Emma Jane Summers of Pike County

Tragedy was certainly no stranger to Emma Jane Summers. But so was blessing an important part of her long life.

Emma's parents were Conner Summer and Mary Pitman Summer. He was born in 1860; she one year later. They were both probably born in Indiana and married there at a young age. Pike County, Indiana had a population of about 10,000 the year Conner was born.

Conner worked in the coal mines of southwest Indiana as early as his late teens, possibly his mid-teens. This led to black lung disease at an early age.

Tragedy struck on Valentine's day of 1880, the year Emma Jane was born. In fact, Emma Jane's birth was the reason for the tragedy. Her mother, Mary, died giving birth to Emma Jane. Mary was only 19. Now her husband, Conner, found himself alone to raise his baby girl, while suffering from black lung disease.

He did not suffer long, however, for just one week after the death of his wife, Conner succumbed to the disease. He was only 20. At the age of only one week, Emma Jane became an orphan.

A neighbor agreed to raise Emma Jane. He was a widower with several children of his own.

This arrangement was not without its problems, however. There is evidence that the man may have sometimes tied Emma Jane to her high chair while he went to work, possibly leaving his older children in charge to care for her. When she was about 13, he sent her to work for a friend of his who put her in charge of cooking for his farm hands. He was a demanding employer who expected lunch to be served to the minute at the time he instructed. She was to ring a bell to call the hands to lunch at the appointed time.

Somehow one day, Emma Jane got lunch ready too early, and rang the bell, summoning the field hands to the house. However, her employer was angered by her early schedule and beat her, telling her never to do this again.

Certainly it can be understood why Emma Jane was ready to marry at a very early age. In 1896, when Emma Jane was just 16 years old, she married Lewis Edward Doughty in Pike County. He was just 18.

The couple had eight children, all of them girls except one. The boy was Ollie Edward Doughty, born in 1901 in Winslow, Indiana when Emma was 21.

Emma's long life was lived in southwestern Indiana. In 1952, her husband of 55 years passed away. Lewis Edward was 74 at the time of his death.

In late summer, 1962, Emma Jane traveled to visit her son, Ollie, and his wife, Beulah, in Willow Springs, Missouri. While there, she suffered a paralytic stroke. She was taken to a nearby hospital for care.

When she was able to be moved, she was taken to Gibson General Hospital in Princeton, Indiana, near Evansville. Later she was again moved, this time to Oakland City Rest Home in nearby Oakland, Indiana.

On October 26, 1962, at the age of 88, Emma Jane Summer's long life came to an end. She was buried in Williams Cemetery in Pike County, Indiana.

Her obituary published in local newspapers stated that she had 92 great grandchildren at the time of her death. One of those 92 great grandchildren was a young girl of 14 who was living in a rural part of Indianapolis, Indiana, riding her horse, Becky, as a freshman in high school. Six years later, that young girl, whose name was Linda, would marry Thomas Michael Parsons in Beech Grove, Indiana.