Granny Whetstone's Missing! (And I can't find her.)

 

Yes, dear Granny Whetstone, Mom's own kind and gentle grandmother, is missing. There she is above with her husband Joseph Hampton Whetstone (1858 - 1939). No, she didn't wander off just now. She's been gone since right around the time I was born. And yes, she's missing from the records. Oh, sure, she's right there in the census records from 1870 with her House family in West Virginia all the way through the 1930 census in Frostburg, Allegany, Maryland. She's there except for a birth certificate but that's to be expected because it's West Virginia in 1865, right after the Civil War and West Virginia is a brand new state, so no birth record for her... and by way of extension, for me. By the way, she was born April 5th and the war ended April 9th. I wonder if there ever was a birth certificate for her?

But I can't complain too much (even though you know I'm going to) because of one census return for Granny and her family. Here it is and you'll notice that she and her husband are there, as well as Mom - Virginia - and her parents, Emma and Cambria Williams. And look, they are all named and the relationships are named too! WOW! Jackpot! Three generations in one record.

Isn't this cool?!

 

Alright, that's nice but what I really want is Granny Whetstone's death certificate. I have the rest of my great grandparents death certificates and I need hers too. So I emailed my guy who knows his way around the Maryland State Archives and off he went to get her death certificate as well as that of her husband, Joe. When I received his package in the mail there was no death certificate for Granny. WHA?? I couldn't believe it. So I went on the Maryland State Archive myself and tried to find her in the index. Got nothin'.

 

Then I noticed a discrepancy in her death year. Her tombstone says she died in 1945. Just look at this photo of it and see for yourself.

 

 

 

 

Mom's tree and it says that she died in January of 1946. Now I'm really confused because if I think about it, maybe that's not right either. Mom remembers - and I asked her about this many times over the years - that after she had me in October of 1946, she spoke with Granny on the phone and Granny said, When are you going to bring that baby over so I can see her? So Mom did, and Granny saw me, and presumably I saw her too. It was winter, Mom said, which in Western Maryland can come anytime really, but usually from November and until about April. That would make it late 1946 and into 1947. And Mom remembers that she took me to Granny's home of many years, on Midlothian Road in Frostburg. So maybe Granny Whetstone passed in January of 1947.

 

Grand pop Whetstone had passed on August 15, 1939, and Mom remembers it well. She and Dad were to get married that day but cancelled until the 21st because Joe died then. Granny continued to live in their home until she passed, as Mom has said.

 

So what's with the missing death certificate? And what's with the multiple death years? I'm at a loss.

 



Mom, Virginia Williams, on the left and her sister, Dot, on the right Flanking their mother Emma Susan (Whetstone) Williams in the light dress and Granny Kate, in the dark dress.
Katherine (or Catherine depending on the record) Elizabeth (House) Whetstone.
Photo, mid 1930s.

 

 

I seriously needed Granny Whetstone's death certificate because I'm working on Mom's application to the NSDAR. The DAR for short, or Daughters of the American Revolution, requires exact and accurate documentation in the preparation of your application. Death certificates are a boon to the applicant because it ordinarily includes birth and death dates as well as the names of both parents and therefore proved the vitals of that person as well as provide a link back to the previous generation.

 

But my Maryland State Archive guy sent a note with the things he did find stating in blatant terms, "She did not die in Maryland."

 

I was in shock. Shocked and maybe a little depressed at how much more work this was going to make for me. Now what the heck was I going to do? I have no vital records for Granny Whetstone. She's just plain missing.

 

More in the next post.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2014/09/granny-whetstones-missing-and-i-cant.html

Mom's DAR adventure: It will take a village

I always thought it a great big sad shame that Mom was never able to make application to the DAR. It's not like she didn't have an ancestor who was already recognized and accepted by them as one of their Patriots, because she did. He's one of our Wonderful Whetstones and you can see my Surname Saturday post about Capt. Jacob Whetstone (1738 - 1833) and the entire line here. Problem is that a family genealogy book was put out by an interested party stating that Jacob Whetstone's line took a turn at Somerset County and then headed west. In fact, there were two Jacob Whetstones in the area at the time! Our guy was the one who got the Military Lots:) That ought to tell ya' right there that he's the one who served.

But let's set that can of Whetstone worms aside and get back to this business that Mom had not had an ancestor who was officially approved by the DAR and recognized as one of its Patriots. Until right now. (I'm all but giddy!)

Got an email from Cousin Rich who informed me that he just checked the DAR web site and looked for our ancestor to see that he is now listed, and approved!! Giddy, I tell you:) I congratulated him and his wife as well because they were the ones who readied and submitted the application. Man, I thought, that's got to feel great, to have a brand new patriot officially listed! That was some super good genealogy work on Rich's part because, well, you know, it's West Virginia where court houses burn down every other Halloween, or at least that's how it seems.

Cousin Rich really worked hard on this one, but he was helped by Mom in a major way that put all the pieces together. Without the document she found, which we've come to call the "friendly lawsuit", there might have been no proof of our connection to this new Patriot.

After the dust settled a bit and the congratulations were flung around and emailed back and forth, I had a moment to think and realize what this meant. Mom now had her Patriot under which she could finally make application to the DAR! Wow! It could finally happen for her.

I'd recently read that the usual application processing time which can take more than a year is fast tracked for those over 90. Mom qualifies at 96 years old. Maybe we could actually get this done:) I emailed Cousin Rich and explained what I wanted to do and he replied instantly that he'd love to help get Mom in the DAR. Now I had my team in place to work up the application for Mom's lineage and  to show the Patriot's service. See the ducks? Look at them getting into a tidy little row.

Time is always of the essence but especially when the prospective member is 96. So wish us all luck, and may the wind be at our backs. I so want Mom to be a DAR member at long last. I haven't told her yet. Shh, this is just between us. I'll keep you posted:)

Mom at less than a year with her parents, Cambria "Camey" Williams (1897 - 1960) and Emma Susan (Whetstone) Williams (1897 - 1956). Mom's patriot is on her mother's line.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2014/09/moms-dar-adventure-it-will-take-village.html

What I found out about the Whetstones, and now I'm happy.

Evening Times (Cumberland, Maryland)
February 6, 1907

Recently I posted about the Whetstone house fire of 1906 and how the whole story of my grandmother's family in the early years of her life was pretty sad. You can read about it here. The death of two small children, Peter and Viola, and then the house fire that destroyed their home and all of their possessions except the clothes they were wearing: it all happened in 1906. Yeah, I'll confess that it made me sad. But today has another story - or rather the rest of the story - and I learned a couple of things I'd like to share with you.

I was curious as to why they might have lost two small children in a year, so I checked to see about epidemics that might have taken Peter in March and the infant Viola in November. Sure, little baby Viola might have had any number of birth complications and Peter could have had a childhood accident, but ever since I learned to look for flu deaths in 1918 or so I can't help think of epidemics. Wikipedia has a dandy list of world epidemics and pandemics which you can find here, but I warn you, if you are anything like me the challenge is to stop yourself from getting lost in it. (Look at that, there was an outbreak of bubonic plague in San Francisco in 1900 to 1904!) And Mom's two sisters, Evelyn and Margaret were little ones lost to cholera, so I always look for that.

And back to Peter and Viola. I see a couple of diseases that might have taken them and the one that pops out is typhoid. Maybe some time I might look for their death certificate but the list of people I want death certs on is mighty long.

But I've wandered far afield here. What I want to share with you is that Joe, Joseph Hampton Whetstone, the devoted husband and loving father, rebuilt the family home on Bowery Street and he did it within the year. The house burnt down in August of 1906 and he had it all going again by February of the next year. He was, after all a stone mason and knew his way around building stuff. What joy he must have had in his heart when rebuilding his family home.

I remember reading sometime last year about how kids from families where ancestor stories are frequent and about the triumvirate theme of disaster - enduring - resilience are themselves more resilient when facing adversity. The stories they hear are family tales of suffering a hardship, sticking with it, and then overcoming to thrive again. It gives kids a sense of the family continuing, facing difficulties and then going on to recover. That's one of the best gifts we can give children and grandchildren.

When I read the story of the house fire I felt sad for this family but I didn't know the whole story. I should have kept researching. When I did go back and look again I found this small item in the Evening News (Cumberland, Maryland) that you see up top. They went on to build a new home.

Seriously, I have to keep looking when I find records like this. Have to keep turning the page to see if there are follow ups! I could easily have missed this little mention that brought joy to my heart!

 

Joseph Hampton Whetstone (1858-1939) standing by

 the water pump in the yard of his new home.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2014/07/what-i-found-out-about-whetstones-and.html

Look what I found out about the Whetstones, but it makes me sad

Evening Times (Cumberland, Maryland), August 9, 1906.

 

 

1906 was a bad year for the Joseph Hampton Whetstone family in the little mountain town of Frostburg Maryland. Little Peter, born in 1895, died in March of '06 and then a fire took the family home in August. My grandmother, Emma born in 1897 and just nine years old, remembered the fire clearly. It was a scary formative event in her life and from the article I can see why. The house was destroyed as well as the contents. Grandma remembered standing out in front of the house with her entire family watching it burn with nothing left but the nightclothes on their backs. That was the sum total of their worldly possessions.

 

I see from the article, and Mom didn't remember this, that the family was at breakfast when they discovered the house was on fire and the flames had already reached the roof. Kate Whetstone, grandma's mother, ran to the bedrooms to rescue the two youngest boys, Tuck and Joe. One of them, I know not which, had to jump to safety.

 

The article states that the value of the house was covered to just one-fourth by insurance. I'm glad of that. At least it was something. And glad too that the two youngest children were saved.

 

November saw another child gone and that was little Viola. She was born September 21 and had died by November 17. Poor Kate was pregnant with Viola when the house burned down. None of us living know if Viola was full term or if the trauma of the fire and running upstairs to rescue her small children somehow caused an early labor for Kate. Either way, Viola was gone before November ended.

 

Poor Joe and Kate. So much loss in such a short amount of time.

 



Evening Times (Cumberland, Maryland), November 20, 1906.

Joseph H. Whetstone on the right in his Frostburg Fire Department uniform.

 

Kate and Joe sitting in front of their house about 1920, with some of their grandchildren.
Mom is the one with the big hair bow.

 

Kate and Joe in later life.

 

 

 

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2014/07/look-what-i-found-out-about-whetstones.html

Summer vacations at the river

Summer on the South Branch of the Potomac River.
As I post this today, July 7, 2014, Mom, Brother and his wife are off on a road trip to the river.
That's just about 100 years of river fun for our family!

In the summertime thoughts turn to vacation memories. Last week I saw Randy Seaver's "Saturday Night Genealogy Fun" post on his always informative blog, Genea-Musings, which you can read here. This time he challenges us to get those memories out of our heads and down for others to see. I like that idea and so I thought it was high time I wrote about our summer vacations down on the Potomac River. Mom has summer river memories and you can read about that here. It's only now later in life that I truly appreciate how Mom and Dad helped make memories for us kids. So here's what I remember, except for the yucky parts which get left out but you'll be able to guess at.

We lived in Cleveland in the 1950s which was about a four hour drive from little Frostburg, the small town in the mountains of Western Maryland where all of my relatives lived and where Mom and Dad grew up and Mom still lives. Dad would take a vacation week from work and we'd pack up the car with a load of stuff, and I do mean a load! I now wish I had a photo of that car. We'd drive to Frostburg and stay with Grandma and Grandpop Kelly for one night before leaving in the morning for the river.

"The river" was a section of the South Branch of the Potomac River in West Virginia where Aunt Dotty and Uncle Harold had a cabin. That's where we'd stay with Mom's sister and her family. It was right next to the cabin of Aunt Peetie and Uncle Camey, Mom's brother and his family. Both families had two boys each to play with so that was a lot of fun right there.

And the food was great! Mom and the two aunts knew just what kids and Dad's loved to eat. Roasted corn on the cob, burgers or hot dogs, baked beans and some sort of salad like potato or macaroni. Then a desert. I still remember Aunt Dotty's pineapple upside-down cake and her coconut cake and Mom's German chocolate cake. There were old fashioned jell-o molds in gem-like colors with fruit magically floating inside and something called ambrosia with pineapple chunks, whipped cream and coconut. No one went hungry down at the river!

The facilities were adequate but hardly luxurious. The modest cabin stood on stilts about eight to ten feet off the ground. That was to save it from the annual spring floods that would wipe out cabins with a lower profile. Eventually, one very bad and rainy spring the torrent that was the flooded river destroyed all cabins on this stretch. Now wiser people bring in their RVs at the start of the summer season. It had taken both uncles years of hard work to build those sturdy little cabins but they were destroyed in just a few hours that spring.

Each cabin had an outhouse. Yes, we all used the outhouse with the sliver of a moon cut into the door. Ours was a two-seater. You had to be awfully close to the other person to make use of that feature. For me, the outhouse was a bit scary... because of the spiders and snakes. OK, I really don't know how many spiders and snakes there were but the cousin boys talked up a good game to scare their city girl relative. Typical boys!

The cabin was a basic affair with two bedroom with curtains serving as doors. There was a potbelly stove positioned at the middle of the room and at the other end was the space that served as kitchen and dining area. The furniture was old and a bit beat-up but it was real comfortable. There was a big screened in porch running the full length of the back of the house that looked out through the trees at the river. A big family-sized table, and a bunch of chairs and a glider for two decorated the porch. It was my favorite place to be on a hot summer afternoon. If you got tired out playing on the river you could find a cozy spot inside or on the porch and find a book to read there. Aunt Dot was an elementary school teacher and knew exactly what to bring to encourage reading. It was a house of people who loved to read so now I can see that it was brilliant to have the house stocked with books and not piled high with the usual assortment of toys. Nice going, Aunt Dot!

But the headline act was right down the muddy bank and on the river. So what's your favorite river activity? Boating?

Aunt Petie and Uncle  Camey and the boys loading up the boat for a nice float down river.

 

 

Or would you like to go fishing? How does that sound?

Grandpop Williams, Mom's father, fishing down on the river.

Mom fishing, about 1938.

 

 

Or would you like to take a swim? Or float down the river on an inner tube? Dive off a big rock out in the river? What's your preference?

 

 

Our rock used for diving, or chilling.
Photo taken by Cousin J. C. 

Mom and her family and friends sitting on one of the big rocks in the Potomac River about 1930.



Mom tells of one summer camping on the river when her mother, Emma, assigned her the task of watching her infant brother, Camey, who was napping in a straw basket. Mom had a book, as usual, and was so engrossed in it that she didn't notice the cow who wandered over and started nibbling on the straw basket. Emma came up from her swim about that time and Mom got a severe scolding!

Thinking back on it all, I remember the corn as the best I've ever had and the peaches the largest, freshest, juiciest, and most delicious ever. There was personal freedom to be had like no other time in life. You could do as you pleased, go where you wished and swim as much as you liked. Sleep as late as you wanted. But everyone had to help if your mother asked you to do a chore. And everyone had to help clean up after dinner while the moms relaxed on the porch and got thanked profusely.

There was a big flood in 1936. A nasty spring flood that whipped out everything. Mom remembers that one. And then there was a later one that took out the aunts and uncles cabins. Maybe that was in the 1960s, but I can't remember the year exactly. I do remember being sad about it, but not as sad as I feel now thinking that it put an end to our summer river memories.



The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2014/07/summer-vacations-at-river.html

Why wouldn't you want to know about your ancestors?

I have to confess to not understanding those folks who don't care a fig about getting to know their ancestors. It's so much fun, isn't it? Sure, a lot of hard work and challenges, but fun in the end. Mom's sister Dot had no interest in genealogy even when Mom talked about it and told her stories about their shared ancestors who had interesting lives. On more than one occasion Mom offered to help Dot get started, especially on her husband's Conrad side, but she'd have none of it. Kinda funny because Dot's son and my cousin Steve is an avid genealogist, when he's not playing golf.

I bring this up because recently I asked Mom how she came to have such an impressive collection of family photos. Probably got them from her mother I thought, but wanted to confirm the occasion and circumstances. I was sorting through the photo file while making up an ancestor book for Mom's cousin Bill and thought about how fortunate it is that we have so many pictures of our ancestors. They all had big families and we are missing pictures of some of them but it is surprising how complete her collection is. But how did she get so many?

She told me that after her mother Emma died in 1956 and they were cleaning out the house, Dot took the photos. Dot didn't value them but before throwing them out called Mom to ask if she wanted them. Of course Mom did! It has become a precious family treasure.

Mom kept on adding to her stash over the years and got or copied many more pictures from cousins near and far. They would even call her and say, "I have this box of old family photos in the attic. Do you want them?" Mom always said yes.

Every time I sort through them I notice a new one and today here's the one that jumped out. Why hadn't I noticed it before?

Emma Susan (Whetstone) Williams, Mom's mother, holding Mom.
About 1919.

 

How precious is this photo to me, I can't even say.

 

 

The URL for this post is:  http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2014/06/why-wouldnt-you-want-to-know-about-your.html

 

My Williams Grandparents: How They Died

OK, that's not a fun topic, I know, but bear with me here, will you? This business of how and why they died started because I was sprucing up Mom's Big Tree on Ancestry.com and trimming a few shaky leaves, and then slowed down a mite to take a look at the photos of Mom's parents and see if there should be more and if so which, when I noticed how old Grandma Williams was when she died. She was 58. Only 58. Younger than I am now.

I was shocked! I sure knew what year she died - 1956 - and even remember clearly when Mom picked me up from school and told me that she died, and that we'd be leaving our suburban house in Maple Heights, Ohio, and traveling to the funeral in Frostburg, Maryland. Remember like it was yesterday.

Mom was very concerned that I'd be upset, and of course I was. But being only 10 years old at the time my understanding of death and dying was limited. I think, looking back on it, that I was more concerned that Mom was upset.

But when we drove the four hours from outside Cleveland to the little mountain town in Western Maryland where all my grandparents lived, and I saw the relatives and my Grandfather Williams, I got it. Death was serious business. But what I didn't get then was that she was what we'd now consider young when she died. She was, as I said before, just 58.

When I saw the Ancestry.com page for Grandmother Williams, her life formed up a different picture.

Wow! She was only 58! Sorry to repeat so much but I just can't get over it. So I called Mom and we spoke about it. Mom filled in the spaces for me. Grandmother had a stroke because she had high blood pressure. It was untreated then because there were no blood pressure meds as there are now. Then she had a second stroke on the heels of the first one and that was it.

You know how it is for us with grandparents: they are always "old" in our youngster's eyes. If I had to guess before knowing, I'd have said I guessed she was in her mid-70s. Then I checked Grandfather Williams and saw that he died when he was 63. Geeezzz! I'm 67.

I just love it how some overlooked fact can jump out at you and suddenly you have a whole new view of things surrounding your family. This experience made me realize that we are fortunate to live in time when some ailment like high blood pressure doesn't have to be fatal. We can, with care, plan for longer lives than those of our ancestors. And of course, more time to work on genealogy.

Aunt Betty is good at keeping track of who died of what. It's all there in her GEDCOM. But I'm going to call and chat with her about it too.

Cambria "Camey" Williams 1897 - 1960 and Emma Susan (Whetstone) Williams 1897 - 1956.

Don't they look happy and sweet?

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2014/01/my-williams-grandparents-how-they-died.html

Stories Mom Told me: St Patrick and where the Farrells came from in Ireland

St Patrick banishing the snakes from Ireland.

From Wikimedia Commons.

 

 

We hear time and time again the warning that we should not listen too hard to family stories and that our pursuit of authentic family history is best served by solid research based on documentable facts. What to do when all leads and avenues run dry while that family story lives on? The answer: follow the only lead you have and fully investigate that family story.

 

Mom's own mother, Emma Susan (Whetstone) Williams (1896-1956) told Mom that her own grandmother, Mary Elizabeth (Farrell) House (1835-1919), said that they came from the place in Ireland where St. Patrick drove out the snakes. She was very clear about that. The place where St. Patrick drove out the snakes. Hmm. What to make of that?

 

Much has been written about St. Patrick and his life and times. Some could be fact and some could be fiction. The legend of the snakes might possibly fall under the fiction category... maybe. (Don't want to anger the saints!)

 

Of course the place to start is with the facts about the family. Thomas and Judah/Judith/Judy, his wife, were both born in Ireland, he about 1795 and she about 1815. They married about 1831 and their first child was born in Ireland in 1835, that being Mary Elizabeth, Mom's mother Emma's grandmother who told her where they came from.

 

They had a second child, Catherine (Farrell) Boxwell (1838-1910) in Ireland as well. By 1842 when they had their first sons, James and Thomas, they were in America and residing in Cumberland, Allegany, Maryland. Records seem to indicate that they immigrated in 1841 and that Thomas stated this on a naturalization record. I have not been lucky enough to see the original of this as it eludes me no matter where I turn. All I have is an index. Darn.

 

By the time of the 1850 US Census, the family is living in Morgan County, West Virginia (then Virginia), and Thomas is working as a farmer. Thomas died in 1851 leaving his wife with seven children.

 

But wait, let's get back to St. Patrick and the location of those snakes driven out. Where exactly did they all come from in Ireland? Mom thought that maybe one time she heard from a fellow Farrell researcher that they came from County Clare. I tracked this lady down and she doesn't remember that, but it's been many years ago she said, and she doesn't keep up with it all anymore. Maybe it was County Clare, but maybe not.

 

Now I have to say right here that I don't know where they came from in Ireland, not with proof certain, so I don't want you to be reading along thinking that this is one of those stories in which a lot of hard work paid off and the family story is proven or disproven. It's not like that at all. I'll probably be working on this for years and years, and I don't mind. I like the work.

 

I'm taking what I can from Grandma Emma's repeating of the story she heard from her own grandmother, that she came from the place in Ireland where St. Patrick drove out the snakes. I had searched a little around that topic a long time ago and come up empty. It was quite a while back and the internet wasn't what it is now. But the best recent clue came from TV and a Smithsonian Channel show, Sky View: The Emerald Isle. In it Croagh Patrick is identified as the very place that St. Patrick is said to have driven the snakes from Ireland. It's a beautiful spot overlooking Clew Bay in County Mayo. When watching the Sky View program I was reminded of the family story and ran to the computer to start searching all over again.

 

Were there any Farrells at all in County Mayo? Because family stories aside, if no Farrells lived there, it's no good at all. I figured that there should be some in Griffith's Valuation of 1856-57, that is if (big if) the family had ever resided there. Yes, there are Farrells all over the place. And the names Thomas and James appear often. That's encouraging.

 

What does this all mean now? Not a lot to go on. Just an interesting family story and a possible connection. I've just started looking. They were Catholics and that will help. If I'm lucky, I might find their marriage record and a baptism record for Mary and Catherine. It's going to be a long hard search with no guarantee of any results. And I don't mind a bit.

 

 

Mary Elizabeth (Farrell) House (1835-1919) who said they came from the place in Ireland where St. Patrick drove out the snakes, and her husband Samuel Albert House (1832-1917).

Her daughter, Catherine Elizabeth (House) Whetstone (1865-1946).

Mom and her mother, Emma, and grand daughter of Mary Elizabeth Farrell.

Photo from Aunt Betty's archive.

 

 

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2014/01/stories-mom-told-me-st-patrick-and.html

 

Stories Mom Told Me: Aunt Marg and her fashion sense

Mom loved Aunt Marg, I can tell from the way she talks about her. You see, Aunt Marg was Mom's mother's sister, Margaret Ann (Whetstone) Wilson Brown (1902-1996). She was born in that little mountain town I write about all the time where our ancestors lived for so many generations, in Allegany County, Maryland. It must have been quite a change of environment for her when she moved from Western Maryland to Akron.

Mom says that Aunt Marg moved there and lived with her sister Aunt Grace, Grace Elizabeth (Whetstone) Knowles (1893-1959) near her brother and Mom's Uncle Tad. (The last post was about Uncle Tad and Aunt Rena.) Even Mom went to stay for a while with Aunt Grace, just before she met Dad, but that's another story for another time. Aunt Grace and Uncle Frank had two children, Charles and Jean.

Aunt Marg got a job at O'Neils's department store in women's fashions in downtown Akron. It was the start of the great age of downtown department stores and the ladies fashion department must have seemed almost heaven for Aunt Marg who dearly love high style.

Mom doesn't know exactly what happened but at some point, Aunt Marg split from her first husband, who she met and married in Akron, Frank Brown (1898-1996). They had two children, David and Doris. Mom said that David died young but Doris grew up, got married (perhaps to someone named Clarence and that's yet to investigate), and moved to California and worked in a candy store. It was after that Aunt Marg married "Uncle Cec" (pronounced like cease, and I really don't know how else to spell it), Cecil Wilson.

Looking at the 1920 US Census for Marg and Frank Brown is fascinating. They are living at 40 S. 14th Street in a house with two other couples, aged 49, 49, 28, and 28. Marg is 18 and Frank is 20 and it says that he was born in Scotland to a Scottish father and Irish mother. When I review the others living at this residence (and none are listed as borders) the only other person who has the Scottish/Irish parents is Amelia Craig, 49, listed as "mother-in-law. It's a jumble to me, and if I had infinite time I might try to unravel this ball of yarn. Maybe sometime, but not today. By the way, Frank is working at the rubber plant as are the two other men in the residence, and you might remember that Uncle Tad moved to Akron to work in the rubber plant.

Well, whatever happened between Aunt Marg and Frank happened, and they split.  She then married Uncle Cecil Wilson and they resided in Akron. Mom remembers that he sold sewing machines. His hands were meticulously kept and that interested Mom because she could see that he didn't work with them as other of her male relatives did. He was a classy man, Mom said.

Eventually Marg and Cecil moved to Indianapolis to take better advantage of his work.  Marg worked in a big department store there too. Aunt Marg was by then a "city lady", very sophisticated, and knew about the latest fashions and dressed in them, always in the best of taste.

During her high school years, Mom received the benefits of boxes of clothing sent by Aunt Marg to her sister and Mom's mother, Emma Susan (Whetstone) Williams (1897-1956). People did that then, and still do. A bunch of our neighbors who have small and growing children exchange boxes and bags of clothing regularly. By the time of Mom's high school years which happened during the Great Depression, those boxes of clothing gained enormous value. Mom and her sister Dot looked forward to the mysterious treasures that might arrive by parcel post!

Emma taught Mom and Dot how to sew, as all the mothers of all the town's girls did. If you wanted a new outfit you were most likely going to sew it yourself. And if you got a hand-me-down from an older relative or close friend, it probably needed altering to your own measurements. Sewing was a "must have" skill for young girls in Frostburg where Mom and her family lived.

In one of those boxes from Aunt Marg was a fabulous pair of brown suede high heeled shoes. Mom loved those shoes and thought of them as the height of sophistication. She wore those shoes in sun, rain and snow. Probably dried them out in the open oven as people did then. Wore them right out and through the sole. No worries! Mom cut up the cardboard that came in the shredded wheat box that  separated the biscuits... and wore them some more.

When Mom graduated high school in 1936, she rode on the bus to spend two weeks with Aunt Marg and Uncle Cec in Indianapolis. Maybe it was more than two weeks as Mom is 95 and can't quite remember. It was quite an adventure. I'm thinking that the time spent with Aunt Marg was a sort of finishing school for Mom and was instrumental in developing her fashion sense. Even to this day, Mom remarks how stylish Aunt Marg was and how well she knew clothes and hair and how to wear them!

Aunt Marg came to visit when Mom and her sister Dot were young women, wearing a fur coat. It was a total sensation! Aunt Marg kindly let the girls borrow it so that they could walk up and down Main Street in Frostburg, taking turns in it. All the boys, Mom said, asked and asked where they got such a treasure. They shrugged and walked on.

Aunt Marg died in Indianapolis at the age of 91. I almost feel that I knew her because of Mom sharing memories. I think that I would have liked her very, very much.

Back says, "October 23, 1939, Lafayette, Indiana.

Daddy Cec, David Leroy Mathew, Mumie Wilson."

Maybe it was written by daughter Doris?

This photo is confusing!

Aunt Marg and Uncle Brownie with new baby, probably David. No date.

Just found this one: Aunt Grace, Uncle Tad and Mom's Grandmother Whetstone.

Grace Elizabeth (Whetstone) Knowles (1893-1959), "Tad", Clarence Hampton Whetstone (1891-1976), and their mother "Kate" Catherine Elizabeth (House) Whetstone (1865 - 1947).

 

 

 

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/12/stories-mom-told-me-aunt-marg-and-her.html

Stories Mom Told Me: Part 5, Aunt Rena and Uncle Tad

Mom and I were chatting the other morning and I mentioned how much I liked going to see Aunt Rena and Uncle Tad when I was a kid. We lived in various suburbs of Cleveland and they lived in Akron so a Sunday drive to see them was a reasonable thing to do and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Uncle Tad was Mom's mother's brother, and his proper name was Clarence Hampton Whetstone (1891-1976). Seems like all the boys in that family had given names along with the names they were always called... just to make genealogists crazy. Uncle Tad had married Tessie Hall, Mom said, who was born in Scotland. They had Alex, or Red, and Thelma before Tessie died in 1925 in Akron. It was then that he married Aunt Rena.  The 1930 US Census shows Uncle Tad and Red and Thelma living on Harrison Street with his then housekeeper, Rena Gralion, if I read that surname correctly. He's 38 and she's 25. He married her some time after that. I don't think Mom or I have ever looked into Rena's heritage and suspect that she's been overlooked because they had no children, or maybe because she was born in Scotland? That goes on the list of stuff to do.

Marring the housekeeper is kind of a pattern in our families, and maybe other families too. He did it and so did his father: first wife dies, hire a housekeeper and then marry her. Sometimes the kids don't fit in with the new family so well and get moved off, usually to grandparents who smother them in affection. Did your ancestors ever do that?

While checking records for this post, his WWI draft record was found online and he was already living in Akron in 1917 and working at a rubber plant. Interestingly, at least for me, in the 1920 US Census, he and Tessie are living with his in laws, Tessie's parents, James and Janet Hall who are 68 and 64. He's listed as "Clint", but we never heard him called that. Their first child, Alex, is listed as Alexander. I can not find this family in the 1940 US Census, but now I have Tad, Clint, and Clarence to search so maybe I didn't do a very thorough job of it.

You see, Tad had moved his family from Frostburg, Allegany, in Western Maryland to Akron to work in one of the rubber plants. He started work in that industry at the Kelly Springfield rubber and tire plant near Cumberland, Maryland. He was one of many young men who made the move north and slightly west to Cleveland or Akron. That was a northern migration pattern for many families in this area as industry dried up or simply expanded to other regions. Other families associated with the Celanese company, also near Cumberland, moved to the Carolinas when the big plant was built there. Knowing these two facts can help a wayward genealogist trying to track ancestors from this region.

I remember the house Aunt Rena and Uncle Tad lived in. It was a solid looking two story white and brick structure, sort of in the Craftsman style, with a screened in front porch. It was built on the corner of a double lot and there was a somewhat lavish garden in back with vegetables and flowers, and plantings on the side of the house. It looked very well-kept and prosperous in the middle-class neighborhood in which it was situated. We often played croquet in the ample yard on a warm summer day, and ate meals picnic style there too.

Mom and I both have a very distinct memory of Aunt Rena frying up mushrooms in a big cast iron skillet... in the basement. Yes, in the basement. I have no recollection of ever eating in any other place except the basement or the yard. Hmmm. Mom thought for a minute and then speculated: maybe Aunt Rena was a neat freak? A sweet and totally lovable neat freak. I do remember one time when I wandered into her dining room where the window was full of magical and tiny African violets, and she quickly came to supervise and warn me against touching. And I don't once remember her cooking in the actual kitchen or us eating inside, especially in the dining room. That said, I might have this all wrong! But Mom thinks Aunt Rena might have been a very, very fastidious housekeeper. We love her memory just the same and she's still family, even though the rest of us are tidy but certainly not freakishly neat:) And both Mom and I can still to this very day remember the smell of those delicious mushrooms being fried up by Aunt Rena. Yum!

Not a very good picture at all of Mom's mother, Emma Susan (Whetstone) Williams, her brother Tad, Clarence Hampton Whetstone (1891-1976), and his second wife, our sweet Aunt Rena.

 

 

 

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/12/stories-mom-told-me-part-5-aunt-rena.html

Stories Mom Told Me: Part 1, Pepper is a Whetstones thing

Mom has written up some memories and we've put them together in a book form, with a lot of photos, to make sharing easy. She wrote them years ago in those stenographer's notebooks that she took to libraries and court houses when she went to do genealogy research in years past. She was a good note taker and we've been able to piece together sources for almost every bit of information we looked at in her files. You see, she only did her genealogy for herself and never intended to share it, so sources were recorded on the fly just to help her find her way back to where she first saw a thing. But I digress.

When Mom had a memory of her life and was in a writing mood she'd grab one of those steno books and write it down on blank pages in the back. I noticed the steno books last spring on a visit to see Mom and she read me a couple of stories. I knew then that they should be shared. Over the last ten days I've posted them to this blog.

That done, I think I'll share some more stories Mom told me. You see I call Mom almost every morning and we do go on about family history! I keep notes on what she tells me in spiral notebooks. Now I have three fat ones brimming over with what Mom knows. Sometimes it's just a detail about our ancestors, a small event, or a note about what happened to whom and when. It's the kind of stuff that can easily get lost if a person doesn't write it down then and there.

So here goes, and in no particular order. I'll just work my way back through my "Conversations with Mom" notebooks in a first attempt to get it down in writing, or rather typing. Might be said that it's going to be just a wild basket of kittens!

Stories Mom Told Me: Part 1, Pepper loving Whetstones

I was standing in the kitchen here in our home in San Diego, California, on a cold and rainy winter day a while back. It was a soup or stew day, for sure. We love how a good soup makes the house smell like a home, don't you? When I first got married Mom gave me some tips about cooking and marriage. Men like meat. When you start any cooking that's not a cake, begin with sautéing onions and garlic because it makes the house smell wonderful. Over the years and through all of the vagaries of life, there has been one constant: every savory meal is likely to start with onions and garlic!

As my soup (or stew, I forget) got going and was into the seasoning stage about 45 minutes before it landed on the table, I grabbed for the pepper. Lots of pepper. Love it. I put pepper on everything. So does Mom. We love pepper. I've been criticized for adding too much of it to salads, roasts, and soups. Every beef dish turns into Steak au poivre! It just seems right.

Just as I made this observation, I reached out and grabbed for the phone: let's call Mom and find out about why we love pepper! She said immediately, "That's a Whetstone thing. My grandfather Whetstone put pepper on everything, and lots of it too. So did my Mama. We all love pepper."

What about the Kellys? Do they like pepper like that, I inquired about Dad's side of the family. I wanted to know this because my Grandma Kelly was a wonderful cook and an exceptional baker of sweets. Her wilted spring greens would have made a New York City chef weep! Sauté up some bacon to crispy, remove from the iron skillet (you know the ones, all black) add some vinegar and a dash of sugar swirl in the hot pan and let come to a small boil, then add the greens. The greens wilt immediately, but cover the skillet and take off the heat. The objective is to wilt not cook them, and that's a delicate matter. If overcooked those fresh spring greens can turn bitter and that's no good at all.

Nope, said Mom, pepper is a Whetstone thing. Even a cousin of mine through the Whetstone line says she loves pepper! I wonder how many Whetstone descendants are out there today grabbing for the pepper instead of the salt?

I wondered if there were health benefits associated with black pepper and sure enough, there are. You can see one write-up here and another one here. From the looks of it, pepper, and that's common black pepper that we usually have on the table or in a pepper grinder, is full of antioxidants, and promotes digestion and absorption. Piperine is a substance in it that is known to be a little powerhouse of an item that often works synergistically (especially with turmeric, which I'm willing to bet the Whetstones din not use) to enhance anti-inflammatory properties of other good nutritious foods.

Now I'm wondering if this use of pepper isn't adaptive and old Joseph E Whetstone (1816-1897) and even his father, Jacob Whetstone Junior (1776 - 1889) used pepper to protect from strange intestinal troubles out on the frontier of Western Maryland?  And as an added bonus, it kept arthritis and other inflammatory type ailments at bay? Pretty smart, those Whetstones!

Me on right with cousins, sons of Mom's sister: all pepper lovers.

Mom: possibly the biggest pepper lover of us all!

Mom's mother, Emma Susan (Whetstone) Williams (1897 - 1956) with her brothers, pepper lovers, all!

 

Pepper lover:

Mom's grandfather Whetstone and her mother's father, Joseph H. Whetstone (1858 - 1939), on the right in his Frostburg Fire Department uniform. Recent news from the FFD historian indicates that his hat says "Assistant Chief."

Joseph H's father, Joseph E Whetstone (1816-1897.)

Another pepper lover? I'm willing to bet.

 

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/11/stories-mom-told-me-part-1-pepper-is.html

Stories from Mom: Epilogue

By Virginia Williams Kelly

I fell when I was 87 and broke my pelvis and that ended my walking days. I should have and could have continued, but I became lazy and it was much easier to drive so drive I did. But walking was a great time to contemplate on life, yours or someone else’s. It is also a good time to plan and dream.

 

On one of those walking days I walked thru the Catholic Cemetery in Frostburg and remembered that I had great grandparents buried there with no stone to mark their grave so I decided to put in book form the stones that were there. It took me over 2 years of nice weather to finish my project and publish it. I only live a half mile from my home to the cemetery so I always walked there and back and really enjoyed those days.

But I enjoy my days right now. I hope that you too enjoy every day because each one is a blessing.

November, 2013

Those were the days my friend

I thought they’d never end!

That's me on the left, Mama, my sister Dot, and our brother Camey. I guess Dad was taking the photo.

Dot on the left, me, my best friend then and now Ollie Coleman, and Mama.

Me, my grandmother and my mother's mother Catherine Elizabeth (House) Whetstone (1865 - 1947), Mama, and my sister Dot.

Me, 1938.

You can read more of Mom's stories here:

Part 1: Those were the days my friend, we though they'd never end
Part 2: Center Street
Part 3: Summertime on Center Street
Part 4: Mushrooms!
Part 5: Fall and Winter on Center Street
Part 6: Growing up
Part 7: Friends and neighbors, life and death on Center Street
Part 8: Walking and strawberries
Part 9: Brady's Creek.
Part 10: The Potomac River


The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/11/stories-from-mom-epilogue.html

Stories from Mom: Part 7, Friends and neighbors, life and death on Center Street

By Virginia Williams Kelly

We were friends with all the neighbors and we were like a big family, if any one needed help another neighbor was always there to help. I remember when old Mrs. Robertson was dying of cancer and how my mother took such good care of her, washing and dressing her and doing anything else she needed until she passed away.

Yes, we were neighbors but we were also best of friends on Centre Street. We formed bonds there that have lasted a lifetime for most all of us.

Frostburg State University owns all of the property on our side of the street now and as I was driving past it the other day some workmen were putting finishing touches to the large FSU sign in the grass where our home once stood. I stopped and ask them to take especially good care of that property since it was once my home. Then I ask them to please keep the weeds out from between the stone wall and the pavement because that was the least they could do for me since I had done it for the all the growing-up years of my life. That was the only thing I hardily disliked on Centre Street, because pulling those weeds just happened to be my summer job for 15 years while I lived there.
 

I also remember life and death on Centre Street. Mrs. Davis who had a daughter and she named her Mary Virginia after my friend and I. I always thought that was a lovely gesture and both Mary and I liked it very much.

I remember the day old Mrs. Robertson died and how sad we all were at her passing. I remember our sister Margaret dying when she was only 10 months old. She was what the doctor called a ‘blue baby’ which meant she had a serious heart condition. I remember my mother frying pork chops after the funeral and how very hungry I was, in fact I was so hungry that I bit into an old raw onion and threw it up and never touched or ate an onion until I was 60 years old.

I remember Granny Chaney, the grandmother of my best friend Olive who was bed ridden but who we visited almost every day because she could tell us the most wonderful stories about her life on the farm. We never tired of listening to them.

Mama was a member of the Congregational Church's Ladies Aide Society. The did what we now call social services to the ill and elderly of the community. In the summer, they had a pot luck picnic for members. That's Mama in the front row with a turban.

Here's another picture of Mama with her sister, my Aunt Marg.

Emma Susan (Whetstone) Williams (1897-1956), and Margaret Ann (Whetstone) Brown (1902-1996). They both look so young.

Mama with some of our neighbors: Left to right, Elsie Conrad, Mrs. Robertson, my Mama, and Edith Robertson.

That's me in the jacket with some friends. I really don't remember exactly who they were! I think that's old Beall High School in the background.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/11/stories-from-mom-part-7-friends-and.html