Allison Royce Drake: Spinning Wheels

Now -- in all my years of chasing my ancestors -- the loss of the 1890 United States Federal Census makes me weep.  It seems that it was right around this time Allison just might have been almost, possibly getting himself together.

TO RECAP:
So Allison gets his inheritance from his dad in 1887, and as I mentioned, there seems evidence that his brothers and sisters turned over the family farm in Hillsdale to him.  The 1890 Federal Census is gone and worthless to me.  There is nothing in the Michigan State Census.  He is not listed in any city directory.  It almost feels like he's making a conscience effort to be off the radar.

In 1896, my grandfather Don Dee Drake was born 22 June in Springport, Jackson County, Michigan.
***NOTE TO SELF *** that is a 10 year gap between Don and Hattie.  Seems a little odd.  

The 1900 United States US Federal Census finds Allison and family still living in Springport.  Lucia would be 16 years old, Hattie 14 and Don around 4.  Allison is a bar keeper in a saloon and there is no occupation listed for Jane.

***NOTE TO SELF***  Allison's brother Sidney either owns or manages a saloon, but i thought Sidney lives and works in another county.  Need to double check this.

Jane and Allison have been married for 17 years.  I don't think they had very much money as the Census has them surrounded by people with families, and many of the men are day laborers or clerks.

In January of 1904 Royce Allison was born in Union City, Michigan.  Apparently the family had moved again.  By 1904 Lucia was living and farming with her husband Frank Converse.  Maybe Allison, Jane and Don had gone to Lucia's for Christmas and Jane went into labor.  But more than likely Lucia and Frank had taken them in.  Lucia was always taking in family and strays.

I want to howl.  My information is sooooo thin.  I keep thinking that if I can just get everything down on paper -- in order -- then I can figure it out. But damn!

i found an article on Newspaper.com from the Battle Creek Enquirer date 30 March 1952 about my grandfather, Don Dee.  It was a nice piece under the column "Mainly About Folks."  By 1952 Don Dee Drake was a bit of a local celeb.  The Drakes have always been prideful -- maybe that was our downfall.  So I feel the facts were blurred and vital details smoothed over -- that Don Dee just looked like a wonderful, classy man.

The article said that Don's sister, Lucia, was living near Abscota County and that Don had attended school in "the Abscota neighborhood to which his mother moved after the death of her husband.  The elder Drake had left Springport for Three Rivers and was employed by the Sheffield Co. the predecessor of the well-known Fairbanks-Morse Co. and died his wife joined her daughter on the Abscota Farm.  Young Don was sent to county school, where he finished the eighth grade."  I think that if Jane, Don and Royce had moved to the farm AFTER Allison had died (in 1912) Don would have been 16 -- a little old for junior high or "the eighth grade."