Volume 4: School Stories
Omaha, Nebr. Mar 27, 1908
2132 N. 29th St.
Dear Harry: —
I must say Harry you are very very good. Why goodness I didn’t expect that my but I treasure that book better than if it had been new but I hope you didn’t deprive yourself of it. Alma was here when it came and you bet I showed it to her so she could see what a good brother I have and who she is doing her best to get. She brought up a picture of you that she had had framed & that was going in her room. I have walked to school with her every morning this week & she has been as good as pie.
We have exams next Tuesday and Wednesday so I have to study up & am quite busy so this letter won’t be long only to tell you how I appreciate the good deed you done.
Mr Zartman put checks on everybodies paper who had good movement & he put one on mine. There were only four in the class so I think I’m doing fine in writing but can’t tell about my other studies.
I received a letter from H.H. at the same time I received yours. It was my turn to write but he wrote. I hadn’t written to him for three wks but I think its only 2 but he’s just like all boys they spread it out a little. He said that 2/3 of the class threw the other 1/3 out of the window
One of your pictures just fell on the table. They don’t mind very well. By the way we put the table where the bookcase was & the bookcase where the table was.
Pa is ordering me to get out so I better git.
By-by
Lillian.
P.S. Big kiss for book.
In genealogy, we frequently talk about researching our ancestors “FAN” club – a term coined by the brilliant Elizabeth Shown Mills that refers to Friends, Associates, and Neighbors. New genealogists tend to focus on their direct line. When we broaden our search to include extended family, friends, associates, and neighbors, we often find information that correlates back to the ancestors we are researching. It is the quickest, best, and sometimes only way to break down our genealogical brick walls – or just find an interesting (if tangential) side story.
Such is the case with Lillian’s teacher, Mr. Zartman. In Lillian’s world, “Mr. Zartman” was someone with whom she likely had little or no contact outside of school, but as a genealogist I couldn’t resist learning a little bit more about his man who appears in offhand comments in a handful of her letters.
Ezra Alvin Zartman was born in Pennsylvania and was around the age of 40 when he was a teacher at the High School. He only taught at the High School for a brief period, which just so happened to be when Lillian was a student. Zartman first appears in the Omaha City Directory in 1907, and by 1910 his profession is listed as the President of the Omaha Commercial College (a trade school), implying he had moved on from his High School position.[1] Zartman came to Omaha with his young wife, Esther Amelia “Milly” (Weedlin) Zartman, and by 1910 was father to two daughters (two more children followed in 1915 and 1918, but by then the Zartmans had moved to Pennsylvania.) Zartman’s 1955 obituary lists Milly and four children. He taught for 60 years, at multiple schools in Nebraska and Philadelphia. A 1952 newspaper article in the Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph tells of his business school romance and eventual marriage to Milly. Though the dates and details are hazy, Zartman was Milly’s teacher at a business school in Nebraska. He left the school and took a position in Illinois, where a romance ensued through letters, often written in shorthand, before they married in Chicago in 1902. The article mentions their four children, 11 grandchildren, and 3 great-grandchildren.
Not mentioned in the article, or in Ezra’s obituary from 1954, were daughters from two previous marriages. Ezra A. Zartman married Jane Catherine “Jennie” Stephen on 1 June 1896 in Ida County, Iowa, where his family had been living since at least 1880.[2] Daughter Eva Lucille Zartman was born barely three months later. The marriage did not last, though no divorce record has been found. In the 1900 U.S. Census, Jennie Zartman is working as a domestic in the home of Ben A. Anderson in Eureka, Iowa, and living with her three-year-old daughter, Eva.[3] Her status in the census is ‘married,’ but in an era when divorce was frowned upon it was common for women to misrepresent their marital status. By 1910, Jennie Zartman was married to Aaron Fletcher Allen and mother to three more children, with Eva Zartman living in the household and listed as Aaron’s stepdaughter.[4]
On 28 January 1897, five years before his marriage to Milly Weedin and less than eight months after his marriage to Jennie, Ezra Zartman married Wilhelmina “Minnie” Heiser in Adams County, Illinois. A daughter, Pauline Heiser Zartman, was born in August 1898 in Lancaster County, Nebraska. By 1900, Ezra Zartman was indeed living in Chicago, but was listed as a kitchen man in a hotel at 158 Van Buren Street (the hotel no longer exists.)[5] His marital status was listed as single. Minnie, meanwhile, is found on a different 1900 U.S. census, as an inmate at the Nebraska Hospital for the Insane in Lancaster, Nebraska, and she is listed as married.[6] Daughter Pauline’s location in 1900 is unknown. She appears in the household of Minnie’s sister, Emma Heiser, until her marriage in 1921, but was not enumerated with her aunt in 1900. Minnie (Heiser) Zartman died on 18 February 1904. Ezra and Milly were married for roughly 18 months by that time, implying a divorce or formal end to Ezra and Minnie’s marriage sometime prior to 1902, though no divorce records have been found.
In 1912, ten years after his marriage to Milly, a final report of guardianship appeared in the Nebraska Legal News notifying Ezra Zartman and the rest of the Heiser family that Emma Heiser, Pauline’s aunt, was legally appointed as Pauline’s guardian. By all accounts, Pauline Heiser Zartman, raised by her aunt Emma, lived a full and happy life in Nebraska. Emma never married, and lived with Pauline and her family until her death in 1954. Eva Zartman, too, went on to live a full life, marrying sometime around 1917, and raising eight children with her husband.
It is doubtful Lillian knew anything about the colorful personal life of her teacher, Mr. Zartman. By the time he crossed paths with Lillian he was happily married to Milly, and remained so for over 50 years. Still, his story is an interesting one that might have been lost if we didn’t take the time to research Lillian’s FAN club.
Incidentally, I have no idea what book Harry sent to Lillian that left her in such raptures, but clearly her competition with Alma to be Harry’s favorite is in full force!
Want to read more?
Volume 1: Lillian and her Letters
Volume 2: November 4th, 1907
Volume 3: Sweethearts or Sisters and…Candy!
[1] Omaha, Nebraska, City Directory, 1907 and 1910, database available digitally on Ancestry.com as “U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995.”
[2] 1880 U.S. census, Ida County, Nebraska, population schedule, enumeration district (ED) 137, page 86-C (stamped), page 7 (penned), dwelling 51, family 55, E.C. Zartman; NARA microfilm publication T9, roll 345.
[3] 1900 U.S. census, Eureka Township, Sac County, Iowa, population schedule, enumeration district (ED) 121, page 240 (stamped), sheet 8-B, dwelling 186, family 186, Ben A. Anderson household; NARA microfilm publication T623, roll 457.
[4] 1910 U.S. census, Seiling Township, Dewey County, Oklahoma, population schedule, enumeration district (ED) 137, page 327 (stamped), sheet 1-B, dwelling 11, family 11, Aaron F. Allen household; NARA microfilm publication T624, roll 1250.
[5] 1900 U.S. census, Chicago, Ward 1, Illinois, population schedule, enumeration district (ED) 16, page 175 (stamped), sheet 4-A, dwelling 8, family 25, William Bartaeu household; NARA microfilm publication T623, roll 245.
[6] 1900 U.S. census, Yankee Hill Precinct, Lancaster County, Nebraska, population schedule, enumeration district (ED) 153, page 345 (stamped), sheet 3-B, Nebraska Hospital for the Insane, Minnie Zartman; NARA microfilm publication T623, roll 934.
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