Color!

At this moment, most if not all of my readers are practicing some form of “social distancing” because of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. I hope you are all staying well and coping with the difficulties associated with this historic situation.

With today’s post, I have a suggestion that will hopefully lift your spirits and alleviate any boredom you might be experiencing. The suggestion comes courtesy of the MyHeritage genealogy website. Back in February (it seems so long ago!), MyHeritage introduced MyHeritage in Color™, a feature that automatically colorizes black and white photographs. As an introductory offer, users could upload and colorize up to ten photos. Once the limit was reached, a user would need a paid subscription to continue using the feature. I tried it out and was impressed with the results. However, I did not opt for the paid subscription.

A few days ago, I was surprised to receive this email message from MyHeritage.

Yes, they are offering “free and unlimited access” to this feature. I took them up on the offer and went through my collection and colorized about 200 photos. More importantly, if you have old photos stashed away, you might want to try it out yourself. It’s a good way to stay active if you’re stuck at home. This shows what a photo looks like before and after colorization.

Sylvester and Mary (Mereness) Casbon, with Sylvester’s descendants; about 1905,
Valparaiso, Indiana; author’s collection (Click on image to enlarge)

The results are impressive. The process uses artificial intelligence (AI) to decide which colors to use and where to place them. The computer algorithms are very good, but not perfect. If you look carefully at the photo above, you’ll see that the right hand of the girl standing in the front row is still gray. The AI failed to identify it as a body part. You can see a more extreme version of this in this detail from a photograph of Amos and Carrie Casbon’s family.

Detail from photograph of Amos and Carrie (Aylesworth) Casbon’s family and
home near Boone Grove, Indiana, about 1911; courtesy of Ron Casbon

The AI has missed two of the children altogether, making them look like clay sculptures.

On the other hand, some of the results are amazing. The AI seems particularly good at producing flesh tones, hair color, and vegetation. In most cases, it seems to do a good job with clothing as well. I would think that better quality scanned images are more likely to fare well, but I’ve had good results with poor quality originals.

Jesse John II and Elizabeth (Ryan) Casbon, Cocoa Beach, Florida; adapted
from an iphone photo of the original; courtesy of John N. Casbon 

You can also see that the MyHeritage logo gets added to the colorized image—a small price to pay, in my opinion.

Do you have old black and white family photos or snapshots? I encourage you to try this out. Visit https://www.myheritage.com/incolor, where you’ll need to sign up for a free account. You’ll need to scan your black and white photos to make digital copies so you can upload them to the web page. I suggest you use a scanning resolution of 300 dots per inch or better.

Here are some of the favorites from my collection.

Left: Sylvester and Mary (Mereness) Casbon, courtesy of Ilaine Church;
Right: Reuben and Elizabeth (Neyland) Casben, courtesy of Phil Long

Lawrence and Kate (Marquart) Casbon and family; seated on the horse, L to R, are Lynnet, Loring and Leslie; about 1898 near Hebron, Porter County, Indiana; courtesy of Don Casbon (Click on image to enlarge)

Left: James Casbon; Right: Amos and Carrie Belle (Aylesworth) Casbon; both courtesy of Ron Casbon

Left: Donald Glen Casbon (L) and Herbert Aylesworth (R) Casbon, undated; courtesy of Michael J. Casbon;
Right: L to R—Herman, Harriet, and Floyd Casbon; courtesy of Claudia Vokoun (Click on images to enlarge)

Lynnet Casbon and an unidentified man delivering a refrigerator in
Valparaiso, Indiana, about 1940; courtesy of Dave Casbon

Margaret (Donovan) Casban (second from left), her daughter Nell (third from left),
and others, hops picking in Sussex, England, early 1930s; courtesy of Alice Casban

 

Sunday School

This is my eighth post in the Guild of One-Name Studies blog challenge 2020.

Many genealogy researchers have learned that old books can be a valuable source of information about their ancestors. Many books that are no longer protected by copyright have been digitized and are available online. The three book sources that I use most often are Internet Archive, Hathi Trust Digital Library, and Google Books. You can go to any of these sites and type in a search term, such as a surname, and then get a list of books containing that search term. A regular Google search will also find these references, although they may be scattered throughout the search results.

A recent search turned up a source, titled The Sunday Schools of Lake: An Account of the Commencement and Growth of the Sunday Schools of Lake County, Indiana, from about 1840 to 1890.^[1] The book was written to commemorate the 25^th anniversary of the Lake County Sunday-school Convention, an interdenominational annual meeting of many of the county’s churches, as well as “the 50^th Anniversary of Sunday-school work in Lake County.”^[2]

In addition to giving a detailed history of Sunday schools in the county, the book provides a listing of students enrolled in the Convention’s Sunday schools in 1890. A few Casbon names turned up in this list.

Detail from pages 161-2 of The Sunday Schools of Lake, showing students enrolled at the Deep River Union School in 1890; (note: “1888” next to the name of the school is the year the school was organized)
(Click on image to enlarge)

The three names on page 161, Charles, Lawrence and T. (Thomas) Casbon, are all known to me. They are the sons of my second great-grandfather, Sylvester Casbon. Sylvester had moved to Deep River from Porter County in about 1865. Lawrence was born in 1865 to Sylvester’s first wife, Mary Adaline (Aylesworth), who died in 1868. Thomas and Charles were born in 1870 and 1872, respectively, to Sylvester’s second wife, Emilene Harriet (Perry), who died in 1874. In 1890, Lawrence, Thomas, and Charles would have been about 25, 20, and 18 years old, respectively. All three were still unmarried.

I must admit that I am completely baffled by the name on page 162—Stella Casbon. There is no other record of a child with that name. She does not appear in vital records, census reports, family histories, newspaper articles, or photographs. The fact that she was enrolled in the Boys’ and Girls’ class tells us that she would have been younger than the three Casbon sons. But there are no records of a younger daughter being born to Sylvester. Nor was a child of that name born to any of Sylvester’s siblings. There is no record that Sylvester’s third wife, Mary (Mereness) had any children. There were no other Casbon families living in Lake County at the time. So, who was Stella? I just don’t know.

The fact that the Casbon name appears in this book led me to reflect upon the religious beliefs and practices of the early Indiana Casbons. I’ll say at the outset that there is insufficient information to draw any firm conclusions. The Indiana Casbons are all descended from Isaac Casbon of Meldreth, Cambridgeshire, England, who lived from about 1773 to 1825. The baptisms, marriages, and burials of Isaac’s family were recorded in the parish registers (i.e., Church of England) of Meldreth and nearby parishes. Since this was the near universal practice of the time, it tells us nothing about the family’s religious beliefs or practices. The baptisms of two of Isaac’s children, Joseph and James, were not recorded, which suggests that the sacrament was not a high priority. As a poor agricultural laborer, Isaac was at the lower end of the social order. Putting bread on the table was probably a higher priority than religious practices.

Of Isaac’s son Thomas, my third great-grandfather, nothing is written about his religious beliefs. The few biographical references I have seen do not mention religion. If he is mentioned in church records in the U.S., I am not aware of them.

However, I do have a little information about Thomas’s sons. An 1882 biographical sketch of Sylvester Casbon, the father of the three sons mentioned above, states that “he is liberal in politics, attends church, and is much esteemed by his neighbors.”^[3] The 1912 History of Porter County Indiana includes sketches about Sylvester and his brother Charles. Of Sylvester, the book says “he and his wife are members and liberal supporters of the Christian church [of Valparaiso, Indiana], with Rev. Hill as their pastor.”^[4] Charles and his wife, Mary (Marrell) were also said to be liberal supporters of the same church.^[5] Sylvester’s obituary also mentions his membership in the Christian church.^[6] The fact that Sylvester and his brother were members of this church tells us that they considered themselves to be Christians, like the majority of Americans at the time. However, it tells us nothing about how important their Christian beliefs were to them.

The Christian church referred to above is now known as First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and was founded at Valparaiso, Indiana, in 1837.^[7] A modern source describes the denomination in these terms: “the Disciples of Christ, also known as the Christian Church, has no creed and gives its congregations complete autonomy in their doctrine. As a result, beliefs vary widely from individual church to church, and even among members of a church.”^[8] Thus, it is hard to tell exactly what the members of The Christian Church in Valparaiso believed.

First Christian Church, Valparaiso, Indiana, 1950 (https://www.fccvalpo.org/our-building-over-time)

Going back to the Sunday school roster of 1890, The Sunday Schools of Lake tells us that the Deep River Union School was organized “in August, 1888, by the evangelist ‘Christian’ minister of this district, Rev. Ellis B. Cross.”^[9] I haven’t been able to find out anything more about the school or its founder. Were the three Casbon sons there because of their Christian beliefs or was it more of an acceptable social outlet—something young men in Deep River were expected to do (especially since there was also a young ladies’ class!)?  How was their Sunday school experience reflected in their later lives?

I was always under the impression from conversations with my father that his family in Indiana wasn’t very religious. His grandfather was Lawrence Casbon—the one listed on the Sunday school roster above. Lawrence’s obituary mentions his membership in the local Masonic Lodge but says nothing about church membership.^[10] Likewise, the obituaries of his three sons, Leslie, Loring, and Lynnet, mention their memberships in the Masons, Scottish Rite, American Legion, and similar organizations, but say nothing about church membership. Perhaps these social organizations became their surrogates for participation in an organized church. [Update: see comment from Dave Casbon, below.]

Of Lawrence’s two brothers, Thomas’s obituary describes him as a member of the same Christian church as his father.^[11] Charles’s obituary says that he belonged to the Elks lodge but does not mention a church affiliation.^[12]

As I said earlier, there isn’t enough information to draw firm conclusions. The Indiana Casbons described above were all respected members of their communities. They fit in with the norms and expectations of their fellow citizens. Church membership and Sunday school attendance was probably one of those expectations in the late 1800s.

I will be eager to hear from any of their descendants whether they have different recollections or opinions.

[1] T.H. Ball (Crown Point, Indiana: T.H. Ball, 1891); Google Books (https://books.google.com/books?id=g5A_1QM4wVAC : accessed 21 Jan 2020)
[2] The Sunday Schools of Lake, p. 5.
[3] Weston A. Goodspeed, Charles Blanchard, Counties of Porter and Lake Indiana: Historical and Biographical, Illustrated (Chicago: F.A. Battey & Co., 1882), p. 707; Hathi Trust Digital Library.
[4] History of Porter County Indiana: A Narrative Account of its Historical Progress, its People and its Principal Interests (Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Co., 1912), p. 484; Hathi Trust Digital Library.
[5] History of Porter County Indiana, p. 461.
[6] “Death Calls S.V. Casbon; Reached 90,” The (Valparaiso, Indiana) Vidette-Messenger, 10 Dec 1927, p. 1, col. 1; Newspaper Archive (accessed through participating libraries).
[7] “Our Story,” First Christian Church (https://www.fccvalpo.org/our-story).
[8] Jack Zavada, “Disciples of Christ Beliefs and Practices,” Learn Religions (https://www.learnreligions.com/disciples-of-christ-beliefs-and-practices-700019).
[9] The Sunday Schools of Lake, p. 86.
[10] “85-Year-Old Resident of County Dies.” The Vidette-Messenger, 16 Jun 1950, p. 1, col. 5; Newspaper Archive.
[11] “Deaths … Thomas S. Casbon,” The Vidette-Messenger, 16 Mar 1955, p. 6, col. 3; Newspaper Archive.
[12] “Death Takes C.P. Casbon,” The Vidette-Messenger, 1 Feb 1949, p. 1, col. 1; Newspaper Archive.

Grandpa’s Reader

This was my grandfather Leslie Casbon’s (1894–1990) Third Reader.

Cover and title pages of Indiana State Series, Revised Third Reader, 1899.^[1]

I know it was his book, because he wrote his name inside the front cover. It must also have been used by his brother, Lynnet (1899–1983), whose name is written inside the back cover.

Inside front and back covers. (Click on image to enlarge)

Since Leslie was the oldest child of Lawrence (1865–1950) and Kate (Marquart, 1868–1959) Casbon, and Lynnet was the youngest, it’s likely that the middle son, Loring (1896–1970) also used the Reader, although he failed to leave his mark in the book.

Photo of Lawrence & Kate Casbon with sons Lynnet, Loring, and Leslie, ca. 1898, near Hebron, Indiana.
Names of horse & dog unknown. (Click on image to enlarge)

Up until I started writing this post, I assumed that this book was part of the famous McGuffey Reader series, named for the original author, William Holmes McGuffey. The McGuffey Readers dominated American Education throughout the 19^th century.^[2] Generations of school children were raised on them.

Upon closer inspection, however, although the book is very similar in appearance to the McGuffey books, they are not the same. The cover indicates that this book is part of the Indiana Educational Series. Nowhere is the word McGuffey mentioned.

In the McGuffey series, the Third Reader was written at a level equivalent to today’s 5^th or 6^th grade.^[3] Since most rural students, including my grandfather, were taught in one-room schoolhouses, the modern concept of grades was not in use. I suspect the same applies to this book. It might be that the book was intended to cover several grades, since the readings become progressively longer, with more complex concepts and vocabulary. There were also fourth and fifth readers, which probably would have gone up to about the eighth-grade level.

The Indiana Educational Series of readers, which included this book, was selected by the State Board of School Commissioners “to be used in the public schools of Indiana for the next five years,” beginning in the summer of 1899.^[4] This ensured that a standardized curriculum for reading would be used throughout the state.

In the Introduction to the Third Reader, the author writes,

In choosing material for reading books to be used by pupils who have already acquired some facility in recognizing word forms, the purposes of the reading lesson must be clearly apprehended. These seem to be three: first, to inculcate a love for what is best and highest in literature; second, to train the child in correct habits of thought getting from the printed page; and, third, to train him in vocal expression.”^[5]

The contents include poetry, literary excerpts and historical writings. Some of the readings contain moral lessons, such as the poem “They Didn’t Think,” by Phoebe Cary. Here is the final stanza:

Now, my little children,
You who read this song,
Don’t you see what trouble
Comes of thinking wrong?
And can’t you take a warning
From their dreadful fate
Who began their thinking
When it was too late?
Don’t think there’s always safety
Where no danger shows;
Don’t suppose you know more
Than anybody knows;
But when you’re warned of ruin,
Pause upon the brink,
And don’t go under headlong
‘Cause you didn’t think.^[6]

Some of the better-known readings in the book include Clement Moore’s “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” “The Owl and the Pussycat,” by Edward Lear, an excerpt from Black Beauty, by Anna Sewell, and “The Ugly Duckling” by Hans Christian Andersen.

Grandpa Les would have probably started using this book around 1903-1905, when the family was still living near Hebron, in southern Porter County. By the time it was Lynnet’s turn, they had probably already moved to their new farm in Morgan township, just south of Valparaiso.

This photograph was taken about 1905 – maybe Leslie was using the Third Reader then.

L to R: back row – Lawrence, Lynnet, Kate; front row – Leslie (I think), Loring. (Click on image to enlarge)

The Reader must have served the boys well. All went on to graduate from high school and complete some higher education.

^[1] Indiana State Series, Third Reader, revised by S.H. Clark and H.S. Fiske (Indianapolis: Indiana School Book Co., 1899).
^[2] Susan Walton, “(Re)Turning To W.H. McGuffey’s Frontier Virtues,” 2 Feb 1918; online newsletter, Education Week (https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/1983/02/02/03060028.h02.html : accessed 7 November 2018).
^[3] National Park Service, Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, “William Holmes McGuffey and His Readers,” The Museum Gazette, leaflet [undated]; PDF Download, National Park Service (https://www.nps.gov/jeff/learn/historyculture/upload/mcguffey.pdf : accessed 7 November 2018).
^[4] Indiana School Journal and Teacher, Volume 44, no. 7 (July 1899), p. 446; online image, Google Books (https://books.google.com/books?id=WlorAQAAMAAJ : accessed 7 November 2018).
^[5] Indiana State Series, Third Reader, p. 3.
^[6] Ibid., pp. 16-17.

Leslie Casbon, Valparaiso High School Class of 1914

Getting distracted by “bright shiny objects” or BSOs is generally considered a bad habit in genealogy research. Such distractions can interrupt an organized plan of research, wasting valuable time and resulting in a disorganized mess of unrelated facts. While I generally agree with this view, I think a case can be made that pursuing BSOs can occasionally lead to serendipitous (there’s that word again!) discoveries and open up new lines of inquiry.

At least that’s my justification for today’s post. While looking through my archives for an unrelated item, I came upon my paternal grandfather’s high school yearbook, the Valparaiso (Indiana) High School Annual of 1914, the year he graduated.

Grandpa’s yearbook. (Click on image to enlarge)

Browsing through his yearbook gave me a glimpse of life in Valparaiso at the time and a few tantalizing hints into my grandfather’s life as he was emerging into adulthood.

I haven’t really written about my grandfather or his generation, so I’ll briefly put him into context. Leslie Christy Casbon was born December 24, 1894 in Porter County, Indiana.^[1] He was the eldest son of Lawrence (1865–1950) and Kate (Marquardt, 1868–1959) Casbon. Lawrence was the eldest son of Sylvester V (1837–1927) and Mary Adaline (Aylesworth, 1842–1868) Casbon; and Sylvester was the eldest son of Thomas (1803–1888) and Emma (Scruby, 1811–1870) Casbon, who emigrated from England first to Ohio in 1846, and then to Indiana in the 1860s. Thus, Leslie was in the fourth generation of Casbons living in Indiana.

Here is his class photograph and entry in the 1914 yearbook.^[2]

(Click on image to enlarge)

Of the 30 graduating seniors, his written entry was among the shortest (the shortest was for a girl: “She had her troubles but she kept them to herself and was a ray of sunshine to all”). From this description I’m led to believe that he wasn’t the most outgoing member of the class, but neither was he considered an outsider, and he seems to have been appreciated by his classmates.

The yearbook has a section called “Class Will,” in which members of the class make humorous bequests to underclassman. Here is the section containing Grandpa Les’ bequest.^[3]

I had to puzzle out what this meant. I finally figured out that he’s saying he is able to walk down the stairs without engaging in conversation with Gail, and he’s bequeathing that ability to Howard. Does this mean that everyone else does talk to Gail Fehrman? Or is he making a jab at Howard, who perhaps can’t resist talking to Gail? I couldn’t find out anything more about Gail other than she had notable dimples. Howard seems to have been a class cutup. At any rate, it reinforces my thought that young Les took pride in his self-control.

The only other mention of Les in the yearbook is in a section titled “Calendar,” in which daily events throughout the school year are described.^[4]

Overall, Grandpa Les comes across as good-natured and generous, at least with his father’s horses and maybe a wagon too. It seems like there was a good sense of camaraderie among his classmates – a good thing with only 30 students in the class.

Unlike modern school yearbooks, this one seems to have been produced solely by the graduating class, with only a few contributions from underclassmen. The lower classes each have a page or two and a group photo, but class members are not listed by name. Many of the graduating seniors wrote sections of the yearbook. Les’ contribution was a description of the Manual Training Department. His concluding paragraph reads:

The Manual Training Department is a very important part of a school and should be installed in all high schools, for it not only affords a change in work during the day for the regular day pupil, but it gives him a training with tools. Since most men work with some kind of tools, it is a great advantage for a pupil to get his training while young.

The high school he attended was built in about 1904, so it was still a fairly new structure when Les attended.^[5]

Postcards showing the Valparaiso High School (also known as Central School) in 1913. The building was located at 305 Franklin Street. This building burned down in 1938, but a new school was built, on the same foundation (as seen on Google Street View), and now houses the Central Elementary School.^[6] I like the street car going down Franklin Street. (Click on images to enlarge)

As I was leafing through the yearbook I had another surprise. From out of the pages slipped a program for the commencement ceremony, held on May 19, 1914, in the Opera House.

Cover and insert for 1914 Valparaiso High School commencement ceremony. Private collection of Jon Casbon. (Click on image to enlarge)

From this program, we learn that students could be enrolled in either a “Latin” or a “Scientific” course of study. Grandpa Les was enrolled in the latter. Although not described in detail in the yearbook, the Latin course, as the name implies, included in-depth study of the Latin language, grammar and literature throughout all four years of high school. The Scientific Course included a variety of science topics and allowed for Agriculture to be substituted for these classes in the second term of each year. The description also includes this interesting statement:

The boys in the scientific course are no longer compelled to take Manual Training and the girls are not compelled to take Domestic Art or Domestic Science, but any student, even in the Latin course, wishing to take this work may do so.… The girls are interested in Manual Training and the boy as well as the girls are learning how to cook.”^[7]

What progressive thinking for the times!

As I mentioned, there were 30 students in the graduating class. The yearbook also listed 46 “ex-members of the class of 1914.” Compulsory education was only required up to age fourteen in Indiana at that time.^[8] My grandfather was among the roughly 40 percent of his original classmates who completed their high school education.

It’s pretty impressive to me that he (and his two younger brothers, by the way) completed high school. He might have been the first Casbon to do so. The family was living on their farm in Morgan Township, about four miles from the school by road. How did he get there every day? How did he manage schoolwork in addition to the farm chores? I imagine most of his classmates were “city kids” who didn’t need to travel as far and could participate in extracurricular activities more easily.

For those interested, a nearly complete set of the Valparaiso High School yearbooks (known as The Valenian since 1917) from 1904–2012 has been digitized and is available for viewing on the Internet Archive at https://archive.org/details/valparaisohighschoolyearbooks&tab=collection.

^[1] Indiana, delayed birth certificate no. 113-94-504260 (1954), Leslie Christy Casbon; Indiana State Board of Health, Division of Vital Records, Indianapolis.
^[2] Valparaiso (Indiana) High School, Class of 1914, Annual (Privately printed, 1914), unnumbered p. 11 (beginning with title page).
^[3] Valparaiso High School, Class of 1914, Annual, unnumbered p. 34.
^[4] Valparaiso High School, Class of 1914, Annual, unnumbered p. 58.
^[5] Steven Shook, “Historical Images of Porter County: High School Building Valparaiso, Indiana,” Porter County, Indiana (http://www.inportercounty.org/PhotoPages/Valparaiso/Schools/Valparaiso-Schools003.html : accessed 23 January 2018).
^[6] Shook, “Historical Images of Porter County: High School Building Valparaiso, Indiana.”
^[7] Valparaiso High School, Class of 1914, Annual, unnumbered p. 19.
^[8] Frank A Horner, compiler, The Revised Statutes of the State of Indiana: Embracing All General Laws in Force October 1, 1901, with Digested Notes of Judicial Decisions Construing Or Illustrating Their Provisions, Vol. 1 (Rochester, N.Y.: The Lawyers Cooperative Publishing Company, 1901), chapter 52, “Education,” section 4541a; online image, Google Books (https://books.google.com/books?id=aUkwAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false : accessed 23 January 2018).

501 Academy Street, Valparaiso, Indiana

My trip to Indiana earlier this month for a family reunion was a great time to meet people, dig into old records, and see many of the places associated with Our Casbon Journey in America. It was the first time I had spent any significant time here since childhood.

The best part was being able to spend time with family and friends, visiting their old haunts, and listening to stories of days gone by. One of the most noteworthy places I saw was the house at 501 Academy Street in Valparaiso. 501 Academy was home to four generations of my Casbon ancestors.

The house at 501 Academy Street, located at corner of Haas (left) and Academy (right) Streets.
Photo taken August 5, 2017.

The History of Porter County tells us that “in 1892 Mr. and Mrs. Casbon removed from their country estate to Valparaiso, and have since enjoyed the comforts of a pleasant city home on Academy street.”^[1] “Mr. and Mrs. Casbon” were my second great-grandfather Sylvester (~1837–1927) and his third wife Mary (Mereness, 1851–1932) Casbon. They had been living at their farm near Deep River in adjacent Lake County for the previous 15+ years. Sylvester was only 55 years old when he retired from farming and moved to “Valpo.” He did not sell his land in Lake County for a number of years, so I suspect he was letting someone else do the work and still getting income from the farm. The house was originally numbered as 21 Academy Street (and later renumbered in the early 1900s), as shown in this 1893 Valparaiso City Directory.^[2]

Detail from 1893 Valparaiso directory. (Click on image to enlarge)

I think Sylvester was the original owner of the home, although I don’t know for sure. The plot of land containing the lot, known as Pierce’s Addition, was added to the city plat in 1854.^[3] I don’t think any homes were built on the addition for many years. Fire insurance maps of the city don’t show any buildings on the site until 1905, when the present structure can be seen.^[4]

Detail of 1905 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, showing Haas and Academy
Streets. 501 Academy Street is outlined in red. (Click on image to enlarge)

You can see in the 1893 directory that Sylvester’s oldest son, Lawrence, was also living at 21 Academy Street. Lawrence (1865–1950), my great-grandfather, would have been 28 years old in 1893. I believe this portrait of him was taken in about the same time frame.

Lawrence L Casbon (undated photo)

I have no idea why he was living with his father or what he was doing for a living in 1893. This period of his life is a complete mystery to me. The 1890 U.S. census was lost in a fire, so it is of no help. By January of 1894 he was married to Katherine (“Kate”) Marquart; and somewhere along the line he took up farming in Porter township, in the southern part of the county.^[5] So, his time at Academy Street must have been of short duration.

As the patriarch of a fairly large family, Sylvester would likely have used his house for family gatherings. This photo, which I’ve dated to 1905 or 1906, shows such a gathering.

Is this the  house on 501 Academy Street? Look closely at the detail of the double window casing.
It looks identical to me. The siding is different (more about that in a bit) and the current house no
longer has a front porch. If you look at the fire insurance map, however, you can see that the
original house had a front porch in this location. I’m confident that they are the same house,
with an entryway built out from the original porch. (Click on image to enlarge)

Sylvester was still living in the house when he died in 1927.^[6] His widow, Mary, continued to live there until her death in 1932.^[7] Mary’s death heralded the arrival of two more generations of Casbons to the house on Academy Street. This article appeared in the April 26, 1932 Vidette-Messenger.^[8]

(Click on image to enlarge]

Leslie Casbon (1894–1990) was my grandfather, the son of Lawrence. You can see him in the previous photograph seated on the ground, second from the left. The article says he would be commuting to work in Chicago. He must not have done so for very long. This was during the depression, and his business (jewelry, radios, musical instruments) was failing. Soon afterwards he gave up on the Chicago business and joined his two brothers in the new Casbon Brothers Electric Company, which was to become a well-known and successful Valparaiso business for another five decades or so.

The two children mentioned in the article were my father Lewis and his brother Don. They grew up in the house on Academy Street. During my visit, they shared their recollections of the house with me.

Both mentioned the fact that wakes or funerals were held in the house. Don remembers the death of his great uncle Ed Lewis, a wealthy businessman from Chicago. He remembers going down the stairs late at night & seeing Ed’s body in the coffin – the first dead person he had ever seen.

Don also remembers when his dad, Leslie, put asbestos shingle siding on the house – that’s right, asbestos! It was a popular material in home construction in those days. They would cut it to size and then attach it to the house. According to Don, this kind of asbestos wasn’t believed to be harmful. From what I’ve read, that’s true, unless the shingles are damaged (or cut!). Look closely at the picture of the house as it is today. Those asbestos shingles are still there – just painted yellow!

Lewis and Don walked to school, a block west and four blocks south of the house. The alley behind the house was a popular thoroughfare and probably the starting point for many adventures.

Dad remembers a time when a neighbor called his mother while she was working at the draft board, and told her,  “I just saw the back end of a jack ass in your front door. ” Don and his friend were bringing a pony into the house! He also recalls that his father dug a basement beneath the house and eventually installed a furnace there. At one point he had to crawl into the basement through a window to tend the furnace, because the house was quarantined due to scarlet fever.

My dad’s best friend was Jim (“Jimmy”) Brown, whose dad ran a grocery store on the first floor of their house, about four doors down the street on Academy. Dad & Jimmy have remained good friends for their entire lives. During our visit, we were able to surprise Jimmy on his birthday and share good memories of past times.

Jim Brown (left) & Lewis Casbon (right), Valparaiso, August 2017.

My grandparents sold the house in the early 1940s, probably in the early years of the war. It had been in the family nearly fifty years. There must be many more stories, yet untold. I’m glad the house is still standing, a silent witness to the family’s history.

^[1] History of Porter County, Indiana : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Company, 1912), vol. 2, p. 484; online image, Hathi Trust Digital Library (https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89067919191;view=1up;seq=139;size=175 : accessed 14 August 2017).
^[2] Valparaiso Porter County, Ind. City Directory 1893 (Chicago: Kraft & Radcliffe, 1893), unnumbered p. 59 of 130; PDF image, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/stream/valparaisoindian1893polk#page/n57/mode/2up : accessed 9 Aug 2017).
^[3] History of Porter County,” vol. 1, p. 195; Hathi Trust Digital Library (https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89067919183;view=1up;seq=229 : accessed 14 August 2017).
^[4] Insurance Maps of Valparaiso Indiana (New York: Sanborn Map Company, 1905), p. 17; PDF image, “Maps,” Porter County Indiana (http://www.inportercounty.org/maps.html : accessed 14 August 2014) >Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps >Valparaiso >1905.
^[5] “Indiana Marriages, 1811-2007”, database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KDHQ-H68 : accessed 10 March 2017), Lawrence L. Casbon & Kate E. Marquart, 31 Jan 1894; citing County Clerk, Porter, Indiana.
^[6] “Death Calls S.V. Casbon; Reached 90,” The(Valparaiso, Indiana) Vidette Messenger, 10 Dec 1927, p. 1, col. 1, online image, Newspaper Archive (accessed through participating libraries: 16 June 2016).
^[7] “Death Claims Mary Casbon.” The Vidette Messenger, 29 Feb 1932, p. 3, col. 8; online image, Newspaper Archive.
^[8] “Local Brevities,” The Vidette-Messenger, 26 Apr 1932, p. 3, col. 1, para. 27; online image, Newspaper Archive.

Bundy School, Porter County Indiana, 1907

My father asked me to do some research on the Bundy school, located in Morgan Township, Porter County, Indiana. I found this photo on the facebook page for the Porter County Museum. [1]

(Click on image to enlarge)

The caption reads:

1907 image of the Bundy School in Morgan Township.
Top Row: Grace Hubbel-teacher, Grace Lemster, Pauline Lemster, Unknown, Laura Lemster.
Middle Row: John Shatz (3rd grade), Unknown, Paul Bartholomew, Martha Stoner, Emory Stoner, Unknown.
Bottom Row: Edward Domke, Fred Shatz (2nd grade), Unknown, Harriet Casbon, Floyd Casbon, Herman Casbon, Anna Walen.
Standing on left: Mary Keene
Standing on right: Mary or Madeline Ribly

There are three Casbon children in the photo: Harriet (1904-1983), Floyd (1902-1987), and Herman (1900-1941). They were all the children of Charles Parkfield (1872-1949) and Julia (Bidwell – 1878-1939) Casbon. Charles was the son of my second great-grandfather, Sylvester V Casbon, by his second wife, Harriet Perry. He lived about 1/2 mile north of the school in Center township.

Detail from 1906 plat maps of Center and Morgan townships, Porter County, Indiana. (Click on image to enlarge)

The school is shown at the northeast corner of the quarter section belonging to W.P. Fish. Today this is the corner of Division Road and S150E. The Fish property was purchased sometime before 1910 by my great-grandfather, Lawrence Leslie Casbon.

I’m suspicious about the date of the photograph. In 1907 Harriet would have only been 3 years old. I don’t think she would have been in school yet, and the girl labeled as Harriet looks older than 3 to me. I think 1908 or 1909 is a more likely date.

Grace Hubbell, the teacher in the photograph, is described in the 1912 History of Porter County as the niece of Mr. and Mrs. Fletcher White, of Valparaiso. “She has taught for three years in the Bundy school near this city and has recently been engaged to teach in the schools of Gary.” [2] This also suggests a later date for the photograph.

I haven’t been able to find out when the school was first built, but a history of the county published in 1882 describes it as “probably thirty years old.” [3] A Vidette-Messenger article on the history of Morgan township says it was last used as a school in 1923, and the building was still standing as of August, 1936. [4] A search of the Vidette-Messenger archive shows that the building was frequently used for dances and other social activities up until about 1930.

My father recollects that my grandfather, Leslie Casbon, sold the school building for $500 to be used for lumber, probably in the late 1930s. I’m guessing it was in pretty bad shape by then. He also recalls his uncle Loring Casbon using dynamite to blow up stumps at the site.

Do my readers know anything more about this school?

[1] “Porter County Museum Added 7 New Photos… – Porter County Museum | Facebook”. 2016. Facebook.Com. https://www.facebook.com/pocomuse/photos/a.178366272198652.30358.147268915308388/178366318865314/?type=3 [accessed 12 December 2016]
[2] “History of Porter County Indiana A Narrative Account of its Historical Progress, its People and its Principal Interests, Volume II,” The Lewis Publishing Company. Chicago. 1912.
[3] Goodspeed, W.A., “Counties of Porter and Lake Indiana, Historical and Biographical, Illustrated,” p.190. F.A. Battey, Chicago. 1882
[4] “Morgan High School History of Morgan Township,” The Vidette-Messenger, Valparaiso, Indiana, p. 73 of 104, 18 August 1936. Newspaper Archive Library Academic Edition http://ezproxy.ppld.org:2083/us/indiana/valparaiso/valparaiso-vidette-messenger/1936/08-18/page-73 [accessed 12 December 2016]

The Collage Explained

The photo collage at the top of every blog page is composed of different images related to the Casbon journey.

Here are the stories behind the images.

Background: Map showing “Meldreth.”

(Click on image to enlarge)

This is from a 1945 British Ordinance Survey map.[1]. The earliest I’ve been able to trace my ancestors is the 16th century in the parishes of Meldreth and Melbourn (just southeast of Meldreth on the map). Meldreth is about 9 miles southwest of the city of Cambridge, England.For the collage I changed the map from color to sepia tone.

Postcard of Holy Trinity Church, Meldreth, c.1900-1910.[2]

(Click on image to enlarge)

This is where the Meldreth Casbons were baptized, married, and buried. The parish records are one of the most valuable resources for finding information about our family. Many of these records are available online from sites like FamilySearch, Ancestry, and FindMyPast. They are also available on microfilm from the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Photo: “Room for one more”

(Click on image to enlarge)

Herbert A Casbon (1910-1989) is squatting on the hood of the car. Others labeled in the photo are (L to R) Ed Quinn, Dan Myers and Russell Ludington. The car looks like a Model T to me. Herb Casbon was the son of Amos Casbon (1869-1956) and grandson of James Casbon (abt 1814-1884), who emigrated to the United States in 1871. James’ descendants form one branch of the Casbons who came from Meldreth, England to Porter County, Indiana. The photo is undated; courtesy of Michael Casbon.

“Murder!”

(Click on image to enlarge)

This article from the 28 August 1884 Porter County Vidette describes the circumstances of James Casbon’s death. James was one of two brothers who left England and settled in Porter County, Indiana. Every indication suggests that James had a hard life, but that by coming to America, he gave his family opportunities they would not otherwise have had. I’ll talk more about James in a future post.

Christening record of Isaac Casbon, 1773

(Click on image to enlarge)

This is part of a page from the Bishop’s Transcripts for the Parish of Meldreth.[3] Ministers were required to make a copy of their parish records and send them to the Bishop every year…hence Bishop’s Transcript. The records were written with ink on parchment. If you look closely, you’ll see patterns on the parchment characteristic of animal hide. The top of this record says “An Account of Christenings Marriages and Burials from January the First 1773 to January the First 1774 taken from the Register of the Parish of Meldreth.” The last entry shown says “Isaac Son of Thomas and Jane Casbull – – – – – July 11.” Recall from the previous post that Casbull is a early variant of Casbon.

Isaac is important to the Casbon Journey because he is the common ancestor of most of the Casbons in the United States today. Two of Isaac’s sons, Thomas and James (see above) emigrated from England to the U.S. in the mid- to late 1800s. Both ended up in Porter County, Indiana. Isaac probably has living descendants in the United Kingdom from his other two sons William and Joseph (if you are one of those descendants and reading this, please provide a comment to this post!).

“Casbon Bros. Electric Co.” Advertisement, Portage High School Yearbook, 1949

The Casbon Brothers Electric Company was founded by brothers Loring (1896-1970) and Lynnet (1899-1983) Casbon in the early 1930s, and joined a short while later by their brother Leslie (1894-1990) in Valparaiso, Indiana. I have fond memories of wandering through the store in the 1960s, marveling at the latest technology such as transistor radios, and chatting with the repairmen. The three brothers were great grandsons of Thomas Casbon (1803-1888), the first of Isaac’s sons to emigrate to the United States (in 1846).

Photo: Leslie Casbon, 1918

(Click on image to enlarge)

Leslie Christy Casbon, mentioned in the previous paragraph, was my grandfather. He joined the U.S. Army Air Corps and completed flight training in 1918. He remained in the Army Reserves and was reactivated in World War II. Handwritten on the back of the photo: “me 1918 Wilbur Wright Field.”

[1]“British War Office GSGS 4127, Ordnance Survey Popular and New Popular Editions.” Sheet 148 – Saffron Walden. A Vision of Britain Through Time http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk [accessed 11 September 2016] (This work is based on data provided through http://www.VisionofBritain.org.uk and uses historical material which is copyright of the Great Britain Historical GIS Project and the University of Portsmouth)
[2]Contibuted by Brian Clarke, “Holy Trinity Church, North End, Meldreth.” Cambridgeshire Community Archives Network http://meldreth.ccan.co.uk/content/catalogue_item/holy-trinity-church-north-end-meldreth-2 [accessed 11 September 2016]
[3] Church of England. “Bishop’s transcripts for Meldreth, 1599-1862.” Microfilm of original records in the Cambridge County Record Office, Cambridge. FHL Microfilm #2358007, image 237 of 899. Available online at FamilySearch https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9T9-NF4Z?i=236&cat=1108704 [accessed 5 November 2015]