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IX. EDITH REBECCA CAVERLY 1874 - 1958
The couple searched for a place to stay for the winter and found an unoccupied house on the spot in Elkton where Hoffman’s Service Station would later be built. Without a word to anyone they went to work cleaning the place. They made arrangements with the Schiele Furniture store for $50 worth of furniture, which included a cook stove, bed, spring, mattress, a table, six straight chairs, and a rocking chair. They moved in. They were just nicely settled when Dave Brundage, the owner of the house came along and asked them if they could pay any rent. Now this was in Cleveland's second administration and of all accounts was a toughie. Men were glad for a job of any kind and would willingly work from 10 to 14 hours a day for $14-$18 a month. The Nortons politely but emphatically said they could pay no rent. Mr. Brundage did not seem surprised. He evidently didn't know anyone else who could either, for he told the Nortons to go ahead and make themselves at home for the winter. Mr. Norton eventually landed a job at Weaver's saw mill where he continued to work for 11 years. The mill was sold to Mr. Prast but Mr. Norton held his job. He rode the carriage, setting saws for 10 hours every workday. There came the time when he made $1.25 a day, then $1.50, then, glory be, Mr. Prast told him one fine day that his future wage would be $1.75 a day. The Nortons were prospering. They built a new home, the lumber for which Mr. Norton milled from freshly-felled trees. There is an interesting story about the manner in which he obtained one fine pine tree. Friends who lived in Soule town, lost a child of about three years. Mr. Norton made a casket for the little one. He even had it nicely trimmed with material donated by his mother. There was no preacher but Mr. Norton well remembers the day he and the child's family buried the little home-made casket. The grateful parents gave Mr. Norton a pine tree which grew on their place. Mr. Norton, now 81, has lived in Huron County for 76 years. He remembers when Bad Axe had but one small store. He also remembers of traveling to Verona, which was quite a remarkable settlement because it had a doctor.
Edith and Silas never had any children but they did adopt a son Stanley. In adulthood Stanley moved to Detroit and his wife’s name was Florence. Edith, Stanley, and Silas are pictured below. The 1920 U.S. census for Huron Co., Oliver Twp., Village of Elkton shows Silas as a laborer for the Pere Marquette Railroad and still having a mortgage on his house. The May 1, 1930 edition of the Elkton Advance noted that Silas had corn up 3 and 4 inches in his garden. A Sept. 20, 1945 entry in the same newspaper noted that he was confined to his home with a blood clot in his leg caused by lying in bed at the University Hospital in Ann Arbor where he had undergone three operations on one of his eyes. Silas died June 9, 1951in Elkton. Edith died March 13, 1958 at the Wayside Nursing Home. They are buried at Riverside Cemetery in Elkton, MI. michigan@thecaverlys.com If you would like to view the PDF format click here
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The following information is from a typed page found in the 1959 letters and papers of her nephew, Clarence Caverly. It was titled “Silas Nortons are Married 55 Years” and perhaps was copied from an Elkton Advance article: “Fifty five years ago last Sunday a young couple entered the new Huron County courthouse at Bad Axe to obtain a marriage license. The county clerk, who was running for another term of office and anxious to make friends, gave them a license with his compliments. At that time the gift meant something since the prospective newly weds capital was exactly $14. They were married on Oct. 23, 1894 in Bad Axe, MI by Justice of the Peace Edwin Watkins. Silas had a farm job but the end of the farming season found him in worse shape financially than the beginning. 
Mr. and Mrs. Norton have lived on their Whalen street property for 46 years. Mr. Norton, with the exception of failing eye-sight has been remarkably healthy until the last couple of years. He now points rather disgustedly at a row of various colored pills and medicines which he has to consume to "keep going". He points with pride, however, to his spry little wife and claims she will, like her father did, live to be over 100.” Edith was a petite woman all of her life. 