| Transcription of Oral History - Continued |
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| MP |
How many children did he have -- Milton Barton? |
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| WB |
He had ten. |
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| MP |
He had ten children. |
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| WB |
Ten children, and my father is the oldest of the ten. |
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| MP |
Oh, yes. |
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| WB |
And his name is Carey Barton. And Carey Barton had nine children which I am the youngest. |
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| MP |
I see. |
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| WB |
And I have one son, and my son in turn has one son to try to carry on the Barton name. |
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| MP |
Yes, yes. And so they all settled here in Normal? |
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| WB |
Yes. |
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| MP |
All right. |
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| WB |
And see at one time, Milton had a sister come through -- her name was Judy or Judah, and she wanted to establish a reservation here, but didn't find any takers. And Fell didn't find any takers among the whites. So she went farther north, and they seem to think it was around the Pontiac area. There's Bartons in Normal, Bloomington, Pontiac, [and] Batavia. Those are the ones I can name offhand. Back then they had large families. We are also related to the Dabneys who most of the kids went to school here like I did. |
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| MP |
I see. |
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| WB |
Most of them went through Normal High School -- all except their youngest. They had a family of seven girls and two boys like we did. The oldest in my family was my brother, Hillard, and I was the youngest of the nine. The Dabneys had seven girls and two boys, and the youngest was Sherma Dabney who also went to Illinois State. And she's teaching in Milwaukee. |
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| MP |
Oh, is she? |
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| WB |
And has her doctor's degree. |
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| MP |
I see, is she teaching at the university there? |
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| WB |
No, I think it is in the city schools. |
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| MP |
Now, your grandfather, Milton Barton, continued to work here for...? |
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| WB |
Jesse Fell. |
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| MP |
In this university, once the university was established? |
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| WB |
As far as I know, he didn't work for anybody else. |
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| MP |
He continued to work as a gardener? |
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| WB |
Yes. |
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| MP |
Now, what about your father? |
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| WB |
Now, my father was born here on School Street and Water Street. |
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| MP |
Now, your grandfather owned his home? |
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| WB |
I guess, or he got it from Fell or something because all this land at one time belonged to Fell. |
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| MP |
Now, your father, did he own his home? |
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| WB |
Yeah, he first lived at the corner of Beaufort Street on the southwest corner of Beaufort Street and Broadway, right north of the railroad. There is a filling station in there now. |
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| MP |
Yes. |
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| WB |
My first three brothers and sisters were born there. |
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| MP |
I see. |
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| WB |
Then they moved to [address omitted], which is the second house from the corner of Cherry and Oak. |
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| MP |
Is the house still there? |
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| WB |
Yes, the house is still there, and my sister still lives there, my oldest sister. |
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| MP |
Now, we haven't interviewed her. So we must do that. Now, I must get her name so that -- what is her name now? |
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| WB |
Dorothy Stockstell |
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| MP |
Dorothy... |
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| WB |
Stocksdell. S-T-O-C-K-E-L. No S-T-O-C-K-S-T-E-L-L, [address omitted]. |
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[. . . text omitted . . .] |
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| WB |
She went to Normal Community High School |
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| MP |
Normal Community High School. |
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| WB |
And you see all my sisters when they grew up -- my mother was pretty strict. They made a beeline for Chicago, and most of them lived there except me. I didn't like the big city. |
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| MP |
I see. |
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| WB |
I went to Mt. Vernon first in Indiana. Then to Indianapolis. I've been in Indianapolis all my life since I left here in Normal. |
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| MP |
When you grew up, what did your father do? That's what I wanted to know. What kind of work did your father do? |
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| WB |
Oh yes, my father was a tinsmith and a coppersmith, and as a teenager he worked for a family named Champion. I think it was Thomas Champion. He worked for them for several years. He had to take a job -- my dad had to take a job to kind of help with the family. And he worked for odd jobs until he fell in with the Champion family. He worked for the Champions a long time, and they decided that this man could do better. So they taught him a trade, and they paid for his apprenticeship. And he ended up -- well, the Champions at that time were the first ones to come out canning tomatoes. |
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| MP |
Oh, that's right, yes. |
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| WB |
And he worked for Champion, and the way I figured he must have been one of the few that was soldering the cans. They solder the lids on. |
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| MP |
Yes, yes. |
