Monday, September 11, 2023

Weeks 37 & 38: Prosperity...and Adversity

 

                                                                   William Oldfield Scott

My great-grandfather W. O. Scott and I are almost birthday twins.  He was born on 28 Apr 1869 while I was born on 29 Apr 1952.  Unfortunately we missed being able to celebrate together since he had passed away six years before I joined the family.  Oldfield is an unusual choice for a middle name but so far I've been able to trace it back to W. O.'s 2x great-grandmother Sarah Jane Oldfield (1761-1851). Oldfield skipped a generation before it next appeared as the middle name given to W. O.'s grandfather John Oldfield Cretcher.  Once more it skipped a generation before appearing as W. O.'s middle name.

When W. O. was born in Kosciusko County, Indiana his mother, Nancy Elizabeth Cretcher, was 25 and his father, Samuel Scott, was 37.  Samuel had been a widower when he married Nancy and came to the marriage with a daughter named Julia.  W. O. was first recorded in the 1870 Census as a 1-year old living in Harrison Township, Kosciusko County with Samuel, Nancy, and his 15-year old half-sister. 

In the 1880 Census 11-year old W. O. was attending school and living with his parents, 7-year old brother Charles, and 2-year old cousin Burkett Frush.  Burkett's mother Nancy Ellen, Samuel's youngest sibling, had died a few months before the census so the toddler came to live with his aunt and uncle. Julia had married in 1877 and was no longer in the Scott household.

The years between 1880 and 1900 are unclear due to the absence of 1890 Census records.  One thing I do know is that W. O.'s highest grade completed was 8th grade so after that he most likely went to work on the family farm.  Samuel was a carpenter in addition to farming so W. O. may also have learned some carpentry from him.

On 20 Apr 1893 23-year old W. O. married 24-year old Mary Dubbs, also a resident of Kosciusko County.  Six years later on 10 May 1899 their first child was born. They named him Angus Cleon Scott.  The next year when the 1900 Census enumerator knocked on the door the family was recorded as living on a Harrison Township farm in a mortgaged home.  

Life changed for the family in 1902 when W. O. and Mary made the decision to leave farming, to move to nearby Milford in Van Buren Township, and to become merchants.  They bought a home on Henry Street in the little town and opened the Milford Hardware Company. The 1910 Census recorded the family now with two sons--Cleon, age 10, and William, age 5.  


This picture, taken in 1910 during the Milford Days celebration, shows the Milford Hardware Store awning behind the crowd.  The awning (third from the right) advertises "Implements, Ranges, Stoves".  I wish I knew if Cleon, William, Mary, and W. O. were in this crowd when the photo was taken.  Or were they in the store, waiting for customers to wander through?

This is an interior shot of the wonderfully crowded and jumbled store.  From the look of it, there was a little of everything a man might need to purchase: horse collars, paint, hand tools, axes, large pots, screws, nuts, nails, you name it.  A store this stuffed must have meant it was a prospering business.     W. O. is the man by the stove wearing the sweater and cap.  Mary isn't seen here but both she and her sons helped out in the store.


The business continued to prosper in the coming years.  By the time the 1920 Census was recorded W. O. and Mary had paid off the mortgage on their South Henry Street home. Life would be good in the hardware business for a few more years.

In 1928 Mary Scott became ill.  It wasn't until she and W. O. went to the Mayo Clinic in the spring of 1929 when the seriousness of her illness was realized.  The diagnosis was a frightening one--carcinoma of the stomach.  At that time there wasn't much that could be done for cancer so Mary and W. O. went home to Milford.  For a while, life went on normally with Mary working occasionally in the hardware store.  In early September of 1929 Mary's condition worsened and she became weaker and weaker and unable to eat until she passed away at home on the 10th of October.
 
October of 1929 would prove to be devastating in another way when the stock market crashed several weeks after Mary's death, paving the way for the Great Depression that followed.  Banks across the country failed, investors lost their savings, unemployment rose, and businesses of all sizes suffered. By 1932 the Milford Hardware Company had closed its doors.  At 63 years old W. O. was a widower and no longer a business owner.  

For a few years W. O. lived alone until one day in late 1935 when he found himself in charge of his four grandsons.  Cleon and his wife Eva had divorced the previous year.  After a year of sole custody Eva wanted to remarry so she left the boys on W. O.'s porch with their clothes in grocery sacks and went off to start a new life.  Cleon was working in Michigan at the time so he hired a housekeeper to take care of W. O. and the boys during the week while he worked.  That was life until May of 1936 when Cleon, the housekeeper, and the boys moved to Dowagiac, Michigan.

Alone again, W. O. served as the Honorary Secretary of the Indiana Implement Dealers association.  In his hardware merchant days he had served many years as the Secretary for the organization.  In the 1940 Census W. O. was still living in on Henry Street in Milford but was listed as a roomer with the Norwood family.  He was recorded as still being employed as Secretary, and said he had worked 60 hours in the previous week.  His salary was $1000/year and he stated that he had income from other sources.  Would that have been income from the Norwood family?  Did he still own the building where the hardware store had been?
from The South Bend Tribune, 4 Feb 1940

In the next few years W. O. began to slow down.  In 1945 he moved to a home in Flora, Indiana run by the Brethren Church after suffering from a cerebral hemorrhage.

                                                from The South Bend Tribune, 21 Dec 1945

Eventually it was hypostatic pneumonia that took W. O.'s life.  Hypostatic pneumonia is a slow-developing pulmonary disorder caused by chronic congestion, blood stasis, and edemas at the bottom of the lungs in persons who are bed-ridden for a long time.

                                                      from The Bremen Enquirer, 4 Jul 1946

located in Salem Cemetery, Milford, Indiana


 




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