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On March 5, Deedee Davis contacted me via my profile on Find
A Grave, with a pleasant surprise. She works with the Indiana Album project,
which digitizes and collects old images and documents about our state and
citizenry, and shares them in a public forum on the Internet. She had recently
scanned “Fellow Citizens of Indianapolis, 1926” and found a photo of my
great-grandfather Clarence W. Abraham on the first page of photos in the book.
She was planning to add the photo to his Find A Grave memorial and noticed I’d
posted some images of him, and contacted me. In turn, I was fortunate enough
that night to score a copy of the book on eBay. I have searched since, and have
been unable to locate another copy. DeeDee was kind enough to ask me to submit
more family photos to the archive.
While flipping through the book, my wife and I also noticed
that her grandfather Donald Ambrose Morrison, Sr., as well as several other of
her relatives, was also featured.
Two months later, on May 8, JJ Johnson contacted me, also
through Find A Grave. He collects skeleton keys, and he recently noticed that one
his mother purchased for him at a 4H flea market in Evansville, IN, a couple of
years ago, was engraved with my father’s name and badge numbers, and the year
1954. After some searching, he found my father’s memorial on Find A Grave, and
contacted me. Mr. Johnson was kind enough to send the key along, and I had the
opportunity to share a few stories about my dad.
I had no previous knowledge of the book or the key. Either
one would be a rare find, but both, in such a short time frame, seems all the
more extraordinary, especially, in the hands of such kind and thoughtful
people.
A couple of blogs with mentions of my father:
http://johndstanton.blogspot.com/2011/04/memories-of-old-northside.html
https://johndstanton.blogspot.com/2012/10/cargillelder-avenue-photo-shoot.html
