After seven months abroad, Herman, Jennie, and Emily returned to their home in St. Louis at 3000 Shenandoah. Although they never returned, as a family, to Europe, they traveled yearly to summer in South Haven, Michigan, as many St. Louisans did to escape the summer heat.

Hermann continued to travel on business for Jacoby Art Glass Company. In 1914, on his way to Bremen, Germany, Hermann visited an “Automatic Restaurant” in New York, where he found the food—and its cost—to his liking.

Jennie and Hermann lived to see their son, Charles, marry Edme Halteman, a schoolteacher, and to see their three grandchildren, Robert Herman, Charles Richard, and Dorothy Elizabeth (my mother).

Hermann died in 1919 at age 68. In 1926, a cottage at the Central Wesleyan Orphan Home in Warrenton was named for him in honor of his 30 years’ service as trustee and treasurer for the orphanage.

After Hermann’s death, Jennie and Emily lived together at 3612 Connecticut until Jennie’s death at 72 in 1927 from complications of the kidney disease that had caused her blindness.

Emily stayed in the Connecticut apartment the rest of her life, joined by her good friend, Nettie Niemann. The two were much loved as great-aunts by Sally (daughter of Robert), Rick (son of Charles), and Laura (daughter of Dorothy). An overnight visit with Emily and Nettie usually meant a walk to the shops on Grand Avenue—Emily loved to shop, as Hermann observed. Emily died in 1959, a year after Nettie had passed.

Among Emily’s things were the transcribed collection of Hermann’s letters as well as two albums of postcards from the 1909 European trip. Without those treasured mementoes, this blog would not have existed, and I never would have met Hermann, whom I have come to love dearly. My travels in Europe with Hermann, Jennie, and Emily will forever remain a favorite time in my life. I hope you have enjoyed their adventures as well.

Hermann, Jennie, Emily, and a young friend enjoying Lake Michigan surf at South Haven, Michigan.