With this post, I will begin my review of Casbon family members in the 1950 United States Census. As I mentioned in my previous post, detailed images of the 1950 census were made available to the public on 1 April 2022. They are available on several genealogy websites as well as a dedicated page at the National Archives. At this point, my review will only cover the descendants of Thomas (1803–1888) and James (~1813–1884) Casbon, the two brothers who emigrated from England to America separately and settled in Porter County, Indiana. There is a Casbon family with Creole roots based in Louisiana. I do not have enough information about them to locate them in the 1950 census at this time but may do so at a later date.
I’ll begin with Lawrence Leslie Casbon, my great-grandfather. He is a good starting point because he was the oldest living Casbon when the census was taken in April 1950. He was the oldest son of Sylvester Casbon (1837–1927) and was born 23 March 1865 in Boone Township, Porter County.
Here is the census entry for Lawrence and his wife, Kate (Marquart). I’ve cut and pasted so that you can see the top of the census form with the column headings.
Here is a summary of the information for Lawrence and Kate (reading from left to right)
- Street/house number: Morgan/103
- Name[s] Lawrence L Casbon/Kate D Casbon
- Relationship to head of household: Head/Wife
- Race: W/W[hite]
- Sex: M/F
- Age at last birthday: 85/81
- Marital status: Mar/Mar[ried]
- State of birth: Ind/Ind[iana]
- What was this person doing most of last week? U/U[nable to work]
Lawrence and Kate had been living in their modest home at 103 Morgan Blvd since he retired from farming in about 1930. Here is a photo of them taken about 1939.
The census form indicates that the list of household occupants continues on the next page. Here, we find that Lawrence and Kate had a lodger, Florence B. Aylesworth, 65 years old.
Florence (Shoup) was the wife of Glenn R Aylesworth, whose sister Carrie was married to the second oldest Casbon in Porter County—Amos Casbon! Why Florence, whose husband was still living, was lodging with Lawrence and Kate is a mystery.
On the same census page and living just around the corner from Lawrence and Kate, at 206 Chicago St, was their youngest son Lynnet Casbon, with his wife (Alice) Belle (see “A Poet in the Family“) and their two children, Mary and David (see “In Memorium …”). I have a dim recollection of visiting “Uncle Lynnet” at his home when I was a child.
Lynett’s occupation is given as “Proprietor – Retail Electric Appliance Shop (see “The Casbon Electric Company”).
Lawrence died on 16 June 1950—just two months after the census was taken—after suffering a heart attack. Kate survived until 4 June 1959.
Seeing these names on a census page draws me into the past and somehow makes me feel closer to these people. 1950 is within the living memory of some of my readers; still more will have known the people named in the census. Perhaps seeing their names will bring back some memories; feel free to share them in the Comments section!