Charles Henry WRIGHT

Charles Henry Wright Charles Henry Wright (Charlie) was born in the late 1880s and died in 1947. We believe his family were originally English and probably came to the USA via Connecticut and migrated to upper New York State, then to Ohio, and some members, eventually, to Indiana. There is a family myth? That Charles’ grandmother was of Indian blood, but no one ever wanted to talk about it as far as I know. Charlie came from a large family of siblings. I believe there were nine children in all including two sets of twins. He was born in Ithaca or Utica. (Memory escapes me so I need to look this up.) The family ended up in Ontario, a tiny crossroads and farming area near Mansfield and Ashland, Ohio. Charlie and his relatives are buried in the little Ontario Cemetery. Charlie married Mabel Grace Craner, the eldest child of a neighboring farming family, in 1910 when Mabel was 18. She was born in 1892, the oldest of eight children. Her mother died shortly after the birth of the eighth child, Archie. (I have a photo of Charlie and Mabel about the time they were married and will eventually send a copy to you.) Mabel raised her brothers and sisters and they always loved and respected her like a mother. Charlie was a farmer and carpenter and built many houses in the Mansfield area. He had a weak heart and as a young man could no longer do heavy work. (I have many of his carpentry tools and my sister Pat has his carpentry box.) Mabel worked as a laundress at home and usually rented out rooms to provide an income for the family. When my mother, Marie, began to work, she helped out a great deal, too. Charlie and Mabel had four children: Marie (1911); Inez (1912); young Charles; and Mary who died at birth. Young Charles was crippled and died at the age of four. Charlie, Mabel, young Charles and Mary are all buried in the Ontario cemetery. My first recollection of my grandfather Charlie (or “Pop Pop” as we called him) was when he and Mabel (Mamaw) came to live with my Mom, Dad, sister Pat and me in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, about 1939 to help out when my mother was expecting her third child. (I think times were pretty rough for Charlie and Mabel and they needed somewhere to live at that time.) My mother and father were living in Mansfield when I was born in 1935. She lived in Pittsburgh when Pat was born in 1937 and went to Mansfield to be with her mother when Pat was born. At that time, Charlie and Mabel lived on West Dickson Avenue and Pat and I were born in their home. My baby sister Mary Ellen was born with spinal bifida. She died when she was six months old during a very early experimental surgery attempt to relieve the deformity. I remember Pop Pop playing with Pat and me in an effort to distract us from my mother giving birth in an upstairs bedroom. It was a long and difficult birthing process and my mother’s health was really never the same after that, so I’m told. Sometime after that, in the early 1940s, Mamaw and Pop Pop returned to Mansfield and lived on First Street and rented a big, white clapboard Victorian-type house where Mamaw continued to do laundry for folks and rented out rooms in the house. (I have a photo of your grandmother Inez at that house with your dad Calvin, your uncle David, Pat and me. Inez was in her nurses aide uniform and it was during World War II. My mother is peeking out a window behind the five of us.) Pat and I were squabbling about riding the one tricycle on the sidewalk in front of the First Street house and I pushed Pat and Pop Pop gave me a spanking that I have always remembered because I loved him so much and was so sorry to have displeased him. Pop Pop’s health continued on a down trend. After a few years Mamaw found a larger house with more rooms and apartments to rent on Vail Avenue. She had no money so my dad gave her the 10% down payment of $300. for the $3,000. house, a clapboard Victorian that she later had sided with tan asphalt brick. (Not a pretty sight.) The house had a dark, dirt floor basement where all the laundry was done in an old Maytag wringer washing machine along with two wash tubs for rinsing. She chipped off brown flakes of Fels-Naphtha soap bars with a paring knife and that was the “detergent” of the 1940s. The back yard was totally solid with clothes lines to dry the clothes. The sun porch facing the back yard was the ironing room with hand irons, ironing boards, and a big ironing mangle for doing flat pieces like sheets and tablecloths. Everything was ironed in those days. From the time I was about five years old, I helped my Mamaw with the washing and ironing in the summer and thought it was so much fun. Mamaw took in laundry from 50 or more customers every week. My mother Marie and dad Walter Harley Teeters were married in 1932. Your dad was named Calvin Harley in honor of his dad and my dad. My dad and mom were always very generous with their families and helped them out financially many times over the years. Even though Pat and I lived in Pittsburgh, we spent all of our childhood summers in Mansfield and were always very close with your dad and your uncle David. I absolutely loved and adored your dad and still do. I always think of him on his birthday especially. Moved to Vail Avenue, Pop Pop wasn’t able to exert himself much physically and this was especially beneficial to the grandchildren because everyone else was always so busy and Pop Pop had time to sit on the porch or in the living room and tell us stories or play his banjo or fiddle and sing to us. Our favorite was “Little Brown Jug” and I can remember him singing it to this day. He always had a knee for us to sit upon and we marveled at him as he filled his beloved pipe with tobacco from his tobacco pouch or an interesting tin can, and then lit it with a wooden match he struck on his shoe. Mamaw raised canaries and Pop Pop trained them to do all sorts of things. They would fly around the house and he would hold a little piece of bread in his mouth and the canaries would fly to him, perch on his shoulder, and nip bites out of the bread. When we came to Mansfield for the summer of 1947, Pop Pop was pretty much confined to bed and the doctor would come visit him. One day Pat and I were playing with a little girl named Beverly Zimmerman who lived next door on Vail Avenue when my mother or your grandmother Inez came over and told us that Pop Pop had just died. I was heartbroken. A lot of relatives came and there was a funeral and burial in the little Ontario Cemetery. I still have the little white print cotton dress that I wore to his funeral. Pop Pop was a tall, slender and very handsome man. He towers over Mamaw in the 1910 photo. Mamaw was 4’11” tall, chubby and had a bosom to comfort many a grandchild as she rocked them in the rocking chair. Pop Pop must have been over 6 feet tall and sported a mustache that tickled when he kissed us kids. They were a study in contrasts. My dad’s mother died when he was very small and his father could not take care of the four children left behind so they were placed in an orphanage. Because of that, the only grandparents I ever knew were Mamaw and Pop Pop. (To be continued. . .)

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