Frank Joseph Maurer

Frank is the son of Nicolaus and Eva Maurer of Chicago. He was a bookkeeper and accountant. He was a long time resident of Chicago and retired to Glen Ellyn, where is son Charles lived. Charles and Roma Maurer's children were frequent and welcome visitors at their grandparent's home. Frank had an immaculate garden and loved eating fresh tomatoes in the summers. His lot in Glen Ellyn was narrow but long and terraced along a descending hill.

Frank's grandchildren recalled that he was quiet and not terribly very friendly. They didn't know much about him, nor was there much information available about Emma.

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In the 1990's, Joan Jensen recorded the below recollections of Emma and Frank Maurer:

"Emma and Frank owned a house at 574 Hillside Avenue in Glen Ellyn. They had a room in the attic that they rented to a gentleman. It was a small two story house. The Maurer kids stayed overnight often and stayed for longer periods of time if someone in the family had a contagious illiness, sometimes for a week or two. We didn't mind staying.

When we were young, if anyone had chicken pox, mumps, measles, scarlet fever, etc the health department nailed a big sign on the house -- QUARANTINE!

Gramma and Grampa Maurer had their little spats, as I recall. Gramma Emma was overly generous with everything they had, constantly giving out food and money. I don't think they could afford it. So Grampa Frank had a cellar room with a padlock and eventually put everything under lock and key. Charles, their son, was in the habit of slipping his mother cash, and she in turn would hand it to anyone she met on the street, including children. Roma didn't think much of the idea.

Gramma Emma baked and cooked for us. She put lemon in everything, including chocolate cake! Mary (Marchese, the oldest of Charles and Roma's daughters, and Joan's sister) remembers Grampa Frank throwing a plate of noodles across the table that had lemon on them. She also always baked and fried with bacon grease. Everything that required shortening (lard back then, and later it was Crisco) had bacon grease substituted. I didnt mind that but some of the kids didn't like it. I also remember that Grampa Frank was so angry one time that he kicked a cantalope around the back yard. I guess that was as good a way as any to vent anger.

Grampa Frank had a big rock garden that sloped down to a large vegetable, fruit and flower garden. I remember it as being very nicely tended and i suppose he gave us produce but I don't remember it. He LOVED tomatoes and ate very many of them. He also had a routine of eating ONLY two squares of Hersey's chocolate every day, and 3 prunes. What discipline!

In the living room was a love seat and a side chair with big wide wooden frames, and velvet upholstery. I think it was turn of the century (early 1900's) It wasn't particularly comfortable. The living room wasn't used much at all. In the dining room, besides a large table and chairs, Grampa Frank had a black leather "fainting couch" (armless, raised at one end for a headrest) that he napped on all the time.

When we stayed at Gramma's we all had to take a nap. The bedroom had dark green window shades with a million little pinholes in them. The room always smelled of wintergreen. We never napped: instead she would tell us stories of her friends who died, or who had problems or (medical) operations with all the grisly details. It was scary..

When we would leave and say "we'll see you" she would always say "if I am alive then." We would run home and tell mother (Roma) that Gramma was dying; mother would reassure us that it was just an expression she used, but we still thought she was going to die soon. I remember being upset about that.

Later, when we visited, Grampa would sit on his rocker with his knees drawn up to his chest, He thought he ate too many tomatoes, and the acid upset his stomach. He sat like this continuously. He later learned that he had stomach cancer, and it eventually killed him. Gramma Emma also died of cancer a few years later,

Frank and Emma had four children, Charles and Mary were twins, Gretrude and Howard. Not much is know of Howard. He left home at an early age and settled in the northwest in Washington or Oregon, and he died their in the 1960's.

Frank was a wirey and energtic person

At every family event and major holiday, Frank and Emma would come to noon dinner (at 566 Park Blvd.) On frequent Sundays the Maurer girls had to take turns taking Gramma to the (silent) movies where she would read every word out loud and expressed her disapproval of any love scenes by loudly "tsk tsking" which embarrassed us.

We stopped often to visit on the way home from St Petronille grade school.

Every Sunday, rain or shine. she would leave a shopping bag of coffee cakes at Walgreens for us to pick up after Mass. She was always pleasant. She died of cancer at age 81.

Her father John Becker was a railroad surveyor and was killed by Indians."