ELMER’S BIRTH MOTHER

We have always known that his mother’s name was Laura Wininger.  The story that was always told was that a passerby saw Laura with Elmer and she had rocks tied to them and was getting ready to drown them in a pond. The passerby stopped her and took her and Elmer to the Poor Farm. The Poor Farm was also called the Poor Ayslum and was located in Dover Hill, Indiana. There was a man that came to visit Madge just a few months before she went into the nursing home and Evelyn was there taking care of her.  The man told them that story was not true and that he had found her running away with Elmer and he took them to the Poor Farm. For some reason Madge and Evelyn both had the feeling that the man was not being truthful. There is not a way of ever knowing the truth.

Laura Wininger was living in Rusk, Lost River Township in Martin County, Indiana. A man contacted me through Facebook as he thought I was a cousin of his through Madge so I let him know I would only be a foster cousin. I told him dad was their foster child and just in a little bit he sent me Elmer’s birth certificate, something no one knew existed.  Now the information on the birth certificate threw out everything we had ever heard of who was rumored to be his father. We always thought it was a Jones. The name on the birth certificate was John Grisham 42 from Rusk and was a farmer. We had been told Elmer’s father was a farmhand working on Laura’s father’s farm. We also thought she was a young teenager but her age on the birth certificate was 24.

Another thing I found out through Ancestery.com was that she was born in 1888 or 1890. She was born in Dubois, Indiana  but later lived in Rusk, Lost River Township in Martin County. She married Edward Chastain in 1907 and in 1910 became a widow. I found records saying she was in the Poor Asylum  in 1911. She came and went from the Poor Farm several times. They have a record of Laura Chastain and Elmer Chastain being there in 1917. In 1925 while she was an inmate of the Asylum she had a baby boy named Charles William Wininger. Charles belonged to a Tredway. The Asylum also called him a Chastain I assume because that was her name, Charles William died there at 8 months. 

Here is a copy of her marriage to Edward Chastain. Notice her mother is also a Chastain. I could not find much more information on Edward Chastain. I have also attached Elmer’s birth certificate. We will continue this on the next blog post.