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CHAPTER SIX

The Family Expands

Romance has a way of working out, even in the humblest of families, I suppose. The Great Depression of the thirties was at its peak, but such things as came out of those times never stayed the fact that "man must have his mate," as the song goes.

In 1935, Clint and Elizabeth Powell were married. My grandparents, Thomas Henry and Sarah Smith Bybee, had moved to Moulton early on, several years before we did. Thomas died in 1924, two years after we came to town, and they had been there for some time by then. They had a small house on West Fifth Street. It is the house which was later owned by Harold Wright.

I don't know which side originated the deal, but Clint made arrangements to buy our grandmother's house for himself and Elizabeth, for their home after their marriage. Grandma moved one house to the east to live with her daughter, our Aunt Daisy Bybee Catherall, widow of Ed Catherall.

Clint and Elizabeth worked a number of weeks, perhaps months, redecorating the little house, until it was for all intents and purposes their dream home and honeymoon cottage. They were married in the house on September 8, 1935, and lived there until they moved to Burlington early in World War II.

Less than six weeks later, Bob and Sara drove the few miles to Macon, Missouri and were secretly married on October 17th. No announcement was made for about two months. I must give Cecil credit for the fact that from the time of the announcement of their marriage she accepted Sara into the family, wholeheartedly. I have always felt that Pearl laid down the law as soon as the marriage became known.

Their first home was a rented house, owned by the Mosleys, on West Broadway. It was at this time that Bob was selling "on the road."

Not too long after their marriage, the husband of our first cousin Helen Horn (daughter of Fred Horn and Blanche Bybee Horn), George Garrett, went to a training school on the west coast having to do with aircraft construction. The pay was good, according to reports, and California was beginning to need trained people to keep up with the burgeoning aircraft manufacturing industry, which was due to the clouds of war forming over Europe.

Bob made up his mind that he wanted to follow in George's steps and attend this vocational school. This was one of the many times my father, Pearl, brought out his stubborn streak. There was no way that he could get it through his head, or admit, that Bob was not going to be flying the planes.

So, Dad once again offered to set Bob up in business. Moulton had a filling station owned by the Hart Bros. Co., which also sold gas and other fuels from their tank truck operation. They operated a filling station in Corydon which was up for sale. Dad made a sacrifice and bought the station for Bob, and the newlyweds moved the forty-odd miles to Corydon.

The new business was financed from a small inheritance Pearl had received from his father, Thomas, when the latter's estate was settled. It wasn't much, but in 1924 it became the family nest egg. Dad and Mom had used this money to buy a few shares of Iowa Southern Utilities stock, which paid regular dividends. As a bonus from the company Mom received her first, and I believe only, electric iron. Dad was so proud of that stock that when he received the regular dividend check, it was like Christmas for him, and John D. Rockefeller could not have been a prouder man! The stock was sold to finance the filling station, along about 1937.

The station turned out to be a dud, because its gas had to be purchased from Hart Bros. Oil Co., and it was a brand that was not well known in Iowa, Champlain, I believe. Most of the city's business went to stations carrying Standard, Sinclair and others well-known brands.

Bob's second gas station, a year or so later, was in Plainfield, in northern Iowa, and did quite well for a time. It sold a well-known brand of gasoline and was on a busy highway. Bob and Sara's first child, Patricia (Patsy) Carol was born at this point on December 20, 1938. This was a great event for all of us, since she was the first baby in our immediate family in eighteen years.

I had one bad spell late in Sara's pregnancy: Orson Welles' radio broadcast of the "War of the Worlds" (on October 30, 1938) had most of the country believing the USA had been invaded by Martians. Many who heard it thought it was real (despite frequent announcements that it was just a broadcast of an H.G. Wells story), and they panicked. I felt sure that if Sara had heard it, that it would have affected her unborn baby in one way or another. And I hadn't even heard the broadcast!

Incidentally, neither had she.

Back to Chapter 5

On to Chapter 7

Clint with Elizabeth Powell Bybee



Sarah Louise Kimmell Bybee with Patricia Carol and James Robert



Earl D. Sellers, Jr. and Pearl Hope Bybee Sellers