A Guide to Persons Mentioned
Dad: Frederic Scott Orcutt, Sr. (1907 – 1994) – FSO
Father: FSO’s Father, Robert William Orcutt (1874 – 1941)
Mother: Florence Pluma (Waters) Orcutt (1871 – 1962)
William Edwin Orcutt (1841 – 1911): FSO’s grandfather
Walter Winfred Orcutt (1870 – 1946): FSO’s uncle, brother of his father Robert
Ralph Milton Waters, MD: FSO’s uncle, brother of his mother Florence (1883 – 1979)
Willard Merton Orcutt (called Merton) (1868 – 1954): FSO’s uncle, brother of his father Robert
Helen Orcutt Wilson: FSO’s sister (1904 – 1993) (Transcriber’s Grandmother)
Bob (John Robert) Andress: (1931 -- ?) FSO’s nephew, son of FSO’s oldest sister Dora Orcutt Andress (1903 – 1947)
Florence Roberta Orcutt (called Roberta and Berta): (1914 – 1998) FSO’s youngest sister; married Charles Gordon Siefkin (called Gordon); later married Guy
Hitchcock
Edwin G. Hastings (called Uncle Ed): (1871 – 1953) husband of Elva Waters Hastings
Elvira Jane (Waters) Hastings (called Aunt Elva): (1875 – 1950) sister of Florence Orcutt and Ralph Waters
Edwin Otis Orcutt (called Uncle Otis): (1867 – 1915) FSO’s uncle, brother of his father Robert
Dad remembers his Grandfather Wm. Edwin Orcutt as kind, congenial. Dad very fond of him. Remembers his funeral at 4 ½.
Walter made a recording of Wm. E. on a cylinder about his family & his life. {!! I wonder where it is now!}
From book {I presume Florence Orcutt’s}: “shoe merchant.” Uncle Merton said he was a shoemaker of shoes very much admired by folks. {From FSO’s “Descendents of Thomas Orcutt”: (William Edwin) was shoe merchant in Austinburg (Ohio) for 35 years…}
Dad says Grand River Institute was comparable to a college. {Grand River Institute in Austinburg, Ohio, was a prestigious school attended by Orcutts and Ralph M. Waters.} Is still there and in good repair and operated as a prep school. Other family members were involved in the Institute {no more notes on this subject except first part of next sentence}.
Orcutt Bros. Hardware
Merton –a mathematician—taught math {presumably at Grand River Inst.} but was persuaded by Walter {brother} to join him in Sioux City {Iowa} in hardware business.
The 2 bros. also did a real estate co.
Hardware business was construction wholesale in which Dad worked, for one thing stacking boxes and kegs of, for ex., sash weights in the basement. There were sheets of galvanized iron, 3’x20’; made gutters and ducts there in the shop. Tin: this was used by 2 specialized makers in the tin shop & was more expensive.
{Not sure if the following was tin or galvanized iron.} Also made covers for peak of roofs ending in a “ball finial” at each end of roof. One man in charge of paint of which were was lots. Store was in basement and 1st floor.
It was a huge business taking orders from all surrounding central Midwest states. {There were also 2 other hardware business wholesalers in Sioux City.}
{Dad continues about hardware business}: There were nails in bins to scoop out & sell by weight. All carpenters’ needs – Diston {brand} saws. The business ordered from Chicago or Omaha.
Alphie Young {father of Lorraine, Jon Orcutt’s wife. Jon Orcutt son of FSO’s 1st cousin John Bruce (called Bruce) Orcutt, who owned ranch in Miles City, Montana, son of Willard Merton Orcutt) was in charge of all housewares including pocket knives from tiny to large, which were very popular then.
Uncle Merton had Dad dust all these housewares.
There was also a sporting goods dept. with another man in charge.
Housewares and sporting goods were mostly retail; construction goods were sold either way. Dad was sometimes in trouble for changing {or “charging”?) retail price when it should have been wholesale.
Also on 1st floor – big farm, cast iron stove. Merton handled these. He jumped on the stove doors to prove to customers how strong they were and one time one came crashing off! Big joke for the company and beyond.
Mezzanine – fancier hardware such as mounted door handles, “butts” {=hinges}, chandeliers. Tables where the customers would be shown things; offices, safes, etc.
There were at least a couple of Orcutt Hardware trucks. Dad filled in, in many places, e.g. shipping clerk, driver.
THE BIG FIRE 1927-28?
Linseed oil barrels and paint mixers in basement spilled on the floor was source of the fire which destroyed the store. A big power switch to put power to elevators caused an arc when unplugging which ignited oil & turpentine products. Burned the back end {of store?} – lots of stock. Bruce Orcutt took storage drawers to ranch to store stuff.
Front of store was plate glass. Below were brass letters with “Orcutt Bros. Hardware” {shown to Scott Orcutt by Dad during their trip together to visit Grandmother Florence and Aunt Helen Wilson, Dad’s sister – 1950 My Mother would have been a Freshman at Iowa State University when Scott and his father visited my Grandmother Helen.}
1927 –28 {I can’t make out whether Dad was around at the time of the fire or not.} Dad had this year at Antioch {College in Ohio}, the fall at National Business College {where?} in typing, shorthand. Had a short job {summer ’18?} in business on 4th or 6th floor of Davison Office Bldg. On Pierce St. in Sioux City, Iowa.
Fall ’28, Dad to University of Wisconsin in Madison. After that he didn’t hear much about the hardware business because his mother was having a hard time with {his} father’s mental depression. Uncle Ralph got him to Madison to “find out what’s the matter.” {More on that later.}
Merton moved to another street with one of the people in the business. {Dad thinks Walter died of prostrate operation, but that was in 1946.}
1940 Business was very much smaller in finished hardware. Merton was showing Dad the new lock knobs {interior} and Dad said that’s what they were putting in their new house {built in 1940 in Blacksburg, VA}.
{Back to Dad’s father. Note on St. Paul a bit unclear.}
After St. Paul {? His family lived in St. Paul, MN, for a year or 2 Transcriber recalls Granny, Helen, talking about a home or cabin on White Bear Lake.) at “Bannon Bros.” {Dept. Store unclear if this store was in St. Paul or Sioux City} Father {This is what Dad called him.} got an offer from “Martins” in Sioux City. {He?} started 2 restaurants in Martins. On one side of mezzanine for men only, with heavy oak furniture. {Was this part of one of the 2 restaurants or was it one whole restaurant?}
Davidson’s offered him a better position {after Martins}. Father was secretary of Knife & Fork Club – banquets with well-known speakers. Father would meet these gentlemen and take them with Dad to lunch {Dad was in high school.}. Great opportunity for Dad to meet these well known folks. Lunch and banquets were usually at the Martin Hotel, best place in town. More formal than the other men’s clubs. Formal wear required at K&F Club banquets. Dad (FSO) of course not invited and had no formal clothes. Father (Robert William Orcutt) was also an officer at Lions Club, more elite perhaps then than not. Father went to national meetings {Lions Club}.
{Dad told me at another time that his father wanted very badly to be among the important people in town and be “important” himself, but somehow that eluded him.}
{More on R.W. Orcutt “Father”}
Uncle Ralph {Ralph M. Waters, MD} sad he’d better bring Father to Madison for help when Dad was a freshman {at University of Wisconsin, 1928 – 29?}.
{The details of the trip to get RWO to Madison are confused. Here’s the best I can do. Too bad, because the lengths they went to for RWO are interesting.} Uncle Ralph took train west to meet Uncle Merton who was driving Father by car across the Dakotas. Uncle Ralph put Father in a Pullman {railroad sleeping car} bed and took him to {Univ.?} Madison hospital. {Presumably Merton returned to Sioux City by car.}
Uncle Ralph called Dad late at night to come & see his father {when they got to Madison}. Father was conscious, recognized Dad, probably doped. Nurse was telling Uncle Ralph she had to put some diagnosis on the chart. Uncle Ralph said, “We don’t know; that’s why he’s here.” Finally put psychosis on chart.
Finally moved him to psychiatric ward where Dad visited as often as he could He {Father} talked of his hallucinations which he seemed to recognize as such. He had a habit of saying things that weren’t very nice.
Uncle Walter offered the use of his home in Alabama when Father got well enough to get out. Mother {Florence} put their house furnishings in storage in the hardware store. {Perhaps here is the answer as to why there are so few heirlooms from the Orcutts (R.W.): The Big Fire was in 1927 or 28 when Dad was a freshman at Univ. Wisconsin and Father was brought to Madison hospital. So the fire could have destroyed their things after they moved to AL during that year. My mother {Katharine Krauskopf Orcutt} told me a few years ago that the R.W. Orcutts “had very little,” meaning resources and things of value. She met Dad when she was 14, therefore in 1927 or 28 and so would have never seen the Orcutt home in Sioux City. But stories of how hard Dad had to scrimp and save every penny as a boy would corroborate my Mom’s comment about how little they had.}
The AL house was nice with columns, camellias, and outside of town. The house burned with Bob Andress’s banjo, piano, family music. Mother at least outwardly enjoyed it there. Joined the Belle Letters Club – mostly northern educated ladies. {Were the southern ladies educated in the north? Hard to imagine enough northern ladies for an Alabama club.}
Dad visited them {Mother, Father, and Roberta} twice in Alabama, second time on his motorcycle, driving back to Chicago for AAAs meetings. Roads were gravel and rough and he had flat tires. Roads better north of Jackson, Mississippi.
{My} Mom {Katharine K. Krauskopf} was able to stay at her Uncle Charlie’s in Chicago {during?} AAAS meetings {maybe to meet Dad?}. Mom and Dad in the rain ran into the same doorway in Chicago as her father {Francis Craig Krauskopf}! He had a big grin. Neither knew her father was to be at the meetings. Dad didn’t go to many of the meetings {Does this imply that the time was spent with Mom?}
A later conversation with FSO – all from my memory:
After the Alabama house burned, Uncle Ed and Aunt Elva Hastings {Florence O.’s sister} offered use of their cottage on lake Lucy, Orland, Fl. Grandmom O. {Florence} and Roberta went by train to Orlando. “Father” {in Dad’s words} was to drive the car to Orlando. Grandmom (Known as Ghaki to Helen’s grandchildren.) was afraid she’d never see him again. After a few weeks he did show up.
At another time Dad told me that he felt Father’s depression was brought on by pressure at Davidson’s to “sell, sell, sell!” Dad alluded to the depression Era as being the cause of the pressure to sell more. But actually his father’s illness must have begun by the mid ‘20s or before.
Feelings of “stress” were not acknowledged by Dad’s generation as that implied a weakness on the part of the individual who would be thought of as generating his own problem. “Pressure” from outside was a “legitimate” excuse for being depressed.
Odds ‘n Ends
Dad’s biology teacher in high school was Mr. Kozelka. Dad helped him with lab animals, feeding especially, whatever animal Kozelka was studying for genetics (rats?). Because of Dad’s enthusiasm, Father invited Kozelka to Lions Club to speak and Dad got to go. Dad worked for him on his own time – between classes, free periods, etc.
Kozelka went back to Univ. of Chicago to finish Ph.D. in genetics. {I don’t know if this was after Dad was in high school, but I presume it was.} When Dad was at University of Wisconsin Kozelka’s brother told Dad of K’s death of heart attack and really broke Dad up.
Uncle Otis died when Dad was young {8} but Dad liked him. He sold coal wholesale out of Sioux City. Traveled a lot in the business. {See genealogy p. 118. If you seek this info, please use the e-mail box at the bottom of Scottish Genealogy on www.skjelver.us I have it and will gladly enter it. I may enter it into the site itself, but it is a huge amount of work. And I must finish British and Norse Genealogies before I devote any more time to the Scottish side.} The women “didn’t like him” because he drank.
{A Note on Austinburg, OH}
Woolevers {daughter Lydia married Uncle Merton} & Waters were next door neighbors “in a very fine house still there and in good repair.” {Dad doesn’t say if this is the Waters or Woolever house! And this note appears to disagree with genealogy p.118 which says her father had a farm, etc., about 3 miles from Austinburg.}
