Wilmette Public Library Local History Digital Collection

Ella B. Butz (1888-1982) oral history

Description

Track 3, Transcript p. 4-7

Track 3, Transcript p. 4-7

Transcription

Track 3
 RA: Did he write, work for the Staatszeitung? 

EBB: Oh yes, all the German papers, the German paper in St. Louis, and Cincinnati and - 

RA: Milwaukee? 

EBB: Milwaukee, and at one time Hoboken, they went to Hoboken, but that's what his work was and of course he wasn't very well paid, how he ever raised his big family I don't know, but anyway that was his work, he was a scholar. 



Ella B. Butz, cont. 5 

RA: Well, many of those men were, I understand, very well educated. 

EBB: I think of that group they were. Well, in '52 they married in New York and then they came to Chicago via the Erie Canal and over land so that they were in Chicago in 1883; that would be wouldn't it, no, in 1853 and grandmother's first child was born there in Chicago, but it was born dead. And when I think of it I just wonder what kind of doctors they had in Chicago at that time. Here this poor little bride twenty-one years old with nobody - she didn't know anybody around you know, of course, the young men friends of her husband had families and I suppose they all knew each other, Well, anyway, then in '55 my father was born so he really was the first child in the family and then she had, my father was the first, then Otto was the next, then Alvin and then the sister, the one sister, oh yeah, there was another sister along in there, what was her name, I can't think of it, but anyway, she died as a child, but the other sister lived and her name was Millie, and then after, when Millie was six years old was when the Chicago fire started, in 1871 - 

RA: In 1871, October. 

EBB: October, 1871, yes, and that day grandmother had her seventh child, the day of the fire. And the two older boys were 16 and 14 and they went scouring 



Ella B. Butz, cont. 6 

around trying to find a cab or some kind of conveyance to get grandmother and the new baby and the little children away and they found a milk wagon, but by the time they got that milk wagon back to their house, the Prissings were friends of the family and they were there with their carriage and their coachman and they were putting grandmother and the new baby and the little children in this conveyance and taking it to the Prissings home, and I don't know just where that home was, but - 

RA: Was it north or south, do you have any idea? 

EBB: No, I don't know just where it was, but anyway, they got her all nicely settled when the cry came "The fire is coming this way" so they had to get her up again and in the cab and they took her to her brother's home. I think it was on Erie Street, it was very - it was just about where the big Northwestern Station is now in Chicago - and her brother, I don't know which brother, she had several, but anyway, they took her there and that's where she stayed. And in the meantime all this happened, grandfather wasn't in Chicago, he was in Joliet, he had a job there and when he heard about the fire, of course he was about crazy because he didn't know where his family would be scattered, but anyway, he came to Chicago on a hand car, one of these things on the rails, and he found his family then and I 



Ella B. Butz, p. 7 

think they stayed there because grandmother was in a coma for several days - they thought she was dead - and the baby was very sickly, but anyway, grandfather - 

RA: Did it survive though?

Creators

Butz, Ella B., 1888-1982, Interviewee

Adler, Rhea Saul

, Interviewer

Media Type

Audio

Text

Item Type

Audiocassettes

Description

Interview of Ella B. Butz by Rhea Adler in Wilmette on March 26, 1976.

ABSTRACT
Wilmette in 1890's, early activities, Wilmette Country Club, mention of many early families and people by name, Butz and Arend family histories, Northwestern Academy and New Trier High School early beginnings, social and athletic activities, lake front trips

Notes

The photograph is the Butz family home at 802 Lake Ave. in Wilmette, Illinios.

Place of Publication

Wilmette Public Library

Date of Original

March 26, 1976

Subject(s)

Oral histories
Wilmette (Ill.)--History
Wilmette (Ill.) -- Residents

Personal Name(s)

Butz, Ella B.

Local identifier

R 977.31 BU

Language of Item

English

Geographic Coverage

Wilmette

Illinois, United States

Latitude: 42.0789394242162 Longitude: -87.6996227987671

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