Wellston 1916-17

Wellston Ohio was a small farming community situated south and west of Toledo, due west of Bowling Green. Beautiful soils, farmed since the days when Daniel Boone had lead settlers into the Ohio Valley and its' regions prior to the Revolutionary War. Weston was small in those days, numbering only a couple thousand in the area.

One was an Irish family headed by Albert Nicholas. He worked the farms in the area, providing for his family, now consisting of his second wife and her daughter, Flora, 27, from a previous marriage, who was confined to a wheelchair for life. Albert had also been married before but his first wife had died giving birth. That event had left Albert with a daughter, Lillian, who still lived with Albert. Lillian was 14 years old. Albert and his second wife had a child of their own, a son, Clifford, who was 3 years old at the time.

Albert was never a farmer by nature. He worked in the fields to put food on the table for his family. Albert was a miner. He had always worked in the coal mines and that is where he wanted to return. It was work he knew and was good at. Over the years, he had rose to good positions in the companies he worked for. He longd to return. Problem was no one was hiring just then. so he waited, doing what he needed to do to feed his growing family.

Lillian liked to attend the vaudeville shows that came to town from Toledo and Columbus. In those days, they were top drawing entertainment for most towns and cities and traveling shows toured the country. One particular show had stopped in for an extended performance. Working with the show as a set-up man was a guy, Charles, 30 years old, mature and worldly to young Lillian. They met and hit it off. A romance ensued and a pregnancy resulted. In March 1917, a son, Charles, was born to the happy parents.

Lillian continued to live with her parents in Wellston while she raised her infant. In order to assist her, she needed to obtain work, so she doctored the birth certificate and other necessary papers and assumed the age of a 19 year old. She took work first in an office, then in a dress shop, work she would return to time and time again throughout her adult life.

During those first two or three years young Charles, now called Al affectionately after his grandfather, would spend nine months of the year in Weston, living in a house the family rented. However, each summer, Al was sent to a great aunt's farm. Though very young, Al remembered those summers fondly as some of the best times of his youth, peaceful and playful.

Like all things in life, the times in Weston eventually came to an end. Albert had been working as hired help on farms. Money was not that good and it was hard to make ends meet. Albert was offered work in the mines, as a supervisor, in the Eastern Kentucky fields, and he took it. Life was going to change for the Nicholas family.