Ernestine Schumann-Heink - Charitable Work and Community Support

Charitable Work and Community Support

While living at North Caldwell, Schumann-Heink became interested in efforts to honor President Grover Cleveland by acquiring his birthplace and creating a museum in his honor. Friends, family and supporters of President Grover Cleveland asked her to perform at the First Presbyterian Church at Caldwell, New Jersey to raise money for the purchase of Cleveland’s Birthplace in the Presbyterian Manse. Cleveland's father, Rev. Richard Cleveland had been the minister of the church when the future president was born in 1837. On September 10, 1912 Mme. Schumann-Heink performed a benefit concert at the First Presbyterian Church at Caldwell. The following year the Grover Cleveland Birthplace Memorial Association (GCBMA) purchased the Manse and opened it to the public and Mme. Schumann-Heink became the first lifetime member of the GCBMA.

During World War I, Schumann-Heink supported the United States and military forces. She entertained the troops and raised money to help wounded veterans. She toured the United States raising money for the war effort, although she had relatives fighting on both sides of the war - including her sons August Heink, a merchant marine who had been impressed into the German submarine service, son Walter Schumann, Henry Heink and George Washington Schumann, all in the United States Navy. August Heink died during the war. After the war she continued to support American veterans and her 1936 funeral was held with full military honors and conducted by the American Legion, Post 43, of Hollywood and the Disabled Veterans of the World War, San Diego Chapter.