Enid S. Steig

1909 - 1987  (77 years)

• Name	Enid S. Steig
  Born	18 Jul 1909	, North Dakota   [1, 2, 3]
  Gender	Female
  Recording	Elmira, Woolwich Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada
  	Series of Oral Histories recorded by Enid
  	Park of a series consists of 40 oral histories conducted by a committee in the former Town of Elmira. The project began in 1974 when Abner Martin, Manager at the Canada Trust had a dream that people were being interviewed about the history of Elmira. Abner told his dream to Harry Wintsch and Harry got his wife, Enid involved. The committee included Mary Anne Kirkness, Elmira Library Supervisor; Abner Martin; Enid Wintsch; and Bob Huschka, Elmira High School history teacher. the interviews were conducted by Enid Wintsch, Lorene Bosomworth, Ruth Moldenhauer, Harry Wintsch, Bertha Thompson, Art Gorman, Joanne Venton, and Pat Weber. The project was funded in partnership between Canada Trust and the Township of Woolwich and continued until 1983.
  Name	Enid S. Wintsch
  Residence	1910	Whitehall, Trempealeau, Wisconsin, USA   [2, 4]
  Eby ID Number	Waterloo-129264
  Died	25 May 1987  [1, 3]
  Buried	Elmira Union Cemetery, Elmira, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [1]
  Person ID	I129264	Generations
  Last Modified	6 Apr 2024

  
  

  Family	Dr. Harry Wintsch,   b. 1903,   d. 1992  (Age 89 years)
  Last Modified	7 Apr 2024
  Family ID	F42777	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Notes

  Enid Wintsch Most oldtimers won't take the time and trouble to set their recollections down on paper, so in Elmira a group of enterprising amateur historians are catching the stories on tape. Mrs. Enid Wintsch has done most of the work so far, but the interviewing team includes Mrs. Grace Scott, Mrs. Peggy Warren, Allan Poffenroth and Mr. [Abner] Martin. They hope to interview 60 local residents by the end of this year, then settle pack to a more leisurely pace. "But we simply have to get going before some of these people get away on us," Mrs. Wintsch said. She has become the most enthusiastic project worker, partly because she has always regretted that her parents died before they set their stories down for posterity. "And they had some wonderful stories to tell of their heartaches as farmers in North Dakota during the depression," she said. "I urged them both to write it down, they never did. My dad tried once, but simply remembering the depression made his so sad that he couldn't carry on. "If we had taped their memories back then, we would have had them for all time. And that's what we're trying to do here in Elmira before it's too late." Mrs. Wintsch's husband, Harry, has provided part of the local history. He was the second-in-command when the Naugatuck Chemical plant (now the chemical division of Uniroyal Ltd.) was built in the early 1940s. The couple, who lived in Elmira from 1941 to 1948, moved back to the town in 1966 when he retired because they liked Elmira. They have since become Canadian citizens. When Mr. Martin told Mr. Wintsch of his dream to tape the memories of the town's older residents, Harry immediately volunteered his wife. And she's been busy at the project ever since, enjoying every minute of it. She has heard stories from some people of bears eating with cattle and hogs out of the same feeding troughs at Elmira area farms... The first person interviewed was the late Bob Pickell, who was 90 at the time and died shortly after. "I was just so thrilled to get his story on tape before he died," Mrs. Wintsch said. "And I want to get going as fast as I can before other stories are lost before I can get to them. Excerpts from an undated newspaper article, "Elmira's past is put on tapes," in the Kitchener-Waterloo Record, by Jim Romahn (typed by Marion Roes 2011) ______________________ Edna Stumpf remembers when the high school and race-track grounds were part of her father's farm. And Otto Klinck notes with pride that his father had the first bicycle shop and rigged up the first wet-cell battery in town. Those are only a few of the memories about Elmira's early days that Enid Wintsch has tape-recorded during the past four years. "It seemed to me it would be fun to learn the local history and do something to preserve it, said Mrs. Wintsch, who plans to revive the project this winter. "It all came about because Abner Martin at the Canada Trust had a dream one night. In this dream, people were being interviewed about the history of Elmira," she said. The next morning Martin told Harry Wintsch about the dream. "Harry said, 'I think it's a marvellous idea and I think my wife would like to do it,'" Mrs. Wintsch recalled with a smile as she sat in her Arthur street home. Harry bought her a tape recorder and Mrs. Wintsch started taping 45- to 60-minute interviews with the town's older citizens. People were eager to tell their memories of Elmira except when the seamier side or slightly scandalous activities were mentioned, she said. "It was strange how many people refused to talk," she said. In many ways the project is a race against time - trying to interview older people before they die or forget the events, said Mrs. Wintsch, who has completed about 25 interviews. Mrs. Wintsch, a native of North Dakota, said her mother tried to write her memories. "But she lived it so thoroughly again when she wrote it that she would come out with tears streaming down her cheeks because they had a great many hardships," said Mrs. Wintsch, who trained as a librarian. Excerpts from the Kitchener-Waterloo Record, "Only the scandals keep oldsters quiet," January 3, 1979, by Sheila Hannon (typed by Marion Roes 2011) ________________________ Enid was the daughter of Gustave Steig and Anna Simonson.

  
  

• Sources

  [S98] Cemetery - ON, Waterloo, Woolwich - Elmira Union CC#4578 Internet Link. Wintsch/ Harry/ 1903 - 1992 /Enid S./ 1909 - 1987/ In Loving Memory [S1520] Census - Wisconsin - 1920, film number:1822018 digital folder number: 4389751 image number: 00951 sheet number: 6. parent Gustave Steig M 43y parent Amma L Steig F 43y Maynard H Steig M 15y Vern Arlen Steig F 13y Selma G Steig F11y Enid H Steig F 10y Fern L Steig F 4y Joel Hanson M 30y [S358] Social Security Death Index. first name:Enid middle name: last name: Wentsch name suffix:birth date: 18 July 1909 social security number: 043-30-9392 place of issuance: Connecticut zip code of last residence:XX953 death date:May 1987 estimated age at death: 78 [S1518] News - Wisconsin, Trempealeau, Whitehall - Whitehall Times - Obituary Index.

  
  

• Event Map

  Born - 18 Jul 1909 - , North Dakota Recording - Series of Oral Histories recorded by Enid - - Elmira, Woolwich Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Residence - 1910 - Whitehall, Trempealeau, Wisconsin, USA Buried - - Elmira Union Cemetery, Elmira, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  = Link to Google Earth