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Kelly Krieger

Professor Andrus

English Comp 1001

20 November 2014

American Ingenuity: Shaping the Country

The everyday lifestyle of the American people is constantly changing. This lifestyle

change occurs in many ways such as in customs, technology, laws, and family. When looking

into the past it is obvious that America changes over time. Customs, technology, and laws each

contribute to change in the job market. Even the family dynamic has changed over the years.

While types of Jobs change over time the idea of jobs have not. But as jobs have changed so has

the education requirements to get a certain type of job. Jobs will forever be a part of the

American lifestyle for without jobs there would be a lack of drive, self-worth, and innovation.

Same for family biological or not it is part of the American lifestyle. Family teaches people to

have the drive, self-worth and innovation which contributes to the ever changing job market.

Jobs, family, and education are a part of America’s past, present, and future without them

America would not be able to strive economically. The Hartsogs, Bonhams, Stickley , and

Krieger families impacted America Jobs such as framing tobacco, coal mining, social work, and

nursing which all affected the economy in significant ways and required different amounts of

education.

To begin the origin of the Bonham family starts with Cephas Eleaney Hartsog who was

born on October 22, 1874. Rumor says he was born to a Nettie Hartsog Sullivan at 16 years old

out of wedlock to Bill Childress of Chilhowie, Virgina. He was raised by his Mother and Step-

Father Amos Sullivan and grew up with two half-brothers and two half-sisters. The family

resided in the Idlewild section of Ashe County North Carolina. Cephas married his first wife

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Mary Powers. They had two children together, Etta Mae and Lee. Mary died in childbirth during

the birth of her son Lee who later died at age of 3 months. Cephas then married the daughter of

Lugenia and Solomon Nelson Howell, Hattie Caroline Howell who is the third child of eleven

children and born on April 13th, 1894 and twenty years younger than her husband. Cephas

Hartsogs raised tobacco on a small farm in Ashe County North Carolina. He also did some house

carpentry for all of his life.

Before the harmful effects of tobacco use were realized, in 1617-1793 “tobacco was the

most valuable staple export from the English American mainland colonies and the United States”

(Tobacco). Eventually tobacco became the chief incentive for economic growth of the colonies.

The laborers of the tobacco crop were the servants but later slaves imported from the West Indies

and Africa began to tend to the crop (Tobacco). The “quantity of tobacco shipped to Great

Britain rose from twenty thousand pounds in 1617 to over 40 million pounds in 1727”

(Tobacco). By the year 1775 the colonies supplied most of Europe with tobacco. Later in 1860

Cephas and Hattie Hartsog

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the United States produces more than twice as much tobacco as in 1775. (Tobacco). Around the

time of the Civil War the “American production of tobacco had nearly doubled again, led by

increased demand for smoking tobacco and cigarettes” (Tobacco). After Civil War and the

abolition of slavery the “small independent farmers, mostly white, and tenant farmers, both black

and white, grew most of the tobacco; their families assisted in cultivation” (Tobacco).

Cephas Hartsog began to farm tobacco during the late 19th century and during the early to

mid-20th century. But even before tobacco was part of Cephas’s life he needed a little education.

He was born a little after the time, “In 1869-70, there school year was only about 132 days long

compared to about 180 today” (Snyder 27). The students took time off in order to help with

harvests and other work on the farm. Students also would take time off because of the lack of

medicine and hygiene made students more vulnerable to illness (Snyder 27). Those students

who graduated High School around the time where only “about two person receiving high school

diploma per 100 17-year olds” (Snyder 30). High education through the years “1869-70 only

63,000 students were attending higher education institutions though out the country” (Snyder

64).

Cephas only had about the education of an 8th grade student. He did not need much of a

formal education to be a tobacco farmer to support his family as much of his job was manual

labor. During Cephas’s lifetime he and many others did not need a formal education to make a

living. Most Americans were not educated as well as they could have been, but there was no

need for most Americans to be educated for the jobs did not require much of an education.

Cephas and his second wife Hattie Carolina Howell lived their entire lives in the Nella

Community of Ashe County, North Carolina.

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Cephas Hartsog died on March 19th 1963 followed by his wife who died on July 16th

1966. Even though Cephas Hartsog did not revolutionize America by tobacco farming, he still

affected the economy because “Tobacco remained a central part of the North Carolina landscape

even through the period of prolonged instability that occurred after the Civil War and lasted into

the Great Depression” (Griffith). As time passes “family-farm and farm-community identities

yet increasingly seeming a viable economic enterprise to fewer and fewer families and

communities” (Griffith). So Cephas made is living with a job during a time where it is becoming

more and more difficult to be a successful tobacco farmer. As his family helped tend the crops he

would have not been a successful tobacco farmer without the help of his family. Even with his

lack of education he was able to be a successful tobacco farmer in the 20th century.

Cephas Hartsog’s Birthday

Cephas and Hattie had eleven children who all grew up tending to the crops on the family

farm. Julia Magdalene their fourth child born on November 2nd 1913 married Arthur Theodore

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Bonham on October 4th 1932. Arthur Bonham was born on January 2nd 1907. He grew up in the

care of his grandmother because of his parents’ divorce. He sometimes came to Ash County

North Carolina to visit his mother. There he met Julia at the Ash County Chatauque and he

continued to come back to Ash County until they eloped together. They then moved to West

Virginia and Julia and Arthur lived with his grandparents till he got a job as a coal miner.

Arthur Theodore Bonham

Coal Miners “worked an average of 238 days and produces 4.71 net tons prises” in the

year 1930 around the time Arthur was born (Kiessling 84). “West Virginia alone contains more

than half of the country’s probable supply” of bituminous coal (Kiessling 85). In the year 1928

41,000,000 tons of coal by Class 1 railroad were delivered from eight southern states for the use

of railroad fuel and 39,000,000 tons were used for coke manufacture, mainly in East and Middle

West America (Kiessling 87). Then by “1949 coal accounted for 37% of the energy consumed”

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(Alters 53). Eventually in the early 1970s coal mining only provided 17% of Americans’ energy

due to the concerns of pollution and the nuclear power as a new energy source (Alters 53). Only

three years later the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries directed people’s attention

on the fact that a heavy reliance foreign energy sources would have a “crippling effects that

dependence could have on the U.S economy […] the nation revived its interest in domestic coal

as a plentiful and economical energy source.” (Alters 53). Then in 1977 America as a nation

consumed 625.3 million short tons of coal (Alters 60).

Arthur Bonham earned a High School Diploma before his decision to become a coal

miner for a short period of time. As the Coal Mining in America declined, education began to

rise. Between the years 1929-30 the school year lengthened to 175 days per year since then the

days spent in school has only had minor changes (Snyder 36). Those students who graduate High

School also began to rise during 1910s, 1920s, and 1930s. “In 1939-40 the ratio rose above 50

percent for the first time” (Snyder 39). During World War II those who graduated High School

fell as most young men joined the armed forces. Then after the war the graduation rates began to

pick up again. Julia attended school in Ashe County, North Carolina, a school that her father

Cephas had built.

A coal miner’s line of work is a very beneficial line of work for coal provided America

with most of its energy thoughout the early to mid-20th century. As “The coal industry has played

a major role in the culture and history of West Virginia, establishing an identity as the

“backbone” of the economy in this region” (Blaacker). West Virginia “was a frontier of

American industrial capitalism during the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth c. despite popular

beliefs to the contrary” (Lewis). Arthur Bonham did not exactly dominate the coal mining career

path, but he did contribute to economic success of West Virginia and the United States of

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America. Even with only a High School Diploma Arthur did successfully contribute to the

American coal industry.

Julia Magdalene Hartsog Bonham

Julia and Arthur Bonham had three children together Theodore Sylvester born on August

25th, 1933 and Mary Jane born on January 13th, 1935. Then when the son and daughter were 17

and 16 years old, their Mother gave birth to another son Mitchell Wayne on October 10th 1950.

The oldest son Theodore married Bonnie Alice on November 22nd 1956. He owned a car lot and

had two children Patricia Margaret and Lisa Ann. He later died in 2007. Then Mitchell became a

lawyer and married Janice Cornett on September 10th 1970. They had two children together

Brain Winsor and Brendon Arthur.

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After all of Arthur’s time in the coal mines he developed Black Lung Disease “caused by

inhaling coal dust which accumulates in the lungs, and forms black bumps or coal macules on

the bronchioles” (Rehkopf). He and his family moved to Ohio were he got a job with the

Montgomery Cemetery. Then 18 months after Arthur had his first heart attack, he had another

one that killed him on November 23rd 1991. He was 84 years old. Then 10 years later Julia died

on her birthday in the year 2001 at the age of 88.

Arthur and Julia Bonham

After Mary Jane graduated from Mullians High School in West Virgina in the year 1952

“the graduation ratio resumed its upwards trend, reaching 70 percent in 1959-60” (Synder 30).

Then in the late 1960s the number of students who graduated High School peaked at 77 percent

before falling back down to 71 percent in 1979-80 (Synder 30). During the 1950s “college

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enrollment rose by 49 percent” (Synder 65). Then in the 1960s enrollment rose by 120 percent:

by the end of the decade “college enrollment was as large as 35 percent of the 18-24-year old

population” (Synder 65).

When Mary Jane moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, she met Jerome Stickley and then they

married in the year 1957. Mary Jane had five children with him: Chandra Renee, Tara Lee, Julie

Catherine, Jennifer Babette, and John Jerome. Later Mary Jane and Jerome divorced. She then

raised the children as a single Mother before marrying Paul Litchenberg. In the year 1980 she

graduated from University of Cincinnati Blue Ash formerly known as the college of Raymond

Walters, with an Associate’s Degree in Social Work.

Mary Jane Bonham

There has been “an extraordinary development” in the line of social work though out the

early 20th century (Devine 2). During the 1920s most social work training occurred at colleges as

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either graduate or undergraduate work in the social sciences department. Social work continued

to develop by the 1980s. Today Mary Jane resides in Springfield Ohio in and Elderly Condo

Facility.

Julie Catherine Stickley was born on August 21st 1962. She graduated Mount Notre Dame

High School in the year 1980. Attended the University of Cincinnati Blue Ash. She earned an

Associate’s Degree in Nursing and Graduated from college in the year 1988. In 1979-1980 the

percentage of High School Graduates fell back down from 77 percent to 71 percent. The ratio

went back to what is was in the late 1960s (Synder 30). By the year 1979 women constitutes the

majority on college campuses. College Enrollment only increased 17 percent between the years

1979-1989 (Synder 66).

Julie Catherine Stickley

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“Nursing in Ohio has moved a long way in the past half-century” (Rodabough 237).

There is a whole new way to care for the sick with transformation of treatments and modren

medicine (Rodabough 237). Prior to the 1960 nurses were trained at a hospital not at a college or

university but are now almost nonexistent (Judd 263-64). Nursing Associates Degree Programs

were “created during the 1950s to deal with the nursing shortage” (Judd 264). In the years “1976

to 1984, the NLN worked to establish and promote education guidelines to define program

outcomes and student preparation” (Judd 231). Then in the year 1984, the NLN or The Nation

League of Nursing suggested nurses should have clinical practice outside of the class room

(Rudd 231). As of

As the criteria to become a nurse has changed the nurses job is still needed to impact

others’ lives. For Nurses impact the economy differently as well.

Julie married Keith Krieger on July 20th,1990. Julie and Keith had three children Kelly

Marie, Jill Catherine, and Megan Francis. Julie works at Christ Hospital and has been a dialysis

nurse for more than twenty years.

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Works Cited

Alters, Sandra M. Coal. Detroit: Cengage Learning, 2009. Print.

Blaacker, Debra, Joshua Woods, and Christopher Oliver. "How Big is Big Coal? Public

Perceptions of the Coal Industry's Economic Impact in West Virginia." Organization &

Environment 25.4 (2012): 385-401. ProQuest. Web. 20 Nov. 2014.

Griffith, David. "The Moral Economy of Tobacco." American Anthropologist 111.4 (2009): 432-

42. Print.

Judd, Deborah M., and Kathleen Sitzman. “Nursing in the United States from 1960 to Early

1980s.” A History of American Nursing: Trends and Eras. Burlington, MA: Jones &

Bartlett Learning, 2014. Print.

Kiessling, O. E. "Coal Mining in the South." Annals of the American Academy of Political and

Social Science 153.1 (1931): 84-93. Print.

Lewis, Ronald L. "Appalachian Restructuring in Historical Perspective: Coal, Culture and Social

Change in West Virginia." Urban Studies 30.2 (1993): 299-308. ProQuest. Web. 20 Nov.

2014.

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Rehkopf, Linda. "Black lung disease." Environmental Encyclopedia. Ed. Marci Bortman, Peter

Brimblecombe, and Mary Ann Cunningham. 3rd ed. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, 2003.

Biography in Context. Web. 20 Nov. 2014.

Rodabaugh, James H., and Mary Jane Rodabaugh. Nursing in Ohio: A History. Columbus: Ohio

State Nurses' Association, 1951. Print.

Snyder, Thomas D. 120 years of American education: A statistical portrait. Vol. 1. DIANE

Publishing, 1993.

“Tobacco.” The Reader's Companion to American History. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2014.

Credo Reference. Web. 6 November 2014.v