Genealogy Report: Descendants of Joseph Bemis
Descendants of Joseph Bemis
3235.Dwight L.8 Bemis (Varenes7, Timothy6, Timothy5, John4, John3, John2, Joseph1)14044,14045 was born 17 Oct 1851 in Ellington Village, on Clear Creek, Chautauqua, New York14045, and died 08 May 1888 in Chicago, Cook, Illinois14046.He married Lizzie Woodruff14047 31 Dec 1883 in Chicago, Cook, Illinois14047,14048, daughter of Horace Woodruff and Catherine//.
Notes for Dwight L. Bemis:
[History of Chicago]
[Page 575]
BREWERIES
D. L. Bemis, of the Bemis & Curtis Malting Company, was born at Ellington Village, on Clear Creek, Chautauqua Co., N. Y., on October 17, 1851.His father, H. V. Bemis, was a Baptist minister, and died when Dwight L. was four years old.Soon after, his widowed mother moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where he was educated until the age of fifteen.His brother, H. V. Bemis, was already a successful brewer in Chicago when D. L. Bemis came, in 1868, and he secured employment of him, remaining eighteen months, when he engaged with the Illinois Central Railroad Company as fireman, then became an engineer, and worked for the company three years and six months.He was next in the employ of the Texas Central Railroad for a year, after which he returned to Chicago, and engaged in the bottling business under the old Tivoli Garden.He had a partner by the name of Dickinson and the firm of Dickinson & Bemis did a thriving business for a long time; but, in 1876, Mr. Bemis sold out and invested his capital in the cigar business, in the Tivoli Garden, having his step-brother, B. F. Hales, as partner.In 1880, he became a partner with John Carden & Son, in the malting business, on Goose Island, and when the business was thrown into a stock company in 1881, he became its secretary, treasurer and general business manager.When John Carden and son withdrew from the company, it was re-organized, and its name changed to the Bemis & Curtis Malting Company, in December, 1884.Mr. Bemis is very much interested in man's noblest servant - the horse.In June, 1884, he became infatuated with the noted mare, Belle F., who made in that month 2:20 1-4 time at Rochester, N. Y., and he invested $5,000 in her.She has since sustained his judgment, and bids fair to become one of the most remarkable trotters in America.On December 31, 1883, Mr. Bemis, was married to Miss Lizzie Woodruff, daughter of H. W. Woodruff, of Sandwich, Ill.They have one child, Rosa Archer.
More About Dwight L. Bemis:
Date born 2: 17 Oct 1851, Elmington, Chautauqua, New York14048
More About Lizzie Woodruff:
Name 2: Lizzie Woodruf14048
More About Dwight Bemis and Lizzie Woodruff:
Marriage: 31 Dec 1883, Chicago, Cook, Illinois14049,14050
Child of Dwight Bemis and Lizzie Woodruff is:
4968 | i. | Rosa Archer9 Bemis14050, born 14 Oct 188414050; died 06 Dec 1903 in Chicago, Cook, Illinois14051.She married Frederick J. Ganka14051 25 Aug 1900 in Berrien County, Michigan14052; born Abt. 187914053. |
Notes for Rosa Archer Bemis: [Chicago. Dec 7, 1903. p. 1 (2 pages)] BODY OF SUICIDE SMUGGLED AWAY Removal of Dead Woman in Blanket from Saratoga Hotel Stirs Coroner to Action. DEATH A STRANGE ONE. Mrs. Rosa Ganka, Separated from Her Husband, Makes Up With Him and Then Swallows Poison. Shrouded in blankets, the body of Mrs. Rosa Ganka was smuggled from the Saratoga hotel early yesterday morning, placed in a cab, a driven to her grandmother’s residence on the west side. Only a few minutes before the young woman, who was an heiress, had taken poison, dying in the arms of the husband to whom she had been reconciled. The husband, practically forced from the hotel, he declares, rode alone beside the body of his wife. When the dwelling was reached the cab driver helped him carry the body into the house, from which the young woman had gone twelve hours earlier without a hint of suicide. Stirs Coroner to Action. These were the features of the case which roused both coroner and police to sudden activity in the morning. The first step was the arrest of Fred J. Ganka, the husband, but he was released when all the circumstances were learned. Then the coroner demanded to know why the law had been violated in moving the young wife’s body. He ordered the hotel physician and manager as well as Ganka to attend the inquest today and explain their acts. "The law has been ignored," Mr. Traeger declared last night. "Some one should be punished for this case." Three Years After Elopement. The remarkable climax of Mrs. Ganka’s life ended three years of married life which began with an elopement to St. Joseph, Mich., when she was 16 years of age. She left her husband last summer and recently began suit for divorce. Saturday morning her lawyer notified her that the decree would be granted soon. That afternoon she told her grandmother, Mrs. Kathryn Woodruff, with whom she lived at 418 Washington boulevard, that she was going downtown and would spend the night with her aunt, Mrs. Henry V. Bemis, 2018 Indiana Avenue. An hour later she appeared at the store in State street where her husband was employed. "Our baby is ill," she told him. "I want you to come see it." Ganka hurriedly secured his hat and coat and left the store with his wife. On the sidewalk Mrs. Ganka stopped and explained that the child was not ill. "Fred," she told him, "My lawyer says I can get my divorce soon, but you don’t think we could patch up our troubles?" Makes Up with Husband. A reconciliation was effected, and then the young couple decided to take dinner downtown and go to the theater. The man suggested that he would go home and change his clothes, and Mrs. Ganka agreed to accompany him to his boarding house at 354 Jackson boulevard. The house is close to the corner of Center avenue, and Mrs. Ganka, explaining that she wanted to buy a box of face powder, agreed to wait in the drug store on the corner until her husband had gone to the boarding house and changed his clothes. When he returned to the store the clerk handed her a small box wrapped in green paper, and she borrowed 35 cents from her husband with which to pay for it, again asserting it was face powder. Later it developed that she had bought poison. After leaving the drug store the couple went downtown, had dinner at a restaurant, and then went to the theater. Writes to Her Relatives. After the theater they had supper together and then went to the Saratoga hotel, where they registered and were given a room. Mrs. Ganka sent for stationery and wrote five letters, telling her husband that she had decided not to go back to her grandmother’s house and instead had written to all of her relatives telling them of the reconciliation. These letters were addressed to Mrs. Bemis, Mrs. Woodruff, and Mrs. Ella Tolman, another aunt, and Mrs. Zadla Gavin, all residing at 418 Washington boulevard. These letters will be opened at the inquest today and may explain why the young woman killed herself. A note to her husband, found in the hotel room after her death, was marked "to be opened Monday." It read as follows: "Good-by Fred. When you read this I will be dead. Be a good boy and be kind to the baby and mamma. You are not to blame for this. Good-by, good-by to all. Rose." Goes Out and Takes Poison. Ganka says he offered to mail the letters, but that his wife insisted on doing it. It is believed that when she left the room she took the poison, for her husband says he did not see the box until after his wife’s death. Returning to the room in a few minutes Mrs. Ganka kissed her husband. "O, Fred," she told him, "I am so glad our troubles are over at last." They sat talking, their arms around each other, till Ganka noticed his wife growing pale. He asked if she were ill and she replied that she was suffering severely. "But don’t worry," she told him. "I am subject to these spells." Ganka urged her to let him call in Dr. Davis, the house physician, but she laughed at his fears. "See, I am better already," she told him, and to prove it danced about the room. Suddenly she stopped, gasped, and sank to the floor as the terrified man caught her in his arms. Seeing she was becoming unconscious, Ganka rang for aid. Dr. Davis was summoned. Doctor Unable to Save Her. The physician at once suspected poison, and a search of the bathroom revealed the box of supposed face powder. It contained an arsenical compound. Dr. Davis did what he could for the woman, but she sank rapidly and died at 4 a. m. When Ganka saw his wife would die he notified his relatives in Washington boulevard, and Mrs. Tolman, accompanied by a man servant, went at once to the Saratoga hotel in a cab. Mrs. Ganka was unconscious upon the arrival of her aunt, and died without regaining her senses. In telling of the case later Ganka says that several of the employees of the hotel came to his room and urged that the body be removed at once, at notoriety was not desired by the management of the place. Then the body was wrapped in blankets, a cab was secured, and hotel employees assisted the husband to carry it from the building. Then followed a hurried trip to the Washington boulevard residence. Coroner Calls It an Outrage. C. C. Woodruff, Mrs. Ganka’s uncle, who resides at 284 Rush street, and is an attorney employed by the city, was then notified of her death. He declared at once that the law had been violated, and notified the police and coroner. Ganka’s arrest and subsequent release resulted, following the coroner’s investigation. "That my office was not notified of this case was the most high handed proceeding that has yet to come to my attention," said Coroner Traeger. "It was a direct violation of the law, and one for which some one should be made to suffer. "The first that I learned of the death of Mrs. Ganka was hours after her body had been carried away from the hotel where she died. It seems as if the hotel authorities, the house physician, Dr. Davis, and the friends and relatives of the woman did all they could to hide the details of the death. "From what I learned in the afternoon, I am convinced that the case is one of suicide. But should the same methods be pursued by others in the case where murder was done the hands of the police and of the coroner would be tied. I shall certainly summon the hotel men, Mr. Davis, and the husband and all others who had knowledge of the death before me tomorrow." Says Stories Are Different. Coroner Traeger said that the hotel authorities and the relatives of the woman told different stories of the events before the taking of the woman from the hotel to her former home. "The manager of the hotel told me," said Mr. Traeger, "that he was asked to send the body to the home of the woman’s relatives. The relatives told me that the management of the hotel and the doctor who attended the woman insisted that the body be taken from the hotel before daybreak. I have a box containing poison which the relatives and the hotel people declare contains poison like what the woman swallowed. I have also a medicine bottle and statements of several witnesses. "The body will not be embalmed until after the inquest. If necessary I shall have a post-mortem examination. "The penalty for not reporting a death such as this one to the coroner is not severe enough." Statement of Hotel Manager. Pashal Hicks, manager of the Saratoga hotel, denied he was any party to the removal of the body. Manager Hicks said he was not at the hotel at the time Mrs. Ganka died, nor when her body was removed. "In the night time the hotel is in charge of Spencer Cason, night watchman," said Manager Hicks. "I understand that Mr. Cason supposed the police had been duly notified and for that reason no objection when the body was taken away. "From what I hear it was the wish of Ganka to have the body taken to the house in Washington boulevard. If I had been present I would not have allowed it to be removed." Contradictory to the statements of Manager Hicks, Mrs. Tolman said that the person who represented himself as the hotel manager urged the removal of the body from the hotel and summoned the carriage which carried Mrs. Ganka’s body away. Always Happy, Say Relatives. At the girl’s home in the afternoon it was declared she had always appeared to be happy, and they could advance no reason why she should take her life. Ganka is 24 years old, while his wife would have been 19 had she lived until her next birthday. Mrs. Ganka was petite and pretty. She was always a favorite, and attracted attention wherever she went. She was an orphan and heiress to considerable property when, as Rosa Bemis, she met Ganka at a dance three years ago. Both became infatuated. Two weeks after the first meeting Ganka called at the Woodruff home and asked permission to take Miss Bemis to a picnic. Consent was readily granted, but instead of attending the picnic the two boarded a boat for St. Joseph and were married. By the death of her father, Dwight L. Bemis, when she was a young child the girl fell heir to much property. A year ago Ganka and his wife went to Albion, Mich., where some of the property was situated. [Chicago Daily. Dec 8, 1903. p. 3 (1 page)] MYSTERY IN HER SUICIDE. LETTERS WRITTEN AND MAILED BY MRS. GANKA MISSING. Woman Posted Missives Supposed to Give the Reason for Ending Her Life and None Is Delivered – Husband Says the Facts Are Concealed for a Purpose – Charges Will Be Preferred by the Coroner Against Management of Saratoga Hotel. Four letters written and mailed by Mrs. Rosa Ganka just before she committed suicide in the Saratoga hotel early Sunday morning are missing. They are supposed to furnish the clew to her motive for taking her life. Her husband, who was with her when she wrote the letters, yesterday, testified that she had told him they were intended for her relatives, and she is known to have mailed them in a box on the corner near the hotel. Clarence C. Woodruff and H. V. Bemis, uncles of the dead woman, made an attempt to recover the letters from the postoffice authorities, but they could not be found. It was expected that they would be delivered in the first mail yesterday morning. When they failed, the postoffice authorities were notified. Another search was made, but the letters were missing. Coroner Will Prefer Charges. This was the principal development yesterday in the investigation into circumstances surrounding the suicide of an heiress to $15,000 and the child wife of Frederick J. Ganka. Another feature was the testimony of Mrs. Ella Tolman before the coroner’s jury concerning the action of the Saratoga hotel officials and the announcement of Coroner Traeger that he would prefer charges against the management before the state board of health. "Several persons whom I supposed to be employees of the hotel told me that we would have to remove the body before morning," Mrs. Tolman told the coroner jury. "A case like this will injure the hotel and cause newspaper notoriety," one of them said. Mrs. Tolman’s statements, verified by the testimony of Frederick Ganka, were denied by Spencer Cayson, but before the coroner was through with the latter he contradicted his testimony. "I was the manager and was responsible while acting as the night clerk," he said. "I know the Manager Paschal Hicks was not at the hotel when the body was moved. I saw the body of the girl in the room and told Ganka not to remove it. Then I went to breakfast and when I came back the body was gone." Criticises (sic) Hotel Management. Deputy Coroner Buckley severely criticised (sic) Dr. J. J. Davis physician for the Saratoga and Morrison hotels, who, he said, neglected his duty in failing to notify the coroner of the death. "This might have been murder," said the deputy coroner, "or it might have been a suicide compact, which is just as bad. Yet you sit here and tell me that it was neglect on your part. If such neglect continues, there will be no use for the police or the coroner’s office. Crime can go unpunished." Ganka identified Manager Paschal Hicks as the man who told him to get the body out of the hotel. The latter explained that the man referred to was Simon Hicks, night clerk at the Saratoga and formerly employed in the same capacity at the Hotel Morrison. While there two years ago, he refused to give the police information concerning a suicide in the house and was arrested. Double Tragedy Is Planned. At his boarding house, 354 Jackson boulevard, last evening Ganka told of a circumstance the inquest failed to bring forth and which makes it appear that Mrs. Ganka had contemplated the death of her husband as well as herself. "While we were on the way out to my boarding house, where I intended to change my cloths, my wife asked me to bring my revolver," he said. "She spoke twice of the pistol before we reached the place and seemed to be worried lest I should forget it. "After I had changed my clothes and met my wife in the drug store, her first question was for the pistol. I had been unable to secure it and, when I told her so, she seemed to be disappointed. I believe she intended that I should go with her when she died, and had I carried the revolver I probably would not now be standing here." After the principal witnesses had been heard at the inquest the investigation was continued until tomorrow morning. Meanwhile the police will investigate the reports of bodies having been moved from the hotel to prevent notoriety and the housekeeper quoted by Mrs. Tolman will be notified to appear. [Chicago Daily. Dec 10, 1903. p. 10 (1 page)] HOTEL MEN ARE BLAMED. SARATOGA EMPLOYES (sic) ARE HELD GUILTY IN THE GANKA CASE. Coroner’s Jury Urges That Manager Hicks, Dr. J. J. Davis, and Others Be Prosecuted for Smuggling Out Suicide’s Body – Physician May Also Lose His License – Woman Tells How Another Dead Person Was Carted Away in a Cab at Night. As a result of the finding of the coroner’s jury in the case of Mrs. Rosa Ganka, who committed suicide in the Saratoga hotel Saturday night, and whose body was smuggled from the hotel in a cab before the police or the coroner had been notified, Manager Paschal Hicks and House Physician Davis of the hotel are threatened with prosecution. The verdict which was returned at the close of the inquest held at Rolston’s undertaking rooms, 22 Adams street, yesterday afternoon censured the management of the hotel and recommended that all who had a part in removing the body be prosecuted. Those who are liable to a fine of $100 on conviction are Paschal Hicks, manager of the hotel; Dr. J. J. Davis, house physician; Leonard Hicks, day clerk; Simon Hicks, night clerk; Mrs. Martha O’Neill, housekeeper; Spencer Cayson, night watchman; Peter Malone, bellboy; and James S. Schumaker, the cabman. Copies of the verdict were prepared after the inquest, and sent to Inspector M. G. Connell of the city health department, who probably presented them to the city prosecutor today for action. Further than this, it is said that Dr. Davis, who was present at the death of the woman and who failed to notify the coroner, may lose his license as a result of having neglected to perform his legal duty. Another Body Smuggled Out. Testimony before the coroner’s jury tended to establish the fact that the "death cab" has been used before by the management of the hotel. Mrs. O’Neill testified that she had known of the removal in a cab of the body of a man who died in the hotel two years ago. It was said that the man died of diphtheria, but the manager of the hotel, while admitting that the body had been smuggled away, asserted that the man had died from organic causes and that the permission of the coroner had been secured. The removal of the man’s body was due, as in the case of Mrs. Ganka, to the desire to avoid publicity. A significant detail which was brought out during the inquiry was that James Schumaker, who drove the cab in which Mrs. Ganka’s body was taken from the hotel, had borrowed his vehicle from a regular cabman. Malone, the bellboy, told of having gone to a saloon near the hotel, where he found Schumaker, and enlisted his aid. Frederick Ganka, the husband, again identified Manager Hicks as the man who told him that the body must be removed. How Rucker Case Is Explained. Manager Hicks of the Saratoga said last night in regard to the story of P. R. Rucker, who was said to be unable to obtain the services of Dr. Tallman, his regular physician, Monday night, when he was ill, that the story had been distorted. "Mr. Rucker is an old patron of the house," said Hicks, "and Tuesday morning he came down and asked what was the matter with us that we could not get him the doctor he wanted. That was the first I had heard of the matter. I investigated and found that every effort had been made to reach Dr. Tallman, but failed. "It was stated that the doctor was in the hotel at the time, and that is so. He was attending a patient here, but no one connected with the hotel knew it until the next day." [Chicago Daily Tribune (1872-1963). Chicago, Ill.: Dec 11, 1903. p. 3 (1 page)] ARRESTS IN GANKA CASE. SARATOGA MANAGER AND WATCHMAN ARE TAKEN. Warrant for James Schumaker, Cab Driver Who Took Woman’s Body from Place, Also Is Secured by City Prosecuter on Complaint of Dr. M. O. Heckard – Paschal Hicks and Spencer Cayson Give Bonds – More Writs to Follow – Hearing Dec. 18. Acting on a formal complaint filed by Dr. M. O. Heckard, registrar of vital statistics in the department of health, the city prosecuting attorney late yesterday afternoon secured warrants for the arrest of Manager Paschal Hicks and Night Watchman Spencer Cayson of the Saratoga hotel, and also obtained a writ for James Schumaker, a cab driver. The two former were arrested. This action was the result of the finding of the coroner’s jury in the case of Mrs. Rosa Ganka, whose body was smuggled out of the hotel in a cab early Sunday morning, after she had committed suicide. Hicks and Cayson, who were among those censured in the verdict, were arrested at the hotel, and furnished cash bonds of $150 each. Shumaker took the body to the woman’s residence. He could not be found, but it is expected he will be arrested this morning. The hearing has been set for Dec. 18 before Justice Gibbons, who issued the warrants. Meanwhile Dr. Heckard is employing detectives to gather evidence, and it is promised that more warrants will be issued. Those censured by the coroner’s jury were Dr. J. J. Davis, night physician for the hotel; Simon Hicks, night clerk; Leonard Hicks, day clerk; Mrs. Martha O’Neill, housekeeper; Peter Malone, bellboy, and the three persons for whom warrants have been issued. "By their testimony during the inquest, as well as by the statements they have made since, the employes of the hotel have shown an evident intention to confuse us so we would be unable to tell with whom the guilt rested," said Dr. Heckard in the evening. "We have been forced to proceed cautiously, and although we have made only three arrests, it is safe to say that more will follow." [Chicago Daily Tribune (1872-1963). Chicago, Ill.: Dec 12, 1903. p. 3 (1 page)] CABMAN IN GANKA CASE IS ALSO UNDER ARREST. Warrants Issued on Complaint of Dr. M. O. Heckard, Registrar of Vital Statistics in the Health Department. James Schumaker, the cabman who helped to remove the body of Mrs. Rosa Ganka from the Saratoga hotel after she had committed suicide last Sunday morning, yesterday was arrested on a warrant issued by Justice Gibbons. It was sworn out by the city prosecutor on a formal complaint made by Dr. M. O. Heckard, registrar of vital statistics in the department of health. Dr. Heckard yesterday announced that there probably will be no more arrests in the case. Dr. Davis, who is the hotel physician and had charge of the case, has explained to the department of health that he attempted to notify the police and coroner, and that he knew nothing of the plan to move the body. "I was called at 4 o’clock in the morning to visit Mrs. Ganka," he said. "I found her beyond medical assistance. Her husband was present, and I questioned him as to his knowledge of the cause of his wife’s illness. He replied that about 10 o’clock she had taken poison, but gave no explanation, and offered none. "I returned at 5 o’clock and found the patient dead. I immediately informed Ganka that his wife was dead, and also reported it to the office of the hotel. "I then left for the Morrison hotel, having been up all night with that and other cases and I was greatly fatigued. On my way to the hotel I called at several places to find a policeman to whom I could state the case, but found none. On reaching my hotel I retired for rest, but early in the morning I called up Dr. Spaulding, and on the way to call up the coroner I was informed that the relatives of the woman had removed the body." [Chicago Daily Tribune (1872-1963). Chicago, Ill.: Dec 30, 1903. p. 4 (1 page)] SARATOGA EMPLOYE IS FINED. Spencer Cayson Pays $25 for Smuggling Suicide’s Body from Hotel During Night. Spencer Cayson, night watchman at the Saratoga hotel, 155 Dearborn street, was fined $25 and costs by Justice Sheldon yesterday afternoon for having been implicated in unlawfully removing the body of Mrs. F. J. Ganka, who committed suicide at that hotel some weeks ago. Paschal Hicks, manager of the hotel, was discharged by Justice Sheldon, who said that S. S. and not Paschel, Hicks was the man pointed out at the inquest as the man who removed the body. |
More About Rosa Archer Bemis: 1900 Census: Chicago Ward 11 (District 318), Cook, Illinois14054 |
More About Frederick Ganka and Rosa Bemis: Marriage: 25 Aug 1900, Berrien County, Michigan14055 |