Recovered family-history source — September 8, 2007. Pat and Mike Oser emailed Danielle the original Word document with the note, “Grandpa’s autobiography is attached.” The transcription below is taken directly from that surviving document.
Albert Oser’s autobiography
This is a merging of several narratives he wrote.
My father’s father, Matthew Oser, was born in Baden Baden, Germany, in year of 1832 on September 20th and died April 29th, 1915. He came to this country by sail boat, with a brother who died on the way over here. My grandfather landed in New Orleans and went to live in Ohio. My grandmother, Matthew’s wife, was Mary Bandel. She was born in Altboisen, Germany, which was in Alsace on the French and German border, on April 20th, 1842. She died on February 28th, 1925. She came to this country with her parents. I don’t know where they landed. She had one brother, John, who lived in Cincinnati, Ohio. I don’t know how many sisters she had, but one sister married a man named Peter Eberle. They lived in Cincinnati, Ohio. My grandfather and grandmother were married in Cincinnati, Ohio, on November 17th, 1863. They had 12 children. My father, Albert Oser, was the youngest. He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on February 18th, 1883.
My mother’s father, Charles Kraemer, was born in Germany, and my grandmother, his wife, was born in Germany also. I don’t know where. My grandfather came to this country and settled in St. Louis. He had a saloon at 14th and Cass Avenue in St. Louis. My grandmother died when my mother was about 12 years old. My mother, Emma Kraemer, was born in St. Louis on March 6th, 1885. My grandfather remarried after my grandmother died. My mother had two brothers, Charles and Henry, and a sister, Ida. My mother worked at a cigar factory before she married my father.
My father and mother were married in St. Louis on November 25th, 1908. They moved to East St. Louis and lived at 709 North 16th Street. They had seven children. I was the fifth child. My brothers and sisters were Matthew, Emma, Florence, Albert, Charles, Robert and Dorothy. Matthew died when he was a baby. I was born on July 16th, 1917, at 709 North 16th Street in East St. Louis. The house was a two-family flat. We lived upstairs and my father’s sister, Aunt Lizzie, lived downstairs. Later my father bought the house next door at 711 North 16th Street.
We went to St. Henry’s Catholic School. I remember walking to school and coming home for lunch. We had chores to do around the house. We didn’t have much money, but we had a good family life. During the Depression things were hard. My father worked as a machinist and there were times when work was scarce. We raised chickens and had a garden. We did whatever we could to get along. I worked at different jobs when I was young. I remember working at a grocery store and doing other odd jobs to make money.
I met Gladys and we started dating. We were married and began our life together. When the war came, I entered the Army. I went through training and eventually was sent overseas. I served in Europe during World War II. We crossed the Atlantic and landed overseas, and from there we moved through the European theater. There were long marches, cold weather, mud, fear, and times when we didn’t know what the next day would bring. We saw destruction and death that stayed with us long after the war ended.
There were times under fire when you did what you were trained to do and hoped you would make it through. We moved from place to place as the fighting continued. The conditions were difficult and everyone learned to depend on the men around him. You didn’t think of yourself as doing anything heroic. You did the job that had to be done and tried to keep yourself and the other fellows alive.
After the war I came home to Gladys. Returning home and getting back to ordinary life took time. I went to work for Monsanto and spent many years there. Gladys and I raised our family. We had children and later grandchildren, and family became the center of our lives. There were good years and difficult years, but we built a life together.
Gladys’s death was one of the hardest things I ever faced. After so many years together, learning to live without her was difficult. As I got older I found myself looking back more often at the people and events that shaped my life: my parents, brothers and sisters, East St. Louis, the Depression, the war, Monsanto, Gladys, our children and grandchildren.
I have lived through enormous changes. The world I was born into in 1917 was very different from the world my grandchildren knew. We did not have all the things people have today, but family, work, faith, and responsibility mattered. Looking back, I am grateful for the life I had and for the family that came from it.
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