As we saw last time, the Dietrich C. Smith family were the first to live in the house at 405 Willow St., and D. C. Smith himself was the one who had the house built. But after a fire severely damaged the mansion in 1906 or 1907, Smith sold the house and moved with his wife to a home at 339 Buena Vista (now a parking lot next to the former Dirksen home).
The title history of 405 Willow St. shows that the house then passed in rapid succession through a series of owners, from the trustee A. L. Champion in 1907 to Blanche Bleeker by November of 1911. The city directories show that the Bleeker family were the next to live in the house, and the title history shows that Blanche Bleeker sold the home to William J. Reardon in 1915.
Like the Smiths, the Bleekers were a German family of Ostfriesisch origin, coming from the village of Eilsum in Aurich District, in what was then the Kingdom of Hannover (now the northwestern German state of Niedersachsen or Lower Saxony).
Miss Blanche Bleeker (1881-1981), who is listed in the title history as the home owner, lived in Pekin for the greater part of her life, working as a stenographer in a law office. Born 30 Dec. 1881 in Pekin, Blanche was a younger daughter of Harm Everds and Wubke Anna (Moritz) Bleeker, who were immigrants from Ostfriesland.
The 1912 Bates City Directory of Pekin lists Blanche and her mother as residents of 405 Willow St. as follows:
Bleeker, Mrs. Anna, r 405 Willow
Bleeker, Miss Blanche, steno W. A. Potts, r 405 Willow
Miss Bleeker’s mother is again shown at that address in the 1913 city directory, but further research reveals that Blanche’s mother later lived at 315 S. 14th St., the address where she was living at the time of her death in 1935. Although the Pekin city directories refer to Blanche’s mother as “Mrs. Anna Bleeker,” all other records refer to her by various spellings of the Low German name “Wubke” or “Wipke.”
As for Blanche Bleeker herself, we can use census records, city directories, and her obituary to learn what she did and where she lived after selling the house to the Reardons in 1915. The 1930 and 1940 U.S. Censuses show her living alone and working as a legal secretary in Chicago. She later returned to Pekin, however, for the most recently available U.S. census, from 1950, shows “Blanch Bleeker,” 68, stenographer in a law office, living at 1409 Lake St., and says she had never married. Among the subsequent Pekin city directory entries, we find her in the 1955 directory as “Bleeker Blanche r501 Broadway apt A3”, living with relatives.
She lived in Pekin for the rest of her life. In her last years, Blanche was a resident of the Pekin Convalescent Center (now called Timbercreek Rehab & Health Care), where she died in December of 1981. Her obituary ran in the Pekin Daily Times on 30 Dec. 1881, and says:
“Miss Bleeker Dies The Day Before Her 100th Birthday
“Miss Blanche Bleeker, a resident of 2220 State street, Pekin, for seven years, died at 4:22 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 29, 1981, in Pekin Convalescent Center.
“She would have been 100 years old today.
“Born at Pekin, Dec. 30, 1881, she was a daughter of Harm and Wubbke Moritz Bleeker. She never married.
“Surviving are two nieces, Mrs. Virgil (Blanche) Botkin of Pekin and Mrs. Harold (Wanda) Parsloe of Wauwatosa, Wis.
“Cremation rites will be accorded today. There will be no visitation.
“Private graveside memorial services will be held later.
“Preston-Hanley Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.”
The obituary does not state where her cremated remained were interred, but it was presumably in the old Bleeker family plots at Lakeside Cemetery in Pekin.
As we noted above, Blanche’s mother is also listed as a resident of 405 Willow St. Her mother’s full name was (apparently) Wubke Anna (Moritz) Bleeker (1839-1934), a German of Ostfriesland who was born Wipke Luitjens Morits on 26 Aug. 1839 in Eilsum, Hannover, a daughter of Luitjen Adams Morits (Louis Moritz, son of Adam) and Greitje Siemcus Reinders Stromann (Margaret Siemcus Stromann, daughter of Reinder).
Wipke came to America in 1867. She married 23 Oct. 1868 in Tazewell County Harm Everds Bleeker (1832-1887). She and Harm had six children: two sons, Herman and Louis, and four daughters, Anna, Hilke, Blanche and Rina.
In most U.S. records her name is spelled “Wubke,” but her birth and baptismal records from the Evangelical Reformed Church of Eilsum spell her name “Wipke.” In addition, we have noted that the 1912 and 1913 Pekin city directories (the years when we know she lived at 405 Willow St.) call her “Anna,” which was either a second Christian name or a name she preferred to use to help her “Americanize.” It is significant that she named her eldest daughter “Anna.”
Wubke and her husband Harm Everds Bleeker had two sons, Herman Evert and Louis Harry, and two daughters, Blanche and Rina. The 1900 U.S. Census shows them living at 1100 State St., Pekin, but in the 1910 census Wubke, a widow, and her daughter Blanche, a legal stenographer, are the only ones listed in the household.
Wubke’s obituary was published in the Bloomington Pantagraph on 1 Jan. 1935, as follows:
“Mrs. Wubke Bleeker
“PEKIN. — Death came Saturday night as the year neared its close, to Mrs. Wubke Bleeker, one of the community’s oldest residents. Mrs. Bleeker died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. J. S. Morris, 315 South 14th street. She had been ill four days.
“Mrs. Bleeker was born in Emden, Germany, Aug. 26, 1839, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Louis Moritz. She had lived in this state for 67 years, the greater part of that time being a resident of Pekin. Her marriage which was to Harm E. Bleeker occurred in this city. Her husband preceded her in death some years ago.
“She was a member of the First Reformed church. She leaves six children, Mrs. Annie Kromminga, Herman E. and Louis H. Bleeker, Fostoria, Iowa; Mrs. J. S. Morris, Pekin; Everett H. and Blanche Bleeker, Chicago.
“The funeral was held Monday at 2:30 p.m. at the Morris residence, 315 South 14th street, the services being in charge of Rev. W. Denekas of the Reformed church, assisted by Rev. R. P. Blatt of Calvary Baptist church. Burial was in Lakeside cemetery.”
After Blanche Bleeker owned the home at 405 Willow St. for only about three and a half years, she sold the home to a Pekin attorney and judge named William J. Reardon. Next week we will begin to tell the story of the decades when this house was known as “the Reardon home.”
