THE GRANDPARENTS
GRANDMA BRUSS

 

 

Grandma Bruss was the eighth child of ten children born to Nathan Suits Sr. and Northina America Barnard Suits. She was born June 9, 1893, on a small farm near the tiny crossroads town of Mohawk in Buck Creek Township, Hancock County, Indiana. She was named Emma Ethel and was known as Emma by her siblings and friends as a child but was known as Ethel throughout her adulthood. The children of Nathan and Northina spell their last name differently. Some of them spell Suits with one T others with two T’s. This apparently came about because one of the brothers was teased about his name while serving in the army. Because he was embarrassed by the teasing he added a T to his name and subsequently some of the brothers and sisters followed suit.

Grandma’s story is probably the most interesting of all the family stories in this collection, due to her Barnard ancestors. I am sure that none of her family had any idea that they were in any way related to several famous people. If they had known I’m sure they would have made it known as they did with the “Indian” story. More on those stories later.

Grandma’s mother Northina died when she was only nine years old and she, along with an older brother and his wife who moved back home, helped raise the other children.

Her mother was a seamstress and baker and she taught Grandma to sew and cook as well. As a young woman, Grandma baked pies for a local restaurant in Greenfield, Ind. to earn extra money for the family. I was reminded by my brother, Denis, that she was paid 3 cents per pie. At that rate she was probably the breadwinner at that time.  I don’t know for sure, but it would be my guess that she met my grandfather at that restaurant. I am assuming that when they met, he was working for the railroad and had probably gone there for lunch.

Grandma was not afraid of hard work. For the rest of her life, she continued to sew and cook and clean houses, among other pursuits. She saved her meager earnings until she had enough to purchase a property which she rented or “flipped”.  She then used the proceeds to purchase another and another. She became a regular on the courthouse steps when properties were auctioned at Sheriff’s auctions for delinquent taxes.

She made “feed sack dresses” which were popular during the depression era. Feed companies at that time sold their seed in bags with various prints on them so they could be used to make clothes instead of being discarded. She made hand sewn quilts which were beautifully done. She sewed on an old treadle Singer sewing machine and I swear I could see smoke coming from it as she pedaled. She had hundreds of dress patterns, dozens of used zippers, and thousands of used buttons.

Grandma continued to cook. She still made wonderful pies and bread and butter pickles, and she canned tomatoes and other vegetables. She made a Cole slaw which was very good, and I am sure very simple but impossible to duplicate. Also, cherry delight, wilted lettuce and neck bones with potatoes and carrots. Simple farm food but all very good. She was very frugal. She would  visit her brother’s farm after the migrant workers had picked tomatoes for Campbells Soup Co.company and would glean the leftover tomatoes for caning. She also canned other fruits and vegetables. Her specialties were peaches, strawberries, and Bread and Butter Pickles.

She loved BINGO and played weekly at the Eagles Lodge for several years. Because of the BINGO she decided to join the Eagles and in a short time she became an officer. Each officer had a spoken part at the meetings. Most members just read their part from a manual, but Grandma memorized her part for each office she held and spoke them from memory. Grandma.

Grandma had some strange ideas at times. She was deathly afraid of spiders and snakes, and would make us sit under the kitchen table on feather pillows during thunderstorms so we wouldn’t be struck by lightning.

 She lived to be nearly ninety-four and lived alone for most of that time after my grandfather died.

A few years ago, Denis and I along with his friend Gene Zimmerman, decided to visit Mowhawk to see the family farm.  The farm consisted of a 15-acre tract of land at the southeast corner of county roads 300N and 300W in Hancock County, Indiana. The land was left to Northina by her father in his will. I am surprised that they could support a family on n that small farm. By today’s standards it would barely support a family garden.

At first, we had a bit of trouble locating the homeplace and the cemeteries where many of our ancestors are buried, but with the help of a local genealogist we met at a local campground we were able to locate these places.  

We found the headstones of several of the family members but not all.

 

 

And now as I said earlier, I will get to the interesting part of her story.

As I said, Grandma’s mother was a Barnard. The family, as we knew it, were just poor farmers eking out a living. But the truth is that the Barnards were among the first families to own a portion of Nantucket Island. The following excerpt from Wikipedia contains a list of the first owners of Nantucket Island.

Nantucket settlers

In October 1641, William Alexander, the Earl of Stirling, deeded the island to Thomas Mayhew of Watertown, Massachusetts. In 1659, Mayhew sold an interest in the island to nine other purchasers, reserving 1/10th of an interest for himself, "for the sum of thirty pounds ... and also two beaver hats, one for myself, and one for my wife".^[13]

Each of the ten original owners was allowed to invite one partner. There is some confusion about the identity of the first twenty owners, partly because William Pile did not choose a partner and sold his interest to Richard Swain, which was subsequently divided between John Bishop and the children of George Bunker.

Anxious to add to their number and to induce tradesmen to come to the island, the total number of shares were increased to twenty-seven. The original purchasers needed the assistance of tradesmen who were skilled in the arts of weaving, milling, building and other pursuits and selected men who were given half a share provided that they lived on Nantucket and carried on their trade for at least three years.

By 1667, twenty-seven shares had been divided among 31 owners.^[14]

European settlement of Nantucket did not begin in earnest until 1659, when Thomas Mayhew sold his interest to a group of investors, led by Tristram Coffin. The "nine original purchasers" were Tristram Coffin, Peter Coffin, Thomas Macy, Christopher Hussey, Richard Swain, Thomas Barnard, Stephen Greenleaf, John Swain and William Pile. These men are considered the founding fathers of Nantucket, and many islanders are related to these families.

 

Since the island is small and there were only those original families living there many intermarried and so today nearly everyone who is descended from any of those original families are related.

My family is descended from Thomas Barnard and the Barnard family is interwoven through nearly all the other families. Some of my ancestors ate listed below.

 

Tristram Coffin the original purchaser (and governor of Mass.) would be my 7-8 great grandfather.

Lucretia Coffin Mott-world famous women’s rights advocate and woman speaker. Well known as a suffragette and abolitionist.

Levi Coffin-Known as the President of the Underground Railroad. Many residents of Randolph and Wayne Counties are familiar with his home in Fountain City, Ind. The home is on the east side of Ind. Hwy. 227.

Samuel F.B. Morse-Developer of the Morse code, used in telegraphy.

Rowland Hussey Macy-Founder of the Macy department stores.

Richard Nixon, 37^th president of the United States.

Barbara Pierce Bush-Wife of George H. W. Bush, 41^st president of the U.S. and mother of George H. Bush.

George H. Bush, 43^rd president of the United States.

William Hall Macy Jr.-Actor. Best known for his movie Fargo.

James Athearn Folger-Founder of Folger’s Coffee.

Abagail Folger-Victim of the Manson family Helter Skelter murders.

Benjamin Franklin-American statesman and founding father of the United States. (his mother was a Folger)

Fredrick A. P. Barnard-President of Columbia University and namesake of Barnard University at Columbia.

And many more.

As I said earlier, my grandmother would have been shocked. As I have been.

I came come by this information through a genealogist by the name of Gary Ell. Gary is a distant cousin through the Nantucket families. There is a funny story associated with Gary and his genealogy research.

Bonnie, my wife, is from a small town by the name of Fonda in upstate New York. Since we first met, she has talked about her High School boyfriend. His name is Alfie. Alfie was a great athlete and was offered an athletic scholarship to Penn. State but chose to join the Navy instead. To make a long story short; I learned through Gary’s genealogy that Alfie and I are cousins. What are the odds.

The Indian story.

As far back as I can remember my grandmother and her siblings talked about  the Indian in the family. No one in the family was ever able to prove that there was an Indian in the family. They only knew her name was Jane. However, there were a couple of pieces of circumstantial evidence that pointed in that direction. Ruben Barnard and his wife Jane suddenly left the Quaker church sometime shortly after their marriage. It is thought that they may have been disowned by the Quaker church, because they married outside of the faith. Also, to make matters worse, he apparently married an Indian, which was not thought kindly at the time. Also, their children’s birth certificates listed the father as Ruben but listed  the mother as unknown. Possibly an attempt to keep the children’s Indian blood a secret. And one more piece of evidence was Northina recalled her grandfather, Ruben, calling his wife, a stubborn old squaw when he was angry with her.

Through Gary Ell’s genealogy we were able to prove that my 5^th great grandmother was indeed a native American. Her name was Jane A. Dennil. We have not been able to determine which tribe or nation she was from, but she was probably Cherokee or Catawba since those were the groups living in North Carolina at the time of her birth.

And so, it goes. The poor farmers, searching for better farmland in Indiana while the relatives are building empires around the world.