New Year's Wishes for 2012

Best wishes for 2012 to all my family and friends!

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Christmas Nativity: Early 1950s Family Heirloom

This nativity scene has been around almost as long as I have.  Mom told me that, because she didn't have the money to buy the whole set right away, she saved her money and bought the pieces a little at a time. She purchased the stable, Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus and the manger the first year and each year after that Mom purchased another piece. These figurines were bought at our local Ben Franklin store, a "five and dime", within walking distance of our home. Over the years, Mom added the Angel, the Three Wise Men, the standing camel with the colorful saddle, and the three tiny chalkware sheep. That was it, that's what we had. Mom and I re-glittered the star several times when I was a child and Mom even had extra straw for the roof in case it needed replenishing. I still have that little vintage bag of extra straw.

When I got married and had children of my own, Mom decided to pass the nativity scene on to me, and I have displayed it proudly each and every year.

I have always enjoyed antique shopping and I was forever visiting antique malls and flea markets looking for vintage items. One Saturday, when visiting the Wagon Wheel flea market, I spotted the vintage figurine of the Shepherd Boy carrying the lamb on his shoulders. I remember how excited I was to purchase it, and that satisfying feeling I had when I made a place for the old figurine in the nativity scene the following Christmas. After that, I was on a mission to look for more pieces from the same time period that would match the rest of the collection. 

Over a period of about six more years, I purchased the rest of what you see in the photo: the burro, the camel laying down, the standing brown camel, the oxen laying down, and the donkey laying down. Some are plastic, some are chalkware, but they are all from the same time period. Most still have the little purple ink stamp on the bottom that gave the original price which was usually between 15 and 39 cents each. 

There has never been a year since the early 1950s that this nativity scene has not been on display. Sure, there are some dings and missing paint on some, but each figurine is cherished. Every year, I wrap each one carefully in tissue and pack it away under the guest bed...never in the attic where most of the other Christmas items get stored and where it gets hot. I want this nativity scene to last a long time and I hope it will always be cherished as much as I have cherished it. I will pass it down someday, to someone who will love it as much I have.

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Sunday's Obituary: James John Trowbridge 1933

Death of James J. Towbridge

Knightstown Banner
May 5, 1933 pg. 8 c. 1 & 2

     James J. Trowbridge, age 82 years, died at Charlottesville last Friday morning at 8:30 o'clock of a complication of diseases, coupled with heart trouble. He is survived by one son, Arthur Trowbridge, at whose home he died; a daughter-in-law and one grandson also survive.

     Funeral services were held from the late residence at 10 o'clock Sunday morning, conducted by Rev. Omer Hufferd. Burial was at Curry's Chapel cemetey, in charge of O. M. Wilson, undertaker.

   Those out-of-town attending Mr. Trowbridge's funeral Sunday, were Mr. and Mrs. Joe Miller; Mrs. Genoa Holland of Knightstown; Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Runyon and daughter of New Castle; Mrs. Charles Newby and son Charles of Spiceland; Mr. and Mrs. Joe Emay, of Dunreith; Miss Ina Harrison; Mr. and Mrs. Claude Downey and son George of Fountaintown.

James John Trowbridge was the son of William Bradford and Julia Ann (Duncan) Trowbridge. He was married to a distant half-cousin, Sarah Elizabeth Trowbridge, daughter of John and Phoebe (Cook) Trowbridge. (Phoebe Cook married two distantly related men named John Trowbridge. Sarah is daughter of the first husband, I am a descendant of the second husband, John Calvin Trowbridge.)

Relationships to out-of-towners mentioned above: 

Mr. and Mrs. Joe Miller - Joseph F. and Estie (Trowbridge) Miller, Sarah Elizabeth's niece and her husband.

Mrs. Genoa Holland - mother of Estie. Genoa's first husband was Albert Franklin Trowbridge (brother of Sarah), and second husband was Edwin Holland.

Mr. and Mrs Lawrence Runyan and daughter - my maternal grandparents, Lawrence and Fern (Newby) Runyan and my mother, Janet Runyan.

Mrs. Charles Newby and son Charles - Ida May Newby and son, Morris Henry (mistakenly listed as Charles), my great grandparents, parents and brother of Fern Runyan.

Mr. and Mrs. Joe Emay - not sure.

Miss Ina Harrison - sister of James and Sarah's daughter-in-law, Myrtle (Harrison) Trowbridge (wife of Arthur Manuel Trowbridge).

Mr. and Mrs. Claude Downey - another sister and brother-in-law of Myrtle Trowbridge.

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Sunday's Obituary: Loren Yancy Newby

Obituary Knightstown Banner dated Apr. 25, 1924 pg 1, col. 3

Death of L. Y. Newby

     Loren Yancy Newby, aged 73 years, died at his home in this city, Saturday morning at 4:30 o’clock of leakage of the heart. He was born in Greensboro, Ind., but had lived most of his life in Knightstown. Besides his widow he is survived by two children—Gurney Newby, of Gary, Ind., and one daughter, Mrs. Pearl Pollitt, of Gwynneville. Mr. Newby had been sick for some time. He was the son of Jacob N. Newby, removing from Greensboro to Knightstown in 1872.

     L. P. Newby, of this city, is a brother, and Mrs. Will Carroll, of Shirley, a sister of deceased.

     Mr. Newby was an active man until a few months ago. For several years he was a poultry buyer for the W. G. Brosjus company and also for Midkiff Brothers.

     The funeral was held from his late home Monday afternoon at 2 o’clock, conducted by Rev. Hartsuck, of the Friends church. Burial was made at Glencove cemetery in charge of C. F. Baxter, undertaker.

Loren Yancy "Yank" Newby was the son of Jacob N. and Lavina (Leonard) Newby and the brother of my great, great grandfather, John A. Newby. He was married to Mary Florence Evans in 1877. He had one son, Carl Geurney b. 1881 who married Fame O. Haas, and one daughter, Alma Pearl b. 1879, who married 1)  William O. Smith and 2) Harry L. Pollitt. 

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Pansy: Daughter of Strother and Flora A. (Lindamood) Newby

Strother Newby was my maternal great, great granduncle. Just recently I received two articles from the The Knightstown Banner concerning his death and I learned more about Strother from those two articles than I ever would have dreamed. (See the articles and transcriptions at this link: The Gruesome Demise of Strother E. Newby - 1915.)

Pansy Newby circa 1913

The second, very short article, held a real surprise for me. Strother had a daughter, and her name was Pansy. In 17 years of research I had not found documented evidence that Strother had any offspring, other than his son Everett by his first wife. Pansy eluded detection probably due to the fact that Strother and Pansy's mother Flora divorced and, for whatever reason, Flora's older sister Mary and her husband Truman Goldsbarry took over Pansy's upbringing. Pansy had been born in 1889 and her mother remarried in 1891. No amount of research has turned up anything on Flora or her second husband after their marriage, at least not yet.

Corporal Truman Goldsbary

Pansy lived with her aunt and uncle until they died. It is hard to tell how much interaction she may have had with her father or her Newby aunts and uncles during those years. She lost her closest family within a period of four years. Aunt Mary died in 1913, her father Strother died in 1915, and her uncle Truman died in 1917. Mary J. (Lindamood) Goldsbarry had given birth to three children but apparently they all died young. Pansy is listed living in the Goldsbarry household in 1900 and 1910 as their niece and the only child. Truman and Mary Goldsbarry are buried in the Lewisville Cemetery in Lewisville, Henry Co., Indiana where they resided all their married lives. Truman was a civil war veteran and his photo appears in my very own antiquated and quite rare copy of "Hazzard's history of Henry County, Indiana 1822 - 1906".

Oddly, Truman's youngest brother died a similar death to that of Pansy's Father. Alexander Goldsbary was crushed under the wheels of a train in 1902.

The Goldsbarrys saw to it that Pansy received a good education. She is found in the yearbooks of Spiceland Academy and Normal School as early as 1900. Pansy is later found listed many times in the 1913 "Arbutus", a yearbook of Indiana University. Pansy was quite involved in all aspects of school life. Listed under her photo in the Arbutus - Latin; Y.W.C.A. Cabinet, '12-13; Women's League Board, '13; Student Council; Strut and Fret; Student Staff; Secretary English Club; Socialist Club; Franchise League; and Class Prophet. Pansy graduated from Indiana University in 1913 with a Bachelor of Arts in Latin. The photos of Pansy are all taken from this issue of the Arbutus.

In the Indiana University Bulletin, Vol. 15, issue 5, pg. 179 - Pansy is listed as a 1913 graduate, teaching English and Latin at a high school in Pennville, Jay Co., Indiana.

In the school year 1918-1919 Pansy took over the Journalism class and supervised the publishing of "The Register", the school newspaper, at Morton High School in Richmond, Indiana. This information was found in the school memory book "The Pierian", June 1921, pg. 64.

On September 1, 1919 Pansy married Clinton A. Stevens, also a teacher, and shortly afterwards they moved to Springfield, Illinois where they both taught school. On his death record (1946), Clinton was listed as Principal of Douglas school.

Pansy is mentioned in the Indiana University Alumni Quarterly, Vol. 1, pg. 192 as a graduate and again in Vol. 7, pg. 128 as "Mrs. Clinton A. Stevens" who was teaching English at the high school in Springfield, Illinois.

Strother's son Everett by his first wife, Rhoda Ellen Musselman, was born in 1875. Like Pansy, it seems that Everett may also have been raised by someone other than his parents. Strother and Rhoda were divorced by 1880 and Everett was living with a Kemper family at that time.  Everett married Maude A. Crose in New Castle, Indiana in 1908 and they had two children, Raymond Virgil and Viola May. Everett moved his family to California and died there in 1941.  He was divorced from Maude at the time of his death.

Note: Truman's surname Goldsbary is spelled with two rs on his tombstone and is often spelled with an e instead of an a in other documents.

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Sunday's Obituary: Roy L. Trowbridge 1911 - 1969

Roy L. Trowbridge

Obituary: Knightstown Banner - pg. 8, col. 3 - dated April 10, 1969:

Roy Trowbridge, 58 Henry Co. Native

     Roy L. Trowbridge, 58, of Charlottesville, died suddenly Sunday morning at Hancock County Memorial Hospital.

Obituary of Roy L.
Trowbridge
Knightstown Banner 1969

     Born in Henry County he was the son of Arthur and Mabel McNew Trowbridge and had lived in Charlottesville since 1944. He was a member and Elder of the Charlottesville Christian Church.

     Mr. Trowbridge was employed at the Columbia Barber Shop since 1947 and was a member of the Barbers Union and secretary of Local 212. He was an Army Air Force veteran of World War II.

     Survivors include his wife, Irene; two daughters, Marsha and Pamela Trowbridge, at home; a half sister, Mrs. Julia Landes; two half brothers, William and Dude Badgerow, all three of Michigan.

     Services were held Wednesday at Pasco Memorial Mortuary with Rev. John Rhoades and Rev. David King officiating. Burial was in Glen Cove Cemetery in Knightstown.

My maternal great grandmother, Ida May (Trowbridge) Newby and her sister, Millie (Trowbridge) McMullen, were particularly fond of Roy's father Arthur, their half-nephew. (See Art's obituary at this link: Sunday's Obituary: Arthur Manuel Trowbridge 1944. I would love to hear from descendants of Roy's daughters, Marsha and Pamela.

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The Gruesome Demise of Strother E. Newby - 1915

Strother was the son of Jacob N. and Lavina (Leonard) Newby and the brother of my maternal great, great grandfather, John A. Newby. He was born in Henry Co., Indiana in 1849 and he was married three times and divorced twice. It is likely Strother would soon have been divorced for the third time had death not claimed him first. Strother married Rhoda Musselman in 1874, Flora Alvin Lindamood in 1888, and Laura Agnes (Colley) Haugh in 1894. Laura Agnes' daughter who is mentioned herein, was Lulu M. Haugh, wife of Lawrence Merton Hiatt.

Streetcar photo via The Commons
on Flickr

When I first saw this shockingly descriptive article, my first thought was: "Why didn't my mother ever mention this terrible incident?", but of course Mom probably never knew a thing about it since the grisly accident took place about 10 years before she was born and may not have been talked about in her family. 

From the Knightstown Banner, dated May 7, 1915 - pg. 1, col. 1.

MAN GROUND TO PIECES

Former Knightstown Man Instantly Killed by Street Car in Indianapolis. ---Brothers Reside Here.

     At an early hour Thursday morning last Strother Newby, sixty-six years old, a brother of L. P., John and L. Y. Newby, was killed by an outgoing East Washington street car, near New Jersey street, Indianapolis. He had spent the night at an East Washington street hotel and was crossing the street when he was killed. Newby formerly lived in Knightstown and was well known by our older people. By reason of two or three accidents which had happened to him during the past ten years, he was a cripple and moved about by the aid of a crutch and cane. The body was horribly mangled and crushed by the car wheels and death was instantaneous. The car was running at a high rate of speed and after the accident ran more than one hundred feet before stopped. A large crowd collected and it required several policemen to force the people back from car tracks. Newby's head was crushed, his skull being fractured on both sides, his body was cut to pieces, his left foot was severed from the body and his right foot was left hanging by a thread. The car was in charge of Russell Nevitt, conductor, and Clinton Hart, motorman. They were among the first to reach the body which was left a few feet behind the car when it stopped. The latter was so overcome by the sight that he almost fainted and would have fallen but for the assistance of those near him. Newby and his wife, Mrs. Agnes Newby, had not been living together for sometime and she had been staying with her daughter, Mrs. Lawrence Hiatt, at 223 South McKini avenue.

Add caption

     Richard A. Poole, coroner of Marion county, said: "There was nothing to prevent the motorman from seeing this crippled and deaf old man, who was crossing the track. He was walking with cane and crutch, making it instantly apparent that he was feeble and that caution should be exercised. In addition, the car ran for more than 100 feet before it was stopped after striking the man, indicating that it was running at excessive speed. The old man was dragged along beneath the car and literally cut to pieces by the wheels."

     One witness declared the car ran 125 feet after striking Newby before it stopped and that the gong was not sounded.

     Clinton Hart, the motorman, said that his car was running at a speed of not more than six miles an hour. His gong was sounded, he said. The cripple walked into the street with his head down and paid no attention to the approach of the car, according to Hart.

     Newby's funeral was held from the parlors of Blanchard & Moore, funeral directors, Friday afternoon at 2 o'clock, burial being made at Crown Hill.

On the same date, but on page 4 of the Knightstown Banner, I found a second column about Strother's death and funeral. Until this article, I was not aware that Strother had any offspring, other than his son Everett by his first wife. It seems he had a daughter, Pansy, by his second wife Flora.

     L. P. Newby, John A. Newby and L. Y. Newby, three brothers, of this city and a daughter, Miss Pansy Newby of Lewisville, were at Indianapolis Friday afternoon to attend the funeral of Strother Newby, who was killed by a city street car Thursday morning on East Washington street. However, the daughter, by missing a city car was too late for the funeral, and she reached the cemetery just as the grave was being filled up.

Strother was buried without a tombstone in Crown Hill cemetery in Indianapolis, Marion Co., Indiana.

Strother's daughter, Pansy, was born in 1889. Her mother, Flora, married George W. Keiser in 1891 and I do not (yet) know what became of Flora after that. Pansy is found living with Flora's sister Mary J., wife of Truman Goldsbarry, in 1900 and 1910. Pansy married Clinton A. Stevens in 1919 and moved to Illinois where the couple had at least two children: Chester A. Stevens and Margaret V. Stevens. I would love to hear from descendants of this family.

Click here to read more about Pansy (Newby) Stevens

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