2021-Week7-The Hoosier Pocket Billiard Champion

 I have had the devil's own time tracing the lineage of my maternal grandfather's family.  This much I know.  My grandfather ran away from home at about age 13 and did God only knows what to survive until military records show he enlisted about 10 years later clear across the country. His mother, my great-grandmother, a vaudeville singer/dancer, first shows up in New York state records when she married for the first time.  Her mother, my great-great-grandmother, has been found in Buffalo newspaper articles involving her marriage AND divorce to her first husband, John Lipp...a real catch, that one.  Beyond that is all a matter of speculation for now.

I do know from correspondence my own mother had with my great-grandmother's sister that there was a younger brother named Eugene Henning.  When I started looking into Eugene, I found dozens of newspaper articles and advertisements about his playing billiards professionally all over the United States and even Canada, a fact not mentioned in his sister's letters.  By looking into his FAN club, I was reassured this was indeed my relative.  Remarkably, one article mentioned that Eugene had written and published a biography about his exploits.  Of course, I went straight to Google, not really surprised to find the book was out of print, having been published in 1913.

I recently attended a meeting of one of our local genealogy societies and the speaker that day gave a presentation on how to locate your family in printed documents.  One source she talked about to find books not on-line is worldcat.org.  I plugged Eugene's book into the search box and, sure enough, found 5 libraries throughout the country with a copy of his book. 

I started with the Indiana State Library and sent an inquiry to see if the book could be borrowed through an inter-library loan. The librarian responded within a day saying they only held one copy in their reference section and it could not be loaned out.  He went on, however, and said that because the book was rare, it would be a good candidate for digitizing, and he promised to let me know when it was available, projecting it would be late spring.  To my amazement, two weeks later he sent me the link where I could read Eugene's life story. 

 https://indianamemory.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16066coll44/id/1424

I jumped right into it hoping Eugene would enlighten me on the mysteries of my family's heritage.  I was disappointed to find extremely little in the way of family history, but there were a few nuggets that perhaps will lead me to other helpful sources.  

His story starts when he is about 12 years old, and on the very first page, tells of being left by his mother at an orphanage in Coldwater, Michigan. His father has died and his mother has no means to support him.  I was unaware the family had relocated from Buffalo, NY back to Michigan, so this points me back to researching in Michigan. I went to Google to see exactly how far Coldwater was from Grand Rapids where I knew the family had some roots, and in the process, discovered another book that purports to have the records of children left at the orphanage. I am now working on how to get access to that book!

The second fact I got from Eugene's book was his short marriage to a woman he met in Washington state.  I had earlier come across a newspaper announcement for his marriage license, and he had used the name Eugene Peter Liff Henning.  This had me scratching my head, and I wasn't 100% certain this was "my" Eugene until I read about his marriage in the book. I now must order a copy of the marriage license because I want to see exactly how it's completed.  I have speculated that Eugene's father was actually Mr. Lipp to whom his mother was married prior to becoming Mrs. Henning.  At the time of her divorce, she was either pregnant with Eugene, or he was an infant.  But this is the only reference I've found where he's used that name. It's obvious to me that "Liff" was a poor transcription of "Lipp".

The book is harrowing in parts. He was adopted from the orphanage by a farmer who abused him, most likely adopting him for the labor he could get out of him. Eugene soon ran away with the intent of finding his mother in Buffalo, but quickly figured out he would have no idea how to look for her.  He eventually made his way to Buffalo and back to Cleveland, OH by working on boats.  He frequently traveled from one place to another hitching rides in empty boxcars.  He writes of being afraid to fall asleep for fear of the other hoboes traveling with him.  He was in a boxcar one night when the train derailed and four others were killed, and although he was pretty badly injured, he managed to crawl away.  Once he started playing billiards professionally, he more than once abandoned all his belongings to skip town either in fear for his life from local pool hall hooligans, or because he lost all his money and couldn't pay for his lodging. No wonder his WW I draft registration card shows he's missing a kidney, deaf in one ear, and other injuries.

He evidently had some talent for running a restaurant kitchen, but he didn't seem to have much business sense.  It seemed he couldn't totally overcome his proclivity for gambling and would return to competing in billiards again after living a relatively conventional life for a while.  

When he published his book in 1913, he was about 34 years old.  He had divorced his first wife, but had not yet met his second wife, so this part of his life is beyond the scope of the book.  They would have a son together, Robert, his only child as far as I know.  I do know that son never had any children of his own.  

Eugene was able to find his mother eventually, as well as his two sisters.  In his will, he didn't mention his son, so I presume they had no relationship to speak of.  He did ask that his remaining assets be used to give a monthly stipend to his sister, Charlotte, except for the $1 he bequeathed his other sister, Jeanette (my great- grandmother) "for reasons well known to her".

The thought of him making his way alone as a young boy, a child really, weighed on me for several days.  At the same time, I am grateful for finding the book in a library where they took the care to make it available for me.  I look forward to seeing where the little bit I learned from it will take me.

At the Courthouse with the Lipps

I suppose we all have at least one of those ancestors whose name vexes us in our research.  One such of those in my background is my 2nd great grandmother, Mary (Maria) Hanick/Hanink/Harnink/Hannink/Henank/Heineke/Henning.  I doubt I have exhausted the potential spellings of what seems to be a somewhat common Dutch name.  Most of the census records state she was born in Michigan, and I've found a long list of family members in the Grand Rapids area with one or more of the variations above.  Then there's that one document that says she was born in Ohio.  <sad face>

A lot of what I know about Mary I've learned through articles or notices in newspapers where Mary has been in a court of one kind or another.

Mary was born in 1856, so she was barely 17 years old in 1873 when she appeared in Police Court in Buffalo, NY, to sue her future husband, John Lipp, for "seduction under promise of marriage".  An 1848 law passed in New York state made it illegal "under promise of marriage<to>seduce any unmarried female of previous chaste character".   John's bail of $800 seems to be a significant sum in that time period.  Mary gave birth to my great grandmother, Jane, five months later in January 1874, so it was probably pretty straightforward for Mary to prove she had indeed been deflowered.  But John Lipp was no "catch".

Buffalo Courier, September 3, 1873

Mary and John had their second daughter, Charlotte (Lottie), in October 1878.  Less than a year later, in September 1879,  John sued Mary for divorce.  Again the case was decided in favor of Mary.  I've no idea what this means to have had a divorce decided in your favor, because I don't know the terms of the suit.  Perhaps she counter-sued.

Buffalo Courier, September 22, 1879

A third child was born in November 1879, a few months after the divorce was settled, a son named Eugene.  I've found no record of his ever being referred to by the surname "Lipp".  It appears he lived his life using the surname of Mary's second husband, John Henning.  Yes, she married someone with a name sounding similar to her maiden name, adding even more confusion to my ensuring I'm looking at the proper ancestor.

I would say that Mary was lucky to be rid of Mr. Lipp, but for this.  In the article below, one year after her divorce, Mary would be a single mother with three young children to care for, so desperate circumstances must have led her to put one child out for adoption.  This case was settled in the County Court.  It doesn't say which child, so I don't know whether it was my great grandmother, Jane, or her younger sister, Lottie.   What a scene it must have been in the court room for the two women involved going at each other!

In her 1950s correspondence with my mother, Lottie wrote that, as a child, she had lived for a time with an aunt during hard times, so for all I know, the Lowe family below could have been relatives, although I've not yet found any evidence to support this premise.

Buffalo Morning Express, November 2, 1880

Censuses from 1900 and on show at different times the three women living together.  The son, Eugene, is not listed in any of the censuses, but turns up later in various newspapers around the country as a professional billiards player.  Lottie married and moved to Ohio, and later to California after she was divorced.  Jane was married twice, and as a widow turned her home into a boarding house in Niagara Falls.  Mary, once in her dotage, lived with Jane until she died on Christmas Eve in 1936.

When I read these articles as a sequence, as well as other information I have about these women, I feel deep sorrow for the difficulties they all endured in just day to day survival.