EZRA "EDWARD" MANDEL BERGER was born July 9, 1900 in Chicago. He had a wonderful voice and was being trained as a cantor at the local synagogue. But that didn't work out. He was also artistically talented. He graduated from the 8th grade and attended night classes at the Chicago Art Institute. But when his mother died suddenly in 1917 the family broke up and he took many jobs to help support his siblings. In 1919 he joined the Army Air Corps and was stationed at Kelly Field in Texas. After the army he and a friend tried homesteading on an acreage in Colorado which didn't work out. Then he returned to Chicago and opened his own business of furniture refinishing. There he met his future wife. In Cheyenne, Wyoming, May 2, 1936 Ed married Ina "Marie" Klingaman. They lived in Denver. Marie had a daughter from a previous marriage, Elaine, born in 1928. For several years after Ed closed his furniture refinishing shop the family owned and operated a private club, Belleview Park, in Cherry Hills, a suburb of Denver where they catered to families and groups for daytime swimming and evening barbeque/swimming parties and barn dances. Ed and Marie had three children. Lois Jane, Edward Franklin and Claire Elizabeth. Elaine lived with them part of the time. In 1981 Ed and Marie retired to Arizona where he died in 1988 at age 88 of complications of emphysema brought on by years of smoking and Marie died at age 86 in 1993 from an asthma attack. Their ashes were spread in Sedona. Ezra (Edward) may have been named after his mother's older brother, Ezra born 1864 who died in 1885 when Leah was about 13 years old.

HARRY ARTHUR BERGER was born October 10, 1902 in Chicago. He was about 15 when his mother died and he went with his brothers to live with his mother's cousin, Sarah Dulsky Barnett. He lived with them for about three years. He married Claire Louise Adams in 1941. They had no children. Harry graduated from Northwestern University as a Second Lieutenant after being in the R.O.T.C. For a time he was the Commandant of the Madison Street Armory in Chicago. Harry was very active in the South Pacific during WWII. He was in the 32nd division of the 133rd Battalion. After the war he was assigned to the staff of General MacArthur in Japan as a Lieutenant Colonel. While there he had a severe stroke. After his recovery he retired from the service as a full Colonel. He and Claire moved to Denver where he died in 1960 from a heart attack. Harry was buried in the Rose Hill Cemetery in Chicago. Claire stayed in Denver for a while after his death but eventually returned to Massachusetts where she had been reared. Leah had an uncle, Harry Dulsky, which may account for his name.

JULIUS BERGER was born in 1904 in Chicago. He married Agnes(?)about 1941. They had no children. Jule, lived with his mother's cousin, Sarah Dulsky Barnett and her husband Frank for about three years after his mother died in 1917. His father, Abe, had remarried. Jule wanted to join the army and when he was 16 he lied about his age, ran away from the Barnetts and signed up. He was stationed in Puerto Rico for a while. Later he left the army and joined the Navy. His nephew remembers watching Jule ride a gated horse one day and learned that his unlce was known for his excellent horsemanship. While serving in the Navy, Jule developed rheumatoid arthritis and became severely crippled. He was sent to Hot Springs, Arkansas for treatment including gold shots, but never recoverd his health. He was forced to retire from the service. For a time after that he was a plant manager for a manufacturer in Morris, Illinois. He and Agnes retired to Denver where he died in 1957 of uremic poisoning from the many medications for pain he had taken for years. Julius may have been named after his great grandfather, Judah Dunsky.

FAYE BERGER was born in 1907 in Chicago. Her mother died in March 1917, when Faye was just nine years old. After that loss Faye lived with her father and his new wife. But in 1918 or possibly a bit before that, Abe had taken a job, probably as a carpenter, in Maryland at the new Aberdeen Proving Grounds. So Faye began a series of moves, living with several other relatives, including her father's brother, Philip and his wife and with the Moses Dalsey family. Eventually she lived with the parents of her future husband, Max Egert until she graduated from Marshall High School. In 1927 she and Max were married. They had two children, Maurice and Audrey. For a while Faye’s nephew, Leroy “Lee” Goldberger, lived with their family after his mother, Minnie Berger Goldberger died. For many years Faye worked for the office of Mayor Richard J. Daly in Chicago. She was Supervisor of the Board Of Election Commission. She and Max retired to Florida but after Max died she returned to Chicago where she died in 1987. Audrey died in the 1990's of diabetes and never married. Faye may have been named after her aunt, Fege Dulsky Bonowitz.

LOCATIONS: Leah lived with two brothers and possibly other siblings near Augustow Poland/Lithuania on their father's 10 acre horse farm for the early part of her life. She was fairly young when her parents died. She lived there until she married Abraham about 1894-5. It is not known how or where they met. They had their first two children, Minnie and Bessie while still in Poland probably at Lipsk. Abraham arrived in Chicago in Jan. 1899 and Leah and the girls followed later that year. Abe's father and several or all of Abe's siblings were already living in Chicago by that time. On the birth certificate of Faye in 1907 the family is shown to be living at #10 Solon Place. (That street name has changed to Aberdeen St.) By 1910 they were living at 1111 Franks St. Building 'N'. Next they were on South Wood Street. The County Hospital was later built on that block. Their son, Edward, remembered this was one of the nicest places they lived. It was a block from the original Cub's ball park called the "West Side Grounds" which was before the Cubs moved to Wrigley Field. There was a park with a playground for the children nearby. When Leah died in March, 1917 the address given on her death certificate was 1630 S. Ridgeway Ave in the Lawndale area of Chicago. Edward, her son, remembers living on an upper floor in a "cold water" flat. Heat was from wood cooking stoves and/or coal which had to be carried up from the basement. .

DEATH: On March 4, 1917 Leah became ill and was sent to The Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago. She died there 10 days later on March 14, 1917. The death certificate, signed by her cousin, Minnie Bonowitz Reiffel, lists as cause of death, "myocarditis complicated by diabetes". She was buried in the Waldheim Cemetery in Chicago, Illinois. Minnie, being the eldest child, tried to hold the family together. But she had a job to go to each day to help earn money for the family. Soon Bessie got married and moved out. Abraham remarried and the family had a hard time with that situation. By 1918 Abraham was working in Maryland at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds, probably as a carpenter. Soon the children were scattered. Faye, the youngest, lived with her father and step-mother for a short time, probably until he had to go to Maryland. Then she was sent to live with her father's youngest brother, Philip and his wife where she stayed for a while, but was unhappy. She was taken in by other family members and last by her future husband's family. Edward, Julius and Harry stayed with Leah's cousin, Sarah Dulsky Barnett and her family. Edward, being the oldest of the three sons stayed there only about six months but Harry and Jule were still there for the 1920 census of Illinois.

FURTHER NOTES:Leah and Abraham were Jewish, attended the synagogue and kept traditionl rituals and holidays. Abraham was gone much of the time working in the shipyards back East as a carpenter. Because Abraham was multi-lingual, speaking German, Polish, Yiddish, Russian and English, he was called on, from time to time, to help translate for the immigrants at Ellis Island. He and Leah were the only ones with a telephone in their apartment house which was provided to them for this purpose. He would take the train to New York when summoned. Abraham was also very much involved with the early formation of Labor Unions in the Chicago area. He was a carpenter and this kept him away on strikes as well as cutting down on their income. Times were hard. Leah found ways to earn a little extra money for her family. She would sell sodas to the public in front of their apartment building.

A memory of her son Edward Mandel Berger was one of a very hard working but loving mother whom he would see take sugar cubes to keep up her energy. He was sent more than a few times to the local tavern to bring his father home. Abraham liked to play cards with his buddies. Edward also recalled that his father who was six feet tall would sometimes swing tiny Leah around in his arms when they had some good news or for some celebration.

Leah had a nephew, they knew as Louis Lozmanher brother's son, who arrived from Europe about 1913/15 and lived with them for a time. He was a teenager. Louis became an attorney.But after he left he was not heard from again. Leah had other relatives that had come to this country. Two cousins of Leah's were Sarah Dulsky Barnett and Minnie Bonowitz Reiffel, a cousin who was also related to the Dalsey/Dalskey/Dunsky family. Minnie, daughter of David and Sarah Bonowitz, was originally from Circleville, Ohio but at about the age of 20 she was married and living with her husband and two children in the home of her father-in-law in Chicago. Philip Reiffel, her husband had started a silversmithing business, Reiffel and Husted, in 1911 that was quite successful. Leah had another cousin, Moses Dalsey/Dunsky in Chicago. Moses married Abe's sister, Leah Berger, daughter of Haskell/Kasper Berger. Moses was also a cousin of the David Bonowitz family of Circleville, Ohio.

NEW INFORMATION.
AFTER LEARNING OF LEAH'S CONNECTION TO THE DAVID BONOWITZ FAMILY OF CIRCLEVILLE, OHIO, LEAH WAS FOUND TO BE A FIRST COUSIN OF DAVID. HIS MOTHER'S MAIDEN NAME WAS DULSKY, ONE OF THE MANY VARIATIONS THE FAMILY HAS USED. LEAH'S MOTHER WAS A DULSKY/DUNSKY.
ON LEAH'S PATERNAL SIDE, THERE IS A POSSIBLE CONNECTION OF THE LOZMAN FAMILY TO THE REINSCHREIBERS.
ON NOV.21,1913 TWO YOUNG PERSONS DISEMBARKED AT ELLIS ISLAND FROM THE SHIP PENNSYLVANIA FROM HAMBURG. ONE WAS PINOHERS (PAUL) LOSMANN FROM GORDOZYS, RUSSIA, WHICH MAY BE CALLED GRODZISK NOW. THE OTHER PASSENGER WAS LISTED AS A FEMALE? NAMED EZRA LOSMANN. HER/HIS FIRST NAME IS UNREADABLE AND OVERWITTEN WITH EZRA. HE/SHE WAS FROM GOROZIKE RUSSIA (WHICH MAY BE GORCZYA NOW) AND WAS SAID TO BE A TAILOR. PAUL HAD STATED ON THE MANIFEST THAT HIS FATHER WAS JACOB LOSMANN AND HIS MOTHER WAS LIBE REINSCHREIBER. THE OTHER PASSENGER IDENTIFIED HIS/HER FATHER AS SRUL LOSMANN. HE/SHE ALSO SAID HE/SHE WAS GOING TO A BROTHER, MORRIS LOSMANN IN CHICAGO. I THINK PAUL AND THE YOUNG MAN/LADY MAY HAVE BEEN COUSINS AND THAT THEIR FATHERS, SRUL AND JACOB WERE POSSIBLY BROTHERS OF LEAH.
ABOUT THIS SAME TIME AROUND 1913, LEAH'S NEPHEW, LOUIS LOZMAN ARRIVED TO LIVE WITH HER FAMILY FOR A WHILE. LEAH'S SON, EDWARD, RECALLED THAT LOUIS HAD AN OLDER BROTHER WHO CAME TO CHICAGO EARLIER THAN LOUIS AND THAT HE HAD CHANGED HIS NAME FROM LOZMAN TO MILLER, BECAME AN ATTORNEY AND MOVED TO INDIANA. THERE IS A MORRIS LESSMAN IN THE 1920 CENSUS OF CHICAGO THAT COULD BE THAT BROTHER OF LOUIS'. BUT LOUIS HAS NOT BEEN FOUND AS YET. WE WONDER IF HE HAD CHANGED HIS NAME FROM EZRA TO LOUIS. THE SHIP'S MANIFEST SHOWING EZRA WITH SUCH A MIXED MESSAGE HAS HINDERED OUR SEARCH.
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