George Funderburg's Life Up To 1900

The following was written by George Funderburg, my great-grandfather (mother's mother's father). This story is written is written in ballpoint pen on the back of three blank shipping orders from "The Majestic Company" of Huntington, Indiana. On the back of one of the pages is written "Story of my life up to 1900" in black magic marker.

The pages were damaged with moisture on the left edge due to a period of poor storage in the 1990's. Fortunately, the lacunae are minimal. Unreconstructable lacunae are marked as [...]; other material in brackets is a guess at missing material, other than footnote numbers which are also enclosed in brackets.

Page 1

Many years ago Adam Funderburg and [Lulu?] B. Kethcart became husband and wife and in the course of time they were expecting an arrival in their home, which came to pass one cold rainy and sleety morning. March the twenty first Eighteen eighty seven a baby boy was born, which they named George Right. I know why they chose Wright as my middle name, for that was my grandmotherUs maiden name on my motherUs side of the house, but I never thought to ask them why they chose George. It might of been they thought I might be a great man like George Washington. [If] that was their thought, they sure missed the mark.

Of course, all of this happened before my brains had come [...] that stage of development, of remembering what was [go]ing on in my life. But I take it for granted that [1] [fath]er and mother were proud of their baby and took good [ca]re of me, altho they told me I did roll out of my bed [a c]ouple times. I finally came to that stage of my growth [an]d development when children not only notice things [abou]t them which begin to remember [2] things that [matters?] in their lives, especially certain things out of the [or]dinary things [3] in those by gone days parents [dress]ed their boys in dresses about the same as girls' [...] to the age of 2 years or so old it is at the stage in [my life?] the first thing happened I remember [... i]t was that day dad (Father) was useing a crosscut [saw sawing?] some wood and I wanted to take hold of the handle on the other end of the saw. I did and the teeth of the saw tore a hole in my dress.... this has always been in my memory from that time on. [4] by [...] my brains was grasping the more important happenings[,] as I will relate as I procede in this story of [ev]ents that come to my memory. Over to page two

Page 2

Before I go farther with this story I will say that [5] I was born in [Damion?] Township Huntington Co. and do not remember moving to Lancaster Township Huntington Co. as they moved before I [6] was capable of remembering so my recollections of things being related begin after we moved to Lancaster Township. located on a little farm south of [7] Huntington on the Warren road [8].

The only thing I remember while there is the incident I have already related[,] that took place when the saw tore my dress, as we moved from this place when I was three years old to a farm located in Polk Township Huntington Co. along the Salamonie River 1 1/2 miles west of Mount [9] Etna. It is at our stay on this farm for three years many little things came into my life of [c]ourse of a childish nature, of which I will mention only [a f]ew, perhaps the most impressive of these memories while [there?] was a big ice gorge on the Salamonie river. When Ice [...] water was over the river bottom land. and then managed [...]ake the forge, and I saw the chunks of ice over the [...] down below the hill on which the building stood [10]. I remember there were many Hard maple trees in the woods and dad tapped them and made maple syrup and I would go along with him.

Down in the corner of the woods was a big grape vine that had been shaped into a swing I would spend some time there Henry Hildebrans live not far from us. they had a daughter [a]bout my age. We would visit back and forth some. her name was Vivian. I might mention that I started to her place once with a little flower with out permission. or how I did like to stand at a certain place and say thing loud and hear the echo come back. It was while living here I learned who Santa Clause is by peeping thru a key hole [11] but I must hasten on as there is much ahead to tell.

Page 3

At the age of 6 we moved back to the same farm in Lancaster Twp. we lived on before moving to Polk Twp. This was [12] in the spring of the year 1893., it was here I started to go to Sunday School and Church at [Loon?] Creek at that time called German Baptist Church, but [13] later called The Church of the Brethren. It was in the fall of this year I started to go to the ([Loon?] Creek Public School) (Called Carson's School District No 1) From this time on I began to help dad [14] at various things. My brother Charley was 2 1/2 [15] years old and my brother was a baby less than a year old.

During the age of 6 to 10 I kept doing more and more of the chores and work of various kinds, and grandma Kethcart would come and stay with us a few days occasionally [I']m not sure of the date grandma died but I think in [1898?] [16]. When I was 10 years old the spring of 1897 I joined [t]he [Loon?] Creek Church / was at that time called German Baptist Brethren [no]w Church of the Brethren.

At the age of 10 I was doing such work as feeding [...] horses, Harnessing horses doing some plowing etc. [17] The late fall of 1898 my dad had ceatic rheumutism [and] was in bed with that most all winter, and in [...] of 1899 Mother had pneumonia, so that was rather a [...] winter for me because I had to take care of the horses cows [chicken] and we had some hogs also

[18]

My dad was bothered with what the Drs said was [dropping?] of the heart and was not able to do much when I was 10 or 11 years old and by this much of the work fell on me. Especially from 1899 to his death on May 14 1902.

This is a short summary of my life up to the turn of the century.

1 'the' deleted here.
2 'ha' deleted here.
3 A line thru 'things' as if a deletion were intended.
4 'Time' deleted here.
5 'this' deleted here, followed by two illegible deletions.
6 Illegible deletion beginning with 'ca' (possibly 'can')
7 'Huntington' appears once in what appears like a different pen at the end of the line, and then again at the beginning of the next line.
8. A long deletion: 'at the age of three the folks moved again, this time onto a farm located in [Polk?] Township Huntington Co. along on the [Salamonie?] river about 1 1/2 miles west of Mount Etna' The 'on' after 'along' was obviously scratched out before the longer deletion was made.
9. 'Etna' occurs twice; the first instance is scratched out.
10. There is a line thru 'which the building stood'.
11. The preceding sentence is written at the bottom of the page with an arrow to show where it should be inserted.
12. 'the year of' deleted here.
13. 'soon after' deleted; 'later' written above.
14. At the beginning of the line is a damaged area which appears to contain a deletion which might read 'and earn'. This is crossed out with a different pen, and something possibly ending with 'ou' is written to the left in the different pen.
15. It appears that '3 1/2' was originally written and then corrected to '2 1/2'.
16. This number appears at the beginning of the line and is damaged. There is an illegible character which may be '8', then a clear '9', then a deletion, then an '8'.
17. There is a deletion at the damaged beginning of the line reading '[...] when'
18. A deleted paragraph: 'This is only a brief summary of the think that took place in my life previous to the ushering in of the 1900 century'