“The Chicago fire came within a block (Willow St.) north from grandpa’s saloon. He [Gottlieb Mayer] had a huge bar; all the people brought their babies and laid them on the bar. The fire caused brain fever and Aunt Emma caught it from another. So she was rather childish as she grew up. Was very good to me and could draw and do cutouts very well. She died in 1916 (I was 8) at age 43.

“The extent of her earning a living was as a charmaid in downtown hotels and offices. She had to cross the Northwestern train tracks at about 5 in the morning. Not hearing too well, she didn’t hear or see the train coming and was killed. Was laid out in our living room in the cottage and I had to sleep on a cot in the dining room. It was an awful thing and grandma [Margaretha Eberhard] knew about it before being notified—she would get these premonitions about things and tell me, scaring me half to death. So only Uncle George [Johan George Henne], Aunt Louisa [Meyer Buehlman] and Dad remained. So the farm was sold, with the money invested in Orchard St. houses. Aunt Louisa handled the business. She was my godmother. No one of them could pronounce the TH in my name so called me Etel.”

-- Ethel Mayer Vogt in a May 1979 letter to her daughter Marcia