While growing a home construction business in Pittsburgh in the final decade of the 1800s, William Myers and his wife Laura were also growing their family.
My great-grandfather Charlie said his family moved often in those years, each home nicer than the last, and his father turned his horse stable into a delivery business to complement his initial company. The family of one girl and three boys welcomed baby Frederick Floyd in October 1893.
Charlie enjoyed school and spending time with his sister Addie Caroline, two years older. Both were gifted musically and performed special songs each Sunday with their father, the Lutheran church chorister. When practicing outside of church walls, Charlie described making up silly lyrics to make his sister dissolve in laughter.
These happy years would take a terrible turn in the latter part of 1895, when a typhoid fever epidemic struck Pittsburgh. Fear turned to tragedy when the beautiful, sweet Addie Caroline died at age 13. Addie had been her father’s pride and joy. His deep sorrow was poured into a poem he wrote to his “darling little songstress, dear as life itself to me,” which was distributed at her funeral service.
All joy was gone. The birth of a baby boy three months later, William Herbert, did nothing to ease his father’s depression. The family businesses began to suffer, and a few months later, the death of William’s father dealt another blow.
The winter of 1897 was a harsh one, and William grew weak as he worked in the bitter cold. Pneumonia set in, and Charlie, 12, was sent to Wilkinsburg to get the doctor.
William’s sister, helping in their home, took it upon herself to call for an ambulance. When the horse-drawn ambulance pulled up to the front door, William saw it and panicked, thinking in feverish confusion that something had happened to one of his children.
William died before Charlie and the doctor arrived. He was 38 years old.
Charlie would say his father’s death certificate listed the cause of death as pneumonia, but his family knew he had died of a broken heart. For the rest of her life, Charlie’s mother was imprinted with this grief; she recalled every incident surrounding the deaths of Addie and William as clearly as though it had just occurred.
William’s once prosperous business had declined drastically in the final year of his life. Charlie and Harry buried their father and lost their home on the same day, as their mother sent them to Ohio with their Uncle Gust, William’s oldest brother.
Boarding the train, leaving their mother and their home, surely compounded the heartache of the boys, only 12 and 10. They were taken to the home of older cousins where they were to work the farm in exchange for room and board, and await their mother’s arrival after she could settle affairs in Pittsburgh.
Next week: Charlie’s farm life in Ohio
