Lenice John Gies and Lena Anna Hintz Ancestry

26-3-17 Attestation. 108th Regiment Overseas Company
10-5-17 Transferred to Special Services Company #1
17-6-18 Training in London, Ontario - Medical attention
23-9-18 Training in London, Ontario - Medical attention
23-9-18 Transferred to 1st Depot Battalion
30-9-18 Transferred to 259th Battalion CEF (Canadian Expiditionary Force) Siberia
5-10-18 Training in Niagara, Ontario - Medical attention
21-12-18 Embarked from Vancouver on S.S. Teestra
12-1-19 Disembarked in Siberia with 259th Battalion Canadian Rifles
19-5-19 Embarked from Siberia on S.S. Empress of Russia
29-5-19 Disembarked in Vancouver with 1st Depot West Ontario Regiment
11-6-19 Discharged from 108th Regiment Overseas Company

WW I - A letter Lenice sent his sister and a letter he sent his wife (Lena).

WW I - Pictures of Lenice in Siberia

WW I - Attestation Papers

(excerpts from his official WWI military file

WW I - Lenice Service records, dates of transfers

(excerpts from his official WWI military file

WW I - Lenice Discharge Papers

(excerpts from his official WWI military file

WW II - Pictures of Lenice serving in England

WW II - Lenice meets King George VII in England

This story was relayed to me by Patricia Krajaefski:

Lenice Gies was raised Catholic.

Lena Hintz was raised Lutheran.

When Lenice was a teen, he skipped school one day. He then admitted to it during confession to Father Menno Hinsperger, who was his older cousin,  a child of his mothers brother. Father Menno told Magdalena (Lenice's mother) that he skipped school, thus breaching the confidentiality of his confession. Lenice was so outraged, he left the Catholic church.

Lena's parents did not approve of their relationship as they wanted her to marry a Lutheran boy. They went to Detroit where some of Lena's siblings then lived, and were married by Rev. Frank Malinski, a Lutheran pastor who later served in Elmira, Ontario. They eloped!

Lenice's mother (Magdalena Hinsperger) refused to recognize the marriage of Mom and Dad simply because they had been married by a Lutheran pastor rather than a Roman Catholic priest.  As a result she made mother's life miserable as long as she lived, wanting them to remarry in the Catholic Church. However, Dad had left the Catholic Church before he met Mother and had no intention of returning. 

Personal Narrative from Pat Krajaefski

Len was the only son of John A. Gies and Magdalena nee Hinsperger.  He attended K-W Collegiate and St. Jerome's College.  On graduation from St. Jerome's,  he received the Proficiency Award for highest grades.  By the age of 16 he had completed Grade X and a Commercial Course at  St. Jeromes.  Despite this, he appears to have acquired the reputation of 'bad boy' apparently for cutting classes (or masses) to play 'pool'.  At the age of 17 he lied about his age and enlisted with the 259th Battalion, Canadian Rifles, Canadian Expeditionary Forces, and  served in Siberia in World  War I in 1917-19.   His regimental number was #2310310.

After returning from overseas, he worked five years as a payroll clerk and was finally in charge of branch auditing at Goodrich Rubber (then Ames Holden).  By this time he and Mom were married and they bought a little bungalow on King Street East.  He worked late hours and I can remember the sound of the wind whistling in the tall pines while we waited for him to come home on cold winter nights.  I also remember visiting him in the office with its dim bulb hanging overhead from a cord and the green shade he wore to protect his eyes.  Apparently he left that position on the advice of his doctor who told him he needed fresh air and  exercise.

I don't remember where he worked after that.  At one time he was a clerk at Davis Men's Wear which later became Budd's.  Eventually he became a salesman at Dietrich's Bakery.  He sold radios on the side (this in the days when few people had a radio or wanted one).  However, from that time on, we always had a radio in our house.  We all loved music and Dad sang a lot.  When we were gathered around Gram and Grampa Hintz' player piano, Dad and Uncle Oliver tried to outdo each other singing.  We had great fun around that piano although we children were not allowed to play it.  Dad liked to surprise Mom with little gifts of jewellery or candy.  He always wanted to get rich quick - he was a gambler, he bought worthless stocks, he played poker.  He didn't realize his dream - he never became wealthy.

We moved around a lot.  We lived with Mom's parents for a time, Dad's Aunt Anastasia, his parents, King street, Otto Street, Mansion, Troy and Peter and Brubacher.  Eventually we moved to Samuel Street and bought that house.

I do remember Dietrich's Bakery.  The store with its glass counters and display cases filled with mouth-watering goodies was on King Street between Scott and Frederick, just east of the beautiful old City Hall with its formal flower gardens, its fountain, its regal pillars and stairs and its bell tower.  I remember the wonderful warmth and smells of Dietrich's, the Hovis, cherry and cheese breads, the 'stollen bread' loaded with fruits, the Chelsea roll which was baked in a circle and smothered with pecans and sticky topping, probably caramel.  Behind the store was the pay office with its dark wood dividers and grilled teller cages for the pay clerks.  Beyond the office was the bakery with its huge ovens, long tables and trays.  The white aproned and hatted bakers seemed always to be removing goodies from the ovens as we passed through to Scott Street to the wagon shed.

The horses were fed and stabled in a barn behind the Dietrich home on Scott Street near Weber.  At the end of the day, a bread salesman had to unload his wagon of leftovers, record his sales for the day, 'settle up' (balance the books),  place his order for next day, and feed and stable his horse for the night.  Next morning he had to arrive early enough to load his wagon and fetch, feed and harness his horse before starting on his round of  deliveries.  No wonder he hoped for riches.

When he stopped for lunch, he first put the feed bag on the horse and dropped the weight that was meant to hold the horse until he returned.  More than once his lunch was interrupted when a train, truck or mischievous boys frightened the horse and he had to go after the runaway.

Saturday night was pay night and my brother Len and I met him with Mom's grocery list and we shopped at Schell's or Dunke's nearby.

Dad also served in the Second War, enlisting and serving with the Highland Light Infantry and later with Canadian Military Headquarters and the British War Office in London where he was stationed during the heavy bombings and until the war was over.  He served in England for 58 months as  a qualified clerk and clerk-typist at Canadian Military Headquarters and as a German translator at the British War Office for 5 months before his return to Canada at the end of the War.

After returning to civilian life,  he worked for a time in the office at Canada Health and Accident,  Deciding he would like to go into business for himself, he  purchased peanut vending machines which he placed and  serviced at a number of locations in downtown Kitchener. He also worked at Jarosz Cigar Store and poolroom.

He died in 1955 at the age of 57.  He suffered a heart attack while in downtown Kitchener on a Saturday afternoon.  Bill and I, along with Dave and little Cheryl in her stroller, met him on our way home from market at noon.  We were the last in the family to see him alive.  He is buried in the Soldiers' section of Woodland Cemetery.

Informaton from Kristi's research

Last month's of service for Linus Gies - World War I  (58 pages, mostly medical as he spent quite a bit of time in hospital)  (51 days Gastritis, 17 days Debility, 5 days Influenza and 16 days Bronchitis)

He enlisted Mar. 20, 1917  in the  108th Regiment.  He left Victoria for Siberia after the war was over.  He returned from Siberia May 1919 and was discharged in June.

Born Aug. 1897 according to census, his attestation papers said he gave his birth date as Aug. 31, 1898.  (Strange, we thought he added, not subtracted a year because he was too young when he enlisted.  (This doesn't make sense).