According to the Rushville, Indiana newspaper, Curt Lore, my great-grandfather, had been sick for at least a year before he died in November of 1909. According to his death certificate, he had been ill for three years.

Curt had escaped death so many times in the past.

But not this time. After previously surviving Typhoid combined with Tuberculosis, the White Plague, named for the signature pallor of those afflicted, Curt’s condition worsened, and the Grim Reaper spirited him away at 7:20 on Thanksgiving evening.

Oh, the horrible irony. Thanksgiving.

Maybe Curt was thankful to be out of his never-ending and increasing misery.

This painting, created in 1886, shows two people suffering from tuberculosis and their living conditions.

We don’t think much about TB today.

In the 1800s, TB, also known as consumption, killed about one-fourth of the population of Europe. Between 1880 and 1910 – it killed one-third of the people between 15 and 34, and half of those between 20 and 24. For some unknown reason, it seemed to be more lethal to younger people, but maybe younger people were more likely to be risk-takers and socialized more.

It’s believed that 70-90% of the urban population of Europe and the US were infected, and about 80% of those who developed active cases died. TB was surely something to fear and nothing to mess with.

Under the very best of circumstances – living in an English sanitarium that resembled a resort for the wealthy with lots of fresh air, food, and amenities – more than half of the people who contracted TB were dead within 5 years. And most people did not live in the best of conditions. They made do with whatever their family could provide to alleviate their symptoms and care for them. If they happened to be the breadwinner, the family as a whole suffered immensely.

Before treatments became available, one-third of infected people died within two years and another third within five. The hallmark of Tuberculosis is slow, miserable disease progression marked by fever, chills, weight loss, no appetite, night sweats, fatigue, headache, intensive coughing accompanied by bleeding in the lungs and difficulty breathing. In the end, the actual cause of death is often multiple organ failure.

Tuberculosis sanitariums opened in the US in the late 1800s with 115 offering more than 8000 beds by 1904. I’m actually surprised that Curt didn’t go to “recover” in one, although maybe the family couldn’t afford that approach. I didn’t know Curt in person, of course, but based on what I do know about him, he was an orphaned roughneck oil-field cowboy made good. I would think he would have resisted anything that even hinted of vulnerability or weakness, probably literally until his last breath.

It was believed that open-air shelters, regardless of the temperature, and rest in a horizontal position improved health, and that was likely the treatment Curt received at home.

He did actually improve time and time again, going back to work, until eventually his body was simply too overwhelmed and worn down.

Medical treatments, if you can call them that, were beginning about then and were akin to torture. Based on their descriptions, which I’ll spare you, I’d wager that the treatments themselves killed as many patients as the disease. Curt probably missed that by just a couple of years – which was a merciful blessing.

TB is contagious and caused by a bacterium. It’s transmitted in close living conditions and made worse by unsanitary practices such as spitting on the streets, a then-common practice, and sharing personal items such as drinking vessels.

Families, of course, were the most endangered, especially spouses who slept together. Coughing and sneezing spread the disease. People often became ill slowly and symptoms generally didn’t appear until months or years after exposure.

Only antibiotics could potentially have saved Curt, and they wouldn’t be available until the mid/late 1940s. Vaccines followed in the 1950s and 1960s, half a century too late.

Some people developed latent TB. They initially became infected, but their body fought it off and the disease became dormant, either forever or until their immune system became weakened because of some other reason or old age. Of course, back then, those people would have been thought to have been “cured” by whatever “tonic” they had been taking.

Snake Oil

Tonics, also known as patent medicines or more aptly as snake oil were everyplace, preying on the frightened, ill and unwary.

Know what’s in Dr. King’s New Discovery for Consumption? Morphine and chloroform. Didn’t cure you, but at least you stopped coughing and fell asleep.

Of course, these testimonials published as stories in the local papers made people subject to every snake oil salesman within sniffing distance.

Ingredients in Shiloh’s Consumption Care? Chloroform, heroin, and cynanide. Now there’s a curative solution.

Add in a Reverend and a druggist hyping the product, and why WOULDN’T you believe in these cures – one right after another.

What’s in Warner’s? You don’t need to know. Trust me. Just pay up and take it so Mr. Warner can become even wealthier.

These are just a few of many Consumption ads that ran in just one day’s newspaper in Aurora, Indiana in 1888. Small-town America was full of sitting ducks for patent medicine. People desperate to be cured would try anything.

Know what was in Piso’s Cure? Cannabis.

You might not be cured, but you were happy and got your appetite back.

I can’t help but wonder if the sicker people got, the more of these elixirs they took, possibly together. Maybe these toxic cocktails mercifully hastened the inevitable.

Treatments

Tuberculosis patients in the early 1900s when Curt was ill were often lined up in beds on porches, in all weather, to sleep.

Patients slept outside or in open-air tents. Tuberculosis, the leading cause of death in the 1880s, put Colorado on the map with its “huts” lining the mountainsides.

Some even slept along the walkway outside St. Thomas Hospital, along the River Thames in London, with the houses of parliament in the background.

If the disease itself didn’t do you in, or the morphine, heroin, cyanide and chloroform didn’t kill you, you would die of hypothermia.

Latent TB

I have to wonder if Curt actually had latent TB and his bout with Typhoid in early 1907 caused it to awaken. The timing was right and we know he was dreadfully ill and not expected to live.

During Curt’s final illness and after his death, Nora would have been terribly worried about her own health and that of her four daughters and son-in-law. Her sisters had come to visit as well.

Would other family members become ill? Would they unknowingly pass it on to others?

This sounds all too familiar today.

John Ferverda

John Ferverda, Nora and Curt’s son-in-law would develop Tuberculosis in the late 1950s. John had married Edith Lore in 1908, almost exactly a year before Curt died. John helped Nora care for Curt and remained close to his mother-in-law for the rest of her life.

All those years later when John was diagnosed, the family was told that his lungs were scarred – leading the doctors to believe he had actually had TB before at some time.

John was admitted to the Irene Byrum Tuberculosis Sanitarium in Fort Wayne for treatment. He lived there as an inpatient for a year or two – not only for his own health but to protect others.

I remember vising this HUGE facility as a small child. We walked across a seemingly endless parking lot into a cavernous reception area or hall, and my grandfather,  Pawpaw, was wheeled out in a wheelchair to see us. He was too weak to walk, and any movement at all made him cough and spit blood into a handkerchief.

I desperately wanted to climb on Pawpaw’s lap, but I wasn’t allowed to touch him or even see him up close. I was able to visit with him from a few feet away and I still remember the joy on his face as we played distant games like peek-a-boo and a modified version of hide-and-seek.

I couldn’t WAIT until Pawpaw came home – except I was never allowed to touch him again. Nor was I allowed at his funeral.

This is my only picture with my grandfather – obviously before he was diagnosed. He died about 4 years later. Tuberculosis stole so much.

Anyone who was exposed to TB when my grandfather was ill had to be x-rayed regularly and take tuberculosis tine tests. Those weren’t so much painful as they were frightening, waiting for results.

And heaven forbid that you coughed.

I still remember my grandfather coughing horribly and struggling to breathe. It sounded like he was gurgling and it was obvious he was in pain.

Mother and I had to get chest x-rays every six months for years after his passing.

Did my grandfather’s affliction begin in Rushville, all those years before, helping Nora care for Curt?

It’s certainly possible, but we’ll never know.

Let’s join the Lore family after Curt’s passing and see how they’re doing.

Late 1909

Nora was probably quite torn. I’m sure she had to be glad, on some level, that Curt’s terrible suffering was over. He died on November 25^th, Thanksgiving evening, and she buried him a few days later on what was probably a cold grey fall day.

Nora had to figure out how to support three children. What was she to do?

She was probably completely exhausted after all of those months of caregiving, broke, and in shock.

Christmas would descend upon the family shortly. Did Nora decorate a Christmas tree in an attempt at normalcy for the girls?

In years past, Nora would have gone home to the Kirsch House in Aurora for the holidays, and I’m guessing she did that year too.

Nora’s sisters and parents were suffering too. The last couple of years had been absolutely brutal.

• In addition to Nora’s years-long ordeal and Curt’s eventual death, Nora’s sister Carrie’s husband was institutionalized with syphilis. Worse yet, he had given it to Carrie. He would die in July of 1910.
• Nora’s other sister, Lou’s husband had committed suicide on Halloween in 1908 at the Kirsch House.
• A few months earlier, Nora’s grandfather had died.
• Nora’s aunt’s daughter, Nettie Giegoldt, died in Aurora in September of 1908 at 26 years of age – of Phthisis Pulmonalis – yet another name for Tuberculosis. According to her death certificate, she succumbed after two years which means she would have become ill in late 1906.

Is there any possibility that there was a connection between Nettie and Curt who both developed symptoms at about the same time?

According to the newspaper, the family had gathered in Aurora for Christmas in 1906.

I don’t know if Nora went home to Aurora in 1909 to simply grieve among her already-suffering family, or if the sisters and family took strength from each other.

But any red-blooded widow with three dependent children whose mother was living would have gone home to mother – at least for a while.

Mother is always mother, and there is always comfort there. If for no other reason than you can cry, and she can take care of whatever needs to be taken care of, at least for a respite. You don’t have to be strong every minute of every day.

Christmas that year must have been brutal at the Kirsch House. I hope they had a lot of wine, that’s all I can say.

Nora was no longer “interesting” fodder for the newspaper’s socialite column, so we know much less about her life during this period. One thing is for sure, THAT life was over.

Nora probably didn’t stay in Aurora long after the holiday. As tempting as it would have been to simply remain in Aurora for an extended visit, or maybe forever, she had business to attend to in Rushville.

Nora needed to find a different place to live. She had to pack and move. She needed to find some kind of employment. At least two of her four children needed to attend school.

Daughter Curtis would have been 18 and I suspect, but don’t know, that she dropped out of school to help care for her father when he was so gravely ill.

I’m sure Nora’s parents made sure those girls had at least some semblance of Christmas in 1909, even if Nora couldn’t. After all, Eloise was only just 6 and Mildred 10. Santa would still have been visiting and leaving gifts for the girls. Hopefully, they were able to forget about everything else, at least for a little bit.

Good German food, eaten together at the family table would have been salve on everyone’s injured soul.

Nora and the girls probably came home on the train between Christmas and New Year to set about putting their life in some semblance of order. She probably set the girls to packing their things. Maybe she positioned moving as a great adventure!

I’d bet Nora welcomed a change of scenery and a new beginning.

What would that new, vastly different, normal look like?

Another Change

The Rushville newspapers continue to reveal threads in the tapestry of life of the Lore family.

• January 3, 1910 – John Ferveda who was recently transferred to cashier at the local office has been given the agency at Silver Lake in the northern part of the state and will leave here in the next few weeks.

John received a promotion. That’s the good news and the bad news, both.

This move had to be extremely difficult for Nora and Edith both. To have her oldest child move away so soon after Curt’s death, although I’m sure it wasn’t’ entirely unexpected. If there’s one thing Nora learned, it was to roll with the punches.

It would be a terrible irony that John Ferverda would eventually die of tuberculosis too, half a century later. Bookends of their marriage.

• January 10, 1910 – Mr. and Mrs. John Ferverda went to Silver Lake, today where they will reside permanently. Mr. Ferveda will be the Big Four agent there.

A week later, Edith had departed too, waving goodbye to her mother at the depot. I don’t know, but I’d bet Edith and John had been living with Nora since their wedding.

Silver Lake

John and Edith settled into the small farming community of Silver Lake in northern Indiana, complete with the train depot, a small Methodist church, one school, and an all-purpose hardware/drug store.

The depot in Silver Lake, where John spent the next several years as station agent was located beside Edith and John’s home. I remember this building as a child, visiting my grandparents. Today the depot, along with the train tracks are gone.

Silver Lake was a “one-horse” crossroads town, a block or two in each direction. They lived about where the buggy is in the distance on Main street, on the left-hand side.

The view today from the exact same location.

Edith and John purchased a home beside the depot and never moved.

“Driving” down Main Street, I still recognize a few homes, including theirs which looks much different today.

After the fast-moving social life followed by the difficulties in Rushville, perhaps Silver Lake was a quiet respite for Edith, and for Nora when she visited too.

Rushville and Silver Lake were about 110 miles apart. I don’t believe either family had a car yet, so they would have taken the train to visit from time to time. If I remember correctly, Mom said that the station agent’s family rode for free.

New Beginnings

Back in Rushville, Nora was coping and making the necessary changes as Edith settled into Silver Lake.

• March 9, 1910 – For sale one street sprinkling outfit, consisting of wagon, tank, gas engine, pump, etc., formerly owned by Curtis Lore. T. Arbuckle, agent

This is heart-wrenching – clearly Curt’s estate. Perhaps the only thing he had left. I wonder what happened to his horses. I’d guess they were sold during his illness to pay bills. Horses were probably easier to sell than a sprinkling outfit.

The Rush County records are listed at Family Search, but none are online yet, so I requested Curt’s estate records by writing an old-fashioned letter. I checked with the Rush County clerk’s office and they indicated that there was no will, probate or estate for Curt when he died, although the sale of the sprinkling outfit by an agent suggests otherwise.

• April 15, 1910 – Mrs. John Ferveda of Silver Lake is the guest of her mother Mrs. Curt Lore and family in west First Street.

Nora had moved to First Street by April.

The 1910 census taken a few days later shows Nora living at 324 W. First Street and working as an “agent” in the “dress goods” industry. I wonder what that means, exactly. Nora reported that she had not been out of work. Daughter Curtis, 19, is shown as a dressmaker in a store.

I’m relieved to know that Nora is employed and that Curtis is helping out as well. I never knew exactly what happened to Nora during this time.

• May 17 – 25, 1910 – Lost a child’s red hat Sunday afternoon. Finder please return to Mrs. C. B. Lore 324 W. First Street.

I bet the red hat belonged to Eloise. Was this a special hat or were they just that poor?

• July 3, 1910 – Joseph Wymond, husband of Nora’s sister, Carrie, died. There are two official reports, one being a death certificate from the sanitarium in Lafayette and one being a coroner’s report in Dearborn County. The coroner’s report says he died of a gunshot wound, supposedly self-inflicted, and his death certificate says he died in Lafayette at the Wabash Valley Sanitorium after a residency of 8 months, of Bright’s Disease. Bright’s Disease was a kidney disorder common among syphilis patients. Bright’s Disease was Carrie’s eventual official cause of death too, in 1926.

Both of those things cannot be true.

Nora told of how Joseph’s family managed to swindle Carrie out of Joseph’s rather substantial estate. Joseph Smithfield Wymond’s father owned the Wymond Cooperage Company that spanned two full blocks in Aurora.

Heartache on top of heartbreak. Clearly, when Carried married him in 1902, he either didn’t have the disease, or he didn’t know it. I don’t know if Wymond had been cheating on top of giving his wife the disease that would eventually kill her, but the family thought so.

This entire situation was spoken of in hushed tones in the family, even decades later. Having “marital relations,” even with your husband, was considered “dirty” in Victorian times. Carrie’s situation, when it was discussed, held tones of outrage, pity and grief. Suffice it to say the Lore family and their descendants despised the man.

Carrie certainly needed the money from his estate after his death. It’s not like she could work, at least not in Aurora. Who would hire her for anything knowing of the disease she carried – not to mention her own deteriorating health.

And yes, EVERYONE in Aurora knew that always-cheerful Carrie had contracted that dread disease from her husband who was a well-known son-of-a-rich-man riverboat gambler and man-about-town. Mom referred to him as “a slick Dandy,” an epithet spit between clenched teeth. I didn’t know what that meant, exactly, for the longest time, but I could tell by her tone alone that it was bad, very, very bad.

Just a few months after Curt’s death, we find him mentioned in the Rushville paper again.

• August 10, 1910 – List of Old Settlers who have died in the past 90 years – Curtis Lore, 50.
• Goshen Democrat, August 10, 1910 –  Mrs. W. R. Coverston will entertain at bridge tonight for her guest, Mrs. C. B. Lore of Rushville.

Nora’s best friend’s husband who also worked for the railroad had been transferred too. I’d wager that Nora visited her daughter and her best friend on the same trip given that they were only living about 50 miles apart in northern Indiana.

The first anniversary of Curt’s death came and went. Of course, the newspaper doesn’t’ report when people visit the cemetery. But they did, apparently, print letters to Santa.

• December 21, 1910 – Dear Santa, I want a set of furs, an English doll cart, an Indian suit, a sled, big doll, a raincape, new dress, set of dishes, a Christmas tree, a picture book. I am seven years old. Your friend, Eloise Lore

At least she didn’t ask for her Daddy back.

Eloise had just turned 7.

1911

• March 7, 1911 – Mrs. John Ferveda of Silver Lake is the guest of Mrs. Curt Lore.

Edith came home to visit her mother often.

• March 31, 1911 – Mrs. C. B. Lore was a visitor in Indianapolis today.

I’m really glad to see that Nora is getting out and about.

Why might she be visiting Indianapolis? Nora’s uncle, John Kirsch, lived in Indianapolis and didn’t pass away until 1927, so she might have visited him. After the 1910 census and by 1915, Nora’s sisters Carrie and Lula, both widows, were living in Indianapolis. Indy gave them a chance to live without the stigma of “what happened.”

Or, maybe Nora had friends there or simply needed to get away.

• April 4, 1911 – Mrs. Curt Lore will entertain a small company of friends at her home on West Second street this evening, honoring Mrs. Will Coverston of Goshen who formerly resided here.

The West Second address may be a goof from years of habit.

Curt has been gone for 17 months and it looks like Nora is finally doing something with friends.

• April 18, 1908 – Easter Sunday in Rushville – Reading – “Daisies in the Meadow” by Mildred Lore at the First Presbyterian Church.
• May 5, 1911 – Mrs. C. B. Lore entertained the Five Hundred club this afternoon at her home in West First Street.
• May 8, 1911 – C. D. Torr of Indianapolis was the guest of Miss Curtis Lore yesterday.
• May 10, 1911 – Miss Curtis Lore visited in Indianapolis today.
• May 15, 1911 – Mrs. C. B. Lore entertained the 500 Club at her home this afternoon on West First Street.

Nora seems to be trying to get back to normal, visiting and playing cards, and the younger girls are doing normal things for children in Rushville. Curtis is, of course, the daughter named for Curt.

• June 3, 1911 – The following Children’s Day Program will be given at the First Presbyterian church tomorrow night by the members of the Sunday School. Recitation by Eloise Lore – “Naughty May”
• June 8, 1911 – Mrs. John Ferveda of Silver Lake is the guest of her mother, Mrs. Curt Lore. (This newspaper NEVER spells Ferverda correctly.)
• July 13, 1911 – Mrs. Nora Lore has gone to Silver Lake, Indiana for an extended visit wither daughter, Mrs. John Ferverda.
• August 16, 1911 – Miss Curtis Lore played Lohengrin’s wedding march as the bridal party came down the stairs.

I can’t help but harken back to Nora’s own descent down the steps at the Kirsch House, into the parlor when she married Curt in 1888. I wonder if Curtis realizes she is providing the music for the reenactment of that scene between her parents.

• August 23, 1911 – Mrs. Nora Lore of West First Street is entertaining with a house party this week. Her house guests are Mrs. Perry Wymond, Mrs. May Fisk, Miss Ida Kirsch of Aurora and Mrs. Will. R. Coverston of Goshen.

I suspect Perry is actually Carrie because the other women are Nora’s sisters and Mrs. Will Coverston is Nora’s best friend. I believe May is actually Nora’s sister, Margaret Louise, “Lou.” This “house party” looks just wonderful and I hope that Nora enjoyed this gathering as much as I suspect she did. This warms my heart. These three sisters have been widowed and the fourth, Ida, won’t marry until 1921.

I think a “house party” aka an adult slumber party is exactly what the doctor ordered for these ladies. It seems they might have visited at this particular time in order to attend the local fair.

These 1911 articles indicate that Nora’s widowed sisters are still living in Aurora, likely working for their parents at the Kirsch House.

• August 23, 1911 – (regarding the fair) Notable among the local exhibitors in the handiwork department were…Miss Curtis Lore.

Curtis is now 20. Among other activities, she embroidered and crazy quilted. Curtis embroidered her name in the block of a crazy quilt that Nora kept until her death in 1949.

This crazy quilt eventually went to Curtis’s sister, Eloise, then to Mom when Eloise passed away, and now, it’s mine.

• August 23, 1911 – Mrs. Nora Lore is entertaining Mrs. Perry Wymond, Mrs. May Fisk and Miss Ida Kirsch of Aurora and Mrs. Will Coverston of Goshen. (In 1930, Will Coverston was 64, wife Ethel and lived in Elkhart. Ethel would have been 35 in 1911.)
• August 26, 1911 – Regarding the fair and money winners – Premium award in the following departments… Women’s Department – Miss Curtis Lore, 21 first, 28 second place awards.

Curtis obviously had an amazing number of entries that took prizes. It looks like the payment was $1 for first. It’s ironic that the newspaper article is about how the fair was the best ever, but it’s going broke because there are so many high premiums to be paid. That’s the equivalent of about $28 for each first-place entry, for a total of $588 in today’s money.

I’m quite impressed at all those awards. I surely wish they had told us what Curtis entered in which categories. I wonder if those 49 items she entered were related to her dressmaking? What better advertisement?

I’m cheering for Curtis!!! I’m glad she had such a successful year at the fair.

This photo from the summer of 1911 at Winona Lake provides another clue as to what the Lore women did that summer, including Nora’s sisters from Aurora.

I don’t know who the child at left is, but Curtis Lore is the young woman standing at left, holding her skirt. By the way, these are swimsuits of the day. Maybe swim dresses would be a better description.

“Aunt Cad” is Nora’s sister, Carrie Kirsch Wymond.

The woman sitting in the water is unknown, although I wonder if she is John Ferverda;s sister.

The woman with the straw hat behind Aunt Lula is unknown too.

Aunt Lula is Nora’s sister, Margaret Louise “Lou” Kirsch Fiske.

Edith is standing in a black swimdress.

Mildred is playing in the water, but Eloise isn’t pictured.

I’m guessing Nora took the picture and Edith (later) wrote the names on the photo.

Everyone is laughing and smiling and joyful. This looks like a lovely retreat, and I’d wager there was picnicking together on the shore as well while the kids splashed in the water nearby.

• September 22, 1911 – Miss Curtis Lore who has been ill for several days was much better today.

Uh oh.

I just hold my breath now every time there’s a newspaper report that someone is sick – especially a young person – and in September. It’s not flu season.

• October 5, 1911 – Miss Curtis Lore who has been ill for some time is greatly improved.

Whew! What a relief. I was afraid this was the beginning of that same emotional roller-coaster ride, starting all over again. But why had Curtis been ill for some time? Is there something else wrong?

• October 7, 1911 – The following program was rendered at the Havens school on Friday afternoon in honor of the birthday anniversary of James Whitcomb Riley. Recitation of “The Raggedy Man” by Eloise Lore.

The Visit

• November 22, 1911 – Mrs. George Aultman and Mrs. Nora Lore went to Rockville today for a 2 days stay.

Ella Aultman was Nora’s neighbor, just a few doors away. While on the surface, this looks like a “fun jaunt,” it was anything but. The State Tuberculosis Sanitorium was located at Rockville

Curtis had contracted tuberculosis from her father and had been admitted. Now we know what was going on.

Curtis, who had improved briefly in October was clearly worse in November. We don’t know when Curtis was admitted to Rockville, but was sometime between October 5^th when she was improved and November 22^nd when her mother went to visit.

Nora must have been heartsick. And terrified! First her great-niece Nettie died after being ill for two years, then Curt, and now Curtis is ill with the same scourge.

Of course, I knew about this already, but it’s heartbreaking to see this begin all over again as I read the old newspapers. I can’t help but wonder how Nora kept the fear from entirely consuming her.

This scenario was all too common. The newspapers and death records a hundred years ago are full of articles about families where several people became ill and often died from diseases that we have cures for today.

I wonder what, if anything, Nora told young Eloise and Mildred about what was happening to Curtis.

• November 29, 1911 – Thanksgiving Program at Havens Building – The Recitation – The Bill of Fare by Eloise Lore

This Thanksgiving must have been particularly difficult for Nora. It was the second anniversary of Curt’s death and Curtis was in a sanitarium.

No mention of what they did at Christmas in the newspaper this year. There’s also no Santa Claus letter from Eloise who had just turned 8, either.

Would Nora have gone to Aurora, or perhaps to visit Curtis, or both?

1912

• January 11, 1912 – Benefit exchange on behalf of Miss Curtis Lore to be held Saturday, January 13 by the young women of the First Presbyterian Church. We will have good things to sell if you want to buy. If you do not want to buy, give your money anyway as a free-will offering.

These articles are both heartwarming and heartbreaking. Not only is Curtis clearly gravely ill, but Nora is obviously struggling, perhaps even to put food on the table. The young people at church, Curtis’s friends, are stepping up and trying to help. Bless them.

Edith is married and living in Silver Lake. At least she’s safe there, but Curtis was her best friend.

Is Curtis still in the Sanitarium, or is she at home? Is she improving? I hope.

How Nora put one foot in front of the other every day, I have no idea.

The community very clearly gathered around this family.

• January 22 & 26, 1912 – The Greensburg News ran this article.

The Rushville paper carried several similar articles.

Ironic that it’s in this article that we discover exactly when they moved from Greenburg to Rushville, which means that Curtis was actually born in Greensburg on March 8,  1891. In addition, the Aurora, Indiana newspaper on January 9, 1890, carried a notice that Miss Carrie Kirsch visited her sister, Mrs. Curt Lore in Greensburg the previous week. On January 23^rd, Jacob Kirsch, Nora’s father had visited as well.

Attempting to find additional information, I tried a new resource and discovered Curtis Lore’s actual birth announcement in the Greensburg newspaper.

• January 27, 1912 – The benefit for Miss. Curtis Lore last night at the Portola attracted large crowds at all the performances. The program was well received and was one of the best given here for some time. Tonight a change of pictures will be made with the exception of “The Awakening of John Bond.” By request this feature film dealing with a fight on tuberculosis will be shown again tonight. Charles VanCamp will repeat his feature song, “Buckwheat Cakes.”
• January 30, 1912 – The second benefit for Miss. Curtis Lore will be given Friday night. The management announces that any of the tickets out for the show given last week will be accepted as this second benefit. It is planned to make the program as attractive as last Friday and special music and pictures will be included in the program. The Jackson school orchestra has consented to play and Charles VanCamp will put on another character song.
• January 31, 1912 – Friday night the second of the benefit shows for Miss Curtis Lore will be given. The VanOsdol orchestra will render a program and other special music will be given, besides three reels of pictures.

You have to give these young people credit – they are doing their best. A fundraiser and two benefits. I’m impressed!

We still don’t know if Curtis is at home or at the Sanitarium.

• February 1, 1912

• February 2, 1912 – The second benefit to be given tonight at the Portola by the Emanon club for Miss Curtis Lore, promises to be attended by even larger crowds than last Friday.

Either these shows are great or people’s hearts are large – or maybe both!

• February 5, 1912 – The benefit show by the Emanon club for Miss Curtis Lore netted $60. The young women are well pleased with the result.

At 10 cents each, 600 people contributed. In 1910, there were 355 households in Rushville, which means every household, on average, contributed 17 cents. And that’s just the second benefit. We don’t know how much the fundraiser raised, or the first benefit produced.

They tried, Lord knows, these young people tried. The funds from that second benefit, equivalent to about $1700 today, probably made a huge difference to Nora and made Carrie feel very cherished and loved.

• February 7, 1912 – Curtis Lore, age 21 years daughter of Mrs. C. B. Lore of West First Street died late this afternoon after suffering with tuberculosis for several weeks. She took treatment at the State Sanitorium near Rockville for some time but did not improve. She is survived by her mother and 3 sisters.

Curtis’s decline and death was much more rapid than her father, Curt’s, had been.

• February 8, 1912 – Last Sad Rites Will be Performed Tomorrow Afternoon – Funeral services of Miss Curtis Lore …First Presbyterian Church of which deceased was a member.

Curtis had died at home. At least she was with her mother.

But Nora. Oh Good God – poor Nora.

• February 9, 1912 – The funeral services of Miss Curtis Lore were held this afternoon at the late residence in West First Street, conducted by the Rev. J. B. Meacham. Burial took place in East Hill cemetery.

Given that Curt’s funeral and Curtis’s both were held at home, that must have been the custom of the day. I’d wager the entire town came to pay their respects.

• February 10, 1912 – Mrs. W. R. Coverston of Wabash attended the funeral of Miss Curtis Lore here yesterday.

Nora would have desperately needed her friend’s presence.

I’m sure Nora’s sisters and parents would have been present too, although, strangely, that’s not mentioned in the newspaper.

20 years, 10 months, and 29 short days.

Two years and not quite three months after Curt died. This means that Nora has been living for almost 5 years with a family member ill with TB, unless Curtis wasn’t ill the entire time.

This must have seemed like déjà vu – and I’m sure Nora was terrified for her other children.

Judging from Curtis’s death certificate and the date this doctor began treating her, Curtis probably came home from the sanitarium at Christmas time, after about 5 weeks of treatment, knowing she would not improve. Poor Nora. Poor Curtis. This family experienced so much grief and loss.

Until I saw her death certificate, I didn’t know that Curtis even had a middle name or initial. I bet the L stood for Louise, her aunt, who probably sponsored Curtis at her baptism, but I’m just guessing.

Curtis’s death certificate says she had been ill for 6 months and that would track back to August 1911, when she was winning all those awards at the fair and probably about the time she was at Winona Lake with family members too.

I’m so glad she won those ribbons and had that last wonderful summertime lake visit with her sisters and aunts. It would be her last.

Nora’s Great Regret

Eloise told Mom that Nora felt just awful and never forgave herself for the circumstances under which Curtis lived in her final weeks – and died.

When Curtis first became ill, she wanted to go out west with her boyfriend’s family, “for her health.” The western climate, “clean, cold mountain air,” was believed to be the best for TB patients. Nora did not allow Curtis to move. She wanted her child with her. Any mother would.

After Curtis died, Nora always wondered if she had allowed her to go, if she would have lived. Guilt is an evil, unrelenting lifelong companion.

But that’s not all.

Recall that it was believed that sleeping outside on a porch, in fresh air, no matter the temperature, would improve Tuberculosis symptoms and restore health. In fact, the colder, the better.

Curtis pretty much lived on the porch that winter and was understandably miserable. Nora brought her food, but she was too sick to eat. It was winter in Indiana. Horribly cold. Nora stayed with Curtis on the porch. Desperate to help her daughter, Nora would have done anything to save her, but Curtis died anyway.

Love was not enough.

Nora was fully aware of her child’s misery and never forgave herself, even though she was lovingly providing the standard accepted and medically recommended treatment. If she had not, and Curtis died, then Nora would have been considered negligent. There was no “winning” for either Nora or Curtis.

It was only many years later that Nora, along with everyone else, came to realize that living and sleeping in the cold did nothing curative for TB. So Curtis suffered for nothing. Nora came to wonder if the cold had hastened Curtis’s death and wondered if she might have lived had she NOT been exposed to the cold.

When Eloise told me about Curtis sleeping and living on the porch, in the winter, I was shocked. Eloise herself, still a child, had been traumatized by all of the surrounding events. I could tell that even telling me, decades later, bothered her immensely. Her eyes took on a very far-away, pained gaze as she talked.

Sleeping and living outside was the prescription of the day and Nora, at that time, believed it was Curtis’s only hope. I’m sure that Nora would have gladly traded her own life for Curtis’s if that were possible, but that’s not a choice we get to make.

It’s somehow ironic that it may have been that porch that saved the rest of the family from infection. Miraculously, neither Nora, Mildred, or Eloise contracted TB from either Curt or Curtis.

If Curtis had been sick fifty years later, she would have taken a long regimen of antibiotics and probably lived – or at least stood a fighting chance.

I’m not sure when this photo of Curtis was taken, but she doesn’t look quite adult here.  Fortunately, the family had this picture of better times where Curtis looks beautiful and happy.

And, of course, this adorable baby picture. There’s no doubt this is Curtis. Those ears!

Edith, my grandmother, told my mother that not only was Curtis named for her father, Curtis Benjamin Lore, but she absolutely adored him. That feeling was mutual. Ironic that he walked away from his first family, children included, but clung so tightly to his second.

East Hill Cemetery

For the second time in 27 months, Nora would pass beneath this archway at the entrance of East Hill Cemetery, accompanying the casket of a loved one.

The casket would have been loaded from their home onto a wagon pulled by a team of horses. The wheels would have creaked as the procession moved slowly through town, the horses’ hoofs echoing and carriages following.

I’m sure Nora had visited many times since Curt’s death. Perhaps she came to talk with Curt as she grew ever more concerned that Curtis would be joining him.

On a cold, bleak, winter day, Curtis was buried beside her father. Her suffering finally over.

Nora would be buried beside them both, 37 years later.

Three identical stones in a row.

The Next Chapter

Nora didn’t have much time to grieve. Grieving was a luxury she could no longer afford.

Nora had to pick herself up, dust herself off, again, as best she could, for the sake of her young daughters, and put together some semblance of a life.

A month later, Nora had a new job and opened the door to the next chapter of her life.

What lay on the other side of that door?

Something rather startling that absolutely no one expected.

Join me soon for “Nora’s Surprise.”

_____________________________________________________________

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1908 ended in Rushville, Indiana with Edith Lore marrying John Ferverda in November, “quietly,” the same day as they obtained their license, in the home of the Presbyterian minister.

For socialites, Nora Kirsch Lore and Curt Lore, this turn of events for their daughter was quite out of character. Why on earth did Edith and John marry in this manner? And no, in case you’re wondering, there wasn’t a baby on the way.

Perhaps it was because Curt was out of commission for several weeks in 1908 when he had typhoid and nearly died.

Perhaps an unfortunate suicide within the family had made the couple decide that sooner was better than later.

Or, maybe there was more to the story.

What was happening in Rushville in the Lore family?

Rushville in 1909

Postcard courtesy Indiana Historical Society.

Never doubt for one minute that Rushville was a fast-living high-stakes horse-racing town.

This birds-eye view from 1909 clearly shows the racetrack beside the creek, in the flood-prone area. Rushville was built around racing.

Courtesy Indiana Historical Society

That horse racing track was quite large in comparison to the village itself, perhaps reflective of its outsized influence on the citizens. Much of Rushville’s early development was thanks to “horse money.”

Curt and Nora lived in town, raising their four daughters, but Curt’s racehorses were boarded someplace nearby. This postcard, courtesy of the Indiana Historical Society, shows a typical horse farm. Indeed, for all we know, one, or some of these could have been Curt’s.

Even today, the area that was originally the horse-racing track is still quite large when compared to the rest of the city and dominates the landscape.

The courthouse is marked with a red star, then the First Presbyterian Church where Nora and the girls attended services, and finally, on West Second Street, the location where the Lore family lived.

Panning out a bit, further to the left, we see the East Hill Cemetery. Curt Lore built a mausoleum there for the Reed family in 1907. It was the last stop for Rushville citizens.

Curt himself had cheated the grim reaper in 1907. In January, he came down with typhoid. For weeks on end, the newspaper reported that he was very ill and not expected to survive. Imagine reading that if you were his wife or daughters.

John Ferverda was a pallbearer in January for a typhoid victim, probably a friend of his future wife, Edith.

The river had flooded, contaminating wells with sewage. Nora sent the girls to their grandmother’s in Aurora, preparing for the worst.

One daughter, Curtis, remained at home to help care for her father.

Did the other daughters, especially the two youngest children, realize they were being sent away to spare them the agony of witnessing their father’s death?

On March 18^th, Curt was still reported to be the same, but then, on the 21^st, the newspaper reported him to be out riding. Not on a horse, I’m sure, but in a buggy. Then again, a week later.

Glory be! Curt had triumphed in his battle against the Grim Reaper.

On June 10^th, Curt seemed to be functioning again. He applied for a position as the superintendent of light and water that he did not get. He still, however, retained the city’s street sprinkler contract, but on the 11^th his horse died.

Curt still retained his spunk, mixing it up with the local Marshall and got himself arrested in June. This is the only record of Curt actually getting into legal trouble, although I suspect he stepped quite close to that line regularly.

Life continued for his daughters and Nora like normal. Social outings, card games, meetings at the social club, church – all reported in the local newspaper. Thankfully, for me.

In October 1907, Curt bid on and was awarded bridge repair contracts. That apparently worked well, because he was awarded additional contracts in May of 1908. In June, he purchased a “large cement mixer,” so he was apparently planning on doing more construction and bridge repair.

At that point, we were beginning to see less of Curt in the newspaper, but in September he was visiting Knightstown on business and in October 1908, was involved with a political parade.

We also find fewer mentions of Nora in the social columns. Of course, one might surmise that because her grandparents were ill and passed away and because her sister’s husband met with an untimely and tragic death on Halloween that perhaps Nora was otherwise occupied.

Everything seemed pretty much normal, if somewhat quiet…right up until the extremely subdued November wedding of Edith and John.

Normally, the Rushville newspaper social column tells us who is visiting whom on the train, especially during the holidays. Not one peep about any of the Lore family. Nada. Nothing.

What was going on?

1909

• January 27, 1909 – John Ferveda got several encores with his singing act.
• February 1 and February 10, 1909 – C. B. Lore is in very poor health at his home on West Second Street.

Uh oh, now we know. Curt’s sick again.

• April 15, 1909 – Nora Lore to Curtis B. Lore, part lot 5 in the original plat of Rushville, $1, etc.

Based on a later entry where Nora sells this lot, I suspect that this transaction is reversed and Curt deeded the lot to Nora. Curt is transferring assets to Nora.

• May 14, 1909 – Newspaper states that John Ferveda (sic) is the operator at the Big 4 Station in Rushville and had at one time an assistant in the office in Carthage. Carthage is about 15 miles northwest of Rushville.
• June 1, 1909 – Misses Curtis and Mildred Lore went to Aurora yesterday to be the guests of their grandmother for several weeks.
• June 17, 1909 – Children’s Day will be observed at the Presbyterian church next Sunday. The Sunday School will render interesting exercises in the evening: “That Little Word of Don’t” – Eloise Lore
• June 21, 1909 – Misses Curtis and Mildred Lore returned Saturday from Aurora where they have been the guests of their grandparents. Their sister, Eloise, who has been visiting there several months accompanied them home.

The girls are growing up. Curtis is 18, Mildred is 10 and Eloise is just under 6. Caring for a family in addition to Curt’s apparent illness must have been extremely difficult for Nora. Edith was married, but she and John helped Nora.

• June 23, 1909 – Carrie Wieman of Aurora is the guest of Mr. and Mrs. Curt Lore and family on Second Street.

Carrie Kirsch Wymond was Nora’s sister. The daughters of the Kirsch family had been on the receiving end of grief for months. Margaret’s husband, Todd Fiske killed himself on Halloween the fall before.

Carrie’s husband was increasingly ill with syphilis which was probably quite the closely guarded family secret. Sadly, he had given it to her too.

• June 26, 1909 – Curt Lore who is also in the business, is oiling in Main Street between First and Second. He heats the oil before applying it and says that it will last longer. The summer will probably come and go and all the streets in the downtown district will never be oiled, if the weatherman continues to oppose the movement. The rain is not injurious to the oil, but stops the work and it cannot be put on while the streets are wet. An almost continuous rain fell for 48 hours shortly after the improvement was tried in front of the Daily Republican office and did no harm.
• June 29, 1909 – Tim Hiner and Curt Lore were busily engaged today oiling Main Street between 2^nd and 3^rd.

Curt is back at work! He recovered AGAIN. This is amazing!

• July 13, 1909 – Rushville Daily Republican – Edgar Lore of Shelbyville is the guest of his uncle, C. B. Lore and family on West Second Street.

This is a fascinating record because it gives a name to one of Curt’s nephews. I wonder if this is Lon’s son. Census and Ancestry research don’t show this Edgar in Shelbyville or nearby. There is an Edgar in Butler Co., PA who may be related. The mystery remains about Curt Lore’s brothers and their families, but this is one more puzzle piece. Maybe someday a DNA match will help answer the questions about Curt’s family.

• July 14, 1909 – Mrs. J. S. Wymond is the guest of C. B. Lore and family on West Second for several days.

I suspect that Carrie was no longer living with her husband, all things considered.

• July 18, 1909 – Edger Kirsch returned to Shelbyville today after spending a few days with C. B. Lore and family.
• July 28, 1909 – Mr. and Mrs. Russell Payne, Mr. and Mrs. John Ferveda, Miss Curtis Lore and George Kelly have established a camp a short distance north of this city.

I wonder what camping in 1909 was like? I never even considered that my grandmother even MIGHT HAVE camped.

FamilySearch offered this photo of camping and cooking, and I found a book written in 1909 about the same subject.

• Martin Kirsch and son Edgar of Shelbyville spent Sunday with Mr. and Mrs. C.B. Lore and family in West Second Street. They made the trip on motorcycles.
• August 17, 1909 – C. R. Morgan of Alexandria is relieving J. W. Ferveda, Big Four operator. Mr. and Mrs. Ferveda while on their vacation will visit relatives in Aurora and Leesburg.

Edith and John spent their vacation visiting both sets of parents.

• August 27, 1909 – Of course the I. & C. officials did not know that George Kelly and Miss Curtis Lore had spent the afternoon together on the fairground. But the car was crowded and the officials thought that the very last one had got on that could ride. Miss Lore was the last. George stood and watched the car pull out and wished there had been room for one more. And now their friends are having a lot of fun out of it.

We know that Curtis Lore had a boyfriend from my grandmother’s stories, but we’ve never known who he was. The boyfriend’s family apparently moved “west” as in to someplace like Arizona. Curtis wanted to go along, at that time, to improve her health. Nora said no, and always blamed herself for what happened to Carrie after he and his family left. Nora regretted that decision for the rest of her life.

Was that boyfriend George Kelly? I suspect so. I do not find any George Kelly in Rush County in the 1910 census, so he could have been “the one.”

• September 1909 – Joseph Wymond, Carrie Kirsch Wymond’s husband is committed to the Wabash Valley Sanitorium near Lafayette, Indiana where he would eventually die of his “affliction.”.
• October 20, 1909 – Mr. and Mrs. Will Coverston of Goshen arrived last night to be the guests of Mr. and Mrs. Curt Lore in West Second Street.
• October 21, 1909 – Mr. and Mrs. Ed. L. Beer entertained at 6 o’clock dinner last evening Mr. and Mrs. Will Coverston of Goshen and Mrs. Curt Lore.
• October 22, 1909 – Mrs. Will Coverston has been the guest of Mrs. Curt Lore on West second street and went to Anderson before returning home to Goshen.

It seems that the Coverstons continued to be close friends of Curt and Nora. They had likely came to say goodbye to Curt and help Nora.

White Plague

You see, Curt had tuberculosis.

I’m amazed given the contagious nature of this disease which was untreatable before antibiotics that so many people came and went.

• November 17, 1909 – C. B. Lore who has been ill for several months is very low at his home on West Second Street.
• November 26, 1909

Curt died. He had cheated the Grim Reaper so many times before. In 1907 and 1908 and even earlier in 1909. But not this time.

The Grim Reaper came calling, knocking on the door, intending to collect. Sadly, there was no escaping, not even for seemingly invincible Curt Lore.

Curt was only 48 years old, or so this and his obituary both say.

Ironically, even with this death certificate, there is still uncertainty about when he was born, based on the 1860 census in Pennsylvania which tells us he was born in 1856.

It’s pretty hard to be in the 1860 census if you weren’t born until a year later.

Perhaps Curt had not been entirely forthcoming with Nora. Maybe once he had subtracted 5 years off of his age, it was just easier to remain “younger” than face the music of an angry wife.

Yep, born in 1861 it was. No one would ever know – at least not until genealogists started digging. Pesky great-granddaughter, anyway:)

Family

It’s worth noting that the obituary mentions several things and omits others. Curt’s father is noted, for example, but not his mother who outlived his father. It mentions that Curt had four brothers. That’s true, but he had at least one more and possibly two that lived to adulthood.

He also had one sister who positively outlived him.

This family is incredibly difficult to unravel due to the combination of a lack of records and becoming so fractured and scattered after both parents’ deaths.

Curt was making his way in life on his own from about the age of 12 or so.

But perhaps most interesting is that there is no mention of children other than his daughters with Nora.

Three Years

My grandfather and my great-aunt used to talk about Curt’s illness. His death certificate tells us that he had tuberculosis for about 3 years. This article mentions that he has been quite ill for the past year, which equates almost exactly to the time when Edith and John married. Perhaps now we’ve solved the mystery of why they married “quietly.” Curt was becoming increasingly ill. Perhaps the young couple realized he wasn’t going to get better, so there was no pointing waiting to marry. He wasn’t going to be able to walk Edith down the aisle, nor pay for a wedding – ever.

Three years tracks back to about November of 1906, give or take. That was the fall that Edith was in business college, assuming she actually did attend in Indianapolis.

In early January of 1907, the newspaper reports that “Curt Lore who has been employed with the Indianapolis, Columbus and Southern Interurban line at Scottsburg has returned to this city.” Sounds like he was no longer working at that job. Maybe now we know why.

This also tracks back to almost exactly the time that Curt contracted typhoid, in January of 1907.

Curt managed to beat typhoid, but unbeknownst to us, it appears that he beat BOTH typhoid AND tuberculosis at the same time. I can’t even begin to imagine the fortitude required to beat not one, but both diseases.

He worked through the next two years – sprinkling the streets, repairing bridges, and otherwise earning a living. I’m sure Curt simply tried to work through his misery until he was simply too sick to get out of bed.

Having recovered from simultaneous diseases earlier, I have immense respect for this man’s stamina. Sadly, he simply wasn’t able to do it again. His body was ravaged.

According to family members, when Nora realized how ill Curt really was, and the eventual prognosis – she quietly approached the city fathers and ask them not to award Curt more contracts. She was concerned about the legal ramifications if he were to die with a half-fulfilled contract. It’s not like she could repair bridges herself.

Nora once told my Mom that she thought Curt contracted TB when he went to Kentucky on horse business.

Curt lived fast and died relatively young.

Following Curth’s death, Nora’s life would become immensely more difficult. Their daughters at home were Curtis, 18, Mildred 10, and Eloise 6.

Curtis, named for her father, adored Curt and helped Nora care for him.

Daughter Edith, Curtis’s sister, and best friend was married of course, but lived locally and could help her parents.

The two youngest girls were sent to their grandparents in Aurora during Curt’s illness. Probably both to protect them and because Nora simply could not do any more. Caregiving is incredibly difficult and all-consuming, especially when taking into consideration that Curt was carrying a lethal disease and quite contagious.

Now we know why any mention of the couple ceased in the newspaper. Their social life ceased too – not just because of the illness itself and care requirements. Everyone in Rushville would have known to keep a safe distance.

Their Address

The 1900 census does not give a street address for Nora and Curt, so it was only through his death certificate that I was able to discover where they actually lived.

The map shows the location, given that “West” begins at Main Street. I can’t read the last digit of the street address, but it’s clearly 421, 427, or 429. Based on the other numbers on the same certificate, I believe it’s 421.

The property has to be the one outlined in red above. The houses to the right are 417-419 and the house to the left is 431, so too far west.

This earlier 1879 map shows the same property along with the depot and nearby warehouses. This makes sense, especially considering their good friends were station-masters and Edith, their daughter, married John Ferverda, the railroad station agent.

Regardless of which address was theirs, the house stood on this piece of land, and it looks like they had an extra-large backyard, extending onto what is now the lot 424 First Street, behind 423 Second Street.

It’s here that Curt and Nora lived for at least a decade, probably closer to two decades, and most of their married life.

While those properties hold contemporary buildings today, the neighbor house, at left, looks like it was probably standing when Nora and Curt lived next door.

• November 27, 1909 – C. B. Lore who died Thursday evening held a $1000 policy in the State Life of Springfield, Mass. The funeral of Curtis B. Lore who died of tuberculosis on Thursday evening will be held at the home in West Second street Sunday afternoon at 2:30, conducted by the Rev. J. F. Cowling. Burial will be in East Hill Cemetery.

Curt would be buried in East Hill, like the rest of the Rushville folks, near the mausoleum that he had built just two years earlier.

I am very glad that Nora had this life insurance policy, but it would not last long. Ever darker times were ahead. However, first, she had to bury Curt and probably pay some large number of overdue bills.

There’s no record of Curt working beyond summer, and he likely could only work less and less as he became increasingly ill.

It’s interesting that Curt’s funeral was not in the Presbyterian Church, although his obituary said that he was a member. Perhaps he was a member in name only to placate Nora.

Curt’s father’s family had a traumatic emotional journey due to differences between Catholicism and the Protestant faith, literally severing the family, cleaving them clean in half like a religious saber. Curt’s father left the family and left Canada after his mother died. I doubt he ever looked back.

Curt’s avoidance of all churches may have been a result of those family experiences and a deeply ingrained suspicion of everything church-related held by the Lore family for generations.

Driving Up and Down Second Street

Wanting to see as much of Rushville as I could, I “drove” up and down Second street on Google, looking at homes. Second Street isn’t very long, extending left to right (west to east) on the north side of the courthouse, below.

Their home is the red star at left, and the courthouse at far right.

Would Curt and his family even recognize Rushville today? I think so. There’s a lot new, but the courthouse was build in 1896 and hasn’t changed much. Curt was certainly in this building a lot.

Driving down Second Street towards their house, then turning around and looking back at the courthouse gives is a peek, if you ignore the vehicles, at what the town might have looked like back in the day.

Many of these buildings in the downtown area likely stood when Curt watered these streets before they were paved. The courthouse is at right two blocks in the distance.

Turning around and looking westward on second, we pass by the Knights of Pythias Hall where Curt attended meetings.

The first actual homes today begin in the 200 block of West Second.

Most homes are gone and have been replaced by more contemporary buildings, but a few remain.

Looking west from Second and Harrison into the area that today remains residential with vintage homes. Curt and Nora lived about 2 blocks further west.

I love this house. This wasn’t where they lived, but they certainly would have passed by. Their home had to be spacious because they had 2 servants living with them in 1900, plus 4 children, and Curt was a successful businessman.

That old 1879 Rushville map shows that the area where the 400 block of West Second is today was at that time a warehouse and the train tracks were laid right down the side of what is today Second Street. The depot is shown too, near the stockyards. I’m sure that there was some sort of industrial or animal noise at all times. If I close my eyes, I can hear it.

In 1900, Nora and Curt’s neighbor was the railroad agent, so this location makes sense. Edith married John Ferverda, the station agent, so I should be extremely grateful that they lived where they did.

A lot changed in Rushville between 1879 and 1900 as well. At some point, those tracks down the street were removed and the warehouse replaced with homes.

It’s also possible that the houses have been renumbered sometime between 1909 and today. I’ve seen that happen more than once, and it plays havoc with dealing with early original records and trying to find current locations.

Google Maps shows that the entire 420 section of West Second appears to be gone now, replaced with a contemporary home and garage. The brick house on the left is probably where their house stood.

The house on either side looks to be original.

Standing in the street where they lived, looking downtown at the courthouse, I realize just how small this town was. Curt probably walked many places, or took the buggy, of course. Curt’s daughters are shown in the buggy with one of their horses, below

Standing in this very place on Second Street back in their day, horses would have been clip-clopping, carriages creaking perhaps, and the train whistle in the distance. You would have been able to hear people talking, especially in the hot summertime with windows open. Maybe smell dinner cooking too.

Now, Nora and the girls would have to navigate without Curt.

Burial

• December 14, 1909 – East Hill Cemetery Company to Mrs. Nora Lore, lot in cemetery, $35

This lot was Curt’s burial plot and where Nora would eventually be brought home to rest by his side as well.

Mom is standing by Curt’s stone in the cemetery, probably not long after Nora was buried in 1939.

Moving

Before the spring of 1910, according to the newspaper, Nora and her three girls would move from where she lived with Curt on West Second Street to 324 West First Street.

The house was smaller, cute as a button, and certainly less expensive to rent.

Plus, Nora may have needed a change of scenery. While moving was difficult, the fact that they didn’t own the West Second Street property probably made the move easier.

At least Edith still lived in Rushville, and John would have helped his mother-in-law.

In fact, it was here, in this house, that Nora received a visitor.

The Visitor

John Ferverda was sitting in the kitchen, drinking coffee and visiting with Nora, when someone knocked on the door, asking for Curt.

Nora told the young man standing there, hat in hand, that Curt had, unfortunately, passed away.

Curt was well-liked with a charismatic personality and had hundreds of acquaintances, given his broad spectrum of business dealings. Nora assumed, of course, that this caller was another business associate dropping by to say hello or see what kind of horse-trading might be in order.

This young man was different. He shuffled, hesitated a bit, and a wave of disappointment visibly washed across his face. He was crestfallen.

This man, you see, had come to find his father.

I’d wager that was one incredibly awkward moment. A tongue-tied young man standing on this porch at the door, probably wishing he was absolutely anyplace else – face to face with the grieving wife – neither one of them knowing exactly what to do or say.

Nora invited him in, and they sat at the kitchen table and talked, but she took that conversation to her grave.

It wasn’t Nora who revealed this incident – nor was it ever spoken of while she lived.

It was John who told Edith and her sister, Eloise. One of them told my mother years later.

Mom and Eloise were under the impression that this son was previously unknown to Nora and might have been from Kentucky. Somehow the dots were connected and it was presumed this son has been fathered when Curt was involved with racehorses in Kentucky sometime after Nora and Curt were married.

So Nora discovered that Curt caught more than tuberculosis in Kentucky. Or, at least, that’s what everyone thought. Apparently, judging from this information, Curt had visited Kentucky regularly for decades.

Well, Did He or Didn’t He?

Before I discovered Curt’s marriage in Pennsylvania, Mom was certainly unaware Curt had been previously married, let alone still married when he married Nora in 1888. Imagine her shock!

Was this man knocking on the door Curt’s son from his first marriage, Herbert Judson Lore, who would have been age 30? Kurt Lore and Mary Billings are given as Herbert’s parents on his death certificate in 1968.

Herbert looks incredibly like Curt. I can see my mother in his face too. No DNA test needed here.

Neither my grandmother, Edith, nor her sisters, Eloise or Mildred had ANY IDEA they had a living half-brother who only lived about 140 miles from Eloise.

Was the man at the door Curt’s son that I’ve never been able to locate, John Curtis Lore, born January 20, 1881?

Was he Curt’s son Seldon B. Lore, known as “Sid,” born in June of 1886 and found in 1904, as a laborer in Oil City, PA?

Or, was this yet another young man?

If the young man had been born after Curt and Nora were married, he would have been 22 or younger that day he stood nervously on Nora’s porch, looking for answers.

Digging Deeper

One John Curtis Lore who lived in Kentucky registered for the 1918 draft giving Mary Galliland as his next of kin. Mary Bills, Curt’s first wife married Allen Galliland after their divorce in 1888. In 1900, Herbert J., John C., and Seldon B Lore were living in Warren County, PA with Mary and Allen and their half-sister, Alta Gilliland. In 1910, Mary and Allen were living in Cowlitz, Washington with Alta, but the boys were on their own. In 1918, Mary was living in Crewe, Virginia.

John Curtis Lore certainly seems to be Curt’s son, but this record is from 9 years after Curt died. Who knows where John was living in 1909 or 1910 when that young man appeared on Nora’s porch.

What happened to John Lore?

The May 1, 1924, Franklin County, Pennsylvania newspaper tells the story.

Tragedy seems to follow the Lore family like an ominous ever-present dark shadow. An 11-day old baby? His poor wife.

Is this the same John Lore? The name is slightly different.

There’s a lot of incorrect information in this article, but I found this man’s death certificate based only on his death month and year. His nickname was apparently Jack or was misrecorded on the delayed death certificate.

John died of tuberculosis too. How heartbreaking. Even more tragic, his young wife, Annie Jewell Cox Lore died in May 1927 of tuberculosis as well. The children were raised by their Cox grandfather.

Hmm, given the circumstances, I’m doubting if John Curtis Lore or his wife have a tombstone, but let’s take a look.

I didn’t find them, but I did find that child buried in that same cemetery 42 years later.

That baby, born just days before his father’s demise was James Harold Lore, according to FindAGrave.

John’s son also died at age 42 in a motorcycle accident, striking a truck.

Tragedy seems to have run generations deep.

Forgiveness

Nora forgave a lot while married to Curt, like the fact that he was still married to another woman when they were married in 1888, assuming she discovered that fact.

Nora certainly stuck by him through thick and thin. Multiple business ventures, that embarrassing horseracing scandal, a lawsuit or a few, then multiple illnesses.

Regardless of all that, I do believe Curt was Nora’s true love with his infectious impish smile, curled locks, and piercing blue eyes that melted her soul.

My grandmother, Edith, spoke of Nora’s intense grief surrounding Curt’s death. Nora wanted to be buried beside him and with the Lore surname on her stone, even though she eventually remarried.

She would join Curt in the East Hill Cemetery almost exactly 30 years later.

It would prove to be a very long 30 years.

So, what happened to Nora?

_____________________________________________________________

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The newspapers of the early 1900s often reported on the social lives of their local residents. Thank goodness, for researchers today, that they did.

There’s so much to glean about these family members – sometimes by what IS said, and sometimes by what isn’t. I’ve learned so much about my grandmother, Edith Lore, and her parents, Nora Kirsch and Curtis Benjamin Lore, a self-made man and jack-of-all-trades.

A great deal has been revealed in these old black and white pages. I wrote about unexpected discoveries in Outside the Pale: The Lore Family’s “Remarkable” Life Revealed Through the Newspaper and Curt Lore “Shoots Wells” With Nitroglycerine and Dynamite.

We left the Lore family in 1906, when their eldest daughter, Edith Lore, was graduating from high school and turned 18. 1906 was a year of polar opposites with a few curve-balls thrown in. Let’s join the family and see what was going on.

Unidentified Connection

The social scene in Rushville was sometimes reported as far away as Indianapolis, Indiana, about 40 miles distant as the train runs.

• April 1, 1906 (Indianapolis, Indiana newspaper) – Miss Bertha Helm entertained a number of friends Saturday evening in honor of Mrs. J. F. Wymond of Peoria, Illinois who is the guest of Mrs. C. B. Lore.

Of course, I have to wonder who Mrs. J. F. Wymond was, and how she is connected to Nora. Randall J. Wymond, it turns out, was the vice-president of the Peoria Cooperage Company and his business address was Aurora, Indiana, where Nora was born. He married Mabel Criswell in 1884. Nora’s sister, Carrie, married Joseph Smithfield Wymond, the brother of Randall. Perhaps the society column got the initials wrong or another one of Nora’s friends married a Wymond.

Sometimes these articles raise more questions than they answer and I run down every imaginable rabbit hole.

Commencement

Edith Lore, oldest child of Curt Lore and Nora Kirsch graduated from high school in the spring of 1906.The Indianapolis paper tells us that Gladstone Barrett is class President, Anna Meges Vice-president and Mertha Monjar Secretary-Treasurer. The class colors are royal purple and gold. A few weeks later, the Indianapolis paper carried this article about the commencement.

For most young ladies of that time, graduation would be the end of the line for education, but, surprisingly, not for Edith.

A few days later, Edith was already employed.

• May 31, 1906 – J. B. Workman, the tax ferret, recently employed by the city of Rushville, has a force of young ladies at work in the Recorder’s office at the court house, copying mortgage records. Those who are at work are. <names omitted>, Edith Lore.

As a genealogist, I could go to Rushville and if the old mortgage book still exists, at least some of those records recopied into that book, I’m guessing, would be in my grandmother’s handwriting.

But Edith, born a hundred years too early, had larger ambitions.

Scholarship

The local newspaper carried a fascinating article:

• June 15, 1906

Edith, my grandmother, won a 6-month scholarship to Business College in Indianapolis.

What?

Seriously?

I never heard A PEEP about this!

For any female to aspire to attend college in 1906 was amazing in and of itself – let alone with a scholarship.

Did she attend? I would presume that she did. I certainly hope so.

I can’t imagine Edith wasting this opportunity, especially not after specifically seeking the scholarship.

The Central Business College

The Central Business College became the Indiana Business College in the 1940s, located at 802 North Meridian. Established in 1902, it was represented as, “A modern business-training organization. This beautiful college home, located in the heart of cultural downtown Indianapolis – with its spacious commodious classrooms, its numerous and convenient transportation facilities and its various other accommodations presents an attractive appeal to young people who are ambitious to prepare for business careers.”

Amazingly, this building, now apartments, still stands. It’s really not the leaning either – Google maps.

When I saw the large building at right, above, down the street on Google Maps, I thought it looked familiar. Sure enough, it’s the library, and I’ve been there. Of course, I had absolutely NO idea that my grandmother went to college just a block away, and probably lived in that building or nearby while she was attending.

The Business College is the building in the lower left corner that resembles a church.

If walls could only talk.

Edith, who would turn 18 in August, was apparently used to traveling by herself by train – but living in a big city is something else entirely.

The question remains – did Edith actually attend the Business College in Indianapolis?

We know because of what we find out later that there was a backstory going on at home.

If Edith attended, beginning immediately in mid-June, then she would have been finished mid/late December, perhaps just in time for the holidays.

If she did attend, she must have returned home with her eyes open and full of lively discussion about Indianapolis, the big city.

Living away, alone, changes you and opens your eyes to possibilities you would never see otherwise.

There is enough time for Edith to attend college in Indy, but barely.

1907

• January 4, 1907 – Miss Edith Lore has returned from a visit with relatives at Aurora. Her mother will return later.
• January 5, 1907 – Greensburg Review: Mrs. C. B. Lore and daughter of Rushville after a visit here, the guests of Miss Stella Wise, have returned home.
• January 9, 1907 – Curt Lore who has been employed with the Indianapolis, Columbus and Southern Interurban line at Scottsburg has returned to this city.

Apparently Curt found a job after his earlier challenges and illness. Those words “has been” are troubling. Is this a nice way of saying he lost that new job? What is going on? This is very unusual for Curt.

Typhoid!

• January 22, 1907 – Curt Lore is quite ill at his home on west Second street, being threatened with typhoid fever.

Curt must have become sick after his return on the 9th and before the 22^nd. Typhoid is a disease associated with consuming drinking water contaminated with human fecal matter and it’s often fatal. Ironic that Curt is the man drilling the wells for the city of Rushville to have clean water – although he could clearly have been exposed elsewhere.

Symptoms include severe headache, cough, extreme fatigue, abdominal cramping and distension, plus a range of other, more severe, symptoms. Typhoid can last from weeks to months. Generally, if the person is going to live, the fever begins to subside in the 4^th week. That’s weeks, not days. Four long weeks. Holy cow!

Typhoid is highly contagious and risk of death without treatment with antibiotics is about 20%, generally in the third week of infection. Of course, they didn’t have antibiotics in 1907, so either the disease ran its course and you lived, or you didn’t. It sounds like a horribly long and dreadful ordeal.

Curt must have been miserably ill. He actually hadn’t been well since the fall, so typhoid was on top of whatever else was wrong. Later, we will learn what that “something else” is.

• January 25, 1907 – John Ferveda pall bearer for Miss Maude Foust who died of typhoid followed by pneumonia.

Apparently, Rushville was having a typhoid epidemic.

This is the first mention of John Ferverda, Edith’s future husband, in Rushville. We don’t know when John was assigned to the depot there, although we know that he didn’t begin working for the railroad until 1904 and he was in Carthage for some amount of time.

Indeed, Rushville homes were still using outhouses and associated cesspools which was contaminating the drinking supply.

This graphic illustrates the contamination cycle.

This situation in Rushville was probably exacerbated by flooding.

An article on January 17^th from Evansville regarding the severe floods stated that the conditions haven’t been worse relative to flooding since the great flood of 1884. “The present high stage [of the water] is backing the water up into the downtown sewers, and an epidemic of typhoid fever has resulted in some sections.”

Another report on January 18^th says that the Ohio River is between 10 and 35 miles wide, resembling an ocean. Holy moley.

Of course, this means that Nora’s parents and sisters living in Aurora, at the Kirsch House, just a few blocks from the Ohio River were dramatically affected – as were her grandparents.

The local Aurora paper reported:

The city was entirely cut off from railroad or traction connection with the outside world, although the telephone and telegraph wires were still working. People can only get in or out of the city by boat. The last train to arrive had to feel its way along tracks covered in several places by water. The telegraph office is surrounded by water and has to be reached by boat.

That telegraph office was the depot beside the Kirsch House.

The city gas plant shut down because of the shoot and there is serious danger of a shortage of oil. Danger has been further enhanced by the toppling over of the big Standard Oil Tanks undermined by the flood.

Meanwhile, the waters continue to advance and the whole business section of the town has been invaded. About 1800 in all were rendered homeless by the flood, but those whose homes are still high and dry are generously throwing them open to the refugees. Great suffering is threatened in case of a sudden cold snap.

This picture of the 1937 flood in Aurora shows the magnitude of flooding in river towns and cities.

The Kirsch House where Nora grew up was about half a block behind the photographer.

This photo was taken from the intersection of Second and Bridgeway. You can see the same buildings.

Main Street in Aurora during the 1884 flood. Flooding occurred regularly.

Lawrenceburg, neighbor town to Aurora, that unlike Aurora had a levee, expected during the 1907 flood that if the levee was breached, the entire town would be under 6-9 feet of water. Rain was falling in torrents with gale force winds as the men attempted to reinforce the levee and keep it from breaching during the night.

Rushville too was directly on the Flatrock River, and if the rivers were flooding throughout the region, they were flooding in Rushville too. A Rushville article dated January 3 states that the “entire lowlands is flooded” with the water covering many roads and that the water is within 2 or 3 feet of houses in several places.”

These 1913 photos of flooding in Rushville, courtesy of the Indiana Historical Society, gives an idea of the what flooding in Rushville looked like when the Lore family lived there.

Rushville resembled a lake. Even the railroad undergirding became mucky and unstable, causing the timbers and rails to twist.

You can see the current and waves in the water. Imagine how cold this must have been in the middle of winter. Looks like meat and grocery delivery was a service as well – just not during the floods.

The rains continued for weeks, explaining how and why typhoid was introduced in the winter of 1907 in Rushville.

• February 22, 1907 – Miss Edith Lore is suffering from the grip at her home on west Second Street. Her father, Curt Lore still continues ill.

We learn that both Edith and her father are ill, and I’d assume that they both have the grip, another word for flu. But that’s not the case.

• February 25, 1907 – Miss Leah O’Neil entertained at six o-clock dinner Sunday the Misses Lucile Wilson, Fanny Gregg, Zelma Cox, Harriet Vredenburg, Curtis Lore and Lenore Wooden.
• March 4, 1907 – Curt Lore of West Second continues quite ill.
• March 6, 1907 – Misses Edith, Eloise and Mildred Lore left yesterday for a trip to Aurora. Miss Edith will enter a business college in Cincinnati.

Wow – so much to unpack in these articles. Business College, again, but this time in Cincinnati. And Curt is quite ill and has been now for weeks, since before January 22^nd.

I suspect that the reason that these 3 daughters went to Aurora was so that they would not contract typhoid, or perhaps because Nora didn’t want the girls to see their father die, or both. Nora very clearly had her hands full.

But where was the fourth daughter, Curtis? Why didn’t she go to Aurora too? Curtis, by all reports, was extremely close to her father. Our family history says that Curtis helped care for Curt, her namesake parent. She remained in Rushville while Edith left to go to school and took the two youngest children with her. Curtis would have been 16 on March 8th. Some 16^th birthday.

I find it interesting that Edith went to business college in Cincinnati, not in Indianapolis. Did she decline the Indy scholarship? Did she attend in Indy and then also in Cincy? Mom said that her aunt Carrie paid for Edith’s college in Cincy. Does this imply that Curt and Nora were having financial difficulties? That’s certainly possible, given that Curt has been very ill and unable to work.

This photo of Eloise taken at the depot in Aurora is labeled 1907, so I strongly suspect it was taken during this visit.

Eloise and Mildred in 1907.

Edith lived with her grandparents at the Kirsch House, located beside the depot, and took the train to Cincinnati each day where she attended business school.

• Mrs. Wymond, of Aurora is visiting her sister Mrs. Curt Lore on west Second Street. Mr. Lore who has been ill some time continues about the same.
• March 7, 1907 – Mrs. Joseph Wymond of Aurora who has been the guest of her sister, Mrs. Curt Lore on west Second street returned to her home yesterday afternoon.

If Curt was desperately ill, why was Nora’s sister visiting? Perhaps she came to take the girls to Aurora, although Edith was old enough to supervise her younger sisters.

Perhaps Carrie was helping to care for Curt. If he was bedfast, with intestinal symptoms, Nora probably needed all the help she could get.

Or perhaps she came to support her sister.

• March 8, 1907 – Curt Lore of west Second Street is in a precarious condition, with little hope for recovery.

Given this, Nora probably asked her sister to come and take the girls so that they didn’t see their father pass away. Curtis, however, remained by his side.

Oh no!

• March 16 and 18, the same notice – Curt Lore of west Second street remains about the same.

Curt is hanging on by a thread. It seems that typhoid is doing what oil wells, nitroglycerine and dynamite couldn’t do – lay Curt low.

Curt had been ill for over two months now and it appears obvious that the consensus is that he won’t survive.

But Wait…

• March 21, 1907 – Curt Lore of west Second street was able to be out riding this morning.

That man is amazing. Three days ago, he was still given up for dead. This man, I swear, has nine lives.

• March 22, 1907 – Clyde Clumber of Silver Lake has succeeded John Ferveda at the Big Four station. Mr. Ferveda is located at Rushville.

Does this mean that John was being transferred elsewhere? With Edith gone, studying in Cincinnati?

• March 30, 1907 – Curt Lore was able to be uptown again today.

I didn’t expect to see this. Curt has obviously escaped the grim reaper and is on the mend. Close call!

Edith Receives Honors in Cincinnati

• May 8, 1907 – Miss Edith Lore of this city who is attending school in Cincinnati has been highly complimented by the faculty of the institution.

Edith has been in school 2 months. I wish this article had provided the name of the institution.

Some creative googling with city directories shows that there are three candidates for business schools that Edith might have attended.

The Bartlett Commercial College was located near the Union Depot at 641 W. 4^th, which would have been the closest distance to walk from the depot. The Mueller School of Business at 6^th and Vine and Nelson’s Business College at 7^th and Elm.

Edith learned office skills, specifically shorthand and administrative skills, along with bookkeeping.

I wish those academic records were available today.

• May 10, 1907 – Daily Republican, Rushville, Indiana – Jacob Kirsch of Aurora, who has been here this week at the home of his daughter, Mrs. C. B. Lore and family, of West Second Street, returned home yesterday.

This is the only visit by Jacob that I found. He would have had a difficult time getting away from the Kirsch House even though he was clearly retirement age – 66. I wonder if there was an occasion or if he just decided to visit. Perhaps because Curt nearly died and he wanted to support his daughter.

Curt Goes Back to Work

Just a month later, Curt appears to be ready to go back to work.

• June 10, 1907 – There are two applicants for the position of superintendent of the city water and light plant made vacant by Oliver M. Ong’s resignation. Curt Lore and T. Melville Greenlee are both aspirants for the position.

Interesting that after his recovery, Curt is now hunting for a job. I wonder what he was doing before and how the family managed financially while he was so desperately ill.  Maybe Jacob Kirsch delivered money.

Curt did not get the job, but that didn’t keep him from working. Although, life’s deck of cards seemed to be stacked against him.

• June 11, 1907 – Quite a loss sustained by Curtis Lore yesterday when one of his horses which he drives to his street sprinkler died from some unknown cause.

This is the second horse that dropped dead on Curt, 18 months apart. The first one was on a farm though, so Curt wasn’t personally involved.

About this time, Curt must have felt like if it weren’t for bad luck, he would have had no luck at all. He must have been crushed and felt defeated.

• June 24, 1907 – Mildred Lore of West Second street has returned home from several months visit with relatives in Aurora, Indiana. She was accompanied home by her sister, Miss Edith.

This was 3 months after Edith left to attend business school. Mother said that Edith’s Aunt, Carrie, paid for Edith’s schooling. Was this the extent of Edith’s college education?  Was there more schooling yet to come?

Mildred was born in 1899, so she would have been 8 years old. How was she able to visit Aurora for months on end? What about school?

Arrested!!!

• June 25, 1907 – City Marshal Price arrested Curt Lore this afternoon on West Second street on a charge of provoking an officer.

Oh my! This man is full of surprises!

• June 26, 1907 – Lore Trial Will Come Up Monday – City Marshal Declares that Lore insisted on Making Provoking Declarations – Curt Lore was before Mayor Cowing this morning, charged with provoking an officer and his trial was set for next Monday morning. F. J. Hall appeared for him. The case is the outcome of an altercation between Lore and City Marshal Price. The controversy arose over a statement Lore is said to have made to Price declaring that the city officials only made arrests to secure the fees. This incensed the officer and after repeated demands of Lore to refrain from making such a statement, he was placed under arrest.
• July 2, 1907 – Special Judge Will Hear the Curt Lore Case – The trial of Curt Lore who is charged with provoke on City Marshal Price was again postponed yesterday in Mayor Cowing’s court, and the case will be heard Friday morning by Special Judge George Young. A constable will be sworn in to fulfill the city marshal’s duties in making up a jury.

Was a special judge required because Curt or the Marshall was friends with the judge?

• July 3, 1907 – Miss Curtis Lore of West Second street will go to Aurora Saturday for a visit with her grandparents.

I need a scorecard to keep track of where the girls are. Even though this extended family lived in separate towns, they remained very close, despite distance. This was probably facilitated by the fact that both families lived very close to the depots in Rushville and Aurora. The granddaughters spent a great deal of time with their grandparents and aunts at the Kirsch House. Their great-grandparents, Barbara Drechsel Kirsch’s parents were living as well, with Barbara Mehlheimer Drechsel passing away in January of 1906 and George Drechsel in February of 1908 at age 85.

Maybe they went to visit their grandparents because Nora didn’t want them at home during the trial. Curt Lore seemed to be a bit hotheaded and I’d wager, he was swearing a bit. Nora certainly would NOT have wanted her girls hearing that.

• July 5, 1907

The court sustaining the motion means that the judge agrees with the motion. Quashing an indictment means that it is made void or invalid.

This is over. I guess hiring attorney Hall was worth the money for Curt. Nora was probably furious with him.

This episode leaves me with two thoughts. First, that perhaps Curt wasn’t entirely “right” after his severe illness, or maybe there is more to this story that we’ll never know.

Never Mind – Nothing to See Here

My second thought is the remarkable contrast between this drama involving Curt and the next entry about his wife who, the same day, is apparently playing cards and trying to act as if nothing has happened. “Nothing to see here. Just men being men. Carry on.”

• July 6, 1907 – A delightful time was spent Wednesday afternoon at the Social club when Mrs. Oliver Dale entertained the 3 card clubs. A three course luncheon was served. Mrs. Curtis Lore won the honors for the Five Hundred.

Five Hundred must have become a family tradition. Mom played with her mother, Edith, and I played with my Mom.

• July 9, 1907 – Curt Lore was in Greensburg this morning on business.
• August 3, 1907 – Mrs. J. R. Whyman (is this Wymond?) of Aurora, Indiana is the guest of Mrs. C. B. Lore on West Second Street.

I suspect this is Nora’s sister, with the initials mistyped and the last name misspelled.

• August 3, 1907 – Miss Eloise Lore, daughter and Mr. and Mrs. C. B. Lore returned today from 6 months stay in Aurora.

Wow – 6 months. That’s a VERY long time to be away from home, especially for a young child. This is odd.

• August 9, 1907 – Misses Curtis Lore and Lucile Meredith are the guests of Miss Pauline Coverston at Goshen.
• August 19, 1907 – Miss Curtis Lore will play piano at the Star beginning tonight.

The Star appears to be a movie theater where films are shown. This entry appeared under “Amusements.”

• September 5, 1907 – Festival Queen Voting Lively: First Day Marks Many Nominations and Many Votes are Cast

At first, I thought of this as trivial, but then noticed the prize – a piano. Clearly NOT trivial, but Curtis isn’t in the lead.

Edith had returned home in June. The youngest daughter, Eloise was sent to Aurora as well in February, about the time that the Typhoid epidemic hit and returned home in August. Both Curtis and Mildred, the middle daughters, seem to have remained at home.

Building Bridges

By October, Curt was bidding on bridge repair contracts and traveling again.

• October 7, 1907 – There were two bridge contracts awarded. The building of the Hinchman Bridge was let to Curtis Lore at $828.
• October 9, 1907 – Curt Lore made a business trip to Indianapolis and Columbus yesterday.
• October 11, 1907 – Curt Lore has received the steel for the construction of the HInchman bridge and work will begin immediately.

How did Curt know how to build bridges? Bridges and oil wells don’t seem connected. Apparently Curt became a contractor, either intentionally or accidentally during this time.

If money could be made, Curt, the consummate entrepreneur, figured out how and executed on that plan.

Courting

By November 1907, we know that Edith was at least flirting with John Ferverda. She sent him a postcard with her photo on the front. This at least suggests that she is living back at home, and her schooling only lasted for three months.

• November 20, 1907 – Curt Lore, the contractor, has just completed the excavation for a vault being built for Theo. Reed at East Hill cemetery. It will be constructed of concrete and have nine receptacles for caskets in it. The vault will be located on the side of a hill in the new part of the cemetery.

Ok, add mausoleum builder to Curt’s lengthy resume. This substantial building still stands today.

• December 18, 1907 – Miss Estelle Brehm, of Spokane, Washington comes this week to spend the holidays with her cousin, Mrs. C. B. Lore in West Second Street.

Estelle Brehm, born in 1884 in Chicago, is the daughter of Nora’s mother’s sister.

• December 19, 1907 – Dear Santa Claus: Please bring me a doll, a go-cart, a sled, some candy and oranges. Your friend, Mildred Lore

1908

This oh-so-cute photo is labeled “Mildred and Eloise, Rushville, 1908.” Given the winter scene, I’d suspect it was January or February. I surely wish I recognized one of those houses today.

Of course, I have to laugh. Is Mildred sitting on a sled? Maybe she had been good and Santa delivered!

• January 24, 1908 – Mrs. J. S. Wymond of Aurora is here the guest of her sister, Mrs. C. B. Lore in West Second Street.
• February 26, 1908 – George Drechsel, Nora’s grandfather, died in Aurora and was buried on the 28^th. There is nothing in the paper to indicate that either Nora or her sister went home to Aurora and attended his funeral, but I bet they did.

The Watson Beauty Bunch

Based on various newspaper articles, it appears that there were two groups of women called the “Watson Beauty Bunch.” The first group was disbanded on February 8, 1908 where it was reported that “they got their last pay envelope and an honorable discharge this evening.” However, that certainly wasn’t the end of the line.

The “Beauty Bunch” appears to have been reconstituted shortly thereafter with new women. Edith Lore was a member of the second group which was formed in an effort to garner publicity and get candidate Jim Watson elected.

• March 12, 1908

• March 20, 1908 – In a local minstrel talent show that packed the theater, we find “the Misses Curtis Lore and Mabel Condon played piano for the various acts and songs.”
• April 2, 1908 – Watson Beauty Bunch:

Edith’s schooling paid off in that she secured a high-profile position with Jim Watson’s political campaign. Today, we might look askance at this characterization, but in the time and place where she lived, being part of the “Beauty Bunch” would have been far more exciting that what the other young women in Rushville were doing.

These young ladies were able to travel and meet exciting people.

Watson had a crew of young women, stenographers, who wrote his flyers, probably his speeches, and worked as his staff to get him elected.

By reading this newspaper account of Watson’s nomination, we can share in some of the heady atmosphere of that day as Edith pinned badges on supporters at Watson’s headquarters. How she must have loved the energy generated by doing something she believed in.

She must have been so excited. This next article conveys some of that electricity, even 113 years, almost to the day, later.

The Watson Beauty Bunch group photo was published many times.

The Watson Beauty Bunch would have been considered very sexist today, in essence exploiting women, and not for their benefit. I don’t know how Edith felt about this, then or later – although she often told stories about this time to her family. For Edith, these seemed to be “the good old days.” My mother mentioned this, and never in a negative context, simply as something interesting involving her mother’s involvement with politics before women even had the right to vote.

Edith and the other “Beauty Bunch” ladies experienced some amount of notoriety and their involvement was exciting and unique for that time.

This experience shaped Edith. In 1920 and 1921, she focused on obtaining Indiana’s ratification of the 19^th amendment allowing women the right to vote, then registering women the following year and working the polls. She provided a welcoming, friendly face at the polling location, explaining the voting process to women uncertain about how to vote that first time.

Edith clearly believed in what she was doing and she made a difference. Maybe a bit of Curt’s tenacity and “can do” attitude rubbed off on her.

I smile and think of her every single time I vote. I’m grateful to her and the other women who advocated for that right.

Based on this next short article, perhaps these ladies felt that they were involved in something larger than themselves – that they were able to be recognized contributors instead of remaining invisible and anonymous.

• March 17, 1908, Indianapolis Star

Mother said that James Watson wanted Edith to accompany him to Washington DC to work for him permanently, but she declined – a decision she always regretted. Watson, a Republican, was defeated in his 1908 bid for Indiana governor after resigning his seat in the House of Representatives to run for governor, but continued to be very influential in politics, eventually returning to Washington in the Senate.

Edith married John Ferverda just 10 days after James Watson’s defeat. I wonder if those two items are in any way connected.

It’s sad that in 1908 the extent of these women’s acknowledged contributions were as stenographers and eye candy.

Another perspective would be that while Watson certainly couldn’t help how women were socially perceived and the institutional discrimination that existed at that time, he was giving credit where credit was due, allowing those typically marginalized to the shadows to experience some limelight. I can’t speak to his motivation, but I’m certainly delighted to have this information about an extremely interesting and inspirational chapter in Edith’s life.

Her skills opened doors and her example paved the way for others.

A stenographer was “one who transcribes,” according to Wikipedia, “such as a secretary who takes dictation,” often in shorthand.

Edith’s stint in business school wasn’t really about business at all, but focused more on secretarial skills that were supportive to those in business. Few jobs or career opportunities were available to women at that time, and stenography was one that was.  The barrier to entry was apparently “business school.” Even secretarial jobs required skills and training beyond what most women were likely to possess. Today, people who fill these types of positions are more aptly called administrative assistants. They were often the glue that held everything together.

Despite the restrictive nature of these positions, it was this skill set that saw Edith’s family through the Great Depression. Aunt Carrie would have been very pleased that her investment reaped life-saving benefits for her niece, years after Carrie had passed on. Perhaps that early scholarship had, indeed, been life-changing.

• April 2, 1908 – Story covering the convention: Miss Mae Bebout and Miss Edith Lore of this city…officiated at headquarters, pinning Watson badges on all who entered.
• April 9, 1908 – The Watson Beauty Bunch will have a “Dissolution Dinner” at Whitehead’s Saturday evening.

Building Bridges

Then as now, road maintenance begins in the spring, just about Easter time, and continues through late fall when the ground freezes.

• April 18, 1908 – Easter Sunday reading at the First Presbyterian Church by Mildred Lore: “Daisies in the Meadow”
• May 7, 1908 – Curt Lore was in Connersville yesterday evening on business.
• May 25, 1908 – Mrs. C. B. Lore and daughter Mildred left Saturday for a visit with relatives at Aurora.
• May 28, 1908 – A number of contracts were awarded…C. B. Lore was successful on the Rudy Arch, $214, Booth bridge $514, Kennedy bridge repair, $410 and Kiplinger, $750.

The Library of Congress shows this drawing of the Kennedy Bridge, built in 1881. Curt repaired it in 1908.

Of course, today, drivers don’t even realize they are crossing a body of water.

• June 5, 1908 – Miss Ethel Walker of Shelbyville is visiting Miss Curtis Lore this week.
• June 6, 1908 – Curt Lore who was recently awarded a number of bridge building contracts went to Cincinnati today where he purchased a large cement mixer.
• June 7, 1908 – Curt Lore was in Connersville yesterday evening on business.

I can’t help but wonder what Curt was doing in these various locations where he traveled regularly throughout his residence in Rushville.

• June 10, 1908 – C. B. Lore has returned from a trip to Columbus and Indianapolis
• June 10, 1908 – C. B. Lore who purchased a large concrete mixer at Cincinnati this week began work today on the Booth bridges, south of this city.

Frog Hunting

• June 12, 1908 – Took Wagon Along to Haul Greenback – Party Went Frogging But Horse Did Not Suffer Hauling Bagged Game. – In a frog hunting party that started in a spring wagon but only captured six of the green backs last night along Flatrock were <names omitted>, John Ferveda and Edith Lore. The usual catch for a small boy is 50 frogs in one night, but this throws no discredit on the party as it was not a good night for greenbacks.

So John Ferverda took Edith on a frog-hunting date??? In those long skirts?  And she married him anyway! Must have been true love!

Maybe they weren’t really concentrating on those frogs…hmmm.

Summer in Rushville

• June 13, 1908 – Recitation at Presbyterian Church by Eloise Lore – “The Party”
• July 2, 1908 – Miss Edith Lore will go to Lake Tippecanoe tomorrow to spend a two week vacation with relatives and friends.

If Edith spent two weeks at Lake Tippecanoe, she clearly wasn’t employed someplace.

• July 3, 1908 – Miss Edith Lore went to Lake Tippecanoe today for a visit with relatives.

I’m unclear as to who, but I think someone in the family owned a cottage on the lake.

• July 9, 1908 – Ed Kirsch has returned to his home in Burnsides, Kentucky after a visit with his sister, Mrs. C. B. Lore in West Second Street.

This is Ed’s only visit that I’ve found. Nora’s other brother, Martin, apparently never visited or if he did, it didn’t get reported in the paper.

• July 27, 1908 – Miss Chloe Ferveda has returned to her home near Lake Tippecanoe after a visit here with Miss Edith Lore.

Aha – perhaps Edith’s visit to the lake was to spend time with John Ferverda’s family.

• July 18, 1908 – Miss Edith Lore has returned from a visit with friends at Lake Tippecanoe.

Chloe Ferverda is John Ferverda’s sister. Was the family checking Edith out as possible in-law material? Is that why Edith visited Lake Tippecanoe?

• August 5, 1908 – Miss Curtis Lore will go to Aurora next week for a visit with relatives.

Curtis would have been 17 years old and probably traveled on the train by herself. When she stepped off the train at the depot in Aurora, she was literally on her grandmother’s doorstep.

Amusement Park Summertime Fun

We don’t think of our ancestors a century ago visiting amusement parks, but they did. In fact, that was the beginning of that summer tradition.

• August 10, 1908 – Misses Curtis Lore and <names omitted>, of this city were in Indianapolis yesterday. They visited Wonderland and Riverside Park.

These two amusement parks were new at that time. Riverside opened in 1903 and didn’t close until 1970. Wonderland, a trolley and water themed park, shown below, opened in 1906, was raided for selling illegal liquor in 1911, and subsequently burned.

I can’t imagine visiting an amusement park wearing those long multi-layered dresses.

• August 29, 1908 – Misses Mildred and Eloise Lore returned Friday afternoon after a visit with W. R. Coverston and family at Goshen.
• September 23, 1908 – C. B. Lore is at Knightstown on business today.
• September 24, 1908 – The new Republican headquarters on the ground floor of the K of P building are the most adequate ever secured. County Chairman Charles A. Frazee is in charge and Miss Edith Lore is officiating as stenographer. Drop in and do a little dictating, is the slogan; talk it over and pass your hand around. Everybody made welcome.
• September 25, 1908 – Mrs. Theodore Bosse of Aurora is the guest of Mrs. C. B. Lore.

Mrs. Theodore Bosse was “Aunt Lou,” Nora’s aunt, her mother’s sister who was widowed and had remarried on May 3, 1908 to Theodore Busse/Bosse in Aurora. I’m sure Nora was thrilled to see her aunt who arrived with Nora’s mom, Aunt Lou’s sister.

• September 25, 1908 – Mrs. Jacob Kirsch visiting her daughter Mrs. C. B. Lore.

Tragedy

Nora’s mother, Barbara Drechsel Kirsch was having a tough year. Her father died. Barbara’s daughter, Lou, and husband, Charles “Todd” Fiske, had come home to live. Todd had lost his job as a civil engineer, a situation he found devastating, forcing the couple to return to the Kirsch House to live. A few weeks later, on October 31^st, Halloween, tragedy struck. It’s a good thing Barbara visited Nora when she did.

• October 15, 1908 – Circuit court allowances – Edith B. Lore – court stenographer $8.00

I had no idea my grandmother was a court stenographer, recording trials by taking shorthand, a specialized skill.

• October 28, 1908 – Night Parade for Saturday Republican Rally – Fireworks Committee – Curt Lore.

On Halloween evening, October 31, 1908, Todd Fiske, husband of Nora’s sister, Lou Kirsch Fiske, committed suicide by shooting himself in the courtyard at the Kirsch House in Aurora, Indiana.

November 5, 1908 – Seymour Indiana Tribute

Three days later, on November 3^rd, the Indiana election was held in which James Watson was defeated. While the Watson Beauty Bunch had apparently been officially disbanded, meaning they were no longer paid – they continued to appear in at public events and are mentioned often in the newspaper. They participated in parades, riding floats, performed readings, and were generally front, center and visible.

Edith must have been extremely disappointed with the outcome of the election. Not to mention heartbroken for the grief her family was experiencing as a result of two deaths.

A double whammy, especially since the girls spent so much time in Aurora with their grandparents and aunts.

• November 9, 1908 – Miss Edith Lore left this morning for a visit at Aurora.
• November 10, 1908 – Miss Edith Lore went to Aurora yesterday for an extended visit with relatives.
• November 14, 1908 – Miss Edith Lore returned today from a visit with her grandparents in Aurora.

Did Edith have news to share with her grandmother or was she simply going to participate in the funeral? Where was Nora and the other Lore daughters? Why didn’t they travel to Aurora?

Is something else going on?

• November 15, 1908 – Fine musical program rendered at the First Presbyterian church Sunday might was a quartette…John Ferveda, tenor.

I never knew my grandfather sang, outside the general choir, or that he was a tenor.

The paper has consistently misspelled his name in every entry. Goes to show the value of searching for variants of names.

Surprise Wedding!

Three days later, we find at least some answers.

• November 17, 1908 – A marriage license was issued yesterday evening to Miss Edith Barbara Lore and John Whitney Ferveda.
• November 18, 1908 – Miss. Edith Barbara Lore and Mr. John Whitney Ferveda were quietly married at the Presbyterian church parsonage in North Harrison Street last night by Rev. J. L. Cowling.

No one in the family ever knew that this wedding was “quiet.” Edith was assuredly not pregnant, so that wasn’t the reason. Their first child wasn’t born for more than 7 years.

If this wedding had been being planned previously, there would have been invitations and the entire event would have been a social happening in Rushville. The Lore family was well known.

Why was did the marriage occur at this time, in the parsonage and not the church, and “quietly?” Why subdued with no celebration? The same day as the license was issued? A Tuesday. Did they decide to get married on the spur of the moment? Did they tell ANYONE in advance?

Did her parents and sisters attend? Clearly, her aunts and grandparents did not.

This is so out-of-character for this family. Why?

And what about John Ferverda’s family?

• November 21, 1908

Why is this article titled, “Left a Deep Impression?”

I suspect that quietly married meant that it was a private, not public, service, with just the bride and groom and perhaps her parents.

I wonder if, given Edith’s father’s illness that they simply couldn’t afford a wedding. That may well have been true, but perhaps there were other factors involved too.

The suicide three weeks earlier surely affected everyone in the family. Jim Watson lost the election. Edith married just 10 days later. Did Edith have other plans had Watson won? Did Todd’s suicide make Edith realize that life was short and perhaps she should marry her love?

Maybe some combination?

We’ll never know.

Or perhaps it was quiet for another reason.

John Ferverda’s family was Brethren, so they would not have been pleased about this marriage. Was the “quiet” wedding an effort to spare his family, or for his family’s disapproval not to be made public by their conspicuous absence at a wedding?

John wasn’t the only Ferverda brother to marry outside the faith and inform his parents later. The Ferverda family had met Edith during her summer visit. Edith’s stenography, attending college and Beauty Bunch membership would have rubbed against the grain of expected female behavior within the Brethren faith.

John and Edith could have married at the Kirsch House, but then again, given Todd’s untimely death, that wasn’t such a good idea either.

The other tidbit in this article is that Curt drilled the first gas well in Greensburg. I wonder when? We know he resided in Findlay, Ohio but had been drilling in Greensburg for several months when he married Nora in January of 1888.

Research in newspapers and historical books indicates that 1889 and 1890 were years of intensive gas drilling in adjacent communities. I would guess that the gas well is what prompted the family’s move to Greensburg between 1888 and 1890.

Reception

Four days after her wedding, Mrs. Edith Lore Ferverda hosted her friends. That “Mrs.” is a coveted status symbol, so important to note.

• November 23, 1908 – The Watson Beauty Bunch were entertained by Mrs. Edith Lore Ferveda at her home in West Second street last Saturday evening.

This was probably Edith’s wedding reception, of sorts. The newlyweds didn’t even have time for a honeymoon – even a short trip. Nothing was mentioned in the paper.

By now, with the newspaper announcement, everyone would have known that Edith and John had married. They were living with her parents, at least temporarily. Even though today, we don’t know what was happening behind the scenes – trust me – everyone in Rushville did.

For now, we fade to black for the next few months.

There was more going on than met the eye.

In the frozen depths of the 1909 winter, we’ll find out exactly what…

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