Cullen Clifford Warner

Cullen Clifford Warner, sixth of the eight children of Eleanor Amelia Martin and John Warner, was born 17 May 1882 in Martintown, Green County, WI. He is believed to have been named in honor of two uncles -- the name Cullen taken from Cullen Penny Brown, the husband of his aunt Emma Ann Martin, and the name Clifford taken from his father’s brother Clifford Warner.

Cullen spent nearly all of his childhood in Martintown upon the eighty-acre farm on the north bank of the Pecatonica River that had been given to his mother and father as a dowry gift in 1869 or 1870 by her parents, Nathaniel Martin and Hannah Strader. His father was not just a farmer, however. He also served in a semi-advisory role at the Martin-family sawmill, where he had been a machinist as a young unmarried man, and he derived added income from white-collar occupations such as justice of the peace, insurance salesman, and lumber broker, in addition to the occasional investment here and there. One of these “extra income” opportunities came along in 1884 when Cullen was a toddler. His father helped Cullen Penny Brown, who had been hired to get a sawmill established in Howell County, MO. While tending to that venture, the Warners lived for a year in Willow Springs. This was the only period in Cullen’s youth when he did not live in Martintown.

Cullen attended the Martin School just across the river from his grandparents’ home and mills. (Slightly below right is a photograph of the three youngest Warner boys taken at White Photography studio in Monroe, Green County, WI in about 1890. It was scanned from a print that originally belonged to Cullen’s aunt Emma Ann Martin Brown. Cullen is the oldest boy, the one in the center. At lower left is his younger brother Bert, and lower right is his very youngest brother Walter.) Cullen did not go beyond the eighth grade, primarily because the immediate area’s first high school, located in Martintown’s sister village of Winslow, Stephenson County, IL a mile south across the state line, was not built until Cullen had already reached the end of his teens.

The John Warner-Nellie Martin family was tight-knit. By the late 1890s three of Cullen’s older siblings -- John Martin Warner, Emma, and Belle -- were married and had offspring, but all of them lived close by, either within Martintown itself or on farms within a mile or so to the north. Ironically, it was John and Nellie who began the exodus away from the village, which had been Nellie’s home ever since she had been an infant. John took advantage of the opportunity to improve his lumber career and as a result, in the latter half of the year 1900, the household was reestablished ten miles southeast of Martintown in Scioto Mills, Stephenson County, IL, site of the large Meyer Brothers lumber company. Cullen was part of this move, as were his brothers Charley, Bert, and Walter.

Another development of the year 1900 was that John Martin Warner became the proprietor of a general store in Martintown. This occupied him to such a degree that he no longer had the time to be partners with Charley making use of the Warner-family steam tractor, which John and Nellie’s two eldest sons had been operating on a hired basis since 1892 on farms throughout the vicinity of Martintown and Winslow. John and Charley called their tandem the Warner Brothers. The name was retained as Cullen replaced John. The business was a full-time occupation during the harvest months, but was often on hiatus during other seasons. Cullen seems to have otherwise picked up day work or helped out his father and Charley in Scioto Mills as they worked to fulfill orders for custom hardwood lumber. Cullen was still in this day-by-day phase, not yet certain what he would choose to do as a career, when a romance blossomed, coming to fruition when Cullen was twenty-one. The object of his affection was Minnie E. Brecklin, daughter of Prussian-born immigrants August Brecklin and Austina Mau and one of ten (surviving) children of that couple. Minnie had been born 9 December 1879 in Jordan Township, Green County, WI. When she had been very small, the Brecklin family had moved to a farm in Wiota Township, Lafayette County, WI near the village of Woodford -- a spot about a dozen miles north and slightly west of Martintown. That farm had continued to be Minnie’s place of residence from then on until her marriage to Cullen at the age of not quite twenty-four. Given that her mother’s maiden name was Mau, she may have been a first cousin of Cullen’s sister-in-law Anna Lueck, wife of John Martin Warner. This genealogical connection between the two Warner wives has yet to be confirmed, but it would account for Cullen and Minnie crossing paths. Otherwise they lived just far enough apart that the means of their introduction is not obvious, though it could be that the Brecklin farm was one of the places regularly visited by the Warner Brothers harvesting rig.

Cullen and Minnie’s wedding took place 21 October 1903 in Freeport, Stephenson County, IL. The timing was no doubt influenced by the fact that Minnie was pregnant. Given this precipitous start, the couple were not fully prepared to found their own home. John and Nellie came to the rescue. They had a larger house built in Scioto Mills with enough space to meet the needs of two resident married couples and offspring, and moved into these new quarters in December, 1903. Cullen and Minnie’s daughter Selma Arabelle Warner was born 23 May 1904.

Cullen and Minnie probably might well have proceeded to move out of the shared house after a couple of years so as to gain more privacy and more control over their lives, but within a few months of Selma’s birth, Minnie was stricken with tuberculosis. John and Nellie reacted to the development in much the same manner they had reacted to the unexpected pregnancy and marriage, which was to look after their boy and his loved ones and do whatever they could to make sure their needs were met. Now they became more than just grandparents and landlords, they became caregivers as well -- particularly in the sense that mothering duties for little Selma shifted in large part to Nellie so that the infant would be less likely to come down with TB herself. Among the measures the older couple took took was to hire a nurse familiar with the treatment of tuberculosis sufferers. They called upon Ellen Shuler Bell, better known as Bird Bell. Bird was a widow who supported her gaggle of daughters by doing in-home therapy. She began coming over from Cedarville to Scioto Mills (a distance of about two miles as the crow flies) beginning no later than January, 1905. She was a more and more frequent presence as the year went on. Strange as it may seem, the visits had an unexpected happy side effect. Bird’s fourteen-year-old daughter Margaret Jane Bell got to know Walter Warner and they became friends. Eventually this would lead to a romance which in turn, once Margaret was a bit older, resulted in the next Warner-clan marriage. But when it came to the reason why Bird’s expertise had been called upon, things took a predictably grim course. Minnie’s condition grew worse despite the treatments and despite any other strategy the family could bring to bear. Finally in January, 1906, Bird moved into the Warner home because it was clear that Minnie needed care round the clock. Minnie died on the thirtieth of that month. Three days later her remains were laid to rest in Saucerman Cemetery, Green County, WI, near Martintown.

A few weeks later, Cullen attended the funeral of Minnie’s sister Emma Poff. The latter was yet another victim of TB. The scourge had long been a cause of sorrow in the region. Nearly every family had lost members to it over the decades. Even so, the winter of 1905-06 was particularly hard on the Warners in this regard. Nellie’s beloved brother Rasche (Horatio) Martin had started to manifest symptoms in the late autumn of 1905 and now was already on the verge of death. He would die 4 April 1906, just nine weeks after Minnie and barely more than three weeks after Emma. The prospects for more heartache were plainly evident all around among neighbors, friends, business colleagues, and among the extended Martin-Strader-Warner clan. There was however a big difference between past eras and the year 1906. Medical science was finally advanced enough that sufferers of TB did not have to view themselves as having already jumped off a cliff with only the height of the precipice affecting the amount of time they had left to live. It was now possible to confirm TB cases early through x-rays and examination of blood samples under microscopes. Doctors were finding more and more ways to slow the disease down. While a true cure had not yet been developed, the generation of the early Twentieth Century could reasonably expect that one soon would be available. That hope had a profound effect on the behavior of the Warner family over the course of the year 1906 once they began to weigh what to do about Cullen. Because, as they had feared, it seemed certain Cullen had caught TB from Minnie. Despite the number of kinfolk they had watched die, John and Nellie did not simply stand by and wait for their boy to be taken from them. They took the approach that intervention of some sort might be effective -- might buy him a number of extra years, and those years might represent enough of a reprive to let him take advantage of a cure.

One of the first steps was to get the best medical advice they could find, and among other priorities determine whether Selma, now nearly two years of age, was still uninfected. In early March (even before Emma Poff died), Cullen’s sister Belle and brother-in-law Alie Spece accompanied him to Chicago along with Selma. Cullen’s first cousin Blanche Martin was a head administrative nurse at Cook County General Hospital, and was the fiancée of Dr. John B. Colwell, the assistant warden of the facility. Blanche was able to put them in touch with colleagues who could let Cullen know how to best combat the TB. First came the exams, and there was good news to be had. Selma was disease-free. Belle and Alie escorted her back to Scioto Mills while Cullen remained another day or two for further assessment.

One recommendation was put forth in clear and unequivocal terms -- Illinois was a bad place for a person with tuberculosis to remain. The humidity of the region only served to speed along the bacteria’s onslaught. Cullen was told he should relocate as soon as possible to an arid part of the nation. He and his family took this advice to heart. On March 21st, less than two weeks after returning from Chicago, within days of having attended his sister-in-law’s funeral, Cullen headed off to Hot Springs, SD, where he stayed with his aunt Minta Warner Ladd and investigated whether the locale might meet his therapeutic needs. This idea had solid merit. Hot Springs was so suitable for treatment of respiratory illnesses that the fact had caught the attention of the Veteran’s Administration. The agency would go on in 1907 to construct Battle Mountain Sanitarium there. This was a 100-bed facility specifically for treatment of patients with rheumatism or tuberculosis. But in the meantime, Cullen decided not to stay in Hot Springs. The prospect gave way to a more attractive plan. In Hot Springs, his only support system would be his aunt and her husband, John Ladd, and their daughter Kate and son-in-law Charles Davey. These were relatives Cullen barely knew. Moreover, Minta and John were getting on in years and were no longer doing particularly well, and were in addition burdened by the need to care for their disabled son Ira Ladd.

A crew threshes a field near Martintown in about 1900. This photograph was taken by Martintown stationmaster E. B. Lund, a good friend who was not only known to the family because of his work presence at the depot, but was a close neighbor in Scioto Mills. The family wanted to document the locally-famous “Warner Brothers” steam tractor threshing rig in operation, and this image, printed large and glued onto a mat, became a treasured heirloom. Cullen is the man standing at the far left. His father John is next to him, leaning against the tractor with his arms folded.

John and Nellie found a way to provide an alternative. Nellie had long been hearing via her first cousins Elias Frame, Jacob Silas Frame, and Jacob Strader Frame of the advantages of the San Joaquin Valley of California, where those relatives -- along with their spouses and many children -- had moved a decade-and-a-half earlier. In the years since, they had been able to lure additional kinfolk, including in particular William Patterson Frame and his household. All four of these first cousins had been based in and/or near Martintown during Nellie’s younger years. She knew them well and cherished them. So John and Nellie proposed something revolutionary. They would give up the Scioto Mills house and livelihood, and make California their new base, and would “be there” for Cullen and Selma. Cullen’s brothers Bert and Walter, who were both single and still part of the Scioto Mills household, were to come along as well.

For John and Nellie to say good-by to the Pecatonica River region was an extraordinary thing for a couple in their late fifties to do, and Cullen knew it. But John and Nellie weren’t kidding, and furthermore they did not hedge their bets. They committed to the move as a permanent relocation. Soon they were arranging their affairs accordingly. Charley Warner was to stay behind, so he could be counted on to dispose of the house in a tidy and unhurried fashion. Even so, the logistics were so involved that the departure was delayed all the way to December. On about the ninth of that month, Bert went on ahead with a full boxcar of major family possessions such as the horses and buggy, kept company by stowaway teenaged cousin Fay Martin. The others stayed behind for the moment because Walter had decided he could not be parted from Margaret Bell. The two were married on the twelfth. Shortly after the wedding, the main group, consisting of John and Nellie, Cullen and Selma, and the newlyweds, boarded a passenger train. This means of travel was faster than the freight train Bert was riding, so they actually arrived ahead of him. Their final stop was the depot at Fowler, Fresno County, CA, where they were greeted by Will Frame and taken to his nearby farm. That is where they stayed until they completed their long-term living arrangements, a process that consumed the next few weeks. All of those who made the 1906 journey except for Fay Martin would live out the rest of their lives as Californians. (That said, Walter and Margaret did go back to Scioto Mills for the summer of 1907 and briefly considered lingering in Illinois for good.) Between Warners and Frames, Cullen had a full set of concerned relatives to bolster him through the transition to life in the West, and to provide emotional support through his on-going health struggle.

In early 1907, having decided that Fresno County was the part of the San Joaquin Valley that would suit them, John and Nellie purchased a large parcel of land on the edge of the Sierra Nevada foothills. This they called Spring Brook Ranch, though the holding would in future decades, long after the Warner tenure, be remembered by family members as “the Fancher Creek place” after the vernal stream that ran through it. The nearest community was a tiny trading post called Academy. An hour’s buggy ride to the west was the town of Clovis, which was at that time so small it had yet to become incorporated. (Clovis is now a city with a resident population of over 100,000 and its western edge has merged with the eastern edge of the city of Fresno.) Slightly farther up in the hills was the sawmill village of Tollhouse. Spring Brook Ranch was treated as the new Warner estate, the successor to the Martintown farm and the Scioto Mills home. (Shown at left is the ranch house, equipment shed, barn, and large fenced-in garden plot. This is a photo taken during the time the Warners lived there.)

One of the key attributes of the ranch, from the viewpoint of Cullen’s needs, was that he could remain isolated from neighbors and not expose them to tuberculosis. The fact is, his sojourn there, a span lasting just over two years, was a kind of banishment. In his bleak moments -- of which Cullen probably had many -- he no doubt viewed himself as an exile. His only full-time companion was Bert, who as a childless bachelor had the least to lose -- in a manner of speaking -- if he should also contract TB. Other family members, even while regarding Spring Brook Ranch as their official home, were often elsewhere. John was not all that well-suited to be a cattleman, and found less satisfaction in actually managing the herd than in shopping around for the stock that would improve it. He was also keenly alert for business opportunities of other sorts. This took him into Clovis or Fresno or ten miles south of Academy to the small sawmill town of Sanger. Nellie often went with him on his excursions, and whenever Nellie was away from home, it was a given that Selma would be with her. As for Walter and Margaret, they were gone to an even greater degree, still in search of the right situation for themselves. In the meantime, the young couple earned money as migrant laborers harvesting fruit up and down the Central Valley side by side with some of the Frame cousins. (In later years this sort of work was performed by succeeding waves of immigrant laborers, often from foreign countries, especially Mexico, but in the very early 1900s, a large portion of California’s “immigrant laborers” were in fact new arrivals from other parts of the United States, and like the Warners and the Frames, descended from Europeans who had come to America during the era of the Thirteen Colonies.) Cullen did know some peace during those two years, though. He had periods when he felt strong and he played a substantial role in caring for the herd. He may not have had much of a social life, but he had the run of “wide open spaces” as he and Bert drove the cattle up to pasturage deeper into the foothills. Sometimes this work was done in tandem with their father or with brother Charley, who made visits of many months’ duration during 1907, 1908, and 1909. Camping out in the hills, as long as one kept an alert eye out for the occasional rattlesnake, was a welcome adventure to a young man who had grown up in a place where in winter it was too frozen, and in summer too flocked with mosquitoes, to appreciate being out in the midst of the natural world. He said to Bert more than once that even if he didn’t have TB, he’d still want to live in California now that he knew what it was like.

Cullen lasted long enough to witness his siblings slipping into new destinies that even a few years earlier they would not have been able to anticipate for themselves. Bert met the “old maid” schoolteacher he would marry. Charley was becoming increasingly satisfied with the area until it became apparent he was likely to quit splitting his time between California and Illinois. Walter and Margaret began their family, settling in the spring of 1909 with their infant son upon twenty acres in southern Fresno County near the farm of Will Frame. And in early 1909, Cullen welcomed his sister Belle and brother-in-law Alie Spece and their girls as they did, in fact, make the move west. They were concerned for Belle’s health, thinking she might be coming down with tuberculosis, and so they had become willing to say good-by to their Green County farm and to the cheese factory that Alie had finally opened for business after three years of development. Luck was with them, though. The fear about TB was unwarranted. Belle was fine. The same would ultimately not be true of Cullen’s new nephew, Elbert Clare Warner, nor sister-in-law Anna Lueck Warner. Cullen did not live long enough to have to witness the decline of those two individuals. Instead he saw his kinfolk thriving. In general that was how it would go for many years to come. Perhaps it gave Cullen some comfort to anticipate that sort of outcome, knowing it had a genuine hope of being possible.

It is impossible to know if coming to a place with an arid climate bought Cullen any greater lifespan than he would have experienced back in Illinois. Probably so. But eventually his body was unable to cope. He took such a severe turn for the worse in late April, 1909 that it became apparent to all concerned that he was not going to survive the crisis. His family gathered about him for the death vigil. Over the course of his last six days of life Cullen was attended by both parents, by siblings Belle, Charley, Bert, and Walter, by brother-in-law Alie, and also by Will Frame and his brother Jake Frame and their spouses. A doctor also came out at family request. Cullen himself had long since ceased to bother with doctoring, taking a “what will be will be” approach to his affliction, but his parents could not bear to see him in such agony. At John’s urging, the physician administered morphine or something similar. The letter Belle wrote to siblings Emma and John back in Martintown about Cullen’s final days of life was preserved by Emma and still exists in the possession of one of her descendants. It reveals that Cullen had not only the respiratory form of tuberculosis, but the cutaneous form as well. In his final week, Cullen was assailed by fifteen or more open sores on his skin, the largest twice the diameter of a fist. It was not the sort of ending anyone would want, and the family did not stint on whatever comfort they could offer. Alas, nothing they could do seemed to provide Cullen with much relief. Aside from a little broth, he ate nothing from Tuesday night, the 27th of April, until his final breath at about two in the afternoon, Saturday, 1 May 1909. He even declined to have any of the fresh strawberries that Belle had brought, though he had always loved strawberries.

Cullen’s passing came when he was not quite twenty-seven years of age. A burial plot was purchased at Academy cemetery, about two miles from Fancher Creek in the direction of Clovis, and the family gathered on Sunday, May 2nd, for the rites and interment. They dug the grave themselves. Jake Frame, who was a minister, said a few words and sang a song of bereavement. Little Selma was now a full orphan, and would be raised by her grandparents and, after John Warner’s death, by her grandmother and her uncle, Charley Warner.

Child of Cullen Clifford Warner with Minnie E. Brecklin

Selma Arabelle Warner

To go back one generation to Cullen’s mother’s biography, click here. To go back one generation to his father’s biography, click here. To return to the Martin/Strader Family main page, click here. To return to the Warner/Alexander Family main page, click here.