Large Families - 1946

Seventeenth Child Born to Susquehanna Residents

Bainbridge News & Republican, January 3, 1946

 

Dr. Asa L. Hickok, of Rush, in the western part of Susquehanna [PA], on Saturday, Dec. 22, reported the birth of 17th child to Mr. and Mrs. John Barber at their farm home near Lawton.  It's a boy--a bouncing 10-pounder, Dr.  Hickok said.

 

Fifteen of the Barber brood are living -- 11 sons and four daughters.  Two of the sons are in the armed forces.  "The Barbers have a baby every year, but if I recollect right, they missed a year about 1935," Dr. Hickok said.

 

Less than two miles from the Barber farm is the home of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Stohl, who startled the nation Sept. 12 by announcing the birth of an 18-pound daughter, Jean Marie, who now weighs "about 28 pounds," Dr. H.M. Fry, the attending physician, said Saturday.  Jean Marie was the Stohl's 15th child.

 

And about 10 miles from the Stohl home--as the stork flies--is the farm residence of Mr. and Mrs. J . martin Blaisure, where Betty Jean was born in late October.  Betty Jean weighed 12 pounds at birth and was the Blaisures' 13th child.

 

"But that's nothing," said Dr. H.M. Fry, now of Montrose, who formerly practiced at Rush, who also delivered Betty Jean.  "Right in this same Lawton area I used to be the doctor for a couple who had six sets of twins and seven other children.

 

"Yes, I think there's something very bracing in the air down in that hilly Susquehanna County hinterland.  The residents keep very busy with their farm work and timber-cutting, though I just don't understand how they have time to have such large, heavy families.  They are remarkably healthy, too.  Something in the air all right," says Dr. Fry.