2. Byron’s Story

Clarence Bristol and Ruth Bates
on their Wedding Day

On April 1st in the year 1913 Clarence and Ruth Bristol welcomed their fourth child into the world. This tiny baby was the newest addition to the swiftly growing family. His parents had lost their first son in infancy, but then another child had come along: Harold, a dark, handsome boy. After him a sweet little girl named Lucille was born. Now there was the new child, whom they christened Byron Elvon Bristol.
 
Byron's parents had met in school. Clarence Norman Bristol was a teacher in Velva, North Dakota, and Ruth Almira Bates was the daughter of a sharecropper from New York who had moved to Velva after learning of available homesteads. Ruth began attending the local school and met her future husband when he taught her 8th grade mathematics class. That was a mere three years before their 1904 marriage; Clarence was 29 and Ruth 17 when they were wed and set up housekeeping.

Byron spent the first few years of his life in Velva, and then his family began to move regularly due to his father's insurance job. They moved from small town to small town, and Byron has many memories of the places in which he grew up: Velva in North Dakota, and Hesperia, Wyoming Park, Muskegon, and Freemont in Michigan; this last was the place he would always call home. Here he would swim in the cool green water of the lake on blistering hot afternoons, laughing and splashing his friends. He would spear carp in a stream or build a little shack out of discarded tomato paste cans from the Freemont Canning Factory. 

One challenge that Byron continually faced was his serious dyslexia. As he grew older his grades in school became more and more of a disappointment. This caused many problems for him and especially influenced his increasing struggle with self-worth. After his younger siblings Robert, Ruth, and Clarence were born, Byron was the middle child. His older brother and sister had their friends and the younger children had theirs, so Byron often felt rather isolated from his siblings.

Left to Right: Robert, Ruth May, Ruth, Harold, Lucille, and Byron Bristol. A sixth child, Clarence, was born several years after this picture was taken.

Nevertheless, as he grew older, Byron proved himself to be a highly intelligent and hard-working boy. He took on responsibility at an early age and was forever coming up with new and increasingly ambitious ideas. When he was still quite young his mother helped him make maple syrup from scratch. Later Byron sold vegetable seeds to neighbors at a profit, and he even tried his hand at selling a drink mixer called "Michigan Dry"!
 
He finally found his niche when it came to art; Byron was very talented and loved to make beautiful sculptures. His dreams of becoming a professional artist began to come true in 1933, when his older brother Harold invited Byron to come live with him in Massachusetts. He said that he would provide the funds for his brother to attend an art school in Boston.