Engram Family Part 3

We started off our story about my mother’s paternal grandparents and their family here, and continued their story to 1930 here, carried on with Theresa, Kathryn, and Louise here, and finished off with Elizabeth and Hannah here. There was an extra story about Elizabeth here.

Jacob Sr, my great grandfather, spent his entire adult life as a farmer in the Bronx, which sounds a little unreal knowing the present day Bronx. He originally settled in New York City where he was living when he and Katherine were married and when Theresa was born. From 1895 until his death he lived in Westchester, which was part of the Bronx, across the bay from Queens, Pelham Parkway between White Plains and Williamsbridge Road. Theresa, his oldest daughter, lived her married life on City Island so she was fairly close to him, and Jacob, my grandfather, lived with him after World War I, until 1930 when he began farming in Flushing Queens, across the bay from the Bronx.

By the 1940 census, he was living with his daughter Elizabeth, her husband Albert, and their two children. He was 79 and not working but I mentioned in Elizabeth’s story he was employed as a groundskeeper at Woodlawn Cemetery and mapped out it was about 10 minutes from their home. It’s very likely Jacob lived with Elizabeth and Albert because by this time Jacob Jr. was married. Since they had lived with Jacob Jr on the farm, he might have helped them in some way with their home in Yonkers so they would take in their father. Aunt Joanne said in an email:
“My father made sure his father was cared for throughout his life.”

Jacob was eighty-four years old when he died September 4, 1944. Whether that’s his real age is unknown because this death certificate say he was born in 1859 but census reports, and the ship manifest ages given equal 1862.

The stories I’ve been told tell me he wasn’t a very nice man. He was an alcoholic who was abusive to his wife and possibly his children.

My aunt Joanne shared in an email:
”though my Dad never spoke of his father being brutal…my cousin Addie shared a story of Dad being chased by his father with a pitchfork.”
Could that have been during the time she and her parents, Elizabeth and Albert, lived with Jacob Jr.?

In Kathryn’s letters to her niece Irene, Theresa’s daughter, she said:
”I have always felt cheated that we did not know more of my father’s background. I know because of his ‘problem’, he alienated members of his family. I remember the last time I saw my Aunt Juliana, my father insulted her and she left in tears and never came again. She was extremely attractive and had on a very stylish dress, which she made. She was a designer of clothing. I couldn’t take my eyes off that dress, it was beautiful. My mother used to tell us my father’s relatives told her my dad had a wonderful mother.”

Sadly, this is all the information I have on my great grandfather. I wish there was some happy information too. These pictures came from my 2nd cousin Brian. His mother was Irene, the daughter of Theresa and George Murphy.