So, once there was a little girl named Trudy. She lived maybe forty miles from here - I could look it up, I suppose, but let's say that she lived over in Richmond, up Highway 13 from Lexington, Missouri. It happens that when Trudy was five-or-so years old, an older brother came to live with her family. Adopted, because the boy's mother had died and his father was unable to look after his son and daughters. He gave them up, poor fellow, up 'round Chicago, I think. James Wolfe was his name, but what was his story? Don't know. His wife's name? Don't know, but I know that they named their red-headed, blue-eyed son Albert Harley Wolfe, b. 23 Feb, 1891, in Flora Co. Illinois. His little sister Emma (b. 17 Dec. 1895), was sent west on an orphan train. Marshall & Nellie Stickney of Lewiston, Minnesota (down 'round Winona), adopted Emma, changed her name to Alice and raised her as their own. Alice Stickney went to the 1st Pres. church, played the organ there...

Harley, a carpenter, and Emma, aka Alice, had other sisters (Elizabeth? Dorothy?), their whereabouts unknown to me, but I know for sure that 9-year-old Harley grew up to serve overseas in the American Expeditionary Forces (WWI) and after a lot of other things happened, he was my mom's dad. AND Grandpa's kid sister, Trudy (Gertrude Brandt) would be 115 today, being as she was born 14 Jan, 1896, on the anniversary of the birth of Gen. Benedict Arnold, can't help adding, but whatcha gonna do?