Lavica Hinkle Field was born in Springfield, Clark County, Ohio, on the 3rd of August in 1857. She was the tenth and last child of Samuel and Sarah Cowan Hinkle. As a small child she moved with her parents to Gibson County, Indiana. Here she grew up surrounded by her family and other families of the area, the Fields, Steelmans, Knaubs, Browns, Hynemans and others. She most likely knew her future husband, George Field, from a young age. She certainly attended the double wedding of George when he married Sarah Jane Knaub and John Wesley Steelman Jr. married Sarah's sister Caroline. Lavica's aunt, Phebe Hinkle, was married to John Wesley Steelman Sr., which made all of the children in that family her first cousins. Her cousin John Wesley Jr. had married Caroline Knaub in a double wedding with George Field and his first wife Sarah Jane Knaub, Caroline's sister. Another of John's sisters, Dora, had married Alexander Hinkle a first cousin once removed of Lavica and another Steelman brother Mark married Lucy Knaub, another daughter of Norman and Caroline Knaub. George had a first cousin once removed, Henry Clinton Field, who had married yet another Knaub sister, Rachael. The connections were endless. Just a few days after George and Sarah's first anniversary Sarah died giving birth to their son Wilbur. Four years later Lavica and George were married on the 19th of January in 1881. Within a few years they moved to Porter County, in northern Indiana. They eventually settled at 1001 Oak St., Valparaiso. George and Lavica's next door neighbors were John and Jennie Hinkle, Lavica's brother and sister-in-law. It is quite likely that Lavica and Jennie were good friends but no doubt they missed their families back in Gibson County. Lavica kept a scrapbook. It was a book on swine diseases in which Lavica pasted newspaper articles form time to time. The book eventually ended up in the possession of Harvey and Marie Field, one of Lavica's sons and his wife. Family members remember this book always sitting on Marie's piano in her living room. When Harvey and Marie died the book passed to Leslie Field, their oldest son. It is now in the possession of Bradley Field, Leslie's only son. Bradley has scanned many of the articles glued to the page of the swine diseases book and has give a copy to us. He has given his permission for us to reproduce these articles on our website so they can be enjoyed by anyone interested. These articles cover everything from marriage, mishaps, mayhem, morality, maiming, miracles, murder, mortality, memories to merriment. Click here for the index to Lavica's Scrapbook.

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