52 Ancestor Weeks. Week 11 Mildred's First Sight of Ed

The Hero and I asked Mom E how she met Dad Ellsworth.

This was a tale, which I hope I get correct… Don’t want finger shaking to happen from the other side.

If anyone has a different version or corrections, let me know, I don’t pretend to be all knowing, just sharing as I remember being told.

Mom E had her secret little smile as she began her tale. 

Mom and Dad Ellsworth were very close

“I didn’t know Ed, my girlfriend did at her work and I was over at her house one night when she dared me to call him.     

We have a picture of Mom E on the phone.

It was a trick calling thing we did, guess we were up to no good.  (a sheepish grin here)   He answered the phone with a quiet voice. ‘ I said, you don’t know me, but my friend knows you.  What are you doing?’   He said," I am watching my grandfather sleep. "  I didn’t know if he was serious or kidding me.  He went on to tell me that his grandfather Sackley was very ill and he was watching him. He thought his grandfather probably would not live much longer, that he loved him very much. It was very sad.  I felt bad then, but he wanted to talk, so we spent an hour or so, on the phone.  At the end of the conversation, he asked if we could meet.  I said yes; I would come by when he got off work at J C Penny’s.  It was agreed upon, and we hung up.  The next day, I knew where he worked because my friend gave me the information.  I went upstairs where  I could see him, before he could see me [she had a sneaky side. J  ] He was good looking.  I came down the stairs and our romance began. “

My minds eye version of the first sight. 

Dad E never added or chimed in. He just smiled and puffed on his pipe with a twinkle in his eyes.

The memory of being told the story is as precious as the memory told.

Now you know how they met.

52 Ancestor Weeks, Week 9 : Mildred Vance Ellsworth - The Teen Years.

When Mildred Vance left her grandparents, she had a different way of life. Initially her mother sent her to live with her father where they would work out in the garden and the fields helping.  Mom said she remembered picking crops.
At 13, she moved to live with her mother and step-father Clarence LaBerge, because her father was suffering trying to support 7 children during the depression, and his second marriage was breaking up. Houston was not hit as hard economically, but work was slowed. She said they didn’t have a house.  Mr La Berge was a carpenter. He worked for several home builders.  As he was framing and finishing, he and the family would live in the garage or house, sometimes with sheets up to separate rooms.
I found some interesting facts out about her during her teen years.
She wanted to be an actress.  In 1934, while in the 8th grade, she played Frances in the play “Sally Ann Finds Herself” at George Washington Junior High School.

"Sally Ann Finds Herself" is on Internet Archives. 

This school opened in 1928, and was among the first Junior High Schools in Houston Texas.

Another milestone for her was the Cinderella Pageant at George Washington Junior High in spring of 1935 in the 9th grade. She was a Lady in Waiting for Cinderella.  Her picture is cute.

Cinderella Pageant 1935

Mildred at 16. A favorite picture of the family.

She was to experience tragedy in 1937. Her brother Thurman was killed in an auto accident. He was only 25 and had a little girl. Mom kept in touch with her.  She told me that he lived at the edge of Houston, on a farm the family owned. He would pick her and her brothers up from town and take them out to work on the farm to care for the garden.

In 1938, she must have gone visiting at Cass County, because we have pictures of her having fun with friends, a fellow and cousins.  The following has written on the back: “Arnold Mackey and Mildred Vance”. There isn’t a clue who Arnold is, and I can’t find him on a census.

She had a best friend, Ila Mae West. She wrote this on the back of the picture.  I have not found Ila in any records either.

Ila is in the center and Mildred on the right

.  You can tell who had brothers.  J

Mildred on the left and Ila on the right. The caption on the back was "best friends" ?  

This brings us up to where she met Ed, that is new chapter in her book to be done at a later date.
Thank you for stopping by.

52 Ancestor Weeks Week 8 Martha Ann Maloura Wells Reynolds Being Frugal

The Hero's mom shared about her grandmother when I was talking with her about mine. I told her my grandmother, who had 13 children, would even save the squeal of the pig (my grandmother's joke).
Not to be out done about being frugal, Mom Ellsworth shared the following.
"When I was living with my grandparents, we were on a small farm.  My grandmother always had a cow, chickens, and a garden. My grandfather's work as a Doctor did not always bring in money.
Grandmother to save against the time when the cow was dried up, came up with a method of preserving her butter.  She was sought after by the neighbors to teach them too.
After churning the cream into butter, she would mold it into 1 lb. blocks.  She would then stack the block into crockery pots, cover them with brine water, and then put a cover over it to keep the butter from floating up."

This would have been the type of crock she used. It is called a Red wing Fermenting Crock

During Mildred's childhood, Martha would can from her garden for winter, and she sewed.

Henry Crawford Reynolds, Mildred Vance, Martha Ann Maloura Wells Reynolds

Martha Ann Maloura Wells was born 16 Jul 1859 in Abbeville, Henry County, Alabama to Jasper Newton Wells, and Nancy Ann Holland.

found on Ancestry.com Year: 1860; Census Place: Rowville, Henry, Alabama; Roll: M653_11; Page: 207; Image: 211; Family History Library Film: 803011.

I have some Civil War stories she told. Will share at a later time. Thanks for stopping by.

52 Ancestors Weeks Challenge: Week 5 Mildred Vance Ellsworth: The Child

When Mildred Christell Vance was born on July 5, 1919, in Pittsburg, Texas, her father, Walter VANCE, was 29 and her mother, Annie Mary REYNOLDS, was 24. She married Edward Nicholas ELLSWORTH Jr. in September 1939 in Houston, Texas. She had four children by the time she was 26. She died on November 22, 2012, in Katy, Texas, at the age of 93.
For this story we will just cover her childhood years.



We have Mildred’s birth certificate.

"Texas, Birth Certificates, 1903-1935," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/X2K2-YRJ : accessed Jul 10, 2010), Mildred Vance, 1919

She did not have a middle name given to her. She said she picked her middle name herself. Her daughter said she had thought a friend of Annie’s had suggested it.  I just know she was impish as she talked about having given herself the middle name. She had a mischievous streak.
The 1920 census gives us a record of her with her mother and father.

Year: 1920; Census Place: Justice Precinct 1, Camp, Texas; Roll: T625_1785; Page: 6B; Enumeration District: 24; Image: 62

She told us that at about 2 years of age her parents were divorced and her mother took her to stay with her grandparents while Annie got a job and worked.  This ended up being for 7 years.
These pictures of Mildred, Walter, and her brothers must have been taken close to this time period. I have never seen a picture of Mildred or her brothers with Annie in their youth.

Mildred, Walter P Lane Vance, Dutch

top Archibald 'Button' Walter, Thurman
bottom Arnold 'Dutch' and Mildred

The 1930 census gives us a record of her with her grandparents. This is just before she goes back with her mother.

Year: 1930; Census Place: Precinct 1, Cass, Texas; Roll: 2306; Page: 13B; Enumeration District: 0006; Image: 130.0; FHL microfilm: 2342040.

Mildred, let me just call her mom, shared a few stories that gave insight into the time she was with her grandparents. Her cousins gave some insights when the Hero and I visited them to find out more information about her Reynolds side of the family.
Mom let me know that her grandmother Martha Wells Reynolds had a portrait of her mother Nancy Holland Wells, hanging on the wall of their house. She said she would never forget it because the eyes followed her everywhere.  When she asked her aunt, who had broken up her grandmother’s housekeeping where it was, she was told they did not know anything about it, maybe it was in the attic of the old house that they sold.  A treasure lost.
Back to Mom’s narrative, when living with her grandmother life was very structured and orderly.  According to her cousins, when she came to visit, their grandmother made mom wear white gloves, and keep her dress clean, she wasn’t allowed to run outside and play with them.  Maybe not with them, but I happen to have a couple of stories that show she got outside to run and play.
Once when she was about 4 or 5, she decided she didn’t want to do what her grandmother told her to do.  When her grandmother reached for her, she ran outside and kept out of her grandmother’s reach.  Later when she laid down for a nap, she woke up to find herself tied to the bed with her grandmother standing next to the bed with a switch. The dialog was something like “you won’t run off like that again.”  Mom wasn’t upset by it, in fact she found it somewhat amusing that her grandmother had out bested her.
Another time her brother Dutch was visiting. He had been picking on her… brothers do that… so she decided to “get him”. She said she snuck into his room, grabbed his shoes and ran out laughing telling him he couldn’t catch her.  Of course she knew he could, but not before his bare feet hit the patch of sand burrs she had headed for.  Yes, she was giggling at the age of 92 when telling me about this, describing how he hopped around trying to get the burrs out. (I am so glad we sat and visited about her youth a little).
They did not stay in Cass County all that time. She said that her grandfather was a doctor for the Railroad company in Wharton, Texas for a several years.  He got a small salary for doing physicals for them, and some of the local people would come by for colds, etc.  They were not wealthy and half the time people paid in food. I will share her stories of her grandmother as a person at a later time.
Leaving her grandparents was hard for her. Her cousins said that it was because her grandparents were older, in their 70 s, and were breaking up housekeeping to stay with their son.  Mom saw it as her mom showing up and taking her off with her to go to her father’s for awhile. This was when she went to the Wichita, Texas area.  When the Hero worked up there for a year, she would tell us, that she remembered the area well.  Silly us, we didn’t grab the opportunity for more stories.
It wasn’t until her early teens that she moved back with her mom, and that is another story.
She is a precious lady to me. She was not perfect. She didn’t pretend to be. She was real. Hope you enjoy her stories as much as I did. 

Sentimental Sunday and 52 Ancestors Week 1

Combining two posts into one.  On Facebook Amy Johnson Crow shared her resolution and a new blog challenge. Her blog is No Story Too Small you can read about her challenge there.  I have decided to give it the college try.

As I was driving from church today, my thoughts went, as they often do, to my research.  I was thinking of how we start where we know and branch out from there.  My thoughts then went to my own descendants.  How cool is it that I have 23 desendants and one on the way!  Helps to have 6 children, number 6 hasn't started yet. I digress.  When my first grandchildren were little I wore a "Mother's birthstone children necklace". They loved to sit in my lap and play with the necklace and ask who the individual "children" were and loved finding how their parent fit in the family.  My # 18 grandchild accidentally broke it, and I am just getting around to fixing it.  My point is the grands learned who their aunts and uncles were.  Which brings me to my wonderful mother-in-law. She had the same type of necklace, but rarely wore it and there wasn't a lot of lap sitting around her house as she was always in the kitchen. 

 When she died, we were all dealing with the pain losing her. I know 93 years is a long time, but I was ready for 100.  My youngest son declined to go to the funeral or viewing. Since his dad died, he stays away from family gatherings.  He declines to talk about it.  Back to my point.  When the youngest son was sent the will as part of being his father's heir, he sat down and read the whole thing. Now that is awesome, but the awesome fun thing was when he came running into my room and said ... "I didn't know dad had two sisters".  Well blow me away.  Maybe mom should have worn her necklace more and held her grandson on her lap more.  Just sayin'... 

I inherited the Hero's mom's necklace at the top.

Basically she was not raised in a warm loving environment.  Her parents, were divorced when she was little, and she was sent to live with her grandparents who were quite elderly compared to a 3 year old.  They were stern, and they loved her, but there just wasn't any cuddling.  

Henry Reynolds, Mildred Vance, Martha Wells Reynolds

Her mom wasn't demonstrative, and her dad had a problem with drinking.  When I met her, it was a struggle for both of us, because I am a hugger, and she was a polite cheek pecker.  As the years passed, we became good friends, and she accepted my hugs.  I am so glad I was able to spend many hours staying with her when she had illnesses or surgeries, because I was able to capture many stories about it to share with my children.  A funny one she told when we were talking about disciplining children, was that, once she had been rude and unruly and ran from her grandmother.  Being elderly and slow, her grandmother wasn't able to catch her and she thought she had a triumph.  Later, she took a nap, and when she woke up she discovered, grandmother had tied her to the bed.  She was advised she would not behave like that again.  She said, she never did.  I guess that is a case of "I know where you sleep".  

I could write about her for hours, but I will leave more stories for another time. 

Love you mom... Miss you.