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The Jukes in 1915

Creator: Arthur H. Estabrook (author)
Date: 1916
Publisher: Carnegie Institution of Washington
Source: Available at selected libraries

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Abe Isaac, by his second consort, Loretta, IV 3, whom he married, had seven children: Avery, Alton, Anson, Augustus, Alma, Alonzo, and Amiel. After Loretta died, Abe Isaac cohabited for a short time with Thelma, IV 4, but had no children by her.

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Avery, V 3, was "a laborer; at 30, grand larceny, county jail, 90 days; assault and battery, county jail, 90 days; at 49, rape on his niece, Sing Sing, 5 years; no property." He was none too industrious and received a pension as a Civil War veteran. He cohabited first with Satie, V 2, a wanderer and a harlot, and had two children by her. The older, VI 13, was a harlot like her mother and has been arrested for intemperance and disorderly conduct. The other, VI 14, a son, has disappeared.

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Satie deserted Avery and he then married Geneva, V 4, and by her had six children, the first dying at birth. While Avery was in State prison for rape on his niece, Geneva was in and out of the poorhouse with her children and it was in the poorhouse that, at the age of 31, her bastard child was born. Geneva's family is interesting. Her father has been in the penitentiary. Her mother was a pauper in the, poorhouse at the same time that Geneva and her children were there, making three generations of family who were being cared for by the town at the same time. There is no doubt that she was feeble-minded. At one time she tried to kill one of her children, and was thereupon sent to a hospital for the insane. She was addicted to the use of laudanum, an overdose of which caused her death.

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The first child of Avery and Geneva died in infancy. The second was VI 16, who was 15 when his father was in State prison. At 16 this boy was sent to the penitentiary for petit larceny. At 17 he was a vagrant, wandering here and there. At 18 and again at 20 he was in the poorhouse for one year. At 24 he was sent to the penitentiary for 3 months for petit larceny. At 20 he was sent to State Prison for 28 months for assault. At 35 he was in the county jail 1 month for intoxication, and again at 55 was in the county jail for 10 days for the same offense. He has lost one eye, can neither read nor write, works very seldom, and begs his way wherever he goes. He is mentally defective and should have been in custodial care many years ago. He has cohabited for a long time with a woman, VI 17, who is 10 years older than he, and is a beggar, indescribably filthy, and mentally defective. She has spent most of her life in the poorhouse. At 20 she was there and found her mother and sister there also. She can neither read nor write. She has never had any children.

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The third child of Avery and Geneva was a girl, VI 19. She was in the almshouse as a young girl and later was placed in a Children's Home. She was discharged from the latter institution after being there but a short time. As a grown woman she was attractive, neat-appearing, and quiet to a casual observer, but she had a career of harlotry begun early in life and continued after she married (at 26) VI 18, an ignorant, semi-industrious, but well- intentioned man. Soon after the birth of her first child, VII 49, she was divorced on the grounds of adultery. Cohabitation with a vicious criminal, VI 20 , followed and by him she had two children, one of whom died in infancy. This man was convicted of burglary and sent to State prison for 1 to 4 years, and during this time VI 19 again became promiscuous in her sex relations. After his discharge from State prison she again consorted with him, then later left him and cohabited with a negro by whom she had one child. At the age of 39, VI 19 was sent to jail for 10 days for using indecent language. Two weeks after she was discharged she was again arrested with her "husband," VI 20 and with Ulysses, V 194, for the same offense and sent this time to the penitentiary for 3 months. At 40 she was arrested for intoxication and sent to jail for 10 days. Even later in life, to one who did not know the real character of VI 19, her appearance, bearing, and behavior indicated a woman of some refinement. She associated with a woman much like herself in appearance but yet of the same low and vicious traits. She placed two of her children, VII 49 and VII 50, in a Children's Home. Her last child (by a negro) was taken by the negro's people at her death, which occurred at 42.

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The history of the two children placed in the Home follows. The boy, VII 49, was placed in the Home at the age of 7. The matron recalls him as "slow and with no back-bone." At 8 he was sent by a Children's Aid Society to a foster home in the West. The report of this child to the Society reads: "He has given a great deal of trouble, was hard to control, and untruthful. He set fire to a straw stack back of a new barn, nearly causing the loss of the building. He does not do well in school. His home is a good one and excellently kept. They have adopted a girl of 13 and are well to do." Soon after this report was sent in by the Society's visitor, the adopted girl became pregnant, suspicion turned toward the child's foster parent, and he, in turn, attempted to make the then 12-year-old Juke child admit the responsibility for the girl's condition. Soon after this the boy was transferred to another home, where a childless couple are giving him a good home and trying to do well by him. Here, at the age of 13, he is in school and doing fair work in grade 4. Some time ago, when angered by a schoolmate who had taunted him, he stabbed the boy in the arm with a knife. He has little stamina, but has a pleasant disposition, and is now in good physical condition. He has internal strabismus.

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