Alta and Harry Foltz, my paternal grandparents, had far too little time with me. In fact, Alta only met me while I was still in the womb. She died just a couple months before I was born. Harry had a couple years with me before he passed, but I don't have any memories of him -- just photos of the two of us.
But both of them shared another loss of time spent with a loved one -- a far closer connection. They each lost their father when they were 13 years of age.
Harry's dad, George LeeRoy Foltz, died in November of 1923. I don't even believe I have a photo of father and son together.
On one postcard addressed to Harry's mom, George LeeRoy did sign it as "Pappa," so perhaps that is what his kids knew him by growing up. Otherwise, he went by Roy. Roy was a farmer, homesteader, and freighter. He was quite frequently away from home, driving a team somewhere across the Oregon landscape. Harry likely didn't get the chance to be around his father much as a boy, even when Roy was still alive.
The story goes Roy was shoeing a horse one day when it kicked him in the stomach. He was home at the time on their farm in Dry Creek, outside Weston, Oregon. What happened next can all be verified by his certificate of death. He was taken to the hospital in Walla Walla, Washington for an exploratory operation. Perhaps this was due to stomach pain. The doctors discovered a tumor the "size [of a] man's head" and closed him back up. He passed away two days later. He was only 43 years old.
Alta's dad, John Christafson Eggenberger, died in February of 1928. His life wasn't cut as short as Harry's father, but he still died fairly young at the age of 58. In fact, Alta hadn't even been born until John had reached 44 years old (a year older than when Harry's father had actually lost his life).
John was a confectioner, restauranteur, and grocery owner. He bought and ran the Pennant Inn in Ottawa, Kansas from 1916 on. Despite his entire household contracting measles in 1918, they all survived and lived long, healthy lives. There were also no losses in their family to the influenza outbreak during those years. While he had a few run-ins with the law, none of his antics affected his good health. However, he eventually did succumb to a short illness (origin unknown) and died at the Community hospital in town.
While very few photos exist of either of these men, there is at least one that features Alta and her siblings alongside her father; a memento that Harry didn't appear to have with his dad.
However, the lack of father figures in their lives past their teenage years didn't appear to have a very negative impact on either Harry or Alta. They both were lucky enough to have very strong and independent mothers in their lives. And coincidentally, both set off from their families on their own, each traveling to California in the 1930s and finding each other at a dance hall in Pasadena.
The bad health of their fathers appears to have been good luck for their love lives.
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