Fruit Bowl Bet Revisited

(Posted December 31, 2010)

You may recall my story from October 2009 about the fruit bowl wedding gift.  This story describes a bet my grandfather Vernon Ducklow made with his buddy Gideon Arneson circa 1907.  They agreed that whoever married first would buy the other an expensive and ornate fruit bowl – the one they had both admired in a display window of a Spring Valley merchant.  Grandpa won the bet by marrying Mina Bowen in July of 1907. Vern and Mina received the bowl as a wedding gift from Gideon. It has been a family heirloom ever since. Click here to get to my original post.

Left: Fruit bowl wedding gift from Gideon Arneson to Vern and Mina Ducklow. 

Stay with me now as it may seem that I’m going off subject.  I have an interest in artifacts related to Spring Valley from the 1850s to the 1970s, including collecting old post cards.  Earlier this month I won an eBay auction for a used post card from Spring Valley picturing the spoke, stave and heading factory.  This mill had been located just a few hundred yards from my boyhood home, straight east of St. John’s Lutheran Church.  The postmark on the card is May 21, 1909. I thought it was an interesting colorized card that showed an important business in Spring Valley from the early 1900s.  The eBay auction only showed the front of the card, not the reverse.  It really didn't matter to me what was on the back.

Above: Postcard image showing the Spoke, Stave & Heading Mill located in Spring Valley circa 1905.  Note St. John's Church steeple just to the right of the factory's smoke stack.  

When the card arrived  I first viewed the picture on the front and admired how great of shape the card was in being over 100 years old. Then I turned the card over.  I nearly dropped to the ground laughing with surprise when I read whom the card was originally addressed to: Mrs. Gideon Arneson!  Yes, it was sent to the wife of the man who would have won the fruit bowl bet if he had married before Grandpa married Grandma.  How spooky odd is that!?  Do you think it was destiny that this postcard ended up in my collection?

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Footnotes:

(1) The card is from Mrs. Arneson’s sister, Blanch.  It reads:

Dear Sister –

How you was 

I suppose you remember where you were a year ago today.  I am still trying to settle and fix things up. You had better try to come over Sunday.  I may go to the city next week what can I get for you love to you both, Blanch

(2) I purchased the card from an large volume seller of collectables based in Duluth, MN via Ebay auction.  It’s a mystery of how it may have ended up there.  The card was mailed to Mrs. Gideon Arneson, Martell, Wisc.

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George Ducklow – Spring Valley Real Estate Developer

Olivet Trumped by Booming Spring Valley

[Published December 31, 2010]

George Ducklow, son of Thomas and Elizabeth Ducklow, ran a successful mercantile business in the small hamlet of Olivet Wisconsin for many years.  But by the late 1890s Olivet was in economic decline. Selling implements and general merchandise had been successful for George, but it became clear by 1890 that Olivet was not going to grow into the city early settler’s dreamed of.  The long-hoped for railroad and associated rail station never materialized. The lumber men who had once created a demand for goods and services had moved to timber stands further north, along with the two or three active lumber mills that once called Olivet home.  The logged-off forestland had been taken over by farmers and their families.  George’s mercantile business evolved from serving lumberjacks and sawyers to serving men and families of agriculture.  He no doubt met this transition by offering merchandise to meet the needs of pioneer farmers (e.g., dynamite to blow out tree stumps, one-bottom plows by John Deere, seed planters, etc.).  But there was a fundamental issue with Olivet – with no train there was no dominant reason for area farmers to conduct business there. Farmers took much of their trade to Ellsworth or River Falls because these communities had rail service that offered them links to commodity markets in St. Paul and Minneapolis and beyond. 

While Olivet’s fortunes fell in the 1880s and into the 1890s, Spring Valley, the once quiet and sparely populated valley five miles to the north, had suddenly become a boomtown.  This was thanks to the discovery and subsequent commercialization of iron ore mining in the early 1890s by the Eagle Iron Company. Some hopeful prognosticators of the era felt that Spring Valley was going to become a large city, perhaps largest city in Western Wisconsin! Booming Spring Valley offered George new opportunity to renew his business so by1898, George decided to move his store from Olivet to Spring Valley.  Perhaps the key to George’s decision was the addition of the railroad spur in 1893 connecting Spring Valley to Woodville and the main rail trunk between Chicago and St. Paul.   The primary purpose of the rail line was to ship smelted iron to regional factories, but the new rail station also provided area farmers with a gateway to agricultural markets, and offered retailers efficient transportation to receive their merchandise.

Now because Spring Valley was a boomtown in this period, all existing buildings and platted land were in high demand.  All sorts of investors and opportunists where searching for a space to set-up shop.  Money and hope poured in Spring Valley in the early 1890s and continued up until the early 1900s. Practically speaking, if you wanted to open a retail business you needed to buy a lot (owned by early-on non-local investors) and build your own building. And this is apparently what George Ducklow did.  In 1899, in partnership with his relatively new son-in-law George LaGrander (he and Nellie Ducklow married in1895), together built a new general store on the corner of Glade and Central Avenues in Spring Valley (today this location is directly east of the City Municipal building.)  Not many details of this building have been discovered and the building was razed in the 1980s.  There is one photograph known to this author that shows a small portion of the front entry to the building.

It is not clear why, but after just one year of operation, George sold this Glade Avenue store to a man named Jerome Baker Smith. Mr. Smith used the building to retail shoes and grocery items.  A number of reasons seem possible for George’s decision to sell: Perhaps it didn’t have the traffic he expected, or he found it too small, or, most possible, he was made an offer during the boom years which gave him a nice profit.  Whatever his reason, George Ducklow sold his first building in Spring Valley after just one year of operation.

Left: Glimpse of George Ducklow's first building in Spring Valley, built in 1899.  Picture was taken circa 1965.  The building still appears to be an operating grocery store--with a sign for meat in the window and a "Hires Root Beer" ad on the edge of the building. The paper boy is the son of Beaula Thompson.  Picture used with permission frrom the photograph collection of Beaula Thompson.

Right: George Ducklow's second building in Spring Valley built in 1900. Picture taken circa 1958 while it was being operated by Clifford (CW) Arneson as a grocery store.  Picture from Doug Blegen's book called Spring Valley Early Days, used with permission. 

Then in 1900, sans a building to sell merchandise, George built yet another general store, this one on the main drag of Spring Valley—on the SW corner of First Street and McKay Avenue (directly south of the present-day Spring Valley Drug).  It is not clear if George LaGrander helped him again with this building project, but seems possible.  It was this McKay Avenue building that George continued his mercantile business for several years until his retirement estimated to have occurred between 1906 and 1910 (when he was between 55 and 59 years old).  George had chronic asthma and apparently the long store hours were taking a toll.  So with the profits from the sale of his main-street building, he bought a farm in Gilman Township and raised sheep.  He and wife Emma farmed in Gilman until his death in 1928 (see footnote).

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Footnotes:

(1) It seems odd that you would leave a relatively clean retail business and go into sheep farming due to asthma health reasons, but this what was reported in George’s obiturary.

(2) An estimated history of George Ducklow's second building (corner of First & McKay) is believed to be:

1901-1906 Ducklow Mercantile

1906-1920 Geving and Gaadner

1920-1950 Clifford Arneson’s Grocery Store

1950-1970 Hardware Hank Hardware

1970-Present Mark Anderson Veterinary Supply Offices / Warehouse

(3) The estimated history of George’s first building (corner of Central & Glade) is believe to be:

1899-1900 George Ducklow Mercantile

1900-1930 J.B. Baker’s Shoe and Grocery

1930 Alexander “Sandy” Anderson

McCardles

Geroge Breitinger

Gueldner

Stan Andeson

John Rosentreter

1980s- Torn-Down

(4) George continued in the real estate development vein for a while.  He was involved in building at least one home on Church Hill.  He also likely engaged his son Vern in the business of building as the 1905 Census lists Vern as a carpenter’s apprentice.

(5) Information gathered from Doug Blegen’s Spring Valley Early Days, Page 421, George Ducklow’s obituary and Emma Ducklow’s obituary.

(6) It is also notable, that the nation suffered a terrible depression from 1893 to 1896, called the Panic of 1893. In addition to the depression, many Midwest farmers were suffering through drought conditions. No doubt these facts too played a role in George’s decision to pull out of Olivet and try again in Spring Valley.


(7) Both the Glade Ave and McKay Ave buildings had similar entrances: The door framing was recessed into the building forming a nook; a post formed building's "corner" to support the weight of the upper level structure.   This recessed entrance appears to be an "architectural signature" of George's building design.  You can see the posts clearly in both photographs.

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Alois Ducklow, Jr., Passes

[Published November 28, 2010]
[Updated November 30, 2010]

Alois "Al" Ducklow, Jr., age 71, of Menomonie, died unexpectedly on Friday, Nov. 25, 2010, at his home in Menomonie. [Editor: He was 70.]

Al was born May 22, 1940, the son of Alois and Betty (Van Nortwick) Ducklow in Gilman Township, Pierce County. He grew up in the Spring Valley area and attended Spring Valley Schools, graduating with the Class of 1958.

After high school Al worked at Madson Lumber in Spring Valley until about 1963. He worked at Spring Valley Elevator for Floyd Klanderman for more than 10 years and then worked for Standard Battery in St. Paul, Minn., until retiring.

On May 25, 1963, Al married Lorraine O'Bryan at the Elmwood Methodist Church. They were blessed with two children: Lori and Mike. They lived in the Spring Valley area until moving to Menomonie in 1993 after retiring. He and Lorraine were caretakers for Memorial Heights Apartments for 17 years.

Al's favorite pastime was going to his brother's cabin at Grand Rapids, Minn., and spending as much time as he could with a fishing pole in his hand. He also enjoyed reading, puttsin' around the garage, and most of all spending time with his kids and grandchildren, who meant the world to him.

Preceding him in death were his parents and grandparents.

He is survived by his wife Lorraine of Menomonie; his daughter and son: Lori (John) Songs and Mike (Yvonne) Ducklow all of Boyceville; two grandchildren, Michelle (Travis) Swenby of Wheeler and Troy Butler of Glenwood City; three great-granddaughters, Emily, Amy and Brandy Swenby; two step-grandsons, Shane Songs and John Songs III; four step-great-grandchildren; five brothers, Richard (Shirley) Ducklow of Glenwood City, Gerald (Collette) Ducklow of Spring Valley, Steven (Bonnie) Ducklow of Amery, Robert (Mary) Ducklow of Spring Valley and Duane (Mary) Ducklow of Spring Valley; two brothers-in-law, Bob (Bella) O'Bryan and Walter (Ann) O'Bryan Jr.; one sister, Betty Bohn and her friend Randolf Firman [Freeman]; many nieces and nephews; and other relatives and friends.

Visitation was on Sunday, Nov. 28, 2010, from 4:30 until 6:30 p.m. and followed by the service at the Congregational Church in Spring Valley with Rev. Jeff Holton officiating. Burial will be at a later date in Spring Lake Cemetery, Spring Valley.

Pallbearers were his five brothers and cousin Fred Schmoker.

Keehr Funeral Home, Spring Valley handled arrangements.

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My One Memory of Grandpa Vern Ducklow
[Published November 25, 2010]

Left: Vern and Mina Ducklow, circa 1946.


I have but one single memory of my Grandpa Vern.  In spring of 1961, Grandpa came for a visit at our home in Hudson.  This was a time when Dad (Vic Ducklow) was working as a mail sorter for the Post Office in St. Paul and decided that Hudson was reasonable commute to work, so he and Mom bought a home there in 1960.   We lived at 604 Sixth Street.  Our white two-story house was modest and fit right in with the other homes of the neighborhood.  There were lots of other young families that made the city block feel like a community.

A half block down from our house was a small corner grocery located on Sixth and Vine.  Besides carrying an assortment of milk, eggs, bread and other staples, the store had a vast (at least in my very young eyes) selection of penny candy.  On the day of his visit, Grandpa Vern loaded me into my red Radio Flyer wagon with a long black handle, and pulled me a half-block along the uneven cement sidewalk down to the corner store.  Upon arriving, I jumped out of the wagon and we walked in the cramped building.  Grandpa then gave me a nickel to buy five pieces of candy!  Tootsie rolls were my favorite (and still are) and so I picked out five and handed the nickel over to the clerk.  Grandpa bought some candy for himself too.  I stuffed four of the five pieces of candy into my pockets, and keep one out to eat on the wagon ride back home. I was happy to have been given a long ride to the store and eating sweets too!

As I visualize Grandpa on that day, I recall him being very tall and thin. I can’t recall his voice, but his demeanor struck me as being soft-spoken and kind, and perhaps a bit frail.  I don’t recall Grandma Mina being there that day, but she could have simply been in our house and my memory was all about Grandpa pulling me in my wagon and buying me sweets.  I wish I could recall more about him, but I was just too young (I think I was only about 27 months old). 

Grandpa Vern died in July of 1961, from complications of a broken hip.  He was 81.  Five weeks prior he had fell during a middle-of-the-night trip to urinate outside.  He slipped on the dew laden grass and lay helpless through the night until Grandma Mina awoke in the morning finding him.  Gradually, Grandpa’s body began to shut down, unable to recover from the trauma of the fall.  With today’s medicine, death from a broken-hip is uncommon, but fifty years ago an elderly person falling resulting in a broken hip was often a death sentence. Such was the case for Grandpa Vern.

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Footnote: Vern never learned to drive a car.  When he needed to travel around Spring Valley, he took a horse or walked.  The range of horse was all the distance he needed to go in most cases.  Mr. Rex Pearce, a friend of Vern’s had the need to conduct business in the Twin Cities.  He would on occasion take Grandpa Vern along, drop him off at our home in Hudson in the morning, and upon his return, pick him up and drive back to Spring Valley in the evening.

Footnote: I’m not sure how long this store remained a grocery. Not too many years after we moved from Hudson, it had been converted into a boutique flower shop.  

Footnote:  It’s hard to imagine today, but Grandpa and Grandma's home did not have running water and no inside toilet.  Water came from a manual pump located a few feet from the front porch.  Their toilet was an outhouse situated a few dozen yards away from their home, dug into the side hill.  There a worn path from between the house and the privy.  Not having inside facilities was an inconvenience in the spring, summer and fall, but must have been a real trial each winter! 


Footnote: The story of Vern's fall and Vern's rides to Hudson learned from a discussion with Pearl Ducklow on November 25, 2010.


Footnote: Pedigree back to Thomas & Elizabeth Ducklow:  Vern > George > Thomas Ducklow

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Birthday Roulette

[Published October 25, 2010]

Do you know ANYONE born on these dates?

October 31^st

February 29^th

March 10^th

June 28^th

August 19^th

In my database of over 1,700 descendants, spouses of descendants, and parents of spouses with known birthdays, no one was born on these five dates.  On average, with this size of group, every date would have four to five birthdays.  If the calendar where a roulette wheel, I wouldn’t place a bet on the little ball landing on any of these dates!   

Of course February 29^th is the rarest of days to have a birthday, because it only occurs every four years (due to leap year). Often people with this birthday celebrate it either on February 28^th or March 1^st.  Each of these dates in my database has six birthdays, making me wonder if some are actually February 29^th births.

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Size of the Thomas and Elizabeth Ducklow Family Tree

[Published September 30, 2010]

How big is the Ducklow family tree today?  How many descendants do our common ancestral grandparents (Thomas and Elizabeth) have?  The short answer is that there are over 1,000 descendants.  Not all of the descendants have been identified, but the upper number is likely less than 1,500.  

Here is an update on the size of the family Thomas and Elizabeth Ducklow / Dukelow family tree by generation as of September 2010:

1^st Generation: Thomas and Elizabeth had 13 children; 8 sons and 5 daughters

2^nd Generation: Those 13 begat 30 children

3^rd Generation: Those 30 begat 80 children

4^th Generation: Those 80 begat 205 children (so far)

5^th Generation: Those 205 begat 383 children (so far)

6^th Generation: Those 383 begat 303 children (so far)

7^th Generation: Those 303 begat 46 children (so far)

8^th Generation: None of the 46 has children yet.  The oldest four are between 17 and 24 years old—the 9^th generation will arrive soon enough.

Working on the family tree over the last four years has brought some perspective that this hobby will certainly be a life-long endeavor.  The number of descendants to identify becomes larger and larger over time.  As each generation comes into child producing years, the mathematics of geometric progression causes the numbers to explode. When the 7^th generation is completely done producing children there will be over 6,000 descendants forming the 8^th generation.  And when the 8^th generation is done having babies, their progeny, the 9th generation, will count over 15,000.    

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Footnote:  The average birthrate is estimated to be 2.51 children for each descendant. All numbers presented do include adopted children. The term begat is defined to mean, “Was the parent of.”  

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Did Christopher Columbus Need a Green Card?

[Published August 8, 2010]

Another recent article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune caught my attention.  On the front page of the August 6^th, 2010 edition was a story about St. Paul hosting The National Poetry Slam.  Think raucous wrestling-crowd behavior combined with rhyming in a competitive environment and you begin to get an idea.  This is a big deal to those involved and attracts spoken-word artists from across the country.  This weekend’s competition is the Super-Bowl event of the field.

While a national slam poetry contest is interesting in and of itself, it’s part of a poem recited by a New York man that caught my attention.  The Tribune article quotes Jamaal St. John, a New Yorker, giving a reading of a poem on immigrants and U.S. History, saying in part,

“Then ask them what their life would’ve been like if the Indians had had tighter immigration policies.” 

This line hit me hard.  I think he has a point. What would our world be like if the Native Americans had insisted that the first Europeans climb back upon their ships and sail back home?  Would there even had been an “us” to have this discussion if this had happened? 

When we debate immigration policy in America, we need to remember that our ancestors came to this land without an invitation and the first peoples of America did not ask us to see a “green card.”  

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A Month to Die For

Are There Seasons for Death?

[Published August 5, 2010]

In making causal conversation with an acquaintance at a recent wedding, he told me he worked for a funeral home, assisting the funeral director various ways.   I wondered if there were seasons to the funeral business, so I asked.  I was a bit surprised at his answer.  His experience was there were more deaths with the changing of the seasons, that is to say more funerals in the spring and fall.  The implication he was making was that the seasonal change triggered people who where fighting death to relax and allow death to occur.  This conversation got me wondering if this was the case for the history of deaths in the Greater Ducklow family. So I checked.

Left: Charles Ducklow Family Plot Maker in Woodlawn Cemetery, Sparta, Monroe County, Wisconsin

Of 236 known death dates of descendants and their spouses from the year 1850 to year 2010, the month with highest count was January with 28.  November had the fewest with 13.   Only one month was right on the average—that was May with 20.  The data also does not indicate a “cycle,” climbing and falling in a predictable manner, but rather is variable from month to month.  Frankly, I’m not sure what this means other than to say it appears to be random, and the month with the fewest days has fewer deaths—February.

At least according to one one-line source, January is month with the highest number of deaths in America.  The same source claims September be the month with the fewest deaths. So perhaps in my acquaintances direct experience the higher numbers occur in the spring and fall, but for our family history it’s the dead of winter—in January (pun intended).

Table

Deaths by Month

January      28

February    16

March        23

April          16

May           20

June           24

July           24

Aug           18

September 16

October     24

November 13

December  14

Total       236

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Footnote1 : Source is:   http://www.webanswers.com/health/months-as-ranked-highest-to-lowest-death-rate-u-s-66e524

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A Question of Grave Concern

(Pun Fully Intended)

[Published July 31, 2010]

Here is a question to consider: If your spouse preceded you in death and you later re-married, as you approached the end of your life would you choose to be buried along side your first spouse, or placed next to your second? Or both, if possible? What factors would guide your choice?

This question has been faced and answered by several descendants in the Greater Ducklow family and is a question that will be answered by several others in the next few years.  Of those that already have faced this dilemma it appears that two important questions drove their ultimate decision: “Who was I married to the longest?” and “Who did I have children with?”  Perhaps a third and fourth consideration came into play too: “Does my second wife have a logical burial location if she is not buried near me?” and “Is there room to be buried next to one spouse vs. another?”

Here is how five in the  Greater Ducklow family answered the question:

(1) John T Ducklow (1847-1923) is buried next to both of his wives in the LaBelle Cemetery of Oconomowoc.  He was married to Blanche Townsend for four years before she passed in 1903.  They had no children.  John then was wed to Kathryn Nicholson in 1903 and they were married for 19 years.  They had one son. John died in 1923 and was buried next to his first wife Blanche.   Kathryn re-married about four years after John’s death.  The death date and place of her second husband is unknown, but what is apparent is she cherished John dearly, as she was buried next to both him and Blanche.

(2) Nellie Ducklow LaGrander Davis (1876 – 1948) is buried next to her first husband George LaGrander.  Nellie and George had been married about ten years before George’s accidental death in 1905.  Nellie and George had three children together.  Six years later Nellie married Albert Davis.  They were married 19 years upon Nellie’s death.  Nellie and Albert had no children together.  Nellie is buried next to George the Spring Lake Cemetery near Spring Valley.  Second husband Albert Davis is buried in the Poplar Hill Cemetery near Rock Elm next to his first wife Luella Weldon.  The apparent decision that both Albert and Nellie made was to be buried next to the spouse from which they had children, even though the length of their marriage to each other was longer than to their respective first spouses.

(3) Frank Erwin Ducklow (1885-1975) is buried next to his second wife, Jessie Roatch in the Spring Lake Cemetery.  Frank out-lived three wives.  Frank’s first wife, Francis Prine, died in 1910 shortly after giving birth to her son Willis. She is buried in the Clayfield cemetery in rural Pierce County.  Frank and Francis had only been married two years upon her death.  Two years later Frank married his second wife Jessie Roatch and they had seven children together.  Frank and Jessie were wed for 35 years upon her death in 1947.  In 1948 Frank married Josie Roatch McCleod, Jessie’s widowed sister.  Frank and Josie were married 17 years before Josie’s death in 1965.  Josie was buried next to her first husband Albert McCleod in the Maple Grove Cemetery near Ellsworth.  Frank and Josie had no children together. In Frank’s case, he is buried next to wife he was married to the longest and with whom had the most children..

(4) Clayton Joseph Ducklow (1893 - 1965) is buried next to his first wife, Mary McMenamin.  Mary and Clayton wed in 1910 and were married 45 years upon Mary’s death in 1955.  Together they had six children together.  In 1959 Clayton married Jane Schimmel.  They later divorced, year unknown; but the marriage was short, less than five years and produced no children.  Clayton and Mary are buried in Resurrection Cemetery.  In Clayton’s case, he is buried next to the wife of more than four decades and with whom he had his children.

(5) Clarence T Blair (1908 – 2006) is buried next to his first wife, Alta Hammann.  Clarence and Alta married 52 years upon Alta’s death in 1988.  Clarence and Alta had two children together.   In 1991 Clarence married Clara (Living).   They were married five years upon Clarence’s death; this marriage had no children.  Clarence and Alta are buried in the Wayside Cemetery near Barron.  Clarence is next to his bride of five plus decades of marriage and with whom he had his children.

The pattern of being buried next to the spouse you spent the most years with seems to be the dominate factor. 

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Footnotes:

All the cemetery’s mentioned are in Wisconsin, with the exception of Resurrection Cemetery in Mendota Heights, MN.

There are other examples of a Ducklow descendant passing, and the surviving spouse re-married.  I have chosen not to publish the details for concern over privacy and in some cases lack of vital statistical data to provide accurate facts.

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“When Harry Protestant Met Sally Catholic”

Protestantism and Catholicism in the Greater Ducklow Family

[Published June 29, 2010, Updated July 30, 2010]

St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Ashippun

Our common ancestral grandparents, Thomas and Elizabeth Ducklow [Dukelow], were faithful and devote members of St. Pauls’s Church in Ashippun, Wisconsin [see footnote].  St. Paul’s is an Anglican-based Episcopal church. Thomas and Elizabeth were active church members and no doubt were tightly connected to their faith community from the earliest days of craving-out a homestead in the wilderness of Wisconsin in the mid-1840s until their last days that God gave them breath on Earth.  Evidence of their devotion is seen in the church records that show all of their children born in Wisconsin were baptized at St. Pauls’s [see footnote]. While it is not known if Thomas and Elizabeth knew each other while each lived in Ireland (the earliest evidence of their meeting is when they wed in New York State) they each likely came to their protestant faith in a similar way: As children and young adults they attended the dominate Anglican Church of Ireland.  They developed a protestant world-view by adopting their parents’ and extended families’ beliefs and by formal and informal church teachings of the Anglican Church.

From the late 1600s until nearly the end of the 1900s the religious and political climate in Ireland was highly polarized around beliefs. Simply put, Catholics and Protestants were socially and religiously segregated—they lived in two distinct subcultures. Protestants were the minority population of Ireland but held most of the political power while Catholics were the majority population but had few positions of authority outside of the Roman Catholic Church.  There is a long history of how this came to be—a complicated history that reaches back into the 1300s that will not be detailed here.  But one result of the unfolding of this history was the creation of a set of statutes, called Penal Laws, which, among many things, forced generations of Catholics to be uneducated and therefore illiterate, unskilled and impoverished.  Penal laws rarely allowed Catholics to ascend their poverty, and forced most to remain in Ireland’s lowest social and working classes.

The opinion held by most Irish Protestants living in the 18^th, 19^th and 20^th centuries, and the view likely embraced by our ancestral grandparents, Thomas and Elizabeth, is that Catholics were not to be socialized with, and certainly not were worthy of marriage to their sons or daughters. After years of imposed Penal Laws, Catholics (from a Protestant view) became synonymous with being uncouth, unrefined, uneducated and ill mannered.  If any of Thomas and Elizabeth’s 11 adult children had married someone from the Catholic faith they very likely would have been shunned and disowned.  Such a decision would have been a serious betrayal to a family that took enormous risks to immigrate to America to improve their own economic and social standing.  Even as the Irish Penal Laws were phased out in the late 1700s and into early 1800s, marriage of a Protestant to a Catholic was viewed an economic, social, religious step down.

First Known Ducklow Protestant / Catholic Marriages

The barrier to marrying Catholics propagated through the Ducklow descendants for many years. This can be seen by reviewing the number of Protestant / Catholic marriages at each generation.  Of course it is no surprise that no one in the first generation—that is Thomas and Elizabeth’s children—married a Catholic spouse.  The barrier was eventually crossed in the second generation.  Of Thomas and Elizabeth’s 30 grandchildren, three are known to married Catholic spouses.

Vern and Mina Ducklow and first child, Lamont.  Circa 1909

Vern Ducklow was the first cross the line, so to speak.  He was the son of George and Emma Ducklow (George was Thomas and Elizabeth’s sixth child).  Vern married Mina Bowen in July of 1907. While it is true that Mina was Catholic, Vern and Mina did not marry in a Catholic church, but rather wed in a civil ceremony in Denver, Colorado.  Through the years Vern was not a regular church attendee, Catholic or otherwise.  He was baptized at age 79 in the Congregational Church (Vern died at age 81) and he apparently attended church more frequently at the end of his life.  Mina appears to have practiced her Catholic faith on an irregular basis too, but perhaps was more connected to a church than Vern.  Near her death she was given last rites and upon death had a Catholic funeral.  None of Vern or Mina’s four children practiced the Catholic faith.

Clayton Ducklow, Circa 1908

The second Thomas and Elizabeth grandchild to break the Protestant / Catholic barrier was Clayton Ducklow, youngest brother of Vern.  Clayton married Mary Magdalene McMenamin in September of 1910.  (Could there a name more Catholic than that?) Clayton converted to Catholicism shortly before or after his marriage to Mary and appears to have been an active member of the Catholic Church his entire married life. All six of Clayton and Mary’s children were devote Catholics.

It seems George and Emma Ducklow, while members of the Methodist Church and perhaps the Congregational Church, did not hold strong religious convictions and did not appear to be regular attendees of a church.  One wonders if this lack of a strong church connection allowed them a more liberal position and a willingness to accept two of their son’s decisions to marry Catholic women.  Also, the guiding influence that Grandparents Thomas and Elizabeth might have had on George and Emma’s children was likely very limited due to the distance George lived from his parents (The distance from Spring Valley to Ashippun is about 260 miles, a difficult span to travel by horse).  It is also note-worthy that both Thomas and Elizabeth had passed-away (in 1892 and 1904 respectively) before any of their grandchildren married spouses of the Catholic faith.

Elmer Ducklow Circa 1900

The third Ducklow grandchild of Thomas and Elizabeth to marry a Catholic spouse was Elmer Ducklow, son of Charles and Eva Ducklow (Charles was Thomas and Elizabeth's seventh child).  Elmer and Elizabeth Wagner married in January of 1911. It appears that Elmer did not convert to Catholicism as he was not buried with his wife in the Catholic cemetery; he is buried near his parents in the Sparta city cemetery.  Elmer and Elizabeth’s only child, Lyle, was a practicing Catholic.

Outside of these three grandchildren, all other 27 grandchildren married spouses that either had no clear church affliction, or were also Protestants. Thomas and Elizabeth’s apparent strong influence over the faith values of their children and grandchildren spanned from the marriage of their first daughter, Mary Ann’s in 1865 through the final marriage of their grandson Frank Ducklow Sr. in 1948.

Protestant / Catholic Marriage Three Generations Removed

It was not until the great grandchildren grew-up to marriage-age that the strong Catholic / Protestant divide was distant enough in history to ignore or perhaps be unaware of.  Of 79 great grandchildren, 12 are known to marry Catholic spouses.  This is a ratio of 1 out of 7 marriages.  Compare this to the ratio of 1 out of 10 marriages at the grandchildren level.  

Here is the list of 12 great grandchildren that that married Catholic spouses:

(1) Evaline Good (daughter of James and Effie Good, granddaughter of Mary Ann Ducklow and Frank Good) married Francis “Con” Hogan in June of 1917.   Evaline was reported to have attended both Catholic and Protestant services much of her married life.

(2) Ida LaGrander (daughter of Nellie and George LaGrander, granddaughter of George and Emma Ducklow) married Daniel Smith in May 1924.

(3) George LaGrander (son of Nellie and George LaGrander, grandson of George and Emma Ducklow) married Genevieve Strop in June 1928. 

(4) Lyle Ducklow (son of Elmer and Elizabeth Ducklow, grandson of Charles and Eva Ducklow) married Loretta Rice in October of 1936.

(5) Winnifred Ducklow (daughter of Clayton and Mary Ducklow, granddaughter of George and Emma Ducklow) married Living Lindee about 1940.

(6) Living P. Ducklow (daughter of Clayton and Mary Ducklow, granddaughter of George and Emma Ducklow) married E. Reynolds in June of 1946.

(7) Frank Ducklow Jr. (son of Frank and Josie Ducklow, grandson of George and Emma Ducklow) married Living G. M. in August 1946.

(8) Thomas Ducklow (son of Clayton and Mary Ducklow, grandson of George and Emma Ducklow) married Living W. O. in February 1950.

(9) George Ducklow (son of Clayton and Mary Ducklow, grandson of George and Emma Ducklow) married Living D. H. in February 1951.

(10) Milton Blair (son of Charles and Nellie Blair, grandson of John and Elizabeth Ducklow Hanson) married Living A. H. in1954.

(11) Mary Ducklow (daughter of Clayton and Mary Ducklow, grandson of George and Emma Ducklow) married Patrick Hannafin in 1954.

(12) Lyle Ducklow (son of Frank and Jessie Ducklow, grandson of George and Emma Ducklow) married Living M. T. in February of 1957.

Even as recent as the late 1950s, the Catholic / Protestant divide still echoed from our common grandparent’s past. Mae Tschida Ducklow recently told the story [see footnote] that shortly before being married to Lyle Ducklow (Frank Ducklow’s son), Lyle’s second oldest brother, Alois told Lyle that if he married a Catholic girl they would not be welcomed in Alois’ home.  Lyle and Mae did not heed Alois’ threat and went on to marry.  Eventually Alois’ did accept Lyle and Mae as part of the family, but an unspoken tension lingered between the brothers regarding Lyle converting to Catholicism.

Protestant / Catholic Marriages Four or More Generations Removed

Too little reliable marriage or church data has been gathered on the great, great grandchildren of Thomas and Elizabeth Ducklow to provide a fair analysis of Catholic / Protestant marriages in the Grater Ducklow family.  As speculation, the ratio might be 1 in 4 or maybe 1 in 5 marriages crossing the Catholic / Protestant line, (if one or both spouses indeed attends a church at all!) What can safely be said is that a Protestant marrying a Catholic spouse today is hardly considered a scandal or a betrayal to one’s family or church as it did 125 years ago. A marriage formed today based on love and a desire to share lives together seems to have generally trumped the historic difficulty of marrying a spouse professing a different flavor of Christian faith.

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Footnote: The Episcopal Church in America is a legacy branch of Anglican Church of England.  The Church of Ireland is also a legacy branch of the Anglican Church. As a broad statement of values, the Anglican churches views itself to be Catholic, in the sense that its beliefs and practices are based on traditions dating back to the beginning of a formal church, and also Reformed, in that it does not accept the authority of the Roman Catholic Pope.

Footnote: Thomas and Elizabeth’s children George, Charles, Baby Elizabeth, Elizabeth, James, Peter, and Lucinda were all baptized at St. Johns Episcopal Church.  Thomas and Elizabeth were both buried in the church cemetery, as well as their children, Fanny, Thomas, and Lucinda.

Footnote:  Charles and Eva Ducklow appear to have adopted the traditions of the Masonic Order and associated Eastern Star organization as their main religion.   They were not married in a church, but rather at the Dunn County Courthouse. Their funeral services were performed by Masonic and Eastern Star traditions in a Masonic Temple.  They are buried in the Sparta city cemetery, with Masonic symbols on their markers.

Footnote: The story of Lyle Ducklow being discouraged from marrying Catholic Mae Ducklow told to Jeff Ducklow by Mae Ducklow on June 27, 2010 at the home of Tony and Linda Ducklow.

Footnote: The author in no way condones the views held towards Catholics by our ancestors.  The attitudes and behaviors can only be described as unjust.