Overview
An account of Paul Kortsch Jr., Ann Eanlen Guiney Kortsch (‘Nana’), and Their Six Children
Mom’s great grandfather was Ferdinand Kortsch, the first of the family in America. His son, Paul Sr. was her grandfather. More pictures and information on Mom’s family can be found in ‘Kortsch Family: Earliest Pictures‘ and the pictures in Mom’s Photo Album.
Paul Jr. (1887-1957)
Work
Paul Jr.–Grandpa Kortsch–chose not to go into the family’s moving and storage business as his brothers had, electing instead to work for a long 48-year career on the financial side of the Milwaukee Coke and Gas Company, rising from bookkeeper to secretary/treasurer before retiring in 1955.
The manufacture of coke and gas was an important industry in Milwaukee and other places without natural gas resources. Coal was brought in by Great Lakes ships and through an industrial heating process turned into gas and coke, the latter used to fuel the giant blast furnaces that turned out molten iron. Milwaukee Coke was a sprawling plant occupying 46 acres of the Milwaukee waterfront. At its peak it supplied 95% of the coke used in the Midwest and almost all the gas used in Milwaukee homes, as well as being the largest single employer of African-American men in the city.
The company was bought in 1942 and changed its name to the Milwaukee Solvay Coke Company. It closed without warning in 1983, putting all of its employees suddenly out of work. Besides hundreds of jobless workers, Solvay also left behind as its toxic legacy a poisoned wasteland of arsenic, heavy metals, PCBs, and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) in such dangerous concentrations it’s been designated a Superfund site.
The first four pictures show the factory in operation, the next two, what it looks like today. The last shows its location on the lakefront.
Family
A few years after starting work at Milwaukee Coke Paul Kortsch Jr. married Nana, Ann Eanlen Guiney, on July 18, 1910 (marriage certificate on left). There’s more information on her background in the ‘Guiney Family’ post.
They had two children before Mom:
- Paul (‘Pat’) (1912-1992),
- Alice (1913-1916),
- Margaret (1916-2006)–Mom’s birth certificate is worth a look for the number of mistakes in it.)
He applied for an exemption from military service during World War I on the ground that he had an essential job with a naval stores manufacturer. The two pictures of him in an army uniform tell us the draft board had a different take on just how essential his civilian job was. Despite the uniform, there is no record of his having been inducted into the Army so he may have been enrolled in an Army Reserve unit instead.
One wonders, then, what he was thinking as he filled out the mandatory World War II draft registration at age 55 (also below). He wrote in a firm, clear hand, but he also made himself out to be a year older than he really was. (The universal conscription act required all males between 18 and 65 to register.)
The registration tells us that he stood 5’10”, weighed 145 pounds, and had balding sandy hair.
Picture Gallery
They didn’t live in Florida long before moving to Passaic, New Jersey, sometime between 1917 and 1919, where Ellen was born in 1919.
While in New Jersey the family had a boarder living with them, Percy Flint, age 29 from England. An unexpected discovery this, because Grandpa Kortsch was presumably well paid in his finance position. Mr. Flint, originally from England, was also an accountant and worked in the same industry as Grandpa Kortsch, possibly at the same company.
After returning to Milwaukee 1919-1921, Grandpa Kortsch and Nana had three more children:
- John (‘Jack’) (1921-2006)
- Gerald (1926-2011), and
- Kevin (1932-2009)
His life was orderly and ordinary but he slipped the guardrails at least once. He had a minor run-in with law enforcement when he was ticketed for reckless driving and causing an accident at Third and Center Streets. He was fined $50 ($1100 today). The incident was reported in the Journal on December 26, 1935, so he may have had more holiday cheer than he should have.
The account below focuses on Grandpa Kortsch’s younger brother William but also gives a few details about their father, Paul Sr., and grandfather, Ferdinand.
WILLIAM J KORTSCH. William J. Kortsch, general manager of the Paul Kortsch Storage Company of Milwaukee, was born September 14, 1896, in the city in which he still makes his home. He represents one of the old families of this city, his grandfather, native of Germany, having become a cigar manufacturer of Milwaukee at an early day. His father, Paul Kortsch, was likewise born in Milwaukee and engaged in the teaming and express business, which constituted the initial step toward the organization of the warehouse business in 1912, which is now conducted under the name of the Paul Kortsch Storage Company. It was in that year that he erected the present warehouse and through the intervening period the storage company has conducted substantial and growing business. The father passed away on the 14th of February, 1921. He [William] was a stalwart republican in his political views but never took active part in politics. His religion’s faith was that of the Catholic church and he became one of the organizers and was afterward communicant of the SS. Peter and Paul’s parish. He married Dorothy Landgraf, who was born in Germany and came to the United States when about twenty years of age. They became acquainted in Milwaukee, where they established their home and here reared their family, Mr. Kortsch remaining an active and representative business man of the city to the time of his demise. William J. Kortsch acquired his early education in SS. Peter and Paul’s parochial school and afterward attended Hoffman’s Business College. Later he worked for a year for the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul Railroad Company as claim clerk and then became associated with his father in business and carried this on in connection with his brother, Michael. They succeeded the father at his death and are now doing an extensive business in packing, moving and general warehousing, making specialty also of furniture storage. On the 15th of January, 1920, Mr. Kortsch was married to Miss Elsie Huber, daughter of Andrew Huber, cement contractor of Milwaukee, who was born in Hungary and settled in this city in 1900. Mr. and Mrs. Kortsch attend the Catholic church in SS. Peter and Paul’s parish. During the World War he was an ambulance driver in France for six months, being attached to the French army. His favorite pastime is motoring and in musical circles his wife is well known as a talented pianist. They are prominently known socially in this city, where they have always resided and Mr. Kortsch is a valued representative of an old and honored pioneer family here. He has gained creditable position in business circles and the sterling worth of his character is attested by his many friends, who have known him from his boyhood days to the present. From History of Milwaukee, City and County, by William George Bruce, 3 vols., 1920; vol 3, p. 820. |