I am an old woman named after my mother…
first line of “Angel from Montgomery” by John Prine
The story was told from the time I could listen that Mom & Dad were so sure that I was a boy that they called me “Charlie” for 9 months and were at a loss for a name when I turned out to be a girl. Dad wanted name me Ruby after Mom, but she didn’t like that name. Her middle name was Christina, so they agreed that was a good moniker. They added the one-syllable “Jo” and voila! I was formally assigned the appellation.
They never called me Christina. Ever. Even when I started school, they instructed the instructors that I was Jo Mayne – sounds like ptomaine, if you want to make fun. Over the years, Mom’s explanation for not using such a pretty name varied. The first answer was that it was too long for my 17-month-older sister to say. Eventually, she confessed that the name was her Grandmother’s and that she didn’t much like her grandmother, and that they called her Teeny and she didn’t like that.
Her grandmother, my great-grandma, was Christina Caroline Kirsch, and she was also named after her mother, Caroline Christina Rudi Kirsch. Both Caroline and her husband, Nicholas, were born in Germany. The community they lived in and raised Christina included many German immigrants who brought their strong work ethic and intelligence to building their new life in Crawford County, Indiana.
Not long before my Mom died, she told me that being a grandmother made her realize that she had misjudged her granny. One big reason she disliked her was because Christina wouldn’t let her run around with her younger cousins, but kept her with her. Mom realized that she’d been shown a side of her grandma that the others didn’t know as she taught her about gardening and cooking.
Since nearly every story from my cousins who knew her related that she was “terrifying”, I guess Mom did see something the others missed. I don’t know if she realized that they also shared a birthday – no doubt why Mom was given her name- but I’m sure Christina knew and gave her special attention.
My brother and sister and I called her “Little Grandma” and I remember seeing her once as a very young child. She lived across the street from my “Big Grandma” and one day when I was playing on the porch, she came up the steps and stopped to look at me before going on in the house. It’s one of those early, hazy memories, but she had a piercing gaze – not quite terrifying, but she was pretty old by then.
I have only one picture of her, sitting on a stool next to her husband, Halleck Goodson, but that picture jumped out of the box at me a couple of months ago and demanded attention. I have done my research and don’t have any new information about her, really, so I wasn’t sure what she was trying to tell me. I think now that she is pointing me to the cemeteries in Crawford County.
Decades ago, Mom and her sisters did a trip to English, IN, where their Dad’s family had lived and were buried, but nobody seemed to know anything about the Goodsons or Kirsches. I’ve got a lot of information, compiled over at All My Ancestors, and now, Thanks to my ancestor’s nudge, we’re heading up to Leavenworth and Corydon this week to check out the gravestones and get a feel for the area. These are some old ones, so I hope they’re not in too bad of shape.
There’s something missing in Christina’s story – how did she end up with Halleck, a boozing, illiterate, hillbilly 7 years her senior? I hope something clicks as we tour the hills and river bottoms where she raised my Grandma and her siblings.
The Jrs. will be by for some potato soup and apple pie around noon, so I’ve got to move on for now.
We’re blessed with Abundant Sunshine today and forecast for the next week! I hope the sun is shining in your neck of the woods!
Peace
