One Hundred Years 1913 Photos from Cousin, Helen B. Lourie, Noah Elwood Weaver and Betty Eicher's Family Remembrences

 

National Bank of Cincinnati $10 bank note from the late 1800's, that I inherited from my Ohio ancestors. 

My father, Paul Henry Weaver (1910-1982), carried on a long time correspondence with his cousin, Helen Barbara Lender Lourie (1907-1981), who was born and lived in her youth mostly in Cincinnati, later she lived in Stearns, Kentucky, and finally in Rugby Tennessee.   The above photo of Helen is of her at 6 1/2 yrs of age and I found in my fathers archives after he died, age 71, in January of 1982 here in Minnesota.  

And another of Helen Lourie, PHW's Cincy Cousin as he would call her. 1924 and with a house cat likely at her home. She was listed as a stenographer living at 4756 Hamilton Ave in Cincinnati in the 1934 city directory.  She never married. 

Fortunately, I picked up the correspondence in 1978, prior to dad's death, and visited Helen in the forests of Tennessee that summer.  Reflecting her early involvement in restoration of the town of Rugby Tennessee, according to her Jan 20, 1978 letter to me, "I have been Secretary-Treasurer since its inception in 1966."   The Rugby Colony settlement was founded in 1880 by Thomas Hughes, English author of Tom Brown's Schooldays, and current information can be found on their website:

http://www.historicrugby.org/ and blog http://rugbyweek.blogspot.com

This is the back of the photo, likely in the penmanship of her mom or dad, unless she was very precocious at that young age.  Helen's mom, was Genevieve "Jennie" Oberhau, grand daughter of Louis Charles Oberhau and Dorothea Emma Lender, and great granddaughter of Fredrick Beno Lender and  Barbara Bohlender Lender.  Barbara Bohlender's younger sister, Eva Margaret Bohlender, married Franz Eicher Aug 23 1843 in Cincinatti Ohio. Thus the cousins here - Lenders and Eichers

Here is a photo in Noah Elwood Weaver's album looking northwest over the Paper Mill in West Carrollton, Ohio known as Friend Paper Company, where he worked during the decade of 1910-1920 when his son was young. 

My dad, Paul Henry, is seen here at the foot of the hill on the George Eicher farm, with his mom, Edna Eicher Weaver.  Edna is the youngest daughter of Henry Eicher and Emelina Helena "Lane" Paul, and granddaughter of Franz Eicher who homesteaded this farmland in Sect 15, Miami Twp, where she and her sister Esther and brother Charles were born. 

This is a composite photo, showing the open farm land in the Miami River Valley in 1915.   George Eicher, son of Franz Eicher had tobacco sheds and a barn on the land, near an apple orchard.   Henry Eicher who did not farm had a home on the Bellbrook Road where he had a garden, and lived with his first born daughter Esther Eicher under the top arrow, "Henry Eicher's Homestead"

Here are Henry Eicher and his grandson Paul Henry Weaver sitting on the seedling hothouse on the 2 acres he gardened and raised small livestock on.  Looks like a day to collect eggs here. 

Employees on the front steps of Friend Paper Company in West Carrollton, with Noah Elwood Weaver, (1985- 1973)photographer, standing on the steps.

Here on the same steps in 1984, is the author on the left with, wife, Susan Elizabeth Johnson Weaver on the right. Photo taken by cousin Bill Eicher (1927-2006) who gave us a tour of the Eicher-Weaver topography and sights in the Greater Miami River area on our way East, to Georgia, North Carolina and eventually Vermont!

Betty Eicher, with Henry Eicher, grandfather, and cousin Paul Henry Weaver ca 1915.

Betty Eicher, Born Ethyl Elizabeth Eicher Feb 22, 1913 daughter of Charles Albert Eicher, in Miamisburg just before the great flood, wrote the following in her memoir.  that she sent to her only sibling, Bill Henry Eicher, born in Feb 1927, 14 years her junior.   Betty became a school teacher in Franklin OH, having graduated from Ohio State University.   She had a life partner,  Mariam "Mary" Parker Brown, born in Franklin OH 24 Dec 1884 and the two of them moved to Lakeland Florida, well before the time of same sex union, much talked about today.


on pages 11-12,