Lucille Corbin - Born April 22, 1921 at Elbing, Butler County, Kansas
George Samuel Corbin - Born February 28, 1923, Snokomo, Newbury, Wabaunsee, Kansas
Joan Corbin - Born January 15, 1925 at Maple Hill, Wabaunsee County, Kansas
Sarah Emma Corbin - Born December 4, 1929 at Snokomo, Newbury, Wabaunsee, Kansas
Vivian Mae Corbin - Born August 3, 1932, at Maple Hill, Wabaunsee County, Kansas
This is one of the earliest photos of the family. Standing in the back row L-R are George Samuel Corbin, Lucille, Corbin, Mildred Mae (McCauley) Corbin, and Robert Corbin. Standing in front L-R are Joan Corbin, Sarah Emma Corbin, and Vivian Mae Corbin. Vivian was born in 1932 and appears to be about 3 or 4 years old, so I believe the photo was taken in about 1935 or 1936. There aren't many pictures of the family before 1940, because they didn't own a camera.
Grandfather Corbin was a veteran of World War I, having served as a doughboy in France, but he did not come from a wealthy family. He didn't inherit any land or money from his mother and father, and I have never seen any indication that he completed high school. He was a manual laborer through most of his life. He worked hard to support his wife and family, but he began working in the 1920s, suffered through the Great Depression of the 1930s, finally got a decent paying job with the State of Kansas Highway Department in the late 1940s, and died young in 1958 at 58-years-old. My Grandmother Corbin's family did have more money, and her mother owned a farm and several businesses over the years, but her mother did not like my Grandfather Corbin nor did she approve of their marriage so she wasn't as helpful as she could have been. Mildred (McCauley) Corbin did complete high school, graduating from Plains High School in Plains, Kansas where her mother worked in a general store, and also completed one year of business school in Wichita, Kansas. But she married Robert "Bob" Corbin against her mother's wishes and without her blessing. The Corbins moved to Elbing, Butler County, Kansas in 1921, where he was a roustabout in the Standard Oil Fields there.
My Grandparents had five children between 1921 and 1932. My Grandmother, Mildred Corbin, was a very busy mother, and fortunately all five children were gone and on their own in 1958 when my Grandfather, Robert Corbin, became ill with lung cancer. Grandfather was a heavy smoker all his life and smoked filterless Camels. The cancer was quick and viral. He was diagnosed in September 1957 and died in April 1958. He had paid Mutual of Omaha for a life insurance policy for many years. My Grandparents thought they'd be well fixed if anything happened---but the insurance policy had a cancer clause and was worthless.
My Grandmother had to start over after Grandfather's death. She sold their farm and kept the house, moving it onto a lot in Maple Hill. I believe she had to borrow about $5,000 to move the house, buy the lot and do the remodeling she wanted to do. At 56, she began working full-time providing child care in various homes. She worked until she was 70. Grandmother also had a boarder for several years, Miss Blanche McLeod, who was teaching at Maple Hill High School. During that time, she not only paid off the debt but was prudent about saving regularly.
She married a second time to Roy Hasdale Clark on September 22, 1973 at the age of 71. Roy Hasdale Clark was born January 17, 1892 in Stafford, Kansas. Roy Clark had been a very successful tailor and the owner of a men's clothing store in Topeka, Kansas. Roy provided very well for Grandmother, and they enjoyed five years of marriage, traveling to Sun City, Arizona and Hawaii for winter so-journs. Roy, who had always lead a very healthy lifestyle and ate health foods and vitamins, changed Grandmother's exercise and eating habits. They walked three miles every day, had a very large vegetable garden, and ate well. They were both very healthy when a cruel accident took Roy's life.
He used goat manure to fertilize their garden, and some toxin from the manure got into an open wound on his hand. He immediately contracted blood poisoning and died within 24 hours, ending what had been a very happy second marriage for Grandmother.
Roy Clark died on August 4, 1977 and Grandmother Corbin-Clark was again a widow living in her home until she was 90. She and Roy had done quite a bit of decorating and upkeep to the home and she was very happy living there. She didn't maintain the large vegetable garden they had but had a beautiful flower garden along the south side of her house. She loved tending her roses and other flowers.
Soon after her 90th birthday, it became apparent that Grandmother Corbin-Clark was beginning to suffer some kind of dementia and her illness was diagnosed senile dementia and she began a steady decline. She left her home and moved in with her oldest daughter, Lucille (Corbin) Clark. She lived with Lucille Clark for nearly a year before her mental and physical health declined so that it was impossible for Lucille to care for her. She then became a resident of St. Marys Manor in St. Marys, Kansas. Soon it was also discovered that Mildred had uterine cancer. Grandmother Corbin-Clark did not have a happen ending to her life. She had always dreaded becoming a patient in a nursing home. She died there on March 22, 1994, just five days short of her 92nd birthday.
My mother, Lucille (Corbin) Clark, used to always say, "We didn't know we were poor until someone told us." We don't miss what we've never had. The Corbins were honest, proud, and Grandmother Mildred worked very hard to keep her family clean, clothed and fed. Although they didn't have a lot of money, they always had each other's love. Grandmother and Grandfather Corbin did see that each of their five children graduated from high school at Maple Hill, Kansas. They gave them good educations---and all of the children learned from the "school of hard knocks." They learned to work for others from early ages.
My mother, Lucille (Corbin) Clark, did babysitting and housework for others. She was a live-in companion for Mrs. Fanny Turnbull after graduating from high school. Shortly after her marriage, she worked for her Lemon cousins, Pete and Virginia (Mitchell) Kelling in their grocery store in Topeka, Kansas. Then she and my father worked for his sister and her husband, John and Thelma (Clark) Hedges in their grocery store in Denison, Kansas. Then I came along! I remember my mother taking care of four sons and also taking in laundry and ironing and washing and setting the hair of many women in her kitchen. She was the telephone operator that replaced my Grandmother Mabel R. Clark in the Maple Hill Central Office and then worked as the secretary in the Maple Hill Grade School for 17 years.
As a child, I remember spending lots of happy hours and days with Grandfather and Grandmother Corbin. Both were very active in the Maple Hill Community Congregation Church and all of their children attended Sunday School every Sunday and became members there. Grandfather Corbin was the Chairman of the Church council from 1950 through his death and Grandmother Corbin was active in the Ladies Aid Society and other church projects.
I look back and marvel at Grandmother Corbin. I don't know how she accomplished all she did with what she had. I remember her having a four-burner Perfection kerosene range with two-burners under the oven. The range sat in the kitchen during the winter and was moved to the back porch in the spring, summer and fall.
I don't know how she made the wonderful meals she prepared on this range. Nearly every Sunday, the entire extended family gathered at Grandfather and Grandmother Corbin's for "Sunday Dinner" following church. There would often be from 15 to 25 people there, including the minister and his family. The baking of breads and desserts was usually done on Saturday, but the Sunday Dinner was done early on Sunday morning. I remember the menu as usually being some kind of chicken (roast, fried, chicken and noodles or dumplings, and vegetables from the garden or those canned from the garden, and lots of jello salads (which could also be prepared on Saturday.) The adults always ate at the big kitchen table, which had three our four leaves when extended, and the children ate at another table on the back porch or in the living room.
In the afternoon, everything was cleared, the dishes were done, and those present (adults and children) moved to the living room where Grandmother Corbin or Aunt Joan or Aunt Sarah and later Aunt Vivian would sit down at the big upright piano and there would follow a songfest. Included were hymns as well as a host of popular hits from World War I and World War II as well as the hits of the day. Aunt Vivian and Aunt Joan worked in Topeka and often bought sheet music which was shared. Everyone memorized the words. People today wonder how I'm able to recall the words of WWI and WWII songs---its because we all sang them Sunday after Sunday. I loved those songfests and I miss them to this day. After I married in 1970, my wife and I many times had Sunday dinner at Moundview Farm and would invite everyone to move into the parlor where I sat at my big upright piano and enjoyed singing with all present. We never had the big extended family sings as Grandfather and Grandmother Corbin had, but we always enjoyed the music.
I remember the piano as being similar to this picture, which I found on-line. The piano was not moved from the farm to town, when the house was moved. In later years, I asked my Grandmother Corbin, my mother and my aunts what happened to the piano and no one seemed to be able to recall why it wasn't moved to where it went. I hope whoever got it enjoyed it half as much as our family did during those Sunday afternoon sing alongs.
I suppose I've used thousands of words to say that Robert and Mildred (McCauley) were great parents, they worked hard, they provided well for their family, they were able to have the essentials of live but I think my Grandmother Corbin would say that there was so much they wanted and planned for that they were never able to have.
I'm able to say for certain, that when I was around my Grandfather and Grandmother Corbin, I was happy. They were rather strict, much more so than my Grandmother Clark, they were always counting pennies, but I never felt neglected or unloved. What more could we ask?
Next, I want to write about my mother, Lucille (Corbin) Clark and my father, John Leander "Tim" Clark and their four sons, Nicholas, Gary, Steve and Stan.
Happy Trails!
I'm so glad I found this article. Roy H Clark was my grandfatherI don't remember Bessie, my grandmother his first wife, but I have fond memories of grandma Mildred. and I remember going to Maple Hill to family gatherings.
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