Pfc Brother Charlie Writes Home May 7, 1944

Hey everybody. Welcome to Retell Seller, an ephemera podcast where I uncover forgotten stories and the ephemera people leave behind. I’m Angie a reseller of 10 years, and I’ll share one of those snippets with you. Let’s see what today’s find has to say.

I purchased a small lot of ephemera from an online auction, including this American Red Cross envelope and letter. It’s not in the best shape with an overall brown with stains. The letter was torn mainly along the edges, and it was dated May 7th, 1944.

Here’s what it says

Dear Lu & Dave and Gang; —

Excuse the envelope, they are hard to get some times. Like a sap you know, any time the guys ask me for an envelope I give. Now we have to wait for them to get some in the px or buy another set of papers with envelopes. Oh well, that’s life.

Honey, I know every little helps but, I do wish you wouldn’t go out working with your trouble. You won’t live long trying to live this life of six other people. I know you all are busy like me so, when you don’t write I think that is the reason. About blood type, mine is AB. Only three percent have that type so it is considered rare blood. Your blood is too rich so that is why they can’t use it for transfusions. I am glad it’s down and hope you keep it down.

Mom said you were house cleaning. What a job. I expect to come over some day in June and inspect the job. Hey Hey.

Oh yes, if Bill is there, the jeweler I mean – tell him I have a G.I. wrist watch and the main spring is broke. When I am home in June, first 10 days, I hope he will have one on hand to repair it for me.

If I turn it in, I will not get one back and I do want to keep it. If I give it to a jeweler here, it takes too long. They are always in hopes you get shipped out during that time and then they keep the watch.

Daddy should be able to pick the best runs so life won’t be so hard. Dealing with the public is a nerve wrecking job. Maybe at night not so many people ride.

Hey Hey Old red head will be a fat head if he eats all the broken Cakes and pies. I’ll bet he don’t even eat at home anymore. I hope he likes the job. They don’t care if he made a mistake in age. They need help.

Well honey I hope you and Daddy feel fine on this lovely Mothers day (as it is down South). There are no cards so I sent Mother another pillow slip, she will be able to make a bed spread out of them, that’s an idea.

I will get my watch now and give you all the dope for Bill.

It’s a nine (9) jewel Waltham Premier – 30990099 (on back of watch). The number on back of cover is 632417. I will trace around the watch for actual size

Thanks and I hope this information is OK. Here’s hoping you and daddy feel OK. Your PFC. brother Charlie.”

If you’d like to see the watch Charlie traced, be sure to check out the show notes. Also, I’d like to add I do create YouTube videos of the podcast episodes. Sometimes, a podcast doesn’t always get the point across in a way that makes sense, just like I said, he drew a picture of his watch and you can’t see that on a podcast. So that’s what I will put in the video. So I do hope you check that out and check out the others too, and I hope they’re beneficial.

As usual, I was excited to see what I could find out, if anything, about the person who wrote the letter and those it was addressed to. The name and address of the sender was:

Pfc Heidekrueger (hope I’m pronouncing that right)
Rail Transportation
Camp Stewart, GA
US Army

The letter was addressed to a Mr. and Mrs. David Enderlin on Wabash Ave. in Chicago

I began with searching the 1940 Census for Cook County, IL finding the Enderlin family of David the Father, Lulu the Mother along with, at the time, their 4 children. They had Harold who was 16, June, age 12, Charles was 10, and lastly Ann, who was 9.

I also came across a site where I typed in David Enderlin’s name and pulled up a family tree showing his wife, children, siblings, parents, etc.

And when I saw LuLu’s maiden name, it was listed as Heidekrueger and that was the last name of brother Charlie who wrote the letter, which was great. So, I click on Lulu’s name and it now shows all of the same things as in Spouse, children, siblings, but, nowhere do I see that she had a sibling named Charlie.

I searched more to see if I could find a connection of a Charles to Lulu and while I did find in the 1920 Census of New Jersey, a Charles Heidekruger he was 45 years old, which would’ve made him 69 by 1944 however, he did have a son named Charles Jr. who was 9 which would have made him 33 years old by 1944 which could be him but, I couldn’t actually find a connection between him and Lulu.

So while not confirmed, I do believe the writer of the letter is Lulu’s brother.

But there are plenty of other parts of the letter that can be verified for the time in which it was written. So let’s go through some of those.

Charlie’s letter came from Camp Stewart where he was stationed which is now known as Fort Stewart. It was created in 1940 as an antiaircraft training facility and eventually various other uses and is still operational to this day.

The American Red Cross Stationary FORM 539A, what Charlie wrote on, was distributed and utilized during WWII but, I didn’t find any other concrete information about it like when it was first distributed and if it was used prior to WWII.

And I’d actually found a bundle of unused ARC stationary and envelopes on Etsy and I was going to purchase them only to realize they’d already sold. I had thought it would be nice to come across something like that again so maybe I could do a giveaway or a drawing of some sort but, I’ll just have to wait and see if I can find another small batch.

And when Charlie spoke of blood type, how his was AB and rare with only 3% of people having that type, the American Red Cross’ website states that today, less than 1% are type AB- while 4% have AB+.

And looking at the dates listed for the kids of Dave and Lulu, I see Faith was born in 1944. I dug a little more and found her marriage license stating it was July 21, 1944 which would have only been 2 months after Charlie wrote the letter so it would make sense when he said, “I do wish you wouldn’t go out working with your trouble, you won‘t live long trying to live the life of 6 other people,” and when talking about blood type later and how he says, “I’m glad it’s down and I hope you keep it down.” And so I do believe he’s referring to the fact that she is about to have a baby.

The Waltham Premier watch Charlie needed fixed was what many serviceman would have had due to Waltham being a contractor for the U.S. military. They even supplied the timed devices for things like bombs and torpedoes and the Waltham factory converted entirely to military production at that time.

Toward the end of the letter when he says, “Daddy should be able to pick the best runs so life won’t be so hard,” would be due to the fact that Dave Enderlin worked for Chicago Surface Lines which I was also able to confirm from his “Old Man’s Draft” card I found since they needed to know the employer’s name.

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has the description of the Old Man’s Draft” saying: On April 27, 1942, the Selective Service conducted the fourth of six draft registrations. This registration, also called the “Old Man’s Registration,” collected information on the industrial capacity and skills of men born between April 27, 1877, and February 16, 1897 (age 45 to 64). This draft registration was not intended to be used for military service, but to provide a complete inventory of manpower resources in the United States that could be used for national service.

Towards the end of my deciding to move on and to close out this letter’s story, I did one more search finding the obituary of Alfred Heidekrueger who, according to the family tree I found earlier, was Lulu’s brother and in the obit, it mentions Lulu along with a Charles Heidekrueger listed as siblings. I imagine I’ll revisit this sometime in the future to see what else I can find but, for now, at least a bit of the story has been told. I know there is more there that I’ll be able to figure out, so I will come back to it.

When I saw Charlie’s image of his watch that he traced out, I saw his hopes being drawn out. Hoping to get home, to get his watched repaired, to check on Lulu’s cleaning skills even. I HAD to show it my husband too. He loves watches and he used to work at a watch repair company. He’s even made me a couple of watches in the almost 30 years we’ve been together so it was fun to share the find with him.

This may not be a complete historical biography, and I’m not a historian or an expert of any kind. But this letter is still about real lives, grounded in real places, real work, and real relationships. And sometimes the story isn’t about solving the mystery completely. Sometimes it’s about recognizing the small, human stories that survive inside the things we find.

And in this case, what survives is an ordinary letter from a loved one who sounds caring, concerned, funny, and loving written by someone who expected to come home in June of 1944, worried about Lulu’s health, hoping to get a watch with a broken spring fixed, and taking a moment to connect with those he cared about and that right there is a bit of history.

And one last thing I’m curious about, did old red head indeed become a fat head? For this we will never know but, like Charlie said, I hope he liked the job.

I think the question here could truly revolve around anything so I’ll leave that up to you.

Thank you for joining me. As I shared a snippet of the past, I’d love to know if it connected with you in some way. Did it spark a memory or make you see something differently? If so, consider sharing it. Be sure to check out the show notes for additional info, links and ways to connect. It’s not nostalgia, it’s human.

Until next time, may you find something worth holding onto.

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DISCLAIMER: The content on this site is for storytelling purposes only.

ADDITIONAL LINKS & INFO:

This is not THE Charles but, I do believe this is the son of Lulu and Dave born 1929, also named Charles. In order to see this link, a subscription to ancestry is needed.

https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/108978431/person/430070317161/facts?usePUBJs=true