John Daniel Struve was my paternal grandfather.  I know nothing of his siblings or parents at this time.  He married my grandmother, Anna Emilie (Emilie) nee: Gehlis in Chicago around the turn of the 20th Century.  Before he married he joined the U.S. Navy and served on the Battle Ship Maine.  He was one of the survivors of its sinking but is unlisted because he joined when he was under age.  Early in his marriage he served as a merchant marine traveling all over the world.  He would return to Chicago long enought to empregnate my grandmother and leave again.  She had a hard time supporting her large family of 6 boys and 1 girl (the second of her children).  After leaving the merchant marines he worked in the Chicago area as a sign painter and carriage striper, a chauefer for Chicago businessmen.  He served as chauefer for John Insel at the time Insel struck and killed a pedestrian.  He offered my grandfather a large sum of money to "take the rap" but he refused.  John became a delivery driver for a grocery chain in the Loop of Chidago and for other businesses over the years.  I'm told he could raise a glass with the best of them.  He passed away of cancer in the family apartment (they never owned a home)  on South Springfield Avenue in Chicago in 1943.  He is buried in a plot next to my grandmother in Woodlawn Cemetery, Forest Park, IL.