Charlotte (Hake) Doyle/Gerhard

Charlotte Matilda Hake was born on Saturday, July 5, 1919, in the Willow Grove area just south of the city of New Castle in North Beaver Township, Lawrence County, Pennsylvania. She was the fourth child born to George Hartman Hake and Margaret Matilda (Doutt) Hake, both of whom were descended from German immigrants.

George and Margaret had met in the New Castle area, were married in December 1914, and lived at several locations before operating a small farm property along Hickory Creek in Willow Grove. It was on this farm, owned by Mahoningtown businessman John McMillin, that Charlotte was born. However, about four months after Charlotte was born the Hake family abandoned the farm life and moved just north into the urban setting of the Mahoningtown ward of southern New Castle. They rented a house at #24 North Cedar Street.

The Roaring Twenties was generally a time of great economic prosperity and Charlotte’s father George, holding a steady job with the Pennsylvania Railroad Company (PRR), was able to take advantage of that. In 1925 he purchased a farm property back at Willow Grove on the northern bank of Hickory Creek. The farm, about fifty acres in size, was in an area just northwest of Willow Grove in an area now known as Lawrence Junction.

Charlotte grew up on the Hake farm in Willow Grove, located at the end of Million Drive off of Route 18. The farm was generally operated as a poultry farm by her father George. The Hake kids would come to enjoy frolicking in a public swimming hole called the “Stone Wall” and located on Hickory Creek behind their property. The family also attended services at the Madison Avenue Christian Church in Mahoningtown.

Charlotte started the first grade in the fall of 1925 at the North Beaver Township Consolidated School in Mount Jackson. She had Martha A. Powell as her teacher and among her classmates were Lester Hodge, Russell Mars, Leslie Sipe, her cousin Thelma Gwin, and her sister Mildred. The next year she was in a combined second and third grade class, led by teacher Mary Douglas, which included her older brother Alvie. Back at home the Hake family continued to grow as George and Margaret had six more children between 1927 and 1939.

The Stock Market Crash of October 1929 would have a profound effect on Charlotte, then ten years old, and her siblings. Her father would only work sparingly on the railroad during the next decade of the Great Depression and things were undoubtedly tough on the family. Her father did his best to make ends meet, but it was a constant struggle. Charlotte went on to attend the North Beaver Township High School (also known as Mount Jackson High School) and was among the twenty-seven seniors who graduated in May 1937.

By the end of that same year her father was faced with mounting debts and forced to sell off the farm. The Hake family moved into a house at #502 Montgomery Avenue Extension on the extreme southern edge of Mahoningtown. This house sat on the southwest corner of the intersection of Routes 18 and 108, exactly where the bridge on Route 108/Mount Jackson Road currently spans the Mahoning River. In June 1939, when Charlotte was about to celebrate her twentieth birthday, the last of the Hake children, a daughter named June Ilene, was born.

Charlotte, like her older sister Dorothy, had decided to pursue a career as a registered nurse and began attending a three-year course of study at the Jameson Hospital School of Nursing in September 1939. In September 1941, she departed for eastern Pennsylvania with two fellow students to undergo three months of pediatric study at the Philadelphia General Hospital. It must have been a bewildering time away from home because during her stay in the City of Brotherly Love the distant American military fortress in and around Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, was attacked by Japanese naval forces. Charlotte returned home to New Castle in early January 1942 to complete her nursing studies.

Charlotte graduated from the nursing school in June 1942 and began working as a registered nurse at Jameson Hospital. Through mutual friends she soon met a local man named Robert Eugene Doyle, a 1938 graduate of New Castle Senior High School, a music enthusiast who attended the Indiana State Teacher’s College, and then employed with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company (B&O) in New Castle.

Charlotte and Robert were married at 9:00am on Wednesday, September 22, 1943, at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Cascade Street in New Castle. The Reverend John Unger presided over the service. Betty Raney, a fellow nurse who was in Philadelphia with her and joined the U.S. Navy upon graduation, served as Charlotte’s maid of honor. Edward Logue, Robert’s brother-in-law, served as his best man. A wedding breakfast and reception was held at the home of Robert’s parents at #913 Morton Street in New Castle. After a brief honeymoon Charlotte and Robert made their home at #617 Highland Avenue in northeast New Castle.

About a year later (possibly in August 1944) Charlotte gave birth to a son named Jeffrey. Though it was probably unknown at that time Robert was suffering from Tuberculosis (or TB) and apparently the infant Jeffrey contracted the disease soon after birth. TB is a potentially deadly infectious disease (and not hereditary) - passed on during close contact with an infected person - that usually attacks the lungs and is prevalent in the young and the elderly. The infant Jeffrey grew ill and tragically passed away about a year and half later. (NOTE: My father, James Jeffrey Bales Sr., got his middle name in remembrance of this young child). I believe Robert was diagnosed with TB at this time and battled the disease over the next few years. Charlotte and Robert moved to Prescott, Arizona, in about 1951 so Robert could recuperate in the warm, dry climate. Robert’s condition must have improved because they returned to western Pennsylvania a couple of years later.

I believe they lived east of New Castle in Butler County and Charlotte soon started working at the Veteran’s Administration (VA) Hospital located in the town of Butler. Back east another son, Michael Douglas, was born in March 1955. This event was probably tempered by that fact that Charlotte’s father George was killed in a tragic railroad accident on May 2, 1955. Two more kids followed in the coming years: John Christopher in October 1957 and Mary Kaye in August 1962. In the early 1960’s their relationship started to deteriorate and Charlotte and Robert soon went their separate ways. They were divorced in 1963.

Charlotte started dating a fellow employee at the VA Hospital named Russell E. Gerhard. They were married on July 19, 1964, possibly near Chautauqua Lake in western New York, and soon made their home at #128 North Crawford Street in New Castle. Russell also took to nursing and in May 1967 was among twenty fortunate people selected from 200 total applicants to undergo a state-sponsored two-year nursing program at Jameson Hospital.

Charlotte’s mother Margaret grew ill in her later years and spent time living with all her daughters in the mid-1960’s. Margaret, who later moved down to Houston, Texas, to live with her son (and Charlotte’s brother) John Hake, passed away on September 27, 1969.

Charlotte and Russell moved to nearby Mercer County in 1976 and bought a house at #745 Greenspring Road in Coolspring Township. Charlotte took a job as a nursing supervisor at the Mercer County Assisted Living Center. Along the way Charlotte’s three kids all grew up, graduated from high school between 1973 and 1980, and started lives of their own.

Charlotte’s husband Russell passed away on Monday, April 4, 1988, at the age of seventy-three. He was cremated and his urn was held at home. Charlotte continued working at the Mercer Assisted Living Center well into her seventies. When she finally retired in about 1996 she had worked as a registered nurse for over fifty years. Charlotte lived in retirement until she passed away in the main hospital of the Sharon Regional Health System in Sharon, Pennsylvania, at 10:55am on Friday, October 5, 2001. She was eighty-two years old. A viewing was held at the Cunningham Funeral Home in Mercer from 7:00-9:00pm on Sunday, October 7. Afterwards her remains were cremated and her urn (and that of her husband Russell) is currently held by her daughter Mary Kaye (Doyle) Patterson at her home in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.