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Picture early 1970’s Alva 1919-1984 Viola 1924-2002 |
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Alva Knouse septic tank service And Family tree |
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Alva and Viola Knouse were married on August 26, 1946 in Chillicothe, Missouri. Born and raised in Chillicothe Alva started the tank cleaning business in 1937. He joined the Navy during WWII then came home to septic tank cleaning again. This time he traveled all over the United States doing just that. Viola could not have children but one of her sisters, Claudine (Gardner) Batson, ran away from her husband after being beaten and left her two children with Viola. They ended up keeping the little boy Danny (3 months old) and Jimmy Batson got the girl Loretta (over 3 yr old). About four or five years later Claudine remarried in California and tried to redeem here children and did. But they would not stay, the children had already formed ties with the other families. Loretta went back to Grandma Batson and Jimmy. Danny went to Alva and Viola as a ward of the court using the name Danny Knouse till he married in 1969. He settled back in Chillicothe, Mo. In 1959 and lived by the viaduct and railroad on Washington St. till 1968. That’s when he moved to 223 E. Polk on the east side of town where both lived and died. Danny now owns the septic tank business and has built a portable toilet business along side it. Danny will turn it over to his son-in-law and daughter, Bryan and Tammy Posey next. Everybody had their share of bad times but it was the good times we counted. Life never gets better till you obey the Lord. |
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WWII Sailor Alva Knouse
Alva’s Mom & Dad |
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Joseph Daniel Knouse 1876-1957 Minnie May Knouse 1882-1939 |
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Joseph Daniel Knouse married Minnie May Shadden and they lived in the Gravesville addition of Chillicothe. Joe was a man of God. I got to meet him when I was just six years old. He was dying in the nursing home on Clay St. I remember the words he had to tell me then and I ponder them in my heart till this day. Samuel C. Knouse was his dad, born in 1835 in Allen, Ohio died in Chillicothe in 1910. |
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Pratt Kansas |
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It was time to quit traveling when I had to go to kindergarten so Alva bought a house in the country and moved it to the town of Pratt Kansas, he had relatives there. Wasn’t there long, that’s when all the fighting over me started. Then we would move our trailer to Grandpa Claude Gardners off and on. It was the old round barn south of Utica, Mo. There I went to school in Utica for half of the first and second grades. We did finally stop moving around when we parked our trailer by the viaduct in Chillicothe the summer of 1959. |
