Find A Grave and find an old friend!

Isn't Find A Grave a great site?

I don't say that lightly. It is a great site. It finds and brings old friends together again. This happened to me in the last week or so.

I got an email from Marty. "Did we go to Lincoln school together?" was in the subject field. I opened the email, "Are you by chance from Mundelein? I went to Lincoln school 1, 2, and 3rd grade and remember a girl that lived east of the school by your name." 

It was Marty! She said, "I've been entering memorials to Ivanhoe Cemetery and noticed your name."

My house is the left arrow and Lincoln school is (of course) the right arrow. The picture is ca. 1895.

1st and 2nd grades, Lincoln School, Mundelein, Illinois 1952.

Yes! I am that girl who lived next to Lincoln school. Martha and I were good friends in those early grades. I remember her and recently came across a picture of our 1st grade class. There she was. I picked her out right away! She is sitting in back of me. I always envied her braids because my hair was so unmanageable and would never stay in a braid. Even the bow I had in my hair that day probably fell out shortly after the picture was taken.

I remember going over to Martha's house and walking into the house. It was huge and very beautiful. It was an old Victorian. 

The house sat back from Lake St., in the middle of town. It stood out because there were no other houses quite like it that I had ever seen. Maybe it was a "show" house. It is gone now and some store is sitting in its place. It wasn't until about 10 years ago did I learn Marty's house was owned by my 3x great uncle John Rouse and wife Matilda.

Marty lived in the Rouse house in the 1950s.

According to the Rouse Family History ...In the early 1880s Matilda received an inheritance... soon after receiving the money, John purchased the property north of the original farm. The land boundaries were west of Lake Street, north from Division to Park, and 150 feet west of Prairie Street. The house had 15 rooms with 10 ft ceilings. It had the first bath tub in the area. The tub was made of wood and lined with copper, but had no running water. Water was heated on the stove and carried to the tub then poured into a cistern holding tank that supplied the tub. 

(The image is from the 75th Anniversary Book for Mundelein.)

Marty lives out of state. She continues to add memorials to Find A Grave. From those she has added, Marty has transferred to my account quite a few Snyders (Grandma Carrie's family). We will get together the next time she comes up to the Lake County area. I haven't seen her for 60 years! I wonder if she still has her hair done up in those wonderful braids.