The year starts out on Jan 1, 1920 with the family living at 21 Minerva Street in Tiffin, Seneca County, Ohio. John C (69) and Henrietta (58) are renting their home. Living with them are their children: Hazel (31) and Lyman (25) along with daughter, Fern (27), her husband, Thomas Ashton (38) and their children Earl (7) and Ralph (4 yrs 9 mos). John and Hazel are unable to read and write (although the 1910 census had stated that John was able to write). Earl attended school. John is a laborer at the wagon factory. Lyman is a laborer at a conveyor factory and Thomas is a riveter at a conveyor factory.
21 Minerva St, Tiffin OH - photo taken late 1990's
My research of John C Truby took quite a few twists and turns after the 1920 census. He does appear in the 1920-21 Tiffin City Directory, living at 21 Minerva St (20 was a misprint) and working at the Tiffin Wagon Works. And the 1922 Tiffin City Directory shows Henrietta as the widow of John.
1920-1921
1922
John died Oct 3, 1920 in the Toledo State Hospital (otherwise known as the insane asylum at the time). Apparently he had been suffering from dementia for quite a period of time. His death certificate states that he died from "senile dementia" which he had for "years" and that exhaustion of a two-month duration contributed to this. It's unclear exactly how long he had been a patient at the State Hospital. It was not uncommon for dementia patients to suffer from exhaustion at the end of their illness as they tended to lose the desire to eat causing them to become weakened physically. That he was admitted to the Toledo State Hospital speaks to the family's inability to care for him, at least toward the end of his illness. His obituary would tend to make me think he was only there the final two months of his life.
I found John's death certificate quite by accident as I was scrolling through microfilms of the Toledo Health Dept death certificates looking for other Truby family members. Since I knew he was buried at Fairmont Cemetery in Tiffin, I assumed he had died there. One other detail from John's death certificate caught my attention. The marker shows that John died in 1919 rather than 1920. Did someone misread the date on the certificate? Another detail noted was that John's body was removed to Tiffin OH.
In between the time I found the graves at Fairmont and John's death certificate, I had been to Fertigs Cemetery in Venango County, Pennsylvania looking for the graves of John's parents as well as other family members buried there. While there, I found another marker for John C Truby. This was obviously a homemade marker consisting of a block of cement with white plastic letters/numbers nailed into it. For a while I wasn't sure whether John was buried in Tiffin or Fertigs, but after finding his death certificate I thought he must be buried in Tiffin.
Grave marker at Fertigs Cemetery - Fertigs PA
Much later in time I was at the public library in Tiffin doing some research and happened upon a book transcribing the lot owners at Fairmont Cemetery. I flipped to the page for the Trubys to find that the lot where John, Henrietta and Hazel are buried along with Fern and Tom Ashton was purchased by Ula Truby and Thomas Ashton at the time of Henrietta's and Fern's deaths in 1923. But wait...how could that be? Even his death certificate said John was taken to Tiffin in 1920. Of course, this also tends to explain that the date of 1919 was due to faulty memory since the marker could not have been made before 1923.
Grave marker at Fairmont Cemetery - Tiffin OH
Suddenly it became an urgent task for me to find John's obituary. This was the key to finding where John was really buried...
published in the Tiffin Daily Tribune on Oct 4, 1920
Remember that Centerville later became known as Fertigs. This also says John was born in 1851 which we know is not true as he appears on the 1850 census. Also, John's death certificate and the obituary incorrectly state that he was 69 years old when he died. In fact, he was 70. Again, faulty memory came into play.
But more importantly, this finally settles the question of what John's middle name is. You may have noted in Ula's funeral book that his father was named as John "Calvin or Curtis" Truby. Some in the family have always insisted that the correct name was Curtis because J.C. was named after him. While the obituary incorrectly shows his name as "John Alvin", I think it's safe to say his name was actually John Calvin Truby. As a side note, the Maccabees was a life insurance provider that can be compared to the Foresters or Woodsmen groups of today.
Again, my research into the lives of Henrietta and the children will be recounted later. At this time, I will move back to John's parents, David and Mary Bortz Truby.
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