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Sturzenegger Family Collection, 2016

Descriptive Summary

Title:

Sturzenegger Family Collection

Creators:

Ellen Sturzenegger Speicher and Nancy Sue Landsman (neé Sturzenegger)

Dates:

2016

Extent:

27.1 GB of data, 9 video interviews

Abstract:

Ellen Sturzenegger Speicher, a lifelong Chesterite, and her sister Nancy Sue Landsman, who lived in Chester Borough until she was in her 40s, participated in 9 video interviews about life in the area, including businesses, people, and locations. Specifically, they examined pages from a Chester scrapbook, and described what they saw in the photos and post cards, in terms of their life experiences. The value in this collection lies in the detailed descriptions the sisters give of their time in Chester (Speicher, 80 years; Landsman 40 years). Also, they are the descendants of Edmund Sturzenegger, who owned the Swiss Embroidery Factory in town.

Language: English

Repository:

Local History Department
Chester Public Library
250 W. Main Street
Chester, NJ 07930
Phone: (908) 879-7612
Fax: (908) 879-8695
Email: LocalHistory@ChesterLib.org
http://www.chesterlib.org/

Table of Contents

Ellen Sturzenegger Speicher (1941-) and Nancy Sue Landsman (neé Sturzenegger) (1943-) were born in Chester, and Speicher lived there her entire life, while Landsman left in her early 40s. Their father, Werner Speicher owned and operated the Crossroads Gas Station, which also had a repair shop. He was a Rotarian and a Mason. His wife, Evelyn Alice Hiler, was a school teacher from Dover, who married late (at 27). After she had the two sisters, she limited her work to substitute teaching in the Chester School. She was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, as is Landsman.

In the 1890s, their great-grandfather, Edmund Sturzenegger, who emigrated to the United States from Switzerland, purchased land near what is now the corner of Hillside and Oakdale Roads. His mother, Regina ran the Swiss Embroidery Factory he built on the land. Later, her son, the sisters’ grandfather, William ran the factory. The Sturzeneggers employed approximately 50 people at the factory.

The sisters attended Roxbury High School, where Speicher had Mae Call as an English teacher. Speicher met her husband Ken during High School. Ken ran an auto repair garage in Chester.

Landsman left Chester to attend the University of Vermont, where she met her first husband, Dan Collevero. They divorced, and she and her daughter Lauren returned to Chester. Her second husband, Bob Landsman, lived on Oakdale Road with his children, Dawn and Dale. He worked at Cooperative Industries, across from where the Sturzenegger family home was located, and where the sisters’ parents still lived, at that time.

Speicher still lives in Chester and Landsman lives in Maine.

Table of Contents

The Sturzenegger Family Collection comprises 9 high-definition video interviews of Ellen Sturzenegger Speicher and Nancy Sue Landsman (neé Sturzenegger). The interviews were conducted in one visit on April 5, 2016. The content of the interviews spans the lives of the two subjects, as well as times prior to their existence. The interviews contain stories related to the postcards and photos found in a Chester scrapbook donated to the library. Ellen had been transcribing the captions of the scrapbook and told the Local History Librarian that her sister would be in town visiting, and that they should talk about Chester together. These videos are the result of those conversations.

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Organization and Arrangement

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