(Note from John Stoskopf: At this part of the story I hit a visual dry-spell. Of the next two of the Nichols' children I have very little on Alma and no photograph at all of Richard. In fact, my mother Marjorie doesn't have any recollection of "Uncle Rick", but we do have a fairly decent written history of him thanks to Don Ash.)
Donald Ash continues:
Richard Nichols was born January 14, 1888 in Detroit, MI and what he did in his early life I do not know. He served in the Army during the First World War. He married a lady named Loraine from Buffalo, NY and they had one son named Edward.
Edward served with the Marines in the South Pacific during World War II and saw a lot of fighting there. I only saw Eddie once after the war and have no idea where he is now.
Aunt Loraine was born in 1901 because she was 26 years old when she passed away on November 11, 1927. When we were growing up our parents never really told us the reason why a person died. I believe Aunt Loraine died from complications of a child birth and is buried in Gethsemane Cemetery in Detroit, MI. (Note: Donald does not give a particular reason why he believes this.)
Uncle Rick was remarried to a Myrtle Pelke who had a son by the name of Frank. (Note: I can only suppose this was from a previous marriage.) Myrtle was born on August 18, 1898. All I know of Frank is that he worked for Chrysler Motor Company.
In the latter part of his life Uncle Rick worked for the old Detroit Street Railway as a conductor and as a motorman until he passed away on December 13, 1965 and is buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery. Myrtle died on April 17, 1975 and is also buried there.
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| Alma Nichols (shown next to Aunt Mary) from a 1930s photo taken at my grandmother's home. |
Alma Nichols was born on August 20, 1890. What she did as a young girl I do not know. (Note from John Stoskopf: Unfortunately once more I come into a situation where I seem to have more data on the family that was married into instead of my own. Still, I wish to identify as much as I can.)
Alma married a Joseph Schemanske sometime between 1910 & 1914. Uncle Joe came from a large family with one brother working for the Detroit Free Press, another in the Wayne County Court House and one (Frank) was a Wayne County Judge and he may have had one more brother and a sister. (Note: A sister is identified in the accompaning obituary.)
As long as I can remember Uncle Joe ran a saloon and a bowling alley located on 24th St. in Detroit which is in the neighborhood he grew up in.
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| Edwin (Edward) & Joe Schemanske (Joe can also be seen in the photo from Bernice & Donald's wedding ceremony shown in the previous section.) |
Alma & Joseph had three sons Edwin (Jan 2, 1915-Aug 1979), Joe (Nov 16, 1918-Jun 1982) & Norman (Feb 5, 1921-May 4, 2003)
Edwin (aka Edward) was married to a Lucille (January 10, 1919-April 30, 1977) and they had a daughter Donna. Joe remained a bachelor. He and Norman (family and friends called him 'Beano') served in the Army. Norman married a girl named Stella and lived in Livonia, MI. Both Eddie and Beano worked for the City of Detroit but I don't know where Joe worked.
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| Although I have no photo of Norman Schemanske, he and his wife Stella attended my Grandfather Gordon's funeral. |
After Aunt Alma died on April 11, 1954 Uncle Joe sold the bowling alley and worked as a process server for the Wayne County Courts until he died.
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| Alma Nichols Schemanske's brother-in-law Frank G. Schemanske |
Alma was the youngest child of Gustiv and Caroline Nichols after Mary, Herman, Emma & Richard. I have no definite date of Grandpa Gustiv's death but from the birth dates of the children born to him and Grandma Nichols and then Grandpa Kulick, he must of passed away sometime between the years of 1890 and 1895. (As mentioned before, the story of his death was that he died from heat prostration after a day's work digging graves.)
I have just mentioned Grandpa Kulick. Well, this is where Caroline Nichols makes the Nichols and the Kulicks into one family.
Here are my thoughts about how Caroline Nichols and Frederick Kulick knew one another. The first one is that the two families knew each other by living in the same neighborhood or attending the same church. The second is that the two grandfathers worked together in the cemetery. We know Grandpa Gustiv Nichols was a gravedigger and Grandpa Frederick Kulick owned a large cemetery plot in the Forest Lawn Cemetery where many of the relatives are buried, including one person that no one of us seems to know. (Note from John Stoskopf: Unfortunately at the time of this writing Donald did not know where Gustiv Nichols is buried.)
When Frederick Kulick married Caroline Rienas Nichols, he also had four children of his own. (Another theory is that the unknown person buried in the Kulick plot is Frederick's previous wife.)
With the addition of Anna, Minnie, Charles and Mamie there were now nine children in the the newly created Nichols-Kulick family!
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