This photo of Eugene Gaskell is on Uncle Bob's CD. Bob says that it was on a postcard, which leads him to believe that Eugene used it when applying for jobs after he finished his work at MSNC in Ypsilanti. He would have been nearly 32 then, and I think he seems younger than that here. Maybe it's his High School senior picture, or a card used in seeking his earlier teaching jobs. Whatever--he's a good-looking young fellow. I wonder what he did to style his hair in that manner.

TODAY IT'S GRANDPA GASKELL'S BIRTHDAY #129!

Gaskell family with young children, in the later 1880s

Back: Myrt, Bird

Front: Eugene(?), James, Jay(?), Mayme, Jess, Mary Ann

Gaskell family sometime after the turn of the century

Back: Bird, Glee, Jess, Myrt(?), Eugene, Mayme(?)

Front: James, Mary Ann

Mary Effie Fish Gaskell and Eugene R Gaskell

Eugene Gaskell, probably as a teacher with his class, about the turn of the century

Eugene Gaskell working in the yard by his garden

on Bidwell St. in Albion

Mary Effie Fish Gaskell and Eugene R Gaskell

Could be around their 50th wedding anniversary

Gerald, Effie, Bob, Gene, and Hub
I think this was taken in our back yard in the 1950s.

People always told me that Eugene R Gaskell was born 18 September, 1878, in Lenawee County, Michigan. My dad said that the middle initial R had no period because it didn't stand for anything. However, Uncle Bob uses a period in his book and says that Grandpa just wouldn't tell him what it was for, except once he told him it stood for Rastus--which was the name of their cat.

In 1971 I got a copy of his birth certificate, and discovered a couple of things. The birth certificate does not indicate a middle name or initial at all. In addition, the year on the birth certificate says 1877. I would feel confident in that, because the date of record is 18 June, 1878, before the date everyone has always claimed he was born. My mother commented that maybe Grandpa just claimed to be born in 1878 to seem younger, since he married a girl somewhat younger than he was. So, maybe it's really his 130th birthday!

His parents were James Ashley Gaskell and Mary Ann Bird Gaskell. He had three brothers (Samuel Bird, Jay, and Jesse) and three sisters (Mayme, Myrtle Belle, and Mary Glee). I believe he spent all his growing-up years in the same farm house, located on an east-west road not far north of the Ohio-Michigan line. I believe it was the same road on which his future wife lived.

When he was ready for High School, he took a room in Hudson during the weekdays, going home for the weekend. He graduated in 1896(?) and was offered a tuition scholarship for Adrian College, but still could not afford to go. I remember hearing more than once that Grandpa had wanted to be a doctor, and would have made a great one.

At some point, he began teaching school, at which he was also gifted. He did teach in Deerfield, and perhaps other places, before he attended Michigan State Normal College in Ypsilanti (now Eastern Michigan University) for two years from 1908 to 1910. I believe that back then, teaching certificates often were awarded for two-year programs.

He married Grandma, Mary Effie Fish, on 7 October, 1899. I believe she also had attended High School, and this would probably have been the year she graduated. They moved to Grelton, OH, at some point, probably after he finished at MSNC. There he taught school. I doubt that's where Jesse Gerald was born on 24 June, 1904, but I do know his other two sons were born there, Robert Eugene on 18 January, 1912, and Hubert Kenneth on 23 January, 1914.

Sometime around 1915 they moved to Homer, MI, where Gene had a drayage business with Effie's brother, Roa (short for Ronayne). Then, perhaps for the school year beginning in 1917, they purchased a farm a few miles west, near Tekonsha. Gene was the High School principal, taught several classes, and also farmed to make ends meet. Interstate 69 now runs through or right beside that farm.

My Dad had told me about the move from Tekonsha to Albion, remembering that it came right after Christmas. I didn't know why a teacher would move at that time, but Uncle Bob's book seems to indicate that he chose to leave after an incident involving Gerald at school. Grandpa had taken the Postal Employee exam, received a good score, and been offered a job at the Albion Post Office. So they set up an auction of much of their goods, and sold the farm incidentally on the same day. Then they loaded up the horse and wagon and moved to Albion. They rented a house on Crandall Street for a couple of months, then moved to 501 Bidwell, their home for the rest of their lives.

Gene had a rural mail route there, south of Albion, for many years, and people on his route said that they could set their clocks by him. Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stayed this courageous courier from the swift completion of his appointed rounds. (Thanks, Herodotus.) There were times he used his car, and times he used his horse, Queen, and buggy. He also worked at the A&P store in downtown Albion. At home, he enjoyed reading and gardening. I remember the garden up behind the house--although I'm not sure I ever went out there--and the peas and parsnips he grew, among other things. I was always told that he was a brilliant man with a sharp, dry sense of humor, but I can't give examples of that. Perhaps that relates to my not paying attention more than him not speaking.

The favorite game I remember with Grandpa was Trot, Trot To Boston, until I became too big for that. I remember Grandpa coming to our home and holding Jon on his lap to read him books by our dining room bay window, during times Jon was not well. Grandma and Grandpa had a television before we did, and when I was school-aged, we often visited them on Friday evenings to watch Our Miss Brooks and I Remember Mama. I remember Grandpa coming to our house for his 80th birthday, while Grandma was in the hospital. We had baked him a cake and we had candles in it, but what I remember most was how old and tired he looked, leaning his head on his hand, as I remembered him doing in his chair in his own living room.

Grandpa passed away two months later, in the night before Thanksgiving, on 26 November, 1958. I remember coming downstairs in the morning and hearing my dad on the phone, calling people to tell them that Grandpa had died.

Grandpa was buried in Lime Creek Cemetery in Lenawee County, just south of the road on which he and Grandma grew up. Uncle Bob says, "I could not imagine a more idyllic spot on earth.

If you change to aerial view and zoom in and north, you can see the cemetery location on Map Quest.

http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?searchtype=address&country=US&addtohistory=&searchtab=home&formtype=address&popflag=0&latitude=&longitude=&name=&phone=&level=&cat=&address=&city=lime+creek&state=mi&zipcode=

P.S.--Thanks to Uncle Bob's 1998 "book" for filling in some detail!

If anyone has corrections or additions, please let me know and I'll update.

Also, if you want to verify something I seemed unsure of, let me know that, too.