Wood Siblings: Farm "Boarders" and Students

Looking at my husband's Wood family tree: On this day in 1891, Byron Thomas Wood was born, the fourth of five children of Charles Augustus Wood (1862-1895) and Martha Hale Wood (1864-1912). His siblings were Charles Elton Wood, Ethel Carrie Wood, Louisa Lucy Wood (died young), and John F. Wood (died young). The family lived in Toledo, Ohio, where Charles was in a carpentry business with two brothers. 

Get out your hanky

Sadly, Charles died of tuberculosis in 1895, only 32 years old. His widow Martha was left with three youngsters under the age of 10. 

Also sad: just a year later, Martha entered the Toledo Hospital for the Insane--not necessarily for mental illness, but possibly a chronic illness because she was in that hospital for 14 long years. Martha died there in 1912, only 48 years old, of uterine cancer and loss of blood. 

Wood siblings stay with other families

When Martha was hospitalized, the three surviving children were sent to live with other families. The oldest child, Charles, lived with the Bollinger family on their farm in Richland, Ohio, where I found him in the 1900 US Census as a "student." No doubt he also helped out on the Bollinger farm. 

In 1912 he married one of the Bollinger daughters, Nellie. They had no children. It seems Charles joined the US military as soon as he was eligible, because he told the WWI draft registration board that he served as an electrician in the Navy for nearly 9 years. Remembering Charles Elton Wood, 1886-1974.

Younger brother Byron and younger sister Ethel Carrie lived with the Kiehl family on their farm in Weston, Ohio. In the 1900 US Census, they are marked as "boarders" with the Kiehls and also shown as students. Surely they too helped with farm chores. Even after Mr. Kiehl died, Byron remained with Mrs. Kiel in the 1910 Census as a "tenant." In 1914, Byron married Vesta M. Craft, worked as a farmer, and they had 10 children together. Remembering Byron Thomas Wood, 1891-1968.

Ethel Carrie, enumerated as a student on the Kiehl farm in 1900, got married in 1908 at the age of 20. The groom was an auto mechanic named Clay H. Focht who had been widowed five months earlier. They had two children, divorced in November of 1923, remarried on January 1st, 1924, and had another child together before splitting up again a few years later. Remembering Ethel Carrie Wood Focht, 1888-1969.

How different the lives of these Wood siblings would have been if their father had lived longer and their mother had stayed healthy.

"Siblings" is this week's #52Ancestors challenge from Amy Johnson Crow.