My aunt Mary told me how my Grandpa got the name "Dick" She said he told her that when he was very young he would run along the porch railing or picket fence with a stick hitting on the slats saying, "dicky, dicky, dicky," over and over. Everyone started calling him "Dicky" after he was older, they called him "Dick". As many people knew him as "Dick" as those who knew him by John.
My grandfather's true love was hunting and fishing, which he did at every opportunity. I can remember that on several occasions, after he was having heart problems, he would tell his wife that he was going to check on the chickens for eggs early in the morning and, when he didn't return, she couldn't find him. He would come home in the evening with some fish or rabbits or squirrels depending on the time of year. He knew the doctor said he was stay home and take it easy, but he would walk over a mile to the river to fish, or make arrangements with his friends to take him. He loved it that much.
When he was younger he would get deer and turkey when his friends could not. My father told me grandpa would shoot game for his friends too, more often than not.
Shortly after my father, Charles was born Jan. 14, 1909, John took his family to San Antonio, Texas looking for work. Work was hard to find, they went to Calverton, Kansas where Elizabeth's sister lived. Mary Ellen was born there. They came back to Connellsville, PA shortly after and lived the rest of their lives.
John always called his wife Elizabeth "Mam". I never did find out why.
John worked as a farmer, coal miner, worked in a stone quarry a tin mill, and in his latter years as a carpenter. I can remember when I was 10 or 11 years old my grandfather his brothers Ed, and Charles built a extra bedroom on my fathers house for my brother and I.
