Chapter 19
"Okay I got it. William Monroe was not convicted but there is reason and proof. Child abuse - regular beatings, a trial of abandonment that didn't work for his son," Shannon said to me as her eyes were glued to the papers she held in front of her.
We spent hours at the library, researching every name according to the year. Hours into this and the table we were working at with a computer in front of us was cluttered. Laminated newspapers everywhere, books that we were able to trace any of these names in, each computer having multiple windows open, and not to mention the folder between us of all the names.
We started with Martin and worked our way back to his family. And with every piece of evidence we found of abuse, we added it to a new folder we were creating. Putting in order how every person was connected, we put documents and proof in that this family does in fact have a pattern occurring throughout history.
It started with Martin, clearly. He was the first one, the one into uncovering all this and we were working back from him. Since Shannon and I each took one of Martin's parents and researched them to see which one of them it was that committed the abuse, we started to get real results. She found that his mother, Margret, abused him and it was a dead end with his dad Albert so we didn't need to get involved anymore with him. And it went like that with every generation we looked into.
With every generation uncovered came great progress on our part. We leaned that Martin's mother Margret was blamed for numerous accounts of beating her child and scarring him on his back. Since it was never proved, she didn't get busted but that was enough evidence to show Martin was clearly abused somehow - the beatings and the scars which weren't denied.
Looking into her past for the reason's why she did this to her child, why she continued this behavior, we found more reason to this growing pattern. Margret suffered from internal injuries more than twice, all from 'unknown sources.' However, digging into her medical records, I discovered she was also a victim of rape from her father, which was a confirmed fact. It all pointed to the obvious: child abuse and in her case, it was very severe for my great grandmother.
Margret's father, Andrew, who raped her, had the pattern of abuse too. He owned a farm down in Mississippi and it was reported that he had two children - Margret and Henry. Shannon was able to pull up reports of the police uncovering Henry's body in the barn. He was stabbed numerous times and though it was proven that Andrew killed his son, he was able to get away with his daughter and lived quietly for years later until one day, the two were recovered. Margret was raped for years by him until she could no longer take it and snapped. She shot her father and when she did that, that's when her story came out of her abusive childhood, one she later repeated.
It was at this point in time it became a little tricky for us to dig deeper for the fact that, with every generation we went back, the harder it was becoming to find evidence. Documents on anybody was hard to come by, death certificates were vague.... Shannon still was managing though because she was able to find and pull up a report on Andrew's father, looking into the reason's behind the abuse towards his kids.
"William Monroe moved him and his family down to Mississippi for work. It's not clear why but during that time, where he lived prior, people started losing their jobs at the mills and I figure that was his best option for him."
I scooted my chair closer to her and took in the newspapers in front of her, enclosed through lamination. The coloring of the paper and the texture of it looked more than worn or old. We were getting back into the early 1800s now.
The article she was looking through looked similar to all the ones before. Most of the ones before were just mentioning members of my family. Some were actually helpful and those ones, we kept in the folder for evidence. However this one was in the middle. It didn't point to a crime but rather validated why they moved. The entire story covered people heading to look for more work and in the article, William was mentioned. There was a little section for an example of what kind of a life he had when losing work. It wasn't what exactly what we needed though.
"What about him abusing Andrew?"
Shannon looked back up at the computer to another article she had pulled up. She scrolled down until she found what I was asking for that could really help. Showing me, she pointed to the text as she spoke. "It says here, about 5 years after they moved, William tried actually selling his son or trading for work. That's not common back then but it happened I guess between families that needed work on the farms. After he gave Andrew up on what he was now claiming to be a good purpose for work, the people Andrew was living with reported clear signs of abuse on his body. And when they went to the police with that information after confronting his father, William was quick to take him back so there was never any proof to show; just speculation."
I pursed my lips as I sighed in relief. One more piece to the puzzle we had. And one more article closer to putting Clare away. It was a great feeling, knowing we were actually building up a solid case against her. However, with every piece of evidence, my possible future seemed to become that much more real - and it terrified me, the thought that I might end up like all of them.
That was a thought that continued to enter my mind each time we uncovered more history to suggest that pattern was true. It was more of punch in the gut really. I knew what Martin said - that this went back for generations and I believed him. But to actually have concrete proof that existed, that pointed to this clear pattern, and to see how much abuse was committed so far, it was scary. We only made it back to the 1800s and it seemed as if this long path to the present was just overwhelming, knowing the abuse has been happening for that long. What was even worse was that we didn't know how much farther back this would continue because the more we found, the more I felt sick with realization that this could be me one day.
Shaking my head though, knowing it wouldn't do me any good to keep dwelling over this, I needed to remember this was helping us and thinking about the effects wouldn't help. "Print it off," I said, pursing my lips and sitting back up and away from where I was leaning to see her computer.
Reaching back over in front of me, I took a deep breath as I grabbed the folder we started with all the evidence we were uncovering and opened it. All the documents we came across, all the papers we printed off, everything that held evidence of abuse in my family we took and put it in this folder. And each time we put something more into this folder, the happier I was that this was one step closer to being over. And at the same time, the more upset I seemed to feel because it was so depressing how long this has been happening and knowing that nobody was able to break this cycle. It made me nervous because it made me feel so small... if none of these people were able to handle it, how will I if I ever had kids?
My only answer was that I couldn't have kids. And I would just have to live with that.
After Shannon printed it off, she grabbed it from the printer and handed it to me when she came back to where we have been sitting for the past couple hours. Sitting down, she looked down in front of her and also picked up the other laminated article in front of her she was reading about William moving to Mississippi, handing it to me. Placing both in the folder, I closed it and set it down but when I looked back up to Shannon, I noticed she was looking up at the clock on the other side of the room.
"It's getting late," she sighed and glancing to where she was, I grimaced. 8:45. Great. And I still had homework to do. Was that as important as this was to me right now? Hell no man!
"We still have some time, right? What time do they close?"
She only shrugged and came to face me more, her brown eyes framed with her lowering eyebrows at my question. "I have no idea." She narrowed her eyes on me but looked more worried than anything. "I think we should probably go though. Luke will be worried seeing the time and don't pretend you don't have any homework," she smirked.