Stella "Fern" Alspaugh Hay Wimmer Cemetery

"Light up the Cemetery" Wimmer Cemetery 

 

Stella "Fern" Alspaugh Hay

portrayed by Rosemary Connolly
Sep 29, 2018 
NAI CIG (membership will expire on 10/31/2018) 

Thanks to Tim Bidleman for the photos of all the presenters:
https://timothybidleman.smugmug.com/Wimmer-Cemetery-2018/i-sQgDTpN/A

Video here:

Script Begins

SETTING: Wimmer Cemetery and Fern is paying respect to her sister, known only as Sissy, that died 1908 buried at Wimmer.  Fern has a still born daughter that died in 1933 just like her mother and has been recalled to remember her lost sister.

Outline:
Intro
1.  Sissy 
2.  Parents
3.  Fern's Family 
4.  The Great Depression
Closure

Intro
Good evening ladies and gentlemen.  My name is Fern Hay.   Let me tell you a story about a piece of my heart is here in Auburn.  

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1.  Sissy

My mother had a premature baby girl (June 16) 1908.  Now it is 1933 and I've been compelled to revisit the grave of my lost baby sister because I too have recently experienced a lost baby girl.      Since I was only four years old when she was born, I don't remember much about her.  Sissy, as I came to call her, was a blue eyed, blond girl and from what I can remember, extremely small.   In this day and age we would have called her a premature baby.  Back in those days, all that could be done was to wait and see if the baby survived.  Unfortunately, Sissy did not make it.

You are probably wondering why she was buried here with no family in this cemetery.  Perhaps some background on my family might help explain why Sissy is buried in Wimmer.

When Sissy died, mother and father could barely afford the doctor bill, let alone the burial expenses. 

My mother and father became good friends with the Rucker's and Harris's and Wimmer's and thus found out about Wimmer Cemetery through these families.  Fortunately for them and other kind souls  a plot was purchased so they could bury Sissy. 

Grandpa and grandma Alspaugh came to Auburn using the Pawnee Railroad and our Standiford relatives used the INTERURBAN to come from south to attend the funeral at the house and burial in Wimmer Cemetery.  They kept me busy by having relatives play with me so I did not look in the casket and get upset.  I was way too young to understand.  Now that I have lost my own daughter, I can imagine how mother must have felt.  The thought of carrying a child and adding to the family only to have the future ripped away is deeply saddening.

Sissy's birth record

 

Death Certificate of Sissy Alspaugh

 

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2.  Parents
 My father was Solomon "Logan" Alspaugh (son of Walter Alspaugh and Emma) and my mother's name was Mary Adeline Standiford Alspagugh. (Or Stanfield).  They were married in (25 Oct)1903. I was born in Indiana on (July 14,)1904 as Stella "Fern" Alspaugh  [almost 9 months after my parents married ].

Tomb of Logan and Mary Alsbaugh's at Horse Creek Cemetery in Pawnee
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/58094939/logan-alspaugh


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 My father was born in Orange County, Indiana in (Oct 25) 1863, in the mid years of the Civil War.  He had the typical childhood one would expect with 4 brothers and 2 sisters. He climbed trees, helped on the farm and got into mischief like any boy.  

He was living as a boarder in Bono, Indiana with the Standifords.  He became well acquainted with Mary Standiford who was born in Orange County, Indiana in (on July 16) 1878.  He  moved with her family to Bono by 1880.   Father grew up with the young Mary and fell in love as time went on.  On father's birthday in (Oct 24) 1903, they married in Orange County, Indiana. (see record below).  He was 40 and she was 25.

2 years later, father decided ( 1905 ) to moved to Auburn, IL.  There were job opportunities in the mines. The South Mine was located on the Patterson farm, about a mile south of Auburn.  Robert Solomon and Sons managed the coal mine.  The Solomon family promised that Auburn's population would increase from 1,500 to 1,800 along with the volume of mining in the area.  

Every house in the region either used wood or coal to heat their homes and thus Auburn was digging the mineral like crazy. Labor was in heavy demand for all sectors of business in the area.

My father had worked on farms all his life and was recruited by a farmer in Auburn to help him on those days when the coal mine was shut down, usually in the summer. 

Houses were at a premium by 1905 and few to be found. Anyone who knew how to build them was in high demand.  Father and mother rented a room from other families.  

Life was good in Auburn, but in 1916 father had heard of a new job so we moved to Iowa.  We stayed there one year and then moved to Crocker, Missouri.  

By 1919, father's family had settled in Pawnee and that is where we moved for the last time.

Mother died in (February 1) 1920 in Pawnee.  
(Death Certificate of Mary Alspaugh)

Father then married Mary Emily "Emma" Chisham (findagrave) a year later (Mar 12, 1921).  She also was from Orleans, Orange County, Indiana and father met her when helping his parents move from Indiana to Pawnee.  They were married for less than 4 years when he suddenly died (on Nov 7, 1925).  Emma lived in the area for a short time but decided to move back to Orleans and live with her family until her death (on Oct 4) 1930. 

(Death Certificate of Solomon Alspaugh)

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3 Fern's family

I married Frank Hay (b 01 Sep 1901).   We had three children: Harold was born in 1929.  Harold was conceived in wealth, but born in poverty. (quoted from Harold via his son, John Hay). Anita was born in 1932 (daughter Connie Reiman Wilkerson?) and a baby girl that was still born a year later (September 17, 1933).  We lived in Divernon through the the mid 1960s.  

Did you know that the village of Divernon took its name after Di Vernon, a character in the novel Rob Roy? Interesting!

Our son, Harold, graduated from Divernon High School in 1947. He attended Western Illinois University, but in 1949 transferred to Arizona State College (now University), graduating in 1951. He then joined the Army, and was discharged about the time the Korean War ended. 

 I retired from the Illinois Teachers System.  We moved to Pinal, AZ. I also taught in Casa Grande for a few more years to qualify for a pension from the Arizona system. Frank and I were able to see our two children grow to be fine adults, marry and have children of their own. 

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4.  The Great Depression 

We lived through trying times.  Many farms were lost during the Great Depression. The stock market crash was a major problem and people were desperate.  In addition to banking failures,  incentives to expand agricultural in order to feed war-torn Europe after World War I (1914–1918), the federal government's reconstruction policies pushed agriculture over the limit and erosion destroyed farming.  

American farmers over-plowed, over-planted, and over-spent. The results were land erosion, plummeting prices for agricultural products, and high debts incurred by farmers. Now plunged into the decade of the Great Depression, farmers had no money to repay their loans, and a record 200,000 farms were foreclosed in the U.S. The depression left as much as 30% unemployment.  Many of them farmers and coal miners.  

There were riots in Springfield.  Protesters stormed the government offices destroying property and those arrested were labeled "communists".   It wasn’t until 1937 that the legislature created an unemployment compensation system. Illinois was the last state in the nation to do so.

In 1932 my husband and his brother Ralph started the "Hay Brothers Garage" in Divernon. As society's transportation changed from horse drawn carriage to automobiles, the garage helped travelers moving along.   This was a convenient location on Route 66 and much in demand with the traffic in the 1950s and 60s as traffic from Chicago headed to St Louis and beyond.  The garage was like a welcome oasis to weary drivers in distress when they had car problems.  The garage also helped the local business needs. Hay Brothers Garage was later inducted into the Route 66 Association of Illinois Hall of Fame Members.

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Closure

I was pleased to see flowers at Sissy's grave site.  I know that Roberta Meidel (pronounced My-dal) and all the volunteers who have tended her burial site here have done this out of the kindness of their hearts.  On behalf of my family, we applaud the efforts of the Wimmer Cemetery Association.

Thank you for listening to this grieving sister tell her family history as I move to a new chapter in my life in Arizona.  I never returned to my roots here.   I died in January 1983 and Frank died in February 1983, both of us in Casa Grande, Arizona. I've many memories here. 

The End

Timeline and Citations

Fern was born July 14, 1904 Indiana and died Phoenix Jan 3, 1983
Buried at mausoleum at Valley of the Sun 
1910-1958 years of the Interban   
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illinois_Terminal_Railroad
April 30 to December 1, 1904 "Louisiana Purchase Exposition" . Fern would have been 5 mo old) 
June 16, 1908, Sissy born and died
1916: Alspaugh moved to IA
1917: Alspaugh moved to Crocker, MO
1920: Mother Mary dies 2/1/1920
1920: Fern married Frank Hay in 1920s
March 12, 1921:  Father remarried Mary Emily Chisham
1925: Her father, Solomon "Logan" Alspaugh died
Fern and Frank's children Harold b. 1929 and Anita b. 1932 (where this story begins)
Fern and Frank left Divernon 1968
Frank and Fern both die in 1983
1940 census shows Fern Hay at 35 years old husband, 2 children and brother-in-law, Everette Hay

Marriage Record for Solomon and Mary Oct 24, 1903

Death Certificate of Albert Alsbaugh

Death certificate of Samuel Alspaugh

Obituary Mary Alspaugh

Obit Solomon Logan Alspaugh

Card of thanks from Mrs Logan Alspaugh and Miss Fern Alspaughn on the death of Solomon Alspaugh.

 

Claude Hay's Obituary.

 Hay vacation in the Divernon News undated.

More about Auburn:

Windstorm hits Auburn mine, 1911
http://sangamoncountyhistory.org/wp/?p=9074


Seven children die in car/train accident, 1928
http://sangamoncountyhistory.org/wp/?p=9626


Prohibition referendums in Sangamon County, 1908-17
http://sangamoncountyhistory.org/wp/?p=8193

Coal Mining
http://sangamoncountyhistory.org/wp/?p=412

******cut from the original script - losing the farm ********

cut from script [Father who had been saving up for a hous

e since he was a bachelor was able to purchase a small house in the new coal miner's "patch" which was located in the old Armstrong property in the south part of town. It consisted of two bedrooms, a small kitchen and two seat out house.  Boy I sure remember going out to that out house in the winter.  It was freezing cold and you do your business as soon as possible.  Burrrrr! Mother immediately set up a garden in the back yard and had father build a chicken coop so that we would at least have eggs and chickens to eat.  These expenditures ate through Father's savings quite quickly and by the end of the year, he was nearly broke, living from pay check to pay check.]  he rented according to the 1910 census.

******cut from the original script the interurban **************

You remember the interurban now don't you?  No, well it was an electric rail system that started up in the Peoria area and traveled through Auburn on its way to St Louis.  The trips wee mad to St Louis were so incredible.  We would leave the Auburn Station by six in the morning and be bobbing and weaving our way along the electric line by seven.  We usually went to some fancy shops using the trolleys in St Louis and had lunch a the Hill section near the river.

The Rucker's often reminded me about the trip they took to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (April 30 to December 1, 1904) in St Louis after I was born.   They used the interban as the main mode of transportation by waving it down as it neared us on the side of the tracks.  The first sight they saw was the Pike.  There were 6,000 performers who represented 26 countries. Sights like a representation of a volcano from Hawaii, a Chinese village, artisans weaving glass and a submarine diving in the East Lagoon amazed every visitor.  This was no ordinary fair, there were inventions like the wireless telephone and an early fax machine. One of the most popular was the x-ray machine which was one of the favorite exhibits of the attendees.  The airplane was another bit hit it flew the length of the grounds scaring all the the newcomers.  Crowds would gather around the machine when it landed to see how something could fly in the air.

New foods were also introduced at this event.  Foods that most people in Auburn and the surrounding area had never experienced in their lives.  The idea of the new puffed wheat cereal that was introduced at the fair was loved so much that is was in demand later at the Faust Market.