Second Generation

12. Antionette Cynthia ACKLEY was born on 6 May 1850 in Kalamo, Eaton , Michigan.^2,6,48,71 She appeared in the census in 1860 in Michigan. She died on 10 Jan 1884 in Kalamo, Eaton , Michigan.^2,48 She was buried in Hillside Cemetery, Kalamo, Eaton , Michigan.⁶⁴

Antionette Cynthia ACKLEY and William VAN VLEET were married on 9 Jul 1867.^2,72,73 They were divorced.² William VAN VLEET was born on 3 Dec 1843.² Antionette Cynthia ACKLEY and William VAN VLEET had the following children:

+36

i.

LeRoy VAN VLEET.

Antionette Cynthia ACKLEY and Frank Henry RARICK were married on 5 Mar 1879 in Kalamo, Eaton , Michigan.^2,48,71 Frank Henry RARICK⁴⁸ (son of Samuel RARICK and Celestia Arabella CLARK) was born on 29 Apr 1854 in Dover Center, Cuyahoga , Ohio.^48,71 He died on 22 Jun 1941 in Hayward, Alameda, California.^48,71 He was ill with gangrene left foot about 1941 in Hayward, Alameda, California.⁴⁸ Frank Henry Rarick was born 29 April 1854 in Dover Center, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, the son of Samuel and Celesitia (Clark) Rarick. He and his family moved to Kalamo, Eaton County, Michigan in 1861, where Frank married (1), in 1874, Ida Fox, who died in childbirth in 1875. He married (2), in 1879, Antoinette Ackley who died, carrying their third child, in 1884. They had a son, Henry who died as an infant, and a daughter, Lulu Jerusha Rarick, b. 9 December 1881.


Frank was very distraught after the death of his two wives and decided that he would start anew with his daughter Lulu in Clark County, South Dakota. By studying the land patents of South Dakota and comparing them with the family stories, I have determined that Frank followed his brothers, Edwin and William to the Dakota Territory about 1887. Edwin went there about 1883 and William about 1885. I assume Frank came to the area sometime in 1887 or 1888 because he met his third wife, Rachel Carey, there and they were married in Garden City 6 March 1889.


Life was not easy in the Dakota Territory. There were very few trees, miles of uncultivated land, and some very harsh weather to deal with. When the railroad came through Clark County, however, it allowed for lumber and goods to be transported more easily from the east and so these hardy pioneers began to settle the area. I believe that Frank and Rachel first lived in Maydell Township just outside of Garden City where Frank was granted a land patent in September of 1889. By 1894 the family had moved to Bradley where Frank received a homestead patent of 160 acres in Cottonwood Township. Frank was a carpenter/contractor by trade and so he built their frame house in Bradley (see picture). I don’t know what crops Frank grew, but I know that he and Rachel worked hard to support their family and their community. Frank told his youngest daughter that in the winter he had to tie a rope from the house to the barn so that he could find his way back and forth during the many blizzards that occurred.


Frank and Rachel had three daughters born in Clark County, South Dakota: Cora Altha Mary Rarick, born 6 May 1890 (this is my grandmother and she later dropped the name Cora and went by Altha); Artha Emily Rarick, born 27 January 1892; Kate Arabelle Rarick, born 1 April 1893.


In July of 1897, Frank had gone into "town" to buy supplies. On his way home, a sudden thunderstorm caused lightning, thunder and heavy rain. He stopped at his brother’s place to see if it would pass and to dry off a bit. His brother tried to talk him in to staying until the storm passed, but Frank felt compelled to go on home. When he arrived in the yard, he found his wife Rachel lying near the barn. She had gone out to put the animals in the barn when the storm hit and had been struck by lightning. Her three little daughters and her stepdaughter, Lulu, were in the house alone and terrified.


Frank was again devastated by the loss of a wife but tried to continue on alone with four daughters. His sister-in-law Julia (Sjolie) Rarick, married to his brother William, was worried about him and was always looking for a helpmeet for him. When a young man from New York visited their church, she asked him if he knew of any older, single ladies who would be willing to marry a widower with four children. He said he knew one lady in his church back in New York who would be a good mother and wife. So Frank began a correspondence with Elizabeth Meyer, a spinster in her late 30s who was a buyer in a major department store in New York City. After exchanging many letters, Frank took a train to New York, courted Elizabeth and asked her to marry him. She came out to South Dakota and they were married in May of 1900. Imagine the adjustment that Elizabeth had to make from being a single woman, living in her own apartment in a big city, working and independent to being a wife, mother of four, and living on an isolated farm in a barren landscape with no friends or relatives nearby! When my grandmother first saw her new stepmother, dressed all in white and coming into the house, she thought she was an angel. She was a very good stepmother. When Elizabeth discovered she was pregnant in late 1901, she convinced Frank to move back to Michigan where his family had lived and where things were a bit more developed with more conveniences. So the Frank Rarick family left South Dakota, but they left a part of the family there in the Prairie Hill Cemetery. They also left the homestead that Frank had built and two churches that he helped to build, one in Bradley and the other in Lily (Day County)


Frank and Elizabeth Rarick finished raising their children in Kalamo, Eaton County, Michigan. They moved to California in 1924 and Frank died there 22 June 1941.


I never knew my great grandfather, but his story typifies the hardships faced by our ancestors, the tragedies of early deaths, the strength and fortitude of the pioneers to take risks and work hard to build families and communities that survived. His priorities were God, family, neighbors, country and I am proud to be a descendant of this man.
Antionette Cynthia ACKLEY and Frank Henry RARICK had the following children:

37	i.	Henry (Harry) RARICK was born on 14 Dec 1879 in Kalamo, Eaton , Michigan.48,71 He died on 20 Mar 1880 in Kalamo, Eaton , Michigan.48,71
+38	ii.	Lulu Jerusha RARICK.