General Notes

Oct 13, 1976
Elmer C. Eads, 96, of R. 4, Bloomington, died at 7 A.M. today at his
residence.
He was born Dec. 10, 1879, in Monroe County, the son of Henry and
Nancy *Siscoe) Eads.  He was a retired farmer.
Surviving are five daughters, Olive Silvers of R. 12, Bloomington,
Doris Frye of 2940 S. Ind. 37, Bonnie Nichols of Bloomington, Zella Ivy
of Chicago, ILL, and Nancy Yount of Darlington; two sons, Austin and
Douglas, both of R. 4, Bloomington; and one half-brother, Roy Eads of
Bloomington; one half-sister, Hester Miller of Bloomington; 21
grandchildren, 42 great-grandchildren and four great-great-grandchildren.
His wife, Hulda, and one daughter Opal Owings, preceded him in death.
Funeral arrangements are pending at the Greene and Harrell Mortuary
where friends may call from 2 to 9 P.M. Thursday and Friday.
Lifestyle Sunday 11-10-1974
Elmer Eads of Sanders has a grip like that of a man half his age and
still stands tall. He is certain that if his eyesight were better, there
is little he couldn't do.
Eads will be 95 on Dec. 10. Or maybe 96. He is uncertain because the
family records were destroyed when the old homestead in Polk Township
burned years ago. But he's sure he'll be at least 95.
Plagued by fading eyesight- one eye is sightless and the other filmed by
a cataract- and a great hearing loss, he remains independent of spirit
and cheerful of mind.
"Some guy came here and wanted to take me to a home," he recalls. "I
said; "I am home."
"I don't want for anything. I have enough kids to take care of me." he
added.   
He has eight "kids" one of whom, Austin Eads, lives just across the
street and brings in two meals a day to his father. The other seven are
Doris Frye, Juanita Johnson, and Olive Silvers of Bloomington. Douglas
Eads of Smithville: Nancy Yount of Darlington, Zella Ivy of Chicago and
Opal Owings, deceased.
There are 21 grandchildren; some 39 great-grandchildren and one
great-great grandchild.
but Elmer Eads still is his own master, makes his bed, fixes his own
breakfast and cleans his own house every day.
Until two summers ago, he kept a garden and mowed and raked not only his
own yard but those of other in the neighborhood. He still rakes his own
leaves and can even find amusement in his own infirmities- the failing
eyesight and hearing.
He explained that he can't go outside at night because he can't see and
chuckled while recounting that he did so recently and took a header over
a tub of leaves in the front yard which he'd forgotten was there. But he
got up unhurt.
Eads was born and reared and spent all his life, until a few years ago,
on land his grandfather homesteaded in Polk Township. He once owned more
than 300 acres and remains unreconciled to the fact that he was forced
off this land by the construction of Lake Monroe. He says he was the last
resident of the area to leave.
He and his bride, Hulda McVey (she died 3 1/2 years ago) , set up
housekeeping in a log cabin his grandfather built on this land. The
hand-hewed plank floor was made up of poplar planks as wide as a man's
arms can reach and several inches thick. The supporting timbers were not
two-by-fours but two-by-sixes.
"I can remember when there wasn't a road in there," He said. "You could
chop paths through the woods."
The Patriarch of the Eads family received only two years of "schooling",
because his father couldn't afford to pay the teacher, he says. He began
working on the family farm "as a little tad" by helping to saw wood. As a
youth he guided a plow that was pulled by cattle and worked as a farm
hand for 25 cents a day. "Then we got up to $1," he recollects.
His son Austin, remembers that later his father always paid his property
tax from the proceeds of the furs of animals he hunted on his own land-
Muskrat, "coon and mink.
Eads stopped voting when he could no longer  see the ballot. He is too
independent to accept help at the po