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Washington Women’s Heritage Project records, 1900-2000 
University of Washington Libraries Special Collections 
Erna Dora Meerscheidt Bouillon 
October 6, 1980 
Cassette 3, Side 1 
 
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  00:07 
Testing, one, two, three, four. Erna Bouillon, interviewed by Susan Ehlers for Washington 
Women's Heritage Project, October 6, 1980, tape three, side five. Okay, to begin with, may I ask 
what you got there? 
 
Erna Bouillon  00:34 
Well, I just summarized-- You said you wanted to hear about the trips and my decorating, and 
I've put down all my trips here.  
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  00:43 
I see, well, let's get to that later. I've got-- 
 
Erna Bouillon  00:50 
All right.  
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  00:51 
--some questions here, I tried to put them in more or less chronological order, so maybe it makes 
more sense. Okay, your family was of the nobility? 
 
Erna Bouillon  01:07 
Yes, in Germany. 
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  01:08 
Well, the thing is, usually don't think of those kind of people as being the immigrants to the US. 
Do you have any idea why they came to the US? 
 
Erna Bouillon  01:22 
Because-- No, I don't really know. I know that they, Texas was a new country, and it was a 
challenge. And they, I told you, they had had this one engineer and architect come over, who 
changed the outlines of San An-- Te-- 
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  01:44 
You don't, by the way, happened to remember what his name was?  
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Erna Bouillon  01:46 
I've got a picture of him and his name, I think. Oh-- 
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  01:47 
[Movement] Just a sec. Oh, okay. 
 
Erna Bouillon  01:55 
His picture.  
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  01:56 
This is? 
 
Erna Bouillon  02:00 
The von Rosenberg family and they married, you see, into the Meerscheidt family.  
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  02:06 
Okay, okay, this is on your mother's-- 
 
Erna Bouillon  02:08 
No, oh no, no. That's all on my father's side.  
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  02:11 
Oh, okay. William von Rosenberg, that was the one that laid out the boundary?  
 
Erna Bouillon  02:17 
Yes.  
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  02:18 
So the family had been in the North American continent, even though Texas wasn't a part of the 
US at that time, since the early 1800s? 
 
Erna Bouillon  02:27 
Yes. Well, you see, they had, it was 18-- Let's see, [reading] left Germany amid political and 
economic turmoil late in 1849. At the age of 28, he brought his entire family, wife, parents, eight 
brothers and sisters, to Texas. They settled near Round Top in Fayette County, where Wilhelm 
bought a small farm. In 1850, he sold the farm and moved to Austin, obtaining employment as a 
draftsman, at a General Land Office. By 1861, he was a chief draftsman. His career was 
interrupted by the Civil War in which he served as a topographical engineer for the Confederacy. 
He returned to the land office until reconstruction began then opened a land agency of his own. 
He prospered in this work until his death in 1901. His son, Ernest, became a draftsman in the 
General Land Office in 1876 and eventually rose to chief draftsmen. But for a two year interval, 
he continued there until his death in 1815. Two of his sons, Herman and Ernest, were 
topographers--I don't know how to pronounce that--with the old state reclamation, reclamation 
department when the agency was consolidated with the General Land Office in 1830-- 1930. 
Herman resigned because of ill health and, in 1952, and Ernest retired in 1954. When the Red 
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River boundary dispute arms between Texas and Oklahoma in the 1920s, the von Rosenbergs 
and the Penick brothers and the topographical work for the State Attorney General. His picture is 
in a niche in the Alamo, but now it has been moved up to the Texas Cultural Institute of 
University of Texas.  
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  03:10 
I see. Okay, now more back about your immediate past, which of your parents made the 
decisions at the home, in your home, as a child, young girl? 
 
Erna Bouillon  03:11 
There never was any dispute in our family. It was a very tranquil, happy family life. I can't 
remember, remember ever hearing my mother and father argue. Now, maybe they did, but I 
never heard--  
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  04:59 
Okay, well I'm not asking about arguments per se, but just, do you have any idea who did make 
the decision? 
 
Erna Bouillon  05:23 
Well, my, I think my father was master of the home. Yes, that was the custom in those days. And 
he-- And my mother made them about things that pertained to womanhood at that time. 
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  05:38 
Taking care of the house and things like that?  
 
Erna Bouillon  05:40 
Well, yes, but she always had servants.  
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  05:43 
Well, [inaudible].  
 
Erna Bouillon  05:44 
Yes, someone had to do that. 
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  05:46 
Oh, one specific question left, Victoria Pensionate-- 
 
Erna Bouillon  05:51 
Yes, yes. 
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  05:51 
--that you went to when you were 13, 14 years old, where was that? Was that in Berlin?  
 
Erna Bouillon  06:00 
No, no, no. That was in Dornholzhausen, Dorn, D-O-R-N, Dornholz, H-O-L-Z, hausen. Holz is 
woods, the forest, Dornholzhausen. 
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Susan Lynn Ehlers  06:18 
That was the name of the town in Germany? 
 
Erna Bouillon  06:22 
That's the town. 
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  06:24 
Okay. 
 
Erna Bouillon  06:25 
[?Two?]. 
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  06:26 
What did you study there? 
 
Erna Bouillon  06:28 
We studied everything. I have a picture in my, one of my albums, I've got 13 albums, of-- They 
taught everything in that school, the Germans are very thorough. Now, these were all children of 
nobility, as I told you, except if they came from a country where there was no rank, then they 
came from the highest families, you know, those with the best reputations and all. But what was I 
trying to say?  
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  07:07 
What did they study?  
 
Erna Bouillon  07:09 
Oh, what they studied. But in spite of that, they studied everything. They even worked out in the 
garden and learned how to plant vegetables. They worked in the kitchen, learning how to cook. It 
wasn't theory, it was actual doing combined with theory. The teacher was always with them. And 
I've got a little red book like this strung into my album, and it shows the pictures of them 
working out, then they had gymnastics, they had everything. And as I told you, we studied the 
languages, we learned to write and read German script. And we had Bible study, we had to go to 
Bible classes, we had to go to prayer meetings. And there was a princess who came to eat with us 
one day a week. She had a castle right near the school, on the property of the school-owned land, 
and she had, the castle-- She really was the protectorate. In German, protectorate, of the school, I 
think that would be, in this country, one who sponsored it. 
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  08:32 
Like a patron? 
 
Erna Bouillon  08:32 
The patron, yes. And so once a month-- Once a year, she would invite eight girls to the castle 
gardens for tea. Maybe it was once a month, I'm not sure about that. But at any rate, we went in, 
I think it was in spring she did it, only. But we went, she chose all of us Americans, that was 
four, plus four other girls. And I think the reason she chose us was that she thought, possibly, 
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we'd go, come back to America and advocate-- Talk about the school, which would give them 
publicity. She chose an English girl and a French girl and no German girls, they weren't invited. 
It was the foreigners, you see, and we had tea in her garden, saw the castle, and was very lovely. 
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  09:38 
Oh, you mentioned Bible study and prayer meetings and [inaudible]. What religion, were you 
raised in one?  
 
Erna Bouillon  09:46 
Well, my father was a Lutheran. My aunt, this great aunt was a Lutheran. In Germany, you were 
either Lutherans or Catholics. So they were Lutherans, but my mother went to the Episcopal 
church. And my father was not a religious man, he didn't go to church on Sundays, for instance, 
he went to the German Verein, that's the club, like the Century Club would be here, the exclusive 
club. And he went there on Sundays and played cards Sunday morning while my mother-- This 
was in, when we came back, this country, and my mother would go to the Episcopal church with 
an aunt of mine, my father's sister, and they were Episcopalians. And I was raised in the 
Episcopal church, I was, was baptized. But I was, I was confirmed at the age of 18 in Seattle, 
right here, the old Episcopal church that was near that Madison car line, where it runs down the, 
before it runs down the hill, up on the top of the hill, there was a church. Then they built the new 
Episcopal church, near that private school in Seattle, on Broadway. 
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  11:18 
Okay. During World War One, I understand there was a lot of anti German feeling in this 
[?country?]-- 
 
Erna Bouillon  11:27 
Yes, we, we didn't, you see, they decided to become Americans, my family, and we did not 
suffer from that at all, not one bit. 
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  11:39 
Even with a German name?  
 
Erna Bouillon  11:40 
No, no, we did not. And, in fact-- No, we didn't. And it was a little after that, I'll tell you, but a 
German relative, he was a baron and his English wife-- Oh no, it was during the war, because he 
was a German baron, and he married an English, well, she was a very exclusive family in 
England, I don't know just what her position was. I've got pictures of them. But they, we were 
living on Mercer Island at that time, I was in, in college, and I got married over there, and I know 
that she came with him because they wanted, they had been up in Canada. And when the feeling 
up there, as a counsel, you know, in the counselor position, and when the feeling up there got too 
intense, he left Canada and came down. He must have written to my father, asked whether he'd 
receive them, and they stayed with us at least a month. Oh, maybe longer than that. And she 
designed, she planned my wedding with me and designed all the clothes and whatever she--and 
went shopping with me-- and whatever she said-- She bought my going away suit, I remember, 
and the big white satin hat I wore for going away, and a gray, I've got a button off the suit to 
show the fabric, it was a pretty fabric, a light gray fabric on my going away suit. And she 
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designed the hats, great big tulle, chiffon hats that were wired, and the girls wore in different 
colors. There were 10 bridesmaids, and she planned all that, she planned it. And whatever she 
said, I accepted, because I knew that she was a woman of the world and had seen and knew the 
best things and the right things, and I wasn't afraid to trust her judgment, because she was a 
beautiful, lovely lady. They went, moved back, when they left-- Oh, my father got them a 
position, him a position because he was, felt he was running out of money, and he got him a 
position with, I think it was Sherman Clay's. It was a big music house at that time. And, you see, 
my, my, he was a cousin, and he was so well educated, he could sing, he could dance, he knew 
all music, everything, and he was good at selling. He became head, he was head salesman there. 
And Sherman Clay must have worked things out a little differently at that time, but he would 
entertain these men. He'd play all the best music on the piano for them when he was trying to sell 
a piano, and he would sing for them while he was playing, and he would whistle, and he would 
dance. And they were very nice people, and he did very well. But finally they moved back and 
bought-- He, his health became bad, and he moved to a place in, in Canada. And my daughter-- 
And then we heard of his death by letter, and my daughter and I went to look them up, see my 
mother and father were dead, it was later, and we went to look them up, and we heard that she 
died in a poorhouse. They, see, he became ill and couldn't work and she used up all the money, 
and she had this darling home, we saw the home. In fact, she was dead when we went up to look 
her up, and the letter carrier took us up to the place. We asked, "Which way we should go?" My 
daughter and I, it was on a hillside, with the water down here, and he showed us the house, but 
he said, "She is, she's gone too. He died, and she just collapsed." And they were so fond of each 
other, she called him my Bobby, my Bobby. And here they were English and German, and it was 
this war, really, which ate him, ate him up and ate her up because it kept them from, from going 
ahead. But we in Seattle, here, my father and, we didn't feel it at all. We, we didn't, we weren't 
upset by it. 
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  11:40 
I, just wondering, what part of Canada were they in?  
 
Erna Bouillon  11:40 
It was near, it was near Vancouver, I think.  
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  11:40 
Oh, I see [inaudible]. 
 
Erna Bouillon  16:04 
Near, it wasn't far into Canada, just over the boundary line. I've got that all, I can't remember all 
those things, but I've got all the things in the write up about them and she died in the poorhouse, 
she used up all her money.  
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  17:06 
Did you mention what their name was?  
 
Erna Bouillon  17:08 
Their name-- Now, wait a minute. Von Girsewald, G-I-R-S-E-W-A-L-D, Girse-- Von Girsewald. 
 
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Susan Lynn Ehlers  17:20 
I see, okay, you mentioned that she helped you pick out your wedding dress--  
 
Erna Bouillon  17:25 
Yes, and the [?clothes?]. 
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  17:27 
Okay, with your wedding and whatnot. How did you meet your first husband?  
 
Erna Bouillon  17:31 
Well, he lived on Mercer Island, that East Seattle, where we lived. It was this, faced east, you 
know, right across from Leschi Park. We went over on a little launch at first, and then they got a 
larger steam boat to take. But at first, and there was a piece of, there was a little church then, it 
was non denominational. And they, well, I think I told you, they, my father gave the piece of 
land-- He owned so much property on Mercer Island, and he bought it up when he moved over 
there, and he owned a private water system for our use. And then he owned the public water 
system for about half the people in East Seattle and so. And he had this land, and he, he gave it to 
the church, and then the members of the church raised the money and borrowed it, on it to-- I 
mean, they contributed and then borrowed on what they had gathered up from their members, 
and, and, and built a church, and it was denomination, non denominational, because it was the 
only church over on that side of the lake.  
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  18:48 
That's where you were married then? 
 
Erna Bouillon  18:49 
In that little church, and it was a block away from our house about, we walked down the hill. 
And the bridesmaids, 10 brides-- Eight bridesmaids and the maid of honor and her assistant, my 
little younger sister, the nine year old-- Nine years younger sister than I, walked down, and my 
father and myself, to the church, just like that and into the church. It must have been a very 
lovely sight, you know, it was so pretty over there. And I was the first bride on Mercer Island, 
on, to be married on Mercer Island. It was the only church and I was the first bride.  
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  19:35 
I see. And so you just met your husband like-- 
 
Erna Bouillon  19:38 
Oh, he lived there, he lived right, right near us, maybe three or four blocks. And I met him on the 
boat, and met, he had a brother and a sister, and I met all three of them, and they all became good 
friends of mine. Yeah, we were all good friends.  
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  20:00 
While you were married to Mr. Weeks, who made the decisions in the family?  
 
Erna Bouillon  20:06 
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I think I did concerning everything pertaining to the household. He, he made good money. He, he 
would, let's see. I don't know what he did first. I think he, he worked for a friend of his who 
owned the Ford Motor Company, and he became assistant manager of the Ford Motor Company. 
Maybe that was his first job, and maybe Manning's was, I am not sure. At Mannings, he was, 
became the district manager from the north end of California, coast of California, to Vancouver, 
Washington. And he managed all those stores along there. Just ran, managed them with the-- He 
didn't do any of the work in the store, and of course, he just managed the store. And he, he, he 
was a very light hearted person, in a way. His, his mother had, had been the boss in their home, 
and she was a Christian Scientist. Now, his brother, just two years younger, was entirely 
different. He was more serious and, and married a woman who was very religious. And I know 
their grandchildren and great grandchildren, they invite us about once a year, my two daughters 
and myself, and they're, they're a religious family, because he married a religious person. Now, 
you see, his mother had been religious, but she'd been a Christian Scientist. So my, my husband, 
inherited that running away from trouble from like Christian scientists. I hope you're not a 
Christian Scientist-- 
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  22:03 
[Inaudible]. 
 
Erna Bouillon  22:03 
--but, you know, they, I mean, they like to escape, not see trouble. There is no trouble, there is no 
illness there and so on. Well, and he got that from his mother, where the other brother, that was 
more serious, got the religious side from his mother, so they both inherited something. And I 
think his sister, Marjorie, was just sort of in between the two, she was just a very-- And we knew 
her very well too, all of them. She moved down to San Francisco. When I was going to the 
school of design, I used to visit with her and her husband. 
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  22:49 
I see, and so you mainly handled taking care of making the decisions about the children? 
 
Erna Bouillon  22:56 
In the household and the children. Yes, I did, because he was glad to escape from that 
responsibility. And I think I managed the money for the household too. I think he just gave me so 
much a month to run the house. He didn't assume responsibility like that.  
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  23:03 
I see, how did you meet husband number two, Mr. Bouillon? 
 
Erna Bouillon  23:18 
Oh, I knew him in college. His first wife, her name was Edna, and mine is Erna, the E and the R 
and the D, were only difference in the name. But we, she was my roommate, Edna was, but she 
had asthma, and she died of asthma in Ellensburg. And he went to the University too, he was 
three years older, so you see. But she knew him from, from Ellensburg, and so I met her through 
my room-- Met him through my roommate. And after we finished college and my children were, 
had really grown up, he used to come over to-- 
 
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Susan Lynn Ehlers  24:02 
This is while you, after you went back to UW, after your children were grown--  
 
Erna Bouillon  24:06 
Yes. 
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  24:08 
--studying whatever interested you. 
 
Erna Bouillon  24:09 
Yes, I was doing what-- I was independent of the family, they were independent of me, rather, 
they all got their [?interest working out?]. 
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  24:21 
Anyhow, you met him again?  
 
Erna Bouillon  24:24 
Well, I met the second husband again. I mean, he, he came to Seattle once a month to go to a 
Rotary meeting. He was governor of his Rotary group, 506, I think, Rotary group. And he would 
bring Edna over with him, his first wife, and invite me. My husband, I had no husband. Invite me 
and another friend, mutual friend of Edna's and mine, with her husband to dinner at the Meany 
Hotel. And then her husband, no, she became ill and couldn't come anymore. And then they 
substituted another friend from the sorority, and they invited us for dinner, and the reason-- And, 
and that other couple would take us home, and they would leave us women alone while-- See 
there were, there were just two men, Victor and this husband of a mutual, of a friend that they'd 
invited, and he'd take that man to the Rotary meeting with him. So that left us alone to visit after 
dinner, and then they'd come back at 10 o'clock, and that couple would take me home. And so 
that went on for a year or two, I don't know how long. And then they invited me up, I was a 
particular friend there, in that group of theirs, and they invited me up to stay with them, up in 
Ellensburg for three weeks, I think it was. And I went up and so became very well acquainted 
with him and her too. But of course, I knew her so well anyway. But she began to be ill and, and 
then, I told you, she died of asthma and fell down the stairs to the basement when she was 
opening the door for Frederick and Nelson's delivery man. The stairs went down and then down 
like this, and at the end of the first, there was a door to the outside, and that's where they made 
their deliveries. She went down there, and she had asthma, and she was so weak by then that she 
fell and went down the rest of the stairs and died. And then for a year, he came to see me, and-- I 
was trying to find out the name of the apartments I lived, they were on 11th and 42nd and there 
was a kitty corner down on 10, there was a motel hotel. And he started coming over to see me, 
and he would come Friday night and stay until Monday morning. So we had Friday night, 
Saturday night and Sunday that he took me out, and we did things together. And we, we knew 
we were going to get married very soon, I mean, at the end of the year, but, but what I mean is 
we, he, he knew he wanted to marry me, and I could feel it too. So, that worked out very nicely. 
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  28:10 
I see. Now, let me get this straight that you had originally met him at the first time you went to 
UW, [inaudible] girl, and then 20, 30, years later-- 
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Erna Bouillon  28:20 
Renewed it, through his wife, you see, who was still alive at first. 
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  28:27 
Okay, did you wind up living in Ellensburg?  
 
Erna Bouillon  28:30 
I lived there for 13 months after we were married. And during that time, he disposed of some of 
his household furniture by calling his son up. And then he rented a U-drive and so on, and took 
things. And then he had the Seattle son, the oldest one, Brooks. The son in California was 
[?Geeks?], we called him. He was Victor junior, and he was a physician, a doctor of, I think 
children, [inaudible]-- 
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  29:06 
Pediatrics? 
 
Erna Bouillon  29:07 
Mm-hmm, I think so. I'm not quite positive on that anymore, but that was in Napa, California, 
and they, we visited them many times after we were married. 
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  29:18 
Okay, and then he disposed of-- 
 
Erna Bouillon  29:21 
Oh, a lot of his stuff, yes. 
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  29:23 
--and then came to Seattle? 
 
Erna Bouillon  29:25 
And when we got married, we, he moved to, after the 13 months, we moved to Seattle. And, and 
we moved to the Wilsonian Apartments on Queen Anne Hill. Do you know them? 
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  29:26 
On Queen Anne-- 
 
Erna Bouillon  29:34 
No, the, the Victoria Apartments on Queen Anne Hill. Oh, they're just gorgeous, on West 
Highland Drive. And there was a write up of them, the Victoria apartments, they're going to-- In 
back, they had a lot of parking space, and they're going to build a tower, a tower apartment in 
back to add to it. And I, I've got postcards of them, of that, and I was, I was-- Oh, I worked all 
day, Saturday and Sunday, on those things that I wanted to take to the, I've got them here, that 
shows the building is just huge. It comes like this, a court.  
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  30:34 
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I see. Did, on the decision to move from Ellensburg--  
 
Erna Bouillon  30:42 
Oh, he had always wanted to move when he retired. He had always planned, you see, he was 
educate-- [Recording ends]. 
 