Arthur Frederick Kampfert

This week's 52 Ancestors in 52 weeks prompt was "invite to dinner." Honestly I'd love to have any of my ancestors to dinner to ask them what I'm missing. But I settled on my great grandfather Arthur Kampfert. How can you go wrong with a man that I've been told appears in a picture with Al Capone?

Unknown date

When Arthur Frederick Kampfert was born on May 22, 1899, in Illinois, his father, Paul, was 25 and his mother, Anna, was 19. He was followed by his sister Sally in 1903, his sister Ella in 1905, his brother George in 1908, his sister Helen in 1910, and his sister Dorothy in 1911. I don't know where he went to school. It is consistently reported that he had a 7th grade education.

His family is listed in the 1900 census at 1082 W. 13th Street when Arthur was a year old. I have not found a record of his birth but I assume he was born in Chicago. By 1910 the family had moved to 4312 S. Fairfield, the street he woukd live on for the rest of his life. In 1920 he stated his occupation as a butcher and still lived with his parents. Arthur's mother Anna (Blaesing) Kampfert died on September 13, 1917 when he was 18. His father remarried on March 1, 1919. Arthur's step mother was Bertha Becker. Sometime between 1910 and 1920 The Schiefelbein family moved into 4318 Fairfield. Arthur married their daughter Margaret May 29, 1920.

Arthur and Margaret's marriage license

Margaret and Arthur Kampfert - possibly at one of their daughters wedding

After their marriage, Arthur and Margaret moved to the 2nd floor of 4318 Fairfield (where Margaret's parents lived). Margaret and Arthur had six children during their marriage. Mildred was born in 1921, Evelyn in 1923 and Shirley in 1927. Those 3 are pictured below with their father. Two more daughters were born to Arthur and Margaret. Violet was born in 1929 and Ethel was born in 1931.

Arthur with his three oldest children

Arthur and Margaret with ? I know the 2nd from left is Shirley and to her right is Violet,
1st on the left in back may be Mildred

 As early as 1917 Arthur was working at a packinghouse on Chicago's south side. From there he began his work with the packinghouse workers union. He spoke at the United Packinghouse Workers of America's founding convention in 1943.

"The Packinghouse Workers under the banner of the streamlined CIO organization has been the only organization in the history of the meat packing industry that has gone over five years of life. I hope this organization will stand as long as we have a meat packing industry; and that your children and children's children will not have to slave in those packinghouses as we have slaved in the past"

-Arthur Kampfert, speech to 1943 UPWA convention

He was often traveling and assisting laborers around the country trying to elevate the living standards of packinghouse workers. In 1949 he wrote "History of Meat Packing, Slaughtering and Unionism. His manuscript was never published but there is a copy at the University of Wisconsin. Despite the manuscript never being published he and his manuscript have been quoted on various histories of the American labor movement.

Arthur at his desk at the union office in Chicago

Arthur in front of the Union office

Despite the time away from his family, he was known to be close to them. There are stories of holiday gatherings.

The Kampferts were known for family parties. This is New Year 1945

Arthur's short but full life ended on November 3, 1951. He was 52. He is buried at Bethania Cemetery in Justice, Illinois. So far I have not located his death record to determine cause of death.

Grave marker at Bethania in Justice

Johan Viktor Liden Petersson

This week’s theme for 52 ancestors was longevity. There's only one ancestor that comes to mind at this word, Johan Viktor Lidén Petersson, my 2 times great grandfather. The spoiler is he lived to be 102! This post is a little late because there are a lot of records for someone who lived over a century. I like to imagine the changes in the world he must have seen living from 1854 to 1956! Johan or John, as he became known later worked as a carpenter in Sweden and in the United States. He stated that he had been educated through 8th grade.


When Johan Viktor Petersson Liden was born on March 10, 1854, in Norrköping, Östergötland, Sweden, his father, Per, was 34 and his mother, Johanna, was 34. Through anecdotal information it seems his relationship with his father was not a good one. Possible proof is that throughout his younger years he shows up in various Swedish household examination records as well as the fact that he stopped using his fathers name and used the surname Liden. Johan (as he was known then) moved around quite a bit, working on farms. He lived in Acklinga, Vastra Gotalands and Ringarum, Ostergotlands before ending up at Fralsegarden in Edasa. Kristina Elisabeth Svensdotter lived with her parents and siblings on that farm.

Johan and Kristina Svensdotter married on July 29, 1883, in Edåsa, Västra Götaland, Sweden. They had five children in 10 years. Ludwig, Laurentis, and Lage were born on that same farm in Sweden. On April 15, 1887 Johan and Kristina, along with Laurentis (age 2) and Lage (7 months) left for America on the Romeo. It's unknown why Ludwig was left behind.

When they arrived in the United States they came right to Chicago, Illinois. Their last two children Laura and Louis were born in Chicago. Johan became a citizen on March 25, 1895. The family appears in their first census in 1900 renting a house at 1038 West 70th Street on the south side. By 1910 they owned their home at 744 W. 71st according to census records. In 1920 they had moved to 11144 S. Vincennes and in 1930 to 6940 Morgan. The house on Morgan was their last address in Illinois. Kristina died March 22, 1937. In 1940 John lived with his son Louis at the house on Morgan. Sometime before 1950 he moved to the Carpenters Home in Lakeland Florida. In 1954 he celebrated his 100th birthday at Carpenters Home with various members of his family.

John died in May 1956 in Lakeland, Florida, at the age of 102, and was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Blue Island, Illinois.

Reunions

My favorite picture required little research but are still important. This was good for a busy week. After a few years of bugging people about genealogy my Liden family decided it might be fun to get together. It's a tie for my favorite picture. The first is the first reunion we had in 1998. I got to "remeet" some cousins I hadn't seen since we were small children. Obviously there were still people missing but it was so much fun to see those who did make it out.

1998 Reunion

Front row: ,Heather Neary, , , , , Jon Curbis  Back row L to R: Angie & Keith, Paula, Kevin, Melanie, Rob (behind Melanie), Heather, Dawn, Laticia, Chris. 2nd row: Michelle, Debbie, Michele, Yvette, Tonya, Aaron, Jackie, Gladys, , Dan, Karyn & Frank. Seated in chairs: Margie (holding Summer Soriano), Rose, Dee, Pat (holding Tyler,) Kevin, Jim (Bud's son,) Ron.
front row: ,Heather , , , , , Jon  

The 1998 reunion was held in July 1998 at Pat and Kevin's house. There was swimming and a piñata. Not to mention delicious food!


The other picture in my 2 way tie was the 2000 reunion. Or as we nicknamed it, L2K. The 2000 Reunion was held at Blackwell Forest Preserve in Warrenville, Illinois (DuPage County). My Dad brought the DJ equipment and supplied an amazing variety of music. There was a ton of food supplied by all and plenty of games for young and young at heart.

2000 Reunion "L2K"

(back row L to R) Jim (Dud), Joe, Pete, Aaron, Dennis. Row leaning on railing: Kevin, Pat, Ron, Pat, Dan, Melanie, Gladys, Dee, Karen, Tonya, Joni. In front of rail: Leticia, Angie, Keith (Zach on Keith's lap), Jackie (Tyler on her lap), Jonathan (Anthony on his lap),Lindsay (Anna on her lap),Jessica in between, Lisa (Emily on her lap), Heather, Heather, J.D., Rose. Seated in front: Chris (squatting to side), Frank, Karyn, Josh, Dawn (with Haley)

And there were still people missing!!

Hazel Donovan Liden

Welcome to Week 1 of 52 weeks, 52 Ancestors. This weeks theme is "Start." I always tell the story of how I started working on my family history. I had a dream about my dads parents. Doing every day things, but they had no faces. There's nothing scary about this. I just didn't have a strong enough memory of them for their faces to appear from my memory. I realized I could try to change this or let the memories continue to fade. The next day I saw an ad twice for genealogy software. I took this as a sign. And so my journey began.

One of those grandparents who needed a face was Hazel Donovan Liden. Hazel was born May 20, 1920 in Chicago Illinois. Her parents were Thomas Donovan and Margaret Curtin. Hazel was the youngest of 6 siblings - Bernice, Marcella, Daniel, Patrick, and Thomas. They all resided on the south side of Chicago. It is likely that her grandmother lived with them when she was born as she appears with them in the 1920 census taken in January.

Hazel attended Parker High School, a Chicago public school on the city's south side. This school still exists but it was renamed Robeson High School in 1977. She graduated in June of 1939. A story that her future sister in law, Rose, once told me was that they had known each other in school (Rose was about 2 years younger). Rose would always ask her about boys since she was older. Hazel didn't want to tell her about the new boy because he had a funny nickname (Dud - all his brothers had similar nicknames). When Rose found out she had a good laugh that it was her big brother that caught Hazel's eye.

On May 12, 1941 Hazel married Vernon Liden. They had four children that they raised on the south side.

In 1942, when she was just 22 years old she lost her mother. This was months after the birth of her 1st child. Her father passed 11 years later in 1954. Her brothers all preceded her in death. When she was just 53 she was widowed. Vernon passed away on April 26, 1974.
I know that sometime after that she moved to California for some time and then relocated back to the south suburbs of Illinois. I don't have many memories of my grandmother, but I do remember her staying with us once. She tucked me into bed, tucking in the sheets so firmly that I was not getting out of that bed without help! I certainly wasn't going to fall out of bed that night.
I've heard great stories about what a wonderful person she was. I'm sorry I don't have more memories of her.
Hazel Donovan Liden passed away from breast cancer on May 10, 1979 at 58 years of age.