Families Formed By Fate

By Mary Stoffel Roder

The story follows a brother and sister orphaned as the result of a catastrophic fire in Boston. They choose to ride an Orphan Train to the Midwest in the hopes they will find a couple to adopt them. Meanwhile a teenaged girl in Iowa is left to live alone when her father joins the North in the Civil War and her mother dies unexpectedly. The story basically follows the lives of those three people when their paths cross in a small Iowa town. It also touches on the trials a black boy faces trying to make a life for himself in a white community after he has been legally freed from slavery as a result of the civil war. He comes to Iowa at the invitation of a doctor who befriended him at the army camp. Another family is formed when the town busy-body gets a boost of self-esteem from concerned strangers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Aug 6, 2014
• ISBN: 9781312415263

Book preview

Families Formed By Fate

FAMILIES FORMED BY FATE

A Fire in Boston, the Orphan Train and the Civil War Bring Changes To Families in a Small Iowa Town

Mary Stoffel Roder

Copyright © 2014 Mary S. Roder

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of both publisher and author. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

ISBN: 978-1-312-41526-3

EPILOGUE

Tuesday, January 10, 1860, began as an ordinary day in the lives of the residents of Lawrence, Massachusetts.  It did not remain that way long.  The state’s history books record it as a day of horror.  A poorly constructed building collapsed trapping and killing hundreds of workers. 

New of the collapse of the Pemberton Mill that afternoon spread fast.  It was a fairly new five-story building within walking distance of the apartment building that was home to the family of Joe and Kathleen Mackenhauf.  The couple together with their daughter and Kathleen’s mother, Colleen Bannon, shared the 2 bedroom apartment.  Both Joe and his mother-in-law were employed at the Pemberton Mill and should have been returning from their day’s work in a few hours.

Kathleen ran to the scene with four-year-old Lillibet in tow.  They were within sight of the disaster when fire broke out.  The crowds of people who had descended on the scene searching for loved ones were pushed back by soaring flames.

Kathleen’s mind went blank.  What was going on?  And then the first pains struck her.  Had her husband and mother made it out of the building before the fires broke out?  She needed them right now!  It was her time.  She sat on the edge of the sidewalk hugging her daughter to her side and gasping as a contraction wrenched her body.  People hurried past giving her no notice. 

She made her way back to the apartment and there in their tiny flat with only her little girl as a witness, fell to the floor in the throes of labor pains.

An elderly lady across the hall heard Lillibet pounding on her door and screaming, Help my Mommy!  Help my Mommy!  But help was long in coming.  It seemed everyone within the apartment complex and at the clinic was at the scene of the building collapse. 

Kathleen lost a lot of blood and did not survive the birth of her healthy baby boy.  She didn’t know that her husband and her mother would not be returning to their flat.  Lillibet’s grandmother, Colleen Bannon, and her father, Joseph Mackenhauf, died in the mill disaster.  On the same day and at nearly the same time, her mother, Kathleen, died following childbirth.  The small girl and her newborn brother were all that remained of the Mackenhauf family in America.

Lillibet’s family history was pieced together with what her parents’ friends knew.  Her grandparents had emigrated from Ireland when her mother was a child.  Her grandfather died a few years later.  Kathleen lived with her mother when she married Joe Mackenhauf, an immigrant from Germany. The young married couple continued to live with and share their lives with Kathleen’s mother following their marriage.  The triple tragedy on what began as a beautiful winter day meant Lillibet and her newborn brother had no parents and had also lost their only grandparent in America. 

No one stepped up to take in Lillibet and her brother.  There were so many other families whose lives changed that day.  They were two of the victims overlooked as the neighbors and the friends of their parents focused on their own family members who either lost their lives or were seriously injured.

The elderly neighbor who had tried to help the young mother during her final hours took the children to the parish priest.  There the baby was given the name Joseph.  Mommy said if I got a sister she was Colleen.  If I got a brother, he is Joseph, the child told the priest.

One-day-old Joseph James Mackenhauf was baptized, the ceremony recorded and then, together with other children similarly orphaned that day, he and his sister were taken by carriage to the city.  There they were admitted to the already overcrowded Boston Home for Wayward Children.

The story of the lives of Lillibet and newborn Joseph Mackenhauf had taken a dramatic turn.  The baby would never know the love of his father and mother.  Lillibet’s pet name was dropped.  She would now be called by her baptismal name, Elizabeth, and was listed on the Home’s records as an orphan, her baby brother her only known living relative in America. 

1   BOSTON HOME FOR WAYWARD CHILDREN   (1860)

You can’t have him!  You can’t have him! He’s my baby!  Elizabeth was frantic.  The priest who had baptized Joseph was also given the task of delivering the children to this place where they would stay until someone agreed to adopt them.

A lady Father Bernard called, Mrs. O,  answered the door and took baby Joseph into her arms.  A second lady grabbed Elizabeth’s hand without saying a word.  She tried to lead her down a hall but Mrs. O was going the other way, carrying the baby. 

Elizabeth’s screams and cries could be heard on the opposite side of the building where many children were gathered for breakfast.  They didn’t seem surprised by the screams but many were visibly upset.  The older boys were seen to shrug their shoulders or make faces that said:  Scream all you want.  It won’t help.  Some of the girls wiped silent tears and kept their eyes on the bowls of oatmeal in front of them while others put hands over their ears and stared into space.   

There was a tug of war going on in the entry to the home.  Elizabeth braced her feet as the lady tried to drag her along the hall.  Elizabeth’s screams continued.  Mrs. O stopped, turned around and said, It’s okay, Nancy.  Let her come with me. 

Nancy let go of Elizabeth’s hand so quickly, Elizabeth fell backward.  You’re the boss lady.  You can have her, a disgusted Nancy muttered under her breath.. 

Mrs. O knelt down alongside the sobbing child and tried to console her.  Elizabeth, you must quiet down or you will scare your little brother.  Would you like to come with me and help me find a nice bed for your baby?  This little boy needs his family with him right now and you are his family, aren’t you.  The last sentence was not a question, but a confident statement. 

Elizabeth grabbed the baby’s soft, blue blanket and still sobbing said, He’s mine.  He’s my brother. 

Of course he is, Mrs. O assured her.  "Now let’s go see if he needs a clean diaper and fix him a bottle.  Father Bernard gave me a note and it says it is almost his feeding time.  The little girl got up and followed Mrs. O to the nursery.

Nancy was quick to report the incident to her coworkers.  She’s making it way too easy for that little brat, Nancy said as she walked into the kitchen ready to lead a griping session with others who shared her break time.    Unbeknownst to her, Mrs. O was walking into the room as she made the statement.

Nancy, we’ll have no more of that kind of talk.  If you don’t like the way I run this place, you’ll have to find another job.  For now we are all going to be sensitive to Elizabeth and Joseph’s needs.  Those children have been through too much tragedy in their lives.  We can help by keeping them together as much as possible.  I am ordering every one of you right now:  when it is Joseph’s feeding time, with the only exception being his nighttime feedings, you are to bring Elizabeth to the nursery.  You are to help her to hold him and allow her to hold the bottle.  I expect full cooperation on this.  I not only want your cooperation, I want you to do it with good hearts.  These children need loving attention. 

Mrs. O became a warrior on behalf of Elizabeth and Joseph from that day on.  She allowed Elizabeth to come to the nursery to see him whenever she was having a free time.  The other children her age went out to stand around the crowded playground but Elizabeth didn’t go with them.  She trotted off to the nursery and was often rewarded, not only by finding the baby awake, but also finding Mrs. O working there.  She was shown how to talk to him and play with his toes, getting him to smile.  At night when she was lonely and felt like crying, she thought about the baby and Mrs. O and felt better.   

Her visits to the nursery were precious times when she could give her full attention to her brother but they were often more than that.  Mrs. O talked to her and asked her questions.  Gradually Elizabeth talked about her life at home with her dad and grandma, using the Irish term Mamo for the grandmother.  She was reluctant to say anything about her mother.  She told Mrs. O about Mamo Bannon.  When she talked funny, Daddy said, ‘Come on, Irish, speak American English’ and Mamo would laugh.  Then she would say words I knew. 

Did your mamo tell you about her home in Ireland?  Mrs. O wanted Elizabeth to remember the happy times she had at home.  She carefully monitored what they discussed, never letting them lead to something that may upset the little girl.

She said there are many farms and little houses.  There are sheep and fences made of rocks and lots of green grass.  She said someday when I am big I should go there and maybe she would go with me.  Elizabeth stopped talking and was lost in thought for a few minutes.   She can’t go with me now, can she?

No, Elizabeth, but I am sure she will be watching you from heaven if you go to visit her country when you are older.  That answer seemed to satisfy the little girl.  She always hated to go back to the dormitory after her visits with Mrs. O.  She often went to bed thinking what it would be like if Mrs. O became her mommy.

2  ELMTREE, IOWA 1860 

The Gardener is missing again, Jenny, 14, told her father.  She had walked into the rooms at the front of their large home that served as his office, a clinic and a two-bed hospital.   Dr. Howard looked up from the medical book he had been studying and smiled.

No need to waste time and energy chasing after her, he said.  That goat will come home when it is time for milking.  The goat earned its name, the Gardener, by keeping their house yard presentable.  It munched on the tall weeds helping to keep weeds under control.  The goat ate everything in sight making it necessary to surround their vegetable garden and clothes lines with a white picket fence.  The flimsy wire fence surrounding the rest of the yard did little to keep the goat corralled.  It found escape routes, or made its own on a regular basis. 

Jenny flopped down in the chair opposite her dad’s desk.   You look like you want to talk, her dad observed.  Let’s hear it.  What’s on your mind today?

We just finished reading Uncle Tom’s Cabin at school.  I didn’t know much about slavery, but it sounds terrible, Papa.  Do you think President Lincoln is going to do something about it?  Jenny had recently celebrated her fourteenth birthday and was becoming aware of the unrest in the country and the challenges facing the newly elected president. 

We have elected a good man as president but his election is causing some major problems for our country.  As I understand it, many southern states have a law within the state that allows the purchase and use of slaves.  They want each of the states to be independent countries, making their own laws and enforcing them in the way they see fit. They say they don’t want to be a part of our country anymore.  They are seceding from the Union so that no laws for the rest of the country will say they can’t have slaves.  President Lincoln believes our country was established with all the states under the rule of the United States Government and with all people, no matter what race or religion, having the same rights promised by the Constitution.  He does not want to accept the declaration of those seven southern states that they are no longer a part of the United States.  They claim they have seceded from the United States and are forming their own nation.  Do you understand what I am saying?

I suppose so, she answered without much conviction. 

Her dad continued his explanation.  It gets a little complicated but President Lincoln has offered to welcome back those states that seceded and offer friendship if they will return to the union.  The question of whether the slaves should be freed has been swept away by the immediate problem that is - what the United States Government should do about illegal secession.  We know our president believes the people of the Negro race should have the same rights that people of other nationalities have but he does not want our nation to be divided because of that issue.

So the President is not going to free the slaves right away? Jenny asked.

It doesn’t look like it, and that’s difficult for him, he answered.   The owners of the large plantations whose wealth has made them the leaders in their states need the slaves.  It takes lots of helpers to harvest cotton and tobacco.  It is too cold up here for us to plant those crops.  It doesn’t take as much labor to harvest enough corn and oats to support a family.  Those folks want to continue the practice of buying and selling and using slaves without fear of the government interfering in any way.

Jenny was listening closely to her father, frowning in concentration.  He concluded the civics lesson he felt he was giving her by warning, What worries me the most is that the leaders of the southern states seem willing to go to extreme lengths to defend the right to govern themselves.  They feel so strongly about it that all of this may lead to a war between the states of the North and the South, dividing our country in the worst way possible.

But we are okay in Iowa, aren’t we, Papa?  Jenny asked, her heart beating a little faster as she considered his words.  She loved her life just the way it was.

"It’s too early to say, Jenny, but one thing I want you to keep in mind is that your mother and I will do whatever is necessary to help our country, but we’ll always do what we can to keep you safe and secure at