Black Sheep Sunday: The Four Sons of Charles Anderson

Sometimes it’s hard to know what to believe.  I love a good skeleton in the closet as much as the next genealogist—a black sheep in the family—but this stretches the bounds of credibility.

My maternal grandmother, Clara Anderson Erickson (1892-1967), had four brothers—George, Charles, Howard, and Lester.  Grandma Erickson was a farmer’s wife—but if you scratched deeper, she was a schoolmarm, and a tough one.  Once you fell from her good graces, there was no going back, and her four brothers had taken that fall.  When Grandma died in 1967, none of her brothers were notified, because she hadn’t seen nor heard from any of them in years.  But—could all four of her brothers have been the bums she said they were?   

Clara’s father was Charles Anderson (1859-1916), whom I’ve written about before, and he was a bona fide Black Sheep.  But what about his boys?  Here is what my mother told me about her four uncles many years ago—probably repeating what her mother Clara had told her—and it is not pretty (nor is it substantiated in any way):

“I have no idea where George is. For some reason, he changed his name from Anderson to Adams—no one knows why...  Charles was married three times. The first time he married really young. After they got a divorce, neither parent wanted the two boys, so they were adopted out…  Howard left his wife and little child and never came back. His wife hid his Mason ring, and he got so mad that he left her…  Lester never married, and never worked. He lived at a shelter or mission in Joliet. He seemed to be kind of odd. Once in a while, as I was growing up, he’d walk out to see us.”

Whoa, there!  Mom didn’t paint a very flattering picture of the Anderson boys.  Could all of this possibly be true?  I’d really like to know!  If anyone out there knows anything about the four sons of Charles Anderson and Emma Hanson Anderson—good or bad—I’d love to hear about it.  Here is what I do know about them, from my own research (census records and WWI draft cards, mainly):

·       George Francis Anderson (1889-??).  Born in Lemont, Illinois, as were his brothers.  House cleaning contractor (self-employed) in 1917. 

·       Charles Grover Anderson (1893-1972).  Spouse Ruby Roberta Parker.  Chauffeur in 1917 and 1920.

·       Howard Louis Anderson (1897-??).  Stoneworker in 1917 and metal polisher in 1920.

·       Lester Michael Anderson (1900-??).  Laundry worker in 1917.

Can anyone out there set the record straight and save the reputation of this family? 

Black Sheep Sunday: Charles Anderson, Boatman

"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.