Charles Henry Palmer and Manerva Jennie Frost

Charles Henry Palmer was the fourth child of William and Esther and appears to be the most elusive. Born in 1843, he is shown in all the Federal Census records in his parents' home in Manchester until 1870. After that he does not appear again until the 1900 Census. The only mention of Charles in Jane's account is a simple statement that he went to live in Clare County, among his mother's people. After a great deal of research, Esther's older sister, Clarissa Bronson Landers, was found, in 1880 in Summerfield Township, Clare Co., MI. She was living with her son, Benjamin Landers. In the 1900 Federal Census for Summerfield Township, Charles Palmer is shown in the dwelling next to that of Benjamin's son, Charles Landers.

Living on the other side of Charles Palmer in 1900 was William Frost. William grew up in Woodstock, Lenawee Co. MI, less than ten miles from the Palmer farm on section 16. He married Sarah Burch; and two children, Frank and Manerva Jennie, were born of that marriage. In April of 1887, a child, Inez, was born to Jennie Frost. The father of this child was Charles Palmer. A marriage record has not been found for Charles and Jennie, or a birth record for the child, Inez Mary Palmer. The liaison between Charles and Jennie was not a long one. In 1890, Jennie married Francis Crocker, and she lived with him for the rest of her life. Inez was born in Midland, MI; according to other records. She spent her early childhood with her mother in Eaton Rapids, MI; but when she was married in 1906 in Clare County, she gave her residence as Summerfield Township, Clare County. Her parents were listed on the marriage license as Charles H. Palmer and Jennie Frost. Inez apparently stayed in contact with her father after her marriage. There are numerous postcards mailed from her to her father and a birthday card from him to her. Also found in an old trunk, thirty years after her death, were many photographs of Palmer family members, including Esther, William, Charles, Ham, and Kate. Duplicates of most of these photographs are kept at the Historical Room of the Manchester Township Library. Inez probably acquired these possessions after the death of her father since the post cards were postmarked and sent to Charles Palmer, Rt#1, Harrison, Michigan. The latest one was dated 1911. In his brother Oscar's obituary in 1912, Charles is listed as living in Paris, Michigan. The Horning List shows his date of death as 1 July 1913, but supplies no place. No more official record has ever been found.

Charles Henry Palmer

Inez married Gustave William Luebke, the son of Prussian immigrants, Carl Ludwig Luebke and Anna Dombroska. Carl had come to America in the 1860's and made his home in Wausau, Wisconsin, where Gustave was born. Gustave came to Michigan in search of work. His occupation on the marriage license was that of printer. Inez and Gustave moved frequently in the early years of their marriage. Records show that they lived in Wausau and Oshkosh, WI, and in Clare County, Saginaw and Eaton Rapids, MI. Five children were born of this marriage: Ethel, Edward Charles (Ted), James, and twins, Richard Allen and Florence Camille. Sometime in the early 1920's the couple moved to Florence, AL. Within several years Gustave had moved back to Michigan, but Inez stayed in Alabama. Eventually the couple divorced and each remarried. The comment that Jane made of her grandmother, Esther, could probably apply to Inez. She deserved consideration and received it. In 1967, at least forty years after her marriage to Gustave had ended, Gustave remarked that Inez was a woman of beauty and stature. He said that her beauty came from within and her stature from the earliest families in America. No one knows what caused the marriage to end, but the couple retained a high regard for one another all the days of their lives.

Inez Palmer

This photo of Inez was taken in 1902 in Eaton Rapids, Michigan. In 1928, Inez married Edward Coburn Parrish, a widower with nine children, and lived the rest of her life in Florence, Lauderdale Co., AL. She died there in May of 1968 and was buried in Greenview Cemetery. The children of Inez Palmer and Gustave Luebke had a total of 27 children. Their descendants now number well over 100. The oldest daughter of Inez and Gustave, Ethel, died of cancer in the early 1950's. She was married first to Louis Brooks and had two children from that marriage, Mervin and Muriel. She then married William Ray. Three children were born of this union: Nancy, Robert and James. At the time of her death she and her family were living in Glendale, Davies Co., IN. The oldest son, Edward Charles, married Mildred Leeke of Robinson, Crawford Co., IL, in 1941. Ten children were born of this marriage. Mildred died in 1957, when the oldest was barely fifteen years old and the youngest nine months old. Their children were James Lester, Susan Ethel Marie, Elizabeth Ann, Edward Charles Jr., Molly June, George William, John Francis, Cindy Lou, Terry Lee and Judy Mildred. After the death of their mother, three separate families in the State of Michigan legally adopted six of these children. Edward died in 1967 in Washtenaw County. He is buried next to Mildred in Drayton Plains Cemetery in Waterford Twp., Oakland Co., MI.

The second son, James, married Ethel Swigert of Washtenaw Co., MI. Two children were born of this marriage, Norman and Robert. James and Ethel lived all of their married life in Washtenaw County. He died in 1994 and is buried there.

Richard Allen (twin) married Jimmie Sue Mackey of Florence, AL. Six children were born to them: Liea Lona, Francelia, Dennis, Barry, Cindy and Joseph. Richard was stationed at Pearl Harbor and was there when the Japanese bombed it. After the war, he and his young family lived briefly in Washtenaw County, MI, and then moved to Glendale, Davies Co., IN. He died near there, in Montgomery, in 1998.

Florence Camille (twin) is the only surviving child of Inez and Gustave. She married Clifford Hipps of Lauderdale Co., AL, in 1938 and has lived there since. She and Clifford had four children: Mary Ann, Ray, Charles and Michael. Florence and her mother were very close and lived near one another until Inez's death in 1968. Various old letters, photographs and newspaper articles supporting this family's history are in her possession. She has shared these materials freely and provided many vivid recollections of her childhood and her family. Without her help this family's history probably could not have been written with such detail.