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Sunday, April 21, 2013

Great Grandfather Alva Keyser and the Boxcar Move


My nephew Christopher's great grandfather was Alva Grant Keyser who married Leona Amanda Jefferson in West Virginia on Sept. 15, 1898.  Alva and Leona began their life together as a hardworking farming family in Limestone, WV.  Alva believed in the simple ways of doing things and had a stubborn streak. Their first child, a girl named Eula was born, followed by Carrie and Martha.

Most of Alva's farm equipment was operated by his own hands or by animals.  He used horse drawn equipment and would not purchase his first Ford truck until 1927 and his first old tractor in the 1930s. 
Alva working his horse-drawn farm equipment:

The family had a friend, Lemuel Leach, who moved to Northampton Ohio and encouraged the Keyser family to join him there.  In the same year that Martha was born, 1904, Alva traveled to Ohio to see the area for himself and he ended up purchasing the Wiolland property which was close to the area's school and church.  He knew they would be sending their children to the church but he and his wife would likely not attend as the preacher hollered too much!  His purchase included 75.96 acres on R.D. 10 valued at $3500.

Alva returned to his family in West Virginia and they began packing.  The moving truck for them was a railroad boxcar into which they packed their tools, non-motorized farm equipment, bales of hay,  water for the animals, ropes, canning goods, livestock such as chickens, pigs, horses, cows, and much more ... and Alva. The train headed towards the depot station in Cuyahoga Falls.  What should have been a fairly short journey went well beyond the anticipated arrival date.

An accident in Uhrichsville Ohio forced the conductor to move the Keyser boxcar off the main tracks.  So close, yet so far.  Although the railroad folks knew he was on board the boxcar with livestock, they were not able to return to pick up his boxcar for several days.  During this sit-and-wait time Alva tended to his livestock. The livestock dined on the baled hay, while  Alva dined on raw eggs from the chickens, and some canned fruit that the family had packed.  He warded off hunger for all of them and waited and waited and waited for three days.  As a hard working farmer, this had to be a very boring time for Alva with concerns about when they would be traveling again. 

Imagine being in this boxcar with doors only.  Smelly, dirty, tight quarters.   

Finally, the railroad company returned his boxcar to the main tracks and headed to the depot.  His family joined him within a week and their life together in Ohio began. 
  
This is a photo of the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton wreck , 2-21-1904, which could be the wreck but is more likely just a fairly clear picture of boxcars in the early 1900s.  We have no idea from which railroad company he bought his boxcar ticket.  If it were in February, add cold to Alva's miseries.




My nephew's great grandparents at home on the Keyser Farm in Ohio