The Saga of John Kyte Clark

My grandfather, John Kyte Clark, whom I was named after,  was named after his grandfather, John C Kyte. He was born in 1883. I had heard a family story that my great grandfather, Eugene Clark, had left my great grandmother, Libbie, and gone off to the city to pursue a life of wine, women and song. I don’t know if that part was true or not but the 1900 census record shows that my great grandmother had moved back to the family farm with her father and mother along with her two sons, John K and Claud. She was 43 at the time. My grandfather was 16. His older brother was 20. I imagine that my great great grandfather, John C Kyte who was 78 needed all the help he could get on the farm as did my great great grandmother Sarah who was 78 also. This was also the farm where Libbie grew up according to the census of 1870 assuming that her parents farmed the same farm their entire life which was common in those days. People didn’t move around from farm to farm much. The 1870 census shows that Libbie was 14 and living with her father, mother and 7 siblings in the farm house pictured below (picture taken 2006).
      
       I had heard that my great grandfather, Eugene, came from Bucks County, PA. That was only partially true. My great great grandfather Aaron W Clark was born in Sandyston, NJ in 1831. The 1850 census record shows that Aaron W who was 19 was living in Sandyston Township where the Kytes resided. The 1860 census shows Aaron W living in Sandyston with Hannah and oldest son Isaiah. He later moved to Monroe County in PA since the 1870 census shows him living there with wife, Hannah, and sons, Isaiah, Eugene and another with an indecipherable name. So the families might have known each other before the move to PA. Besides the farm was only a mile or so from the border with PA so moves back and forth over the border were probably common.
      
       The 1880 census record shows that Eugene and Libbie were married and farming in Sandyston. Eugene was 19 and Libbie was 22 so my great grandmother was 3 or 4 years older than my great grandfather. They had a one year old child who must have been my grandfather’s older brother, Claud, so Eugene must have been 17 or 18 when they got married. Maybe that had something to do with why he left and went off to the big city. He had gotten involved with an older woman at a very young age. However, he must have stuck around at least till 1883 because that’s when my grandfather was born. Since the 1890 census records were burned, we can’t know whether my great grandfather left before or after 1890, but he had definitely left by 1900 because, according to the census, my great grandmother was living with her parents on the family farm in Hainesville, Sandyston, along with her two sons. That was the same farm where she grew up and where my mother was born and grew up. How many generations back that farm goes in the Kyte and Clark families is unclear, but it was at least 4, probably more.
      
       In 1907, my grandfather’s brother Claud died. I had heard that he had drowned in a swimming accident. He was 28 and must have been living at the farm in Hainesville. By 1910 according to the census record, my grandfather, who was 26, was the head of household which consisted of his mother, Libbie, 53, and his grandmother, Sarah, 80, his grandfather, John C, having died in 1902. So Grandpa lost his brother and grandfather within a 5 year period, and Libbie lost her father and son. Within a 10 year or so period, they had also lost for all intents and purposes their husband and father.
      

By the 1920 census, the picture on the Hainesville farm had changed quite a bit. Grandpa John K was married to Alice Rosenkrans and they had 3 children, Florence, 6, my mother, Winifred, 4, my aunt, and J Earl, 1. Sarah had died, but Libbie was still living. She was 62. My mother was born September 5, 1913. The census listed my grandfather’s birthplace as Pennsylvania which presents something of a mystery because, according to the 1880 census, Eugene and Libbie were married and living in Sandyston. Did they subsequently move back to Pennsylvania in which case the story about Grandpa being born in Bucks County, PA may be true? If so the family sure moved back and forth between NJ and PA a lot. Great grandma Libbie died in 1924, and my mother’s brother, J. Earl, died of pneumonia in 1928 when he was only 10.
      

I know from a letter my mother had saved that Libbie went through hell and high water to get title to the family farm in the early 1900s, probably after her mother died so that she and her son would have a place to live and a livelihood for my grandfather. I think I recall that the lot lines were somewhat ambiguous probably because the farm had never been surveyed since it had been in the same family for so long. And there were probably monetary considerations in order to buy out her siblings.
      
       Eugene had died in 1916 and is buried in the family plot along with Libbie so they must never have gotten divorced. What his subsequent relationship with his wife and my grandfather was after he left the family, I don’t know, but it must have been at least sufficient so that the family was notified when he died. Sadly, by 1928, my Grandpa had lost his father, mother, brother and son. Grandpa never talked about any of this and what little I know was passed down to me by my mother. Other than, that is, what I have been able to dig up from perusing the markers at the Hainesville Cemetery and from my genealogical research online.
      
My grandfather farmed the family farm until approximately 1945 after which he sold it, and he and my grandmother moved to Madison St in Newton. My grandfather worked as a handyman for a department store installing linoleum flooring and window shades in people’s houses. My grandmother crocheted doilies and hankies and sold them through the same store. My grandfather was a good carpenter and he had a full set of tools in his little garage. Now I wish I would have asked him to teach me something about carpentry. I think he would have been glad to do it, and I could have learned something. But I never showed any interest so it was one of those missed opportunities
      
Another story is that my mother and Aunt Winnie (picture left circa 1940) and a friend drove to CA in the 30s to visit a relative, George  Kyte, who was an optometrist in Santa Monica. They must have come over the original transcontinental highway, the Lincoln Highway. He was Libbie’s brother born about 1863. Therefore, he was my grandfather’s uncle. According to the 1920 census he was living in Santa Monica with his wife, Mary, and was an optometrist.  When he died, he left his estate to my grandfather. I don’t know how much money was involved, but it must have been considerable for those days. So my grandfather and grandmother had a nice retirement in Newton. My grandmother’s sister, Mabel, and her husband lived close by, and the two couples played pinochle once a week. They had a garden and chickens. My grandfather had a black 1952 Plymouth for the rest of his life. They were frugal and always had a neat house (pictured below). Even their basement was always neat and clean. My grandmother used to read stories to me and my cousin, Peggy Cole, who was about 6 months older than me, and, unfortunately, died when she was 15. I used to spend a week with my grandparents every summer and would go into work with my grandfather or ride my bicycle around Newton which was and still is a nice town.
      

My grandfather had a stroke when he was 75 or so and then was in a nursing home in Newton until he died in 1968. My grandmother, who never learned to drive, would walk the mile or so every day to see him. When I came home on vacations, my Mom and Dad would always take me to visit my grandfather in the nursing home usually right after I came home and right before I went back. I sort of didn’t want to go so much because the nursing home was depressing, but now I’m glad my parents insisted and that I did go.
      
       My grandfather never talked too much and never talked about his mother’s and his struggle to survive or how they came to live on the farm which had been in the family for generations. It was a small farm, and my grandparents were very self-sufficient. They were both very industrious and provided a lot of their everyday necessities by the work of their own hands as did many people in those days instead of buying everything at the store. The dairy farm provided them with a cash flow so that they did have money for the things they couldn’t provide for themselves. My grandfather never had a tractor on the farm. He used teams of horses to pull the hay wagon and the manure wagon right up to the time he sold the farm. I remember riding on top of the hay wagon once when I was about 4 years old.
      
       That farm is still in good shape today. It has gone through a series of owners, but it still has significance to me. My parents were married there in 1940.  Later when my mother got TB and had to go to a sanitarium, it was my grandfather who came and picked her up while my Dad stayed with my sister and me. We would have lost our house due to the fact that my Mom’s streptomycin shots were $180. a month and my Dad only made $250. in 1946 had it not been for the fact that my grandfather bought out their mortgage and didn’t require my parents to pay anything till my Mom got out of the sanitarium and they got back on their feet. Then I remember my Mom paying Grandpa $50.00 a month. When I was going to school, my grandfather always shook hands with me and there was a $10. bill in my hand when we let go. He was a kind, generous man.
      
       Going further back in the Kyte family Libbie’s father and mother John C and Sarah were born, respectively, in 1821 and 1829. They died in 1902 and 1913, respectively. John C’s father and mother were Jacob Hoornbeck Kyte and Mary Cortright born in 1775 and 1784, respectively. They died in 1858 and 1862, respectively. Both were born and died in Sandyston. Jacob H. Kyte’s parents were Thomas Kyte (1726-1816) and Lea Keator (1739-1827). Lea Keator’s ancestry can be easily traced back several more generations. Thomas Kyte was a dead-end for now as far as my research is concerned. Mary Cortright’s parents were Simon Cortright (1764-1824) and Catherine Ennes (1764-1848).
      
       In the Clark family, Eugene’s parents were Aaron W Clark b.1831 and Hannah. Aaron W’s parents were Samuel Clark b.1805 and Elizabeth b. 1806.

The picture on the left is Johnny Lawrence and Peggy Cole in 1942.

My cousin, Jennifer Peel, has a blog that links here.

Comments

[Jennifer Peel]

Thanks John for that history!!! I loved it! Not sure if you know this, but the family that live in the farmhouse now (Blueberry Hill) are friends of mine. They ADORE the house and sense very good charma there. Anytime I am there it is very calming. I am going to link your blog to mine.

Thanks again!

Cousin Jen in NJ