Adele Stoeckly

Tante Adèle Marie Stoeckly

Adèle Marie Stoeckly was born March 2, 1874 in Rothrist, Switzerland to Emil Friedrich Stöcklÿ and Maria Speck. She had an older sister, Ida, born in 1870, and a younger brother, Eugen, born in 1877. Nothing is known about her life in Switzerland. She probably went to the same school Ida attended and then taught at for 42 years. In 1901 Eugen, an engineer, traveled to America to work for the American Construction Company of New York installing machinery in suger refineries in Canada, Michigan, Wisconsin, Montana, and Arizona. Adèle came to Chicago at the same time as her brother. In his first week in the U.S., Eugen sent a post card to Lina on Nov. 22, 1901, from Chicago that said: "... Yesterday I visited Adele, she also likes it [here] very well...". Adele's Naturalization record made in 1919 lists her arrival in the U.S. as 11/19/02, but this must be off a year, and her arrival was probably Nov. 19, 1901. She started working for Mrs. Caroline (Hutchinson) Ryerson.

Mrs. Ryerson's husband, Martin A. Ryerson, inherited a fortune as the only son of his lumber baron father. The elder Ryerson developed lumber mills throughout Michigan and Wisconsin. When the Great Chicago fire of October 8, 1871, burned 10 square miles of the city, Ryerson lumber was used for it's rebuilding. Ryerson supplemented his lumber trade with investments in Chicago real estate and the Elgin Watch Company. When the father died in 1887, the son was labeled the richest young man in Chicago. He ran his father's businesses for only a half dozen years before retiring and focusing on philanthropy. He was one of the original trustees when the University of Chicago was founded in 1890. Two years later, he became the President of the Board of Trustees and served for 30 years. He was also one of the principal donors to the college. He had a vast interest in fine art, and owned 16 paintings by Claude Monet, who he first met while attending school in Paris and Switzerland. All his life he took extensive trips to Europe and Asia to attend art auctions and galleries. He became one of the founders of the Art Institute of Chicago, to which he and his wife eventually donated most of his art collection. He listed his occupation as "capitalist".

We can only guess how Adèle became employed with Mrs. Ryerson. Did they meet in Switzerland during one of the Ryerson trips? Or perhaps Adèle came to live with her brother in Chicago and responded to an advertisement by Mrs. Ryerson. Since Eugene's post card comment mentioned above indicates they were not living together, I would assume Adèle came to the U.S. knowing she already had a job with Mrs. Ryerson. The first confirmation of Adèle's employment comes from the passenger list of the ship S. S. Haid-Auguste Victoria sailing from Havre, France to New York on July 22, 1907. Immediately after the names of Martin Ryerson and Carrie Ryerson comes Adèle Stoeckly with her occupation listed as "maid". The 1910 census lists Adèle as part of the Ryerson household at 4851 Drexel Blvd in Chicago. There were 7 people listed in the house: Mr. and Mrs. Ryerson, Adèle as "lady's maid", and four Irish women listed as cook, laundress, parlor maid, and chamber maid. In the 1920 census there was one additional employee: a German chaufeur.

Between 1907 and 1931, Adèle was included on the passenger lists of at least 13 ships arriving in America. Most came from Europe to New York City, but one came from Japan to Seattle and another came from Honolulu to Los Angeles. Mr. and Mrs. Ryerson were also listed on each of these ships, but none of the other servants that I can find. And there are no ships after 1907 in which the Ryersons are listed without Adèle. However in each of 1904, 1905, and 1906, Mr. and Mrs. Ryerson are listed on a ship without Adèle. Two of those years they were listed as traveling with Carrie's brother and sister-in-law. Perhaps Mrs. Ryerson did not yet feel the need to travel with Adèle, or perhaps Adèle was not yet employed by her. I am of the opinion that Adèle started her employment with Mrs. Ryerson soon after arriving in Chicago, and that it took a few years before Mrs. Ryerson included Adèle in their traveling, but once she started traveling with them in 1907, she became an indispensible addition to the trips. The trips probably lasted several months, and usually ended in June or early July. Understandably, there were no trips during WWI. The Ryersons traveled to Switzerland on several of their trips, and I assume Adèle was able to see her sister Ida Stoeckly occasionally. There might even have been a Stoeckly reunion in Rothrist in 1911, since their brother Eugene (his name now had an 'e' at the end) brought his wife Lina and family to Switzerland that year and sailed back to NYC on May 28, 1911 on the ship "George Washington", just 5 weeks before Adèle sailed on the same ship. A letter Lina wrote in 1931 indicates that Adele had been in Switzerland visiting Ida earlier that year.

         Ships that Adèle sailed on (date is arrival back in US)
     Aug  4 1907 Cherbourg France - NYC     Kaiserin Auguste Victoria
     Jul  7 1909 Southampton      - NYC     Kronprinzessin Cecilie
     Jul  3 1911 Cherbourg France - NYC     George Washington
     Jul  7 1913 Cherbourg France - NYC     George Washington
     Jul  6 1914 Cherbourg France - NYC     George Washington
     Jun 25 1920 Cherbourg France - NYC     Adriatic
     Mar 20 1921 NYC Feb 21, 1921 - NYC     Megantic
     Nov 28 1921 Yokohama Japan   - Seattle Empress of Asia
     Apr 14 1923 Honolulu Hawaii  - LA      City of Los Angeles
     Jun 11 1924 Cherbourg France - NYC     Olympic
     Jun 20 1925 Cherbourg France - NYC     Belgenland
     Apr 25 1928 Le Havre France  - NYC     Ile de France
     Jun  2 1931 Le Havre France  - NYC     Ile de France

     Adriatic            Belgenland         George Washington
                  
    Kaiserin Auguste Victoria      Kronprinzessin Cecilie

   Ile de France          Megantic              Olympic

Adèle became a United States citizen on October 2, 1919. Though I have not seen a copy of the Naturalization Certificate, an index card tells us the dates and certificate number. Three months later, she applied for her U.S. Passport. The application has several interesting items in it, including her signature and photograph. She states that she has lived in Chicago since 1902, that she is a "lady's maid", and that she will be accompanying her employer in that capacity on a trip to France, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, and England. She intends to sail on the Rotterdam on Feb 7, 1920. Since she returned to NYC on June 25, the trip lasted over four months. The application also includes her description: 45 years old, 5 feet 6 inches, medium forehead, gray eyes, straight nose, medium mouth, round chin, brown hair, light complexion, and oval face. At the same time, Mr. and Mrs. Ryerson applied for their passports to be renewed, and we likewise have their photographs and descriptions.

1919 Certificate of Naturalization - 1920 Passport applications

In addition to their mansion in Chicago, the Ryersons also owned a summer home on Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, 90 miles northwest of Chicago. Lake Geneva was considered the Newport of the midwest. Many of the wealthy in Chicago built summer homes around the lake. The Ryersons bought their 100-acre estate in 1897. A year after buying the house, Ryerson built a 73-feet-long steam yacht, Hathor, which he kept in a specially built boat house on his property. At one point 34 people lived on the property to take care of the estate, including the yacht. The house was called "Bonnie Brae" and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Hathor likewise is still operating on the lake. Adèle spent her summers there with the Ryersons, but occasionally was able to take time off to see her relatives.

Adèle visited Eugene and family around 1926, when the two photographs below were taken, and also again in 1931 when she spent two weeks in the summer visiting in Garden City. When her niece, Ruth Stoeckly, passed through Chicago in August of 1932 for two nights, Adèle joined Ruth in Chicago (they stayed at a friend's house). Unfortunately, in the evening of the second day in Chicago, Adèle got word that Mr. Ryerson had died at Lake Geneva. While Ruth was in Switzerland for the next two years, Adèle sent Ruth a total of 1625 Swiss francs for her first semester at the University of Zurich. In 1933, Erika visited the Chicago World's Fair and stayed with Adèle at the Ryerson mansion (Mrs. Ryerson was not there; perhaps she was at Lake Geneva).

Adele visiting the Stoeckly family in Garden City around 1926.

Adèle may have remained as lady's maid for only a couple more years. Mrs. Ryerson died September 5, 1937, but Adèle probably only stayed in Chicago until June of 1934. In that month, her brother Eugene and his wife Lina visited in Chicago, and the three of them end up on June 25 at Halstead, Kansas, where she had her goiter removed by Dr. Hertzler, founder of the hospital in Halstead. It appears that Adèle then moved to Garden City, but was sick the rest of her life. In April of 1942, Lina wrote that she and Eugene "brought Adèle back from Larned (town about 50 miles northeast of Garden City) -- She was some better, but still the old story, she would not eat. We simply did not know what to do with her..." After a couple months they arranged for her to stay at the hospital in Garden City, where she probably was when she died on January 5, 1943. According to Adèle's death certificate, she died from "malnutrition" due to "refusal to take food" due to "mental derangement". I wonder if it was not the other way around: that her mental state was due to an illness that prevented her from eating. She was cremated on January 9, and as far as I know, does not have any memorial stone. Lina wrote a letter to her daughters notifying them of Adèle's death. She asked them to remember Adèle in happier times, not the previous 9 years of her illness.

Adèle lived a very interesting life, surrounded by wealth and fine art, traveling around the world. It is too bad we do not have any letters or photographs from her so we could know more about the many stories she must have had to tell. We do have several items from Adèle that Erika Saltzman kept all her life. Four objects were from China: a brass candle holder, a brass bowl, and two carvings in jade. Three are cloths that must have come from the Philipines: a large rectangular tablecloth, a smaller square cloth, and a small oval cloth. A vase may have come from India or Persia or elsewhere in the eastern Mediteranean or southeast Asia. The first lamp probably came from Italy; it was given to Margaret. The second lamp was given to Erika. The coral beads were originally given to Erika and Ruth as 2 separate strands. Ruth then traded her strand to Erika, and Erika had a jeweler make it into one necklace with pearls between the coral. The pearls may have come from Italy. The final object was a Swiss watch, perhaps one that Adèle had with her when she first arrived in America.