Crossing on the Caledonia: 52 Ancestors 2024 Prompt “Boats”

Harry Aird Arrives at Ellis Island Aboard the SS Caledonia

Harry Aird: 1886-1966 (Paternal Grandfather)

 

Like so many of our ancestors, Harry Aird arrived in America by boat. In Harry’s case, the boat in question was the SS Caledonia, a steam ship owned by the Scottish company Anchor Line. Harry boarded the Caledonia in Glasgow, and landed at Ellis Island, where he officially applied to immigrate. He was twenty-four years old.

Harry Aird with wife May and son John

So what do we know about the SS Caledonia and life aboard a steamship? What was Harry’s journey like?

The Caledonia was still a fairly new vessel when Harry sailed in 1910. She was built by the D and W Henderson and Company in Glasgow for Anchor Line. When completed in 1905, the ship was 500 feet long, and had a depth of 33.4 feet. It was powered by twin screws or propellers, each driven by three-cylinder triple expansion engines. What that means in layman’s terms is that the steam is expanded in three stages, with each of the three engine cylinders having a different steam pressure. This enabled the ship to travel at a speed of 16 knots or 30 km/hr.

Postcard of the Caledonia

The Caledonia’s maiden voyage was March 26, 1905, traveling from Glasgow to New York, which became the ship’s regular route. According to Wikipedia, “she had berths for 1,350 passengers: 250 in first class, 350 in second class and 850 in third class.” I saw on another website that fares ranged in price from $67.50 to $125.00 by 1914. Earlier fares around 1902 ran about $30 for third class.

Given that Harry was immigrating and probably needed to save money, I expect he would have booked a third-class ticket.

First class accommodations were luxurious, as the photos below show. But what were third class berths like? What type of voyage would Harry have experienced?

First class dining room and first class cabin

Third class was a step above “steerage”, where immigrants were crammed together and forced to bring and cook their own food. The Caledonia did not include steerage as an option. I have been unable to find photos of Anchor Line’s third-class berths and dining areas, but below are photos from similar steamship companies.

Third class berths and dining room on similar ocean liners

I was able to find a website with 1902 brochures from Anchor Line, describing the second and third class accommodations. Although Harry’s voyage was eight years later, I expect little had changed.

“THIRD CLASS

This accommodation is exceedingly well lighted and ventilated, and fitted up in rooms, married couples, single women and single men being berthed separately, and every comfort and attention is furnished that is possible on an ocean steamer.

Third-class passengers are provided, free of charge, with a mattress, bedding, mess tins (plate, mug, knife, fork, spoon and water can). Tables are set for meals, and passengers are waited upon by stewards who take care of eating utensils.

A liberal supply of provisions, properly cooked, will be served on the steamers three times a day by the steamers’ stewards; breakfast at 9, dinner at 1, supper at 6 o’clock.”

BAGGAGE

Second Saloon 20 cubic feet, and Third Class 10 cubic feet, free; any excess will be charged for at rate of One Shilling sterling per cubic foot. All baggage before being sent to Anchor Line Pier should be labeled with name oi passenger and steamer on which passage has been engaged.

No luggage will be put on board the steamers until it has been claimed by passengers and marked “Wanted” or “Not Wanted,” on the voyage, as may be desired bv owners.

Passengers should be on board with their baggage one hour prior to the time of sailing, as hurry and confusion are thereby avoided, and baggage less liable to be lost. Special Anchor Line labels can be obtained on application at the principal offices and agencies of the line.”

We can surmise that Harry would have shared a room with other single men, with each man having their own bunk. He would have been served three meals per day. He would have been able to bring a decent amount of luggage—ten cubic feet isn’t that small. His trip would not have been luxurious, but he would probably have found the accommodations adequate.

Harry Aird on the Caledonia passenger list of Nov. 5, 1910.

The Anchor Line was known for their fast trans-Atlantic trips—they set a record for a crossing of just over six days on one ship. Harry’s trip was also short. The passenger list leaving Glasgow was dated November 5, 1910, and the arrival paperwork was dated November 13, so Harry was only at sea a week and one day.

Caledonia Captain's veriification to New York authorities upon Nov. 13, 1910 arrival 

Sadly, the SS Caledonia was pressed into service in World War I as a troop transport ship. It was torpedoed by a U-Boat in the Mediterranean near Malta on December 4, 1916.. The ship sank, but not before it rammed and damaged the U-Boat. Nearly everyone on board survived.

I wonder if Harry Aird ever spoke to his son John of his voyage aboard the Caledonia or of his time at Ellis Island. It would have been wonderful to hear about his immigration experience first-hand.

Sources:

Ship records from SS Caledonia, including Harry Aird. November 13, 1900. https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/4004194884:7488?tid=81812584&pid=78014052183&_phsrc=Acy6455&_phstart=successSource

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Caledonia_(1904)

https://www.ggarchives.com/OceanTravel/Brochures/AnchorLine-1902-SecondAndThirdClassAccommodations.html

Information about fares and First Class accommodations. https://navalwarfare.blogspot.com/2013/06/ss-caledonia.html

A Club You Never Want to Join—the Victim’s Club: 52 Ancestors 2024 Prompt “Member of the Club”

 

Another Victim of Financial Fraud: Miles Jandejsek Was on Swindler’s List

Miles Jandejsek: 1884-1978 (Maternal Granduncle)

 

Miles Jandejsek was a member of a club that no one willingly joins: a brotherhood of victims of financial fraud. Fraudsters and crooks are sadly all too common in the financial field, from the infamous Ponzi of the Ponzi scheme to Bernie Madoff, to the crypto-fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried to the more common small-scale crooks and cheats. All these schemes leave a trail of humiliated victims crippled by financial losses, people whose lives are never the same. Miles Jandejsek placed his trust in a neighborhood friend who betrayed him and wiped out a large chunk of Miles’ retirement funds.

Miles Jandejsek was the third of Emanuel and Emily Tomsche Jandejsek’s eight children. He was born August 31, 1884 in Ceska Trebova, Czechoslovakia. The Jandejsek family emigrated to the United States in 1888 when Miles was four years old. They settled in Chicago where Emanuel found work as a carpenter.

Finances were difficult for immigrant families, so Miles left school after eighth grade to start earning wages. He appears on the 1900 census at age 15, working as a day laborer. He remained a blue-collar worker, employed by Western Electric Co. as a machinist until retirement.

Miles married another Czech immigrant, Louise Slaby, on April 5, 1913. Louise was 18 years old, while Miles was 28. They moved first to Cicero, Illinois, and then to nearby Brookfield.  They never had children. They acquired a summer home on Geneva Lake in Wisconsin, which they sold following Miles’ retirement.

Sale ad for Miles Jandesek's vacation home, 1948.

Miles and Louise eventually moved to Bradenton, Florida where my husband remembers visiting them. Miles, he recalled, would solicitously enquire of his great-nephews and niece, “Would you like a milk and some cookie?” This was a little reminder that English had not been Miles first language.

While living in Brookfield, Miles became acquainted with a Chicago man named Miles Fort who owned and operated a mortgage and insurance business. Fort was trying to build his own retirement nest egg by investing in the stock market. Unfortunately, he wasn’t a very good investor and lost most of his own money. He decided to use other people’s money to try to recoup his losses. He persuaded friends to invest money with him, claiming he was lending it out as mortgages, for which his investors would earn the mortgage interest. He falsified the mortgage documents, usually altering real mortgages he had written previously on various properties.

At first, he paid his victims their “interest” out of his own funds while he used their cash to play the stock market. Apparently Miles heard about these mortgage “investments” from others, and wrote to Fort from Florida, asking to invest money with him. Miles ended up giving Fort $27,500.

Fort eventually abandoned the stock market to try his hand at grain markets, and once again lost money. He then claimed to have gotten “’inside information’ and then invested heavily in egg futures. Instead of going up, as he expected, the price of eggs went down. ‘They truly cleaned me out,’ he related sadly.” (From news article cited below)

Fort’s scheme eventually fell apart when he no longer had enough money to pay his victims their monthly “interest” payments. He turned himself in to the state’s attorney in Chicago.

According to a Chicago Tribune article, Fort had defrauded thirteen individuals out of nearly $300,000. The article stated that Fort “obtained amounts ranging from $4,000 to $51,355 from his 13 victims, all of whom were friends or business clients of long standing. In each case…the losses represented the life savings of the persons.”

Excerpt of Chicago Tribune article on swindle

Fort was charged with forgery and held under $4000 bond in September of 1958.

My husband doesn’t remember anyone in the family discussing Miles’ financial loss. He suspects no one knew. Miles was probably embarrassed to have been so trusting and naïve and would have been reluctant to confess he had been swindled out of a large sum.

Miles and Louise continued to live in Bradenton, probably making do with Social Security and whatever additional funds they had saved over the years. Miles died November 26, 1978 at age 94, and was buried in Bradenton. Louise lived another twelve years, dying at age 95 on August 2, 1990. She had apparently moved back to Illinois before her death, because her death record was filed in Cook County, Illinois.

Retirees and the elderly are often the targets of financial fraudsters. Miles Jandejsek was just another name on a “swindler’s list”. He became a member of the victims’ club of regretful investors in yet another fraudulent scheme.

Sources:

"Realty Man Swindles 13 in $300,000 Fraud", Chicago Tribune, Chicago, Illinois. Sept 5, 1958. Accessed on Newspapers.com. 

Miles Jandejsek Obituary. Bradenton Herald. Bradenton Florida. Nov. 27, 1978. Accessed on Newspapers.com.

Photo of Headstone from Findagrave. Photo by Donna McPherson. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/122807635/miles-jandesek?

Passing Down a Name: 52 Ancestors Prompt “Handed Down”

Edward Clarence Jandy’s Nephew Shares His Name in Reverse

Edward Clarence Jandy: 1899-1980 (Maternal Grandfather)
Clarence Edward Hedstrom: 1906-1992 (Maternal First Cousin 1x Removed)
 

Edward Jandy’s eldest sister, Theresa “Tessie” Jandejsek, honored him by naming her second son after Ed. Perhaps to avoid confusion among the family, she reversed the order of the first and middle names, so Edward Clarence’s nephew was named Clarence Edward Hedstrom.

Clarence Edward Hedstrom was born August 20, 1906 in Chicago Illinois to parents Axel Hedstrom and Theresa Jandejsek Hedstrom. Clarence had one older brother, Benjamin, and three younger sisters, Florence, Mable and Leona. While Axel Hedstrom and Tessie’s siblings were all blue collar workers, Clarence and some of his siblings turned to white collar work. Clarence, Benjamin and Florence all worked in insurance offices in Chicago after they left school.

Clarence married Rose Drnec of Chicago in the late 1920s. I have been unable to find their marriage record to determine the exact date. By the 1930 census, they were married and living with Rose’s parents and two brothers. Their first child, a son named Donald Clarence Hedstrom, was born November 28, 1930. Their second child, a daughter named Nancy Lee Hedstrom, was born August 14, 1932.

Clarence's WWII Draft card showing he is working for the Hartford Ins. Co.

Clarence spent forty years working for the Hartford Fire Insurance Company, moving from their Chicago office to their Omaha location. He moved up from clerical positions to the position of Special Agent, which meant he specialized in the company’s line of fire insurance. 

Clarence's Omaha House

Following retirement, he moved to California to be near his daughter’s family. He died in Murrieta, California on May 15, 1992 at the age of eighty-five. His wife Rose had died a decade earlier.

                                  

Clarence’s name was handed down to him by his mother, who was honoring her baby brother, Edward Clarence Jandejsek. Like Ed, Clarence left behind the blue-collar world of his father and cousins, and moved into white collar work where he built a successful career. 

First Photo of Granduncle Found on His Headstone: 52 Ancestors 2024 Prompt “Tombstone”

Headstone Provides Only Photo of Granduncle Emil Jandejsek

Emil William Jandejsek: 1882-1928 (Maternal Granduncle)

 

Sometimes family photos pop up from the strangest sources. That’s what happened as I was researching my husband’s granduncle, Emil Jandejsek. I found the Findagrave entry for Emil and his second wife Mary or Marie, and the entry included a photo of the Jandejsek headstone. Mounted on the stone with screws were photos of Emil and Marie—the only photos of them I have ever seen! A very happy discovery!

Emil Jandejsek tombstone at National Bohemian Cemetery in Chicago

Emil was the older brother of Edward Clarence Jandejsek, also known as Ed Jandy. Ed was my husband’s grandfather. Emil was the second oldest of Emanuel Jandejsek and Emily Tomsche’s eight surviving children. He was born in Trebova, Czechoslovakia on December 18, 1882. When Emil was quite young, the family emigrated to the United States, arrving in 1887 or 1888. The Jandejseks settled in Chicago, Illinois, an area that had a large number of Czech immigrants, providing a built-in support system.

Trebova, Czechoslovakia, the town where Emil was born

Emil had to take on responsibility at a young age. His parents needed his help to support the family. According to Ed Jandy’s memoirs, “…most kids went through 8^th grade…Few aspired to go to high school, and very very few to college.” Emil followed that pattern. Ed remembered that Emil first worked as a lumber hand. By the 1900 census, Emil was working as a silver plater at a metal plating factory; he was only seventeen. His younger brother Miles, only 15, was also out of school, working as a day laborer.

It is unclear when Emil moved out of his parents’ apartment to separate housing. His father died May 6, 1905. Emil married the daughter of another Czech immigrant family, a 23-year-old named Minnie Baxa, two months later on July 15, 1905. The young couple had a stillborn child the following year, and then had a daughter, Agnes, born May 27, 1908.

Emil and Minnie had a third child, a little girl, on March 10, 1910. Tragically, both the infant and Minnie died the next day. By the time of the 1910 census, Emil and little Agnes had moved back in with his widowed mother and his five youngest siblings. They all lived in an apartment on West 18^th Place near the railroad tracks in the Pilsen area west of the Chicago Loop. The building, which realty companies say is about 2600 square feet, was divided into four apartments, so the eight family members must have been crammed in, sharing beds and bedrooms.

Front of 18th Place apartment building

Aerial view of 18th Place apartment building, also showing Throup St. where Emil's parents previously lived.

Emil was probably eager to be on his own once more, which motivated him to marry quickly. On November 21, 1910, just eight months after Minnie’s death, Emil married nineteen-year-old Mary Roth; he was twenty-eight. They moved to a building on South Center Avenue where their daughter Olga was born September 1, 1911.

When Emil completed his World War I draft registration card, he was still working in the metal plating business as a metal buffer. He, his wife, and two daughters were living in a two-story brick building at 2520 South Troy on the southwest side of Chicago not far from the suburb of Cicero. I have been unable to find the family on the 1920 census, but believe they were still living in the same area.

At some point in the late 1920s, Emil’s marriage disintegrated. On March 4, 1928, Emil died when he fell asleep while smoking his pipe. According to the news article below, the pipe set the bed on fire. The newspaper reported that “firemen from a local station found Jandejsek in an unconscious condition, as a result of the thick smoke in his bed room. They worked valiantly over him with the pulmotor but their efforts proved futile.”

The article went on to note that Emil was separated from his wife, who lived about five blocks away. Emil was only 45 years old.

Despite their separation, Mary Roth Jandejsek did not remarry after his death. She died September 20, 1931 at the age of only forty. I am not sure of the cause of her death.

Emil’s daughters Agnes and Olga each eventually married. Agnes married Eugene Diem, and they had a daughter, Lavergne. Agnes divorced Eugene, and at the time of the 1940 census, she had moved in with her half-sister Olga and was working as a librarian. Olga was a telephone operator. Olga married Francis Vladish in 1944 at age 33. The couple had no children.

Emil and Mary were buried together at the Bohemian National Cemetery in Chicago. The stone included the photos of the couple that I have added to their profiles on Ancestry. I am so grateful for this special tombstone, and for the wonderful Findagrave volunteers who made it possible for me to find Emil’s portrait.

 

Sources:

"Falls Asleep, Bed Burns, Man Suffocates." Suburban Leader, Cicero, Illinois. March 8, 1928.

Photos of Emil Jandejsek headstone courtesy of Findagrave and photographer Grave Recorder. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/137031952/emil-william-jandejsek

Photo of Ceska Trebova, from Wikimedia Commons. Photographer Marek Stránský, File permission by Nostramanus. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Ceska-Trebova-Zeleznice-Nadrazi-1.jpg

Photos of Jandejsek homes from online listings of various realty companies.

Memoir of Edward Clarence Jandy. Family records.

Lorene in Her Own Voice: 52 Ancestors 2024 Prompt “Storyteller”

 

Lorene Smith Jandy’s Memoir Showcases Her Storytelling Talent

Lorene Edith Smith Jandy: 1903-1994 (Maternal Grandmother)

 

When I first met “Gram Jandy”, it was late in her life. She had become legally blind and was living in an assisted care placement. But she was still a very active woman and was intensely interested in the world and people around her. She had an amazing talent for chatting up anyone she met and learning an amazing amount about their lives, which she could then recount later. She was a natural born storyteller—not in the “tall tales” or fictional type of story, but in an oral history sort of storytelling. Her children and grandchildren (including my husband) tended to roll their eyes when she’d launch into a story about someone they’d never met and would never, ever meet. However, she also had amazing stories about her family. 

Lorene before she lost her vision

Luckily for her descendants, she dictated a memoir of sorts about her life and family that is a delightful source of information now that she is gone. Perhaps the most charming thing about the memoir is that it sounds like Lorene—it captures her quick topic changes, her way of expressing things, and her non-linear storytelling.  

Here is a small sample from her memoir:

“Albert Elias was Willis Smith's second son. He was educated at the University of Kentucky, where he was a sprinter, and at Chicago Theological Seminary. He married Otilda (Tillie) Herrin

and they lived and worked all their lives in the east Kentucky mountains, where they reared a family of four children--Frances, Willis, Harvey, and Albert. My brother Albert was a minister and Tillie an economics teacher. Until Albert's death, they gave their entire lives to the mountain

people. Just after we visited them in 1930, when Laurel was four, Albert was fatally burned while cleaning a chicken shed with gasoline. He panicked, shouted for Tillie, and ran down the hill,

fanning the flames. He died that night with his lungs seared and full of fluid.

 

“Foolishly, all through the mountains, people built their chicken sheds and outhouses up above the main house, where they could contaminate the wells. Albert lived lower down the mountain by a creek, which would overflow and flood the house. Many outhouses (one- or two

holers) didn't even have doors, just a curtain. Toilet paper as we know it was an unheard-of luxury to the mountain people. You wiped with corncobs or shucks or used the pages of outdated Sears

Roebuck catalogues, from which you could get colored print on your seat. The used paper was stored in a can and then burned. In Fredonia and other towns, the outhouses were painted to match the houses—high style!”

This really shows her style of talking—one minute she’d be talking about a specific person, and then she’d move on to society in general, and then back to the person, or even on to an anecdote about a totally different individual. It was very entertaining. Not exactly easy to follow, but fun all the same. I love the details about outhouses, especially the tidbit about getting colored ink on your bottom from using catalogs as toilet paper.

 

Lorene in college

In glancing back through her memoir, I realize how much information I have yet to mine from it about her extended family. While I have names and dates, I don’t have the lovely details, like this little gem:

“When Nannie broke her hip as an old lady, she refused medical treatment because of her Christian Science beliefs, and lay in bed some six months for the bones to mend, after which she got up and went about her life again.”

Dates and documents would never be able to paint that picture of a determined woman of strong beliefs and high pain tolerance!

 

Lorene with oldest daughter, Laurel. Around 1928.

I wish I’d had the chance to chat with Lorene more. I would have loved to hear more stories about her family and her life in rural Kentucky, as a young married woman in Detroit, and during her travels with her husband in Ethiopia later in life. She was an amazing, gregarious, and kind-hearted woman.

Disease, Death and Young People in the 1920s: 52 Ancestors 2024 Prompt “Health”

Even the Young Were Not Immune: Elliott Siblings Die Weeks Apart

Estella Geneva Elliott: 1895-1926 (Maternal Second Cousin 3x Removed)
Leonard Allen Elliott: 1895-1926 (Maternal Second Cousin 3x Removed)

 

Even in the 1920s, infectious diseases ravaged families, killing young people in the prime of their lives. Siblings Estella and Allen Elliott died within weeks of one another at the young ages of 31 and 27. They each suffered from two different diseases that were sadly all too common before health advances tamed them later in the century.

Estella Geneva Elliott and Leonard Allen Elliott were born to parents James Franklin Elliott and first cousin 4x removed Emma Ara Moseley. They were the sixth and seventh of James and Emma’s eight children, and they were born in Kansas.

Leonard Allen, known as Allen, married Emma Reese on August 8, 1917. They were quite young—Emma was 16 and Allen was 17. He worked as an electrician until he registered for the draft in 1918. By the 1920 census he was a father; his daughter Louise was born May 7, 1918.  He was in business with his brother-in-law, but the census record appears to state they were “storage bat men”. This is a puzzling phrase and must be a transcription error of some sort. By the time of the 1925 Kansas State Census, he was working as a carpenter.

A death notice that appeared in the August 26 Dodge City Journal stated that Allen died of typhoid fever at his mother’s home. An obituary a few days later stated that he was “highly esteemed in the community.”

“Although only 27 years old, Mr. Elliott had mastered two trades and had enjoyed success along both lines of work. He was a good mechanic and for three years was proprietor of the Copeland garage. For a time he was a contractor at Wichita and at Winfield. Following his return to Dodge City he constructed ten of the substantial residences of the town, in which he took great pride.”

It is unclear how Allen was exposed to typhoid. Typhoid fever had been much more prevalent at the turn of the century than by 1926, but there were still tens of thousands of cases reported in 1926, although the death rate was only 6.5 per 100,000 people. Immunizations were available, but many people waited to get one until there was a local outbreak.

Gridley Light, Aug 6, 1926

Typhoid fever is caused by the Salmonella Typhi bacterium, and is spread through contaminated food, water and other liquids. Contamination often occurs when infected people prepare or serve foods or drinks, but water sources can also be contaminated by sewage carrying the bacteria. While typhoid cases were dropping in Kansas in 1926, infections and deaths were covered in the newspapers, along with advice on how to avoid infection and encouragement to get immunized.

Iola Register, Jan. 14, 1926

Allen’s older sister, Estella Elliott, died just fourteen weeks after Allen; she succumbed to tuberculosis at age thirty-one. Estella attended the Dodge City High School, and following graduation became a school teacher. Her obituary said that “she had taught near Montezuma and in Moscow and Copeland, endearing herself to the people of Southwest Kansas.” She then “taught in the Dodge City junior high school and the second ward and Lincoln grade schools… “

The obituary also stated that:

“Owing to her zeal in Christian work, her keen interest in the progress and well being of her pupils, and her deep affection for the members of her large family circle, Miss Elliott had derived a great deal of enjoyment from life, although she had been a great sufferer for the past seven or eight years.”

Hillcrest Tuberculosis Sanitarium in Topeka--possibly where Estella was hospitalized in 1926

Tuberculosis was often a slow killer, as was apparently the case with Estella. She had been able to continue working until the previous February when, after a bout of flu, her tuberculosis worsened, forcing  her to resign her teaching post and move into a Topeka sanitarium “in a vain effort to combat the white plague.” Of course now, in modern times, teachers are tested for exposure to tuberculosis and if they test positive, they are not allowed to work with children. Yet Estella apparently continued to work with children for some six years after contracting the disease. Hopefully, none of her pupils caught the disease from her.

Allen and Estella were buried in Maple Grove Cemetery in Dodge City.

The deaths of Allen and Estella Elliott at such young ages are an important reminder of the benefits of modern medicine. Today typhoid has nearly been wiped out in the United States due to widespread vaccinations. Sadly, Allen was never immunized even though the vaccine was available in 1926. He would never have gotten ill if he had been born today. And thanks to the development of various antibiotics, tuberculosis infections can now be cured. Estella’s “white plague” is no longer a death sentence. The miracles of vaccines and treatments for the killer diseases of the past and for new diseases like COVID should be embraced with gratitude.

Sources:

Typhoid Rates in 1926. CDC Public Health Reports Vol 43, January 13, 1928. file:///C:/Users/bandr/Downloads/cdc_68406_DS1.pdf

Obituary for Allen Leonard Elliott. Page 2 of The Dodge City Daily Globe, published in Dodge City, Kansas on Tuesday, August 31st, 1926. https://dodgecitypl.historyarchives.online/viewer?k=elliott&i=f&by=1926&bdd=1920&d=07011926-09011926&m=between&ord=k1&fn=the_dodge_city_daily_globe_usa_kansas_dodge_city_19260831_english_2&df=1&dt=10&cid=3063

Allen Elliott Dies of Typhoid. The Dodge City Journal, published in Dodge City, Kansas on Thursday, August 26th, 1926

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_tuberculosis

A Rough Start in Life: 52 Ancestors 2024 Prompt “Hard Times”

 

A Young Man’s Struggles: Beverly Childress Faces Setbacks

Beverly John Childress: 1903-1969 (Maternal Third Cousin 2x Removed)

Beverly John Childress’ early life seemed to be nothing but “hard times”. He lost a parent at a tender age, was separated from his siblings and sent to stay with relatives, and just as he neared adulthood, he suffered a grisly on-the-job accident that left him seriously injured and could have killed him. Despite these hard times, he survived and managed to raise a family and pursue a career that brought him satisfaction.

Beverly John Childress was born in Daviess County, Kentucky on August 10, 1903 to parents Fisher Alexander Childress and Lydia Moseley Childress. He was the third of their five children, and was named after his grandfather Beverly Childress..

Tragically, Beverly’s mother Lydia died at age 39 when Beverly was only eight years old. According to Lydia’s obituary, she “died of a complication of diseases…after a long illness.” Beverly’s father, a farmer, tried to keep the family together after his wife’s death. However, at times this must have been difficult. Even before Lydia’s death, little Beverly was living with his grandparents, John Presley and Luvenia Moseley, as seen on the 1910 census form below. 

John Presley Moseley apparently stepped up financially as his 1920 will indicates:

“I have five grandchildren by my deceased daughter Lydia Childress, viz: Goble Childress, Virgie Childress, Beverly Childress, Richard Childress and Ollie Childress, and having already done much for these grandchildren and hoping to do more for them during my lifetime, I do not devise my said grandchildren anything at all, but I do entrust the welfare of said grandchildren to my wife, Luvenia Moseley, and if at the time of my death or at any time thereafter…she desires to give any of my…estate or forward property to any of said grandchildren, it is my will and desire that she do so as I have full confidence in my wife…and feel that she will do what is just, right and proper for said children.”

In February 1920, when Beverly was only sixteen years old, he married a fifteen year old named Lucy Jane Kirk. Her brother was the county attorney at the time. The young couple’s first child wasn’t born until December 1920, so it doesn’t appear it was a shotgun wedding. However, they were very young to be married, and must have struggled. Neither completed high school.

To support his wife, Beverly took a job at the Kentucky and Virginia Tobacco Company in Owensboro. His job involved “prizing” the tobacco, which meant to press or pack down the tobacco into hogsheads, which were huge barrels. An article from the North Carolina Museum of History cited below describes the barrels as follows:

“These barrels consisted of red or white oak staves (the long, vertical parts) and oak hoops, and they usually measured forty-eight inches in length and thirty inches in diameter at the head. After sale at a warehouse, leaf tobacco got pressed, or “prized,” into the hogshead. When full of leaf tobacco, hogsheads weighed about one thousand pounds each.”

Workers screwing down a pressing plate onto the tobacco in the hogshead.

Illustrations of the hogsheads and pressing apparatus are seen above and below. The tobacco was placed in the hogshead and then a large metal plate was lowered onto the tobacco and was pressed or screwed down to tightly pack the tobacco leaves in the hogshead. This process would be repeated until the hogshead was full of pressed tobacco, which was then stored for curing and shipping.  

1920s image of prizing tobacco--at right you can see the heavy metal plate above the hogshead, similar to what fell on Beverly

In 1920, there were no child-labor laws to protect teens like Beverly, and no safety regulations or regulators like OSHA to ensure workplace safety. On March 11, 1920, just two weeks after his marriage, Beverly suffered a horrific workplace accident. As described in the news article below, Beverly was leaning into the hogshead, which would have been about four feet high. He was probably adding more tobacco to the barrel when the metal cover plate came loose and fell on his head, crushing him between the plate and the rim of the hogshead. He was knocked unconscious and “an examination showed that “part of his scalp was torn off and his face badly bruised.” He was hospitalized in critical condition.

A very brief article eight days later reported that he was “doing as well as could be expected, and it is now thought that he will recover.” There was no mention of the tobacco company doing anything to help him or to take responsibility for a nearly fatal accident—no offers to pay the hospital expenses or to help his young wife. Beverly probably lost his job due to his inability to come in to work. The original news article reported he was 20 years old, not his actual age of sixteen, so the company seems to have lied to the press or failed to verify the age of new employees.

Beverly suffered another blow in April of 1920, when his grandfather John Presley Moseley died. Beverly had lived with his grandfather during part of his childhood, so was likely close to him.

Beverly had recovered enough to attend dinner at his brother-in-law’s house in May. However, in June of 1920, he asked the court to appoint his grand uncle Charles Jackson “C.J.” Moseley to be his guardian. His motion was granted on June 12, 1920. Why would he do that? Was his head injury so serious that he couldn’t handle his own affairs? Or was it simply a more practical matter—he was too young to sign most legal documents like leases or loan documents, so his uncle could handle that for him? Of course, this begs the question as to why he turned to his great uncle—why didn’t ask his father to help him? Was he estranged from his father and siblings, who lived nearby?

Despite these difficult early years, Beverly was able to build a decent life. He and his young wife Lucy became parents before the year was out, and went on to have three more children. Sadly, the marriage did not survive; Beverly and Lucy separated sometime in the 1930s and divorced in the 1940s. By the 1940 census, Beverly was living in Owensboro; two of his children, Dale and Lena, were living with him. Beverly remarried in 1946 to Johnnie Westerfield.

Beverly changed careers after his accident at the tobacco factory. He got a job with an Owensboro company, Barrett-Fisher, that made saddles, harnesses and other horse equipment. Beverly became a harnessmaker, and according to his obituary, he made harnesses for 44 years.

Beverly died April 27, 1969 in Owensboro after a “brief illness”. He was sixty-five years old. Beverly is buried in the Rosehill Elmswood Cemetery.

Photo by Charles and Monta Vanover on Findagrave.

Beverly Childress had some hard times when he was very young, but he overcame them to build a decent life for himself and his family. Hard times may leave scars, as I’m sure Beverly’s accident did, but they don’t have to define a life.

 

Sources:

Information on prizing tobacco and hogsheads. “Analyzing an Artifact: What in the World is a Hogshead?” by Alison Holcomb. Tar Heel Junior Historian. Spring 2009. NC Museum of History. https://www.ncpedia.org/tobacco/barrels

Item on Childress recovery. Item on Dinner with A.J. Kirk and Wife. Hartford Republican. 19 Mar 1920 and May 7, 1920..

Article on Beverly Childress Injury. Court Notice of Guardianship. Owensboro Messenger. Owensboro KY. March 11, 1920, June 11, 1920 issues.

Obituary. Owensboro Messenger Inquirer. April 28, 1969.