1Article Written by James T. Key, Benton County History of Arkansas. "Benton County History, Arkansas. Story on Charles Lafayette Key By James T. Key
Charles Lafayette and Lockie Carden Key were my grandparents and are the earliest of the generations of which I know of personally. For the most part the earlier generations of my family were farmers, in addition to merchant and shopkeeper. My grandfather continued the family farm until it was purchased by the government for the development of Beaver Lake in the early 1950's. When he was a teen, Granddad had a trick pony he would ride and do trick shows with, I'm sure as a prelude to conservation as much as anything. He could talk for hours and always had a story to tell.
I was told that when he was still too young to work, he went to visit his brother Carl working in the mines in Northeastern Oklahoma. He began working as a water boy and would sneak down into the mines at every opportunity. He had an avid interest in geology and rocks, one that I'm sure developed from these early adventures. Carl and he would ride the trolley from Joplin, MO to Pitcher, OK and from there to the mine in Dauthit where he once took my father and my brother Bill and myself to see. Before marrying my Grandmother, on Dec 24, 1922, he had gone to work at a railroad roundhouse in Missouri. He brought back with him an eleven-year-old boy, Henry Newton Borders, whose father had given Charley permission to raise as his son. Charles and Lockie were married and raised Henry as their son, together with my father John Elbert 12/20/1924 and my uncle Carl Ray 21 May 1927.
My grandfather was an entrepreneur of sorts, running several different businesses and maintaining as average of a dozen employees over the years. From the 1920's until approximately 1952 he operated The Lilly White Lime Company east of Rogers on old Highway 12, where there exists today the remains of the old quarry and crusher. When they first began they used wagons and mule teams to haul crushed lime for spreading and fertilizing soil for a multi-state area as well as supplying larger stone and gravel. He also ran a decorative concrete block business from the 1940's until 1952 located on North Arkansas Ave. in Rogers, where the building is still standing today just south of the Pel-Freeze plant. Many of these blocks are evident on buildings constructed during this time. They also supplied readi-mix concrete, which my mother told me an interesting story about. They would deliver the concrete mixed in the bed of a dump truck, so time was critical in delivery and dumping. On one occasion my mother and my sister Linda went with him on a delivery to somewhere in the Lowell or Springdale Area. A car pulled out in front of them, causing a sudden stop which resulted in concrete spreading over the entire cab of the truck and down the hood and grill. She said they had to rush to get the remainder of the load delivered and the truck washed off before it literally setup on them. In the early 1950's my Granddad leased out the quarry and opened another one in the Huntsville area. Shortly after that time a spring was struck, resulting in a permanent lake and the end of this quarry in Rogers.
My grandmother died on 30 Apr 1985 and my Granddad on 14 March 1988, They were both laid to rest in the family plot at Bland's Cemetery west of Rogers, were Key Cemetery was moved prior to the completion of Beaver Lake.
My Uncle Henry married Winnie Hamption whose father was Addie and Ella's half brother. They had one son, Charles Henry Key who now lives in Sublette, KS. My Uncle Carl married Edna Wilkerson on April 15, 1948 and they moved to California to live and raise a family. They had three sons, Carl Allen, Charles Steven, and Benny David all of whom live in California to my knowledge. They maintained a separation from the family here, until just before my Uncle's death on 11 May 1980. I nor most of my family have ever met these distant cousins.
John Elbert Key, my father married Marcella Brower on Sept 30, 1942. He worked with my granddad, driving a lime truck and working at the quarry until they moved to Tulsa, where he worked for Carnation. He studied to become a diesel mechanic and the family eventually returned to Northeast Arkansas. Later we moved to Southeast Kansas where Dad worked for Yellow Freight, Inc. and was a member of the Teamsters Union. He retired in the Late 1970's and died on 14 June, 1985 after having returned to Benton County where he and Mom lived on what remains of the family farm, just northeast of the original homestead near Beaver Lake. My mother was primarily a housewife, raising six children, my two brothers and three sisters and myself. She also worked as a cook at Southside School in Rogers for many years and was a nurse for several years when we lived in Kansas. She now lives in Pea Ridge
My eldest sister Vicky Irene Key was born 17 Sep 1943 and has two children, Jennifer Louise Key 31 Mar 1972 and Joel Robert Key Feb.3rd. All of them live in Benton County area. J DuWayne, born 16 May 1945 is my eldest brother and he lives in Bentonville. He has sons, Leslie DuWayne 27 Apr 1965 and Cha Duncan 6 Sep 1970 who also live in Benton. My second sister is Joyce Keith, born 1 Jan 1951 and she has children, Amber Paige Brown 22 Sep 1976.
Joseph Montgomery Brown 16 Jan 80 who live in Dallas, Texas. Elizabeth Ann Krebs the youngest daughter, born Nov 25 1954 she lives in Little Rock. William Stuart is closest brother, born 6 Sept 1958. He married and has two children. Ryan Patrick 19 Mar 1986 and Rachel Rene 13 Mar 1990 and live in Rogers. I James Thomas was born on Aug 21, 1961 and currently live on the family's farm with my wife Judy (Hare), just off Highway on Key road.
Key Road has in the recent past been known as Benton County Road No. 625 as well as Dogwood Lane, so named when a subdivision near Highway 12 was recorded in the early 1970's It will this year regain its name as officially be recorded and marked as Key Road with the inducti9on of the Benton County 911 emergency system.".
1Jessie Margaret Stuart, My Life Story. "At the age of 2 years approximately her parents moved to Ellensburg, Washington where her father practiced medicine for a short time. They then moved to North Henderson, Illinois at the request of the townspeople.
MY LIFE STORY
by
Jessie Margaret Stuart
I was born in South Bend, Nebraska on January 27, 1881, the daughter of Dr.George M. Stuart and Margaret Miller Guthrie. Part of this story is hearsay but most of it is real events that I remember
I was told that my mother had erysipelas on her face when I was born and couldn't see me until I was six-week-old.
My father and tow brothers came over (to the U.S.) from Canada before I was born and attended Rush Medical College in Chicago. When my Uncle Charlie took a post graduate course at John Hopkins (medical school) I believe it was my father that took over his practice, which was to his advantage, as you will see later in hi story.
My parents were married in Gilcrist, Illinois. The Guthrie home (Nana's maternal grandparents) was on the Edwards River and they often went boating on the river. I had an uncle, Rufus Park, who had married my mother's older sister, Martha Guthrie, and they lived across the river from my grandparents. Gilcrist is in Mercer County.
We lived in South Bend until I was about two years old. My father was a physician and surgeon. He also had a drug store and had an assistant by the name of Look. They (parents) decided to go west and took the train to San Francisco, California. From there we took a boat to Portland, Oregon and then the stagecoach to Ellensburg, Washington.
The next thing I remember was going on an overnight camping trip and in the night I got up from the tent where I was sleeping and climbed into the wagon where my mother was sleeping. As I stepped on the wheel you could tell how cold it was.
When I was four years old I was sent to a private kindergarten run by Madame Lorendo and Paul Bree Lorendo. There were a number of children there; among them Mason Katey. We liked each other. One day the bird died (at the kindergarten) and we had a funeral. The boys acting as horses which we drove with cords as reins. We put the bird in a box with cotton in it and drove to the place where we buried it. I used to walk to the Academy along a little stream along which were bins filled with various kinds of grain. I liked the barley best and would let it slip thru my fingers. I like barley to this day.
When we first went to Ellensburg we rented a house-a two story one. There was a railing (on the stairs) up to the second floor but no railing on the step at the top. I used to like to play with my dolls up there. It was dangerous and I was forbidden to go up there and they took the bottom three steps off. But I put my toes in the places where they took the steps off and got up there anyway.
I had a dog named Carlo and he used to come up on the top step and lay himself down beside me so if I started to fall he could grab me. If my parents called me I wouldn't answer. There was a little stream close by and usually it was dry but in the spring was a raging torrent. There was a plank across the stream and one day, disobeying as usual, I walked across the plank and slipped and fell in. I was being carried down the stream when Carlo jumped in and swam after me and brought me safely back to the bank. He was very faithful. One day to test his loyalty my father put me on his knee and put a hand on me and told me to yell hard. He slapped his own hand and I yelled. Carlo made a jump and grabbed my father's arm. It proved he wouldn't let anyone hurt me.
My father had a house built on the outskirts of town. He had his office there and mamma helped with the women patients. The Indians were numerous around there.
We had a couple (who worked for us). Nancy who did the washing and cleaning and Toby who took care of father's horses. Lucy also came to wash and she had a little papoose, which she fastened to a board and leaned it up against a tree.
My father was the physician for the Northern Pacific (railroad), I believe it was, and there was a lot of dynamiting going on and many were injured. Papa built a small hospital for his patients and had a nurse called Jim Agnew and a Chinese to clean up. One day Jim and the Chinaman had an awful fight and I remember seeing a lot of blood on the floor.
The Indians used to gallop past our house and the squaws too. One day I saw a squaw fall heavily but no one paid any attention to her and she just got up and went on. Sometimes they (the Indians) would build fires and dance around them with their bottles of whiskey, in a circle around the fire. I was very frightened.
While we were in Ellensburg my brother George was born (George Bree Stuart) on April 25th, three years younger than I. One day while we were driving on a mountain road the baby fell out of the buggy. He had a long robe as was usual in those days. We had a time stopping the horse.
Also while we lived here I had Malaria fever and inflanitary (inflammatory) rheumatism. If mamma's dress even touched my leg I would scream with pain.
I neglected to say I had a brother Alec (or Alex), born in South Bend, who was 14 months younger than I but died before we went west. I think his birthday was May 7th.
When I was four or five years old we got a petition from people in North Henderson, Illinois saying they would employ my father as their physician if he would return. They remembered my father from the time he had taken Uncle Charlie's practice. Nancy and Toby wanted to come back to Illinois with us. On the train we had feather ticks in place of a berth. My mother used to read me stories from the bible and I looked forward seeing my new home. I thought it would look like Jerusalem with towers and whitewashed buildings. My disappointment was great when I got off the train at that little Illinois town.
We bought a home in North Henderson and were very happy there. The school was on a little hill north of us. I could reach it after the school bell rang.
I had a friend, Florence Stacey, whose parents were farmers. We went to school together and she remembered how I looked the first day I was there. I had a little blue and white plaid dress. Until a few years ago I had that picture.
One day when I was about twelve years old I was standing on the steps of the school and a boy who liked me started down the steps to go home, when he slipped and fell. He looked so funny I had to laugh, which made him very mad. I couldn't stop laughing when I got outside and my teacher said, "If you can't stop laughing you may go inside." I got my face straightened out and started back but the minute I got in I started all over again. I don't know what happened after that.
My first teacher was Tillie Matthews. One time I was sick and she brought me some candy from a box that had been given her by the principal. I will think of his name in a minute. She liked my brother George better than she liked me.
There was a girl in town called Orpha Smith, daughter of Jud Smith who ran a hardware store. I thought she was the prettiest girl I ever saw. One day there was an entertainment in town and they said they would give the prize to the prettiest girl in the room. Of course I thought Orpha would get it but what to my surprise, I got it. I still don't think it was fair.
Mr. Smith married again. A Mrs. Callison who had a son, Ray. Ray liked me. They lived in the other part of town from us.
The Swedish Lutheran Church was in that part of town on top of a hill. Every Christmas George and I would get up at four o'clock and go to the services.
We didn't understand what was said but we liked the church windows lined with candles. When we got home we looked to see if our stockings were filled but they never were. Christmas Eve we went to church where they had some entertainment. I never got a present but some of the children got lovely ones. My father and mother were too busy to do much for us.
There was a hitching rack at the church and there were many large maple trees there. We used the hitching rack to "skin the cat" and we would climb the trees and crawl from one limb to another and play tree-tag. There was a so slight of hill at the side of our place and we used to slide down the hill
I liked to play with the boys better than the girls. One of my friends was Lorna DeForest. She had lots of books and I spent the afternoons reading. One day they wanted me to go with them when they went skating. I didn't even hear them and when I finished the book I asked where Lorna was. Mrs. DeForest said, "Oh you didn't hear them? They went off without you."
I had some other girl friends I suppose. I don't remember any. Some of the boys and men I knew were; Clint Allen, Ray Callison, Harry Holmes and his older brother Fran. I used to take painting lessons from their sister Jennie. It was (their house) about a quarter of a mile from town.
Nearly every afternoon Harry would ride past our place on his pony. I think he liked Orpha better than he did me.
On winter nights, in North Henderson, we used to have skating parties in the country. It was a pond and we would build fires around it. I never was a good skater as my ankles were too weak. After a while we were invited in the house and had a lot of oyster (stew) supper and later went home in a bobsled all wrapped up in blankets.
In high school I had a teacher, Leon J. Sexton, from Viola, Illinois. His father was in the hardware business. His mother was plump and dark and his father tall. One time I spent the weekend with them. He had two sisters, Dilla and Ada. Leon and I ate breakfast in the kitchen. He told me later on that his mother didn't think I cared for him very much, which was true. One day they had a party for me. The girls were dressed nicely and I was too. I had been to Northwestern (University) and had a cream colored dress which had a yoke that could be taken out and it was an evening dress, or left in and (it was) an afternoon dress.
When I graduated (from high school) Mr. Sexton gave me a bouquet of yellow roses. The first I ever had in my life. One time we went to Galesburg and when we returned the neighbors thought we had been married. He lived some twenty miles from North Henderson and sometimes stayed all night. We used to take long drives. When I went to Evanston Mr. Sexton went as far as Galesburg with me. We had dinner at the hotel, which was a treat, and there was a piano in the parlor and I played for him. After I had been up there he came to see me.
A few days before I reached Evanston my cousin Marie was married to Edwin Fretz and they went to Japan where he taught at the Imperial University of Tokyo. Their daughter Mary was born there. They visited us (Bert and Nana) in Evanston on Emerson St. when they came back. I remember Mary made Bob (son) be on her horse and she caught hold of his legs and propelled him on. I was embarrassed to feed them all, but I had a good dinner for them.
The first day I got to Evanston I took a cab and went to my aunts. No one knew I was coming this particular day. I paid the cabby and walked up the steps at 1942 Sherman St. and walked through a large entrance hall, then though the library and into the living room. Everyone was surprised to see me. There was Aunt Lizzie, whose house it was, Jess, my mother's youngest sister, Olin H. Basquin, who later married Jess and a lawyer whose name I have forgotten.
He and I used to play the piano together. When Aunt Lissie went to visit my mother she said to Mr. Kern, that was his name, " Don't let the girls play any secular music." The first Sunday she was gone Mr. Kern said to me, "Play that good hymn Miss Amboleona Snow."
I was married to Robert Ludolph Babenroth (Bert) in 1903. Of that marriage three sons were born. Robert Stuart in 1905, Malcolm Kenneth in 1907 and Donald William in 1911. Robert and Malcolm were born in Highland Park, Illinois and Donald in Evanston. My doctor was Dr. Roberts (when Robert was born) and the nurse Peterson. The birth was a hard one and it was seven or thereabouts in the evening when he was born. The neighbors were much concerned. At the house were Grandpa and Grandma Babenroth, Aunt Susie Park mamma's sister, Mrs. Neeley, a Chicago judges wife and her son Eddie. When I first went to Chicago to work I stayed at her place for a time.
Bert and I were married in Evanston by a Lutheran minister. Anne (? last name) played the wedding march. Jess and Olin (Basquin) were our host and hostess. The parents of Bert were there, my brother George and the minister. We took a cab back to Chicago. The first Sunday after we were married we went to church at the Fourth Presbyterian Church. On the way I found ten cents. I forgot to say we were married January 21, 1903. I was twenty-one. The next week I was twenty-two. Bert was two years older. He was born in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. His father had two brothers, Adolph and Fred. Adolph was a Lutheran minister and Fred was a druggist. Soon after our marriage we went to Milwaukee to visit Uncle Adolph. His wife called me misses. We visited the Pabst brewing place and saw how frosted the pipes were. We went up on the steamer (on Lake Michigan). While we lived on Winthrop St. Elsa, Adolph's daughter came to go to Northwestern University and visited us. She was attractive. He, Uncle Adolph, was Mayor of Milwaukee. Uncle Adolph had Elsa, Gerhardt, Edwin another son, who had a professorship at Cornell.
When Bert and I were first married we lived on Webster St. with his parents. Later we moved to Wilson Avenue on Winthrop Place. George Sgoart (?) (maybe George Stuart) lived with us for awhile. They came out on the Elevated from Chicago. People by the name of Smith lived below us and with Smith, George, Bert and Mowry they formed a barbershop quartet. We only had a small patch of grass in front of our flat and I longed for grass trees and flowers. So we answered an ad and got a place in Highland Park where Bob and Malcolm were born
We rented a five-acre place and it was refreshing after our life in the city. I married Robert Babenroth while working at American Can Company. He had a sister Lydia whom we later called "Tante" the German for Auntie. I started at American Can and met Bert right off. He told me later that when he saw me he said, "That's going to be my wife", though he was engaged to another girl at the time. There was also an Aunt Maggie, grandmother Babenroths sister, and a sister Bertha who was a banker's wife in Wisconsin. Sometimes Bert would wheel me in the wheelbarrow up the hill east of us to get a wildflower. We had a few chickens, a horse, a cow and some geese.
When we moved to Emerson St. we attended the Presbyterian Church. Bert and I joined the church and both the boys (Bob and Mac) were baptized. Bert was a soloist, conducted the choir and did many things to interest the boys. I was president of the Mother's Club. I had a class of boys about twelve years old and joined a craft club. We did basketry, made hats and did__?__.
After Mr. Stickel went to Japan we had Mr. Barry for our minister. He had a brother Angus, a daughter and a son. They were playing Good Sama_____? Once and Frank said to Katherine, "Pour on oils, pour on my oils." Bert wrote a violin solo for Mrs. Barry. I have it yet. And a tenor solo for himself. It was beautiful.
We moved from Evanston, where Donald was born, to North Evanston. The two older boys went to Covenant Sunday School and later to the Episcopal Church and they served as attendants. They went to Lincolnwood School. There was a maypole dance there one afternoon and Bob was in the play-Lord Fauntleroy-at the Strand Theater. Bob was a good swimmer and got a medal for it. Until a few years ago I had it and I believe I gave it back to him.
Bert finally made assistant salesman (sales manager?) for the downtown office. He had a stenographer called Louise Shannon. They fell in love. After two years I divorced him. Details later. (No details were ever written!)
In 1900 I was living with my aunt Lovie in Alexis, Illinois. My mother had lost her mind on her way to see her brother Will in Rock Island, Illinois. Papa and I went up there and there was a court hearing and she was confined to a hospital near Moline. There was my Aunt Jennie, her daughter Ajennie(?) and Cora. Jennie was married once and Cora twice. Once to a Mr. Ziefeld and later to one Green. He was a plasterer. Uncle Will was a contractor and he backed an association against the Catholics, which made him lose all his money. After I was married I went down to see mamma once and she knew me, but not for long. Later in 1904 she died, and I went back to Rock Island to the funeral. We buried her in the Stuart burial ground at Reynolds, Illinois where my grandfather Stuart is buried, (including) Charles and Jean, children of Lizzie and Farquhar, cousin Will, son of Lovie and aunt Lovie. The plot has a stone coping around the lot with the name STUART in large letters on all four sides.
Mr. Sexton took a position as superintendent of schools at Sparta, Illinois. He wrote me constantly. We had an understanding, but no engagement, and when mamma was gone I thought he ought to ask me to marry him. Since he didn't. and he told me why later on, I decided to go to business college and be independent. My aunt Lovie said she would rather bury me than have me be a stenographer. In those days there wasn't much for anyone to do but teach, be a dressmaker or something of that sort. I got to Dixon (Illinois) in the evening about nine o'clock and took a bus over to the school. I was very shy and it was a hard thing for me to meet people.
I had a roommate called Cora Harbsush. You will see a picture of us on the Rock River in 1900. Cora, Jack Lambert (future husband) Lucille Conrardy, myself and a friend of Lucille's.
I don't remember meeting Jack altho he was in my class. He was from Grand Island, Nebraska. I went in March and left in August. I later left the dormitory and roomed at Mrs. Culp's. Jack and Bob Kennery did too. Lucille was my roommate then.
Professor Kourse was my prof, but I don't know what subject. One night I had a date with Jack but Prof. Nourse came over first. I was playing the piano for him when I saw Jack and some other men pass by so I quickly got rid of the professor and Jack and I had our date. Sometimes we went boating, and sometimes band concerts. That is the only band concert, out of doors, that I have ever been too.
I had another friend, a doctor's daughter, Sylvia Hudson, from a town near Bloomington, Illinois.
After I moved to Chicago he (Jack) wrote to me and asked me to meet him in front of the Boston Store. I didn't'' know where it was but I found out. At the time I was living in Evanston, near Aunt Lizzie and took my meals out. I took the Northwestern (Chicago and Northwestern RR) in to Chicago but that was too costly so I moved to Chicago, on Chicago Ave. We had a room on the third floor. Jack came to see me when I lived there. We, Sylvia and I, used to stay in bed all day because it was so cold and the only heat was when we burned the newspapers we could find. We had a frying pan and held it over the gas jet and warmed our food and made our coffee. We walked sixteen blocks every day to work. I worked for Dr. Hathaway of Atlanta, Georgia but the office was run by Dr. Charles Baker. He lived at the Saratoga Hotel, next door. I also worked in the p.m.'s(evenings) for another doctor associated with Dr. Hathaway on the N. Shore.
The first time I went there he showed me a closet where he said I could hang my things. Inside was a skeleton.
I was accustomed to seeing them as we had a skull of a young Indian girl in Papa's office and some leg bones with which George and I used to play. It was a great disappointment for him that I didn't scare.
Later I worked a couple of weeks with a lumbering concern and then went to the Telephone Co. (Illinois Bell Telephone Co.) Hearing that my mother wasn't so well I went to see her and so I didn't go back to the telephone Co. because I left without asking for leave. I was practically out of money so I answered ad and went to work for the American Can Co. on the north side.(of Chicago). At Dr. Baker's I was getting $6.00 per week and $8.00 at the lumbering concern but the Can Co. gave me fifteen, which seemed like a fortune to me.
Mr. Kearns was the superintendent of the Can Co., and Reuter was my immediate boss. Then there was Mrs. Cassidy, who was chief stenographer. Jessie Richards was a stenographer too. Then there were two others who I can't remember right off, and the Supt. Of the maps on the fourth floor. I loved my work. My memory for figures was good and I always knew the numbers of our principal customers. No one bothered to look them up. They would say to me,"Miss Stuart, what is Reid Murdolks number?". Etc., and I always knew. I am no good at mathematics but my memory for numbers is good.
Sylvia and I used to pool our money any put in $1.00 a week and when it gave out we would put in more. We got little jars-brown jars of baked beans, and we had coffee, milk and bread. Sometimes we had steak. We had various boy friends we met at work or elsewhere. There was a typewriter salesman called Holbrook. He liked me a little but he liked Sylvia more. She got to staying with him so I turned her out. At the time we were living with Mr. Neeley. I had my books, pictures and piano. I later years I heard she went to California and lived in a very swank neighborhood. I learned this from Jack just a couple of years ago, 1962, when he met her there.
As I said Jack came to Chicago shortly after I did and left at Christmas time. He wrote me several times and also sent letters to Cora Haubaugh as he had lost my address. The last time he wrote Cora wrote back, "I don't think you know Margaret is married." He said he never wrote again, but he did. He wrote me a shorthand letter when I was living in Highland Park when Bob was about ten months old. We lost track of each other after that and I burned his picture. He went back to Grand Island and worked. From there he went to Los Angeles and went into the hotel business.
He was in that business for over eight years or thereabouts. He never cared for girls and didn't have a sweetheart until he was in Redmond and saw a girl filing some papers in an office. He stopped and spoke to her and finally they got to know each other pretty well. They were married in an Episcopal Church on April 16, 1908. I think (his son) John was born in March of the next year. Then they went to Canada, still in the hotel business, and Wyniston C. (Wynn) was born. He told me how the members of Parliament used to come to his place and have their scotch and soda and lean upon the bars and finally move to the tables in a booth. As Jack was in the trade he couldn't be entertained at their club but did entertain him in their homes. I remember lots he told me about those times but there isn't time to tell it now.
He moved to California and sent his two boys to UCLA. He settled his mother's and father's estate, both for $50,000 dollars and after ten years the interest had accrued so eventually it was $38,000. More. He had a sister Eva and a bother Jim. His mother's maiden name was Michaelson and his father's name was John Wilson Lambert. His father was born in Ohio and his mother came from Denmark when she was five. They settled in Grand Island (Nebraska) and his father was an engineer on the Union Pacific for 28 years. There were three Michaelson girls and they worked in their father's hotel.
His mother Mary, called Molly by her father, saved her money and bought property. The father gave each of the girls land.
The home was large, about 14 rooms, but he turned it into a rooming house. It is still there on Grand Island. Jack told about how he would take the dogs, climb on the engine and go hunting, and bring back the loot and distribute it among the trains-men.
Jack told me, in recent years, that he waited for me for eight years, always thinking I would come west some day. He built several houses, two of which I have seen in Beverly Hills, where he lived for twenty years.
Finally I advertised my place in Winfield for sale. A real estate firm at Wilson Avenue was looking for that sort of property but when I interviewed them it wasn't what they wanted and they suggested I take it over myself and become a farmerette. In June of that year we moved out. In the meantime I had to have some money as there wasn't a house on it. Mr. Rudolph, vice-president of (American) Can Co. loaned me $700. And Chris Armbrust put it (the house) up for me. We had a place for two rooms upstairs and a room for living and a combination dining and kitchen. It wasn't plastered and we got some building paper and plastered the sides. We had no chimney or furnace. Pat Berkes put up the chimney, but before that in November Grandpa Babenroth came out and we took out a pane of glass in the kitchen and put a stovepipe through it. Then after the chimney was up we were fairly comfortable. The next thing, Aunt Lovie gave me $300. And I had a basement and I bought a second hand furnace for $65.00. It was a circulating (type) and (we) cut a hole in the floor for the heat to come through. Eventually I borrowed $1500. From D.C. Hull and added a porch and Malcolm made a cement platform for a step and then we put lattice around the underside of the porch. We had lots of lovely trees that Grandpa had planted. A larch, a catalpa, an ash-later destroyed, several elms, a high poplar and many others. Also strawberries, raspberries, pears, cherries, peaches and mulberries.
Our road was in poor shape so I always walked to town (Winfield) down the railroad (Chicago and Northwestern) tracks.
I went to Chicago for part time work. I took a morning train and my lunch and typed envelopes from a list. One day Mrs._?__, the jewelers wife from Evanston saw me at Mandel's and asked me if I would take a job if she could get it for me. Well I don't know how it came about but I was offered a job at the courthouse in Wheaton, Illinois. That was in 1920 and I was there 35 years. At first I did typing for anyone in the office, but later I helped with the probate work for at that time the two offices were run by the County Clerk. The County Court and the Probate Court. Mr. Kuhn was the County Clerk and his two daughters Cora and Retta worked there. Cora for her father and Retta for the Treasurer. They also had a brother Paul, an attorney in Aurora.
One year when work was slack in the County Clerks office I went to the County Recorders. My salary, which had been $25. Per week was increased to $27.00 and when I went back to the County Clerk in September they gave me $30. And that was my sole income for many years. One reason we could get by on so little was because we had no rent to pay. We raised some vegetables and we had fruit and I made jam, etc. The last twelve years I wasdeputy county clerk, as witnessed from the certificates on file in the Clerk's office. I learned enough of the work to write my own letters, interview the attorney's and call the physicians for insanity and epileptic cases. I had several helpers. Marlene, who took care of the tax situation. Goldie, who copied the inheritance tax orders and Helen who took over the birth, death and marriage records.
Ray McDonald was my assistant and we were very good friends. Sometimes we would go out to the Tally-Ho (tavern) and have our lunch and a martini. We didn't have to report when we would be back. In the early years Clarence (Wageman) was ugly but when he finally realized he couldn't do without me, things were "jake".
I even sat in court and swore in the witnesses before Judge Keeney, and one day I handled it all alone when the judge, Clarence and Fay and Henry were in Springfield (Illinois).
I would be there (in the County Clerks office) yet, I believe, but one day Don said, "Why don't you quit while you're well?" So I did. It was hard to leave Bob and his family (in Winfield), but I have never regretted the move to the west as I love it very much.
In 1946 (brother) George's wife Sue died and Olin Basquin also died in a California hospital. George Jr. (Geo. Robert Stuart) thought that his father ought to have a change and as he knew his father would not go without me, asked me to go along too. It was completely rare for me to make a trip of that sort but Clarence Wageman, the County Clerk for whom I worked, gave me a month's salary and we were off for a month. We went through Illinois, through Springfield, over into Missouri, through Joplin and on to Kansas, Carlsbad Caverns, Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon, on to Tulsa, Texas, over the Continental Bridge into Mexico and on to L.A. I remembered that Jack (Lambert) lived in L.A. and George called him up and we made plans to meet him at his apartment, which we did. We spent a few hours there but Jacks voice became so trembly I though we ought to leave, especially as I noticed Elise was anxious. We were invited by Marie and Mary to go to dinner at the Athenean in Pasadena. There was Frances, Jack (Hamilton ?), George and myself.
Jack had said he must see me again, so we made a date for dinner at their place the next Wednesday. I was there several times afterwards. We had taken over the home of Jack Hamilton's brother, Harry, who lived on Nash Drive in Laurel Canyon. It had two nice terraces and the geraniums were as tall as my shoulders when I went out to hang up some of my underwear. One day we.".
1Jessie Margaret Stuart, My Life Story. "At the age of 2 years approximately her parents moved to Ellensburg, Washington where her father practiced medicine for a short time. They then moved to North Henderson, Illinois at the request of the townspeople.
MY LIFE STORY
by
Jessie Margaret Stuart
I was born in South Bend, Nebraska on January 27, 1881, the daughter of Dr.George M. Stuart and Margaret Miller Guthrie. Part of this story is hearsay but most of it is real events that I remember
I was told that my mother had erysipelas on her face when I was born and couldn't see me until I was six-week-old.
My father and tow brothers came over (to the U.S.) from Canada before I was born and attended Rush Medical College in Chicago. When my Uncle Charlie took a post graduate course at John Hopkins (medical school) I believe it was my father that took over his practice, which was to his advantage, as you will see later in hi story.
My parents were married in Gilcrist, Illinois. The Guthrie home (Nana's maternal grandparents) was on the Edwards River and they often went boating on the river. I had an uncle, Rufus Park, who had married my mother's older sister, Martha Guthrie, and they lived across the river from my grandparents. Gilcrist is in Mercer County.
We lived in South Bend until I was about two years old. My father was a physician and surgeon. He also had a drug store and had an assistant by the name of Look. They (parents) decided to go west and took the train to San Francisco, California. From there we took a boat to Portland, Oregon and then the stagecoach to Ellensburg, Washington.
The next thing I remember was going on an overnight camping trip and in the night I got up from the tent where I was sleeping and climbed into the wagon where my mother was sleeping. As I stepped on the wheel you could tell how cold it was.
When I was four years old I was sent to a private kindergarten run by Madame Lorendo and Paul Bree Lorendo. There were a number of children there; among them Mason Katey. We liked each other. One day the bird died (at the kindergarten) and we had a funeral. The boys acting as horses which we drove with cords as reins. We put the bird in a box with cotton in it and drove to the place where we buried it. I used to walk to the Academy along a little stream along which were bins filled with various kinds of grain. I liked the barley best and would let it slip thru my fingers. I like barley to this day.
When we first went to Ellensburg we rented a house-a two story one. There was a railing (on the stairs) up to the second floor but no railing on the step at the top. I used to like to play with my dolls up there. It was dangerous and I was forbidden to go up there and they took the bottom three steps off. But I put my toes in the places where they took the steps off and got up there anyway.
I had a dog named Carlo and he used to come up on the top step and lay himself down beside me so if I started to fall he could grab me. If my parents called me I wouldn't answer. There was a little stream close by and usually it was dry but in the spring was a raging torrent. There was a plank across the stream and one day, disobeying as usual, I walked across the plank and slipped and fell in. I was being carried down the stream when Carlo jumped in and swam after me and brought me safely back to the bank. He was very faithful. One day to test his loyalty my father put me on his knee and put a hand on me and told me to yell hard. He slapped his own hand and I yelled. Carlo made a jump and grabbed my father's arm. It proved he wouldn't let anyone hurt me.
My father had a house built on the outskirts of town. He had his office there and mamma helped with the women patients. The Indians were numerous around there.
We had a couple (who worked for us). Nancy who did the washing and cleaning and Toby who took care of father's horses. Lucy also came to wash and she had a little papoose, which she fastened to a board and leaned it up against a tree.
My father was the physician for the Northern Pacific (railroad), I believe it was, and there was a lot of dynamiting going on and many were injured. Papa built a small hospital for his patients and had a nurse called Jim Agnew and a Chinese to clean up. One day Jim and the Chinaman had an awful fight and I remember seeing a lot of blood on the floor.
The Indians used to gallop past our house and the squaws too. One day I saw a squaw fall heavily but no one paid any attention to her and she just got up and went on. Sometimes they (the Indians) would build fires and dance around them with their bottles of whiskey, in a circle around the fire. I was very frightened.
While we were in Ellensburg my brother George was born (George Bree Stuart) on April 25th, three years younger than I. One day while we were driving on a mountain road the baby fell out of the buggy. He had a long robe as was usual in those days. We had a time stopping the horse.
Also while we lived here I had Malaria fever and inflanitary (inflammatory) rheumatism. If mamma's dress even touched my leg I would scream with pain.
I neglected to say I had a brother Alec (or Alex), born in South Bend, who was 14 months younger than I but died before we went west. I think his birthday was May 7th.
When I was four or five years old we got a petition from people in North Henderson, Illinois saying they would employ my father as their physician if he would return. They remembered my father from the time he had taken Uncle Charlie's practice. Nancy and Toby wanted to come back to Illinois with us. On the train we had feather ticks in place of a berth. My mother used to read me stories from the bible and I looked forward seeing my new home. I thought it would look like Jerusalem with towers and whitewashed buildings. My disappointment was great when I got off the train at that little Illinois town.
We bought a home in North Henderson and were very happy there. The school was on a little hill north of us. I could reach it after the school bell rang.
I had a friend, Florence Stacey, whose parents were farmers. We went to school together and she remembered how I looked the first day I was there. I had a little blue and white plaid dress. Until a few years ago I had that picture.
One day when I was about twelve years old I was standing on the steps of the school and a boy who liked me started down the steps to go home, when he slipped and fell. He looked so funny I had to laugh, which made him very mad. I couldn't stop laughing when I got outside and my teacher said, "If you can't stop laughing you may go inside." I got my face straightened out and started back but the minute I got in I started all over again. I don't know what happened after that.
My first teacher was Tillie Matthews. One time I was sick and she brought me some candy from a box that had been given her by the principal. I will think of his name in a minute. She liked my brother George better than she liked me.
There was a girl in town called Orpha Smith, daughter of Jud Smith who ran a hardware store. I thought she was the prettiest girl I ever saw. One day there was an entertainment in town and they said they would give the prize to the prettiest girl in the room. Of course I thought Orpha would get it but what to my surprise, I got it. I still don't think it was fair.
Mr. Smith married again. A Mrs. Callison who had a son, Ray. Ray liked me. They lived in the other part of town from us.
The Swedish Lutheran Church was in that part of town on top of a hill. Every Christmas George and I would get up at four o'clock and go to the services.
We didn't understand what was said but we liked the church windows lined with candles. When we got home we looked to see if our stockings were filled but they never were. Christmas Eve we went to church where they had some entertainment. I never got a present but some of the children got lovely ones. My father and mother were too busy to do much for us.
There was a hitching rack at the church and there were many large maple trees there. We used the hitching rack to "skin the cat" and we would climb the trees and crawl from one limb to another and play tree-tag. There was a so slight of hill at the side of our place and we used to slide down the hill
I liked to play with the boys better than the girls. One of my friends was Lorna DeForest. She had lots of books and I spent the afternoons reading. One day they wanted me to go with them when they went skating. I didn't even hear them and when I finished the book I asked where Lorna was. Mrs. DeForest said, "Oh you didn't hear them? They went off without you."
I had some other girl friends I suppose. I don't remember any. Some of the boys and men I knew were; Clint Allen, Ray Callison, Harry Holmes and his older brother Fran. I used to take painting lessons from their sister Jennie. It was (their house) about a quarter of a mile from town.
Nearly every afternoon Harry would ride past our place on his pony. I think he liked Orpha better than he did me.
On winter nights, in North Henderson, we used to have skating parties in the country. It was a pond and we would build fires around it. I never was a good skater as my ankles were too weak. After a while we were invited in the house and had a lot of oyster (stew) supper and later went home in a bobsled all wrapped up in blankets.
In high school I had a teacher, Leon J. Sexton, from Viola, Illinois. His father was in the hardware business. His mother was plump and dark and his father tall. One time I spent the weekend with them. He had two sisters, Dilla and Ada. Leon and I ate breakfast in the kitchen. He told me later on that his mother didn't think I cared for him very much, which was true. One day they had a party for me. The girls were dressed nicely and I was too. I had been to Northwestern (University) and had a cream colored dress which had a yoke that could be taken out and it was an evening dress, or left in and (it was) an afternoon dress.
When I graduated (from high school) Mr. Sexton gave me a bouquet of yellow roses. The first I ever had in my life. One time we went to Galesburg and when we returned the neighbors thought we had been married. He lived some twenty miles from North Henderson and sometimes stayed all night. We used to take long drives. When I went to Evanston Mr. Sexton went as far as Galesburg with me. We had dinner at the hotel, which was a treat, and there was a piano in the parlor and I played for him. After I had been up there he came to see me.
A few days before I reached Evanston my cousin Marie was married to Edwin Fretz and they went to Japan where he taught at the Imperial University of Tokyo. Their daughter Mary was born there. They visited us (Bert and Nana) in Evanston on Emerson St. when they came back. I remember Mary made Bob (son) be on her horse and she caught hold of his legs and propelled him on. I was embarrassed to feed them all, but I had a good dinner for them.
The first day I got to Evanston I took a cab and went to my aunts. No one knew I was coming this particular day. I paid the cabby and walked up the steps at 1942 Sherman St. and walked through a large entrance hall, then though the library and into the living room. Everyone was surprised to see me. There was Aunt Lizzie, whose house it was, Jess, my mother's youngest sister, Olin H. Basquin, who later married Jess and a lawyer whose name I have forgotten.
He and I used to play the piano together. When Aunt Lissie went to visit my mother she said to Mr. Kern, that was his name, " Don't let the girls play any secular music." The first Sunday she was gone Mr. Kern said to me, "Play that good hymn Miss Amboleona Snow."
I was married to Robert Ludolph Babenroth (Bert) in 1903. Of that marriage three sons were born. Robert Stuart in 1905, Malcolm Kenneth in 1907 and Donald William in 1911. Robert and Malcolm were born in Highland Park, Illinois and Donald in Evanston. My doctor was Dr. Roberts (when Robert was born) and the nurse Peterson. The birth was a hard one and it was seven or thereabouts in the evening when he was born. The neighbors were much concerned. At the house were Grandpa and Grandma Babenroth, Aunt Susie Park mamma's sister, Mrs. Neeley, a Chicago judges wife and her son Eddie. When I first went to Chicago to work I stayed at her place for a time.
Bert and I were married in Evanston by a Lutheran minister. Anne (? last name) played the wedding march. Jess and Olin (Basquin) were our host and hostess. The parents of Bert were there, my brother George and the minister. We took a cab back to Chicago. The first Sunday after we were married we went to church at the Fourth Presbyterian Church. On the way I found ten cents. I forgot to say we were married January 21, 1903. I was twenty-one. The next week I was twenty-two. Bert was two years older. He was born in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. His father had two brothers, Adolph and Fred. Adolph was a Lutheran minister and Fred was a druggist. Soon after our marriage we went to Milwaukee to visit Uncle Adolph. His wife called me misses. We visited the Pabst brewing place and saw how frosted the pipes were. We went up on the steamer (on Lake Michigan). While we lived on Winthrop St. Elsa, Adolph's daughter came to go to Northwestern University and visited us. She was attractive. He, Uncle Adolph, was Mayor of Milwaukee. Uncle Adolph had Elsa, Gerhardt, Edwin another son, who had a professorship at Cornell.
When Bert and I were first married we lived on Webster St. with his parents. Later we moved to Wilson Avenue on Winthrop Place. George Sgoart (?) (maybe George Stuart) lived with us for awhile. They came out on the Elevated from Chicago. People by the name of Smith lived below us and with Smith, George, Bert and Mowry they formed a barbershop quartet. We only had a small patch of grass in front of our flat and I longed for grass trees and flowers. So we answered an ad and got a place in Highland Park where Bob and Malcolm were born
We rented a five-acre place and it was refreshing after our life in the city. I married Robert Babenroth while working at American Can Company. He had a sister Lydia whom we later called "Tante" the German for Auntie. I started at American Can and met Bert right off. He told me later that when he saw me he said, "That's going to be my wife", though he was engaged to another girl at the time. There was also an Aunt Maggie, grandmother Babenroths sister, and a sister Bertha who was a banker's wife in Wisconsin. Sometimes Bert would wheel me in the wheelbarrow up the hill east of us to get a wildflower. We had a few chickens, a horse, a cow and some geese.
When we moved to Emerson St. we attended the Presbyterian Church. Bert and I joined the church and both the boys (Bob and Mac) were baptized. Bert was a soloist, conducted the choir and did many things to interest the boys. I was president of the Mother's Club. I had a class of boys about twelve years old and joined a craft club. We did basketry, made hats and did__?__.
After Mr. Stickel went to Japan we had Mr. Barry for our minister. He had a brother Angus, a daughter and a son. They were playing Good Sama_____? Once and Frank said to Katherine, "Pour on oils, pour on my oils." Bert wrote a violin solo for Mrs. Barry. I have it yet. And a tenor solo for himself. It was beautiful.
We moved from Evanston, where Donald was born, to North Evanston. The two older boys went to Covenant Sunday School and later to the Episcopal Church and they served as attendants. They went to Lincolnwood School. There was a maypole dance there one afternoon and Bob was in the play-Lord Fauntleroy-at the Strand Theater. Bob was a good swimmer and got a medal for it. Until a few years ago I had it and I believe I gave it back to him.
Bert finally made assistant salesman (sales manager?) for the downtown office. He had a stenographer called Louise Shannon. They fell in love. After two years I divorced him. Details later. (No details were ever written!)
In 1900 I was living with my aunt Lovie in Alexis, Illinois. My mother had lost her mind on her way to see her brother Will in Rock Island, Illinois. Papa and I went up there and there was a court hearing and she was confined to a hospital near Moline. There was my Aunt Jennie, her daughter Ajennie(?) and Cora. Jennie was married once and Cora twice. Once to a Mr. Ziefeld and later to one Green. He was a plasterer. Uncle Will was a contractor and he backed an association against the Catholics, which made him lose all his money. After I was married I went down to see mamma once and she knew me, but not for long. Later in 1904 she died, and I went back to Rock Island to the funeral. We buried her in the Stuart burial ground at Reynolds, Illinois where my grandfather Stuart is buried, (including) Charles and Jean, children of Lizzie and Farquhar, cousin Will, son of Lovie and aunt Lovie. The plot has a stone coping around the lot with the name STUART in large letters on all four sides.
Mr. Sexton took a position as superintendent of schools at Sparta, Illinois. He wrote me constantly. We had an understanding, but no engagement, and when mamma was gone I thought he ought to ask me to marry him. Since he didn't. and he told me why later on, I decided to go to business college and be independent. My aunt Lovie said she would rather bury me than have me be a stenographer. In those days there wasn't much for anyone to do but teach, be a dressmaker or something of that sort. I got to Dixon (Illinois) in the evening about nine o'clock and took a bus over to the school. I was very shy and it was a hard thing for me to meet people.
I had a roommate called Cora Harbsush. You will see a picture of us on the Rock River in 1900. Cora, Jack Lambert (future husband) Lucille Conrardy, myself and a friend of Lucille's.
I don't remember meeting Jack altho he was in my class. He was from Grand Island, Nebraska. I went in March and left in August. I later left the dormitory and roomed at Mrs. Culp's. Jack and Bob Kennery did too. Lucille was my roommate then.
Professor Kourse was my prof, but I don't know what subject. One night I had a date with Jack but Prof. Nourse came over first. I was playing the piano for him when I saw Jack and some other men pass by so I quickly got rid of the professor and Jack and I had our date. Sometimes we went boating, and sometimes band concerts. That is the only band concert, out of doors, that I have ever been too.
I had another friend, a doctor's daughter, Sylvia Hudson, from a town near Bloomington, Illinois.
After I moved to Chicago he (Jack) wrote to me and asked me to meet him in front of the Boston Store. I didn't'' know where it was but I found out. At the time I was living in Evanston, near Aunt Lizzie and took my meals out. I took the Northwestern (Chicago and Northwestern RR) in to Chicago but that was too costly so I moved to Chicago, on Chicago Ave. We had a room on the third floor. Jack came to see me when I lived there. We, Sylvia and I, used to stay in bed all day because it was so cold and the only heat was when we burned the newspapers we could find. We had a frying pan and held it over the gas jet and warmed our food and made our coffee. We walked sixteen blocks every day to work. I worked for Dr. Hathaway of Atlanta, Georgia but the office was run by Dr. Charles Baker. He lived at the Saratoga Hotel, next door. I also worked in the p.m.'s(evenings) for another doctor associated with Dr. Hathaway on the N. Shore.
The first time I went there he showed me a closet where he said I could hang my things. Inside was a skeleton.
I was accustomed to seeing them as we had a skull of a young Indian girl in Papa's office and some leg bones with which George and I used to play. It was a great disappointment for him that I didn't scare.
Later I worked a couple of weeks with a lumbering concern and then went to the Telephone Co. (Illinois Bell Telephone Co.) Hearing that my mother wasn't so well I went to see her and so I didn't go back to the telephone Co. because I left without asking for leave. I was practically out of money so I answered ad and went to work for the American Can Co. on the north side.(of Chicago). At Dr. Baker's I was getting $6.00 per week and $8.00 at the lumbering concern but the Can Co. gave me fifteen, which seemed like a fortune to me.
Mr. Kearns was the superintendent of the Can Co., and Reuter was my immediate boss. Then there was Mrs. Cassidy, who was chief stenographer. Jessie Richards was a stenographer too. Then there were two others who I can't remember right off, and the Supt. Of the maps on the fourth floor. I loved my work. My memory for figures was good and I always knew the numbers of our principal customers. No one bothered to look them up. They would say to me,"Miss Stuart, what is Reid Murdolks number?". Etc., and I always knew. I am no good at mathematics but my memory for numbers is good.
Sylvia and I used to pool our money any put in $1.00 a week and when it gave out we would put in more. We got little jars-brown jars of baked beans, and we had coffee, milk and bread. Sometimes we had steak. We had various boy friends we met at work or elsewhere. There was a typewriter salesman called Holbrook. He liked me a little but he liked Sylvia more. She got to staying with him so I turned her out. At the time we were living with Mr. Neeley. I had my books, pictures and piano. I later years I heard she went to California and lived in a very swank neighborhood. I learned this from Jack just a couple of years ago, 1962, when he met her there.
As I said Jack came to Chicago shortly after I did and left at Christmas time. He wrote me several times and also sent letters to Cora Haubaugh as he had lost my address. The last time he wrote Cora wrote back, "I don't think you know Margaret is married." He said he never wrote again, but he did. He wrote me a shorthand letter when I was living in Highland Park when Bob was about ten months old. We lost track of each other after that and I burned his picture. He went back to Grand Island and worked. From there he went to Los Angeles and went into the hotel business.
He was in that business for over eight years or thereabouts. He never cared for girls and didn't have a sweetheart until he was in Redmond and saw a girl filing some papers in an office. He stopped and spoke to her and finally they got to know each other pretty well. They were married in an Episcopal Church on April 16, 1908. I think (his son) John was born in March of the next year. Then they went to Canada, still in the hotel business, and Wyniston C. (Wynn) was born. He told me how the members of Parliament used to come to his place and have their scotch and soda and lean upon the bars and finally move to the tables in a booth. As Jack was in the trade he couldn't be entertained at their club but did entertain him in their homes. I remember lots he told me about those times but there isn't time to tell it now.
He moved to California and sent his two boys to UCLA. He settled his mother's and father's estate, both for $50,000 dollars and after ten years the interest had accrued so eventually it was $38,000. More. He had a sister Eva and a bother Jim. His mother's maiden name was Michaelson and his father's name was John Wilson Lambert. His father was born in Ohio and his mother came from Denmark when she was five. They settled in Grand Island (Nebraska) and his father was an engineer on the Union Pacific for 28 years. There were three Michaelson girls and they worked in their father's hotel.
His mother Mary, called Molly by her father, saved her money and bought property. The father gave each of the girls land.
The home was large, about 14 rooms, but he turned it into a rooming house. It is still there on Grand Island. Jack told about how he would take the dogs, climb on the engine and go hunting, and bring back the loot and distribute it among the trains-men.
Jack told me, in recent years, that he waited for me for eight years, always thinking I would come west some day. He built several houses, two of which I have seen in Beverly Hills, where he lived for twenty years.
Finally I advertised my place in Winfield for sale. A real estate firm at Wilson Avenue was looking for that sort of property but when I interviewed them it wasn't what they wanted and they suggested I take it over myself and become a farmerette. In June of that year we moved out. In the meantime I had to have some money as there wasn't a house on it. Mr. Rudolph, vice-president of (American) Can Co. loaned me $700. And Chris Armbrust put it (the house) up for me. We had a place for two rooms upstairs and a room for living and a combination dining and kitchen. It wasn't plastered and we got some building paper and plastered the sides. We had no chimney or furnace. Pat Berkes put up the chimney, but before that in November Grandpa Babenroth came out and we took out a pane of glass in the kitchen and put a stovepipe through it. Then after the chimney was up we were fairly comfortable. The next thing, Aunt Lovie gave me $300. And I had a basement and I bought a second hand furnace for $65.00. It was a circulating (type) and (we) cut a hole in the floor for the heat to come through. Eventually I borrowed $1500. From D.C. Hull and added a porch and Malcolm made a cement platform for a step and then we put lattice around the underside of the porch. We had lots of lovely trees that Grandpa had planted. A larch, a catalpa, an ash-later destroyed, several elms, a high poplar and many others. Also strawberries, raspberries, pears, cherries, peaches and mulberries.
Our road was in poor shape so I always walked to town (Winfield) down the railroad (Chicago and Northwestern) tracks.
I went to Chicago for part time work. I took a morning train and my lunch and typed envelopes from a list. One day Mrs._?__, the jewelers wife from Evanston saw me at Mandel's and asked me if I would take a job if she could get it for me. Well I don't know how it came about but I was offered a job at the courthouse in Wheaton, Illinois. That was in 1920 and I was there 35 years. At first I did typing for anyone in the office, but later I helped with the probate work for at that time the two offices were run by the County Clerk. The County Court and the Probate Court. Mr. Kuhn was the County Clerk and his two daughters Cora and Retta worked there. Cora for her father and Retta for the Treasurer. They also had a brother Paul, an attorney in Aurora.
One year when work was slack in the County Clerks office I went to the County Recorders. My salary, which had been $25. Per week was increased to $27.00 and when I went back to the County Clerk in September they gave me $30. And that was my sole income for many years. One reason we could get by on so little was because we had no rent to pay. We raised some vegetables and we had fruit and I made jam, etc. The last twelve years I wasdeputy county clerk, as witnessed from the certificates on file in the Clerk's office. I learned enough of the work to write my own letters, interview the attorney's and call the physicians for insanity and epileptic cases. I had several helpers. Marlene, who took care of the tax situation. Goldie, who copied the inheritance tax orders and Helen who took over the birth, death and marriage records.
Ray McDonald was my assistant and we were very good friends. Sometimes we would go out to the Tally-Ho (tavern) and have our lunch and a martini. We didn't have to report when we would be back. In the early years Clarence (Wageman) was ugly but when he finally realized he couldn't do without me, things were "jake".
I even sat in court and swore in the witnesses before Judge Keeney, and one day I handled it all alone when the judge, Clarence and Fay and Henry were in Springfield (Illinois).
I would be there (in the County Clerks office) yet, I believe, but one day Don said, "Why don't you quit while you're well?" So I did. It was hard to leave Bob and his family (in Winfield), but I have never regretted the move to the west as I love it very much.
In 1946 (brother) George's wife Sue died and Olin Basquin also died in a California hospital. George Jr. (Geo. Robert Stuart) thought that his father ought to have a change and as he knew his father would not go without me, asked me to go along too. It was completely rare for me to make a trip of that sort but Clarence Wageman, the County Clerk for whom I worked, gave me a month's salary and we were off for a month. We went through Illinois, through Springfield, over into Missouri, through Joplin and on to Kansas, Carlsbad Caverns, Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon, on to Tulsa, Texas, over the Continental Bridge into Mexico and on to L.A. I remembered that Jack (Lambert) lived in L.A. and George called him up and we made plans to meet him at his apartment, which we did. We spent a few hours there but Jacks voice became so trembly I though we ought to leave, especially as I noticed Elise was anxious. We were invited by Marie and Mary to go to dinner at the Athenean in Pasadena. There was Frances, Jack (Hamilton ?), George and myself.
Jack had said he must see me again, so we made a date for dinner at their place the next Wednesday. I was there several times afterwards. We had taken over the home of Jack Hamilton's brother, Harry, who lived on Nash Drive in Laurel Canyon. It had two nice terraces and the geraniums were as tall as my shoulders when I went out to hang up some of my underwear. One day we.".