Broadus Robert Connell

Broadus Robert Connell

Granddad J.C. described him to me as a tall man, probably around 6 feet tall. I imagine that he also had a good sense of humor, since both Granddad J.C. and Uncle Doug (Granddad's brother) were both good at making jokes. He valued education enough to sell a valuable horse that would be missed on the farm so that Granddad J.C. would be able to go to college. He himself only had a 4th grade education.

You can see how tall Broadus was compared to other men in this picture. You'd think he would have dressed up a little for a picture, right?

Birth: March 31, 1891
Marriage: April 11, 1914 to Laura Elizabeth Marcus. Broadus had just turned 23 years old less than two weeks before the wedding. Laura was 19 years old. They had 9 children, and here they are in age order, oldest to youngest:

Roddy Broadus, Norman Gonzales, Ivey Kibben, June Lucile, Stephen William, Dorthy E, Julius Clyburn (J.C.), Douglas Marcus, and Betty Joyce. Granddad J.C. is the only one of his siblings still living.

Death: June 24, 1953

1920 Census:

Click to enlarge

Broadus worked on his farm and Laura was working as a house wife. Their three oldest children had been born. At this point, they were renting.

Something really neat from this census, when you see the whole page this was taken from, is that there are four families of Connells on this sheet (Frank, Mary, Robert, Broadus) and a family of Sinclairs (we're related to them on the Connell side). Frank Connell is Broadus's uncle, and Robert is his father. I'm not sure who Mary is; I'm guessing that she's some sort of cousin. 

There's a note along the side of the census that says, "These are all houses off from any road except country roads." I'm guessing that everyone in these houses worked on the same general farm. There are also a few African American families on the same census page, probably indicating that they were sharecroppers on the farm. Their last names are Taylor and Joye (or Jaye, I'm not sure). Granddad has told me that he remembers playing with a little boy whose parents were sharecroppers on his familly's farm.

1930 Census:

Click to enlarge

 Here you can see that the family has grown from 5 to 8. What isn't shown by these censuses is the birth and death of Dorthy, who was born prematurely in November of 1927 and only lived for 21 days.

On a more positive note, we see here that the family is no longer renting, but own their own home and live on a farm. Broadus was working as a laborer on a county bridge, probably to bring in some extra money for his family.

This census page also has more Connells on it. Broadus's father is there with a new wife (Maggie) and a son who's the same age as Broadus's kids. Broadus's brother Charlie is also there, but the rest of Charlie's family is on the next page of the census.

1940 Census:

Click to enlarge

This census shows all of the family members, including Bettie Joyce, the baby of the family. We see that the oldest son has already completed two years of college. 

Another thing we see is that Broadus worked on the farm for his main occupation and Laura still stayed at home. Broadus was a hard worker--he had worked fifty-five hours on his farm in the week before this census was taken. All of his children that were old enough to go to school were attending a school of some kind.

__________________________________________________

I found a record for Broadus's passing when I was looking for more information on him on FamilySearch. Unfortunately, no image is associated with the record, so I was unable to glean any additional information from that record.