Amanda Isaacs Groves was my paternal grandmother. My father was her second child. Her oldest child was Vernon T. Groves.
I recently listened to a presentation my Uncle Vernon had made at an Association of Christian Recovery: The Next Step Conference which was held in Costa Mesa, CA Aug. 1-3 (year unknown) which had the theme "Sharing the Healing Journey." His 80 minute talk was titled: A Scriptural Response to Perfectionism. Dr. Groves shared some scripture and much of his own personal experience with Perfectionism and Depression. In that talk, he sites a memory he has of his mother telling him about "Uncle Ed, the greatest penman in the United States." She also showed him copies of a journal which featured articles written by Uncle Ed. As a young boy, Uncle Vernon didn't pay much attention to what his mother told him about Uncle Ed, but during a counseling session in which his counselor told him his Perfectionism had not come from something that happened during his lifetime but from generations before that and had most likely been passed on to him from the generations before him. This is when he remembered what he had been told about Uncle Ed and decides to do some research to find out more about him. He is able to visit Valparaiso University and find in the archives some of the same journals with articles written about penmanship by E. K. Isaacs that he had seen as a child. The archivist told Uncle Vernon that E. K. Isaacs was the greatest penman in the United States - the same words that his mother had used when he was a child.
Uncle Vernon's talk was on a cassette tape I've had for many years but had never listened to until this week. When I learned the name of this man, I still did not know exactly how he fit into the family.
Fortunately, Bob Berndt, a brother-in-law with a membership in Ancestry.com, began to search. He has been able to learn quite a bit about E. K. Isaacs and I share that here.
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| From Gaskells Gazette |
The first link, if you scroll to page 9, has a picture and some info on him. He was in Indiana and teaching.
https://books.google.com/books
If you scroll through the second link, you will find E. K. Isaacs writing supplies. This info comes out of the Penman's Gazette in April 1884,
Just searching E K Isaacs and penman gets all kinds of hits.
https://books.google.com/books
As Bob Berndt continued his search, he uncovered more pertinent information.
He is Edward King Isaacs, born in 1857, died in Los Angeles 1926. Born in the Township of Perry, which is in southwest Dane County, WI. He taught in Valparaiso, what later became the University. He married in 1881. At some point he moved to L.A., and ran a respected business school there.
EDWARD KING ISAACS, Los Angeles Native of Wisconsin; spent boyhood on farm; taught first term of school when seventeen. Attended business college in Madison, Wis., and the Normal Coll. (now the University) of Valparaiso, Ind., in which institution he was afterward an instructor for ten years. Came to Los Angeles in 1892 and has been in active business college work since; is Pres. and manager of the Isaacs-Woodbury Business Coll., established in 1884—the oldest and largest business college in the Southwest. Mr. Isaacs has a national reputation as a penman and business educator; during the last fifteen years has also gained a reputation as an expert authority and court-witness on questioned handwritten documents. SOURCE: Greater Los Angeles Southern California Portraits Personal Memoranda, Lewis Publishing Company, 1910, P.110
Edward's family name, Isaacs, was shortened from Isaacson, which originated from the Norwegian Aslakson. His father is Knudt Aslakson, born August of 1810 in Norway. His mother Marit Knutsdatter.
You may wonder, how did he get that last name and how is he related to Amanda? How does a person get Isaacs out of that?
I am quite sure the explanation comes as one takes into consideration the way last names were determined in Norway and other Scandinavian countries during the time John and Edward Isaacson were born. Boys did not have the same surname that their father's had because their surname became the name their father had. John Isaacson was the son of Isaac (maybe Oleson?). When John Isaacson had a son, he became (maybe Ole) Johnson. The girls' surname was decided in the same way so we can see that Edward's mother was the daughter of Knut ?.
With this in mind, I believe that Edward is a younger brother of John Isaacson. Since both Edward and John have the same last name, they both were sons of Isaac. John was born in Norway in 1840 and came to the US in 1855. The family settled on a farm near Madison, WI. Edward was born in the United States near Madison, WI. So Uncle Ed was an uncle to Vernon, James, Hubert and Mildred. He would have been a Great-uncle to Jim, Linda, Kathy, Barb and Margelyn.
I think there is something inaccurate about the statement that Edward's father is Knudt Aslakson born in 1810. If Knudt was his father, his name should have been Knudtsen not Isaacson. So his father must be Isaac Something. I think Knudt Aslakson is the father of his mother whose name was Marit Knutsdatter. If I'm right, more research needs to be done to find the full name of the father of John and Edward Isaacson.
Apparently, this practice of each generation having a different last name ended when families arrived in the United States and gave up Norwegian practices and accepted the practice of English speaking people. This is illustrated by the fact that the Isaacson children dropped the "son" ending of their name but all kept Isaacs as their surname.
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