Louis & Elizabeth Meet in Chicago
What do know for sure is that Louis and Elizabeth met in Chicago by 1913. Here are photos of them around that time.
We know it was 1913 because Louis jotted a note on the back of his photo to Elizabeth.
“Bashistn un hartsig (azma, azma, ozmo, ozma) vi dem lebn iz mayn onendlekhe frayndshaft tsu dir un in teg ven dayn gaysht vet in (yas, yat) shvebn, gedenk az afshendlekhe harts klapt immer far dir!”
Protect and (strengthen)__________ as life is my unending friendship to you and in days when your (spirit) will in __________ soar remember that an unashamed heart beats always for you.
A romantic note Louis to Elizabeth around the time they met in Chicago.
There isn’t much in the family record about their time living in Chicago. I imagine Elizabeth lived with Bessie until she and Louis married on May 20th, 1916. Louis had completed his naturalization on April 7th, 1916 and so Elizabeth became naturalized when they married.
We know that Louis was a life long member of the Workmen’s Circle. Their graves are in the Workmen’s Circle cemetery in Crystal, MN. Louis’ involvement in the Circle is worthy of a whole essay later as he really in many ways was the perfect caricature of that early 20th Century American Jewish Immigrant story. But pictures don’t lie…so either they met in the Chicago Workmen’s Circle group or Elizabeth attended because of Louis, here is a photo which has written on it, “In memory of Yom Kipur September 17, 1915.” Tell tale sign of the Workmen’s Cirlce…they were known to have their annual meeting and celebration on Kol Nidre. This looks like a picnic. 9/17/1915 was Friday night and Kol Nidre. Louis is second from left in back row. Elizabeth is first on the left in front. I am pretty sure that is Bessie in the very center of the first row. Perhaps Georage Smith (Bessie’s future husband) is in this photo too.
For comparison, Bessie is middle back row in this photo below.
Interesting to note that in their pile of letters they both saved, most of which were things Elizabeth saved and passed on to Seymour who gave to me, they had two copies of this photo. One with the writing and one without. I find that interesting. Doesn’t mean there is a story there.
Here is a photo of the two of them around the same time. It is one of my favorites. I see echos of so many of the descendants’ faces in this photo. They were a good looking couple.
They were married in 1916 and sometime soon after that they decided to move to Minneapolis. All it says in Geulah’s essay is that he met his wife, married and decided to move back to Minneapolis. Perhaps the political climate had changed and he felt they could find work back closer to family.
Here is an undated photo…They look older than in the photo above. Could be Chicago, Minneapolis, Fergus Falls???
