One Year Blogiversary!

One year ago today I started my blog!  Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read my posts.  Here are a few from the past year that are my favorites.

First post:  Mary Ida Sefton and Her 29 Roses

Most viewed post: Carrie C. Fields, Red Skelton's Aunt

Favorite post:  Fanny Gowdy and an American Romance in Paris

Longest post:  The Wartime Diary of Captain Willis E. Hedgecock

Shortest post: Nancy Tombaugh, Midwife of Richland County

Saddest post: Little Mary Catherine Green

Funniest post:  Nancy Oliver, Who Waited 3 Years For Groceries

And finally, the post with my favorite picture:

Dola M. Worland, Gold Star Mother

52 Ancestors: #23 Susanna "Anna" Kimmel, Grandmother of Red Skelton

Susanna "Anna" Kimmel was born around 1860 in Olney, Richland County, Illinois.  She was the tenth and last child of Jacob Kimmel and Nancy Tombaugh.  At the age of seventeen she became the wife of Asa M. Fields.  Their marriage took place on December 23, 1877 at the home of the bride's father.  Anna's brother-in-law, Samuel Forney, performed the marriage ceremony.  Their first daughter, Stella, was born in 1880.  Around 1881-1882, the family relocated to Nebraska, where four more Fields children were born: Mary Kathryn (born in 1882), Ida Mae (1884), and twins Eddie and Freddie (1888).  Ida Mae was the mother of Richard "Red" Skelton.

The Fields were affiliated with a German Baptist church in Kearney, Nebraska. The Wood River Church was organized May 28th, 1881 at the residence of Moses Snavely. At the first meeting, there were just 13 members present, among them: Minister Samuel Forney and Asa and Susanna Fields. However, on February 11, 1882, Asa and Anna left the congregation, as recorded in the minute books from the church. 

Vincennes Sun Commercial, February 20, 1939

Around 1890, Asa and Anna moved their family again, this time to Vincennes, Indiana.  My great-great grandmother, Carrie, was born there in 1891, and the last of Asa and Anna's children, Robert Hergel, was born in 1899. 

 I am unable to find an obituary or death certificate for Asa, but I think he died sometime around 1900.  In a letter to her brother, Lewis Kimmel, dated May 5, 1938, Anna wrote that she had been a widow for 38 years.  She said she had two sons and three daughters living out of 14 children, 25 grand children and 13 great grand children. Her pension was $11.00 a month. She was living in one room all alone. Her youngest son (Robert) was married and lived on the same lot with her. Her address was shown as 702 Upper 11th, Vincennes. 

In 1939, Anna (called Susan in the newspaper) attended a luncheon honoring her famous grandson, Red Skelton.

Anna Fields died March 17, 1945 and is buried at Fairview Cemetery in Vincennes. 

Indianapolis Star, March 20, 1945

52 Ancestors: #4 Carrie C. Fields, Red Skelton's Aunt

Carrie with her first child, Agnes, in 1913

My great-great grandmother, Carrie Fields, was born March 30, 1891 in Vincennes, Indiana to Asa Fields and Susanna Kimmel.  She was the sixth of seven children.  Her older sister, Ida Mae, was the mother of comedian Red Skelton.

Ida Mae with a young Red Skelton, c. 1914

Carrie married Charles Carl Lange Jr., a street car conductor, on May 16, 1911.  Together they had seven children: Agnes (my great grandmother), Louise, Carl, Florence and Helen (twins), Robert, and Paul.  The couple separated in 1920.   According to a newpaper article in The Vincennes Morning Commercial, Carrie filed for divorce on account of her husband's alleged abusive behavior.  It seems that they reconciled, because four of their children were born after 1920. 

Only a year after her seventh child was born, Carrie died on August 23, 1927.  Her death certificate says she died from erysipelas, a severe skin infection.  She was 36.

She was a member of St. John's Lutheran Church in Vincennes.  "Aside from church her chief interest in life was centered in her home, husband, and children.  Whatever suffering was her lot she bore with fortitude and was ever a patient and loving wife and mother whose place in the family circle will always remain vacant." (From Carrie's obituary in the Vincennes Morning Commercial on August 24, 1927.)