Carolyn Ellen (Arend) Farrow (1895 - 1990)

Born 6 Aug 1895 in Defiance, OH

Ancestors

Wife of George Luther Farrow — married 28 Jan 1920 in Anderson, IN

Descendants

Died 21 Oct 1990 at age 95 in Warren, IN

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Biography

Birth

Carolyn Ellen Arend was born in Defiance County, Ohio on August 6, 1895. Her baptismal certificate was preserved among G. L. Farrow’s (Farrow-441) family records.

[Image: Arend-187-2.pngǀ200px]

1900 Census

Carolyn was only four years old when the 1990 Federal Census taker for Mark Township, Defiance County, Ohio recorded Peter Arend, age 39, as the head of the family in Dwelling Number 114. With him were his wife Emma C. age 37 and four children listed as: “Calli E. “ age 4, (Carolyn), Clara N. age 3, Fred age 1 and the infant Ruth was 4 months. Ruth did not survive infancy. Two Arend families lived nearby; Henry in Dwelling Number 110, and Nicholas Jr. is listed in Dwelling Number 111. ^[1]

Carolyn remembered that her father worked in a butcher shop. There were a series of depressions in the early 1900’s and Peter at about age 45, became unemployed. The discovery of natural gas across the state line in Indiana had recently prompted an industrial boom in the state, and rumors of available employment may have been what lured Peter to head for Elwood, Indiana. The natural gas had suddenly and unexpectedly disappeared, but in Elwood an emerging tomato canning industry and its essential tin plate and can manufacturing suppliers were hiring.^[2]

Off to Indiana

In 1906 the family left Defiance, Ohio for Elwood, Indiana. It was a horse and wagon trip on the order of 125 miles and may have taken at least five or six days, perhaps more. It must have been quite an experience for the kids. Carolyn would have been about eleven, Clara nine, Fred about eight and Gladys about five. Carolyn remembered that Fred would often hop off the wagon to trot along the road beside it. They had little or no money and probably had to seek shelter and supplies from sympathetic farmers along the way.

1910 Census Elwood

Carolyn had only a few years of schooling. She remembered working for a family for 25 cents a week. When she asked for a raise, she was fired. The summer tomato growing season offered seasonal employment opportunities and Carolyn and sister Clara, like many of the local women and girls, spent some of their summers on the sorting lines in the canning plant. The family was enumerated on 21 April 1910 in the City of Elwood, Indiana Madison County, Ward 3. Peter was described as a “catcher” in the Tin Plate mill. Peter 48, Emma 46, Carline 14, Clara 13, Frederick 11, Gladys 8. Ward 3 in 1910 cannot be immediately identified but it may have been near the Methodist Protestant Church,^[3] then at the corner of South D and Anderson streets.

Ministers Wife

On 28 January 1920 Carolyn and George Luther Farrow were married in Anderson, Indiana. Recently widowed by the 1918 flu epidemic, George was the father of two children, Wayne age 10 and Annieta age 2.

Early in 1922 George was assigned to the Methodist (then Protestant) Victory Memorial Church in Indianapolis, Indiana and the family moved to the parsonage there on Woodlawn Avenue. . When he became President of the Indiana Methodist Protestant Conference the family moved to a rental property next door for a few years, then to George’s house in Advance, Indiana.

The home in Advance was not furnished with running water or central heating. Carolyn cooked on a coal fired range on which we heated water from hand pumped wells for baths in the kitchen. She must have welcomed a return to more conveniences when at the end of his term as Conference President, George was assigned to a church with a parsonage in Greenfield, Indiana.

Daleville

After nursing son Robert through a brief terminal illness and husband George through an extended and painful terminal bout with cancer, Carolyn at last enjoyed several carefree years of retirement and vacation travel with daughter and son in law Wayne Shirey.

Sources

1. ↑ Peter’s brothers. He had 8 siblings
2. ↑ The City of Elwood Indiana web site has local history on the importation of tin plate manufacturing technology from Wales. See also Peter Arend Profile, Arend-188.
3. ↑ The church is no longer extant. Rev. G. L. Farrow became minister there about 1917.

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