Henry H. and Elvira Freise. (Photo credit to Lori Freise)

Henry H. Freise was born in 1912 in Schaumburg Township. In the 1940 census, he is listed living in Antioch with Elvira, his wife, and their sons, Henry and Kenneth.

One of the helpful questions in the census asked about the location of each person's residence in 1935. At that time he was living in rural Cook County. We have to infer that he was living in Schaumburg Township since he married Elvira Heide that year.

Their first son, Henry W., was born in 1936 and he was followed by Kenneth who was born in 1938. The obituaries of both state that they were born in Palatine.

When the census was taken on April 18, Henry H. is listed as the caretaker of a private home. It did not list, however, whose home it was. All we know from the census is that he and Elvira were renting the Antioch home they lived in.

Six months later, on October 16, Henry registered for the World War II draft. There, we find not only his address in Antioch but, also, who he was working for as caretaker. The address Henry gave for himself and his wife, Elvira, is R.F.D. #1 and his employer is listed as Curt Teich. You may wonder, who was Curt Teich? Take a look at some of these postcards for a clue.

Curt Teich postcard sent to Mr. and Mrs. William Thies. Postmarked August 22, 1939.
Curt Teich postcard sent to Mrs. W.F. Thies. Postmarked June 1, 1942.
Curt Teich postcard sent to William Thies. Postmarked August 28, 1939.

Diana Dretske, Curator and Lake County Historian of the Bess Bower Dunn Museum in Lake County, Illinois, stated in her blog post, Curt Teich was "one of the world's most successful postcard publishers... [He] immigrated in 1895, and eventually settled in Chicago where, in 1898, he opened a printing business. In order to stand apart from the many printers in Chicago, Teich became an innovator. He turned the bulk of his operation to printing postcards, and developed a large off-set press to meet production needs. Teich postcards became known for their quality and brilliance of color. From the 1920s to 1940s, the Teich Company became the world's largest producer of postcards."

While Mr. Teich and his family had their main residence in Chicago and, later, in Glencoe, they also bought a summer home on Bluff Lake in Antioch in 1918 from John Ayling. According to James Stanley whose parents bought the house in 1971 from the Teich family, Mr. Ayling had rebuilt the home after the prior structure burned in May 1906.

When the Teichs bought the house shown below, they must have decided at some point that they would need assistance in the upkeep of the house and grounds of this beautiful, idyllic spot.

Curt Teich summer home on Bluff Lake, Antioch, Illinois. Photo credit to Lake County, Illinois History blog.
Curt Teich standing on the lake steps leading to the Bluff Lake house in Antioch. Photo credit to James Stanley.
On the shore of Bluff Lake at the Curt Teich summer home in Antioch, Illinois. Photo credit to Lake County, Illinois History blog.

While it is quite probable that other caretakers preceded Henry H., it was still a bit of a mystery when the Freise family moved to Antioch.

Thanks to Lori Freise, we have the photo, below, of a young Henry W. standing on a chair in the middle of a beautiful lawn that appears to border a lake. James Stanley was able to definitively identify this photo as the front lawn of the Bluff Lake estate. In fact, you can too. Take a look at the flower urn in the photo above. Now take a look at the two in the background of the photo below. They are the same.

Henry W. Freise stands on a chair on the front lawn of the Teich estate. Photo credit to Lori Freise.

Because Henry W. was born in August 1936 and clearly appears to be close to one year old, we can make the assumption that the couple moved to Antioch sometime between their wedding in 1935 and the summer of 1937. They continued to live on the Teich estate until 1945, adding daughter, Lois, to their family during those years.

Henry later went on to become a butcher and eventually operated the Freise Country Meat Market in Union, Illinois until his death in 1981. Elvira continued the shop for an additional 30 years. From Schaumburg to Antioch to Union, country living obviously agreed with the Freise family.

Jane Rozek
Local History Librarian
Schaumburg Township District Library
jrozek@stdl.org

My thanks to Diana Dretske, Curator and Lake County Historian of the Bess Bower Dunn Museum, for getting me started and allowing me to make use of the photos and text from her wonderful blog post.

She, in turn, suggested I contact the Lakes Region Historical Society in Antioch. They responded so quickly and were incredibly helpful in answering my questions.

They also connected me to James Stanley who grew up in this lovely house. He was able to answer even more questions and provide additional photos.

It developed into a wonderful tour de force from Lake County local history enthusiasts. This was a wonderful example of how it can take many contacts to fill in the blanks.

The Teich Postcard Archives Collection is now housed at the Newberry Library in Chicago.