The Terrible Catsafterme

A real interest in my ancestors came alive on May 17, 2014. My Dad had been researching his ancestry – particularly that of the elusive Farrell line – in recent days, and I would receive periodic updates on his findings. I had never met a single member my ancestral Farrell lineage beyond my Dad, as my grandfather Francis had died at the relatively young age of 52 on November 29, 1963. And as young as he was when he died, all of his siblings’ deaths had preceded his. Beyond that, even my Dad only knew two of his great-uncles on his Grandfather’s side. The mysteries were mounting up…

I hadn’t had too much of an interest in stepping in at that point, reading the email updates with findings that mostly concerned relatives whom we already knew existed, and places where they had lived. But I dutifully read them with passing interest, filing them away for possible future reference…but then something Dad discovered quite intrigued me in much the same way that finding movie locations from vintage films had always fascinated me.

He and my second cousin Craig – the only other Farrell outside of my Dad’s immediate family with whom I am in contact – took a walk one day at the Woodland Trails Scout Reservation, which was now state-owned property where my Dad’s grandparents once owned a house (actually two houses) on a patch of farmland in Gasper Township. This was where my grandfather Francis lived during many of his formative years.

Vintage map of Gasper Township. Just above “Muttonville”, it reads Jos. H / Katie Farrell. Click to enlarge.

Current map indicating where the farm once sat (in red)

The family – led by my great-grandfather Joseph Henry Farrell (Dec. 6, 1872 – Feb. 24, 1948) and Katie Wagner Farrell (July 10, 1871 – August 1, 1951)  had moved to this farm circa 1919. We know this because the obituary notice for my grandfather’s younger brother Clifford, who died at the young age of 16 on October 21, 1918 from pneumonia resulting from the Spanish Flu, indicated that visitation would be at their home also known as “The Duffield Farm” north of Camden elsewhere in Gasper Township.

 

Clifford Farrell

Death announcement from the Preble County News, 10/24/1918

Prior to living at the Duffield Farm, Joseph and Katie (who were married September 14, 1891) had lived at a home in Somerville, where they bore their first children Alma Augusta (Aug.19, 1893 – Aug. 10, 1957) and James Adrian (August 12, 1896 – April 27, 1958). From there they moved to a home in Seven Mile around the turn of the century, where Clifford (January 9, 1902 – October 21, 1918), Virgil (August 25, 1904 – July 13, 1954), and my grandfather Francis (Nov. 10, 1911 – November 29, 1963) were born.

So we’d estimate that the family lived at the farm from around 1919 through the latter part of the 1930’s. The 1940 census indicated that Joseph and Katie had moved to another home on Central Avenue in Camden by then, the children now all grown. Photos of these grown children visiting the farm around 1937 exist. By this time my grandfather had met my grandmother and Virgil had met Virginia Scott, known as Goldye. Virgil and Goldye would have one son, Scott, and Scott would have one son, Craig. It was Craig who joined my Dad and me on this visit to the location of the homestead.

How they actually found the foundation of the home during their earlier visit in April was miraculous at best. Visiting the area out of pure curiosity, they didn’t even bring any photos of the house with them, but somehow managed to stumble upon what was left of the house’s foundation. They took pictures of the area and later matched them up to existing photos, but not having those older photos with them, the new photos were not at the same angle.

Hunting at the farm. On the left is my Grandfather Francis, on the right is my Great-Grandfather Joseph

My Great-Grandparents attending the animals on the farm

All grown up…Virgil and my grandfather return for a visit to the farm in the late 1930’s

My grandparents, Helen, Great-Grandma Katie, Adrian, and Chuck (son of Adrian and Helen)

Adrian, Virgil, Goldye, Katie, and my Grandmother Mary Ellen

Goldye, Virgil, Katie, and Adrian

Goldye must’ve been a little camera shy. That porch and addition to the house was what Craig, Dad, and I had a hard time reconciling with the remaining foundation

But upon our return, we did have the older photos and used them to match up what we could with what was left. The front porch pillar atop the foundation was the most prominent. Also obvious were the stairs leading down to the cellar. But by far the coolest were the steps on the side of the house where most of the photos were taken. One particular photo was of my grandfather who appeared to be in his early teens, sitting on the staircase. As Craig was wiping away dirt and grass from the steps, I noticed the chip missing out of one of the steps in the photo and directed him to clear that area, at which point we saw that the missing chip was still missing. That was the moment when the  location really came alive with both a wave of nostalgia and pathos. My grandfather whom I had never met sat right here and placed his feet on this step. He was long dead and buried and nature was trying to take care of burying this house as well, but still crying out to be noticed was this chipped step, where now I could sit as well.

Dad contemplates where things were

The remains of the stairs leading to the house cellar

Craig and Dad explore the area

The front porch and remaining pillar base

My great-grandparents in front of their house and front porch

My Dad and I stand in the same spot

Relaxing on the front porch

The stairs on the side of the house, with the missing chip

My grandfather as an early teen, his left foor right over the chipped step

Me in the same spot

As per usual, every mystery solved opened up the door for new mysteries, as we tried to reconcile the location of the back porch of the house, where the foundation bricks just didn’t seem to match at all. We worked on walking the outline of the house, and Craig and I ascended a giant hill to look for remnants of a barn seen in some of the photos. He did stumble on two wooden pillars (or tree remnants) that resembled those seen in front of the barn, but I had serious doubts that they were one and the same. We also thought we had found the well seen in some of the photos, but that two didn’t quite match with the pictured well’s proximity to the house. What made it all even harder was that with the coming of summer, the grass and foliage had grown much higher than it had been in the Spring.

But even with some of the confusion we had about the grounds, we knew we had the right place, and were grateful of the chance to match up at least a couple of key landmarks of the house.

Craig left and my Dad and I ventured into Camden, where he showed me the location of the house on Central where he remembered visiting his grandparents, a house no longer standing. We also checked out the former Camden Public School where my grandfather and his siblings attended, which is now the Camden Commons retirement home. The grounds was being tended to by a lady who knew a lot of her Camden history, and had heard of my dad from the local librarian with whom he had been in contact as he did his research.

Class photo in front of the Camden Public School. My grandfather is kneeling third from right.

The school as it was…

…and virtually unchanged, as it is

We also stopped by the Somerville Cemetery, and then back to Camden to check out the Fairmount Cemetery. Here was the final resting place of my great-grandparents Joseph and Katie Farrell, the owners of the home, the remains of which we had just buried. I was filled with familial pride, and the desire to seek out more answers about my ancestors. At this point, we knew nothing more about the history of the Farrell family.

At the grave of my Great-Grandparents Joseph and Katie Farrell

Clifford’s grave

As for the farmhouse itself, after the Farrells sold it off in the late 1930’s, not much is known about its history. My Dad remembers visiting the site in the early 1960’s with his Dad, by which time the main house had already been torn down. There was a second house on the site, which had been abandoned. What this second house was used for, or the location where it stood is still another mystery to solve. The Boys Scouts of America eventually acquired the property and made it part of Woodland Trails, and this area was later bought by the state – which happily gives us the right to visit it without trespassing.

A clipping from the Preble County News from July 5, 1945

2014 will continue…

Continue to more information about my quest to learn about the ancestors here… (under construction)

This entry was posted on Friday, July 11th, 2014 at 6:33 am and is filed under 2010's - Early, Ancestry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.