Lorene Andris, Mother: Vignettes

The Canning Table

We were upstairs with Vicki looking at the steerage trunk that Abraham Fickeisen made to bring their stuff over on the sailing ship. Mom said that the knitting equipment that was kept in there, the knitting needles were made of bone, and that in the winter they knitted all the socks and other things that they needed for the year. Then we asked her who made the drop leaf table. She said, "Grandma told me a story about that. She said that her mother and she were in the kitchen making jelly and Mutter said, "I need another table." Fatter overheard this, and didn't say a word, just went out and bought this table from a neighbor for a quarter."

An old German cradle poem:
Bache, bache ku-ha. Die Becker hat geruven.
Wer would gude Kuchen haben,
Der would haben sieben saven:
Butter und smaltch, eier und salz, milch und Maehl,
Und saffron mach die Kuchen Gael.

Translation:
Bake, bake a cake, the baker says.
If you want a good cake,
You need seven ingredients:
Butter and [chicken] fat, eggs and salt, milk and flour
And saffron makes the cake yellow.

Uncle Tom and Aunt Rose Hawkins

In 1916, Frank had a drinking buddy, Tom Hawkins, who would bring Frank home. They said they would love to have a little girl like me. Frank bought a house next to Tom and "Aunt" Rose and lived there until 1919. The Hawkins' got a chance to work as custodians at the County House. After they moved, dad got disillusioned, sold his house, moved into Hawkins' house and lived there until he died.

The Hawkins' offered to take Clara and her daughter, Lorene, and they went to visit them for years. The day that Tom Hawkins died, March 6, 1945, was the day Thomas Franklin Andris, Lorene's second son, was born. He was named after Tom Hawkins and her father. On March 9, 1948, Lorene was in labor with Vicki Clare, her daughter. Clara sent down to the second floor of Marietta Memorial Hospital, where Rose Hawkins was ill, to tell her about Vicki's birth. She died that night at midnight. Lorene loved Uncle Tom and Aunt Rose, and they loved her. Vicki was almost called "Vicki Rose." Tom and Rose never had any children.

Uncle Dan Fickeisen and his daughter, Lula Fickeisen

Uncle Dan Fickeisen was not so much of a carpenter as a woodworker. Jake and John were carpenters and built houses. This one bed that Jake and Annie slept in had a headboard that he [Dan] had decorated. Mom has a picture that was a wedding present to Eva Noe, his sister, in 1872. She now has a sail boat framed in it. The frame has leaves sticking out from it. Now it's painted gold, but Dan had stained it with vegetables. It was red and green. He made a four-legged flower pedestal for me after I was married. Up stairs in the back bedroom, the night stand was made by Uncle Dan. Hall tree in the cellar was made by Uncle Dan. [Jim: I now have the hall tree in my front hall.]

Lula Fickeisen was a first cousin to Clara Noe Sullivan. She was Uncle Dan's child. Her mother ran away while she still couldn't walk. Dan brought her to Clara, but Clara refused. Eva, Clara's mother, said she couldn't take her "because she wasn't living by herself." So Dan went to Anna Fickeisen Biehl, and Anna took both Dan and Lula in. This was in 1915. In three or four years, Lula left, "because she wanted to lay with every boy." Henry Biehl, Anna's husband, died in 1925. In 1930, she left Anna and came to live with Lorene and Clara, when she was 19. She left again in 1926, "was eat up with [venereal disease]." She tried to kill her father, Dan, in a drunken fight. She was committed to the State Hospital at Athens, Ohio, left in 1947. She lived with anyone who would take her in. She died in 1964. Dan continued to live with Anna until she was 95 years old. Then Anna's son, Irvin and his wife Blanche came to care for Anna, and they kicked Dan out. He went out to a vacated school house and made a home. Eventually he lived with three old aged pensioners out at Whipple, Ohio, where he died at age 88.

A few years ago, I asked my mother if she would write down the story of her life. She said that she would try when she got a chance. A few weeks later, I received this document in the mail. Also, I am indebted to her for almost all of the details of the family of Abraham Fickeisen and Margaret Mueller Fickeisen.

About dad's generosity

Dad took George Day in when he was 15. His dad was an alcoholic and had died. This is when I (Jim) was about 2.. Georged stayed in one of our rented rooms, and I (Lorene) did his laundry. He stayed until he was about 18.

He also helped Mary Hartshorn when her husband died. She had a lot of little kids. Dad went down to Gruber's Department Store and told the owner to fix her kids up with new outfits and to send the bill to him.