“What happened to Grandpa’s leg?” “Oh, he lost it.” Growing up in the Mining City we have all know of family or friends who have been harmed or maimed. It could be the loss of a digit in a piece of machinery or perhaps a car wreck is the reason they blamed. My Uncle Joe Rodgers lost a piece of his hand and I understand an errant wood saw was the culprit. You would never even notice unless you looked very hard as it never took a toll on his great spirit. I never had the opportunity to meet my grandfathers they both passed away when I was young. What I do know about these Irish Butte settlers is through the praises from my parents they sung. To stay say these Butte originals accomplished great things in their lives would be an understatement. They both built Butte businesses from the ground up which is why I hold for them great sentiment. I have to be honest their lives were never brought up or discussed much even at a family gathering. Today we only have black and white crinkled photo’s to remember their lives and their early passing. There is one thing that these two men had in common and it is odd now that I take time to reflect. Both of my grandfathers had only one leg and as I revisit their lives it brings out further respect. Now this is the odd part of the story and it relates to my inquisitive nature and to hear tales of yore. I asked if there was a reason both men had a tough time when they went shopping at the shoe store. I have asked my brothers if they knew why we came from two double tough one legged Irishmen. They had no answers to solve this puzzle for me and my Mom and Dad had this response for the clan. “He lost it” and that was the answer, there was no further explanation offered to my simple question. I did not ask more as I could see on their faces common sense told me there was no further explanation. I have taken many hours out of my life as I reviewed my family histories and this dead end story. I have yet to find the answers at this station in my life but I imagine the facts to be quite gory. I understand that there is a great possibility that the lost limbs can be related to the cursed diabetes. Both men enjoyed the drink and I understand they both smoked which could close out this series. I would like to imagine as I did in my youth the loss was by a gunshot during a bar fight that was unfair. Perhaps they lost their legs in a war or better yet they were hunting and it was eaten by a grizzly bear. I will never know the true story at this point the outcome of their lives are taken to family grave. The loss of the legs is a small part of my Butte family history which I work on each day to save. What I find most outstanding about this bit of my history is both men recovered and had great success. And I had better behave or they would come back from the grave and use their one leg to kick my ass.
Posted on: Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:23:27 +0000
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