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Author: cespos
Surnames: Hardman
Classification: queries
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I was going through some old paper documents that my mother handed down to me in our
genealogy and came across some interesting articles that I am sure other Hardman family
researchers would enjoy. Encluded in the copies of these stories are photos of the persons
mentioned.
These were written by Alma Hardman Obenchain in 1956
Royal Howard Hardman born 1867 in Warren Township, St. Joseph County about 1/2 mile
east of Augustine's Corners on Lincoln Way West in a house, two story frame house on
north side of road in low spot opposite the tamarack grove to the south. The house
stood until about 1900 used as a barn on the William McDonald place but is now
destroyed.
The family moved to a farm near North Liberty which my father bought when Royal was
a little child only a few years old. They lived in a log house there and my mother
often told of how she kept this home so clean and whitewashed. I remember the
oldhouse which was used as a barn for storage of cow and chicken feed and many were
the times I have hunted eggs in the nooks and corners of that old house. there on
rainy Sundays Mother and I would have a feast of black walnuts.
There was another housenear this old log house which was a frame one, a rambling old
home too with siding running vertically. My father's brother - Newton Hardman - lived
in this house with his wife Frank (Frances) and their three sons, Roland and Tom. A
third son Walter may have been born after they left this place or was it when Uncle
Newt died that my father bought this place.
Anyway this old house is associated with my earliest memories. Royal was never home
at that time as he went to high school in South Bend and stayed in the city. I think
of him as a visitor in our home for when he came my mother always did extra things
and he came as a messenger from the outside and a carrier of the happeneings of the
world. He was always perfect in my sight - well dressed, immaculate, clean smelling
with light hair and blue eyes, a little stout, with a warm affection for me, his
little sister. He always brought me something, a handkerchief, a necklace. Once when
I was not allowed to accompany him to a circus he came back with a gold ring with
three sets in it - so solid that I still have it although the sets have been replaced
adn the ring enlarged several times.
I think my father and mother were a bit partial toward this their eldest son for he
never was compelled to do the farm labor as I remember him. I can never the less
remember my father's telling in a critical way that Royal never liked farm work.
Arthur and Wilbur (the next younger boys) worked much better. But he would add royal
liked to study and read. Above his crude desk in his room there were open book
shelves filled with his school books and other books of interest to him and he spent
much of his time whenever home at this desk.
After he completed high school, he went to Logansport, Indiana to the teachers
college there. Later he taught school for a short time in Greene Township. He felt
that he did not care for that as a profession and so secured a government clerical
job and went to Washington D. C. Many were the letters we received from him there and
we looked forward to his vacation periods when he would come home.
On one occasion, father, mother and I went to see him there. It was at the time of
the Dunkard Annual Metting in Hagerstown and we went on excursion rates. Emma
Whitmer, Katy Lammadee, Ivo Kreighbaum, Charles Kreighbaum, were in the party and all
went down to Washington and Royal piloted us about as much as he could. There was a
little pairing off and one evening when my mother and Royal thought I was asleep I
overheard them talking or else their talk awakened me for everything which
concernedhim was of intense importance to me. He had been writing to some girl in
Logansport, I think, and he said to Mother; "Well what do you think about Emma?"
Mother said she knew that she was from a fine family and would make him a fine wife.
I think the next time he came home on vacation it was for their wedding.
Emma wore a white satin dress and Royal had a new suit which had been tailor made. I
am sure the cost was $50.00, a sum so large as to excite comment in my family. She
was a little body with black hair and eyes and he was a large mand and as I thought
so wonderfully good looking and more so in that black suit. Emma's father performed
the marriage ceremony. The next day there was an affair at my home and alll of our
relatives were inivited. Clara Augustine came down early and baked the cakes and
Mother had a wonderful dinner for us all. Emma had several dresses and a bonnet for
each. She belonged to the Dunkard Church adn the women at that time had to wear
bonnets instead of hats - a decree enforced upon them by the Annual Meeting
Conference of the men of the ministry.
They soon went back to Washington via Niagra Falls, where they had a wedding picture
taken sitting on the rocks with the Falls in the background. They left from Walkerton
where we all went to see them off and had a famiily group picture taken - the last
time we were all together.
Royal was now studying medicine in night school and keeping up his clerical day time
job and in due time he graduated. A real M.D. in the family. How proud we all were of
him.
The next time they came home it was to attend my brother Edwin's funeral, December
16, 1894. There was a little sunny-haired, blue eyed baby, Helen, with them. She
looked like her father. The next year there was a little baby boy, Howard, who cried
all the time.
I was privileged to spend about three weeks at his home in Washington the next
summer. They lived in one of those flats of which Washington had so many all alike in
one of the blocks of which there were hundreds all alike but it was home and I had a
wonderful time. Emma was wearing a hat at Royal's insistence. I think neither of them
could see how an article of clothing which attracted so much attention as they went
about could be conducive to one's future salvation.
This attitude was not shared by her family, however, and they became hostile toward
him for requesting it. Never the less, Rosa, Emma's sister, accepted Royal's help
in
taking a nurses course in Washington and she became one of the few real nurses having
an innately firm touch which assures the patient of confidence and trust.
When the medical course was finished and he was a full-fledged doctor, the question
to be settled was where to "hand out his shingle" and the place chosen was the
little
town of Converse, In.
He acquired a good practice there and had fine friends, and had me spend a summer
with them hoping I could help in the social end of their lives. I don't think I was
of much real help in that way but I remember the rides I had with him and one
occasion when a boy's foot had been crushed under a wagon wheel. I helped him sew it,
10 stitches, and the boy had no anesthetic.
The family left Converse in a few years and came to South Bend, where he opened an
office in the building where the JMS now is but he longed for the wide open spaces
and finally went to North Dakota, White Earth. I never visited him there, as I grew
busy with college, companions, etc. but I have a letter which I prize very highly
written in 1903 - the only one I have saved of the many received.
I was a freshman in college at the time and full of sentimental ideas. I didn't think
he knew what he was talking about but I have long since learned differently.
The next year at near Christmas time I was called home by the terrible news of his
death. Emma and the three children brought back to our house the dear body and we
laid it to rest in the cemtery on my father's lot where Edwin had been buried. Emma
did not go back to White Earth but tried to get on among friends and relatives in St.
Joseph County. It was hard for her and harder for the children deprived of the
financial and friendly help of such a father.
His was perhaps the greatest influence in my life for education, straight thinking
and living, cleanliness.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Royal Hardman died January 11, 1904 of apparant heart failure. His brother Wilbert
lived in White Earth at the time of Royals death and in checking with his daughter,
Mrs. Bessie Bauman of North Liberty, In., I found that Royal was very obese when he
died and an autopsy revealed three inches of fat around his heart.
Edna Hardman Parcell
Hannah (Augustine) Hardman 1848-1929
Hannah - she always hated the name- was born July 1, 1848. Of her childhood, I know
nothing except that because her father thought girls did not need an education she
was given only a few months of schooling - something like 2 or 3 months. Whether she
learned to read in this time or not, I do not know. She did ready fairly well and was
fond of the newspapers, church paper adn Bible and I can remember her reading Uncle
Tom's Cabin to me as a child. She did not understand arithmetic very well adn left
all of that to my father and later to me. She did however learn to write checks after
my father's death but this she regarded as an ordeal but she was secretly proud of
the fact that she could conduct her own business.
I think as a young girl she was busy with household things and I believe she did earn
a few dollars at some neighbors. She was married at the age of 18 and spent the
wedding night at Aunt Mary Browns.
Their first home was in a house west of the william McDonald home on Lincoln Way. The
home stood for a long time in the hollow, serving as a barn and stable but was torn
down some 30 years ago. Here Royal was born. the family then moved to the homestead
in Greene Township, 3 miles from North Liberty in a log house which was still
standing when the farm was sold after my father's death.
It was my mother's pride to keep the logs and floor spotless and I have heard her
tell about whitewashing the logs and scrubbing the floors.
My earliest recollections are of the house where I was born - A frame house sided up
and down. It was a rambling old house iwth a back bedroom where Kate Fields, Ethel
Dunn, Bertha Augustine and I played with out dolls. On those rare occasions when the
family drove down and spent Saturday night and Sunday with us, my mother would load
the table with a sample of everything she could think of to prepare - always chicken,
of which she was so found. She woud work for days to get everything in shape for
company. My father always said why not let them have just what we have but that was
not my mother's way. It was her joy to give company her very best. She had four boys,
each about 2 years younger than the older and she never had help more than a week or
so when they were born - and that a neighbor girl. The boys did not help in the house
but themilking and gardening was all done by them or my father.
Ithink her dreams were realized when after four boys, I was born as I have heard her
say she was determined to keep on until she had a girl, and then both she and my
father favored me in every way until my brothers must have despisedme which feeling
they relieved in teasing and prestering until I hated them. This was not true of
Royal who was always aaway from home and sent me beautiful presents and wrote me
wonderful letters. When he came home, he held me on his knees and petted me and
always treated me like a lover. Neither was my youngest brother Ed unkind although I
think he might have resented the attentions he was required to pay me. Although he
was five years older, we went everywhere together. I do not remember that my parents
required him to take me with him but he might tell a different story were he here
today.
Aunt Mary (Brown) was keeping house for Grandpa and we were only a block away. Then
began the great association of mymother and Aunt Mary. The path was worn smooth with
the visits back and forth. We did not have telephones and never a forenoon or
afternoon passed and not many evenings that they were not together for at least a few
minutes. I think Grandpa's death grieved my mother most because it meant the going
oaway of Aunt Mary. Other brothers and sisters moved near as they built homes on the
Augustine Addition but they had their families and family duties and did not visit
like Aunt Mary. Mother lost her three remaining sons and my father while in this
house. All were taken to the cemetery from the same front parlor.
For a time she and I lived alone. I could do many things for her in the way of
comforts in the home but those comforts came a bit late and her joy was in doing for
others and not in having others do for her. I think she was always fearful of what
would become of me. I shall never forget the day I took my things away to furnish my
own home. We set them out in the yard for the drayman to get and it looked as if the
whole houseful was going. It nearly broke me up to think I was taking so much and so
soon as I could get back - in only a few hours - I returned, thinking I would find
her in tears, but instead I found her house all in order - every piece of furniture
where she wanted it - my picture on the parlor table and she was out in the back
porch laughing and talking with Uncle Dave.
She had to give up the old house - it was too hard for her and it was cold in
winters. For two years she lived with Aunt Alice. She loved her more and more as she
kenw her better. Who could do otherwise?
The bronchitis with which she was afflicted got worse and worse - she became weaker
and weaker. She felt that she was never to be strong again and she disliked being
waited on. when she could not do the things she saw about her to be done, she was
unhappy. Mentally she loved to go to reunions of the Augustine Family. At one of the
last ones she attended she and Uncle Burr sat beside the fire - it was cold - and
entertained the children with songs.
High Oh won't you ki me Oh
High mo kimo dare ware.
She was a proud free woman. Many times she stayed away from people because her
religion would not let her dress as other women dressed. The very thing she
worshipped proved a tyrant to pull her down. Even in her old age she adopted the hat
instead of the bonnet. I cannot but feel bitter toward those men who in the name of
religion put fetters on woman and her progress. Iknow how much happier she and my
father would have been if she had not been cramped by that very thing.
She lived to see all but one of her children buried. Eight grandchildren out of nine
survived her and at present she has 32 great grandchildren.
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