Category Archives: 1878 The Wolff`s Den Roots

1974 LITTLE LEAGUE

1974 FEBRUARY

1974 ROBERT`S PLACE
1974 ROBERT`S PLACE

It didn`t take long after the snow storm, for Mother and Dad to decide that a move was inevitable! They ended up on the north side of Indianapolis at 62nd street and Benford Avenue. After 22 years, this would definitely shorten the drive to work!

1974 Feb-Roberts Place IndyAnother advantage was the elimination of the steep, long and winding driveway. This was still a rambling ranch style on a level lot.

74 debMeanwhile, we were still enjoying the goofiness of square dancing as we tried to maneuver while keeping  our feet in shoe boxes!

 

 

1974 MARCH

1974 GRANDPA & GRANDMA BARRETT
1974 GRANDPA & GRANDMA BARRETT

Right on schedule, Grandpa and Grandma Barrett came down for a visit and to see the new house.

An unusually warm spring brought out the early rose blooms.

 

 

1974 5TH GRADE
1974 5TH GRADE

We were able to pass on the kids school pictures to their great grandparents while they were here.

 

 

 

 

1974 3RD GRADE
1974 3RD GRADE

 

Debbie was in the 5th grade and Greg was in the 3rd grade. They finally managed to get a smile out of him this year!

 

 

 

 

 

1974 APRIL

1974 GREG WOLFF
1974 GREG WOLFF

Franklin Little League try outs for the draft were held this month. Greg was picked up on a minor league team sponsored by Frank Campel Painter.

 

 

 

I was still in charge of the T-Ball League, and was busy organizing try outs and the players draft. Carole was active, volunteering time to the concession stand. We both, along with Debbie, spent a lot of our time at the ball park during the summer.

1974 THE WOLFFS
1974 THE WOLFFS

We did take some time to visit Grandma Wolff at the nursing home in Indianapolis. She would turn 90 years old this December, and was still sharp as a tack. She continues to avidly read her romance novels and watch the soaps on TV. Rheumatoid arthritis has handicapped her somewhat, necessitating the use of a walker.

1974 MAY

1874 NEW SIDING
1874 NEW SIDING

Updating The Wolff`s Den is a constant operation. This summer we all pitched in to add new siding to the garage and family room. New paint theme from green to brown. Cedar shake shingles to be added to the gable peaks.

 

 

Taking the summer off from school this year. We need more time for projects, square dancing, camping, baseball and family. Still working third shift and working the overtime though.

We were saddened to learn about the passing of Mother’s only brother Jay this week. He was Arthur Jay Barrett Jr., named after Grandpa Barrett. He served in the Merchant Marine, shipping supplies to the allies across the Atlantic during WWII.

ANCESTRY

Name: Arthur Barrett Jr
Birth Date: 1 Jul 1918
Birth Place: Oklahoma, United States of America
Death Date: 11 May 1974
Death Place: Hammond, Lake County, Indiana, United States of America
Cemetery: Chapel Lawn Memorial Gardens
Burial or Cremation Place: Schererville, Lake County, Indiana, United States of America
Has Bio?: N
Father: Arthur Barrett
Mother: Hildred L Barrett
URL: https://www.findagrave.com/mem…

1974JUNE

IS THIS SAFE?
IS THIS SAFE?

Another trip to Kings Island in Cincinnati, and we were able to convince Carole to brave another crossing in the gondola ride. She was very courageous!

 

 

 

HIGGINS & MOTHER
HIGGINS & MOTHER

Mother was enjoying getting her flowers started at the Roberts Place house. Little upgrade projects were being done, as with all their houses in the past.

Dad was beginning to experience anxiety and depression symptoms, and was seeing a doctor to determine if any treatment was needed.

While watching Greg’s First year of minors, I became acquainted with another player’s dad, Greg Fisher. After watching a few games, we began discussing the many basic baseball fundamentals that were not being taught to these kids. By the end of the season, we decided that even we could do a better job of coaching, and agreed to apply for a minor league team next year!

1974 JULY

32ND BIRTHDAY
32ND BIRTHDAY

A square dance friend and I were surprised with homemade birthday cakes! Looks like we may have to get the fire department on standby!

 

 

 

1974 AugMother and Dad with Higgins, were enjoying the new surroundings in Indianapolis.

Dad has been prescribed some anxiety medication to see if it would help. He is still working at the Indianapolis Star newspaper, but is under deadline pressures every day, and pushes himself to be perfect. Not a good combination for anxiety issues!

 

1974 AUGUST

GO FISH
GO FISH

While waiting for a family birthday dinner at Goggie`s, Debbie and Greg decided to play a card game.

School is just around the corner as Debbie will be in the 6th grade and Greg in the 4th.

 

1974 BARRETT KIDS
1974 BARRETT KIDS

This month, Grandpa and Grandma Barrett had the first family get together since Jay’s passing.

Left to right: Jin, Gerrie, May, Dot, Marg and Grandma and Grandpa.

 

 

I am guessing that the lack of photos during this period of time is due to me taking more 35mm slide pictures and 8mm movies…sorry.

1974 DECEMBER

SKIP & GREG
SKIP & GREG

Whiz through three birthdays, four counting Esther’s, and Thanksgiving dinners, we arrive in time for Christmas. Moving our Christmas tree around from year to year has landed it in the dining room this year. Carole took up the photography work or we may not have had any tree photos!

CAROLE
CAROLE

Back in the old days of snail mail, and friends and family exchanging  happy Christmas wishes, we displayed our Christmas cards on the fireplace mantle and dining room table.

 

 

LOOK WHAT I GOT
LOOK WHAT I GOT

Still many Christmases and dinners to attend, but Christmas morning always started at home.

 

 

 

GREG & CAROLE
GREG & CAROLE

Greg had time to set up his monorail train track, and show Carole how it worked before we headed off to other Christmases.

 

 

 

DEBBIE & CAROLE
DEBBIE & CAROLE

At Esther`s, we had a great Christmas dinner and gift exchange before heading off to Mother and Dad`s.

 

 

 

DEBBIE & GREG
DEBBIE & GREG

The first Christmas at the Roberts Place house with Mother and Dad. We didn`t know it would be the only one. Debbie and Greg enjoyed the fireplace there.

 

 

 

CAROLE & SKIP
CAROLE & SKIP

Carole and I enjoyed some snacks before dinner. Then Mother and Dad began talking about the house and its` location being sooo close to Binford Avenue and the noise, and with houses all around, there was no view. I sensed a move was in the works!

 

 

THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY

MY ANCESTRY

I was lucky to have grown up with all four of my grandparents in my life! They were a diverse set. My maternal grandfather was, as they called them then, a half-breed. His mother was a full-blooded Cherokee Indian (native american to be politically correct). This will probably be the last time that I am politically correct in my ramblings! (Oh, and don`t expect good punctuation or prose. Just enjoy the musings.) My great grandfather Barrett was Irish.

My maternal grandmother Augenstein was of German descent on her Father`s side and Scotch-French on her Mother`s side. So, Irish, Indian on one side and German/Scotch-French on the other made for some hard working, determined and adventurous stock.

On my paternal side, the mix made for some very conservative and reserved physiology! My grandfather Wolff was the son of German Immigrants growing up in Alabama. My grandmother Newsom was born in Canada where her ancestors immigrated from England. So, pure German and pure English, how could we not have a very reserved and structured patriarchal core to the family!

HOW DID THEY ALL HAPPEN TO ARRIVE IN ANDERSON, INDIANA?

My grandfather, Arthur John Barrett, Sr. , was born in Pittsburgh, Kansas, January 28, 1890. He grew up in the Indian Territories and the Oklahoma Territory where he helped with share cropping, chopping fire wood, splitting fence rails, picking cotton and any odd jobs they could find.

My grandmother, Hildred Lillian Augenstein, was born in Waldo, Ohio, October 20, 1897. Growing op on a farm in Ohio until she was eleven. Then, in 1908, her father had visited Oklahoma and decided that would be a great place to successfully raise his prize hogs and horses. He sold the farm and loaded the farm machinery, household goods, hogs and horses into freight cars and rode with them to Oklahoma. Grandma Augenstein and the seven children followed later by passenger train.

Five short years later, Arthur and Hildred met and were married one month shy of her sixteenth birthday, September 18, 1913, in Vinita, Oklahoma!

Barrett`s Wedding
Barrett`s Wedding

My grandfather, Felix Wolff, was born in Wolff, Alabama, July 6, 1878. His family were farmers and also had fruit orchards they tended. He loved to travel and visited and worked in many states growing up. Finally settling in Moundsville, West Virginia, on July 11, 1901. The next day he began his career with t he Gospel Trumpet   Office working in the mail room wrapping Trumpets. A SIDE NOTE: The Gospel Trumpet was a publishing house for religious books, pamphlets, pictures and song books related to the Church of God. Felix rapidly moved his way to the bindery where he learned his book binding craft. The Gospel Trumpet Company decided to move their printing equipment and publishing work to Anderson, Indiana, September 1906. Felix helped load the rail cars with the heavy presses and other equipment and traveled to the new Office at 201 E. 9th street in Anderson. The Anderson businessmen thought the Gospel Trumpet was in the business of manufacturing musical trumpets!

My grandmother,  Maggie May Newson, was born in Wellington, Ontario,  Canada,  December 13, 1884. May, as she preferred to be called, also grew up on a farm recalling the distasteful job of plucking the down from the geese for the mattresses. I don`t know the time line of the move,  but at some point Grandma`s mother took a job with the Gospel Trumpet Office in Anderson, Indiana and May went with her. Eventually, May and Felix met up and as Grandpa wrote in his journal,

August 21st, 1907, left Anderson on an excursion with Bro. Mayo for Niagara Falls and Canada.

22nd Arrived at Pupabun, Ontario.

28th Was married.

October 10th, 1907, left Pupabun, Ont. for Anderson, Ind. where we arrived on the 11th. Took supper at A. L. Byers.”

Wolff Wedding
Wolff Wedding

LETS GET THIS ALL TIED TOGETHER!

Grandpa and Grandma Barrett moved to Lindsay, California around 1920 with their four children. There, Grandpa found work in the refineries. This would give him the machinist`s background that would provide the confidence to set out on his own in Indiana.

Barrett family 1

After the end of WWI and The Great Depression, and now having five children, as Mother was born in 1922, they mustered the determination to find something better! As a boy of 12 and young man Grandpa lived with his uncles after his Dad passed. They worked mule teams pulling barges across the Wabash and Erie Canal in Indiana. Now, with a family of his own, he remembered the the mid-west that he enjoyed as a youth and decided it would be a great place to start a new life. They started Barrett`s Machine Shop in Chicago Heights, Illinois.

During the depression, Grandma Barrett and the kids helped out by taking in laundry. They also raised game chickens and rabbits. Sears Roebuck was paying 35/50 cents for rabbit hides at the time.

INK BLOTTER
INK BLOTTER

 

My Mother, Geraldine Viola Barrett, was born in Lindsay, California, February 9,1922. After the move to Illinois and graduating from high school, she wanted to go to secretarial school. Now see how this comes together!

Gerrie 194013_marv_6_19391940 Gerrie

Mother`s sister Margaret, married a (WAIT FOR IT;) Church of God Minister living in Anderson, Indiana! Close to the Anderson College that the Gospel Trumpet started! And, they had secretarial courses! Mother moves to Anderson with her sister! Gets a job at the Gospel Trumpet Office!

1940 Gerrie

My Dad, Marvin Eugene Wolff, Sr., was Born in Anderson, Indiana, June 20, 1921. After graduating from Anderson High School, he got a job at, where else, The Gospel Trumpet Office! Guess who he met there???

1941 Gerrie @Mounds State Park 1941 Marv & nephew Bobby Wolff 1941 Gerrie with Lyndo 1941 Gerrie 1941 Marv 1941 Gerrie & Marv 1941 Marv & his 37` Pontiac 1941 Marv & Gerrie 1941 Marv 1941 Marv & his 37` Pontiac 1941 Marv & Gerrie @ Shady Side

Mother had facial paralysis, but that didn`t stop her from helping dad take off the oil pan on his 1937 Pontiac and getting greasy!

IMG_20150814_0004 IMG_20150814_0005

After this whirlwind courtship, they were married at her sister`s by her husband, the Church of God minister, on September 18, 1941, (JUST THREE MONTHS BEFORE PEARL HARBOR)

BARRETTS ON THE LEFT – WOLFFS ON THE RIGHT

1941 September Marv & Gerrie married 1941 my four grandparents 1941 Arther & Felix 1941 September Marv & Gerrie

WE ENTER THE WAR!

On  A Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, Japan attacked our Naval Base at Pearl Harbor and entered the U. S. into the war! The following photos are a rare collection of prints recovered from a roll of film, found decades later, in an antique, collapsable bellows camera. They show the destruction and carnage the photographer witnessed that fateful day.

Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941 Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941_16 Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941_15 Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941_14 Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941_13 Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941_12 Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941_11 Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941_10 Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941_9 Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941_8 Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941_7 Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941_6 Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941_5 Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941_4 Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941_3 Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941_2

“A date which will live in infamy!”, FDR