May Fortune Smile on You
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| Nan was born on Halloween day, 1911. Postcard, c1910. Source |
Nan (Annette Evangeline Danke) was born on Halloween in 1911 at the Buffalo, New York home of her affluent parents, Ernest and Eva Danke. Originally from Chicago, the Dankes soon moved back to their hometown. Her father was in the real estate business with his father-in-law, George C. Hield, a millionaire land developer. The two men developed all of what is now the southern part of Highland Park, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of downtown Chicago. Today, Highland Park is ranked as one of the best places to live in America. Source
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Nan's birth certificate. Source: Martin W. Beerman.
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Nan's Maternal Grandfather George C. Hield (1852-1957)
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Nan's maternal grandfather George C Hield was an avid fisherman. Arizona Republic. October 12, 1956.
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George C. Hield is one of Nan's more remarkable family members. Hield, born in Janesville, Wisconsin on November 15, 1852. His mother Mary (Rhodes) had bought the land where their family home was built with $800 in gold that she had kept in a belt around her waist when she emigrated from England to the United States in 1845. [Source: Janesville Daily Gazette, November 7, 1952.]
Hield married Ann Nettie (Annette) Loucks in 1874 and worked for a time as a hay dealer then a telegraph operator in Janesville before moving to Chicago to become a real estate developer. The Hields had five children over the course of 18 years: George (1876- ); Edna (1878-1932) married G. S. Johnston; Florence (1880-1961) married Woodson Upshaw; Evangeline (1888-1928) married Ernest Danke; and Horace (1894-1942) married Duella Hackett. At least four of the five Hield children were accomplished musicians. For example, Edna, a pianist and organist, was a member of the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago, church organist, and accompanist for the San Mateo Philharmonic Chorus in California. Source
In the spring of 1913 Hield purchased 74 acres from 93-year-old farmer Laughlin Falconer for $112,000 with the intention
of building "about thirty houses of various designs, including single
dwellings of the ordinary type, bungalows, and two flat buildings to cost no
less than $2500." He ended up building 98 houses in the district. [Source: Chicago Tribune, April 6, 1913.] By the mid-1920s the number of developers in the Falconer district had increased greatly, with hundreds more bungalows constructed that adhered to the precedents in design, materials, and building placement set by George Hield. Source These bungalows retain their early 20th century appearance today.
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Houses built by Nan's father and grandfather in Chicago's Falconer Historic District, 2012. Source
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Here is a description of the Falconer Historic District from the US National Register of Historic Places:
"With few exceptions, the bungalows constructed in the district remained modest, uncomplicated housing for working class families, catering specifically to the area's numerous industrial and manufacturing concerns. Despite the proximity to major industrial and manufacturing concerns, the strict residential boundaries of the Falconer district were as effective as any bungalow neighborhood in creating a very different world for bungalow owners to return home to. The bungalows that emerged in the Falconer district between 1915 and 1931 allowed working class families to also share in the American dream of home ownership." Source
Hield's
wife Nettie and their daughter Florence worked for the George C. Hield
& Company in Chicago. A search of Nettie's name on newspapers.com
shows that many city properties were bought and sold in her name over
the years. The company's name changed in the 1920s to North Side Realty
Company, with it head office in the prestigious Chicago Temple Building
at 77 West Washington Street.
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The Chicago Temple Building at 77 W. Washington St., Chicago. Nan's father and grandfather's real estate offices were located here. Source
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Florida Ups and Downs
Nan's grandfather made millions in real estate. In about 1895 after the birth of their fifth and final child Horace, George and Nettie Hield visited Florida for the first time. "I'm not buying anything," Hield repeatedly assured his wife. But it wasn't long before he was bitten by the Florida real estate bug. They decided to move to Florida, purchasing about 300 acres of land to grow citrus fruit. [Source: Orlando Evening Star, December 7, 1955.] Unfortunately, their fortune was lost in the Florida real estate crash of 1925.
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Headline in the Sarasota Herald about the Florida land crash, October 24, 1925.
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Hield managed to stay afloat in Florida despite his losses. In 1925 - the same year as the Florida debacle, he bought a 70-acre golf course in Chicago for $100,000, subdivided it and sold the properties for $1,600,000.
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Chicago Tribune, April 5, 1925.
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That land deal may have allowed him to finance his next Florida land project, Gardena Farms near Orlando at Oviedo, with the goal to make it a model for agricultural development. Hield bought Gardena Farms from J. H. Hall in 1927 under an agreement where Hall managed the property. The tract was divided into 10-acre farm units, each with rich soils for growing garden produce and citrus fruit, carefully planned farm homes, paved roads, and a railroad for transporting farm produce running through the development. [Source: Orlando Sentinel, Sept. 25, 1927]
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| Gardena Farms in development. Orlando Sentinel, Feb. 5, 1928. | | | | | | | | | | |
The Hields moved to Orlando in 1927. He and Nettie lived in the Duke Apartments until 1942 when they moved to Phoenix, Arizona.
1942 was a milestone year for George Hield. Not only did he turn 90, he also inherited $30,000 from his old Chicago friend William W. Falconer. With the injection of funds, Hield made a financial comeback in Phoenix after 1942. He first bought a motor hotel then in 1947 built Echo Lodge, a 20-acre resort hotel in the Arcadia district of the city. With his daughter and son-in-law, Florence and Woodson D. Upshaw, Hield also invested in suburban developments in and around Phoenix. He sold Echo Lodge in 1950 for $100,000 when he was 98 years old.
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Nan's uncle Horace Hield. University of Arizona yearbook, The Desert, 1917.
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1942 was also the year Hield lost his youngest son, Horace. In August of that year, Horace walked into his orange grove near Vero Beach, Florida and killed himself. His death occurred two months after his daughter Janice's wedding and five months after he passed the Florida real estate brokers' exam. [Source: Miami Herald, August 28, 1942.]
Nan knew her maternal grandfather but I have no idea how often they saw each other. In a letter to Ernest Danke dated May 17, 1952, Richard Morenus (Nan's first husband) writes the following:
"Your news of Mr. Hield is most interesting. I recall him as one of the most energetic and able young nonagenarians that I have ever known. He's quite a man. I remember his going over many of his real estate 'deals' with me. If the occasion should arise, please remember me to him." [Source: Martin Beerman via John Danke.]
I was pleased to discover, thanks to photos sent to me by John Danke's friend Rabeea Shhadeeh, that Nan's grandfather got to meet her son John about a year after she passed away in 1950.
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| 100-year-old George Hield with his great-grandson, Nan's and John Albrecht's son John, 1951. Photo courtesy Rabeea Shhadeh |
George Hield outlived four of his five children including Nan's mother Eva, dying in Arizona at the age of 104 on May 21, 1957.
Nan's Parents
Nan's father Ernest E. Danke, c. 1925. Photo courtesy Rabeea Shhadeh. Animation by Deep Nostalgia.
Ernest Edward Danke (1886-1964) was
born in Chicago to a German father, Ernst F. Danke (1855-1894)
and a Scottish mother, Helen Campbell Pollock (1857-1949). He married Evangeline (Eva) Hield on December 8, 1910 in the Chicago neighbourhood of Irving Park.
When Nan was born in October of 1911, the
Danke family was living in Buffalo, New York where her father, a Chicago businessman, was working for a
short time as an advertising agent for English Woolen Mills Company. The family soon relocated to Nan's father's hometown of Chicago.
By 1917, Ernest was working as a real estate developer with his father-in-law's firm, George C. Hield and Company. The company filled the once-open farmland subdivided by Laughlin Falconer with modest bungalows designed by architect Ernest N. Braucher. These 875-square-foot bungalows were designed for working class homeowners, and cost between $2500 and $3000 to build.
In 1926 or 1927 Nan's father Ernest had amassed enough money to purchase and operate an orchard business in Los Angeles, California. This move may also have been precipitated by the fact that Nan's mother was in poor health.
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| The Chicago Tribune published this photo of Nan's mother Evangeline Hield on her wedding day, Dec. 8, 1910. |
Nan's mother Evangeline (1888-1929), daughter of George Hield and British-born mother Ann Nettie (Loucks) Hield, must have lived a charmed life as a young woman. Like her siblings, she was a talented musician. According to the 1910 US Census, 21-year-old Eva was working as a piano teacher while living with her parents in Chicago. By the end of that year, she was Ernest Danke's wife.
The Danke's wedding on December 8, 1910 was held at the First Methodist Episcopal Church in Irving Park. "The bride wore an Alice blue chiffon broadcloth traveling suit trimmed in otter," the Chicago Tribune reported. "The hat of the same shade was trimmed in a plume and silver. She carried white roses and sweet peas." ("Alice blue" was inspired by President Theodore Roosevelt's eldest daughter, Alice Roosevelt Longworth.)
Not long after her marriage Eva's health began to decline. She and Ernest had only one child - Nan.
Eva Danke died at the young age of 41 on November 18, 1929 when Nan was 18 years old. Her death certificate shows that she died of a malignancy of the lymph glands called Lymphoma Sarcoidosis which she had suffered from for at least two years. She is buried in the Great Mausoleum of Forest Lawn Memorial
Park (Coleus Corridor, Wall Crypt 1006) at Glendale, California, one of the most highly coveted interment places in the Los Angeles area. (Michael Jackson, for example, was buried in the Great Mausoleum in 2009.)
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Nan's mother, Eva Danke, c. 1925. Courtesy Rabeea Shhadeh.
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Nan's Stepmother Ida Perry (1907-1987)
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Ida Perry, c1943. Photo courtesy Rabeea Shhadeh.
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Like his father-in-law, Nan's father Ernest inherited $30,000 from William W. Falconer of Chicago in 1942. Perhaps that windfall prompted his remarriage on August 5, 1943 to the vivacious Ida Perry, a 35-year-old captain in the US Women's Army Corps. Ernest was 56 years old at the time of their wedding, which took place in a Methodist Church at Minneapolis, Minnesota. I wonder if Nan and Richard traveled from northern Ontario to attend the ceremony? Ida was only a couple of years older than Nan.
Ida Perry was born in Greene, Butler County, Iowa in 1907. Well educated, Ida attended both Lindenwood College in St. Charles, Missouri and the University of Chicago. She worked for nine years as a legal secretary for a Chicago law firm before being sworn in as an officer candidate in the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps. Perhaps Ernest Danke met Ida at the law firm in Chicago, as he still maintained a real estate office in the Windy City.
Ida Perry Danke remained in the WAC for the duration of the Second World War. In November of 1943, Captain Danke and 13 other officers left Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, for Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to attend command and general staff school. "Few WAC officers have been selected to attend the school which is one of the highest rated military schools in the country," the Chattanooga Daily Times reported on November 17, 1943. "Following a 10-week course, the WAC officers will be assigned to jobs behind the lines which may include service areas overseas, ports of embarkation, or regimental and battalion commands."
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Ida Danke with Nan's son John, 1951. Courtesy Rabeea Shhadeh
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Ernest passed away in Vista, California on March 27, 1964 at the age of 77 from stomach cancer. Ida died on January 15, 1987 in Carlsbad, California from complications of pneumonia.
©Joan Champ, 2021. All rights reserved.
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