TEENAGE YEARS - Part 2

Alfred continues with some more detail of farm work, but he does move on to talk about other activities on the farm.

"Our farm, or rather Grandfathers, was small, consisting of 47 acres and we had to utilize every foot of it for production and naturally conserve anything that had a semblance of forage for the stock.  In my teenage the corn shredder made it appearance.  The same process of cutting was used but the shredder was something on the order of a thrashing machine.  Some power, the steam engine, water wag on and a lot of man power.  It took several men to load the shocks on the wagons and then hauled to the shredder, where the corn was picked from the husks and by various belts & elevators it was dropped in the wagon; in the process the fodder was cut into small pieces and blown into the hay mow of the barn.  This made excellent feed, for none of it would deteriorate in the weather.  We never used this method, first it was more expensive and secondly we didn’t have enough barn room.
 Another chore befor frost was the cane patch – Patch is the proper word for we would only plant about one quarter of an acre in it.  This was a hard crop to raise – when it first came up, it looked like crab grass and had to be hoed several times.  Of course it would get plowed in due time.  The job of harvesting was a lot of work – first it had to be “Stripped” or all the blades or leaves pulled off; then the job of topping or cutting the tops off (the tops were carefully taken car of for seed and the balance use to feed the chickens – it was a side line job to separate the grain from the husks and then fan the chaff out – all hand operation.)  Third the base stalks were cut close to the ground and stacked into piles.  Fourth – It was loaded on wagons and hauled to the cane mill.  Here it was processed, by pressing the juice from the stalks and the juice cooked in large pans and the final product, sorghum molasses, which was an important food item.
 A winter job besides the feeding was work in the woods and in the wood log.  Trees were cut down by the back breaking job of the cross-cut saw and ox.  Blocks were cut from the tree log in lengths to fit the stove and of course they had to be split.  The wood would be hauled to the wood yard and corded in rows and carried to the house and stacked in the wood box.  Through the winter months we tried to hit a time when snow was on the ground and would haul the wood on a sled.  This made loading and unloading easier because the sled was not as high as the wagon – Also much of the corn fodder was hauled with a sled. Now it wasn’t all work on the farm – of course there were Sundays – No work, only necessary chores as feeding the stock, milking, etc.  To church and Sunday School in the morning.  It was four and one-fourth miles to town and transportation was the old hack if everybody went (and only bad weather would keep all from going) or the horse and buggy.  Church would last until 12 noon and it took an hour or more to get home for dinner.  Many was the times that I walked in the winter time.  The afternoons we had to ourselves and as a rule I went to the homes of W^m D. or Fred Kramer to play.  These were boys of my age and in the summer we would go swimming, fishing, play Town Ball and in the winter we would skate or go coasting on sleds if there was snow on the ground.  It seems to me that we had a lot more snow when I was a kid than we have today.  Then there were days that the weather was bad and according to the season of the year, we would hunt squirrels, go fishing, hunt rabbits and sometimes go night hunting for fur bearing animals, such as coon, opossum, skunk but I don’t remember of ever catching any of these animals at night."

The church that Alfred and grandparents attended was the Reformed Church located in Linton shown below:

Here is a plat map of Greene County showing all of the townships.  Both the Tendick farm and the town of Linton were located in Stockton Township which is the middle west most side of the county.

The 47 acre farm of the Tendick's was in the upper right square of that township. The Kramer boys live right across the road from Alfred.  (Click to enlarge maps.)

As I Was - Early Teen Age Years

Alfred has moved from the city to the farm.  To forewarn you, this post is long and tells about the operation of the farm.  Considering Alfred is writing this more than fifty years after it occured, he remembers the tasks required to run a farm in great detail.  So I don't blame you if after a few paragraphs you give up.  It certainly does give you an idea of just how much work is required, even on a small farm, or maybe especially on a small farm.

Early Teen Age Years

"It was a new life for me to begin.  I was approaching my 14^th year and I had to adjust myself to a new environment.  Grand Parents, Uncles and Aunts took over the task of my future.  It was not easy to conform to their way of life.  I never was mistreated but it seemed hard to please everybody.  I soon learned I had various chores to do and I was called on by all of them to perform these duties.

In the first place the folks were poor but not by any means destitute, so work was the main thing for survival.  I soon learned to handle horses and was eager to do this.  Plowing was a hard task for I was not strong enough to drag the plow around the ends of the field and I had to learn to drive the horses so that they would drag the plow to where the next furrow was to be made.  Of course to learn to harrow and prepare the soil was not difficult.  Long hours and a lot of walking made this no easy task. 

And then there was the chore of tending to the horses.  They always had to be taken care of – feeding, watering, bedding and grooming.  We got up at 4 o’clock each morning and didn’t matter if the horses had to be worked or not, they were attended to befor breakfast.  The cows had to be milked and that was done after breakfast and befor supper.  I always had to get the cows up from the pasture and usually got wet from the dew in the morning.  I tried to train the dog to “fetch” them up but didn’t have to much success. 

I had to do a lot of hoeing – in the garden, potato patch and in the corn field.  This job of hoeing seemed to be a long drawn out affair.  If I was not called on to work in the garden, I would have to go with uncle Dietz to the corn field.  He would plow the corn with a walking cultivator and I would follow with the hoe and chop out weeds and crab grass that he failed to cover up or plow out. 

The farming equipment in those days were crude in comparison to those of today.  One thing that was hard for me to take in the summer was to hear the town kids hollering and yelling while swimming in Buck Creek, not to far away and me out in the hot sun with my hoe.  Many were the times that I wished the corn was “laid by” the wheat and oats had to be harvested.

By the time I made my home in Linton, progress was on the march.  The wheat cradle was hung up and the Binder was used.  It was a big improvement and much faster.  We never could afford a Binder so one was hired.  It cost 1.⁰⁰ per acre to get the grain cut.  Usually two or three followed the Binder and put the bundles in a shock.  Usually 12 bundles made a shock of grain.  Those shocks were left in the field from 10 days to 2 weeks to dry out.  Then they were loaded on a wagon, hauled to threshing lot and stacked in ricks.  When loading the wagon there usually were two “pitchers” or men to throw the bundles on the wagon with pitch forks.  The job for the man on the wagon was to place the bundles, butt end out and to tie them by placing bundles cross ways over the grain ends to tie them.  It was an art to learn how to do this, for if it was not done right, the jostling and jolting of the wagon would cause the load to slip and fall off.  I soon learned how to do this job but occasionally I would have the misfortune to have a load slip.  I never learned to stack or make a rick.  This seemed to be the job of older men.  It was done practically the same way; the middle of the rick always had to be higher than the outside and the bundles had to be slopping downwards so that the rain would not run to the middle.  Great care had to be taken in building a rick so that the inside was not built too high, for this would cause the rick to bulge out.  The best man I ever saw do this job was a neighbor, W^m D. Kramer.  W^m Bovenschen who eventually was my father-in-law was also very good at this task.

Threshing Machine

Along mid-summer, thrashing rigs came around to thread out the grain. There were 3 pieces of equipment that made up this rig – a steam engine, a separator and the water wagon.  The first seprators I saw didn’t have a blower to blow the chaff and straw in a pile, but has what they called a carrier, which was something like the elevators used by farmers at time to elevate, corn, grain and hay to wherever they want it.  Also it required two men to cut the twine that held the bundles together as the grain was pitched from the rick.  The steam engine was a big awkward piece of machinery and was very heavy.  It was hard on the wooden bridges or culverts, and even though they put heavy boards down for a track, they still crushed through.  Later larger separtors became common and they had big knives to cut the bundle ties, chop up the straw and had powerful blowers to place the straw where the men, usually 4, could stack it.  They always thrashed the oats first and then the wheat.  The farmer wanted the oats straw on the bottom because the cattle, which spent a big part of the winter in the straw lot, would eat the oat straw more readily than the wheat.  Of course it took quite a crew to operate a thrashing ring usually around 24 men.  The old men would hold sacks to catch the grain, younger men would load and haul the grain to the graineries.  It took good strong men to pitch the bundles into the separator.  As time progressed and more thrashing rigs were around the farmers discarded making ricks and the grain was hauled by wagons from the shocks in the field direct to the separators.  The water wagon was a very important part to thrashing.  The steam engine required good pure water.  If the water was dirty or roiled up it would foam in the boiler.  There wasn’t very many wells that could supply the needed water and at times the water wagon would have to go a mile or so to a big pond.  A hand powered pump was used to fill the tank.  The waterman always had plenty of company with a group of boys going along for the ride.  I might say that when the new method of hauling grain direct from the field to the separators that an art slowly went out of existence  The art of stacking grain in ricks.  Thrashing days were always looked forward to, not only to get the grain thrashed and hauled to market but the Big Dinners that was part of the rings.  The women folks worked as hard as the men to prepare the dinners and how well one remembers how a corn fed, buxom gal would stand at each end of the table with a peach limb or fan of some sort to shoo the flies away.  As time went on I saw the transition from the steam rigs to the smaller but more numerous tractor rigs and finally to the combines used today. 

About this time of the year the hay had to be put up.  I never experienced the hand cutting operation for most every farmer had a mowing machine or hired one.  Usually as a boy I ran the sulky rake gathering the dried mower hay into wirrows, there to be hauled or dragged to the stack.  Pitchers would leave the hay to the man on the stack to be stacked so that the rain would not penetrate.  Again the middle or center of the stack had to be kept higher than the outside and the hay had to be distributed evenly.  A platform of rails (rail fence) was made to keep the hay off the ground and cause it to draw dampness and rot.  These platforms were usually 3 rails high and afforded places for rabbits to get under. 

Then there was the job of mowing fence rows, mostly rail fence.  It is sickening to see the condition of fence rows today and how clean and neat they were kept when I was a boy.  Of course plowing ground for wheat took place shortly after thrashing and haying and about wheat planting time came one of the hardest jobs on the farm in those days – cutting and shocking corn.  This was done as a rule just befor the first frost if possible.  It normally was hot for this task started about mid September – The only implement was a corn knife (a blade about 18 to 10 inches long.)  The job was started when the husks on the ears were dry and the leaves started to dry on the stalks.  We would have to protect the arm that gathered the stalks with an extra slave, usually an old overall pant leg and tied down around the wrist and pinned to the shoulder.  The reason for this was to protect oneself from the razor sharp edges of the corn blades.  The stalks were chopped off about 12 to 16 inches from the ground and after cutting an armful it was carried to a “galos” and set up.  The “galos” was made by bending 4 stalks and tying them together.  This was made in the 6^th and 7^th rows, bending a stalk from the 6^th to the 7^th making an “X.”  This had to be made rigid enough to hold he stalks of corn upright.  We always made our shocks from 12 rows wide.  After the shock was completed we would pull the top part together tightly with a rope and then tied together with a string or binder twine.  The job of husking usually started in November and the shocks had to be torn down, laid on the ground and the back breaking job of bending over and picking the corn from the husks took place.  We always seemed to do it the hard way.  We would throw the corn in a pile and befor night, got to the barn and get a team and wagon, load the corn on the wagon, haul it to the crib and of course scoop it off.  Most of the farmers took the team and wagons to the field and threw the corn directly in the wagon, saving the pick-up job.  After a shock was picked, it was carefully sat up again and retied and latter need to feed the cows."

I don't have much to add to this post.  Long hours, hard and never ending work seems to be the life of a farmer and boys growing up on a farm.. 

52 Ancestors #4 - Robert Houchin

This is week #4  of 52 Ancestors for 2015 sponsored by Amy at No Story Too Small.  The theme this week is CLOSEST TO YOUR BIRTHDAY and my ancestor is Robert E. Houchin  But how I came about this is a story in itself  When I first saw the topic, I immediately thought I would write about my grandmother who was born November 6th. After all, I thought that would be closest to my November 12th date.  Of course I also considered my Mom since her birthday is November 22nd.  I always enjoyed the fact that our birthdays were so close together.  But then I started thinking (and that usually gets me in trouble), there must be someone that actually shares my birthday.  So I started searching.  It’s funny how I found four of my husband's relatives with that date.  I found several on my side as well but they were very, very distant cousins many times removed - until I found Robert E. Houchin. Houchin is my father’s maternal line and Robert is a 4th cousin once removed.  OK still not real close but I saw that he died at the age of 19 in North Korea and something drew me in.

The only info I had was his birth and death date and the notation “died in North Korea” and his parents names, Arthur Preston and Jane (Pirie) Houchin. Robert was born in 1932 and so I started with the 1940 census.  I couldn’t find Robert but did find his father Arthur.  Arthur was living in Monticello, Indiana, where Robert had been born, but he is listed as a widower and there are no children in the household. Arthur had a WPA job as a janitor and earned $450 in the prior year. I also found Arthur in the 1930 census with his wife Jane and three children ages 2 to 6. Arthur was 48 and Jane 41 and they had been married about 9 years.

So then I looked for military records for Robert.  I found the application for a military headstone with the correct birth and death dates.  It showed that he had the rank of corporal in the 35th Infantry Regiment and was a medical aidman and he was buried in the Pike Creek Cemetery in Monticello.  Then in the Casualty Listing on Ancestry.com it said:

“Corporal Houchin was awarded the Purple Heart, the Combat Infantryman's Badge, the Korean Service Medal, the United Nations Service Medal, the National Defense Service Medal and the Korean War Service Medal.”

It did have one statement that puzzled me.  It had his birth place as Jackson, Mississippi rather than Indiana.  Then I went to Google to see if I could find out what happened in Korea. The American Battle Monument Commission website said that he was killed while giving medical attention to his comrades. I also found this newspaper article about his death:

So according to this article he was living with his sister in Mississippi at the time he enlisted.  This probably explains how his birth place showed as Mississippi. I next went to my subscription on Newspaper Archives.com to see if I could find out anything else.

I found an article in the Logansport paper on August 2, 1952 giving information on the death of Robert Houchin. A couple of things stood out in this article 1) the information on his death was received by his sister Mrs. Elsie Waltman in Biloxi, MS; 2)  it stated that after his mother’s death he had resided in an Indianapolis home; 3) later he had lived with a family in White County.  The following article on August 20, 1952 says that the father has received the details of his son’s death from the company commander that said ..” Robert was killed on Heartbreak Ridge on July 21, 1952. While accompaning a combat patrol in enemy held territory he was hit by enemy small arms fire and from all indication was killed instantly by a small bazooka.” The next article I found was the one in the Logansport paper on October 2, 1952 saying that Robert’s body had been returned and giving the details of the funeral. How said to find out about Robert's death in July and having to wait until October for the funeral.
This is one of those cases where you never know what you'll find. Robert's story so far is rather sad. It appears his mother died before he was ten since his father is widowed in the 1940 census. According to the above article he had lived in several places including with both of his sisters at one time or another. Then dying several months before his 20th birthday, while serving in the Army in Korea.
I decided to search a little more to see what I could find out about his family.  My first newspaper search had been limited to the year 1952 in order to find out about Robert’s death. But I decided to see if I could find his mother’s obituary and why the children were not with their father Arthur after her death.  But as I looked at other newspaper articles I became confused.  I did find the notice of Jane Houchin’s death in 1937 at age 48 and listing her husband and four children as survivors. I had used Arthur’s name in the search and the next thing I found was a  small article from the Logansport Tribune on November 15, 1947 saying “ Robert Houchin, son of Arthur Houchin of Monticello, observed his fifteenth birthday anniversary on November 12th at the Boys School at Plainfield.”  Was this a private school?  I looked it up and was surprised to see it was a Correctional Institute for adolescents.
How had  Robert wound up in a correctional institute? Another search using his name and earlier dates revealed a totally unexpected story.  I have to admit that I almost didn’t include this part in the story. I was having a hard time reconciling the new information with the war hero. At times I even doubted it was the same Robert Houchin.  But as I read on I realized it was.
Here is a synopsis of the story I found in several news articles.  In July 1946, Robert at age 13  was a farmhand living with a foster family, Imojean and Everett Louderback in White County, Indiana who had taken the “motherless child from welfare authorities three years prior.” (The Louderback’s had no children of their own and Mr. Louderback was a farmer according to census records.)  On July 30, 1946, the Sheriff is seeking a first degree murder indictment from the grand jury against Robert for killing Mrs. Louderback.  Robert is quoted as saying “I was always getting bawled at for doing something or for doing nothing.” On the day of the murder she scolded him for the way he hoed the garden and then called him lazy. Robert was scheduled for trial but his attorney had it delayed while they sent Robert to Indianapolis for a mental exam. The result was that Robert was declared insane at the time of the killing and was committed to the Indiana Boys School until he reached 21. It does mention his father, Arthur, being in the courtroom at the time the psychiatrist said that Robert had a “warped and distorted personality” since the death of his mother and believed the murder was the result of “pent-up emotions” and he had “irresistible impulses.”

There is most definitely a lot more to this story.  We could speculate that his father, in his late  50’s at the time of his wife’s death was unable to take care of the four children, his income in 1939 was just $450..  It sounds like at least Robert was in an orphanage in Indianapolis.  The Louderback’s take him in at age 10 and he had to work on the farm. I don’t know if they abused him or overworked him, perhaps neither one, but obviously Robert couldn't handle his new life. His actions sent him to the correctional school and he was there on his 15th birthday in 1947.  By 1949, before the established release age of 21, he was in Biloxi, Mississippi with his sister and enlists in the Army. I could find no mention of his release, I wonder if there was an escape and then again maybe he was an exceptional inmate and released or perhaps enlistment was a condition of his release.

Regardless of what he did in the past, it appears he was rehabilitated, and he served his country with honor, reaching the rank of Corporal, and gave the ultimate sacrifice and I hope that is what is most remembered about Robert Eugene Houchin.

 

Timeline for Alfred's Family 1868-1907

Before we move on to Alfred’s recollections of his teenage years, let’s take a look at a timeline of events in Alfred’s life and what’s going on in the rest of the country:

EVENTS IN ALFRED’S LIFE		HISTORICAL EVENTS
Frederick August Moehlmann is born in Indianapolis	1868
Matilda Tendick is born in Germany	1872
	1880	Population of Indianapolis is 75,056
Matilda immigrates with her parents to Linton, Indiana and moves to Indianapolis	1889
	1890	Population of Indianapolis is 100,436
Frederick and Matilda are married in Indianapolis	1893
	1894	First public showing of Edison’s kinetoscope motion picture is shown
	1896	William McKinley became President
The family is living at 1611 Spann Ave.	1900	Population of Indianapolis is 169,164
	1902	Indianapolis Indians baseball team is active
	1903	Orville and Wilbur Wright made their first flight Henry Ford founded Ford Motor Co.
	1904	The first successful field tractor is invented
The family moves to 1623 English Ave.	1905
	1906	The San Francisco earthquake at 7.8 resulting in fire and the deaths of 500
-The family moves to 905 Madison Ave. -Frederick and Matilda separate and she moves to 110 Vermont St. with Alfred. -Matilda and Frederick divorce. -Alfred goes to his first movie. -Alfred is sent to live with his maternal grandparents in Linton, Indiana	1907	Oklahoma becomes the 46th state to join the Union.
	1910	Indianapolis population is 233,560 Linton population 5,906 Greene County, IN population 36,873

The map above shows where Alfred lived and where is school was.  He stayed in the same general area of Indianapolis during his childhood.   He enjoyed the activities of a city - going to baseball game, enjoying the Riverside Amusement Park, riding on trolley, skating on the sidewalks, visiting the fire station. He also had the opportunity to visit the railroad yards with his father, seeing the new Monon train and riding the roundtable. He had spent summers at his grandparents farm, but now he was going there to live. The nearby town of Linton had a population of about 6000 and the entire county's population was 36,900 compared to the 233,000 in Indianapolis. So he was definitely moving to a much different lifestyle. How will he adjust to life on the farm?

EARLY CHILDHOOD Part 7: Big Changes and Recollections

Back to the story of Alfred Moehlmann from his writings titled "As I Was."  Apparently something has jogged his memory and he is recalling some instances that happened during his childhood, but they are not in chronological order with the previous post. His story continues:

"For a matter of record I want to back track to an incident that happened while we lived on Spann avenue that came very near of costing me my life.  I was about 6 years old at this time.  They had a Labor Day Parade in Indianapolis and the mothers of the neighborhood took several of us kids to see the procession.  Again I suppose it was an economic measure for we all walked to and back from town.  On our way home we took the route of East Washington street to State, then south to Spann avenue.  The incident happened where the C.C.C. & St. L. R.R. crossed Washington street.  Of course this was long before the R.R. tracks were elevated.  The canal or Pokes Run as it was called ran along the east side of the tracks.  A wire fence was between the tracks and canal, and there was a space between the fence and the banister of the bridge that crossed the canal on Washington street just wide enough for a person to pass through.  When we got to the tracks (there were double tracks here) the street was blocked by traffic gates because a freight train was pulling out.  Of course our mothers had a hold of our hands.  I suppose in my eagerness to be the first one across the tracks, I wrenched loose from my mother, as soon as the caboose passed and befor the gates raised – Everybody was yelling; I stopped on the south bound track and saw a passenger train bearing down on me with the whistle blowing and brakes screeching and somehow I was frozen stiff.  The train looked as big as a mountain, yet I couldn’t move.  A girl, a few years older than me by the name of Alice broke loose from her mother, dashed under the gates and shoved me with so much force that we both fell through the gap between the fence and bridge banister into Pokes Run.  The train got stopped and first it was thought we both were under the train, when one of the crewmen saw us in the canal.  They soon had us fished out and neither of us were hurt.  It was a close call for both of us and I am sure if it had not been for Alice this story would never have been written.  I learned a lesson – never brake loose from a hand that is protecting you.  Alice is an uncrowned hero but I owe my life to her."

What an experience. Scary for Alfred, his mother, the train conductor and yet a very brave Alice saved the day. The name is actually Pogue's Run and it is a creek that starts on the east side of Indianapolis and empties into the White River. It is named after George Pogue who settled in what is now Indianapolis around 1820. In 1914 Pogues's Run was rerouted into the storm sewers under downtown in order to build streets.

".Another thing that I remember while living on Spann and English avenue was that us boys made frequent visits to a Fire House or Station on English avenue just east of the Big 4 tracks.  The firemen were all fine men and their equipment was always so nice and shiny.  Of course they used horses to pull the hose, ladder and pumper wagons.  The harness was suspended over the tongues of these wagons and when the gong sounded the doors to the stalls that housed the horses and each one would run to his proper place, the harness would drop on them, a few buckles fastened and they were off on a full gallop.  Every kid wanted to be a fireman of course."  

Station 15 was located at 2101 English Avenue and opened May 19, 1903 and closed April 21, 1971. This is a picture of of station 11, although it was station 15 from 1896 until 1903 when the new one was opened.  It was located on Washington Street. This picture was from 1910.

"Now back to Madison avenue:  Our stay here was short – my mother and I moved in with the Bentle’s and my father went back to live with his parents.  This practically closed a phase of my life, when a boy needs a father.  I was going on 13 years old at this time.  It was around this time that I had my first automobile ride.  Mr. Bentle who was allowed occasional visits with his daughter Opal took us uptown one evening and some place on Massachusetts avenue was a car dealer and he took us for a short ride.  The car looked like a converted horse drawn buggy with not more than a one or two cylinder engine &, with what look like a bent rod that came from the vicinity of the dash board and was used to steer the vehicle.  It had but one seat and no windshield.  It was a thrill for us kids even though both of us had to sit on Mr. Bentle’s lap.  Mrs. Bentle’s business venture must not have turned out very profitable for she sold it; rented a 3 story rooming house on Vermont street just east of Massachusetts avenue.  We stayed there until school was out.  I was sent to my GrandParents in Linton in the spring of 1907 and my mother got a job at the Mt. Jackson Sanitarium.  I had to come back to Indianapolis in mid summer as a witness in the divorce proceedings."

Early Auto built by Elwood Hayes

I think this is probably similar to the car that Alfred had his ride in.  How Mr. Bentel navigated using the steering rod while holding two children is hard to imagine.

"I can’t remember the charges and counter charges that took place but a divorce was granted and my father was ordered to pay 16⁰⁰ per month alimony for my upkeep until I was 16 years old.  A Mrs. Clemmens, a fortune teller, who was a good friend of my mothers was at the trial and after everything was settled she took us out to dinner near the court house and we had chicken stew.  I was admonished for not eating and when they found out the reason, Mrs. Clemmens sure threw the restaurant in an uproar.  There was a chicken wing in my stew and some one forgot to remove the feathers.  After dinner she took us to a small moving picture show, the first I had ever seen.  It was called the Bi-jou and was on Washington street between Delaware and Pennsylvania on the north side of the street.  I spent that night at the Mt. Jackson Sanitarium and was sent back to Linton where I spent most of my life."

These are a lot of changes for a 13 year old boy.  His Dad moves out and he and his Mom make another move, living with Mrs. Bentel and Opal.  He also rides in his first car and sees his first movie. Now his Mom has to go to work and he is sent to his grandparents in Linton.  Alfred hasn't mentioned much about his paternal grandparents, but they lived nearby on 349 McCarty Street and that is where his Dad moves.  

http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/14118/photos/37602

The Mount Jackson Sanitarium, where his Mom goes to work, is an interesting place.  It attracted attention in 1899 when a mineral spring was discovered on the premise.  The "Journal Handbook of Indianapolis" written in 1903 states "An analysis proved that the water possessed medicinal qualities and value equal to that of the famous Hot Springs, Arkansas.  A sanitarium was erected for the treatment of rheumatism, dyspepsia, nervous prostration, also liver, blood, skin and stomach troubles." I wonder what type of work Matilda did at Mount Jackson.  

"I would like to state that during this time two of the railroads that passed through Linton were built.  The Indianapolis Southern later taken over by the Illinois Central and the other the Southern Indiana now the C.M. St. P & Pacific.  I rode on these R.R.s shortly after they were put in service and I remember there were big camps along the I.C. filled with Hungarian laborers and many mule teams that pulled scrapers and they were working on the grades.  And on the S.I. they were building Depots at Midland and Vicksburg.  This new road, the S.I. build by a Mr. Walsh, really opened up the coal industry in the Linton area.
 Memory drifts back to events that I remember and I will try and record them as they come to mind – One that was always a happy and joyful event was the Sunday once a year called Orphan Feast.  The Lutheran Church had an Orphans Home on east Washington street and every year the churches would set one day aside for a picnic.  Usual church picnic procedures, sermons, singing, a big dinner and inspections of the orphanage.  But a vivid picture that comes to mind was our trek together.  We would go up State street cross the Big 4 R.R. and take a short cut through what was then a farm.  Evidently a lot of people used the pathway which was about 5 feet wide and was usually planted in wheat or corn on both sides of the path.  Also a pastime in the winter was to hitch our sleds to a wagon drawn by a horse or horses.  We had a long rope attached to our sled and would loop it around an axle or standard brace on the wagon, take a ride for several squares and wait for the hitch to come back if we were lucky – if not we tugged our sled back home.  On Sundays, Uncle Bill Lichtsinn was the barber.  In warm weather he would get the neighborhood boys under the Grape Arbor and “shingle” our hair.  At least he got some off."

Alfred's parents may not have been in a happy relationship, but Alfred's childhood seems to be filled with happy memories of many friend and activities.

52 Ancestors #3 - Jane Williams - Tough Times

This is week #3  of 52 Ancestors for 2015 sponsored by Amy at No Story Too Small.  The theme this week is TOUGH WOMEN  and my ancestor is JANE WILLIAMS ADKINS, my 2nd great grandmother.

Jane was born 1 Oct 1827 in Lawrence Co., Indiana to Henry Williams and Nancy McBride both of whom were born in North Carolina in the late 1770’s during the American Revolution.. Jane was the youngest of eight children, three girls and five boys, born between 1804 and 1827.  The oldest four children were born in North Carolina and the younger in Indiana. Jane’s oldest sister married just a year after Jane was born and the same year that Jane’s father died. Nancy continued on at her farm as single mother, although she had relatives nearby to help out.

On 5 Feb 1848, Jane married Nelson Adkins, a native of Kentucky.  By the 1850 census their living conditions had changed.  They were in Daviess Co., Indiana, had a 2 year old daughter, and were providing a home for Jane’s 66 year old mother. In addition, they were living next to Nelson mother, who was widowed with two children still at home.  Nelson's other brother and his family are also living nearby.  Nelson is a farmer with a real estate value of $150.

Nelson & his wife Jane (Williams) Adkins
From the Sargent Family Collection 

Some time around 1954, the family moves to Smith Co., Texas.  Their fourth child was born there in 1856.  But they were back in Martin Co., Indiana by 1859 when their next child, was born.  Jane’s son talked of the move: “ From 1854 to 1856 the family had farmed in Texas, but in the latter year returned to Indiana by wagons, the journey consuming a month and being filled with many hardships, although the Indians were friendly and supplied the family with sweet potatoes and other necessities, and the horses were fed.”  I don’t imagine that traveling by wagon with four children under the age of 10 is an easy task.

The 1860 census shows they are farming in Martin Co., Indiana and their real estate value is $700. They have five children and Jane’s, now 77 year old, mother is living with them.  I wonder if she made the trip with them to Texas.

Jane’s hardships are about to increase as her husband, along with his brother Luke, enlisted in the 91st Regiment of the Indiana Infantry Volunteers.  He was mustered in 1 Oct 1862 at the age of 34. Less than two years later he died in Nashville of acute diarrhea. His brother died a couple of months later, the result of disease from a wound.

Jane, like her mother, was now a single mother, with six children ages 3 to 16. Jane files for widow’s pension in August of 1866.  

Jane receives a monthly pension benefit of $8 plus $2 for every child until the age of 16.  Jane doesn’t remarry.  In 1870 she is still living on the farm, now valued at $1600, with five children still at home.  By 1880, however, all but one of her children have married.  Except for Henry who moved to Missouri, her children are all nearby.  Her mother died in 1869 at the age of 91.

By 1900 Jane is 72, and living with her widowed daughter, Mary Elizabeth (Adkins) Sargent. Mary’s husband died two years prior and she has three children ages 13, 12, and 3. In addition she is raising her granddaughter who was orphaned.  So there are four generations living in the household.  

At age 82, in the 1910 census, Jane is living with her 23 year old grandson and his bride of less than a year.

So Jane grew up never knowing her father who died when she was a year old. She married and made the cross country trek to Texas and back and then lost her husband during the Civil War and had to raise her children alone. She also took care of her mother until she died at 91. And then helped her widowed daughter with her children and grandchild.  Then in her 80’s she is living with her grandson.  It's obvious she had a large circle of friends and relative and they celebrated her birthday in 1911 with an a mail box full of best wishes.  She received numerous birthday wishes and is shown in this photo holding a lap full of those cards.

Jane (Williams) Adkins holding her Birthday Cards
From the Sargent Family Collection

And here is one of those birthday wishes. The postcard is postmarked 1911 and addressed to Mrs. Jane Adkins, Burns City, Ind.  The message reads:  Wishing you a bright and Happy Birthday, Jessie Brown

I think that most women of this generation were tough.  It took a lot of toughness and hard work raising a family on a farm and even more so during a time of war. At the time of her death, 22 November 1912, at age 85 all six of her children were living, she had 22 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.  She is buried at Williams Cemetery in Martin County, Indiana