my paternal side of family | My Genealogy Work

some folks from my paternal side...

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Full interview: Robert B. McCurdy 1993 Interview

Here is approximate transcript of the first ten minutes or so:

... and your dad's father and mother?

Ben?

Benjamin Franklin McCurdy

Her name was, Catherine (Agnes) Kelly

She was from St Louis

I don't know how he met her ... they married in St. Louis

My father was born in St Louis.

His next brother was Earl. Born two years later, he was born in Chicago.

His next brother was Harry, Harold. Born two years after that, he was born in Indianpolis.

So it shows that my grandfather, he was a basket weaver, and they followed where ever the trade was going at that time.

He also was a professional boxer and a professional wrestler.

Very big man, very tough. Big hands, real hard knuckles. ... Used to (?)

My dad used to tell stories about him and my uncle Earl, when he was about twelve years old, Earl was ten and Harry was eight ...

Earl would go out running around with girls at ten years of age ... always out at night ...

His father would come in and say "Is everybody in bed?" They'd say "Yep" and when they'd be in bed Earl would come aroung and knock on the window, dad would let him in and his father would catch him. Instead of giving Earl a whipping he'd give my dad a whipping for lying.

(My) Dad would get the crap beat out of him all the time because of Earl.

He said his father was a very protective man ... could've been a very good provider, except he drank all the time.

He was also selling life insurance for Prudential Life Insurance Company in the city here, and got rated as the number one salesmen in the city of Indianpolis. He got promoted and was doing very well and then he fell off the wagon a little bit and they finally had to let him go.

Then I think my dad told me he started peddling groceries from a wagon. He had a horse and wagon and would go around selling groceries. He'd buy at farmers' markets and go around the neighborhoods selling groceries. ...

He said the him and his brother Earl would go out and get ahead of the wagon, and would knock on doors saying that they had tomatoes and potatoes, celery, and this and that ... (one of them) was always way ahead of the wagon. ... Harry was always getting turned down because of Earl was a good salesman. He would be selling stuff constently.

Then finally they were on a street where there was a parkway in the middle, streets on either side with grass in the middle. My dad decided to take a rest and sat in the parkway. Some guy came out of his house and kicked him in the rear, telling him to get off the parkway. His dad saw that and waited to get Earl into the wagon and got up there and the guy was still giving my dad all kinds of trouble.

He got down out of the wagon and said "You're talking to my son" and the guy said "Well he shouldn't be sitting in the parkway". My dad said that his father went for the guy and the guy ran into his house, slammed the door, and his dad said "My dad damn near knocked the door down" and went on in and the guy ran upstairs and hid in his bedroom. He said he went on up and caught him in the bedroom and beat the living heck out of the guy, in the guy's bedroom.

The guy called the police and (Ben) was taken into the police department. At that time Ben knew the police chief, his name was Mike Morrison. He was Irish Catholic. So his grandma called the church pastor and the pastor contacted the chief to ask if Ben could be let out. They let him go.

(The next anecdote is about Harry trying to hop a train and fell. He was bably injured and a doctor said that they'd have to amputate Harry's leg. Ben threatened the doctor to get him to try to save Harry's leg and he was able to.)

AI generated transcript from Youtube

My paternal step grandfather, Charles "Cocky" Allen (1920 - 1982)