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

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

Grandma married Bert Frank in 1905. He worked for the L&N Railroad as a fireman, and they were often on the move. My Uncle Charles was born in Versailles in 1907: Uncle Joe followed in 1909. He was born in Catawba, and Mom was born in Paris in 1913. Versailles and Paris makes it sound as if they were world travelers, but the towns were actually small villages in eastern Kentucky.


My Grandfather Bert had one of his spells just after Uncle Joe was born. He had been drinking and was in a surly mood. Grandma Della overheard him mumble something about he'd "fix the sons-o-bitches this time". She asked him what he meant by that. He told her that he had placed dynamite in his sister Dora's (Mom called her Aunt Dode) house and was going to blow it up at midnight. He stumbled into bed and passed out shortly thereafter.
Dora (photo above) was married to Grandma's older brother Taul - a case of two siblings of one family (Grandma and Taul) married to two (Bert and Dora) of another. Mom said this was not uncommon as folks were less mobile due to the rough roads and slow horse travel. Many people spent their lives within a few miles of home. They often married neighbors; ones they had known all their lives, playmates of their youth.

Bert’s weird behavior was well known and his threats were not taken lightly. Grandma got up soon after he was asleep. She was afraid baby Joe might wake and start crying so she wrapped him in a blanket, and quietly carried him out of the house. Aunt Dora’s place was only a short distance. Dora’s general store and post office, a popular hangout for the locals, sat behind the house. A flower garden and raspberry patch lay between the two.

Dora, a light sleeper, woke at Grandma’s whisper. The two quietly searched the building and found a large cache of dynamite. Grandpa Bert had placed enough to vaporize the house. They put the sticks in gunny sacks, and dragged them a quarter-mile to the Licking River. Grandma managed to return to bed without waking Bert who got up shortly thereafter. He went out but soon returned. She said he had a quizzical look on his face, but returned to bed without saying anything.

Neither Grandma nor Aunt Dora said anything about the incident to their husbands. Aunt Dora feared that Taul would shoot my Grandpa if he ever found out. She said she could not bear the idea of her brother being murdered by her husband, and Grandma didn't want her husband murdered by her brother.

Times were rough and so were the people. Few had any education; many could neither read nor write; sophistication was as foreign as Easterners. This is not to say that people were dumb or lacked common sense, but a crude ignorance prevailed. Differences were often settled with a gun, and sometimes that did not take much provocation.

My Granduncle Clarence (Bud) Jacobs, one of Grandma’s older brothers (born in 1878) shot Grandpa Bert. I'm not certain as to when this happened but it was sometime after my Grandparents got together, but before Mom was born in 1913. My Uncle Charlie didn't recall anything about the episode but Mom remembered Grandma telling her about it when she was a young women. The incident took place at a tavern that was run out of the basement of some neighbor women's house. Several men were sitting outside, Grandpa being among them, and Granduncle Bud was above on the hill (this house was also built into the bank next to the railroad tracks). Uncle Bud was kicking gravel over the edge onto them, and after a while Grandpa Bert said something about the "SOB" and the next thing anyone knew Bud had come down and shot him in the stomach. Grandma said he, "swelled up like a poisoned pup", and the doctor said he would have died if the bullet had been "a paper thin distance to one side".

Grandma often described Uncle Bud as being cantankerous, quick tempered and caustic - a natural at making enemies. My Uncle Charlie remembered him shooting at blacks when they got off freight trains to relieve themselves. He don't know if Bud was really aiming at them or just trying to scare them, but it certainly wasn't very thoughtful disturbing people while they were conducting their private affairs. Blacks were treated like that in those days as many people thought of them as less than human. They were considered to be fair game for such torment - sometimes it was far worse.
GO TO: Part 3c, Bert Frank

The Life of Calla Della Jacobs - Part 3a, Grandfather Albert Frank

My grandfather's name was Louis Albert Frank. I never met the man, but my mother described him as fastidious, an immaculate dresser who wore neatly tailored suits, Stetson hats and Douglas shoes - two quality clothing brands of 1900.

She said he held his lithe frame ramrod straight giving many people the impression that he was taller than his five feet nine inches. His slim body was crammed full of nervous energy. He was always on the move. Most called him Bert; Mom referred to him as “Pop“. He played the guitar, sang railroad songs, and could be charming. But the man was an enigma. Bert was literate and capable, possessing qualities we associate with success. “Pop” repeatedly displayed traits of an unprincipled scoundrel.

He had “Spells”. That’s what Mom called them. He was mean when they occurred, often beating my grandmother and terrorizing Mom and her two older brothers. The “spells”, usually associated with booze, came without warning; one moment he would be light and jovial, the next, dark and sinister. His erratic actions set the family on an emotional edge. His children grew up fearing him.

When Bert was about twenty he started hoboing. A hobo was an itinerate laborer, usually a male, who often hitched rides on trains. The term became popular in the late 1800’s when many were riding trains, but not all were paying - they were hoboes. Most of the time he traveled with his cousin Buddy Austin, or a friend named Howard Boner. On several occasions Bert jumped trains to Texas, worked the fields at harvest time, and moved north as the crops matured.

The railroads considered hoboes to have reached infestation levels by the turn of the century, and hired private security agents to keep them off the trains. The hoboes called them “Bulls”. One of them cornered Bert and his friend, Howard as they got off a train in Texas. The “Bull” carried a heavy railroad lantern that he used as a weapon, swinging it at their heads, and sending them to the hospital. Howard was a member of a family that could afford to have a silver plate placed in his skull. Pop didn’t receive special treatment, and folks wondered if the beating had anything to do with his crazy "spells".

Bert was born in Pendleton County, Kentucky in 1881. He was the middle of five children, three brothers and an sister second in line. His father, a French-Canadian named George Albert Frank, came into the county in about 1870. Family tradition held that George Albert was born in Strasbourg, France in 1849, immigrated to Canada with his family in 1855, and drifted south when he was a young man.

Mom possessed only a vague memory of him. Her old brother, my Uncle Charlie, said he had a full white beard, and wore a narrow brimmed hat that had a deep furrow lengthwise on top. He ran the Licking River ferry in Catawba. Mom claimed he spoke and wrote five languages, but she couldn't say which ones they were. She remembered him as brooding - a silent man with little to say. In those days children did not speak unless spoken to, and I expect Grandfather Frank had little to say, especially to a five year old girl.

Bert’s' mother, Mary I. Austin, was a local woman. Mom didn't remember much about her but Uncle Charlie said she was, “a mean old woman", and he never liked her. Her father, Henry Austin, born in about 1810, wandered into Kentucky in the 1830’s from Virginia. He appeared in the 1840 US Census as living in Fayette County, and was married to a Kentucky woman, Louisa Blanderham. By 1850 they had moved to Harrison county where Mary I. was born. The family had settled in Pendleton County by 1860.

Most people lived on farms, few had more than a couple years education. Grandma attended through the 3rd grade. There were probably no books other than the Bible in her home, and the family couldn’t afford them anyway. One didn't need much education to do farm work, and there were no electric lights to make it easier to read or study, or do much of anything after dark. It was a different type of life, simpler, but neither easier nor more difficult than now.
GO TO: Part 3b, Grandfather Bert Frank

The Life of Calla Della (Lancaster, Frank) Jacobs - Part 2, Grandma’s first husband - John P. Lancaster

Grandma Della married John P. Lancaster (above) around 1902. John, also born in May of 1883, was nearly the same age as his young wife. They were both born and raised in the Catawba area so its likely they grew up knowing each other, maybe they were longtime sweethearts. That would be speculation as nothing about their marriage has yet been found, not even their marriage date.
I know more about his parents than I do of him. John N. Lancaster, his father, was born in Kentucky in 1840 and was living in Pendleton County by the time he was ten years old. He was still at home in 1860, but joined the Union Army in October of 1861, served in Company A, Kentucky 18th Infantry Regiment throughout the war. John N. was discharged in July 1865, and returned to Pendleton County to marry the widow Elizabeth Morgan Bowling shortly thereafter. I don’t know whether Elizabeth’s first husband, William Bowling, died in the war, but he was born in Virginia, and might have served for the Confederates in a Kentucky Mounted Infantry company.

John N married Elizabeth in 1866 or 1867 and raised her three young children. Elizabeth had twelve children to reach adulthood. Nine of them were with John N. Lancaster. John P. was next to the youngest. He appeared only in the 1900 US Census, and was living with his parents and younger brother Arthur.1903 must have been a terrible year for Grandma. Her brother Ben (above) came down with a mysterious illness. He was closest to her, both in age and companionship. Grandma nursed him, even though she was pregnant, but there was nothing to be done. He lay in bed with a fever for several months before he died. His parents buried him in their backyard in Catawba. Shortly after that Grandma had her baby, Mom’s half-brother Arthur. Her husband died just before or just after the birth, and she was left a widow with a young child to support and no way to make a living.

Grandma’s first born, Arthur Clarence Lancaster, was most certainly named after his two uncles. “Arthur” after John P. Lancaster’s younger brother, and “Clarence” after Grandma’s older brother, whose nickname was Bud. It’s a mystery as to why he was not named after Ben, in memory of the brother, so dear to her, and who had just passed.

I think Grandma moved back with her parents after John died. My Uncle Arthur grew up in the family home, and his Grandparents helped to raise him. The 1910 US Census listed Arthur living with Grandma’s parents, Charles and Julia Jacobs. Her brother, Clarence (Bud), was still living with them. Both grandparents died two years later.

Uncle Art and Uncle Charlie, Grandma’s oldest, were with great grandmother Julia when she died. The three had taken the horse and buggy to the country to get eggs. She had a stroke on the way back. It was in July and a thunderstorm was raging. The boys, ages nine and six, were frantic but the old horse took its head and brought them all home. Grandpa followed her that December. Arthur was living with Bud, his wife Minnie, and two year old daughter, Mildred, in Catawba in 1920 (per US Census). It seems Bud had inherited the family home and started his blacksmith business. Sometime in the 1920’s Art moved to Connersville, Indiana to be with his mother and three half-siblings, Charlie, George (Joe), and Hazel (my mother). He married in about 1928 to Marjorie Louise May of Orange, Indiana. All my memories of Uncle Art and Aunt Marj are centered around their little farm on the edge of Orange. (Photo page 5 - Grandma, Uncle Art, and me)
There is no telling now, but I can’t help to think that her life might have been happier if John P. had lived longer than the few years allotted him. Her second husband looked promising on the surface, but appearances can be deceiving.
GO TO: Part 3a, Grandfather Bert Frank

The Life of Calla Della (Lancaster, Frank) Jacobs - Part 1a, Catawba

My Grandmother, Calla Della Jacobs, was born in Catawba, a Kentucky backwater community 30 miles south of the Ohio River and Cincinnati. Catawba owed its short existence to the Kentucky Central Railroad that built a line in 1852 from the Ohio river heading south through Falmouth, the capital of Pendleton County. Catawba developed amid side tracks and switching facilities five miles north of Falmouth. The Louisville & Nashville (L&N) Railroad acquired the line sometime around 1870. My great grandparents, Charles and Julia Jacobs (below), moved to the village during that decade.
The Catawba Road runs east along a winding hog-back ridge from State Highway 27 before dropping into the river plain where the village once existed. The drive is picturesque, offering panoramic views into the ravines that lie on each side of the road.
Such hilly terrain poses problems to railroad builders as their objective is to maintain a level roadbed, so the tracks were laid along the route of least resistance - the flood plain of the Licking River. The railroad snakes its way north from Falmouth approximating the curves and bends of the Licking as it flows toward the Ohio. Catawba sat within a large horseshoe bend about five miles north of Falmouth.

The rail line ran through the village in a man-made trough twenty feet deep. The Catawba Road crossed the gap over a wooden bridge. My great grandparent's house sat directly facing the bridge on the far side of the tracks. Their little home (above), sitting on a corner lot, had four rooms downstairs and two up. The front appeared, with a little imagination, to resemble a rectangular clown face with a tall window (eye) on each side of a narrow door (nose). The front door faced a narrow lane that ran parallel to the tracks. Turn left at the bridge and follow the narrow lane running in front of the house, and a person would arrive at the small house where Mom lived as a child (above). It was no more than a hundred yards down the lane. The place was very small but had two front doors in the center, like a duplex. The whole house could not have been larger than a couple hundred square feet. I don't know for what purpose it was originally build, but it sat on top of the bluff overlooking the train tracks below. Across the tracks on top the other side sat Mom’s Grandparent Frank's house. If one continued straight from across the bridge (east) on the lane that ran beside the house the next building encountered was a blacksmith shop. Grandma’s brother Clarence (Bud) became the owner of the family house after their parents died in 1912, It was his shop. Then the road started to make a hundred-eighty degree curve to the right (as shown on the above map), and at that point you would find the only church (above) in town. It was aligned with the other buildings so the road curved away from it. The church was a modest building with one large room and a bell tower near the front. The road continued its half-circle ending at another brother’s, William (Taul) and Dora (Frank) Jacobs house. Taul Jacobs was a covered bridge builder, and Dora ran the local post office. Their place was a wood framed structure built into the east bank of the railroad bed and facing the tracks. There is an old picture (above) of Mom, Hazel (Frank) Buckingham, when she was about two years old. It shows her sitting on the stone front step with her Uncle Taul in the background. She had a flower in her hair. In that picture she would be looking across the tracks to the train station on the opposite side.

GO TO: Part 1b, Catawba