- A Tribute To Women! — Emmie’s Story (Part 4)
- A Tribute To Women! — Emmie’s Story (Part 3)
A Tribute To Women! — Emmie’s Story (Part 2) - A Tribute To Women! — Emmie’s Story (Part 1)
Emmie and John started their marriage in this house on what is now West Main Street in Mt. Vernon and their daughter, Emma Ewers, was born there on October 24, 1900. The house is still a residence today, 110 years after they lived there (photo from GoogleMaps). Emmie and John also lived in seven other locations in and around Mt. Vernon.
Over the next few years, their son, Hartford Conn, was born on April 11, 1905; Emmie’s mother, Celia, died on November 18, 1908, and Susie married August Krueger at Emmie and John’s house on September 7, 1911. During this time John was running a blacksmith shop in Mt. Vernon on Spring Street, and the house they were living in at one point burned down causing them to lose everything.
This family portrait was taken about 1906. Seated: Emmie and John holding Hartford; standing: Susie, Gracie and Emma.
Emmie was an accomplished seamstress and not only sewed for her family but also for other people. She could look at a picture of a dress in a catalog and make one just like it. She no doubt made the dresses Emma and baby Hartford were wearing in this picture and probably also made Susie’s, Gracie’s and her own.
On June 10, 1918, Emmie gave birth to their daughter, Anna Rose. Emmie was 36 and John 54 when she was born and they already had two grandchildren (Susie’s daughters). (Photo at right is Emmie and Anna Rose bet. 1928-1930.)
During the next ten years, Emmie’s father, Matt, died on March 21, 1920; their daughter, Emma, married Elmer D. Hopkins in Jellico, Tennessee on October 11 that year, and their son, Hartford, married Betty Mulliner on November 9, 1928 in Galesburg, Illinois.
Around 1925, John decided to sell the blacksmith shop and buy a small farm about a mile from town. They lived on the farm for several years but in the early 1930’s as the depression was causing problems for many families, they gave up farming and moved in with Susie and her children. Her husband, August, had died in 1927. A few years later, their son-in-law, Elmer Hopkins, bought a small farm near the farm they had lost, and Emmie, John, Gracie and Anna Rose moved there.
