Allison Royce Drake: The Married Years

Allison Royce Drake marries Jane Myers in June 1882 in Hillsdale.  On His marriage license he lists himself as a farmer.

             ***NOTE*** What's the difference between a "farmer" and a "farm laborer"? To me, "farmer" implies you own a farm.  "Farm Laborer" implies you do farm work on a farm that you don't own.

Allison was living in Camden, Hillsdale, Michigan when he applied for a marriage license.

Jane and Allison's first child was Lucia -- named after Allison's mom -- born 24 Nov 1883.  The date proves that no shotgun was involved in their marriage.  Lucia was born in Amboy, Michigan.

John Stout Drake died 29 June 1884 in Amboy, Hillsdale, Michigan.  His second wife Mary Pease was still in the house as was Allison's little sister, Lucy .  I can't find any records that show Lucy Drake living anywhere else.  So Mary Pease was left taking care of her step daughter.  Well, Lucy was 19 years old when her dad died, so how much taking care of did she need?  With that being said, Lucy died of consumption in 1886.  Maybe she was already sick by then?

Allison and Jane's second daughter -- Hattie Gavena was born 01 Mar 1886 in Amboy.  Very sadly, Lucy died a few months later, 06 May, 1886 in Amboy.

I have muddled through the probate records and in my humble conclusion, John Stout Drake died intestate -- without a will.  I was a little surprised at that as John Stout was kind of a big deal farmer with quite a bit of property AND a second wife.  Surely he would want to make sure she was taken care of.

Whatever the lapse of foresight, Mary Pease Drake, the second wife was appointed executrix.

I won't take the time here to list all of John Stout's asssets and debts but there was one page in the probate records that caught my eye.  This was written on 16 Feb 1887 -- approximately 2 years and 8 months after John Stout Drake died:

"... that all of said heirs and said widow have sold and assigned and quit claimed all their right, title and interests in and to said estate both real and personal to Allison R. Drake one of said heirs it is therefore ordere, adjudged and decreed that all of the extate of said deceased both real and personal be and the same is hereby assigned to said Allison R Drake and upon exhibiting in this court proper receipts the said Administratrix with her bond will be discharged from her trust."

Somebody please let me know if I'm misinterpreting this, but it sounds like Allsion Royce's brothers and sisters turned over their shares of the farm to Allison. Was this a generous move by the family towards the littlest brother, or were things such a mess that none of them wanted to deal with the estate and the step mom?

Allison Royce Drake -- the Adult Years

So 1871 proved to be a rough year at the Drake Farm.

Bird is 14 years old, Allison is 12 and Jane is 10.  John Stout Drake manages to wait a whole 13 months before he remarried.  To me, this implies that John Stout was back in the courting game within a few months after Lucia's death.

The kids were busy with school, church, chores and farm work.  Allison and Bird were the only male youngsters left to pull the load and they also probably spent time helping out at their grandfather's (Amos Stout Drake) place as he was still farming.

Second oldest sister, Mary Serenus, married Ira Charles Hill in 1875 and moved away.

In 1879, 22 year old Bird married Eugenia Priestly and the 1880 United States Census shows Bird in residence at the Priestly Farm.  Why the Priestly Farm where there were two grown farmer sons living there as well?  That left only Allison at the Drake Farm.  Was John Stout becoming a tyrant as he got older?  Or was the new and younger wife, lazy or bitchy or a bossy boots?

The 1880 United States Census enumerates both Allison and his sister Jane  aka Jen with a farmer named John Sprowle or Sprowls.  John had a wife Elizabeth and an 11 year old daughter, Mary.  Allison is listed as a farm laborer and Jen as a domestic servant.

I wonder how this came to be because John Stout Drake is still listed in the 1880 Federal Census as being a farmer with his wife, Mary and his two daughters:  Ann who is 30 and Lucy who is in school.  there are no farm laborers recorded with the Drakes.

The Sprowls and the Drakes live and farm in Hillsdale County, Michigan.

Did Papa John throw Allison out?  Allison was, after all, 21 years old.  Did Allison get tired of working for free?  Did new wife Mary finally convince John that Allison caused too many problems.  Jen went with Allison to the Sprowls.  Maybe she thought Allison was getting a raw deal on the family farm.  Maybe she was having problems herself with her dad and/or her step mom.

Jen married George Priestly (Bird's brother-in-law) on 25 December 1881.  Her sister Lucy was a witness.  Allison Drake married Jane Myers in June of 1882 in Camden, Hillsdale, Michigan.

Amos Stout Drake in the Book The Bean Creek Valley ...

First:  I wish I could buy every book I ever wanted regarding my Family Tree as well as all the states and places the lived, as well as books about events that happened in their lifetimes.  Now, the library is  mighty good at providing many of the history books, and the Fort Myers main library, has a pretty awesome genealogical section.  However,  it doesn't have the book The Bean Creek Valley: Incidents of Its Early Settlement: Collected from the Memories of Its Earliest Settlers, Now Living and Verified by Reference to Official Documents by James J Hogaboam.

And since I'm not a multimillion area, I wish it was possible to print that one page from a book that mentions my ancestor  from Google books.  I still haven't figured that out and if there is, indeed, a way, then someone please email me.  Instead, determined to have the information, I will right it down long hand.

Here is an excerpt from the above mentioned book by James J Hogaboam.

Page 129:

"Only the eastern part of the township comes within the scope of our undertaking.  Amos S. Drake settled in town nine South, two west, in December, 1838, but the town settled quite rapidly.

"In February, 1839, Sarah N. Drake died; her funeral sermon was preached by Elder Stout, who, at the time, lived in the vicinity of Bird Lake.  It was the first sermon preached in that town.

"In December, the same year, Samuel Carl and Jane Drake were married by Mr. Fowler, of Camden."

"When Rowland was organized, town nine south was attached, and shared in all the mutations that township endured.

"In 1850, all that part of towns nine south, ranges two and three west, lying within the state of Michigan, and one tier of sections off the south side of town eight south, ranges two and three west, were organized into a new township and called Amboy.  Nearly all the improvements have been made since that time.

"The grist mill owned by Waldron & Hall, was built about thirty years ago, but there was a saw-mill there several years earlier.  Besides this, there is the Higby & Osborn Mill, the Manly or Lewis Mill, and the Bryan Mill.  There has been a Chilson Mill, but it has ceased to work.

"There are two churches, the Baptist and the Methodist, and both have neat and commodious houses.

"The first township meeting was held on 23rd day of April 1850, at the house of Amos Drake.  John King was moderator, and Gideon G King, clerk.  Amos S Drake and John P Corey were inspectors of the election.  Officers elected:  Nathan Dewey, Supervisor: Gideon G King, Clerk; Charles Clark, treasurer.  Nathan Edlinger, John King and Charles S Baker, justices of the peace; Henry Prestage, John Goforth and Gideon F. King, commissioners of highways; Charles Farley and William Drake, school inspectors; Amos S Drake and John King, directors of the poor, and Joseph Philbrick, Charles H Barton and Paden Marshall, constables.

 This book is also for sale at Amazon.com in various forms.  It's on my wish list!

Don Dee Drake of Michigan 1896 - 1967

Don Dee Drake was born 22 Jun 1896 in Springport, Michigan and died 14 Jun 1967, about one month after my dad (his son died).  He was the son of Allison Royce Drake and Jane Meyers Drake.  He was one of 4 children: Hattie, Lucia and Royce Allison were his other siblings.  He had 4 children:  Martha Jane, Donald Duane (my dad) and Jack Scovill with his first wife, Ruth Henrietta Scovill Drake.  When she died, he remarried Ellen Fitzgerald.  She had a son, Dave, and then another son with Don Dee, named Richard.

I wasn't a fan of Ellen Fitgerald AT ALL.  My dad never spoke ill of her, but he had a pretty miserable childhood on account of her.  And I didn't care much for me Grandpa Drake either.  Come to think of it, we called my mom's dad, Cleo Mallison Hughes Grandpa and the other one Grandpa Drake.  Hmmmm.  I wonder if that's significant?

It seemed like he was always questioning us about why we weren't as smart, athletic, popular etc. as "The Cousins."  He and Ellen Fitzgerald used to give expensive gifts, but it was always something that they thought you should have, not something that you actually wanted.  In 1967 all I wanted was a baseball mitt.  Instead I got a pink and white linen gingham dress that had about 4 yards of fabric in the skirt, with a big sash and pink heart buttons up the front of the bodice.  Can you imagine how awful that would look on a skinny girl with stork legs, scabby knees, 30 pounds of hair AND cordovan colored high top corrective shoes?  Please.

But as I learn more about the family, I'm thinking that maybe Don Dee Drake did the best he could with what he knew.  I had a relative tell me that Allison Royce Drake liked to drink.  Seems to be a trait that all us Drakes have.  But Allison was a mean drunk.  A mean drunk usually translates to "knocking your family around" or saying terrible things.  That's just my experience.

The 1910 United States Census has the last of the Drake Family spread across three locations.  Lucia had married Frank Converse and Hattie had married Dana Fuller.  My Grandpa Drake is 13 years old and Royce is 6.  They are living in a boarding house in Charlotte Ward 4, Eaton, Michigan.  Their dad is living in Woodstock, Lenawee, Michigan in a boarding house, doing odd jobs.  He's 51 and "single."  Remember that.

Jane Myers Drake is living in Charlotte Ward 4, Eaton, Michigan.  She is a roomer at another house.  Maybe she was a housekeeper.  She is "M1" which I believe means "Married Once."  I wondered what the hell happened in this family?  When I pulled up a map, I discovered that while they might not be living together, Jane Myers Drake lived right around the corner from her two boys.  Allison was a substantial distance away.

Years later, after his wife Ruth Scovill Drake died, all three of his children -- Martha Jane, my dad Donald Duane Drake and brother Jack Scovill, were sent to live with Ruth's folks.  And they were pretty old.  They had a boarding house -- geez, what is it with this family and boarding houses?  But it couldn't have been too bad as my dad learned to speak German and polish which would help him in his Army years, and he had some real funny stories about that time in his life.

But still -- I could never, NEVER farm my kids out.  Who would do something like that to his children.  Especially when you've got your other kid and step son living with you.  And your newer younger wife isn't working.  It just set wrong with me.

So this morning, I ran a google map to see where Grandpa Drake was living in 1940.  324 W. Forest, Ypsilanti, Michigan.  Pretty nice house, right?

 

It's apartments now, and for all I know it could have been apartments back in 1940.  And right around the corner, practically was where my dad and his siblings were living.  It would have to be difficult to live that close to your dead wife's parents with your new young wife and kids, don't you think?  

But here's the picture that kind of changed my mind about my Grandpa Drake:

 

On the bottom of the picture it's written:  Don and Royce and Brownie.
On the back:  Don Drake Age 10
                     Bill Drake Age 3
                 To be Duane's

Duane is the name that everybody in the family called my dad.  Except my mom.  She called him Don.  All his friends and fellow coaches called him Dobbie.  Which is also what they called my Grandpa Drake -- which another story for another post.  And Bill was what everybody called Allison Royce Drake.  When referring to him, we all say Uncle Bill.  Bill was the nickname that Lucia's husband, Frank Converse gave him. 

But here's the deal -- this is what I gather from this pix:  Don is definitely not starving, but his weight could mean that he is eating a diet of starches.  Or he could be a stress eater.  It doesn't look like he's in a suit suit, but a jacket and pants.  And really could the faces on these boys be any sadder?

So, while Grandpa Drake wasn't the best dad in town, he probably did the best he could do with what he knew.