The Musicians

The Musicians

Let me introduce you to the members of the band: left to right - on the violin, Jack Burger Sr; clarinet - George Beck; on the button accordion - George Burger, the mandolin is played by John C Beck and the guitar by Ray Luetzow.

This was taken in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I'm not sure what year, but grandpa Beck looks like he is in his twenties, so this was about 1910-1929.
I had been hoping to write a great story about the musicians, in this photo, but sadly all I could find out is what I already knew - their names.

Through my genealogy research, I have found a couple of other talented individuals on the Luetzow side of the family.

On the Piekarski side of the family, I wish I could say that I inherited some of those talents, but I did not. I only really know of two.  One of my brothers, who played guitar as a child - I don't know if he still does, and my sister.  My sister still pursues her love of music.  My sister plays several instruments and sings. She started writing songs when she was 10.  Her early influences were folk and bluegrass. Life has taken her to a Christian Faith and country influence.  She isn't published yet but is a member of NSAI or Nashville songwriters association international.

Gleitzmann's Cooperage

W67 W55224 Columbia Rd Cedarburg, Wisconsin

Also Known as the Cedarburg Cooperage

Adam Gleitzmann employed quite a few people at the cooperage. They mostly made barrels for the Layton & Plankinton Packing Company of Milwaukee, for the packing of pork and beef. They may have also delivered barrels to the flour mills in Milwaukee.

During the Civil War, Adam was a volunteer in the United States army, he served from October 1864 to July 1865. While Adam was serving his new country, his wife, Barbara not only kept the cooperage running, while raising her infant son, but also boarded some of the employees. The woman of the cooperage employees repaid her kindness with a friendship quilt.

The cooperage stayed in our family, as a working business until the 1900's. Adam's son Jacob took over as cooper of the cooperage in the 1900's. After this our Aunt Francie lived in the family home until she was moved to a nursing home near Mequon.

The Pichards were the next owners of the cooperage, they owned it until The Skeens fell in love with the old cooperage in the 1940's, then some time in the 1970's, they approached Mr. Pichard and they became, I believe the third owners. They finished converting it into a residence. Richard and Evelyn Skeen worked to have the cooperage listed as one of Cedarburg's landmark buildings. Happily they did or who knows what would have happened to one of the earliest buildings in Cedarburg, Wisconsin. Sometime during this time the cooperage was also added to the Stone House Tour of Cedarburg. The present owner(s) are the Nancee and Ken who bought it in 1991 from a young school teacher who was getting married. Nancee not only lives there with her two dogs, but also runs a punch needle shop out of the cooperage.

Stella Who??

Left to right - Louise Luetzow Beck, Ray Luetzow, Stella

Who is Stella?   

 Is she a relative or a friend? Stella has become one of my new puzzles.  I have three last names for Stella. They are Bienlein, Rose and Benthien. On these two photos Grandma Beck has the last name Bienlein written behind Stella's first name. On the last photo, Grandma has the last name of Benthien as Stella's last name.  What I do know is that from an early age Grandma and Stella spent a lot of time together, also from the photos, Stella looks to be about the same age as Grandma, which would make Stella's birth year about 1903 plus or minus three years.

Left to right -  Louise Luetzow Beck, Ray Luetzow, Stella

The Beinleins and Roses are cousins of mine who lived in Grafton, WI from the late 1800's until present day.  Stella Rose lived next door to a cousin in Grafton, and although Louise and Ray Luetzow lived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin they did spent time with their cousins.   Stella Benthien, did live close to Louise and they could have been best friends, who lost contact after marriages. In the bottom photo Louise (right) and Stella (left) appear to be wearing school uniforms. Louise did attend school in Milwaukee and graduated as a milliner, maybe Stella did too.

So far, Stella's puzzle has connected me to another cousin, so thank you Stella for that.

Stella on left, Louise is on the right

My hope with this blog post is that someone who knew Stella, recognizes her and can solve the Stella puzzle.

People Who Most Influence Us

I know that I've pretty much just written stories about my family in this blog, but it is my story, so this one is more or less about me.

Reading was always a challenge for me when I was younger. I spent my beginning years in a Catholic grade school. The nuns felt I was being lazy and just didn't care to learn to read. This was not true. I would try and read out loud, but it just didn't go well for me. My mom would try and help me at home and she did help. As time went by, I learned to read to myself, but I really couldn't read out loud. As difficult as it was to learn to read, I loved it. I would read almost anything if it looked interesting. Reading was and is hard because this is how it looks to me most of the time, (unless I'm concentrating): “Pain suffering and are alwyas inevtiable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really men must, I think, hve great sadness on earth.”

― Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment

This is where the story for this blog begins. It was late summer before the beginning of my freshman year of high school. I was at my favorite place - the book store on Hwy 70W going out of Eagle River. The store keeper and I had become friendly over the summer and suggested I try a look section of books and pointed me towards classic literature where I found this book.

Fast forward to the first week of school, when I walked into the basement classroom in the "old” high school of freshman English being taught by Ms Kathleen Hnath. I walk by her desk and she gives me a copy of the textbook "English 2200". At that time Ms Hnath sees the book I'm reading and asks me; "Who asked you to read that book?" I told her no one, it just looked interesting to me so I bought it. She asked a few questions, “How far was I in the book? Who was Rodion Raskolnikov? What did he do for a living?” etc. I answered her and she liked my answers. Then she did something that totally surprised me. I was told that as was long as I was reading this book and understanding it, I didn't have to do the lessons in the textbook, because what I was doing was beyond what the book was teaching. Ms Hnath, was one of the first teachers, who encouraged me to think outside of the box. That not all things to be learned were in textbooks, and that my thoughts and abilities were equal to some students and better then some others, that I was smart. You see, up until this time I thought that because I didn't read out loud or didn’t do math as well as others, I wasn't as good or as smart as they were. After finishing "Crime and Punishment", I did have to go back to doing the same work as the rest of the students in my class. Ms Hnath, always asked me about what books I was reading and what I thought about them. While in her class I opened myself up to reading JRR Tolkien for the first time (I've read the trilogy several times since), Vonnegut, and Andre Norton to name just a few. I realize that Ms Hnath doesn't probably remember me, but I would like her to know how much she influenced me to feel better about myself and that she opened a door for me which lead to worlds within so many other books.

Up North

Some of my earliest memories of "UpNorth" come from my grandparent's  cottage up on  Little Muskellunge lake in Vilas county.  My grandparents Piekarski bought the cottage some time back in the 1940's or  early 1950's. When they first bought it, it was a little rough inside.  No paneling on the walls and that sort of thing.  It was a three season cottage.   I remember it being a little small,  2 bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom, living area,and a porch with an old gas space heater for the heat on chilly or rainy days.

Grandpa and Grandma went up there a lot with their sons. Dad enjoyed it more then my uncle Gerry.  Mom and Dad even went up there once before they were married (chaperoned of course).

We spent a lot of Dad's vacations up here.  He and Mom would pack the car the day before and we go to bed and then they would wake us up early - and I mean early!  It seemed like the middle of the night.  I don't know if it was because dad wanted his time up north to start or if it was because we kids would sleep most of the way up there and Mom and Dad wouldn't be listening to us say "Are we there yet?"

Although small it was cozy.  Mom and dad would be in one room, my sister and I, because  we were the youngest got the second bedroom and my brothers would sleep on the couch in the living area and the porch. Mom would cook us breakfast inside, but dinner if it wasn't raining was always dad grilling something us, mostly fresh caught fish.

We would catch the fish in grandpa's wooden row boat with mercury outboard on it. The same row boat that he and dad went  fishing in.  As you can see dad and grandpa caught many fish on their trips.  In that boat, with four small kids, my dad would teach us how to fish.  I can't believe that he could bait our hooks, get all of us casting in different directions (so we wouldn't hook or snag each other), and still cast and fish for himself.

The lake had a sandy beach area and swimming was fun, but I remember that when we swam by the cottage, Mom would always have to check us over  for leeches - yuck!

Treadle Sewing Machine

This might seem like an unusual post, but I think of treadle sewing machines quite often.  The first reason is my Grandma Beck.   She had one. I think it was a singer, but I don't remember.   I also don't know when she got it.  I don't know if Grandpa give it to her or if she had it before they married. She may have, as she did go to Milwaukee's School for Women and graduated as a milliner and seamstress. Her sewing machine was one of her most treasured possessions.  She taught her daughter how to sew on this machine, she even tried to teach me to use it, but I was a pretty scrawny kid, I couldn't push the treadle to make it go.  Grandma could sew pretty much anything on her treadle.  Some of her own clothes, mending and a lot of my Barbie doll clothes.  She even "fixed" my Red Baby a few times so that I would have her so I could sleep.  When I would visit Grandma and I'd be off playing, I could hear the steady rhythm of her feet moving the treadle and the needle making wonderful things.  Sometimes I would sit on her bed and just watch her make her creations or mend a blouse.
Later on in life I got a job with Ashley Pecka at Shu-craft and learned how to repair shoes and other leather goods.  I learned a lot from Ashley.  Working as his apprentice was probably my favorite job.  He had two treadle machines, one treadle machinewas converted to electric, but the other was an old Singer treadle machine.  It was both ours favorite machine.  You had so much control on it, speed, and felt wonderful. It was comfortable, and when I used it in the shop I  always thought of grandma .  I used that machine to fix everything from shoes, purses, customs holsters, to saddles, I even restored a McClellan military saddle, that I used, and still have.                      (this was a Red Baby)

Mitchell Park Domes

courtesy of Alamy.com

I read a news story this week that really saddened me.  The Mitchell Park Domes in Milwaukee have closed indefinitely because of falling concrete.
This park holds so many memories for me, all good.  One memory goes to a song written by Joni Mitchell in 1970.
 "They took all the trees 
Put 'em in a tree museum * 
And they charged the people 
A dollar and a half just to see 'em ".  

The second is field trips.  When I attended grade school in Mequon, we would make a trip to the domes in the spring.  It was fun because we were out of school.
All of the other memories belong to  Grandma Beck and me.  For so many years, the weather didn't matter, when they lived on South 33rd Street, we would walk down to the domes and spent most of the day there.   It was most fun in the winter, when you could walk through the domes and forget that it was winter outside.  All three domes were special.  First Grandma would want to go through the "seasonal dome" and see what special display they would have out.  For Christmas the dome would be filled with thousands of poinsettia.  Then we go through the desert dome, see all the catcus. It was so dry in there.  I swore that I saw lizards there. Lastly we'd go to the tropical dome. It was like walking through a jungle,  Walking over the bridge and looking at the koi fish in their river. Looking at orchids hanging from trees. It was the first time I ever saw orchids and still love them to this day. 

Sometimes we'd stop in the gift shop, Grandma and I would pick out a catctus to take home.

It was just enjoyable to walk through this fantasy land with my Grandma.