People often ask who the most famous person in my family is. I don’t really have any. I can only say my family brushes fame from time to time. This article is about my touch to the Charles Williams Nash family (of automobile fame).
As I remember Annie (Radey) Ginzl she was a quiet lady. Now that I look back, she was probably very shy. She was the daughter of Petre Radej and Anna Herlik. Annie was my paternal great grandfather’s sister. She and her husband, Emil, never had any children. I only saw her on major holidays, when the family got together. I remember getting a quarter or fifty cents from her as a Christmas present. I always felt bad taking her money because I knew she probably couldn’t afford much.
I never knew Emil, her husband. Annie never talked about him. I was too young then to ask questions. I am sure she had lots of information tucked away and never shared because the right questions were not asked. She would never tell us her age. It was almost as if her age was some sort of national secret. Now that I have located her birth certificate I see that she is two years older than Emil Ginzl. Probably a reason for her secrecy. In their day and age, husbands were almost always older than the bride.
They were married in October 1912. Emil was a successful electrical engineer at Allis Chalmers in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. By 1933 they moved “up north” to Vilas county. They managed a resort on Turtle Lake near Winchester until about 1943.
About 1944 they moved again. This time to property near Manitowish Waters on the shores of Rest Lake. The property was originally developed in 1923 as a hunting and vacation resort by automobile manufacturer Charles Nash. Mr. Nash retired in 1936. Mrs. Nash died in 1947 and Mr. Nash in June 1948 in California. I am anxious to research the Nash family further in hopes to find documentation of their trips to their Northern Wisconsin property.
Reports say that sometime after WWII the Dengel family purchased the property from the Nash family and converted it to a private boy’s camp named Camp Thunderbolt. This was probably around 1947-1949 after the death of Mr. and Mrs. Nash. By 1949 Emil and Annie Ginzl had returned to the Manitowoc County area, where they were born. The Waukegan, IL YMCA purchased the property in 1952, and renamed it Camp Jorn. I have read there are some great old photos in the dining hall. I hope to visit the camp some day and see if Annie or her husband, Emil, are in the background of any of the photos.
Emil died in 1950. Annie lived to be 94 years old; passing in 1979. May they both rest in peace.
Read more about Charles Williams Nash
Find a Grave information (includes photos of his crypt in California)
GM Heritage Center Biography
Biography on the Nash Car Club website
Information on the Nash Elementary School Website Kenosha, Wisconsin
Wikipedia
