Tag Archives: John F. Yegerlehner

And may I introduce you to….Gladys

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: July 18, 1942 Envelope front

: July 18, 1942 Envelope back

: July 18, 1942, p.1

: July 18, 1942, p. 2

Letter Transcription:

Kentland, Ind.

7-18-42

Dear Daddy,

I rec’d your Wed. letter this morning and from it I thought you would be on your way home but since I have not rec’d letters of later date or word otherwise I am still in a “wonder”. Well, I will send this air mail special hoping you will get it Sun. evening.

We are still in the midst of a heat wave, but it looks like we may get some rain this evening. We haven’t done much this hot weather but loaf around. Ruth¹ is still here. Hasn’t heard from Floyd² and doesn’t know when he will be back from his work in Michigan. I rather look for him sometime over this week-end but she doesn’t think so.

I haven’t tried to write this week and keep up the news because I thought you would be home. Parr resigned as county agent and took a job with Allison-They are going to sell + move to Danville-he will work in Indpls. I think the new county agent will take Parr’s house.

Mark is running around in bathing trunks this afternoon. He is going

(page 2) to turn the spray on after while –then he + Jimmy + Bobby will have a good time.

John is composing today. It is too hot for him to get out. There is a breeze stirring and we have everything open that we can so we are keeping as cool as possible with the breeze coming in now + then. The boys have been watching the thermometer all day and keep us informed as to the heat. The last report was 101°.

Will send Mark to the P.O. with this, so it will go out on the 4:30-

Love Mother

______________________

I just have to wonder, what happened to my grandfather? The last letter he wrote was postmarked July 15^th. In 1942, July 15^th was a Wednesday. His letter was written and shipped out at 8:30 PM the same day. My grandmother received it Saturday morning which prompted her to write the above letter. Now presumably, my grandfather went to work Thursday morning (July 16^th), found his commanding officer, and firmly demanded that he be granted leave. So then what happened? When did he finally leave Norfolk? He likely took the train home since he did not have the family car in Norfolk. The trip from Norfolk to Kentland is slightly less than 1,000 miles. In an earlier letter, my grandfather was reimbursed for his travel expenses and he commented on the mileage the Navy calculated for his trip from Kentland to Norfolk. I don’t know how long the train trip was, but since they discussed my grandmother taking a pullman (or sleeping car) when she came to Norfolk to visit, I would surmise that the trip takes a couple days or is a long overnighter. In his letter on Wednesday, my grandfather said he would either write before he left or call on the way home. By Saturday, it was three days later. Did he arrive later that day? Why didn’t he send word? Or did he? Since these events fall into one of those voids where letters were not necessary, I will probably never know the answer to these questions.

I continue to sort through the documents in my grandfather’s Navy file this week. I do know that he left Norfolk before the 20^th and he was definitely home in Kentland on the 22^nd. I am currently working on reconstructing a timeline for the next two weeks of my grandfather’s life in 1942. I’ll keep you posted!

Notes:

Ruth (Salter) Yegerlehner was Floyd’s wife
Floyd Yegerlehner was my grandfather’s youngest brother.

You are the oldest and she needs a man there

Surname Saturday – Schiele

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My grandfather’s middle name was Schiele. It was a common custom in the past to saddle a child with the maiden name of its mother as a middle name. My grandfather was the “lucky” child in the family who got Schiele as his middle name. Have I mentioned that my grandfather hated his name and preferred to be called “Jake”? My grandparents continued the tradition and gave my grandmother’s maiden name to my uncle John, hence John Foster Yegerlehner. I hope my uncle didn’t dislike his middle name as much as his father detested his.

Regardless, Schiele was the surname of my grandfather’s maternal grandmother. Schiele is German. My family always pronounced the name Shē – lē. Two syllables, both with long e. I have seen it spelled phonetically as Sheely in old census records and on Michael’s naturalization papers. I don’t really know what the name means or where exactly my Schiele family comes from in Germany. I found one definition for Schiele that is quite funny (or tragic) “one who was crippled; one who squinted.”¹ I picture some near-sighted Germans wandering about the forest, running into stuff. If you can’t see very well, I am sure you could very easily cripple yourself, walking into things.

Naturalization paper for Michael Schiele, Clay county, Indiana, 1866

All humor aside, my great, great grandfather Michael Schiele is a bit of an enigma to me. In many ways, he is one of my earliest and most prolonged brick walls. Why? He is from Germany. His branch is one of the most recent branches of my family to land on North American soil and therefore, more difficult for me to trace. Until recently, there have not been many German records available to search, either in a library or online, and they are usually in German. I have always wished that I knew how to read German, especially when one wants to read old German records. Michael also did me the disservice of dying before 1900. So no death record! And so far, I haven’t been able to locate an obituary either. He did leave two biographies in Clay county history books which have provided me with a wealth of clues and some bread crumbs.

In The History of Clay County, Indiana by William Travis (1909), there is a very nice biographical sketch of Michael within the write up of his son, Reuben Jacob Schiele. In addition, the book’s section “Memoirs of leading and familiar home people” includes a separate biography just for Michael. These biographies are written after Michael’s death and they provide a lot of good information which I have mostly verified. Travis gives Michael’s birthplace as Wittenberg, Germany. Wittenberg is a city located in the Saxony area of Germany. The only problem is that other sources give Michael’s nativity as Württemberg which is located in the area now known as Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. These two cities are nowhere near one another and I have been told that there are also multiple locations that have used these names in the past. Some even better and more tantalizing clues are in Charles Blanchard’s Counties of Clay and Owen, Indiana (1884). This biography gives information on Michael’s parents. It opens with “MICHAEL SCHIELE, farmer and stock-raiser, was born, November 2, 1831, in Germany, and was the fourth child born to Michael and Mary (Smith) Schiele, both natives of Germany”. Oh woe is me! A SMITH!

I keep hoping someday that a database will come online with German birth and marriage records that will reveal more about my Schiele family (AND that I can read in English). I do know when Michael was born and I know the names of his parents. I know all the names of his children and grandchildren. For now, that is enough.

Notes:

Meaning of the surname Schiele from http://surnames.meaning-of-names.com/Schiele/

: June 24, 1942 Envelope

: June 24, 1942, p. 1

: June 24, 1942, p. 2

Wed (postmark June 24, 1942 8:30 PM)

Dear Mother-

Hope you are home all OK. We just got home and pretty tired, had a big day we had to shoot 22 platoons this A.M. and there are about 84 men to each platoon and besides that there was near 400 to examine.

I got real “writey” last night – wrote to Uncle Wes and Mom. Lentz was catching up on his writing so I thought I’d do the same.

It really got cold here last night – had to get under cover but it warmed considerable today-Didn’t get any mail from home today. Hope you stop that as soon as you get there because I don’t like to

(page 2) have to send it back.

Lentz didn’t take my white suit-it was in a paper cover and we just missed it at least that is what he said. But he did take the raincoat.

We ate at the Famous Café last night the food was OK but the service was poor had to wait about one hour. Don’t know where we will go tonight. I just go along because I don’t do the driving.

I’m unusually hungry tonight so will ring off and get some eats-

Love Daddy

Saturday’s Surname – Foster

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The Foster Family, by The American Genealogical Research Institite, 1973.

Many years ago I was given a copy of the book The Foster Family from the American Genealogical Research Institute. The book is copyrighted 1973 and it does not specify whether there were multiple printings or additions. I know the book was given to me by a well meaning relative but I don’t remember who at this point. The book has several chapters ranging from “the family name and arms”, “census of 1790” and “constructing the foster family tree”. And before you comment upon my lack of capitalization, I am copying straight from the book. Books like this are great for the novice genealogist, I guess. But even when I received the book, I already knew how useless it was for my own research. Books like this are mere grandiose summaries. They talk big, but they have no meat as they are comprised mostly of lists. And since the book was written in 1973, much of the information is likely inaccurate and obsolete.

One fascinating aspect of the book is the first section “the family name and arms”. It gives a brief history of Europe, which starts laughingly with the collapse of the Roman Empire and the waves of Barbarians sweeping across Europe in the 4^th and 5^th centuries. Wow! Really, how does this help me trace my Foster family? The narrative continues with the Norman Invasion in 1066 and then engages in a mini lecture on the evolutionary nature of names. According to the book, Foster was originally Forrester. The title of Forrester was given by the Saxons to men appointed to guard the forests and to protect the Lord’s hunting rights. Over time the name Forrester evolved to Forster and then Foster. That may be, but how does that help me trace the lineage of one Gladys Foster, born 1905 in Terre Haute, Indiana. Frankly, it does not. There are multiple origins of the name Foster. What about those individuals who “fostered” children? Or, I like this French version “Shearer or scissors maker” from the Old French “forceter”. Regardless of the actual history of my Foster family, I am sure it has little to do with this pompous tourist brochure that now takes up precious space on my bookshelf. I guess it is good for a laugh or two.

Chart of the children of James B. Foster and Lydia C. (Dicks) Foster, in my grandmother’s handwritting

I was lucky enough to inherit a lineage chart that was written in my grandmother’s handwriting that traced her father’s family. The chart names all of my great grandfather’s siblings and his parents. Considering my grandmother never spoke about her father or his family, it is rather fortunate that the chart even existed. My great grandfather was James Edward “Ned” Foster whose father was James Benjamin Foster whose father was Benjamin Coates Foster. And that, ladies and gentleman, is the end of the line, the brick wall of my Foster family. I have traced the line back as far as my 3^rd great grandfather, six generations. That’s decent by some standards, but not good enough by mine. I’ve hit that proverbial brick wall because of those early waves of western migration that brought young Americans from the coastal states to the new territories of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois and the lack of proper recordkeeping.

Benjamin Coates Foster was born April 13, 1797 in Pennsylvania. Yeah, Pennsylvania! No county, just Pennsylvania. On the 1800 census, there were 602,365 people enumerated in Pennsylvania. There were at least 68 heads of household with the surname Foster. (I got this figure from Ancestry so we also have to allow for entries misspelled in the index). The first time I can legitimately find Benjamin C. Foster on a document is his marriage on March 28, 1828 in Lawrence County, Illinois to Belinda Barker. He appears on the 1830 census in nearby Clark County, Illinois where he remained the rest of his life. In 1838 and 1839, there were several land purchases in Clark County. Benjamin can be found on the United States censuses for 1830, 1840, 1850, 1860, and 1870 in Clark County. I have also found him on the Illinois State censuses of 1855 and 1865. One of my favorite things that I learned about Benjamin from the 1850 and 1860 censuses is that Benjamin’s occupation was a tailor! For those of you that don’t know me, I am also a seamstress and pattern maker so it is nice to know that such things are in my genes. This is also why I like the French translation of Foster since it has to do with scissors.

Benjamin and Belinda were blessed with at least 9 children, of which only 6 survived to adulthood, and of those only 4 had children to pass on the genes, 2 were male, leaving my 2nd great grandfather James B. Foster the only child of Benjamin and Belinda to have any male children to pass on the surname of Foster.

: June 8, 1942 Envelope

: June 8, 1942, p. 1

: James L. Foster in his sailor uniform. Photograph courtesy of Gerry McCarroll.

I believe this is one of the last letters I have from Uncle Jim for awhile. It is good to know that eventually the brothers-in-law will meet up.

Letter transcription:

U.S.N.C. T.C. Camp Bradford, Ships Co. c/o Camp Allen, N.O.B. Norfolk, VA

Sunday 7 June 1942

Dear Sis-

Just today received a letter from Jake, he wanted me to meet him last night at the Y.M.C.A., mail is not so fast here as you can readily see, anyway I wrote him and I think we will be able to get together soon.

Please let me know when you plan coming for sure I will try to get two or three nights away if you want me to, if that won’t interfere with your plans, maybe we can have a grand party, or something. Anyway I will get to see you at least once, I am writing to find out if Thelma is going to get a vacation, if she does I will have her down here for a week or two. It won’t be in June I am most sure of that, but sometime later.

Hello John and Mark, you should see your uncle Jim in a sailor uniform.

Love Jim

Emily Hogue (Lawhead) Foster

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: Emma Foster, circa 1940s

: Emma with her grandson, John: February 28, 1932 in Terre Haute, Indiana

: Another picture taken the same day; Emma with her grandson John: February 28, 1932, in Terre Haute, Indiana

: Emma Foster with her grandson John, circa 1935-36

: June 5, 1942 Envelope

: June 5, 1942, p. 1

: June 5, 1942, p. 2

: June 5, 1942, p. 3

: June 5, 1942, p. 4

Today’s letter is very special. I believe it is the only letter I have in my collection by my great grandmother, Emma Foster. Chronologically, it falls right after my grandfather’s last letter. The two letters are postmarked the same day. Word is definitely getting around that my grandmother is heading to Norfolk. An added bonus (genealogically speaking) in the letter is that Emma ran into Uncle Wes and Aunt Jessie one night in Terre Haute. Uncle Wes is Silvester Schiele, my grandfather’s uncle. You may recall an earlier post I did on Silvester. His friends and family called him Wes for short. Wes and Jessie must have just come through Kentland on their way down to Clay City from Chicago.

My great grandmother’s story is one that I had to figure out mostly on my own. My grandmother gave me a little information to start with but the rest of the journey was all mine to uncover. Emma was a twin. Aunt Minerva, the one mentioned in the letter, was my great grandmother’s twin sister. One story that my grandmother did relay to me regarding her mother was the story of her naming. Emma Foster was born Emily Hogue Lawhead, daughter of James Henry Lawhead and his second wife, Margaret Allie Rea, on November 14, 1872. The twins were the second and third children of Margaret & James. Margaret was to have four more children, but none survived their infancy. Their oldest child was a boy, Jasper, who was born in 1869. When the twins were born, Margaret did not know what to name them. I suppose Margaret was out of the question as she already had an older step-daughter named Margaret. The story goes that Margaret named her daughters after the first two women who came to visit after the babies were born. I don’t know what Minerva’s middle name is so I haven’t been able to track down her namesake. There was a young woman named Emily Hogue who lived in the neighborhood so there does appear to be some validity to the story.

In 1894, when Emma was 22, she had a child out of wedlock. I have no idea who the father was. According to my Dad’s cousin Juanita, Emma talked about Jesse all the time but she didn’t know who he was. She assumed he was given away. On the 1900 census, Jesse was living with his grandparents, Emma’s parents. If he was given away, it wasn’t very far. Jesse lived with his grandparents and migrated with them to Arkansas. Jesse stayed in Arkansas after his grandmother died and his grandfather returned to Illinois. Another comment made by Juanita in one of her letters was that Emma had grandchildren but they were too far away. Jesse had three children: Alvin, Elwin and Francis. On his death certificate, Emma is named as his mother, but the line for his father is blank. Who knows what happened to this mysterious male in my great grandmother’s life? Was she raped? Did he run away? Why didn’t they marry? I have lots of questions and no solutions for solving this puzzle.

On February 29, 1896, Emma married James Edward “Ned” Foster in Hutsonville, Crawford, Illinois. I would love to say that he was a good man, and was able to accept Emma’s past. I don’t really have an answer to that. What I do know is that their marriage was a rocky one. James was an alcoholic. Over the years, Emma threw him out several times. I assume in the beginning that things were good, but I really don’t know. Love works in mysterious ways, plus it might just have been all about the sex. James and Emma had at least five children. The ones who grew to adulthood were Lydia Allie, Glenn Edward, James Laughead, and my grandmother, Gladys Ruth. Evidence suggests that there was another child Forrest that died young. I have a photograph of a large family grouping. On the back it written: James, Emma, Lydia, Glenn & Forrest. Emma is holding Glenn and a baby on her lap in the picture while Lydia is sitting by her feet . Lydia was born in 1897 and Glenn in September 1900. There is a jump in births before James was born in February 1904. The 1900 census records that Emma is the mother of two living children; this would be Jesse and Lydia as Glenn wasn’t born until after the enumeration. On the 1910 census, Emma is the mother of 6 children, 5 living. The five would include: Lydia, Glenn, James, Gladys and Jesse.

I don’t know where or when baby Forrest died or where he is buried. The family moved back and forth between Crawford and Clark counties in Illinois and Terre Haute during these years. James was a laborer and he moved to where the work was. They were probably pretty poor and couldn’t afford a stone for Forrest’s grave. Both my grandmother and Uncle Jim were born in Terre Haute. After that, I think the family pretty much stayed in Terre Haute. Sometime before 1920, Emma kicked James out for his drinking for good. On the 1920 census, James is not enumerated with the family. Emma’s profession was a pie baker for a Baking company. Cousin Juanita also mentioned in one of her letters that Emma did this along with Aunt Cora. Cora Miller was one of James’ sisters. Apparently at one time, they all lived in the same building (but not on the 1920 census). A couple of the Terre Haute directories after 1920 record James and Emma living together but I think this might have been a smoke screen. Emma and James never divorced. Even on Emma’s death certificate, my grandmother reported that Emma was married.

Emma had a decent life but it was filled with hardship over the years. Any of these events would have broken a weaker person: an illegitimate child, an alcoholic husband, the death of a baby, being a single working mom, her beloved oldest daughter dying young, her grandson being killed in an accident. Her life could be measured by these tragedies but I would rather think of her as my grandmother’s mother, the woman who came to Kentland to help my grandmother while her husband was away at war, during the time after she had the baby (my father). I like to look at her pictures and her elusive smile. Yes, she does look old for her age in most of the pictures, but I look and I see a little part of me looking back at me, and it makes me proud to be her great granddaughter.

In school, Emma achieved a sixth grade education according to the 1940 census. While transcribing her letter I struggled between trying to make the letter readable and making an accurate transcription. If you want to see the actual letter, click on the pictures above.

This letter also mentions that Gladys’ mother-in-law, Lovina Yegerlehner, has not been feeling well lately and that Ruth has been home helping her mother while she was sick. Paired with yesterday’s letter from Roscoe which also mentions his mother not feeling well, that’s a nice bit of documentation from two corroborating sources.

Letter transcription:

6.8.42

Dear children + grandson

Receive your letter this morning. I had to go up to town yesterday afternoon + was walking along + seen a group of folks? standing in front of a restaurant first like that had their dinner, said to myself that look like uncle Wes + stop + look + sure among it was aunt Jessie, Mary Sheperman + some more I didn’t know so stoped + talked to them a litter whin? + they said that they stop at your house + seen you + the boy + that

(page 2) you was going to see Jake next week. Said that they would tell you that way seen me. I have had a letter from James + he never said anythins about seeing Jake yet James has got his insinmet[assignment] + will be there six month or a year he said I sure am glad that Ruth is at home with her mother this week it will help her as much as the medison[medicine]. I thought that I would get down there this week but it has been so hot here it seems to take all of the pep out of me your aunt Minerva is looking for me to come over there + stay

(page 3) a few day but can’t pick up the nerve to go. I am writing you some of her tales of woe. when I got up yesterday morning I felt like going back to bed + giving up the strnge[strength?] + say here lord take me I have a little more pep today. I don’t feel sick + can eat good but is seems like it don’t do my any good hade plenty to eat this is my tail of wo[e] I said to my self this sond like aunt Minera letter.

(page 4)I would like to hear John play at the resite[recital] hope that he comes out first it sure is hot today I hope that you do go + see Jake + get to see James it will cheer him up to see you if I had a place for the boys to sleep they could come + stay with me. I see so many dresses in the window up to down. I told Mrs. Welsere I was going to write + tell you about their that is the seersucker only haha will sign off

Mother love

Word from Jim

Wednesday’s Child – Michael Yegerlehner (1940-1940)

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: May 30, 1942 Envelope

: May 30, 1942, p. 1

: May 30, 1942, p. 2

: Gravestone for Michael Yegerlehner: Fairlawn Cemetery, Kentland, Newton, Indiana, USA

While my grandfather was busy in Norfolk, Virginia, acclimating himself to Navy life, my grandmother was at home in Kentland, pregnant with her fourth child. In 1940, Gladys had been pregnant with her third child, Michael. This is a child that you will not hear mentioned in any of the letters between my grandparents. Michael only lived for a few days. I don’t know what was wrong with Michael, only that he couldn’t survive. I haven’t gotten around to ordering his death certificate to see if it has any more illuminating details. My uncles John and Mark were 10 and 8 years old, respectively, in 1940. My uncle John once told my father that he remembered how horrible that time was for the family. (FindAGrave)

Both my grandparents were worried about my grandmother’s pregnancy this time around. They had lived through the tragedy of Michael’s birth and death in 1940. They were worried that this pregnancy would end as tragically as the last. Fortunately for me, it did end happily. In May 1942, my grandparents were not blessed with foresight. I can only imagine how frustrating it was for my grandfather to be so far away from his wife during her pregnancy.

Letter translation:

Fri

Dear Mother,

How you folks do talk about 4 of you coming down. In the first place – gasoline. I might be able to get an X card¹ and in the second place where would 4 people sleep when I’ve been trying to think up some way to get a place for you to sleep Just one. I thought I might get you a place at this Hotel I wrote you about but I find today it is full. It’s just a problem which I can’t figure out. I know the boys would get a kick out of seeing the place around here but how. They are better off at home much as I’d like to see them and you. It would be very uncomfortable to sleep in a car or under the sky.

Got my laundry back today-4 shirts-2 underware-6 pr. of socks and 2 hank. $1.45. Now you see why I wear shirts so long at one time. I’m going to send out a K. suit but don’t know where to send it.

(page 2) I’m sorry about the bill to Mrs. Dennis². I remember her paying that. Check the Massengillᶟ bill. That $25.00 is right but I thought I had paid them about ½ and then you had the return. I may not have paid the ½ but I thought I did. I believe I bought the stuff on the day I was examined and he was there once since and I gave him a check that day.

The magnolias are in full bloom and they are quite pretty. It is a big white blossom about 3 inches long and as big around as a banana and is a white bloom, then it opens into a large flower.

We were discussing the room + rent condition and the above that I wrote is secured.

Dr. Lentz is out playing golf but I just got home-he works at a different place than I and he gets off earlier or they don’t check so closely.

We will just have to wait and see about the rent etc for a few days or weeks yet. I guess I’d better write to Clay City⁴ again

Love

Daddy

Notes:

An X card was a type of rationing card for gasoline and automobiles. They were very hard to come by and were usually reserved for police, fireman, civil defense workers & various VIPs. There was a scandal when 200 Congressman were issued X cards.
Mrs. Dennis: The only Mrs. Dennis in Newton County, Indiana was Maria Dennis. On the 1940 census, she was an 81 year old female, born in 1859 in Illinois. She was living with the family of one of her grandchildren, Ira Miller.
Massengill: The S. E. Massengill company was a pharmaceutical company formed in 1898.
Clay City: Clay City is where Roscoe’s parents lived.