Between the Lines: Family History and Quirky Stories From Our Forgotten Past

       She was once called a “Woman of the Century.”       An inventor. An artist. Featured in a compendium of accomplished women leaders.      How quickly - within a generation or two - even notable people slip into obscurity. Her name and accomplishments are forgotten today, but Caroline “Carrie” Gibford Shoaff (1849-1929) was an artist, teacher, author, potter, playwright, and newspaper correspondent. She was best known in her lifetime as the inventor of a method of manufacturing imitation Limoges china. Her method was used extensively to make plaques, souvenirs and advertising signs.       Limoges china dates to the seventeenth century in Limoges, France and is made of kaolin clay. It’s fired at very high temperatures, with a finish that is ideal for decoration. It acquired a cachet as the china desired by the rich and famous. The Haviland porcelain factory became the chief supplier of U.S. presidential china. Inventing an imitation would obviously be desirable to those who co

      Myron Fitch Barbour and Jane T. Suttenfield married in Fort Wayne, Indiana in 1836. They had six children, four of whom lived to have children of their own. Lucius had seven children by two wives; Myron and Lida each had only children, and Sylvia had seven children, four of whom survived to adulthood. I have listed them in order of birth.       As n many families, the grandchildren lived very different lives, from hardscrabble to a trio of doctor brothers. Two grandsons served time in prisons, Albany State Penitentiary in New York and San Quentin in California. A third grandson was tried for murder, but not convicted. Two granddaughters, Stella Lipes and Hattie Thompson, who were not raised in Fort Wayne, nevertheless spent a great deal of time there with their grandparents. Both married in New York to Fort Wayne natives who were known to Myron and Jane from many years back.      Following is brief information about each. Some I have written articles about, as noted below.       

  A banner stretched across the education exhibit at the Lyon County Fair on a bright, mild, day early in October 1878.       “Our Schools Are Our Pride.”       There were three divisions within the exhibit - Rural Schools, City Schools and School Supplies. Within the display for city schools was Miss Retta Hurlburt’s class, District No. 3, Fremont Township outside of Emporia, Kansas. The next day, the newspaper announced Miss Hurlburt’s class won second place in the Scientific Display category.       Retta was 33, a native of Indiana and an 1867 graduate of Western Female Seminary in Ohio, the “Mount Holyoke of the West.” Her family story was typical of the time and place. She came from people of New England roots, the descendants of Puritans, who began moving west from Connecticut, first settling in Miami County in northeast Indiana. Connecticut Yankees tended to take education seriously, and in 1850 five-year old Retta and her four-year old brother Gus were already attending school.