Henry, Toddy, Albert Sr & little GladysHenry’s back, Hugh looking out of car.Kris ((me) and my sister, Pearl at our Cleage grandparents house with our “mashies” and Easter baskets. 1953
Memories of Easter – dying eggs in my Graham grandparent’s basement on Easter Saturday with my sister and cousins. Easter baskets with jelly beans and chocolate eggs and one big chocolate Easter bunny. Tiny fuzzy chicks. The year someone gave us 4 or 5 real chicks that died one by one in their box in the basement. Sugar eggs decorated with wavy blue, pink and yellow icing and a little scene inside. Reading the book “The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes”, new clothes, going to church. Going by the Grandmother Cleage’s after church. What I don’t remember is gathering for a big Easter meal like we did for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I wonder why?
I have some Easter hats here and although you can’t see them clearly, my sister and I are holding some stuffed bunnies. To see other Easter or bunny Sepia Saturday offerings click here.
Today I spread all my Cleage photos out on the table and began putting them into order by number or date. While I was doing this, I found another photograph in the sequence that I posted about twice this week. Click here to see the photo of my grandparents, where I speculate that it was taken soon after their marriage. Several people wondered what he was holding over his shoulder. Click here to read about my discovery of the numbers on the back of most of the photographs.
I can see the people more clearly in this group photograph but, it is in bad shape. Starting from the left, are two headless women and I don’t know who they are. The little girl is my Aunt Barbara, next to her is my Uncle Hugh, Uncle Louis, Uncle Henry, Theodore Page (who looks like he has a double), a mystery girl, and the FLAG that my grandfather held over his shoulder. Behind them are, an unknown man, my great grandmother Celia Rice Cleage Sherman, her son Jacob, my father Albert “Toddy”, three people I don’t know then my grandfather Albert B. Cleage Sr. In the background are some other people. I don’t know who they are or where they are.
My father’s parents at a picnic in 1922. My grandmother was pregnant with my aunt Gladys. My grandfather is holding a flag. I thought I should start my 100 posts about my father with something about his parents. Today a photo, tomorrow some basic information.
I never knew my grandfather, Albert B. Cleage Sr played football in college until someone sent me copies of the Knoxville College paper. It seems he was even the captain of the team. After finishing Knoxville College he attended Indiana Medical College, Purdue University, in Indianapolis, IN.
20 Mar 1911 Monday Article Guard Body of Suicide – Policemen Hold Long Vigil. Estal Loc Townsend Cheats Tuberculosis by killing himself with Carbolic Acid After Attempt to End Life by Shooting Fails.
After Estal Lee Townsend, 19 years old, 227 East New York street, a driver, had committed suicide in a room at 120 North Pennsylvania street yesterday, bicycle officers guarded the body for almost three hours until coroner Durham arrived. The officers were acting under specific instructions given earlier in the week that bodies of persons dying from other than natural causes should not be touched until seen by the coroner.
Townsend swallowed the contents of a phial of carbolic acid while visiting a friend, Frank Black, at the Pennsylvania street address. The suicide was a victim of tuberculosis. He tried to kill himself last Friday night. It is said, by shooting. He was in the act of firing a bullet into his brain when a friend knocked the weapon from his hand. The bullet penetrated the ceiling of Townsend’s room.
Yesterday Townsend spent several hours in Black’s room and although despondent gave no hint of his intention to end his life. About 4:45 o’clock Townsend stepped into an adjoining room.
EMPTY BOTTLE TELLS STORY
A few minutes later Black heard groans and found his friend sitting on the floor at the side of a bed. An empty bottle labeled carbolic acid was on the floor beside him. Black asked Townsend if he had taken the acid and the dying boy nodded his head in the affirmative.
Black notified the police and Bicyclemen Trimpe and Bernsuer went to the room with Dr. A.B. Cleage of the City Dispensary, the policemen worked over the young man, but he died in agony within a short time.
Efforts were made to find Coroner Durham but he was not at his home or office. Trimpe and Bernauer would allow no one to touch the body and it lay on the floor until nearly 7 o’clock. The two officers in the meantime had been relieved by Bicyclemen Schlangen and Glenn. Coroner Durham finally was reached and he pronounced the case one of suicide.
Relatives of Townsend said he had been suffering from tuberculosis and had realized that he could not recover. The body was taken to an undertaking establishment and will be cared for by a sister of Townsend, Mrs. Mary Dickson, 52, West Twenty-sixth street.
910 Fayette Indianapolis Indiana – two story house on the right- Google maps
I decided to accept the Saturday night challenge. After looking and not finding anything but parking lots and weed covered land where my ancestors used to live, I found 910 Fayette standing. For several years I was confused about which house it was because the houses in Indianapolis were renumbered and it turned out it was the two story house on the right and not the little gray/blue one on the left.
My father, Albert Buford Cleage, Jr, was born in this house on June 13, 1911. His parents had married the year before after Albert completed his medical training and received his physician’s license. The three Cleage brothers, Jacob, Henry and Albert and wives Gertrude and Pearl shared the house until the following year when Albert opened a practice in Kalamazoo Michigan and moved his family there.
My grandfather Albert B. Cleage Sr is center front. His brothers Jacob and Henry are on either side of him. I do not know who the men in the back row are. Do not know the occasion. I am guessing it was in the early 1900’s, before 1920.
