I do not know a whole lot about Daddies life except he was born on July 27, 1895 in Lawrence, Indiana. His parents, Ernest and Edith, had 9 children, 8 boys and 1 girl. The bragdon's were one of the founding families of Lawrence, along with the Whiteside's, and Plummers.
Daddy was a carpender, and he built or assisted in building most of the older homes in Lawrence. He also built and maintained the handcar houses along the railroad tracks.
He was in France in WW1 in the 18th Engineers, Company E. He was briefly in Germany in WW11, about 6 months Aunt Ruth told me.
He was first married to Helen Bolton and they had two girls, Edna Mae, and Alice Fae.
He met and married my mother, Marjorie B. Cook, in 1936. She was 18 and he was 41. They in turn had 7 children. Howard Jr, (Sonny) 1937, Jimmy (who died at the age of 5 months) 1938, Diana 1939, Beverley 1940, Donald 1941, Roberta Charlene 1943, and Lois Ann 1945.
Around 1948, when Mom left Lawrence with what kids she had kept with her, Daddy started drinking and lost himself for a while. He then got a job with a horse transport company and traveled all over the country with race horses. After I was put in the home, I always waited eagerly for his letters and postcards so I could see where he was and what he was doing. He would tell me about his travels and the horses he was transporting at that time.
I think it was in 1953 or so that he returned to Lawrence and moved into the room over the Post Road garage. He did odd jobs for Uncle Wilbur and helped around the statiion untiil his death on April 1,1957.