Ozora Ann Bunger, my 2nd great-grandmother, was born in 1873 in Ohio, the second child and eldest daughter of William and Lydia (Michael) Bunger. William, a veteran of the Civil War, and Lydia were married in 1868 in Ohio, and in 1870 they were living near El Dorado in Monroe Township, Preble County, Ohio, where William was employed as a farm hand. When the census was taken in 1880, Ozora was living with her parents and three siblings in Butler Township, Darke County, Ohio. At that time William reported he was a farmer. Still living in Butler Township, Darke County, Ohio when the census was taken in 1890, William reported that he had served with Company L of the 12th Indiana Cavalry during the Civil War. Because of a fire in the United States Archives, only the veterans’ schedule of the 1890 census survives, and so we cannot know what members of William’s family were living with him then. Ozora was married in 1893, when she was twenty years old, to Brutus Henry Clay, also an Ohio native. Brutus was Alta Gladys (Clay) McEowen’s father, of whom she wrote so fondly in her memoir, which I posted about in May. Ozora had three children, born when she was 21, 23 and 24 years of age.
In 1900, Brutus, Ozora and their three children were living in Butler Township, Darke County, Ohio, where Brutus was farming. Ozora was only thirty-five years old when her father William Bunger died in 1909 and was only thirty-six years old when her mother Lydia (Michael) Bunger died in 1910. The family was listed in the 1910 Darke County, Ohio directory, as residents of Butler Township; Brutus was a carpenter and painter. This information was borne out in the 1910 census as well; in addition to the five family members, Samuel and Anna Detro, a blacksmith and his teacher wife, were boarding with the Clay family, and all three children were attending school.
When the census was taken in 1920, Brutus, Ozora and their youngest son Eugene were living in Butler Township, Darke County, Ohio; Brutus was farming again. The 1930 census located Brutus and Ozora residing in Butler Township, Darke County, Ohio, where Brutus was working as a carpenter, but living on a farm. Brutus died in 1932, leaving his entire estate to his wife Ozora. At the time of her husband’s death, Ozora entered the public arena briefly when she held a public sale and advertised for it in the Arcanum Times. Among the items for sale were a “good 1928 Essex Coach,” a lot of chicken raising and fair exhibition equipment, some power tools including a power rip saw, 33 “fancy show chickens” which she called out, saying “these birds are extra fine ones, selected for breeding purposes for exhibition birds at the fairs next fall.”
Another article in the Arcanum Times reported in March 1938, “Mrs. Etta Schwenkel and son, John, Eugene Clay and wife and daughter, Mary Ellen, son, Bobby, motored to Fort Wayne, Ind., Sunday and visited at the home of V. T. McEowen and family and Mrs. Ozoria Clay. Mrs. McEowen and mother have been seriously ill but are improving.” Mrs. McEowen was Gladys, Ozora’s daughter. Several other gossip column items in 1938 and 1939 report Ozora’s various visitations to and from members of her family, even mentioning her visit to her sister Etta’s home just two weeks before she died. When Ozora died in 1939 at the age of sixty-five years, from a heart attack, she left her estate to all three of her children, to be divided equally.
Like most women of her generation, Ozora faded into the background of her family’s life. Even when her daughter Gladys wrote a memoir of her growing-up years, her grandmother (Ozora’s mother Lydia) and aunt (Ozora’s sister May) figured much more prominently in her story than did her own mother. She mentioned Ozora only three times in her narrative, and they all have to do with food:
“Mother kept boarders and roomers to help and really worked very hard as she always canned a lot of vegetables and fruit.”
“Mother always knew the symptoms [of tummy ache] and if I took a nice dose of castor oil, I could hold my sleeping doll. Sometimes I wonder, was it worth it!”
“I enjoyed the food Clara, our boss's wife, would prepare. She used much food from the shelves in the store, which was different from mother’s cooking which couldn't be beat for she could make a delicious meal from her garden or shelf of home canned goods, homemade bread, pies and cookies.”
While I wish Gladys would have written more about her mother, at least we have those few details. Women of Ozora’s generation generally grew up doing hard work, married into more hard work, did all the hard work of raising children and keeping a household – in Ozora’s case including gardening, canning, baking and cooking not only for her own family but for boarders and lodgers – and generally went on doing hard work until they dropped dead from it. This certainly seems to have been the case for Ozora. Even her daughter’s few words about her include “Mother…really worked very hard…” In addition to what must have been a truly massive garden in the season, she also raised show chickens and probably did a lot of poultry dressing and preservation in addition to the vegetables and fruit. She probably deserves a lot more credit than she got in her lifetime.
This evening, after spending most of the day driving and visiting with my daughter, I had to fold and put away a load of towels that machines washed and dried for me last night while I was visiting with my son for his birthday. After I finish and publish this blog entry, I must unload the dishwasher and put in the few dirty dishes I made while spending 10 minutes cooking a meal, the ingredients of which were delivered to me last Monday with simple instructions. We had chicken in lemongrass sauce and teriyaki stir-fried vegetables. I did not raise, dress or even cook the chicken. I warmed it up in the microwave in the plastic tray in which it was packaged. I did not plant, water, weed, harvest or even cut the six or seven different vegetables that came washed and ready to cook in a plastic bag. I’m positive that lemongrass and teriyaki sauces were totally unheard of in Ozora’s household, and also certain that she never used olive oil, even if she had heard of it. I’m not really a fan of the whole “be grateful you don’t have it worse” argument, because I believe that everyone has sufficient struggles and barriers to overcome on the way to “self-actualization,” regardless of the era and circumstances in which they live. But I sure do have it easier than Ozora, and hopefully I can count on many years beyond the sixty-five that she had, after working so hard her entire life for so little credit.
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