Clarence Franklin Fox

Who Am I?

Now We Know Who He Was!

My name is Clarence Franklin Fox, and I was born in Fayette County, West Virginia 30 Apr 1925. My parents were Benjamin Franklin Fox and Margaret Leona Fox.  My faternal grandparents were Miles Mansour Fox and Nancy Ellen Dick.  My maternal grandparents were  Joseph T. Fox and Lou Emma Francis Miller.  This picture of me was taken at the Fayette County, West Virginia Poor Farm in the late 1940's by "Shirley Ann Lazarsky" AKA Sherranlynn Kincaid. I lived at the Poor Farm after my mother died in 1936.  My legs were very crippled as you can see in this picture.  When I was sitting down my legs did not straighten out, and when I walked they stayed bent. "Shirley" does not know why I was crippled, maybe some disease? I had curly reddish hair. I was one of the youngest "inmates" as we were called living at the Poor Farm. I suppose I had no relatives that could take care of me, and that was why I was there?  I was like one of the family to the Lazarskys.  I loved to help out on the Farm with the chores that I could do. I liked to drive the horse and wagon and would take the extra corn on the wagon with "Shirley", driving all over the Oak Hill area to make me a little extra money. The county did not give the "inmates" money, just paid a little room and board. The Caretakers would buy the things we needed out of that money. In the 1940's "Shirley" did not know who any of her relatives were, but since she got started with this obsession and the genealogy "bug" bit, she's wondered many times if I was kin to her, for in her searching she found out that her grandmother turned out to be Margaret J. Fox, who married Mathias Carter. I stayed at the Farm until it closed up in 1951, and I was relocated, but "Shirley" does not know where I went to live. Her foster parents "Carl and Elizabeth Lazarsky" were the Caretakers of the Poor Farm and on January 20, 1952, they boarded the train in Thurmond, West Virginia to make the 8 hour trip to Adrian, Michigan, where they found work.  Mr. Lazarsky had a brother living in that town. "Shirley" was going to Collins High School at that time, and in the middle of the 11th grade.  She finished the 11th grade and graduated from Adrian High School, in Adrian, Michigan, where she married and raised 4 beautiful daughters.  Two daughters  still live in that area today. One is deceased.  One lives in the Toledo area.  She and her husband did go to live in Pulaski, Tennessee for 9 long years and have returned to the Toledo, Ohio area, which is only about 40 minutes away from Adrian.  Some older people may remember the previous Caretakers (which would be in the early 1940's) were the James's who lived just down the hill from the Farm, past Summerlee Road to the next hill, where they owned a dairy farm.  I remember, later the only Drive-In-Movie Theater was built near their farm. A couple individuals saw my picture and knew WHO I WAS.  Here's what one of them had to say:

I AM FROM CRAIGSVILLE WV AND CLARENCE FRANKLIN FOX WAS MY UNCLE. HE WAS MY DAD JOHN B. FOX'S BROTHER.   CLARENCE WAS BORN IN APRIL 30 1925 IN FAYETTE CO. WV. HIS PARENTS NAMES WERE BENJAMINE FRANKLIN AND MAGGIE FOX. HE HAD FOUR SISTERS AND ONE BROTHER.

HIS MOTHER PASSED AWAY IN APPROX 1936 AND "FRANK" REMARRIED AND HIS LOVELY BRIDE SAID THE KIDS HAVE GOT TO GO.............SO THEY GAVE THEM AWAY THE OLDEST GIRL WAS ALREADY ON HER OWN SOMEWHERE IN OHIO AND THE NEXT IN LINE (ALTA) TOOK THE YOUNGEST ONE (ATHA, 14 MO. OLD) AND RAISED HER AS HER OWN AND SHE HER SELF WAS ONLY SIXTEEN. GUESS CLARENCE WAS SHUFFELED AROUND FOR AWHILE AND THEN AT THE POOR FARM.

THEY FOUND AN AD IN THE PAPER WHERE FARM HELP WAS WANTED AND THEY TOOK MY DAD AT AGE 9 OVER AND DROPPED HIM OFF TO PERFECT STRANGERS AND NEVER CAME BACK.

SO, GUESS OVER THE YEARS THE KIDS DIDN'T KNOW WHERE THE OTHER ONES WERE. THEN MY DAD WENT INTO THE ARMY WAS STATIONED IN KOREA.  THAT'S WHERE HE WAS WHEN HIS FATHER "FRANK" PASSED AWAY.  SO, I GUESS AT THAT TIME IS WHEN THE "WICKED" STEP MOTHER TOOK CLARENCE IN. BECAUSE HE DREW SOME KIND OF CHECK SOME SAY.

WHEN MY DAD GOT OUT OF THE SERVICE HE LOOKED CLARENCE UP AND THEY SPENT A LITTLE TIME TOGETHER. MY DAD WAS MARRIED AND HAD 6 KIDS OF HIS OWN AND A FARM SO NOT MUCH TIME FOR VISITING, AND TOUCH WAS LOST AGAIN.

NOW MY DAD IS 71 THIS WEEK, CELEBRATING HIS 50TH WEDDING ANNIV., AND 10 GRANDCHILDREN AND 3 GREAT GRANDCHILDREN, AND NO INFO ON HIS OWN MOTHER. IT IS REALLY SAD HOW THEY WERE ALL DONE.  WE WERE HOPING CLARENCE MIGHT HAVE AS A CHILD SPOKE SOMETHING OF HIS MOTHER- ANYTHING.  THE ONLY TWO THAT'S LEFT (MY DAD, AND ATHA) WAS ONLY THREE AND 14 MO. AT HER PASSING AND WE WERE HOPING THAT HE WAS OLDER HE WOULD HAVE HEARD SOMETHING.

IF HE NEVER SPOKE OF HER EVEN ANY GREAT STORY ABOUT HIM WOULD DO MY DAD'S HEART GOOD.  BUT I HAVE SOME PICS OF CLARENCE WHEN MY DAD VISITED HIM AND HIS STEP MOM THAT CARED FOR HIM AND HIS FATHER AT A YOUNGER AGE.

CLARENCE PASSED IN AUG 7, 1977.  HE WAS LIVING IN BECKLEY WITH HIS STEP MOM HELEN AND HE IS BURIED AT OAK GROVE CEMETERY.  JUST FOUND IT ONE DAY LAST WEEK WENT THERE AND NO MARKER.  CALLED THE FUNERAL HOME AND THEY MADE HIM ONE AND NOW THEY TELL ME THAT THERE IS NO MAP OF HIS PLOT.  SO..............DON'T KNOW WHAT ELSE TO DO.  THAT IS WHERE WE ARE WITH HIS MOTHER, WE KNOW WHERE SHE IS BURIED BUT WE HAVE NO DATES AND WE HAVE CHECKED 5 SURROUNDING COUNTIES AND FUNERAL HOME RECORDS AND NO MAP OF THE GRAVE YARD EXISTS AND WE ARE AT A DEAD END.  LAST HOPE IS AT VITAL STAT. IN CHARLESTON WV. LIKE I SAID THEY DON'T EVEN KNOW WHY OR WHEN SHE DIED.

Clarence Franklin Fox Death Certificate

Clarence Franklin Fox, male, died 7 Aug 1977, white, age 52, born 30 Apr 1925, died in  Raleigh Co., Beckley , Appalachian Regional Hospital, never married, lived at 207 Warden St., Beckley, WV, Father's name-Frank Fox, dec., mother's maiden name-Helen Warden, Informant-Helen Fox, cause of death:  myocardial infarction with congestive heart failure due to atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, Burial Oak Grove Cemetery, 8-10-1977, Rose and Queensberry Funeral Home.

As it turns out Clarence Fox is kin to me.  He is a 4th cousin.  But I still think it's strange the connection I felt to this man.  I can't explain it.  I knew nothing about who I was.  Once I found out my grandmother was a Fox, it haunted me everytime I saw that picture of Clarence in my album.  So the mystery was solved again by cousins out there that I never dreamed I had.  Thanks (you know who you are)

His Faternal line is: 

Samuel Fox, I and Elizabeth Durham

John Fox and Lucinda J. Matthews

William Miles Fox and Sarah Carey

 Miles Mansour Fox and Nancy Ellen Dick

 Benjamin Franklin Fox and Margaret Leona Fox

 Clarence Franklin Fox

His Maternal line is:

Samuel Fox, Sr. and Elizabeth Durham

John Fox and Lucinda J. Matthews

William Miles Fox and Sarah Carey

Miles Mansour and Martha Rhodes

Joseph T. Fox and Lou Emma Francis Miller

Margaret Leona Fox

My Fox line is:

Samuel Fox, I and Elizabeth Durham

William M. Fox, Sr. and Elizabeth Durham

William M., Fox, Jr. and Margaret F. Harrah

Jonathan Allen Fox and Malinda Margaret Kincaid

Margaret J. Fox and Mathias Carter

Hattie Mae Carter and George Washington Kincaid

Sherranlynn Kincaid Nichols

Last Updated January 2, 2011

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