Honoring Our Ancestors
Part 4

The Family Farm up in Wisconsin:

Did my grandfather travel with Houdini?

UPDATE: My Aunt Bal seems to be doing well. A simple prayer for a complete recovery is appreciated. Thank you. And now for the fourth and final part of Honoring Our Ancestors:

In Part One of this series I described each post in detail so here is a recap about my grandfather as told by my  aunt Bal: She told me that her father, my grandfather, Edward Balke was the second born, first son of 17 children! He was raised on a 500 acre, family owned farm in Wisconsin, where Steven’s Point University stands today.  She said he was German and Welsh and might be a descendent of Captain Blood? His mother’s name was Roselin Schultz and came from Boston.

She mentioned that she went up to Wisconsin to look up records and that there was a fire and most of the records were burned and so there was no way of knowing anything further. She had said that my grandfather was given over to the Franciscan Fathers to be raised as a priest. That the first-born son is always given to the church. Since Edward didn’t want to be a priest he left home, built roads across the country and traveled with Houdini for a time and entertained audiences in a pre show. She said he was a hansom cab driver and finally ended up in Chicago where he applied for work at my grandmother’s restaurant as a dishwasher. She also told me that his parents sold the farm in Wisconsin and retired in Bakersfield, California.

My aunt is full of cute euphemisms, saying that my grandfather often refered to himself as my grandmother’s, pearl diver, another word for dishwasher as my grandmother valued her dishes like precious pearls.  He was born in 1896, and my grandmother was born in 1888. My grandmother  was a ‘Thoroughly Modern Millie’ of her time, a business owner, marrying a man 8 years younger than her in the 1920’s! (end recap)

She had also mentioned that Edward Balke was related to the Brunswick-Balke-Collander Company. I have yet to find a connection, but the company slowly changed hands until it is now only Brunswick. I did find that the Julius Balke, in this company  might be a distant cousin.

The Balke name makes newspaper research near impossible when entering, Houdini/Balke because, Brunswick-Balke-Collander was advertising in all the newspapers, while Houdini was thrilling his audiences in the early 20th century.

Even though I get a tremendous amount of articles, when I click the link, I find an article about Houdini and an advertisement about Brunswick-Balke-Collander. I haven’t given up hope yet.  I am still looking to find proof.

I will have to create a family tree for Julius Balke to find the connection between Julius Balke and the family up in Wisconsin, it will probably go back to Germany, in the early 1800’s depending how common the name Balke was in Germany at that time.

The odd thing about doing research and looking at census records from the 1800 and early 1900’s is the spelling of names. It appears that the record keepers weren’t accurate as I have stated in the previous posts.

In 2015, after meeting my cousin, Diana Whyte, and exploring my Scottish and Irish heritage, Diana put me in touch with what she found on Ancestry. She had discovered and introduced me to a different spelling of the name Balke as Belka and found another family, Szulczewski, tightly connected to the name. Soon I was pulling up family photos and meeting new people.

In order to find records, one must include all spellings of the name as you can see below.

When Adolph Behlke/Belka/Balke was born on February 25, 1835, in Lübeck, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, his father, Adolph, was 25 and his mother, Anna, was 25. He married Josephine Schriever Schriewer on February 26, 1862, in Stezyca, Pomerania, Poland. They had 11 children in 19 years. He died on October 22, 1889, in Portage, Wisconsin, at the age of 54. (from ancestry . com)

Behlke is the original spelling of the name that has been change over the decades to different forms, as Balke, Belka. You can see by the entry above that there are many spelling of the name and I am afraid it only gets worse.

When searching old Europen records the Behlke spelling must be used and when searching American records, the Balke, Belka spelling must be used and the same principle is applied when searching all the other names.

Adolph married Josephine Schriever:

When Josephine Schriever Schriewer was born in 1836 in Poland, her father, Martin, was 27, and her mother, Marianna, was 31. She married Adolph Behlke/Belka/Balke on February 26, 1862, in Stezyca, Pomerania, Poland. They had 11 children in 19 years. She died on April 15, 1902, in Eau Pleine, Wisconsin, at the age of 66. (from Ancestry)

All of these records where popping up for me due to another cousin I met on ancestry. Sue Meyer, my 3rd cousin,  had the Behlke tree done going back to 1810. Her great-grandmother, Julia and my great-grandfather Alexander Behlke were siblings.  I told her my stories and soon we were making discoveries together. We are not sure of the birth year of Adolph’s parents or if Adolph had siblings, this might be the connection to the Balke, of the Brunswick-Balke-Collander. In time we may learn the answers to that mystery too.

Adolph and Josephine had 11 children in 19 years and one was my great-grandfather, Alexander:

When Alexander Martin Belka/Balke/Belke/Behlke was born on November 5, 1864, his father, Adolph, was 29 and his mother, Josephine, was 28. He married Rosalia Marie Szulczewski/Schoultz/Schultz-Belka on November 13, 1891, in Portage, Wisconsin. They had 15 children in 22 years. He died on November 1, 1956, in Princeton, Wisconsin, at the age of 93, and was buried in Plainfield, Wisconsin. (from ancestry . com)

My Great Grandfather, Alexander Behlke married Rosalia Marie Szulczewski, (Pronounced Schul-ches-ki).

Brenda, widow of my 2nd cousin 1x removed, Richard, who was born in the same year as me, unfortunately, now passed, had completed the Szulczewski tree going back to 1807.

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The picture on the left is, The Szulczewski Family, (circa 1909). My GGrandmother Rosalia Marie Sculczewski is standing at the far left. Although this picture is a bit fuzzy,  my mother bares a striking resembalance to the grandmother she never knew. I am sure you can imagine the pure joy of seeing my great-grandmother, and great-great-grandparents, Thomas Szulczewski, and Barbra Kalka for the first time.

As I proceeded to learn more I discovered that I was not German/Welsh or related to Captain Blood, but I am actually Polish, something I heard and denied my entire life. Everyone had always commented on my Eastern European looks and thought I was Polish, but I figured that came from my father’s Austrian side.

So the Roselin Schultz from Boston was actually, Rosalia Sculczewski from Poland. Unfortunately, the Szulczewski family descendents started to change the spelling of their name as well, here we find the name changed to Schoultz and Schultz which sounds more German than Polish.

When Rosalia Marie Szulczewski/Schoultz/Schultz-Belka was born on August 15, 1871, her father, Thomas, was 39, and her mother, Barbara, was 31. She married Alexander Martin Belka/Balke/Belke/Behlke and they had 15 children together. She died on June 10, 1951, in Bancroft, Wisconsin, at the age of 79, and was buried in Plainfield, Wisconsin. (from ancestry)

At this point all of Rosalia’s children were spelling their sir name, Belka, except for my grandfather whom spelled his name Balke. Although, my aunt told me my grandfather was the second born son of 17 children, she was close as there were 15 children born. My grandfather’s aunt and Rosalia’s sister did actually have 17 children before her demise at the age of 42.

My GGGrandfather, Thomas Szulczewski, married Barbra Kalka and lived in Wisconsin. I discovered another Szulczewski that married a Kalka and settled in Indiana, but we haven’t been able to link if they were two brothers marrying two sisters, although the people up in Wisconsin spell their Szulzcewski’s mother’s maiden name Nowicka, the people in Indiana spell her name, Nowicki. So you can see how easily things get lost in translation, and for every answer you find, another question pops up.

When Marianne Nowicka (Nowicki) was born on December 2, 1814, her father, Andrzej, was 25, and her mother, Ewa, was 24. She married Bartholonaeus Barney Szulczewski and they had seven children together. She then married Maciej Grzybowski in 1837 in Kazmierz, Wielkopolskie, Poland. She died on August 9, 1905, at the impressive age of 90, and was buried in Duncan, Nebraska. (from ancestry)

Her son and my GGgrandfather, Thomas Szulczewski, lived to 102 years of age.

 

[image error]I found newspaper records in which the Balke spelling is used as you can see in the highlighted section on the left, my GGrandfather Alex sold his 80 acre farm for $2,100.00.

 

 

 

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If you can read the document to the left, you will see that Adolph Belki (should be, Behlke) is applying for citizenship and signs his name Adolph Boelke…just to add to the confusion. Afterall, what is the difference between a, e, i, o and u any way, especially, when you speak three languages?

 

 

The Belka and Szulczewski family is huge as almost every child, married and had ten or more children of their own. My grandfather, Edward Balke, lived in an area filled with family and chose to leave and go off on his own. The question is why? I wonder what could have happened to make him never want to return to a place so rich in family history?

In 2016 I decided to take a drive up to Wisconsin to meet some cousins that I had met online.

Our first stop was Door County because I had heard so much about this peninsula. I figured we could check it out on our way to  our first stop on our journey to meet my grandfather’s family descendants in Plainfield, Wisconsin.

While I was in Door County we decided to take a ferry up to the northern most tip, Washington Island, and as fate would have it, they had a settler encampment, people who reenact what it was like to live in the mid to late 19th century, on the Historic Farm Museum.

I couldn’t believe how lucky I was to be able to experience what it must have been like for my GGgrandparent who came through Castle Gardens in New York in 1871 and traveled across the country to Wisconsin and had to clear the land and build a house for their family.

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Imagine having to live in primitive structures, like this  tent in the picture on the left, while clearing the land in the brisk Wisconsin weather.

 

 

 

 

 

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Or having to forage and cook with primitive utensils over an open fire, after a hard day of laboring on the farm, and taking care of the live stock.

This was not an easy life.

 

 

 

 

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Imagine building your own home  with the lumber you chopped down without modern tools, roofing tiles or insulation against the cold Wisconsin winters.

 

 

 

 

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I imagine this was much like the family home up in Wisconsin in the early 1870s. There was no plumbing, electricity, or running water. You would have to first find water on the land to create a well. Then anytime you needed water you would have to go out to a well and pump your water, build a fire to cook your food and use an outhouse. There were no convenient shops to go grocery shopping, you had to grow and butcher your own food.

 

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Using the address and google maps, I was able to get a picture of the farm were Adolph and Josephine Behlke lived and raised their family until that day that Adolph went into town to pick up some furniture that was a wedding gift for his daughter Olga.

 

 

 

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Satellite image of the Behlke family farm in 2017. I am sure the house has changed a great deal since 1889, when my great-great-grandparents, Adolph and Josephine Schriever-Behlke lived there with their children. Having a sense of place gives me a great idea of what life was like for them in the late 1800s and a new appreciation for the sacrifices they made.

 

 

Going from what my aunt Bal, told me, my grandfather was raised on a family, owned farm, the location is just slightly off. This goes back to that granular of truth in family histories. Stories passed down in the verbal tradition get a little changed over time. I am glad to live in a day and age where I can get concrete proof and know exactly where I came from and how my ancestors lived.

Considering that the family was very Catholic, Rosalia and Alexander may have wanted their first-born son to become a priest. I may never have the answer to that. What I do know is that my grandfather ran away never to return and was all but forgotten by his family.

I am glad to have the opportunity to unite them once again here and on ancestry and to meet the descendants and relatives of my grandfather.

[image error]Obituary about the fatal accident, Adolph Behlke had on October 22, 1889 that created a lawsuit against the city of Steven’s Point.

 

My cousin, Sue Meyer was able to go to Steven’s Point and make copies of the 100 page trial transcripts from the lawsuit that ensued as the family tried to get compensation for the death of 54-year-old, Adolph Behlke, the age I am writing these posts.  Sue emailed me copies that I painstakingly read.

 

 

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This is the type of carriage used to travel in the late 1800s. There would have been a wagon attached to carry the bedroom set, that Adolph had purchased for his daughter, Olga’s wedding. The court document talk about Adolph’s team of horses and whether they were attached correctly. Obviously the design must have been slightly different as three people were sitting on the front bench when the accident occurred.

 

Adolph was a founder or Charter member of St. Bartholomew’s Church. He helped build the church that his children, and grandchildren were baptised and married. He was a supervisor of his town and a strong community leader. He spoke three languages, Polish, German and English. He traveled across the world bought and cleared the land, built a house and established a farm where he raised 9 healthy children that went on to have families of their own.

Naturally, the city tried to fight the case and found witnesses to say that Adolph had been drinking in town the day he went to pick up the furniture with his daughter’s, Olga and Julia. The day his wagon wheel hit a large stump in the road the overturned his cart causing the furniture to fall upon him.

Living in the primitive conditions of Wisconsin in the late 1800’s his children did not receive formal educations and interpreters were needed to speak Polish for his two daughters who witnessed the accident. The language used in cross-examination hints at prejudice against Polish people.

In the end the family won a small settlement, but I was shocked how Adolph’s neighbors and fellow church members willingly came out to disparage his name during the court proceedings. This poor widow, Josephine is trying to survive and neighbors are coming forward to speak against her husband! Luckily there were just as many that came out to speak highly of Adolph’s character.

There are many things that influence people; jealousy, slights and grudges, make people bear false witness. One can only imagine how the controversy spread in a small town where news of the world would take months to reach. It was a simpler time, when there were no telephones, radios, televisions, cars or airplanes to distract people from what was going on locally. People had little to entertain themselves and I imagine a lawsuit and court case like this spread like wild-fire among the bored and restless.

I grew up in Chicago and remember in the 1970s, how different families had either good or bad reputations. Children grow up hearing their parent’s  talk and are influenced by what they hear, and will carry  a grudge without even knowing the specifics of why they are doing it. I imagine that this case had far-reaching consequences for the family. Reputations influence how people treat you, mere reputation alone can make or break you in a community.

My grandfather, Edward Balke, was born in 1896, five years after that trial. He was the first-born son of Alexander and Rosalia Szulczewski-Balke. He shows up in the 1900 census and the 1910 census and disappears after that.

Edward is not mentioned in either of his parents obituaries as a son, and he is not mentioned at their 50th wedding anniversary celebration that list their children! What happened?  He was 14 years old in the 1910 census and disappeared within a year.

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Rose and Alex Belka on their 50th wedding anniversary in front of their house in Plainfield, Wisconsin. It turns out they didn’t retire in Bakersfield, California.

 

 

 

 

 

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My GGrandparent’s celebration was held at St. Paul’s Church, as the newspaper clipping to the left list their children omitting my grandfather.

 

 

 

 

Which brings me to our second stop on our (2016 Wisconsin Journey) to meet the relatives of my grandfather. We met in a restaurant in Plainfield and then drove past the house pictured above, behind my Great Grandparents, and then to St. Paul’s Church to view records.   I was able to see my great grandparents signature in a book entering the marriage of one of their children. The orignal church gone, but they save the stained glass windows of the old church and kept the name plates of the donors.

 

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This is a picture of the St Paul’s Church in Plainfield, Wisconsin where my GGrandparents Celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary.

While up in Plainfield, I met my mother’s first cousin. He is the youngest of his generation. He said, “I remember my dad telling me about a brother who disappeared one night never to be seen again.” Ironically, his father, Adolph, married in Chicago in 1948, right in the city that Edward was living.

[image error]This is St. Paul’s Church today.
[image error]They manage to save the windows from the original church. This window was donated by Peter Szulczewski, my great-grandmother’s brother.

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After viewing the records and visiting St. Paul’s Church, we went to St. Paul’s Cemetery where the Belkas and Szulczewskis are interred.

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[image error]Szulczewski Family plot and my great great-grandparent’s grave.

 

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The only thing I can find on Edward Balke in the missing years of 1910 -1940 is this draft card.

 

Transcribed: Edward Balke, 21 years of age, 306 4th Avenue N. E. Minot, North Dakota. Date of birth, January 3rd, 1896, Native born in Steven Point, Wisconsin. Present trade occupation or office: Teamster Helper, employed by Hodgins TFr Company. He is single and has no dependents. On the next page he is listed as Tall, with a medium build, blue eyes, dark hair, not bald, no disabilities. It looks like it was signed in 1919, but going by the age of my grandfather, perhaps it was signed in 1916. Hodgins TFr, is another clue and place to look for more information, for future reference.

It is important to note that my grandfather died years before I was born. As a matter of fact, his mother, Rosalia, died in 1951, Edward died in 1952 and his father, Alexander, died in 1956. They all died within years of each other.

I grew up in my grandmother’s house later purchased by my father. Signs of my grandfather were everywhere in the circa 1913 home in Chicago.

My Grandfather, did carpentry, electrical and plumbing in that house. He did extensive remodel as well as building a two car garage. He enclosed the two level back porch with windows and built broom closets in the hollow walls in the stair case.

He opened the roof and installed dormers on both sides of the barn styled brick bungalow, and made the attic into a quaint two bedroom apartment with a kitchen and full bath, when his daughter married.

He laid a foundation and porch slab and built the two car garage out back and included cute flower boxes in the windows. He also built a special canning room in the unfinished basement for my grandmother’s preserves and sauces. The door to the room had a four pane glass window and was quite charming. His wife, my grandmother as previously stated, was a cook and own a restaurant where they met. She canned and made sauces and stored them in this 6’x6′ room that had a step up and 4 levels of shelves,  a foot deep, lining the walls all around.

I had a lot of fun playing down there as a kid because the room reminded me of a ranch house/general store, from an old western movie. There was a wood burning, black cast iron stove connected to the chimney that actually worked, just outside the canning room, that you could cook on or use for heat.

Our home housed four generations of family between (abt) 1920ish to 1985. One day, circa 1970 something, when I was snooping around in the basement, I found tucked into shelves that lined the whole south wall of the basement, a strange board mixed in with books and magazines.

I pulled it out and discovered it was a type of Ouija Board, made by Lee Industry in Chicago. It was a half inch thick and a bit warped from the humidity of the basement.

I called my aunt to ask her about it. She told my it was my grandfather’s board! I was surprised that someone raised by the Franciscan Fathers would have such a thing. She told me how  her father traveled with Houdini, performing in his opening act. She said he did card tricks to warm up the audience in a pre show before Houdini came out to perform.

It is well-known that long before Houdini was an escape artist, he started out his career by performing card tricks. Houdini also was born in Wisconsin and traveled the Midwest during my Grandfather’s missing years. I am  not sure how an Ouija board fits in with Houdini, but of course as a teenager, I had to try it.

The board had red lettering on it and instead of GoodBye it said Finis. Other than that, it had the alphabet, numbers 0-9, yes and no and the manufacturer printed on the board. Lee Industries, Chicago, Illinois. I have search the internet to find a duplicate but have been unable to find a picture of the exact one.

It didn’t have a planchette used as a letter indicator and the board was very thick, unlike the streamline Parker Bros. version that everyone is familiar with. The board was unusable, but, of course I went out and bought the Parker Bros board to put over my grandfather’s board.

I was about 13 years of age at the time and played with that board with many of my friends over my teenage years.  We had some very strange and spooky experiences, but I will save those stories that I am including in my new (WIP), Rituals  Lost, due out October, 2019. Be sure to pick up a copy when the book comes out.

It seems in genealogy research that for every question answered five or six new questions pop up. Genealogy is not for the impatient types who are looking for absolute answers immediately. It takes a lot of patience and careful research to find answers. Some pop up before your eyes while others require a lot of digging.

I couldn’t leave Central Wisconsin without trying to locate my Great-Great-Grandparent’s, Adolph and Josephine’s  graves.

[image error]It seems every time I go to a cemetery and take pictures it is a cloudy dark day. But while visiting Wisconsin I stopped by Saint Michael Cemetery in Junction City, to visit with my GGgrandparents, Adolph and Josepine Schriever- Belka. I couldn’t get answers as to a the exact section or plot numbers as there is a shortage of priests working in rural Wisconsin. My husband and I read every tombstone in that small quaint cemetery and couldn’t find either one of them. It could be that they are in unmarked graves.

 

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Or it could be that the ravage of time has worn the marker so badly that it is no longer legible, considering the headstone would be from 1889. In any case I was there, I said a prayer and hope they are resting peacefully.

 

My husband and I drove up to Steven’s point and roamed around, we drove over the bridge and found the spot that my GGgrandfather had his accident and proceeded farther north to meet some more cousins from the other line of the family in Three Lakes Wisconsin.  All in all it was a somber and enlightening journey.

In honoring our ancestors we learn about ourselves. I am grateful to my ancestors for their sacrifices and their lives! I am grateful to have met cousins who helped me along the way to discover who I am and where I came from. I am grateful for these new relationships that I have generated through my genealogical search that appear to grow stronger with each year that passes.

More about Houdini:

I may never find out if my grandfather did in fact travel with Houdini, but it is interesting to note that people still hold seances to this very day; trying to make contact with Houdini on Halloween or all hallows eve, where it is said that the veil between the living and the dead are thinnest and contact is possible.

At the turn of the century there was a great spiritual movement that reached its height in the 1920s because so many people had lost loved ones in WWI and to the Spanish-Flu pandemic. People were desperate to contact their dearly departed.

When Houdini’s beloved mother died in 1920, he turned to the psychic mediums of the day to find answers. He ended up canceling shows, he became so obsessed.

Scientific American Magazine, organized a distinguished panel of Harvard graduates et. al. and held a contest offering a $2,500.00 prize to anyone who could prove psychic ability.

It came down to Mina Crandon, wife of a surgeon, Dr. Le Roi Crandon, in Boston, known as Margery, the Blonde Witch of  Lime Street, who convinced, author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle that she was the real deal, during a séance she held in his house.

Supposedly, Mina Crandon channeled her brother, Walter’s spirit who was said to be an angry entity. In July of 1924, Houdini and the panel from Scientific American Magazine, went to Mina Crandon’s fourth floor flat on Lime Street, in Boston and conducted a séance. Houdini was said to disprove, and discovered her every trick created! Houdini actually spoofed it in his act, angering the spirit Walter who supposedly predicted Houdini’s death on Halloween.

Before Houdini died, he made a pact with his wife that if it was possible to communicate with the living after death he would come to her on Halloween. He gave her a special message that only they shared. Mrs. Houdini tried for ten years after Houdini’s death and no psychic was ever able to bring the special message through.

I wonder if that is why my grandfather had that  Spirit Board? Maybe he was trying to communicate with Houdini.  Like you, I don’t know what happens after we pass, but I would like to think that their spirits are with us and that the Behlke and Szulczewski families are happy that they are finally united with their missing one, and that my grandfather spirit is united with his parents and family’s spirit in the great unknown.

As a writer, I find great pleasure in taking these snippets of information and expounding upon them to create an entertaining and enlightening read, that I hope you will enjoy in my new novel, Rituals Lost.

Thank you, for your time and attention. I hope you enjoyed the series of, Honoring Our Ancestors and that this Halloween you make a special effort to honor those who came before you. That is how Halloween was celebrated years ago, known as Samhain, and yet another Ritual Lost! 

Fairy/Mermaid Jars

 

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Thank you to all of those who responded to the fairy/mermaid jars. There is still room for more beta readers. If you are interested in receiving a free jar, email me at carly.compass@gmail.com with Fairy Jar in the subject heading.

I will send you the manuscript of, Rituals Lost in June of 2019, for you to read for free. You will have three months to read the manuscript and write an honest review before it is released in October 2019. I am asking that you write one review and post it on three websites, Goodread.com, Amazon.com and Smashwords.com. Once that is accomplished I will send you,  The $30.00 retail value jar, free as a thank you for writing the review and posting it.

Be On The Look Out:

 

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My new release, The Ivory Tower, (a collegiate experience) parts previously published in the About Series, has been developed into a full length novel and scheduled for release on November 20th 2018.