He was born in Fertigs PA on Apr 1, 1889. The first record we find for Ula is the 1900 census taken as of June 1, 1900 since the 1890 census was lost in a fire. He is living with his parents, John and Henrietta, in Madison Township, Sandusky County, Ohio.
"Eula J" is 11 years old and did not attend school, instead working as a day laborer. This is not uncommon during the time period as children left school early and needed to help support the family.
In 1905, "Eula" again appears with his family in the Rural Directory for Sandusky County OH. The family lives on RFD Route 1 approximately 2-1/2 miles from Gibsonburg in Madison Twp.
I've never heard the story of how Ula and Ethel met. (If anyone out there knows, or has early photos, please email me so we can share.) We can tell from records, however, that Ula and Ethel ran away to get married. They were living in Gibsonburg at the time, but went to Detroit, Michigan to get married.
They lied about their ages which was easy to do at that time as there was no standard form of identification (not even driver's licenses for those who might have been able to afford a car). Ula represented himself to be 21 years of age when, in fact, he was 19 years 1 month and 27 days old. Ethel, who claimed to be 18 (the legal age in Michigan, while Ohio was 21), was in reality 16 years 6 months and 28 days old. They took Ula's sister, Fern Truby, and T. E. Ashton (who later became Fern's husband), along with them as witnesses to their marriage.
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