Cecil Duane "Gus" Lippert (Myrtle Evelyn Lippert) (Ronald Ervin Lippert)

I found my uncle Duane's obituary in the Hartford Courant dated 17 Feb 1998 stating that he lived at Spice Hill Rd, in East Hampton Connecticut and that he passed away on 15 Feb 1998 at age 71.  He was born 1 May 1926.  He moved to Connecticut in 1987 after working for Otis Elevators for 35 years here in Oregon.  My mother says he was the nicest man, and that's why my name was named after him.  I never met him though. Not that I remember, anyways.

He was born to my great grandmother Myrtle and his California Birth registry lists him as Cecil Duane Sturzenegger, and the 1930 census (3 April 1930, District 34-51, Roy, Washington, Oregon, USA) lists him as Duane Lippert and as a step-son to Ervin Frederick Lippert, husband to Myrtle Evelyn Sturzenegger Lippert having been adopted.

His grave memorial on Findagrave can be found HERE.

I never met Ervin either, but Myrtle was a hoot.  She had a HUGE goldfish named "Glutton" in a bowl that seemed a bit too small for him, they lived at 1216 SE Marion St. in Portland, and she loved her stereo and would crank up the bass on it.  I was mostly little when I was over at her house, but she did go to Canada with me, mom and dad in 1981 and I remember her teaching me how to play cards (cut the deck above the table) and telling me at one point she used to design mazes for a coloring book company (?), and giving me her WWII ration stamps (which I've since lost).  She always wore moccasins it seemed with beads on them that were colored like red and white, she had an old car, a station wagon from the 1960's that had the tail fins on it, it was white or tan, wore the plastic hood to protect her hair like women did back in the day, I remember her bringing me a plastic pink ball once when she came over to our house in Oregon City, as well as cussing out some lady that cut my dad off on our trip to the coast as a family with her that my dad hit with the 1977 Chevy Cheyenne Pickup.  Seems she went more places with us than anyone in my family now that I think about it.  She smoked, usually wore a crucifix, and would laugh and say "me and satan are buds" if anyone commented on something she was doing that was a bit wild or crazy.  I interviewed her for my 1993 high school report to interview someone from another era and she told me what the depression was like.  If I can find it around here maybe I'll add it to this. I remember her telling me about how the kids would fight over a nickle on the ground, how big a deal a chocolate bar was in the depression and how their house payment for the house on Marion street was TEN DOLLARS a month and they scraped EVERY penny they had to keep their house from being taken by the banks.  Ten dollars is 1,000 pennies.  200 nickles. 100 dimes. 40 quarters.  20 half-dollars.  Ten ones.  Two fives (or a five and five ones) or a single ten.  Makes my head spin. Anyways, the last gift I have from her is a blanket she crocheted.  I hate the word crocheted - crotch-et-ed? Crowshayed.  Its actually on the chair behind me. 


While I'm writing about Myrtle whose grave can be found HERE with her husbands HERE , I found an article in the Oregonian about her son, Duane's brother Ronald Ervin Lippert and his death on May 15th 1951. On page 11 of the Oregonian, May 18th, 1951, there is an article that reports that he came home from being out with his friends, and that he came home, reported a stomach ache with his friends, wasn't feeling well, then started moaning at 5:30 in the morning.  His parents, Myrtle and Ervyn called the family doctor, but Ronald was dead by the time the doctor arrived.  The autopsy was inconclusive and toxicology tests were ordered but I haven't been able to locate anything additional on the topic.  The article can be found through this link HERE but you might not be able to access it without a Multnomah County Library Card - it's the Oregonian Archives. 

STURZENEGGERS!

Been working on the children of John Sturzenegger and Rosina Zopfe from Switzerland but in California. They had 12 children.

John Sturzenegger was born about 1820 in Switzerland, died about 1810, but I don't have a whole lot of info on Rosina other than she was born about 1832 in Switzerland. Their children are as follows as best as I can determine from the 1870, 1880 censuses from San Antonio, Monterey, California:

William Francis 11 Mar 1871
Fredrick 1854
Elizabeth ~1859
John J ~1862
Jacob J ~1868
Emma ~May 1870
Carolina ~1876
Rosa ~1857
Louisa (Luisa) ~1862
Amia ~1853
And Predeline (?) or Piery Ann (?) - ~1864.

Fredrick's wife, Rachel, is reported that her family came from Missouri, and some were involved in the Mountain Meadow Massacre, but she was born the year after, and I understand only a few children survived from that, so I don't know it would have been her family directly.


These were obtained off Ancestry.com - but here we go!  Some faces to the names.  I'm currently researching Lizzy, her husband, William (?) Orr, died in a buggy accident leaving her a widow but she died when her oldest was 11 but I don't know why or how.  Anyways, these are the photos I have for now.

Rachel Fancher Sturzenegger - wife of Fredrick Sturzenegger, buried at Mountain View cemetery, Kingman Arizona

And Fredrick

Fredrick Sturzenegger - San Francisco ~1880-ish

Elizabeth "Lizzy" Sturzenegger (Later Orr)

William & Jacob

Rosa

Agnews State Hospital for Insanity

This is a bit tangential for a genealogy study, but I'm also working on becoming a doctor of psychology so obviously the concept of an insane asylum is interesting to me.

My g-g-grandfather John Sturzenegger was, according to a 1900 census, committed to the Agnews State Hospital for Insanity.  Here's a link to the hospital here.

Here's another link to the hospital itsself.  Given that my professional studies are in psychology, I'm interested in finding the records of John Sturzenegger.  Given that he was from Switzerland, I wonder if there was something to this at that point in regressing to a native language, or was it just dementia?

Here's the census. 

William Sturzenegger, Madera California.

Here's some of the documents I have on William Sturzenegger, father of Myrtle Evelyn Sturzenegger (Lippert) who later moved to Roy Oregon and was buried at Lincon memorial in Portland Oregon.  I haven't yet determined whether the draft registration and the passport application are the same person as the documents list different dates of birth, though only off by ~1 year.

Ervin Frederick Lippert, Myrtle Evelyn Sturzenegger Lippert - Graves

This is Myrtle Evelyn (Sturzenegger) Lippert and Eryn Frederick Lippert's gravestones from Lincoln Memorial Cememtery up on Mt. Scott Blvd. in Portland Oregon.(All of these can be enlarged)

1930 Roy Oregon Census when Myrtle and Ervin lived there after the death of Ervin's parents

I have not yet found records for Duane C. Lippert who is listed on the 1930 census as being a step-son to Ervin in the home. The records I have from Ancestry.com indicate thatthey were married in Mesa, Arizona in 1926.  At the time of the Census in 1930, Duane was 3 1/2 years old so I'm not sure who the father of Duane is.  FWIW, Duane was known in my family as "The kindest man ever" and it was from him that I received my middle name. 

Ervin Lippert's WWI draft card

Ervin Lippert's grave stone

Lincoln Memorial Park entrance

Erin and Myrtle's graves side by side

Their house on SE Marion Street in Portland Oregon taken in 2010