Clues to the Mystery of Clara–The News Article

Mother and Daughter to Be Reunited By Story In Herald

Echoes of twenty years ago were sounded yesterday when a mother and daughter who had been separated for that length of time found each other through the medium of The Anderson Herald. Twenty years ago October 2, 1910 a baby girl was born on an interurban car at Fortville. The child and mother were brought to St. John’s hospital here.

Limited circumstances prompted the mother to give her daughter to a woman at Fortville, who promised to rear the child. Four years ago the foster parent, Mrs. Charles Johnson, died. Shortly before her death Mrs. Johnson told her daughter, Eva Mary, about the adoption.

Several years ago Miss Johnson married John Skinner of Fortville. During the past four years, Mrs. Skinner has made every possible effort to find her real mother. Several days ago a letter was received at the Herald office from a woman in Chicago who saw an advertisement in a magazine carrying the name of Eva Mary Johnson mentioning her adoption when three days old at St. John’s hospital.

The woman, Mrs. Clara Badgly Grennells, 810 Berry Avenue, Chicago, requested The Herald to print her appeal. Mrs. Skinner read the story which appeared Tuesday and is in communication with the Chicago woman. A meeting is to be arranged soon. Mrs. Skinner said she is confident that Mrs. Grennels is her mother as her mother’s maiden name was Clara Badgly.

And with that newspaper article, the search for the missing Clara began. I urge you to go back to a previously written post – Independent From Birth to read about the woman searching for Clara – my grandfather’s foster sister – Eva – before continuing on.

Go ahead – I’ll wait . . .

Now for the inconsistencies that I know of: Eva’s full name was Eva Louise Johnson. The only reason I can think of that she would go by Eva Mary is because Mary was the name of the birth daughter of her foster parents. My grandfather’s baby sister, born in November 1909, died before she was a year old so perhaps my great-grandmother smashed the names together when she spoke to Eva. Maybe she really did grow up as Eva Mary but somewhere along the way became Eva Louise.

The next error is the name of the woman who agreed to take Eva – it is not Mrs. Charles Johnson. It was Mrs. John Johnson. My great-grandmother was married to John Lafayette Johnson. In the 1910 census there are two other married adult “Charles Johnson’s” living in Anderson, Indiana. One is age 63 and married to his second wife, Fannie, age 37 with their fourteen year old son, Stanley. The other Charles Johnson is 23 and his wife, Alta, is two years younger. In the 1920 census there is not any household with a daughter, Eva, aged 9-10, with Charles Johnson as Head of the Household.

The third error is the birth date. Eva’s date of birth has always been given as October 5, 1910 but if there is truth that she was three days old when Great-grandmother Katie took Eva then it would make her birth date October 2 but was given the October 5 birthday instead. Katie died in May 1930 so that would make the article dated in 1934 as it says “four years” since Katie’s death.

Eva as a young married woman and with husband, John Skinner

On the 1930 Census taken a month before Katie died, in April 1930, Eva listed her age as nineteen and reported she had been married at age 18. They also had a son, Charles, who was four months old. The family was living at 1618 Cincinnati Avenue in Anderson, Indiana – a three bedroom, one bath two-story home built in 1900. They were living there with two other families and renting a room. John was a machinist working for an auto parts factory.

1618 Cincinnati Avenue

Within four years after that census was taken, Eva would begin her journey to find her biological mother.

The newspaper clipping mentions a reunion. There were blatant errors in the first two paragraphs of the article. Could there possibly be more? Would Eva get the reunion she so desperately wanted?