I've been threatening for a while to write about my great-grandfather who was, I'm afraid, not a Good Man. I don't know whether he was the 'worst' of my ancestors -- there are certainly others whose behavior was less than desirable -- and I also don't know whether he was truly Bad or just weak and selfish. In any event, though, he seemed dogged with trouble.
In The Lutheran Parish Records from the Upper Ottawa Valley, 1861-1890 by Dan Faber and Jean Ringhofer, as well as on his gravestone, his name is recorded as Alfred E. Feltz. The "E" was for Eduard but the "ALFRED" seemed to switch back and forth between that and "ALBERT" with some regularity -- his California death certificate is for Albert Feltz. I'm not sure whether this was a poor attempt at an alias or whether perhaps he was actually christened something like "Albrecht" and a lack of literacy, German accents and the unfamiliarity of the word made it just too cumbersome to consistently maintain. Born on June 1, 1877, in Renfrew County, Ontario, Canada, Alfred was the third child of Herman Alexander Feltz and Emilie Friedrike (called "Fredrika") Manteuffel, both German immigrants that adhered to the Lutheran faith. Juliana was the eldest, followed by Herman Jr. After Alfred came Franz, who died young, then George. Freda and Dorothy were born next. Every record of the two girls says they were born in Michigan, but I don't actually find evidence that the family was in Michigan until 1889, when Herman Sr., Herman Jr. (14) and Alfred (12) are all recorded as laborers in a Detroit City directory, and newcomer David is recorded in a Detroit birth index. Walter was the last of the children, born in Detroit in 1892.
I'm not sure how to explain what happened to the family next because there don't seem to be any of the obvious reasons for what, today, we would call dysfunction. There was misfortune, but most of us have experienced some of that. The thing I keep looking for and of which I have found no sign is unhappiness -- cheating, abuse, even just disrespect -- between Herman and Fredreka. Herman had a tough childhood. He may have been illegitimate. He was still in his teens when he came to Canada from Germany, alone, apparently charged with finding a place for his mother, stepfather and their children to live, maybe sending back money to help with their voyage. I could imagine him being a stern man who did what had to be done and was resentful of those who had a softer life. It's harder to imagine Fredreka as a harsh mother as she seems to have been raised in a large and affectionate family. In any event, every account seems to paint Herman and Fredreka as a devoted couple and loving parents.
In Michigan, everyone went to work in Detroit as soon as they were old enough and members seemed to board wherever they could find a spot, mostly downtown near the river, and mostly as 'laborer' or 'polisher.' The latter is a surprisingly vague term that usually referenced polishing metal, a relatively unskilled job. Early on, Detroit was the primary production location for 'washing machines,' the same tub with hand-crank wringer that I was sure had chopped my fingers right off some 80 years later. And, of course, as the automobile industry flourished after the turn of the century, there was much polishing to be done there. The family also had a house in nearby Monroe, just a streetcar ride away. That would have provided more space and an arguably healthier environment, but there were also lots of jobs, especially in the plant nurseries, as Monroe was a center for both fruit production and the development of trees and shrubs that were sent all over the country via train.
Eldest daughter Julie was the first to marry. She was 20 when she married John Jacques in 1893; he was almost a decade older. They had three daughters and seemed to have a long and happy marriage.
By contrast, in 1895, Herman Jr. married Josephine "Josie" Pottery. They had four children, the last of whom was stillborn. Six months later, Josie filed for divorce, citing cruelty and non-support. Two months later, the filing was dismissed by consent of both parties, but six months after that, in February of 1902, Josie filed again and this time the divorce was finalized. The very next day, Herman Jr. married Helena Kehl and their son was born seven months after the ceremony. I do not know what happened to Josie or her daughter, but her two boys were raised by Josie's mother. In 1905, Helena's father died and, somehow, Herman was named executor for the estate. Helena's mother petitioned successfully to have him removed from that position, as he was also a creditor of the estate and so had rather a conflict of interest. The next year, Herman was charged with carrying a concealed weapon, a pistol, although the situation appears to have been more "stupid while drunk" than anything else. Between April and June of 1910, Herman and Fredreka and several of their children moved from Michigan to Los Angeles, California. Herman is enumerated in the 1910 census in Los Angeles, while Helena and their son remain in Detroit. Helena filed for divorce on the last day of 1910 and that was granted in March of 1911. The next year, Herman went through a California marriage ceremony with Teresa Mondragon but she was still married to her first husband and, based on the births of their children, didn't ever really leave him. Herman Jr. died seven years later, in February of 1919 at the age of 44.
In 1897, 20-year-old Alfred crossed the river into Essex, Ontario, to marry another Josephine, Josie Keller. The two Josephines marrying the two Feltz brothers have caused genealogical researchers no end of confusion ever since. A year later, their son, Arthur Edward Feltz, was born. In 1900, Alfred filed for divorce from Josie, citing adultery, but, as had been the case with Herman and his Josie, the filing was closed by mutual agreement. In 1900, however, Alfred and Arthur are living with the Feltz household in Monroe and Josie is nowhere to be seen. In April of 1903, Alfred was treated in Detroit for near-fatal belladonna poisoning. The newspaper account indicates he was given a 'headache powder' by an acquaintance and that was believed to have "mistakenly' contained the toxin. In the article, he is described as having a weak constitution, which may have contributed to the strong effect of the drug. I would love to know the actual facts behind this drama!
By September of 1903, Alfred had become, ahem, acquainted with Wilhelmina "Minnie" Mohr. The adopted daughter of a well-to-do and strongly Catholic Monroe couple, newspaper accounts from 15 years later would relate that Minnie had "run out the door one day and was never seen again." I have yet to determine whether she ran to Alfred's arms or whether she encountered him after that, but, in May of 1904, their son, Erwin Alfred Feltz was born. December baptismal records say that the priest was told Erwin's parents were married, but they could not have been... it wasn't until 1907 that Alfred finally was divorced from Josie Keller. Alfred did marry again after that, but not Minnie; He married Lulu Benson in March of 1910, and within two months, he and his new wife, and his first son, Arthur, along with most of the Feltz family, moved to California. In 1913, he married Martha Charske -- I'd say it's anyone's guess whether he and Lulu were divorced in the meantime -- and then Alfred died in February, 1914, from an extremely rare form of tuberculosis. He was 36. His eldest son, Arthur, was soon in trouble, himself; he was enumerated in San Quentin State Penitentiary in the 1900 census and had allegedly been involved in theft and burglary from the time he was in school ("stole pencils"). After he was released, Arthur moved to Montana where he married and had children, none of whom apparently knew (or perhaps wanted to know) anything about his origins.
George only married once, in 1904. He and his wife and two children moved with the family to California in 1910, but George died four years later, just a few months after Alfred, quite possibly of the same contagious disease.
Freda was only 17 when she married Carl Fick. Their daughter, Loretta was born two years later. Freda and Carl divorced in 1910 and she resumed her maiden name but she did not go with the family to California. In 1911, she remarried and she and William Kraft were married until his death in 1953, after which Freda did move to California to live with her daughter. She died in 1960 at the age of 74.
Dorothy also remained in Detroit. She worked in a printing office, initially as a book binder and then as "forelady" and didn't marry until she was 46. Her husband, Herman Peters, died eleven years later but Dorothy lived to be 84. Along with David, "Dolly" sounds like someone it would have been fun to know.
David did go with his family to California where he became involved in real estate and other speculation. He was married three times (and I suspect he fathered a son in Detroit when he was 17; one of the Feltz brothers did, but, let's face it, it might well have been Herman Jr. or Alfred). David was 60 when he took his own life.
Walter was only 15 when he died in Detroit. A newspaper report says that he had saved up his money to buy a bicycle and was riding the new bike in the street when he hit a pothole and crashed. He hit his head on a curb and died the next day. The grief-stricken father attempted unsuccessfully to sue the city for allowing such unsafe conditions. Sometimes I wonder whether Walter's death was the initial impetus for the decision to head to Los Angeles, seeking a fresh start for the family and the two older boys, in particular. Did they also maybe think California would be a healthier climate, as I suspect Alfred and George were beginning to have symptoms of the disease that killed them?
Herman Sr. and Fredreka celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in 1922. Herman Sr died at 74 in Ontario, California, two years later, outliving Herman Jr, Alfred, George and Walter. Fredreka was 77 when she died in 1932, Her obituary calls her a well-known Ontarian and active member of Christ Episcopal Church.
As the facts are written, it is eminently possible that Alfred was a hapless casualty of events, someone to whom things were done instead of the doer. And yet... could so much deception and misfortune be coincidental? I don't think so. I think Alfred was, at best, a weak man who was frequently in bad company. At worst, he may have been a true villain.
It's interesting that my grandfather, Erwin, gave his own son "Arthur" as a middle name. Did he know his older half-brother, or had he been told about him? On his application for a delayed birth certificate, my grandfather wrote that his father was an actor. Was that because he'd been told he was a good-looking man who moved to California? Did Minnie, who supposedly died of heart failure in Detroit a couple of months after Alfred died in California also actually have tuberculosis? How much contact did the Feltz family have with Minnie and Erwin? It seems Minnie's friends knew that Erwin's father had died before she did -- or was that just the usual "I'm a widow" fiction of an abandoned partner? I continue to hope that Michigan newspapers that have not yet been digitized will provide some clarity. Fingers crossed (figuratively, because it's hard to run the microfilm machine if you keep them that way).