Albert Joseph Buchheit

(as told by Elizabeth Perkins Buchheit)

My dad Albert Joseph Buchheit came from a very large family. His parents, WILLIAM BUCHHEIT and Helena Weis, died in about 1914. I was born in 1917 so I don’t know them personally. My dad was the youngest child. He went to the first kindergarten in the United States in Watertown, Wisconsin. It’s there to this day. They have it outfitted with pictures and stuff to show everybody.

[America's First Kindergarten]

The Buchheits had nine other children that grew up to be adults: Anna, Helena, Mena, Amelia, Josephina, William Jr., Alexander, Henry and Gustav. My father was so much younger that it was almost like he was part of another generation. But it was funny because the oldest one, Aunt Annie, was quite a bit like my dad. They were very jolly, funny, folks. They had a great sense of humor. And they looked alike as they got older too. Vernon met her. We went to her 90th birthday in Watertown, Wisconsin.

My father was easy-going, gregarious and got along with everybody. He was a professional, not a business man. But he had a lot of very good ideas on which he followed through. And of course in my father’s family they were all immigrants and that was the prime thing. No matter if you were male or female, education was the name of the game. He went to dental school at Loyola University. He once had three dental offices at one time!

When settlement came in 1912, my father became the first mayor of Park Ridge. He put in the sewer system, a water system and all of these things you have to do when a place gets so big. You can’t just rely on everybody’s well. My dad was forward-thinking. He started a summer camp for kids because they didn’t have a YMCA in the town. He was very active in municipal affairs.

My dad also belonged to the town’s University Club. Anybody who had a university degree could be a member. Well, Dr. Marx was a pediatrician in my dad’s office suite and all the kids went to him because he was so good. But the University Club wouldn’t let Dr. Marx in because he was Jewish. So to show his displeasure, my father never went to another meeting. My dad was way ahead of his time.

My dad was a natural athlete. No matter what he did, he was very good. It made you kind of sick. My father and his friend Dan Throne won the mixed doubles in tennis for the state of Wisconsin. He used to take some of my boyfriends up to the Pickwick bowling place. He was so good. One time he made all strikes and bowled a perfect game, so he quit and went home. My dad was also a very good golfer. I never liked golf that much. The caddies always used to laugh at me on the green because I’d miss all the putts.