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Note: [Broderbund Family Archive #110, Vol. 1 A-L, Ed. 6, Social Security Death Index: U.S., Date of Import: Nov 21, 1998, Internal Ref. #1.111.6.131376.145], Individual: Kasameyer, Fred, Social Security #: 308-36-5511, Issued in: Indiana, Birth date: Jul 28, 1876, Death date: Dec 1965, Residence code: Indiana
Kasey says they bought the house on Kent St. in 1925 or 1926. It had two bedrooms downstairs and an unfinished room upstairs.
Kasey writes "After my father left the farm he took a business course at Brown's Business College. I do not know what the curriculum covered, although I am sure it was something different from that of the "B" school at Harvard, but Dad always wrote a fine Spencerian hand and was strong in arithmetic. He worked for the Pennsylvania RR as a clerk in the Stationary Stock Dept. They bought and maintained the necessary office supplies for the Vandalia Division. He did well enough financially to buy a Ford about 1913. About that time they also bought two lots in a new subdivision south of town and had dreams of building their own home. That same year a tornado swept through that part of town and no one wanted to build there for years. Forty years later Dad sold the lots for $1000, exactly what he had paid for them. Never believe that all real estate always increases in value.
About 1917 the RR did some consolidating and Dad was transferred to Pittsburgh, PA. For a time he commuted and one time we all went there to see the place and look for a place to live. I guess my mother did not relish the idea of moving, it was said she was afraid of being so far east because of the war, so Dad quit his job and took another job with an office supply firm with which he had done business. I guess they had promised him great things when he was buying from them for the RR but the job did not turn out that well. After a couple of years he left there and became a rural mail man. That was not a very well paying job in those days so, although he enjoyed visiting with the farmers, and their wives, on the route, he went back to working for the RR, this time as a mechanic. Typical of Dad's timing shortly after he left the RFD they raised the pay and also the mileage allowance. I suspect that Dad went back to the RR during the period George Link was refusing to go back to work even though the strike was lost and this did nothing to improve George's relationship with his wife or her family. I also had a job with the RR for one or two summers. The RR, continuing their consolidations closed down the roundhouse about 1925 and although Dad kept his job he was assigned to an afternoon shift and much less pleasant working conditions. After a few years of that he left the RR, maybe the RR left him, and started his own small building maintenance company. He painted, plumbed, wired, roofed, etc. until he was about 85.
Many of my memories are about the house on 12th street. Earlier I mentioned the lack of the conveniences we now consider so necessary. No electricity also meant no refrigerator but an ice box that required ice to be put in and did not produce ice cubes. This severely limited the length of time items could be stored. In the kitchen there was a trap door to a fruit cellar where potatoes, apples and such things were stored. Water for washing came from a cistern that collected rain water, there was a sink and a pump in the kitchen, and drinking water came from a well in the back yard. Water from the well was wonderfully cold and delicious to the taste, it must have been pure as I have no memories of any problems.
There was a porch of a sort on the back of the house. Actually it was little more than a roof over a dirt floor. Here was a coal bin and an area for the washing machine, a hand operated gadget. That operation must have been moved into the kitchen in cold weather but I am not sure. I remember my Dad pumping away on the washing machine early Monday mornings before he went to work. I am sure that was a chore I did when I grew up a little. I well remember when the filling of the coal bin became my chore. Coal was delivered to a large bin in a barn on the back of the lot and then hauled as needed to the bin on the back porch.
The back yard was pretty big although when I saw it not too long ago it seemed to have become quite a bit smaller. There was an outhouse near the rear and a two story barn alongside. The storage area for the car was in the barn and the car entered from the alley. There was also a chicken house extending from the barn along part of one side of the yard. We had chickens for eggs and they also provided for Sunday dinners. I ate so many chicken dinners that after I left home I did not eat chicken for years. Grape arbors extended from the porch to the well and along the walk to the rear. When I was 12 years old or so Dad made one side of the yard into a basketball court with a basket at both ends. I often wondered why he did this as he always complained about the time I wasted playing games. Perhaps that caused Mom not to expect him to dig up the yard for a garden. The barn also served as a pigeon cote and I suspect Dad had a few squab dinners from there although I do not remember any. One time Dad went squirrel hunting and came home with three baby squirrels. He fixed them a place in the chicken house with things to play on and kept them for a couple of years eventually turning them loose. "
1/10/99 Bruce Kasameyer has a large framed wedding certificate for Frederick and Emma. It was found in a house in West Terre Haute.
8/18/1999 - The 1920 census says Fred and family rented a house at 327 North 12th St. [Dreher_Short.FTW]
Kasameyer Electric in Terre Haute, IN is this family.
Obituary in the Terre Haute Tribune 12/19/1965, page 12, Sunday
Frederick W. Kasameyer, 89, died at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Union Hospital. He
was a resident of 333 Kent Ave. He is survived by three sons, Raymond M.;
Alfred L. of Birmingham, Mich., and William E. of Warrick, R. I., and one
sister, Mrs. Elizabeth Lang of Indianapolis. He was a member of Terre Haute
Masonic Lodge No. 19 for more than 50 years. Services are pending at the
Callahan Funeral Home.
Obit on Monday 12/20/1965 pg 2
Services for Frederick W. Kasameyer, 89, 333 Kent Ave., who died Saturday,
will be at 2 p.m. Tuesday at the Callahan Funeral Home, with the Rev. Philip
Stone officiating. Burial will be in Highland Lawn Cemetery. Friends may
call. He was a member of Terre Haute Masonic Lodge No. 19 and the First
Evangelical United Brethren Church. Survivors include three sons, Raymond N.
of Terre Haute and Alfred L. of Birmingham, Mich., and William E., Warwick,
R. I. ; one sister, Mrs. Elizabeth Lang, Indianapolis, five grandchildren,
five great-grandchildren and several nieces and nephews.
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