Lenice John Gies and Lena Anna Hintz Ancestry

Personal Narrative from Pat Krajaefski

Lena Anna Hintz was the daughter of John Hintz and Elizabeth Stieler . She was the second youngest of eight. She was a salesclerk at Wool worth's (the five and ten cent store). In those days player piano rol ls and sheet music were sold at Woolworth's and an employee with a goo d voice was hired to promote sales by singing the latest songs availab le. During the flu epidemic during World War 1, camphor bags were dis tributed to employees with instructions to wear one around the neck . Apparently Woolworth's didn't lose any employees as a result of th e epidemic despite the fact they were serving the public daily and man y residents died.

Mom worked on the candy counter - and that's where she met Len. He "l ooked so handsome in his uniform". She was smitten, but her family we re not. He was raised Roman Catholic (although he had left the churc h by this time because of a disagreement with a priest who was at St . Mary's parish who was a close relative). Lena was Lutheran. In 192 0 they eloped. They went to Detroit where some of mother's siblings t hen lived, and were married by Rev. Frank Malinski, a Lutheran pasto r who later served in Elmira, Ontario. One year later, in 1921 thei r first child of ten was born.

I remember some of Mom's clothes - big hats with plumes or flowers, lo ng waisted dresses of crepe de chene with silk velvet bands, loose dr esses with narrow wrist-length sleeves. Some dresses were fringed. On e that I can remember was a soft mocha - I think the material was call ed georgette.

Mother was a gentle, loving, caring woman. She loved babies, loved t o hold and cuddle them and talk them into smiling for her even when sh e was in her eighties. She had a fetish about cleanliness. I remembe r a friend saying one could eat off Mom's kitchen floor - she scrubbe d it so often. She believed in hanging out the laundry even in subzer o weather - no one dared have whiter wash. She spent hours making por ridge, puddings, canning fruits and vegetables - anything she felt wa s nourishing for her brood. She was a very special Mom.

She lived another thirty years after Dad died in 1955. She died of co ngestive heart failure in December 1985 at the age of 83 and is burie d in Woodland Cemetery.