Ertzinger Family

History of the Ertzinger Family

 

The following information is from the Huntington County, Indiana History and Family records from 1834 to 1993.

 

Albert Leroy Ertzinger was born in Elkhart County on a farm on the  Cable-Line Road to George and Sarah Ertzinger.  He was the youngest of seven children.  He attended a nearby one-room school where he purposely repeated the eighth grade, since he knew he had no chance to go to high school and he was desirous of securing all the education he could get. 

 

As a young man he attended a business school and was able to  get a position in Chicago as a salesman for Swift and Company. 

 

At the church he attended he met Eva Margaret Hansen (who had been christened Ingeborg Margreta in Copenhagen, Denmark.  Eva, as she became known early in her life in America, was born in 1877 and had emigrated from Denmark on the Geiser ship in November 1883 with her parents, Hans Ludwig Hansen and Caroline Amundine Hansen and six other children.  Eva remembered her trip because the captain had given the little six year old girl a big red apple.  Also during the trip a storm occurred and her 17 year old brother, Charles, had played his violin to quiet the passengers.

 

Upon arriving at Ellis Isand, the father decided to take his family to Detroit to continue his craft as a master woodworker.  However, within weeks, three of the children, Maria 13, Robert 5, and the tiny baby, Vilhelm, died of influenza. What a sad beginning for this immigrant family coming to a new country. 

 

The little immigrant girl, Eva, was refused schooling beyond the third grade since she could only speak a foreign language.  She had to depend on her own abilities to educate herself.  One of her employers sent her to business college when she was older.  In Chicago she worked at the Fair store and later as an executive secretary for Armour Packing Company. 

 

Albert and Eva were married on Thanksgiving Day, 1906, at the home of her sister in Chicago.  They had plans to immediately board a train with relatives and friends to come to Huntington to their newly furnished home.  Albert's parents, brothers, and sisters were living in Huntington at this time and things were not to proceed smoothly.

 

According to long articles on the front page of the Huntington newspaper (then called the News-Democrat) in the November 28 and 30, 1906 editions, all the mischievous plans were detailed. Their new home was plastered with signs saying Swift and Armour had merged.  The three brothers stayed with the couple all night until they  had cooked them breakfast, when they finally left the newly-married couple alone.

 

Albert bought a well-stocked grocery store beside his brother Levi's meat market and was quite successful.  Three children, George, Paul, and Ruth were born during the years 1909-1913.  Because of ill health, Albert was advised to move to the country, which he did in Clear Creek Township.  He owned a vegetable farm from which he sold vegetables to the grocery stores in Huntington until the children were grown.  He then reverted to general farming, raising sheep and hogs. 

 

 

 

 

 



 During their latter years, Albert and Eva returned to their membership in the First Prespyterian Church and became active.  Eva passed away in 1945 and Albert succumbed after a farm accident in 1946.  They are resting in the Clear Creek Cemetery, remembered lovingly by their children and friends.

 

George Ludwig Ertzinger

George was first born to Albert  and Eva, on January 26, 1909,  in the apartment above their grocery store on Market Street in Huntington, Indiana.  Levi Ertzinger, Albert's brother, had a meat market adjacent to the grocery.  Soon the family moved to Bryon Street directly behind Beckstein's grocery.

 

George's first year of school was in the Tipton Street School.  The family moved to a farm in Clear Creek Township after ill health caused his father to sell the store.  George attended Whitestine one-room District Number 9 School in Clear Creek Township.  To attend Huntington High School, he had to ride his bicycle  seven miles daily for three years.  Some of his fourth year, George and his brother, Paul, drove a car to school.  George graduated in 1926. 

Varied employment and education endeavors followed until 1936.  On June 6, 1936, George married Lelia Mae Slusser, daughter of Clarence and Minnie Slusser of Clear Creek Township.  Lelia graduated from Clear Creek High School followed by Manchester College in 1934.  She taught school in Markle, IN for two years.

George entered the College of Dentistry at the University of Iowa in 1936.  Since Lelia's major was home economics, she enjoyed working in the Nutrition Department of the University Children's Hospital.  George received his dental degree in 1940 and opened an office in Akron, IN.

In 1942 George enlisted in the U.S. Army Dental Corp for WWII.  George was stationed at Camp Polk, LA for three years, but he and Lelia lived off base.  Lelia was  the first woman to work at the Medical Supply Depot.  His fourth year was spent at Camp Wolters near Mineral Wells, TX.  During his Army service, he did all types of dental procedures.

After the war, George established his dental practice in Fort Wayne on Calhoun Street.  He was an active member of the Issac Knapp District Dental Society.  He helped to publish a monthly news letter which developed into a very useful aid to the needs of the organization. His dental practice grew into a very satisfactory business for George and his patients.  He closed the office on July 1, 1982. 

On August 28, 1948, their daughter Nancy was born.  She attended Fort Wayne schools and received an associate degree in Dental  Hygiene and a bachelor of science degree from Indiana University.  She works as a dental hygienist (at the time of this writing of 1993).  In 1976 she married Tom Ossenford.  Tom was an MBA,  retired from Xerox and ran his own business.  They had one son, Adam, born in 1978.

In 1985, after 42 years of dentistry and extensive travel, George and Lelia moved to Clinton, MO to be close to their daughter, Nancy.  The entire family at that time were members of the Clinton United Methodist Church.  George Ertzinger believed the success of his life was the result of loving, sacrificing, positieve-thinking parents and his wife.

Paul Ertzinger

Paul was the second son, born September 26, 1911, to Albert and Eva Ertzinger at Huntington, IN.  Upon his family moving to Clear Creek Township, he attended District #9 one-room school completing eight grades.  He attended Huntington High School for one year, riding his  bicycle seven miles.  After three years at Clear Creek High School, he graduaed and spent the following year assisting his father on their farm.

Joining his sister, Ruth, they both enrolled in Manchester College and graduated together four years later with AB degrees and high school teacher licenses.  His search for a teaching position became a problem.  The years of 1934 and 35 were  economically depressed.  Schools would only employ teachers from their own county, and then only one from a family.  Fortunately, George obtained a position at the Huntington Post Office and after taking a civil service examination, he accepted an appointment from the FBI in Washington, DC as a fingerprint technician.

Upon arrival in Washington, he enrolld at the Benjamin Franklin University and attended night classes for three years while employed at the FBI.  After graduating with an accounting degree, he accepted an FBI appointment as special agent and married Carolyn Brine of Washington.  Thereafter, he served as an investigative special agent in San Antonio, Philadelphia, NYC and Washington, DC, until he retired in 1964.

Paul found life in the FBI very interesting, often exciting and full of surprises.  Because of the passege of time and the fact some of his services were of public nature, Paul has described some of them.

His FBI service during war time in NYC included monitoring German financial interests.  He coordinated all evidence used in a large sedition trial of 33 seditionists held in Washington, which unfortunately was terminated after nine months upon the sudden death of the judge.  At the close of the war, he was sent to Nuernberg, Germany where he assisted the assistant U.S.  Attorney General interrogating three defendants (Goering, Ribbentrop, Fritsche) at the International Military Tribunal Trial.  They also interrogated other German Diplomats. Paul's sixteen years FBI service in Washington included sensitive investigations at the Supreme Court, U.S. Senate, House of Representaives, White House and Embassies.

Following retirement from the FBI, Paul became director of the U.S. Capital Historical Society.  He helped form a small group of retired FBI agents engaged in King Hussein (of Jordan) to provide security for his four children then in the U.S.

Paul also became National Treasurer of the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI, an organization of some 8,000 former agents.  Upon the death of Director J. Edgar Hoover, Paul promoted the establishment of the J. Edgatr Hoover Memorial and served as treasurer, directing the raising of a $250,000 construction fund.  The Memorial, representing Fidelity, Bravery, and Integrity, is located in the FBI, Washington headquarters courtyard. During the thirteen years period prior to 1991, he conducted a special FBI assignent related to Cold War security matters. 

Paul and Carolyn's son, Richard, was born in 1943 and married Mayfield Lamb.  He is a prominent Washington builder of high end homes.  Their two children, Susan and Brian, are active in the Maryland suburban schools and Methodist churches.  Both families reside in the Washington area.

The following photo is from the book: We, the People, The Story of the United States Capitol, published by The United States Capitol Historical Society in coopeation with The National Geographic Society, 1966.  Paul is in this photograph of the Senate Reception Room, on the left side talking to the two seated women. 

 

 

An interesting note in this book shows a drawing of the Senate Reception Room. The description of this illustration is as follows:  Gilded splendor and bright frescoes decorate the Senate Reception Room; Paintings of Taft, Calhoun, Webster, Clay and La Follette were chosen in 1957 to fill panels Brumidi (architect) left vacant. Senators use the room to greet guests, as Leverett Saltonstall and B. Evertt Jodan do in the above photo. The 1873 engraving shows the room with table lace and hair sofas; carpet hides the floor tiles.