The Next Grandpa Back - Video

Related Link: https://carverhistorical.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-next-grandpa-back.html
A video about getting to know Cyrus Hoyt Carver using last century's best social media platform.

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The Next Grandpa Back - Written Word

Related Link: The Next Grandpa Back - Video

In times of uncertainty I like to look back in history to identify things that remain constant from generation to generation. It helps me feel grounded. And it occurred to me the other day that social media is one of those constants.

Think about it. Through the ages people have tried to connect -- with writing on cave walls, writing on bathroom walls, the town crier, the town gossip, newspaper ads, bulletin boards, Facebook, and Twitter.

My favorite social media platform of last century is the community news section of small town newspapers. Here's an example from the Creighton News, July 4, 1912. It's a small Nebraska paper.

• Adolph Raff was in town Sunday and dropped in to say hello to the news. 

• Cool underwear for hot weather at the Simon Clothing Company.

• Mrs. Alice Norton has a small chicken that has four legs and four feet.

• Instant Postum requires no boiling. 25 and 50 cent packages available.

These little tidbits tumble down the columns, paragraph after paragraph, no headings, filling most of page 3. They remind me of my Facebook news feed, without the photos or memes. And yet, each of these paragraphs provides a small snapshot in time that can help us understand the people who lived then.

These pages helped me get acquainted with my great grandfather. Dad told me stories about his father, but we didn’t know much about the next grandpa back. All Dad could remember was that he was really old, and he had a gruff voice. 

I can see him now, Cyrus Carver, standing in the kitchen of his son Bart’s house. He's been visiting, but it's time to go home. His lunch is packed. He gets his coat and looks outside. Oh no! Bart is talking to the newspaper man. That man is a busybody. He spends all his time gathering neighborhood gossip and printing it!

Bart waves. "Pops, come talk with us!" With a sigh, Cyrus steps outside.

"I don't have time for no stories. I have pressing work in the shop." He keeps his head down and tries to walk past them, but Bart takes his arm.

"Pops! People want to hear about your life. You set a good example. Talk to the man. Be neighborly!"

Well, if you put it that way. He sets his things on the porch and talks about the old days on the homestead, when the boys were young and his wife was alive. He talks about Saturday night dances at his place. They had some good times. Somebody would play the fiddle. They would make popcorn, play cards, tell stories.

The nearest doctor was miles away, and many a night some neighbor would knock on the door and ask for his wife. "Grandma Carver, my mother is sick. Please come help!" Sometimes she was able to save a life. Sometimes not. Early on, Cyrus set up a cemetery on a hill at the corner of his property. He built the caskets. How many? He wasn't sure.

The boys are all grown now, with children and grandchildren. None of them have much money, and if he doesn't work, they will have to feed him. He isn't having any of that, so he grows onions to sell. He takes orders for blacksmith and carpentry work. And now he really needs to get back. As he explains to the newspaper man, "I'm a self-sustainer. I will work till the day I die."

Cyrus Hoyt Carver was born in St. Lawrence County, New York in 1810. Around 1840 he married a local girl, Mary Allen, and they moved to Wisconsin, where they raised eight children. 

In 1864, despite his age, he was drafted into the civil war at Prairie du Chin, 3rd Dist Wisconson. After a few weeks he was sent home, due to epilepsy.

In 1877 they moved to Nebraska to take up a homestead. 

In October, 1879 the Neligh Republican reports that he built a two-story stone house, 16x26, built of fine, grey limestone.

According to a 1965 article in the Creighton News, he nearly lost his life in 1880 in a well but was saved by a neighbor. This deserves further study and a separate post.

Here he is in 1906 with some grandchildren and their dog, Shep.

Cyrus Hoyt Carver, (1810-1914) with grandchildren Ethyl, Eldon, Gilbert, Chester, and dog, Shep. About 1906. Age 96. Photo courtesy Carly Smith.

The 1910 Country Correspondence section of the Creighton News says that Cyrus had a stroke, but he bounced back.

Creighton News, Page 5 -January 27, 1910

Here he is in 1911, celebrating his 101st birthday. He used to grow tobacco, and he is spry.

Nebraska Liberal, Page 1 - August 11, 1911

In 1912, age 102, he's walking 14 miles against the strongest winds of the season to visit Bart. Can that really be true? Or is this some of that fake news? At any rate, he is still spry. I like that word. Spry.

Nebraska Liberal, Page 4 - October 11, 1912

And finally, here's his obituary in 1914. He lived to be 103 years, 10 months, and 26 days old, and he died in his workshop.

Creighton News, Page 1 - June 4, 1914
Wife's name Mary Jennette Allen. Boys' names: Dorr, Orin (Nickname Shib), Loren (nickname Nin), Donley, Oliver (nickname Oddie), Barton, Orland (nickname Professor). Daughter who died age 11, name unknown. 

What was Cyrus Carver's legacy? He was a husband, father, blacksmith, homesteader. He hosted dances and built caskets. He was a self-sustainer. He was spry. And if we could travel back in time and ask him what one thing he wanted to be remembered for, I think he would say, "I was a good neighbor."

If it weren't for last century's social media, I would know a lot less about Great Grandpa. I'm glad he took the time to tell the papers a little bit about his life. I want to be a self-sustainer. I'd really like to be spry. And we all want to be good neighbors. Don't we?

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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.

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Books by D. R. Haskin

Dick Haskin is the great, great grandson of Samuel J. Haskin, who was Great Grandpa Cyrus Hoyt Carver's neighbor in Nebraska. They both came to Nebraska from Wisconsin along with a group of other settlers, and in subsequent generations the Carvers and Haskins are tied together via the Hubbard clan. (We conjecture there may have been some Haskin relationships up the line as well, but we haven't been able to pin them down. Conjecture is fun, though.)

Dick lives on the Haskin homestead and has written some books about the history of the area. Cyrus Carver's family is mentioned occasionally in these books. (They build caskets and host dances.) Carver and Hubbard/Haskin family reunions are held on Dick's property (he has set up a campground) and at these reunions he gives tours of where the Carver dugouts and property used to be, the creek, the cemetery, location of the store, and so forth.

Titles: See Dick's Books on Amazon: D. R. Haskin
Surnames: Haskin, Hubbard, Carver, others who lived in the area

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