My great-great-grandmother, Anna Friese, was born a little over a year before the great Chicago Fire. That was given as the reason by Cook County that there is no birth certificate available for her. Piecing the rest of her life together has also been a slow, convoluted, confusing and sometimes frustrating process.
I often wondered what it would have been like for the families in the Chicago area during and after the fire. Historical accounts indicate that residents of Arlington Heights sat on their roofs to watch the fire. Trains regularly stopped at Arlington Heights traveling northwest out of Chicago probably bringing refugees. The small of smoke must have lingered for days.
Anna’s parents, August and Marie (Thusius) Friese, had immigrated to Arlington Heights about 1867. They were encouraged to come by Marie’s sisters, Julia and Alma Thusius who had separately come over earlier as single women.
A handwritten piece of paper kept in the family Bible had Anna’s birth listed as 11 July 1870 in Arlington Heights, Cook County, Illinois. After some years of research, a baptismal record was discovered for Anna in records of St. Peter Lutheran Church in Arlington Heights. She was baptized 14 August 1870 and the record also listed her birth date, verifying the date given on her death certificate and the handwritten paper.
Little is known of Anna’s life growing up. Arlington Heights was a highly German-immigrant suburb of Chicago. Church records were kept and services spoken in German. August was a shoemaker and probably made a decent living. Anna had two brothers, Carl and Edward, and one sister, Pauline.
When Anna was almost 19, she married George H. Johnston. They were married by a police magistrate on 17 April 1889. Anna delivered her first child, Marie Martha, 5 months later, on 11 September 1889. Perhaps unknown to Anna and her family, George had been married previously as George Johnson to Sophia Engelbrecht. That couple had lived in the Hyde Park section of Chicago which was in the southern part of the city. George was an iron moulder and probably had a lot of work after the fire which took him all over the city. To this date no record of a divorce or of the death of Sophia have been located. This began the questions regarding George’s life. Unfortunately, my grandfather, Arthur, did not talk about his father except to say he was “an old reprobate.”
Anna had five other children, two of whom died young: Florence Emma (1891), Arthur Paul (1895), Hiram George (1897, d. 1899), Virginia Anna (1900), and George (1903, d.y.). Things seemed to go smoothly during this period. However, George had had a son with his first wife named Clarence Hiram born 1882. Where Clarence was during George and Anna’s marriage has not been discovered.
In 1900 Anna and George are living at 39 Huron St. in Chicago with their first three surviving children. Clarence would have been 18 and was possibly living in South Chicago. This is when discoveries may have been made, or Clarence or Sophia showed up. That is currently unknown. However, between the 1900 and 1910 census, strange things happened. By 1910 daughter, Marie had been married once at age 16, had one child and divorced. She was living in Allegan County, Michigan. Daughter, Florence was living in St. Joseph County, Michigan, single and cooking in a hotel. George was living with his son Clarence and a housekeeper at 1926 Sedgewick, Chicago. I couldn’t find Anna in Chicago or Michigan where her daughters were. Instead of looking for Anna I decided to look for her two remaining children, Arthur and Virginia.
That was when the story got even stranger. Arthur and Virginia Johnson are living with their mother, Anna in Saugatuck Township, Allegan County, Michigan. She is not listed as Anna Johnson or Johnston, but listed instead as Anna Burlingham, supposedly married to Lewis H. Burlingham that same year. Both stated they were married twice. Lewis H. Burlingham was indeed married twice, but no record of a marriage to Anna has been found. Rather, he first married in 1904 to Clarisa Nason and then again in 1917 to Frances Loomis Brown, stating he had only been married once before.
Was Anna “getting back” at George? We may never know, because by 1920 George and Anna are back together again, living in LaPorte, Indiana where their son, Arthur settled with his new wife! Most of the family photos featuring both parents and all the children were taken there in LaPorte before George died in January 1922. What caused the break-up? We have hypotheses for this. What brought them back together? That is a more intriguing, but unanswered question.
After George’s death Anna moved to Holland, Michigan to be with her first daughter, Marie, who had married again. It was there that Anna died only a few months after George in July 1922.
©2014 Nancy Ratay

1900 39 Huron St., Chicago, Illinois
1910 Allegan County, Michigan
1920 LaPorte, Indiana
1922 158 College St., Ward 1 in Holland, Michigan at time of death

1870 Illinois, Cook County, Wheeling Twp., page 37, film M593-213
dwelling 274, family 274
Frisis(?), A, age 37, male, white, shoemaker, personal $200, born Prussia
----------, Mary, age 31, female, white, keeping house, born Prussia
----------, Willie, age 10, male, white, home, born Prussia
----------, Orlena, age 2, female, white, home, born Illinois
----------, Ann, age 2/12, female, white, home, born Illinois, born Apr

1880 Illinois, Cook County, Wheeling Township, Arlington Heights, Vol.17, E.D. 226, sheet 10A, line 27, stamped page 467, film T9-202
dwelling 78, family 93 (living with Fred Koas)
Frieze, August, white, male, age 46, head, shoemaker, born Prussia, father Russia, mother Schleswig
--------, Mary, white, female, age 41, wife, keeping house, born Saxony, parents born Saxony
--------, Paulina, white, female, age 12, daughter, in school, born Illinois, father born Prussia, mother Saxony
--------, Anna, white, female, age 10, daughter, in school, born Illinois, father born Prussia, mother Saxony
--------, Edward, white, male, age 5, son, born Illinois, father born Prussia, mother Saxony

1900 Illinois, Cook County, Chicago, 23rd Ward, vol. 51, E.D. 706, sheet 8B, line 88, p. 23, film T623-273 (taken 8 June 1900)
dwelling 73, family 164, 39 Huron Street
Johnston, George, head, white, male, July 1857, age 42, married 12 years, born Michigan, parents born Michigan, iron moulder
-----------, Anna, wife, white, female, July 1870, age 29, married 12 years, born Illinois, parents born Germany
-----------, Mamie, daughter, white, female, Sept 1889, age 10, single, born Illinois, father born Michigan, mother born Illinois
-----------, Florence, daughter, white, female, July 1891, age 8, single, born Illinois, father born Michigan, mother born Illinois
-----------, Arthur, son, white, male, May 1895, age 5, single, born Illinois, father born Michigan, mother born Illinois

1910 Michigan, Allegan County, Saugatuck Twp, Douglas Village, E.D. 28, sheet 3A, stamped page 221, film T624-634 (taken 19 April 1910)
Wall Street, dwelling 72, family 73
Burlingham, Lewis H., head, male white, age 48, married twice, this for 0 years, born Michigan, father born Ohio, mother born England, engineer in basket factor
--------------, Anna J., wife, female, white, age 39, married twice, this for 0 years, mother of 4 children, 4 living, born Illinois, parents born Germany
Johnson, Arthur P., stepson, male, white, age 15, single, born Illinois, father born Michigan, mother born Illinois, driver bakery wagon
----------, Virginia A., stepdaughter, female, white, age 9, single, born Illinois, father born Michigan, mother born Illinois

1920 Indiana, LaPorte County, Center Township, 2nd Ward La Porte City, Vol. 55, E.D. 117, sheet 2A, line 30, film T625-447, (taken 5 Jan 1920)
1022 1/2 Lincoln Way, dwelling 27, family 30
Johnston, George, head, male, white, age 62, married, born Michigan, father born New York, mother born Pennsylvania, sweeper factory
Johnston, Anna, wife, female, white, age 49, married, born Illinois, parents born Germany
Downey, Virginia, daughter, female, white, age 19, widowed, born Illinois, father born Michigan, mother born Illinois, laborer, woolen mill

--------------deceased