Oskar ELLINGBOE (ARTHUR CARNEY)

1883 - 1960  (77 years)

• Name	Oskar ELLINGBOE (ARTHUR CARNEY)
  Birth	Jun 1883	New Market Twp, Scott County, Minnesota
  Gender	Male
  Confirmation	20 Jun 1897	West Christiania Lutheran Church, New Market Twp, Scott County, Minnesota
  	as Arne Oskar Ellingbö, age 14
  Death	18 Nov 1960	Leavenworth County, Kansas
  Burial	Mount Muncie Cemetery, Lansing, Leavenworth County, Kansas
  	section 35
  Notes	Oskar Ellingboe changed his name to Arthur Carney and invented a preposterous backstory in which he also changed his birth date and family history. Ed says Oskar spent his youth in Lakeville, went into the service, and later became a Federal Prison guard at the penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas. He lived in Leavenworth until he died. Not listed with his mother and siblings in New Market Twp in the 1905 state census. The 1910 census contains no Arthur Carney born in Kentucky within 5 years of 1887. He was not listed in the WWI draft registrations, either as Ellingboe or as Carney. In the 1920 census, a 33 year-old Arthur W. Carney is shown as a soldier at Fort Leavenworth. His native state is shown as Kentucky and both of his parent had been born in Kentucky. Thus, he was claiming to have been born in Kentucky several years before he married Marie. In the 1925 Kansas census, he and Marie are living with other Hamiltons in Leavenworth. Arthur claims to be 38 years old, born in Kentucky, and working for or on the “golf links” at Ft. Leavenworth. This same Arthur Carney, claiming to be a native of Kentucky, was living in Ohio at the time of the 1930 census. This Ohio Arthur Carney was a prison guard at the prison (U.S. Industrial Reformatory) in Scioto, Ross County, Ohio. He was married, 43, with a wife Marie, 37. This Arthur Carney was a veteran of the World War. In the 1940 census, he was the 53 year-old Arthur W. Carney living with his wife Marie, 47, in Leavenworth, Kansas. He was a prison officer for the federal prison. Arthur claimed to have had two years of college. Marie had an eighth-grade education. The couple owned their house, worth $4000, at 712 Ninth Avenue (or 712 Central Avenue). They had lived in Leavenworth five years earlier although not at that address. The census-taker talked to both Arthur and Marie. Arthur specifically claimed that he was born in Kentucky. Thus, likely in Marie’s presence, he claimed to have been born in Kentucky, a claim Marie would have known to be false because she had met his family in Minnesota. A note in the Leavenworth Times in August of 1952 said that Mr. and Mrs. Arthur W. Carney had returned home after several weeks visit with relatives in Minnesota. According to city directories, he and Marie lived at 712 9th Avenue in Leavenworth between 1934 and his death in 1960. The couple is shown as briefly living in Alburquerque, New Mexico, in 1955, at which time he was associated with the U.S. Air Force. A database of obituaries in the Leavenworth Times newspaper shows the death of an Arthur W. Carney in the November 20, 1960, edition. According to his entry in Find A Grave, which includes a photo of his gravestone, he was Arthur Wilbur Carney, b. 15 Jun 1886 and died 18 Nov 1960. According to the inscription on that gravestone, apparently one supplied by the government, Arthur had been a sergeant in Company B, 88th Infantry of Kansas in World War I. In the document requesting a military headstone for Arthur, signed by Marie H. Carney on 8 Jun 1961, of 712 Ninth Avenue, Leavenworth, the particulars of his military history are listed: Service number 341371 or 341271, Pension claim number C 122 18 08, Enlisted 10-12-1916 in Washington, Discharged 10-11-1920 at Ft. Leavenworth. He had been a Sgt, Co. B, 88th Infantry, 19th Division, U.S. Army. His date of birth was 15 Jun 1886. The branch of the service that most conforms to this description is the 88th Division, “a National Army Division organized September 4, 1917, at Camp Dodge, Iowa, from men drafted from the states of Minnesota, Iowa. the Dakotas and Illinois. Later when these first drafts had been transferred in large measure to Camps Cody, Bowie, Doniphan, Pike, Travis and Gordon, newly drafted men from these original states, together with men from Missouri and Nebraska, constituted the bulk of the Division.” One of his nieces says: I've known since I was a little girl that he had changed his name. I think I heard that he took his middle name of "Carne," (most likely Arne) and used it as his last name because there were so many Ellingboes (really?). It was hinted, also, that maybe he changed his name so as not to be traced by someone--maybe a girl? There always seemed to be an air of mystery about it. He and Marie visited once when I was about 10 or so. I remember that Marie played our pump organ and Oscar sang. Ma said later, after that visit, that Marie had said that "the Carne's 'hail' from Kentucky." I don't know what Ma answered to that. She was no pushover. I think some of us thought his story was just to impress Marie with a more important background than he really had. I saw him again, briefly, at Uncle Albert's funeral. Once I asked Aunt Clara (Pa's youngest sister) about it when we visited her in Waseca. Oscar & Marie's picture was displayed on a table, which prompted the question. He was quite a distinguished-looking man, and Marie was very sweet-looking. Oscar resembled Albert a lot--a high forehead with hair that seemed to flow back in a high, bushy sort of way. Aunt Clara said that he left home at about 17 years old--(the 1900 census) and I think she said he went to Canada. Oscar claimed that he was born in Kentucky to wealthy parents who traveled a lot. On one of their trips they went to Norway, bringing him along as a baby. While there, they went out on a fishing expedition of sorts or a boat ride of some kind. Not wanting to take the baby along, they left him in the care of a Norwegian lady, Berit--Grandma supposely (??). Their boat was lost at sea, and Grandma brought him up as her own. Part of the story told of his being part of the Canadian Royal Mounted police, and of heroic acts during a small-pox epidemic. I also remember that they said he had had a family Bible, and maybe something else, too, with the proof--I forget what--in his locker at the prison, but it was lost in a fire there. Also, I recall that he hadn't wanted the story told to his mother as it would upset her. Two of the Lee "girls" told of how Oscar could quote pages and pages of epic poetry and verse, etc.” Another niece in April of 2003 said: I am delighted to tell you what I know. You can draw your own conclusions! It is a bit of a mystery. Incidentally, neither my Mother nor I knew Uncle Arthur had lived for awhile in Ohio, or, at least, Mother never mentioned it. Also, Mother never referred to him as "Oscar". I'd never heard that name until my cousin, Dorothy Olson, whom we have only recently come to know rather well, said that was his given name. I think my Mother, as the 'baby" of the family, was always very special to Uncle Arthur. He and Aunt Marie visited us, if not frequently, at least every once in awhile and I have clear memories of them both; very dear memories. Aunt Marie was a very sweet person with absolutely beautiful handwriting. Uncle Arthur could recite numerous poems, epic and otherwise, from memory. I have a notebook in which he wrote down these poems for me. Family, in general, was very special to Uncle Arthur and everyone and everything related to family was always "the best". Uncle Arthur left home, the family farm, at a young age and had a variety of adventures, including service in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (and had tales to tell of those years); in the army in the Philippines (I have some photographs of him taken there); lastly as a guard at the Federal prison in Leavenworth, Kansas, where we visited them. He was completely convinced that the family name should be Carney, not Ellingboe, and had his name legally changed, though he never told his mother and consequently, as I understand it, his mother never met his wife. It must have been very awkward. That must have been puzzling for his mother, and a source of pain, too, I would think, as well as requiring endless evasions. Uncle Arthur said he had documentation which proved that an Irish family named Carney, who lived in Kentucky, were in the habit of going to the Norwegian fjords to fish. On one such expedition, they took their son, their son's wife and infant son, along. They left the baby with a maiden lady while they went out fishing. The entire family was drowned and she - the Norwegian maiden lady - raised the boy as her own. Later, she came to the U.S., still claiming the little boy as her son. This little boy was my grandfather. (Only recently, I learned that my grandfather was an illegitimate child, which would lend credence to Uncle Arthur's story.) Thus, the Carney name disappeared and the name Ellingboe appeared. Uncle Arthur always admired the Irish, and, of course, Scandinavians were looked down upon at this point in our history, as were many immigrants. However, Uncle Arthur was very proud of his family and it is almost impossible for me to reconcile this pride in family, with a repudiation of his family name unless he was certain of the truth of the story. I know Uncle Arthur believed the story though I'm almost as certain no one else did, or does. His documentation, including a family Bible, was burned in a fire in the locker room of the prison so there is no proof of his claim to Irish ancestry. It is true that my Mother looked Irish; white skin, black hair, bright blue eyes! Who knows? I don't think Mother believed this story, but she didn't actually say she disbelieved it, either. We cannot square such a "fairy tale" though, with what we know of Uncle Arthur's character, so.......As I said, draw your own conclusions!
  Person ID	I267	Don Carlson's Tree
  Last Modified	11 Jan 2022

  
  

  Father	Ove Ovesen ELLINGBOE,   b. 24 Mar 1840, Vang i Valdres, Oppland, Norway d. 6 Feb 1899, New Market Twp, Scott County, Minnesota (Age 58 years)
  Mother	Berit Arnesdatter HELLE,   b. 20 Aug 1846, Vang i Valdres, Oppland, Norway d. 26 Mar 1926, Northfield, Rice County, Minnesota (Age 79 years)
  Marriage	1 Jun 1874	Vang i Valdres, Oppland, Norway
  Family ID	F2147	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Marie Beauchamp HAMILTON,   b. 25 Jul 1892, Leavenworth, Leavenworth County, Kansas d. 4 Mar 1971, Los Angeles County, California (Age 78 years)
  Marriage	Abt 1923
  Family ID	F196	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	5 Jun 2008

  
  

• Photos

  Oskar Ellingboe with his four Minnesota sisters From the mid-to-late 1940s. Oskar Ellingboe, about 62, a.k.a. Arthur Carney, is in the middle. His sisters, from the left, Anna, about 61, Clara, about 50, Thea, about 67, and Olga, about 58.