b. 7 Jul 1895, Sault Ste Marie MI; d. 22 Jan 1895
My father.
My father was the oldest child of a family of five boys and three girls. He was born in Sault Ste Marie MI, and attended school until the sixth grade. In 1908 he and his brother Maurice, two sisters, and other cousins, were sent to the Genoa Indian Industrial School located in Genoa, Nebraska. Recruiters from the US goverment came to Sault Ste Marie and promised that the children would be educated. It was a master plan to assimilate the Indians into the white man’s world, by complete separation from their native culture.
By 1917, Cletus had joined his Uncle Henry Ford, in the Detroit area, where he joined Local #56 of the International Elevator Construction Union. This lead to a career that spanned 50 years, in the elevator construction, inmspection and repair industry. He helped install elevators in many of the prominent buildings in the Detroit area, including Henry Ford Hospital. He served in World War I in the chemical warfare division of the army. He met and married Edna Schenkel 9 Jul 1920. They left the Detroit area in 1922, and resided in Dearborn MI, for the next 60 years. They lived long enough to celebrated their 65th wedding aniversary.
Edna Schenkel was the seventh child of Gustav Schenkel and Otillie Troyke, who had migrated to the Detroit area from Westpruessen Prussia in 1883. Her father, and grandfather were skilled carpenters, besides being hereitary farmers. Edna loved her family, her children, and lead a Godly life for 97 ½ years.
Edna and Cletus had three children:
| 1. | James Russell Ford b. 19 May 1921 Detroit, MI; lst wife Shirley Snyder, 2nd wife Molly Carmichael. Three children, Carole Anne, Sandra, and James IV. Served in World War II as a naval lieutenant in the South Pacific area; served two terms as a school trustee for the Dearborn School District. Is currently self-employed in the real estate business. |
| 2. | Delphine Pearl Ford b. 1925 Springwells (Dearborn) MI. YOUR GENEALOGIST |
| 3. | George Henry Ford b. 7 Dec 193l Dearborn MI; m. Mary Yoland Wolfe; d. 18 Dec 1972 (leukemia). Served in World War II aboard a naval ship in the South Pacific area; worked as a foreman for General Motors, in the automobile industry. Six children: George Christopher, Julie, Elizabeth, Pamela, Paul, Colette. |
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