Our Forebears In the American Story - And World History

By Larry Carstens

This book tells the story of ten generations of ancestors who came to America in four different centuries. It provides a unique look at how different individuals in continuous lines of ancestry participate in some of the defining moments in world history, including the English Civil War, the American Revolution, the Mexican American War, the Pony Express, the American Civil War, World Wars I and II, and the computer revolution of the 1980s. “Our Forebears… is a great family story, running through many generations. The author’s mix of history on the national and international scales offers some helpful context.” —James Hanink, Ph.D, former Professor of Philosophy, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, and Contributing Editor of the New Oxford Review “I found it [Our Forebears…] very interesting because it covered a lot of history, and not just family history, but national histories.” —James Antonioli, M.A., Professor Emeritus of English, El Camino Community College, Torrance, CA

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu Publishing Services
• Release date: Sep 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9781483486123

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Carstens

Copyright © 2018 Larry Carstens.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of the author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

ISBN: 978-1-4834-8613-0 (sc)

ISBN:978-1-4834-8612-3 (e)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Lulu Publishing Services rev. date: 08/08/2018

If we owe regard to the memory of the dead, there is yet more respect to be paid to knowledge, to virtue, and to truth.

–Samuel Johnson

There is nothing more sad or glorious than generations changing hands.

–John Cougar Mellencamp

FOREWORD

This is the story of my forebears. Their experience is a sort of collective microcosm of the story of the United States. My purpose in describing them is twofold: that my children and their children will have some record of their forebears, and that they may know more about them and remember them: their life and times, their struggles, triumphs and tragedies. For the story of my family continues to unfold: the blood and the legacy of previous generations continues in my children and their children to come. So this is a labor of love: to honor my forebears and to provide my children, and God-willing, someday their children and their children’s children with the life and legacy of those whose blood continues to pulsate within them.

Before I begin, I wish to thank a number of people. I am grateful to those who posted information on the ancestry website, rootsweb.com, and to my Aunt Virginia and my dad’s cousin Warren Reid, who researched and added to the knowledge of their side of the family. I would also like to acknowledge my debt to Filipino author, Jocel J. Dagani, whose book about local history included useful information about my great grandfather, Andres Atega, and to my cousin, Dr. Andrew Deen, who compiled an informative booklet about our mutual grandfather, Dr. Najib Deen. I am very grateful to my Aunt Mildred (henceforth Mils –a pseudonym that will be used to respect her wishes), who shared with me various memories and stories of her youth around the time of World War II. She and my mother were bosom buddies and devoted sisters who were close in age and affection, from their childhood and well into their adult lives as wives and mothers (respectively, of handsome American men, and sometimes incorrigible and difficult American children!) I am also very grateful to my Aunt Elidia (another pseudonym, used to respect her wishes). Aunt Elidia and Aunt Mils were kind enough to consent to be interviewed, and the fruit of their kindness forms a significant part of Chapter 9. Also, my cousin, Steve Montgomery, offered some very helpful comments and corrections on the manuscript, as did my former college instructor, Professor James Antonioli (retired), former philosophy professor, Dr. James Hanink, and my friend and mentor, author Mary Rosera Joyce.

I would also like to acknowledge debts to some authors who are way above my league, but whose work nonetheless inspired and influenced me as I worked on this. Stacy Schiff’s masterful work Cleopatra: a Life was a fascinating and enjoyable description of the famous Queen Cleopatra of Egypt: the woman whose life and loves indelibly became a part of the story of Rome, and Western Culture. Her relationship with Julius Caesar, and after his assassination in the Senate, with Mark Anthony, until they both lost their contest with Octavian (the same individual who later become Ceasar Augustus, the emperor who was still ruling Rome when Christ was born) made for enjoyable and inspiring reading. Then there was the work of Doris Kearns Goodwin, whose The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft and the Golden Age of Journalism also inspired and informed me about people I had heard of but did not know much about: Presidents McKinley, Roosevelt and Taft, and the famous writers who would shape the Golden Age of Journalism: including S.S McClure, Lincoln Steffens, and Ida Tarbell. Both Goodwin and Schiff had a way of making historical facts come alive in a way that made it a pleasure to learn.

Finally, I would like to thank my beloved wife Mary Ann and each of our dear and precious children: our five beloved youngsters, because they have inspired, and continue to inspire me in so many ways, not the least of which is to work on this. I am honored to continue the story of our family with you, my Mary Ann… and Rebecca the Marine; James the Thoughtful Young Man; Sarah-bear, my Little Bear; the Johnster Monster; and the Little Caboose, my Cat-Cat. "You are young, and you are the future, so suck it up and tough it out, and be the best you can" (John Cougar Mellencamp)

INTRODUCTION

I would like to begin with a photograph that, for me, symbolizes a connection between past and present: between people I have known, and the people in our family records. This picture has been on the wall of my father’s home for several years. The story behind it is amazing to me.

intropic.jpg

The little girl standing near the center is my Aunt Virginia, whom I have known for all my life, during the times she came to visit her little brother, my dad, and his family. Virginia is standing between her (and my dad’s) Great Grandfather Joshua Vetter, and her Great Grandmother, Sarah (Hazen) Vetter. The lady on the left side of the picture is her Grandmother, Dora (Vetter) Thomas. The gentleman on the right was born to two immigrants from Germany in 1832, enlisted in the Union Army during the Civil War, lost an eye in combat, and met his wife while she was working as a young nurse from whom he was receiving medical care. After they married, they came to Nebraska in a covered wagon and lived on a homestead, where they raised four children, including my great grandmother, Dora (Vetter) Thomas, who eventually married George Thomas, and gave birth to my dad’s mother, Muriel Thomas. In this picture are the first two children of Muriel Thomas Carstens: Cathryn, who died before I was born, and Virginia, who was a lovely aunt to me as I was growing up. One year after this photograph was taken, Joshua Vetter passed away in 1931, at the age of 92. The year after that, his wife passed away, and my father was born.

The furthest known roots of our family are the ancestors of Sarah (Hazen) Vetter, and George Thomas (not in this picture, but the husband of the lady on the left, Dora). Both lines go back to the 1600s, and the earliest times of what is now called American history. The mother of Sarah (Hazen) was born Sarah Clement, and she descended from a member of the English Parliament who was executed as a regicide in 1660. George Thomas, like his wife, was the child of a soldier who fought for the Union, William Pemberton Thomas. William’s father fought in the Mexican-American War, and his mother Permelia Ann (Garvin) Thomas was the granddaughter of a soldier who fought in the American Revolution, whose name was Isaac Garvin.

I am not the first to tell these stories, but each time the stories are told, the legacies of our ancestors and the culture of the American people are kept alive.

–Larry A. Carstens

Castaic, CA / Fall, 2017

PART I

CHAPTER

1

THE EARLIEST KNOWN ROOTS: THE CLEMENTS AND THE GARVINS

GREGORY CLEMENT, 1594-1660

In his autobiography, Mark Twain describes how he received hate mail from an irate Virginian because he had voted for the Republican (i.e. anti-slavery) ticket. And presently along would come a letter from some red-hot Virginian… and abuse me bitterly… on the ground that the Republican was an aristocratic party and it was not becoming in the descendant of a regicide to train with that kind of animals. And so I used to almost wish I hadn’t any ancestors, they were so much trouble to me. The ancestor to whom Twain was referring was probably not his actual ancestor. The public records of the ancestry of Samuel Langhorne Clemens do not lead to the Member of Parliament who was executed as a regicide in 1660, whose name was Gregory Clement. However, the records of our ancestry do lead to Gregory Clement, and so I’ll begin the story of our forebears with him.

pic11.jpg

Gregory Clement(1594-1660), Member of Parliament & Regicide

Gregory Clement was born in 1594. He was the son of John Clement, who was the mayor of Plymouth in 1614. I’m not certain if there is reliable information on the ancestors of John Clement, though there is some speculation that the first Clement arrived in England with William of Normandy in 1066. Various websites on the history of the name Clement contain similar statements of historical facts. One of these is that the first recorded spelling of