Frank was born in Zenas, Indiana to John Ellingwood and Mary Lenover as Benjamin Franklin Ellingwood on October 3, 1857 He went by Frank E Ellingwood most of his life. Sometime around age 10, he and his brother George ran away from home. First they end up in Dearborn, Illinois, where George is getting married. He then is an apprentice farmer for the Miller family in Milford, Missouri. Four years later, he’s in White County, getting married to Kathy Gabbert. He’s always been very kind to the hobos going through White County, so I wonder if he was himself a teenagered hobo, that would explain how he managed to be all over the map in such a short time. I found stories of other ten year olds running away from home and becoming hobos.
Kathy must have captured his heart and made him want to settle down in Step Rock, Arkansas the rest of his life. When he was 26, he married Kathy Gabbert on March 2, 1884. They bought a farm and settled down. Frank got busy planting acres after acres of strawberries.
4 years later, Frank and Kathy welcomed their first daughter May Ellingwood on July 3, 1889. The next child, a daughter, Pearlie was born January 1892. Their third daughter, Daisy, was born November 8, 1896.
In 1897, a levee broke, flooding his farm and devastating his crops that year and at that time, Kathy was heavily pregnant with their son James Ellingwood, who was born almost exactly a year after Daisy. Frank worked hard and rebuilt his farm back up, this time adding some livestock for the family only. In 1900, their last child was born, Franklin “Muggins” Ellingwood on February 24. Kathy didn’t quite recover from that childbirth and died of an infection on April 14.
Frank Ellingwood was a widowed father from this point on, to May, 11 years old, Pearlie, 8 years old, Daisy, 4 years old, James 3 years old and baby Muggins. Frank was determined to ensure all his children went to school so he rigged up a baby sling behind his plow to keep baby Muggins with him as he worked the fields. His main crop was still strawberries, but also planted cotton. He declined help from neighbors according to the White County newsletter, he was a proud man and doted on his children.
Tragedy struck again when his youngest son Franklin “Baby Muggins” passed away March 14, 1901. Muggins was 13 months old. I haven’t found his death certificate, so I have no information on what happened. Frank made up a beautiful large headstone when he buried his son with his wife and put both Kathy and Muggins on the same headstone.
On July 25, 1902 bandits came upon his fields of cotton and stole his cotton crops. He filed a report for the loss, but the bandits were never captured. After this devastating blow, Frank decided to not grow cotton anymore, going back to strawberries for his market crop. I’m sure he also grew other things for his own personal household.
July 16, 1905 he gave his eldest daughter May away in marriage to Willard Capps and they gave him the following grandchildren: Edward “Harry” Capps, Otis James Capps, Henley Capps, Maxine Capps, and Lena Capps.
June 18m, 1908 he gave away his next daughter, Pearl in marriage to Willie Miller and they gave him a granddaughter, Ruby Alice Miller. Pearl’s husband died a year after their daughter was born, so Pearl and Ruby moved back home with their father. Ruby married again to Arthur “Ott” Hicks and moved to the next town over.
For the next ten years, he had May and her husband Willard up the road on his land near where the cotton was stolen working that land and sent his two children living at home, Daisy and James to school at Step Rock school.
In 1918, he gave away his last daughter in marriage to Mike Grimes and he came to build a home on Frank’s land near the road and they gave him six grandchildren- Andrew, Trellis, Almeda, Lowell, Vivian, and Betty Grimes.
In 1919, his son James married Beulah Pratts and James stayed at home with Frank, bringing his bride home and they had only one son, Franklin James Ellingwood, after their deceased brother.
1921 Frank Ellingwood paid people to come pick the strawberries in his fields, which included hobos, neighbors, and family from other towns. It was a big production and Frank wasn’t the only strawberry farmer. Many others also had the same thing going. Frank grew a few different varieties of strawberries so they ripened at different times, extending the harvest season. When he had big picking parties, the ladies would get to work setting out a big potluck for the pickers. They picked from sunrise to noon and stopped for the day.
He spent the next 20 years doting on his grandchildren that were all growing up on his farm. His children all stayed on the farm until his death on January 9, 1943. He was 85 years old.
I believe the one with a mustache is Frank, holding Daisy's hand and that might be Kathy behind him, pregnant with James, but I'm not sure. That would make the other two girls besides him Pearlie and May.
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