Madison
County Genealogical Society
Minutes of the Meeting - August 11, 2016
The August 2016 meeting of the Madison
County Genealogical Society was held at the Edwardsville Public Library on
Thursday, August 11, at 7:00 pm.
President, Robert Ridenour, called the
meeting to order.
GIFT
MEMBERSHIPS AVAILABLE
Do you have a family member that is
interested in (or even obsessed with) genealogy? A membership in the Madison
County Genealogical Society would be a very thoughtful gift. A gift card will
be sent to the recipient of any gift membership.
The following memberships are available:
Individual/Family Annual Membership $20.00
Patron Annual Membership $30.00
Life Membership $250.00
Contact our Secretary, Petie Hunter, at petie8135@att.net,
about a gift membership.
August
Meeting
On August 11, 2016, Cheryl Eichar Jett,
Subject Specialist in the Genealogy Room of the St. Louis Public Library,
presented The Search for My
Brother's Son. This is the true family story of
Cheryl's half-brother, Grant Eugene Eichar ÂElgin Illinois "Boy of the
Year," Eagle Scout, RAF Eagle Squadron Pilot Officer, more than 30 years
older than Cheryl; of Cheryl and Grant's father, Gene Eichar  musician, silent
film and vaudeville accompanist, and educator; and how Cheryl found and met
Grant's son, Jim, in 2015.
PART ONE Our father, Frank Eugene Eichar
"Gene" (1892-1983)
Our father, Frank Eugene Eichar, always known simply as "Gene," was
born November 28, 1892, in Clarksville, Iowa, a small town in Butler County.
His parents were Frank George Eichar and Eva Delia Higgins Eichar, and he had
an older sister, Hazel Gladys, born in 1890. The Eichars had come to Iowa from
Pennsylvania, and originally from Bavaria in the 1700s. The lineage of Eva Delia
Higgins, Gene's mother, traced back through numerous female generations to the
Alden, Mullins, and Standish families of Plymouth, Massachusetts. Many
ancestors served in the Revolutionary War, and Eva's own father, Freeman
Higgins, had served with the Iowa Infantry in the Civil War.
In those days, piano teachers came to the student's home to give lessons, and a
piano teacher was engaged to come to the Eichar home to give lessons to Gene's
sister, Hazel, who was two years older than Gene. So the story goes, Hazel did
well at her lessons and, over the years, became a fine player. But the other
part of the story is, that Gene would sit nearby, taking it all in. As soon as
the lesson ended and the instructor and Hazel left the piano, Gene would sit
down at the instrument and repeat the entire lesson. Within a few years, the
sister-and-brother act of Hazel and Gene were performing at the local theaters,
singing and playing. In 1906, at the age of 14, Gene began accompanying silent
movies and before long was on the road throughout Iowa, accompanying silent
movies in various movie houses.
His roots seemed to remain in Iowa, although he also spent some time in
Chicago. There, he attended the VanderCook College of Music. He traveled the
Midwest, and spent periods of time back home with his parents. In the 1910
federal census, his occupation was listed as "musician" and his
industry as "theater orchestra."
In Iowa, Gene married Lucy May Grant about 1912, and they had two children,
Grant Eugene in 1915, and Clover Gladys in 1917. Lucy May Grant was the
granddaughter of James O. Grant, a Civil War Veteran who also happened to be
second cousin of General Ulysses S. Grant.
PART TWO My
brother, Grant Eugene Eichar "Grant" (1915-1942)
My half-brother, Grant Eugene Eichar, was born April 20, 1915, in Marshalltown,
Iowa, to Frank Eugene Eichar and Lucy May Grant Eichar. Our sister, Clover
Gladys, was born December 22, 1917, also in Iowa. But by 1920, the family was
living in Chicago, where Gene was no doubt still working as a musician. By
1930, Lucy and the two children, Grant and Clover, were living in Elgin,
Illinois, and Lucy and Gene's marriage was over.
In the 1930s, several events occurred which seemed to have influenced and
molded Grant. The first was the opening, formal dedication, and big celebration
of the Elgin Airport on June 10, 1930. A description of the event stated that:
"Among the 77 planes on hand were 30 flown in by the U.S. Army Air Corps
and six by the Navy. H.H. (Hap) Arnold who would become commander of the Army
Air Force in the Second World War, led the flight of Army planes from Wright
Field at Dayton, Ohio. A crowd of thousands witnessed demonstrations of aerial
maneuvering and a parachute jump. Rides in oil company aircraft were available
for the daring. I don't know for a fact that Grant was there that day, but I
can't, as his life turned out, imagine that he wasn't. I'd like to think that
he was, anyway.
The next event that I believe was instrumental in his life was on Friday,
February 13, 1931, in Elgin. On that day, Grant was made Eagle Scout after many
years of Scouting. Grant was also named "Boy of the Year" for his
"courage, honor, leadership, service, and scholarship" by the Elgin
American Legion.
In 1934, Grant graduated from Elgin High School, and the next year, on May 1,
1935, he married Maxine Dora Elliott. On October 23, 1937, their son James was
born. Grant's marriage to Maxine did not last, and in 1940, the census places
him in Elgin, employed at McGraw Company, and married to Delores V. Woith, his
second wife.
The relationship of Grant and Delores did not last long, and Grant married
Vernette C. Anderson. Grant and Delores' son, Richard Donald Eichar, was born
in Elgin on July 23, 1941.
About the same time, on August 1, 1941, the old RAF Eagle Squadron, which had
existed briefly at the end of World War I, was reformed. It was planned that it
would be comprised of American personnel who were joining up. The squadron was
equipped with Hurricanes and was operational by the end of September. They
moved to Ireland for several months, then back to England at Lincolnshire, and
finally settled in at Biggin Hill, near London, in May 1942. The squadron's
first sweep over France had taken place in April. In June, the Supermarine
Spitfire BM646 Mk VB airplanes, built at Castle Bromwich Aircraft Factory, were
delivered and assigned to the 133 Squadron.
In St. Eugene, Ontario, Grant took his pilot's training. He was certified as
"First Pilot" on September 25, 1941. By the end of November 1941, he
was located at the #56 OTU at Sutton Bridge, Lincolnshire, England. He trained
on the Hurricanes, but eventually flew Spitfires when they were assigned to the
squadron. During that winter, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. And during
that winter, back in Elgin, Grant and Vernette's baby son, Richard Donald
Eichar, died.
In May, Grant arrived at the Biggin Hill base. According to Grant's Officer's
Commission Script, Grant was officially made Pilot Officer in the Special
Reserve of the Royal Canadian Air Force on June 22, 1942. He flew wing support
and sweeps throughout July.
Captain Richard "Dixie" Alexander, who went on to become a
much-decorated WWII flyer, was interviewed years later for a book about Grant,
and he said, "Ike was my roommate, and just a real fine person to live
with. He was quiet, had an easy sense of humor, and was really not as shy as he
outwardly appeared to be. He was good fun."
On July 26, Grant recorded in his pilot logbook the details of the day:
"Wing Fighter sweep. Gravelines to St. Omer St. Ingleret. 12,000'. (heavy
flack and very close) Landed at Lympe to refuel."
On July 28, he noted: "Wing Fighter sweep. Support wing Etritat Fecamp.
15000' 24,000'. Lots of Huns no attack."
On July 31, before takeoff, he noted only: "Sweep to Abbeville."
There was no notation of the details after arriving back at Biggin Hill,
because he did not arrive back at Biggin Hill.
That was a bad day for the 133 Squadron, as they lost three pilots that day,
its worst combat loss in a day. The three were Carter Woodruff Harp, a former
wing walker; Coburn Clark King, an experienced ferry pilot and RCAF flight
instructor; and Grant Eugene Eichar. They had been intercepted by German FW190s
on the return trip from escorting Boston Bombers to Abbeville.
Grant and other pilots are remembered and honored at Runnymede, Surrey,
England. Grant's memorial at Englefield Green is listed as Pilot Officer,
Service #J/15650, Royal Canadian Air Force, service country Canada, Panel 100
grave/memorial reference.
PART THREE
In the meantime
By the time Grant was killed at age 26 over the English Channel, on July 31,
1942, our father, Gene, had married a dancer named Fern. Together, they had
established a dance studio in Beloit, Wisconsin, named the FernandGene Studio.
That marriage was on the rocks when a lovely young woman living and working in
Beloit signed up in November 1936 for ballroom dance lessons. That young woman
was my mother, Charlotte Estelle Hanson. She and my father fell in love, and
married in January 1937. My mom was a few months shy of her 18th birthday. My
father was 44. They lived in Beloit for a while and then began building a house
and dance and music studio, assisted by his father, Frank, at Williams Bay,
Wisconsin. My dad christened the house the "Chateau Charlotte."
My dad always seemed to have itchy feet, and I'm not sure that the studio
pulled in enough income to support the new home in a resort community. Next
they went to Rockford, Illinois, where they opened a music studio and retail music
store, with Wurlitzer pianos..
In 1940, my father's father, my Grandpa Frank Eichar, had a lengthy illness and
then passed away. No one seemed to have any insurance or savings, and my
parents were financially ruined. This time they moved farther south, to
Springfield, Illinois, where they established a popular music studio.
They were in Springfield when the news arrived in 1942 that Grant had gone down
and was MIA. The scroll of his Officer's Commission Script was rolled up and
shipped in a cardboard tube from Ottawa, Canada, on November 28, 1942, and
received in the mail by our father soon afterwards. The next year, in June
1943, a report was filed by the American Foreign Service in Ottawa, Canada,
"Report of the Death of an American Citizen," which stated that Grant
was "missing July 31, 1942, now presumed dead for official purposes."
A copy of this report was mailed on July 14, 1943, to Mrs. G. E. Eichar at 420
Breck Street, Elgin, IL. Mrs. G. E. Eichar was Grant's third wife, Vernette, who
became the official widow. On December 1, 1945, Vernette remarried, to James A.
Ginnell.
We moved a few more times and ended up in Litchfield in 1958, which was the
last city that my mother and dad moved to. In the 1970s, as my dad was growing
old, he expressed a wish to reconnect with my half-sister, Clover. My mother
was finally able to contact Clover. She was living in West Palm Beach, Florida.
She had been married to a musician for many years, a drummer named Larry
Cheverette, but he was no longer living. There were no children. Clover and
Grant's mother, Lucy, was still alive and was also living in Florida.
On a trip to Illinois to visit old friends, Clover planned to visit us in
Litchfield. By this time, I was married and had two small children. Clover drove
to the house and I met her for the first, and only, time. It had been many
years since Clover and our father had even seen each other. They had both grown
old and of course only remembered each other as they had each once looked.
Oddly, although Clover and Gene were not terribly satisfied with their meeting,
Charlotte and Clover struck up a friendship, and they kept in touch after
Clover returned to Florida. They spoke occasionally on the phone, and exchanged
letters and cards. Clover sometimes mentioned her nephew, Grant's son Jim. Jim
had been adopted by Maxine's third husband, Emery Tennison. Jim had also been
married several times, and had lived in Virginia and Texas. I remember when
Charlotte told me that Clover had told her that Jim had married again, this
time to a "lady preacher" in Virginia.
It would have been easy enough, I suppose, to inquire how to reach Jim. A phone
number. A mailing address. I could have sent a short letter or a card. But I
didn't. I had a young family and a husband. Then my father was ill for several
years, finally leaving us in 1983.
PART FOUR
The search for Jim Tennison
My father had passed in 1983, and his first wife Lucy in Florida about the same
time. My mother passed in 2011, and sister Clover just before that. I have two
wonderful adult children, and many cousins, but otherwise, there was the
realization that my family was gone. That's when I started thinking again about
Grant's son, my nephew, Jim Tennison. I started Googling, researching places I
thought they had lived. I knew his name and his age, but not where he currently
lived or what he looked like. I had never seen a photo of him.
I'd like, as a relatively serious historian and genealogist, to be able to tell
you about painstaking research in libraries and other institutions, to find
Jim. But I was lucky. First, I found a Jim Tennison on Google Plus with one
photo of a young boy who looked an awful lot like young-boy photos of Grant
Eichar, plus a young girl who likely was a sister. On the Google Plus page,
there was a wife's name Ramona Tennison. Next, a search on Facebook produced a
Ramona Tennison with a Facebook friend named Jim Tennison.
A click to Jim Tennison's page, and there on my laptop screen was the image of
a yellowed newspaper clipping with a photo of Pilot Officer Grant Eichar! I
knew I had the right person, and that also meant that Jim Tennison knew who his
biological father was! Facebook chat and emails reached a surprised, maybe
stunned, Ramona and Jim Tennison! The surname "Eichar," which is not
common, certainly had to be a blast from the distant past for them. Tentative
conversation turned into a flow of information, memories, and hopes for a real,
in-person meeting.
The realization of those hopes occurred on Sunday, August 9, 2015, when Jim and
Ramona, and dog Bonnie, came to my house to visit. It was a very sweet Eichar
reunion, with plans for another visit at their home in Oceanside, California,
in November 2016.
Jim and Ramona have become beloved family members as we've kept in touch and
gotten to know each other better. Ramona indeed was a "lady
preacher." I hope she'll forgive me for relaying that comment! She served
as a women's pastor in Virginia, and has authored numerous books. She is
currently formulating plans for a children's book. Jim had several careers,
including newspaper reporter and professional photographer. They each have
children and grandchildren from previous marriages. And Jim and I, of course,
compared Eichar traits and found we are indeed related respiratory issues, a
prevailing sense of humor, the tendency to marry several times, and musical
ability Jim did tap dance, piano, and trumpet as he grew up.
If you want to read a little more, I wrote a long blog post entitled "A
fairy tale genealogical story?" in August 2015, which you can find on my
blog site (www.route66chick.blogspot.com). Also, this story will appear in the
November-December issue of Illinois Heritage, a publication of the Illinois
State historical Society.
So my search, when I finally began, turned out to be an easy one. The difficult
part for me was to finally do it. This is a true story, and none of the names
were changed. The moral to this story? That love and family transcend
generations, even when estrangement, divorces, or a death at a far too young
age intervene. Never give up the search, if you have one to make.
This presentation was very well received and provoked many questions and
comments.