Transcription of letter from Jim Quetsch:

                                                                                   05/26/90

Dear Mary

Forgive my scrawl which comes naturally and is aggravated by my "Wally Ball" elbow, and gets worse as my letters progress.

As to the "Quetsch side", I firmly recall  being told or given the impression,  from my youth  by  my parents and aunts that Dad (Leonard J. Quetsch,  Sr.) had to go to work at age  16 to support  his mother and sisters because his father had died (which would have been around 1905). Much later in my life (in my 30's) I was told by Dad that grandpa Otto Quetsch had died "in the flu epidemic of 1918", about one year before Dad got married at age 29.

We were given few details about my Grandpa's life or personality.   As time went on, things  about him would "slip out" and Dad and/or my aunts would "hush" each other up if we kids or strangers were listening. Mention would be made of "Papa" having been "out of work" or "when Papa's wages were garnisheed", or the hard times when he was "sick".

I also remember, in my teens, my mother cautioning me about using alcohol, because it "had been a problem in the Quetsch family's past." (She acted a bit triumphant at that point, as she always had resented my Dad's mother).

Looking back from my present vantage point I realize and recall that all three of my Dad's sisters had severe "primary" depression problems, the oldest, Helen Quetsch Dunn, showed signs the earliest and was hospitalized several times for that, receiving shock and other treatments. Aunts Lucille Quetsch Sipchen and Jeanette Quetsch Schaudt were also hospitalized at least once each for depression.

My aunts, especially, seemed to have delusions of grandeur about their Quetsch grandpa, claiming that he left Germany with his wife and children because he would not "step into the gutter" for the Prussians. They also claimed descent from nobility (of course) in Germany. I seem to recall a name "Von Gingrich" (sp?) from Alsace Lorraine. The name does have a French beginning "QUET" and a German ending "SCH".

Aunt Trudy has some friends who were traveling through Luxembourg a couple of years ago (in the Fall, I think) and every town in the land had large banners hung over the main streets with "QUETSCH" on them. It was the "Quetsch festival" in celebration of the national drink of Luxembourg, a vile-tasting clear plum based brandy.   I've tried it, tastes like a mixture of low-grade kerosene and swamp water. Of course Luxembourg and Alsace Lorraine are adjacent and in flux over the years. Claiming descent from Luxembourgers sounds more romantic than from Germans!  I, too, recall the Aunts saying their grandpa had been a professor in Strasbourg (?) I think.  That is now in France.   I do know that the name is found in Germany, Switzerland   and Luxembourg.   I met a Swiss a few years ago.  He'd attended grammar school with lots of Quetsches. They spoke a language he called "Romanesch" (which might explain our gypsy ways!)

Back to Grandpa Otto Quetsch. I was told, long ago, that he (as a two-year-old) and his father  and mother first settled in Lasalle/Peru - a city along the Illinois River - and that they tried farming for awhile - later moving to Chicago.

 I recently found my hurried notes from his records at Elgin Mental Health Center, Elgin, Illinois, which I examined in late   1977.
Admitted 3-18-15. Tentative admitting diagnosis: senile dementia. Twenty  six years ago had mental troubles at Kankakee State Mental Hospital (he must have been about 18 then)  (actually,  he would have been 31).  He'd tried to commit suicide after his mother died.  On 2-17-15 he'd tried to kill himself.   His wife (Grandma Ellen Holden Quetsch) found him in the kitchen with   his head in the gas stove.  He'd been a salesman of shoes, books and gas fixtures, was 5'9" and   153 lbs. At admission, Grandma said he was Catholic. Later, he told staff he took up Christian Science 3 years before - after having surgery on a neck tumor. Informant (wife) also said he'd always been pleasant and jovial and drinks moderately.   Final admitting diagnosis: manic-depressive.


I read the transcript of the doctor's interview with Otto.  It was an eerie experience.  He did know where he was, etc, and why "because I tried to kill myself." The neck tumor had recently recurred and he was worried about his family.


Mary, I'm sure your husband can get the records if he writes on his professional letterhead and inasmuch as Otto is long deceased. If he cannot, please let me know and I'll try. Yes, please do send me copies and the stuff from Aunt Jean and the family tree.  You notice that I find the family's "psychic" history more interesting than the geography.   It's obvious that your great-grandpa's diagnosed depression has re-appeared all over the place in my generation and yours among the  Quetsches.

I did some digging on my mother's side in Ireland last month. Tell your Dad and Mom that Maureen and Patrick O'Sullivan from Ardea, County Kerry, Ireland send their greetings.

They're well. I visited with them all day last Good Friday. Love to you and your family. Write!

U   nle Jim

P.S. Otto's death certificate says he was born "sometime in 1858 in "Germany". Cause of death: Pneumonia/influenza and died 10-15-18.  Buried: Mt. Carmel Cemetery (outside of Chicago).

P.P.S. EMHC Records are sparse, but a 3x5 file card with many different addresses gave me the impression he was in and out of that hospital many times between 3-18-15 and date of death of 10-15-18 and was separated from Grandma.

James Franklin Quetsch

1933-2009