The Class of 1900

Susan Rosenstiel

World War I Veteran from the Class of 1900

Susan Rosenstiel served as a Red Cross nurse during World War I.

Susan Grace Rosenstiel was born February 11, 1882. After graduating from FHS in 1900, Susan attended Lake Forest College and Mount Holyoke College. She took nursing classes at the University of Michigan and graduated from the Chicago Memorial Hospital School of Nursing in 1909. She worked at Cook County Hospital for a few years.

Her sister Mary Rosenstiel was a doctor in Freeport for many years. Susan worked as a nurse in "The Little Hospital" that the two established at Stephenson and Cherry.

When the U.S. entered the First World War, Susan volunteered with the Army Nurse Corps. She cared for many soldiers during the great flu epidemic. She reached France just before the Armistice was signed.

After she was discharged from military service in April 1919, she stayed in Europe, doing health examinations on children in France and Belgium.

In July 1919, she joined the American Red Cross and served in Poland. She was mentioned in a Saturday Evening Post article for her bravery as she helped evacuate 700 Russian and Polish refugee children from Bialystock. "Two American girls proved their bravery. Miss Susan Rosenstiel of Freeport, Ill., and Miss Stella Matthews of Milwaukee, chief nurse of the American Red Cross in Poland. A few hours before the city fell to the Red Army, the women marched the children aboard cattle cars and accompanied them to Warsaw. The American women, calm in the face of danger, were able to avoid a panic among the frightened children who, in spite of the crowding and intense heat in the cars, entered Warsaw in perfect order, singing."

Susan late worked in Albania, where she worked in a clinic serving women and children. There she married Dr. Nicholas Popov. He had been a doctor in Russia. He was a refugee on a ship in a Greek harbor. He tossed a note onto the Red Cross ship, offering to work for them. The Red Cross worked for his freedom, and after securing it, sent him to the clinic where Susan was working.

In 1922, Susan and Nicholas returned to America with their two children, Boris and Mildred. After divorcing, Susan and the children moved back to Freeport.

Around 1930, Susan Rosenstiel and Maggie Davenport (Class of 1908) bought a horticultural nursery they called Port Rose Garden. Rosenstiel later bought out Davenport's share. Source: The Freeport Journal Standard August 20, 2005

Susan studied landscape gardening and horticulture at the University of Illinois, and planted many gardens around Freeport before dying of cancer in 1947.

Freeport High School

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