Earnest Melville Bendure

3/18/99

Lt. Earnest Melville Bendure - 1919

"My father, Earnest Melville Bendure, was an engineer who built and operated steam heating systems to heat the houses and business places of small towns. He married my mother, Ruth Anna, before her two older sisters were even engaged, which was, of course, scandalous in those days.

Father had been educated after Grade School at Blees' Military Academy which enabled him to join the U.S. Army at beginning of World War I as a 1st Lieutenant. He was stationed a Camp Grant near Rockford, IL where he was in charge of the steam heating of all the camp buildings, so he only occasionally came to Rockford where we had an apartment.

When the war ended, Dad took us to Washington, D.C. where we had an apartment over some stores across from a big park. He knew a Charlie Yeager while in the Army, and when we left Washington, it was to go to Akron, OH where Mr. Yeager wanted to build a storage warehouse and moving company. He had a lot near the business center of town where a high cliff walled off one side, reaching to a residential section. His idea was to build apartments facing the street at the cliff's top, but the Great Depression killed that idea. I'm not sure if he lost his moving and storage business, or what, but Dad became a real estate agent - finding homes to rent or buy for people.

After I married Al and we had lived in Java for three years, we went back home on a leave. My father died before we got there and we heard of it while on board ship crossing the Pacific Ocean." - Myrtelle, 3/99

[Buckley Family Tree] [Family Tree Index]
Family Page
email corrections & additions