My grandparents were Elsa and Erwin F. Rohde and they lived in Saginaw, Michigan when I first knew them. My dad was their older son and we made several trips to Michigan to visit them in the 1950’s when we were children, during Dad’s annual summer vacations from GE. They lived at 1915 Phelon St. in a small house on a tree-shaded street where cicadas were always singing in the hot summer weather.
Grandma Rohde was a kind lady who always wore a flowered dress, heavy stockings, and sensible shoes. She also usually wore an apron as she was always in the kitchen. She had a small vegetable garden out in back and crocks of sauerkraut in the basement. Her recipe for German chocolate cake was a family favorite. I remember the large family reunion picnic in the park that happened while we were there, and all the German food! Once we drove out into the country to visit relatives who lived on a farm near where Grandma grew up and brought back some freshly harvested green beans.
Grandpa Rohde was usually sitting in his favorite chair reading the Braille Reader’s Digest because he was blind. My parents sent him a gift subscription every year at Christmas. We were quite impressed that he could “read” the bumps stamped on the heavy manilla pages. I remember laying on the floor poking holes in sheets of paper and asking him if he could find any words. I also remember going to the Saginaw Post Office where he had a newspaper and candy stand. We were amazed that he could make change by feeling the coins and made a game of trying to fool him. He could walk there himself with his white cane.
Also part of those trips was visiting our cousins and their families. On the way to Michigan, we would stop in Buffalo, NY, to spend the night with Uncle Bob and Aunt Betty Schultz, and our cousins David and Mary Beth. At least once, we went to nearby Niagara Falls and took the “Maid of the Mist” boat trip on the river at the base of the American and Canadian falls. In Saginaw, we also visited Uncle Bob and Aunt Pat Rohde, with their 2 daughters Terri Sue and Mary Ellen. Although all of our cousins were younger than we were, it was fun to play with them.
My grandmother, Elsa Anna Trump was born on June 16, 1892, in Richville, Michigan, a small rural town 12 miles from Saginaw. She was the second of four daughters of Paul Trump and Kathrina Englehardt, both in the second generation of immigrant German Lutheran settlers from Bavaria, who had come to the area in the 1850’s, when Richville was originally known as Frankenhilf. Paul Trump was a carpenter, and they probably lived in the town. But, in a conversation with my mom, Elsa recalled working hoeing corn and harvesting sugar beets, and later helping on her aunt’s farm with cooking and child care while others worked in the fields. Like her older sister, Elsa only attended school up to the 8th grade. The schools in Richville at that time taught both religious subjects in German and secular subjects in English, so I imagine she spoke German as well as English. Her family attended St. Michael’s Lutheran Church and her religion was very important to her throughout her life.
According to my father, before she married, Elsa worked as a domestic servant, which was typically the only work done by women outside the home. She married my grandfather Erwin F. Rohde in Bay City, Michigan, on October 27, 1915 when she was 23 years old. I’m guessing that she may have been in Bay City, because her father’s sister, Aunt Barbara, had a rooming house there. My father Erwin Carl was born the following year (1916), followed by a daughter Kathleen who died only one day old in 1921, a daughter Elizabeth in 1923 (my Aunt Betty), and finally another son, Robert in 1928 (my Uncle Bob).
My grandfather Erwin Frederick Rohde was born on January 14, 1893 to Gustav Rohde and Dorothea Wolfe, both German immigrants from the Hamburg area, who had arrived around 1880. Erwin was the youngest of 5 children, including 3 older daughters and an older brother. The family lived in Saginaw where the parents were shopkeepers. The older son (Dad’s Uncle Otto) was encouraged to attend college, but Erwin had to fend for himself, doing odd jobs and later working in an office. After he married Elsa, they lived in Bay City for a short time until they moved to Saginaw. Erwin took a correspondence course and became an accountant for Saginaw Steering Gear. Unfortunately, he lost his job during the Great Depression and had difficulty finding other work. I imagine that life was very difficult for the family.
My father graduated from Saginaw High School in 1934 and was able to attend the University of Michigan and graduate as a mechanical engineer in 1939. He soon found work with the General Electric Company and moved away, first to Schnectady, New York, and later to Lynn, Massachusetts, where he married my mother. Despite hard times, and the war, both his sister Betty and brother Bob also graduated from the University of Michigan- Betty in nursing and Bob in engineering. Soon after they married, my parents travelled back to Michigan to meet Dad’s family. My grandparents with Betty and Bob Schultz also travelled to Marblehead to visit my parents when they were living on Bowden St. before our house was built.
In the early 1950’s my grandfather became blind, due to a mis-treated eye infection, my mother said, and life for my grandmother must have been difficult. Fortunately, my Uncle Bob lived nearby with his family, and Grandma was always close to my Aunt Betty, My grandfather died in 1964, and after that she often spent time with Betty and her family who lived in various places with her family. And she visited my parents many times, taking the train from Detroit to Boston by herself. I remember one visit in particular when I was there and she was able to meet her new great grandson John.
Family ties were very important to Elsa throughout her life. She sent us birthday cards every year and always slipped in a 5 dollar bill. She and Mom kept up a regular correspondence and, when Mom became interested in tracing Dad’s family, she enjoyed asking Elsa what she remembered about her relatives. Mom wrote to me after Elsa passed away, “I realize I really miss Grandma’s letters. She kept us abreast of many little details about the Saginaw people and made them all so much more alive.”
Sometime after my grandfather died, Elsa decided to move to a retirement community where she had her own apartment. And later, she went to live at the Lutheran Home in Frankenmuth with her sister Emma, who also lived into her 90’s. I love to think about 2 elderly sisters, perhaps sitting on the porch in rocking chairs, keeping each other company… Elsa died in 1986 at the age of 93 and she is buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery, Saginaw, next to Erwin and her infant daughter. In a note to my dad, my brother wrote “when I think about my ‘roots’, I think of Grandma. She had a strength and straight-forwardness that made me proud to be her grandson.” Well said!
Elizabeth Ann Schultz
My Aunt Betty was my father’s younger sister, born in 1923 in Saginaw. She became a student at the University of Michigan in 1941, and graduated in the nursing program. She married Robert C. Schultz in 1944 in Saginaw while she was junior at college. Uncle Bob was born in Buffalo, NY, in 1923 and attended Valparaiso University and graduated from Perdue. At the time they married, he was a lieutenant in the Army Air Corps, but did not serve overseas. He worked for the DuPont Chemical Company for 35 years before he retired. Bob and Betty adopted 2 children as infants: David, born in 1951, and Mary Beth, born in 1955. They lived in Buffalo, NY, for many years, before moving to Lawrence, Kansas, and finally to Camden, South Carolina, where I visited them on a trip to Florida in 1980. They visited my parents in Marblehead several times. And I know that Grandma often spent winters with Betty in SC. Bob died in 2005 and Betty died in 2012, and they are both buried in Camden, South Carolina.
Robert Paul Rohde
My Uncle Bob was my father’s younger brother, born in 1928 in Saginaw. He graduated from the University of Michigan in 1950 with a BS in mechanical engineering. From 1950 to 1952, he served with the US Army in Korea. When he returned, he married Patricia Constantine in 1953. She was born in 1931 in Sioux City, Iowa. Bob worked for Saginaw Steering Gear, a Division of General Motors, for 37 years until he retired in 1987 as the Director of Engineering Technology. He was also the holder of 37 US patents. Bob and Pat lost 2 daughters in infancy: Jo Lynn and Pamela, which I understood growing up was a great tragedy in their lives. But they were also the parents of my 2 cousins: Terri Sue, born in 1955, and Mary Ellen, born in 1958. Bob and Pat lived in the Saginaw area until after Bob’s retirement when they bought a condo on Sanibel Island in Florida, where they eventually ended up living full time. In their later years, they travelled to all 7 continents! They also visited Marblehead when we were growing up and later. In 2010, Uncle Bob suffered a stroke and spent the next 5 years at a nursing facility in Fort Myers, where he died in 2015. I recall visiting him there, where he talked about his experiences in Korea. On another visit to Florida, I recall visiting Aunt Pat at the condo on Sanibel Island, where she filled me in on all of her grandchildren, while I tried to take notes. She died a few years later in 2018 in Fort Meyers. According to Bob’s obituary, they had 7 grandchildren and 6 great-grandchildren.
Terri Sue Dunham
My cousin Terri Sue was born in 1955 in Saginaw and currently lives in DeWitt, Michigan. She also has a condo on Sanibel which was damaged when the storm surge from Hurricane Ian washed over the island and took out the bridge in 2022. She is currently married to Fred Dunham and is the mother of 3 children: Chris and Katie (Cramer), and Chad Dunham. I think she was a nurse and Fred was a dentist. We have sent holiday cards back and forth a few times. and I would like to share this genealogy with her and learn more about her life.
Mary Ellen Chasseur
My cousin Mary Ellen was born in 1958 in Saginaw, and lived in Frankenmuth, until she and her husband Tim Chasseur moved to Sanibel Island. They had to move to Fort Meyers after their condo was damaged in the 2022 hurricane. Mary and Tim have 2 children: Craig and Kristen. I don’t know what Tim did for work, but I understand that Mary was a librarian. We have also exchanged cards and she was kind enough to send me her Dad’s obituary. I would like to share this genealogy with her, too, and find out more about her life.
I have written much more about my father’s life here.