2023 LEISZ FAMILY REUNION IN TURTLE LAKE, WISCONSIN—A BIG SUCCESS!
Got more memories? Send 'em to us and we'll post them here.
EMAIL US YOUR PHOTOS AND MEMORIES OF CHRISTMASES PAST AND WE'LL UPLOAD THEM PRONTO!
Memories from descendants of Mary Leisz Minnichsoffer
MOONLIGHT RIDE
CHRISTMAS AND WEDDING GIFTS
CHRISTMAS AND WEDDING GIFTS
"When Dad would say, 'Let's take the planks and put the box on sled' we knew we were going to Art Succo's. We would tie our sleds behind the sleigh and ride on them that Sunday afternoon. Fast-working kids just couldn't get chores done quick enough for a sleigh ride in the moonlight."
- LAWRENCE MINNICHSOFFER
CHRISTMAS AND WEDDING GIFTS
CHRISTMAS AND WEDDING GIFTS
CHRISTMAS AND WEDDING GIFTS
"Things I remember about Grandma (Dora Greene Minnichsoffer) include: Christmas presents—hand-knit mittens for the kids, ... chrocheted and embroidered pillow cases and the beautiful braided rugs. I remember the toy box she kept in the closet and how all the kids got wine or 7-Up to drink on special occasions."
- LOUISE LYNN KASID
EVERYBODY THERE
CHRISTMAS AND WEDDING GIFTS
EVERYBODY THERE
"I remember we always had Christmas at Grandpa and Grandma's (Joe and Dora Minnichsoffer). We were ALL there! We would have dinner and then everybody would open up presents at the same time. It really got wild. Grandpa would just set there in his rocking chair. And Grandma would sit in another rocking chair and would be laughing all the time. It really got hectic when they moved to Lindstrom and the house was smaller."
- GERALD T. RONDEAU
NO-LACE SKATES
BOX OF FUN STUFF
EVERYBODY THERE
"We would go ice skating with Uncle Lawrence. He would always skate with no shoelaces in his skates—even when playing hockey. I thought that was so neat that I tried to do the same, but I fell down all over the place."
- GERALD T. RONDEAU
LOVING GIFTS
BOX OF FUN STUFF
BOX OF FUN STUFF
"At Christmas, Grandma (Dora Greene Minnichsoffer) never forgot anyone, a gift was under the tree for everyone and there always was a lot of thought behind it. Somehow she knew the right thing for everyone. Grandpa was always quiet but occasionally teased us."
- MARY ANN RONDEAU GOCKOWSKI
BOX OF FUN STUFF
BOX OF FUN STUFF
BOX OF FUN STUFF
"Grandma (Dora Greene Minnichsoffer) had the famous wooden box full of playing cards, crochet dolls, cloth dolls, blocks, some trucks, and spools. Grandma taught us Old Maid, Hearts and Checkers on rainy days. What fun we had and my children had. They always had a very happy, positive and very loving atmosphere that really made you feel good to have stopped by."
- MARY ANN RONDEAU GOCKOWSKI
Joseph's son decorated BIG for Christmas
Artistic talent runs in the Leisz genes
Jack Leopold Leisz (1921-1988), youngest child of Leisz Brother Joseph, might have spent his career as a Cleveland City fireman, but his love of art was evident from a young age.
After serving in World War II, Jack returned to his home in Cleveland, Ohio. There he met his future wife, Mary Zema (1921-2000), and they married in November 1946. The couple bought a 2-bedroom home on Wetzel Avenue in Cleveland, and Jack set about improving it to make it his own.
The house was small, so Jack added on a screened-in porch to the back of the home. A decade later, he converted the porch into a family room. Jack had learned carpentry and wallpapering from his dad Joseph, who built and sold houses for income after he moved his family from Turtle Lake to Cleveland. (Find out WHY the Joseph Leisz family moved to Cleveland in 1920)
Jack and Mary Leisz had two children, Patricia Ann Leisz Sears (b. 1949) and Denise Marie Leisz (b. 1954). To make Christmas extra special for them, Jack created large wooden cutouts of Santa Claus in a three-dimensional sleigh, pulled by a team of five reindeer and led by Rudolph with his bright red-bulb shiny nose.
Other decorations in Jack's Christmas menagerie included Three Snowmen Carolers, and a large red-striped Candy Cane with a big green bow to grace the home's front door.
Most Christmases when his daughters were young, Jack would get out a huge extension ladder, prop it against the back of the house, and climb up on the roof—hoisting Santa, his sleigh and team of reindeer onto the home's rooftop.
"I always wondered how he did that," recalls daughter Denise. "But then again, he was a fireman for more than 30 years. So he sure knew how to carry heavy loads up ladders!"
Neighbors would watch for Santa and his team to appear on the roof of the Leisz house each year, and lines of cars would snake by the house each evening before Christmas to take in the light show!
DENISE RECALLS THE FOLLOWING ABOUT HER FATHER:
"His big black rubber fireman boots, fastened with snap clips, would be pounding on the snow-covered street, as Dad would pull my sister and me on our wooden Flexible Flyer sled.
Thump, thump, thump went his boots. The boots were at our eye-level. We couldn't see the 6'4' man who towered over those boots. We could only see, and hear, his boots thumping and crunching on the freshly fallen snow in the street.
Dad would usually take us out at night after supper, and it was under this soft blanket of snow and dark, pierced by multicolored Christmas lights and the occasional car headlights, that we experienced magic.
My sister and I gripped the sides of the sled with our mittened hands, and watched the snowflakes fall, the Christmas-lit houses passing by in a blur. Dad would spin the sled around quickly to give us a thrill, and we'd shriek with surprise and laughter.
My Dad worked HARD—long hours, long days, holding down a second and sometimes third job in addition to being a full-time fireman...all to make ends meet and give his family the best he could, including things he didn't have growing up during the Great Depression.
Dad was probably dog-tired when he got home from those long work days. But he took time to spend with me and my sister...including reading fairy tale books to us at bedtime, saying the rosary as a family in the evening after supper, and sledding with us in winter.
THANK YOU, DAD, for all your love and selfless giving!"
Joseph widow Louisa's Christmas tree
10326 Joan Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio
The address of the family home in Cleveland is seared into the memories of the 29 grandchildren of Leisz Brother Joseph and his wife Louisa Haspray Leisz. It was the home that Joseph built with his own two hands, upon selling his farm in Turtle Lake and relocating his family to Cleveland.
He and Louisa had lost two children in one night, Tracy, then age 9 and Franky, age 5. The year was 1918, when the Spanish flu pandemic claimed the lives of some 675,000 Americans, among them Tracy and Franky.
Family patriarch Joseph died in March 1942 at the age of 73. Then in November of that same year, his youngest child, Jackie, was drafted to serve in the U.S. Army during World War II.
So it was a lonely first Christmas for the Joseph Leisz family, without their father/husband and kid brother. Still living at home with Ma were youngest daughter Josephine Leisz Craven, not yet married; Anna Leisz Linden, whose husband Arnold Linden was off serving in World War II; and eldest child Marie, widowed in 1934 when her only child, Billy Waters, was just 2-1/2 years old.
Ma and her girls put up this Christmas tree in 1942. Visible at left behind it are the military service portraits of her son Jackie (left) and son-in-law Arnold Linden.
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from Joseph's granddaughter
Marianne Leisz Kasarda shares
They didn't grow up on a farm, but the children of Joseph Francis Leisz, eldest son of Leisz Brother Joseph, still had Christmas adventures to share at their home in Cleveland, Ohio.
In this circa 1959 photo they are (from left) BACK ROW: Marianne Leisz Kasarda (b. 1940), Francine Leisz Hayden (b. 1944), Bob Leisz (b. 1939), Joe "Buddy" Leisz (b. 1941). FRONT ROW: Karen Leisz Crandall (b. 1950), mother Eugenie "Jean" F. Buchholz Leisz (1910-1984) holding youngest Jayne Leisz Smith (b. 1956), James Paul "Jimmy" Leisz (1952-2016), and family patriarch Joseph Francis Leisz (1910-1993). Not shown are eldest child Nancy Jean Leisz Shircliff (1936-1994) (she's likely the one taking this great photo), and Richard Leisz, who passed away in infancy.
Patriarch Joseph was born in Turtle Lake, and moved to Cleveland, Ohio in 1920 with his father, Leisz Brother Joseph, mother Louisa Haspray Leisz, and five sisters when he was 10 years old.
WHY DID THE JOSEPH LEISZ FAMILY LEAVE TURTLE LAKE AND MOVE TO CLEVELAND OHIO? Find out more HERE.
CHRISTMAS ANGEL WINGS
Remember these?
Angel wings were a special treat made by many of our Leisz ancestors. Want to try making them this Christmas? Leisz Brother Joseph's wife Louisa made these every year. So did their daughter-in-law Mary, whose recipe is in her own hand. Click the button below to view Mary's recipe.
From Mary Leisz Minnichsoffer's granddaughter
Rough in winter: from Rosella Minnichsoffer Lynn
(ROSELLA'S DAD, JOSEPH MINNICHSOFFER, IS SHOWN AT LEFT)
"My jobs were feeding the chickens, old hens and chicks, and carrying in wood to keep the woodbox filled for cooking summer and winter. In the winter, larger pieces needed to be brought in for the heater in the living room.
There was no heat upstairs except for the little that came up through a grate in the dining room ceiling. That meant jumping out of bed and making a dash for downstairs to stand by the stove to dress. You also had to know your way around the house because there were no lights. Strange as it may be, you did know your way around the furniture and exactly where the doorways were.
We did have lamps, kerosene and a gas lamp, which gave off the brighter light. The lamps didn't get carried around much, so it was important to know the arrangement of the entire house."
NOTE: Rosella Veronica Minnichsoffer Lynn (1920-2015) was the graddaughter of Mary Leisz Minnichsoffer: Rosella's dad was Joseph Minnichsoffer (shown at left, 1889-1968) and her mom was Theodora "Dora" Greene Minnichsoffer (1894-1981). Joe and Dora married in 1915 and lived on a farm near Shafer, Minnesota in a Victorian farmhouse. In addition to Rosella, Joe and Dora had four other children: Mary Elizabeth (b. 1916), Bernard John (1918-1988), Lawrence Anthony, (1922-2005) and Katherine Anna (b. 1923-2017).
WHY DID JOSEPH MINNICHSOFFER LEAVE TURTLE LAKE AND MOVE TO MINNESOTA? See HERE and SCROLL DOWN for the backstory!
Memories from ANTON'S youngest child
Marian Leisz Hammang remembers
"On Christmas, our family would select a special tree from our pastures and bring it in the house a day or so before the holiday. We had special ornaments including real little candle clips...but we were not permitted to light the candles.
I remember standing in the cold and snow with my dad (while with the rest of the children) we would be given a stocking that had an orange, peanuts in the shell, and lots of hard candy. This was a real treat for me...and I remember thinking how nice it was for my dad to take me."
NOTE: Mary Magdalena "Marian" Leisz Hammang (b. 1928) lives in California. She is on Facebook, and is the only one living family member of her generation (a child of the Six Leisz Brothers or their Sister Mary).
MITTENS AND OLD SPICE
MITTENS AND OLD SPICE
MITTENS AND OLD SPICE
"I remember Grandma (Dora Greene Minnichsoffer) tracing my hands on paper each year in preparation for my homemade mittens she gave each Christmas. As I grew older the gift became Old Spice shaving lotion. Whenever I see a bottle of Old Spice, or smell it, I think of her."
- RICHARD RONDEAU
RINKY DINK CLUB
MITTENS AND OLD SPICE
MITTENS AND OLD SPICE
"In winter we enjoyed skating on a lake about a mine and a half from home, that is the distance by crossing the fields, climbing fences, and going through the woods covered with snow on foot. I sure didn't like it at night in the dark. There were usually three or four of us and if you wanted to go, you went. We had a shack of a warming house with a lantern for light. Two communities shared the facilities. Guess we called it the Rinky Dink Club."
- ROSELLA MINNICHSOFFER LYNN
HOGGING THE LARD
MITTENS AND OLD SPICE
MARY ANN'S MEMORIES
"We used lard for baking, which always meant our Christmas vacation, the week between Christmas and New Years, was hog butchering time. The hams had to be cured and smoked. The lard needed to be fried down after cutting the fat from the meat and rind. Leaf lard was the richest, sort of a flaky mass and that was for special baking. We made blood sausage, head cheese, and summer sausage."
- ROSELLA MINNICHSOFFER LYNN
MARY ANN'S MEMORIES
MARY ANN'S MEMORIES
MARY ANN'S MEMORIES
"I remember the old wooden stove in the middle of the dining room. The holes in the ceiling where the heat rose up to heat the bedrooms on the upper floor. Then there was skating on a pond just across the driveway at Christmas time. The matches hung on the wall in a steel container, and there was always a lady of ceramic where the string came out of her mouth like spaghetti. This was used to do various tasks like wrapping up meat or anything that we might use a Ziplok bag for today and take for granted."
- MARY ANN RONDEAU GOCKOWSKI
DAD'S ROOTBEER
MARY ANN'S MEMORIES
DAD'S ROOTBEER
"Since Grandma and Grandpa lived in a house connected to ours during my preschool years, being with them was just a matter of slipping through our living room and their dining room and into Grandma's kitchen. I remember Grandma cooking or listening to her programs, but mostly crocheting. They kept a case of Dad's Root Beer on the shelf behind the cellar door. It seemed as I could have one almost every day."
- STELLA MARIE MINNICHSOFFER JONES
LEISZ FAMILY RECIPES
Good cooks
Why not try a Leisz family recipe this holiday season? Check out our "Good Cooks" section of this website for some treasured family tastes!
<< CHECK OUT THIS BOOKLET
CLICK HERE OR ON THE IMAGE AT LEFT TO PEEK INSIDE THIS BOOKLET OF MEMORIES FROM CHRISTMAS 1942.
CREATED IN 2005 BY JACK LEISZ'S DAUGHTER DENISE LEISZ, THE BOOKLET CAPTURES WONDERFUL MEMORIES GLEANED FROM LETTERS, NOTES AND CARDS SENT BY JACK'S SIBLINGS TO HIM WHILE HE SERVED IN THE U.S. ARMY DURING BASIC TRAINING.
SISTERS MARIE, ANNA, BARBARA, LUCY AND JOSEPHINE WROTE TO JACK.
SO DID HIS BROTHER JOE, TEN YEARS HIS SENIOR WITH A FAMILY OF HIS OWN.
AND JACK'S NEPHEW BILLY WATERS WROTE TO HIM AS WELL, ALONG WITH JACK'S MOTHER LOUISA HASPRAY LEISZ. CHECK THIS BOOKLET OUT!
Mary Leisz's Christmas Cookie Book
Mary Zema Leisz (1921-2000) shared her delicious cookies with many
"My cookie recipes are just precious to me. As soon as the snow started to fall, Jack and I started to mix up the doughs and make up the cookies. Oh, how I wish we could do that again.
Jack got all worked up about going out and buying the nuts and the butter and stuff. I had an old toy box that I'd store my recipes in. First I would work on separating the recipes, which ones I would choose that year and so forth.
After that, we'd go out and buy the ingredients. Jack would go to the store and buy me 25 pounds of flour and I'd have to keep it in the refrigerator. He went and bought me all the butter and oleo and nuts, apricots and so forth. We'd put it all in these boxes that I had, and then it was all on hand and ready to use.
I would mix maybe five doughs up at a time and have them ready in the refrigerator to roll and bake. I'd have Grandma (Mary's Mother Sophia Knybel Zema) come over and help chop nuts. We'd each put on our aprons and get to work. Jack even liked it when Grandma came over and helped me. Those days are gone forever.
All together I would make 25 to 27 different recipes and sometimes double or triple batches. I'd have thousands of cookies, you know? Sometimes one recipe would take up two big cookie tins.
We loved the gingerbread cookies. The smell of gingerbread is Christmas. The decorating, oh Jack loved to decorate them. The one time I made the little gingerbread boys and I made 200. And Jack had to paint the bow ties on them and he got so tired. If he stopped and his hands got tired, then he'd rest, but then he'd continue.
We'd give them away, boxes and boxes of them. Jack would drive everywhere, to the Parma (Ohio, then a predominantly Polish suburb of Cleveland) people first, then to everyone else. I'd have to write out a list of who goes to the West side, and he'd take them by streets and so forth. How he loved to deliver them, and all the kisses he would get.
Auntie Helene (Mary's sister-in-law Helene Zema Elkin, married/divorced from her brother Andy) and Aunt Bertha (Mary's maternal aunt Bertha Knybel Marszalek) would give him kisses and hugs. And he'd say, 'Boy, did I get a lot of hugs and kisses today.' One day he would go to his family, the next day to my family. That was fun.
I did it because I enjoyed it. I wanted to make people happy. I know that they loved them. I think that all the nieces and nephews who tasted my cookies remember them. If I can make this little book up, then they'll still be able to enjoy them and think of Aunt Mary."
NOTE: Mary dictated this verbatim to her daughter Denise Leisz in 1997, three years before she passed away. Her cookies, and her memory, live on!
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