I had the good fortune of growing up in the same household with my maternal grandparents. Not only that, it was the same home in which my grandmother had been reared. There is mention of the house and its history elsewhere in this blog.
Over the years I heard many stories about my one great grandfather, Peter Randolph Lawyer generally referred to as P.R. Lawyer. His wife, Ida May, called him Dolph, but my grandmother always referred to him as Papa.
P.R. was born in the southern part of Morgan County in an area known as Oakland. This is always pronounced with equal emphasis on both syllables. His parents, James West and Margaret Jane Lawyer were farmers and lived in a typical home. (I will have to find my records with the exact dates, but P.R. was born about 1871.)
Life on a farm is never easy and in those days I'm sure there was a lot of work. But Papa Lawyer must have applied himself. He went to the local one-room school through about the eighth grade as far as I remember hearing. But that included lessons in the three 'Rs - Reading, Riting and Rithmatic, as well as history and penmanship.
Papa had a great love for music and instilled that love in his children. Over the years he sang in the church choir, played the organ, the coronet and even designed a few instruments.
My grandmother told me how at some point in his youth P.R. Lawyer headed west to seek his fortune. She never said where he landed, but I suspect he didn't get much past the Mississippi. Still he saw something of the country, but he missed his home. She said that especially in the evenings watching the sunset he grew homesick. So he headed back east.
P.R. did not want to be a farmer and instead moved into the growing town of Berkeley Springs and opened a jewelry store. In addition to jewelry he sold china, silver, watches and clocks, and music.
I never learned the story of how he met his wife, but I wonder if it was maybe at church or if he rented a room from his future mother-in-law. P.R. Lawyer and Ida May Casler were wed in the new Presbyterian Church in Berkeley Springs - the first couple to be married there.
P.R. had a house built on Independence Street and lived there with his new bride. My grandmother told me that her parents moved to Basic City, Virginia briefly. She was born in Berkeley Springs in 1891 and she gave me the impression that she moved with them to Basic City. But they didn't stay there for long.
My grandmother told me that there was a fire in Basic City. I don't know if P.R. lost the store, but business was bad. According to the Wikipedia article Basic City was hit hard in the depression of 1893. In fact Basic City is one of Virginia's Lost Cities. It was subsumed by the city of Waynesboro.
After moving back to Berkeley Springs, P.R. had a house built in the Wright's & Smith's addition to the Town of Bath. In October 1895 the Lawyer family, P.R. (Papa), Ida (Mama), and children Anna and Herbert moved into the home on South Green Street.
My grandmother told me that Papa had very particular ideas about how he wanted his home to be. Having grown up in a farm house he wanted a more formal home. They had a separate dining room and Papa took all of his meals in the dining room. He never ate in the kitchen. The upstairs had a center hallway. In the farm house one had to pass through one bedroom to get to another. He must have enjoyed his privacy.
The house faced west - looking at the ridge that ran alongside the town. On summer evenings P.R. would put a chair on the front porch roof outside his bedroom and sit and gaze at the stars. I don't know if he read up there or just sat, smoked a cigar and thought.
After a few years when double parlors became fashionable, P.R. had an addition built to the home. This was to accommodate a growing family - the birth of son Henry "Harry" Lawyer born in 1903 and to welcome Ida's mother, Anna Matilda (Ma) Casler.
In addition to running his business, P.R. was active in the community. He played in the Berkeley Springs Band, he was a charter member of the local Lodge of Freemasons and served as a Grand Master for a time. He was active in local politics and served as Mayor of the Town of Bath - Berkeley Springs is just the name of the post office. At one point he ran for a state senate seat but he did not win. P.R. had the misfortune of being a Democrat in a very Republican county.
P.R. had a phone line installed at the house on Green Street that was a direct line to a phone in his jewelry store. One day there was a fire in the summer kitchen. Ida was so shocked by it that she ran down the hill to get P.R. and never even thought about using the phone.
The family attended the Presbyterian church. Anna played the organ. She sang Alto and Herbert sang Tenor - Harry ended up being the Bass. The children attended school at Mount Wesley Academy which was just a few blocks away. Anna graduated in 1909.
When the US entered World War I Herbert served, playing euphonium in the band and running telephone cables. After his basic training he served in France. After he returned from the war he went to work as a salesman, first for Gold Medal Flour and then for many years for the H.J. Heinz Company. He and his wife Hazel Parlette Lawyer settled in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.
Anna, my grandmother, helped her father in the store, gave piano lessons and played for the silent movies. She told me that she got paid 25¢ to play for the movies. If a vaudeville troupe came to town and needed a pianist then she would rehearse with them and play for the show and then she'd make big money - 50¢
Anna met her future husband, Edward F. Carroll, when he came to Berkeley Springs with a traveling semi-pro baseball team. The team moved on, but Eddie stayed and worked in the local Washington Hotel. Eddie courted Anna for about 10 years before P.R. gave his consent to let his only daughter get married.
There were two factors at work I think - one, P.R. was a Freemason and my grandfather was a Roman Catholic and I don't think P.R. wanted to see his daughter marry a Catholic. So I think some of my grandfather's work was in winning over P.R.
More than that P.R. didn't think that Anna needed to get married. He could provide everything she needed. Well - everything except children. Anna loved children and wanted a family of her own. So P.R. relented and Anna and Eddie were married in a simple ceremony in the parlor in the house on Green Street.
By this time Eddie was no longer working in Berkeley Springs. He was managing the Rappe Hotel in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. So Anna moved up there to set up house keeping. Given how attached the two were I can only imagine how much P.R. must have missed his little girl.
Don't get the idea that he was a soft-hearted type. He was strong-minded and used to getting his way. But he loved his family. In 1921 Anna was pregnant with her first child and she was living in Greensburg. P.R. ran the store without Anna there to help him. He had some health problems. He suffered from gout on occasion and that year came down with Bright's Disease.
During the summer P.R.'s condition worsened and they sent for Anna. But she was nearing the end of her pregnancy and the baby was due. In those days a woman had bed rest for several weeks following delivery, but Anna needed to get home.
As things happened she had a difficult labor and the baby was very weak. Each morning the nurse brought the baby in to my grandmother to nurse, but one morning my grandmother felt how cold the baby's hands and feet were. She warmed them, but called for the doctor. She knew that her son was dying and said to the doctor, "This is a Catholic baby. He needs to be baptized." The doctor sent the nurse to get some water, "and it doesn't need to be holy water!"
The doctor baptized my uncle as he lay in his mother's arms. Shortly after the baby died.
With little time to grieve Anna made ready for the train ride from Greensburg to Hancock and then a car ride the last six miles to Berkeley Springs. She said the ride in the car was the worst part given the roads and the condition of shock absorbers in those days.
Anna arrived in Berkeley Springs where she was able to help her mother care for P.R. during his last month. P.R. Lawyer passed away on October 4, 1921 in the home he built on Green Street.
Harry Lawyer was sent to learn watchmaking and he ran the store to support Ida. Anna bought her brothers' shares of the family home and continued to live there. She would live part of the time with her husband Eddie where he was working. They had two other children, both born in Greensburg, Edward Lawyer "Ned" Carroll and Margaret Anne "Margie", my mother.
They, like my sister, brothers and I grew up in the house that P.R. Lawyer built. None of us ever met them man, but we all felt as though we knew him. Ida lived in the home with her daughter and grandchildren. Harry and his wife Pearl lived next door with their four boys.
Ida passed away in 1952. Before she died she asked her only granddaughter, Margie, to move back to Berkeley Springs so that Anna wouldn't be alone. My mother honored her promise. After moving back to West Virginia Margie met Dwan McBee whom she had known when they were both much younger.
They dated and married and raised their family in the house on Green Street.
So why am I writing about this now? I'm not sure - I dreamed about Papa Lawyer last night and felt the need to write about him. I will check my dates and add them to this story.
