When my Gramma Gertrude passed away nearly four years ago, I asked for these photos that hung on her bedroom wall. They’ve been on the plate rail in our dining room for two years, and, on Friday, I arranged them according to what branches they inhabit on my family tree.
The little smiling cherub on the bottom is my Dad, and, on viewer’s left is a toddler photo of Gramma Gertrude, complete with side curls and a crocheted sweater, pointing at something fascinating over the photographer’s shoulder. Her parents, George Fisher and Ethel Violet Pilch Fisher, or Nana, are on the left. Nana lived with Gramma when I was little, rocking in her chair in the kitchen at Gramma’s gorgeous house on School Street, and she passed away when I was eight.
Above Nana, going clockwise, are George Fisher’s parents, Grandpa & Grandma Fisher, as Gramma Gertrude’s note says, leaning on a rather ornate column. Her name was Anna, and I’ll defer to Dad and Uncle John to fill in his name. Clockwise and up a bit are Nana’s parents, Robert Owen Pilch and Mary Ann Monement Pilch, rocking on the porch. Mary Ann looks exactly like her daughter would when I knew her years later. I believe Mary Ann was blind, and I think my Dad told me he remembers being in her kitchen as she was cooking and singing.
10/7: Regarding Grandpa & Grandma Fisher, from Dad: “My grandfather Fisher’s father was named Johannes Fischer—a Swiss immigrant. He and Anna (who was German) lived in Hermann, Missouri—a German-speaking community on the Missouri River, founded by Socialists in the 1840’s—It is now famous as a wine-growing tourist destination. Johannes lost an eye in the Civil War—he fought on the Union side–Missouri was about 50/50 in the war. Grandpa Fisher dropped the “c” during the First World War—there was strong anti-German prejudice at the time.”
On viewer’s right of my agreeable little Dad, who has a little curl “right in the middle of [his] forehead,” are his father, John Alexander Polhemus, with his parents, Julia Hanna Polhemus and George Warren Polhemus. Moving counter- clockwise, George’s parents are above him and to the right; they are Mathias Van Dyke Polhemus and Eliza Warren Polhemus. Up and to the left are Julia’s parents in the separate photographs, John A. Hanna with the astonishing moustache and his wife, Ada Preston Hanna. John Hanna was a New York assemblyman and head of Dutchess County’s Republican Party.
Okay, we’re ready for photos of the ancestors of our three other parents. I’ve thrown down the gauntlet. I’ll find some wall space.
Happy Birthday, Gramma.
