My paternal grandmother, Lovina Amanda Hackett (sometimes spelled Lavina or Lavinia), was born in Almer Township, Tuscola County, Michigan, on July 13, 1880, to Josiah Peter Hackett and Emma Hill (aka Emelie Heil). Emma, her mother, was born on 23 December 1849 in Detroit, Michigan, to immigrants John Hill (Johannes Heil) and Catherine Hill.
These two are the bane of my family research. I know they came to America from Bavaria, at least according to U.S. census records. I believe Catherine’s maiden name may have been Nagle, but that is just a guess based on information gleaned from DNA matches who don’t seem to match other lines. All I know about John is that he enlisted in the Union Army during the Civil War and apparently died of smallpox either in Detroit Barracks or in Northern Virginia around 1862. He was listed in the 1860 census, but know from Josiah’s writings that John had died before 8165, when Josiah met Emma and he proclaimed her to be “the prettiest girl in the tenth ward.”
But, I will focus on both of them in a later installment. I really need to consult with a genealogist specializing in German research.
Lovina was the fifth of seven children born to Josiah and Emma. I’ve written extensively about Josiah, who was also a Civil War veteran; it was my need to know more about him that started my obsession with genealogy back in 1991.
Named after her paternal grandmother, Lovina Amanda Roberson, Lovina was 21 years old when she married my grandfather, Charles Cicero Codling, in Corunna, Michigan, on March 18, 1902. According to the 1900 U.S. census, in which she is still living at home with her parents, she was working as a teacher. She also is listed as a teacher on my Aunt Iris’s 1906 birth certificate.*
The only picture I ever had of Lovina was taken when she was teaching; the photo was on card stock that I believe was printed as a souvenir by the school. Sadly, I believe I have lost that; fortunately, I did scan it before losing it. So it exists at least digitally.
In that 1900 census, Charles is living on his mother’s farm and working there as a farm hand in Arthur Township, Clare County, Michigan, near the town of Gladwin. His parents were living separately at that time, which, again, is a story to be told later. It’s not a pretty story; I consider his father, Stephen Codling, to be the blackest of the family’s black sheep.
I have no idea how the two of them met, but soon after they married, they moved to Dover Township, Lake County, Michigan. This may be where my father’s story about Charles’ first effort at owning and running a hotel. He bought one, but my grandmother refused to work there after one of their patrons referred to her as “madam.” Code, of course, for a woman who operates a brothel.
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My poor deeply Baptist grandmother! This could explain the discrepancies in some records as to where they both were living. Their first child, Edward Eugene “Teddy” Codling, was born in Dover Township in August 1903; Iris was born in 1906; my uncle Lawrence Josiah Codling, was born in Dover Township in 1909; and my uncle Howard Kenneth Codling was also born there in 1914. However, Iris’ birth certificate shows Charles as living back in Arthur Township, possible with his mother, and Lovina was shown as living in Corunna. The certificate was filed with Clare County, but one tidbit I just noticed about it is it shows that Lovina’s mother, Emma, was the midwife for Iris’ birth.
So, perhaps that “madam” incident happened between the time Teddy was born and around the time Iris was born. It makes sense that she may have left town for a period of time out of either anger or embarrassment, or both.
I cannot find Teddy’s birth certificate; I can only assume he was born in Dover Township. But I do have his death certificate. Sadly, Teddy had epilepsy and had a seizure out away from the house. Dad told me family members found his body after he had drowned in a shallow creek on Dec. 1, 1913. That is confirmed by the death certificate.
Interesting fact about my uncle Howard. His legal middle name was Kenneth, but his birth certificate names him Howard Wayne Codling. I do remember asking someone about it, perhaps my cousin, Iris’ daughter, Delores, or possibly my Aunt Jane, Uncle Howard’s wife. I remember being told there was some sort of controversy over that middle name, and it was later changed to Kenneth.
I also don’t know why, exactly, Charles moved the family to western New York, but they were there when Dad was born on Feb. 2, 1917, in Panama, Harmony Township, Chautauqua County, New York. Fun side fact/fantasy: I have a gut feeling (which, of course, means nothing) that the Codling boys may have known Lucille Ball, who was born and raised in Jamestown, about 22 miles away, and was about the same age as my aunt and uncles.
Somehow, I guess, Charles was told of a hotel/grocery store in Panama, which he purchased and he and Lovina operated for about 20 years. But I think there may have been some “side gigs.” For some time, I have suspected the Codlings may have been involved in “rum running” during Prohibition. One reason is because my “aunt” Maggie Barton, who helped raise my Aunt Jane, told me a story about how she and her husband owned a bar and pool room in Ripley, N.Y., on Lake Erie, and played poker once with Al Capone. Yep, that guy.
Also Dad would literally see red when talking about Joe Kennedy Sr., who managed to become wealthy as a bootlegger. I never quite understood why it bothered him so much, beyond the fact that the Kennedys would have become who they were because the patriarch broke the law. But, it seems more likely, knowing Paul Codling, that he may have simply been jealous because of Kennedy’s success in something that the Codlings had also been involved with, but not as successfully.
My Aunt Iris told me that Grandpa Charles was a harsh task-masker, expecting her and Lovina to do all the hard work involved in operating a hotel. She basically said Charles simply worked Lovina to death, and worked Iris just as hard, while the boys were spared from that work. That may be so, but Dad told me that Charles, who also was a harness-maker, did not hold back from using a strap to whip the boys when they were misbehaving. Yikes.
Charles and Lovina sold the business to Aunt Jane and Uncle Howard; in the 1940 census, the young couple were 24 years old; Howard is the proprietor of a pool-room, which I understand was behind the grocery store, and Jane was a waitress in a restaurant.
Charles and Lovina retired and moved to Jacksonville, Duval County, Florida, where Iris and her second husband, real-estate developer David Smouse, and Lovina’s uncle, Samuel G. Hackett, who also was in that business, were also living.
Lovina wasn’t there long, though. On a visit north, my grandparents were staying with Uncle Lawrence and Aunt Dorothy (Chase) Codling at their home near Trenton, New Jersey. Lovina took ill on a Sunday when the rest of the family had gone to church. She went to a nearby drugstore to buy something to make her feel better and, while there, collapsed. She was rushed to Cooper Hospital in Camden, where she died four hours later on Dec. 17, 1939. The incident was reported the next day in the Camden Courier-Post.
I can’t imagine what it was like when the family returned home and found that she wasn’t there, not knowing where she had gone. Dad said she didn’t have any identification; I have no idea how they were notified; perhaps they went out looking for her or starting calling hospitals, or a neighbor may have seen the commotion and told them what happened. Either way, it had to be excruciating.
It was long after he died in 1994 that I realized Dad was only 21 when his mother died. He didn’t talk much about her –– other than telling me once that she used to stay at the table after everyone was finished and would pick all the meat off of the leftover bones. I think it was just too hard for him, even after all that time.
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