The Story of Roy Tharp
by
Cecil E. Tharp
Clarence Leroy "Roy" Tharp was born June 5, 1894 in Greene Twp.
Jay County, Indiana, son of Adolphus Pleasant and Viola (Longerbone)
Tharp.
Roy's place of birth was on a farm about one fourth mile north of the
little town of Blaine. The earliest of his memories was of this place. The barn
was made of large hewn logs pinned together with pegs. He also recalled
walking west about two miles to see the Martins, he played with his cousin,
Oliver Martin, and thought Oliver's parents were mean to Oliver. As it was
told to me, when Roy was about five years of age the family was living at
Powers Station. At this place the house caught fire and the family was forced
to hurry from the building to escape the flames. Their home which was
located on the east side of town was totally destroyed. They then moved to
Como staying there but a short time. Again they moved, this time to a farm
he always thought of as his home during the years he was growing up. He
called the farm, the "Farm on Days Creek" and sometimes the "Collin's
Farm". The farm lay about two miles north of Ridgeville, the town he most
often visited.
Roy is said to have attended school at the one room Days Creek
School to the sixth grade, leaving school in that year. In those days a young
fellow was expected to work, first for his father then for the neighboring
farmers and at what ever might turn up to earn a little money. The father
controlled the distribution of what ever earning there was. This would
prevail often as long as the youth remained at his father's home. It was in
these years that Roy established a good reputation as dependable and hard
working which held him in good stead a few years later. Among the
neighbors were his mother's sister's family the Shauvers, the Lays, a
prosperous family of farmers and the old established Collins family. Roy
stated that he had worked for all of them at different times including
Redmans. When he was twenty one years of age he moved with his father to a
farm north of the Mississinewa River west of Ridgeville, Randolph County,
Indiana. By that time Roy had also worked in the Stone Quarry east of town
where he among other jobs operated a Steam Shovel which was used to load
the small rail cars that took the stone to the Crusher. The quarry was rather
large and very deep. Even at this time Roy's father retained a strong hold on
his life and earnings.
In 1916 at the Old Settlers Day picnic Roy met Rosemary Carder for
the first time. at that time, Roy's best friend was his cousin, Harold Shauver.
It seems Roy and Harold had gone together where they met Rosemary and
her friends from Redkey. That day they became well enough acquainted to
arrange to see one another again. From that time on Roy seen Rosemary as
often as possible. On most occasions he drove a horse and buggy from the
farm located one and one eight mile west of Ridgeville to Rosemary's home
located about one and one-half mile south of Redkey, in all it was nearly a
seven mile ride one way. The date would often be a visit at her home and
other times they would take long rides with a horse and buggy belonging to
Roy's Dad.
Rosemary was born at her parents home south of Redkey on
November 25, 1899. Her father, John Abraham Carder, and her mother,
Minerva Alice (Meranda) Carder had moved to the farm west of the Old
Carder Homestead soon after their marriage in 1890 and remained there for
more than forty years. Rosemary attended school at Halfway School which
was perhaps less than half a mile west at the cross roads, where the school
house set on the northwest corner of the intersection. Rosemary finished the
eight grade here, graduating on the twentieth day of June 1916.
Roy and Rosemary's, first meeting was in the last week of
August or first week of September, 1916. Rosemary was sixteen at the time
and had finished her formal schooling. She had no thoughts of going on to
high school which would have been an added expense for her parents.
Possibly she could have gone with her cousin, Marietta.
Marietta Ritter was Rosemary's closest friend even though there were
two years difference in their ages. Together they attended the eight years of
schooling with their cousin Lucy Belle Carder, Lucy Belle was a year older
than Marietta and a year younger than Rosemary. They were cousins,
classmates and close companions. Marietta was the only one to complete
High School at Redkey, graduating in April of 1920. She married Roy's
brother, Ray Tharp on March 15, 1921. There were strong contrasts in the
girls lives. Rosemary was the fourth child of Abe and Minerva Carder and
the third of their daughters. It had been said that she was her father's favorite
child. She had older sisters to help in the kitchen and housework. Rosemary
was often helping her Dad do the milking and such chores that would be of
help to him and her mother. Her mother preferred caring for the chickens
and the working in the garden to housework. Marietta and Lucy were both
the only child of their parents. They were their parents pride and joy being
well provided with the niceties desired by young ladies of that time.
Rosemary put things of childhood behind her in the summer of 1917.
At the age of twenty three, Roy was ready to make changes in his life.
Had the war in Europe and our involvement in it not been the prime concern
of Americans, perhaps Roy and Rosemary would have married and settled
down to housekeeping and started a family. It was not to be, their lives were
not on so simple a path.
On April 6, 1917 the United States declared war on Germany. Few
Wars had ever been more popular. The sound of the recruiter's drum, the
bands, the speeches and the flag stirred the imagination of the crowds
gathering across the nation to hear and be heard promoting our just,
honorable, and most noble cause to wage a war that was to end all wars. In
May the Selective Service Act was passed, that same month Roy was among
the thousands to volunteer for military service. The War in Europe had been
in progress for nearly three years, yet when the United States entered the
conflict it was totally unprepared to supply materials and troops to take any
effective action on the European Continent. Few if any foresaw the forth
coming carnage on the battle fields of France. It would seem that Roy's
action at the time was impulsive.
It was not the first time Roy had thought to
alter his life's work. This seemingly admirable act was an unalterable step into
the unknown, It magnified the awareness of life's uncertainty and the
concerns his family and loved ones had for his well being.
Roy's enlistment record as it is recorded on his Discharge from the
United State Army dated March 20th 1919, states that Roy enlisted May
9th, 1917 at Muncie, Indiana. I have heard no details of the occasion or of
others enlisting at the same time from the Ridgeville area. He did not serve
with men he had known before entering the Army.
There was little time to say farewell to his parents, many friends and
Rosemary. With other newly recruited young men from the district he
boarded the train which was to carry them to Jefferson Barracks, Missouri. I
am not sure the recruits knew their destination at the time they boarded the
train. On the 12th of May Roy wrote post card to Rosemary and said they
would leave Jefferson Barracks for Ft. Bliss Texas soon. On the 14th Roy
wrote they were then on their way to Ft. Bliss which was located six miles
from the Mexican border near El Paso, Texas.
Fort Bliss was the largest Cavalry Post in the United States. It was
near the Rio Grande River which was the natural boarder between the two
countries. Its military posture had for the past five years served to protect
that border and capture the notorious Mexican bandit, Francisco Villa. In the
spring of 1916 the whole of the United States Army and the National Guard
was called out and mobilized along the boarded. Villa avoided capture by an
invading column sent into western Mexico for that purpose, the invading
troops were then drawn back to El Paso. the situation remained static for the
next several months. Early in 1917 Germany, in the event of war with the
United Stated, had stated a desire to aid Mexico in that countries retaking
the territory lost to them in 1848. The initial reaction was one of added
defense in this area even though Mexico was a neutral nation and remained
so throughout the war.
The war effort was generally believed at that time to be of economic
rather than military in character. No ship was available to carry troops to
Europe, even if there had been troops to be transported. In the last 12
months a number of reserve officers had been trained and on May 15, 1917
a series of training camps were opened to prepare additional reserve officers
to first be used as instructors in the organization of new divisions. The early
enlistment in the army numbered 527,000 men. The first men drafted were
not called up until September. When the original plan was developed in
April there was no intention to send any troops abroad until March, 1918.
An urgent plea from France altered the cautious approach to commit
troops. By July 4th units of the 1st Division marched in the streets of Paris
under the command of General John J, Pershing. They were assigned to a
sector between Belford and Verdun where they might do the least harm if
ineffective. As pitifully as the nations military capability was the nation
possessed the will and determination to become all things necessary to
defeat the German army then on the verge of destroying the French forces on
the European continent.
The train ride to Fort Bliss must have taken several days. Troop trains
were notoriously slow and uncomfortable. As stated earlier strategic
planning was re-evaluated with the objective of supplying troops for
overseas duty as soon as possible. The newly arrived recruits had hardly
time to learn the basic commands of soldiering when the unit was ordered to
return to a training camp in the east. Roy had wrote to Rosemary in the 23rd
of May stating he had just returned from a seven mile hike and was very
tired. A week later, on the 30th, they were passing through Fort Worth,
Texas on the return journey east. On the 31st they were passing through
Little Rock, Arkansas. The train required 7 days to reach its destination at
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. At Gettysburg a newly created U. S. Army
Training Camp designated, the 60th Infantry was taking shape. It was a
small part of the current plan to accelerate the war effort. The buildings were
made up of wooden frame structures and were nearly all Mess Halls. The
men were sheltered in large tents capable of sleeping about 8 to 10 men
each. This was the place and the beginning of Roy's basic military training
for overseas duty. The camp's personnel was made up of men with extremely
limited military experience. On June 14th 1917, a few days after having
arrived in camp, Roy having demonstrated early on an aptitude for soldiering
was promoted to corporal and assigned to Company "B" of the 60th
Infantry, when not actively training he was engaged in writing to Rosemary,
regularly expressing a desire to hear from her more often.
There was practically no where to go for diversion. The little town of
Gettysburg had little to offer other than the National Civil War Battlefield
near by. By August he was longing to see Rosemary.
The idea of her coming to Gettysburg and them marrying was the
prime topic in his letters during late August. A letter written August 24th,
1917 proposed the idea that Rosemary and her sister, Maggie, come to
Gettysburg and see him. It was soon clear that neither had train fare nor
means for other expenses. After a frantic and difficult time Roy sent them
train fare and promised money for Maggie's' return fare. The date was
September 12th, 1917. Rosemary would not be eighteen years of age for
another two and one half months, therefore before leaving home she received
consent from her parents to marry Roy. Marriage was planned to occur at
the earliest possible time after her arrival at Gettysburg.
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They were able to rent a room in the home of Charles Lady located at
30 N. Franklin St., Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Roy's greatest problem
became that of obtaining passes to be outside the camp's perimeter. They
were married on his first weekend pass, Sunday, September 29, 1917,
having applied for and received their marriage license and then having the
Justice of the Peace, Jacob A. Appler, perform the ceremony before the day
ended.
The next two and one half months Rosemary roomed and had her
meals in the home of Charles Lady. His family consisted of his wife and two
children, a son and a daughter. In the short time Roy and Rosemary had
before Roy completed his training a close and lasting friendship developed
with this family. Rosemary was fortunate to have their caring friendship
during the many days Roy was unable to be away from camp. It remained
an unending concern to arrange time to be together. On every pleasant Fall
day possible hours were spent in strolling about the National Military Park
with the ever present uncertainty of the time left to them. Maggie did remain
with Rosemary for a few weeks but returned home while
Rosemary stayed to the last moment in which there was a chance Roy would
remain at the training camp and might receive a pass to be with her another
time.
The last day Roy had with Rosemary at Gettysburg was on Saturday
December 15, 1917. She seen him off on the train that day. The following
day, Sunday, Ray arrived at Camp Merritt, Dumont, New Jersey, at 5 o'clock
in the morning. Camp Merritt was in a wooded area and as Roy put it "it
was in a no mans land" away from everything. The camp was near the
Hudson River above the city of New York on the New Jersey side of the
river. The same day Rosemary boarded the train for home.
Early in the month Roy's Company had been assigned to the 5th
Machine Gun Battalion, 2nd Division. There were few if any units that were
thought to be free from danger on the battlefield, but it was well known that
machine gun positions were choice artillery targets, yet I have not heard that
volunteers had been called for in forming the Battalion. They knew that in a
short time the unit would embark on a troop ship for Europe.
On the 20th Roy had heard they were moving to Hoboken, New
Jersey, a port at the mouth of the Hudson River. Then on the 21st he thought
they would leave Camp Merritt on the 23rd. The move came much sooner
than expected for they were on shipboard in the harbor at Portland, Maine
about 200 miles north on the 24th of December that "I am on a large
transport now, don't know just when we will leave, but sometime tonight I
guess. One of the sailors said we were going to Liverpool, England". There
were no letters keep by Rosemary if any were received by her during the
following month.
The German U-boats had successfully operated in the Atlantic for over
3 years and their threat to shipping continued till the end of the war. A new
approach to the problem was proving to have marked success in cutting the
shipping losses during the last few months. Convoying a large number of
ships proved extremely effective, no troop transport was sunk in the crossing
to Europe during the war. When U. S. troops were transported whether in
British or United States owned vessels every precaution was paramount to
insure a safe passage.
The actual departure time from Portland Harbor is uncertain as Roy
stated in a letter that he landed at Liverpool on the 7th of January and the
crossing had taken 16 days. This would mean they sailed on about the 23rd
of December, but it must have been as he stated in the letter of the 24th, they
having sailed on the night of the 24th. Another time he wrote the crossing
was from the 23rd to the 8th. It probably was the night of the 24th till
docking on the 8th at Liverpool. He wrote in one letter "It is use to say we
had a nice voyage over here. It was almost like a fishing trip, every thing was
very quiet. There were seven ships came across, seven sub chasers met us six
days out. I saw a couple of whales and several other queer looking fish. We
landed somewhere in England then took the train to where we are now. The
cars over here are about the size of cigar boxes but oh my they can fly. We
were in box cars part of the time and almost froze". Several weeks later he
wrote "we landed in England and then again in France". What it seems did
happen was that the transport docked at Liverpool on the 8th and there the
troops boarded the train which carried then from the west coast of England
(Irish Sea) to the south coast and the English Channel where on the night of
the 10th of January they boarded another ship for the channel crossing. It
was a rough passage with high winds and waves making it difficult to stand
on deck. They were landed at the French port of LaHarve on the morning of
the 11th. They remained there in an English camp where they had very little
food or shelter for two days.
The letters Roy wrote while on the continent during the next 10
months were heavily censored, as a rule he understood the censoring and
wrote little that was cut from his letters. So from the time of his landing he
did not write the location of his unit. After the fighting ended he tried to give
a report of his experiences and where he had been. I am uncertain that he
spelled the French locations correctly for I find his earliest named sites are
not on the maps I have available. I do believe Bourmount he named was
Beaumont which was about 15 miles north of Paris and about 90 miles east
of LaHarve. From there he wrote they hiked to Nijon. there are a great many
small villages in France that are not on the maps I have, Nijon does not
appear. It may have been Nojon northeast of Beaumont about 35 miles,
perhaps it was in hiking distance. At Nijon they stayed in an old barn.
A letter to Rosemary written on the 26th of January at Nijon, Roy
writes an interesting account of his surroundings and the French people. "I
had written several letters, I don't think you have received any of them. I
know of three I wrote you that you never got, for they came back to me".
"We are located some where in France in a little village and the people over
here are almost one thousand years behind times. They still have the old
horse power, threshing a load of grain one day and the next day run it
through the wind mill to clean it, and the women, they have a big washing
pond in the middle of the village and they all do their washing there by
rubbing it with their hands". "All the people you can see is old men, women
and children and they all wear wooden shoes". "Now I'll tell you how we live
over here. We stay in barns and houses that the people are not using. I've got
a real nice place believe me in a box stall of a barn with a stone floor and a
little bit of straw to lay on, rather a hard bed". Then he writes of his landing
in England, etc. and crossing the Channel which is quoted above. At another
time of reminiscing he wrote of living in the barn and how he had learned to
take his shoes to bed with him to prevent them from freezing, otherwise the
shoes were nearly impossible to put on.
In all they were three weeks at this place, about mid February they
were again moved nearer the front lines, Roy called the place Laffetel, I do
not find it on the map, but it was in an area where they were to get
additional training in trench warfare well behind the front lines somewhere
north of Soisson and Chateau Thierry. It may have been near La Ferre which
lay inside the German lines east of Nijon about 15 miles. They stayed in this
sector until March 27, 1918 when the Battalion moved to the front in a
French held sector. Roy spent his first night in the trenches on the 27th of
March.
Several miles north in the Somme sector the Germans began their
spring offensive to smash the British and French forces before the
Americans could become effective. The battle began on the 21st of March,
the German forces advanced 30 miles before they were stopped on April 6th.
On March 27th a second battle began south of Somme in the Soissons
area. Later Roy wrote of the first experience he had under fire. "The second
afternoon we were on the front I was ordered to take a squad that night and
relieve a sector that the French held. Every thing went fine that night, but the
next day things begin to liven up; the Huns begin to send those big G. I. cans
over, but still I didn't pay much attention to them because I didn't realize
what they were till the evening of April 1st about 6 o'clock. We found out
that one had a direct hit on our outpost and killed one man and wounded
another. One day the Huns fired gas shells and one dropped on his dugout
that night, the dugout caved in and he got up to see what was the matter,
when the boys found me I was laying behind the stove gassed but not
seriously". "Hell went on for 42 days in that sector. I think it was May 15th
when we were relieved". This battle was referred to as "Soissons". Roy wrote
on May the 30th that they had been in the trenches for 45 days.
A map of the battle lines during the Five Great Offensives of 1918"
shows the advance of the German forces over running Soissons an another
town north of it called Nojon. I suspect this is the town Roy had called
Nijon. It would seem the 5th Machine Gun Battalion had been on the
northern end of the Soissons salient (an outward bulge in the lines) caused
by the German offensive begun March 27th and ended June 6th called the
Aisne Offensive. It had caused the withdrawal of French and American forces
some 15 miles on the northern end of the line and about 32 miles at the
center of the salient which had reached the Marne River, a point beyond
Chateau Thierry. The lines had held in the southeast sector at Reims. At the
end of the German advance this salient had a front of nearly 40 miles in
length.
The 5th Machine Gun Battalion was allowed to rest in the rear of the
lines a few days until the Germans began another drive at the center of the
salient near Chateau Thierry on the 30th of May, The French Commander
called on Pershing for help, On the 31st the 2nd and 3rd America Divisions
and a brigade of Marines went into action to support French colonial troops.
The 5th Machine Gun Battalion was on the Chateau Thierry front on June
5th, Roy's 24th birthday, between the 6th and 25th the Germans were
stopped and Belleau Woods near Chateau Thierry was cleared of Germans.
Roy was writing again on the 21st of June "I've been under shell fire most all
the time since the 27th of March. The first 10 days were pretty hot believe
me. I was in where the Germans made their last drive (Chateau Thierry),
there were many a boy last his life. It was awful sight, I had my machine gun
blown all to pieces. I guess the gun was not manned at the moment for he
told of no one being killed though he once mentioned a blast had thrown him
into a trench.
Roy and the 5th Machine Gun Battalion was on the Chateau Thierry front for 15 days. Roy never told much of those battles as he says he was pretty absent minded as to all that happened at the time. When they were
relieved (about the 21st) they were turned loose for three days.
They must have rested for several days and them Roy wrote that one night we were loaded on trucks about dark and the next night we found ourselves in Soissons ready to go over the Top in "No Mans Land". Roy was not sure how long they were there. In July (on the 15th to the 18th) when the German
command made its last great effort to break through to Paris on the south end of the salient, 85,000 Americans checked the German assault. By July the 18th the German offensive was over and the Allies began a counter offensive to liquidate the Marne salient as the bulge was called in the lines around Soissons and Chateau Thierry. By August 6th this salient was wiped out.
Fresh American troops were pouring into the war zone every day, over
one quarter million a month. On August 10th, Pershing for the first time was
directed at the St. Mihiel salient protruding south of Verdun. The salient was
wiped out in 36 hours and Pershing's force was directed to the Meuse-
Argonne area between Verdun and Reims. This battle front was maintained
by American forces till the German surrender on November 11th, 1918.
Roy's unit had been pulled from the Soissons region and was in front of St.
Mihiel on the 13th of September.
On September 13th, on the St. Mihiel front, the 5th Machine Gun
Battalion was again engaged. Roy wrote of this occasion a few days after it
took place saying in his letter to Rosemary, "September 1st. started for the
front, marched 2 weeks to front, (as the crow flies this was about 110 miles)
went over the top the morning of September 13, 1918 and I never, and I,
ever put over such a night as I did that night. We started for the trenches the
evening of September the 12th at 7:00 and it started to rain and it rained all
night and cold O' my. We got to our point, its where we were going over the
top, at 1:30 A.M. that night. And we stayed till five that morning all wet and
cold and at five over the top we went, all got through without a scratch".
This engagement was officially called the St. Mihiel Battle, September 12 -
18th.
The Western Front, 300 miles of battle lines, extended from British
lines near Ostend, Belguin on the North Sea to the American and French
sectors in the Meuse-Argonne fronts. The Allied offensives of September,
October and early November fought and drove the weary but stubborn
German army 40-45 miles to positions inside Belguin and to lines near the
French-Belguin and French-German borders. The 5th Machine Gun
Battalion was moved from the St. Mihiel sector to one a few miles north
called Champagne. This was on the left flank of Pershing's Meuse-Argonne
offensive directed to take the famous fortress at Sedan on the Meuse River.
The Americas were before Sedan on November 7th when the German envoy
crossed the lines requesting armistice terms from the French General Foch.
Roy wrote of the last battle he was in. "The next battle, September
29th, the morning we went over was the last and worst battle I was in. We
went over the Top every morning for seven days and only 62 of use came
back to tell the tale, and I think I got my share of the Huns. He stated he was
sighted for the D.S.C. in that battle.
The French Croix de Guerre with bronze star was given to him for his
bravery, coolness, and initiative under a violent fire of artillery and machine
guns, giving a splendid example to his men. It was his first action after he
was promoted to Sergeant on September 27th, 1918. It would appear that
advance from September 29th to October the 5th had been small hard fought
gains at Somme Py, near the Hindenburg line, where Roy distinguished
himself on the 5th of October. The location was a defensive front the
Germans had established and held since 1914 and where the French and
American battle lines had broken during the 1918 German offensive. It
would seem that both the French and German armies had dug a great many
parallel trenches on their fronts which gave both armies great depth in their
defenses.
Company "B" must have lost half its men in these engagements. The
battle torn Company was withdrawn from the front to recuperate not long
after the Somme Py engagement, probably two or three days before the 9th
of October as the offensive drove through to the Aisne River on that date and
the Champagne hills and the over running of Blanc Mont Ridge in the path
of the advance was well behind them on the 9th.
A letter Roy had written on November 9th stated he was then in
School for officers training, earlier he had a three week course on the
machine gun, he felt he would not have to return to the front as the war was
thought to end soon. It ended on the 11th. Roy said he felt well but was tired
and said perhaps it was because he had done so much since March and had
so little to eat.
Roy was sent to an Army Candidate School with the intention of
receiving a commission. His mailing address on November 9th, 1918 was:
Sgt. Clarence L. Tharp, 17th Co. 5th Bn., American Candidate School,
American Expeditionary Forces, La Valbonne, Ain, France. The Candidate
School was near a town in east central France and north east of Lyon in the
direction of the Switz border. He had a weekend pass in Lyon, he thought it
was very expensive at 2 dollars a meal and 5 dollars for a room for one
night. He had written this on the 28th of November, 1918 some time after he
had been in Lyon. With the war ended he then had but one thought in mind
and that was to return home.
The Americans had fought well and had made the victory possible.
We had paid a very old debt to the French, one inwhich their presents had
been equally decisive in 1781 at Yorktown.
It is probable that Roy wrote many letters in December of 1918 and in
January of 1919, but many have been lost in the mail. It is not clear when
Roy left the Candidate School. as soon as the war ended thousands of
American soldiers were returning to the States and discharged. Hundred of
thousands marched into Germany as an occupying army, many were held in
Casualty Camps for rest and treatment. A letter that failed to be delivered
and was returned to Rosemary dated February 7th 1919 and addressed to
Roy at 1210 Casual Co., Le Mans, France was stamped on the envelope "not
here". His earliest presents there is indicated by a pass he brought home
dated December 22, 1918 which was issued to him at Le Mans. Le Mans is
about 110 miles southwest of Paris and as many miles north or southwest to
the coast. It seems he spent at least six or seven weeks idling away the time
there.
Roy left French soil about the 1st of February 1919 aboard a troop
transport. The ship was an unbelievingly long 30 days in making the
crossing, docking at New York on March 1st, 1919. On March 1, 1919 at 4
P. M. Rosemary received a Day Letter (Telegram) from New Jersey City,
New Jersey to: Mrs. Clarence L. Tharp, R R 1, Redkey, Indiana. "Arrived
safe in New York. Feeling fine. Will write later". Camp Upton, Clarence L.
Tharp Date: 3-1-1919 8:10 AM. He then moved up the Hudson River to
Camp Merritt, New Jersey.
Roy mailed a letter March 6th stating "I think we go to Camp
Sherman Sunday. Seen Ray. On March 8th, Camp Merritt Casual Co., 229.
"I expect to be home by Sunday, March 11th" later "Will not get home as
soon as I expected". On March 15th, Camp Sherman, Ohio. "Arrived here in
Camp about two hours ago. Can hardly wait to get discharged". I think the
nearest route for me will be to go to Columbus, Ohio and take the Penn. R R
to Ridgeville. Will stop to see the folks and then come to see you". March
19th. Roy had heard from Rosemary saying she was sick with the Flu. Roy
writes, "I think it will be best for you not to meet me at Ridgeville. You stay
home till you are well. I'll be over just as soon as I can, I'm not afraid of the
Flu". Roy was discharged on March 20, 1919. The letters stop and few
details have came down in written form since.
INDIANA BOOK
OF
MERIT
VOL. 1V, PUBLISHED 1932, page 728
Randolph Co., Indiana
THARP, Clarence L.
Sergeant, 107433, Company B, 5th Machine Gun Battalion, 2rd
Division
Croix de Guerre with bronze star (France). Order No. 13.296 "D",
February 7, 1919, General Headquarters, French Armies of the East: On
October 5, 1918 near Somme-Py he displayed bravery, coolness, and
initiative under a violent fire of artillery and machine guns, giving a splendid
example to his men.
Record: Born June 5, 1894, Blaine; son of Dolph Pleasant and Viola
(Longerbone) Tharp. Laborer, Ridgeville. Entered service May 9, 1917,
Jefferson Barracks, Mo.. Training; Fort Bliss, Tex.; Gettysburg, Pa.
Assigned to Company B, 7th infantry; Transferred to Company B, 60th
Infantry; to Company B, 5th Machine Gun Battalion. Corporal June 14,
1917; Sergeant September 27, 1918. Overseas December 23, 1917 -
February 28, 1919. Battles: Soissons, Chateau-Thierry, St. Mihiel,
Champagne. Discharged March 20, 1919.
Married Rosemary Carder, Sons, Francis R. Cecil E. Daughters, Celia
E. Thelma R. Residence: Eaton, Indiana.
I was told by Rosemary once that she and Roy first set up house
keeping and lived just a short distance north of Ridgeville on the Lay farm.
The old Lay home was a large house on the west side of the road that ran to
New Mt. Pleasant in Jay County. This was a very large farm, Roy was
farming it to some extent but he was anxious to quit farming and move to
town. It was here that he was kicked by a horse he was mistreating. The
horse would crowd anyone who got into the stall with it and Roy angry with
it hit the horse with a pitch fork. The horse kicked and caught Roy on the
chin knocking him for a loop. The results was that he carried a deep scar on
his chin the rest of his life. Roy's grandfather, Elihu Tharp lived in the
upstairs front bed room of this house while they lived there.
In December of 1920 they moved to 925 W. Jackson St., Muncie,
Indiana. On February 1st, 1921 Rosemary returned to her parents home
south of Redkey and on February 3rd, 1921 gave birth to a son, Francis
Raymond Tharp. Rosemary remained there for three weeks and when feeling
well enough returned to the address in Muncie. In those days it was possible
to ride the interurban, often called the traction line, to a great many towns in
the state and even into Ohio and Illinois. It was a very fast electrically
propelled motor car that ran on tracks. A car could carry 50 or more
passengers at speeds at 60 and 70 miles per hour. The system was
discontinued in 1940. But in 1921 it was the best means of traveling
between towns and Roy and Rosemary took this means of transportation at
that time. The weather had turned very cold over night while Roy was at the
Carders preparing to return Rosemary and their infant son to Muncie. Due to
little or no heat in the house on Jackson St., the water lines froze and broke,
flooding their kitchen floor and wetting other floors. Finding everything
drenched, their joy of returning home was turned to despair. It required
several days to dry the house out. In the mean time Francis was sick much of
the time, they thought, due to the dampness.
The reason for being at the Jackson St. address was Roy had been
hired at the Products Corporation a few months earlier. The factory was
located in the 1200 block on West Eight St., Muncie, Indiana. Here the
corporation made auto parts and built automobile transmissions. Roy's
employment was uncertain, being a new employee even a minor reduction in
production would mean a lay off. When this occurred early in the year of
1922, Roy sought employment in the one place he had old friends,
Ridgeville. He worked for a time at the stone quarry and also the Broom
Factory owned and operated by the Lays. Roy was not happy in Ridgeville,
in addition his war experiences were bothering him. It was apparent the war
had unnerved him, he had changed. It is thought he had experienced a mild
form of shell shock as a result of the many artillery shells bursting near him
on the battle fields.
While in Ridgeville during most of the year of 1922 they lived in a
small house on East Second Street. The house was in the middle of the block
and faced south. Behind the house and laying to the north was the old
Ridgeville College building and its campus occupying two city blocks. The
college closed and was converted to the Lays Broom and Brush Factory a
few years earlier. Several years later (1930s) the State Highway Department
purchased this two city block area and removed all the building including
the house where Roy and Rosemary had lived.
In the winter of 1922 they were again in Muncie, this time at 1221 E.
Adams Street and Roy was again working at the Products Corporation. For
transportation he bought a motor cycle for 75 dollars. Later he sold the cycle
to his brother-in-law, Delver Carder, who rode it while attending High
School at Redkey.
To be closer to work they moved again about the first of the year to
1435 West 8th Street. this was a one and one half story frame of good
appearance on the south side of the street, a short walk west of the Products
Corporation. Rent receipts show the rent was 25 dollars a month, a lot of
money at the time. Rosemary was helping earn a little money by taking in
washing and ironing, a common job often done by women to earn extra
income.
On April 28, 1923 Rosemary gave birth to twins. They were born at
home in the front upstairs bed room. Dr. Clay Ball was the attending
physician. Rosemary's sister, Mae, was present at the birth of the children
and remained to help care for them until Rosemary had regained her
strength and able to take on the care of twins. They were named Celia Elma
and Cecil Edwin by Rosemary. Rosemary's other sister Maggie and Maggie's
husband, John Lambert, came to see the new arrivals. John said, "they look
like a Buster and a Susie". The nicknames stuck, from then on, especially in
the family, it was Buster and Susie or Susie and Buster and years later it was
Sue and Bus. The twins were a bit of a novelty and were often dressed
nearly alike for a year or two. They had their own child's dish, cup, and
silverware and each their own high chair, one a light blue and white and the
other a light buff and white. They were given a new baby bed to share and a
very elegant navy blue wicker baby carriage built extra wide for twins. In
this baby carriage they were conveyed about town and in the parks. As
children Francis, Susie, and Buster had an average number of toys, a wagon
and tri-cycle but they were never spoiled with a surplus of such things.
There was never money and seldom an opportunity for indulging in
extravagance
I have not been able to determine the regularity of Roy's employment
at that period of time, perhaps he remained at the Products Corporation
through 1923 and most of 1924. The family moved to 612 W. 9th St.,
Muncie. This address is on a statement dated May 31, 1924 for: Balance of
20 dollars owed and due June 7th. There was no indication of the nature of
indebtedness.
]Again there is evidence that Roy was not working at his factory Job.
In December of 1924 they were living in a farmhouse near Abe Carder south
of Redkey. This was the B. F. Current farm adjoining Abe's farm on his west
property line. (Sometime later this house burnt to the ground and was never
rebuilt). They were receiving their mail there and continued to do so for the
next several months of 1925. By December or before, they returned to
Muncie and were living at 415 E. Seventh Street. Roy had returned to work
at the factory on 8th Street. Again it is unclear the date they moved again,
but in March they were living at 1103 West 1st Street. In the mean time Roy
and Rosemary was considering buying the house they lived in. Harold
Hobbs Real Estate Company was pursuing this line of thought with them
and on July 10th, 1926 Hobbs made a written proposition regarding the
purchase of the house at 1107 W. 1st Street. He had made a typographic
error, he meant 1103 West 1st. Street. He describes the house as a good
substantial, well built, two story house of seven rooms. Stating this is a very
valuable location, the vacant lot value in this neighborhood was alone worth
1000 dollars. The total price stated was 4500 dollars of which 650 dollars
would be paid in cash with 40 dollars per month due on the 10th of each
month. 7% interest deducted semi-annually. Roy and Rosemary agreed to
purchase the property. To aid in the payments they rented the upstairs to a
couple by the name of Pankey who had one small son, called A. D..
Rosemary continued to take in washing and ironing to earn added income.
Through the remaining months of 1926 and all of 1927 Roy had
steady work at the Products. They were doing rather well and had also
purchased a Dodge Touring automobile. This was a six passenger car with
leather upholstery and a top that folded down. It was a rather fine
automobile. It was perhaps built about 1916. Model designs changed very
slowly in those times so it did not seem like an old car as they were also built
with thick metal throughout the body and did not rust out in a short time as
most did at a later time. For bad weather it was supplied with side curtains
that could be snapped on the sides of the passenger compartment. It had no
heater so was cold and uncomfortable in the winter months.
Not every family had an automobile, or horse and buggy. The latter
had become scarce especially in town, but were still around, evidence of the
horse could be found on the streets, making street cleaning a necessity. As
for getting around Muncie they really did not need an automobile. The city
had an extensive street car system that ran on a regular schedule and was
within a short walk of most city residents. The old Dodge did make it
possible for Roy to drive the family to the country and have weekend visits
at either his or Rosemary's parents home. The visits and dinners were
favored times. Perhaps it was a burden for the old folks to feed so many but
it was never mentioned by them.
Roy and Rosemary begin having second thoughts about buying
property in Muncie. Living there was confining with no opportunity to do
many of the thing they had seen and enjoyed as youths growing up in the
country. They thought of leaving Muncie perhaps because they felt it
sensible and still possible for Roy to drive several miles every day to and
from work, others were doing it.
Again Hobbs Real Estate Company proposed a number of houses, two
in the town of Eaton. The one they liked the most was the one on the west
side of town very similar to the house they were living in at Muncie. In
addition there were 18 lots, one lot having an apple orchard with trees about
20 years of age. There was also a medium size barn, corn crib and chicken
house, all in fair condition. In making the trade they actually would owe less
than before the trade. There was several reasons for this. The streets in the
neighborhood were at times nothing more than muddy tracks. The house had
no bath room and no sewage system, but did have a single cold water line
and faucet with a single drain both connected to the small primitive sink at
the northwest corner of the kitchen. (many people would say zinc for sink,
that probably started because the very early ones were often galvanized or
zinc coated metal basins, later ones were granite ware, iron basins coated
with a thick stone like enamel easily chipped, still later most were light metal
basins coated with porcelain enamel a little less prone to chipping) The sink
drain ran to a field tile that eventually emptied on top of the ground. There
was no central heating. The heat was provided by a coal burning stove in the
center of the living room and a coal or wood burning cook stove in the
kitchen. Out in the yard a stand pipe and spigot provided city water for the
yard and barn when needed. The only toilet was a privy in the back yard by
the alley.
As for electric service the house was wired for the simplest and most
basic ceiling drop lights. These were a pull chain or rotary switch device
built into the light socket which hung from the center of each room. Wall
switches of a rotary type controlled lighting on the front and back porches
and wires running to the barn. The electric supply line at the house was
metered, an exposed knife switch was used to shut off the power to two 30
amp. fused circuits. An installation performed perhaps a dozen years earlier.
One neighbor was still using kerosene lamps for lighting their home.
The Eaton house was constructed during the first decade of the
Indiana Gas Boom. It was large, everything about its design and
construction had made it a very nice summer home but a very cold one in
winter. There was no double construction in floors, walls, windows, doors or
roof. Totally lacking was any form of insulation against wind and cold.
During winter months it was uncomfortably drafty and cold a few feet from
the heating stove. Ice might freeze in any room over night and often did even
in the kitchen.
By 1927 the town in general had already experienced a rapid decline
in population. Factories once there were gone, business of all kinds were
fewer. The hotel was closed and one bank had left town, So much change
had taken place by the late 20s it was difficult to visualize the town had once
prospered.
Some additional history of the property is of interest as it explains
more than was readily evident then or anytime thereafter. In 1887 the gas
and mineral rights of this property were leased by George Koile to William
Flemming of Oil City, Pennsylvania who in turn sold the lease rights to the
Jackson Oil Company of Indiana in 1891. In the mean time George Koile
died. The heirs of his estate sold the family farm containing 85 acres to
Zachariah J. Stanley on November 25, 1892. At that time Eaton was in a
period of growth due to the discovery of natural gas south of town some six
years earlier.
In May of 1893 Stanley Plats the Zachariah J. Stanley First Addition
to the town of Eaton containing and estimated 25.24 acres. A few lots were
sold for home sites, perhaps less than 10% of the 102 lots in the Addition.
The greatest number of lots were sold at a time to speculators believing them
sound investments. There was no houses in the addition in 1893. One gas
well had been drilled on the property and another nearby. The gas was piped
to the houses in the new addition to provide both heat and light. It was sold
for lighting and heating a large house at the rate of one dollar a month. It is
thought that the seven room two story frame house Roy and Rosemary
purchased had been the first house built in the addition. It being built before
1900 perhaps by Stanley about 1895 and did have built in gas plumbing.
The house set on Stanley Avenue, the first street improved in the addition
which ran north from Indiana Avenue, the old Greenville Gravel Road also
called the , Wheeling and Marion Gravel Road. The second street
opened was Russell Street one block west. It ran from Indiana Avenue north
and for a few years continued north beyond the addition to the old farm
house where the Koile family had once lived when they farmed this tract of
land. Stanley, also the owner of this farm house and remaining 60 acres,
may have lived at that farm house for a time before moving to the new one
on Stanley Avenue.
In or about the year 1900 other houses were built along Stanley Avenue. Z. J. Stanley may have
built on lot 5, John Barrett seemed to have built on Lot 9, about 1901, these houses were gone
in 1927 only the foundation remained. On the other corner of North Street and Stanley Avenue,
on Lot 74, a house was built before 1903. This house was probably built by Lemuel and Mary
Scott who also owned the lots between North St. and Indiana Avenue, on the west side of
Stanley Avenue. The Scotts probably built the house on lot 77 which is nearly a duplicate of
the house on Lot 74.
Basically construction in the addition was at a stand still after 1905, except for a house built
on Lot 10 about 1914.
In 1902 William Brattain, a man then 50 years of age, bought lots 12
and 25 for $1750.00 from Earlham College a beneficiary of Z. J. Stanley
who had died two years earlier. Brattain's wife, Mary A., had purchased lot
24 in 1895 for some unknown reason. The Brattains it seems had been
residents in the Eaton vicinity for sometime. After moving into the house on
Stanley Avenue they then one by one purchased 13 additional lots from
disappointed owners (once speculators) at approximately $10.00 per lot, lot
27 was but $5.00. Brattain's daughter, Leoma Rarick, purchased lot 5 in
1922 for $30.00, his suggest that the house once on that lot was then gone
but some improvements remained. The story was told that the Brattain
property had been the location of a livery and dray service. In short it seems
William Brattain keep horses, wagon and buggy for hire. The barn was not
large but could have accommodated four horses and housed a buggy and
harness for various uses as well as saddles. There was evidence across the
alley west of the barn where additional stables in a shed type structure once
existed. The ground is covered by several inches of cinders that once aided
in keeping hose stalls dry. There were 12 lots west and north of the barn that
was well fenced where stock could run loose. The business would have
ended at or before Brattain' death in 1920. There after the barn and other
building received little maintenance.
The town in 1925 ran a small one half inch water line to the house. The old well and pump in the yard near the back porch had then been removed. There was no meter for measuring the
water used. The town water department mailed statements every three
months for an amount of $3.00 due form each residential customer. One
neighbor carried water from the spigot in the yard once or twice a day with
no expense to them or the owner of the spigot. For additional water at the
house a cistern located under the back porch held rain water, this was piped
to a pitcher pump at the kitchen sink, used for laundry, bathing, and
washing hair.
In 1927 Roy and Rosemary agreed to purchase the Brattain house and
lots for about $3000.00. The last lot purchased, lot 26, was not deeded to
Roy until 1948, this lot was one of the total number of lots once owned by
Roy that Brattain or his heir had never owned. Little by little the process
reversed and the old house was left with but 2 lots, 11 and 12, all the rest
again deeded to several individuals.
The house was better than some Roy and Rosemary had lived in up to
that time, in all it was in appearance a very respectable house for that time
and place. Most rural housing in Indiana had not yet received electric power.
There were telephones nearly everywhere and one hung on the wall of the
Eaton property for a short time.
Roy moved the family into the Eaton house in late November of 1927.
He was prepared to drive or ride with others 26 miles every work day to hold
his job at the Muncie Products. A real challenge for both man and machine
in the winter months. All rural roads and even the most traveled roads
between towns and cities were still gravel roads. The gravel road to Muncie
like most would become rough and hazardous, often referred to as
washboard or corduroy like in appearance.
Automobile speeds were nearly always below 40 miles per hour even
when drivers ran with the accelerator wide open as many often did in the
Model T Ford or an automobile in that class. Roy did join others in town in a
system of share the ride. There was also the traction line to Muncie and once
there the street cars provided the necessary transportation out 8th Street. In
all it proved to be and arduous and time consuming task. Roy continued to
drive the Dodge Touring automobile until about 1929 when he traded it for a
used Model T Ford about six years old. This car was enclosed with glass
windows which shut the wind out.
Another problem of some concern at the time of moving, Francis was
in the 1st grade of school and as the school was on the east side of town it
meant a half mile walk across town to get there. When all was settled in,
Francis did walk to school and everyone soon accepted the changes that
moving had brought about. There were neighbors who had older children so
it was not a walk one necessarily made alone. There were four neighbors
rather close by. To he north were an elderly couple by the name of Smith, on
the south were the Ault family with two small children in school, Martin and
Helen, eight and seven years of age. On the west was a family with three
children, Lawrence, Dale and Ruth Lewis ages 17, 13, and 10 years.
Another family with one daughter still at home, Velma age 16 years, who
died of diphtheria there in 1929. The last house south on Stanley Avenue
was the Charles Lamb family with one daughter, Marguerite age 16 years.
The family with whom Roy and Rosemary soon became close friends was
that of Elmer and Pearl Lewis. It was their friendship that resulted in Roy
and Rosemary attending the First Christian Church, 4 years later they joined
the church and was active members thereafter.
One man on the east side of town, Red Dudleston, also had a job at
the Products in Muncie. Dudleston and Roy rode to and from work together
and often did their automobile repairs together in order to keep the machines
running. Many things about the early automobiles needed constant attention,
engine life was much shorter than it was several years later. The same was
true with tires, brakes, belts, clutch, water pump bearing and most moving
parts. These were readily accepted as common maintenance.
During the first two years of residing at their Eaton home all went
well. It was possible to keep a few hens for eggs and young chickens for
frying and after a while a Jersey cow that supplied enough milk so that some
was sold to neighbors at a nickel a quart.
A lot of things had shaped the lives of Roy and Rosemary prior to
1930. The war was the first to drive home the uncertainty of the future and
through the decade following the war the automobile factories had not
proved the source of steady employment that farming had been. On the farm
it seemed however poor a family might be due to shortage of cash there was
always nutritious food, however plain, for the table. Factory work and city
life did not assure one of this ability to provide. Laborers had no say or
protection regarding wages, hours worked, working conditions or job
security. Wages had remained near the same low level they were when the
war ended. Forty percent of the population earned income on the level of
minimal subsistence. It would appear that in speaking of a middle class in
the population of the times very few working for wages could be considered
within that social group.
Farming had been less profitable than before the war and far short of
the war time boom in prices. They had sustained a long period of over
production with the resulting low prices for their farm products. The farmer
and city laborer both had for a very long time been at a low level of
purchasing power. The workers wages had held at about 22.00 to 25.00
dollars a week. In the meantime business profits and the income of the
wealthy and middle class had steadily increased. Yet it was a decade of
general good feeling and often called the roaring 20s.This was a description
of affluent Americans at play and in the market place.
Among the overall changes in life style one must include the freedom
and equality women were feeling and expressing since the passage of the
19th Amendment establishing woman suffrage. Also important was the
Eighteenth Amendment which provided for the prohibition of the liquor
traffic. The Volstead Act reinforced the Amendment by prohibiting all
Liquor containing more than 1/2 of 1 percent of alcohol. This set the stage
for rampant gangsterism and the open flaunting of the law. (The Act was
repealed by the 21st Amendment in 1933, the era of the gangsters lasted a
bit longer.) The decade had been one of rapid change accompanied by poor
management and sense of direction but still in thought of as a time of
unusual prosperity, which reached its climax on October 29th, 1929 and
then collapsed. The Stock Market on Wall Street went into a panic of selling.
What followed was the Great Depression which keep millions in a destitute
state for the next five and some more years. Unemployment spread in a
chain reaction until 12,000,000 wage earners were jobless. The numbers of
unemployment were staggering. The depression was in fact a world wide
financial and industrial decline of unprecedented proportion.
In the small realm of the individual the realization of what had
happened was slow to be felt in its fullest sense. As work of all kinds
gradually disappeared a state of deprivation became evident as one looked
about the community and ones own family relation.
Perhaps the earliest indication of what was to come was already
obvious before the stock market crash. Banks were foreclosing farm
mortgages ever since the war due to the low prices farmers received for
nearly everything they produced. Rosemary's father, Abe Carder, after 35
years of working his own land lost the family farm to the Redkey Bank of
Redkey, Indiana in the year 1928. He was nearly sixty years of age and
forced to start his life over with little to show for a life time of hard work.
The family was left with a team of old horses, one hay wagon, one walking
plow, a two row corn planter, an old disk harrow and a spiked tooth harrow,
a walking shovel cultivator and a row cultivator that could be rode, a hay
mower with cycle bar, hay rake and several more worn out tools, a cow, a
few old hens and a small amount of old household furnishings. The next
nine years of his life was one of poverty.
Throughout the country, proud and self-reliant people were brought
down to the embarrassment of requiring charity. It was visible early in the
neighborhood of the Tharp family. The Aults and Houdeshells who had
seemed poor before soon fell into desperate need. The Smiths next door
eliminated the noon meal. Food became the simplest and often poorest fare.
As family was reduced to such a low state only one thing seemed to
distinguish them apart, cleanliness, they were clean or dirty in their personal
appearance. The vast majority took pride in cleanliness as everything else
seemed to be beyond their power to control.
On February 18, 1930 a daughter, Thelma Roberta, was born at the
Eaton home. Thelma was born on Tuesday evening, earlier in the evening
Roy took the other children to stay at the home of their grandparents,
Grandpa and Grandma Carder, who had moved to a farm near Millgrove,
Blackford County, Indiana. Here they remained overnight encountering a
long evening where all was still and the dark shadows cast by the single
kerosene lamp made its feeble yellow glow unassuring. Francis, Susie, and
Buster missed a day of school the following day but returned that evening to
what seemed a much altered home. Roy's Aunt Carrie Starbuck was brought
in to stay with the family for several days to cook and aid Rosemary in all
that was necessary. The new baby and a strange lady in the house took a
little time to adjust to.
The Products like most manufacturing and industrial companies
began short work weeks and layoffs. The Products finally closed its doors.
The plant reopened several months later and became the Muncie Chevrolet a
subsidiary of General Motors but Roy never returned to this place for work.
As difficult as the early period of the depression was for many, Roy had not
been as unfortunate as several families they knew. He was able to maintain
some employment at the Products until its closing in 1932. He then again
turned to old acquaintance for work. As difficult as it was to be away from
the family Roy out of great need sought work at the Lays Broom and Brush
Factory in Ridgeville. For a short time he worked, roomed and boarded at
Ridgeville and was home on week ends, an unhappy arrangement. It was a
time that additional borrowing took place. In order to keep the home
mortgage payments from becoming delinquent the outlots were put up for
security on a 50.00 dollar loan from the local hardware dealer, Haynes. It
was also a time when an incredible debt was building at the Lambert
Brothers Grocery Store which came to 90.00 dollars at one time. Rosemary
by persistent effort obtained 300.00 dollars in the form of a second mortgage
from the County's surplus school fund, known as a School Fund Loan. Most
bills and loans were carried for several years and they were not totally free of
these old debts until the 40s.
President Herbert Hoover had been unable to turn the economy
around with the usual wait and it will run its coarse approach. As a result he
suffered an overwhelming defeat in the 1932 election. On March 4th, 1933
Hoover turned over the presidency to the democrat, Franklin Delano
Roosevelt. Roosevelt attach the problem of unemployment by a deluge of
innovative government programs presented to Congress for there passage. A
few of which were later declared unconstitutional. As for the unemployed
masses the job programs gave employment and income for anyone in need.
Though the economy was slow to recover people again had a few dollars to
purchase the bare necessities.
Late in 1933, through 1934 and early 1935 Roy worked with and for
a time acted as the foreman of a local WPA work gang. He also was with a
project that built and landscaped the Minnetrista Golf Coarse on North
Walnut Street in Muncie, Indiana These jobs often were demeaning to the
skilled and simi-skilled laborers, even more so for the old middle class white
collar worker. Work projects of all sorts were created, even for the highly
skilled and those possessing unusual talent. Both small and some enormous
construction programs were carried to completion during the few years of
this national effort to return the nation to a normal free economy.
What seemed a very long time the government programs only made
poverty tolerable. The living conditions of the average family was such that
hope was supported as much by the promise of things better rather than by
any real advance toward recovery. It was difficult to replace worn clothing,
shoes and everyday household items. Houses were not painted even when
the old paint had nearly all vanished. House after house was neglected,
through time and weathering they turned dark gray in color. Houses 30
years of age and even less seemed to be ancient through neglect.
By 1935 industry was again attempting to produce goods for a slowly
growing market. As for Roy and men like him, Roosevelt and the Democrat
Congress produced and passed the Wagner Act "National Labor Relations
Act" which allowed labor unions in the work place and gave ever man the
right to join a union. The Act also established by law many needed
protections for employees. It was the beginning of a long and prosperous
labor movement that produced a new class of highly productive laborers,
who as a result was able for the first time to become major consumers of
manufactured goods and products. They finally were able to move into the
market place as the backbone of the recovering economy.
Once the foundation for recovery was established the political
atmosphere was highly stimulated by the amount of social legislation. The
decade of the 30s was a revolution whose goal was the general welfare of all
the nations citizens.
The neighborhood in the vicinity of the Tharps received minor
improvements due to WPA workmen. Some gravel was added to the street
surface and the side ditches cleared. Yet as late as 1937 the extension of
North Street into the Addition was still a very poor street. For several years
the only material used to fill the rough tracts was cinders from the coal
burning furnaces at the Paper Mill south of town. It was black and dusty
material, walking on it resulted in a black coating covering the feet and
ankles. Called the Cinder Road it was the ultimate test for toughness of the
neighborhood children's bare feet. It is true that Vehicle traffic up to that
time did not amount to much. Roy regularly drove an automobile through
out the depression but seldom for pleasure. The only other such traffic was
the German family next door for a short time and an occasional grocery
delivery truck. Rosemary's father drove a team of horses harnessed to a hay
wagon after 1932 and her brother, Dale, keep and old Whippet running part
time until 1937 when he bought a 1937 Ford 60. The street in the addition
was of little concern to the rest of the town as it was visually and by access
remote to the greater community, a persistent problem for the west section of
town.
The greatest recognizable concern for the upkeep of property in the
area was that of Roy Tharp and Charles Lamb who was making an honest effort to
maintain and make the best use of their property. The remaining properties
were becoming very run down. The Lewis family moved away and Sam
Brock, an old Indian, had moved into that house with a daughter, her
husband, Pee Dad Gilmer, and several children. They were an extremely
poor family with no visible means of support other than charity, they moved
away after a couple of years and the Carders moved into this property about
1932. A German family, middle age couple with one daughter, moved into
the Smith property about 1930-1. They were entertainers who performed on
the trapeze. Their English was not very good but were good neighbors. It
was this family that taught Francis and Buster to swim at the old Stone
Quarry southeast of town. They moved away about 1931-2 and Donald
Thomas moved his family into this house. The Ault family also moved away
and was replaced by the Scaggs family who had at the time two children.
Bill Scaggs and his wife, Deliah, were from Kentucky, both chewed tobacco
and snuff. They were poor. Bill had his old automobile upon blocks unable
to buy gas and license plates nearly all the time they were there. When they
moved away in about 1935 a family by the name of Buffin moved in. This
was a family with three rough neck boys and one girl. They were there about
two years then they moved away. For a short time Simon Walin, brother-in-
law of Deliah Scaggs, his wife and son, Donald, lived in the house, then a
married couple without children by the name of Bill and Florence Sheppard
moved in, at times the keep three children by the name of Whitaker,
Marilyn, Richard and a small girl. The Houdeshells left the neighborhood
and that house remained empty until a young married couple, Marion and
Margaret Clawson moved into the house. By hard work they made it livable.
The first decade that Roy and Rosemary lived in Eaton was without
question as difficult as their first decade of married life. Of all the many
times that their future was beyond their means to perceive it was their ability
to sustain an equilibrium which was perhaps remarkable. The vary nature of
the times tried the endurance of all people, the unbroken will to succeed
lifted many above others who lost jobs, homes, and often their health. It was
those broken spirits that made the times most memorable.
There was no doubt that Roy and Rosemary could face hardship and
work through difficult times. They were the product of parents that had lived
through many hardships. When they arrived in Eaton they had an idea of
what could be done with what they had bought. Their labor and little else
was the balance of their resources.
The six lot field west of the barn was fenced and had a chicken house
in the center of the field and a corn crib near the barn. The crib was not used
for anything for three or four years, but the chicken house was soon supplied
with hens for the purpose of producing eggs. Early in the spring 50 or more
chicks were bought and crowded into the corner of the chicken house under
an oil burning brooder. This remained an annual practice for several years
with the assumption that it was profitable. One year when Francis took 4 H
and it was required to keep a full accounting of costs it was discovered that
the value of the young fries was hardly equal to the cost incurred. In about
1934 no more chicks were bought to raise and by 1936 the chicken house
went out of use. In the mean time Roy moved the old corn crib to the west
end of the orchard and used old lumber to remodel the crib by adding built-in-cages to house rabbits. This lasted for a couple of years but also given up
when the rabbits showed signs of sickness.
The fenced lots west of the barn was also a pasture for the Jersey cow. At
the time livestock in town was not uncommon. The limited pasture lands
was the usual deterrent, where pasture was not fenced a cow would often be
staked out. The cost of keeping live stock in town was further restricted by
the need to purchase additional feed such as hay and grain, making it a very
marginal operation. Never the less the cow remained the source of milk until
about 1935.
Roy's knowledge of carpentry was further put to use whenever the
urge to remodel the existing structures came about. The interior of the barn
was divided by a partition and the north end made into a stable with a single
stanchion for milking the cow. Added to the north end of the barn was a
small shed where coal was kept. The coal was daily carried to the house in a
coal bucket during the heating season. The next structure north on the alley
was the privy, outhouse, a strictly utilitarian two holler. This building
remained in service for a long time, until a bath was built inside the home
about the year 1939.
When the house was built an open porch extended nearly the full
width at the back of the house. Opposite the house on the west side of the
north end of the porch a summer kitchen stood, this 20' X 20' building was
commonly used on wash days and where the canning of fruits and
vegetables was carried out in the hot summer months. Something of note is
that during the years this and all the other out building stood, they were
never given a coat of paint. This summer kitchen was taken down and the
lumber used to enclose the north-end of the back porch as early as 1935.
Why is not certain, unless the old roof and other things were in need of
extensive repair. Within the next two years the south half of the barn was
torn down and the partition taken out. A shed roof structure replaced the
south half of the barn . Thereafter the building was used exclusively as a
garage. About the same year that chickens proved unprofitable the chicken
house was moved to Abe Carder's property where they used it for a hen
house for a few years.
By 1935 Roy had applied for work at several
factories. That year he worked far a short time at the Chrysler Plant in New
Castle, Indiana. He rode to and from work daily with others from Eaton.
Later the same year Warner Gear at Muncie hired him as a Faye Lathe
operator. His employment was relatively steady for the next few years. For
the family a brighter outlook was soon evident, In 1936 Roy and Rosemary
bought the fist new automobile, a standard Chevrolet, whose price tag was
$625.00.
Earlier they had an old Dodge coupe which Roy sold to his
brother Roe. He then bought another Dodge. This automobile was about a
1929-30 model unusually large with two added jump sets in the passenger
compartment. It was probably thought at the time of purchase suitable for
transporting workers to the Chrysler Plant. After a short time it was
discovered that the engine had a cracked block. This was then traded for the
1936 Chevrolet. The record regarding automobiles for the next ten years is
that this Chevrolet was wrecked in 1939 and was replaced by another new
Chevrolet, a 1939 model. A slow down at the Warner Gear factory made it
difficult to make timely payments on this car so Roy sold it to Albert Sayers,
Carrie Starbuck's son-in-law, and Roy's foreman at Warner Gear. Roy then
bought a 1935 Auburn Model 635. This was a unusual automobile made at
Auburn, Indiana. It was the family transportation for the next 7 1/2 years.
Early in 1947 it was traded for another novel automobile, a new 1947
Hudson, which was bought for about 1200 dollars.
While returning to something resembling a brighter yet unpredictable
future, Roy in 1937 bought the old Johnson Shoe Repair Shop in the 200
block of East Harris Street with the thought that the business might add to
the family income. The business it was thought would not be so demanding
that he would not be able to keep the repair work caught up by working at it
one or two hours a day and being there on Saturday. It also provided an
opportunity for Francis to learn the business and have spending money.
Francis was then nearly seventeen and had a wide interest in the activities of
others his age which when satisfied required a source of income. Though
this shoe repair business was never lucrative an honest effort was made to
provide good workmanship. Additional machinery was even purchased to
modernize the half soling of shoes. About 1939-40 the shop was moved to
downtown and was sold when further interest in the business faded. Francis
after graduation from High School in the spring of 1939 sought a more
gainful employment elsewhere and then later in the year enlisted in the Army
Air Force. This was the only attempt Roy made to own and operate a
business.
It was in March of 1937 that the Labor Union was organized at Roy's
place of employment. This was made possible by the Wagner Act and the
current realization by labor that without organizing nothing would be gained
for laborers in the economic and political realm of this society. The Labor
Union over the following years did prove to be of great benefit to the
employees and the general improvement in the standard of living for the
population of the nation as a whole. When prejudice regarding rights of
labor was recognized as an effort to exploit this human resource the struggle
to lift the worker out of his uncertain and drab existence became a
paramount endeavor of organized labor. These remarks would seem out of
place in this narrative if it was not the turning away from the past
subservience that altered the future. Where ever labor made gains the
community soon reflected the rising living standards of all. Life itself in the
human existence is governed by a mixture of compassion, prejudice and self
interest. Justice in social relationships when dictated by one over another
with out guide lines based on a high degree of mutual understanding and co-
operation deteriorate into injustice with the results that long existed in all
past ages and firmly established early in the industrial age. The denial of that
fact is to return to the past and servitude. The belief in this fact makes
possible a fair and respected place for all in the social make up of a nation.
The years that Roy and Rosemary lived from 1937 until their deaths
was shaped by war, enormous economic growth, shift in social recognition
and government acknowledgment of its duty to promote the welfare of all its
citizens throughout life. The direction of government and the strength of the
labor movement together gave Roy and his family an unprecedented share in
the economic wealth of the worlds most prosperous nation.
The year 1940 was one of growing concern with this country's
involvement with the warring countries in Europe. For several years
Germany had concentrated its efforts in regaining its once dominant military
power. Germany and Italy were forcefully extending their borders by armed
force. On September 1, 1939 Germany in a lightning attach over ran Poland
in only two weeks. When the hope of avoiding war was gone, France and
Great Britain declared war on Germany September 3, 1939. An unprepared
France and Great Britain was no match for the German war machine. By
June of 1940 Germany and her allies had over come all organized military
resistance on the European Mainland and was directing her efforts for
conquest of northern Africa and England.
The government of the United States believing that the Axis Powers,
Germany and Italy, were a threat to the western hemisphere did in March of
1941 legislate the Lend-Lease Act. This law allowed the President to lend or
lease American resources to any nation whose defense he considered to be
necessary to the defense of the United States. The Soviet Union became a
recipient in this Lend-Lease program after Germany's invasion of that
country in June of 1941. On December 7, 1941 Japan attack the United
States military bases in the Pacific. The American people were stunned at
the realization that we were at war and as unprepared as France and Britain
had been in 1939. It was felt that enemy military might even assault the
coast of the United States.
The world events through the years from 1939 to December of 1941
were closely followed and viewed in respect to the future of Tharp family
members and their possible military involvement. As early as the time of
Francis's enlistment it was felt by alert realist that the United States would
inevitably be drawn into the European conflict. It seemed as if history was
repeating itself. As time passed, years, months and even days prior to
September 1, 1939, it was evident that France, England and the United
States lacked the will to forcefully restrain the aggression of any military
nation, thus giving unbound confidence to the aggressors and setting the
stage for World War II.
Susie and Buster graduated from High School on April 12, 1941.
Truly facing the unknown.
In the month of May Germany turned its military might to the
invasion of the eastern European countries with remarkable success and on
June 22, 1941 attack Russia coming close to success by the years end with
her forces 600 miles inside Russian territory all along the entire front.
In the 1930s the radio had became a household fixture taking a
prominent place in most homes throughout the country. War news on
December 7, 1941 flooded the air waves bringing news of destruction to our
Navel and Air Forces in the Pacific by Japan. War against the Japanese in
the Pacific and the other Powers in Europe was a reality. There was shock
and frustration with our inability to respond with equal force. The war
became very personal in families across the nation as men were called for
military service. The majority of men of military age eventually did serve his
country during the war.
Basically the people had wished to avoid war on the European
continent. The greater number were traditional isolationist. Some earlier
Presidents, William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt, at the turn of the
century had lead the nation in forcefully acquiring bases and extending its
military presence in Central America and the broad expanse of the Pacific
Ocean. It was the latter where our presence lead to the Japanese attack on
December 7, 1941. The fallacy held by the American people was that Japan
would never, under any circumstance, dare attack the United States.
In any given epoch an event will stand out and perhaps control the
lives of a people. The depression of the 30s had done that and now in the
40s a second world war towered over all else in the lives of the people. The
nation directed all its energy and resources as well as its man power to
overcome the enemy. But time was needed to produce a war machine that in
nearly ever aspect had to be built and then furnished with modern
equipment. New factories had to be constructed and the conversion of old
ones had to take place as rapidly as possible. The tools for war had to be and
was amassed. It would seem at no time was there ever a greater surge of
industrial development and growth on a national scale in all the history of
man.
The industrial might of the nation was feed government contracts on a
financial system of cost plus 10 %. The national debt rose, industry and all
engaged in war related manufacturing reaped enormous profits. Everyone of
working age who was not in the military service could find employment.
Women filled vacancies left by men entering military service. (This opening
up of the male dominated industrial trades to women had the most lasting
influence in the lives of U. S. families. women did not return to her
traditional roll of homemaker in the numbers one might have thought they
would following the War).
Warner Gear received government contracts for its transmissions.
Overtime and seven day work schedules soon became the norm. In a short
time shortage of civilian goods and rationing reduced the amount of
purchasing in the civilian sector. Most employed on the home front earned
more than they spent and built up fairly large savings through the purchase
of War Bonds. Price controls were adopted and enforced to prevent run
away inflation. Such controls with rationing stabilized the civil economy.
With an overwhelming sense of patriotism the development of a Black
Market never became well established.
Francis was stationed in the Panama Canal Zone soon after his basic
training and remained there for nearly four years. He had been in an area
vital to the war effort but had never come under enemy attack, then sent to
Kelly Air Force Base near San Antonio, Texas., where he remained until the
end of the war having performed a vital roll. He advance to the rank of
Sergeant First Class.
Buster with the knowledge that military duty was in his not to distant
future never the less sought employment in the local industries soon after
graduating from High School. At the same time events had not brought but
slight growth to local industries. Interested in the field of aviation, Buster
enrolled in a course at the Swallow Airplane Company, a training school, an
introduction to the manufacture and maintenance of aircraft. The course was
one with a narrow goal in mind, one which provided a student 30 days of
basic forming, riveting and assembly of sheet metal parts. The course was
completed on July 14, 1941, in all an out lay of nearly 160.00 dollars. This
school was located at Wichita, Kansas where several aircraft factories were
producing aircraft for the military. They at the time, were not hiring new
employees. If they had been it is likely Buster would have remained there.
He returned home in the last week of July and finally applied for work by
mail at the Glenn L. Martin Aircraft Factory of Baltimore, Maryland. Their
reply was that he was to report to the company for employment in the last
week of August 1941. His first work day at the plant was Friday, August 29,
1941. At the time Susie was enrolled in the International School of
Business, Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Even though the country was not yet at war these were not normal
times. Pressure to move toward an active state of war was present. Roy and
Rosemary were not promoting or encouraging any particular course of action
for their children, they were never inclined to give advice pro or con in such
matters, in silences events took them on uncertain paths.
Everyone might be said to be a product of their time, molded by social
and economic conditions as well as personal experience. The three older
children of Roy and Rosemary were of an age that felt and often shared
emotions fostered by difficulties in the years of the Great Depression. In
1941, when relief from that experience was coming about there was an
honest desire of the children not to prolong the drain of the family's finances.
It was not necessary to state established conduct generally understood in
those days, one should be self reliant and act responsibly in the path one
takes. One basic fact had not changed as the children were growing up and
family income improved, money continued to be in short supply. It was
hardly possible to accumulate even meager saving. Any adventure was
complicated by financial problems. The family income, Roy's' was the only
one, was all that might fund school expenses. Any such use of family funds
subconsciously implied an obligation to repay when able. Planning
developed as outside events tugged one way then another. It is best to state
each family member was caught up with the times as both participant and
spectator. One can not assume or suppose what course each might have
taken in another time.
The personal chronicle of each of the family members reveals the
nature of the instability of the times.
Buster did report to Glenn L. Martin Co. and went to work in the final
assembly department manufacturing the B-26, a medium bomber. It being a
new design with greater speed and armament as compared to models in
service. When he arrived for work only a few of these planes had left the
plant for testing, none had yet been issued to the Army Air Forces. The
proposed schedule of three aircraft per day was not reached for several
months.
Buster was paid 55 cents an hour for the first 4 weeks. His room and
board at 5939 York Road totaled 12.00 dollars a week leaving but 10.00
dollars for all other expenses. Pay raises of 5 cents and hour occurred ever 3
or 4 weeks until 1.00 dollar an hour was reached. By December of 1941 overtime
was not unusual. After the declaration of war early in December, a 7 day
work week was common with periods of overtime added on week days. With
the greatly increased work schedule it was possible to earn the enormous
sum of 74 dollars a week in the spring of 1942. Through necessity a frugal
way of life was maintained even when earnings rose.
Among other vaguely perceived plans the though that any money
saved might be used for future education.
By April of 1942 it was clear that
soon military service would take priority over all else. This fact and the news
that Francis would be home on a 30 day furlough in June seemed to justify
returning to Indiana. The last of May was set as a good time to return home.
Buster had no thought of waiting to be drafted and chance infantry combat.
About the 1st of June both Francis and Buster were home. By the time
Francis returned to service the many good times had depleted saving
drastically.
Buster applied for work at Warner Gear Corporation, Muncie, Indiana
and went to work there in the first week of July 1942 at the improved wage
of 1 dollar and 37 cents an hour. The occupation, Mill and Drill operator,
was totally different from work at the aircraft assembly plant. This work was
based on operations performed repeatedly at a high rate of speed. His
optimism remained high as the monetary compensation was substantially
above average for those in the labor force. The immediate goals were to
replenish savings and secondly investigate the military services, particularly
the navy. It was a time of waiting for events to dictate a course of action.
Warner Gear was not yet in full production, a great amount of their
foreseeable production was to be an adaptation of standard automobile and
truck transmissions to military use. By October production for the civilian
market virtually ceased. During the time needed to turn to a full military
production schedule a reduction in the labor force took place. Buster after 3
months of steady employment was laid off and was not recalled to work for
several weeks. In the meantime he received notice from the local draft board
to register for military draft. December 1, 1942 he received orders to report
on the 8th for preliminary examination for physical defects. On that date he
was place in Class 1-A subject to military conscription at a time and place of
the draft-boards discretion and military necessity. With these facts of the
situation settled, Buster applied for Naval Air Cadet training at Muncie's
Navy Recruiting Office. He passed the initial scholastic and physical
examination and was directed to appear for further examination at the Naval
Recruiting Center, Board of Trade Building, Chicago, Illinois. A small group
from the Muncie area arrived in Chicago on the 11th and reported at the
Navy's Recruiting Center. On the morning of the 12th with hundreds of
additional recruits, 2 days of written and oral examinations were conducted,
followed by an extensive physical examination. Those passing were ordered
to report the following morning, December 4, 1942, to take the oath and
officially enlist in the Naval Reserves, Naval Air Cadet Training, V-5
Program. After all these things were accomplished stagnation set in.
Believing that active duty was imminent a call to return to Warner Gear was
responded to with the reply that Buster had enlisted in the Navy.
One year after the declaration of war, military centers were flooded
with recruits. Programs such as the Navy's V-5 Program was greatly over
recruited. Thus unknown to these enlistees they were to have long periods of
inactivity before called to active service. A total of 9 months and 13 days of
unproductive time and uncertain waiting transpired after December 14,
1942. Buster was called to active duty on September 27, 1943.
In the meantime during the summer of 1943, Susie, still in secretarial
school and working part time in the office of a small company in Fort
Wayne, came to the decision to enlist in the Naval Reserve, the Waves. She
was among the first in Delaware County, Indiana to enter this service. There
was a considerable amount of notice taken of the group of young women
who left for the Navy at that time. Her final processing and oath was
accomplished at Cincinnati, Ohio on the 18th of June 1943. She was in basic
training at Hunter College, New York, N. Y. Her initial impression of the
experience was mixed. The early military training was not severe and the
making of many friends was made easier by the state of mind common to the
recruits thrust among strangers and unfamiliar surroundings. She was not a
stranger to being away from home so avoided a severe case of homesickness.
Her training for duty was in the medical service, Navy's V-10
Program, as a hospital assistant. Upon completion of school Susie was
assigned to duty as a Hospital Assistant assigned to the Dental Clinic. She
was for a time stationed at the Dental Clinic, Marine Air Force Base, Cherry
Point, N. C. and later at the Naval Station, Norfolk, Virginia. While
stationed at Norfolk she married Joseph Castelo on November 14, 1944 and
was granted a discharge from Naval Service on the 20th of December 1944.
She and Joe made there home in S. Norfolk, Va. to them was born a son,
Joseph Jr., on the 15th of July 1945.
On August 10, 1945, the war was over, Japan sued for peace. Joe was
discharged the 17th of October 1945, having served in the Navy 3 years, 6
months, and 5 days. Their residence was in Astoria, Long Island, N. Y. for
several years, during that time Joe was employed at his brother's Dental
Laboratory.
Clarence L. Tharp lived for another 28 years and Rosemary survived him 10 years. After the children all left home their story took a leisurely pace, one to yet be wrote.
BIOGRAPHY
OF
CLARENCE LEROY THARP
Randolph County, Indiana 1818-1990
Randolph County History Book Published 1990 page 651
CLARENCE LEROY THARP, "Roy" was b. near Blaine, Jay Co., In. on
June 5, 1894, son of Adolphus P. and Viola (Longerbone) Tharp. (For his
ancestry see Adolphus P. Tharp this History).
Our subject was reared and educated on the family farm and in the one
room school system of southern Jay Co. The Tharp family removed to a farm
west of Ridgeville in 1916. On May 9, 1917 Mr. Tharp enlisted in the U. S.
Army. His distinguished service in World War I is recorded in the "Indiana
Book of Merit" (pub. 1932). He was discharged with honors on March 20,
1919.
Mr. Tharp m. Rosemary Carder, daughter of John Abraham and Minerva
A. (Meranda) Carder at Gettysburg, Pa. on Sept. 29, 1917. Mrs. Tharp was
b. Nov. 25, 1899 and reared south of Redkey, Richland Twp., Jay Co., In., a
community of related family, many who come there from Taylor Co., Va. in
the 1850s. Mrs. Tharp's mother Minerva A., was b. Oct. 18, 1872,
McDonald Co., Mo., daughter of James and Jo Anne (Addington) Meranda.
Being an orphan at the age of 14 she was removed to Jay Co., In. in 1886,
where she m. John A Carder Oct. 19, 1890. Her parents were reared near
Ridgeville and migrated to Missouri where they were m. at Pineville, Feb. 6,
1868. James Meranda was the son of Robert L. and Mercy C. (Davis)
Meranda who upon leaving Clark Co., Oh. settled south of Ridgeville in
1849. James b. Mar. 17, 1844, Ohio d. Aug. 3, 1886 Missouri. The Meranda
ancestors were for several generation frontier families of Pennsylvania,
Kentucky, and Ohio. Jo Anne Addington, daughter of Joab and Barbara
(Harshman) Addington, b. near Ridgeville, Jan. 13, 1853, d. Jan. 11, 1884
in Missouri. Her father was b. Aug. 29, 1814, d. Feb. 6, 1853, son of
William and Elizabeth Addington. William and his son John Addington were
co-founders of Ridgeville in 1837. William and sons John and Joab, are
buried in the Ridgeville Cemetery on Race Street. (Histories of the Meranda,
Addington, and Harshman Families exist).
Mr. and Mrs. Tharp resided in and near Ridgeville a short time before
moving to Muncie and then in November of 1927 to Eaton, Delaware Co.,
In., where they resided thereafter.Their children were Francis Raymond,
Celia Elma, and Thelma Roberta.
Mr. And Mrs. Tharp both retired from Warner Gear Div. of Borg Warner
Corp. in 1959 and 1961 respectively. They became members of the Eaton
Christian Church in the early 1930s. Clarence L. Tharp d. Mar. 27, 1974
and the beloved wife and mother, Mrs. Rosemary (Carder) Tharp d. July 16,
1984. They are buried at the Garden of Memory north of Muncie, Delaware
Co., In. Authored by Cecil E. Tharp & Submitted by Sharon Sue Morris
BIOGRAPHY
OF
ADOLPHUS PLEASANT THARP
Randolph County, Indiana 1818-1990
Randolph County History Book Published 1990 page 650
Adolphus Pleasant Tharp, represents four generations of the family to
reside in Randolph Co. His earliest Tharp ancestor on American soil was
Jacob Tharp Sr., native of northern England. b. Dec. 17, 1744, m. Phebe
Crawford, daughter of William Crawford, of New Providence, NJ., Feb. 4,
1767. Their children: William C., Abigail, Jacob Jr., Levi, Elihu, Huldah,
Isreal, and Phebe II. Jacob Sr. d. July 2, 1793, Fayette Co., Pa. The mother
Phebe, d. near Pekin, Tazwell Co., IL. Sept. 10, 1827.
Jacob Sr.'s son,Isreal, was b. 1790, Fayette Co., Pa. When a young man
Isreal moved to Kentucky and there m. Avis Johnson, Mar. 5, 1813, Bath
Co., Ky. Avis b. 1794, Pennsylvania. In the year 1819 their fourth child,
Greenbury Tharp was b. soon there after the family moved to Champaign
Co., Oh. In 1825 Isreal moved the family to Randolph Co., In. Where
descendants may be found to this day. Their children: Aleznah, Jacob, Isreal
Jr., Greenbury, Daniel, Hannah, Rebecca, Avis II and Rachel. Isreal d. May
29, 1850 and was buried on land he purchased from the government, Dec.
15, 1831, in Section 10, Nettle Creek Twp.
Greenbury Tharp m. Rebecca Eliza Hunt, daughter of Isaiah and Nancy
(Hargrove) Hunt, July 19, 1843 in this county. Their eldest child, Elihu, was
b. in Nettle Creek Twp. on May 2, 1844 followed by Daniel, Allison, Mary
A., Martin V. B., Malissa J., Theodore, Lorinzo, Luzena, and Laura. The
family residence was in or near this vicinity for some 30 years before moving
to Jay Co., In. Rebecca Eliza d. in 1895 and Greenbury d. July 29, 1897.
Both are interred at the Green Park Cemetery, Portland, In.
Elihu Tharp m. Rachel A. Truax, a daughter of John and Sarah
(Wrightsman) Truax of Dalton Twp., Wayne Co., In. on Nov. 24, 1867.
Their children: Adolphus P., Lillie J. Ora Mae, John, Ward, Pearl, Lena,
Martha Carrie and Hazel. Rachel A. d. July 23, 1917, Elihu d. Oct. 9, 1925
from injuries received at Ridgeville where he was struck down by an
automobile. They are buried at Center, Jay Co., In.
Adolphus Pleasant "Dolph" Tharp, was b. Oct. 24, 1868 this county and
m. Oct. 23, 1892, Jay Co., In. to Viola Longerbone, b. Nov. 13, 1875, Ohio.,
daughter of Abraham and Ann (Taylor) Longerbone. They farmed for
several years in Jay Co. before returning to Randolph Co. to continue the life
of farming in Franklin Twp. Their children: Clarence Leroy, Lawrence
Raymond, Alta M., Guy A., Martha R., Gladys E., Clara E., Roe D., Jay W.,
Agnes, Myrtle Delee, and Mable Marie. Viola d. at Ridgeville, Aug. 2, 1940
and Dolph d. Sept. 18, 1949. They are buried in the Lawndale Cemetery
near Ridgeville. Submitted by Cecil E. Tharp
BIOGRAPHY
OF
ROE DALE THARP
Randolph County, Indiana 1818-1990
Randolph County History Book Published 1990 page 651
Tharp-Wooters,
Roe D. Tharp, son of Adolphus P. and Viola
(Longerbone) Tharp was b. Apr. 9, 1910, in Jay Co., In. He grew up on a
farm northeast of Ridgeville with his 11 brothers and sisters.
Frances L. Wooters, daughter of Acey and Viola (Hoffner) Wooters, was
born b. Sept. 18, 1914, in Geneva, In. The family moved to Ridgeville when
Frances was a child.
Roe and Frances were m. Oct. 29, 1932, at the Methodist Church in
Winchester, In. They made their home in Ridgeville and became the parents
of five children: Jack, Joyce (Mrs. Richard Stewart), Jerry, Bill, and Rex.
In 1955, Roe, Frances and the four youngest children moved to Adams
Co. near Monroe, In. where Roe was engaged in farming. Upon retirement,
Roe and Frances moved into Monroe.
Roe d. at his home on Dec. 26, 1983, after a long battle with cancer.
Frances d. May 16, 1989, at the Adams Co. Hospital following surgery.
They are buried in Lawndale Cemetery near Ridgeville, In. Submitted by
Jack Tharp Rt. 2, Union City
BIOGRAPHY
OF
JACK ROE THARP
Randolph County, Indiana 1818-1990
Randolph County History Book Published 1990 page 651
Tharp-Bristow,
Jack Roe Tharp, son of Roe D. and Frances (Wooters)
Tharp,. was b. June 14, 1933 in Ridgeville, In. He grew up enjoying hunting,
fishing, and the simple life that a small Randolph Co. town offered. He
graduated from Ridgeville High School with the class of 1952 and
immediately found employment with the Westinghouse Corporation in
Union City, In.
From 1953-1955, Jack served with the U. S. Army, being stationed for
the most part in Germany. Upon discharge from service, Jack returned to his
job at Westinghouse.
Nora J. Bristow was b. June 27, 1936, in Muncie, In. daughter of Weslie
A. and Nora (Melton) Bristow. She moved with her parents to a farm in
Jefferson Twp., Jay Co., In. in 1945. She was graduated from Gov. I. P.
Gray High School in 1955.
Jack and Nora were m. July 2, 1955, at the new Mount Pleasant
Methodist Church in Jay Co. They moved to Ridgeville for a short while, but
Nora did not adjust to "city" life, so they purchased a small farm south of
Portland, In. In 1960, they purchased the farm, where they still live in
Jackson Twp., Randolph Co. near New Pittsburg.
Their lives have been blessed by four children: Jack Westley, Lavona,
Linda, and Charles. Presently there are six marvelous grandchildren: Travis,
Seth and Matthew Tharp; Casey McDavid; and Tyler and Kayla Smith.
Jack retired from Westinghouse/A.O. Smith in 1988, after almost 36 years of
service. Nora is a fifth-grade school teacher at West Side Middle School in
Union City. They are members of the New Pittsburg Chapel Church of God.
At this point in their lives, they are convinced that the best title a person can
have other than Christian is Grandpa and Grandma. Submitted by Jack
Tharp
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Last update 5-12-04
WebMaster Cecil E. Tharp cetbus2@juno.com
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