Gilbert Charles Burns

Other Events and Attributes:

• Biography: 26 Jul 2004; From an interview with Gilbert's daughter Loretta Mary O'Berg on 26 Jul 2004: Gilbert was really unusual, extremely intelligent but not very practical. Grandma Mary's sister Fay was in New York at the same time as Gilbert when he went to Columbia University in New York. He was interested in poetry and literature. He was so brilliant that the professor turned the class over to Gilbert to teach it, and he did. And of course he was a fine musician. He played with the San Francisco Symphony during the depression. He played the clarinet and then the saxophone. Also during the depression he worked the ships to the Orient: he played in the ships orchestra. He brought back interesting cravings from Hong Kong and Japan. He was quite the ladies' man, I guess you might even say boarding on a gigolo. He would always get some woman to take care of him. When he came back I guess he met my mother at that time. His Uncle Tom Boyd in Honolulu offered him a job in his mortuary. The stipulation was he would have to start from the very beginning from embalming. Gilbert was a pretty far out person but that was more than he could take, he lasted six months. It was too much, he couldn't handle it. Uncle Tom was awful, very sadistic, not a nice person. Gilbert gave up a fortune, he couldn't handle that. Then he played at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in the evenings. During the day he was also involved in a car dealership. He sold two cars to Mickey Rooney in one week. Mickey demolished two cars in one week, he had a body guard he was so wild. Gilbert would also smoke marijuana with all the stars that came over to the Islands: Errol Flynn, Cesar Romero. My mother should have been married to a farmer. She had all these beautiful evening gowns because she would go in the evenings and sit in the audience while he was playing at the Royal Hawaiian: in fact sometimes she would take me. In those days you could do that. It was in the ballroom at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, which was very beautiful, it was right on the beach. I would just curl up on the sand outside and sleep if I got tired. But most the time I enjoyed seeing all the ladies in their beautiful dresses, it was nice. This was not a happy marriage: my mother preferred to be in jeans and digging in the ground and making a home. Gilbert was not interested, he was interested in beautiful clothes and jewelry. In those days men wore a lot of jewelry, cuff links, chains and fancy watches. We went over in 1937 and came home in 1941. We caught one of the last ships out of Honolulu coming back to the mainland. Luckily, it took the roof off my school, It was a good thing we got out of there in time. Gilbert wasn't supposed to sail with us, he was supposed to go back [to work]. Detroit told him they were going to get one more shipment of cars and then the shipments would be cut off. We all knew that we were going to be attacked, but we didn't know when. Gilbert got so drunk on sailing day and passed out he ended up sailing home with us to San Francisco. We moved to Oakland with my grandmother Ready. Gilbert was classified 4F and he couldn't be drafted. Gilbert got a job in Richmond at Kaiser ship yards for awhile. Here he was: this sensitive poet doing meanly work. If you were classed 4F you had to do defense work. So then we moved south to Seal Beach. Both my parents got jobs at the airplane factory. My mother didn't have any math background but she ended up being a tool and die designer. They manufactured war planes. Gilbert got a job as a janitor and would come around and sweep up the piling at her desk, this was war. Gilbert played with Arty Shaw for awhile: his real love was music, Classical and Jazz, during this time period. After the war we came back to Oakland and we lived in grandma Mary's house on 57th Street, in East Oakland, we fixed it up. Gilbert really started drinking at this time. He was playing at night but he wasn't getting good jobs. My mother was working at Lurence's -- it used to be Safeways -- making ice cream. Things were really bad for the marriage. On the weekends, of course my mother worked all week and so it was only on the weekends for cleaning house and we had a farm in the backyard on 57th Street. Chickens, rabbits and ducks because you couldn't buy meat during this time, it was rare that you could get meat. A lot of people were raising animals in their backyards then. Gilbert would have nothing to do with them mother would have to kill, clean and cook them. There was always work on the weekends and Gilbert expected to be served a nice breakfast. Gilbert would say come on Loretta, my sister usually didn't join us because she was younger and wasn't interested in the beach. He invited mother too but she would say "If I go who is going to do all this work, mow the lawn, do the wash, clean the house?" She was left behind and I always felt guilty. We would always go to Lake Temascal to swim. Gilbert was fun, my mother wasn't. She always played the martyr. They ended up getting divorced. The Burns family wasn't happy about that. He was a spoiled brat. I think it was because he was the only son. He was smart: he knew how to work everybody. He had a such a strange sense of humor. When we first moved to Hawaii, there was a terrible depression in Hawaii. Jobs were very rare so what did he do? One day he put an ad in the paper: "Need 100 workers, please apply at (he gave an address)." 1,000 people came looking for a job and he stood there laughing. Yes, both my parents were Communists. They both joined the Communist Party. They were really into socialism. They were into unions, shared wealth, good things for humanity. I remember handing out the Daily Worker -- which was a Communist newspaper -- at the Alameda shipyard during WWII with my mother and father. My sister stayed with me for awhile, after my divorce. One day we decided to look him up and we found his number. I stayed in touch with Fay and Grandma. Grandma came to my home she could see that we were doing very well financially, so she didn't leave me any money but left Collette about $1,500.

Family/Spouse: Bernadette L. Reay. Bernadette (daughter of Charles Gunn Reay and Blanche Mary Tighe) was born on 20 Nov 1908 in San Francisco, California. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Loretta Mary Burns
2. Collette Reay Burns was born on 18 Oct 1937.

James married Maria Constantina Wiser. Maria (daughter of Bruno Albert Wiser and Elisa Schoenhals) was born on 31 Dec 1871 in Aarau/AG, Switzerland; died on 22 Mar 1961 in Merritt Hospital, Oakland, California; was buried on 25 Mar 1961 in Cypress Lawn Memorial Park, Colma, California. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Residence: 23 Mar 1961, 1923 West Street, Oakland, California; Last residence address per Certificate of Death.; : 90; Address:
  1923 West Street
  Oakland, California
  United States

Other Events and Attributes:

• Imigration: 1877, Adelaide, South Australia; Official assisted passage passenger lists show arrival in South Australia on 23 Jan 1877 on the Herschel: Adolf (presumably Alfred) Wyser Emilie (presumably Emilia) Wyser Ida Wyser Marie Wyser Otto Wyser Bruno Wyser Elise (presumably Elisa) Wyser The voyage (sequence 77/6) apparently began in Hamburg.
• Residence: 1881, Adeliade, South Australia; From the Sands Directory; Address:
  Regent Street
  Adelaide, South Australia
• Residence: 1882, Adeliade, South Australia; Occupation in the South Australia Directory shown as tanner (page 32).; Address:
  Ifould Street
  Adelaide, South Australia
• Residence: 11 Apr 1882, Adeliade, South Australia; Residence as shown on son Bruno's birth record.; Address:
  Grenfell Street
  Hindmarsh Ward
  Adelaide, South Australia
• Occupation: 29 Sep 1884, Glebe, N.S.W., Australia; Fanny Weyser's birth certificate shows Bruno Wyser is a Tanner.
• Residence: 29 Sep 1884, Glebe, N.S.W., Australia; Occupation (in Sands Directory): Tanner; Address:
  14 Mitchell Street
  Glebe, NSW
  Australia
• Residence: 1886, Sydney, Australia; Occupation in 1886 Sands Directory: Tanner. Surname shown as Weiser; Address:
  Mayes Street
  Leichhardt
  Sydney, NSW
  Australia
• Occupation: 20 May 1887, Glebe, N.S.W., Australia; On Ida Wiser's marriage certificate, Bruno is shown as a Carpenter.; Address:
  Franklyn Place
  Glebe, N.S.W.
  Australia
• Residence: 1888, Sydney, Australia; Occupation in 1888 Sands Directory: Tanner; Address:
  21 Bunn Street
  Sydney, NSW
  Australia
• Residence: 1889, Sydney, Australia; Occupation in 1889 Sands Directory: Tanner. Surname spelled Wycer.; Address:
  183 Elizabeth Street
  Sydney, NSW
  Australia
• Residence: 1890, Sydney, Australia; Occupation in 1890 Sands Directory: Tanner; Address:
  193 Elizabeth Street
  Sydney, NSW
  Australia
• Cremated: 9 Dec 1895, Crematory at Odd Fellows' Cemetery; Cremated (or "incinerated") at 3:00 PM on December 9, 1895. No autopsy performed. The ashes were received by Mrs E. Wyser on 29 Apr 1896.; : 54 y 9 mos; : Cancer

Notes:

According to Beat Hodler:

A Cousin of Bruno Wyser: Catharina Wyser (1826-1901): During many years, she ran the post-office in Niedergösgen. She wasn’t married. She wrote a very varied diary which is today an excellent historical source. In this diary, you find a lot of information about weather, politics, religion, prices, popular medicine and so on. There is also a poem which she dedicated to her cousin Bruno, when he left Switzerland in 1860. In this poem she remembers the good times they had spent together and she expresses also a blessing:

Dem Bruno Wyser ins Stammbuch bei seiner Abreise nach Amerika 1860:
Wenn auf dem Blatt nach langer Zeit
dein Aug einst sinnend ruhen bleibt
dann mög vor deinem Blick erscheinen
das Haus, umgeben von den Bäumen;
In dessen Schatten du einst spieltest
Nach der Scheibe mit der Armbrust zieltest,
Und manche liebe Ferienzeit
So sorglos dich mit uns erfreut

Du willst nun in die Fremde gehen
Wir werden lange dich nicht mehr sehn.
Möge nun in deinem Leben,
Gott viel Glück und Heil dir geben
Und dein guter Engel mit dir gehn

Translated (by Ingeborg Gowans) into English:

For Bruno Wyser : at his departure to America in 1860:

When, after many years, you will return to this page
and recall old times
may you remember the house nestled among the shadegiving trees,
where you used to play, trying bow and arrow,
where you spent many a day, enjoying carefree hours with us..

Now you are off to foreign lands
And we shall not see you anymore
May God grant you good health and wellbeing in your life
May your Guardian Angel walk before you.



According to Beat Hodler:

"I still don't know why Bruno actually travelled to Montevideo, but I guess that his emigration had something to do with the Bally enterprise. His family was related to the Bally family. Bally was at that time one of the very big European shoe producers. Around 1870, Bally tended to expand to South America, whith some difficulties at the beginning and quite a good success in the long run. In the 1870's Bruno Wyser returned to Niedergösgen, where he spent some years before emigrating again (as you know already). In 1873, Elisa Schönhals and Bruno Wyser had a child in Niedergösgen, whose godmother was Emilia Balli. (source: Kirchenbuch Niedergösgen).

Name:
Also known as Bruno Weyser and Bruno Wyser

Buried:
According to the Crematory records from the Odd Fellows' Cemetery (sheet 62), Bruno Wyser died from cancer on 7 Dec 1895 at Lane Hospital, San Francisco. His attending physician was L. C. Lane, and there was no autopsy. Bruno Wyser was 54 years 9 months old. His remains were received by the crematory on 9 Dec 1895 and were "incinerated" at 3:00 PM. The witness to the incineration was James W. Mallady. The arrangements were handled by Union Undertaking Company, and the ashes were "delivered to Mrs. Wyser 29 April 1896." She signed a receipt as "Mrs. E. Wyser, 31 Minna Street."

We have received the cremation record from the California Genealogical Society, with special thanks to Nancy Peterson.

Died:
Cause of death: Cancer. Died at the Lane Hospital in San Francisco, California, attended by Dr L C Lane (Levi C Lane).

Bruno married Elisa Schoenhals on 3 Feb 1869 (German-Evangelistic Church) in Montevideo, Uruguay. Elisa (daughter of Johannes Schoenhals and Elisabeth Christina Ringel) was born on 20 Mar 1841 in Simmersbach, Germany; died on 19 Jul 1910 in 573 Jones Street, Oakland, California; was buried on 20 Jul 1910 in Oakland Crematory. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Residence: 1896; Address:
  56 South Park Street
  San Francisco, California 94107
  United States
• Residence: 29 Apr 1896, San Francisco, California; Address shown on crematory receipt for Bruno Wiser's ashes.; Address:
  31 Minna Street
  San Francisco, California 94105
  United States
• Residence: 19 Jul 1910, Oakland, California; Here for 1 year and 1 week according to Certificate of Death.; Address:
  573 Jones Street
  Oakland, California
  United States

Other Events and Attributes:

• Record ID Number: MH:I30

Notes:

According to Beat Hodler, "Alois Wyser spent several years abroad as a mercenary. This is not so extraordinary: many young Swiss chose that activity at that time. Later he reached a high position in the Solothurn government. He must have been an interesting personality. He wrote a humorous sketch ('Three Days'), describing his short, but shattering experience as a young school teacher in the village of Niedergösgen in the 1820's."

As a farmer's son, Alois decided upon a career in the army. As a professional soldier, he rose to the rank of colonel. He first lived in the town of Solothurn with his family, where he was elected administrator of the Quartermaster Store in 1839. He held this position until his death. He also was Quartermaster General. He died of stomach cancer on 28 Oct 1870. His estate was settled on 24 Apr 1871 (list of beneficiaries and heirs of canon Solothurn, 1870-71, Volume 82, No. 37).

Alois married Katharina Herzog on 14 May 1832 in Catholic Church of Solothurn, Switzerland. Katharina (daughter of Urs Petrus Herzog and Maria Anna Balli) was born in Solothurn, Switzerland; was christened on 17 May 1801; died on 16 Nov 1886 in Solothurn, Switzerland. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Occupation: 1829-1832 - Deputy Rector 1832-1834 - Rector in Grebenau 1834 - Pastor in Simmersbach (HS I pg 249)
• Record ID Number: MH:I128

Notes:

Johannes' Godfather was Johannes the son of the customs collector Johann Henrich Spielman from Hassia Sacra I pg 405 (Grebenau).

Johannes married Elisabeth Christina Ringel on 11 Nov 1832 in Grunberg, Germany. Elisabeth (daughter of Johannes Ringel and Elisabeth Viehl) was born on 21 Aug 1810 in Grunberg, Germany; died on 7 Dec 1876 in Simmersbach, Germany. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Record ID Number: MH:I142