She Never Looks My Way... Almost

 

Perhaps it is due to her theatrical leanings which she would later go to study for at college yet again, but my 2nd great aunt Clara never seems to look straight at the camera in most of the photos in which she is featured and put into her photo album. She is the one crouching, first girl on the left of the kneeling row in the upper left and bottom photos above and she is the half crouched girl in the middle of the scrum in the upper right photo. There is probably some psychological reason for that but not being a psychologist or sleeping at a Holiday Inn Express last night, I don't know that reason.

I did do some research though and found that the A.C.A probably stands for the Association of Collegiate Alumnae which was a prestigious group for college educated females back in those times. Among some of the things the organization stressed were issues including standards of academic programs, isolation following the college experience, living wage for college alumnae and concerns about their place in the academy.

Below I have posted a cropped view of the lower photo for your viewing pleasure.

Finally, below is one of the few pictures in the entire album in which she is looking at the camera. In it she is standing next to her recently married younger brother Paul Kuck. Until this album, I had never seen a picture of Paul and the album has a couple dozen of them, some of them labeled with his name which is why I know the one below is him. 

I don't know how Paul's relationship with his two older half brothers, my great great grandfather George and his brother Henry born from father John Kuck's first marriage to Mary Meyer Kuck. I know that at some point after father John Kuck died, it was likely rocky at best. I know this because John Kuck died a very wealthy man but without a will. Perhaps being a German immigrant, he wasn't familiar or didn't yet trust such things. It led to Paul suing my great great grandfather George Kuck and contesting how the estate was divided up. From my understanding of reading the lengthy probate package, George tried to pull a fast one by having his father John sign over interest in some of his businesses to George while John was nearly incapacitated from an incident in which he nearly died due to gas fumes in his home. In the end, Paul's side won and after everything was tracked down and sold, Paul receive 1/6th share of the estate, along with sister Clara and his three other siblings. For those astute in math that noticed only 5/6th of the estate were handed out to the children of John Kuck, you are correct. The remaining sixth share went to the children of John Kuck's third wife, the one that outlived him but didn't outlive the probate process. She had two children from a previous marriage who were slated to divide the last 1/6th share if they could be located. I easily found them using census records but it was unclear in the probate files if they were ever located.

Paul and Clara Kuck, siblings