Those Rascally Kidds!

Emma B. Jennings was born about 1867 to Daniel Rose and Mary "Mollie" (Johnson) Jennings. She spent the first few years of her life on her parents' farm in Amherst County, Virginia, before the family moved to Appomattox County where her father worked as a machinist. By 1886 Daniel had moved his family again, this time to Richmond.

Emma married John Kidd on 15 April 1890 in Richmond. He was the son of Chapman and Virginia Kidd and had been born about 1856 in Fluvanna County, Virginia, according to their marriage record. Soon after their marriage John and Emma moved to Chicago. Their two children Mary Ruth and Hugh Pointer Kidd were born there in 1893 and 1896, respectively.

Index record of the marriage of John W. Kidd and
Emma B. Jennings; image courtesy of Ancestry.com

When the 1900 census was enumerated, however, Emma was a widow and she and her two children lived with her parents in Richmond. According to a city directory, Emma was still living with her parents the next year at 311 -- 2nd Street.

She married James Jordan Beavers on 28 November 1907 in Henrico County, Virginia. James was the son of Jeduthan and Sallie Beavers and was born on 23 February 1867 in Pittsylvania County, Virginia. He worked as a bookkeeper for a plumbing concern. He had also been married previously and had been widowed the year before. Apparently, their marriage was a short one, however, as the 1910 census indicated James Beavers was a widower in 1910. Interestingly, his in-laws, Daniel and Mollie Jennings lived with him.

Index record of the 1910 census for James Beavers;
image courtesy of Ancestry.com

Emma's daughter, Mary Ruth Kidd, married Herman H. Smith on 3 October 1912 also in Henrico County. He was the son of Benjamin and Allie Smith and had been born about 1887. She and Herman had one known daughter and lived in Richmond for the remainder of her life. She died at her home at 1915 -- 4th Avenue on 19 January 1968.

When Emma's son, Hugh Pointer Kidd, registered for the World War I draft on 5 June 1917, he lived in Ashdown, Arkansas, and worked in fishing for John Mosby in Millswood. He was single and his appearance was described as short and slender with blue eyes and a full head of brown hair. He had served for three years in the Virginia militia. In 1920 he lived in Benton, Arkansas, and worked as a cook in restaurant.

He married Bessie Daughten on 1 December 1927 in Sevier County, Arkansas. She had been married previously to a Cecil Adams. Hugh and Bessie had two children and they remained in Ashdown, Arkansas, for the remainder of Hugh's life.  He worked as a laborer for a carnival that was in Sequin, Texas, on 7 September 1967, the day he died of a heart attack. He was interred in the Blackerby Cemetery in Little River County, Arkansas.

Hugh Pointer Kidd death certificate; image courtesy of Ancestry.com

It all sounds like a fairly normal biography of a family group but finding the information was anything but normal. For example, I can find no death record for John Kidd, who was always listed as a child in the census as John W. Kidd, but listed on his son's death certificate as John H. Kidd. I only know that John's wife, Emma, was listed as a widow in the 1900 census and in a 1901 city directory. I have noticed it was not unusual for a divorced woman to say she was a widow at that time. Therefore, I have expanded the date range of John's possible death to include 1896 (son's birth) to 1956 (his 100th birthday). I have yet to find it.

Emma's second husband died in 1937. His death certificate stated he was widowed at the time of his death. The 1910, 1920 and 1930 census records also stated he was a widower. Yet I have been unable to find a record of Emma's death, which should have been between 1907, the date of their marriage, and 1910, the earliest record that listed James as a widower.

Emma and John's children were also problematic. Mary Ruth Kidd was listed as Mary C. Kidd in the 1900 census. It wasn't until I read a chapter about the Jennings families in the book, Miller-Duff and Related Families, which listed her married name as Ruth Kidd Smith. Once I knew her as Mary Ruth (Kidd) Smith, I was able to find her death certificate. This provided the date and place of her birth as well as her husband's name.

Hugh Pointer Kidd was listed as Hugh R. Kidd in the 1900 census. Again, finding his death certificate in Texas provided most of what I know know about him. That information led to his World War I draft registration, which also provided Chicago as his place of birth.

There are still many questions about this family group so I will continue to research them. If you are related and know information I do not, please leave a comment below.

Curing Syphillis: Camp Garraday

I can tell you I never thought I'd be writing about venereal disease on a family history blog. But when I found an ancestor's Young Man's WWII draft card and it said his address was Camp Garraday, Hot Springs, Arkansas, well, it made me wonder. What kind of camp was it; after all, he wasn't yet in the Army? A Google search revealed the very interesting history of Camp Garraday.

The practice of bathing in hot or cold baths to cure diseases dates from prehistoric times. The U.S. government first acquired title to the hot springs in Arkansas in 1818 when the Quapaw Indians ceded the land to them. Fourteen years later the federal government declared the hot springs a reservation for public use.

Hot Springs became known as the place to go to "take the baths" while receiving mercury treatments for syphilis, including Al Capone. Physicians at Hot Springs prescribed ten times the amount of mercury for bathers, which may have had more to do with the cure success ratio than the baths.

When the Public Health Service examined the World War I draft cards, they were astounded by the levels of venereal disease revealed during medical examinations. In response the Chamberlain-Kahn Act was passed and the Public Health Service added a new Division of Venereal Disease. The new division was to work in cooperation with states' to help prevent and gain control of the disease as well as prevent interstate transmission.

A new bathhouse and clinic were planned at Hot Springs, which was to serve as a model for the treatment of venereal disease. Treatment of syphilis changed over time at the clinic. Arsenical compounds, such as arsphenamine, were used in the 1920s, and sulfa drugs in the 1930s.

Administering arsphenamine circa 1925; photograph courtesy of the
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences

The Depression brought new challenges as many who came to Hot Springs to be treated were indigent. The Arkansas Transient Bureau was created in 1933, and the bureau quickly built Camp Garraday to handle the influx of people coming to be treated. Under an agreement between the bureau and the Public Health Service, people housed at Camp Garraday could be treated for venereal disease at the clinic. In 1935, 14,946 applicants were examined at the venereal disease clinic.

Lobby of Public Health Service Venereal Disease Clinic in Hot Springs
where patients were registered; photograph courtesy of the University of
Arkansas for Medical Sciences

With the advent of penicillin, patients began to be treated locally and the Free Government Bathhouse closed in 1953. Camp Garraday, which provided domicile for many indigent patients, is now within the boundaries of the Hot Springs National Park and houses the administrative offices of the Hot Springs school district.

I hope you found the history of Camp Garraday as interesting as I did.

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Because I discovered the ancestor, who was living at Camp Garraday when he was drafted through an AncestryDNA match, who is obviously still living, I am not including his name or biographical details.

Semple Confusion, Not So Simple

My connection to the Semple family of Scotland is through my great great grandmother, Margaret Semple (1850-1920). She was born in Stonehouse, Lanarkshire Scotland on June 22, 1850, to Peter and Janet (Torrance) Semple. When Margaret was 21 years old, she had a daughter out of wedlock. Two years later, she married James Muir, a coal miner, on July 4, 1873. They had seven children before Margaret followed James to Illinois. Two more children were born in the United States.

One of Margaret's uncles emigrated to New Zealand in 1862 and an aunt came to the Massachusetts in the early 1900s. It is Margaret's aunt, Agnes (Semple) Taylor (1844-1919), who is the source of my Semple confusion. Well, her youngest son, Robert Semple Taylor, is really the problem.

Robert Semple Taylor

Agnes' husband, John Taylor, died at the age of 36 of cirrhosis of the liver, leaving her with seven young children. Her youngest daughter, Margaret (holding the baby in the photo below) immigrated to Massachusetts with her husband-to-be and his mother in 1904. Also, onboard, according to records I was able to find, were Agnes and her youngest son, Robert.

Agnes Semple Taylor on the far right, with her daughter, Margaret McNair (Taylor) Isbister, Margaret's adopted daughter, Clara Schomburg, and Margaret's husband, Andrew Thomas Isbister

By 1910, Agnes and Robert were living with Margaret and Andrew Isbister and in 1919 it appears Agnes died. All of the records, including census, World War I and II registration cards, and passenger manifests, indicated Robert Semple Taylor never married and lived with his sister and brother-in-law until 1937 when his brother-in-law died.  Then Robert and his sister moved in with his niece and her husband.

Andrew Thomas Isbister and his wife, Margaret McNair (Semple) Isbister

However, one of my "new" cousins is a Semple through Agnes Semple. Her tree is also well documented and indicates that the same Robert traveled to Colon, Panama in 1906 and came to the United States through New Orleans. My Robert Semple Taylor arrived in New York City in 1900 from Scotland. Her Robert Taylor married Grace Shand Denholm and they lived in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1910, 1920, 1930 and 1940 -- the same census years my Robert Semple Taylor was living with his sister in Massachusetts. Her Robert Taylor had three children between 1903 and 1907 and it is from one of those children she descends. My Robert Semple Taylor never married. Her Robert Taylor was a boilermaker for the railroad and my Robert Semple Taylor was a tire maker at a rubber factory.

Obviously one of us has the wrong Robert Taylor attached to our family tree, but which one?

Update: I believe we have sorted out Robert Semple Taylor. My Robert appears to be correct and my new cousin's Robert, her great grandfather, is still a mystery. My project this week is to see if I can figure out who her Robert Taylor was. This was a caution to me. Ancestry.com can make it almost too easy to find records and attach them to your tree.  I must remember to always do my due diligence to ensure they are records for the correct person.

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(1) All photographs used in this post are courtesy of Carol Rolnick and retrieved from Ancestry.com.

Norman Baker -- Quack, Killer and All Around Scum

On 8 Oct 1938, Jonathan Hiller and his 8-year-old son, John Ian Hiller, crossed the border from Canada into the U.S.

Jonathan Hiller

The border crossing form said they were going to Eureka Springs, Arkansas, to visit Jean Hiller at the Baker Hospital. I figured there had to be a story behind that as Jean (Schultz) Hiller died on 20 Oct 1938.

1938 Border Crossing Manifest

And what a story it turned out to be!

Jonathan and Jean (Schultz) Hiller's wedding
photo; they were married in 1923

Norman Baker was the founder of the Baker Institute in Muscatine, Iowa. He was a flamboyant, medical maverick with a new cure for cancer. Always dressed in a white suit and a lavender tie, he owned a radio station in Muscatine, Iowa, with the call letters KTNT, which stood for Know the Naked Truth. He took to the airwaves and declared war on big business, and the American Medical Association. He believed that organized medicine was corrupt and chose profits over patients. He preached the Gospel of alternative medicine. He was the self proclaimed champion of the common man against the ownership class.

He was a former vaudeville magician, turned inventor, turned millionaire business man, turned populist radio host, turned Cancer doctor without a day of medical training in his life. His magic elixir was nothing more than a useless mix of watermelon seed, brown corn silk, alcohol, and carbolic acid. Baker had cancer hospitals in Muscatine and Eureka Springs.

In the introduction of Norman’s bought-and-paid-for biography, “Doctors, Dynamiters and Gunmen” author Alvin Winston wrote:

 “This is an inspiration book for young and old. A fact story of how a man fought his enemies-how he faced Gunmen, Dynamiters and enemy Doctors -- how he fought the medical racket, the radio trust, the aluminum trust and others. He did it for you….There has never been a book prepared so carefully. This makes it the most important book ever written. Read the life story of Norman Baker the greatest one man battle ever fought.” 

 That was how Norman Baker wanted the world to see him. As a crusader who fought to protect the common man against exploitation. But behind the mask of humanitarianism was a man who leeched off the sick and dying to make hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Having been run out of his Iowa, Norman moved to Arkansas. This time to the Ozarks and the town of Eureka Springs. There he bought a majestic Victorian hotel that had fallen on hard times. The Crescent hotel sat on a hill 2,000 feet above sea level overlooking the town nestled below. He called it a “Castle in the Air” and made it the new location of the Baker Hospital. Norman picked up where he had left off in Iowa. Running the same medical scams in the Ozarks that had made him hundreds of thousands of dollars in Iowa. According to one U.S. Postal Inspector Norman was pulling in $500,000 a year in Eureka Springs.

Crescent Hotel, Eureka Springs, Arkansas

For two years, He thrived in there, but the clock was ticking on Norman. He was now a marked man by federal authorities. They quietly investigated him and in 1939 they closed in.

After ten years of being hounded by the authorities and the AMA all it took to bring Baker down was seven letters placed in the United States mail advertising his services. Norman Baker was arrested by federal authorities and charged with using the mails to defraud. The trial was held in January of 1940 in Little Rock and Norman was found guilty on all seven counts. He appealed the decision, but was denied. The opinion handed down by the court of appeals said that Norman’s cancer cure was “pure hoax.”

In January of 1940 Norman arrived at Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary to serve a 4-year sentence. One investigator wrote:

 “Our investigation indicates that Baker and his associates defrauded Cancer sufferers out of approximately $4,000,000. Our investigation further shows that a great majority of the people who were actually suffering with cancer who took the treatment lived but a short while after returning to their homes from the hospital. We believe that the treatment hastened the death of the sufferers in most cases. It appears to us that the sentence of four years which Baker received and the fine of $4000 was an extremely light penalty under the circumstances.” 

 He was no longer Norman Baker, millionaire business man, and cancer maverick. Now he was simply known as inmate 58197. In a statement in the Warden’s report Norman said, “I am not guilty. They have never proved anything in the indictment. We figure this was a railroading proposition. It is my opinion that the jury was fixed and influenced. We have hired private detectives to look into the matter. It is believed that whiskey and women were made available to the jurors. We were railroaded by the American Medical Association who have been after me for years.”

Norman was released from Leavenworth on July 19, 1944. He retired to Florida and lived comfortably until his death in 1958.

This fascinating story was written by Stephen Spence and excerpted by me. The complete story can be found on the Crescent Hotel website.

In 1948 Jonathan married Jean's sister, Velma Jean Schultz:

Jonathan and Velma Jean (Schultz) Hiller and the witnesses to their wedding