Rudolph John Heise - 1910 and After

After Rudolph John Heise's divorce from Annie Theresa Hearn effective 20 Jun 1910 (Heise v Wells, Case on Appeal, p 118), Rudolph married his correspondent in the divorce suit, a cloak model named Essie Best, in New Jersey later that year (New York Times, 18 May 1912; New Jersey marriage record index). I also know that Rudolph was in NYC 20 Mar 1911 to sign a general release from Annie's lawsuit against Frank M Wells (pp 213-214).

Essie O Best was the daughter of Sarah E Wilson and John R Best. Her parents married in Coshocton County, Ohio, 06 Jun 1883. Essie was born in Ohio 1884-1885. Her marriage to Rudolph apparently lasted no more than four years before ending in divorce. On 22 Aug 1914 she and Charles E Miller applied for a license to marry in Coshocton County. Essie gave her residence as the city of same name. The marriage took place 08 Apr 1915. By 1920, Essie and Charles had moved to Winter Haven, Polk County, Florida, along with Essie's widowed mother and Charles' daughter Jacqueline. (It's not clear to me whether Jacqueline, b in Ohio 1911-1912, was Essie's daughter or the daughter of Charles' previous wife.) Essie and Charles were still living in Polk County as of 1940.

Meanwhile Rudolph remained back in New York. The Panama Canal opened 15 Aug 1914. Rudolph was hired by the Panama RR Department - a division of the US government - as a clerk 19 Feb 1915. He was discharged 06 Jun 1915 due to being intoxicated while on duty.

Rudolph joined the New York Guard, 31st Company, 8th CDC (Coast Defense Command), as a private 24 May 1917. The 31st Company was one of the companies later drawn on to staff Battery D of the 58th Artillery Regiment of the US Army Coastal Artillery Corps. Rudolph reached the rank of 1st Sergeant and sustained gas inhalation 09 Nov 1918 at "St Marie Farm" in Meurthe-et-Moselle, France (History of the U.S. 58th Artillery, C.A.C. American Expeditionary Forces, published by the Regimental History Board, pp 116 and 141). The 58th Artillery returned from France in 1919 and was demobilized at Camp Upton, NY, in that year. Rudolph was released 07 May 1919.

The next time Rudolph appears is in the 1930 US Census. He was enumerated as living in Manhattan at 601 West 41st Street - along with his wife Georgette H Heise, b 1881, and their daughter Margaret Jane, b 1921. Both Georgette and Margaret Jane were born in New York, as were Georgette's parents. Rudolph was working as assistant manager at a meat and poultry m[arket?].

I have no further information on Margaret Jane Heise. By 1940 Georgette was living in Brooklyn at 588 Park Avenue. She'd lived in the same place (i.e. Brooklyn) but not the same house in 1935. She gave her marital status as widowed. Rudolph was certainly still alive, so "widowed" seems to have been a polite way of saying that Georgette and Rudolph had parted company without further legalities.

I couldn't find Rudolph in the 1940 US Census, but in his WWII draft registration record in 1942, he gave his address as 2523 31st Avenue, Long Island City, Queens - and his wife's name as Florence Heise. He was working at the Lion Match Company.

Mathea Fredrikke Bórgesen, daughter of Mathilde Christiane Pedersen and Ansgar Borgvald Bórgesen, was christened 16 Jul 1890 in what was then called Kristiania, Norway. (It was renamed Oslo in 1924.) I believe her to be the Frida Borgesen, age 24 and a hairdresser by trade, who arrived at Ellis Island 07 Dec 1914 aboard the SS Kristianiafjord out of Bergen, Norway. Frida left behind her mother, Christiana Borgesen, who lived in Kristiania where Frida had been born. She was going to join a friend who lived in NYC.

On 27 Sep 1923 "Florence" Borgesen, born in Norway in 1890 and the daughter of Christina Peterson and "Ausgar" Borgesen, married Charles A Lindquist in Manhattan. I'm not sure what happened to Charles, but Florence was enumerated in the 1940 US Census as living at 2521 31st Avenue in Long Island City and working as a hair dresser and the manager of a beauty parlour. She gave her marital status as married, but Charles was nowhere in evidence.

My mother, b 1931, was taken by her father to visit Florence and Rudolph in the 1940s, Rudolph being her maternal grandfather. She remembered that Florence was introduced to her as Florence Lindquist, that Rudolph had a German accent and that Florence had an accent Mom thought was Swedish and that Florence baked cookies. It was a happy memory, but I don't know how many such visits there were. Certainly Mom and Rudolph don't seem to have kept in touch. For example, she never mentioned to me that he died two years after I was born. I don't know if she knew.

Georgette or Georgetta Heise died in NYC in 1955. Presumably she did so in or before Apr 1955, which is when Florence Borgesen and Rudolph J Heise married in New Jersey.

Rudolph John Heise died 18 May 1959. At the time he was living at 1580 Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan.

I don't have any further information on Florence.