The Albert & Edna Jagger Muffley family home in 1918 was in Gary, Indiana. Albert worked for a power plant. The family spent some time at a beach on Lake Michigan. They appeared to be in Indiana at the time of their June 15 anniversary, and they attended the big Weidenhamer 1918 reunion in Galesburg. (see photo)By 1920, Albert & Edna Muffley lived in Bushnell, McDonough Co., Illinois. Albert was working as an electrician. Albert’s parents Joe & Emma McCreary Muffley about this time moved from 3118a Sidney St. to 2544a Eiler St. (to 1923) in St. Louis. From 1924-1928, Joe and Emma lived at 3227a Dakota, and Joe worked at J.B. Sickles Saddlery.
In 1921, Margaret Williamson McCreary (mother of Emma Jane McCreary Muffley) died. Margaret’s husband John Skinner McCreary had died in 1911 in Galesburg. Incidentally, John Skinner McCreary (my great-great grandfather) had in 1869 and 1870 been the mayor of Canton, Fulton County, Illinois.
Historian Tom Wilson wrote an article in the Galesburg Register-Mail on Feb. 22, 2008. “In February 1925, Galesburg placed an electric traffic signal in the intersection of Main and Seminary streets in downtown Galesburg. City electrician Bert Muffley was instructed to check the new fangled device daily to assure a smooth operation. On the 10th day Muffley opened the signal box to check the machinery and much to his shock discovered it was jammed with letters intended for the post office. The mail that was deposited in the traffic signal by confused citizens was intended for Wataga and Macomb and the states of Kentucky and Nebraska.”
Mary Louise Muffley wrote in her Galesburg High School Memory Book, on Sunday July 5, 1925: “We went out to Camp Shaubena to bring Bob home. While we were there we saw what wonderful times the boys can have. I almost wish I could go out when the girls go.” Camp Shaubena is at Lake Bracken, which I vaguely recall.
Tragedy struck on May 8, 1926, when Mary Louise Muffley (pictured), age 16, died of pneumonia in Galesburg. This is an aunt I never knew, but I have an album of hers, with photos of her and her friends, and her writings. More loss occurred in St. Louis in 1928 with the death by pneumonia of Emma Jane McCreary Muffley at age 66 (I have her death certificate). She had had an extensive period of ill health. The widowed Joe Muffley moved in with the family of his son Albert. Emma Jane was buried at Linwood Cemetery, Galesburg, as were Joe, Edna, and Louise Muffley.At the time of the 1928 death of his sister Emma Muffley, Abraham Lincoln McCreary lived in Seattle. In the 1930 census, A. Lincoln McCreary was a real estate agent, living alone at 3706 East 55th in Seattle. It is not known what became of him after this.
Recall that Joe Muffley had a brother Will, who had married Lillie Kimmel. In 1930, Will was age 70, but was still working in the bookbinding department of the U.S. Government Printing Office. Will and Lillie lived then at 339 Shepherd NW in Washington D.C.; that was the last of their several homes in D.C. Will lived another 10 years, and Lillie died in 1946. They are buried at the Ft. Lincoln Cemetery, Brentwood Md. I have photos of a couple of their homes, their church, the printing office, and the cemetery. In 1930, Joe Muffley’s brother Franklin Biddle Muffley and his wife Cannie were living northwest of Hannibal. Joe’s sister Sadie Muffley Lentz died in 1930.
Albert Muffley was not working at his electrician work in 1930; according to the census, he was a confectionary salesman that year. The Muffley household in that census of Wethersfield, Illinois, consisted of Albert, Edna, Bert’s father Joe, Robert, and Kenneth.
