The Susie Situation - Notes - Ruth Hamilton's Pre-Trial Testimony

This is a transcription of several pages of handwritten testimony provided to me by Holt County courthouse. It is a sworn statement from Frank Hamilton explaining in (excruciating) detail while his wife Ruth cannot come to trial. (Honestly, Frank, you could have just said, "She is very pregnant and cannot travel." You did not have to go on and on with the embarrassing details. Do you think Ruth wanted you to do that?) Then it goes on to detail what he says is Ruth's testimony that she would provide if she could come to the trial. 

I'll provide all of the transcription first, followed by copies of the handwritten pages after that. At some point in the future perhaps I'll figure out how to provide the entire document with transcription in a PDF. But for now, this is it.

PAGE 36-Now comes the defendant Frank Hamilton and moves the Court to continue this case until the next regular term of this Court, for the reasons set forth in the Affidavit hereto attached, marked "Exhibit A" and which is hereby made a part of this motion.

PAGE 37- Exhibit A - Frank Hamilton being first duly sworn upon oath deposes and says that he is the defendant in the above entitled cause that Ruth Hamilton is the wife of the defendant and is a necessary and natural witness in defendants behalf in the trial of said case and without her testimony the defendant cannot safely proceed to trial that she is at this time sick and confined to her bed and is unable to leave it. That on the 2nd day of June 1912 she gave birth to a child. That her labor pains were most severe and she was unable to give

PAGE 38- birth to said child until she obtained assistance of doctors Hooper and Battis of Butte Nebraska. That it was necessary for said Doctors to use forceps and other surgical instruments in the delivery of said child. That by reason of these facts she became physically weak and exhausted and was subjected to a great nervous shock from which she has not as yet recovered, that she is also at this time and for some time past has been suffering from a large tumor of the womb and that as soon as she recovers sufficient strength to endure an operation it may be absolutely necessary that she be operated on for said tumor. That affiant knows from her present condition that it will be impossible for her to

PAGE 39- go to O'Neill the place of trial for at least two months and probably longer. That her home is 35 miles from O'Neill and that her means of conveyance will have to be by team. That she could not go to O'Neill at this time or within the time heretofore specified without placing her life in danger, that if this case is continued to the next regular term of this court that affiant will have said witness present in court for the trial of said case. That if she were present in court she would testify that on the day following the night the crime is alleged to have been committed that Mrs. Annis Carver mother of the prosecutrix Susie Carver came to the home of affiant after dinner on said day. That at the time 

PAGE 40- she came and for about a half hour prior that affiant was upstairs in his dwelling lying on his bed. That Mrs. Carver asked affiant's wife where affiant was, that she told her where affiant was and that she then had one of the children call affiant. That affiant came down ? To where his wife and Mrs. Carver were. That Mrs. Carver said to affiant in the presence of his wife that she (Carver) wanted to talk to affiant privately, whereupon affiant's wife said Mrs. Carver he is my husband and if you have anything to say to him why don't you say it my presence. That Mrs. Carver then said, "I am going to Send you over the road for having Susie out all night, but I am willing to settle it if you will give me your grey team."
 
PAGE 41- That affiant's wife then asked Mrs. Carver in substance if her husband (affiant) had done anything wrong or harmed Susie in any way, that Mrs. Carver said that he had not but that he had Susie out all night and that that was against the law and that she would send him over the road for it unless affiant would give her the grey team, that affiant and his wife both said that affiant had done nothing wrong to the girl as she herself Mrs. Carver had stated and that they would not give her the team because there was nothing to settle, that Mrs. Carver then said that affiant and his wife would ----- it that she would be willing to take the bay colts. That said team of bay colts were inferior to the grey team and were not worth near

PAGE 42- so much as the gray team. That affiant and his wife both refused to give her the bay team or anything else. That Mrs.Carver then in a loud and angry voice said, "I will make it hot for you and send you over the road."

That Carver and his wife lived on a Kinkaid homestead not far from affiant's place, that on several occasions prior to the time specified in this affidavit and on different occasions offered to trade their Kinkaid homestead to affiant for the aforesaid grey team. That affiant's wife will testify that both Carver and his wife have done everything in their power to get ahold of affiant's grey team. That affiant's wife in O'Neill and on the same day and right after the preliminary hearing in this case

PAGE 43- met Mrs. Carver in front of one of the drug stores in O'Neil, Nebr and said to Mrs. Carver, "I hope you feel better since you swore to all those lies." Whereupon Mrs. Carver started to cry and answered, "I had to do it, and if you were in my place you would do it." That affiant's wife then immediately walked away from Mrs. Carver. That this affidavit is not made for the purpose of delay but is made for the sole purpose of obtaining justice and further affiant sayeth not. Signed, Frank Hamilton.

Page 36-37

Page 38-39

Page 40-41

Page 42-43

Read More

The Susie Situation - Episode 5 - Stale Old Stories

You can watch this on YouTube (below). Copies of news articles are in the written version (below that.)

If you’re joining us for the first time, we are cousins investigating a 100 year old family mystery. We call it The Susie Situation. This is episode 5.

Read More

The Susie Situation - Episode 4 - Sensational Testimony

If you're joining us for the first time, we're investigating a family mystery from 1912. It centers around a homestead fire in Nebraska. One word of caution, this week's content does include references to historical events that contain sensitive information, so discretion is recommended.

This can be watch as a video (below) or read as a blog post (below that). 

Read More

The Susie Situation - Episode 3 - Follow The Clues

If you're joining us for the first time, we're some cousins trying to unravel an old family mystery. We call it The Susie Situation, and this is Episode Three.  You can read here, or watch on YouTube (below.)

Read More

The Susie Situation - Episode 2 - A Name on A Page

Last week we talked about Fires and Farts. This week? Seventh Grade and Scams. We're investigating a 100-year-old mystery that we're calling "The Susie Situation." This is episode 2.

This is available as a video (below) or in written format (below that.) At the very end are some news clippings and one transcribed news article.

Imagine 7th grade. I know, you don't want to. It's such an awkward year. You're 13, maybe 12. Your complexion is staging this full blown rebellion. The other kids are all edges and elbows.

But let's say you have a teacher with a flair for the creative. "Gather round, class! Your maternal grandmother, that's your mom's mom. Do you know her first name? I want you all to seat yourselves alphabetically by that. If it was Alice, you're in the front. If it was Zelda, you're in the back. Shuffle it up! Let's go!"

There's a buzz in the room. It's almost as exciting as Harry Potter's sorting hat. The kids begin to sort themselves into rows while they keep up a steady banter.

"My grandma's cookies are better than yours."

"So what?"

And as they jostle and joke, you burst into tears, because it feels like you're the only person in this classroom without living grandparents, and you realize that not only do you not know what kind of cookies your maternal grandmother used to make, you don't even know her name.

This is how my cousin Melody first became interested in family history, there in her seventh grade classroom, thinking about her grandmother and wondering where to sit. She had a million questions she wished she could ask this unknown lady with the unknown name. So Melody went home that day and just started asking her parents questions about their parents.

Melody's mother told her that her grandmother's name was Sina Belle Carver. Her mother remembered spending a lot of time playing outside as a child — running wild, as she called it. And she didn't recall any specific cookie memories, but she did remember that sometimes she would get in trouble, and then she would have to sit on the stairs — sort of an old fashioned time out — but then Sina would feel bad about it afterwards and give her ice cream.

Sina was my father's sister, and Dad said that she was named after his father's former girlfriend. Now, why did Grandma go for that? I mean, it's a pretty name, but his former girlfriend? Sina Belle's brothers used to kid her about her name.

"When Congress sends a bill to the president, what do they want him to do? Sign a bill! Ha ha ha!"

Future tellers of dad jokes, right there. But Dad claimed they were very loving about this, because you couldn't help but love sister Sina. She was little and sweet and gentle and kind.

Sina and her siblings were all born in Nebraska, where her ancestors moved in hopes of rich farmland and a fresh start. Back in 1877, her father's Carver family came from Wisconsin with a group of other settlers to form a small town called Mars. Her mother's Hubbard family came from Vermont to settle in a nearby village called Venus.

These towns are kind of hard to find now. If you pull up Google Maps, you can see Venus. It's part of Walnut Grove. And then, Mars Campground is a few miles southeast of that, and that's most of Mars, right there. Our shirttail relative, Dick Haskin, lives there, on the old Haskin Homestead. This is right near where the old Carver Homestead used to be. Dick hosts family reunions there, and many Carver and Hubbard family members have been back to visit.

 I haven't been to one of these reunions yet, because I'm just not a very good traveler, but the last few years I've gotten better at traveling. At the Mars campground, Dick gives tours, and I'm kind of excited about this, because there are these dugouts that my great uncle stayed in while they built the house for the family to live in, and it seems like everybody's seen these except me.

So, to speed things up, a few months ago, I sign up for this special airline credit card from Bank of America. It claims to get me extra airline points so I can fly places for free. The card comes in the mail. And then, two days later, I get a letter from Bank of America. It says, "We're shutting down your account due to suspicious activity", and I'm like, What?

The letter says I have 25 days to sort this out or else, poof! And I'm thinking, goodbye airline points, no free trips to Nebraska, no tours with Dick to see the dugouts, unless I make this call.

I call the number on the letter and get a recording that says, if you're over 50 press 1, if you're under 50 press 2. That seems really weird, but I press 1. A woman answers. She doesn't say anything about suspicious activity or credit cards. Instead, she tries to sell me a Medic Alert Bracelet.

Help! I've fallen for a scam, and I just need to hang up. But I guess I shouldn't be surprised because my family's been falling for scams since at least 1877, when those Carver great grandparents migrated to Mars.

Here's an article from the Neligh Independent from January, 1878. (See below.) The editor recounts a trip to the area to visit a homestead. He says the grass rivals Kentucky bluegrass, perfect for fattening cattle, splendid groves of trees, fine meadowlands, four tons of hay per acre, "many others to be had in this immediate neighborhood."

I wonder what kind of commission this guy got for each homestead that was settled. I showed this to Dick Haskin. He laughed and said, "This soil is sand, gravel, and volcanic ash. Nothing grows well here. Nothing."

So, back in Wisconsin, some excitable farmer reads a glowing article like this, and then he goes around to his relatives and neighbors and gets them all worked up about Nebraska. Free land. Tons of hay per acre. Fat cattle. And they all get scammed into moving to Mars.

The article goes on to mention several homesteaders, including Wallace Haskin and Mr. Carver. The Mr. Carver in this article was Sina's grandpa. That's Melody's two times great grandpa. And despite the bad soil, he did figure out how to scrape a living out of his homestead. But, it appears that it was a constant scrape.

We know a few things about Cyrus Carver and his wife Mary from old newspapers. We know that in Mars they were called Grandma and Grandpa Carver, that sometimes they were called out in the middle of the night to help care for the sick, and that he donated part of his land to be the first cemetery.

These old newspapers weren't available for Melody to search back in 7th grade. They've been scanned in recent years and put online, some of them just in the last couple of years. And when Melody was in seventh grade, we also didn't know each other. I was aware of her mom, but really only as a name on a piece of paper.

And sometimes with family history, that's really all you have to start out with, a name on a page. And for some people, it seems like that's the whole goal, a collection of as many connected names as possible, going back as far as possible, and maybe highlighting as many connections to famous people as possible.

But we're still trying to understand just a few people a couple of generations back. And honestly, we want to know a lot more than just a name on a page.

Read More

The Susie Situation - Episode 1 - Things That Burn

My family left us many things - a predisposition to cancer, diminutive stature, a distinct lack of generational wealth. They neglected to leave photos. We don't know what Grandpa looked like, or two of our three aunts. Those three aunts died way too soon and really needed to meet more men. That's what we've decided from where we sit -- three nieces and grand nieces, learning about Dad's three sisters, while we unravel a 100 year old mystery that we're calling "The Susie Situation." Our story starts with a fire.

This is available as a video (below) or as a written work (below that.) 

I wake up most mornings thinking that I'm getting old. Why is this at the forefront of my thoughts at dawn? Who knows.

Last year I had surgery to remove various body parts before they had a chance to acquire cancer. My father's family gave me the gift of being genetically hospitable to certain types of cancer, and I don't need those parts anymore, so it seemed like the thing to do, but ...

Something happens when they re-arrange all those parts inside of you. It must create free space for trapped air? After years of gas-free living (except for the summer of '69 - and we don't know what was going on there) I found myself waking up at 3am with copious amounts of excess flatulence.

My morning routine the first few weeks after surgery involved waking up, thinking about getting old, noticing which body part hurt most, remembering that I'm not going to be around forever, and then telling myself to stop whining, because I've outlived many women in my family. This series of thoughts might take anywhere from 3 minutes to 3 hours, after which, resolving to go about my day with dignity and grace, I would roll over, sit up, and fart.

Do I recommend this surgery? Well, it might have prolonged the lives of some of those women I've outlived. Even a little bit of standard medical care might have helped. I mean, I'm not a doctor, but I'm pretty sure aspirin is not the best and only painkiller for breast cancer. Uncle Clarence, I'm talking to you.

My father's three sisters all died before I was born. I don't even know what two of them looked like. Sometimes I hear rumors of photos. "My sister might have some, but she isn't speaking to me and won't share" or "My uncle had all the photos, and then his house burned down."

Things that burn. There's actually an old family story about a house and a barn burning down on the same day, back when my father was two years old. He wrote about this in a manuscript he left me. 

He says, “We were living on this homestead near Spencer, Nebraska. And Dad was away from home."

I guess the rest of the family was out getting the cows. Except for his sister Susie. For some reason she wasn't there. On their way home, a thunderstorm came up on the prairie.

"There was one really bright flash and then a hard clap of thunder. Then we saw smoke coming from our new barn. It was on fire, and we couldn't save it. Before we got to the barnyard, there was another really bright flash and another deafening roar, and smoke came pouring out of our house -- our new house!"

Now, when I was a kid, I noticed that if I asked the wrong question during a family story, I would often get an illusive answer.

"Dad, what are the odds of lightning striking two structures on the same land on the same day, catching them both on fire?"

"Well ... I couldn't say."

"Dad, where was Grandpa during this time?"

"Well ... sometimes he was away."

"Dad, where was Susie?"

"Well ... you know, I was only two years old."

As I got older I discovered that this lightning story was the official story, but there was an underlying suspicion. Subtext. Family lore. A suggestion that this fire was set on purpose. Why? Nobody explained. They hemmed and hawed and said, "Well ...."

So I set out to find other sources of information. For years I searched through newspaper listings and other resources in Boyd county, near Spencer. I got negative results. That's what the professional genealogists tell you when you hire them to look for things, and they don't find them. "I searched. I got negative results. That will be four hundred and fifty dollars, please. I prefer a check."

Then one day I broadened my search to Holt county, a few miles south of Spencer, and that's when I discovered a tiny little news article in the Atkinson Graphic, dated July 12, 1912: "Orlin Carver of Phoenix had the misfortune to lose his house and household goods last Friday night by fire. Mr. Carver lives on a Kinkaid homestead and the loss will be an especially heavy one for him."

It didn't mention a barn. And Grandpa's first name was spelled wrong - Orlin instead of Orland - but I've often seen it misspelled in this fashion. My dad was born in 1910, so he would have been 2 in 1912. I had no idea where Phoenix or Kinkaid were, but a quick look at a map showed that Atkinson is 41 miles south of Spencer. The dates are right. The place seems right. There were not many Carvers in the area. This looked like my family. Now what?

I reached out to my cousins, Kate and Melody. "HELP!" They were patient, letting me bury them in research, listening to my dramatic overshares and sighs of confusion. They passed information back and forth between me and their aging parents, adding information of their own, and suggesting new avenues for research. Over the last year we've pieced together large parts of this story while our own stories unfolded in parallel..

If we were writing the script for a movie, we would have to admit that the script is not complete. We're hoping that if we release some updates, a bit at a time, we'll figure it out as we go. Perhaps more of our cousins will provide feedback and help us add depth and clarity. Perhaps the final family narrative will be crowdsourced.

And perhaps I can change my morning routine. Wake up and think, yes, darn it, I'm getting old, but at least I've shared what I know. And also, finally, thank heavens, that farting has subsided.

Read More

Grandpa Parks

This is a placeholder for a post about Grandpa Robert Parks, to go along with the video I'm creating. I will come back and add details in the next few days. Or weeks? Sigh.

Read More