[PRCo] Re: Teenie Harris Collection

[Harold G.]

Greetings to all

When I moved to Pgh in 1950 I picked up
my friendship with Charles Dengler. I had
worked with Charles on the ERA weekend in
Pgh and he was an ERA friend along with
Bob Scanlon and Richard Bowker of
Forest Hills.

Thru Charles I learned of the German
heritage of the North Side.  I attended a
German Lutheran Church on Madison
St with Charles and his mother.  In NY
the German community was in Yorkville
or on the Brooklyn-Queens border in
Ridgewood.  My block (36th st) had a
single German tenement.  I attended a
Presbyterian church which had a large
German population..  When we went to
the Lutheran Cemetery at the end of the
M subway, we would eat at Neidersteins

In the National Guard, I had many contacts
with the Germans in Lebanon and Allentown.
And in the ERA, with fans from Milwaukee

I read once that (before Latinos), Germans
were the largest population group in the USA.

I was always proud of my heritage.  My father's
grand father was in the Civil War.  I never
wanted to change my name

Harold Geissenheimer
Pgh
-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Rathke <bobrathke at comcast.net>
To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
Date: Thursday, December 23, 2004 11:28 AM
Subject: [PRCo] Re: Teenie Harris Collection


>An interesting comment on the Northside tailor shop, Fred.
>
>In the early 1900's, my (maternal) great grandfather, Joseph Wurdack, owned
>a tailor shop on E. Ohio St. near James St.  The shop name was painted on
>the brick side wall of the building, and it was still visible into the
>1970's.  I have his cutting shears, as well as a wooden coat hanger
>imprinted with the shop's name.
>
>His son, Joseph Wurdack, Jr., continued the business until 1954, and by
then
>it was located on East St., just north of North Avenue.
>
>Both sides of my family were German and Austrian.  They came to Pittsburgh
>as early as 1828, and all of them lived on the Northside - James St. near
>what is now Allegheny General Hospital, Spring Hill and City View.
>
>My (maternal) grandfather's name was Lutz, another business name on the
>Northside - Lutz Brewery on Chestnut St. at Spring Garden Ave. (now the
site
>of the fire station), and Lutz & Shramm (jelly and preserves plant) on E.
>Ohio St. just east of the Heinz plant.  Both of these company buildings
were
>still standing in the 1960's.
>
>Bob 12/23/04
>
>-----------------------------
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Fred Schneider" <fschnei at supernet.com>
>To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
>Sent: Thursday, December 23, 2004 9:40 AM
>Subject: [PRCo] Re: Teenie Harris Collection
>
>> Census enumeration worksheets from 1870 and 1880.  My great grandfather
>ultimately moved himself, his German wife and his tailor shop over to
>Sandusky Street next to Allegheny General Hospital on the North Side of the
>River.  Ambition aside, Germans were not supposed to go there.  That was
>English territory.
>RR
>
>