Genealogy---an interesting trip finding more about your family, its history, or a help for fathers and mothers in answering their inquisitive children asking about where do I come from etc.
As for me. I am Joseph Anthony Zott, my father was Milton William Zott. My Mother was Marion Corine Rinke. One of the first abnormalties is that when recording her birth name they used the male spelling of her first name and it annoyed her, her whole life.
Lets start this story with the parents, following customs of the time, men first.
My Grandfather Zott was born in Alsace Lorrine, France. As a young man he moved to the United States. Grandfather was Joseph and Grandmother was Anne.
Grandfather settled in Detroit along the land east of downtown Detroit. Anne was from the Marine City area and when her father died, she also relocated to the same area east of downtown Detroit. The family was on the poor side according to records. She became a household maid. Both worked in a Doctor’s household. Grandfather was in charge of the doctors horses, carriage and driving the Doctor on calls.
Natcherly, man-girl in same house and I found they married in Canada. Grandfather was then in several business, including butchering, meals, bar, etc. Records showed he was striving to become a profitable business man. Trend showed he was successful. Grandmother and grandfather had several children die young. Grandfather went to Europe and brought his mother back to Michigan. He was then active in the profitable business. Now built a building, for bowling, bought used alleys from building used as school, added a restaurant and bar.
My father was a good ball player. Fast, strong, good eyes. And smart. Dad played on the CenterLine team. He hit a lot of home runs. His father would walk thru the spectators trying to get a bet that Dad would get a home run. Grandpa ended financially ahead or else.
Gandfathers business did well
While working on my story, occasionally a story about my family comes to mind. I thought I would like to add them for your information, you may or may not enjoy them but here they are.
Grandpa Zott owned ground in Warren just off VanDyke. Can’t remember the cross street, probably 11 or 12-mile road east of Van Dyke. It was a farm. He raised potatoes, grapes, a cow, pigs, etc. He sold the farm to build the bowling alley, bar, and restaurant on Van Dyke. My Dad had lots of stories of the farm. The one that triggered my memory was the story about his pet. Today’s newspaper had an article about pigs with a picture of a pig with the sections of the animal named.
My father said that pigs were very intelligent. He had one that he made into a pet. He trained the pig to do many things including going out into the pasture and bring the cows back to the barn. A problem developed. The pig would nip the legs of the cow and the cow would run back to the barn. Dad felt the pig could do anything a dog could do. If I remember properly, this saved my father a trip out to the pasture to return the cows in the evening. But as many great ideas, things can go wrong. It seems that cows have udders that hold milk that leak if the cow moves quickly. If they run long enough they will lose all their milk. Cows had no milk left when they returned to barn after running.
Naturally, Grandfather was angry. Punishment followed. Dad had to kill his pet and process the meat for market. This bothered my Dad for years after.
Another odd? story. My Mother and Father both went to Saint Clement School, in Center Line, Michigan. They associated with each other socially and in groups. They were classmates in school. (Hope I got the names right). My Father and Mother double dated someone else. For quite some time. Then on one occasion they exchanged dates. My Father exchanged Florence Buechel (his date) for Marion Rinke and Florence Buechel (Dads date) got Marion’s date. Success! All liked the switch. Both couples’ courtship lead to marriage.
Earning money on a farm can be difficult. However, when choices are few and need great, methods are found. Grandpa, My Dad wanted to marry Marion Rinke. He wanted to buy her a ring.
At that time, Ravens were an “undesirable”. A Governmental group paid off on dead birds. My Father shot Ravens and took their bodies to the Government payoff group. He got enough money to buy My Mother a ring. Success!
You wonder who was the smartest Zott? We are looking at the past. I vote for my Mother. f she was alive I would bet on her being the wealthiest today. Realize she had completed 9 years when she had to start leave school to not only help at Rinke auto but at the Hardware store too. Oh yes, she did the bookwork too. Nine years was enough education---now it’s time to help family businesses. She had won the debates at school. She took on the school on “Who Was Greater—Lincoln or Washington.” Yes. she picked Washington and won. Her vs the whole (high) school. Nine years of schooling was not a lot. Her oldest brother Edgar attended University of Detroit, Business (Finance). He helped and guided her some, I hope. Amount I don’t know but I know she read a lot. She was working for the family rather attending the 10th year of schooling.
She could add a double string of numbers as well as single columns; this is without an adding machine. She lived to play mind games. She would grab a $1 bill and look at the numbers. After a few seconds she would hand you the bill and recite the numbers in order. Even when I was in engineering school she could add etc. numbers faster than I could. So I know she was excellent in arithmetic. In later years she did the bookwork for the Zott business.
You know our home, prior to going to Tucson, was in Center Line. The railroad track on the end of the field west of our home, prior to World War II, would have occasional trains, some weekly. Discover my Mother, when she stood at the kitchen window doing dishes, watched the few trains go by. She would count box cars on each train. She was projecting the economy. Would make comments on status of business, getting worse, getting better, no change. She would have loved a computer before they got tangled in a war who can add the most gimickes to the machine.
When I was working on my Masters Degree for Finance, I made a comment to a professor about counting box cars and making a record like my Mother did, He was impressed. So was I. She used this as an aid in projecting business and its effect on family expense, etc.. Not bad for a 9th grade education and in the midst of a poor economic era.
There is a chest of drawers in my bed room. That was my Mothers desk. She keep track of and recorded every $ that came through the family and was spent or saved, Time spent there varied. She stood alongside the chest and did writing etc. on the top several times a week. It took from a few minutes to over an hour, depend on many factors. I am sure it was a stop in bill paying review and process station. I’m sure a drawer was used for record keeping.
I do know my Mother was into investing the funds she handled. Maybe I will be lucky and recall some of her investments. No fund failures occurred and all were profitable.
I do know I worked at the Bowling Alley and rarely got paid immediately. I believed that I was paid for work there and some of these funds ended in my hands quickly while others my Mother took control of and invested for me. I had no difficulty with funds for college. My Sister, Mary Jane, had funds for Boarding High school and for College.