Benjamin W. Carroll Family Line
Bertha "Esther" Carroll (1903-1930)
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by Carolyn Ann Howard
I was nearly 22 when my grandmother, Grace Mae Carroll Howard, died in 1983. I was engaged to my first husband, in college, and so out-of-touch from my larger Howard family. My then fiancé and I went to the visitation in Shoals, Indiana, but we came back to Evansville soon after. It was a Sunday, and he stayed the night with me. We slept on the sleeper sofa that Mom had in her living room, as my room was only big enough for a twin bed. The next morning, I went to school and my fiancé went to work.
My mother was particularly distraught when they arrived back home that Monday night. She sat in her car just bawling. I'm not sure how I joined her in the car, but I did, and I couldn't console her. I didn't understand exactly what was wrong. I remember it had something to do with the family divvying up my grandmother's possessions after her funeral. In hindsight, the children went awfully fast settling my grandmother's estate. And, oh, I get it, after having lost both my parents as well. But Grace only died on a Friday and all of her possessions were distributed among the children before Monday night was over. I got the sense that it was a little messy.
After I started working on my Howard family tree in or around 2011, I asked my father if I could have something that belonged to his mother and *hopefully* maybe even something that belonged to my great-grandmother. His answer? He didn't have anything. Neither my mom nor my dad, as far as I can tell, took anything for themselves that evening.
Not only was my mother not close to her mother-in-law, but I also wasn't close to my grandmother, but I understand my grandmother all too well. Grandmother Howard, as she wanted to be called, was a Methodist "in name only." Her roots were Pilgrim Holiness, and she was quite devout and eager to follow the rules. No pants. No cards. No dice. No gambling. No make-up. No jewelry. No hair cuts. No shorts. No fun. The environment inside her home was, to me as a child, stifling.
When I started doing my Howard family's genealogy, I was shocked to find pictures of my grandmother's beautiful sister, Bertha Carroll, who went by her middle name, Esther. Why? Because she had styled hair with ornaments in it, and her neckline wasn't tight fitting. I was intrigued by this beautiful picture. Click on photos to enlarge
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| Esther Carroll Carolyn Ann Howard Family Collection |
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| The Carroll sisters at their home in Newton Stewart Grace is on the left, Esther is on the right Notice that Grace's arms are completely covered Carolyn Ann Howard Family Collection |
Esther Carroll was born in 1903 in Newton Stewart, Indiana, which is now underwater as Patoka Lake. The U.S. Corp of Engineers purchased 3,150 acres of land from the occupants of Newton Stewart. From what I understand, it wasn't pretty. As far as my grandmother, Grace, who inherited the Newton Stewart home from her mother in 1934, I imagine she had sold the house long before the U.S. Corp of Engineers started poking their noses in sometime in the 1970s.
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| Esther Carroll with her two nephews, my late Uncles Paul and Albert She's in a dress, yes, but it is ornamented and has short sleeves Is that a pearl necklace? (I'm pretty sure it is!) Carolyn Ann Howard Family Collection |
Another clue that Esther Carroll wanted nothing to do with Pilgrim Holiness is that, instead of getting married, she took a job as a machine operator at Remy Electric Company in Anderson, Indiana. How brave of her to leave her family to work in a factory nearly 200 miles away from her home! The Remy Company made many things, such as electric motors. In 1919, it was taken over by General Motors.
In her obituary, it states she transferred her United Methodist membership to the Methodist Church in Anderson, Indiana, in 1928.
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| Esther Carroll I've always considered her a woman of fashion Carolyn Ann Howard Family Collection |
My family has always been so very secretive about e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g. Nobody ever talked about Esther. The subject was taboo. Therefore, feeling she was rebellious by going against the status-quo, I always wondered if she died in childbirth. Esther died in 1930 at the age of 26 at the home of her mother in French Lick, Indiana.
Her obituary feels contrived:
In May 1929 in a meeting held at the Second Pilgrim Holiness church by her [half] brother, Rev. J. H. Carroll, she received the experience of Sanctification. She lived a consecrated Christian life to her departure, singing, testifying and praising God on her death bed. Just a few hours before her departure she told her doctor she was saved and sanctified."
To my grandmother and, honestly, to my dad as well, someone telling a doctor about being saved and sanctified was just as good as talking to Jesus himself.
I always wondered what happened to her at Remy that caused her to come back home and succumb to the experience of "Sanctification." What was this change of heart, especially since her mother and stepfather never struck me as being faithful churchgoers? This is why I came to the conclusion that perhaps she had become pregnant, and that my grandmother needed to cover that up.
Even this final line from her obit is forced:
Death came quietly and peacefully, just stepping from this life of toil and labor to the beautiful reward, promised to them that love God.
Did my grandmother write this? I don't know for sure, but it sure sounds like her.
Finally, sometime last year, Ancestry posted Esther's death certificate. Her cause of death? Typhoid Fever. Yikes. This is what happened that caused her to come home from Anderson. She had become ill. Nor did she die quietly and peacefully. The symptoms of typhoid are grueling. Esther most likely had extremely high fever, rash, pounding headaches, and severe abdominal pain. Poor dear. I doubt she was doing any singing.
I'm not sure where my father got his believe that sickness = sin, but he did have this belief, even though he fought against it. He knew it was false doctrine, but it had been ingrained into his psyche from an early age. But, this belief might be the reason for all the secrecy surrounding his Aunt Esther. Even so, my Grandmother Grace named her daughter in honor of her sister.
Esther's occupation on her death certificate was "Factory Girl."
