Lena Wallman
Lena Bertha Grande, 1890-1955, was an ethnic German immigrant
who was variously listed as Polish or Russian. She arrived in NY, NY on
3/4/1910 aboard the Kaiser Wilhelm Der Grosse. The Kaiser Wilhelm Der Grosse
was at one time the fastest ship in the world, setting a trans-Atlantic record.
The ship departed from Bremen, Germany. Lena’s parents were
Gottlieb Grande, 1860- and Juliana Disterheft, 1863-1930. Her siblings names
were Gottlieb, 1887-1950, Emma, 1893-1970, and Gottfried 1895-1956 (1894-1971).
In the 1910 S.F. City Directory, Lena’s future husband
Ludwig Heilmann lived at 1812 Page and was listed as ‘bldr’. A builder? Ludwig
later became a naturalized US citizen on 3/30/1932, four years before his
death.
The 1910 Census shows Lena as a member of the Sylvain and
Rosalind Lazarus household. It didn’t take Lena long to get from New York to
San Francisco; this suggests she was destined to San Francisco, perhaps through
a contact with the Lazarus family. The Lazaruses were retail clothes merchants,
born in California and children of German parents. Lena was at the time a
22-year-old single servant; she could not speak English and German was her
primary language; she could read and write.
By 1920 she was married to Ludwig Heilmann,
5/10/1885-3/12/1936, a Polish/Russian ethnic German. Lena and Ludwig had a
grocery and bakery in San Francisco and lived at 523 Campbell.
Lena and Ludwig had two children, Frances Heilmann and Paul
George Heilmann (4/8/1913-2/16/1978). Frances married John Edward “Jeff” Rubke,
3/16/1918- 12/25/2005, of Sonoma. Jeff was the son of Adolph H. Rubke and
Elizabeth Hicks. Adolph was a son of Henry R. Rubke, 1843-1915, of Sonoma. The
Rubke family had land around Vineberg.
I was lucky to find pictures online of Lena’s parents, her
and Ludwig’s grocery store and of Ludwig Heilmann and Lena’s son Paul George.
On the 1920 Census, George J. Wallman, brother of Georgiana
and son of the immigrant George Wallman, was unmarried and living in Georgiana’s
household. On the 1930 Census, George J. Wallman is still single, a renter,
lived on the family orchard farm. He had a radio.
On the 1940 Census George J. Wallman was married to Lena
(Heilmann) and Frances was 16 years old and listed as a daughter in the
household;. Frances was the biological daughter of Ludwig and Lena Heilmann.
She was the step-daughter of George J. Wallman.
Ludwig Heilmann had died in 1936 and George J. and Lena had
gotten together. When Lena died in 1955, the Bates and Evans funeral record
shows her name as Lena Wallman. The map on the funeral record leads to the
gravestone of Ludwig and Lena Heilmann. George Wallman died in 1981 and he is
buried with his father and sister, along with George Dolcini, Frank A.
Matsuyama and Alvin Wallman.
Lena gave her eternal allegiance to her first husband Ludwig
Heilmann, the father of her children.
John “Jeff” Rubke and wife Frances (Heilmann) Wallman do not
appear to be buried in the Mountain Cemetery. They may be in the Valley
Cemetery.
In the winter of 2014, the old Rubke plot in the Mountain
cemetery started to come apart, big cut stones fallen off the upper portions of
the west retaining wall.
Gottfried ‘Fred’ Grande is buried in the lower Mountain
Cemetery with his wife Mary. The 1940 Census shows Gottfried working 30 hours a
week as a wholesale baker. Perhaps he inherited the Heilmann bakery enterprise.
His ethnicity was listed as Russian. Gottfried and Mary had a 14 year old
daughter in 1940, Virginia.
In 1940 Gottlieb Grande and wife Herta were Santa Cruz
farmers with a San Francisco domicile, an 8th grade education and a
15 year old son named Clarence. Gottlieb is listed as Polish, Herta as German
and Clarence is CA born.
No comments:
Post a Comment