Archie, What Tangled Webs You Wove, Time and Time Again, The Beginning

Copyright 2010, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

It is time to celebrate! The Carnival of Genealogy is 100!!! Happy 100th, and thanks Jasia (Creative Gene) for all that work!

The topic for the 100th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is... "There's one in every family!" Bring your stories of colorful characters, unique heirlooms, mouth-watering recipes, most dearly beloved pets, whatever! Interpret as you like. Every family has "special" individuals, you know, the ones with a green thumb, the black sheep, the lone wolf, the blue-ribbon cook, the story-teller, the geek!

When Jasia announced the topic for this 100th COG, I knew right away, now was the time for Archie to come clean, or for me to finally put his full story out there.

I have been hinting around since I started writing this blog about Archie, aka, Archibald Norman Lashbrook, aka, Arthur Norman Stevens, Sr.

Here are the posts I have written that contain bits and pieces of Archie's story:

Wednesday, July 1, 2009, Ancestor Birthday Celebrations, Arthur Norman Stevens, Jr.

Monday, October 5, 2009, Ancestor Birthday Celebrations, Letty Lorraine Lashbrook(e)

Monday, April 19, 2010, Relatively Speaking, Cousins That Blog, Man Has Cousins That Blog Too

Sunday, May 30, 2010, The Sewing Kit, More on the Possible Owner

Friday, June 18, 2010, Birthday Observances, Sarah aka Nellie Glenn Lashbrook Welch.

Archie was pretty much my first "mystery". He was the subject of my first brick wall. He has fascinated me from the get go and continues to surprise me long after I thought I had his story figured out. As recently as Saturday, July 3, 2010, he has tossed out surprise after surprise, as he did in Patience, Family Search, & Photo Editing Bring to You.

Let's see if we can reconstruct his story, and his life.

See, even many moons ago when Man and I were young married kids, there were these rumors, whispered, "Our name is not Stevens." OKKK, what is it?? No one said, or would say. Why was it changed?? Again, no one really would say, one of the stories was it had something to do with World War I. If you have an active imagination you can really go places with that, eh??

When Man's father was asked, he did that hmmmm hawwww stuff that many elders do when asked questions about some story that is out of their comfort range. They hmmmmm, and they hawwww, and they change the subject and never answer the question.

In 1991 Son # 1 and Man's mother passed their summer fun project of recording the family on to me. At that time we could not confirm what Man's grandfather's name really was. They had however, talked to Man's uncle, the sole surviving child of Arthur Norman Stevens, Sr. and his wife, Edna May Fenton Stevens, George. George told them and later repeated the story to me, that his father was born Archibald Lashbrook.

The story continued, something like this: My dad changed his name because he killed a man. He killed this man because this man got one of dad's sisters pregnant back around 1915-1917 and refused to marry his sister. Dad confessed this murder to me and further explained that he assumed the man's identity, then ran, ending up in the Detroit Michigan area and married my mother, Edna.

Wow, that was enough of a hook to get me really interested. So, I was off, chopping away at brick walls and learning to do research.

It has been nearly 20 years since this journey began. There are more twists and turns than a scenic byway in the mountains.

Photo taken 2005.

I first found Archie (that is what we all call him now) on the 1880 Census index (and subsequently the census itself) back when we only had film to use to do census work. The fact that the librarian ordered the wrong film, that turned out to be the RIGHT film was a kismet type of moment. They were living in Whalen, Fillmore County, Minnesota where Wallace was working as a miller.

Archie was born 9 Apr 1879 in Holt Township, Fillmore County, Minnesota to Wallace Henry Lashbrook and his bride, Letta Amelia Clifford Lashbrook. Archie was the first born, and the only son. Four daughters would be born to Wallace and Letta.

Archie grew up in Minneapolis, Wallace and Letta living there from about 1888 till they both died. We do find Wallace and his young family living in Jackson, Jackson County, Michigan in 1885-86. Jackson is about 45 minutes from where Man and I live these days. Their living there was one of those little surprises I came upon during this research. Believe me, the day following this discovery, I was in Jackson researching.

I find Archie listed in Minneapolis directories as early as 1895 (he was attending Archibald Business School). Directories can sure offer a lot of interesting tidbits for our research.

In the 1898 Minneapolis directory we find Archibald Lashbrook, candy maker at McKusick, Copelin R. & Co AND - -

(still in 1898) Arthur N. Lashbrook, student, boards 3114 Morgan Ave. N. 3114 Morgan is the address of his parents. I cannot help but note the given name of Arthur, the same name he used once he left Minneapolis and headed out to Detroit. Coincidence? I think not, but, that is just my take on it.

Then, in 1901 Archie married - - - his first wife.

To be continued.

* Archie, What Tangled Webs You Wove, Time and Time Again, The Middle, appears here.

** Thanks to footnoteMaven for the fantastic poster.

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