Our Family History According to Don Fletcher
To get started on this tape, there is a lot of spaces in there that I do
not know anything about, so when I run into them we will maybe fill them in some
other time. Now it's to my
understanding that my dad was born in a boat coming to this country from
Germany, and evidently they ended up in Colon, Michigan.
Also, someone told me that he had a brother that disappeared when he was
about twelve years old and they never heard about him again afterwards.
Well, Daddy never talked anything about his growing up as a child and a
teenager and about his daddy. I
don't think he ever spoke about his dad or his mother; I don't recall any
conversation along that line at all. It's
also my understanding that his mother, I saw her picture, she was absolutely a
beautiful lady, and she passed away at approximately 32 yrs. old.
Well, the story goes that daddy and his father traveled to Colon Mi. (but
that must have been after his mother passed away) and they got there late in the
evening. The restaurant was closed, however Grandpa got the fellow who
was cleaning up (which turned out to be the owner), and he went upstairs and got
one of the two ladies that stayed upstairs.
She came down and cooked their supper.
9:00 the next morning, she and Grandpa got married.
Now, I'm just guessing, but evidently they returned to Colon and Daddy
worked somewhere along the line as an apprentice blacksmith like his daddy and
he always spoke of Warren Web, who I met several times in Colon, Michigan.
He always spoke of him as a cousin.
I got the opinion somewhere that Daddy's first wife was from the Web
family.
Anyway, the first trace I got was when Daddy went to Web City, Missouri
and set up a blacksmith shop in the back of the shop and an undertaking parlor
in the front. He at that time had a $3000 horse drawn hearse.
Later, he didn't pay his insurance on time and it happened that night
that it all burnt up.
The second trace I have is when he ended up in Lebanon, Missouri, where
he got acquainted with Eric McNeil and his wife was an Adams and my daddy met my
mother, who was a sister to Eric McNeil's wife. A week from the next day they
were married. She had one boy from the previous marriage and by that time
Daddy had five dead and four living: Gordon,
Hugh, Mertyl, and Feebee.
Well, Feebee ended up in Glenwood, Iowa and took up teaching there at
that school for I don't know how many years.
Mertyl went to live with Gordon and them came back home and then went to
California and married a guy by the name of Guy O'Rielly and they adopted a boy
and a girl. I don't remember their
names at the present time. Anyway,
Hugh and Gordon left home. Hugh
went to Denver and Gordon went to Bebalo where he worked for the gas company;
Hugh was a barber. Feebee married a
fellow by the name of Hubert Johnson in McPaul, Iowa.
My two older sisters went to Iowa at one time and went to work in the
Feeble Mind Institute in Glenwood where Feebee had some knowledge of the
situation.
There also was some talk that my dad worked for Wringling Brothers,
before they went in with Barnum and Baily, as a blacksmith.
I know he went to work in Lebanon for Jack Ingland in a blacksmith shop
and woodwork and so on. He worked
for Jack for about three to four years then bought a 160 acre farm three and one
half miles to the east of Lebanon. Later
he turned over three to four acres at the corner of it where the Nobb School was
built. That's where those kids went
to school. Now, Zoe was the oldest
after my daddy and my mother were married.
She went to Iowa and worked for Feebee due to the fact that Feebee was
teaching school. She helped work on
the farm for Johnson. She later
married a fellow by the name of Fed MacAlexander.
Evelyn went to work at the Feeble Mind Institute, as I said in Glenwood.
She married a fellow by the name of Lonnie Leet.
She has two boys, Bob and Maryl. Maryl
passed away a few years ago. He and
his wife didn't get along too well and finally they separated.
He later was Head Electrician at Joliet Penn.
Bob started a business of his own and was really a self-made man and was
very capable. The last time I saw Bob, I visited him in Orlando, Florida.
He retired when he was 55 and he bought a home on the edge of the golf
course in Orlando. The home is valued at about a half million dollars.
He at one time had bought he and his wife each a Cadillac when he lived
in Lockport, Illinois. I also visited him there.
They were doing pretty good so they sold what they had and moved to
Florida and I visited him there once in his home.
Martin, who was a year and nine months older than Bob, married and Indian
girl in Oklahoma. In fact, he was
married five times and it ended up that his fifth wife was in a wheelchair and
he ran a welding shop and built a few houses around Chicago.
He finally passed away with cancer.
Zoe had one child, Louis that later in life was the manager of the
Anheuser-Busch office in Kansas City. I
visited him there.
Sadie married a man who worked as a farm hand in Benpaul, his name was
Kaughlin. They lived together okay.
He finally passed away and Sadie got cancer and finally passed away.
George got married and he and his wife had five children.
She passed away and his family got split up.
When he passed away, his kids were scattered around Chicago. I kept one of the girls for a couple of years and they all
ended up, as far as I know, in Chicago.
Ina married a fellow from Chicago, his name was Irvine Groody. They had
two girls, Linda and Margo. The
girls went into the hotel business and got crowded out with the advancement of
the town and they went to Blythe were they bought a bigger motel and they did
all right, the girls done good.
Earl, which was the baby of the family, ended up in L.A. and was quite
sickly for a couple of years. He
had a heart murmur and so on and he finally passed away.
He did have three girls. They
didn't make big money, but they did okay.
Well, I'll have to start on Don, who you would have to say is the bull of
the woods. Anyway, I done real good through life. I married a lady from Hot-Springs, Arkansas and we had two
girls. Both have done exceptionally
good. We had it nice living through
life and both of my girls ended up with good jobs and have done very good.
I worked at the oil fields, was in the service for three months then my
feet went bad and they kicked me out of there, I then went to Chicago and went
to work for ----Soy Products division in 4 1/2 months.
I was head miller, yeah, making $0.74 an hour, boy.
Then came along the second world war and I went to work welding on the
155mm on the 8 inch Howitzer and working on x-ray work and so on.
I ended up buying a farm up in Battle Creek, Michigan and worked in the
Lime Quarry up there and later worked at Folsom Prison for 12 years and retired
form there. I met Johnny Cash up
there. He'd have starved to death
if he hadn't married one of the Carter family, but he done okay. I have no complaints about the way I was raised and my home
life and everything and I've got two girls that I'm really proud of.
I have some grandkids and great-grandkids and living pretty good.
I was married a second time, it lasted 14 months.
Quite a little of that green got out of my billfold, so I left that.
I'm living with a really nice little lady now.
We are living together and get along real good and we're happy and proud
of our families and we do the best we can.
Zoe-Don's
oldest sister-well, her daughter:
Glenn and Lois Blackburn
12902 W. 77th Terrace
Shawnee, Kansas 66216
913-631-0875
Ina-one
of her daughters in Blythe
Linda Guess
4489 Whales Rd.
Blythe, Ca. 92225
Mobile Home Crt. 29
619-922-6021
