Blacker

Fearless Females Day 16: Who shall I invite to lunch?

~ Lark Dalin Robart ~ Leave a comment

Lisa Alzo’s “Fearless Females” blog prompt for March 16th is: If you could have lunch with any female family member (living or dead) or any famous female who would it be and why? Where would you go? What would you eat?

This is a hard one. I would definitely choose a female family member over someone famous – but which one?

Nora Marie (Kieron) BlackerAfter making a long list of possible lunch companions, I finally settled on my grandmother Nora Marie Kieron Blacker.

Nora was 100% Irish, having been born in Butte, Montana to immigrant parents – her father from County Monaghan and her mother from County Galway. Nora’s mother Kate died when she was only 36 years old – Nora was just a toddler. Sadly, history repeated itself when Nora also died at age 36 leaving my grandfather to raise five children. The youngest was 8 and the oldest was 14. Continue reading →

Hmmm. I thought they always said it was women who lied about their age . . .

~ Lark Dalin Robart ~ Leave a comment
David Lyman Blacker
David Lyman Blacker

This very sophisticated looking fellow is my great grandfather, David Lyman Blacker. He was born in Huntington, Pennsylvania in 1829, the oldest son of Lewis Blacker and Margaret R. (Loury) Blacker.

According to the document below, he married my great grandmother, Ada Cordelia Buchenau, in Doniphan County, Kansas, in 1871. He was 28 years old at the time and she was 18.

Marriage Record: D. Blacker and Ada Buchenau
Marriage Record of David Blacker and Ada Buchenau

Wait – what???  If David was born in 18291, he would have been 42 years old in 1871 – not 28.

Needless to say, the discrepancy between David’s birth date and the marriage record raises a few questions.

  • Was he perhaps embarrassed to marry a woman who was 24 years his junior?
  • Could the clerk have made an error?
  • Did Ada know how old he was?
  • Did Ada’s parents know how old he was?
  • Is David’s birth date of August 29, 1829 incorrect?2

In any event, assuming David was 42 years old and not 28, and he appeared in person to obtain the license, I can only imagine the clerk may have thought he was stretching the truth just a bit.

NOTES

  1. I have several possible birth dates for him, which I posted about here, although none of them would have made him 28 years of age in 1871. ↩
  2. I will do a post in the near future regarding my complete analysis on this point. ↩

Tombstone Tuesday: Gravestone of a Mother and Daughter

~ Lark Dalin Robart ~ Leave a comment

 

Mary and Nora

Gravestone of Mary M. Williams and Nora M. Blacker

Transcription:

Mary W.                                                    Nora M.

WILLIAMS                                               BLACKER

1924 – 1952                                               1902 – 1937

Mary and Nora were my mother’s sister and mother, respectively. They both died very young. Mary was 28 and Nora was 371.

They are buried side by side at Forestvale Cemetery in Helena, Montana. John David Blacker, my grandfather, is buried just to the right of this gravestone.

NOTES

  1. Since the gravestone was laid, we learned that Nora was born in 1900 and not 1902. ↩

Family Friends Friday: Meet “Uncle Tom and Aunt Babe”

~ Lark Dalin Robart ~ Leave a comment
Nora, Tom and Babe Hauser
Nora, Tom and Babe Hauser circa 1922

This is a wonderful photo of my grandmother, Nora Marie (Kieron) Blacker (1900-1937), comfortably lying next to Samuel Thomas Hauser, III (1878-1941) and his wife, Retta Brown (Clark) Hauser (1878-1940).  The Hausers were very good friends of the Blacker family. In fact, they were such good friends that my mother has always referred to them as “Uncle Tom” and “Aunt Babe”.

After their homes were destroyed in the 6.2 magnitude earthquake of October 1935, several members of my mother’s family (10 in all!) lived with Uncle Tom and Aunt Babe in their “mansion” on Floweree. Continue reading →