James Andrew Carroll

James Andrew Carroll 1903 - 1959

James Andrew Carroll was born on 26 Apr 1903 in Oak Hill,

Crawford, Missouri.[1] He was the fifth child of Luster Carroll and

Cora Mae Souders. He had ten siblings, William Allen, Harrison

Jacob, Roy Thomas, Ivy Jane, Pearl Nellie, Maude Florence, Arvil

Edward, Robert Virgil, Grace May, and Russell Alfred. Another child

had died at birth. The family lived on a small farm in Oak Hill

Township, which is a little south of Hermann, Gasconade, Missouri.[2]

Jim attended school until the second grade when he was removed so

that he could get work and help support the family. One job he had

was ‘Cutting Sprouts,’ this entailed walking through farmers’ fields

and removing the sprouts which grew up from underground root

systems from trees bordering their fields. It was hard work, long

hours, and not very lucrative, but he did what he could to help. He

did this while the other children finished their education, got jobs, and

left home.[3] The Carroll house had only two rooms. At night the kids climbed a ladder and slept in the attic on straw mattresses. There was no indoor plumbing, and they had to carry all their water from a spring a quarter of a mile away. Once a year the kids got to go to town to buy new shoes, they were very poor.

Luster worked on the roads for the county, making about fifty cents a day, until he became unable due to sickness or injury. He had developed severe pains in his chest. Around this time Jim was 20 and living and working in construction in St. Louis. While on a visit home his father pulled him aside to ask him a favor. Luster had been out of work for about a year. Knowing Jim’s dedication to the family, he asked if something was to happen to him would Jim step in to take care of the family. Jim assured his father that he would. He never saw his father again.[4]

Around 9:00AM in the morning of March 22, 1924, Luster told his wife he was going out to

the barn to turn the horses out. About an hour later Cora noticed he hadn’t returned, so she went

out to check on him. Tragically she found him dead, he had hung himself with a rope in the

corner of the barn. Close by Cora found a note saying not to blame his family for his act, but that

he was merely tired of life and ill health. He’d been threatening to do something like this all

winter.[5] Jim was true to his word and returned home to take care of his family. By this time the

four oldest children had moved out on their own. Those left Pearl, Maude, Arvil, Virgil, and

Grace. They’d had a younger brother Russell, but he’d died in 1919. As soon as was possible Jim

and his mother sold the farm and moved the remaining family to St. Louis, where Jim had a job

working in construction. He did this for several years until even the youngest child had an

opportunity to finish their education. Most of the children got jobs right after finishing school.

Cora was able to get a job in a hotel in St. Louis, for $3.00 a week plus room and board.[6] By

April 9, 1930, most of the Carroll family was in St. Louis. Cora and Pearl were living with Jim at

4565 Laclede Avenue. He was working as a cement finisher; he was the only one working at the

time. Maude, Arvil, Virgil, and Grace were all living next door with a builder named Walter

Whitman and his family. Maude was working as a laundress, Arvil was a painter, Virgil was

unemployed, and Grace was a milliner.[7]

When it was apparent that his mother and fellow siblings were settled into as stable lives as

could be expected, Jim realized he was free to do whatever he chose. The Depression was on, and construction work was hard to come by. Jim decided to go “out west”. He decided to go ‘Bumming’. ‘Bumming’, was hopping freight trains, hitching rides, or even walking from town to town. Hopping freight trains was by far the most hazardous mode of transportation. If a box car door was open and there was room a person could jump inside. If not, they sometimes would hop on the car positioning themselves on top of the frame but below the floor of the car, dangerously close to the spinning wheels and axles.[8] If possible, you tried to do this while the train was stopped, but free rides were not something the railroads took lightly. In rail yards there were railroad police keeping their eyes on things, so often boarding a car took place while the train was moving. A dangerous proposition. Riding the rails Jim learned where the hobo camps were in different parts of the country. He never had a bad experience in those camps. It was a group of displaced people travelling the country looking for work. Often in the evenings men from the camps would go out and scrounge for food, bringing back what they found, and sharing it with everyone else for a communal dinner.[9] On occasion they would take odd jobs to make a little cash to continue down the road. Jim went ‘bumming’ on more than one occasion, sometimes with his brothers Harris and/or Virgil. On different trips Jim travelled to Mexico, and pretty much all over the western United States. Whenever he heard there were steady construction jobs in St. Louis he would head back and work for a while.[10]

In the spring of 1934, Jim’s travels took him to Montana, accompanied by a friend named Del. Del’s father was a pastor who had taken over a church in Livingston, which had been started by a man named Merriam Jeffers. At least part of the Jeffers family still attended there, because Del started dating Madge Louise Jeffers. At some point Madge wanted to fix her younger sister up on a date, that’s when Del introduced Jim to Marion Lucille Carroll, who preferred to be called Lucille. Jim had gotten himself a job working on a ranch in Bozeman, which was about 26 miles away from Livingston. Jim worked on the ranch fixing fences, working with the cattle, and whatever other tasks needed to be done. Later he got a job working in the mountains cutting down trees and shaping them into railroad ties. Lucille had a job cooking and cleaning for a local family in Livingston. During their free time they wrote to each other. Whenever possible, Jim would make the trip to Livingston to see Lucille. From their letters you could tell they wanted nothing more than to spend all their time together. After a long courtship Jim asked Lucille to marry him. She happily accepted, and together with Lucille’s sister Madge, who witnessed their marriage, they went to Ashton, Fremont, Idaho. On August 3, 1935, they were married by Pastor Bent.[11]

After a brief honeymoon, the newlyweds signed a contract, ending on August 11, 1936, for $500.00 a year to run a ranch for Paul R. Wylie. Jim ran the ranch which at first started out with 1,000 sheep, but later they added 12 Longhorn cattle in hopes of starting a herd. Lucille oversaw running the household, and managing the garden, which was essential to provide all the vegetables needed for the Carroll’s and any ranch hands in residence. In fact, the Carroll’s received $30.00 a month for boarding any ranch hands. And they would receive an additional $10.00 if they averaged more than 1 and a half men in residence daily throughout the year.[12] Jim and Lucille soon settled into their new duties around the ranch. They also began the transition into what would become their domestic routine. That spring on March 20, 1936, their daughter Charlotte LaRee was born.[13]

Paul Wyley was a professor at a local college. He and his family lived in town during the week and came out to the ranch on weekends. The Carroll’s lived on one side of the house, and the Wyley’s lived in the other side when they spent time there. The telephone was on the Carroll’s side of the house for ranch business. Mrs. Wyley had a bad habit of just walking into the Carroll’s home anytime she chose to. I guess she felt she was entitled. She never knocked, usually it was to use the phone, but she also just walked on in if she only wanted to speak with the Carroll’s. As it happened, Mrs. Wyley found out that she was pregnant, and her sister came to visit for a week. Her sister brought her spoiled, ornery, two-year-old son. While the two women visited with one another, the little boy was given free reign of the ranch. And as it turned out, he seemed to enjoy spending his time being underfoot wherever Lucille happened to be working. Lucille had been drafted as the uncompensated babysitter. Mrs. Wyley during this visit was particularly difficult. She kept coming into the Carroll’s home, sometimes screaming at Lucille, and blaming her for things she had nothing to do with. Eventually she calmed down, but not before Lucille told Jim that she wanted to cancel their contract and leave. Jim persuaded her to stay until their contract ended. Sometime later Mr. Wyley hired a new ranch hand, he was the son of a friend of his and paid him the same amount a month as he paid Jim and Lucille together. Since Jim had been hearing there were numerous construction jobs open in St. Louis, and their contract was ending, the Carroll’s decided they would not renew their contract and move to Missouri. When they gave their notice, the Wyley’s didn’t want them to leave. Mr. Wyley offered to double their pay, and Mrs. Wyley (she never apologized) said she’d redecorate their house and kitchen. The Carroll’s declined their offer and headed to St. Louis.[14]

The trip to St. Louis was a hard one, and long. The highway system was made up of a patchwork of two lane, poorly maintained roads. Often there were sections of dirt and gravel, especially in rural areas. On occasion they would have to stop and find work. They would save up some money, stock up on some supplies, and then move on when they were ready. Eventually they arrived in St. Louis, where Jim soon found construction work with the WPA (Works Progress Administration), one of Franklin Roosevelt’s work programs during the depression.[15] Not long after setting up house, Jim received news that his younger brother Thomas Roy Carroll was killed in a fire on November 5, 1936.[16] The fire was at the Fred Schmidt Material Company in St. Louis. Roy, Jim’s brother, was trapped in the upper part of the building with three others when the fire broke out. All four men perished in the fire. Roy left a wife and two children.[17] Lucille stayed home keeping busy as a mother and housewife.

Before long there were two additional children to

be cared for, Dorothy Lucille, born June 27, 1937, and

Richard James, born November 9, 1939.[18] In 1940

the Carroll family lived at 1806 Ohio Avenue.[19] It

was a two-story house, the Carroll’s lived downstairs.

Around this time WWII was heating up overseas.

Germany was taking over Europe, and Japan was e

xpanding their control over the Pacific. On

January 20, 1941, the Carroll’s purchased a large lot

in Overland, St. Louis, Missouri.[20] It had a lot of

trees. Jim almost immediately started building their

new home. He worked on it on weekends, after work,

and as they had the money to buy materials, some of

which was previously used lumber. This required

removing old nails and screws. If possible, he would

straighten the old nails and reuse them. He sometimes scavenged scrap materials they were throwing away from construction sites where he worked. To build the house more quickly, and at a lower cost, Jim decided he would build the house in stages. The first stage included the dining room, kitchen, bathroom, and the area where the basement steps would eventually be installed. This enabled the Carroll family to move into their new home more quickly. Charlotte and Dorothy slept in what would eventually be the dining room. No plumbing was installed at this time, so they had an outhouse. Dick slept in the area reserved for the basement steps, and Jim and Lucille slept in the space reserved for the bathroom. When the Carroll’s moved in, the exterior was still just covered in tar paper, and the interior walls were just two by four framing. They had a coal burning furnace in a small room dug under the house. There was not a complete basement at the time. The kitchen had an electric stove, and the kitchen sink had exposed plumbing supported by two by four framing. There were no cabinets. They had an old-fashioned Ice Box, one that held a block of ice for cooling. Ice was delivered by a man with a horse drawn wagon. The Ice Man would chip off little pieces of ice for the kids as a treat when it was hot.[21]

In the summer of 1941, Jim’s father-in-law, Merriam Jeffers, came down from Montana for a while to help. They built two more rooms onto the house. The living room, and the bedroom just off the living room. That winter, on December 7, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. With the war on building materials became very scarce and were rationed. Adding any more rooms onto the house would have to wait.[22] But starting in 1942, Jim started to dig out underneath the house for a basement. Using all hand tools, a pick, shovel, hoe, and wheelbarrow, Jim dug the entire basement out by himself. He would shovel dirt out from under the house until he ran out of room for his dirt pile. Then he’d load his wheelbarrow up and

dump the dirt in the yard, and rake it out smooth, then

begin the process all over again. When the excavation

was complete, he built cement block walls and poured

the concrete floor. This process may have taken a while

due to rationing of building supplies, but eventually they

had a complete basement.[23]

World War II ended on September 2, 1945, but the

transition back to a peacetime economy took a little

longer. On October 1, 1945, Jim and Lucille bought the

lot next door to their home. In the summer of 1946, Jim

started building the last two rooms he would add onto

their house. They would be bedrooms. This time Jim’s

first step was digging out the basement for the

foundation of these two rooms. He also adopted a

slightly less difficult method. He used a mule that pulled a scraper to do much of the earthmoving. At this time, they installed a new stove, an electric refrigerator, and kitchen cabinets, completed the bathroom (no more outhouse), and put in a set of stairs on the outside of the house for basement entry. This also meant everyone could sleep in a bedroom and not another room in the house. Jim was a hard worker, so it is good to see in the picture above that he was able to take some time to do some fishing.[24]

After moving to Overland, Jim and Lucille always had a big garden. They grew all kinds of vegetables and fruits. They grew tomatoes, corn, beans, lettuce, potatoes, cucumbers, peanuts, watermelon, cantaloupe, parsnips, asparagus, turnips, beets, radishes, onions, and rhubarb. They had peach trees, apple trees, cherry trees, grape vines, raspberries, and strawberries. Sometimes when they had a surplus, they would sell strawberries. The neighbors down the street had horses and Jim and Dick would go down with a wheelbarrow and load up some dried horse manure and spread it in the garden and on the lawn. They also raised ducks and chickens. Dick was drafted to do a lot of the chores associated with such a large garden. Plowing with a one row plow, planting, weeding of course, digging out of old strawberry plants, planting their replacements, and harvesting the finished product. The cleaning, preparing, and canning of what they produced was the job of Lucille, Charlotte, and Dorothy.[25]

Jim had worked in construction after moving back to St. Louis, from Montana. Sometime in 1941 Jim had taken a job working at the

U. S. Cartridge Company. He worked there for about a year then went to work at Wagner Electric working as a machinist making

searchlight motors. This job was deemed essential to the war effort, so Jim was granted a deferment from military service. In the evenings after work, Jim started repairing sidewalks in St. Louis. Homeowners were responsible for the maintenance of sidewalks. Sometimes roots from trees planted nearby would go under the sidewalk and cause it to buckle. Jim would drive around, find a damaged sidewalk and approach the homeowner to see if he would like it repaired. If he got a job, he often picked up more if other neighbors needed repairs too. When Dick was old enough, he would go along to help.

After a job was lined up, they’d head down on a Saturday,

tear out the bad sidewalk, and chop out the offending

roots. They’d dig it out and build forms for the new

sidewalk, then put up sawhorses with lanterns on them to

warn pedestrians of the construction. Then during the

week Jim would have sand, rock, and cement delivered to

the site, and Jim and Dick would mix the concrete by hand

and then pour the new sidewalk. Once Dick was 11 or 12,

if he’d been good and worked hard, Jim would let him

drive home from downtown.[26] Jim car-pooled with a

neighbor that live behind them with a man with the last

name of Henry. And sometimes Mr. Henry and Jim

would do construction work for people who needed work

done.[27]

Jim had worked as a concrete finisher, other

construction jobs, built his own house, and did odd jobs on the side for years. So, it probably wasn’t much of a surprise when in the early 1950’s he decided to take the plunge and start his own construction business full-time. His first project in his new venture was to build a house on the lot he owned next door to his own home, 2214 Sims. His son Dick was his helper from day one, and later he added Gordon.

Jim loved to travel and go places. It probably was a carryover from his ‘bumming’ days. Charlotte and Dick said for as long as they could remember they always took a vacation every year. Every other year they would go to Montana, where a lot of Lucille’s family still lived. Sometimes they would take Jim’s mother Cora and drop her off in Denver to see her

daughter Ivy’s family, or Salt Lake City to see her son Virgil. Highways weren’t a lot better

than they were when Jim and Lucille, with their new daughter Charlotte travelled from

Montana to St. Louis. So, driving anywhere was still an adventure. The Carroll’s didn’t

have tons of money, so they worked at travelling on the cheap. On one trip, driving an old

Chevy, Jim built a bench that sat on the floorboards between the front and back seat, which

when covered made a bed for Charlotte and Dorothy. They towed a one wheeled trailer that

could be made into a bed for Lucille and Jim, and Dick would sleep in the front seat.[28] On

one trip to California Jim modified the back seat. When it was time to sleep, he would

remove the seat back and make it so Charlotte, Dorothy, and Dick could sleep with their feet

in the trunk, and their heads close to the back of the front seat.[29] Another way they saved

money was to pack their own food and drink, so they didn’t have to rely on restaurant food.

They also brought along a camp stove. As always happens when children are on a driving

vacation, eventually some or all of them get cranky or bored and start to grate on their

parents’ nerves. “He touched me!” “She’s looking at me!” “He’s on my side of the seat!”

When this happened in the Carroll family, Jim would stop the car, and have the kids get out

and start walking. They might be out in the middle of Nebraska or Wyoming, but they were

told to get out and start walking. Jim and Lucille would sit in the car enjoying the peace and

quiet for a while, then start up the car and go pick up the kids. Usually, they were less troublesome after their walk. Jim’s love of travelling made it possible for his family to see pretty much all the lower 48 states. [30]

The Carroll’s didn’t have a telephone until the early 1950’s, and then only because Jim needed it for his construction business. Somewhere at that same time they got their first television. Lucille was convinced that owning one was a sin, and didn’t think they needed one. But one Saturday, Jim went out and when he came home, he had a television set which also had a radio. Jim had purchased the television from a man that attended their church. Lucille wasn’t happy at first, and strictly monitored what the children could watch. Jim ran into roadblocks with Lucille when he felt it was time for a new vehicle, but if he felt it was time he would buy one. There were no fights, and soon enough it would be water under the bridge.[31] As the kids got older Jim worked hard to teach them how to navigate life and take on responsibility. When they were old enough to get a job after school, the kids were allowed to spend or save their money as they chose. But once they were working full-time and living at home, they were asked to contribute to paying household expenses. When Charlotte and Dorothy first started it was $7 a week. By the time Dick was old enough it was $10.[32]

Jim was a happy man. He loved his family, so he worked hard so that he could provide all the things he felt were important for them. Jim wanted his children to go to school in the county, and not city schools, so he built their home in Overland. The home he built had a large yard for the children to play in and had enough room for a big garden full of fresh fruit and vegetables. He did his best to make it a happy home. Jim loved playing in the yard with the kids. He’d play games, turn cartwheels, and stand on his head. The neighbor kids liked him too, so the Carroll house was a fun place to go play. Jim bought the kids a bicycle, which was the first bicycle in the neighborhood. He enjoyed taxiing his children and the neighborhood kids around.[33] When Charlotte and Dorothy got older, and started to date, Lucille was worried about the girls getting into trouble ‘hanging out’ in the wrong places. Jim made it plain that all the girl’s friends were welcome at his house, so the Carroll house became a ‘hang out’ for a lot of the girl’s friends.[34] Jim was good-natured, had a good sense of humor, was generous, forgiving, and intelligent with a sharp mind. He had good common sense. Lucille said he told her he only had a second-grade education towards the end of his life.[35]

The 1950’s were a good time for Jim and his family. His new construction business was going well, and the Carroll’s were prospering. They still took their vacations, were able to afford some modern luxuries, and the family continued to grow. On February 4, 1956, Dorothy married Robert Doss, and nine months later they welcomed a baby boy named Richard. Then on November 16, 1956, Charlotte married Robert Hudson, and the following August they had a little girl named Kathy. Jim even built Robert and Charlotte their first house at 3541 High Dr., in St. Ann, Missouri. They moved in before the end of November 1957. Dick graduated from high school in 1958. The 1950’s was a wonderful decade for the Carroll family until March of 1959. Jim hadn’t been feeling well so he went to see the doctor. It turned out that Jim had lung cancer, and after more tests it was determined that his lung cancer was terminal.[36]

Jim had always been healthy; he was rarely sick. The cancer diagnosis came as quite a shock. After the initial slap in the face, Jim came to terms with the hand he had been dealt. He told her that he had no regrets and felt blessed that he had been able to witness the birth and growth of his family. He was proud of the fact he’d gone into business for himself building houses that young families could afford. In so doing he was able to make enough money to set aside for retirement. Now that nest egg would be used to help secure Lucille’s future without him. It also made it possible for the Carroll’s not to have to worry about money during Jim’s illness. Jim helped Lucille to plan for the future without him, and to that end he signed his will on March 26, 1959. They talked and laughed about their past life together, and discussed plans they had brought to fruition, and others they would never see fulfilled.[37] As Jim’s illness progressed, he grew weaker and lost a lot of weight. He fought hard, but died on July 20, 1959, at home at 2:45 in the morning. Two days later July 22, 1959, he was buried in Mt. Lebanon Cemetery, in St. Ann, Missouri.[38]

Sometime after Jim had passed away, Lucille found this poem that he had saved. She thought it expressed his feelings on God in his life.

I know not by what methods rare

but this I know “God answers prayer.”

I know that he has given His word

which tells me prayer is always heard,

and will be answered, soon or late

And so I pray and calmly wait.

I know not if the blessing sought

Will come in just they way I thought

But I leave my prayers to Him alone

Whose will is wiser than my own

Assured that he will grant my quest

Or send some answer far more blest.

Anonymous

Afterword: I never got to meet Grandpa Jim. I was born 13 ½ months later. But I grew up hearing about him, and I always wished I’d been able to get to know him. After talking with my Mom, Aunt Dorothy, Uncle Dick, and Grandma Cele, I feel I’ve gotten a good sense of who he was and what he was like. And as I said I wish I had the chance to be around him. Looking at the family that he and Grandma Cele have started I think he would be proud. From two people getting married on August 3, 1935, if my count is right the family has grown to 59, not counting Grandpa Jim, and Grandma Cele. At the date of this writing February 18, 2025, we’ve lost a few. Samuel Anderson 1994, Dorothy Doss 1997, and Kristal Doss 2004.

I’ve imagined if he’d have lived, lots of different ‘what if’ situations. How excited he would have been to witness the birth of all the rest of his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Think of all the graduations and weddings he would have attended. Say nothing about the different holiday functions, and BBQ’s. I wonder if he might even have been in that back bedroom with all of us kids and been right in the middle of that infamous pillow fight. Then leaving the room with feathers in his hair to explain to Lucille why there was an urgent need for a vacuum cleaner. It’s kind of weird to say you miss someone you never met, but I do. But I think it is because those in our family that did know him have kept him alive in our hearts. No one was shy about talking about him, and they almost always smiled when they did. And what more can we ask, but when we are gone, that we are remembered with a smile?

[1] Birth Certificate

[2] 1920 Federal Census

[3] Firsthand Dick Carroll

[4] Firsthand Lucille Carroll

[5] Newspaper

[6] Firsthand Lucille Carroll

[7] 1930 United States Federal Census

[8] Firsthand from Lucille Carroll

[9] Firsthand from Dick Carroll

[10] Firsthand from Lucille Carroll

[11] Marriage License

[12] Copy of Employment Record