Charles William Lukens (1855 - 1926)

Born 28 Dec 1855 in Cadiz, Harrison, OH

Ancestors

Husband of Alice Rayhill — married 24 Dec 1881 in Pana, Christian Co, IL

Descendants

Died 11 Dec 1926 at age 70 in 107 West First St, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Nancy Caton [send private message]

Biography

Charles was born in 1855. He passed away in 1926. ^[1]

Charles was born in Cadiz, Ohio, the 2nd child of 7. He is listed with his parents there in the 1860 census. By 1870 the family had moved to Lewis Co, Missouri. In 1880, Charles and his parents and siblings are living in Oregon, Holt Co, MO, and Charles is listed as a school teacher. According to a county history I read too long ago to have properly documented, by 1881 he had finished training to be a dentist, presumably in part by helping his father. He also passed the bar in that year. Charles was active as a dentist until his death in 1926 (see LA Times article, below) He married Alice Rayhill in December of 1881 and they had 4 children:

1. George Stephen, b 1884
2. Grace, b 1886, d 1887
3. Mary Judith, b 1888
4. Charles Rayhill, b 1893

Between 1895-1909, Charles was an itinerant dentist. There are numerous advertisements placed by him in the Oregon, Missouri Sentinel during those years, each listing the dates that he would be seeing patients in a particular city. In the 1900 census, the family was enumerated in Lewis Twp, Holt Co, MO. [ Series: T623 Roll: 859 Page: 203] They sold this property in 1902 and moved into Oregon (city). By 1910, they had moved again (I think) as the census lists them in Hickory Twp, also in Holt Co. In July of that year, Charles ran for Holt county clerk on the Republican ticket. I haven't been able to find the outcome of the election yet, but never heard stories of him having held office, and so figure he lost the election.

The Holt Co Sentinel of 1911 talks of him traveling to Kendrick, ID to see a sister (whether his or his wife's, I don't know) In 1912, he and Alice attended the wedding of Ralph C Meyer and Susie C Smith. I believe that Ralph is the son of Charles' sister Elizabeth, who married James C Meyer, a first generation American, originally from Germany. CW and wife are listed as "from Oregon," in 1911. By March of 1913, when Alice died, they were living in Santa Monica, California, part of the midwest exodus from snow and sleet to the land of sunshine. A lot of the Quakers from the Lukens/Rayhill FAN clubs in Ohio and Illinois also wound up on the west coast, though mostly in Pasadena. Alice and Charles were living in Santa Monica when Alice died in March 1913 [The Sentinel has an article about their son George having gone to California, "where his mother was dying." When their daughter Mary Judith married William S Caton three months later, it was in the garden of CW Lukens in Santa Monica, CA. In August 1914, Charles married again to Calla Jane Lemoine. At some point between 1913 and the 1920 census, Charles & Calla bought a house at 519 Crescent Drive in Los Angeles. This was his address at the time of his death according to the LA TImes newspaper. I don't know how long he had had an office in downtown LA, but he died in the office at 107 West First St, Los Angeles, in December 1926. According to the newspaper report of his death, Calla was on a world tour, not due to return til March the following year.

I don't think that Calla's absence during the funeral helped the family's feelings towards her, which were anything but cordial. The Catons spent a lot of time at her place in the San Bernardino Mountains while Judy and Mark were growing up, mostly working on the place, if you can believe the stories. That Calla was an active Democrat likely did not help much either, since all of the Catons were registered Republicans at the time. [See voter 1930's registrations online.]

^[2]

Sources

• Nancy Caton, firsthand knowledge. See the Changes page for the details of edits by Nancy and others. I own the picture that is scanned here.

• Nancy Caton, Stork, Dorla Jane White & Edward Baker Carson Faust Lincoln Collen and Mary McGovern Carson and Descendants privately published 2004. pps 289-291 read pdf from FamilySearch.org library. The only sources listed in the text are Family Group Sheets either at the LDS library in Utah, or shared with the authors through individual correspondence. Conclusions have been documented by me and others.

• Nancy Caton, Death - Charles & his first wife Alice's death dates are in the California Death Index on ancestry.com. (First noted by me 2015.09.06, Web location may have been changed by ancestry.) Note that this was transcribed into a computer db and so it is not original to even the decade of their deaths. It does match the time frame in the contemporary newspaper articles about both Charles and Alice.) Lists him as Charles W and his date of death as 11 Dec 1926. The Holt Co Sentinel has an article on 28 March 1913 that notes George having returned from California, where he had traveled to attend his mother's funeral.

Source Information as listed on ancestry

Ancestry.com. California, Death Index, 1905-1939 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013.

Original data: California Department of Health and Welfare. California Vital Records-Vitalsearch (www.vitalsearch-worldwide.com). The Vitalsearch Company Worldwide, Inc., Pleasanton, California.

LA Times article 12 Dec 1926, p 4

Patient Reports Veteran Dentist Dead in Office

Dr. C. W. Lukens, 68 years of age,

veteran dentist of this city, was

found dead in his office at 107 West

First street yesterday by a patient

U. Lopez of 4778 Dozer avenue. He

was apparently the victim of a heart

attack. It was stated that the doc-

tor's widow, now on a world tour, is

not scheduled to return to the Lukens

home at 519 Crescent Drive before

March, 1927.

1. ↑ Entered by Nancy Caton, Nov 10, 2011
2. ↑ Entered by Nancy Caton, 14 December 2015

Caton-41 22:56, 6 January 2016 (EST)