Grandma Mraz was Born in Prague, Bohemia and came to the United States when 30 years old. Her maiden name was Mary Barbara Kobler. Her parents operated a tavern inn Prague. She came to this country with a trunk full of beautiful things with intent to marry a man by the name of Fialla but the wedding never took place. When I was visiting Jim and Ruth in Michigan at one time I saw a bank by the name of Fialla. Later Grandma Mraz married a man by the name of Martin Mraz. He was a cabinet maker. He died at an early age with tuberculoses. There were many cousins on the Mraz side in Canton, Ohio by name of Lhota, Franta, Hromatha. The Franta family had a sign shop and is still in existence to this day and has enlarged. The father was John who was an artist and married an Irish lady by name of Therese Mallory. Ann Lhota married a man by name of Fitzmaurice. Ed Mraz was very chummy with his cousins. He went hunting with John Franta and fishing with Al Lhota. We visited the Fitzmaurice family quite often n Sunday afternoons and Ed and Tom Fitmaurice had many discussions, politics. Ed a forceful Republican and Tom a Democrat. Also they would listen to Father Coughlin who was on the air at that time. The cousins would visit one another back and forth. Visiting in Canton one time a dear friend Leona Danver was in a Nursing Home and Louise Mraz took me to see her. On the way out I saw John Franta a very feeble old man sitting in a wheelchair. He didn't recognize me. Ed and I belonged to a Bridge Club. Clara and Clarence Lang, Frand and Ruth Hannon, Elsie and Bill Pfeifer and Ed and I made the foursome. Frank Hannon and Ed had a lot in common. Frank was the founder of the Hannon electric Supply Co. and Ed bought from him for Republic Stamping and Enameling Co. where he was purchasing agent for the company. It seems the only time I left the house when the children were young was with Ed to card parties. We would get a baby sitter and go to the Parish St. Johns Catholic Church card parties and a movie and the Bridge Club. We had a set of "Books of Knowledge" and the children got read a story each night before going to bed. Doris Tillitzki helped me with the children by taking them out in the carriage for a walk, wash the dishes after supper and go on errands if necessary. Doris later became an R.N. and said to me she learned much helping us. We gave her $3.00 a week. We visited Grandmother quite often on Sunday afternoons and sometimes would stay for supper. Anne and Mary Mraz were maiden ladies. Anne was a born musician and would play on the pump organ in their parlor. She played by heart and never took lessons until later in life. Later when Anne could afford a piano she played more and more. There were four children. Ed was the oldest. Charles (Chick) married the woman he wrote to after receiving sweater she helped knit with her name on it when overseas in the army. They had three children Bill, Larry and Helen who became a nun with the name of Sr. M. Remigia. Larry lived in Cincinnati, Ohio after marriage. The family seemed to be troubled with cancer. Larry is deceased, Bill married Louise Helstern and they live in Canton, Ohio and have I think eight children. Louise is a nurse and worked at Mercy Hospital nursing home when I was employed there in the office. Later I was told she thought I was Bill's mother. Chick and Marguerete were married before Ed and me and they came to our wedding in Columbus with their first born Helen. Anne was ill and in bed at 475 Siebert St. on my wedding day and I remember going to see her with my wedding dress on. Aunt Anne as the Ed Mraz children called her was plagued with a nervous disorder but still was an excellent office girl being secretary to the president of Republic Stamping & Enameling Co. She was hospitalized quite often and Ed would go to see her on his noon hour. It was quite hard on Ed because everyone would ask about how she was getting along. She was in the hospital when Mary Alice was born and after I came home I wanted to take the new baby to show her, but Ed discouraged it saying he thought that was one reason she was in the hospital. I think Anne at one time had a love affair and it fell through. Why I never found out but I surmised it was because Anne and Marry were inseparable and I don't remember Mary ever having a boy friend. Mary was also a very capable office worker employed by the Duer, Smith, Lane Insurance Co. for years. Anne was a loving warm person and she is the one I corresponded with. They sold the house on Bluff Rd. which Ed helped build and moved to a beautiful place on Cottage Place in Canton. Ed and I were married in Columbus, Ohio on Tuesday morning at 8:30 o'clock in St. Mary's Catholic Church October 3rd, 1922. The reception was held at home with Aunt Teenie, Uncle Joe's wife helping. During the day Ed and I visited the office where I was employed me with my wedding garb on all day. Friends filled our home and in the evening the neighborhood children stood outside and belled us making much noise and excitement. That was done in those days when a wedding in the neighborhood occurred. Candy was given to the noise makers. The friends followed us to the railway station and I threw my wedding bouquet at that time to them. It was evening and we took the railroad to Chicago, Ill. and met Sister Laurene who Ed had never seen. We stayed at the convent for a while then went to Chicago to one of Ed's aunts. We visited around for a few days in Chicago, went to a dance in the evening one time. Ed was a wonderful dancer. In fact he was wonderful in anything he attempted to do. He was a very, very intelligent man and handsome. When he died the undertaker said it was a shame to bury him, his skin was so good and he had all his teeth but one. He often said we were so well mated we both had one tooth out an in the same place. After marriage we moved in our newly built house across from Grandmother Mraz and Anne & Mary. Ed had our home on 1309 Bluff Road. N.E. built next door to a Mrs. Diener and a Scotch couple. Mrs. Kiener taught me how to bake Christmas Leibkuchen, which I baked every Christmas in addition to other Christmas. I would always send some to the office with Ed. Wilbur Frey one of the men at the RS&E, always remembered the Mraz children with a gift. One year it was a huge dictionary on a stand. The Kirbys are now enjoying it. The Scotsman wrote a poem about Jim after he was born and I gave that to him one time. Our 13th St. home had five peach trees in the yard and one year I canned two hundred quarts of peaches. Also I made ketchup and canned tomatoes, made several kinds of jellies. Ed went in the country to pick elderberries. I made jelly with them. I baked bread and made my own noodles. We had a neighbor next door by name of Mrs. Schultz and her husband was with Bond Baking Co. During the Second World War food was rationed and we received food stamps. When I didn't get to the bread baking and ran out of it Mrs. Schultz would give me some stamps for bread. Ed had two hunting dogs Beagles Queenie & Tiny that he was very fond of. The dog house was attached to the garage and the dogs would have run of it. When Ed would come home from the office and putting the car in the garage the dogs would greet him and he would say "how are my sweethearts". Mrs. Schultz asked me one day who the person is we keep in the garage. After Ed's sudden death I gave the dogs to his hunting partner Al Lhota. Our basement was where the laundry was done and the other way to the back where the shelves were for the canned goods and potatoes laid in for the winter. The other half was the furnace and back of that was a place for the boys to build their hobbies. Jim built planes and all the boys had some thing they were interested in. Their friends came and the place was always busy.

The Agel Family

Grandma Agel came to this country from Vienna, Austria with her husband Joseph Agel and four children Joe, John, Amalia and a small child who died shortly after coming to the U.S.A. Aunt Lena who married Frank Reiser was born in the U.S.A. Grandma Agel's maiden name was Magdalen Hager. The family were farmers in Vienna. I never knew Grandpa Agel. He died after a few years in the U.S. from a horse bite. They bought a small house on Siebert St. Mama and Grandma would talk German. In fact I learned a German night prayers when I was about six years old that I have said every night since. We also learned many proverbs in German. To this day I can remember them. Also, I think the proverbs helped our bringing up. One of them was if you told a lie you would never be believed ever after even though you told the truth. Also I remember a man being inebriated fell out of an upstairs window and died. He lived across the street. When Mama heard of it all she said "The way you live is the way you die". All of this is said in German. Jim Burns, Gertrude's husband was very fond of Mama. He said she was a very intelligent person and had perfect diction in English language. I went to a German Catholic Grade School and took German in school. At one time I could write in German as well as English. Mama was nine years old when she came to this country and was the oldest. I remember her being very close to her brothers. Her brother John strayed from the Catholic Church and she saw to it his coming back before he died. She visited him every day at the hospital where he died. Uncle John was a hunter and fisherman and had ferrets and dogs and never married. He and my father used to go fishing together. Mama made turtle soup quite often from the fisherman's landing them. Uncle Joe married Teenie Weyrich and had two sons, Carl and Joseph. Aunt Lena married Frank Reiser who had a bakery. They had quite a few children. They did quite well in life. In fact one was a scientist a Battel in Columbus. The Fetter girls would always help Grandma Agel with her house cleaning on Saturdays. Grandma Agel was in her late seventies when she died at our home on Siebert Street and was buried from our house. When Mama took ill and Aunt Rowena and her husband took over our home to care for her we put her bed in the parlor and all of us took turns caring for her. Sr. Laurene was principal at St. May's School she would spend Saturdays with Mama. One day Mama sat up, stretched here arms wide and called "Father" and fell back and died. Sister Laurene witnessed this. She was in the room fixing some flowers on the mantle before she heard Mama rise. Mama was bed fast for months. The proverb came very clear to me,"The way you live is the way you die". Grandpa Fetter died Jan. 1956 at age 83. Grandma Fetter died May 24, 1956 at age 87 years.

The Fetter (Vetter) Family

Grandma fetter was born in Dresden, Germany and eloped to the United States with Franz Vetter. Franz Vetter was born in Sweden and since the Doersam family in Dresden thought Franz Vetter from Sweden below them and tried to discourage the wedding they eloped. Franz was a carpenter. Four children were born Frank, Louise and two who died with tuberculosis, that being a disease very prevalent at that time. Grandma Fetter's maiden name was Gertrude Doersam. One relative had the Doersam Meat Market on 5th Street in Columbus, Ohio where they (Grandma) lived. Grandpa Fetter was killed while on the job as a carpenter. Somehow the name Vetter was changed to Fetter. Relatives from Dresden moved to United States and settled in Columbus. Cousins were the Richters, Bangerts, Thanes, Looze Doersam. After Grandma Fetter's husband's death she married a man by the name of Altmayer who had a shoe store on High St. in Columbus. One son Uncle Ollie was born in that marriage. He lived in Cincinnati, Ohio after his marriage and visited his half bother Frank often. Aunt Louise was a maiden lady until she was forty-one years old meeting Uncle Charley Strauser at the cemetery where she visited her mother's grave every Sunday. Uncle Charley was a widower visiting his deceased wife's grave. Aunt Louise would come to the Frank Fetter home every Sunday for dinner before going to the cemetery and bring her "Postum" beverage with her. She was allergic to nicotine. That seems to run in families to this day. Many can't drink coffee because of the nicotine. The Richters, Bankert and the Fetter children grew up together and were very dear friends belonging to clubs and going to school. Lizzetta Bankert taught piano lessons. The Bnakerts had a meat packkng plant. Margaret Looze was a maiden lady very beautiful and managed the glove department at Andrew Dobbie Dry Good Store where all the elite in Columbus shopped. I have a linen tablecloth and napkins that Aunt Louise hemmed from the Dobbie store given to me at my wedding. Aunt Louise being a maiden lady while the older Frank Fetter children were growing up took special interest in them seeing they had beautiful hair ribbons and clothes. She bought the first winter new coats for me when I was about fourteen years old. Before that I wore my older sister's hand-me-down. My older sister was Gertrude who is twenty-two months older. The Looze family had a summer cottage at Buckeye Lake which was located not far from Columbus and Aunt Louise would take Gertrude and me there quite often over week ends. We would swim in front of the cottages. There was a row boat at the cottage and we would go out in that, cut the waves, watch the sun set, etc. Later on when the Fetter children grew up they were taken along as their age permitted. That all stopped when Aunt Louise married Uncle Charley Strauser. Aunt Louise and Margaret were very dear friends all their lives even after she married Uncle Charley. Margaret Looze saw to it that Gertrude and I got a job at Andrew Dobbie's who was Scotch. That proved to be a lucky stone in our lives. Gertrude was given a job in the Blouse Dept. on the 3rd floor, and I was cash kid, that being one who would take bought merchandise from the counter to counter until the customer was finished buying and one bill was sent to the office on the second floor. There were wires strung above the counters and a small box would take the money and bill to the office. There were four floors. A year or so passed and as I grew they put me in the Suit Department on the third floor opposite the Blouse Department. There was great rivalry going on between the two buyers in those departments. It was Anne Cook who was buyer for the Suit & Coat Department. Both ladies were very kind to us. At one time Ann Cooke wanted to take me with her to New York on a buying trip, but it didn't materialize. The Suit Department was to the rear and the Alterations Dept. was next which employed about eight ladies. A Miss Sullivan was the boss. One day Miss Sullivan said, "Helen you are such a young person why don't you go back to school." I talked it over with Mama and she decided I could go to the Columbus Business School where I learned Pittman Shorthand and typing. I didn't think that was enough so I went to night school almost until I was married. I took different subjects and Aunt Gertrude and I belonged to a Literary Club. We discussed different authors. I liked "Joyce Kilmer" who was coming into the limelight then and after meeting Ed Mraz I would in my letters to him quote Joyce Kilmer. My first gift at Christmas from him after marriage was two volumes of Joyce Kilmer's Memoirs and Poems. The days at the Dobbie Store will never be forgotten by me. Aunt Gertrude and I learned so much. In fact when Andrew Dobbie went out of business he told Aunt Gertrude she should never short change yourself. You now have a college education. And I believe that. We the Fetter children went to St. Mary's Parochial School who at the time had a German Father Specht who would be thunder and lightning in the pulpit at Sunday Mass. He didn't believe in the further education and never talked it up. I remember him being a pompous old man that was Catholic to the core. Your were out if ever you went to a Protestant grade or high school. He died and a Father Wherle was installed. His people had the Wherle Stove Works in Newark, Ohio. He was just the opposite of Father Specht. He could see the potential in those German kids and immediately built a High School. He told the parents to quit coming to Mass on week days and see that their children had a good breakfast and ready for school. He also closed a German club on South High St. where men would gather, drink beer and schnapps and have a good time gaining a "beer belly". He told the men to stay home and care for wife and children. Father Wherle was too late for the two older children in the Frank Fetter family and it was sheer luck that Margaret Looze came into their lives. We learned the meaningful things in life how to conduct oneself as a lady. I remember Florence Mulligan at Dobbies who was buyer at the Cosmetics Department. She taught us how to manicure our fingers nails and to squeeze finger tips to enhance the beauty of the nail. We got to know the value of things. I remember being in the elevator one time alone with Andrew Dobbie the store owner. He looked at me reached in his pocket and handed me a five dollar bill. He often would do that to the young employees. Andrew Dobbie from Scotland got to be a very old man and his nephew Peter McDonald who worked at the stored didn't take the store over. His wife was an opera singer. On East Broad Street in Columbus there was another elite shop called the "Grey Shop". After the Dobbie store closed Gertrude was hired as buyer for the Blouse Department. By that time I was a full fledged office girl working at the Chase Foundry in the South end in Columbus. Mr. McMillan was my boss and each morning I had to make a run down of certain stock prices from the morning journal. I took dictation from different ones. I wore good clothes from the Grey Shoppe. Grandma Fetter, my mother, was also a good seamstress. Looking back at St. Mary's grade school - I don't think any school in the U.S.A. could surpass it's teaching the rudiments of education - reading, writing, grammar, arithmetic, spelling, geography, religion. The nuns were excellent teachers. I doubt if any school now could parse a sentence as well as was done them. Eight living children were born to Frank and Amalia Fetter, seven girls and one boy. Their names are Gertrude, Helen, Marie (Sr. Laurene who became a nun) Lucy, Bernadine, Rowena, Alice and Clarence. Gertrude married James A Burns and had ten living children. Helen married Edward M. Mraz and had five living children. Marie became a nun Sr. M. Laurene in the Franciscan order in Joliet, Ill. Lucy married Orson Foster in New York and had two living children, now deceased. Bernadine married Charles Myers and had one child, a son. Clarence Fetter married his high school sweetheart, Mary Stalder and had eighth children. He was a plumber and very successful. Rowena married Andy who died. She then married a widower Anthony Smilgelski. Alice married Leonard Newmarker a Jew who later embraced the Catholic Faith. No children were born, two were adopted. Both Alice and Leonard are deceased. Grandmother Amalia Fetter died on May 24, 1964 at age 87 yrs. Grandpa Fetter worked in a foundry and was a pattern maker. In those days men had a trade as it was called. Without that men would be called a laborer. Grandpa had a trade. Grandpa was very active at that time in the labor movement and was barred from many foundries. We had labor union meetings at our home and the voices were raised pretty high. I can remember sitting in the corner in the dining room unseen listening when I was about ten years old and thinking Papa was using some pretty big words. After Grandma Doersam Fetter died her son Frank was willed enough money to build our home on 475 Siebert Street, Columbus, Ohio. It was a six room house with an attic. The house was set back from the street and we had a front and side lawn without a weed in it. As time went by and the girls were growing up the bath room was finished. I was about six years old when Papa built the house and remember Gertrude wheeling the buggy as we called it with Uncle Clarence in it and I was holding on at the side. We were leaving our house on Bruck Street for good. I remember in our back yard on Siebert St. we had vegetables growing. In the back alongside the alley there was a shed. Half was used for tools, etc. and the other half housed the chickens at night. There was a fenced in chicken yard. The chicken nests were in the enclosed house where the hens would lay their eggs. Our house was cleaned every week and before we had a carpet sweeper, the rugs that were not nailed down were put on a line and beaten with a carpet beater. The nailed down ones were swept with a broom. We had a piano in the parlor and we took piano lessons from Miss Ackerman 75 ¢ a lesson. The dining room was in the center. It had a huge side-board a round table in the center with a yellow dome that resembled a flower hanging from the ceiling. We would do our home work from school there. Papa usually sat in front of the pot bellied stove drinking his "growler" of beer that one of us got for him at Bernhard's Saloon. The fire in the stove was always lit after super and it was a chore for one of us to fill the coal bucker and bring the wood to start the fire. We did our piano practice with the folding doors between the parlor and "sitting room" and dining room closed. After Aunt Louise and Uncle Charley married they would join us in the sitting room each Wednesday evening. Uncle Charley had gone to some operas and would tell us about them. Christmas was always a big occasion. We always received games and gloves, dolls and my Aunt Lena Reiser on my mother's side would dress as Santa. We would stand in a row and she would disguise her voice and asked us if we said our prayers and sometimes have us say one for her. After a while we deducted who Santa really was. Aunt Lena was always late coming. In the kitchen on the table Mama put out some of her Christmas cookies and nuts. There was a Christmas tree in the parlor. No electric lights, it was lit with candles. Before Aunt Louise was married she would come with two sisters also maiden ladies who were her friends by the name of Wagner. Grandma Agel was living and would also come. She also lived on Siebert St. in her own little home about a block away. A few years ago I had occasion to be in Columbus with Mary Alice and Ned Kirby and we took a ride down Siebert St. and I think 495 is still the best on the street and Grandma Agel's house is still there. Aunt Teenie & Uncle Joe Agel lied behind Grandma Agel on Stewart St. or was the street called Germania St. Getting back to Christmas. Uncle Charley was foreman at the Butterine Factory in Columbus. His job consisted of maintenance. So much liquid being used in the factory caused wood to rot easily and there was always replacement. He was a carpenter and made a beautiful church for the Fetters to put under the Christmas tree. A light was put inside to light up the windows. Years later Mama gave the church to me and the Mraz family used it. Later I gave the church to one of the Mraz boys I think Paul. Growing up in Columbus was an exciting time. At the end of Siebert St. was Schiller Park. The name was changed to Washington Park during he second World War Schiller being a German poet. The park is called Schiller Park again. Also the street adjacent to the park was Schiller Street and changed to Whitacre St. and still is Whitacre. The park was at the end of Siebert St. During the winter we would take our sleds and coast down the hill in the park. In summer we would roll down. St. Mary's School picnic was held there at the end of the school year. Grandma Agel would stand at the gate and give us 5¢ towards the money we had to spend at the picnic. Also when we were in our teens we would congregate there on Sunday afternoons. We always went to Vespers on Sunday and would meet and walk to the park afterward. We also went to one another homes. Sometimes we would stop at Margaret Hohman's and also Marie Klarman who later married Albert Miller. Homan's Drug Store was on the corner of Whitacre and Bruck Streets and the family lived upstairs. Marie Klarman Miller's mother was Swiss and her father always reminded me of Conrad Adnauer and was German. We had many parties at the Klarman and Fetter homes. Marie was good at playing all the songs at the piano and we would all stand around and sing and play games. I didn't have many boy friends. I was kept busy going to night school. The ones that did show up I didn't care for. The First World War was on and Gertrude's boy friend came back shell-shocked and their friendship ended. She later met Jim Burns. I think the shell shocked one wanted to come back but Gertrude had only eyes for Jim Burns. Jay Culp whose father owned a brick yard in the South end of Columbus never married. One of the Fetter girls went to school with a niece of Jay when the name seemed familiar to her she asked if she had a sister Gertrude. She said her uncle Jay had a drawer full of letters written to him by her while he was overseas in the war. Even after Jim Burns' death he wanted to come back. He went to the same church and one time he followed her and stopped his car and wanted to talk but Gertrude would have none of it. One of the girls at Chase Foundry where I worked knitted a sweater during the war and put her name and address in it. Knitting, bandage making and other helpful things were done for the boys overseas. Marguerite Dowling was her name. Charles Mraz received the sweater she knitted and they corresponded. She got to know the family in Canton, Ohio and after a while invited Anne and Mary to her home. It was a hen party she had for them and invited Gertrude and me. A hen party was called that because it was all female. At that time we were getting Sr. Laurene ready to enter the convent and Anne was so interested. I think at the time she was thinking about entering but she never made it. We became good friends and we corresponded. I was good at writing letters. Anne's handwriting was beautiful. After a while she invited me to Canton for a visit. Fourth of July happened over a week end that year and I went to Canton, Ohio. Anne and Mary met the train. I wore my best clothes. The next morning was Saturday and Anne was secretary to the President of RS&B and was asked to work. She liked the hat I wore when I came and I put it on her. She had to come back upstairs for something and said "Ed loves your hat." I didn't know she had a brother. I heard the door slam once then another time I hastened to the window thinking that must be the brother. He also had to work. I saw a well dressed, tall slender man tipping his hat to someone across the street. I sat on the porch at noon with my best dress on waiting to meet the brother. He came and said you must be the Helen I saw in a picture. Aunt Louise before her marriage used to take us to see Sr. Laurene in the convent and pictures were always taken. As I said Anne and I corresponded a lot and I sent her pictures. Ed asked me to go to Myers Lake with him in the afternoon. We danced and went on all the rides and had a hilarious time. We walked home. Ed didn't have a car. We had a hike around Canton and Sunday came too fast. I had to be back at Chase Foundry on Monday morning. On Sunday Ed took me to the train station and bought a magazine and box of candy for me. I read the magazine on the train but saved the candy to give Mama as a present. Coming home Mama said I looked different. She wanted to know all about my trip. The crowd I ran around with was having a 4th of July picnic and Mama thought it odd I would forego a picnic. She couldn't have known I met the man of my life at that time. Having such a wonderful time in Canton a "thank you" note was in order. I didn't want to seem forward and I addressed Ed as "Dr. Dudley" in my note. That was in July 1921 and after a few letters from him and my answer was to "Ed". He had beautiful handwriting and was gifted in many ways. He skipped grades in grade school and in a "spelling Bee" won spelling the whole town down at a very early age. He was given a picture as a prize as I recall it had Madonnas framed in an oblong frame. When Eddie Mraz was born to Bernard and Yuriko Mraz I sent it to him hoping he would take after his grandfather. It seems young Eddie has. I hear he is exceptionally intelligent. Right before my first visit to canton Ed Mraz had broken his engagement to a Canton girl named Berta Zigler and later at Christmas when he was mailing a gift (a beautiful handbag) to me he met her and she asked if they couldn't patch things up. He told her it was too late. I received a letter each day after a while and after we were engaged it was always "My dear and only Helen". The two younger Fetter children were seven and nine, Alice and Rowena, knew where I kept my letters and would sneak in the drawer and read them. They would tease me about my boy friend. After I received my engagement ring I didn't wear it to the office. I didn't want them to know I was engaged. Lucy at the time was working in the office at the Railway Station and took my ring from the dresser drawer and wore it to the office. The first time Ed came to Canton Mama had just had her teeth drawn and waiting for the false ones. She didn't want to meet Ed without her teeth and sat in the kitchen. Ed just walked out in the kitchen to meet her. At first Mama was reluctant me marrying someone out of the city and said "Can't you find somebody in Columbus" but after he sent a barrel of enamelware to her it was all OK and they became fast friends and Ed was very fond of Mama. Ed and Papa didn't have much in common. Ed didn't drink or smoke and Papa was the opposite. Also Republic Stamping & Enameling Co. was not unionized. On one of Mama and Papa's visits to Canton Ed took them to see the Company and going thru Papa found they were not unionized and he immediately talked to the people at work about how they should unionize. Ed got Mama and Papa out of there pretty quick. It might have been a good idea to have them unionize or have some kind of pension. As it was when Ed died there was nothing after Ed being employed at first as P.M. Seymour's secretary then climbing up the ladder to become Purchasing Agent and Traffic Manager, the time employed by R.S.&E. Co. being about 35 years. A Box Co. in Cleveland seeing the potential in Ed offered him a job at a higher salary and would move him and his family. When Ed confronted Mr. Seymour about the change he told Ed that he Seymour was an old man and his job as an executive would be his, Ed's, soon. It so happened that Mr. Seymour had a son about ready for a job and one day Ed heard Seymour coaching this son in the office routine for his job. It must have hurt Ed badly. Ed was an honest worker and during the war when materials were hard to come by he would take work home. Ed often said I do the work while Seymour is looking out of the window. I think the company felt Ed's loss. I have a poem written about him by Denny Hiser an employee how much Ed was loved by everyone and what a good honest man he was. Coming to Mass one Sunday shortly after Ed's death and in front of the church a man was getting out of his car and called to me and said Mrs. Mraz you think your husband died of a heart attack - Not so, he died of a broken heart. I was so bereaved at the time I didn't question the man. I didn't know him and all I said is "Is that so." Since, I've been sorry not questioning the gentleman what really did happen. R.S.&E. Co. must have felt some remorse - they paid the funeral expenses. When Ed was a very young man he started to work at "The Wheeling & Lake Erie Railroad" and was secretary to P.M. Seymour and would travel with him in the railroad car for days and sometimes longer. Then when Seymour and the Fawcetts founded R.S.&E. Ed stuck with Seymour. Mr. Seymour didn't have much luck with his family. He wife was killed in an auto accident taking the maid home. I was working in the office at Mercy Hospital after Ed died at the time when they brought her in and no room was available. I went back to the X-ray department where she was and saw as I thought not much time left. I asked Sr. Loretta Clair to find a room for her and call her minister that the patient looked like she was dying. Sr. did find a room. She died shortly afterward. There were two children. The girl was a maiden lady and librarian at Ohio State U. and died with a peculiar disease. She wrote poetry and one time Mrs. Seymour sent a copy of her poems to me. The company R.S.&E didn't last long after Ed's death. He, Ed, died at his desk 2-20-47. Wilbur Frey at R.S.&E. Comptroller took care of everything financially. The company sold out to Ecko Products Co. about two years after Ed's death. Some employees said if Ed had been here we would have had material up to the ceiling. Republic Stamping & Enameling Co. (R.S.&E) during the 2nd W.W. did government work. The Company realizing their short comings in regards to salary, etc. decided to pay for Ed's funeral as I said earlier. There were Bernard and Mary Alice at Lehman High School, Paul was in the USA Air Force being drafted, Davie and Jim were in the Army, they being in ROTC at Ohio State |University when war broke out an automatically in the army. We belonged to St. John's Church in Canton, Ohio and just about the time Jim graduated from grade school at St. Johns there was a high school built, but Ed seeing the potential in his children decided they should go to Lehman High School, the best in the city. Before that we were in McKinley High territory and Ed didn't want the children to go there. That is one reason we sold our house on Bluff Rd and moved in Lehman High territory on 13th St. One person couldn't get in Case Western Reserve after applying there and going to St. Johns because of not having learned the essential subjects. St. Johns High has now been abolished. After Ed's death I stayed home for a year. One day Anne and Mary Mraz came to see me and suggested I get a job. They knew many maiden ladies at Mercy Hospital a Catholic hospital run by nuns. I applied and they gave me a job in the X ray Dept. I would admit X-ray patients. There was so much hustle and bustle I couldn't take after the trauma of Ed's death. I called Sr. Marie the one who hired me and told her and all she said I should stay home today and come in tomorrow which I did. They then put me in the Admitting Office. There were three desks in the room. Sr. Loretta Clair gave out the room at one desk and the other two were used by Clara Born, a good friend of Ed's when he was living. He used to work with her sister on the Rail Road. The other desk was mine. The patients would come in when called. They liked my work I wrote legibly. After a while seeing I could work in the office where I worked with another good friend of the Mrazes, Anne Balloun. I posted payments and would balance each day. Also, I would do jobs for Anne Balloun who saw to it that bills were paid. I worked there five years when I decided to sell my home and move to Columbus. I used to visit Columbus on week ends going with Harry Callahan. His sister lived behind Aunt Gertrude and Uncle Jim and I would go and come with him. He was a friend of Ed. He was an engineer and traveled by boat to Europe quite often. He at one time made the Stations of the Cross out of clay for the Sisters at St Johns School. I heard he made the Stations while traveling by boat to Europe. I was with Mercy Hospital for five years. One part of Mercy Hospital facing Market Street was the old McKinley Home and was used as the Maternity Building when my first son Jim was born. President McKinley is buried in Canton, Ohio in a hill that could be seen from our upstairs window on the hill the Mraz boys and Mary Alice could ski. The children were young when their father died at age 53 years. Paulo, David & Jim graduated from Lehman High. Paul was Valedictorian of his class. Jim was in the Army being drafted after being in ROTC at Ohio State University. David also after being in ROTC at OSU. Paul was in the Army being drafted after graduation from Lehman High. Then after the war he entered Case Western Reserve in Cleveland, Ohio. Bernard enlisted in the army and finished high school there. He had one semester to go when he decided Lehman High was too much for him. He learned a trade in the army and was in for 22 years. Mary Alice graduated from Lehman High and went to Marquette University. After all this I decided to sell our home and move to Columbus, Ohio. I lived on Woodruff Ave. until Mary Alice graduated from Marquette. We took an apartment in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I found a job and worked in a Maternity Shoppe. When Mary Alice got a bid for a job in Washington I went with her where we lived at McLean Gardens. In Washington I took a job at Georgetown University Hospital as receptionist for Patti Grimaila who was head nurse for incoming nurses and doctors and all personel relating to patient caring. I would take their prospectus and give it to Patti and she would then interview the person. I worked six days a week and sometimes on Sunday doing typing for different offices. I was missing a lot of sight seeing in Washington working and after a couple of years decided to ask for a job at Best & Co. a few blocks from McLean Gardens where we lived. Best & Co. was a very prestigious ladies wear store. One day I helped Mamie Eisenhower in the girdle department. But after leaving Georgetown U. Hosp. Patti Grimaila and Martha Fetter remained my friends and we would see one another often. At Best & Co. I became a good friend to Marily Joly a French lady who had charge of the Alteration department. I learned about altering womens suits and dresses just watching her in the fitting room after selling the suit or dress. Marily Joly and I became good friends and went out together often going to see different places of interest in Washington. Also, she became a friend to Martha Fetter and Pattie Grimaila the nurses at Geo. U. Hosp. All came to Mary Alice's wedding at St. Ann's church in Washington. I stayed in Washington a few years after Mary Alice's wedding then asked to be transferred to Best & Co. in Boston. Ned and Mary Alice helped me find an apartment at 61 Commonwealth Ave. I was close to Best & Co. and I enjoyed working there. Many college girls lived downstairs on Commonwealth and we became friends. The job was getting so I would be very tired. I was 63 and I decided to quit working and take my Social Security. I then bought a house in Whitman but that proved too much to care for. I sold it and moved on Washington St. in Whitman closer to Holy Ghost Catholic Church. I went to Mass every morning and while living in the house I bought Msgr. Frawley came to my door and asked me to help him out as cook for the rectory. The cook he brought along from Boston when he was transferred to Whitman wanted to visit her homeland Ireland. She hadn't been there in years. I was teaching Catechism at the time and I told Msgr. I couldn't that I was teaching catechism and he said I'll get someone in your place. I took lessons for teaching catechism and have a diploma for the same. I remember asking him why he would choose me and he said he thinks I have the time and he sees me at Mass in the mornings also I look like I could do it. How could I refuse. He wanted me to stay at the rectory over night but I wanted to go home. So each night he would drive me home and come after me at six o'clock each morning. I would eat breakfast with Msgr. and his huge black dog had a place at the table and the dog would slop his breakfast and take vitamins. One morning sitting opposite me I winked at the dog and he winked back. He was very well trained. I think the curate Fr. Hamrack and Fr. King thought of me as their mother. I would bake cookies and put fruit out on the table and would see them pocket some going out. I did nothing but do the planning meals, ordering food and cooking. There was other help to wash dishes and clean. After about three months and even after the regular cook came home Msgr. asked me to stay that he would build an apartment for me above the huge garage. I decided then to leave. When I first came I told Msgr. that I didn't want pay and he wouldn't hear of it. Holy Ghost Church had no other place to teach catechism than in the church. In the meantime Spellman Hall was built with rooms for teaching, a huge hall and other odd places. One Sunday Msgr. asked for donations to fit a room for teaching and the amount was $500.00. I figured I earned about that much as cook and decided to furnish a room. When I approached Msgr. with my wanting to furnish a room, he said he would not think of taking money from a widow and I asked him if he would accept $500.00 in memory of my husband. He couldn't refuse and now there is a bronze placard on one of the doors - "In Memory of Edward M. Mraz". When I lived on Washington St. in Whitman after selling the house I bought after retiring I was feeling so good I decided not to take the Thyroid Pills I had been taking for years and was told I had to take the rest of my life. While with Patti Grimaila at Georgetown U. Hosp. she had me take a test for my thyroid and found me underactive. I started to have trouble after a while and wound up a very ill person with three broken vertebrae. The thyroid metabolizes your whole system and when that is out of order it takes calcium from the bones to feed the blood. I was in and out of the hospital several times and got much better but not quite up to where I had been before. My sister Bernadine visited me when living on Washington St. and saw I wasn't quite myself and it was a time where there was a heat shortage and she got a sore throat shortly after coming to Whitman. She persuaded me to come back with her to Columbus. Bernadine took me around to find a suitable place for me to live. We found Jaycee Arms on E. Main St. in Columbus. I liked it. It was a beautiful place to live and across the street from Holy Cross Catholic Church. The Notre Dame convent was next door and after I became acquainted with the ladies they asked me to join the Tabernacle Society. We made vestments and other articles and some were sent to Catholic countries. We would meet each Wednesday morning, stay for lunch in the Notre Dame dining hall and leave about three PM. Sr. Francis Xavier became my good friend and ever after I left Columbus I would hear from her. The last time I saw her was at Aunt Bernadine's 90th Birthday Party July 11th, 1986. At one time Sr. Camilla Burns was in charge of the convent. Paul Mraz visited me while I lived at Jaycee Arms. He was on a business trip and stopped in Columbus to visit me over Sunday. Father McNulty was pastor of Holy Cross and on that Sunday he asked for donations to buy the organ Holy Family church was selling. The price was $3000.00. At the time I had accumulated Teledyne Stock I was distributing to the Ed Mraz children and Paul and I talked it over and we decided to give some to Father McNulty for the organ and he was very thankful. My thought was that our family had been blessed and what a beautiful way to thank the Good Lord for all His Blessings. Holy Cross Catholic Church is one of the oldest Catholic Churches in the United States and has beautiful stained glass windows and murals painted on the walls. Being so old it was deteriorating and was going to be torn down but thru the efforts of Sr. Camilla and the Notre Dame convent it received Federal Aid to restore it. When Holy Cross was built the French and Germans helped financially. I lived at Jaycee Arms for over nine years and enjoyed good health with my sisters and brother. We would gather and play cards, go to the theater and all in all enjoying ourselves. Then a lady who lived below me at Jaycee Arms smoked all night and the fumes would enter my bed room. I am very allergic to tobacco smoke. I complained to the Manager and he could do nothing about it. But after a while did speak to the lady after he saw I was losing my voice. I visited in Whitman, Mass. and Mary Alice Kirby persuaded me to come live with them with the idea of finding a place for me similar to the Jacyee Arms. I was with the Kirbys four years and enjoyed my friends I had before when living in Whitman. I belonged to the Garden Club, Women's Club and was active at church. Mary Alice and Ned were visiting in Washington, D.C. with daughter Jane and I went with them as far as Paul and Sally Mraz's home. They were aware of my wanting an apartment and Sally took me around to different ones. I decided on one at Colonial Gardens. I had to take a two bed room at first until a one was available. I moved in the two bed room in Sept. 1986 and stayed with Sally and Paul until my furniture and belongings from Whitman arrived. In May 1987 a one bed room apartment was available and Paul, Sally and the Mraz boys moved me. I like my apartment very much. There is no noise or smoking and my neighbors are wonderful. Everything I need is around. The Senior Center is close by and I play cards " Bridge" and " Pinochle" there and sometimes " Bingo". In the evenings some of the ladies sit out under the trees and I join them. On May 17, 1988 I reached the age of 90 years and Sally and Paul arranged a beautiful party. Jim and Ruth came from Michigan, Jane and David from California, Mary Alice and Ned from Massachusetts. All of Paul and Sally's children and their kin were there. Jane Kirby Zaki and her new husband and Fares' parents from Rome. Jane's new inlaws were here for her wedding which happened in May in Washington, D.C. Jim Burns and Pat from Washington were there. A big surprise when my dear friend from Washington days Patti Grimaila came. She now lives in Arizona. I remember her visiting her in Arizona when Jane Kirby was nine years old and we were on our way to California. Also I remember Patti visiting in Whitman when I lived there. Sally and Paul worked hard to make it a time to be remembered by all. They had a 1913 car which was open call for me and seven of my good friends from Colonial Gardens to go to the party, which was under a huge tent. There was a Mass said at noon and delicious food and drink was served on beautifully decorated tables. I live now in a very comfortable apartment in Colonial Gardens 334 E. Main St. Apt. C-9, Newark, Del. and hope to complete my life there.