Wilmette Public Library Local History Digital Collection

Ella B. Butz (1888-1982) oral history

Description

CD 2 Track 4, Transcript p. 38-40

CD 2 Track 4, Transcript p. 38-40

Transcription

EBB: Well there was a brother and Maude and Lucy and Elizabeth. Those four children were left not homeless but without parents, both parents had died and the whole village got together to decide what to do with this family for they didn't have hardly any money and they were just teenagers. Well, they could have been a little older or a little younger, I don't know, but anyway, they got together and anybody who'd take one of these children into their home and treat them like their own children. I don't know if they paid them anything, but anyway, there were four homes that they got, now, the Wood home where Douglas was, I think that - I think his parents had died and they were related to the Woods in some way, So he was with the Woods and there was a family on Washington Avenue, I can't remember their name now, but they took Lucy, and there was a dressmaker in town who needed some help, these children were supposed to work their way, and Bessie, Bessie I think her name way, was in high school part, but she was out of school for a while, and in order to graduate her sisters and brothers 



Ella B Butz, cont. p 39 

were all gotten old enough that they could support themselves, but Lucy had nothing, not Lucy, Bessie. And she was in high school I know when I was and I thought she was wonderful because I didn't get any place in my Physics classes and she was a whiz and she used to help me. I don't know whatever became of her, but those children were sort of farmed out, they didn't have to pay any rent, they worked their way and I suppose they had a little bit of money left for each one, but anyway, they all got their education that way and I don't know what became of them. 

RA: Just like so many people were farmed out in Colonial times in the east and as apprentices. 

EBB: Uh huh, and they did very well and Bessie was a smart girl, she was real smart. I shouldn't wonder if she'd become a teacher but I'm not sure. Lucy didn't want to go to school anymore and she loved to sew and she was apprentice to a dressmaker. I never knew her like I did Bessie. 

RA: Were there many dressmakers in town? 

EBB: Oh, two or three. I can remember going with mother to the Perouts and having Mrs. Perout put a dress on me that she'd made and fit it to me. I can remember that when I was about 11 or 12. 

RA: Were there many women who did their own family sewing in those days? 



Ella B. Butz, cont. p.40 

EBB: I imagine so, I don't know. I know my family didn't take to sewing. Mother didn't know anything about sewing so that she always had our dresses made, couldn't buy them ready made. 



RA: And yet you became quite a needle woman, didn't you? EBB: Yes, and as I look back I think how in the world did I ever learn to use a pattern. I have no memory of it. But I have memory of this, that in those days they would hire a dressmaker to come to your home and stay a week and get all the members of the family sewed up and I think that grandmother had a woman in Chicago who came to her and when we moved to Wilmette she came out to Wilmette and she'd stay a week or two and get us all sewed up and I imagine in my childhood I was fascinated watching her use a pattern, because I have no memory at all of ever using a pattern. 

RA: And yet you know that you - 

EBB: It was a natural gift for me and then when I grew up I went to school in Chicago on State Street for one year and then later I took this Home Ec. course up in Northern Wisconsin and then taught it for a while. 

RA: I see. That must have been one of the first Home Ec.

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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