Edward Wachdorf

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The best knowledge of Ed is gained by reading his numerous letters, which begin at letters 1949. Not included in the letters: records show that the Wachdorfs had a phone by 1932. Ed's daughter Dolores recalled that the early phone took nickels, or slugs. Once a week the phone guy would come to empty the phone box and collect cash for the slugs.

She also recalled that her father liked people who "gave him guff" and enjoyed doing silly things like taking the hot spoon from his coffee and touching it to someone's arm to make the person jump, which embarrassed him greatly when he did it to someone in a restaurant once whom he mistook for a friend, only to find it was a stranger.

A client once gave him two Saint Bernard puppies, Socks and Tuffy. She recalled how much it made him laugh when they would nip at his ankles as he tried to hurry through the kitchen. One of the dogs got distemper from a neighborhood dog and died. The other was stolen (it was the Depression, and they were pure bred, therefore valuable). They then had a mutt, Gizmo. There was also a cat (see letter 11-4-1932 Harry) that had kittens. Dolores recalled the cat had the kittens in the basement, and her brothers would check the cat's progress, then come up and silently signal to their mother, like baseball players, surreptitiously running fingers through their hair (one finger, one kitten. Two fingers, two kittens, four fingers...).

During the Great Depression, he managed to hold onto his job at Sinclair Oil (a source of pride for all of them) but his daughter recalls it was a very close thing, and that sometimes his wife had to borrow a nickel from the neighbors to pay his streetcar fare to get him to work, because they were at times that close to broke.

The death of his oldest daughter, Irene (Sis), from tuberculosis was a major blow for the entire family and perhaps more for Edward because he had been reluctant to let her enter the convent (it was there that she contracted the disease from a fellow novice). His surviving daughter, Dolores, only four when Sis took ill and ten when she died, felt her father never loved her as much as Sis. Her mother said it was because he didn't want to be hurt like that again. But at 14 Dolores herself contracted diptheria and came very close to dying. She recalled her father and mother standing on the other side of the glass at the contagious disease hospital, and her father held up a five dollar bill and pointed at it to say it was hers when she got better. Shortly after she got home, he sat down with her and read her the funny papers, and the unexpected act of tenderness, combined with her weakened state, caused her to start crying. The tears confused and distressed him.

They moved to California in his retirement years because he had developed emphysema from his heavy smoking. In the end he would often sit up all night in his rocking chair, having trouble breathing. He also suffered from long and violent attacks of hiccups.

Anton Wachdorf, age 39, born May 1861, married 18 years, immigrated 1865, naturalized, engineer-loco

daughter Katherine, age 15, born Aug 1884 (no profession listed, nor "at school")

(NOTE: neighbor is John C. Miller, policeman, with sons John F. born in 1887 and Andrew born in 1894. John F. is witness on marriage certificate of Edward Wachdorf and Andrew is witness on marriage certificate of Joseph Wachdorf)

John Pfleger, 64, born in Germany, married 33 years, immigrated 1874, naturalized, occupation: butcher in a shop.

Son-in-law Edward J. Wachdorf, married 0 years, profession: book keeper for oil company.

1917 draft registration: Edward John Wachdorf, age 28, of 649 E. 87th Place. Born 8-8-1888 in Chicago. Occupation: office clerk for Standard Oil Company of 72 W. Adams. Reason for exemption: support of wife and three children. Tall, of medium build, with bluish gray eyes and dark brown hair, also noted: bad eye sight.

1920 census, 649 87th Place, 9th Ward (Township: tract Ag. 5 bounded by 84th St. Cottage Grove 88th Place and precinct line State St.--this was out in the country at the time. They even raised chickens):

sister-in-law Adele Pfleger, 35, dress maker in a general merchandise establishment.

10-20-1920 article from the Daily Southtown (or Suburbanite Economist, or whichever name it went under at the time): Perez Annual Ball: Arrangements are now complete for the big K of C ball at White City on the evening of Nov. 5th...the newly installed officers of the Father Perez Council include Frank R. McGarr Jr., grand knight; Edward Wachdorf, deputy grand knight; Emmett McCarthy, chancelor; John S. Boes, treasurer; H.F. Heinrichs, financial secretary; and Peter T. Murphy, warden. HB Wickers is recording secretary. Last Thursday John R. Reilly, the retiring secretary after holding the office for eleven years, was given an ovation by the Council and presented with a chest of silver and a cut glass water set. Retiring Grand Knight Keown was presented with a beautiful diamond ring..." (Note photo number four in the first row of the gallery above shows some of these same names with different positions, and Ed Wachdorf as chancellor instead of deputy grand knight--an earlier year judging by presence of Reilly, retiring in 1920.)

Edward J. Wachdorf owns home value $6000, has a radio. 41, married at 21, occupation: agent for Sinclair Refinery.

sister-in-law Adele Wachdorf (no longer Pfleger), age 45, married at 40 (though husband Harry Wachdorf is living down the street with his parents), occupation: seamstress for Dept. Store.