Edwin John Ressegieu

RESSEGIEU ORIELLY

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 10/13/2010 at 23:51:26

History of Woodbury County, Iowa 1984

Edwin John Ressegieu
By Mrs Charlotte Ressegieu

Edwin John Ressegieu, son of Dr Jacob Ressegieu, was born September 28, 1849, Earlville, New York. He came to Sioux City in 1867 with his older sisters, Belle (Mrs. Linus Skinner) and Hattie (Mrs. Stephen Hathaway). He brought the family belongings with him by wagon.

In 1871 in Sioux City, Edwin John married Johanna O’Rielly who was bon July 12, 1850, in Smith Falls, Canada. The family settled at 8 West Third Street. Edwin was in the wholesale liquor business. Their home and business place was located on what is now the approach to the new Veteran’s Bridge in downtown Sioux City.

They raised seven children in Sioux City: Herbert, Charles, Lydia Heppe, Earl, Josephine, Gertrude, and Charlotte Chilson. The large Ressegieu home, built over the liquor store, was the center of activities for all the family in addition to all the friends and relatives who came to all the friends and relatives who came to Sioux City form the outlying area.

We remember the beautiful gas lights, the chrome pot-bellied stoves in each room, the dining room table that sat eighteen, the large cook stove, the billiard table in the billiard room where we all learned to play billiards, the big beds and wardrobes where we hid, the big attic with many trunks to explore on rainy days, and the long, wide hall that extended the length of the house from the back door to the living room. When a plumbing came indoors, a water closed with a water closet with a chain pull was enclosed in a telephone-like booth in the middle of the big hall. One of the fondest recollections for us as children was the large Christmas tree that almost touched the sixteen foot ceiling and was loaded with family traditional Christmas decorations. In later years, some of these decorations were on our trees.