Right is an example of Malinda Hazenís handwriting from a postcard she sent home while visiting with her daughter Em in Toledo. She never signed her name, always "Your Mother" or "Your Wife", some family members suggest this was so she would never have to contradict her husband's understanding of her name, for when they were married, he gave her name to the license clerk as Belinda, this because, being deaf from the age of 17 and only reading lips, he so interpreted its pronounciation. She was a very religious woman and throughout her life honored her husband in the Biblical sense. Despite his harsh treatment of her, the strongest criticism of him that she was ever known to utter was an occasional "Oh, Pa!" When things at home would become unbearable, such as the time he knocked her down the cellar stairs, she would go to visit relatives for six months or so to regain perspective, then meekly return home to cope with her marriage. Her sister Susan had married Riley Stevenson in Illinois and she went there for several visits. She also made extended visits to her oldest daughter, Em, who had married Harry Hugo, a conductor on the Pennsyvania Railroad and lived on Oak Street in Toledo.

NOTE: In the Zehner / Hoppes genealogy, Susan Zehner is not named among Isaac and Leah Zehner's children, but there is a reference to her. The genealogy says only, "one daughter went to Illinois." Apparently the respondent who gave the information to the genealogist did not remember Susan's name or any information about her. However descendants of Harry and Malinda's remain friends with Riley and Susan's descendants to the present day. In the Hazen reunion book from the 1930s through the 1960s, Verus and Lorene Stevenson, descendants of Aunt Susan and Uncle Riley, are often in attendance. 

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This page last edited March 1, 2006

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