Crop Corner

Over the years, I’ve been doing genealogical research about my family, hoping to someday find the time to put together the stories and old pictures for future generations to enjoy. As a girl, I remember spending hours pouring over my grandmother’s old photo albums with the black pages, white writing, and picture after picture of my mother, her siblings, and cousins who’ve names have long since been forgotten.

I enjoyed reading Jane Swanson’s article about Scrapbooking a Secret. She tells a great story about her great-grandfather, a secret he had, and how she captured it in a layout.

I hope through my research to be able to uncover some of these same types of secret stories about my own ancestors.

He got drunk in Little Chute. He took the train to Menasha where Emily, his ex-wife, had a store and he waited outside for her to close up shop. He grabbed her. She was screaming as he put the gun to her head. He fired, but it didn't go off. He put the gun to her side and pulled the trigger but it still wouldn't fire. By then people were coming so he ran off. The police caught him and put him in jail. He ended up with a disorderly conduct charge and a fee of only $10.00. He was angry because he and Emily had just gotten a divorce and her settlement was the household furnishings, the content of the vegetable garden and $200.00. He had to sell some of his properties to pay her. A lot of the properties were mortgages to different people for money that he drank away. The year was 1900.