A Ruth Berlin work history

Cousin Ruth could almost have a blog of her own.
Rather than make an entry every time I find another postcard,I've pulled together what I have into an almost chronological list. It is a rather dry account, but at least the outline is all in one place.  Supporting snapshots are not particularly informative, but will be scanned into the Ruth Berlin online album at some point.  "Good help" seems to have been passed around among the richest families in New York.  Ruth certainly worked for a number of them.

Ruth Berlin was born in 1892 in Sweden, and came to the U.S. in 1912.
The 1920 census shows her in Manhattan, in the household of J. Clifton Edgar, a professor of Obstetrics st Cornell.

The first of her jobs for which we have documentation was with H.C. Frick.  She worked for that family from the fall of 1920 to May, 1923,  at both Eagle Rock

http://stuffstories.blogspot.com/2012/01/ruth-worked-for-hcfrick-at-eagle-rock.html
and at 1 East 70th in New York, currently The Frick Collection.
(find a picture)

Ruth's cousin Victor sent her a letter to the Frick mansion in New York City.

In the summer of 1923, Ruth went to Sweden.
She returned in October 1923 on this ship, the S.S. Frederik VIII

From April 1924 to October 1926, Ruth worked for John D. Rockefeller.
Here is the reference she got when she left.

Two Residences, it says.  If there was one in New York City, she worked there.  Otherwise, one must have been Kykuit in Tarrytown, in the Hudson Valley (photo from Kykuit website)

The second was The Casements, Rockefeller's winter home in Ormond Beach, Florida

Ruth talked about the staff all getting dimes from John D.   He was famous for doing that.

There is a gap of over a year before the next long-term employment.
I think that means that the undated 4 months at Black Point was during the summer of 1927.


Then from the summer of 1928 to June 1932, Ruth was working on Park Avenue for G.B.Salisbury.

 Who was G.B.Salisbury?
The 1919-20 Annual Bulletin for the Harvard College Class of 1889 reports that he "is doing business as Salisbury, Worth & Sloan, brokers,at 74 Broadway NYC" .   That's all I have found.

Edit 1/28/2013:
The 1930 census has a Ruth Berlin listed as a servant in the house of Charles Pierre on Park Avenue. This must be 'our' Ruth because the nationality, birth date, and immigration year are right.  Don't know how to square this data with the "four years" in Mrs. Salisbury's 1932 note except to notice that the Salisburys and Pierres lived in the same apartment building at the time of the census.
It would be amazing to be able to say that she had worked for Pierre, because he is the Pierre of the Pierre Hotel on Central Park, which opened in 1930



From Park Avenue, Ruth went to Tuxedo Park, to Ledgelands, home of David and Isabelle Wagstaff for several years. All I know about the Wagstaffs is that they were listed in The Social Register.
Ruth left them when they closed the house, it says.

1937 through 1941, we only know what Ruth was doing during the summers.

1937.  The Breakers. A Vanderbilt estate.   One of the largest in Newport.
Ruth was First Housekeeper for the summer.
The Countess Szechenyi, nee Gladys Vanderbilt, inherited the house from Cornelius II.

Summers 1938, 1939, 1940, and 1941 were spent with the W.K.Vanderbilt household.
We know this from the letter here

The summers must have been at Eagles Nest on Long Island.

When she was taken  on permanently, her duties would have taken her, in season, to the Vanderbilt residence on 5th Avenue.  Perfect.

From the Vanderbilts, Ruth went back to Tuxedo Park, to an estate called Kincraig, owned by George G Mason. I have found nothing to enlarge on this data.
Ruth was there for almost four years.

There was a short term of employment with Walter Chrysler in 1949.
I'll bet that she didn't like being away from New York City.

Then in 1950, Ruth started work for Mrs. G. F. Tyler in Bucks County, PA.  This was her last job.
The Indian Council Rock estate was full of art and there were extensive gardens with sculptures.
The estate was left to Temple University, but is now Bucks County Community College.
There are a lot of pictures from this property in Ruth's albums.

Ruth became a U.S. Citizen during her time with Tylers, in 1956.

Ruth worked at this job until the house was closed after Mrs. Tyler died.

Ruth was in Bucks County until 1964, when she was 72.
She moved back to New York City in her retirement.

Untangling Swedish names - Grandmom's siblings

I've stumbled into an interesting tangent while going through the Kwick pictures.
Because I had his e-mail address, I shared with John Olson my online album of scanned pictures from Mother's family.  John (whose first name is Walter, and has also been known as Junior) is my second cousin.  His grandfather and my grandmother were siblings.

Right away he suggested that one of my pictures is mis-identified, and is actually a portrait of his grandfather.
He is right.  It is not Olaf. 
So.
This is Nils Adolf Olson (Ohlsson, Olsson, whatever) and his wife.

Oh.. I know Nils Adolf.
He is the one in this remarkable postcard, sent to his sister Gerda in America in 1919.
I'd never paid much attention to it before, except to think it was pretty strange.

On the back, he basically says goodbye; that he has a high fever and no appetite and will be in this hospital for the rest of his life.  Thanks for everything.
He was 44.

There followed a lot of new pictures from John, and the rediscovery of old ones I have had for a long time.  Here is one that John sent.  I don't have the original, of course, but it looks to be formally mounted on cardboard.  The middle guy is Walter, Nils's son, who could not have been more than 18 at the time, because he came to the US when he was 19.  John's opinion is that none of these people is sober in this picture.
I had always heard that at least some of the family emigration happened because coal mining was really the only work available in their area of Sweden at the time.

So.. names.
Why are the people in this part of the family called Olson, when two other brothers are called Krantz, and when the gravestones of their parents says Krantz?

I had been told that Krantz was a military name, but I never heard of Olaf or Axel being in the military in Sweden.  What I have learned from John is that Ola was in the Kings Guard.  So current theory is that Krantz was Ola's military-assigned name, but he didn't use it after he left the guard, so his children were called Olson (or some variation of that name).
Then in 1901 Sweden passed the Names Adoption Act which required that everyone have a name that would be passed down.  The idea here was to end the use of patronymics, which were just too confusing with a more mobile population.

SO.. (almost there), I think that Olaf and Axel took Krantz when they emigrated, either because of the new law or because it was simpler. And Ola and Johanna were buried as Krantz because of the new law.  Their other children kept Olson. Apparently they had that option, as well as the choice of how to spell it. "Ohlsson" was a more common spelling than I had been led to believe.  Grandmom (Gerda) used "Olson" and considered her sister's use of "Ohlsson" to be unnecessarily fancy.

Enough.  People who get all excited about these things can be tiresome, I know.

Having discovered Gerda's brother Nils, maybe I will find pictures of her other siblings who stayed in Sweden.  Stay tuned.

This pincushion rocks!

More hobby woodworking.  This time Uncle Axel's.  There were several of these little rocking chairs in existence at one time.  

This remaining one is a bit the worse for wear.

The pincushion is fine.  You could still use the little slot in the top for scissors, I suppose. Four out of six pegs to hold spools are broken off, and the little drawer has a weak floor. 

But, hey, I don't keep it around in order to use it, do I?

Here's a picture of Axel for good measure.

Somewhere there is also a picture of the Santa and Reindeer wooden cutouts that he made for lawn decorations in the 1950's,  back before it was possible to buy all your Christmas decorations made of plastic with LEDs.

EDIT 1/24/12:

Now THAT's interesting.

I found the picture of the Christmas display.  It is not Santa at all!  Memory is pretty strange.

EDIT 6/19/2012:

HA.

My memory is not completely goofed up, after all.

There really was a Santa display at Axels' house.