Earl Clifford Bucher

Earl Clifford Bucher, son Claude Earl Bucher and Ethel Wales, was born 10 July 1908 on the farm of his maternal grandparents Adam J. Wales and Harriett Jerusha Diveley in Winslow, Stephenson County, IL. This acreage was quite near the village of Winslow, where his father had spent his teenage years. At the time of his birth, the family home was actually not in Winslow Township but in Evanston, Cook County, IL, where his father was finishing the pursuit of his medical degree at Northwestern University. Earl’s first home was therefore in Evanston. This was, however, understood to be a temporary haven -- a student housing situation that included not only Earl and his parents, but his father’s childhood friend William Leck and Mary C. Blair, who was a relative of both of Earl’s parents.

In mid-1911, the family expanded with the arrival of another boy, Ray Elwood Bucher. Again, the birth was in Winslow Township while the family’s official residence continued to be in Evanston. In 1912, Claude Bucher obtained his doctorate, but the family was obliged to remain in the Chicago area while he fulfilled his internship at Englewood Hospital, which took until November, 1913.

Upon looking for a suitable community to set up a private medical practice, Claude settled upon Williamsville, Sangamon County, IL near Springfield. Already five years old at the time of the move, Earl would remember the relocation and was able to experience the excitement of seeing his father launch his career. The family began settling into their life in Williamsville. The circumstances lent themselves to expanding the family and soon Ethel was pregnant again, giving birth to a daughter, Mary Alice Bucher, in early 1915. Unfortunately the bright prospects for a long-term happy presence in Williamsville were shattered when Claude was killed in an automobile accident while making a house call in the autumn of 1915.

Earl was only seven years old when the tragedy occurred. This meant he was old enough that he retained cherished memories of his father, but he would nevertheless spend most of his childhood as a fatherless kid. Ethel never remarried, choosing to raise her brood as a single mother. Given that the ties to Williamsville were so newly wrought, she chose not to linger there, but sought out the refuge of her parents’ home on the Winslow Township farm. Earl and his younger siblings -- a group that would come to include his youngest sister, Helen Claudia Bucher, when she was born in the spring of 1916 -- would spend the rest of their upbringing in Stephenson County, first in Winslow Township, then near Waddams Grove, and finally in Freeport, the county seat, where Ethel obtained a product-packaging job with W.T. Rawleigh Company, a large exotic foods, household goods, and pharmaceuticals firm whose main factory was in Freeport. Grandparents Adam and Harriett played a major role in helping to raise the Bucher kids, except that Harriett passed away in early 1926, when Earl was seventeen. The children also remained closely tied to their father’s clan in Winslow and nearby Martintown, Green County, WI.

Earl was inspired by his father’s example and became a doctor. He attended the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign as part of the class of 1934, then proceeded on to U of I School of Medicine in Chicago, also known as Rush Medical School. His brother Ray would also do this in his turn.

While still in Chicago, Earl met Ruth Irma Noelker, a nurse. Ruth, born 7 April 1913 on a farm near Seymour, Jackson County, IN, was a daughter of Louis Noelker and Louise Grelle. Raised in Indiana, Ruth had come to Chicago to pursue her nursing studies at Englewood Hospital School of Nursing, from which she graduated. (Shown at right is a postcard image of Englewood Hospital. The image is undated but it seems reasonable to assume this view captures the look of the place more as it would have appeared during the period when Claude Bucher was an intern there than when Earl and Ruth were there.) Earl and Ruth were married 1 June 1935 in Chicago.

Ruth was quite tall for a woman, especially by the standards of the early Twentieth Century -- about five foot ten inches, which meant she was taller than Earl. Her new in-laws joked that she would bring height to the Bucher family, which included quite a few very short individuals, particularly among the females. In due course this potential was borne out when the couple’s offspring reached their adult stature.

In the early years of the marriage, Earl and Ruth lived in Durand, Winnebago County, IL, not far from his relatives in Freeport, Winslow, and Martintown. However, the 1940s brought big changes, the biggest being Earl's service in the U.S. Navy during World War II. His deployment took him to the Pacific theater, to such places as Hawaii and Guam. Once he was a civilian again, Earl and Ruth settled for good in Gibson City, Ford County, IL.

The couple had two children, the first born about five years into the marriage, the second eleven years later.

Earl passed away 12 December 1972 in Gibson City. Ruth spent nearly forty years as a widow, never remarrying. She filled her days with a wide range of activities including reading, playing bridge, and needlepoint, and on a more formal level, participating as a member of the Gibson City American Evangelical Lutheran Church, the Gibson Area Hospital Auxiliary, the Gibson City Women’s Club, and the Gibson Moyer Library Board, serving for an interval as president of the latter. She finally passed away 7 November 2010 at Gibson Area Hospital in Gibson City. The graves of husband and wife are at Drummer Township Cemetery.

Earl and Ray Bucher both appear in this photograph of Alpha Kappa Kappa fraternity members published in the 1933 Ilio yearbook of the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign. Earl, a junior, is third from the left in the second row back. Ray, a freshman, is on the far right of that same row -- i.e. Ray is the man closest to the righthand lower corner of the photo.

Descendants of Earl Clifford Bucher and Ruth Irma Noelker

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