Richard Arthur Norton (1958- ) Family History

Biography of Eddie August Schneider (1911-1940) Aviator

Eddie Schneider was born October 20, 1911 on Second Avenue, and 17th Street in New York City. Later his family moved to Red Bank, New Jersey where he attended grade school. From there his family moved to Jersey City, New Jersey and he graduated from Dickinson High School. In 1928 his mother passed away and his father took him, and his sister, for a visit to Germany and Norway to visit relatives. It was in Germany that he had his first airplane flight and it was then the "bug" bit him. Eddie received his flying instructions at Roosevelt Field in 1928. In October 1929 he received his commercial pilot's license and so became the youngest commercial pilot in the United States at age eighteen. He also received in that year, his aircraft and engine mechanic's license and so again he became the youngest licensed aircraft mechanic. In August 1930 he succeded in breaking Frank Goldsborough's Junior Transcontinental record from New York to Los Angeles in 29 hours and 55 minutes, lowering the previous record by 4 hours and 22 minutes. He made the return trip in 27 hours and 19 minutes, lowering the previous record by 1 hour and 36 minutes. His total time for the round trip was 57 hours and 14 minutes, thus breaking the preceding record for the round trip, which was 62 hours and 58 minutes. His A.I.I. license was signed personally by Wilbur Wright. Following his transcontinental flight, Eddie flew to Chicago where he was one of the ouststanding personalities at the National Air Races. While there, he was highly complimented for his ability to avoid an air crash over the crowded grandstand, a crash which had it occured, would have cost a number of lives. Schneider had just taken off in his Cessna (with a Warner Scarab engine) monoplane from the Chicago field bound for the balloon races at Cleveland, when he saw the crowd scatter below. Noticing the panic, he looked up and saw the 40 foot left wing of a twenty passenger Buranelli transport plane directly over his. The youthful aviator saw passengers in the Buranelli scramble to the other side of the cabin to tilt the the sloping wing. The danger of the crash was great, and in an instant, Schneider sent his plane diving just as the Buranelli's wing scraped his. The crash was averted by the dip. The officials said his quick action in dipping his plane close to the ground and then pulling clear of the grandstand had probably averted the most serious accident in the races. He then entered in the Ford National Reliability Tour, the youngest pilot to have ever been so honored by an aircraft company. These tours were in reality effeciency races for commercial airplanes flying over a course of five thousand miles, which undoubtably made these races the longest commercial aircraft races in the world. Schneider completed the tour with further honors, winning first place for single engine aircraft and the Great Lakes Trophy. Incidently, he was the first pilot to fly a Cessna throughout the itinerary. Others had been entered in previous tours, but none had finished. Returning to New York, Schneider put in considerable time appearing in smaller air shows, where he attracted hordes of boys and girls to whom he spoke on any and all occasions, impressing upon them always the fact that any one of them could do what he was doing; that aviation belonged to them; that they should grasp the opportunity presented to them. In 1931, the Ford National Reliability Air Tour found Eddie once again a Cessna entry. During the race, the propellor broke and, causing him to lose his engine and so forced him out of the race for three days. This happened over the mountains of Kentucky. After pleading and cajoling with the Warner Company in Detroit, he made the neccesary repairs with a new propellor and had been given permission to reenter the race. Naturally when he reentered the race, he found himself in last place and way behind the leaders, but he gained on his fellow pilots until on the last day, he found himself in first place again for a single engine aircraft and was the winner the second time of the Great Lakes Trophy. In 1932 he became chief pilot for the Hoover Business League. After that he became a student instructor until 1935 when he leased the Jersey City Airport in New Jersey and managed it and conducted his own flying school, aerial photography and charter work. At that time he one of the largest flying schools in the East with over one hundred and twenty-five students. And so he carried on. No flying club was too small or insignificant to win his willing cooperation in the furtherance of their plans. It was at the meeting of the Jersey Journal Model Plane Club that he met his wife, Gretchen Hahnen, who then lived in Jersey City, but was from Des Moine, Iowa. They were married in New York City on June 02, 1934. In December 1935, after a unsuccesful battle to save Jersey City Airport from becoming a stadium, he did exhibition flights and was an instructor at several New Jersey airports. By 1936, flying jobs were hard to come by. Schneider was "invited" to go to Spain and fly for the Spanish Loyalists. He accompanied Bert Acost, Gordon Berry and Freddie Lord. They left New York on November 11, 1936 and arrived in Spain a week or so later. There he flew antiquated planes, but got disgusted and gave up, and came home, in January 1937. Between then and June of 1940 he bacame a mechanic for American Airlines at La Guardia Field, but his heart was not into it, he wanted to fly. He applied to the US Government for a job as a civilian instructor for the Army and was assigned to Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn. On December 23, 1940, while instructing a student and coming in for a landing, he was hit in the rear by a Navy Stearman which brought Eddie, and his student, to their untimely death. When the Navy plane landed, it still had Schneider's plane's left wing in their undercarriage. And so, aviation, as an industry, owes a debt of gratitude to it's younger contingent, such as Frank Goldsborough, Bob Buck and Dick James and others who followed, and to these youthful trail blazers who were constantly winning new recruits to the ranks of those who look uopn aviation as a part of themselves and to whom the industry must continue to look for its new leaders.

Source: Special Collections, McDermott Library, The University of Texas at Dallas

2 die as planes crash at field. Eddie Schneider, who flew at 15, is killed when his craft and Navy trainer collide. Passenger also victim US ship is landed safely at Floyd Bennett Airport despite damaged wings.

Eddie Schneider, who started flying when he was 15 years old and set a junior transcontinental record in 1930 at the age of 18, was killed with a student passenger yesterday when their light training plane was in collision with a Naval Reserve plane, also on a training flight, just west of Floyd Bennett Field. The Naval Reserve plane landed safely at the field but Schneider's plane went into a spin, tore off a wing, and crashed into Deep Creek, a few hundred feet across Flatbush Avenue from the city airport in Brooklyn. Both Schneider and his passenger, George W. Herzog, 37, a contractor living at 535 North Second Street, New Hyde Park, Long Island, were dead when their bodies were pulled from the submerged wreckage. At the Naval Reserve base at Floyd Bennett Field it was said the Navy biplane, a Stearman trainer, had been piloted by Ensign Kenneth A, Kuehner, 25, of Minister, Ohio, with Second Class Seaman Frank Newcomer, of Rochester, Ohio, as a passenger. The right lower wing of the naval plane, the left upper wing and the propeller were damaged. The third accident, in two weeks in which a Naval Reserve plane based at Floyd Bennett Field was involved, it brought the comment from Dock Commissioner John McKenzie that it was the sort of thing to be expected “where there are training: flights at an airport.” “That is the point that Mayor La Guardia has been making". Mr. McKenzie said, "in his efforts to keep training away from commercial fields" Police said the witnesses to the accident were agreed that the Naval Reserve plane was crossing above the plane piloted by Schneider, a high-wing Piper Tandem Cub monoplane, as the two approached the field for a landing 600 feet above Deep Creek, Schneider's plane went into a tight spin as the two planes disengaged after colliding, the witnesses said, appeared to straighten out and then plummeted into the water as its left wing tore loose. Many would-be rescuers were on the scene within, a few moments, including police, Coast Guardsmen and fliers from Floyd Bennett Field. The bodies of the two men were pulled quickly from the wreckage and onto a half-submerged barge near which the plane fell, but it appeared both had been killed when the plane hit the water. Joseph Hanley, first assistant district attorney of Kings County, opened an investigation at the scene and a naval board of inquiry, headed by Commander H. R. Bowes, was ordered convened by the Navy Department in Washington. Schneider lived at 32-50 Seventy-third Street, Jackson Heights, Queens. He leaves a widow. Herzog leaves a widow and two children. He had been flying some time, holding a limited commercial pilot's license, but had enrolled for a refresher course with the Archie Baxter Flying Service, Inc., owner of the plane. Schneider was an instructor at the school. The bodies of the two men were taken to Floyd Bennett Field pending funeral arrangements. Schneider first gained public attention as a flier in the Summer of 1930 when he announced plans for an attempt to break the junior transcontinental east-west record of 34 hours 57 minutes set the year before by 15-year-old Frank Goldsborough, who was later killed. Taking off from Westfield, New Jersey, August 14, he landed at Los Angeles four days later with a new elapsed time mark of 29 hours 55 minutes. He then flew the west-east passage in 27 hours 19 minutes to better Goldsborough's time for that flight and also for the round trip. He continued active in aviation, competing in National Air Tours, races, and as an instructor. He went to Spain in 1936 to fly for the Loyalists, but returned the next year without having collected the $1,500-a-month pay that was promised him. He and other American fliers were looked on with suspicion by many of the Loyalists, he said, because they were not Communists. Schneider had a narrow escape from death May 15, 1935, when the engine of his training plane failed and it fell into Newark Bay with him and a student passenger shortly after they had taken off from Jersey City Airport, of which he then was manager. Schneider's father, Emil, a Jersey City banker, financed his son's transcontinental flight after having first opposed his efforts to become a flier. The boy had quit school at 15 and worked as a mechanic at Roosevelt Field, Mineola, Long Island, and at the Westfield airport to secure money for flying lessons. He was the youngest licensed flier in the country when he received a limited commercial license shortly after his eighteenth birthday in 1929.

Source: New York Times, New York, December 24, 1940

Local pilot killed. Eddie Schneider and passenger die in crash.

Eddie A. Schneider, 29, veteran pilot and former holder of the junior transcontinental speed record for airplanes, was instantly killed yesterday afternoon when a small monoplane in which he was giving a refresher course to another pilot was struck by U.S. Naval Reserve plane at Floyd Bennett Airport, Brooklyn. Schneider’s plane, one wing sheared off, plummeted in a tight spin into an inlet of Jamaica Bay, causing instant death to Schneider and his student, George W. Herzog, 37. Schneider, a native of New York City was a resident of Jersey City until a few years ago. He became interested in aviation while still a student at Dickenson High School, Jersey City, causing him to leave school when 15 to go to work as a plane mechanic at old Roosevelt Field Hempstead, Long Island. Schneider during his career in aviation broke the East-West, West-East and round trip junior transcontinental records in 1930 in his famous red Cessna monoplane, when only 18. He crossed the continent from Westfield Airport, New Jersey, to Los Angeles in 29 hours and 41 minutes, breaking the record of the late Frank Goldsborough. Eddie was at one time the youngest licensed commercial pilot and competed in air races and meets with men far more experienced and older than he was, after carrying off first honors. In the Ford National Reliability Tours of 1930 and 1931. Schneider with his red Cessna, carried off the Great Lakes Trophy one year, and then took first place the next year. In one of the air tours a defect in a propeller caused the engine of his plane to break loose while flying over a mountainous section of Kentucky, and Schneider made a forced landing in a corn patch on a side of the mountain. A new engine was rushed to him and after an extremely difficult takeoff, which experienced airmen, said was not possible, he went on to win first place in the tour. Schneider in 1934 became the manager of the old Jersey City Airport at Droyers Point, operating the filed for a period of a little more than a year. While at the airport he taught many Hudson County students how to fly. Schneider had a narrow escape in 1935 when a Travelair biplane in which he and a student were taking off from the airport landed in Newark Bay after the motor suddenly went dead at 100 feet of attitude. The plane was only slightly damaged in the forced water landing. Schneider and the student Al Clemmings, wading to shore. In 1936 Eddie with Bert Acosta and three other pilots, enlisted in the Yankee Escadrille of the Loyalist Air Corps in Spain. For several months Schneider was flying antiquated planes, which had been rigged up with racks, dropping bombs on military objectives of the Franco forces. Schneider finally became thoroughly disgusted with the Communist regime, which he said was directing the Loyalist forces, and after many difficulties, returned to this country. Since returning from Spain, Schneider, a licensed airplane mechanic since he was 15, worked for American Airlines, first at Newark Airport and then at La Guardia Airport, New York City, first as a mechanic, then as instrument inspector. About six months ago he resigned his post with American Airlines to take a position as student instructor with the Archie Baxter Flying Service teaching Civil Aeronautics Authority students to fly. Yesterday afternoon Schneider took Herzog, a resident of New Hyde Park, Long Island, up for a refresher course. Herzog, holder of a commercial license, had allowed the license to lapse, and was required to take dual flying time before his license would be renewed. Schneider was flying at about 600 feet altitude, coming in for a landing, when a United States Naval Reserve biplane piloted by Ensign Kenneth A, Kuehler, 25, of Rochester, Ohio, was observer, struck the tail assembly of Schneider’s tandem Piper Cub. The tails surfaces and left wing of Schneider’s plane were badly damaged and as the two planes separated after the mid-air collision, the small monoplane went in a tight spin, striking Deep Creek several hundred feet from Flatbush Avenue and sinking. The Naval Reserve plane was able to land at the airport. Airport emergency crews raced to the spot where Schneider’s plane had submerged and the bodies of Schneider and Herzog were taken from the plane within a very few minutes after the crash. Attempts were made to to revive the two, but a Kings County Hospital ambulance intern pronounced both dead on arrival at the scene. It is believed that both were killed by the impact of the plane with the water. The bodies were taken to Kings County Hospital and Schneider will be released today and brought to Jersey City for funeral services. Herzog is survived by a widow and two small children. Schneider lived in Jersey City at 114 Carlton Avenue in the Hudson City section when he established the transcontinental records.

Source: Jersey Journal, Jersey City, New Jersey, December 24, 1940

Lars Magnus Wingblad (1794-?) aka Lars Magnus Vingblad, aka Gesellen Wingblad; Journeyman (Gesellen) Carpenter (b. Västra Vingåker parish, Södermanland, Sweden - d. unknown, Stockholm, Sweden)

Name
Lars Magnus used the family name "Wingblad" but his only living child, Anton, used the surname as "Winblad" and thats how it appears in his descendents.

Birth
Lars Magnus Wingblad was born in Västra Vingåker parish in the county of Södermanland in Sweden on June 3, 1797 or June 3, 1794.

Stockholm, Sweden
The 1820 Sweden Census has Lars Magnus Wingblad living in Stockholm, Sweden.

Impregnation
Lars Wingblad impregnated Brita Christina Ökneberg (1793-?) in November or December of 1822.

Engagement
Lars became engaged to Anna Ericsdotter Wennström. They made their vows at Katarina parish on February 09, 1823. This was just one month after impregnating Brita Christina Ökneberg.

First Child
Brita gave birth on August 10, 1823 to Carl Wilhelm Wingblad (1823-bef1830) just six months after Lars got enagaged. Carl was baptised at Hedvig Eleonora parish, Stockholm, Sweden on Sunday, August 18, 1823. Lars and Brita were listed as "Gesellen Wingblad" and "Br. Chr. Oknaberg".

Break Engagement
At their own request Lars and Anna were released from their vow to marry on August 03, 1824. The record says: "after closer knowledge of each others temperment and reasoning they realized that a union of marriage would cause them both unhappiness". The real reason was Lars child with another woman. They had been engaged for one year and six months.

Marriage
Lars, just two months later, married Brita Christina Ökneberg (1793-?) on October 10, 1824 at Katarina parish, Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden. She was born on September 28, 1793 at Torshälla parish, Södermanland, Sweden. Her parents may have been: Lars Ökneberg (c1747-?), a soldier; and Brita Olsdotter (c1747-?). There may be two people with the name "Brita Christina Ökneberg" so her parent's names will have to be conformed from the marriage record.

Second Child
Their child, Anton Julius Winblad I (1828-1901), was born on October 08, 1828. Anton was baptised on October 11, 1828 in Stockholm at St. Maria Magdalena Church (Mariakyrkan).

Linköping, Sweden
The 1830 Household examination rolls show Lars working as a carpentar in Linköping, Sweden while Brita was still working as a maid in Stockholm, living with her child Anton. By 1834 the rolls show that Brita and Anton joined Lars in Linköping, Sweden.

Relationship
Lars Magnus Wingblad (1794-?) was the third, great-grandfather of Richard Arthur Norton (1958- ).

Julia Ann Lattin (1880-1960) Memoir written in 1960

Birth
I was born on Long Island on January 7th, 1880, and I have lived here all the later part of my life.

Jarvis Andrew Lattin
My father was born in Farmingdale on May 29th, 1853. As a young man of 20 years he worked for a short time on the Long Island Railroad selling foodstuffs on the train. He was the youngest of eleven children and had a roaming disposition and left home to see the world. He got as far as Lake City, Iowa and a short time later met his future wife to be, a Mary Jane Puckett, who was a young school teacher at the time.

Mary Jane Puckett
After about six months, [on October 15, 1874] they were married and lived in Iowa for about one year when my oldest sister was born. Then they came back to Long Island for about three or four years where my next older sister and I were born. But my dad still had that longing for the Old West where things were rugged, so he left again and settled in Nebraska near the Niobrori River, which was 20 miles from the nearest town called Atkinson. This was a very lonely place.

Black Hills of Dakota
Dad had bought quite a number of farm implements on time, but things were bad, so he could not pay for them, and they were taken from him. My mother had a cow and a feather bed given to her from her parents, so they could not take them for payment, and dad decided to try his luck in mining gold in the Black Hills of Dakota. That left my mother alone with the children right across the river from the Indians, but they were friendly and traded many things, which were allowed them from the government. I remember especially some blankets from them. They were rather dark blue with a black border.

River crossing
My mother used to leave the baby [in] bed [in the] morning when she had to cross a stream on a foot-log to milk her cow. One day starting back with her milk, she saw the child starting to creep across the foot-log to meet her, and just in the middle of the stream the child fell overboard in the water. Mother sat her milk pail down and ran and jumped in after her, catching hold of her nightdress. It was a puzzle to know how she got herself and the child on the foot log again, as the water was deep in places. Finally she managed to get her skirt off in the water and fastened the child with that until she climbed up herself.

Loss of eye
We only had a cook stove for heat, and when I was a little more than a year old, I was sitting in a high chair near the stove to keep warm and my mother was combing her hair with her head bent over when she heard a terrible scream. I had fallen on the stove. My sister [Catherine Lavinia Lattin], 1 1/2 years older had pushed the chair. My left eye had hit one of the galvanized balls on the stove leaving the skin on it, causing me to lose sight in that eye. The eye was almost closed. The doctor operated on it three times, but it did not improve the sight. I was seven years old the last operation, and they laid me right on the floor.

Rattlesnake
We used to sleep in the trundle beds. When not in use the one is pushed under the other. I can remember the sand cherries, which grew on little trees about three feet high. Also [I remember] the covered wagons and the tumbleweeds rolling across the plains. I have two baby brothers buried out there. When my oldest sister, [Mary Esther Lattin], was seven years old [in 1882], she was bitten by a rattlesnake. It had thirteen rattles. She had a little dog with her and it killed the snake. They could not wait so long for a Dr. to come from town and my dad cut the fang out and sucked the poison till the Dr. arrived. Mother had her on a pillow for weeks with bread and milk poultices, but she carried the mark to her grave. It was a hollow spot about the size of a quarter just below the knee.

Long Island
When I was 8 years old we moved back to Long Island. This was just about 10 days before the blizzard in 1888 [which started March 11, 1888 and ended March 14, 1888]. I can remember my father carrying bags of coal home on his back as no trucks could get through. During the blizzard, we children were in a dark room in bed with the measles we had caught on the train coming east.

Farmingdale
We attended school in Farmingdale, Long Island until I graduated from the 9th grade. For a few years I did dressmaking in Brooklyn, but spent my summers at home. I did not care for city life. I was rooming at the Young Woman's Christian Association (YWCA), and it was during this time that I met the man that was to be my future husband. On Sundays we usually took a trip to the Aquarium or the Statue of Liberty or the Eden Museum, which was then on 23rd Street, New York, but has long been removed.

Theodore Roosevelt
In 1903 we attended a reception [for] Theodore Roosevelt at Sagamore Hill, and I still have the souvenir glasses from that affair. We were married in 1905, and paid $8 a month for rent. My husband was working as a carpenter for $15 a week, which was fair, wages at that time. He used to drive 8 miles on Sunday mornings to bring the Sunday papers and he received $2 for the trip. We had a horse and a little farm, raising most of our own vegetables.

Children
My first baby daughter, [Ruth Lattin Poole], was born in the summer of 1906. Then we moved back to my old hometown. We lived in a house that was real old and when it was windy the carpet on the floor would raise a little from the air beneath. My second daughter, [Eva Gertrude Poole] was born there. A little later we managed to save a little money and bought a little five room house for $1,300, paying off $100 a year. The house had no improvements, only a pump in the kitchen, and on washdays we brought in a tub, setting it on two kitchen chairs. We always had home made bread, by baking twice a week, 5 loaves each time. It never had a chance to get stale. We bought flour by the barrel those days. Butter was 25 cents a pound and sugar was 5 cents a pound.

Isles of Pines, Cuba
In that year [1909,] my parents moved to the Isle of Pines, just south of Cuba, which was populated at that time by 90% Americans. They had expected that the United States would take it over, but several years later it was turned over to Cuba. My parents [Jarvis Andrew Lattin and Mary Jane Puckett] celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary [on October 15, 1924] there, and my sister Eva, and I made them a suprise visit. They were so happy to see us. The boat made only two trips a week between Cuba and the island. We had our luggage inspected in Havana and spent one night there. It took about two hours to cross Cuba by train, and the boat was waiting for us. It was just an overnight trip to the Isle of Pines, and it was so calm there was hardly a ripple on the water. But we did experience a very bad hurricane while there. Every one boards up their windows when they see the storm approaching. After Cuba took over the island, many of the Americans left and went back to the States as my parents did.

Lake Helen, Florida
They settled in a little town in Florida, and a few years later my mother passed away, and was brought back north to our hometown for burial. Father spent most of his remaining years in Florida, but things were not the same. He also passed away at 88 years of age and was laid beside my mother. She was such a wonderful, good, Christian mother to us, but she experienced many hardships in her life. She gave birth to thirteen children, nine of them lived to be grown and married. Six of us are still living and scattered far apart.

Retire
My husband retired about ten years ago. We have lived on the same street, [Columbia Street] for the past 50 years. My youngest daughter, [Julia Marion Poole] was born in the house next door, and she is a grandmother now. My husband's health was not so good the past five years. Our three daughters gave us a grand celebration on our fiftieth wedding anniversary nearly four years ago, but the time seems to come too soon that we all must part from this world.

Hospital
I was taken sick very suddenly last November and rushed to the hospital in an ambulance. This was a great shock to my husband in his condition, and five days later he was brought into the hospital, it being the night before Thanksgiving. The nurses were so kind to us. They had a little table set up for us in the solarium with a nice little white tablecloth and a large chrysanthemum for our Thanksgiving dinner. That was a dinner long to be remembered as it was the last one we ever had together. My husband spent four weeks there, and then was taken away to a nursing home, where he passed away six weeks later.

God's plan
I remained in the hospital for six and a half weeks, spending Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's [Day] there. I started improving and was allowed to go with my daughter, Ruth, for a few weeks until I became stronger. I have a great deal to be thankful for, with three nice daughters, and so many good friends and neighbors. I am resolved now that God had a purpose in saving my life, and I sincerely hope I can carry out his plans.

Eloise Ensko II (1925-1993) Memoir of July 03, 1965

Sophia Weber and Oscar Arthur Moritz Lindauer in Alsace
My great-grandmother Sophia married an Oscar Lindauer. They came from Alsace-Lorraine on their honeymoon, by boat. Alsace-Lorraine was then owned by the French. Great-grandmother brought a lovely picture of Napoleon over from the other side - none of which I have ever seen duplicated. It is still in the family and in excellent condition. The Lindauer family owned a huge department store over there.

Philadelphia
When the newlyweds came to this country about the early 1800's they settled in Philadelphia. The living room furniture is still in the family. I have in my possession one of the sitting chairs. It is a very pretty, light wood in color, Victorian style. It is now of heavy material and cover. Sophia and Oscar had three boys and later on one girl. The boys were Charles, Louis and John and the girl, Eloise, was named by her brother, Charles. He found it by reading a book (Heloise & Abelard). The boys were much older than Eloise.

New York City
Eloise grew up in old Greenwich Village in New York City. She played the piano and also sang in the Saint Thomas Church, on Fifth Avenue & 53rd Street, New York City, on Sundays in the choir. For a short period of time Eloise Lindauer attended the Convent of the Sacred Heart with her best friend. She died at her home 155 West 171st Street, New York City in her ninety-second year, from old age. She played her piano by note and from memory until the week before she passed away. She had reddish blonde hair up until the end with a very slight trace of white and wore it in an old-fashioned knot on the top of her head.

Eloise Lindauer Ensko
Eloise Lindauer married William Ensko, of New York City and had four children: William Arthur Ensko, Charles Edward Ensko, Eloise Ensko and Sophie Charlotte Ensko. Uncle Billy was in the linen business and traveled all over the world. He had a son, Arthur, by his wife, Ethel Minerva Beaver. Arthur was married to Jewell Ripple who later on [wasted] away from cancer. He later married Rose La Gattufa. Eloise was mostly at home caring for her aged mother. Before that she worked as a stenographer in a bank. Sophie was a school teacher. She taught English and sewing later in the Junior High School, Public School 52 on Academy Street in New York City, Washington Heights section. Before that she taught elementary school, Public School 181 in New York City.

Charles Ensko
Charles Ensko was my father and the father of Charles Edward, Junior. Charles was manager a firm in Budapest, here in New York City. Later on he went into the publishing business and then Uncle Robert, of Robert Ensko, Inc. Silversmiths, took daddy into the business with him. Daddy remained there until he retired, selling his stock to Stephen Ensko, son of Robert. Daddy also collaborated with on books with Stephen written about old silver. They worked hard learning the business from bottom to top. The books have become rare now. However due to Stephen, your University now has a course in Antique and Early American Silver. They often call in Stephen to give lectures. The University has a complete set of these books. I have a complete set also. The Phi Delta Theta Fraternity at Lafayette College has a set too. This was donated by my father and brother as Charles attended and was graduated from Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. For a short while Charles attended the Dwight School for Boys which was on Park Avenue in New York City for a spell. Before that he graduated from George Washington High School in Washington Heights.

Eloise Ensko Higgins
I am Eloise Ensko Higgins, daughter of Charles and Elizabeth MacIlwraith. I attended Public School 98, Public School 52 for elementary classes and went on to Barnard School for Girlson Fort Washington Avenue, Washington Heights, and then on to the Garden Country Day School in Jackson Heights, Long Island, New York. I studied the piano and played duets with my teacher, Florence Hanford Friedman, at the High School and elementary school Parent Teacher's Association and at the church. I was a member of the Holy Trinity Church on Cummings Street, off Dykman Street in New York City (Washington Heights). We lived on 212th & 213th Street off Broadway. I sang in the church school choir, belonged to the Girls Friendly and Girl Scouts. I was in many shows they put on there.

Thomas Patrick Norton II (1920- ) Memoir written on February 02, 1998

Mastoiditis
It is said that strong memories can many times be associated with traumatic events and in my case my earliest has to do with intense pain. When I was about five years old I developed an ear infection which resulted in mastoiditis and I can remember when the specialist who was recommended by our family doctor came to our home at 603 Garfield Avenue in Jersey City, New Jersey to examine me, and my mother's tearful reaction when he told her that I would have to be hospitalized and operated on to drain the abscessed ear. I can still remember fighting the ether mask and how sick to my stomach I was when I finally awoke and also how heavy my head felt when I tried to get up.

Tonsilitis
The next time I was hospitalized and given ether, I was a little older and wiser and did breathe slowly and deeply as I was told and as a result did not suffer the same after effects. This was for a minor overnight stay to remove my tonsils and adenoids when I was about eight years old.

Scarlet Fever
I was the first born and may have been a little premature because I weighed only about five pounds. My brothers and my sister were bigger and were in the seven to eight pound range at birth. I only mention this because I seemed to be the one who was to get all the childhood diseases and one of the worst was a very bad case of scarlet fever. This was when I was about ten and I was kept under quarantine at home. I was isolated in a small room which had to be kept dark to protect my eyes and the doorway was covered by a sheet dampened by a solution of Lysol. The effect of the fever caused a mild heart murmur and as I continued to grow up, a gradual lessening of flexibility in my joints.

Physical Education
I remember this very well because in junior high school we had to take physical education under the supervision of a special teacher in a gymnasium (in elementary school we just went outside to play games while the teachers watched) and the special teacher, a Mr. Schenkle, a grossly overweight, loud-mouthed, profane, bully was, to me, a sorry example to set as a result of physical education. Again, intense pain is the reason this is burned into my memory because when we were doing our exercises and were required to reach down and touch our toes, I could not get much further than my knees and Mr. Schenkle who loved to vocally excoriate "slackers" as he called the non-achievers, decided to help me by coming up behind me and pushing my back down. This just about finished me as he strained not only my back, but my hamstrings as well. I was not able to go to school for quite a while and never took physical education again. The subject is required under New Jersey state law but I was able to avoid it by having my doctor petition the school authorities to excuse me due to my heart murmur.

Second Mastoiditis
I developed mastoiditis in my other ear when I was twelve years old but it was caught earlier and the operation was merely to puncture the eardrum to drain out the infection. It was performed at home by the same specialist, a Doctor Morris Pyle who had his office at Exchange Place in Jersey City.

Appendicitis
My most serious medical problem was a burst appendix which resulted in gangrene and peritonitis and almost cost me my life. I remember the pain. I had the attack in high school when I was just sixteen and the nurse sent me home. We had no telephone then and really never had an automobile (my father had won a car in a church raffle some years before but he was such a poor driver that my mother had him sell it. Jersey city was not a good place to have a car anyway because there was no place to garage the car or to park it.) I lived about two miles from the high school and started to walk home. When I was one block away from my house my appendix must have burst because I remember trying to hold myself upright by grabbing the pole that held the sign for Stegman Street and Ocean Avenue but I gradually slipped down to my knees and then blacked out. I do not know who got me home or how my mother got word to the doctor but it took time before he could get to me and make the arrangements to get me to the hospital. It was an emergency operation which was performed about midnight and the delay undoubtedly led to the serious nature of the infection. I was in the hospital for a month and was given the last rites of the church. I was kept under sedation by morphine not only for the pain but also to keep me from writhing and inadvertently pulling out the tubes which were feeding me but also draining the infection. I lost twenty five pounds and came out as a living skeleton. Our family doctor, George Brick (the one who sent me to Dr. Pyle, the specialist and who arranged for me to be sent to the St. Francis hospital for the appendectomy) gave my father a recipe for a tonic to help me gain back some of the weight I had lost. It was like eggnog with milk and cinnamon but was fortified with sherry wine. My dad dutifully made this for me every day and at the same time made one for himself. It gradually helped me to gain back some of the lost weight but unfortunately caused him to gain weight he did not need. My general health improved considerably after the appendix operation and recovery and to compensate for the missing physical education at school I took up dynamic tension, a form of non-equipment exercise. I always like to run and so kept in good shape.

Grocery Store
When I graduated from high school at sixteen I was, in a way, still a kid. I was small and shy but I got a full time job as a clerk in our local eagle grocery store. It was a two man store, the manager and me. The pay was five dollars a week for sixty hours of work but I did such a good job that the manager, an old man named Bill Miller who suffered from ulcers, gave me an extra fifty cents out of his own pocket because I did most of the work and let him take it easy if possible. The corner grocery store in 1937 was a far cry from the supermarkets of today. As the clerk of the two man staff I had to sweep the sidewalk every morning, put up or down the awnings as the weather dictated, wash the display windows once a week and when the grocery delivery was made the truckmen would just put the barrels and boxes on the sidewalk, the manager would confirm the delivery, sign for it and I would have to move it all inside to the back storeroom. Also much of the items such as flour, sugar, butter, milk, eggs, potatoes, etc. had to be broken down into smaller amounts such as pounds, dozens, quarts, etc. This was my job also. I had to restock the shelves by carefully removing the old items, wiping the shelf and then replacing the old items in front of the newer ones. When the store was busy I also would wait on customers by physically moving about the store to bring whatever they wanted to the counter, wrapping it up and also delivering it to their home if that was requested. That was usually worth a ten cent tip! There were no scanners then so you had to know all the prices and you had to add up the total (twice as a matter of fact for the required confirmation). After about a year I left Mr. Miller to work as an experienced clerk for the National Grocery Company at a salary of eight dollars a week. Grocery stores then were open six days a week from 8 am until 6 Monday through Thursday and from 8 a.m. until 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.

Eagle Printing Ink Company
When I was eighteen I got a job with the Eagle Printing Ink Company as a shipping clerk on the recommendation of Pete Van Deusen who used to live next door to us on Garfield Avenue. Pete was seven years older than me and had the same job with Mr. Miller when he was just out of high school. He was a quality control inspector at the ink plant and was the manager of the company softball team in the Jersey City industrial league. He wanted me to play on the company team and I agreed to do it. I had played for him once before in the Sunday softball league in Bayside Park in Jersey City. About this time in my life I became a member of the Jersey City Lancers a local neighborhood sports club made up of young men for fun more than anything else. It was encouraged by the grownups because we played at the local parks or schools and generally kept out of trouble. Besides working at the ink plant and playing on their softball team in the summer, I also played softball and baseball for the Lancers on Sunday in the summer and football in the fall and winter. I played football for the Lancers on Thanksgiving day in 1939 and was hurt so that I could not go to work the next day at the ink company. Since we did not have a telephone, there was no way that I could report my reason for being absent and when I went to work on the following Monday I found out that I was fired.

Mutual Chemical Company
I went to the state unemployment office to see if I could register for benefits. (I was not sure if my circumstances were covered) and instead they sent me on an interview for a job with the Mutual Chemical Company of America a large bulk processing and refining company in Jersey City. They were looking to hire a traffic clerk. I had never worked as a traffic clerk before or even knew what one did but I had observed how the shipping room operated at the ink company and told them I was willing to learn and they hired me for fifteen dollars for a five and a half day, forty-four hour week. The traffic clerk job was to keep the necessary records of all of the incoming raw materials and the outgoing finished products. It involved both railroad and trucking and domestic and overseas shipments. I worked under the traffic manager who was also the office manager and paymaster and he encouraged me to go with him to the local traffic club when they had educational seminars in order to broaden my knowledge.

World War II
When our country went to war against the axis in December, 1941 I felt particularly obliged to contribute because one of my friends from the Lancers was killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor. He had joined the Navy only about six months before. I told them at the chemical company that I was going to enter the service and they said my job would be there when I returned. When I went to the Navy recruiting office in New York City in early 1942 to enlist, I failed the physical because I was underweight, had bad hearing and the heart murmur. They suggested that I try to gain eight pounds to bring me up to their standard for my height and build to ensure that I had no chronic health problem which was keeping my weight so low and to be re-tested. It took me several months to gain the weight (I had to eat a lot of bananas and cream plus a regular high calorie diet) and when I was re-tested I was sent to the officer in charge, a full Navy captain, who explained that he would have to make a recommendation because my hearing and heart were not 100%. He said the problems were slight but enough to keep me out under ordinary circumstances but this was wartime and if I still wanted to join the Navy he would approve a limited duty enlistment which would mean I could not serve in the submarine service or in the naval flight service. I agreed and was sent to the U.S. Naval training station in Newport, Rhode Island for boot camp then to Bedford Springs, Pennsylvania for radio school and then to Noroton Heights, Connecticut for special advanced communication school. I was finally assigned to the United States Navy armed guard service facility at the Brooklyn Naval Armory in late November of 1942. The armed guard service of the Navy provided gunners and communication personnel for allied shipping which moved in convoys under naval protection against German planes and submarines. My first ship, the James Iradell, was in the invasion of Casablanca in December, 1942 and in the invasion of Sicily in 1943. During my almost three years of sea duty I was on many ships and went to Cuba, Trinidad, Jamaica, England, Ireland, Scotland, France and Algeria as well, to some of these countries many times. I was discharged from the Navy at the Lido Beach Separation Center in Long Island in late 1945.