Grandma Middleton (Ann Todd) came from a very different background. Her father had died, and her mother married again. The stepfather was an austere person, who would not tolerate any show of affection between mother and daughter. So, poor little Ann Todd (grandmother) had a rather harsh, loveless bring up. She was sent out to work in the fields at a very early age. It was while she was a "field-hand" that young Steve Middleton met her, and seeing what a poor, unloved kid she was, he took her home to his mother. The former Barbara Campbell opened her heart and her home to the young neglected girl.

Grandma used to tell her children many years later that the first bit of mother-love she ever knew came from Grandpa's mother. So I think she must have been a wonderful woman.

In time the young people were married. They wanted to marry and come directly to America, but they would not come without the mother and she did not feel that she could leave England, where all her friends and interests were, and come to a totally strange place. They waited a long time.

When they finally came in 1879, they had nine children. Grandpa came over first, and got a job and saved his money, then sent for them. When he came, he went to the Hazleton, PA area, where he had a brother, Will. The brothers had not seen each other for many years, and Grandpa must have thought that he might not be recognized; so he bought a trinket that had belonged to their mother; something that he knew his brother would recognize, and would know that this would surely be his brother.

It was Thanksgiving Day, 1879, that the family landed in New York, and Grandpa went down to meet them and bring them "home". He had been saving his money to pay their passage here, and had not wasted any on his personal appearance; so he was dressed like a "hick", going down to meet them.

There was a man on the train who seemed quite interested in him. When Grandpa told him that he was going to New York to meet has family coming from England, he said that he wanted to buy them their first dinner in the new homeland. Grandpa said, no, that would be too much because there would be his wife and nine children. But the man insisted; and he actually bought a turkey dinner for the whole family. Aunt Hannah said that Grandpa always wanted turkey for Thanksgiving. I suppose it was in memory of that first Thanksgiving they were here. Goose was all right for Christmas (traditionally English), but it had to be turkey for Thanksgiving.

The next November - 1880 - Aunt Hannah was born, the first Yankee in the family, and the only Yankee to survive. There were twin boys born here also, but they died, I believe in infancy. Aunt Hannah was about 79 years old when she died. She was I think, the best woman I ever knew. I never remember hearing her say an unkind word about anyone. She was always ready to help others.

The nine children who came over from England were - Will, Jack, Steve, Tom, Harry, George (the baby), Barbara, Jennie, and another girl, whose name I don't remember. She grew up, married, and died way before my time.

John Campbell Middleton (my father, always known as Jack) was born February 20, 1868, in Hetton-le-Hole in the County of Durham, England. I can't tell you the name of the town. When I was a kid and would ask him where he was born, all the answer I ever got was "County of Durham" ("Hetton-le-Hole" now part of City of Sunderland) . He became a coal mine worker when he was old enough, and worked for many years in the Marvine Mine, Scranton, PA.

About the turn of the century (1900) or shortly after, he left the mines and got a job in the Lackawanna Railroad Shops in Scranton, for the water service department; and eventually in April 1904 they sent him to Elmhurst, PA to take care of the water pumping station, at what I believe was called "Throop's Tank", where steam engines took on water.

We lived there until the latter part of March 1908, when Father went to West Mountain Sanatorium, Scranton, PA to see if it would help his health (miner's asthma). We came back to Scranton and went with Grandpa and Grandma Golightly temporarily. We had just been there a few days when West Mountain sent my father back to us. "To gain a little strength", they said, because the treatment was quite hard on him. But actually, they sent him home to die. He died within a week or less. April 2, 1908.

Then began Mother's several years of hard work to raise the three of us. Marion was not quite 14, I was not quite 12 and Jack was thirteen months old. But with God's help we all got grown and I think Mother did a pretty good job. For a family tree, if you make one, your father (John Campbell Middleton) was born, March 1, 1907, in Elmhurst, Pa. -------