Tag Archives: Ben Anderson

Travel Photo Amazes

Ben and Nettie Anderson

Ben and Nettie Anderson (My grandfather Guy’s Brother)

I have featured this sweet picture before. It shows my great-uncle Ben Anderson and his bride, Nettie. Ben has an interesting life story, and you can read about him by following the link above.

Recently, I re-discovered two more pictures of Ben and his family, vacationing in St. Augustine, Florida in January 1910. They went to the photographer’s studio to capture a travel photo. I hope they enjoyed St. Augustine as much as we did when we visited it about 75 years later. Although we were definitely attracted by different things.

No wonder Ohioans flocked to Florida for vacations.  What an exotic place! Alligators! Oranges on trees!

Ben Anderson - Florida

Ben Anderson, St. Augustine Florida January 1910

Ben Anderson family, Florida 1910

Ben, Estil and Nettie Anderson, Florida 1910

If you read my story of Ben Anderson’s life, you’ll see the irony in this picture of his family picking oranges. You see, Ben was an Ohio farmer who grew apples! Making this a busman’s holiday, as it were.

These travel photos reflect a theme of photographer’s studios in the early 20th century.  The photos are printed on a light cardstock, and the back is printed with sections for a message and an address as a postcard. The photographers created elaborate scenes starring their customers.

Neither of these postcards had been mailed.  The writing on the backs of the cards include a note that could have been from Nettie giving the date and place.  Other notes with names were written by my grandmother, my mother and by me.

Sadly, Nettie died in August 1911.

See other family travel photos with Will Stout and Maude Stout at the beach.

Ben Anderson: Tangled Lives

An Anderson couple

Benjamin Franklin Anderson and Nettie Anderson-Probably on their wedding day.

I talked about the sweet love and sad tragedy of Ben Anderson and Nettie Andress Anderson last week. After I published that story, I found a copy of Nettie’s obituary from 1910. Even given the floweriness of obituaries of the period, you can see why Ben might have stayed in love with Nettie the rest of her life had she survived longer.

Nettie Anderson Obituary. 1910

Nettie Anderson Obituary. 1910

Oh, my, what a paragon of virtue!  Poor Ben.  Left with the child mentioned in the article, and the other boy, Telmar Anderson (1903-1982), who was Ben Anderson’s nephew and ward (son of Guy Anderson). One would expect Ben to immediately  find another mother for the boys. But he never did that.

Instead he prevailed on family members to help him out. When Nettie died, Ben’s mother, Mary V. Brink Anderson was already living with his family–or more likely, they were living in her home in Killbuck. It appears from the newspaper article that although Ben ran the farm which he had bought from Mr. Roof, he had a house in town.  The farm was only a mile or so out of town.

(Excuse me if some of this seems repetitive from last week, but there are complications in the story, and I want to remind you of the relationships.)

In 1919, Mary V. Anderson, who had been a widow for 40 years, married a 2nd husband James Kline, and by 1920, the census shows Ben and the two boys living with his mother and step-father, which continued until Mary’s death.

Ben Anderson and Ruth Anderson 1923

Ben Anderson and Granddaughter Ruth Anderson. Daughter of Estill and Dora. 1923

Ben and Nettie’s only child, Estill (1905-1926) left home at 17  and married Dortha “Dora” Carpenter (1905-1954). They lived with her relatives Jim and Esther Carpenter in Killbuck. Estill had two children, Ruth Leone Anderson (1923-1989) and Estill Anderson , Jr. (1925-1991). Estill Sr. died in 1926, when Estill Jr. was 1 1/2 years old. 

During the 20’s, you may recall from what begins to sound like a soap opera episode of Life With Ben, Ben lost an arm and from then on he had a hook in place of one hand  and was unemployed. Telmar had left home by 1930, although I have not located him at that period of time. At any rate, Ben, now without sons, was still living with his mother and his new father-in-law.

By the 1935 and 1940 census, the situation has become confusing. In 1940, the census had a square to show where people had lived in 1935, and Ben’s box is marked as “same house”. The others living with him are listed as “same place” which probably means same town rather than same house. That would indicate that the house is actually Ben’s (perhaps he continued to live in his mother’s house and the father-in-law moved out when she died).

But even though it looks as though it was his house, Ben is not listed as “Head of Household,” probably because he is not employed. Instead, he is listed as “Grandfather” of the Head of Household. That would be Elbert Steele (20), who is married to Ben’s granddaughter, Ruth (Estill’s daughter) who was now 17 with a one-year-old daughter.

Donovan Anderson

Donovan Anderson. Ben’s Grandson and son of Dora and Telmar. Late 1940s.

But if that is not daunting enough for a household, besides Ben, Elbert, Ruth and their daughter Carol, three other people live there.  Dora Anderson (Estill Sr.’s widow) and her son Estill, Jr. but ALSO her son Donovan Anderson (1929-2001), who is not Estill‘s son, but Telmar‘s son.

UPDATE: May 2018. Donovan is shown here in what I was told was a Merchant Marine uniform (Anybody have information?)  I also just discovered a school yearbook that shows Estill Jr. was a class officer in his Sophomore year at Killbuck High School in 1942. However, according to Department of Defense Records in June of 1942, he enlisted in the Navy, where he served until June 1946. Perhaps he could not resist following his 4-year-older half brother, Donovan into service.

Yes, Dora married Estill when she was very young and when he died, she married his cousin Telmar. Dora and Estill had only been married for three years, and Estill,Sr. was a very young 21 years old when he died. However—the plot thickens–in this 1940 census she is listed as divorced and Telmar, obviously, is not one of the members of the household. So she was the widow of Ben’s son and the ex-wife of Ben’s nephew/ward. She and Ben were living under the same roof with Estill’s daughter Ruth, a very young mother.

The family bad luck seemed to continue with Carol Ann Steele, Dora’s granddaughter–and Ben’s great-granddaughter. I was excited when I discovered this relative because we were very close in age.  Ah-ha! I thought. A long-lost cousin I can look up. Carol was married three times, starting when she was only 16 or 17. She died in 1987. She was not yet 50.

Ben lived until 1963 and died in Barberton, in the Akron area where many of this grandchildren had relocated. So although he lived to be 83, he certainly saw more than his fair share of troubles. He had outlived his father (who died when Ben was a small child), his wife, his mother, his only son, his daughter-in-law, his only brother (Guy) and he lost an arm.

I hope if I ever locate any other descendants of these family members that they have been able to escape the chain of bad luck that seemed to start with sweet Nettie’s death.

UPDATE: May, 2018 Thanks to finding a cousin through DNA testing, I can add a bit of information about Ben, and hope to be able to confirm or correct the other information I have on my grandfather Guy Anderson’s brother and his family.

This new cousin tells me “I noticed that you mentioned my great-grandfather Ben Anderson having a hook from losing the lower portion of his arm. It wasn’t a railroad accident. He owned several oil wells. While turning a crank on one of them it spun out of control and very badly twisted his arm so that it had to be partially amputated. ” She also explains the rather unusual name of Estill.  She says that Ben’s best friend was Judge Estill of Holmes County and he used the judge’s last name as his son’s first name.

How I am Related

  • Vera Marie (Kaser) Badertscher is the daughter of
  • Harriette (Anderson) Kaser, who is the daughter of
  • Leonard Guy Anderson, is the brother of
  • Bernard F. Anderson, who is the father of
  • Estill Anderson, Sr., who is the father of
  • Estill Anderson, Jr.

  • Leonard Guy Anderson is the father of Telmar Anderson (Half-brother to Harriette Anderson, my mother)
  • Telmar Anderson is the father of Donovan Anderson

Notes on Research

Ohio Births and Christenings 1800-1962, Franklin T. Anderson, 18 Jul. 1903, Ancestry.com Family History Library File No. 477155

United States Federal Census 1910, 1920, 1930, Killbuck, Holmes County, Ohio

United States Federal Census 1940, Mechanic, Holmes County, Ohio

Indiana Marriages, 1810-2001, Franklin T. Anderson and Louise Thompson, 29 July 1953, pg 342, Ancestry .com  Family History Library No. 002418899

Michigan Marriage Record, Donovan Guy Anderson to Dora Carpenter, County File 712-771; State File Number 392107

Ohio, Birth Index, 1908-1964, Estill Anderson (Jr.) 13 June 1925,

Ohio Death Records 1908-1032, Ohio Dept of Health, Ancestry.com, Estell Claire Anderson (jr._ Certificate: 038958; Volume: 28568, 22 May 1991 (Notes that he had a 10th grade education)

Ohio, Deaths, 1908-1932, 1938-2007, Ohio Dept of Health and Ancestry.com, State File No. 1925113461 Estell Anderson Dec. 1926

S. S. Social Security Applications and Claims Index  1936-2007, Ruth Anderson Steele, Ancestry.com

Summit County Ohio Marriage Marriage Records, Ruth Steele and Harry Wiland, May 5 1959, Summit County Court of Common Pleas – Probate Division; Akron, Ohio; Summit County, Ohio, Marriage Records, 1840-1980; Volume Number or Range of Dates: Vol 173, 1959-1960.

Family Ties and Tragedies: Ben and Nettie Anderson

An Anderson couple

Bernard Franklin Anderson and Nettie Anderson-Probably on their wedding day in 1901.

Bernard Franklin (Ben) Anderson (1881-1963)

Young Love

Aren’t they just the sweetest couple?   I particularly like “Uncle Ben’s” pompadour.  This is probably a wedding portrait, from the 1901 wedding of Bernard (Ben) Franklin Anderson (1881-1963) and Nettie C. Andress Anderson (1882-1911). I think theirs was a true love story.

It is just as well that Ben and Nettie Anderson did not know what was in their future on that May day in 1909 when the extended family gathered at Guy and Vera’s farm.

Despite the fact that Uncle Ben’s real name was not Benjamin, but Bernard,  my mother said that he liked to claim that he was named for Benjamin Franklin, and identified himself as Ben or Benjamin in some official records.

Extending Family

I wrote earlier about the picture of Guy and Vera Anderson’s family  that was taken on their farm. Here’s the portion of that picture showing Ben (2nd from right) and Nettie (to his right –our left).

Ben and Nettie Anderson

Portion of Guy and Vera Family 1909 With Ben and Nettie Anderson to the right of Dr. Stout (seated)

You can see their son, Estill Anderson (1905- 1926), seated on the ground in the front row of the picture below, the light-haired boy. He would have been four when the picture was taken.  On the far right you see Telmar Anderson (1903-1982), son of my grandfather Guy Anderson and his first wife.

Ben and Nettie Anderson - son Estill

Portion of Family picture 1909. Children in front row.

Ben and Nettie took in Telmar when Guy’s first wife died and he married Vera (my grandmother). You may have noticed that Nettie died at the age of 28, only three years after posing for the big family photo.   Estill  was only six years old when his mother died. Estill was just a little more than a year younger than his cousin Telmar.

Ben and Nettie Anderson

In tribute to Uncle Ben, I made apple crisp for dinner–with oatmeal and almonds. I can imagine Nettie making this apple dessert.

When the family picture was taken, Ben was a fruit farmer, according to the census. That confirms my mother’s childhood memories of Ben having an orchard of apple trees (one of the principal exports of Holmes County in the 1800s according to one history.) His farm was located in Killbuck Township, but could not have been too far away from the farm bought by Daddy Guy, shown in this picture.

The two brothers were close, and were very similar physically–small and wiry.  Ben was ineligible for service in World War I because of his poor hearing, and when I was young, the fact that my Daddy Guy wore a hearing aid made a big impression on me.  No wonder. He carried the instrument, as big as an early transistor radio in his shirt pocket and the wire to his ear was very visible. (My mother inherited the hearing problems, as did I.)

From Apple Blossoms to Motor Oil

After Nettie died, Ben left the farm and lived in Killbuck, where he sold cars. The Uncle Ben I remember seemed more like a salesman than a man who would be happy at the solitary job of farming. He was outgoing and always joking, like my Daddy Guy. His draft card in 1917 describes him as having dark brown eyes and gray hair (although he would not have been forty years old.)

Unlike the many male ancestors who remarried soon after their wives died, Ben remained true to Nettie.  Although he had the responsibility of raising two young boys (his brother’s son Telmar and his own son Estill) he never remarried. He managed for a time on his own, and then with the help of other family members. In 1919, Ben and Guy’s mother, Mary V. Brink Anderson,  who had been a widow for 40 years, remarried, and Ben and the two young boys he watched over, moved in with his mother and James Kline, her new husband. Ben continued to work as a salesman in Killbuck.

A Sad Decade

During the 1920’s tragedy struck.  In 1926, Estill, the only son of Nettie and Ben, died at twenty-one, leaving just Ben and his ward, Telmar.

During that decade, a terrible accident occurred. It might have had something to do with a railroad accident–falling on a track perhaps. I don’t know for sure. UPDATE: May 2018. I now know that his accident took place on an oil well  According to a new-found cousin, “He owned several oil wells. While turning a crank on one of them it spun out of control and very badly twisted his arm so that it had to be partially amputated.”

I do remember the novel sight of Uncle Ben, a man of good humor, who had a hook where one of his hands should be. As a little girl, I knew nothing of his other two losses, and the hook seemed more fascinating than tragic. How amazing, that he could pick up things and get on with life with a piece of metal where his fingers should be!

From then on, he was unemployed, I suppose living on government “dole” or insurance money. My cousin Herb remembers Uncle Ben hanging around the Killbuck pool hall, where he played an excellent game of one-handed pool.

Ben’s mother died in 1935, and he moved in with his grand-daughter Ruth, who had married Elbert Steele.  Ten years later his brother Guy died. By then Ben had moved away from Killbuck to the Akron area where he once again lived with family members–but without the sweet Nettie and their only son.  He died there in 1963. And it puzzles me that I do not recall hearing anything about his death.  He and Telmar seemed to drift away from the remaining members of Guy’s family. There was no great falling out–just falling away.

For more about the later years of Ben’s life and the following generation, see this post.

 

Note: For a little more information about apple crisp I made in honor of Ben, the once-fruit farmer,  see my earlier article about fruit desserts. It is simple to make. Slice the apples in the pan. Mix 1 cup oatmeal, 1/4 cup butter and 1/2 cup brown sugar with cinnamon or nutmeg. Sprinkle on top of the apples. (I also added almonds this time).  Bake at 375 degrees for half hour. Serve with milk or whipped cream or ice cream. 

By the way, in that photograph, you’re looking at the biggest apple I ever saw, a very large Honey Crisp. It makes the dish look smaller than its 9″ by 9″.

How I Am Related

  • Vera Marie (Kaser) Badertscher is the daughter of
  • Harriette (Anderson) Kaser is the daughter of
  • Leonard Guy Anderson, who is the brother of
  • Bernard Franklin (Ben) Anderson.

Notes on Research

1900 United States Federal Census, Monroe Township, Holmes County, Ohio, Roll: 1288; Page: 6A; Enumeration District: 0029; FHL microfilm: 1241288

1910, 1920, 1930, 1940 United States Federal Census, Holmes County, Ohio.

Ohio, County Marriages, 1774-1993, Ancestry.com, Holmes County Probate Court, pg. 351, No. 629, Bernard Franklin Anderson and Nettie C. Andress, Nov. 29, 1902, Accessed at Ancestry.com

U.S. World War I Draft Registration Cards 1917-1918, Holmes County, Ohio, Roll: 1832249 Accessed at Ancestry.com

U. S. World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942, Holmes County, Ohio, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington, D.C.; State Headquarters: Ohio, accessed at Ancestry.com

Ohio, Deaths, 1908-1932, 1938-2007, Ohio Department of Health, Certificate: 16582; Volume: 17205. Accessed at Ancestry.com