How the Workmans Happened to Come to
America Instead of Australia

(Story as told by Fred Workman to his granddaughter, 
Dorothy Reed Shurtleff, and by Dorothy to Linda Hansen, 
February 2000)

"Three English teenage boys became very good friends.  
One went away to sea.  The other two taught school.  On 
a school break, the two schoolteachers decided on a lark 
to go to Australia.

"They went to the steamship line to enquire about a trip.  
On the way there, they met the third boy just home on leave.  
He told them, 'You don't want to go to Australia -- you want 
to go to America.'

"The boys talked it over.  Jane Davis, a sister of one of the
schoolteachers (Fred Workman), was going to travel to America 
to meet her husband Tom, who had gone before and earned 
enough money to send for her and his little daughter.  
The boys decided on America so that Jane and little Ethel 
would not be alone on the trip.

"On reaching New York, Fred traveled on to Auburn with Jane.  
His schoolteacher pal stayed in New York City.  Both boys 
needed to find jobs and earn some money so they could return 
to England.  Fred found work in Auburn and never went back 
to England.  The other boy got work in New York City and 
went back to England.

"Now how the rest of the family came, I have only mother's
 version (Grace Workman Reed, Fred's daughter).  I was 
always led to believe that Ned (Edward) came next.  Fred and 
Ned brought their mother over and set her up in a house with 
bedrooms to take in boarders.  However, she was not happy.  
She gave up everything and went back to England.  She wasn't 
happy there either.  She came back to America and lived for a 
short time with Fred and his family, then left to make her home 
with Ned in Terre Haute.

"When Walter and Alice came, I do not know.  We thought 
Walter always lived in Oswego.  About Alice, I know nothing.
Uncle Tom Davis was a very kindly old man when I met him.  
He made Kenneth and me a toy...."