Novel Notes of Local Lore

Nelson Pederson was born on July 22, 1931 in Chicago to Emil Pederson and Asta Brahms, both immigrants from Denmark.  It is thought that Emil worked in a factory in Ravenswood, near where the [...]

Sadie Riley was born on February 16, 1914 on a farm near Pittsburgh, Kansas to Lonnie Belanger and Jeannette Fenske.  Lonnie was a cattle farmer, and Jeanette cared for their six children: Fae, [...]

Clement Rybar was born on February 6, 1915 in Slovakia to Jonas Rybar and Alena Kriz.  Jonas owned a substantial farm, and even though he and Alena had seven children to help, they still needed [...]

Honza Ruzicka was born on October 22, 1904 in Chicago to Cyril Ruzicka and Lenka Vesely.  Cyril was born in a little village outside of Prague and came to America as a young man to escape being [...]

Brogan Cullen was born on October 25, 1921 in Cleveland, Ohio to Angus and Cathleen Cullen.  Not much is known about Brogan’s childhood.  It is thought that Angus and Cathleen were Irish [...]

Fatemah Farhadi was born in a small village in Persia on May 5, 1918 to Arman and Delara Farhadi. Arman was a farmer, and Delara cared for their only child, Fatemah. Fatemah attended high school [...]

Glen Mayer was born on September 15, 1932 in Chicago to Adolf Mayer and Elizabeth Bojars.  It is thought that Adolf was a German immigrant and that Elizabeth may have been from Latvia.  They [...]

Roger Fulton was born on June 24, 1915 in Chicago to William Fulton and Elizabeth Muller.  William was an immigrant from England, and Elizabeth was Canadian, though it is thought she was of Swiss [...]

Beatrice “Bea” Weber was born on February 12, 1903 in Chicago to Francis Moran and Sarah O’Toole.  Both Francis and Sarah were born in Dublin, Ireland, where Francis worked as a butcher and Sarah [...]

Ula Wojcik was born on October 24, 1906 in Indianapolis to Samuel Szymanski and Wislawa Mazur, both of who had immigrated to the United States in 1903 from Poland.  Wislawa had been married [...]