Letter to Nanny from Bucky

2/27/60

Dear Nanny,

We have [a] nice sledding hill. We go sledding, tobogganing and skiing. Al and I were [at] a scout party last night. We saw a [magician?] and saw Indian dances and had refreshments at the scout party. Al is on a ten mile hike. He left at 9:30 and he [will] be back [at] 5:30. He is going to cook on a fire. We have a new phonograph. It plays 4 different speeds.

Dad like[s] the new chair you gave him. He sits in it every night.

Doc gave him a sleeping [bag] for his birthday.

I hope you are all right.

Love,

Bucky

Interesting Letters and Items from Early Childhood

Letter to Aunt Lois from Mary Myers
(written in 1959 at 7 years of age)

Dear Aunt Lois,

Deezee came to my house
Bucky made coolade
We went to the Hub to eat. I had chicken
We got a new baby girl
I like school. I can read and read
I am a good reader
I wore my new dress to Sunday School

Mary Myers

Postcard from Mary (10 yrs. old) to Nanny Myers
(from Neuschwantstein, Germany, showing the Royal Castle)

Dear Nanny,

How are you? We are now in the German Alps. Our first stop on the ship to Naples was Singapore, then Colombo, Bombay, Aden, Suez, Said, and Naples. We went to the Majestic Hotel for two days, and then took the 9:30 train to Rome. From Rome to Venice on the 9:45 train. Venice was the nicest and cheapest of all and we just loved it there. The pictures on the front of this card is Schwanstein Castle just like in the fairy tales. Believe it or not, it snowed hwere on May first. And that reminds me, how is the weather there? The Alps are really beautiful from where we are right now. I apologize for not writing for so long, but our schedule is so full. We are going to go from here in the Alps to Paris, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Ireland, and England. We had lots of fun in the Philippines and we wished you could be there. We went to Hawaii, Japan and Hong Kong. Hawaii was simply beautiful. You should have been with us. We all hope to see you soon. Write soon.

Lots of love,

Mary

Two Little Monkeys – Mary and Peggy

(from MERRIMENT AND CHAOS WITH FIVE YOUNG ‘UNS
by Lois Myers Harris)

Two little monkeys jumping on the bed,
One fell down and hurt her head.
Mother called the doctor and the doctor said,
“No more jumping on that bed!”

Do you remember the time Deezee and Aunt Lois brought you to Duck Run? We had no sooner gotten out of the city limits of State College when you asked “How much longer until we get to Duck Run?” You kept asking that same question every mile or so until we reached home, a distance of about 180 miles.

There were two beds in the room where you slept and that brought a bright light to your eyes as soon as you saw them. Being gymnastic minded, it was just the spot to jump from one bed to the other. We asked you to “Please stop” but you did not obey. Finally a little pat on your “fannies” helped to stop the jumper.

Mary, you loved to “measure noses” and you were the dearest little girl while doing that. I think this was a trick taught to you by Nanny Myers.

Peggy, you were loved and adored by Grandfather Sprague. Do you remember how he would comb your hair when you went to the Sprague’s home? Then he would take you to town and buy you ribbons for your hair. Once, he took you to the photographer and had your picture taken. When you returned to State College after living at Port Jefferson, Long Island, during the time your father worked at Brookhaven, you and Mary walked up to Hillcrest School on the first day and you enrolled yourself. You introduced yourself to the teacher saying, “I’m Peggy Myers and I’m in the first grade.”

Mary, do you remember your High School graduation gift – a trip to Europe to visit your godmother, who was employed at the Embassy in Germany? Isabelle, Bill, and Uncle Nick had come from New Castle to visit Aunt Lois in Alexandria, Virginia, and attend Billy McCombs’ graduation from Quantico, Virginia. We all drove over to Rockville, Maryland, to say “bon voyage” to you but arrived there too late, as you had already left for Dulles Airport. We immediately took off for Dulles with Betsy to direct us. She said, “I didn’t know we had an Uncle Nick in the family.” She pointed out places of interest to us on the way and when we crossed the river, said, “That’s the Potomac. It’s polluted.” We finally found Mary in the busy airport and stayed with her until her flight left Dulles.

Peg, I know you well remember enrolling yourself at Cornell University. Your dad took you to Washington, put you on the train for Ithaca and said, “You will be okay.” You arrived at Cornell without knowing a soul, but managed to spend four happy years there and graduate with honors. From Cornell to dental school at Doc’s alma mater, Loyola University in Chicago, and [sic] are now a full fledged dentist. How proud your grandfather would have been of you!

Blue Lake – Minocqua, WI

(from MERRIMENT AND CHAOS WITH FIVE YOUNG ‘UNS
by Lois Myers Harris)

By the shores of Gitche Goome,
By the shining Big Sea Water,
Dark behind it rose the forest,
Rose the pines with firs upon them.

–Longfellow’s “Hiawatha”

The Tavern at Blue Lake was the scene for much happiness. We often traveled there by boat. Doc had a charge account at the Tavern and the children were allowed to go on Thursday evenings. It was like Fairyland – a jukebox, different penny and nickel candies on the shelf, plus all kinds of pop and soft drinks.

It was a big day when Vernon, Nanny, Deezee, Nippy and Aunt Lois arrived at Blue Lake. Al and Bucky had such excited looks on their faces and met us with the welcome that they had rowed up to the Tavern and brought us back a surprise – a carton of warm pop which they kept hidden in their cottage under their bunks.

Do you boys remember the afternoon you invited Nippy and me to take a motorboat ride on Blue Lake? We never had time to see the blueness of the lake or the beautiful fir and birch trees surrounding the lake. Albert was at the helm and Bucky was the “urger to go faster, faster”. What a ride! We were covered from head to foot with spray. Nippy started to cry and we both pleaded with you to take us to shore. There was little heed to our demands and the faster we went. Finally, we landed back on familiar soil, but the two of us were too exhausted and scared that there wasn’t even a “Thank you“.

Then there were the times when we were all invited to the Manzer’s Cottage next door for steaming dishpans full of hot, delicious, sugary, homemade doughnuts. What a treat!

It was always a big occasion when Doc took his vacation from his dental practice in Park Ridge, Illinois. He usually came up to Blue Lake on the train, arriving at Rhinelander, Wisconsin. One summer, Vernon took the boys, Deezee, and me to meet him. The boys were real excited when he arrived – rushed to him with the greeting, “Doc, did you get to the bank before you left Park Ridge?” I think Doc had relaxed in the club car with a few bottles of beer because his nose and cheeks appeared quite red. He shook his hands and greeted Deezee and me asking, “Are you girls having a good time at Blue Lake?” We arrived home to the big cottage and as soon as we got indoors, he shook hands again with Deezee and me and asked, “Are you girls having a good time at Blue Lake?” He was feeling no pain. At that point, Honey took him aside and said, “Doctor, you go right down to the little cottage and go to bed.” Dear Doc and Honey – they were the best host and hostess in the entire world, and we will never forget the good times at Blue Lake and at their home in Park Ridge.

Do you boys remember how you would try to charge us 25 cents for the use of the deck chairs down at the water’s edge? And do you remember how poor Deezee would trudge up the hill each morning to feed your riding horses?

Then came Bucky’s birthday – he had some of his little friends at his home for a party. Deezee baked him a beautiful yellow sponge cake with white icing and decorated with candles. He informed her that he preferred devil’s food cake. What a letdown for poor Deezee!

State College

(from MERRIMENT AND CHAOS WITH FIVE YOUNG ‘UNS
by Lois Myers Harris)

We always enjoyed our visits to State College when brother Vernon was a physics professor there. It was especially nice to call on our good friends and next-door neighbors, Vance and Elaine Sprague. Upon one occasion, right after dinner, Mum, Deezee, Nippy, and I started over to their home and asked two little boys, Al and Bucky, to come with us. Both hung their heads and refused. They said they were being punished and were not allowed there. Why the punishment? We learned later that the Spragues had picked several quarts of their luscious, big, red raspberries and had put them on the back porch. Two little boys had gone over with their sandpails and shovels and had worked havoc with the berries, spilling them over the porch.

Al and Bucky had their eyes on some scrap lumber left from a new house being built in the area. They got their hands on it before their rivals. What a wonderful ladder Bucky made! A boy can do many things with a ladder, such as climbing trees, reaching a treehouse, etc. After the ladder was completed, they didn’t have a place to store it. They were afraid to leave it outdoors lest it be taken by a rival gang. Each night, they trudged indoors with the cumbersome ladder and took it to their room. I wonder where that ladder is today?

Grandfather Dan often chuckled over the occasion when Al was sitting beside him on the porch swing under the apple tree at our Duck Run home. A car drove into the driveway. Dan felt Al grow tense and he made a fist – ready for a fight. Young Billy McCombs had come for a visit.

To see the two of them many years afterward, December 28, 1984, to be exact, at Betsy and Hamied’s wedding – Billy now a major in the Marines and Albert, a Naval commander, engrossed in earnest, friendly conversation, one would never think they had disliked each other as kids!

We will always remember the evening that Dr. and Mrs. Buchheit arrived with you two boys from Park Ridge on the B&O wearing a new Homburg hat. He had planned to go from PA to Washington, D.C., where he would visit his old friend, J.J. Davies, our ex-Ambassador to Great Britain. Mr. Davies had grown up as a boy near Dr. Buchheit’s family farm in Wisconsin. Since his mother was an itinerant preacher, she was away from home a great deal. Mr. Davies (as told by Doc) spent many hours and had many meals at the Buchheit home. Doc wanted to look his very best when in Washington and bought a new hat to wear. There happened to be a sky dome on the B&O from Chicago and the two boys were given permission to go to the “upper deck” while Dock and Honey remained below. At one point, he looked up in time to see his new hat rolling down the steps. The boys had taken it and thought it was a lark to roll it down the steps. As soon as Dock entered our Duck Run home, he placed his hat on top of the high mantle and just shook his head.

Honey Buchheit had gone to Marshall Fields before they left and outfitted the boys in beautiful, bright red sweaters. We were sitting in the living room talking and not paying any attention to them. They finally came in from the kitchen, faces and hands covered with black soot as well as splashes on the sweaters. At that time we had a coal stove and they had discovered the “soot scraper” and the little compartment in the stove where the soot could be scraped out.

That evening after mother had gone to bed, she could hear them opening drawers and searching all over the kitchen. She had made cinnamon rolls for the next morning’s breakfast, and they were looking for them. They were never successful, as she had hidden them in the oven.

Two Indians

(from MERRIMENT AND CHAOS WITH FIVE YOUNG ‘UNS
by Lois Myers Harris)

Albert as well as Betsy had good strong lungs as a youngster. They both should have been opera singers. Betty brought Albert to visit me in Alexandria when he was about five or six months old. The only way we could keep him from crying was to bang on the piano. We took him down to the Shirlington Shopping Center in his little stroller. On the way home, he put on a yelling and screaming act. Betty had to carry him back up steep Martha Curtis Drive to my apartment while I pushed the empty stroller. The only way we could stop his crying when we got indoors was to rush to the piano with him.

On day Nanny Myers was taking Baby Bucky for a walk in his little wagon. Albert was pushing the wagon when he suddenly stopped and ran into a neighbor’s yard. He had seen his little neighbor, Charlie Ledecker, in the yard, gave him a punch and returned to push the wagon.

Merriment and Chaos with Five Young ‘Uns, A Birthing

by Lois Myers Harris
April 1985

Just a few memories as recalled by Aunts Lois and “Deezee”.

A BIRTHING

Fair was she to behold, that maiden of seventeen summers,
Black were her eyes as the berry that grows on the thorn by the wayside,
Black, yet how softly they gleamed beneath the brown shade of her tresses.

— Longfellow’s “Evangeline”

‘Twas in the year 1959, May 19 to be exact. There was a great hubbub and the preparation at Duck Run, as Mum and Deezee awaited word of a birthing at Bellefonte Hospital. Nanny Myers and Grandma Buchheit were always on hand to take care of the little ones when Betty was ready to go to the hospital. We never went to State College in an empty car. It was Saturday morning – many loaves of white bread and cinnamon rolls had been baked, along with other goodies including a nice fat roasting hen, a pound of Mike Weir’s Delicious dried beef, vegetable soup, etc., etc. Deezee was mowing the lawn when a car with “out of state” tags came in the drive. Lo and behold, it was Blanche and Claude Pippett of Kamrar, Iowa. They were on their way to visit me in Alexandria, VA, and decided to stop at Duck Run for a “hello”. Mum didn’t believe in people coming to just say “hello”. You should always invite them in to stay overnight. Well, you can guess what happened to much of the bread, cinnamon rolls, dried beef, etc. Since they were from Iowa, there was nothing wrong with their appetites. They spent the afternoon sightseeing around our part of the country, stayed overnight, and were sent on their way the next morning with a well-packed lunch.

Before noon on Sunday, May 20, the call came that a little girl had arrived at the Bellefonte Hospital to Vernon and Betty. She was their fifth child, with two brothers and two sisters. Mum and Deezee started off in great haste before more company had a chance to arrive. That night at 315 East Mitchell, Mother heard sobs coming from the boys’ room. She went to investigate. One little boy (I won’t mention names) was sound asleep while the other was sobbing his heart away. She got into his bed and started to comfort him by saying, “You are upset about the new baby, aren’t you?” “Yes,” he replied. “We just don’t need any more babies around here.” At that point, we were afraid the baby would be left on old Mt. Nittany for the lions to devour. However, little black-haired, dark-eyed Betsy Elwood was brought home, and we have all loved her from that moment to the present day.

When Betsy was about three years old, she accompanied her mother, brothers, and sister around the world, with several months in Manilla, to join her father who had received a Fulbright Fellowship to teach at the University of Manila. As their ship was pulling into the harbor at Hong Kong for a brief stop, this little girl was starry-eyed over the number of fishing and houseboats docked there, all shapes and colors. Before anyone could say “Jack Robinson”, she leaned over the railing and yelled at the poor old man, “Mister, why don’t you paint your old boat?” Little did she think that her brother would one day command a frigate near those very waters.

This same little lass graduated from high school in three years and went on to the University of Arizona and graduated from there.

Joseph Weis

(as recorded by Elizabeth Perkins Buchheit)

His letter to my father’s brother, William Buchheit Jr., follows. It extols education and work above all else. He went onto become a civil engineer in New York. Joseph Weis was in the army at Fort Abraham Lincoln in the Dakota Territory. He was in General Reno’s army which came up to relieve the army under Custer. They were too late!

[A note from the Administrator: Joseph Weis is the brother of Helena Weis, wife of William Buchheit.]

The Origins of Foy

(from the International Heraldic Institue, LTD., Charlotte, N.C.)

FOY.

Arms:  Paly of eight sable and argent, a crecent gules.

Crest:  An eel proper.

FOY.  Foye.  Bapt., “the son of Faith”.

Willemus Foye, 1379, P.T. Yorks.

Magota Foy, 1379, ibid.

Johannes Faythe, 1379, ibid.

This Coat-of-Arms is predicated upon information furnished to us by our client and based upon the following authorities:

Burke. General Armory. 1857.

Bardsley.  English and Welsh Surnames.  1901.

Anton Weis Obituaries

ANTON WEIS Obituaries.

WATERTOWN REPUBLICAN

Wednesday, August 20, 1884

Anton Weis, one of our oldest residents, died suddenly of an apoplexy last Friday night at his home in the First ward in the 17th year of his age.  Deceased was the father-in-law of Wm. Buchheit and had been a resident of Watertown for about 32 years.  Before coming here he lived some six months in Milwaukee.  He was a native of Westphalia on the Rhine.  He was a quiet, industrious citizen, and carried on the business of weaver.  His wife and several children survive him.

THE WATERTOWN GAZETTE

Friday, August 22, 1884

Friday night August 15, 1884 Anton Weis a resident of Watertown since 1852 departed this life of apoplexy at his home in the 1st ward, at the age of 77 years.  Deceased was a native of Westphalia, Germany, and before settling in Watertown resided for a short time in Milwaukee.  During his residence in this city he formed a large acquaintance and had the good will of all of them.  He was honest and upright in all of his dealings, and was a most stimable citizen.  His wife and four children survive him, being Mrs. Wm. Buchheit, of this city; Albert Weis of Marshall, Jos Weis, a civil engineer in New York City, adn Henry Weis of Milwaukee.  His funeral which was held on Monday was attended by a large number of deceased’s frieds and his remains were laid at rest in Oak Hill Cemetery.