2. Nan's Family Background

May Fortune Smile on You

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

 

Nan's birth certificate. Source: Martin W. Beerman.

 

Nan's Maternal Grandfather George C. Hield (1852-1957) 

 

Nan's maternal grandfather George C Hield was an avid fisherman. Arizona Republic. October 12, 1956.

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.  

 

Houses built by Nan's father and grandfather in Chicago's Falconer Historic District, 2012. Source

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.

The Chicago Temple Building at 77 W. Washington St., Chicago. Nan's father and grandfather's real estate offices were located here. Source

 

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. 

Headline in the Sarasota Herald about the Florida land crash, October 24, 1925.

 

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.

Chicago Tribune, April 5, 1925.

 

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]

 

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.

Nan's uncle Horace Hield. University of Arizona yearbook, The Desert, 1917.

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.

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.

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.)  

 

Nan's mother, Eva Danke, c. 1925. Courtesy Rabeea Shhadeh.

Nan's Stepmother Ida Perry (1907-1987)

 

Ida Perry, c1943. Photo courtesy Rabeea Shhadeh.

 

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."

 

Ida Danke with Nan's son John, 1951. Courtesy Rabeea Shhadeh

After Nan died in 1950 from complications of childbirth, Ernest and Ida Danke legally adopted her infant son John Ernest Albrecht. Their grandson's father John Albrecht of northern Saskatchewan visited his son John at the Danke's 35-acre orange grove in California every year until the boy was about 10 years old. 

 

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NEXT: Nan's Childhood - Click HERE

 

PREVIOUS POST: Introduction - Click HERE

 

INDEX TO BLOG SERIES: Click HERE

 

©Joan Champ, 2021. All rights reserved.

Index

 Table of Contents

 

NAN AND RICHARD

1. Introduction

My First Discovery of Nan in the Back Pages

The well-dressed, well-coiffed prospectors John Albrecht and Nan Morenus examining some of their mineral finds in their hotel room in Prince Albert. Prince Albert Daily Herald, March 21, 1950.

 

 

"I have become a collector of shards. Shards of memory, things passed down: told to me at the end of this long line of telling. I want to catch these shards, these half-lit, often, paste jewels. I don't know how authentic they are, does it even matter? For me it doesn't matter. I am making anew, building something from the remains. Wanting to honour the fleeting: the fragment, fractured histories and stories. Not passed down, but dredged up."

    - Terri-Ann White (2004) [Source: Theodore and Brina: An Exploration of the Myths and 

    Secrets of Family Life, 1851-1998", Journal of Historical Geography 30 (2004).]

 

"Prospecting May Be Tough But To Nan It's All Just Fun." As I perused back issues of the Prince Albert Daily Herald in search of content for my newspaper column called PAssages back in 2018, that headline - and the accompanying photograph - caught my attention. I read on and discovered that in March of 1950 an unnamed reporter from the same newspaper had a fortuitous encounter with Nan - Evangeline Annette Danke/Dorland/Morenus - and her partner John Erdmann Albrecht as the couple was passing through Prince Albert. I say “fortuitous” because Nan was not only a former radio star from New York City, she was Saskatchewan’s only active woman prospector at the time. 

 

Nan, or Mrs. Morenus as she was called, was the primary focus of the Herald reporter's story. "Prospecting in the rugged Northland of Saskatchewan is tough," the reporter writes, "but it's doubly tough when the prospector is a woman. Despite the drawbacks of being a female in the all-male land of jagged rock, bushes and jackpine, Nan Morenus, an attractive redhead, finds that prospecting is an exciting - and often profitable - way to earn a living." The reporter was clearly enchanted by Nan's red hair - it is mentioned three times in the short article. The former actress was indeed one of the more glamorous figures to have turned up in northern Saskatchewan in the late 1940s.

 

Nan and John told the Herald that they were flying to Regina and Toronto to check out their find of base metal from their northern stake. Their journey had a more urgent purpose, however. As I reveal in my PAssages blog, I soon discovered that, unbeknownst to the reporter, Nan was four months pregnant.

 

My Project Begins

Why pursue Nan Dorland? After all, she was not famous - although she came close. Nan is actually a fairly obscure figure. But her life was unusual and intriguing, so even 70 years after her death, I believe she deserves to be remembered.

 

Have you wanted to learn more about strangers that you see in a photograph? It happens to me all the time, but I found the Herald photo shown above particularly captivating. I began to investigate and quickly learned that both Nan and John have fascinating life stories that intersect for an all-too-brief period of time. Nan's life story, or as much as I can learn of it, is the subject of this blog.

Portrait of Nan Dorland, c1935. Photo courtesy Rabeea Shhadeh.

 

Who was Nan – or Mrs. Morenus – the actress-turned-writer-turned-prospector from New York City via northern Ontario? How did she end up in northern Saskatchewan? Where was Mr. Morenus and what was the nature of Nan's relationship with John Albrecht? Where in northern Saskatchewan did they call home? I have found out the answers to some of these questions and am still trying to find the answers to others.

I embarked on this investigative journey knowing full well that the outcome would be unpredictable. Unsure that what I might learn about Nan would fill a book, I decided to tell her story in this series of blog posts. In the end, all I may achieve may be nothing more than providing what I hope will be an interesting online account of this woman's life.

I have posted a Table of Contents which will allow readers to go back and forth between posts. I will update it every time a new post goes up. You can find that index HERE

 

Stitching Together Fragments of Nan's Life

Hindsight being 20/20, I now know it would have been much smarter to choose a subject who a) did not die 70 years ago, b) has some living relatives, and c) left a lot of evidence of their life behind. With the passing of time, so much of Nan’s life story has gone missing. I jumped into my “Nan project” with both feet, however, so I was left with no choice but to turn my attention to what IS present and what CAN be found. My journey in writing Nan’s life story ended up being a complex stitching together of fragments of her life, attempting to construct a portrait both from what remains and what is missing.

Research, Research, Research

Being a fairly decent researcher, I started by scouring the Internet for all things "Nan." I searched archival databases, genealogical sites, high school yearbooks, and newspaper collections. From there, I developed a list of possible contacts, including Nan's family members. As she was an only child, and as her only son, John Danke Albrecht, passed away in 2015, the list of family contacts was short.

Letters and emails to potential contacts followed. It is with much gratitude that I share my most fruitful contacts to date: 

• Martin Beerman, one of Nan's distant cousins, provided me with a number of useful documents. 
• Tim Brody, editor of the Sioux Lookout Bulletin, published my letter to the editor requesting information about Nan and her first husband Richard Morenus.
  
• Kim Clark and Richard Mansfield, current owners of Winoga Lodge on the island that Nan and Richard Morenus lived on near Sioux Lookout, Ontario. After reading my letter to the editor in the Sioux Lookout newspaper, The Bulletin, Kim and Richard sent me a box containing hundreds of photographs of Richard Morenus. They had received this box from Randolph Trumbull. 
  
• Curtis Lee of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, sent me a copy of his father's memoirs. Bob Lee was a close friend of Nan's second husband John Albrecht and his memoirs contain a number of useful pieces of information about Nan, including her final resting place.
• Dr. Klaus Lehnert-Thiel of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. During the 1970s while working as a geologist for Uranerz Exploration and Mining Limited based in La Ronge, Klaus became close friends with John Albrecht, calling him the adopted grandfather of his two teenaged sons. I have met and interviewed Klaus, and we have maintained an email correspondence over the years.
  
• Dick MacKenzie, former newspaper editor in Sioux Lookout, Ontario, linked me to numerous contacts and provided me with much useful information about the area. In addition, Dick very kindly agreed to proofread all my blog posts!
• Dorothy Maskerine of Dryden, Ontario. Dorothy, 94 years old in 2021, met Nan and Richard Morenus is Sioux Lookout during the 1940s. Dorothy, a teenager at the time, remembers Nan coming to her parents' house for dinner every Thursday while Richard attended Rotary Club meetings. Dorothy shared her memories of Nan with me during several telephone calls.
  
• Dr. Cynthia B. Meyers, Professor of Communications at the College of Mount Saint Vincent, Riverdale, New York, with a special interest in the history of radio. Not only did I read Dr. Meyers works, but she also sent me links to other resources on the history of radio in the 1930s and '40s, especially as they relate to performers and writers.
• Les Oystryk of Creighton, Saskatchewan with his in-depth knowledge of the history of northern Saskatchewan, has been an invaluable resource for my project especially as it relates to trapper and prospector John Albrecht. For example, Les connected me with Darlene Studor in La Ronge (see below). 
• John and Kate Rich of Western Australia who knew John Albrecht in La Ronge, and who travelled by canoe to Selwyn Lake near the Saskatchewan-Northwest Territories border and searched for John and Nan's cabin in 2014. Click HERE for their story. We have corresponded since then and shared what we know about the cabin site.
  
• Rabeea (Robert) Shhadeh, a good friend of Nan and John's late son, John A. Danke, shared stories about John and sent me Danke family photos.
  
• Darlene Studor of La Ronge, Saskatchewan found letters to Nan from author Kathrene Pinkerton tucked inside a copy of Pinkerton's book Wilderness Wife. This got me excited! I am grateful to Darlene for sharing scanned copies of the two letters with me. I then contacted the University of Oregon Archives where Pinkerton's papers are housed, but, to my great dismay, there were no letters from Nan to Kathrene in that collection.
• Natalie Thompson of La Ronge Precambrian Geological Laboratory provided me with documents about Nan and John's prospecting activity in northern Saskatchewan, and helped me solve the mystery of Nan's "De Leo" name. 
  
• Randolph Trumbull of Suttons Bay, Michigan, his sister Martha (Trumbull) Halloran, and her husband Terry Halloran, both of Rancho Santa Fe, California. The Trumbulls' mother was Richard Morenus' first cousin, and they have some distant memories of him visiting their home.
• Heidi Walczuch in Germany, John Albrecht's niece, who provided me with family photos.
  
• Numerous archival institutions and government agencies, including: the Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan (documents and photos); the Wisconsin Historical Society (collection National Broadcasting Company Records, 1921-1976); University of North Dakota, Department of Special Collections (some of Richard Morenus' correspondence); Ontario Title Search (records of Nan and Richard's land in northern Ontario); Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre, Health Records Department (Nan's admission record to the Sioux Lookout hospital in 1947); Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (Nan and Richards' immigration records); the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois (Nan and Richard's divorce records).
  

Despite these efforts, I have to date uncovered relatively little in the way of records of Nan's life. She did not leave much behind, due, in part, to her travels to remote locations, and also in part to her premature death immediately following the birth of her son in 1950. 

"Many biographical 'facts', subject of course to interpretation, do often exist and lie around quietly in archives of all forms waiting to be turned into stories."
    - Terri-Ann White (2004)

To complicate things further, I was not able to visit any archives due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so I have not uncovered any diaries, manuscripts, letters, photographs, or other memorabilia that may still be waiting to be discovered. With the assistance of online finding aids and several terrific archivists, however, I have found some useful material.

Nan published two magazine articles listed below. Any of her other writings have disappeared or remain to be uncovered. I am not going to include a complete bibliography here. References are included in each blog post as appropriate. Here is a list of some of my most useful sources:

• Dorland Morenus, Nan. “Jim Chief,” in MacLean’s, October 15, 1946, pp. 9, 51-56.
  
• ---------. “The Woman’s Bushed,” in MacLean’s, August 15, 1947, pp. 23-26. 
• Downes, P. G. Sleeping Island: The Narrative of a Summer’s Travel in Northern Manitoba and the Northwest Territories. Ottawa: McGahern Stewart Publishing, 2011. (First published in 1943.)
• Gold and Other Stories as told to Berry Richards, W. O. Kupsch and S. D. Hanson, eds. Regina, SK: Saskatchewan Mining Association, 1986.
• Lee, S. E. (Bob). The North Called Softly. Prince Albert, SK: Self-published, 1977. 
• Morenus, Richard. Crazy White Man. Chicago: Rand McNally & Company, 1952.
• ---------. “Dogs on Ice,” in MacLean's, September 15, 1948. 
• ---------. “From Broadway to Bush,” in MacLean’s, September 1, 1946. 
• Pinkerton, Kathrene. A Home in the Wilds [formerly Wilderness Wife]. New York: Taplinger Publishing Co., [1939], 1967.
• ---------. Woodcraft for Women. Sportsman’s Vintage Press, [1916], 2014.

 

 

SPECIAL THANKS TO DICK MACKENZIE FOR REVIEWING THE DRAFTS OF EACH BLOG POST.

 

NEXT: Nan's Family Background: CLICK HERE

 

INDEX TO BLOG SERIES: Click HERE

©Joan Champ, 2021. All rights reserved.