My father was born in a small West Virginia town called Clifton in 1893. His grandfather had come to this country from Eban, Wales. They had left the Welsh mining country and looked for a similar area here - which was West Virginia. My father's father, John D. Evans, had several brothers and sisters. I only remember Uncle David and Aunt Florence; the others, I suppose, had died by this time. When still a small boy John D. injured his knee with an axe and thereafter had a stiff knee which forced him to walk on the toe of that foot. As he was thus crippled he was allowed to go to school until the eight grade, because his family figured he would not be able to do hard work like other boys in the family. Therefore he was apprenticed to a miller at an early age. My memory of my grandfather is good: he was about 5'8" tall, thin, had beautiful white hair. He had a white mustache that often had streaks of yellow in it, stained from spitting the tobacco he chewed. He had bright blue eyes, a straight, narrow nose; he was a handsome man. My father looked very much like him.
I recall that grandfather was very patient, understanding and gentle. He married Abigail Bowermaster, also of Welsh heritage. She had a year-old girl, Lulu, when they married. The couple then had a child every two years for the next 8 years. The first was a girl, Nell, then George, John, my father, and a baby who died at the age of one week. A week later their mother died. Lulu was sent to be raised by Abigail's mother. John hired a housekeeper, an 18-year old by the name of Mary Friend. She was from Cumberland, Maryland. John and Mary had three more boys and a girl: Ross, Date, Evan and Mae.
Times were tough and, even though John D. worked every day as a miller, he rarely made enough to feed and clothe his large family. Most of the children had to quit school after the third grade because they didn't have the clothes to wear and they were needed to work.
When my father, John J., was 18 the family moved to nearby Hazelton where Grandpa had a chance to work in a larger mill. Nell had left home at 16. George had left two years before and was a day laborer for a farmer about 20 miles away. On the last day of the family's moving, John J. had to return a borrowed team of horses used for moving back to Clifton. He never returned to Hazelton but set out for Akron, Ohio. He got a ride on a wagon as far as Uniontown, Pennsylvania, took the train to Akron. He was hoping to stay with his sister, Nell, who had married the year before. He had her address but it took him all day to find her, walking all the time as he had used all his money for train fare.
He stayed with Nell and Herm Orcutt, worked at any job he could find until a year later he got a job at Goodrich where Herm worked. The factory made auto tires but John mostly had flunky jobs: sweeping, running errands, etc. He worked there for two years and then was drafted into the army. He was sent to a training camp in Alabama, attached to the cavalry. He became the good friend of another draftee, Bill Kelly, who was from Cambridge, Ohio. In the fall of 1916 Bill persuaded John to go home with him on a 48-hour pass. He wanted him to meet his aunt who was five years younger then they were. John fell in love at first sight of Helen Amanda Smith. She was 18 and had just started Muskingum College in New Concord, Ohio, majoring in music.
Helen was 5 '1'' tall and just the right weight for John who did not like his gals skinny. She had long, beautiful red hair which she wore in a bun in the back. Her eyes were brown, her skin white and creamy. Best of all she felt the same tugs on her heart strings when she met John. He was so handsome, she thought. He was 5' 9" tall, thin, black haired, with the brightest blue eyes she had ever seen. John was outgoing, fun-loving and polite. He was also impulsive, sentimental and a bit daring. Helen had lived a sheltered life and had not met anyone like him before.
She was quiet, shy, naive, but laughed easily and enjoyed those with a sense of humour. John was all of this, in fact he was a prankster. However, Helen had a steady boyfriend, Brogan Mills. She had gone to high school with him. He was a senior now at Oberlin College and she was pinned to him. However, John was smitten and he wasn't going to let an engagement stand in the way. Every chance he got he came to Cambridge to see Helen and it wasn't long before she broke her engagement to Brogan. In the spring of 1917 they were married. Shortly thereafter he was shipped overseas to France.
In France there was a great need for medical corpsmen so John was given a quick first aid class and reassigned to the Medical Corps. He was assigned to a field hospital. His duties included working in the wards, helping the nurses and also on the litter brigades, when they would go out and pick up the wounded from the battle fields.
When John went overseas Helen decided to quit college, go to work and make some money. She got a job as a telephone operator, enjoyed the companionship of many friends there and the work. She lived at home with her parents, Margaret Long and James Smith. She was the last late Smith child, called a "change of life" baby. Her father and mother were both 46 years old when she was born. The Smiths and Longs had lived in Ohio for generations.
My mother told me that her mother had once sat on President Lincoln's lap when she was 7 years old. One of Helen's uncles had been an aide to a congressman from Idaho and lived in Washington, D.C. most of his life. Her father's father served in the military during the Civil War. Both were of Scotch-English descent.
Grandpa Smith drove a team and wagon to deliver supplies to stores and had always made a comfortable living for his family of seven children. Most of my mother's siblings were adults when she was born, except for Frieda who was 12 years old" Brother Morse was in his second year of college, Jack, Sade, George and Mae were married. In fact, Mae had children older than Helen. Bill Kelly was one of them.
My mother's family felt that Helen had married beneath her and, after her marriage, didn't keep in close touch with her. However, Morse was an exception; he was very fond of his sister and took a fatherly interest in her, which was not particularly appreciated when she began dating. He would check out her beaus and scrutinize her activities closely.
When my grandparents were about 70 years old, they gave up their home and went to live with daughter Ade who still lived in Cambridge. Once a year they would come and spend a month with us, then move on to Uncle Morse and his wife, Brownie. I did not care for my grandmother: she was rather short, skinny, small, also critical and sharp-tongued. Everyone liked Grandpa (my mother called him Papa and adored him): he was short, chunky, bald-headed and always smiling, making peace and joking. I remember that he drank hot water with milk and sugar. He always had pink Chase mints in his pockets which he would slip to the little ones when Grandma wasn't looking.
When I was ten Grandma died, two years later Grandpa died. I went with my mother to his funeral in Cambridge. I knew Aunt Sade, Uncle Morse and Aunt Mae because we would occasionally visit them, but that’s all my mother’s family I had ever seen. At the funeral I met Aunt Frieda, Uncles Jack and George. I still remember Aunt Frieda saying how pretty I was. She had married Henry McDermott and they lived in Chicago. Henry had done very well financially and I recall my aunts saying that Frieda was a bit snooty. She had one daughter, Ailleen, who bled to death after a tonsillectomy at the age of six. My mother had adored Ailleen and used to talk to me about her.
One summer when I was six I spent a week or two at Aunt Sade’s. She was married to Frank Pyles and they had three grown children: Paul, Phyllis and Thelma. I recall that Uncle Frank grew tuberous begonias and I thought they were the prettiest of flowers. Uncle Frank owned a paint store and worked there until he was over 90, much to the disgust of his son who was then 65. Aunt Mae and Joe Kelly lived in Cambridge all their lives; she was 28 when my mother was born. He was a farmer and they had many children.
Uncle George was married and had two sons; he married again when he was about 60 and a widower. He was the superintendent of a Cambridge glass factory where glass dessert dishes were made. He once sent my mother a set of pink dishes. One of his sons was the editor of the newspaper in New Concord, Ohio; another was a chemist for DuPont in New Jersey. Uncle Jack was a mechanic in Akron, with two children. I only met him twice and we never visited each other.
Early in 1919 John returned from overseas to civilian life. He again got a job at Goodrich and, as housing was very scarce, he and Helen moved in with Morse and Brownie who lived in Akron's Firestone area.
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