Born 28 October 1886 in Perry County.
Died 1982 in Harrisburg.
Daughter of Thomas Jefferson Free and Sarah Louisa Graham.
Miriam is my 2nd great-grandaunt – sister to Anna Jennie Free, who married Harry Bair and had several children, including Nita Fern Bair, my great-grandmother.[1] Thus, Miriam was my great-grandmother Nita Fern Bair’s aunt and my grandmother Jane Zaring’s grand aunt.
She appears to be the first to be given the name LaRue in the Free line. Several other descendants of Thomas Jefferson Free have this as a middle name, to include Jane’s sister and my father. She was important to my grandmother, Jane, and her siblings, who lost their mother when they were small children. They spent much time with her in Harrisburg during the summer and she took them on trips.[2] Several visits were noted in the newspaper during Jane’s teenage years.
By all accounts – both news sources and family lore – Miriam was a strong-willed woman. Her first known job, at 17, was as an attendant at the Lunatic Hospital in Harrisburg. In her late 20’s, she was working in a drugstore when she levied libel charges against a well-known businessman. Later, in her 30’s and mad at her husband, she turned him over to the police for gambling. She does not show up much in the news in the second half of her life, but her grand-nephews and niece remember her visiting frequently and never hesitating to speak her mind.[3]
Miriam was first seen in the federal census in 1900 [1890 records having been mostly destroyed by fire]. She had attended school 7 out of 12 months of the previous year and could read and write.[4]
By 1903, at the age of 17, she was living in Harrisburg with Mahala Free, who was the widow of George W. Free, at 625 Peffer street. [George was her uncle and the brother of Thomas Jefferson Free.] Miriam was working as an attendant at the Lunatic Hospital.[5] Her older brother, Horace Hamilton Free, was also living in Harrisburg, working as a fireman and living at 1211 Wallace.[6]
In 1909, she was working as a nurse and living at 2031 N 5th, the same address as her brother Horace, who was working as an [railroad] engineer.[7]
According to the 1910 Harrisburg directory, she was living at 654 Boas still working as a nurse. Besides Horace, another older brother, Nelson Sherwood Free, was also living in Harrisburg by this time. Horace was working as an engineer, living at 2031 N 5th and Nelson as a brakeman and living at 1741 Market.[8] However, she was not found in the 1910 census. She was not listed among those living at 654 Boas when the census was taken on 20 April and she was not accounted among those living with her brother Horace at 2013 N 5th. A newspaper item from late 1910 shows that she visited her father in Camp Hill and lists her as being from Lancaster.[9] So it’s possible that on the day the census was taken she was moving from Harrisburg to Lancaster. It is not known what brought her to Lancaster.
By 1913, she had moved to 95 Disbrow in Harrisburg and was working as a bookkeeper, living at her father’s house. Thomas Jefferson Free was living at 95 Disbrow and working as a clerk. Horace was still doing the same job and living at the same place. Nelson was working as a flagman and living at 1714 Carnation. There is another listing for “Jefferson Free,” a clerk working at 119 S 2nd and living at 95 Disbrow – probably Thomas Jefferson Free.
In April 1913, she was in the news after bringing slander charges against a well-known Middletown businessman, Alvin McNair. At the time, she was “a pretty bookkeeper’ working at the Golden Seal drugstore, although another newspaper called her a cashier. Alvin McNair had publicly accused her in the store of “being guilty of a criminal offense” after a conversation with his daughter, who was the wife of the drugstore owner. The other newspaper reported he called her “unpleasant names.” Miriam took umbrage and made sure she had witnesses to the slander. Her lawyer filed suit for $10,000. No further information was found as to the outcome of the suit.
She married John Adam Grassman, a railroad brakeman, on 30 Aug 1914. The marriage took place at her parents’ home at 1827 Park street at “high noon.” It was apparently a quiet wedding as there were no attendants. She and her husband left for a trip along the Jersey coast after a wedding dinner and planned to reside at her parents’ home after 15 September.[10] They continued to live at this address through 1927. [11]
As a side note, this was John’s second marriage. He had married Hannah (or Annie M.) Kocher on 15 Nov 1906 and she later left him, based on the following notice placed in a local paper:[12]
He was still listed as married in the 1910 census and finally filed for divorce on 20 November 1913. He was granted the divorce in January 1914, seven months before his marriage to Miriam.[13]
In the 1920 census, Miriam and her husband John were still living with her father at 1827 Park street, although the census listed John as the owner of the house. John was a railroad brakeman and her father Thomas was a clerk in a shoe factory.[14]
In 1921, Miriam was so mad at husband John because he “defied” her and “devoted very little of his time to the entertainment of his family” that she gave evidence to the police that got him and two buddies arrested for selling baseball pool tickets. One of the trio was fined $50, but John and a railroad colleague were paroled by the judge.[15] Miriam and John apparently made up; they went on a Great Lakes cruise in June 1923, on the Tionesta.[16] During this year, she was active in the Trinity Methodist Church.[17] She also brought sisters Thelma and Jane Zaring with her to a surprise party for a friend, Corrine Welch.[18]
In January 1926, she went on a trip to Niagara Falls and spent time with her sister Minnie, who had married a Bair – Harvey Bair [my first cousin 4x removed.[19] Later that year, her father, Thomas J. Free, died and she was named executrix and principal heir.[20]
In March 1927, she was in the news again when she attempted suicide, after suffering a nervous breakdown for the past several months. She drank from two bottles of poison, disinfectant and medicated alcohol. She was rushed to Harrisburg Hospital and, after being revived, told an attendant that “she would like to forget it all.”[21]
By 1928, she and her husband had moved to 738 S 29th. The property was transferred to John by Lewis H. Lickel, for $1. Her husband was now listed in the city directory as a trackman. She continued live here after John’s death in 1938. [22]
Between 1928 and 1930, a number of visits by my grandmother and her siblings to Miriam in Harrisburg were noted. In August 1928, Jane and sister Thelma visited Miriam. In December 1929, Jane and her siblings visited her in Harrisburg.[23] In July 1930, Jane’s brother Frederick visited her and again, in July 1931, he spent several days with her.[24]
In the 1930 census, she and husband John were living at 738 29th street. He owned the house, valued at $2570 and had a radio set and was working as a railroad brakeman.[25]
In late August 1933, Thelma and Jane spent a week with her in Harrisburg.[26]
Husband John died on 2 May 1938 at 53. His only survivor was his widow, Miriam.[27]
In the 1940 census, she was still living at 738 South 29th street and reportedly paying $40/month in rent, although that might have been an error, as her husband had owned the house in 1930. The Kahler family also lived there, paying $40/month in rent. Miriam reported no income from working but did have other income, and that she had completed 8th grade.[28] During that year, Miriam sold a lot to Grant A. Groff, as did her brother Horace.[29]
She shows up in city directories through the 1940s, living at 738 South 29th. In 1941, she did not have a telephone. It appears that Stanley Baugher was a boarder. In 1942 and 1943, she still had no telephone. It appears that Hans Klapp and John Clark were boarders. In 1944 and 1945, she still had no telephone. Mrs. Alpharetta Burkholder appears to be a boarder. The city directory shows her still living here as of 1949. [30]
In 1945, she sold her parents’ house at 1827 Park street to John L. Mahoney. It was described as an 8-room brick house with front and rear porches. By 1947, the property had been converted into apartments[31]
Unfortunately, the trail runs dry as far as readily available on-line records and news sources after this time. But, while her memory has faded among family, she is remembered here for the impact she had on my grandmother Jane’s life.
[1] Jennie Free died on 4 Jul 1918, six months before Nita Fern died from Spanish influenza on 2 Jan 1919. Harry Bair later married Annie Watkis Shuler on 29 Jan 1920 “in a quiet ceremony.” Annie herself was a widow. She had married Oscar Beigh in 1891 and he died in 1916.
[2] Family email, 18 January 2016.
[3] Family email, 18 January 2016
[4] Year: 1900; Census Place: New Buffalo, Perry, Pennsylvania; Roll: 1451; Page: 2A; Enumeration District: 0159; FHL microfilm: 1241451. (ancestry.com, accessed 18 July 2021)
[5] The Pennsylvania State Lunatic Hospital (1851-1937), and subsequently Harrisburg State Hospital (until it closed in 2006) was Pennsylvania’s first public facility to house the mentally ill. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrisburg_State_Hospital ; http://www.kirkbridebuildings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1182&f=51 (accessed 18 January 2016)
[6] 1903 Harrisburg city directory. U.S. City Directories. (ancestry.com, accessed 18 July 2021)
[7] 1909 Harrisburg city directory. U.S. City Directories. (ancestry.com, accessed 18 July 2021)
[8] 1910 Harrisburg city directory. U.S. City Directories. (ancestry.com, accessed 18 July 2021)
[9] Harrisburg Telegraph (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania), 30 December 1910. (newspapaers.com, accessed 2 August 2015)
[10] Harrisburg Daily Independent (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania), 1 September 1914. (newspapers.com, accessed 27 July 2015)
[11] 1915, 1919, 1927, 1928 Harrisburg city directory. U.S. City Directories. (ancestry.com, accessed 18 July 2021)
[12] Harrisburg Daily Independent (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania), 11 November 1906 and 17 January 1912. Another newsworthy item was the horror of his widowed mother dying after developing blood poisoning from a spider bite in November 1907. Harrisburg Daily Independent (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania), 9 November 1907. (newspapers.com, accessed 2 August 2015)
[13] 1785 Ejectment and Miscellaneous Index, Dauphin County, Pa. Book: G, Section: 94, Page 2. https://www.searchiqs.com/padau/InfodexMainMP.aspx, accessed 18 Jul 2021.
[14] Year: 1920; Census Place: Harrisburg Ward 9, Dauphin, Pennsylvania; Roll: T625_1558; Page: 1B; Enumeration District: 95; Image: 1014. (ancestry.com, accessed 18 July 2021)
[15] Harrisburg Evening News and Harrisburg Telegraph, 12 September 1921. (newspapers.com, accessed 2 August 2015)
[16] Harrisburg Evening News (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania), 28 June 1923. (newspapers.com, accessed 2 August 2015) The seven-day cruise started with cruising on the Great Lakes; the Tionesta one of a few passenger steamers. https://greatlakescruising.wordpress.com/2011/08/17/a-brief-history-and-introduction-to-great-lakes-cruising/
[17] Harrisburg Telegraph, 11 October 1923. (newspapers.com, accessed 2 August 2015)
[18] Harrisburg Evening News, 11 December 1923. (newspapers.com, accessed 2 August 2015)
[19] Common ancestor – Jacob Bair. Jacob Bair, father of Samuel W Bair, father of Harry Bair, father of Nita Fern.
[20] Harrisburg Evening News, 29 January 1926, 26 July 1926, 29 July 1926. Harrisburg Telegraph, 26 July 1926, 29 July 1926. (newspapers.com, accessed 2 August 2015)
[21] Harrisburg Evening News, Harrisburg Telegraph, 19 March 1927. (newspapers.com, accessed 2 August 2015)
[22] 1928, 1938, 1946 Harrisburg city directory; Harrisburg Evening News, 28 May 1928. (newspapers.com, accessed 2 August 2015)
[23] Perry County Democrat (New Bloomfield, Pennsylvania), 11 December 1929. (newspapers.com, accessed 17 July 2021)
[24] Harrisburg Evening News, 10 August 1928; Perry County Democrat, 16 July 1930, 29 July 1931. (newspapers.com, accessed 2 August 2015)
[25] Year: 1930; Census Place: Harrisburg, Dauphin, Pennsylvania; Roll: 2027; Page: 7A; Enumeration District: 0063; Image: 579.0; FHL microfilm: 2341761. Ancestry.com.
[26] Newport News Sun (Newport, Pennsylvania), 24 August 1933; Perry County Democrat, 6 September 1933. (newspapers.com, accessed 11 April 2015)
[27] Harrisburg Evening News, 3 May 1938. (newspapers.com, accessed 24 May 2015)
[28] Year: 1940; Census Place: Harrisburg, Dauphin, Pennsylvania; Roll: T627_3483; Page: 10A; Enumeration District: 22-72. (ancestry.com, accessed 18 July 2021)
[29] Harrisburg Evening News, 11 January 1940; Harrisburg Telegraph, 12 January 1940. (newspapers.com, accessed 3 August 2015)
[30] 1942-1945, 1949 Harrisburg city directory. U.S. City Directories. (ancestry.com, accessed 18 July 2021)
[31] Harrisburg Evening News, 21 February 1945, 6 April 1945, 20 August 1947 (newspapers.com, accessed 2 August 2015) Current property info: http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1827-Park-St-Harrisburg-PA-17103/2133104301_zpid/