The world has changed a lot in the last century and a half. Today, if a child goes to live with another family, paperwork is involved. Records are kept. And, the legal system can follow what happens to a child. That was not true in my great-great grandfather’s day. He seemed to just let other families take in his children. But, why?
The Set Up
My great-great grandfather Lemuel McCracken seemed to have a habit of shedding kids. In other words, they went to live with other people and often they weren’t, as far as I know, related to him in any way. The following tells the stories of the kids he “gave away” and the one that came to live with him.
The Give Aways
Delarma (Lawrence)
Lawrence was Lemuel McCracken’s son with his first wife, Sarah Dufer. Lemuel married his second wife Louisiana (Matteer) Badgley McCracken in January 1859, only nine months after Lawrence was born. Thus, although no record has been found, his mother appears to have died either at the time he was born or within the first few months of his life. In 1860, he is two years old and living in Lemuel’s household with Lemuel; Louisiana; Lemuel and Louisiana’s son Lemuel Franklin/Francis; and Louisiana’s children, Mary and Louis.
Separation From Family
By 1870, however, Lawrence is living in the household of Robert and Diana Kennedy. The census indicates that he has no occupation and has not attended school in the last year. A sixteen-year-old female and a twenty-one-year-old male are also living in the household. They each had different surnames.
Zachary Anthony, the twenty-one-year-old, had been living with Robert and Diana at least since he was ten and likely earlier. At age one, Zachary and a male that I assume was his father were living with another family. No mother was present and the adult male was marked as “insane.” Thus, I believe Zachary was effectively an orphan. The female had not been with them as long. However, another female had been in the household in the previous census.
Not Moving With Family
In 1873, Lemuel, Louisiana, and their children moved to Crawford County, Kansas. As far as I know, Lawrence did not travel with them. He is definitely not with them in 1875 when they were living in Sherman Township in Crawford County. Lawrence appears to have stayed behind in Iowa and live his entire adult life there.
He was listed in his half-sister Minnie Alameda’s probate papers. However, she likely did not know him as she was born after the family moved to Kansas. However, her half-sister Mary Ann (Badley) Macklin, whom she lived near would have known and remembered Lawrence. More on Minnie later.
The Questions
Why did Lawrence end up living in another household? Did Lemuel claim he was an orphan? Did he actually board with them just for space? How did Lawrence living with the other family come about? Why didn’t he move with the family?
Joseph (Henry)
In 1871, two years before the family moved to Kansas, Louisiana gave birth to Joseph (Henry) McCracken. He was Lemuel and Louisiana’s fifth child together. Henry moved with the family to Kansas and then with them to Missouri.
Louisiana died in 1879 and Henry was with Lemuel in 1880. However, sometime between 1880 and 1885, he moved in with Thomas and Mary Dudley. It is likely that he moved in with them after Lemuel remarried to Melissa (Eveline) (Donley) McKown Rhodes.
The family did appear to live close to Lemuel. However, that didn’t last for long as they moved to Butler County, Kansas, taking Henry with them. Similar to Lawrence, the 1885 census indicates that Henry was not learning a trade and had not attended school in the last year.
Henry kept in touch with at least part of his siblings. Both Henry and Lawrence continued to use the last name McCracken. Thus, it wasn’t like an adoption.
The Questions
Why did Henry move in with the Dudley family? Why did he move away with them? Who lets their child go with another family to live 150-200 miles away?
Francis E. / Minnie Alameda
Minnie Alameda is the youngest of Lemuel and Louisiana’s children. She was born after the family moved to Kansas. However, her original name was not Minnie. It was Frances E. (full middle name unknown). Like Henry, she was with the family in the 1875 and 1880 census records.
It is unclear when she left her father’s home, but the story was that when they went to pick up the baby (She wouldn’t have been an infant. By baby they had to have meant the youngest.), she cried and so they left her. It is unclear where she lived after Lemuel remarried. However, it seems likely that she lived with her older half-sister Mary Ann (Badley) Macklin near Quincy, Adams, Illinois. She lived in that area as an adult. Lemuel and Louisiana’s oldest son Lemuel Franklin also lived in that area.
The Questions
Did Minnie live with Mary Ann? Did she live with another related or unrelated family? Assuming she did live there, was the story about the baby crying true? If true, did Lemuel actually intend for her to live with him? And, why did her name change?
Melissa Eveline’s Children
Nothing But Questions
The next question on my mind is, “With Lemuel’s kids scattering here and there, did Eveline’s kids live with them? The two with her first husband would have been around 10 and 12 when Eveline married Lemuel in 1881. The son with her second husband would have only been a year old. This begs the question as to if he was the baby that cried so they left him.
I do know that Eveline’s youngest son was not listed in their household in 1895 when he would have been 15. However, a year or two earlier, a newspaper article mentioned Lemuel and his son. Was it Thomas? Was it someone else? As an adult, Thomas did come to visit them. At that time, it indicated that he left Kansas around 1895. I found no evidence that Eveline’s first two children ever visited.
If they didn’t live with them, where did they live?
On the Receiving End
Although Lemuel seemed to shed his kids, he did pickup another child later in life. When Allie Moody’s mother died, Allie went to live with Lemuel and Eveline. The families had been neighbors. According to a descendant of Eveline, Allie’s father gave Lemuel and Eveline a silver pitcher for caring for his son.
Allie was only a small boy and his father did come to visit. It seemed to be different than with Lemuel. What would have happened as Allie grew older is unknown as he became ill and died while in their care.
What does this all mean?
In reality, we will probably never know what all this shuffling of children really meant. The why, how, and when will not be fully known. However, I believe it is reasonable to draw some conclusions from these events.
To me, this says that Lemuel likely did not have strong bonds with his children. A descendant of Eveline told me that Eveline was not easy to get along with and that the same may have been true of Lemuel as well. This may have also played a part in the children being separated from the family.
I considered that the family could have just been poor and hired out or lent their children to other families. However, if there were close bonds with these children, the family wouldn’t just move away or allow the other family to take their child a couple of hundred miles away.
Furthermore, I think this may be an indicator that Lemuel, himself, was put in a similar situation when he was young. I know that his mother’s surname was McCracken. However, I don’t know who raised Lemuel. If his mother married a man who wasn’t his father, he may have been “given” away or may have had to find his own way in the world. This may be why finding him in records, even as a count of a male that age, is so difficult. It would also explain why Lemuel shows up in records as a young man all alone.
It also may indicate some regret. Taking in little Allie seems like an odd thing to do for an older couple living on a small property and who are far from well to do. However, maybe Lemuel felt guilt or felt he had an obligation.
What do you think?
Featured Image: The original image was improved and colorized using google gemini.
Prompt: What This Story Means to Me
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