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Little is known of twenty-one-year-old Gertrude Falk
(b.1883). Her nickname was Gertie and she had
two brothers — Jacob Falk and Milton P. Falk
(1887–1941). She was the daughter of German
or Russian immigrants, German being most likely.
They were the late Philip
Falk (1846–1900) and Minnie Bernauer* Falk
(1856–1898). The Falks at one time lived
in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, leaving some time
after 1890.
In 1903 she lived with her brother Jacob, a salesman,
in a first-floor rented six-room apartment at
Irene Flat apartments on Elmwood Place on Chicago's
south side and was described as a housekeeper.
It is not known if she worked for her brother or
outside their home. First- and second-floor
apartments there offered steam heat, hot water and a
gas range for $45 per month, inflation adjustment:
$1,500. Their father,
Philip Falk, a cigar packer, had lived there with
them until his death three years earlier.
It seems like too much space and expense for
Jacob and Gertie but Jacob may have been successful.
He was an independent sales
representative for dry goods and millinery supplies.
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Jacob found and identified
Gertie's body at Rolston's Undertaking.
Nothing is known of where she was seated in the
auditorium, or with whom. Her funeral was held
late in the afternoon of the Monday after the fire,
January 4, 1904, in the Falk's apartment at 3839
Elmwood Place.
The Falk family was Jewish and burial was in the
Jewish Graceland Cemetery, one of Chicago's
oldest cemeteries.
In the years after the fire
Jacob and Milton Falk each married and had children. Milton named his
first born daughter Gertrude after his sister Gertie.
She went by Chere. Chere became a librarian, married a
man named Sochon and served in the Women's Army Corps during World War II.
She had one son, Flynn Philip Sochon.
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Discrepancies and addendum
* Or Berliner.
Clues for further research
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Gertrude, Jacob and Milton were niece and nephews of
Solomon Vehon, through their mother, Minnie, being
sister of Solomon's wife. Vehon family genealogy
might provide a base on which to develop this
branch of the Falks. In 1896 Jacob and
Milton went to visit the Vehon family, then
living in Indiana.
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In Gertie's funeral newspaper notice Jacob Falk asked that
New York (city?), Cleveland and Toledo newspapers copy
the notice, so there were family members in those cities. (A
few years later Jacob married a girl from Manhattan, Sadie
Baehr.) Minnie's funeral notification had asked
newspapers in Columbus, Ohio to copy the notice.
Wisconsin newspapers were not included, which
seems odd since the Falks had once lived there
and an uncle did still, and Phillip Falck
(1815-1889), Gertie's late grandfather, had
settled in Morrison, Wisconsin in 1855.
The connection between Gertie Falks and the
Falcks of Chippewa Falls is highlighted by a
news story in the Chippewa Herald-Telegram on
January 3, 1904 based on an interview with
Chippewa resident Samuel Moskewitz. The
news story is puzzling because Moskewitz
referenced Gertie having a sister. I found no
evidence of a fourth child in the family.
It's also puzzling that the story made no
mention of Gertie's uncle Arnold Falk who lived
in Chippewa Falls.
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Several families thought to be their father's siblings lived in
Chicago. The
missing 1890
U.S. Census records and repetition of the names
Philip and Jacob in many generations make researching the family
difficult.
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Name spelling variations are extensive:
Philip and Phillip, Falk and Falck. Four
generations of males named Philip and Jacob are
also problematic.
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