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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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Ephan died in 1906. He had several children by Golden (chart 6). He had seven children by the cousin mating, two of whom died in infancy: VI 6, above mentioned, who left the House of Refuge and died at the age of 17, and four other children- two boys, VI 12,1 VI 4, and two girls, VI 7, and VI 10. The two boys were arrested in 1870 for nearly killing a boy by pushing him over a cliff. The older was discharged, but the other, at the age of 14, was sent to State prison for 5 years.

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VI 2 is now a man of 70. He has made a poor living by fishing, hunting, and trapping, and has been arrested many times for not obeying the game laws. He is very intemperate and while intoxicated, though harmless, frightens the neighbors for miles around by his wild cries and shouts. He has an ugly disposition, and his temper is very easily aroused. He seduced and then married VI 1, a shrew, by whom be had seven children, only one dying in infancy.

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The first child, VII 2, has attended school but little, and then did not keep up with his classes. He has a quiet disposition and does what he can to support his family, which consists of a wife (neat, industrious, and of good repute) and four living children. The first child, VIII 1, is now 18, has St. Vitus dance, and is rapidly becoming mentally deteriorated; the second, VIII 2, is doing average work in school; and there are two still young.

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The second child of VI I and VI 2 is VII 4, an ignorant laborer. When young he was married to a harlot, by whom he had two children, one of whom died young. The woman and the remaining son disappeared and since then the husband has cohabited with another woman. At 19 he was arrested and fined for disorderly conduct. At 29 he and his family received town help for a period of 4 years. From 30 on he has been arrested many times for drunkenness, but never sentenced. At 35 he was arrested for breaking the ear-trumpet belonging to a deaf boy, but, after making good the damage he had done while drunk, he was discharged.

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The third child of VI 2, a boy, died in infancy.

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The fourth child, VII 7, did not learn easily in school, but, nevertheless, grew up a quiet, well-behaved, ambitious boy. At 20, soon after marriage and the birth of a child, he died of typhoid fever.

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The fifth child, VII 8, was an exceptionally bright boy in school. He went away from the Juke region, was industrious, and did well. He visited his parents at their home, did not return to his good position, married a reputable girl belonging to a disreputable family, and has gradually degenerated socially to the Juke level. He is now intermittently industrious, has little ambition, and seems to be reverting to the ancestral type. He has two small children.

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The sixth child of VI 2 (VII 10) did well and was of good behavior in school. After leaving school she went to work in a factory and soon became a harlot. She married and has four children. Her husband is industrious and provides a good home for her. When his work calls him away, which is often, she frequents a saloon near her home in the country.

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The last child in this family, VII 12, is an inefficient, quarrelsome young fellow. He works at times, mainly as a laborer, or hunts and fishes. Some time ago he was arrested for fighting with his father, both of them being intoxicated at the time. He is now married, is poor, and bids fair to repeat the history of his ancestors. This ends the story of the descendants of VI 2.

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After the discharge of VI 4 from the five-year term in State prison for assault, he returned to the Juke country and there cohabited with his cousin, VI 722, a descendant of Delia Juke. Living at the present time, he can neither read nor write, is intemperate, and although a steady worker, earns but little, as he is an untrained laborer. His consort, an ignorant, slovenly, intemperate, and inefficient woman, had two bastard children before cohabitation with him. The first is dead. The second, VII 16, is a feeble-minded harlot, who has had two illegitimate children and is now cohabiting with a man to whom she is not married. It is not known that VI 4 ever went through a marriage ceremony with VI 722.

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Their first child after cohabitation is VII 19. This girl was unable to learn in school. She married a cousin, VI 846, but soon deserted him to live with her second cousin, VI 531, who had another wife living. This man has served many jail sentences for disorderly conduct, has been in a reformatory, and is inefficient, semi-industrious, ignorant, and mentally defective. This pair lived together 11 years and had five children, one of whom died in infancy. In 1911 they separated. The woman has run a brothel in a nearby city since, and has served a term in the penitentiary and one in the county jail for disorderly conduct. We shall hear more of the man later. Three of the children, aged 6, 3, and 2, respectively, were placed in a Children's Home when the parents separated, and the fourth was left with her grandmother, VI 722. After a short stay in the Home, the three were adopted into good homes in the Middle West. The oldest, VIII 17, now 9, is in only the second grade, although she has attended school regularly for the past three years, and tests up to her chronological age by the Binet test. Her brother, VIII 18, aged 7, is now doing well in the first grade in school. They are both well-behaved children and well thought of in their new home. The youngest of the three, who has been placed in the Middle West, is only 5 years old, and but little can be said of her now.

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