Minnie Hilda Davis Casey

The postmaster in Austin, Indiana told my mom that Minnie Casey was the most beautiful woman to come to Scott County.  By the time I knew her, she has lost her youthful beauty, wore her hair in a bun, always wore a dress and when working, an apron, hummed as she worked, and she frowned and worried a lot.  She was early rather than late and soft-spoken.  In her sixties, she developed a high, hoarse voice which the doctor said was caused by nerves.

Minnie met Ulric "Doc" Casey when he was in telegrapher's training in Litchfield, Illinois where she lived with her family with her grandmother Pullen just down the street.  I wish I knew exactly what happened back in l905 and l906, but all I know is that a marriage license was issued to Minnie and Doc in May l906 in Scott County and that their daughter, Mabel, was born in Litchfield, Illinois in July, l906.  Sometime after that, Grandma and little Mabel took the train back to Austin where they lived, first in the Casey family home at the corner of Plum and the railroad tracks, then in a two bedroom home Doc built on the northeast corner of the Casey property.  I can still hear my mother moaning the fact that he built only two bedrooms when they already had two girls and a boy with another yet to come.  Grandma Minnie had grown up in a two bedroom in Litchfield in a large family.  Her father and brothers worked in the coal mines and had to clean up in the barn every evening before being allowed in the house.

I loved to visit in Austin.  I can remember lying on the hardwood floor by the bookcase reading, rocking in the front porch swing, standing at attention and saluting as military convoys drove down the highway, watching Grandma feathering chickens after Grandpa had wrung their necks.  Grandma was the only person who called me "Susie" and she didn't boss or nag or quiz, but she did a lot of cooking and filled the dining room table with lots of food.

My mother said that when she was little and someone came to the door, Grandma would say, "Go get your father, someone's here."  I often wonder what she would have been like if Grandpa had moved to Litchfield instead of Grandma moving to Austin.  Grandpa's parents and grandparents had known the Scott County families for a few generations.  Grandma was a newcomer and depended on him to direct her socially.

I don't ever remember hearing of the Davis and Casey families meeting.  But I found a special photo taken in Austin about 1911 showing Minnie, Doc, both sets of their parents, and sitting in front were Mabel and her two younger siblings, Dahlgren and Margaret.

Minnie lived to be 92.  In her older years, she often sat in her rocking chair, reminding visitors that that's what Jack Kennedy, president in the early sixties, did.


Sue<Hilda Casey<Minnie Davis