Joanne's letter to Sheila in England

This letter was written by Joanne and Gram L to Sheila, the daughter of Grandma's cousin who lives in London. (Jo can't post on the blog, because her passwords are lost, and no one knows where to find them! So I - Carolyn - am posting this per her request.) Here goes.....

Irene Lambert
6250 South Joshua Lane
Lantana, FL 33462
USA
September 13, 2005



Dear Sheila,

Thanks so much for you detailed letter. Yes, we do get our minds boggled by the names and the repeats! We have put it to a chart now, and we’re getting a handle on this family and its beginnings. From what you gave us in your letter, we see that we can trace back seven generations, if you start with the youngest of our family, a girl born just August 19, 2005, and you count back to William Castle, born 1822. This makes 183 years of history, with a generation being an average of every 26 years. Pretty good, by American standards, but I’m sure English folk can certainly feel more connected with additional centuries. At least that’s what Americans feel like.

This is Joanne typing right now, but Irene and Joanne are putting their heads together to make sense of things and get a note back to you, finally. Joanne has arrived in South Florida and is enjoying very much being only 5 minutes away from her Mom, Irene, in a retirement park. So far Joanne hasn’t started working a regular job, so we have a bit of time for the leisures of life, such as finding out what one’s relatives were like! Didn’t you say you were planning on retirement starting in May? Hope you’re enjoying your own Mum. We seem to be drinking quite a lot of tea, and enjoying the time, for sure.

We have a question for you, based on the way we read the letter. You had said in paragraph two that Irene’s grandfather, John, b. 1854 in Lambeth, Surrey, was one of six children. You did, though, list out 7 names, with Emily the famous child-rearing sister, being the youngest. Later in the letter, you mentioned that another sister, Martha, had looked after Walter, John’s youngest brother. Walter, then, would make 8 children, wouldn’t he? Help! We’re confused!

And now here's some of our information to help you fill in some blanks. Your Mum had mentioned a very dear friend of your Nan’s went out with John & Charles. Forgive my ignorance of the English, but that “Nan” is your grandmother, right? Anyway, she had hoped to marry this young man who was friends with the two Castles. My Mom, Irene, says Gladys would probably be speaking of Jim Stanlake. Ask her if that rings any bells in the memory. Jim Stanlake was often mentioned by Irene’s Mum, Ethel, as he was a good friend who stopped by Charles & Ethel’s home whenever in Chicago. He held the position of stewards’ supervisor in the dining car of the Southern Pacific Railroad. Every ten days the train would stop in Chicago, and he’d come visit the family. My Mum distinctly remembers these visits. For the record, he never married until almost retirement age (around 65), to an American woman. He lived in California and was good friends with someone named Bob Kettle. When he’d come into town, he’d contact Bob Kettle, and the two would sit around the Castle home on the old piano bench, and play cards. Ethel was still working downtown, and one day when she instructed the men folk to tend the chicken in the oven while she delivered something to her workplace, they completely forgot the chicken, burning it to the pot! She was quite perturbed with these guys, and the story lives on. An interesting note about Mr. Kettle, although he isn’t blood relative, is that he was the commodore on P.J. Wrigley’s yacht, which was moored in the harbor in Chicago. Wrigley was the chewing gum inventor. The yacht was large enough to have a large crew, as this man’s empire was already quite large at that time. Ethel would often tell stories of these two friends, and Jim Stanlake was considered one of their best friends. After Jim married in California, though, as an older man, the family didn’t see him. As you know, Illinois and California are 3 time zones away from each other.

Let’s fill you in on Ethel Maud Stallard, Charles’ wife, Irene’s Mum, and Joanne’s Gram, as she was called. She lived to be the mother of two, saw one buried before her, which she said was not God’s natural way of handling things, and gave many of her 8 grandchildren stories and memories, as well as instruction in all types of sewing. Her old English bar songs should’ve been written down, because only she could sing them with that lilting accent. We can only remember one about what happened in a bar one night when no one could get transport to get home. It gets funnier and funnier as the verses go on. We kids can still remember that one, but the others, I’m afraid have slipped into antiquity. Her spirit, her personality, and her legacy all live on, as most of our side of the family, Joanne, Bill, Carolyn, and John, measure many of their own traits by having watched them at first in her. We have so many remembrances of her alone, as she was widowed early on, since Charles was taken suddenly of coronary thrombosis one evening at the home, when all the family was together.

Ethel spent much of her life with our family, and we children begged to hear the stories of England. We never could understand the fact of her having come here to consider living permanently, and then never returning for a visit. She did, however, maintain many of the traditions, especially in the way she cooked.

Ethel was born 10/25/1885, the youngest of eleven children. Her mother died when she was young, and her older sister helped out in raising her. She remembers an outbreak of measles when she was young, when two of her brothers and she took sick and were temporarily blinded. Someone died in that plague, but we can’t remember if it was one or two of the children. She used to tell us she lived in sight of Tower Bridge. The story goes that she had told Charles Castle she’d consider coming to see America, and if she liked it, she’d stay to marry, but she wasn’t about to commit to that first! Later her brother wrote to say the dad had “died of a broken heart at her failure to return to London.

She set sail in 1911 and lived in downtown Chicago in a boarding house, across the street from where Charles lived. Each house was owned by a different lady, and those two spent some energy keeping tabs on the young couple! One day in December, 12/12/12, to be exact, Ethel and Charles passed by a jeweler’s on State Street downtown. They purchased a wedding ring there, with Charles asking her if she’d marry him now. They decided to marry right then, and they proceeded up the street to the Episcopal church, where the vicar said he surely didn’t often do weddings on the spur of the moment, but since he and they all came from England, he’d take the chance! That old church still stands today, lost in the myriad of large skyscrapers. Their names are written in that church in the marriage list.

Charles was born 1883 and lived until 1949. Ethel was born 1885 and lived to 1977. Their two children are Irene, 5/28/1917, and Robert Charles Castle, 5/18/1921, d. March of 1970, after a sudden coronary, just as his father was taken. He left Martha, or Marty, as we call her, and four children, the youngest being about nine years old. (He is the one who originally contacted you over the Internet...)

Irene Emily Castle and Edwin Lambert also had four children. More about them later.

Ethel’s mother was a Williamson, I believe. We’ll have to look up the records, but with Joanne’s recent move, who knows where those papers are to be found? Ethel, as a young girl, spent summers at the estate where her older sister was the head cook. She would tire of that kitchen, and she’d wander outside, where the butler and the carriage driver would convince her to go inside and inquire of her sister whether they might have some cold beer. She would manage to deliver the beer, and they’d reciprocate with a nice ride around the grounds! The butler was the one, Irene remembers, who once said of young Ethel that she had a “lovely box of dominoes…” referring to her nice teeth.

Joanne remembers being a student at Moody Bible Institute, founded by D.L. Moody, and on mentioning the old music director, Ira Sankey, combining their talents in large meetings in London, Ethel would tell of times when she and Charles would grab their dancing shoes and go to the Methodist Chapel to hear these two men. Irene tells me that her father would remember that he’d have to walk her home, and that’d involve riding on the local transportation, so he took to leaving his shoes on a metal fence post, take her home, and come back along to pick up the shoes.

John Castle was very active in the Sons of St. George, and once when Ethel had sewed a bunch of boutonnières for the men’s’ meeting, Charles took the opportunity to introduce her to his father. He must’ve been impressed, as the sewing was fine, and Ethel began to be a part of things after that. She would go to the Castle home on Sunday afternoons and play the mandolin. She’d play a popular tune, and when John came into the room, she’d quickly change the tune to play a hymn, but John would say he knew just what she was doing! I’m not just sure whether those Sunday evenings were mostly spent dancing or singing at the Chapel!

Charles & Ethel didn’t own a car until an old Hudson was sold to them by a Mr. Mugfor, neighbor. They bought his second old car, also a Hudson, with two jump seats that Charles put a plank over to seat all the kids from the neighborhood. They would take them all to a local park, either Ogden or Hamilton Park, near where they lived on at 547 West 61st Street.

Previous to living there, they resided on Green Street, where my mother was born at home. The move to 61st was made two weeks before Ethel was delivered of Bob, as Robert was called. She was going into labor, the doctor came, but she didn’t produce the baby until the next morning. She tells that the doctor slept overnight on the couch. Try to arrange that kind of thing in this day and age!

The three homes (including one on Stewart Avenue) were located on the south side of Chicago, near to where there is a cemetery where are buried John Castle, his wife, Annie, and their toddler son, Donald, and several other Castles. Irene and Joanne visited this cemetery some time ago, and we can easily recreate who is actually buried there, as Bill, Joanne’s brother is the last remaining Castle-type relative living in the Chicago area.

Details regarding the arrival to America of Ethel include that she spent two weeks on the ship in 1911 and came with a letter of recommendation from Welsh-Margitson, where she made neckties by hand. She had been apprenticed to this trade at age 14. To find employment in America, she went to Carter & Holmes, a famous men’s designer firm. Searching downtown for their location, she met a policeman who gave her directions. She lost her way in the buildings, and every time she found herself back at the starting point, the same policeman gave help. Finally, the last time, he personally led her to their door! Other than taking time off to have her children, she worked from 1911 and then through the Depression, and on for fifty years, always hand-sewing silk neckties. Her expertise was widely known in the company, as she and one other woman were the only seamstresses allowed to sew the imported silk for the Marshall Field signature ties.

It was during those hard years around 1935-40 or so that she would travel from her home to downtown on public transportation to pick up a large carton of the silk pieces and linings to be brought home and assembled. My mother still has memories of all those pins that would have to be picked up off the floor!

Once when she was working at the plant downtown, across from the Merchandise Mart, a fire broke out in the building. They were told to keep sewing, and they’d receive instructions. Finally, the word came to get your hat and coat and exit! When she reached for her things in the metal locker, she felt the heat of the flames. After coming down all those floors to get outside, an onlooker remarked that only minutes before there had been women working up there. She admitted she had been one! After the fire, Carter & Holmes moved across the street to the famous merchandising arena, the Merchandise Mart, which is still known to this day as one of the largest square-foot buildings. After graduation from high school in 1935, with her Mom still crafting ties, Irene was taken there to become an inspector of the ties for her first “real” job. Joanne grew up watching her Gram, Ethel, carefully pick out neckties for gifts for all the men.

Ethel gave up housekeeping for herself around 1949, age 64, and lived with Irene’s family and Bob’s family, staying exclusively with the Lamberts from around 1969-1977 when she died of kidney failure (and hardening of the arteries). Still, at age 92, she was helping raise her grandchildren, telling a few stories, sewing, washing dishes, making the dishes of Christmas pudding, bubble & squeak, and mince, and drinking tea. Her work in earlier years at the church provided many war-time sewn items.

We can’t believe that we’ve taken up this much of your time, but we did want to document some of things while we were trying to remember the details. We’d love to chat with you, now that we’re together in one room, and my Mom even suggested we call up one day, just to say we’ve talked! Our family has a blog site where we could share, and we’ll have to re-connect with David Castle and his Mom, Marty. They both love to get into all the bits and pieces of Castle memorabilia. We’re also looking into getting a scanner, because Irene has so many wonderful pictures which could be put on the computer and enjoyed by all. Thank you so much for your work toward reaching us, and let’s keep it up!

John Castle was called Jack to us. He was brother to Charles, and he came to America first, being older. John married Annie (Somerset, England, referred to by Charles as “silly Somerset”) and they had Donald and Marjorie. Jack was a carpenter by trade, having learned his work from his father, John, the barge builder. Annie didn’t work until Jack was killed by an Illinois Central train. She then went to the IC office and demanded work. Donald had died of pneumonia at about age three. The IC made her a ticket agent. Marjorie grew up as an only child and was three months older than her cousin, Irene. Annie lived to be quite old, alone, on 67th Street and Dorchester Avenue.

Marjorie Castle had married Mel Eckberg and they had two children, David and Marjorie Ann. Mel was a US Navy submarine commander. They lived in California. For a time they lived at the Great Lakes Naval Air Station, near Chicago. Marjorie Ann married and lives in Washington or Oregon. We have lost track of David. We haven’t spoken to any of these and don’t know if Marjorie still lives.