1920...THE ROARING IN OF THE TWENTIES

Chicago is growing up 

And growing busy 

 

 With the end of World War I, the people of the United States had reason to be optimistic,  Chicago was becoming prosperous and a leading metropolitan center.  The social climate for the woman had taken a major turn.  On August 18th, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified giving women the right to vote.

Even Joan of Arc (Jean D'Arc) became a canonized Saint.  The woman had the first taste of liberation as the drudgery of heavy housework was lightened by the common use of electricity.  This also opened the flood gate of consumerism as women ran the household and purchased the goods.  It was the beginning decade of owning many household appliances. 

 

Before WWI, the Gibson Girl was the rage.  She wore long hair which was loosely gathered on top of her head.  She wore long straight skirts and a shirts with high collars.  But in the beginning of the 20's the social culture was forced to loosen up as women kicked off their corsets for shorter skirts and dresses, and she even wore pants and shorts.  The woman began to have free time and a more carefree attitude.  With less worries and less drudgery women headed for the motion picture theaters, she played golf, bicycled and even started roller-skating.  This became one of Gloria Alice's favorite thing to do and she was very adept at it from what I was told. 



 Gibson Girl's

 

Chicago Glitzy Girls of the 20's

 

A new kind of music became mainstream called Jazz and it was such that you couldn't sit still and listen.  In fact, the women shorten their dresses to their knees, lowered their waist bands to their hips and bobbed their hair, and many even smoked cigarettes.  

Prohibition had been enforced since January 17, but this just made drinking more thrilling as it opened the door for bootlegging and speakeasies and mobsters.  Risks were higher making drinking seem alluring and glamorous.

 

The 1920's began to ROAR freedom from constraint and worry.  This was the year that Gloria Alice turned 3 years old.  The Cradle Club of New Orleans remembered her birthday with a demure post card of wishes. 

 BOBBY (ROBERT EDMOND) 1920

GLORIA ALICE









 

Gloria, Bobby, Dearest & Pa

 

Bobby & Gloria

 

Gloria Alice & Bobby

 

There was a wonderful addition to the family 29 October 1920, Leroy Fred Malrose Jr. was born. 

 

Junior  

 

An erie point of interest occurred 16 September when a wagon of explosives set directly in front of JP Morgan Offices on Wall Street exploded killing 30 and injuring 200.  On October 12, the famous Man of War ran his last race and won. 



 



VASCONCELLOS: Part 3, THE FLUSH YEARS

CAPTAIN FERDINAND CELLOS & A HISTORY OF EARLY NEW ORLEANS

 

 12 October 1851, Ferdinand Cellos married Sarah H. Lyons, in New Orleans.  During the first ten years of their marriage Ferdinand was a clerk on two steamboats and a master of another.  Ferdinand was the master and captain of the steamboat Marion.  This vessel had a side-wheel packet with a wood hull.  It was built in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1854.  It weighed 133 tons.  Its hull size was 123 feet long by 26 feet wide and was 4.5 feet deep.  It operated from Alexandria-Shreveport until it was snagged and lost at Soda Lake, Louisiana, on 7 January 1859.

 

F.V. Cellos Masters River Boat Certificate

 

In 1868, Ferdinand was the clerk of the B.L. Hodge #2.  This steamboat was larger than the other.  It too was a side-wheel packet with a wood hull.  It was built in 1867, with a hull of 210' by 38' wide and 7' deep.  It weighed 699 tons.  It ran from New Orleans to Shreveport.  Ferdinand also was a clerk on the Julia A. Rudolph in 1869, which also ran from New Orleans to Shreveport.  It was burned at New Orleans, January 1, 1871.

The Mississippi River was considered the heritage of the people.  With the invention by Fulton of the steamboat, commerce and business saw tremendous growth in New Orleans.  It was in 1811 that New Orleans saw its first arrival of the steamboat.  During the early steamboat period of 1815-1840, New Orleans was one of the wealthiest cities in the Union and competed with New York for the rank of FIRST PORT IN AMERICA.  New Orleans became a great commercial center of the U.S. 

New Orleans was not a manufacturing city.  It did not consume the produce which it received but simply a point of trans-shipment.  It took the products that it received from the South and the West and exported them.

In the 1830s commerce to foreign countries exceeded the Atlantic Seaboard.  It was during this great commercial growth and enterprise that a change occurred.  The Erie and Ohio Canals began to divert much of the trade of Western produce of the Ohio Valley to New York and Philadelphia.

New Orleans compensated by concentrating more heavily on cotton and other Southern products being shipped to Europe rather than to American Seaports.  The people of the West supplied themselves more and more by the Canals and Railroad.  In 1840, imports dropped to 1/3 of the exports; in 1850 to 1/4 and in 1860 to 1/5.

The merchants of the city did not see the economic decline that they were entering into.  In their false security the let slip away the virtual commercial monopoly which they possessed.  Henry Righter stated, "New Orleans had, up to that time, been the port not for section only, but for the whole great valley, it had handled the sugar of Louisiana, the tobacco of Kentucky, the flour of the Ohio and the products of all the states of the Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri valleys.  It let these slip away to whip at the shrine of cotton."

As commerce of the Western products dwindled from New Orleans, cotton continued to grow in importance.  New Orleans went from being a port for the West, to a port for cotton only.  The Western products that before constituted 80% of the commerce had dwindled to 20%. The merchants consoled each other by expressing their belief in the the natural waterway.  They believed this decline was only a temporary one and that it would not be long until trade would return to the levels of earlier times.  But it never did.  For on the horizon were unexpected diversions that they were totally unprepared for.  WAR!

First came the canals, followed by the trains, and then the final economic blow came...THE CIVIL WAR.  The year before the Civil War, was one of the most prosperous commercial years of the city.  There was a debate over how New Orleans would have fared commercially if the Civil War had not occurred.  Some say if New Orleans had realized the importance of the Railroad and had placed money in that area it would not have suffered the long term economic decline.  If it had continued in the same commercial direction it had been pursuing it would have taken decades to do what the WAR did in 4 years! 

  





1919 Little Gloria Alice is adorable, but the world is not.

Little Gloria turns 2 in 1919

 

This was a year of upheavals in the world, in Chicago and also for Little Gloria Alice.  The World was slipping closer into tyrannical rule of Germany, Italy and Russia and this was the year that many future leaders took a step forward into their future.  Even though this was just the early years of despotism, the seeds were being planted.  There was major disruptions in Chicago with the communists and there was race riots with 1919 being called one of the most violent years.  And little Gloria would lose her status as an only child with the birth of a little brother.

 

It was on January 5, 1919 that the National Socialist Party was formed in Germany.  At first they were called the German Farmer Party.  From the beginning of this party it leaned toward right wing politics of nationalism, pure race, anti-communist, and they wanted Germany to gain back its pre-war status.  Hitler was sent to spy on the group by the government.  On one occasion he spoke so passionately that the party asked him to join, which he did. From such simple beginnings...who would have guessed. 

 

The oddest thing to happen this year was that a truck of molasses exploded sending 2 million gallons of molasses flooding the streets of Boston killing 21 one people and injuring 500. 

 

One thing that surely had everyone talking and entering the debate was that Prohibition was gaining in popularity with 3/4 of the states ratifying it.  This also was the seeds set forth that made "speakeasies" (underground illegal drinking pubs) popular and created massive disobedience and the rise of the gangster...especial in Chicago.



 

January 16, 1919

 

 

There were many sparks of war starting to catch fire: The Monarchist riot in Portugal; the Soviets started a war in Poland; Korea wanted independence from Japan; Finland declared war on the Soviets.  Meanwhile, President Wilson returned to the U.S. from a very unsuccessful Peace Conference in regards to his 14 points.  Shortly after his arrival home he suffered a severe stroke and is paralyzed and the next day he has a heartache.

 



Stroke on September 25, 1919

 

But even in times of turmoil life goes on with the necessities of family and duty.  Lee and Sally (Malmrose) were anticipating the birth of their 2nd child.  As usual, Lee spent time with his father and brothers and his mother, too. 





John (Johan), Lee Malmrose

 



Brother Harold, Aunt Clara (Holmquist) & Lee (Malrose)

 

Sally (and just for your information, she was also called Colma by her Southern family) was awaiting the birth of her new baby.  As always, she was dressed beautifully and totally in style.



  

       



 Sally (Colma) 1919

 

On June 10, 1919, a son was born to Sally and Lee (Malrose).  They named him Robert Edmund Malrose.  He was named after......(This is coming soon).  This was a very happy day for the Malrose family.  And hopefully, Gloria Alice didn't mind sharing her parents too much.  Here is a picture of the proud father!

 

Leroy Fred and Robert Edmund (Bobby) Malrose

10 June 1919

And here is Sally (Colma) with baby Bobby and Little Gloria.

 

Here's Bobby

 

1919

 

 

Gloria might have been surprised that they were keeping him!

 

Another sad thing happened this year as Sally's (Colma Cellos Malrose) grandmother, Sarah (H. Lyon) Cellos,  died in New Orleans on 17 February 1919.  She was buried in family tomb in Greenwood Cemetery.  I am sure that she was deeply sadden at the loss of her dear grandmother that she had spent so much time with as she was growing up.  

 

 



THE STORY OF THE VASCONCELLOS...Part 2

Fernandez Vasconcellos in New Orleans 



Although, Funchal and New Orleans were both Port cities there were many unexpected conditions that Fernandez (Vasconcellos) and his sister faced as soon as they stepped off the ship.  Beyond the excitement of reaching land, and the excitement that comes from a new adventure so far home, comes the realization that you are the foreigner that must find lodging, work, and food, and not necessarily in that order.  But the mud, and silt and water were everywhere.  It was a grand mess which accompanied them with real inconvenience and miseries.

 



They settled on the outside of the city of New Orleans on the right bank of the Mississippi River below Mandeville Street.  This Eastern district was know as the "Upper Suburbs of New Orleans."  As of 1830, Fernandez (Vasconcellos) was not naturalized and he did not own any slaves.  The total population of the area was 9,438.  At that time 394 others in the area were aliens.

During this time Fernandez (Vasconcellos) had three others living with him, one was listed as a male under 5 years of age.  I believe this to be our ancestor Ferdinand Vasconcellos, the year he was born.  On 4 April, 1834, Fernandez married Henriett Robson, she was born in New Jersey in 1810.  (More research is needed to determine how and why the Robson's came to New Orleans.  But most likely because the work was better in New Orleans at this point in time.  Although, change was lurking around the corner.  But for then, Orleans reflected the gaiety that life had to offer.  There was cotton, of course, and tobacco from Kentucky, flour from Ohio and lots of other products domestic and foreign.

In 1850 Fernandez and Henriet are still residing in New Orleans.  It should be noted that Henriet now started to be called Harriet and she had six children all at home with them all having been born in Louisiana.  John is the second son and he worked as a clerk.  He was born in 1831.  The next child was a daughter named Mary, having been born in 1834.  Then there were twins, Isodore, a daughter and Edward, a son, born in 1842.  In a few years later their last child was born, a little girl named Louisa in 1848.

In the same neighborhood, five houses from the Vasconcellos's is a carpenter from New York, Stephen Lyons and his wife and family.  Stephen (Lyons) was born in 1808 in New York.  Maria, his wife was born in New York in 1812.  Stephen and Maria also had six children.  Their oldest child was a daughter born in New York in 1833, her name was Sarah.  The Lyons have a son John, born in Louisiana in 1837, so we know they left New York around 1834-1837. Then they have another boy named after his father, Stephen born in Louisiana in 1837.  Following Stephen was two more sons and a daughter also born in Louisiana.  Harmon born 1842.  Daniel born in 1844, and Celia born in 1849.

This was a lot of family that all came to New Orleans about the same time, living close by to each other and helping each other out.  This was usually how people met each and fell in love and ended up married.  They lived in close proximity to each other. This family story still has lots to be told.  (Story to continue)

1918 A Significant Year in World History

Gloria Alice and Dearest 1918
 



For Gloria Alice the world was very small consisting of her mother (Sarah Colma) and her father (Leroy Fred Malmrose) and a trip to New Orleans to meet the Southern family (some of this was covered in Post on 1917).  But the larger world was going through major growing pains which would change the world for years to come.



Chicago--Michigan Ave  1918

 

Chicago was considered the 2nd richest city, in the richest country in the world.  At least that is what the Art Institute of Chicago was claiming as it competed with the war and charity organizations for funding.  A near by art gallery bids buyers to come meet the local artists and take home original paintings for their home.  The exhibition had 25 local artists showing and we can imagine that L.F. Malmrose may have been one of them.

 

President Wilson called for the people of the U.S. to sacrifice more for the war effort by suspending all industry using coal and oil.

"The American people, led by the president, entered the war deliberately.  They are staking everything for the realization of a great ideal and the ideal is practical.  We know that democracy must be made a reality at home as well as abroad, that its benefits must be shared by all and its sacrifices borne by no single class."

December 4,1918 is also the year that Wilson went to the Versailles Peace Conference in France with his 14 points for continual world peace.  Of interest to our family was point 8: "All french territory should be freed and the invaded portions restored, and the wrong done to France by Prussia in 1871 in the matter of Alsace-Lorraine, which has unsettled the peace of the world for nearly fifty years, should be righted, in order that peace may once more be made secure in the interest of all."

This was the year that states tried to legislate morality, with Mississippi being the first to ratify prohibition of manufacturing, transporting or selling of alcohol.  This catastrophe lasted till 1933. 

January brought the beginning of the Republic of Soviets, with Leon Trotsky becoming the leader of the Russian Communist.  By August 30, the Marxist Revolutionary, Lenin, became the the leader of Soviet Russia. (In July, Tsar Nicholas II and his family was assassinated by Lenin).



Lenin and the new Communist flag 1918
 





March 8, the first case of Spanish Flu was reported, which is the start of a world-wide pandemic.  In October the Spanish Flu had killed 21,000 people in the U.S. in one week.  One of our ancestors died from this flu but I am still doing the research to find out which one. 

 

But it was on November 11th that the good news was heard around the world that an Armistice (truce) had been signed ending the Great War.  

 

And so it was when Gloria Alice turned 1 years old.  The worry for her parents must have been great and yet the baby was happy and safe through this year of change, chaos and turmoil.  But the family still gathered for celebrations and companionship as seen in this picture of Lee (LeRoy Malmrose) with his baby girl and his father, Johan Malmrose.

 

LeRoy, Gloria Alice, and Johan Malmrose

1918





 





COMING TO AMERICA: VASCONCELLOS...Part 1

de   VASCONCELLOS

 

Funchal, Madeira, Portugal  1834

Funchal, Madeira today


Madeira is a beautiful Island which is part of Portugal.  Funchal is a lovely port city that sits on a harbor.  The temperature is mild and the city is lovely and sunsets are breathtaking.  Over the years, Funchal became an attractive port for international trade.  (Thus, an interesting preference to our family and their love of port cities). 

 



This is a story of a typical family living a normal life in the 19c.  They were born, fell in love, married, had children, lost children, fought in a war and some even died in a war.  They enjoyed prosperity and struggled through devastation.  This is the story of the Vasconcellos' from Funchal, Madeira, Portugal.  [I must mention that like many other immigrants from foreign lands they changed the spelling of their names to accommodate their new home.  Consequently, you will see various spellings of the names.  This includes given and surnames.  When researching one must look for all variant spellings.  Thus, for Ferdinand, (Sarah Colma Cellos Malrose's grandfather) we have Vasconcellos; de Vasconcellos; Cellos; and V. Cellos.  So I will use the name I find in the source I am using.]

 This is the Story of Captain Ferdinand de Vasoncellos and his devoted and loving wife, Sarah H. Lyons, their parents, and their children.  This also covers Ferdinand's father, Fernandez Vasconcellos and Henrietta (possiblly Henriqueta and Americanized to Harriet).

"Our Lady of the Mountain"

Funchal, Madeira  constructed 1741

 

 

The Monk

 This story begins in Funchal,Madeira, Portugal in the early 1800s.  Fernandez Vasconcellos was the firstborn son of an aristocratic family in Madeira.  The family owned vineyards.  Unfortunately, it was the tradition that the firstborn son would be sent into the service of the Church to join a monastery.  Also, in those days it was required that the firstborn daughter was sent to the convent for religious duty.  Fernandez loved business and desired to help manage the family vineyard. However, the Church had other plans for Fernandez.  He was to be a monk.

 

But Fernandez had other dreams and opportunity came for Fernandez to leave his beloved harbor on the Island.  A Sea Captain of a ship that Fernandez had worked for developed into a friendship.  The Captain told him of a "wonderful country, America."  Fernandez didn't have to think twice on this chance and he ran to his sister to tell her that he was going away to America and wanted to tell her good-bye.  She did not want to be a nun, nor did she want a life of strict church rules.  She wanted to be married one day and have a family.  She begged Fernandez to take her with him to the New Land.  Hand in hand they ran back to the ship and told the Captain their decision.  He gladly gave them passage in exchange for help on the ship.  And off they sailed to America. (Story to be continued)

 

 



 1850s

 

 

SO WHAT WAS HAPPENING IN 1917?

Besides the birth of Gloria Alice Malrose on 11 May, the world was in major turmoil.  World War had been declared by President Wilson (as previously posted) and a Russian Revolution 1917, was shocking the world.  The Russian Revolution was a transforming political, social and religious event.  Tsar Romanov had lost his power to the Bolshevik's.  This was a continuation of historical change of the promise of a better world through communism.  And the tragedy of the Tsar, his wife and 4 young daughters and 1 son, vibrated through-out the world 1918.  Oh how 'Sally' must have wondered at such events when she held her own sweet daughter in her arms.  "How could such a thing happen?" But this was just the beginning of unheard of events in Russia and else where. 

Nicholas II and his family

But Sally (Sarah Colma) went on caring for her new baby.  Sally loved to put on her finest outfits for herself and baby Gloria Alice.  They would walk to the park and stroll around.  Sally loved the attention she received with Gloria Alice and I am sure little Gloria loved the attentive coos of passersby.  But before the big outing Sally would bathe little Gloria before she was put on display.  She must have that beautiful, thick, red hair looking as shiny as possible.

 

Sally and Gloria Alice 1917

 

 

Then if it wasn't too windy off they would go for their morning constitutional as Sally liked to call it.  She had friends from school that she loved to visit.  She had the department store as well.  Women of her time spent long hours in the department store.  The department was design for the lady's to have a place to socialize and enjoy a wonderful lunch.  And then of course on the way home, Sally, would come the long way around the shops till she reached Lee at his studio.  Often he had a group of friends that would be hanging around and checking out his new car.  Lee loved his car and Sally loved for him be happy. 

 

 

 

Leroy Fred Malrose with his car and friends

Lee close up...he is the one behind the wheel

 

 

So even though there was turmoil in the world the Malrose family had great joy the year Gloria Alice was born.  They were young and loved to have fun in whatever they were doing.  And generally, what they were doing was fun and had lots of pals hanging out with them.  It was Chicago, Illinois and you have to have fun there...its the law!

 







THE TWO SOULS OF GERMANY

 Napoleon at Waterloo

HISTORY is key to understanding the stories of our ancestors life's.  History is where we live and how we maneuver around and through.  Like Dickens said of his times: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct of Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of compassion only."  Dickens is writing about the times of the French Revolution. And that is somewhat where I want to start.  For it was times such as these history that life is made of. 

Just like Catherine Heigel was from France and Conrad Leithmann was from Germany.  Their life's are intermingled with Frances history, with Napoleon, and Germany's relationship with Metternich, Bismarck and the Thirty Years War and the Wars of Liberation.  For as you understand the turmoil of the times for politics, property, nationality, religion, and of course economically and socially as well, you will see who these people were and what mattered to them by the fact that they left their country in hope of a New County. 

As a consequence of the ravages of war that came on Germany during the Thirty Years War, 1618 to 1648, Germans turned against statism and authoritarianism and anything foreign.  The war with France had cause deep scars and hatred due to the severe famine, starvation and disease which had killed so many Germans. 

Due to Germany's loss of self-assurance the war had cause her to fall under French rule and influence for over a century.  The French had influenced German culture and German morale.  The French had mocked everything German, including its language.  Some historians suggest that it was from this humiliation that the Germans developed an inferiority complex turning the Germans into extreme haters of everything French, also turned them against Western Civilization generally.

Nevertheless, it was due to France's soldiers and ideas that killed off the old order in Germany but this actually had the consequence of causing Germany to unify with all her provinces. The French influence had modernized German nonetheless.

It was at Waterloo (in Belgium) that Germany turned the tide and defeated France both politically and militarily.  Although it was the strong and determined Prussians that won that battle and sent Napoleon's army running.

But it was the War of Liberation that won Germany freedom from France in 1813.  Consequently the provinces of Germany united in a common cause; and sparked a strong Nationalism in its wake. 

The German Revolution of 1848 was a revolt against the ideas of the French Revolution (rationalism, liberalism and legalism).  This caused the beginning of a revival of discovering ancient Germanic culture.  The War of Liberation was the awakening of intolerance of all other nations.  War was waged against the Danes and threatened to Germanize the Czechs and the Polish.

It was at this point of time that there was a decisive split within Germany.  Germany became more nationalistic while it began searching for its roots in folk (Volk) histories to renew their German culture.  But there were many Germans that did not despise the high culture of France nor french things.  It was at this time 1840s that many had to decide freedom or the beginnings of authoritarian rule with a rejection of all international civilization.  Nationalism and Folk Culture was at its core Germany's new religion. 



It was at this time that many Germans emigrated and look for freer lands to raise families and find work and worship how they wished.  It was at this time that Gloria Alice's German family, Conrad Leithmann, left the old country in search of a better life in the busy city of New Orleans.