mis·for·tune
ˌmisˈfôrCH(ə)n/
noun
1.
bad luck.
"the project was dogged by
misfortune"
o an
unfortunate condition or event.
plural noun: misfortunes
"never laugh at other people's
misfortunes"
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synonyms:
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problem, difficulty, setback, trouble, adversity, stroke of bad
luck, reversal (of fortune), misadventure, mishap, blow, failure, accident, disaster, catastrophe;
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The topic
this week is misfortune and as the definition above indicates it can take many
forms and degrees of hardship or loss. This week, I decided to explore a
circumstance that occurred in the life of my grandparents.
I had heard
that my grandparents lost their home in an attempt to save the business of his
uncle. True? I didn’t know. I did know
that when my grandfather died in 1946 he and my grandmother were living in the
home of their daughter and her family. What had happened to their beautiful
home on Ridgeland Ave in Oak Park?
 |
| this house is actually 1201 N Ridgeland but it was built in 1929 and is representative of what was there at the time |
When my
grandfather immigrated in 1894 with his sister Dagny and brother Artur, they
went to live with their deceased mother’s sister Olga and her family. The 1900
census shows 20 year old Adolph living with his brother and the Pederson
family. Adolph was working as a hardware packer.[i]
By the time
of the 1910 census, Adolph had married and become a father. In May of 1910,
Adolph and his family were living in Tooele, Utah where he worked as a
timekeeper in a smelter[ii].
It is not apparent how long the Hansens lived in Utah, but they returned to the
Midwest by September of 1910 when their son was baptized in Milwaukee, WI.
By 1920,
Adolph was working for his uncle Oscar Daniels in his ship-building business.
In fact, Adolph is counted twice in the 1920 census, once in January in Chicago
with his wife and children[iii]
and once in Tampa, Fl at the home of his aunt Magna and her family. The Tampa
census was not taken until February.[iv]
As time went
on Adolph and later his son continued to work for the Oscar Daniels Co as the
company expanded into iron work and steel construction across the country. As the company moved into iron work, Adolph may have used the knowledge of metals that he learned while working in the smelter. Mainly
Adolph and his family remained in the Chicago area and bought a house in Oak
Park.
That the
family was doing very well for the times is indicated by the fact that their
daughter attended college in the early 1930s and a private school at that.
Some time in
the 1940s Adolph broke his connection with the Oscar Daniels Co. He was working for the Frank P Noy company in the early 40s as a Secretary/Treasurer.
Oscar
Daniels died 14 Apr 1939 in Miami Beach, FL[v]
In 1940
Adolph filed suit in Miami against the estate of Oscar Daniels asking for
$10,000 for services and money advanced to Daniels.[vi]
[i] Year:
1900; Census Place: Chicago Ward 28, Cook, Illinois; Roll: 279; Page: 11B;
Enumeration District: 0844; FHL microfilm: 1240279
[ii] Year:
1910; Census Place: Tooele, Tooele, Utah; Roll: T624_1609; Page: 24A;
Enumeration District: 0175; FHL microfilm: 1375622
[iii]
Year: 1920; Census Place: Chicago Ward 33, Cook (Chicago), Illinois; Roll:
T625_353; Page: 7B; Enumeration District: 2120; Image: 479
[iv] Year:
1920; Census Place: Tampa Ward 2, Hillsborough, Florida; Roll: T625_222; Page:
7B; Enumeration District: 39
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