Eliza's ancestors were all from England. She and her two sisters grew up in Ludlow, Massachusetts, near Boston, as did their parents. We don't know much about her parents, but her mother's maiden name was Putnam, and her mother's brother was a General in the Revolutionary War. Sometime, you may read about General Putnam -- that was Eliza's uncle.

Eliza was born on February 12, 1833, in Ludlow, Massachusetts. When the girls were still young, both parents died. We never knew what happened to them. Eliza was put into an orphanage in New York and the other two sisters went to an orphanage in Boston, never knowing where they had put Eliza. They taught her how to sew in the orphanage, and she learned very quickly. Soon they let her go out and get a job as a seamstress in the garment industry in New York, and then come home to the orphanage at night.

Gottfried and Eliza were married December 24, 1857. They came to Madison, Wisconsin the same year, and they lived there for fifteen years. Great Grandpa bought a tavern in Madison and Great Grandma, Eliza, tended the bar while he did his tailoring. She was a very beautiful young girl, and the tavern was successful. One day, just before her first child (Frederick William) was born, two men came into the tavern to rob it. They beat Great Grandma so badly, that when the child was born, he had Cerebral Palsy. Great Grandpa sold the tavern after that tragedy.

After that they moved to a farm near Avon, in Rock County, Wisconsin. In 1894, they moved to 811 9th Street in Beloit, and they lived there until their deaths. He was eighty-one years old when he died, and she died at the age of eighty-six.

Great Grandpa served in the Civil War. He made a living for his family as a tailor. Times were hard and they had a large family. One day, he traded his Stradivarius for a bolt of cloth, so he could make some suits and sell them. The children bought him another violin some years later, but he said it wasn't the same sound as his old one, and he never played it.

Gottfried and Eliza had nine children.

One day, after my great grandfather died, a man came to the door. He had a check for Great Grandma Eliza. It seems that Great Grandpa had been injured in the Civil War and had benefits coming, but had never taken them. It must have been a good amount of money, because she bought eight houses with it -- one for each one of her children.

I never knew my Great Grandma, of course, but I do remember going to Beloit and making the rounds, visiting my Great Aunts, Tope, Liz and Em. Sometimes, I would go to Beloit and stay a week with Aunt Tope. Then I would walk over to see Aunt Liz and my Aunt Margaret, Mother's sister. Aunt Em lived way on the edge of town and, since no one in Beloit had a car, I would go see her with my mother. Aunt Em was always piecing quilts and making strawberry jam, and she would usually give us a jar to take home.