Gone Too Soon (#52Ancestors)

 

In researching my paternal grandmother, Edna Johnson Peterson, I found a new relative in the 1900 census: Annie T.

1900 US Census, Princeton, Bureau County, Illinois

This is the Johnson family in Princeton, Illinois, in 1900. According to the census, little Annie was born in November of 1898 so she was one and a half when the census was taken. She was the third daughter of her parents, Anna and Theodore Johnson. (Another daughter named after her mother!)  I had never heard of Grandma’s older sister Annie. My grandmother Edna had not yet been born; did she even know about Annie? I wanted to know more about this little girl!

The 1910 census held another clue and prompted more questions. Annie was not listed in this census, although my grandma Edna was there along with her younger sister Evelyn and two older sisters Myrtle and Laura. Here’s the notation that sent me digging deeper:

1910 US Census, Princeton, Bureau County, Illinois

Annie Johnson, mother, was asked how many children had been born to her and how many children were now living. She had had 6 children and 4 were now living. She had lost two children in the past decade.

I went to the records of Princeton’s First Lutheran Church, the Swedish Lutheran church that the Johnsons were members of. In 1898 I found little Annie’s birth and baptism record, and in 1901 the sad record of her death.

1898 baptism record, First Lutheran Church, Princeton, Illinois

1901 death record, First Lutheran Church, Princeton, Illinois

The Princeton newspaper provided one more piece of the puzzle. Little Annie had died of pneumonia. I have not yet discovered where she is buried.

Princeton Bureau County Tribune,
26 April 1901, page 4

I pondered what had happened in the Johnson family. When little Annie died she was 2 ½; Myrtle was almost 6, Laura was 4 ½, and Edna was a 6-month-old baby. A household of four little girls. I wondered if little Annie was the only one who was sick, or if any of her sisters, or her parents, had had pneumonia as well? Was the funeral at the home or at church? I think of what my kids were like at 2 ½, so active and inquisitive, and then I think of little Annie, sick and still. My heart breaks for mother Annie.

Other questions remained. According to that 1910 census notation, there had been another child. I went back through my records and reread Annie Johnson's obituary, which is amazingly detailed. Here's what it said: 

 

Bureau County Tribune, 7 June 1945, page2

Annie and Theodore had had a son.

I went back to the church records.

 

1905 baptism record, First Lutheran Church, Princeton, Illinois

1905 death record, First Lutheran Church, Princeton, Illinois

Harold Raymond Johnson. A little boy, who lived 4 days. Born and baptized on the same day, did you notice? I don’t have any newspaper clipping or a death certificate to tell my why he died. But I imagine he spent those four days in his mother’s arms as she nursed him, bathed him, loved him, and ultimately said good-bye to him.

Harold. Annie. My grandma’s brother and sister, two relatives I had never heard about and never known. I wish I had pictures of the little darlings, I wish I knew more about them. These little ones were indeed gone too soon, but not too soon to be loved by their parents and family. Even if Anna and Theodore never spoke of Annie or Harold after their deaths, they surely remembered them. Now we can remember them, too.

Social Media (#52Ancestors)

 

In researching my grandfather Harry Peterson,  I'm able to use newspapers as a social media way of seeing details of my grandfather’s life that I never would have known otherwise. Here are some of the many ways, big and small, that Harry Peterson is revealed in the newspapers.

But first, let's start with an early selfie/photo:

Harry Peterson, ca. 1915

In the first social media post/newspaper article I found, Harry is not mentioned. He was born in Kewanee, IL in 1905 so he was definitely in this moving party. Perhaps Grandma Anderson came along to help take care of baby Harry.

Kewanee Daily Star Courier, 6 June 1906, p. 2

The Petersons lived in Henry County, IL for a few years and Harry joined a local agricultural club. If this had been my daughter's social media post, you can be sure there would be a picture of the angel food cake and the cookies.

Henry (County,IL) News Republican, 4 April, 1923, p2

Harry and his family moved back to Princeton later in the 1920s. He met Edna Johnson and they began "stepping out," even to the big city of Chicago. They saw the Cubs win this exciting game in 1930!

Princeton Bureau County Tribune, 29 August, 1930, p8

Chicago Daily Tribune, 25 August, 1930, p. 21

Newlyweds Harry and Edna attended another Cubs game; the local paper gave the Twitter version, but the full story was in the Chicago Daily Tribune. 

Princeton Bureau County Tribune, October 10, 1932 p8

Chicago Daily Tribune, October 3, 1932, p25

Chicago Daily Tribune, October 3, 1932, p34

Social media posts also record life's high points. Harry's wedding, his son's birth and wedding, as well as his own 35th wedding anniversary, were recorded in the Princeton paper.

Princeton Bureau County Tribune, April 15, 1932, p8

Princeton Bureau County Record,
May 8, 1936

Princeton Bureau County Tribune,
August 10, 1961, p. 10

Princeton Bureau County Record,
April 19, 1977, p2

One life event of Harry's that was not recorded on the social media of the day was Harry's graduation from high school, because he didn't graduate. However, he had a full and interesting work life. He worked at and managed one of the local Larkin grocery stores in Princeton, then honed his management skills working for Kroger (both in Princeton and later in Peoria). 

Princeton Bureau County Tribune,
March 29, 1929, p4

Princeton Bureau County Tribune, 
June 6, 1941, p5

Family lore says that in the 1960s Kroger changed a policy and, because of Harry's lack of a high school diploma, he was no longer qualified to do his job. Kroger gave Harry the option of leaving his current management position to run one local Kroger store or take early retirement. Harry took the retirement and found a second, lucrative career as a Country Companies Insurance Agent. (Although my grandfather was in no way a vindictive man, he might have felt some satisfaction in his former Kroger bosses seeing these posts.)

Princeton Bureau County Record, 
October 23, 1973

Princeton Bureau County Tribune,
April 25, 1978, p15

Today's younger generations use social media to document every detail of their lives, from what they eat to what they wear, how they fill their days, and who is important to them. Will their Facebook, Instagram and SnapChat posts be available to future family researchers? Today, I'm really grateful for old newspapers, yesterday's social media posts that have survived the years to give me an inside view into my grandfather's life. 

Education (#52Ancestors)

I used to think that, in my family, my mom and dad were the first generation to go to college.

But recently I discovered that this is not the case. Let me tell you Edna Johnson’s education story.

Edna was my dad’s mom. She was born and grew up in Princeton, Illinois, and in 1919 she graduated from Princeton High School. She didn’t seem to have immediate plans for her future. According to the 1920 U.S. Census, six months after graduation, she was still living at home with her parents and three sisters. She did not have a job. However, her oldest sister Myrtle was a teacher and her second oldest sister Laura was a stenographer at a dry goods store. They sound like good role models for being a working woman!

 

1920 U.S. Census for Princeton, Bureau County, Illinois

The social bits in the newspaper reported a few of Edna’s doings after graduation. She sang at a church funeral in December of 1919 and a couple more in early 1920. She also hosted a meeting of The Loyal Helpers, a church group. What the papers don’t say is whether Edna was looking for a job, or if she had any part time jobs. The year after Edna graduated from high school is a bit of a mystery.

 

26 November 1920 Princeton Bureau County Tribune, p. 12

In 1920 Edna was a college student!

Augustana College and Theological Seminary was in Rock Island, Illinois, 70 miles west of Princeton. In addition to the usual college departments Augustana also had a “Commercial Department,” which offered two options for study: the Bookkeeping course and the Stenography course. Each course took a year (36 weeks) and cost $100 each. If Edna took both of these courses, as the college catalog encouraged students to do, she would have received her certificate/graduated in 1922.

Here is Edna in the 1922 Augustana yearbook, the “Rockety-I,” one of 29 students in the Commercial Department that year.  

How did Edna end up at Augustana? Did she have a penchant for numbers or a head for business? Did she want to fill her time, or did she feel the need to contribute to the family financially? Did she want more than singing at funerals and hosting church groups?

And what exactly were her college days like? Did she participate in campus activities? Was she a good student? Did she make friends at Augustana? Where did she live?

These are questions that I may never answer.

What I do know is, in the fall of 1922, the Princeton newspaper starts reporting Edna’s activities in the church again. She sings at funerals and is involved with the Luther League. She travels and visits her younger sister Evelyn who is now a student nurse in Chicago. In 1923 sister Myrtle gets married; in 1924 Laura marries and the following year youngest sister Evelyn ties the knot. Edna’s father Theodore passes away in 1928. By the end of the decade Edna and her mother are alone in the house on West Putnam in Princeton. The 1920s must have been a hard decade for Edna.

1929 Princeton City Directory

I don't know when Edna first reaped the benefits of her commercial education at Augustana, but this city directory shows her employed as a bookkeeper for a bank in 1929. I sure wish I could have a conversation with her about what it was like to work in a bank when the stock market crashed in the fall of that year!

Edna worked at the bank until she married Harry Peterson, my grandfather (who, incidentally, never graduated from high school). Edna’s time at Augustana was a surprise to me, but it shouldn’t have been. My dad Stan, Edna’s son, attended Augustana and met his future wife, my mom Sarah. Although none of Stan and Sarah’s children went to Augustana, one grandson did.

 

Old Main, Augustana College
May, 2022

Here’s to Augustana College, for all the ways it has educated our family!

Land (#52Ancestors, Week 17)

I haven’t found anyone in my family who was a homesteader on federal land, or who was a land baron. But I want you to meet Charles Bruce Foley, mining engineer, who lived in more places in this country than just about anyone else on our family tree.

Charles Bruce and Esther Foley
with baby Esther, ca. 1915

Charles Bruce (also just called Bruce) was born in 1876 in Indiana. He married my great-grandmother's sister, so you can see that he is sort of a shirt-tail relative. But he intrigues me, mostly because he did move around so much. Here is an outline of the places I know he lived in:

1876 Indiana
1901 Colorado
1906 Mexico
1909 Arizona territory
1911 Milwaukee
1918 Dayton
1915 Michigan
1918 Brooklyn
1920 Bristol, CT
1923 Albany NY
1930 Ft. Wayne, Indiana
1936 Kansas City MO
1940 Reno NV until his death in 1965

That's a lot of ground to cover. Bruce attended Colorado College in 1901 in the class of "special student," which I think meant he wasn't there as a freshman, sophomore, junior or senior, but just to take classes. He later worked as a mining engineer.

Charles Bruce Foley,
student, circa 1901

I don't know what brought him to Aurora, Illinois, but that is where he met and fell in love with Esther Hedin. According to my mom's Aunt Adrienne, Bruce declared that he would not leave Illinois until Esther married him. I haven't found any documentary proof of this marriage (or even that he ever lived in Illinois) but I have the birth certificate of their first child, Ruth, who was born (in Mexico) in 1906, and it includes Bruce and Esther, father and mother.

Another interesting fact about Bruce Foley is that he owns a U.S. patent. According to his obituary, he was the inventor of the electric furnace for U.S. Steel Corp. According to his patent, Number 1,350,714, he invented the Process of Treating Metals and Alloys. (They could be the same thing, what do I know about electric furnaces or treating metals and alloys?)

Patent 1,250,714
Process of Treating Metals and Alloys

I don't consider my research on the Foleys complete in any way. I'd love to find out more about what Bruce did in all those places he lived, and if he lived places I haven't discovered yet. Bruce and Esther made their last move to Reno, Nevada in 1936; I'm not sure why. No doubt there were many mining related opportunities there for a mining engineer, perhaps he went for a job. Or maybe they moved there with retirement in mind. In any case Charles Bruce Foley, you picked a beautiful place to land.

Air (#52Ancestors, Week 16)

John Robert Graf
ca. 1940

John Robert Graf was my mom’s cousin, 16 years older than she was. He registered for the draft when he was a 19-year-old student. I remember my mom telling me he was a conscientious objector during World War II but that he participated in the war without going into combat. She also said that he had gone missing in the Pacific Ocean.

Although nothing in my research specifically confirmed that he was a conscientious objector, I choose to believe that he was, based on my mom’s comments and the fact that his family was Seventh Day Adventist, sometimes considered a “peace church.” Some research in the Fold3 database has helped me piece together how John Graf served in the war, how he went missing, and how he fits this week’s prompt, “Air.” 

John Robert Graf was a pilot in the 17th Photo Reconnaissance Squadron, 4th Photo Reconnaissance Group of the U.S Army Air Force. Reconnaissance pilots were called “Photo Joes,” and after reading about them I have a sincere respect for how John served his country in the second world war. 

Photo from the P-38 National Association and Museum

“Photo Joes” like John were the advance eyes of the fighting men. Their job was to fly over enemy territory and take pictures of the location, activities and movements of the enemy, either before or after a raid. The recon pilots flew alone, with no guns to defend themselves. If they were spotted, they had to rely on speed and elevation to outrun their pursuers; they had no guns to defend themselves. 

This was the life John led in the army. But somewhere along the line he met an army nurse named Maurine. I don’t know much about their life together but I do know John and Maurine got married because I have a picture of them.

Wedding party of John Robert Graf and Maurine Betty Halbe
Place and date unknown

Back to the war and photo reconnaissance. John’s story ends sadly as so many men’s stories did in World War II. On about February 22, 1945 John took off from Molotai Island on a combat photo reconnaissance mission to Tarakan, North Borneo. 

On Feb 23 a bomber on a mission to Tarakan reported seeing sea dye from a life raft along the flight path that John would have taken. An emergency rescue group in the area was notified and planes were sent out, but they could not make the visual sighting because of adverse weather conditions. A month later an official Missing Crew Member Report was filed about John Graf. 

Manilla American Cemetery and Memorial

John’s sacrifice is memorialized at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines. He is listed among the 36,286 names of the missing. So far I haven’t found an obituary for him. But hopefully this memorializes him in a small way. John Robert Graf, thank you for your sacrifice and your service in the air.

Watch a YouTube video that sings the praises of the World War 2 Reconnaissance Pilot. If only John and Maurine’s story could have turned out the way this video did. 

Fire (#52Ancestors, Week 15)

There are two fires in my family history that I know of. I don't have pictures, but one of them did make the newspaper.

I will never forget walking home from school in the fall of my freshman year at Muncie Northside High School. I was at the bottom of our street and noticed a couple of fire trucks up ahead. How exciting, I thought, there's a fire on our street.

As I got closer I realized that the fire was at our house and I was no longer excited. I was horrified. I ran up the street to our house on the corner to find Mom and Mrs. Sears, one of our neighbors. To be honest I don't remember too many details except that I just lost it on Mrs. Sears' shoulder. I was worried about our cat and dog. Turns out that the dog had run away (we did find him) and the cat hid inside.

Mom had come home earlier and opened the garage door. She heard a "Whoosh" and all of a sudden there was a fire in the garage. We figured later that it must have been spontaneous combustion. I don't know how she called the fire department but they did a great job of putting it out before it spread to the rest of our house. Most of the damage was in the garage and attic above it where, unfortunately, we had put some family keepsakes: my mom's childhood doll house, my rocking horse (both of which were made by my Grandpa Falk). The Christmas ornaments were there, too, but luckily not the handmade ones.

We couldn't stay in our house for a few days while the damage was cleaned up and repaired. One of Chris' friend's parents (the Stanleys) loaned us their RV for Mom and Dad to stay in, parked in our driveway. We kids stayed with friends. Thankfully, repairs and cleaning were taken care of and it didn't seem long before life was back to normal.

Princeton Bureau County Tribune,
December 31, 1915

The second fire story in our family is a little more serious.

Theodore Johnson is my great-grandfather. His daughter Edna is my paternal grandmother. Edna was the fourth daughter of Theodore and Anna Johnson. She would have been 15 in 1915, about the same age as I was when we had our fire.

The fire at the Johnson's house happened on Christmas morning. According to what I can make out from the article, (and I remember Grandma telling this story once or twice) the family was ready to go to church early on Christmas morning but someone forgot their hat so Grandma's mom Anna went back to look for it in the closet. In 1915 the house that they lived in didn't have electric or gas power, and it would have been dark, so Anna had to use a kerosene lamp. Whether she left the lamp burning in the closet or something caught fire that she didn't notice is not known. But at 6:45 a.m. while the family was worshiping at church on Christmas morning, a neighbor saw that their house was on fire and called the fire department.

Princeton had a fire department at the time but no dispatching service like we have now. The telephone operator misunderstood where the fire was and 20 minutes were wasted because of the mix up.

The paper reported on the fire:

“When the wagon finally arrived the interior of the house was a mass of flames and it was impossible for the firemen to enter and save the furniture. The house property was covered by insurance amounting to $1,000. No insurance was carried on the furniture….

“The only piece of furniture removed from the house was a piano. This was dropped by the firemen as they were taking it out of the house and was damaged so that it is practically of no use.

“The residence will be repaired at once. During the repairing of the home the Johnson family are living with relatives and friends in the vicinity of their home.”

I can't imagine the tragedy of losing your house on Christmas Day, along with all the presents and food for the celebration. And the loss of the piano! My grandma and her sisters were all very musical, I'm sure they mourned the piano.

Hopefully Anna was able to let go of any burden she might have felt about starting the fire. The blessing was that no lives were lost in the fire. I'm sure that, as the ashes smoldered, the family eventually was able to count their blessings. In a tragedy, we find hope in counting our blessings.

Water (#52Ancestors, Week 14)

Outer Banks, North Carolina

The best water story I have comes from my own family history. For over 30 years our family has traveled to the Outer Banks of North Carolina to stay at the beach for a week. For years, going to Nags Head every summer for the family vacation was our tradition. After a while it became almost sacred. Changes loom now that my mother has passed and COVID-19 threatens our trip this year. But that’s the future. Let me share our family’s history at Nags Head, North Carolina.

It all started in 1986 when Mom decided to find a summer vacation spot at the beach. We lived in Indiana and going to the ocean was an exciting destination. She wrote away to Chambers of Commerce all along the East Coast (no internet research at that time!) and she picked Nags Head, North Carolina. She rented a small house right on the ocean and took her mom, my youngest sister Carla and Carla’s friend. They took two days to drive there. The three-bedroom house had no TV, no telephone, and no air conditioning. There were few restaurants and fewer activities. Mom, Carla, and her friend spent the days reading or sunning on the beach; Grandma stayed on the porch and crocheted.

Two years later the whole family went to Nags Head, Grandma included. We stayed in the same house, which was called “Lucky Us.” Mom and Dad had the master bedroom, I shared with Grandma, Stacy and Carla shared the third bedroom, and Chris slept in the living room. By this time there was a putt-putt golf course and a few more restaurants. We (actually, Mom) cooked some of our meals and some nights we dined out. We spent most of our time on the beach. We enjoyed breakfast on the porch, lazy days on the beach, family bonding sessions at night, and the majesty of the ocean.

After 1988 we went to Nags Head every summer; our seaside vacation was a constant in our changing family. We children were maturing, getting jobs, living on our own, getting married, and having children of our own, but we kept on going to Nags Head. We found larger houses that could accommodate all of us. Mom and Dad added a second trip in the fall, just the two of them. As our families grew and schedules changed, there were some years we couldn’t all make it, but most of us always went. We stayed all up and down the Outer Banks, in Kitty Hawk, Nags Head proper, and south Nags Head. Our most recent trip was way north in Corolla.

Family Dinner 2018

The Rest of the Family Dinner 2018

Over the years we’ve accumulated so many memories it’s hard to know what to include here. I’ll just end with a random list and family members can add on if they want to. I hope these give a flavor of the place on the water that is so important to our family.

Carl's First Nags Head 2001

Claire's First Nags Head 2004

We love to eat out at Owens', Sam and Omie's, and Lone Cedar.

We buy our food at Food Lion, Seamark Foods, Cahoon’s, and the Whalebone Seafood Market. Remember the year we bought out Cahoon’s stock of Nabisco Sugar Wafers!

Mom loved to go shopping at The Farmer’s Daughter, The Christmas Shoppe, and the Manteo bookstore, and we often went with her. The outlet stores were another popular shopping destination.

We visited other sites like the Bodie Island, Cape Hatteras, and Corolla lighthouses, the Wright Brothers National Memorial, and the Elizabethan Gardens. We attended The Lost Colony outdoor drama in Manteo. We took the ferry to Ocracoke Island and took a tour of the wild horses north of Corolla.

We went went to the movies, we went golfing, fishing, and parasailing. We did puzzles. We played cards, Yahtzee, backgammon, frisbee, and bocce ball.

Carl learned to walk there. Chris suffered from his brain tumor there. Mom got lost there once in the early stages of her Alzheimer’s disease.

We often celebrated Bill’s birthday there. Peter chose Nags Head to ask my parents’ permission to marry me. One trip was specially dedicated to celebrate Mom and Dad’s 50th wedding anniversary.

Sometimes I wonder if we love Nags Head because the ocean is "in our blood," so to speak. Our Swedish family comes from Skane, Sweden. This area is close to the ocean, but I don't have any evidence that our ancestors actually went to the ocean. Maybe they did, maybe they didn't. But I'm sure that now, after so many years of going to the beach, Nags Head is truly in our family's DNA.

Nags Head sunrise