna and her sister were almost exactly two years apart: Verna was born on Christmas Eve, 1903 and Martha was born on Christmas Day, 1905. Verna used to tell me how disappointing Christmas time was because she had to share a birthday cake with her sister and they didn’t get any special birthday presents because their birthdays were so close to Christmas. Martha seemed to live a bit of a charmed life. Was it because she was the baby of the family, or because she was named after her mother?

Verna Graf

Martha Graf

Here's a story my grandma told about her sister Martha:

“My piano teacher used to come to the house after school, and my sister and I took lessons for several years. It seemed I always had to take mine first, and then Martha would come home and take hers One day, however, I got to take my lesson last, and wouldn’t you know it. While I was roller skating lickety split, the fire engines came by on the way to the Grace Lutheran Church. It was burning ruinously, and every kid likes to see a fire even if it is a church. But poor me, it was my turn to go home and take my piano lesson. My little sister picked up her skates and away she went to see the Grace Lutheran Church burn and the firemen put it out. It was all over by the time I got back. Woe! Is! Me! (I really didn’t have a very good lesson that day either.”

I think that Verna and her sister Martha were close, at least in their adult years, despite the perceived favoritism that Martha received. Martha stood up at Verna’s wedding.

Martha Graf Smith, Verna Graf Falk

Martha had married a man named Raymond Smith and they had two children, a daughter named (wait for it!) Martha Ann, and a son named Peter. Martha died from cancer when her children were fairly young.

Martha Graf Smith and her daughter, Martha Ann

When my mom was born her mother Verna said, “She was named after her own dear self.” I never thought about why she said that until I started writing on this theme—perhaps it was a bit of rebellion against the family tradition of naming children, especially daughters, after their mothers. I’m pretty sure my mom was glad she was a Sarah!

Verna, Sarah and Burt Falk

The Peterson Family

The last few posts have been about the Peterson family, so I thought you might want to see them all together. This photograph, shared with me by my dad's cousin Michele, was taken in 1942, probably before youngest son Gilbert joined the U.S. Marines and went off to war.

Back row: Harry, Nina, Gilbert, Helen, Elmer
Front row: Hildur, Alice Ruth, Herman, Cecilia, Lillian

Quite a handsome family, I think! Missing is Edith, who died from appendicitis in 1922:

Just for fun, here is the family gathered together on Mother's Day, 1963. This time Alice is missing, as she was in Washington, DC by this time.

Back row: Hildur, Nina, Elmer
Middle row: Harry, Herman, Cecilia
Front row: Gilbert, Helen, Lillian

So Far Away (#52Ancestors, Week 5)

I’ve been writing about the Peterson siblings, children of Herman and Cecelia Peterson of Princeton, Illinois. Princeton was “home base” for the Petersons and even those who moved away came back often for family events and holiday celebrations. Some like Hildur, Nina and Harry lived in Princeton virtually all their lives. Others moved away but not too far: Lillian lived in Putnam, Illinois, with her husband Theodore “Red” Stickel and children; Helen lived in Peoria with her husband Max Puttcamp and their children; and Gilbert also lived in Peoria with his wife Jane and, after Jane’s death, Claire, plus their two daughters.

Then there were the Petersons who moved far away. I knew (or thought I knew) that Elmer lived in Idaho, and Alice Ruth worked in Washington, D. C. They should be interesting subjects for my Week 5 post, I thought. But I didn’t know much about either of them and research was spotty. Here is what I know or have found out.

 

Elmer was the second son and the sixth child of Herman and Cecilia Peterson. He graduated from Princeton High School in 1930 and worked on the family farm for a while. He also worked in Peoria for a while. In 1936 he married his high school sweetheart, Sylvia Nelson. They lived and worked on Sylvia’s dad’s farm east of Princeton. When Elmer retired they moved back into Princeton and Elmer worked as a carpenter. Elmer and Sylvia had two sons and one of them, Jim, went to Boise, Idaho. Jim married and had children, and I’m guessing that Elmer and Sylvia moved to Idaho to be closer to his family. Elmer died in Idaho but is buried in Princeton. 

 

Alice Ruth was the baby of the family, born in 1920. She is described as the one who kept everyone in a happy mood; she was fun, pretty and well-liked by everyone who knew her. After high school graduation Alice went to work in a law office in Princeton but she had bigger plans than staying around town. Alice talked to a recruiter, took the civil service test, and got herself a job in Washington, D.C., working as an Administrative Assistant in the office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Pentagon. While there she met and married an army career man named Howard Stevenson. For a time they lived in Germany, earning Alice the distinction of being the only Peterson child to live outside the country. Alice’s first child, a daughter, was born in Germany, and then Alice had two sons who were born in the United States. Alice died of cancer when her children were still young. Thankfully, her memory her memory has been preserved by her loving family. Alice will show up again in at least one more post this year.