When Things Fell Apart: Allison Royce Drake Part 2

Last week a hint showed up for Allison Royce Drake in my online family tree.  I was so excited!  I've never gotten a hint for him before -- like I said -- information on the elusive great grandfather was scarce.

The hint was a death certificate for an AR Drake and actually the "A" looked like a "U".

According to this death certificate, AR Drake was a white male, age 53. His marital status was "widower."  He was born in Michigan and died on 31 Aug 1913 of bronchial asthma.  And he had been living at the "County Farm" in Madison Township, Lenawee, Michigan.

So I sat down with my pencil and paper and tried to analyze what little information was on the death certificate with the very little information I had on Allison Royce Drake.  

• My Allison Royce Drake was born in 1859.  In 1913, Allison would have been 54 years old.  Pretty close.  I mean who knew how old this guy living at the county farm really was?  Obviously there was no record on hand of his birth date.
• He was white and he was a male.  Check and check.
• Has marital status was recorded as "widower."  His wife, Jane Myers Drake, was still alive in kicking.  This doesn't concern me too much as I found him in the 1910 United States Census, living in a boarding house and his was enumerated as "single."  Jan is living and working in another county, and his two youngest sons living in yet another county.  I have found no record of divorce.  In 1910, Jane is "married".
• In the 1910 United States Census, Allison is enumerated in Woodstock, Lenawee County, Michigan.  And in that same census his age is listed as 51 years old.

As brief as the information is, this sounds more like my guy.  A mean drunk who abandoned his family, who no one ever mentioned, dying in poverty with no one knowing or caring who he was.  

And how the hell did that happen?  How do you get from being the son of a well off, well respected farmer (John Stout Drake) who raised a whole passel of good kids, an active member in his church and community to a bum?  John Stout Drake, was a justice of the peace.  Marriage records show that many couples journeyed out to the farm just so JS Drake could marry them.  Many times his younger daughters would witness the unions.  In his obituary, John Stout Drake was called a "loving and indulgent father."  Was an "indulgent" father a community slap at John Stout Drake for overcompensating for his youngest son?  Was John Stout Drake a really loving parent who forgave his boy over and over again?

When Things Fell Apart: Allison Royce Drake Part 1

My great grandfather -- Allison Royce Drake -- has always been a puzzle. No death certificate.  No mention of him at family get- togethers, not even in whispers.  I have a second cousin who is older than me that actually knew his wife -- our shared great grandmother -- and he told me that all he knew was that Allison Royce Drake had been a drunk.  A mean drunk.  Well, Allison wouldn't have been the first Drake to have problems with alcohol.

A couple of years ago i found a newspaper article detailing a wreck of the Big Four Passenger train in Bellefontaine, Ohio.  Allison Drake was an engineer on one of the trains involved.  He was in critical condition and not expected to live.  Engineer Drake was from Lenawee County, Michigan.  That last tidbit of information I had of my great grandfather was a US Census that has him enumerated in the next county over.  It had to be him, right?  Allison was not a common name (although the Drake surname in that neck of the world was).  This had to be my guy.

I couldn't find anything more about Engineer Allison Drake.  Maybe he was shipped home to die?  Or maybe the reason I couldn't find a death certificate was because I was looking in Michigan instead of Ohio.  Or maybe the bodies were being held by the railroad company.  So many things that I didn't have knowledge of how to search for.

I always wondered about that term my cousin used to describe him - "mean drunk".  Could a "mean drunk" pull himself together a little late in life to become an "engine man" for a major railroad?  I don't know.  One just didn't start as an engine man.  Didn't one have to first get hired on and then over years work one's way up.  Wasn't an engineer -- for a big time railroad company kind of like being a Navy fighter pilot?  The bits just didn't fit.