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Legends and Memories of

CHARLES EDWARD OSBORN

Written by: Dick Osborn (grandson)

Sept. 2008

Charles was born in the family of Dexter Schuyler and Sally Ann (Eldridge) Osborn. Charles was the third child born of this marriage on 12/20/1855 in DePauville, N.Y.

The first child was John Dexter, b 5/5/1849, second was Joseph Clinton, b. 1853 in DePauville, the fourth was William Jefferson, b. 1860 in DePauville, the fifth was Chloe b. 1863 in Gull Prairie, Mi. ( no longer exists). The last one was Ruth b. 1/11/1866 in DePauville, N.Y.

Dexter S. was a blacksmith, as was his father before

him. Charles, as a young boy, was always around his father’s shop doing the things that young boys like to do. Of course his father expected him to do several chores around the home as well as at the shop. The family had a vegetable garden, like all the neighbors had, and Charles and his brothers were expected to carry water to the plants, weed and hoe, etc. the garden as well as pick and gather the vegetables when the time came.

As he continued to grow, he also had to learn to work in the shop, hardening, tempering, forming and bending, upsetting, drawing the steel to the right shape, on the tools that were needed by farmers and other workmen. It also entailed

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sweeping up after horses when they left their mark on the floor while being shod.

His older brother John (called Deck) left the family home at an early age, being well trained in shoeing horses. He traveled

with a circus as head horse shoer and trainer.

This left the other boys to do the work around the home and shop. One time Charles got a job with a neighbor and part of his duties was to hitch up the horse and buggy and take the neighbor’s girls to school each morning.----Well, of course, the horse several times relieved itself of gas during the trip. This caused the girls to giggle and laugh, and caused many embarrassing moments for Charles. He told the neighbor that he couldn’t drive the girls to school any longer and gave the reason why. “NONSENSE”, said the neighbor, “Just give the horse a smart crack on the rear with the whip and tell it to get along.” This startled the horse so that it quit causing the problem and started to trot.

After a few years the family made a trip to Gull Prairie, Mi. ( No Longer Exists) near Caledonia to visit Sally Ann’s parents, the Clark Eldridge’s, who had moved there from N.Y. many years before. It was during this visit that Sally Ann gave birth to Chloe in 1863.

After a short stay they returned to N.Y. A few years later the last child, Ruth, was born in 1866 in DePauville.

Charles became a full time blacksmith, working with his father for several years.

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He started courting a young lady from that area and after a few years was getting ready to propose to her when it became known that she was to marry another young man.

This upset Charles very much and he decided to leave and visit his grandparents in Gull Prairie, Mi. once again in about 1880. And his oldest brother Deck lived in Paris Twp. (no longer exists) only a short distance away from the grandparents, on the outskirts of Grand Rapids.

He worked with Brother Deck until Deck married in 1882 and shortly thereafter returned to New York State.

Charles decided to stay here and started his own blacksmith shop. For a while he roomed with George Fitch on Central Ave. in Grand Rapids, Mi. in 1890. He met a girl, Elizabeth Rosine Ebner who lived nearby also on Central Ave.

After a short courtship they were married in Caledonia

in 1891, at the ages of 35 years. His grand parents lived near there. They later bought a house on Central Ave.

On 6/16/1893 Charles became the father of Claud Dexter Osborn at age 37.

At the age of 41 Charles became the father of Lula Osborn in 1897.

Charles’s mother, Sally Ann Osborn died, in 1903, but he did not attend the funeral. He was informed of this by letter from one of his family.

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Charles’ shop was located behind their house on Central Ave. (Later name changed to Sheldon Ave.) It was in this shop that he shod the horses that pulled the stage coach from Kalamazoo to Grand Rapids, along, of course, with many, many other horses that needed shoeing. His son, Claud, started learning his trade here with Charles from boyhood on until he went into partnership with another blacksmith for 3 years. After that time he returned to his father’s shop and eventually bought him out in about 1913.

Charles would have been 58-59 years old. He claimed that the draft horses they had then started using were too heavy for him to hold up. Of course, he didn’t fully retire, he helped out

when needed, but mostly did a little business on the side. He made small wagons, push carts, and other similar items for resale.

On Jan. 12, 1916 Claud married a neighbor girl, Anne Lange, whom he had known for years, as he chummed around with her younger brother Bill Lange. They were married in her father Wilhelm Lange’s house also on Central Avenue,( her mother had died many years prior in 1900), by a pastor from the Lutheran church named Fred Decker. Pastor Decker later became interim pastor at Hope Lutheran Church. This was the first marriage he had ever performed.

Later that year their first son, Robert, was born

in Nov. 1916 , then followed Charles William born in Feb. 1918. In Oct. 1919 Clinton was born, Richard was born in May, 1926, Virginia was born in Feb.1929 and last was William born in Mar. 1931.

Charles, being retired, allowed him plenty of time to spend with his grandchildren, listening to them and telling stories to them, always being available.

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Charles’daughter Lula died from Pneumonia in the early 1920’s. This caused both Charles and Elizabeth much grief. Their daughter had hardly lived, never married and being so young, she was only 20 some years old.

After a few years Charles and Elizabeth, after their daughter passed away, had taken in a young girl to live with them as she had no other home and she became almost one of the family. This went on for a few years and later she left to marry, but never forgot the friendship she made with Charles and Elizabeth

Charles received a letter from brother Deck informing him that their father, Dexter Schuyler Osborn, died on Feb. 9, 1923 at the age of 96 years. Charles did not attend the funeral.

One day Charles went to the grocery and told the people there that, finally, Claud and Anne almost got their wish for a baby girl. BUT that it had been raining so hard that morning the baby sprouted, so they had another boy instead.

Charles didn’t like to visit his in-laws, the Ebners, who lived across the street and half way down the block. The parents came from Germany and spoke a lot of German in their home. Charles couldn’t understand this language and called this Gibberish. He always claimed that he was a Blue Blood Yankee and spoke only English.

A few years later and the Big Depression hit the United States, in 1929, and most men lost their jobs. A lot of houses were repossessed by the banks as people could no longer make monthly payments.

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Fortunately Charles had his home paid for. Of course, the blacksmithing business also suffered along with all the other businesses. This was the time when Claud had to accept things other than money for his work. Some times potatoes from farmers, some times hay, some times what ever had value

and could be traded or sold to get cash. After receiving many, many bushels of potatoes, it was decided to sell them if possible to the neighbors. Claud’s son Dick was told to go house to house and ask if they wanted to buy these potatoes at 50 cents a bushel. Several neighbors were willing to buy them and thus Claud received some cash in hand.

Claud, after his marriage, had moved into his father-in-law’s house and had lived there for many years, paying for all the costs. He had to help out his parents as much as he could because all their capital was long gone and at this time there was no Social Security for old people. This put a large strain on Claud as he had his own family to feed.

When Charles took a walk thru the neighborhood he always used his cane with a steel knob on the top. One day as

he went walking along the sidewalk a dog came rushing out at him, his teeth bared. Charles reversed his cane, hitting the dog with the steel knob. The dog YELPED, his owner yelled at Charles, “Why didn’t you hit him with the other end?” Charles replied, “Why didn’t he come at me with the other end?” The owner continued his tirade to which Charles replied, “Come out here and I’ll hit you with it too.” EVER THE FEISTY OLD MAN.

As a small boy I can remember him using SNUFF, a shredded tobacco. He took a pinch between his finger and

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thumb, placed it to his nose and sniffed it inside. This caused him to sneeze. I never understood why he did that.

Another thing he did that amazed a small boy. He took the stem out of a coffee pot, slightly flattened one end enlarged the other end so a cigarette fixed into the end and then use this to smoke his cigarette, ala Franklin Roosevelt.

Charles was a “To Boot” trader. No matter what he traded or sold he always wanted a little to boot, meaning something extra than just the price. One time Charles traded a clothes bureau for a pump organ (no one could play the organ).

It sat in his house a lengthy time before he finally traded it off with a little ‘To Boot’ for something else. His joy was not in the article he traded for, but rather in the ‘To Boot’ he always got.

As a little boy at Grandpa’s house (we only lived a few houses away) sometimes he would give me a nickel and send me to the corner store to buy ‘Dutch Bobblers.’ These came in a bag with 6-8 pieces and were very hard candy. We would sit on his front porch in wooden rocking chairs sucking on the ‘Bobblers’ and watch the people walk by. Of course, he always had something to say to the people and sometime they would stop and converse with him. Each ‘Bobbler’ took a long time, to completely dissolve so I never got more than 1 or 2 and then he would save the rest for himself and Grandma.

Charles and Lizzie, his wife, spent a lot of summer days rocking on their front porch watching and talking with the passersby.

Charles had available to him a lot of horse manure, from the horses being shod in the blacksmith shop. He would take

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this and spread it on his lawn, in hopes of fertilizing the grass. However the exact opposite happened, he completely burned all the grass off the lawn. He was the only one in the whole neighborhood with a dirt lawn.

Charles was a great one to try patent medicines for his imaginary illnesses. I never knew him to be sick, but if he saw an ad for some medicine he had to try it. One time he bought a bottle of new medicine and he stored it in the cabinet in the shop where they kept some medicine for horses. This cabinet was in a dimly lighted corner. One day he reached in to try his new medicine, took out the bottle and uncorked it and took a healthy swig. But, lo and behold, he got the wrong bottle by mistake. What he drank was Horse Liniment. He coughed, gagged, and finally vomited. NO MORE medicines in the shop cabinet for him.

Charles could play the violin, but not the way most people did. He never put the end under his chin; rather he put the end against his chest. I don’t know if he could read music or not but he could play ‘turkey-in-the- straw’ and tunes similar to that. Supposedly this was a very expensive violin, gotten from

someone who had traveled to Italy and it was supposed to be very old. However, we never were able to find the true value.

We did find out it was not a Stradivarius.

Charles, after he sold the shop to his son, Claud, still got up early in the morning and went out to the shop and started the fires in the forges so that they would be ready when

Claud and the workmen arrived.

Charles was always one of the several old men that spent a lot of time around the blacksmith shop telling stories

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and jokes. They had no other place to go to get out of their wives’ way and enjoy each others company. Occasionally they

would all chip in a nickel or dime and someone would go over to the tavern and buy a ‘ Growler’ of beer. Upon return a red hot poker was thrust into the beer and then passed around for all to share, especially in the winter time. (I don’t know what that tastes like as I have never tried it.)

Charles used to pop corn with a device he called a ‘puddle stick’. The cast iron kettle he used had a hole in the lid and the ‘puddle stick’ was inserted through the hole and then used to stir the corn. He placed the kettle on the stove and when hot he began stirring until it stopped popping. At which time the corn was ready to eaten. There were seldom any ‘old maids’ (unpopped kernels) in the kettle after being stirred.

One of his favorite sayings was “Go to bed with the chickens and get up with the rooster”. They went to bed when it was dark especially in the cold weather and arose early in the morning when the sun came up.

Charles had no central heat in his house. He had two coal burning stoves, one in the living room and one in the kitchen. At bed time he had to bank the fires so they wouldn’t go out during the night and then next morning he had to shake out the ashes and replenish with coal to get the heat going again. He had a coal scuttle to carry the coal into the house from the outside coal bin. The scuttle was also used to carry out the ashes and cinders.

Finally in 1935, when things were again turning around and people were again being employed, Charles at age 79 received a big surprise. His youngest sister, Ruth, and her

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husband, Will Howk, her daughter, Merle, and her husband, Harold Jebo, and Merle’s youngest daughter, Nancy, came to

visit him here in Grand Rapids. These were the first family members he had seen since John Dexter moved back to N.Y. in 1883. A joyous reunion was had and after they had spent a week in Grand Rapids, promises were made that Charles would go to N.Y. to see them the following summer.

Charles had not been back to New York, nor had he seen anyone from his family since 1883, approximately 45 years before.

In December 1935 a letter was received by Charles that his oldest brother John Dexter had passed away 12/3/1935 and

once again Charles was unable to attend the funeral. I am sure it was because of financial problems.

In the summer of 1936, Charles and his daughter-in-law Anne, his 3 grandsons, Robert, Clinton and William and his

Granddaughter, Virginia, went to Watertown N.Y. the home of Ruth Howk (his sister). After spending a short time there they visited his brothers, Clint and Jeff, who lived on a farm in

Clayton, N.Y. There a joyous reunion was held, and his other sister, Chloe, and family also attended.

His brother, Joseph Clinton, died 3/24/1936 just a short time after Charles had reacquainted himself with him after so many years’ absence. Again, Charles was unable to attend the funeral.

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Charles was forever THANKFUL for the reunion with his family before any more time had passed and never forgot the wonderful times he spent there with the family. He treasured these fond memories until his death in 1939 at the age of 83. He is buried here in Grand Rapids in the Garfield cemetery; along side his daughter and wife who died much later in 1945.

Picture taken about 1905-06