Opening a 1949 Remembrance Book pt. 1

About the Book

When rifling through my grandpa Schmidt's box of family heirlooms and photographs, I had the good fortune of coming upon a book. Inscribed on the cover were the words "remembrance book", and inside I found a trove of loose letters of condolences, telegrams, and funeral documents. Contained within the pages I was also pleased to find a wealth of genealogical information concerning John Bernard Dwyer, my third great uncle. Seeing as John died in 1949, it is reasonable to assume that nearly everything contained within the book is from around the 1940s - 50s. The contents of the book, both in the loose and bound portions, primarily concern the portions of my family bearing the last names "Burnes" and "Dwyer". The Burnes and Dwyer families were of Irish descent and resided primarily in Minnesota.

Loose Papers

As mentioned previously, the book has bound pages stocked with information as well as miscellaneous loose documents concerning members of the family beyond John Bernard Dwyer. This post will detail the contents of the latter, while a future post will show the contents of the former.

Photo of John Bernard Dwyer

John Bernard Dwyer

A remembrance book would not be complete without a photograph of the deceased you wish to remember. The above is a photograph of John Bernard Dwyer.

Telegrams

You may have heard of Telegraphs before, these devices employed electrical circuits to transmit a signal across long distances. Alternating between completing the circuit and breaking it would produce a tapping sound. Using Morse code, messages could be sent and received exponentially faster than they could previously [1]. 

The largest company in the telegraph industry was easily the Western Union Telegraph Company. From the time they were founded in 1851 to about the 1960s when telegrams fell out of favor as the preferred means of quick and somewhat private communication, they were revolutionizing the industry [2]. Among Western Union's greatest accomplishments include:

• Building the first transcontinental telegraph line (1861) [2]
• Transmitting a whopping 200 million telegrams in 1929 [2]
• Becoming the largest Telegraph communications company after acquiring about 500 of their competitors (1943) [2]

Seeing how prolific they were in the telegraph industry, it should come as no surprise that the telegrams in the Remembrance book are emblazoned with the words "Western Union Telegram".

Telegram from Peg (Margaret Dwyer) to Nellie Burnes (Ellen Agnes Dwyer)

Telegram from Peg to Nellie

This is the first Telegram in the book. It's written text reads as follows:

Pd

San Diego Calif. 12:07p

Mrs Nellie Burns,

Ellendale Minn.

Our deepest sympathy sorry can’t come greet dad love

Peg

Peg is a nickname for Margaret. It can be assumed that the reason Margaret/Peg is expressing her sympathies is due to the death of John Dwyer. We also see that she lives in San Diego, California. Therefore, the only person who could plausibly have sent the letter is Ellen's niece Margaret Dwyer who fits all the criteria. The following is a tree showing the sender and receiver's relationship to both one another and myself: 

Telegram From Catherine Dwyer, John Doyle, and Dick (Richard) Dwyer to Nell Burns (Ellen Agnes Dwyer)

Telegram from Catherine, John, and Dick to Nell

This is the second, it's text reads as follows:

Pd

? Glenwood Ill. 254 p 11

Mrs. Nell Burns

Ellendale Minn.

Our deepest sympathies unable to come at this time.

Catherine John and Dick

Funeral Purchase Records

Funeral Purchase Record for John B. Dwyer

In addition to telegrams and letters, there were also funeral home and financial records. There are some interesting and relevant facts contained in this one. We see that the total cost of John's funeral was $295.20, paid to Fred A. Koecher, manager of the Freeborn Funeral Home [3]. There is also an address for the home, given as:

217 N. Washington

Albert Lea, Minnesota

 There is also a receipt for the purchase:

Receipt for the funeral payments

Which says the following:

Jan 17, 1950

Received of Mrs. Nellie Burns Two hundred ninety-five + 20/100 Dollars For complete funeral service of  John B. Dwyer

Freeborn Funeral Home

Fred A. Koecher

The reciept was contained in the following envelope:

Envelope of the Reciept

Which is addressed to:

Mrs. Nellie Burns 

Rural Route 1 Box 145 

New Richland, Minnesota 

 There was also a document detailing the costs of the funeral of James H. Burnes, My 2nd great grandpa.

Bill for the funeral of James H. Burnes

Which contains the following information:

Date Nov 14, 1930

To: James H. Burnes

Casket and Box: $225.00

Emb.: $15.00

Ser.: $10.00

Spray:$3.50

Candle: $1.50

Tie: $1.00

Total: $256.00

 Nellie Doyle Documents

Included also in the book are an assortment of documents relating to the death of Nellie Doyle, which I will include below.

Funeral Card of Nellie Doyle

The text of the card:

IN MEMORY OF

Nellie Doyle

BORN

November 15, 1864

PASSED AWAY

January 17, 1950

REQUIEM HIGH MASS

St. Theodore’s Catholic Church

Albert Lea, Minn.

9:30 a.m. Friday, January 20, 1950

CLERGYMAN

Monsignor John M. Kiely

PALL BEARERS

Joseph Doyle

Roger Rickheim

Leo Carey

Thomas Doyle

Robert Rickheim

Richard Carey

Internment

St. Theodore’s Cemetery

Albert Lea, Minn.

Courtesy of Freeborn Funeral Home

Albert Lea, Minn.

 There is also a card of thanks addressed to Nellie Burnes from Nellie Doyle's family, shown below:

Envelope

Card

The card reads:

To thank you for your kindness and sympathy at a time when it was deeply appreciated, The Doyle Family

 Sympathy Cards

In most cases, it is difficult to tell for whose death a sympathy card is written if the name of the deceased is not included. Such is the case with many of the following cards. Luckily it is fairly trivial to tell who the person offering their condolences is, which is often the most genealogically significant portion anyways.

Sympathy Card from Kathryn Bunn

Sympathy Card

May it comfort you to realize that others understand your loss and deeply sympathize

Kathryn Bunn

Sympathy Card From Assorted Family Members

Sympathy Card

With Deepest Sympathy

Mr. + Mrs. Kenneth Schmidt

+ family

With Deepest Sympathy

Helen Burnes

Mary Beth Kelly

Winifred Ann Kelly

Sympathy Card From Mr. + Mrs. Carl Mickelson

With the sympathy of Mr. and Mrs. Carl Mickelson

 Sympathy Card From Lowell and Marjorie

With deepest sympathy to you in this time of sorrow

Lowell and Marjorie 

 Sympathy Card From Mr. and Mrs. Walter Miller

With the sympathy of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Miller

Card from the Bradleys

Card from the Bradleys

 Sender Address:
319 So. Elm St.
Owatonna Minn. 

Recipient Address:
Mrs. Nellie Burnes
R.R.1.
New Richland Minn. 

Dear Nellie
Hope you keep well-
come and see us.
Very kindest regards
Bradleys

Spiritual Bouquet From Rita Burns

Spiritual Bouquet from Rita Burns

Spiritual Bouquet Offered by Rita Burns For the repose of the soul of James H. Burnes

One Mass At Basilica of St. Mary Church

Silverius N. Hauer

Mass From Catherine and Ellen Ahern

The holy sacrifice of the mass will be offered for the repose of the soul of John Dwyer with the sympathy of Catherine and Ellen Ahern.

 

 Letter to Nellie From Nell

Postmarked Sep 13, 1949

Mrs John Shea

117 West Mill

Owatonna Minn

Mrs. Nellie Burnes

New Richland

Minnesota

Dear Nellie,

We were sorry to hear about Johnny, and I’ll never get over feeling bad that I didn’t get to the funeral.

You know that Mollie and I came to Peg’s while she was out to Veronica’s and when she got back she told us about Johnny and as you were not home we phoned to everybody but no one seemed to know when or where the funeral was to be we thought it would be in Albert Lea, so after mass we phoned to Garry Kasts and Irwin was not there we couldn’t get Alice but if I knew it sooner I’d have gone to Ellendale but I was sure the funeral would be in Albert Lea. I have no one but myself to blame, Peg feels bad too.

The cold weather makes Mollies knees ache I wish we were back home again. When you get rested come up for a good visit. I was glad Helen was with you.

With love,

Nell

Malcolm and family were here Sat. night and gave a dollar for a mass for Johnny, Peg and I were so sure that we’d get to the funeral.

1 mass- ? and her mother

1 mass Peg and Margaret

1 mass Malcolm Lonergan’s

1 mass Mollie and Nell

Mr. Malcolm Lonergan

911- 4th ave. N.W.

Rochester

Minn.

 Letter from Mrs. Winzenberg

Postmarked Sep 30, 1949

From

Mrs. M. F. Winzenberg

RR #3

Bloo. Prairie

Mrs. Nellie Burnes

New Richland

Minnesota

Friday

Dear Friend

How are you? We were sorry to hear of your brother Jon’s (?) death and would have come to the funeral if we had known about it.

Do hope this finds you well.

I still plan on having you and (?) over sometime but just now we’re having carpenters and they’ll soon be in the kitchen so will wait until they are there.

Canning is getting me down too, will be glad when I’m done.

Come over any time and be good to yourself,

Sincerely

Mrs. M. Winzenberg

 Scrap Paper With Names and Locations

Names Scrawled on Paper

This paper is also loose within the book, presumably the people whose names are written on it were in some way significant to the funeral.

Mr. + Mrs. John Doyle Glenview, Ill.

Mrs. James Hand, San Diego, Calif.

Mr. + Mrs. Richard Dwyer, St. Paul

Mr. + Mrs. Roy Farrah, St. Paul

Mr. + Mrs. D C Dwyer, Rock Island, Ill.

Joseph Dwyer, Chicago, Ill.

Mrs. H. B. Ray, Fargo, N. Dak.

Mr. + Mrs. Earl Gardner, St. Paul

Mrs. James Gardner, Fairmont

Works Cited

[1] “Telegraph.” The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed., The Columbia University Press, 2017. Questia School, www.questiaschool.com/read/1E1-telegrap/telegraph. Accessed 2018.

[2]“Western Union Telegraph Company.” The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed., The Columbia University Press, 2017. Questia School, www.questiaschool.com/read/1E1-WesternU/western-union-telegraph-company. Accessed 2018.

[3]http://www.bayviewfuneral.com/our-history