Hard Times

This week's theme for #52 Ancestors was Hard Times. I was hard-pressed to choose a subject for this topic—not because my ancestors didn't face hard times, but because there were too many "hard times" in their lives.

But top of mind was my grandmother, Stella Mae Edwards. Stella was born 23 July 1912 in Williamson County, Illinois. She was the second of four children of George Elmus Edwards and Olive Isabel Pogue.  In 1921, her five-year-old sister Hazel was killed when her dress caught fire while she was drying her hair in front of the fireplace. 

In March of 1923,  when she was just 11 years old, her father died from complications of tuberculosis. I don't know if that meant he had been ill before that. My grandmother never mentioned it, but with TB, it is likely.

Three years later, her mother married Joseph Kehder and one more child, Gene (Richard Eugene) Kehder was born in 1927. The marriage was over by 1930. There would be at least one more marriage and divorce between 1930 and 1940 to Ray Hedges. 

Around 1930, at the age of 17 or 18, Stella left for Chicago to find work. She started work at the American Can Company where she met my grandfather Anton Butzek (Martinek). They were married in Chicago in May of 1931 and my mom was born a year later. 

Stella, Anton and Dixie Butzek about 1933

At some point, Stella and Anton decided to head to Southern Illinois. Apparently, my grandfather had always wanted to be a farmer. They settled on a farm in Thompsonville and had one more child, born in 1939. 

Life in southern Illinois was hard. While my grandfather was apparently a good farmer (learning everything he needed to know by reading agriculture books), it wasn't enough to support the family. He went to work in the coal mines, which were booming in southern Illinois at the time. Anton often worked the farm during the day and went to work in the mines at night. And, of course, being a farm wife was a hard life for my grandmother.

My grandfather, who was born in Austria, was naturalized in September of 1943. Two months later, he was killed in a coal mining accident in Old Ben Coal Mine #15. He was running a drilling machine when a rock fell, breaking his neck. 

My grandmother was left a 31-year-old widow with two children, aged four and eleven. She stayed on the farm until around 1950, allowing my mom to graduate from high school. Then, she moved back to Chicago to find work. 

Stella continued to work until retirement. By then, both her kids had married, grandkids had been born, and great-grandkids were on the way. She never remarried, choosing to live with her memories. 

I think of all the hard times that my grandmother faced--growing up in poverty, losing her sister and father, becoming a farm wife, being widowed at an early age, and raising two children on her own. She had a strong faith and was always a church-going woman, and that faith likely sustained her through all the hard times. She never had much in the way of physical possessions in her life. But fittingly, she died as she was getting ready to go to church, with her much-read Bible by her side.