The Autobiography of Aunt Millie - Part One

Over the course of the next few weeks, with your indulgence, your editor would like to publish the transcription of Emilie "Millie" Fieg Case.  This transcription was taken from several documents, the most imortant of which is Aunt Millie's own autobiography, "The Old Timer's Memoirs," copies of which are in the possession of several other relatives.

This fascinating memoir reveals details not only about the Fieg family's emigration to America but about life in the earliest years of the Twentieth Century in our country.  I've gathered some tid-bits of trivia to pad the account, and hope you'll enjoy...

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AUNT MILLIE

"The Old Timer's Memoirs"

Introduction by Judith Fieg Kestner

Sometimes women marry with the misconception that a golden door will open once the ring is on the finger and that life will be soft and pleasant and enriching. "Wedded bliss," however, is more likely than not a very small object glimmering in the heat at the end of a long, bumpy road. Hard work, give-and-take and emotional experiences high and low all propel us toward that far away light that may or may not be a mirror of our original dream of happiness.

Many women who peruse the autobiography of my Great-aunt Emilie "Millie" Fieg Case will feel an empathy with her expectations for the "knobby club" to strike "in case she ever got to be too happy," for, as we all know, there is no guarantee that that shiny thing just around the next curve in the road is not fool's gold. To quote English author Mary Anne Evans (a.k.a George Eliot), "Having once embarked on your marital voyage, it is impossible not to be aware that you make no way and that the sea is not within sight -- that, in fact, you are exploring an enclosed basin."

The men in my Great-aunt Millie's life were well-intentioned. Her father ("a philosopher") failed in his business in Germany and had to emigrate to America, sending for his family months later. (They took a ship by themselves - six children alone with their mother!) Millie's husband was a man who was accident-prone and who, in this narrative, she sometimes called "her father." How ironic it is that Millie herself had six sons.

I remember Millie as an enthusiastic, friendly woman. When, as a teenager, my family and I attended a reunion at her Oak Tree Farm in Milford, Pennsylvania she greeted me with a handshake and a kiss on the lips! I realize now that it was a common, though old style, hello or goodbye in other families as well and in fact when my father, who was Millie's nephew, dropped me off at college that is how he took his leave of me.

In a newspaper article about the dedication of the Emilie Case Children's Library in Milford, published after her death, reporter Cynthia Van Lierde said, "Oak Tree Farm was always a busy place, with friends, neighbors and family coming and going. Reunions were part of their life style to 'keep in touch.' Family ties were strong and encouraged by this remarkable woman." 



Aunt Millie at age 7 or 8 (sitting, second from left) next to
her father, Carl, in a setting that was her heart's delight.
(Note delighted expression on her face.)

Doris Holm, the daughter of Millie's brother Max, wrote that Millie's nickname in Milford, where she raised her family, was The Old Timer (not as an indication of her age but of her knowledge and respect for Old Times), and that she led the Milford hiking club throughout the woods. Said Doris, "She was so remarkable [in] her memory and knowledge of the woods and wildlife there. [They] could find their way over all the old Indian trails in the Poconos. She knew where to find a rare wild orchid."

Reporter Van Lierde wrote, "Emilie Case possessed a consuming curiosity about everything and everybody. The hikes she organized were really nature explorations. She was always seeking to find rare species of mosses, ferns, lichens and flowers. And, when found, they were identified with the help of the ever present resource books she always had with her. " Emilie Case was a wilderness woman!

In 1966, Millie answered a letter that my father, Victor Philip Fieg, had written asking for information on the family history. At first glance her reply is simply a litany of dates and names and a story familiar to most European immigrants in the early 1900s: leaving the fatherland for the Land of Opportunity in America; feeling their way for a few years while attempting to embrace a culture so new and different; finally settling in, working hard and raising a family whose members became productive drops in the melting pot. The small, personal details Millie includes, however, make it a page-turner, especially if you are a relative of hers.

Then in 1980, when she was 86 years old, Millie wrote a more detailed remembrance of her life in early twentieth-century America, filled with details that are humorous, poignant, charming and honest.

In the account that follows, the two letter to my father and Aunt Millie's memoirs are interwoven, along with a piece she called "Memoirs - Short Version" and other bits of information about the Fieg and Case families. There are also side notes that expand on the details Aunt Millie wrote about -- what life was like in general, social norms, fashion and other trivia that help put things in perspective. Excerpts from her letter to my dad appear in italics in the body of the autobiography.

The preface, written by my father's brother, Lothar "Bud" Fieg, launches the wonderful story of Emilie Roseina Fieg Case. Read on....

 

Judith Fieg Kestner

Great-niece of Emilie Roseina Fieg Case