Susan Metzger Baldwin

In my last post, I told about how I went to the Ocean County Library to look for an obituary for Charles Metzger, who died in Lakewood, NJ.  I did not find one.  While speaking with one of the librarians, I mentioned that I thought that he had lived in Trenton area originally and was a college professor out there.  The Librarian says that they had access to the Historic Trenton Time Newspaper, but it only has access to about 1993, and he died in 1996.  But if you search for his name, you may find other articles.  The Librarian set me up on a computer and I entered Metzger in the search box.  The first search item was this:

Holy mackerel, this is Susan Metzger and in a flash I now know her married name, that she died on 4 Feb 1992, at the age of 54, and where.  Did I say where?  Garland, Maine.  Talk about a shocker, and this is a Trenton newspaper.  I never dreamed that she lived in Maine, and I never would have looked for her obit in the Trenton Times.  I had never met her, but after reading the obit, I wish I had.  Past Secretary of the Maine Trappers Association and 1987 Trapper of the Year.  Sounds like her mother, active in the Garland Recreation Program, mainly Swimming.  It then goes on to say that she is the mother of the late Joseph R Baldwin, Jr.  When I started doing the family tree, my cousin Linda gave me some file cards from an aunt of ours.  On the cards she had written notes about each family group, one card for each brother or sister and their family.  On Susan Metzger's card there was a note that said that she had a son who had committed suicide.  Now I know his name.

After printing the obit, I returned to the search results and my second result was this one:

 Another surprise.  A death in Maine listed in the Trenton Times.  I obviously never knew Joseph Jr., but after reading this he certainly sounds like the All-American Kid.  Born in Princeton, NJ, sophomore at Dexter Regional High School, on the Cross Country Team, the High School Band and Newspaper.  Not only that but he was community minded and served on the Garland Volunteer Junior Fire Department.  Sounds like a college resume, but who knows what was troubling him.  He died 25 Oct 1978, he was 15 years old.  He was buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Garland, ME.

I went to Find A Grave, to search for Evergreen Cemetery and found that Susan Metzger Baldwin, her husband Joseph Robbins Baldwin, Sr. and his parents: Joseph and Myrtle Baldwin are all listed there, but not Joey.  I called the cemetery and found that Joey is buried with the family, but is not listed in Find A Grave.  I tell people about Find A Grave and they look at me like I'm crazy.  I was explaining to the woman at the Evergreen Cemetery that some of the family is listed on Find A Grave, and she sounded shocked that this web site exists.  I just figured that she would have heard of it.  Anyway, Find A Grave says that Joseph R Baldwin Sr, died 13 Oct 2011 at age 74.  I googled the name and found an obituary in the Bangor Daily News. and the same obit on a website called MarineChat.com

This is from the MarineChat.com website, I liked it because it had two pictures of him.  It also says that he remarried after Susan died.  He was also a lifelong trapper, which may be how Susan became involved with trapping.  He had a brother Billy, who had passed away before him and a brother David, who is a Doctor.  I realize that I am not really related to this man, he would officially be the "husband of my second cousin", but I find it interesting to be able to learn this much about a man who I never knew.  I found out more about him in a two to four week period, than I have about some closer relations over the past eight years.

I also heard from the man who had posted the family tree that started these last two blogs.  He actually met my cousin Gertrude Valleau Metzger.  He said that "Gerty" or Aunt Gert was a very proper lady as he remembered and reminded him of Betty Davis.   He also added a few comments about Susan's family: Susan died of Lupus, young Joey committed suicide with a shotgun, and Joe Sr. was a registered Maine Guide and cut grass a cemeteries in the summer.  I have not gotten back to him yet, but will tonight.

There was also more about Charlie Metzger; Charlie Metzger was his great Uncle, and was Vice President of Trenton State at one point.  He also had an older brother George, who was killed in WWI.  One more thing about Charlie Metzger:  I was at work today, and I use Google Earth alot at work.  While on Google Earth, I "flew" to The College of New Jersey, the new name for Trenton State, and while looking down at the campus below, I  saw a street that circled the campus.  The name of the street caught my eye: Metzger Drive.  I wonder if it was named after him.

You can see it at the bottom right, it kind of parallels inside of Route 31.  Pretty cool huh?

Who is Gertrude Valleau?

Allow me to explain.  Gertrude is the daughter of Mary O'Dea -Valleau and Charles Valleau.  Mary O'Dea is a sister of Marguerite O'Dea - Brady, my paternal grandmother.  Therefore, Gertrude Valleau is my first cousin one time removed.  More easily said - she is my father's first cousin.

Gertrude was born in Jersey City somewhere around 1907 or 1908.  In the 1920 and 1930 censuses, the family lives in Tenafly, NJ.  In 1930, Gertrude still lives in Tenafly with the family and her occupation is listed as Physical Training Teacher.  By the 1940 Census she is married to Charles Metzger with two children: Charles and Susan (who is the subject of my next blog).  They live in Ewing Twp and Charles' occupation is college professor, and both Charles and Gertrude's education status is C5, meaning that they completed more than four years of college.

Let me break here to add that I don't know how I started to check into this line, but when I entered Charles Metzger into Ancestry.com, I found that someone else has a family tree on line that has both Charles and Gertrude in the tree.  I have e mailed the tree owner, but have not received a response yet.  Anyway, on that family tree, I found a photo with a caption of Charles and Gertrude Metzger:

What do you think? Wedding picture maybe?  I sent the picture to my cousin Linda - who is my O'Dea expert - but she could not be sure if this was Gertrude.  The other thing I found was a social security death index entry for Charles Metzger.  He died in Lakewood, NJ 23Aug1996.  I tried to find an obit in the Ocean  County Library newspapers on microfilm - but no luck.  But my trip paid off big time for my next post.

So then I checked Gertrude Valleau on Ancestry.com and found the census records that I already had, but then I found school yearbook entries.  No not High School - a College yearbook!!  There were three entries:

Well, that answers the question of who is in the first picture:

Group shot and I have no idea yet which one is Gertrude, but her name is listed so she must be in the picture, and last but not least:

This was a snippet from a class prophecy type page, I don't know if they eloped or not but this is the 1929 Yearbook and in 1930 she is living at home with mom and dad in Tenafly teaching.

So Gertrude and Charles do get married (or elope) and they have two children of their own: Charles and Susan.  I found that Charles lives in Arizona and Susan married and winds up living most of her adult life in Maine, but that is the subject of my next post.

This is my favorite picture.  It is from the Trenton Sunday Times from 29 May 1927 and the caption which I could not easily scan says:  Prospective Teachers enjoy baseball.  Among the most popular sports at the Trenton Normal School are the bi-weekly baseball contests.

Above is Gertrude Valleau about to pitch a wicked curve.

There were other articles that I found along the way.  One from January 1955 says that Gertrude and her mother Mrs Mary Valleau (who had been widowed in 1946) went on a vacation to Mt Dora Florida. The next month in February 1955, there was a second article stating that Gertrude and her mother Mrs Mary Valleau had returned home from a vacation in Mt Dora, Florida.  The next article was Mary's O'Dea Valleau's obituary in the 17 May 1955 Trenton Times.  So at least they had a nice vacation together before Mary died.

I can't end a story about Gertrude without this last piece:

This is my kind of story - lots of pictures.  So Gertrude and Charles end up moving to Lakehurst, NJ - right down the road from me, and on to Lakewood, where Gertrude dies.  This obit is from the Trenton Times 7May1989, and Charles dies seven years later - his is the obit that I went to the library to find, but never did.

One more thing, I remember when I was younger, that Charlie and Gertrude Metzger had a family reunion in Lakehurst and my family went.  I did not go, and I don't remember why - I was either away at college or I had left school and was a cop at the time and had to work, or I just had much better things to do at Kelly's Tavern.   It is amazing what you think is important in your youth.   Either way, when I found all of this stuff and realized that I had a chance to meet them and missed it.  Well let's just say that I am kicking myself.

So in the end, the answer to the question "Who is Gertrude Valleau?" is pretty complex.  She was a daughter, sister, wife, and mother.  She was also a college graduate at a time when most women did not attend college, she was an athlete who taught physical training, and was an American Red Cross Life Examiner - maybe a lifeguard or EMT of her time, on the college hockey team, swim team, and basketball team.  Sounds like she was ahead of her time, and I am sorry that I missed the chance to meet her.