Annis and Orland, Venus and Mars

One of my favorite family jokes, which always falls flat, is "Grandpa was from Mars, Grandma was from Venus." My children smile uncertainly. The grandkids look confused.

"Don't you remember the book that was all the craze a few years ago? Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus?"

Blank stares. Finally somebody will say, "Oh. Ha-ha."

Mars and Venus are both ghost towns now. Annis Hubbard's mother Jane took a homestead in Venus in 1886. Orland Carver's family moved to nearby Mars a few years before that, in 1877. Venus is marked on the map below. Mars is just a little bit southeast, in Royal. (If Royal doesn't show up, make the map a little larger by clicking on the "+" sign.)

Grandpa

Orland William Carver Sr. was born in Wisconsin on Nov 20, 1869. We've heard he was born in Janesville, but La Valle, Sauk County, Wisconsin seems more likely based on the family's location in 1870. His parents were Cyrus Hoyt Carver and Mary Jennette Allen.

Grandpa was the youngest of eight children: Seven boys and one girl. My father thought the girl's name might be Nettie; however, an unknown person on Familysearch.org has it listed as Roxy. This girl died at age 11. All of the boys lived to adulthood. They were: Dorr, Orin, Loren, Oliver, Donley, Barton and Orland.

Notes on spelling: Mary's middle name may have been spelled Jeanette, Jenet, Janet, or Jennette. Dorr's name has been spelled Dorr, Dor, and Door and in one record, David. Donley has also been spelled Donaley.

The family moved from Wisconsin to Nebraska with a group of other settlers. Among them was a man named Samuel Haskin, who appears to have been a close family friend. The Haskins and Carvers took homesteads near each other.

As they reached adulthood, some of the Carver boys also took homesteads in the Mars area, Grandpa included. Homesteading in Nebraska was not an easy life for any of these families, and over the years many moved away.

Grandpa and ? and Alta, maybe

My dad's early notes say that Grandpa's first marriage was to Grandma, but later he updated those notes to indicate a previous marriage to an unknown lady, and that they had one daughter named Alta. I haven't found any information about this marriage or child.

Grandpa and Grandma

I haven't seen any confirmed photos of Grandpa. Dad describes him as stocky, white, medium height, brown hair, blue eyes. Good luck getting a sketch artist to draw that for you! But since I don't have a likeness of his face, I'm going to show you the next best thing, a photo of his handwriting.

This is from Florence Sholes' marriage license. I think it says something like, ”I give my consent Miss Florence and Mr Carey to be married. Orland W. Carver.”  Since the sides are cut off and his handwriting is not quite as pretty as Dad's, it is hard to decipher. Below that is Grandma's handwriting.

We don't have any family stories about how Grandpa and Grandma met, but here is my theory. One of the Haskin girls, Mercedes, married Grandma’s brother, Edmund Hubbard. I imagine that at some point Annis came by to visit her brother, and there was Orland, neighbor man, with his keen good looks and stunning penmanship.

Maybe they met at one of those dances the Carvers liked to host. He winked. She blushed. They danced. And then they got married, proving once and for all that poor Grandma's man-picker was in serious need of repair.

I want to say good things about Grandpa, I really do. Here are some things.

• He used to rock the kids to sleep and sing them hymns.
• He fathered children who grew up to be good people.
• My father loved him.
• Without him, I would not exist.

OK. That's all I've got. I'm just not sure what was going on with him, but it seems like life started out well enough but went downhill over the years. Whatever was wrong, Grandpa, I'm sorry for you and wish your life had been better. More than that, I'm sorry for your family.