Page 86 - The CRAIG family

RALPH EMERSON - Born June 24, 1923 – Died December 16, 2010 (87) 12th Grade Education Daddy was born in Watson, Indiana at 1:55 am. His dad Marshall was employed as a Freight Car Builder and was 40 years old and his mother Jean was 34.
1929 – 1930: Daddy was only 4 years 8 months old when his mother died, and he was almost 5-1/2 years when his father died. In the 1930 census Daddy and his siblings (with the exception of Aunt Eva and Aunt Charlotte) were living with grandfather Colmore Allen Craig and his wife Lora.
From Daddy’s memories – It gets a little fuzzy here -- Apparently for whatever reason, Old Lady Crowder took all of the kids at some point after Marshall died and she wasn’t very nice to them. According to Daddy, after she spent the insurance money (we don’t know how she got insurance money), she didn’t want to keep them, except for Aunt Gin because she wanted a housekeeper. Helen Sparks (the daughter of Pearl Sparks, Marshall’s sister) the Craig kids’ cousin, took the children back to Colmore and Lora’s where she also lived.
In 1930, Colmore was 72 years old and unemployed and the household included him, his wife Lora, Aunt Mildred, Uncle Ed, Aunt Gin, Daddy, Uncle George and Helen Sparks. Helen was the only person employed and Daddy said it was a big responsibility for her financially (she worked for Indiana-Ky Railroad, called Inter-urban). At any rate, the 5 children (Aunt Charlotte came back from living with Aunt Eva) were so much responsibility to feed and to care for that other arrangements had to be made and that’s when they were taken to the orphanage. Records show that 4 of the children were living with Colmore and Lora in May 1930, so from the time Marshall died in January 1930 until they children were taken to the orphanage in May 1931, the children must have bounced around a lot.
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