Experimental Treatment for Grandpa’s Injured Leg

Edward Williams, Mom’s father, was born May 19, 1881, near Astoria, Illinois. He married Agnes Tomitum in North Dakota in 1907. Mom was born to them in 1911. There were also two sons born to them, Lloyd and Ralph, but we don’t know their birth dates. Mom’s mother died of tuberculosis when Mom was about ten years old. Her brother, Ralph, died of pneumonia at the age of two. Grandpa Williams raised Mom and Lloyd alone. Grandpa Williams, Mom and Lloyd moved to Moline in 1925. Much later on, in the late Forties or early Fifties, Grandpa worked as a fireman at an industrial plant in downtown Moline called Herman Nelson. One day, at work, he accidentally stepped into a vat of lye. The skin and flesh on his leg was seriously burned and eaten away by the lye. The doctors used what were experimental drugs at the time, ACTH and Cortisone, to heal the leg. There was an article in the Dispatch about Grandpa and the experimental drugs. I think the article is in the family scrapbook. Daddy fought with Grandpa about his drinking. But, on the other hand, he liked him because he was a big help to Mom and the family. Daddy called him “Gramps.” One day, he handed Daddy two thousand dollars from his savings account and told him to build an addition onto the house because the kids needed more room. He worked long hours in the garden, helped Mom with the canning, and helped Mom take care of us in many ways. Grandpa gave Mom money for her false teeth and also gave her money to buy herself a new dress now and then. She always bought a new dress for her 500 Club meetings. That was designated her “good” dress. Actually, they were cotton housedresses that she got for two dollars and seventy-nine cents in J. C. Penney’s basement. We never saw Mom’s brother, Lloyd, very much, and Mom never talked about him much. I do remember him coming home from World War II in his uniform. He brought Mom two rayon “sweetheart” pillowcases with fringe around the edge. They were covered with brightly colored embroidered flowers. Mom never used them, but they remained in her cedar chest for years. He also brought home pictures of the natives in the Philippines where he was stationed. I only remember these pictures because all of the natives were stark naked! They stayed in the strongbox for years, also. He mailed Mom “Victory” letters from overseas. These were very thin sheets of stationery which, when folded a certain way, also formed the envelope.