Harry Stair & Lillie Beyler Family Bible, Wells County,
Indiana
Harry
Stair & Lillie Beyler Family Bible
Contributed by Tom Stair,
This Bible belonged to my grandmother, Lillie Aurora Beyler
Stair. Jacob Stair and Susannah Poorman Stair's youngest son was
Rueben Stair. Rueben married Emma Funk and they had two sons,
Clarence and Harry Cyrus Stair. Harry Stair was my grandfather,
Lillie Stair's husband. Both Harry and Lillie had lived in
Marshall Co., IN most of their lives where they farmed. Their
oldest daughter, Rose Amelia Stair went to college at the Wesleyan
Methodist college in Marion, IN called Marion College. Rose met
Watson Goodman at college and they married a year after
graduation. One of Rose's roommates at Marion College was Thelma
Irene Bennett (my mother.) Thelma was from Wells Co., IN.
She was the fifth generation inhabitant from three lines of her family
(Thomas, Turner, and Miller) and a third generation inhabitant in the
Bennett line. Watson Goodman, Rose Stair, and Thelma Bennett all
graduated together from Marion College in 1942. At Watson and
Rose's wedding in 1943 my parents met for the first time. It was
a deliberate set up on the part of my Aunt Rose hoping that her old
roommate and older brother, Victor Stair, would take an interest in one
another. After graduation from Marion college Thelma returned to
Bluffton and took a teaching job at Columbian School living with her
grandparents, Fred and Margery Crosby, at 923 W. Washington.
Thelma and Victor did take an interest in each other, but my dad was in
the Army Air Corp at the time stationed at various bases in the south.
They corresponded by mail along with seeing each other on rare
occasions, finally getting married in Bluffton on 1 April 1945.
Dad was still in the military stationed in Miss. so after a short
honeymoon he had to return to Mississippi until his discharge late in
1945. They continued to make their home in Bluffton and Mom
continued to teach at Columbian. Dad got a job working for
Central Gerber Dairy as a driver. Rose and Victor had a younger
sister, Vida Stair who graduated from Marion College in 1949.
Right after graduation she took a teaching job at the newly constructed
Poplar Grove Elem. School on south hwy 1. When Harry Stair was
diagnosed with liver cancer in 1949 he and Lillie made plans to sell
their farm in Marshall Co. and move into town. Since they now had
two children living in Bluffton and Bluffton had a clinic they decided
to move to Bluffton in 1950. Watson and Rose Stair Goodman were
by now missionaries to South Africa. In 1950 they came back to
the United States on furlow and moved into the upstairs apartment at my
grandparents house in Bluffton. They lived there for the year
they were home on furlow and my two cousins went to Central School for
that year. On Jan 15, 1951 Harry Stair died, but my grandmother
remained in their house until her death in 1982. After Grandpa
died Aunt Vida and the youngest of the children, Tressie Stair, moved
into the same house with Grandma Stair. After Grandma Stair died
in 1982 Vida and Tressie continued to live in the house at 227 E.
Horton, and they are still there today. Mom and Dad ended up
having four children, Charles, Roger, Rose, and myself, Tom. We
first lived at 627 W Silver, and then around 1957 we moved to 1017
Ranch Road. In May 1960 my mother died from brain cancer and is
burried there in Bluffton in Fairview Cemetery. One of my uncles
introduced my father to a woman from Oklahoma whose husband had also
died from brain cancer. In November 1960 my dad married Betty Jo
Maddox Stevens there in Bluffton. We continued to live in
Bluffton until the end of that school year. In the summer of 1961
we all moved to Enid, OK where my step-mother's family lived and where
she had grown up.
View Jacob
Stair & Susannah Poorman Family Bible
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