The Life of Della Jacobs - Part 3c, Bert Frank

For all his short coming Grandma’s brother Bud loved kids. He had a blacksmith shop in Catawba and Mom used to hang around playing in the shop. She was Bud's welcome guest nearly everyday and ate many meals with him and Aunt Minnie. It seems that Uncle “Bud” and Aunt Minnie were the ones to raise Mom’s older brother Art.
I ask Mom about her earliest memory, and she recalled standing on the bridge next to Uncle Bud. The bridge spanned the train tracks not far from his shop. She said, “Uncle Bud stood beside me firing a rifle at the train that was passing under the bridge. Some years later she ask Grandma why he was doing that. Grandma was surprised to find that she had been on the bridge that day, and said Bud was really aiming at Uncle Bernard Frank (below, b.1894), Pop’s younger brother. The train was heading north toward Cincinnati, but I don't believe its direction mattered much to Great Uncle Bernard as it was a convenient and timely means of leaving the vicinity.”
Bud developed the idea that Uncle Bernard was playing around with his wife Minnie. They socialized, playing cards, and people began talking. Mom’s brother, my Uncle Charlie, said that he once caught Uncle Bernard and Aunt Minnie in a compromising position and reckoned Uncle Bud had some justification for his suspicions.

Mom said that her Uncle Taul Jacobs, born in 1865, was by contrast, an even tempered fellow who built and repaired covered bridges in the surrounding counties. Sometime about when Grandma Julia Bailey Jacobs died in 1912 the two brothers ceased speaking - She never knew the reason. The only time they called a truce to their silence was when Mom stuck her fingers in the washing machine gears.

It was a cool day so Grandma had sat her on top the washer, thinking she’d be warmer. Mom promptly reached for the wrong thing and her finger tips slipped into the gears and were mashed and badly cut. Uncle Taul was right close but he and Grandma were not able to stop the bleeding. Taul knew that Uncle Bud had powdered resin at the shop that would stop it. They took Mom to Bud's and the brothers worked on her fingers until the emergency was over. They then reverted to shunning each other.

Mom’s Uncle Bud was the only one of his large family to operate an automobiles. None of his siblings drove. Uncle Taul tried once. His only attempt was in a neighbor’s fenced field but he gave it up after removing a good portion of the fence. Ironically Uncle Taul died in an auto accident in 1925. His son was driving in near-by Falmouth when the car was hit by a train at the main crossing. Uncle Bud was shot and killed by his son-in-law in 1957 - his end did not greatly surprise some people.
GO TO: Part 3d, Bert Frank