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Post by Uncle Buddy on Dec 29, 2020 2:00:05 GMT -8
Elsie Marie Hoechener is not a big mystery but I'm looking for her first two husbands. The marriages were short and the husbands therefore are not seen with her on the census. I don't actually have her 1910 census or her 1920 census but it wouldn't probably help if I did. She married her 3rd husband Hugo Schwensen, a barbershop owner, in 1919. She started in the beauty shop business and her name appears in city directories and ads for several years. Possibly Elsie and her mother Emeline Zummo and Mr. Schwensen lived together in 1920 since all three are missing. In 1910 I believe she really was missing from Kansas City but then so is her mother so who knows. Theoretically she could have eloped with her first husband, a Mr. Watts whose identity is unknown. I have a theory which I'll reveal below. I'll attach some maps with some known addresses and post a summary of the evidence in a follow-up post. In 1915 before she married the barber she was a seamstress and appears to be single. In 1919 when she married Hugo Schwensen, her name was Elsie M. Wida. It's highly likely that her 2nd husband therefore was John Wida, an Italian and the only Wida in Kansas City who was eligible to be her husband. John Wida did in fact have a wife and child in 1917, and was divorced and without family by 1920. The attached map shows that his 1917 address was less than half a mile from Elsie's 1915 address and only two blocks from his mother-in-law Emaline Zummo's 1913 address. Because of the unusual name this is almost certainly Elsie's 2nd husband but I'm waiting for marriage or divorce records or another city directory to prove the relationship. Elsie got married for the first time at age 15 so I suspect an elopement. The marriage could have taken place anywhere. I believe her husband Mr. Watts might turn out to be Philip George Watts, a Canadian from Chicago. Elsie and her mother were from Chicago and P. George Watts lived only a couple miles from them. He had two sisters living in Kansas City and he was a traveling salesman, and single during the time in question. Elsies' daughter Lucille Emaline Watts was born 12 July 1911. Lucille's 1930 census states that her father was from English Canada, which fits P. G. Watts of Chicago. The best part is that one of his sisters in Kansas City was named Lucille, and so was one of his nieces back in Chicago. So with the middle name Emaline (named after Elsie's mother) it would be no surprise to find that "Lucille" is also a naming-after from the father's side of the family. The divorce records, if they exist, might be in Chicago or Kansas City. Here are links to some bios that I've written for the people mentioned above. Elsie's mother is one of the most interesting people I've researched. She was married to an air engine inventor named Henry Johnson Olney, Elsie's stepfather. www.findagrave.com/memorial/220082805/elsie-marie-chinnwww.findagrave.com/memorial/3764258/john-widawww.findagrave.com/memorial/192502674/philip-george-wattswww.findagrave.com/memorial/120711503/emeline-maria-zummowww.findagrave.com/memorial/141495583/lucille-emaline-bealwww.findagrave.com/memorial/220053003/henry-johnson-olney |
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Post by Uncle Buddy on Dec 29, 2020 3:28:58 GMT -8
Elsie Chinn was a Kansas City beauty shop owner most of her life and possibly also a realtor. She had a daughter Lucille Emaline Watts and a half-sister Maxine C. Olney who was the same age as her daughter and whom Elsie possibly raised, at least in part. Elsie was born in Chicago, one of three children of Emma and William Hoechener. Emma was a German immigrant. Elsie's two siblings died young, her brother George under questionable circumstances (see attached article). They moved to Kansas City around 1904. Emma Hoechener's full German name according to some unsourced trees was Maria Emerentine Reis. In Chicago she called herself Emma M. and in Kansas City she called herself Emeline. She came to the US from Worth am Main, Miltenberg, Bavaria, Germany in about 1891 but I haven't found the ship she came in on. Her father and three youngest siblings came over in 1893. The ship manifest is easy to find. Emeline and her youngest sister Antonie (Nettie Urban Umbreit) both had careers as naturopathic physicians and spiritualist preachers. Their bios are linked below. I'm particularly interested in finding photos of Emeline and the others. I found some great photos of her brother Alois Joseph Reis, a brewmaster, and some old newspaper photos of Mrs. Umbreit. For the others I have no photos at all. I would also like to learn more about Elsie Chinn's father, William Hoechener. Elsie's 1930 census states that he was from Illinois but with that surname you'd think he might be a German immigrant like Elsie's mother. In 1900 when Emaline said she was a widow, Elsie's father is said to be from Monsouria. That could be one of several different places or it could be a mystical place since Emeline was sort of a (more than sort of a) mystic. It will probably turn out to be literally true but I'll bet she had to spell it for the census taker. On that topic, for "Hoechener" I'd expect any number of alternate spellings including Hoechner, Hochner, Haechner, Hockner, etc etc. Emeline's surname on the 1900 census is given as "Hoechner" and in an 1898 city directory as "Huechner". But hold on a second. I have found a probable William Hoechener (Hechener) in Chicago, age 8 in 1880, so he'd be the same age as Emeline. And guess where he's from? His widowed mother was from Wurttemberg, which wasn't far from Emeline Reis' home, Miltenberg, which was on the very NW border of Bayern. We shouldn't take coincidences too seriously in genealogy or we'd be driven crazy, but they shouldn't always be ignored either. What if Emeline was trying to say her husband was from Missouri, and the census taker couldn't understand her accent, but knew how to spell Monsouria? This sounds like the best theory to me. Obviously I will have to look for this family in Missouri. Above all I would love to get hold of some of Emeline's lectures, the titles of which can be read week after week in newspaper ads, especially those published in Oakland, California when Emeline was living in Oakland with her sister. There's a good bit of information about her on the bio I wrote for her, but one or more of her lectures would reveal her character that much more. She's such an interesting person, I'd hate to see her any more forgotten than she already is. And her life was not easy. I'll see if by chance the Kansas City Public Library has anything on her. www.findagrave.com/memorial/120711503/emeline-maria-zummowww.findagrave.com/memorial/220091961/antonie-umbreitAttachments:
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Post by Uncle Buddy on Dec 29, 2020 3:39:20 GMT -8
Someone wanted evidence that Lucille's maiden name was Watts, so here is the response I sent that person:
Lucille's obituary gives her mother's name, Elsie Chinn. Many city directories and newspaper ads show that Elsie Chinn, Elsie Schwensen, Elsie Chinn Schwensen, and Lucille Schwensen are beauty operators in Kansas City. More than one reference calls Elsie by the surname Watts. Here's the evidence that Lucille is a Watts. The proof is not absolute that it's Lucille's father's name because she could have chosen from among her mother's various surnames. It's the maiden name she gave and we do know it was her giving the name but see below, the name might be a replacement for Wida. But Lucille herself said it was Watts twice when she got married to two different men.
Elsie's stepfather Henry J Olney died in Kansas City in 1912. His obituary lists a daughter Elsie Watts.
In 1919 Elsie M. Wida of the Northmoor district in Kansas City (Clay County) married Hugo Schwensen, a barbershop owner, and soon we find both Elsie and Lucille Schwensen as beauty operators for several years, then a transition during which Elsie calls herself Elsie Schwensen Chinn. We have other references to Northmoor as the home of Elsie Chinn and her mother Emeline Zummo. Elsie Chinn's middle name was Marie. She and Elsie M. Wida are the same age. But I have not yet found Mr. Watts and/or Mr. Wida. Lucille's father should be a Canadian. It could be a German name like Wiede or something like that.
Possibly Elsie married a Watts and then a Wida but that's a lot of marriages. There's little doubt that Elsie M. Wida and Elsie M. Watts are the same person. Her mother even worked at the same address as Mr. Schwensen the barber, in the early 1920s, the Terrace Hotel at 1000 Oak Street.
In 1926 Lucille Watts and John H. Sefren, both of Kansas City, got married in Faulkner County, Arkansas.
The April 1930 census has Lucille Sefren living with Elsie Chinn at 3910 Wabash, Kansas City.
In Dec. 1930 Lucille Watts of 3910 Wabash, Kansas City, married Carl G. Johnson.
In 1933 Mrs. Elsie Schwensen has a beauty shop where her sister Maxine C. Aldrich works. Elsie lives at 3910 Wabash, Kansas City. Maxine lives with Mrs. Zummo, her and Elsie's mother.
The 1940 census has Carl G. Johnson and Lucille living at 3910 Wabash, Kansas City.
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Post by Uncle Buddy on Dec 31, 2020 4:33:40 GMT -8
It turns out that the Hoechener family is findable in Chicago. Emeline Zummo's mother-in-law was a florist and her youngest child Louis got rich in the wholesale flower business.
William Hoechener probably is the William F. Hoechener or Hoeckner who died of electrocution in Otsego, Allegan County, Michigan on July 17, 1900 and was to be taken by rail on July 19 for burial somewhere in the Chicago area. Emeline had already been calling herself a widow by at least 1898 but it was common in those days for single mothers, divorced women, and abandoned wives to call themselves widows because otherwise people would backbite them and they would not be able to get work.
Another brother, Otto Louis Hoechener, was killed by a trolley in Chicago. He had a rough life. He and his wife lost two little daughters in one day, then another daughter a few years later. Then they were divorced.
I haven't found the sisters of William Hoechener. Their names were Caroline, Ida, and Rosa.
Louis spelled the surname Hoeckner. Otto spelled it Heckner. On William's death certificate, it was spelled Hoechener. Their mother's full name was Mary Emma Othelia Hoechener. I don't know her maiden name, but her father's name was George, as well as her husband's name. In 1889 she was married to a Carl Boranski but didn't keep his name.
Emeline Zummo's 3-year-old son who died in 1898 was also named George. This is evidence that I'm studying the right Hoechener family but not proof. However there were no other Hoecheners in Chicago at the time, as far as I know.
William F. Hoechener was born about May 4, 1872. His death certificate doesn't say who his parents were or where he was born. (Looking for Missouri here.) His parents were from Switzerland. The informant on the death certificate was a 25 year-old woman named Lillie Stanley. William was 28 when he died. He had been working in a chair factory. My query to the cemetery where Louis, Otto and their mother was buried has been ignored so far, which is pretty much par for the course.
In the search for Hoecheners I found a Rosa Hoechener but it was the wrong one. She married an acrobat. She was from Sheboygan, Wisconsin, daughter of a prominent lumbermill owner/early settler/justice of the peace named Adolf Hoechener. I wouldn't be surprised if he was related to the husband of Mary Emma Othelia Hoechener. This Rosa did have some business in Chicago. The story of her marriage to the acrobat William LaDeur in 1902 is a riot, it would be worth looking up for momentary entertainment. All three newspapers in San Francisco wrote the story differently so most of it was probably exaggerated.
That's about all the news that's fit to print for now.
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Post by Uncle Buddy on Dec 31, 2020 9:26:44 GMT -8
But just as I was about to file this one away I tried one more time for the birthplace of William, Ida and Otto Hoechener in Missouri. I saw a reference to St. Francois County, Missouri and remembered that Otto's death certificate said he'd been born in Iron Mountain, which is in St. Francois County. For some reason the following finding hadn't shown up the first time I looked there, but it did this time. In the 1876 Missouri census for St. Francois County, we find the whole family. I'll make a chart to compare the 1880 Chicago census and the 1876 Missouri census. Before 1876 they were probably in Chicago since the oldest children Caroline and Rosa were born in Illinois. But I haven't found them in the 1870 census yet. | St. Francois County, Missouri | 1876 | Chicago, Illinois | 1880 |
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| Name | Born | Name | Born | | George Heckner | 1831-1855 | deceased | | | Mary Heckner | 1831-1855 | Mary Hechener | 1844 | | Caroline Heckner | 1858-1866 | Caroline Hechener | 1867 | | Rosa Heckner | 1867-1876 | Rosa Hechener | 1870 | | William Heckner | 1867-1876 | William Hechener | 1872 | | Eden Heckner | 1867-1876 | Ida Hechener | 1875 | | | Otto Hechener | 1877 |
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