Charlie Shue

My friend and relative Iva Standish Calkins was the daughter of Winnifred Lawton Standish.  Winnifred had a brother Stowell Lawton.  He married Minnie Garn and they produced a daughter Leah Lawton, a first cousin to Iva.  Leah married Charles Shue who wrote a short autobiography.  The following are excerpts from it.

I arrived September 6, 1907.  This information I received from my mother.  She was much older than I and she should know.

When my father saw me, I think right then and there he decided—this is enough!

My mother told me she was born in Westminster, Maryland in the year 1869 on the sixth day of February.  Her mother must have told her too—I can’t believe she remembered all this.

I don’t know much about my father’s life until he married my mother on July 4, 1885.  I wasn’t around then so I have to rely on my memory of what was told me.

After my parents were married, they waited thirteen years before any babies came to their home, and the first was stillborn.  Then two years later Joseph came and he got a free pair of shoes.  All babies born in 1900 in Mason County, Michigan got a free pair from Groening’s Department store in Ludington.

My mother said she had prayed for a baby after waiting so long.  As I was the third born, I asked if she had prayed for me.  She said, “No, you were just thrown in extra.”

All of my aunts and uncles have died, but there is a large group of cousins, second cousins, third cousins, more cousins, some “kissing’ cousins,” and some not so kissable.  All in all it is a fairly decent group to belong to.

My brother Chester said he remembers when he was born; he said he drove the doctor’s horses.