The prompt for the 51st Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy says:

Do you have a relative who was feisty, spoke their own mind, was a bit of a free spirit? Anyone who most people might consider a “nut” on the family tree but you know they really just followed a “different tune?” We all have at least one person whose character and habits may have made them seem “ahead of their time” and now is the chance to tell us their story.

Almost every person in my family, in one way or another, could be considered a bit of a nut or an odd-ball, but only one person comes to mind when I think of the terms and phrases “feisty” “spoke their own mind” “free spirit” and “ahead of their time” and that is my great-grandmother, Thelma Corrine (Seibert) Furry (b. 22 January 1910 in Louisville, Kentucky; d. 22 March 2000 in Barberton, Ohio).

Even at a young age Thelma Furry was a handful. Her parents ended up sending her away to school for a year because they couldn’t control her rebellious ways. However, not long after she came back from school, she ended up getting pregnant at the age of 16 and having a daughter at age 17.

Sometime between 1932 and 1938 she ended up having an illegal “back alley” abortion even though she was studying to become a lawyer at the time.

In 1940 she graduated from the Akron School of Law, becoming the first woman trial lawyer in Akron, Ohio.

She championed the causes of those who were not generally given a fair shot, even appealing two cases to the United States Supreme Court (and winning!) when the trial results were not satisfactory. A sampling of those types of clients she represented were those who were suspected of being Communists, African Americans, clients with HIV/AIDS, and homosexuals. Any person who was unfairly discriminated against was someone she would happily represent. In the early days of her career, she was also one of the few lawyers who would work pro-bono cases or accept unusual forms of payment. In at least one case, she accepted payment in the form of her client mowing her lawn.

She was very outspoken in her beliefs, and attracted quite a bit of attention because of it. Some of it in the form of hate mail. Here are two transcriptions of letters she received:

Thelma Furry, You lousy slut. If I were [you] I would keep my damnable pencil and mouth shut. Why if you want Communist “liberties” dont you just go where they already exist, not try to bring the curse to our good country. Our President is going to put you in “Camp” I hope. You will be lucky if some mother of soldier boys does not shoot you down like the dog you are. I may take a try at it my self if any thing happens to the sons I love so much. We like our country as it is, if you don’t just get your “mob” together and I am sure our government would be glad to give you free passage to Russia. Mother of 3 boys. May Gods curses rest on you!!!

________

TRAITORS BEWARE See the old man at the corner where you buy your paper? He may have a silencer equipped pistol under his coat. That extra fountain pen in the pocket of the insurance salesman who calls on you might be a cyanide gas gun. What about your milk man? Arsenic works slow but sure. Your auto mechanic may stay up nights studying booby traps. These patriots are not going to let you take their freedom away from them. They have learned the silent knife, the strangler’s cord, the target rifle that hits sparrows at 200 yards. Traitors beware. Even now the cross hairs are on the back of your necks.

But none of this ever scared her, at least outwardly. She continued to believe in the same ideals and continued to work for those people that other lawyers wouldn’t represent. I’m not sure about it, but I imagine that when she opened these letters that she just laughed at them, especially the second letter. The fact that it called her a traitor who was trying to take away freedoms, would seem absolutely ridiculous to her. It was completely opposite from her beliefs and goals. And in regards to the first letter, she most definitely wouldn’t have wanted anything bad to happen to the woman’s sons, or any other allied man serving in World War II. The type of “Communist” that the woman spoke of was not embodied by my grandmother. Unfortunately a lot of people hear the word Communist and think of completely opposite beliefs than what my grandmother held. She was a member of the Communist party for about 15 years, but she did eventually quit the party, stating that it was only because she thought her clients would be treated unfairly by juries and judges because of her political affiliation. It seems odd to me that a judge would make a decision based on a lawyer’s affiliation, but it happened at least once to one of Thelma’s clients. Fortunately Thelma and the client were able to get another trial with a different judge.

About a year ago I was reading through Thelma’s FBI file (yep, she has a FBI file, and a HUGE one at that… somewhere around 400/500 pages!) and I found a statement of hers that contradicted another person’s. I asked my grandmother, Thelma’s daughter, if she might have lied when she gave her statement. The answer she gave: “I never heard her tell a lie in my entire life. She was the kind of person who would rather go to prison than tell a lie. Just on principle. She could be belligerent. She might not answer a question, but she wouldn’t have lied.”

In her private life she was ahead of the times as well. My mom has told me stories about how Thelma was very open about sex and would speak to her about sex if the topic came up. Apparently Thelma viewed sex as simply another natural part of life and that there was no reason to be ashamed by it. This coming from a woman of her generation was simply unheard of. I actually remember finding a couple quotes by Ayn Rand about sex and sexuality in some of Thelma’s papers. One was:

“I say that sex is one of the most important aspects of man’s life and, therefore, must never be approached lightly or casually. A sexual relationship is proper only on the ground of the highest values one can find in a human being. Sex must not be anything other than a response to values. And that is why I consider promiscuity immoral. Not because sex is evil, but because sex is too good and too important.”

To end, I think that throughout her life Thelma definitely followed “the beat of her own drum,” but I also think that she got the “tune” from her father and mother.
________________________

This is my entry for the 51st Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy: Independent Spirit

I just decided to post a short excerpt from the genealogy book I am writing about one aspect of my g-g-grandmother’s life.

Though, a bit of data and two photos first.

Irene Mary (Beckman) Seibert; born 28 November 1890 in Bowling Green, Kentucky and died 12 Aug 1985 in Akron, Ohio.

Irene with her two daughters, Dorothy Dixie “Dots” Seibert (on the left) and Thelma Corrinne Seibert (on the right), circa 1913:

Irene sometime between 1935 and 1940:

___________________________________________________________________________

Irene Seibert was one of seven women to organize the Akron’s Progressive Women’s Club. The other founders were Mrs. Thomas Basick, Mrs. Mary Quist, Mrs. Tessie Beacham, Mrs. William Kuchinsky, Mrs. John Matuska, and Mrs. Jennie Nixon.

A photo of five of the seven founders of the Akron Progressive Women’s Club. Standing, from left to right: Mrs. John Matuska and Mrs. Thomas Basick; Seated, from left to right: Irene Seibert, Mrs. William Kuchinsky, and Mrs. Jennie Nixon:

The club’s mission was to study city government and help inform it’s members about the current political issues of their city as well as of the nation, in order to prepare the women when it came time to vote. They had representatives attend City Council meetings as well as other community meetings and report back to the women’s club. Near election time, candidates were invited to their meetings to speak about their stance on issues. Mrs. Thomas Basick was quoted as saying, “Now we don’t just vote as our husbands tell us to. We think for ourselves.” One specific issue that they tried to fight was the Selective Service Act of 1940. When it was initally under consideration, they protested it by picketing outside the office of their congressman. Irene Seibert said, “If all the women were organized as we are, there wouldn’t be any war.” Mrs. Basick added, “The world would be a better place to live in.” The club also had lecturors speak to members about health issues such as birth control and sexually transmitted diseases (termed “social diseases” at the time). The club also stressed the idea of buying in union stores and asking for union clerks. They were also active in helping strikers. They would volunteer on the picket lines and even walk with the men in the lines to encourage them.

In the past week or two, I’ve come to the conclusion that I am not going to be able to complete my genealogy book in time for this year’s reunion. There is still way too much that I need to get done. But I still want to take something to the reunion for people to look at.

I wanted to have a professional looking book printed by lulu.com complete with charts, photos, index, full source citations, etc.

Now I’m thinking that I’ll skimp on a couple things and just have Kinko’s print it out for me, or even just print it out myself, since I could probably borrow my in-law’s spiral binder.

So, instead of worrying about getting everything done, I need to figure out what to concentrate on and what to put aside.

Obviously, the first thing I need to finish is the actual writing. I still have eight chapters to finish. That sounds daunting, but six of them are almost there. I can probably get all six of them done by the end of this week if I really buckle down. The other two will take longer to finish, but at least I’ve already done the outlines for them. The main thing is I just need to sit down and finish them instead of working on things (i.e. the book’s cover design) that are ridiculous to be thinking about when the text isn’t even finished.

Once the writing is done, I’ll make a couple charts. This should be easy. I can just have my computer program spit some out and I can include them as is. I won’t have to worry about how I can get them to fit on a 6×9 page, which has been the main reason I haven’t already worked on them. A few weeks ago I tried to make a chart that would fit in a 6×9 book, but it was incredibly difficult to get everything to fit and be legible (i.e. not incredibly tiny).

Then, I think I’ll finish editing the photos I want to include, but not worry about cropping/resizing them. I’ll just clean them up a bit by fixing the brightness/contrast, etc.

After that I think I’ll work on the sources. And by that I mean that I will fix the sources so that they are complete and in the correct format. I will make sure to have everything sourced when I am actually writing the text… it just won’t be pretty. For example, I’ll change

Newspaper clipping in Jacie’s scrapbook.

to

“S/Sgt. Linton “Buzz” Seibert,” News clipping from unknown newspaper, June 1945. Clipping in scrapbook of Jacqueline (Osborne) Cummings, Inherited 2007 by Jacqueline’s granddaughter Amanda (Stiver) Erickson. Note: There is a handwritten note below the clipping but it is illegible. It looks like it might say “Sunroco News.”

And, I think that’s probably all I’ll have time to do… if that.

Once August 9, 2008 (the date of the reunion) has come and gone, I will be able to relax a bit and not worry about this book so much. I have spent almost every second of my free time (as well as a bit of “work” time) of the past year working on this book and I will be glad to have some time to breathe. By August 8, 2009 (the expected date of next year’s reunion), I will have had plenty time to complete the book the way I really want it.

I went to my grandfather’s yesterday to try to find two photos that I knew he had. In the process, I found a small booklet published by the Christ Evangelical Church of Louisville, Kentucky, dated February 1928.

It is called “Our Church and Home Monthly”

It is a 16 page booklet that lists all of the church officers, the upcoming events, notices about who was sick, who had recently died, been baptised, and married. It lists a full treasurers report that spans three pages, bible verses, psalms, and hymns, two historical articles (”Organization of Protestantism” and “The Layman’s Missionary Movement”) and uplifting and motivational articles. It also has a bit of humor sprinkled in:

Lawyer: Why don’t you two settle this out of court?

Cilent: That’s what we’d prefer to do, sir; but the police always stop us.

and

“Polygon” is the latin word for dead parrot.

I also found an odd statement in the historical article regarding the origins of Protestantism:

The word Protestant comes from the word Protestant.

Woah… Deep! LOL. I’m assuming that this was a typo and the woman who wrote the article meant to say “The word Protestant comes from the word Protestor.”

The booklet’s genealogical value to me is the listing of my grandmother’s baptism. I actually had no idea that she was baptized:

On February 5, at the church, Jacqueline Corrine Osborn, child of Thomas Osborn and Thelma, nee Seibert, born September 9, 1927, in Akron, Ohio. Sponsors: Mrs. Elizabeth Dugan and Mr. Rix Beckman.

It also shows that my… oi, now I have to find out how she was related to me… my g-g-great aunt, Willella Seibert-Rondi, was the Treasurer of the Mission Circle and that her husband, Richard Rondi, was the Treasurer of the Church.

Willella’s father, Jacob Seibert (my g-g-g-grandfather) was the treasurer of the church before he died in 1910. I wonder if Richard Rondi took up the job immediately after Jacob’s death, or later.

I was hoping that I could get copies of this monthly booklet for the years prior to Jacob Seibert’s death, unfortunately, the inside cover states that this booklet was started in 1913, 3 years after Jacob’s death. Oh well. It’s still a nice little find on it’s own.

_________________________________

Thanks to Stephen P. Morse for his wonderful relationship calculator that helped me verify that Willella was indeed my g-g-g-aunt. I’m sure I will find many more reason’s to use it again in my research.

The topic for the 47th Carnival of Genealogy, is called A Place Called Home. I was to pick out a town where one of my ancestors once lived and tell you about it. These questions were asked: When was it founded? What is it known for? Has is prospered or declined over the years? Have you ever visited it or lived there? How was your ancestor influenced by the area where they lived? This is my response to those questions, plus a little bit more:
___________________

Fred Seibert’s first job was as a general contractor working for his father’s house painting business. Fred’s last job, in fact, the very last thing he did on this earth, was working on the construction of a house. But in between the times he worked as a house contractor, his life took quite a different path that, I believe, was all due to his settling in Kenmore, Summit County, Ohio in 1916.

Kenmore, Ohio was incorporated in 1908, but it was formed earlier, around 1900. The initial name of the town was going to be Hazeldale or Hazelhurst, after the daughter of Noah R. Steiner, one of the town’s “founding fathers.” However, Steiner eventually decided on the name Kenmore instead, for reasons now unknown. Before it was incorporated, the area was known as Halo, Ohio. On 31 December 1928, Kenmore was annexed by the city of Akron, Ohio, but many people who lived there continued to refer to it as it’s own town for about another decade.

Kenmore was known as a nice, mainly residential, community right in the middle of two growing cities, Akron and Barberton. It was the ideal place to live; a tight knit community with a great abundances of jobs to either side of it.

In 1916, my great great grandfather, Fred Seibert, was working as a contract painter in Louisville, Kentucky and jobs were scarce. However, in and around, Kenmore, manufacturing jobs were in excess. So he and his wife, with three young children in tow, made the move from Louisville, KY to Kenmore, OH in order to better their lives.

These next two photos (courtesy of Kenmore Historical Society) show a bit of Kenmore Blvd around the time when Fred moved there.

I think this is looking East, near 16th Street, but I could be wrong:

The intersection of Kenmore Blvd and Manchester Rd.:

Fred got a job in the rubber industry working for the B. F. Goodrich Company. However, he disliked the working conditions so much, he became active in organizing a rubber workers union. This angered Goodrich and he was fired and blacklisted by other companies in the area. As a result, Fred was forced to go back into business for himself. Instead of returning “back home” to Louisville, (Fred’s brother George went to Kenmore as well, but decided to return to Kentucky the next year) Fred Seibert stayed in Kenmore and decided to make the most of his new life there. Maybe he saw the opportunity to be a part of something larger than himself, because over the next two decades he remained continuously involved in the labor movement, fighting for the union cause. At one point he became a national official of the International Labor Defense organization.

In the mean time, along with a cousin, Ed Ellers, Fred started two second hand stores around 1919, both officially called “Seibert and Ellers,” but at least one was known as “Ed’s and Fred’s Place” (as the photo below shows). The stores were both located on Kenmore Blvd, the main road running through Kenmore, connecting Akron to Barberton. One store was near Akron, at 203 Kenmore Blvd, the other closer to Barberton, at 2902 Kenmore Blvd.

In the early 1920’s Fred helped found the Kenmore/Akron branch of the Communist party. Over the years he met many key figures in the Communist movement, including Jim Keller (Chicago District Organizer; Communist CIO organizer) and Earl Browder (General Secretary of the Communist party in 1930; Presidential candidate in 1936). Jim Keller was a close family friend for the rest of Fred’s life. Earl Browder, though not a close friend, did stay a few times at Fred’s house while in town for meetings.

A photo of the 1922 May Day (International Worker’s Day) Parade in Kenmore, Ohio. May Day was very special to the Seibert family, as it symbolized something about the Communist party as well as the progress of the labor movement:

Eventually, Fred got a job working for the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company, and again tried to help the men form a union. His granddaughter, Jacqueline Osborne, remembered him coming home one night all bloody from an incident involving a fight between police and the workers that were on strike.

Fred was also instrumental in trying to get better gas service in Kenmore. Sometime prior to 1924, Fred went so far as to travel to Columbus to speak with the State Utilities commission in regards to the situation that Kenmore was in regarding gas service. He reported to the Kenmore Civic League that the city council had the power to make legislation that would demand that the East Ohio gas company extend service on streets where main lines were already installed. As a result the Civil League presented a petition, drafted by Fred and signed by more than 400 residents, to the city council to ask for new legislation. Whether or not he and the Kenmore Civic League were successful in getting the new legislation is unknown.

In the years that followed, Fred Seibert ran for various political offices on the Communist party ticket, including Mayor of Kenmore, in 1930* and again for Mayor of Akron in 1932. I can only assume that he felt that if he couldn’t change things as a “mere citizen,” that he could change things if he were elected to office. Issues on his mayoral campaign platform included: advocating unemployment and social insurance, more relief for the unemployed, higher taxes on large incomes, and the proclaiming of a moratorium on mortgages, debts, and taxes of the unemployed. Unfortunately, he never did get elected to any office he campaigned for. (* Note: An FBI file on his daughter says that Fred ran for Mayor of Kenmore in 1930, but Kenmore would have already been annexed by Akron. Maybe it was 1928 instead.)

Photo of Kemore City Hall (courtesy of Kenmore Historical Society):

Fred died of a heart attack at age 59 on 18 January 1949 while building a house (located at 919 Indian Trail, Akron, OH) for his youngest son.

Jim Keller gave a eulogy at his funeral, parts of which included:

“In his very person, and by the example of his whole life, Fred was a true representative of his Party, refuting thereby the falsehoods circulated about Communists.”

“Fred was able to witness and take part in the greatest social changes the world has ever seen.”

“Many names which may sound loudly today, will become unknown. But the life, contributions, and aspirations of Fred Seibert will eventually resound in the school rooms of this community and become inscribed upon it’s memorials.”

It’s nice to know that Jim Keller had such high regard for him, unfortunately Keller was wrong and Fred’s story has not become part of the history books. However, I did just recently meet someone who lives in Kenmore who had at least heard of him. So (besides through family) maybe he will still be remembered in some way. Hopefully, this blog post will help too.

When contemplating the topic for this post, I wondered if Fred would have done the same type of things in Louisville, that he did in Kenmore, if he had never moved? I could be wrong, but I don’t think so. I think the small size of Kenmore allowed him more opportunities than “back home” in Louisville. I also think the booming rubber industry in the area prompted him to speak out against the injustices he saw and experienced. I’m sure he would have still been involved in his community, just because of the type of person he was, but I’m not sure it would have been to the same extent as what he was involved in in Kenmore.

How has Kenmore changed since Fred was around? Over the years, Kenmore has unfortunately declined. I feel comfortable walking around Kenmore, but a few of my friends joke that an outsider might pass through some sections of it with one eye over his shoulder wondering if at any moment he might get mugged. I think it’s really a sad thing because Kenmore was such a huge part of my family’s life. I hate to see what it has turned into. When I was going to Kenmore High School, I don’t think I knew one person who was planning on staying in Kenmore after graduation. Maybe that’s how most kids feel; that they have to get out of their home town once they are able. I on the other hand never felt that way. I never understood the desire to get out of Kenmore. Yes, I will agree that in some aspects it could be better, but it was home. It is home.

I’ve lived in Kenmore my whole life, and unless our circumstances change and we have to move, I will probably live here the rest of my life. And I’m not sad about that.
___________________

A slightly different version of this blog post will be going into the book that I am currently writing. I needed to sit down and write it, but I just hadn’t done it yet. Thanks to the Carnival of Genealogy for getting my lazy butt off the couch and into the computer chair!