Luella and Ben 1919
I wonder what Luella thought when Ben told her they were moving to Arkansas. I wonder if she was excited about seeking new horizons and moving to a new place and a new life and a new adventure. She would get to meet more of Bens family and life would be whatever they made it. She would have none of her family looking disapprovingly over her shoulder telling her what Ben should and shouldn’t do. And pointing out everything about her new husband that they didn’t approve of, mainly that he was uneducated.
Or maybe she was terrified at walking away from everything that her life promised to be? She was leaving the only family she knew and trading her dreams for Bens. Was she scared of what lay ahead? She gave up her little home of comfort to go to what? No promise of a home. No expectations, just dreams.
I wonder if she had a choice and if she could have said, “No Ben, we are staying here”. Or did she feel resigned to make the best that she could of the situation because she would have followed Ben to the ends of the earth?
Luella was the youngest daughter of two born to James and Mary Gabbert. Her mother had died when she was only a few years old and she and her sister Della had gone to live with their Aunt Kate, her husband and two sons.
She had lived most of her life around Evansville, Indiana and when she met and married Ben, it seemed her life would be spent there. Her children would go to the same schools that she had attended. She and Ben would buy a house and have many more children.
She knew her family wasn’t happy with her choice but love doesn’t exist to make others happy. Luella loved Ben.
They had only been married a couple of years and Ben had a good and steady job working for the railroad. They had a baby boy named James and a new baby on the way. Life was promising.
It was about that time that Bens’ younger brother, Drew, came up to visit and all he could talk about was Arkansas, the Land of Opportunity. He told Ben about all of the trapping to be done and how their fortunes were just waiting on them and Ben, always the outdoorsman just couldn’t resist. He had lived in northern Arkansas when he was younger, but he had decided to move north after his mom died in Black Oak Arkansas in 1913. His grandparents lived in Mt Vernon, Illinois and his grandmother had died just a few days after his mother so he went to visit his grandpa and stayed.
Now it seemed like the right time to go back.
So packing up everything they had, they started the long trip to Arkansas. Luella was a very strong and resilient woman and life in Arkansas was a lifetime away from what could have been in Indiana. From the moment that Ben quit his job with the railroad and up until the day he died, life was a struggle to survive. I don’t believe he would have made it without her and although I am sure she sometimes wondered why she had agreed to move, no-one that I know of, ever heard her complain.
Their first year in Arkansas was very, very hard. Ben had trapped 1 raccoon that whole first year. If they were as abundant as Drew had talked about, Ben couldn’t find them. At least they were with his family so they weren’t homeless, but they were close.
Or maybe she was terrified at walking away from everything that her life promised to be? She was leaving the only family she knew and trading her dreams for Bens. Was she scared of what lay ahead? She gave up her little home of comfort to go to what? No promise of a home. No expectations, just dreams.
I wonder if she had a choice and if she could have said, “No Ben, we are staying here”. Or did she feel resigned to make the best that she could of the situation because she would have followed Ben to the ends of the earth?
Luella was the youngest daughter of two born to James and Mary Gabbert. Her mother had died when she was only a few years old and she and her sister Della had gone to live with their Aunt Kate, her husband and two sons.
She had lived most of her life around Evansville, Indiana and when she met and married Ben, it seemed her life would be spent there. Her children would go to the same schools that she had attended. She and Ben would buy a house and have many more children.
She knew her family wasn’t happy with her choice but love doesn’t exist to make others happy. Luella loved Ben.
They had only been married a couple of years and Ben had a good and steady job working for the railroad. They had a baby boy named James and a new baby on the way. Life was promising.
It was about that time that Bens’ younger brother, Drew, came up to visit and all he could talk about was Arkansas, the Land of Opportunity. He told Ben about all of the trapping to be done and how their fortunes were just waiting on them and Ben, always the outdoorsman just couldn’t resist. He had lived in northern Arkansas when he was younger, but he had decided to move north after his mom died in Black Oak Arkansas in 1913. His grandparents lived in Mt Vernon, Illinois and his grandmother had died just a few days after his mother so he went to visit his grandpa and stayed.
Now it seemed like the right time to go back.
So packing up everything they had, they started the long trip to Arkansas. Luella was a very strong and resilient woman and life in Arkansas was a lifetime away from what could have been in Indiana. From the moment that Ben quit his job with the railroad and up until the day he died, life was a struggle to survive. I don’t believe he would have made it without her and although I am sure she sometimes wondered why she had agreed to move, no-one that I know of, ever heard her complain.
Their first year in Arkansas was very, very hard. Ben had trapped 1 raccoon that whole first year. If they were as abundant as Drew had talked about, Ben couldn’t find them. At least they were with his family so they weren’t homeless, but they were close.
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