This post is a week late. I was exhausted last week and busy with my son's school and scout activities.
It is week 2 of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge and this week's topic (writing prompt) is 'Challenge'. I wrote about my great-grandfather, Samuel last week and this week I am writing about his wife. I have read other stories by people participating in this writing challenge and saw that some had written about a 'challenge' they had in their research. I chose to write about the 'challenges' that my great-grandmother dealt with in life.
Josephine Agnes Duper was born 11 December 1894 in Rosendale, NY to Stephen Duper who had emigrated from Austria and Teresa Devine from Stuyvesant Falls, NY. She was a healthy baby girl at birth and at some point in the first few years of her life had contracted Scarlet Fever causing her to lose her hearing. I can't imagine how she felt going from hearing the sound of her mother's voice, the birds chirping, the everyday noises of life around her to dead silence. Josie had to learn to communicate with her family and survive as a deaf child in a hearing world. The challenge had begun...
The family moved to Manhattan, NY and by 1900, Josie was a 5 year old enrolled as a student at the Institution for the Improved Instruction of Deaf Mutes. She was still there in 1910 according to the federal census.
On December 18th of 1916, Josie married Samuel Davis, a man who can hear but had parents who were deaf (like Josie, they lost their hearing due to Scarlet Fever). Their first born child, my grandmother Eleanor, was born in June of 1917. There were four more children that followed, 3 boys and a girl, each born about two years apart.
In January of 1927, Josie's youngest daughter, Dorothy died at the age of 3, a day before Josie's baby boy's 1st birthday. She had been sick but also suffered from 3rd degree burns when her dress caught fir from the kerosene heater. I don't know how long it took Josie to realize that her daughter was on fire because she wouldn't have heard the little girl's cry.
The family split up. The 1930 federal census shows my grandmother, Eleanor living with her maternal grandmother, Teresa in Brooklyn, NY and I'm guessing that the boys were living with their father upstate NY. I did not find Josie in 1930 or 1940 but I think she was living in Brooklyn.
Tragedy struck again on New Year's Eve, 1955 when a fire caused by a kerosene heater broke out in the apartment where Josie's mother and two brothers were living. Her brother Stephen was on his way out with their mother until Teresa realized that her youngest son, Gerald was not with them. She ran back inside and perished along with Gerald who was in one of the back rooms. Stephen barely made it out.
Josie's husband, Samuel died in 1947 and Josie found love with a nice man named Benson who was deaf like herself. The couple were part of a deaf club that met for parties and card games and socializing with others like themselves.
My mother had fond memories of Benson. When I told her I was writing a story about the challenges and hardships that Josie faced, I mentioned a church in Manhattan where Josie's sister-in-law had her funeral Mass. I told my mother that this was a deaf church called St Ann's Church for the Deaf Mutes. She told me that she had been there a few times with Josie and Benson. My grandmother had taught my mother sign language so she was able to follow along and understand the Mass. Benson died in 1960. Josie spent a lot of time with her daughter, Eleanor then eventually moved in. I remember Josie from my days of visiting my grandmother.
Josie, my maternal great-grandmother, had a hard challenging life but finally found eternal peace when she went to Heaven 17 July 1977
Josephine Agnes Duper 1894 - 1977
great-grandmother
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