Where the Honeywell Family Began

In July of 1927, Georgia Mary Crowl boarded the train in Manhattan, Kansas and travelled alone to West Lafayette, Indiana to marry her sweetheart, Earl Robert Honeywell.  They'd met at Kansas State University, and Earl, after doing graduate work at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, had accepted a professorship in Horticulture (specifically floraculture) at Purdue University.

Friends of theirs from Kansas, Doc (Charles) and Faye Nitcher, had also come to the Lafayette area, and offered their home as a place for the two to wed. The nuptials took place on July 7, 1927 at 412 Russell Street, West Lafayette, Indiana. No other family members were present - distances were just too great at that time.

The Nitcher home in 2011 at 412 Russell Street in West Lafayette, Indiana.

The Nitchers remained close friends of the Honeywells, and when Fern Marie was born in 1928, were added to the Honeywell will as guardians should anything happen to them.  Fern called them Aunt Faye and Uncle Doc all her life. Years later, the Nitchers built a home at 520 Carrolton Boulevard in West Lafayette.

The left side of the house was added after the Nitchers passed away; the original home is on the right.