On Christmas Eve, in 1916, our mother was a six month old baby. Her mother had gotten pneumonia and was in the bedroom dieing. One of Grandma Evelyn's sisters had pulled Mama's cradle closer to the kitchen cook stove to keep her warm. Mother told the story that had been told to her, that she was sleeping and all of a sudden she let out a cry. And one of her aunt's said to the other: "Def just died." Someone then came from the bedroom to tell those waiting in the kitchen that our grandmother had passed. Her name was Evelyn but the family called her Def. I wish I knew why.
Mother was the youngest of nine children. Grandpa Theodore tried to keep the family together but several of the older children were already married - mother has nieces older than herself - and eventually the three youngest children went to live with other relatives. While researching family genealogy recently, I found that Grampa Theodore had remarried and I wonder why he didn't take the children back to raise. Another story we've missed.
Most of my memories are of my Scovil grandparents. They lived a block away from us at one time on the Southside and they were a large and gregarious family. When my parents were married in November, 1935 - I was born in July, 1936 - they spent their wedding night in an upstairs bedroom in the house on Charlton Street. Our dad said the next morning, he noted to his father that the hot water bottle that had been put in the bed to keep the bed warm was still warm. Grandpa Frank not to be outdone, remembered that a hot water bottle of ice had been put in the bed on the night he was married and the receptacle was so hot, they used the water inside to make coffee the next morning.
Grandpa bought a coal mine near Pottstown. The deal was made with a handshake. Dad and Uncle Stan helped him work the mine. Small family coal mines were common in that area.(There is an excellent book about coal mining in Peoria County that can be bought through the Peoria Historical Society. I have a copy but have loaned it to someone so cannot remember the name) A family story is that one time a huge chunk of coal fell on Grandpa and Dad and Uncle Stan pulled it off. Later no one could believe these two teen aged men could lift such an immense stone but they had and saved their fathers life. The man that Grandpa had bought the mine from died and during the depression, the man's son took the mine back as their were no papers on the sale. Grandpa bought a houseboat and moved to the river and trapped muskrat and beaver and fished. In the living room at their house on Charlton Street, there was usually a rack with a stretched fishing net that Grandpa was working on. He repaired it with a tool similar to crochet needles.
Grandma and the children were on ADC, Aid to Dependent Children, because Grandpa's address was elsewhere. Dad, who was a precinct committeeman......and that's another story, helped him get a job as a bridge tender on the Franklin Street Bridge when Grandpa was in his 60's so that he could qualify for Social Security for he and Grandma..
He told us children that his grandfather went to sea on a pirate boat with Captain Cook. While doing research, I read that Great, great grandfather, Cyrus Porter Scovil had been a cook as a young boy on a sailing vessel. Grampa Frank had a tendency to imbellish.
The first joke I ever heard was one he told us. The State Mental Hospital was a huge complex in Bartonville and he said that one of the patients was walking close to the fence one day and he saw a farmer in the field working. The patient asked what he was doing and the farmer said he was putting manure on his strawberries. The inmate replied: "And they say we're crazy, we put cream and sugar on ours."
When he died, there was a huge party at my parents house and someone told the story that Grandpa Frank had told about going to an Irish wake and someone had taken the casket that was in the middle of the room and stood it in the corner to make room for all the dancing and partying. He always said that someone put a drink in the corpse's hand but that may just be a story.
I will post more on Grandma Irene in another post. She's the one we had around the longest and there are many more stories on her.
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