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Note: dzkDzZ1VEbNMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-EHrLnG4ws5Q/VkEMjOIQeTI/AAAAAAAABRU/_7SHIJJl2Ss/s800-Ic42/GJZ%252520Jr%252520for%252520Picasa%252520album%252520cover.jpg" height="250" width="214" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/101087389908224627084/GeorgeJosephZellerJunior18941954?authuser=0&feat=embedwebsite">George Joseph Zeller, Junior, 1894-1954</a></td></tr></table> Notes for George Joseph Zeller, Jr.:
A photo of George's birth certificate: <a href="https://goo.gl/photos/Xi9QLnhYpizxTKPG7">Photo</a>
George wasn't given his first name immediately. His birth was also listed in a Chicago Register of Births, again with no first name shown (at the bottom of the photo): <a href="https://goo.gl/photos/TDfwvE8jHMopwqSX7">Photo</a>
There is no baptismal record for George in St. Margaret of Scotland Catholic Church records, even though that was the only Catholic church in the area of his parents' residence. All of George's siblings were baptized at that church.
A 1915 Chicago directory listed: Zeller Geo G jr clk h 1738 W 99th That directory printed an incorrect middle initial.
On June 5, 1917, George had to fill out and sign a World War draft registration card: <a href="https://goo.gl/photos/PPHH4M1CN4nGTMLt5">Photo</a>
He wrote that his occupation was a tinner, the color of his eyes were grey, and his height was tall.
It was many months or a year after signing that card until George actually enlisted into the U.S. Army.
During one of the first three days of August of 1918, George boarded the U.S. troop transport ship, the <i>U.S.S. Leviathan,</i> in the port of Hoboken, New Jersey. The ship left port August 3rd, sailing to the port at Brest, France.
The <i>Leviathan</i> was a United States Army troop transport ship, formerly named the German Vaterland, which had been seized by United States Customs on April 6, 1917. At 1,000 feet in length, it was the largest ship in the world. During the World War, it made 10 round trips ferrying up to 11,000 U.S. soldiers and sailors each trip between the east coast of the U.S. and France. The <i>Leviathan</i> took seven or eight days to cross the Atlantic using the power of its coal-burning furnaces. The ship also brought troops back home after the war.
The Leviathan was painted in camouflage, and steamed in a zig-zag manner when it was within 20 hours of France. At that point, U.S. Navy destroyers surrounded the <i>Leviathan,</i> to try to protect it from torpedo attacks by German U-boat submarines.
Photos of the <i>Leviathan</i> show the ship and some passengers. Two of these photos were taken the day George Zeller and the ship departed; August 3, 1918: <a href=”https://photos.app.goo.gl/f4UPE1vDqCSiXxKm6”>Photos</a>
The U.S. Army kept records of the passengers. One page of the passenger list from that August 3rd departure shows George Zeller - whose serial number was 481004 - listed at the bottom: <a href=”https://photos.app.goo.gl/CioGJd55sAJ5Z7g56”>Photo</a>
The men on that page were members of Company B of the 56th Infantry Regiment, in the U.S. Army's 7th Infantry Division. George only served four months in France.
In mid-December of 1918, five weeks after the war ended, George boarded the <i>S.S. Aeolus</i> in the port of Bordeaux, France, to go back to the United States. The ship left port December 17th, sailing to a port in Newport News, Virginia. This time, George was listed as being a private in a different unit; Company G of the 47th Infantry Regiment, in the U.S. Army's 4th Infantry Division.
The 1919 book <i>47th U.S. Infantry, A History, 1917 - 1918 - 1919</i> indicates via a capital W that George was wounded during the war: <a href=”https://archive.org/details/fortyseventyinf00polgoog/page/n178”>Link to book page</a>
That injury (details unknown to me) is likely the reason why "PATIENTS NEEDING DRESSINGS" was typed on the top of the page of the passenger list from that December 17th departure which shows George Zeller listed at the bottom: <a href=”https://photos.app.goo.gl/TxodakQiwh3qfi9XA”>Photo</a>
I heard that George supposedly captured 14 German soldiers, but I don't have any details.
The 1920 U.S. census had an effective date of January first. The Zeller family was enumerated January 15th. The census page shows that 26 year old unmarried George Jr. lived above the Zeller Hardware store, at 1738 W. 99th St., Chicago, with his father, mother, and five sisters. His father George Sr. still owned the store. George Jr.'s occupation was listed as a tinsmith at the hardware store.
A photo of that 1920 census page: <a href="https://goo.gl/photos/EaWXTkffuozXdioVA">Photo</a>
This photo, taken at some point between 1920 and 1926, shows five people, the front of George J. Zeller Sr's hardware store/apartment building, and a pick-up truck: <a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/BdWj6vGjeoKBaeYm1">Photo</a>
That's George, Sr. standing in front of the truck, George, Jr. sitting in the truck, two store employees - Harry and George Witt, and George, Jr.'s oldest sister Mary, standing in the doorway of the store. Notice the phone number on the side of the truck: BEVerly 1940. The windows above the store were the family home's living room, on the left, and the master bedroom.
The May 25, 1923 <i>Sullivan's Englewood Times</i> contained a story mentioning an upcoming double wedding. George J. Zeller, Jr. would marry Teresa Shanahan, while in the same church at the same time, George's sister Viola would marry Clifford Teipe. The story misspelled Teresa's first and last names: <a href="https://goo.gl/photos/Qa1M9YqK56NmYDpHA">Photo</a>
On June 6, 1923, George Joseph Zeller married Teresa Agnes Shanahan at the St. Margaret of Scotland Catholic Church, at 99th St. and Throop St. That was the same church where George's parents had gotten married in 1894. A photo of the couple's marriage license and marriage record document: <a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/QSJg2fMtp7dJ7T803">Photo</a>
About late 1926, George bought the Zeller Hardware store from his father. But George Sr., his wife Mary, George Jr., his wife Teresa, their daughters Rita and Terese, Junior's teenaged sisters Genevieve and Lillian, and maybe their oldest sister Mary (unmarried at the time) still lived above the store. That was eight or nine people. In 1927 or 1928, the parents and teenaged daughters moved from above the store to a house a few blocks away. And young Mary got married and lived elsewhere.
In the years around this time, George's sister Viola and her husband Clifford Teipe were apparently half owners of a printing and gift store that was directly across the street from the Zeller store. A 1928 Chicago directory shows the name of the business was Peschel & Teipe printers, at 1739 W. 99th St.
About July 31 or August 1, 1929, George was involved in a car accident in which a woman in a car (likely a front seat passenger) sustained minor injuries from broken glass. A short newspaper story: <a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/YkOZyzjCHrBA8b6H3">Story</a>
The 1930 U.S. census had an effective date of April first. The George Zeller, Jr. household was enumerated April eleventh. The census page shows that George, 35; Teresa, 34; and daughters Rita, 5; Terese, 3 years and four months; and Georganne, one year and one month of age, lived above the Zeller Hardware store on 99th St. There was also a 16-year-old maid named Helen Shaffer living with the family. The census page includes the information that the family owned a radio.
Helen lived in the home for a few years. She cooked meals and she cleaned the home Monday through Saturday, because Teresa worked downstairs in the store.
A photo of that 1930 census page: <a href="https://goo.gl/photos/Hf88u3oDJ7oNm4xq6">Photo</a>
A late 1930 photo of George Zeller, his three children, and his in-laws is below. Clockwise from upper left; Georganne Zeller; her father, George Joseph Zeller, Junior; his mother-in-law Catherine "Kate" Casey Shanahan; her husband Gregory Shanahan; his granddaughter Terese Zeller; her sister Rita Zeller. <a href="https://goo.gl/photos/DQjw9MRXFQy63RYX7">Photo</a>
The location was in front of the Zeller Hardware store building, and in front of the doorway to the stairway to the apartment above, where the Zeller family lived. The address was and still is, as of 2015, 1738 W. 99th Street, Chicago.
A photo of the Zeller children taken in 1932, clockwise from upper left; Terese, Rita, Georganne, and George Richard: <a href="https://goo.gl/photos/5fDLr4rUvHubz2ew6">Photo</a>
George and Teresa Zeller had five children:
<b>1)</b> Rita Marie Zeller, born September 27, 1924, in Chicago. Rita's birth certificate: <a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/YrBg3RuclchR6NzJ2">Photo</a>
Rita Zeller married Donald Leo O'Connor on September 13, 1947, at St. Barnabas Catholic Church in Chicago. Rita and Don had seven children.
<b>2)</b> Terese Louise Zeller, born April 6, 1927, in Chicago. Terese's birth certificate contained a handwritten spelling of her first name as Therese. No middle name written. Twelve days after her birth, her father submitted a name change document. Both documents photos have been combined into one image: <a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/JbrPQfiZYJmACfgn6">Photo</a>
In October of 1942, Terese filled out a Social Security number application. She wrote that her mother's name was Teresa A. Shanahan, and her father's name was George J. Zeller. Terese was given number 326-20-0645.
Terese Zeller married James Thomas Miller on June 11, 1947, at St. Barnabas Catholic Church in Chicago. Terese and Jim had eight children. Terese Miller died at her home in Genoa City, Wisconsin, on April 21, 1980, of cancer.
Terese's FindAGrave memorial includes photos of her, and a photo of her grave marker: <a href="https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/125892682/">Memorial</a>
<b>3)</b> Georganne Zeller, born March 8, 1929, in Blue Island. Georganne's birth certificate had a misspelled first name: <a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/JUM4hEpGgpwaCPGn2">Photo</a>
She was sometimes called "George", for short. Georganne chose her own middle name as an adult. She chose "Genevieve", in honor of an aunt she especially liked. Georganne married Paul Joseph Parker on October 6, 1956, at St. Barnabas Catholic Church in Chicago. Georganne and Paul had four children. They also had one stillborn son in 1963 in Long Beach, California. Georganne Parker died February 11, 2014, in Indianapolis, Indiana. More about Georganne, Paul, their family and ancestors is in this chart.
Georganne's FindAGrave memorial: <a href="https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/125867791/">Memorial</a>
<b>4)</b> George Richard Zeller, born May 22, 1931, in Evergreen Park. While that was his legal name, he was called Richard, likely because the boy had a sister named Georganne and a father named George. If the boy had also been callled George, there would have been more confusion.
George Richard died at the age of two and a half on November 3, 1933, of leukemia. The cause of death was written on his death certificate (below) as "acute aplastic anemia." That's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aplastic_anemia">a rare disease in which the bone marrow doesn't make enough blood cells.</a>
The November 5, 1933, <i>Chicago Tribune</i> included a death notice for George Richard. A death notice was unusual for a child, because a child's friends weren't reading newspaper death notices, and the only adults who knew a young child were relatives or neighbors, who would be informed of the death in person or by phone. A photo of that death notice: <a href="https://goo.gl/photos/qnptNZrVLqJc88Gq6">Photo</a>
The birth and death certificates of George Richard Zeller: <a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/62gjjTevh8lq2Lut2">Photo</a>
That death certificate incorrectly stated that George Richard was to buried at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery. Mount Olivet Cemetery has been confirmed as correct by burial records held by the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, who operate all Catholic cemeteries in and near Chicago. The boy was buried there because his mother's father had already bought a large plot.
George Richard's FindAGrave memorial includes the only two photos I have of him: <a href="https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/189381507">Memorial</a>
<b>5)</b> John Joseph Zeller, born May 31, 1933, in Evergreen Park. John's birth certificate does not show a middle name: <a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/1zLDCQj8O3hikKcH3">Photo</a>
He attended the Marmion Military Academy, in Aurora, Illinois, which was a Catholic high school for boys. John's mother was the president of the Mother's Club at the school. John served in the military in Alaska. Later, he worked as a tradesman in the construction industry. John J. Zeller married Eileen Margaret Crowley on March 24, 1956, in Chicago. John and Eileen had five children who survived to adulthood. Eileen also gave birth to a son named George Gerard Zeller, who died at the age of three and a quarter hours, about November 19, 1963. The infant was buried next to his grandfather, also named George Zeller, at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, in Worth, Illinois. John Zeller died July 3, 2011, in Illinois.
John's FindAGrave memorial includes photos of him, and a photo of the columbarium niche cover, behind which are the cremated remains of he and his wife, Eileen: <a href="https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/73130363/">Memorial</a> - George slept in the front bedroom, and Teresa slept in the second bedroom, because George snored so much. The three daughters shared one bedroom.
George and Teresa went to horse races sometimes, but George was not a big gambler.
The 1940 U.S. census had an effective date of April first. The George Zeller, Jr. household was enumerated April twelfth. The census page shows George, 45; Teresa, 44; and their children Rita, 15; Terese, 13; Georganne, 11; and John, age six. They still lived above their Zeller Hardware store. Teresa was the person who stated the family's information to the census taker, as indicated by the x in a circle next to her name. She stated that she and George had 8th grade educations.
A photo of that 1940 census page: <a href="https://goo.gl/photos/A51rq275yNTj5UfT6">Photo</a>
On April 27, 1942, at the age of 47, George had to sign a World War 2 draft registration card: <a href="https://goo.gl/photos/tJF1DMXckzv672k29">Photo</a>
George and these other 45 to 64-year-old men were not going to get called for military service. The purpose of the registration was to document the mens' skills for possible use in the United States, later in the war. The card shows that George's phone number was BEVerly 1940, which was the phone number for the Zeller Hardware store. His physical description was given as five feet, nine and a half inches tall, 148 pounds, with gray eyes, brown hair, a dark complexion, and he wore glasses.
Back in the day, sometimes even the most mundane events would get printed in a newspaper. The September 15, 1943 <i>Southtown Economist</i> printed the following item:
RETURN FROM VACATION Mr. and Mrs. George Zeller and family, 1738 W. 99th st., have re- turned from a vacation spent at Twin Lakes, Wis.
George didn't trust banks. He kept money in socks that were hidden in places in the basement.
A photo of the George J. Zeller, Jr. family, apparently taken Christmas Eve or Day, 1948: <a href="https://goo.gl/photos/FHNq5VGSh9PeEc9H8">Photo</a> Back row left to right: Jim Miller; Georganne Zeller; John Zeller; Don O'Connor. Front row, left to right: Terese Zeller Miller; George J. Zeller, Jr., holding Rita and Don's son Don O'Connor; Teresa Shanahan Zeller, holding Terese and Jim's son Tom Miller; Rita Zeller O'Connor.
Store transaction ledgers (apparently used for customers with store credit accounts) from the 1950 - 1951 - 1952 time frame show that the store's phone number was CEdarcrest 3-9745, commonly stated as CE3-9745, which was 233-9745: <a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/sSvCcRcLl9hDHWVE2">Photo</a>
At some point in the first four months of 1952, George sold Zeller Hardware to Frank Bert Gradolf. The store name became Gradolf Hardware. Frank previously owned a smaller hardware store at 5607 S. Damen Avenue, which has since been demolished.
A sign showing
HARDWARE GRADOLF & SON
was still painted on the side of the building six decades later. An even older
Zeller HARDWARE PAINTS & GLASS
painted sign was on the top of the side of the building. It was very faded, but the name Zeller was still barely readable as of 2009. <a href="https://goo.gl/photos/ByhcTkGfDZoVgHiL8">Black and white photo</a>
After Frank Gradolf died in November of 1979, Gradolf Hardware remained in business for a couple of years or so. Then Magna Electric Supply rented the ground floor for years, then they bought the building. Later, the ground floor was occupied by Video Junction. Since then, various doctors have used the space. The top floor continues to be a three bedroom, one bath apartment as of 2018.
Here's a comparison of how the front of the building looked about 1920 and in 2004, using two black and white photos: <a href="https://goo.gl/photos/rNFsjfGRVY2BdCeV6">Photo</a>
A comparison of how the building looked in 2004 and in 2015, using two color photos: <a href="https://goo.gl/photos/9AN2CTWb8qyY9Gfa6">Photo</a>
An "artists conception" showing the Zeller's as they were about 1920, standing in front of their building as it looked in 2004: <a href="https://goo.gl/photos/ivw39qftPyTReeFf8">Photo</a>
The one story building right next to the Zeller store, which in the photo has an orange awning, used to be Loving Bros. grocery store in the late 1920s and in the 1930s.
In 2013, the former Zeller Hardware store and residence building (plus the brick garage in back and the property it all sat on) was put up for sale. The realtor photographed parts of the buildings. After the exterior photos were taken, the east side of the building (the long brick wall) had lumber removed, and was sandblasted and tuckpointed. There is almost nothing left of the painted "Zeller HARDWARE" sign at the top left corner of the brick wall. Here are some of those photos of the outside of the building (before the sandblasting) and the inside of the vacant first floor commercial space (recently a doctor's office) and the second floor three bedroom apartment: <a href="https://goo.gl/photos/7wUozYumEc8Eiz8D7">Photos</a>
After George sold the hardware store/apartment building during the first four months of 1952, he, Teresa and Georganne moved to a two-year-old house at 8640 S. Honore St., Chicago. Rita and Terese were living with their husbands in their own homes, and John was in the Army. A transcript of George's 1954 death certificate shows 8640 S. Honore as his address.
A photo of George's death notice in the April 15, 1954 <i>Chicago Tribune:</i> <a href="https://goo.gl/photos/EdHWJmj3j43ykTYz8">Photo</a>
George's FindAGrave memorial includes photos of him, and a photo of his grave marker. The marker shows 1894 as the year of birth for Teresa, but the correct year was 1895: <a href="https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/113675744">Memorial</a> -- More photos of George (and others) are included in this collection from albums kept by his wife Teresa: <a href="https://goo.gl/photos/rLCU3GdNydbkP1aA9">Teresa Agnes Shanahan Zeller photo album images</a>
Note: <table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/YYW9FG-Vikp
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