Category: Sunday Report

Posted in Sunday Report

Celebrate Dads and Grand-daughters!

Posted on by Jo Mayne Casey

Our #3 grand-daughter, Eliza Belle Mayne Jose, graduated from 8th grade on Thursday. She will continue on to 9th grade at the same school, Avenues The World School, so it’s called a “Stepping Up” celebration. We watched on Vimeo and I wasn’t much impressed with the videography, but when my beautiful grandie walked up to pick up her certificate, I felt that overwhelming surge of emotions where your heart swells up and pushes tears out of your eyes. I love this girl more that words can say – well, you know that. When she was little, we would do a pretend morning show together. She was the OG musical.ly and would often facetime me so I could watch her latest choreography, usually to music that made me blush. She was born with a fabulous sense of fashion and she’s the one who I consult on which sneakers to buy. I’ll get to see her at the end of July and I can hardly wait.

Happy Fathers’ Day to all the Dads out there! I had a good one, but he’s been gone 28 years now. He would visit me every Wednesday, an event we dubbed “Music Night”. He would play the uke and we’d sing; he’d have me play the piano and we’d sing; I’d play some good tunes on the stereo and we’d sing.

Me and Dad at the Eaton Family Reunion, Grayville, IL 1979

We also drank and smoked and talked and laughed and sometimes argued, but we’d always end up singing. I haven’t done much singing since he died and my voice has gone to hell, but in my mind those harmonies still play.

Had my second cataract removal on Tuesday and it’s gone well – not as well as the right eye – but every day is more clear. I expect I’ll be seeing a lot of fog soon, anyway.

“Surely we’ve had enough rain this week to last us a couple”, I wrote last week. Surely we did, but the ever-whimsical Spring disagreed and brought us a deluge of four inches on Friday, another 1.5 on Saturday. Luckily, we had most every plant staked or propped and there was very little damage to the gardens.

I would have preferred to be sitting in a lawn chair at the Handy Festival, but since our Entire Day here at Sonnystone was decidedly un-sunny, I assumed it was the same over in Henderson. I was soo disappointed when I found out on the evening news – rain still pouring outside my window – that it was sunny and dry just across the river.

Here comes the humidity! We still haven’t turned our a/c on, but looks like we will soon. I’m beginning to start moving books off of shelves in the family room so we can pull up the carpet back there. Casey is restless if he can’t work outside, so this might be a good time to start.

Stay Cool in your neck of the woods…

Peace

Posted in Sunday Report, The Gardens of Sonnystone...

Photo Blog

Posted on by Jo Mayne Casey

Not much to report this week, but a picture is worth a thousand words…

Tuesday I have the cataract removed from my left eye and I should be seeing in 3D by Wednesday. The W.C. Handy Blues Festival starts Wednesday, as well, and I hope to feel well enough to attend – and that the weather is co-operative. Surely we’ve had enough rain this week to last us a couple… New Harmony Antiques Show is the 14-15th, and the Wilson Auction House over there will be having a seriously good selection of collectibles for us to bid on, so I should have lots more to share with you next Sunday!

Peace

Posted in Sunday Report, The Gardens of Sonnystone...

Let it Grow…

Posted on by Jo Mayne Casey

And since all this loveliness can not be Heaven, I know in my heart it is June.” —Abba Louisa Goold Woolson.

After a cool and rainy May, June met us with Sunshine and balmy breezes. My cataract surgery went super great and I’ve been outside breaking all the rules to finish up the gardens and porches. I have been careful, but I couldn’t resist.

Let’s take a walk around the house, starting in the Edible Garden. Along our trellis, the cantaloupe, butternut squash, cucumber. and watermelons are all coming right along. None of the lima beans I put in sprouted, but I’ve got two more cucumber plants to fill the bare space soon.

On the outside of each side of the trellis are 14 bell pepper plants – 8 California Wonders and 6 Big Berthas. In between the peppers and the trellis are sunflowers of all kinds and they are going to town! At the south end of each side are moonflower vines, sure to shine.

In the back and on the sides are nine tomato plants – 4 Better Boys, 1 Early Girl Bush, 1 Celebrity, a sweet cherry 100, a husky red cherry, and one called chocolate sprinkle that is alleged to taste like a black cherry.

Nine squash – five zucchini, four yellow straightneck prolific – are having the time of their lives, flowering like champs, but where are the bees? I have anise hyssop to attract them, not to mention a yard full of clover, but so far I’ve seen very few.

The peas are flush with edible pods (Oregon sugar pods II) and I’m often out there snacking.

I’ve been so bored with my own cooking lately – like for the past year – and decided to learn a new style: a countertop griddle. So far, Casey is better at it than I am, but I warned him if he is tooo good, he’ll end up doing all the cooking. We used an old highway sign as a heat shield, which I think is kinda cute.

Around here on the front porch, walking in from the north side, I’ve moved all the coleus that I propagated last winter and they look great! I guess I’ll end up with twice as many next year….help!

In the Peace/Bird garden, the hummingbirds are back buzz-bombing each other at the feeder, and Casey had a skirmish with a squirrel (he won) the other day. This garden is all native perennials and they are so reliable and calm – you might say peaceful. I am so thrilled to be able to see the avian display with a clarity I’ve never experienced. It’s a dang miracle.

I think I’ll grab a handful of those sugar peas, sit out on the swing, and enjoy. Wish you were here…

Peace

Posted in Sunday Report

Decoration Day

Posted on by Jo Mayne Casey

We made our cemetery rounds on Wednesday, or I should call it Windsday since the gusts were intermittently 20mph. Placing the saddle on Grandma and Grandpa Eaton’s grave was a challenge, but Casey got it held down with wire and we figure if it didn’t blow off on a day like that, it was set to last. It’s the thought that counts, right?

We wandered around the cemetery in Albion looking for Grandmother and Grandad’s marker, even though I visit it every year. These folks, especially Grandmother, were so influential in my life. They were my great-grandparents and I was so blessed to know them. The font on their gravestone is so unique. I wonder who chose it, and if it means anything.

Since we were walking the property, we looked for my Aunt Thelma and Uncle Aub, but couldn’t find them, so we cruised up to Marion Church Cemetery to check on our grave-cleaning.

I am thrilled and more to see how well the wet-and-forget had worked. These two graves of Chester and Herbert, my great-great uncles who died quite young, had been black with age and look at them now!

I am fascinated by the inscription on the side of Herbert’s stone and want to go back with etching paper and see if I can read it. Herbert’s marker has a book open on a bookstand-like thing on the opposite side, so I wonder if he was a bookworm, like me. He died at 14 of fever.

Back in my youngster days, we called it Decoration Day and it was the 31st of May, whatever day that happened to land on. I have fond memories of my family – Mom, Dad, Brother, and Sister – meeting up with the Albion Maynes – Grandmother, Aunts Ruth and Bernie, and Uncle Harry – and hitting up the old graveyards in the area. I’d get to ride in Aunt Ruth’s Oldsmobile and we would glide all the way up to Parkersburg, then down the gravel roads, and around the loop that I still take every year to decorate. There was a story to go with every grave except one, and that was my grandfather, my Dad’s Dad. I remember one year seeing Grandmother standing at his stone, crying, and I felt very sad, but everyone just looked away uncomfortably.

It was a serious “We don’t talk about Bruno” situation. I got as much info as I could about him from Dad and Bernie before they died, and when I researched him, I discovered that there just wasn’t much good to say about him – he died at 43 after abusing alcohol, drugs, and all the people who loved him. But for one brief, shining moment, he was “that funny comedian, Bobby Mayne”, headlining for traveling vaudeville shows, an actor, a musician who could play every instrument, and the fans followed him, loved his shtick and admired his talents. He married a beautiful girl, had a baby boy, and then blew it all…

This year, I decorated his grave for the first time. He didn’t actually fight in WWI (that’s another story), but he was a Star, a handsome, talented Star of the Stage and we shouldn’t forget that. I think it fits him well…

I still need to go out to my Mom and Dad’s Mausoleum and switch out their bouquet. I like that I don’t have to worry about wind and rain on my decorations with them. I’m out there four times a year, changing with the seasons, just like my Mama taught me.

Have a Great Holiday!

Peace

Posted in Sunday Report, The Gardens of Sonnystone...

Weekly Wrap-up

Posted on by Jo Mayne Casey

I have had to be on Prednisone for ten of the last fourteen days, finally finished up a couple of days ago, and it has been excruciating for my brain. That stuff makes me so speedy, I can’t focus, I can’t sleep, I’m irritable, my stomach hurts…I’ve done too much griping and had one day of out-of-the-blue tears. I guess the upside is that my back and right arm are not giving me even a wince of discomfort and my head is back to its normal thinking, which is probably not normal, but you know what I mean.

We went to the Shannon’s School of Dance Recital last night and it was great! Really super. I haven’t seen the Jr girls in a while, so just being around them was a treat.

Samantha and Nova

In between storms, we’ve been able to get most of the garden planted and it’s looking good.

I still need to plant the green beans, and have plans to get a flat of marigolds and stick them around everywhere I can fit them. My nasturtium is starting to bloom out on the South Porch, but I want to move them back to the Edible Garden, and that involves a lot of switchy-changey of containers.

The Peace/Bird Garden has been loving all this rain.

This will all need to be completed by Memorial Day, as I have my first cataract surgery the day after. While I don’t mind not being able to weed, I Love to plant, so it’s working out well to have it all done beforehand.

I’ve talked to several people who’ve had the cataract surgery and each had different ideas about what lens to implant, but none had any problems with their procedure. That’s reassuring.

We’re planning the Cemetery Loop from Mount Carmel to Parkersburg to Marion Church to Albion to Grayville and say hello to the Ancestors. It’s been a year since Casey and I spent some time cleaning some 100plus-year-old gravestones and I’m curious to see how they look. We scrubbed and used some stuff called “wet and forget” that is supposed to continue to work over time, so we’ll see. We don’t usually leave decorations in those old cemeteries, but I will be doin’ up the Eatons’ front-row plot in Grayville with a saddle this year.

Hope this missive finds you well and enjoying the season!

Peace

Posted in Sunday Report

Party on, Mothers!

Posted on by Jo Mayne Casey

I’m thinking of my Mom today and how much I miss her. I’m thinking of the days when I was an active duty Mom and how much I miss being her. I’m sending loving thoughts to my daughter and my daughter-in-law, thankful thoughts for being such good Moms to my grandies and hope that they are being properly feted by their progeny.

Being a Mom is the Honour of a Lifetime, whether it’s little people who you have birthed or folks who just needed you. I am still occasionally called upon to play the role, and I appreciate it more than ever.

To my grown-up children: Thank-you.

But I’m mostly thinking it’s a good day to get out in the garden working with Mother Earth. If you need me, that’s where I’ll be.

Pass the Love Around, dear People!

Peace

Posted in Monthly Dopamine Menu, Sunday Report

The Merry Month of May

Posted on by Jo Mayne Casey

I won a few pennies betting the Derby this year, finally breaking my losing streak – I actually bet the Winner to Win and am quite pleased. We’re off to a Great Start!

The month of May might have been named for the Roman Fertility and Spring goddess, Maia, or it could have come from the latin “maiores” which means “elders”. I think it’s the former, but we Elderly deserve our own month, a green one, not some gray wintry 30 days.

It is cold and rainy today, but our garden plants are fine with it. We have wisely waited to plant the sweet bell and banana peppers, but this should be our last cold snap. I am so excited about the garden this year because we have added a cattle panel trellis- Growing up the trellis are cantaloupe, butternut squash, sugar baby watermelons, burpless cucumbers – all except the sugar babies I started from seed! There’s also some King of the Garden butter beans I popped in the other day. and some sunflowers, too. We’ll fill in the sides with bush beans as soon as the weather permits.

May is Historic Preservation Month here in Eville and I’m going to try Again to go on the walking tour given annually through Oak Hill Cemetery. Oak Hill is chock-full of elaborate gravestones of local luminaries, including the folks who lived here at Sonnystone from 1923 to 1957–you remember the Smiths, don’t you? the ones who put the S on the chimney? Y’all know how I love cemeteries and this one is a gem. This is the last year that our local historian, Dennis Au, will be leading the tours, so I Must go.

There are many other Historic Preservation events scheduled, but several of them conflict with each other. Weird planning to have an Angel Mounds tour at the same time as the cemetery tour, or plan speakers at Willard the same time as Opening Night at Bosse Field. Come on, Evillians, work together here…

May 9 is the 17th birthday of my #2 Grandie, Nova. She will be participating in the National Archery Competitions in Louisville, KY on the 8th and the 10th, so we’ll have to plan a celebration a little off-date. She has had a good week-end this week-end – shot her personal best with the bow and arrow: 251; went to Prom with her handsome boyfriend, looking beautiful.

Nova and Aiden, Prom 2025

Mother’s Day, a commercial holiday that evokes guilt and loneliness, is celebrated on May 11. I’m not a big fan.

I think we’ll check out this month’s market auction in New Harmony on May 9-10. I’m in the market for furniture and that’s a good place to look. Besides, I like eating at the Yellow Tavern.

Shannon’s School of Dance Recital is May 17. Frankly, I usually skip out after I’ve watched the kids in the first half, but this year Nova is dancing in the second half, so I’ll have to sit still. It’s a wonderful program, honestly, but it is quite an extended sit for an ADD adult such as moi. They always have the best costumes, too.

Samantha — Tap
Samantha — Jazz

The Spring Antiques Show is scheduled for May 24 up in Darmstadt at the 4H. I’ll be there, too, and that’s Memorial Day Week-end, so there will be other festivities around the area. Our area tends to have beautiful weather all week before a planned event, then go wildly cold/wet/hot/ for the Day of. That’s Eville for ya…

Finally, my R cataract will be removed May 27 at 8:30am. By May 28, I should be able to look into my own eyes…

I shall try again to start the Garden Blog. I have been taking plenty of pictures, but no time to curate and publish. This month of greening and growing will inspire me, I’m sure. Gotta keep on growin’, right?

Peace

Posted in Sunday Report

What’s goin’ on…

Posted on by Jo Mayne Casey

April has been its usual cruel self, teasing with warmth and sun, then raining all over my parade. We’ve accomplished quite a bit in the garden – new fence! new trellis! – I’m impatiently waiting for the wind to calm down and the warm to come and stay. But that’s Spring, isn’t it? I’m at my happiest when I’m working in the garden with Casey, so these days find me quite chuffed.

During my blogging break, I had several doctor appointments and some labs — all is well, but… It seems my cataracts are now ripe! I’ve been having increased difficulty seeing, but thought it was probably all in my head, so I’m grateful for the validation. We have scheduled the surgery on the right eye for May 27th and the left on June 10. Currently I keep reading glasses in every room of the house, around my neck, in my purse, in the car — I’ll be happy to donate them after the operation! The fancy lens I’m getting even corrects the intermediate vision, so I can even toss the special pair of lenses I use at the piano. I’m kind of scared of being able to see myself clearly in the mirror; right now I see a smeary blur with lipstick, but I suspect the details aren’t pretty…

I started seeing a chiropractor who is using myofascial release to unstick some neck problems I’ve had. He’s killing me, but it hurts so good. I think I’m getting more blood to my brain, too, but that may be my imagination. To be honest, it hasn’t helped my shoulder/neck at all, but I have hope that continued manipulation will work. I’m going a couple of times a week, eating a lot of ibuprofen. I really like the doc, so for now I’m trusting.

It’s Derby Week! and Baffert is Back! I’m just now getting around to studying up on the contenders and it looks like all my favorite trainers are represented. I’ll be putting out an Extra Extra Edition of The News on Thursday to discuss this year’s strategy, which will, hopefully, be more successful that my usual “Bet all 20 horses to show”. I am quite challenged by decision-making, even fretting over which bourbon to sip. Maybe a flight?

Check back this Thursday and see if I’ve made up my mind…

Peace

Posted in Sunday Report, The Saga of Sonnystone Acres

Short Report and Part 5

Posted on by Jo Mayne Casey

Happy Easter and Passover and whatever Holy Day you celebrate today! We’re having an early breakfast with the Jrs and then spending the day in the garden. I hope your day is full of peace and love.

I hope to get the Garden Blog started up this Thursday and I’m excited to share the new features with you. The plan is to finish up the first six episodes of the Sonnystone Saga this Wednesday and have the second six-part season when things get boring again. I was stunned to discover that the Kentucky Derby 151 is two weeks away! Will I break my losing streak this year? I have hope.

 We are now on Part 5 of The Sonnystone Saga, the genealogy of our Old House. Here are the links to Part 1 and Part 2 and Part 3 and Part 4 in case you missed them. The Reed Family lived here for 60 years and require four separate posts to tell their story. It’s a real page-turner, so I hope that you will watch for the last installment to be posted this Wednesday. 

The Will

The will was signed and sealed on 12 January 1881.  John Reed died 14 January 1888, age 72. 

I wonder if his family were aware of the stipulations of John Reed’s Last Will and Testament before he died. The Will starts off quite normally:  Being of sound mind but failing body, Thank the Lord for his Goodness, pay all the debts, etc.  He leaves his beloved wife, Mary, all of his personal property and 1/3 of his real estate.  He dictates that she should keep all the income from all of the property for the first year.  Later in the Will, he names her as executor.

Then it gets convoluted, and of course, it’s about Jack.

“I give and devise unto my son, John Reed, a sum of money equal to 1/15 in value and amount of this devise shall be ascertained in the following manner to wit:  Within ninety days from my death, two reputable free-holders of Vanderburgh County, state of Indiana, wholly disinterested and not of kin to any of my devisees shall be selected, one of my said son, John, the other by Thomas Reed, George Childs, Minnie Olmsted, and Ada Belle Van-Dusen, to appraise the whole of the real estate of which I may die seized.”

I don’t think he trusts them..  There’s more…He says if any of them fail or refuse to select an appraiser then one should be chosen by his wife Mary along with the Vanderburgh County Court Clerk…and if they fail to agree with that choice, a third should be chosen and the majority rules. Old John was definitely expecting an argument!   So once they finally agree and get it appraised, John’s 1/15 is to be a lien on the property of the others and paid in a very specific manner

“Within ninety days from the day of my death and each of every ninety days thereafter on demand, the sum of twenty-five dollars, until the amount is fully paid; said sums so paid to be a credit upon my said son John’s legacy. “

He goes on to say that if the full amount isn’t paid within two years, interest of 4% should be paid to Jack.  If Jack dies before the full amount is paid, the rest is to be given to his grandchildren (Jack’s daughters) Alice and Mary Reed.  He also wills 1/15 of his real estate to Alice and Mary, to be held as joint tenants. No other grandchildren are mentioned.

Thomas Reed, George Childs, Minnie Olmsted, and Ada Van Dusen are each given 9/60 (nine sixtieths).  He stipulates that’s only if they give John his money.

Furthermore, he states:

“It is my further will that in case any of my devisees or legatees shall object to the provisions in this my will made for them and shall institute any legal proceedings for the purpose of setting this my will aside or in any manner interfering with the disposition herein made of any of my property, then and that case the devise of legacy herein made to the objector or objectors shall immediately become null and void and the share, or shares of the objector or objectors shall be divided equally share and share alike among those of my devisees or legatees who are satisfied and content with the provisions herein made for them.“

Phew! Old John was sure an enabler, wasn’t he? His son, Jack, was obviously a problem and my life experience makes me suspect there is alcohol involved, but general laziness seems to be present, as well. Why would you make your other children basically support the wastrel? I’m of the opinion he didn’t do right by his wife, either. Mary was only 64-years-old at the time of her husband’s death and he should have just left his entire estate to her and let her sort it out — but I suppose Mary would Not have been so generous to Jack.

In 1889, Thomas, George, Minnie, and Ada did go to court against Mary, the grand-daughter.  Her sister, Alice, had died before her grandfather.  Mary had claimed that the Will gave she and her sister Each 1/15 and that she was her sister’s legal heir. However, the case was found in favor of the plaintiffs and grand-daughter Mary was given only 1/15…which is what it seems to me that her grandfather wanted.  The land is partitioned off in that document, giving Jack’s daughter, Mary, about 14 acres, leaving 100 or so to the Big Four.

Sonnystone proper belonged to Mary Inwood Reed as part of her 1/3.  It consisted of the house and about 60 acres.  Thomas Reed and George Childs sold their share of the land to their sisters and George bought a place in Chandler, IN.   The Van Dusens and Olmsteds pretty much stayed in the homes where they’d always lived and continued to farm through the decade of the 1890s.

By 1900, Charles and Minnie Olmsted and their three teenagers were living at Sonnystone with Mary, age 77.  Louis and Ada Belle Van Dusen lived just down the road and Louis’s 84-year-old mother lived with them.  Both families had a servant living with them.  Both men are listed as gardeners…!

George and Anna Childs were still in Chandler.  George is listed as an “agent machines?”.  The machine part is pretty clear, but I can’t read the first word well. Son John, 25, was a schoolteacher like his Mom.  19-year-old son Leslie was a day laborer.

Thomas Reed was still on Goodsell Street, still working as a drayman.  He had a houseful: four children, Harry, 24; Ben (also called Inwood), 21; Thomas, jr., 18; and Sarah Belle, 13;  and one niece, Ella, 30 (daughter of cousin James Inwood, who had died in 1884).  But that’s not all..  Thom’s wayward brother, Jack Reed, 55-years-old, is also living with him, not working… What a guy…

Mary Inwood Reed died 17 April 1908.  Her death certificate states cause of death as senility.  She was 85-years-old.  The following month court papers were filed stating that Thomas Reed, George Childs, and Ada Van Dusen gave up all their claim to Mary’s property and giving it to Minnie Reed Olmsted.  It is the first time that I see the property listed as our address on Stringtown Road, though it is still a rural route.

Minnie Reed  Olmsted was now the proud owner of her family home, Reedmont, aka Sonnystone Acres.

Stay tuned…

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in Sunday Report, The Saga of Sonnystone Acres

Wee Sunday Report & Part 3 of the Saga

Posted on by Jo Mayne Casey

My favorite plant store opened yesterday and I was first one there! I’ve bought tomatoes and sweet peppers to baby until it’s time to put them in the ground. I’m going back today to get more tomatoes, as I am going to do some experimenting this year with partial shade…

You’ll learn all about it in a couple of weeks when I start the garden blog, Growing Every Season.

We are now on Part 3 of The Sonnystone Saga, the genealogy of our Old House. Here are the links to Part 1 and Part 2 in case you missed them. The Reed Family lived here for 60 years and require four separate posts to tell their story. It’s a real page-turner, so I hope that you will watch for the next installments to be posted on Wednesdays and Sundays. I could have worked it into longer posts, but I’m too busy right now to do much more than a cursory edit.

I hope you enjoy the tale and that you’re also enjoying Spring as much as I am! If you need me, I’ll be out in the garden!!!

Meet the Reeds

After twenty years living here on Stringtown Road, Jacob and Maria Miller sold their property to one Mr. John L. Reed and his wife. Mr. Reed was born in England in 1815, but Try as I might, I find no record of his parents or when he arrived in the area. In those days, the village of McCutchanville, just three miles northeast of the Miller farm, was referred to as the British Community, so it seems logical a Brit arriving in the area would gravitate there.

I know much more about the background of his wife, as her parents were among the earliest settlers in Southern Indiana. William and Hanna Inwood were from Godalming, Surrey, England. When they arrived in the USA in 1821, they already had three children: Harriett, b. 1815; John, b. 1817; and Sarah, b. 1820; and three more were born after their move to Indiana:  Mary, b. 1823; George, b. 1826; and William, Jr. b. 1828.  The Inwood family settled land between Stringtown and McCutchanville along the state road, now Petersburg Road and became prominent citizens of the village community.

So it happened that in 1841, John Reed married Sarah Inwood, the daughter of William, Sr. and Hannah.  John and Sarah had three children together:  John “Jack”, b. 1842; Thomas, b. 1846; and Mary J., b. 1849.  The 1850 census shows that the family lives in Kratzville, a small community near Stringtown.  John was working for a trucking service as a drayman (driver of a beer truck). He owns real estate valued at $1100.  The kids were ages 7, 4, and 1.

Something very unexpected occurred between 1850 and 1860…John and Sarah Inwood Reed divorced.

Divorced?! you say, Divorced in the 1850’s?!  Unheard of.  I don’t have record of the actual divorce as those are hard to come by, but I discovered — to my amazement — that divorce was not as uncommon as I thought in those years.  In fact, Indiana had such lax divorce laws in the 1850s that coming to the state was a popular quick way to shed your spouse.

From “The Indiana Magazine of History” : [From 1852 ] until 1873, Indiana used to have one of the most liberal divorce laws in the country, and unhappily married individuals flocked to the Hoosier state in order to bring their unions to a quick—and relatively painless—end. According to Garber, in those days judges were inclined to grant a divorce decree “as a matter of course in every case where the defendant did not appear and oppose it.” The applicant had only to provide “proof of residence” and swear under oath that there was “statutory cause” for their petition.

Still, Divorce was considered quite scandalous in polite society… It appears that Sarah Inwood Reed was the first to stray which was even more sordid.   Sarah gave birth in 1856 to a son named William Green and in 1858 had another son, Benjamin Green.  I have no clue who their Daddy was, though I’ve looked everywhere for him.  The only candidate I’ve found would be a married man!  I’ve not ruled it out…

As if that weren’t scandalous enough, guess who John took up with and married? Sarah’s younger sister, Mary Inwood Childs! Mary had married Stephen Childs in 1842 and they had two children:  Sarah, (ironic that she named her daughter after her sister…) b. 1843; and George, b. 1847.. I do not see a record of Stephen Childs’ death — or his life, for that matter, other than the record of his marriage to Mary, but let’s just assume that he died since the children were always with Mary.

The situation caused great family dissension as well as scandal, so John and his new wife, Mary, moved to Richmond, Indiana around 1855 or 56 and lived there for the next four years. While there, they had two children, Minnie in 1857, and Ada Belle, born 1859. Mary’s children, Sarah and George were living with them, as well as John’s sons, Jack and Thomas, but their daughter disappears during that decade.

So it was that in 1860, John and Mary Inwood Reed returned to Center Township, Vanderburgh County. Post office of McCutchanville, and moved back into the bosom of Mary’s family.  They named their estate Reedmont.  Mary’s brother, John Inwood, and his family lived on the farm just south of them.  Her brother, George, lived two farms north.  Welcomed back into the fold?  By some, perhaps, but the Inwood family reunions must have been a bit awkward…

The family had moved in by the June, 1860 census and it shows that the property is valued at $2700, personal property $120.  They had a full house:  Sarah Childs, 17; George Childs, 13; Thomas Reed, 14; Minnie, 3; and Ada (Belle), 7 months.  Jack., 18, is also counted as living with them, working as a farmhand.

John’s ex-wife, Sarah Inwood Green. and her two sons, ages 5 and 3, were living with her youngest brother, William, a grocer who lived in downtown Evansville.  Guess who else is counted as living there in the 1860 census?  Her son with John Reed, Jack, is listed as a drayman. It would seem Jack went back and forth between his parents, a sign of things to come.

I can’t find a record of Jack serving in the Civil War, though he was just the “right” age for it.  Thomas Reed was only 15 in 1861 when the War started, but he managed to get in at the very end, joining the Indiana 42nd Regiment, Company A in February of 1864.  The 42nd met up with Sherman to fight the Battle of Jonesboro and were part of the March to the Sea and the Siege of Savannah.

By the end of the war, all were back home and the decade of the 1870’s was a bright one for most of the Family of Reedmont.

Stay Tuned…