1928-1936 Pennsylvania
1928 – Morrisville
In 1928 Horace and Betty moved out of Trenton NJ and across the river to the little community of Morrisville, Pennsylvania. From the house, Horace could take the trolley down Yardley Road and across the bridge to his work in Trenton. Beginning at this house, Betty hired a maid named Mayme who came to work on the trolley, and Horace later drove her home to a very run-down neighborhood in Trenton.
1929 – Westover Road
In 1929 they moved about a mile north to another rental at 1607 Westover Rd nearer to Yardley. It had been built a year earlier. It was in October of this year that the New York Stock Exchange experienced its greatest crash in history. The Great Depression that followed during the 1930’s caused much concern for everyone, but almost miraculously, Horace was never without a job.
1930 – Ovington Road
Several months pregnant, Betty found a larger house two blocks north at 9 Ovington Rd, Morrisville. Besides three bedrooms there was a finished room in the attic where Charlie Salmon (Horace’s disabled brother) could live, so he moved from Hilda and Lou Ziegler’s house in Long Island. Betsy Lee was born on October 4th across the river at Mercer County Hospital in Trenton.
Five years later, Richard Farley Salmon was born in that same hospital on February 8, 1935. A family reunion took place when Horace’s sister, Ella Salmon Kelly, and her daughter Josephine Kelly travelled from El Paso TX and his mother (Alice Lake Salmon) and his younger sister (Hilda and Lou Zeigler, Barbara, Jean and Jimmy) drove down from Franklin Square, Long Island.
During 1930 Horace and Betty spent many hours planning how they might open a business of their own, and settled on opening a 5 and 10 cents store in Bernardsville NJ. The move happened on a snowy day in January 1936 and the store opened later that summer.
Our story continues in the next chapter.