Katherine Rosing
Life in Chicago Society
This is the seventh post in my series of biographical vignettes of the ladies who signed an 1882 Autograph book I found at a flea market. The young women were classmates at St. Mary’s Academy, a boarding school for girls on the campus of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana.
I intended to publish this episode Friday, but since April 7 was Kate Rosing’s birthday, I’ve published it today in honor of her 161st birthday.
Katherine Rosing was 18 years old when she signed the autograph book on June 18, 1882. She’d been at St. Mary’s for about seven months. An article from November 13, 1881 in the Chicago Daily Times announced that Kate Rosing departed her home in Hyde Park, Illinois on November 10 to attend St. Mary’s Academy at Notre Dame.
Katherine Rosing was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on April 7, 1864. She was the fourth of six children born to Adolphus Rosing and Johanna Hammer, both immigrants from Germany. Aldolphus was a successful liquor merchant. Their children were: Ida, William, Henrietta, Katherine, Edward, and Alexander.
In 1874, the entire Rosing family and a servant named Julie Vodor (as best I can tell from the handwriting) traveled to Germany. They most likely were visiting family members of one or both parents. A May, 1874 passenger manifest from the ship Berlin records each of the family members departing from Bremen and arriving in Baltimore, Maryland on their return to their home in Cincinnati.
The family had moved to Chicago by 1880 and were living on Jefferson Avenue, which is now Harper Avenue, in Hyde Park. Kate still lived in the apartment on Jefferson in 1900 with her sibling William, and at another Jefferson address in 1910 with her sister Henrietta’s family. Adolphus and Johanna Rosing died in 1883 and 1896, respectively.
Kate and Henrietta, or Etta as she was often called, were members of the Kenwood Camping Club. Kenwood is an area of Chicago adjacent to Hyde Park where the family lived. In July of 1886, the girls were part of a group of adventurous campers who spent about a week in the wilds of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The newspapers relayed anecdotes about musical soirees, startling encounters with woodland creatures such as snakes, and camp fires that got a bit out of control.
The campers began their return trip to Chicago aboard the steamship Goodrich which departed from Escanaba, Michigan. They spent half a day in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, and a full day in Milwaukee where they dined at the Plankinton Hotel before touring the city. The newspaper reported that other diners took significant notice of the group’s healthy, hale, and tanned appearance. The last leg of the return journey home was by train.
On October 5 of 1887, the Hyde Park News reported Kate and siblings Henrietta and Edward had set sail aboard the steamer Aller bound for Europe.
The trio traveled extensively for months. On November 27, 1887, a Paris newspaper listed them as Registered Americans in Florence, Italy. On March 3, 1888, they were in Nice, France with plans to depart for Venice, Italy where they would remain until the autumn. True to the report, the siblings departed Liverpool, England aboard the S.S. Etruria, and arrived in New York on September 24, 1888.
Clearly not ones to stay put, in October of 1889, Etta and Kate were set to embark on a one-month trip to Boston. The society item didn’t state the purpose but did say that a few days before they left, they entertained some of their friends from the Countess Yacht Club.
Following her time at St. Mary’s Academy, Kate led a life enriched by travel, social engagements, and entertainment for at least five years or so. After the European trip, I didn’t find much information. Based on the census records, she remained in Chicago for most of her life.
Kate did eventually marry, but not until she was 48 years of age. She married Joseph Powell on December 16, 1912 in Chicago. Joseph was 14 years her senior, noted as 62 on the marriage record. I did some research to learn more about Joseph, but lacking more basic information to go on, it would have required a lot more time than I could spend. With what I did find, I think the Joseph Powell Kate married may have been the one who owned a Chicago insurance/brokerage company, Joseph Powell & Company. He is listed as an agent with an office address in the Temple building which was located at LaSalle and Monroe in Chicago.
Eleven years after her marriage, Kate was a widow as noted on a passenger list from 1923. Katherine Powell returned to the US from a trip to Havana, Cuba. She arrived at the port of Miami in May of 1923. I wondered if she was traveling with family, but other names on the manifest weren’t familiar. The document gave her name, birth date, place of birth of Cincinnati, and her home as Chicago which all matched Kate Rosing Powell.
In 1930, Kate had moved to California, probably because her sister Ida lived there. Kate’s home was an apartment on Beachwood Drive in Hollywood. The census indicates her home had a radio, she rented the apartment at a cost of $60/month, which would roughly be $960 today. Living with her was her niece, Katherine Fuller who was the daughter of her sister Henrietta, and her grand nephew, William Fuller, who was 11.
Kate Rosing Powell died in Hollywood on September 16 of 1934. I’m not sure what year she moved to California, or whether it was before or after Joseph died, although it seems likely it was following his death and probably right after her trip to Havana. She was living there in 1924 because her California death certificate indicates her physician attended her for cardiac disease from April 19, 1924 until her death on September 16, 1934, when she passed away of chronic myocarditis. She was 70 years old.
Kate’s funeral was held at Strother Funeral Parlor on Hollywood Boulevard, an address which is now opposite the Pantages Theater and the walk of stars. She was cremated at Grand View Cemetery Crematorium.
All but one of Kate’s siblings survived into adulthood and, in general, enjoyed success during their lives.
Alexander, the youngest child born in 1872, died one week before turning four years old. In 1876, Alexander and one of his sisters (the article does not specify which sister) were walking near the First Presbyterian Church in Chicago. The steeple was being repaired at the time and was surrounded by scaffolding. As the siblings walked past the church, a board came loose and fell to the ground. It struck Alexander in the head and he died a few hours later.
Henrietta, born in 1862, also attended St. Mary’s Academy ahead of her sister, Kate. She graduated in June of 1881, earning a Gold Medal for academics. In an 1897 article in the Chicago Chronicle, she is noted to be on the committee tasked with choosing a pin design for alumni of their alma mater.
Henrietta married Albert D. Philpot on March 26, 1890. Albert was the son of real estate broker Brian Philpot, who owned B. Philpot & Company, and was a partner in Philpot & Honore, both real estate businesses with downtown addresses. Henrietta and Albert had one child in 1893, whom they named Katherine Marie. Etta reportedly died suddenly at 7 p.m. on April 1, 1908 in Chicago. The very brief funeral notice specified the service to be “strictly private” with a family request for no flowers.
It may have had nothing to do with it, but in 1908, the slow-moving train wreck of a business deal was overshadowing the Philpot’s lives. In 1905, Albert Philpot was the secretary and negotiator for the merger of seven different pottery companies valued at $1,750,000 which would form the Western Stoneware Company.
In 1907, the Inter Ocean newspaper reported that the Weir Company (one of the seven merged potteries) claimed Philpot had deposited the stocks and bonds used as security for their company, as expected, but after 90 days had not paid it back out. They filed in circuit court to force the sale of the assets. A rebuttal statement by co-defendant Attorney Albert Eastman said the payout couldn’t be made until the titles were clear, which they evidently were not at the time.
The Chicago Tribune reported that in 1908, a lawyer named Philip Elting filed a circuit court petition demanding Albert D. Philpot provide a financial account of the Western Stoneware Company. Elting accused Philpot of cadging the bulk of the profits for himself.
Whether or not any of this was due to Albert Philpot’s actions or was his fault in any way, when Henrietta died in April of 1908, it had been going on for nearly three years.
Perhaps this influenced the decision to keep Henrietta’s memorial services private. I also wonder if the stress of this situation and the accompanying societal repercussions contributed to Henrietta’s sudden death. Kate came to stay with the family for a while, presumably to help care for Albert and Henrietta’s daughter Katherine who would have been around 15 years old when her mother died.
Since Albert continued in a successful business until he retired, it would seem the accusations were baseless, dismissed, or were at least settled satisfactorily. Albert was still a broker in 1920. He was a boarder in a rather nice stone apartment building on Ellis Avenue that also accommodated engineering consultants, physicians, and pharmacists, so Albert had done well enough over the years. In 1930, he was 78 years old, had retired, and was remarried to a woman named Ada, who preceded him in death in 1934. Albert lived to be 81 years old. He died November 27, 1937, when he fell asleep while smoking a cigarette that caught the mattress on fire. He died later in Chicago Hospital.
William Rosing was educated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He worked as a Mechanical Engineer with a specialty in railroad design. He began working for the Illinois Central Railroad, then moved to St. Louis where we worked for several different railroads. William was the designer of the mechanical equipment for the Western Pacific line that opened between Salt Lake City and the west coast. He eventually retired from the Frisco line around 1923.
His obituary describes him as “an enthusiastic golfer and billiard player.” He was an avid participant in the ‘over-70’ billiard tournaments. William never married. He died at 73 of heart disease on January 11, 1933 at his apartment on Pershing Avenue in St. Louis. William had also done well; in 1934, his estate was valued at $150,000.
Kate’s brother and fellow traveler, Edward, married Carrie Squires on October 31, 1892 in Chicago. Edward worked in real estate and stayed in the Chicago area. He was well known in yachting circles and was a member of the Chicago Yacht Club shortly after it began in 1900, serving several terms as treasurer and racing committee chairman. His obituary notes his sloop was named Larita.
Edward died October 4, 1936, also of heart disease. He was a veteran of the World War, serving as a captain in the quartermaster’s corps. Carrie survived him; they had no children.
As a young woman, Ida was noted as a member of the Chicago Musical College, founded in 1867 by Florenz Ziegfeld (father of the Broadway Ziegfeld). In 1874 she performed Mozart’s Fantasie in C minor during the Chicago music season.
Ida married Louis Dayan, a dentist, on February 21, 1882 in Chicago. They eventually moved to Burbank, California. They had no children. In 1930, Louis had retired and he and Ida moved north to Santa Cruz. By 1940, Louis has passed away and Ida was back in L.A., living on Kenmore Avenue in Hollywood with her then-divorced niece, Katherine Fuller. The census notes that Ida and Katherine employed a cook and a chauffeur.
The oldest sibling lived the longest. Ida died in Los Angeles in 1945 at 89 years old of a cerebral hemorrhage secondary to severe arteriosclerosis. The informant for her death certificate is noted as Katherine Brooks, so it appears her niece had remarried at that time but was still living in the house on Kenmore Avenue. There were no services for Ida.
I love this series!