"The grandson wants to remember what the father
wished to forget." –anonymous
One of my great-grandfathers was a Swede named Charles
Anderson (1859-1916), a boatman on the canals of northern Illinois—and he was
quite a character. Grandma never talked
about him, but being a big fan of black sheep stories, especially within my own
family, I think I shall.
Charles came from Sweden to Lemont, Illinois with his
parents when he was nine. In 1888 he
married Emma Hanson, the daughter of the local hotelkeeper, and they had four
sons and a daughter—the daughter being my grandmother, Clara. In the 1900 census, Charles and Emma live
with their four children (with another one on the way) in Lemont, next door to
Charles’ parents. Charles is a canal
boat captain and they own their home.
But all was not well… At some point Emma decided she’d had
enough of Charles’ drinking (and who knows what else). She left their daughter Clara with her
parents, separated herself from Charles, took the four boys with her, and moved
to Joliet.
What a difference ten years makes! By the 1910 census, Emma is living in Joliet
and is listed as a ‘widow’ with no occupation.
Her two teenaged boys work to support the family. Charles apparently remained in Lemont.
Lemont was a wild town then.
The city of Lemont website says this about the canal area:
“In the 1890s,
construction began on the Sanitary & Ship Canal. The downtown area known as ‘Smokey Row’ with
its bars and brothels gained notoriety as the wildest, most sinful street in
the country.”
Perhaps that particular neighborhood was Charles’ favorite haunt
in Lemont—because the next we hear of him is this article in the local
newspaper, dated 1916:
CANAL VICTIM’S
BODY IDENTIFIED
Lockport, June 7
– The body found in the Sanitary District canal at the Power House yesterday
morning was identified last evening as that of Charles Anderson of Lemont. Mr. Anderson disappeared from his home
Tuesday evening, May 30. Anderson leaves
a wife who is said to reside in Joliet besides two sons. He was a former boatman employed on the
Illinois and Michigan Canal for several years.
The body was removed to Lemont and the funeral will be held tomorrow
afternoon.
A second article says that he left for work one evening and
it was thought that he missed his footing and fell in. According to my mother, family tradition says
that he was drunk at the time.
Charles and Emma’s daughter Clara became a schoolteacher and
later, a farmer’s wife and my grandmother.
Charles and Emma’s four sons, it is said, did not turn out so well. But that’s a story for another day.
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