Ruby Tuesday....Finding Martha

So, Who was Martha Vandercar?

Tossie

Well, do you remember Tossie Ebert?
Do you remember Grandma Fern ever talking about Stella Wallace?

Those are the names and faces that bring us closer to who may have stood next to Martha's grave and mourned her passing.

I remember Grandma talked a lot about taking care of people. 

I know at one time, she worked for a Doctor in Lowell and took care of at least one of their children.

She took care of her "folks"...meaning her grandparents and probably her mom and dad as well.
I'm not sure, but I think she actually left home and went to live with many of the people she cared for.

Stella (Vandercar) Wallace

I also think I remember her talking about helping to take care of Stella "Grandma" Wallace.

I had searched for Martha Vandercar on the internet off and on for 10 years. 

I think every year, as more records were digitized and added...it brought me closer and closer to finding her.

One night, I came across a picture of Grandma Fern's with the name Stella Wallace written on the back. I remembered Grandma Fern talking about her.
I googled Stella Wallace and I accidentally (how most things genealogy come to me)...
found Martha.

STELLA WALLACE, 91 , PASSED AWAY LAST THURSDAY NIGHT

   Stella Louisa (Vandercar) Wallace, youngest of three children of Adna S.
and Martha (Hogan) Vandercar, was born at Orchard Grove, Lake County, Ind.,

I then found this on the Lowell History page:

EARLY HISTORY ORCHARD GROVE

WRITTEN BY MRS. STELLA WALLACE, AND READ AT O.G. WOMEN'S CLUB

Mrs. Stella Wallace, one of the oldest residents of Orchard Grove, was asked to write a paper on the "Early History of Orchard Grove."The following paper was written by Mrs. Stella Wallace, aged 76, and read by Mrs. Fred E. Ebert at the Woman's Club meeting. Some of the members requested that it be published as some of the younger generation have no idea of the hardships in olden times.



"My father and mother, Mr. and Mrs. Adna Vandercar, came to this country in 1846, driving an ox team hitched to a covered wagon.There were three families, each driving their own team. They did their cooking along the road side and slept in their wagons.
When father got here he had 3 cents in money. Of course, the first thing to do was to write a letter back home -- that took the three cents, so they were here in a new country, strange to people and without any money. He said all they could do was to try and get work, and he went to looking for work at once."

So breaking this down:

Adna and Martha Vandercar were the parents of Stella...who married a Wallace.
Stella had a daughter named Addie
Addie had a daughter named Tossie who married an Ebert.
Tossie is the mother of Carlton Ebert.
Carlton had several kids...many of whom you know, and he is the father of Carlton, Jr. "Jig," whostill lives in Orchard Grove on the corner close to where Adna and Martha first settled.

(sidenote: while I was adding Adna and Martha to our family tree on Ancestry, I received a message from another Ancestory user.
We messaged back and forth about how we knew Stella Wallace. Eventually, we figured out that we were old neighbors...and that's how I (re)met Linda (Ebert) Wilson, Carlton Ebert's daughter)!

So, this means we are related to the Eberts through the Vandercar side. 

And the Vandercars were connected to the Kenney side through their both settling in the Orchard Grove area.
I suppose most of you knew that ages ago. I suppose I had heard it too. But I never knew just how.

Because of this article, I actually know more about Adna's arrival to the area than I do of my own Great, Great Grandparents, Abram and Isabel....I'm still working on this mystery : )

The crazy thing is...
Martha's grave marker that leans up against a tree, is only a stone's throw away from where it belongs. 

All those years I stood there and wondered and fretted that she had been separated from her people....
Her people were right behind me!

I discovered this...shortly after I made the Stella Wallace collection.

I was walking up the hill one day and all of a sudden, saw the Wallace stone. 

To the left, was an older white stone that is marks Adna Vandercar...Stella's Father,

which is the same style and shape as Martha's "lost" stone.

And sure enough, the stone next to Adna is broken off...
only the base remains.

I think, in time...

I may just have to go to the trustee...to see if I have put all of this together correctly and to see if the official cemetery record matches my theory.

And I may just have to see how much it would cost to repair and replace Martha's headstone to it's proper place.

It's the least a Vandercar daughter could do for a Vandercar mother.

Directions to here:

Thanks for listening to this "Accidental Genealogist's" quest to keep the promise I made to Martha.