Some postcards sent to Blanche Lee for Thanksgiving in the early 1900s.
A family dinner, possibly Thanksgiving, maybe around 1910 or so. I don’t know who the lady in the front is, but she looks like Mary Lucas, Newton’s sister. Next to her on the right side of the picture I believe is Barbara Lucas, and in the back on the left hand side of the picture is Newton Lucas. They are at opposite corners. The other man with the long gray beard might possibly be Ethan Allen Lucas, but that’s just a guess.
Minnie Lucas (1868-1948) was the first of three children of Newton and Barbara Lucas. She was born in Timewell, Illinois, and had two siblings, Ruth (1875-1960), and William (Willie) 1873-1950. It seems as if they were very doted on children judging from number of photographs of them we have.
Minnie
Ruth and Minnie in the 1880s
Minnie married Henry Lee in 1888 (her 2nd cousin once removed I think). That means that Amassa and Elder Lee are both our 3rd great aunt and uncle and our 4th great grandparents. They are Henry’s great grandparents and Minnies’s great aunt and uncle. Very confusing!
Minnie and Henry on their wedding day in 1888
Minnie’s wedding dress
After Minnie and Henry married they moved quite a bit – Bakersfield, California, northern New Mexico, southern Colorado, and Dodge City, Kansas. He was a telegraph operator for the railroad and they lived right next to the railroad stations.
They had eight children, Henry Claude (1888-1898), Mamie Edith (1890-1891), Carl Lucas (1892-1895), Harry Sterling (1894-1896), Mabel Ruby Isabel (1896-1989), Grace Elmyra (1898-1980), Minnie Blanche (1900-1988), and Harlan Newton (1904-1967). The first four children all died in childhood.
They bought a house in Trinidad on Tillotson in the early 1900s, where they lived the rest of their lives. Henry died in 1935.
Gram (Joan Roper) went to stay with Minnie in Trinidad every summer- she had happy memories of staying with her “Gramma”.
She remembered that Minnie was very devout – she read the Bible at the dining room table every night, and she walked to the First Christian Church every Sunday (at least a mile or two). She walked everywhere, to the grocery, post office, wherever she needed to go.
She especially loved her grandchildren, Edgar, Joan, Mildred, Mary Lee, Claudia and Norton. She writes in one postcard to her daughter, Mabel:
“Dear Mabel, Edgar’s pictures are just splendid. I just keep looking at it how many times I have seen just that same look on his face so natural”
Noah was the second child of William and Sarah Frank, Barbara’s little brother.
The Civil War had been underway a few months when he enlisted in the 3rd Illinois Cavalry, Company G and was sent first to Camp Butler, where he got measles, but improved. (On our trip to Boston this summer, we saw the sign for Camp Butler near Springfield, IL and stopped. It is a cemetery now).
He was then sent to Camp Benton in MO, where he thought he was getting better, but died in January 1862 at the age of 18. It might have been pneumonia as a complication of the measles as that was common. He had been in the army for less than five months.
Here are some comments from the Civil War Muse about Camp Benton:
“The presence of so many troops in one great encampment, the crowded condition of the barracks, inexperience of the soldiers, inclemency of the winter months and the inability of the department to do all that was required occasioned a large amount of sickness,…many measles patients were afterwards attacked with pneumonia and died.”
Either Noah, Isaac, Edward or Columbus Frank, though it is most likely Columbus
We have three letters from Noah and also a hammer he made. Here are some excerpts:
Camp Butler
Sept. the 20, 1861
Dear Brother,
I received _ letters today and was glad to hear that you was all well. I have not been sick an hour since I left home. the boys are in high spirits this evening. We have drawed our full uniform today and we will get the saddles this week.
Dear sister i received your letter the other day and was glad to hear that you was well I am perfectly well and out of danger from the measles I would have written sooner but Mr. Thomas was coming home and I thought he could tell you better about the times than I could in a letter…tell Isaac and Ed to write to me for it does me good to get a letter from them if it is only a dozen words and tell Martha to put in a few words to when you are writing and tell bub and Sarah I would like to see them write soon from Noah to Barbara Frank.
Bub was Noah’s little brother, Columbus, aged five.
An entry from Minnie Lee’s journal about her uncle, Noah
I believe this is a picture of Darwin M. Schenck. There were only a few letters readable on the back of the picture, and they matched up with him from Noah’s Company G. They may have been friends and exchanged pictures.
Newton Lucas driving his new auto with Ruth and Barbara in the back seat
The postcard sent by Barbara’s sister Sarah Frank to her when she heard about the car.
Newton Lucas must have been an adventurous person, with his trip to the Rocky Mountains in his twenties, and buying a car at age 71 in 1909! Henry Ford introduced the Model T in 1908.
Here is a timeline of his life: 1860 Trip to the Rocky Mountains
Dec. 25, 1860 While cutting firewood, a tree fell on him, crushing his hip and making him a cripple for life*
1866: Went with his brother William to Texas, bought 600 head of cattle and drove them back to Illinois. They crossed the Red River on April 22, and reached Quincy on Sept. 20, 1866. Apparently it was not a financial success.*
1872-1876 in the hay and grain business with his brother William, also operated a sawmill during these years.*
1882-1883 Operated a steam thresher in Mt Sterling*
1883 Bought his farm of 220 acres in Pear Ridge Township, Ill.*
1892 Was a delegated to the Republican State Convention. He had cast his first vote for Abraham Lincoln in 1860*
Barbara was born in Davidson County, North Carolina to William and Sarah Winkler Frank. She was the oldest of eight children.
She married Newton Lucas in 1865 when she was 23, and they had three children, Minnie, Ruth and Willie.
Ruth, Newton, Willie, Barbara, Minnie
We have three letters from Barbara to Minnie, one written August 29, 1861. Her letters are chatty, and in this letter she talks of hair pins and dress fabric she has seen, also the state of Willie’s buggy which has gotten muddy. She writes:
Ruth sent you a letter today. I told her it would have been very good if she had left somethings out – I want you to be sure and Burn it – she had no business to say anything about P____ she don’t like Elmer very well and is a lttle jealous of Lizzie because Willie takes her more than he does Ruth”
I wonder what Ruth had spilled in her letter that left Barbara so concerned? I guess we will never know! Lizzie is Willie’s future wife. Barbara also asks about Minnie’s two children, Mamie, age one, (not our Mamie) and Claude, age three:
Ma would like to know if Mamie ever gets spanked, hope she don’t…I do want to see them so bad.”
Ma is Sarah Winkler Frank. Sometimes Barbara looks stern in her photos, but I don’t think that was her nature at all. She seems warm and caring.
Newton and Barbara on their wedding day, August 29, 1865
Duke City Roots 