Not In The Care of Relatives
Not in the Care of Relatives
Copyright 2006, Harris B. McKee
PHILADELPHIA – Philip Redmond Jr. was placed in the care of relatives after the 23 month-old toddler climbed out of a second-story window and scampered across the porch rooftops of at least eight row houses in Philadelphia before a family dog’s barks alerted residents, who helped the boy down safely. Arkansas Democrat Gazette 7/19/2006.
Young Redmond was born about 100 years too late or perhaps expectations are higher in urban settings than they were in rural Iowa in 1900.
The year 1900 was a busy time for the McKees. J.F. McKee was building his first barn on the west side of the road. Isabel was pregnant for the fifth time and Wallace Flavel, carrying his father’s middle name, just two years old was going through the terrible twos for sure.
It was to be a state of the art barn. While nails were used, many components were pegged and mortised rather than using nails. Eight foot sliding doors were installed on both the north and south sides so wagons could drive right in beside the granaries where the load was to be shoveled. This path was elevated above the grade level about one foot. Above this ceiling was the haymow stretching over the entire barn. The haymow included a track mounted from the highest gable (perhaps 12-15 feet above the haymow floor) that could be used to carry hay lifted from a rack on the ground to the farthest end of the mow. The hay did have to be moved by pitchfork out to the sides. But these details were in the future the day that little Wallace went exploring.
Wallace would later show the prowess on the football field for Indianola High School that he demonstrated that day but he was not exercising for the football coach and his father was not providing early coaching as Tiger Woods would later receive from his father when he could barely walk. The carpenters were the first to notice the towheaded two year-old at the top of the ladder. He’d come up to watch the excitement and now he caused a lot more as they tried to capture him without dislodging him from the ladder. Fortunately, they were able to rescue him and turn him over to his father. Specific measures for preventing a second climb did not come down through the family oral history but they apparently were effective and no steps were taken to “place him in the care of relatives”.
Nearly a half-century later, I found the family in turmoil when I arrived home from Mt. Olive School. Alan, my three year-old brother, was missing. Since we lived on U.S. 65/69, apprehension was immediately raised that he had been abducted. He was such a cute toddler; obviously, he’d be much in demand by kidnappers for himself since any ransom possibilities were very limited. But before calling in the Warren County Sheriff, the family was determined to search the farm. It’s likely that Aunt Ruth was asked to help although I don’t remember that detail. The search covered all the buildings on the west side of the road; but he wasn’t found in the horse barn, the same barn Wallace had tackled in 1900 nor the new cow barn nor milk house nor either of the chicken houses. Finally, one of the searchers walking across the calf lot behind the cow barn happened to look inside a 55 gallon barrel that was lying on its side. Inside was a three year-old, his hand still resting on the little car that had moved so smoothly on the sides of the barrel until he fell asleep. As in the case of his Uncle, methods precluding another disappearance have been lost to posterity but they were successful without “placing him in the care of relatives.”