Photo Friday - High Flyers

Velma Davis, Leta LeVow, Thelma Hockman
(I wonder who the children are in the back.)

It was October 1924. Velma labeled this photo of herself and her college roommates "High Flyers." What did that mean? 

Wendy

© 2021, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.

Photo Friday - Snow

Velma Davis October 1925

Snow on the campus of Harrisonburg Teachers College (now James Madison University - GO DUKES!) in October 1925! Velma is all dressed up but no boots.

Wendy

© 2021, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.

Photo Friday - Leta

 My grandaunt Velma Davis's college roommate, Leta LeVow, in October 1924.

Wendy

© 2021, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.

Photo Friday - Hikers

Thelma and Velma

My grandaunt Velma Davis and her friend Thelma Hockman on a hike up the Massanutten Mountain near Harrisonburg, Virginia in October 1924. She documented the trip in her college scrapbook. Read the story HERE.

Wendy

© 2021, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.

On This Day - Velma

My grandaunt Velma Hilda Davis Woodring passed away from cancer on 5 July 1968.

Sweet 16 1924

My last visit with her was difficult. As a teenager, I just didn’t know how to sit and visit with someone I knew was dying. Weeks later when we got the call with the sad news, my mother burst into tears. She always said that of her aunts and uncles, Velma and her husband Woody were the “fun ones.”

Woody and Velma 1949

Wendy

© 2021, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.

On This Day

My great-grandaunt Velma Hilda Davis Woodring was born 15 February 1908.

 

Portrait of Velma about age 2 or 3
on opalotype (glass)

My favorite photo of Velma
She was about 16

Not sure of the year - 1950s??

Some of my favorite stories about Velma:

To Mercersburg and Beyond

What's In Your Trunk?

Violetta and Velma

Girls Gone Silly

Doppelganger for Velma

Vikings and Snowflakes

Wendy

© 2021, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.

52 Ancestors - OOPS: The Virtual Red Pen

When I was a teacher, I refused to use a red pen to mark students’ papers. Too many negative connotations. Students always referred to teachers’ comments on their papers as “bleeding all over the page.” My pen of choice was green or purple and sometimes a pencil. In my view these were more friendly, more encouraging, at least I hoped so. After all, getting it right is good.

In genealogy research, getting it right is important. There are plenty of flawed family trees on Ancestry without me contributing to the confusion with more bad information. I pride myself on being a careful researcher, so discovering I’ve posted something in error distresses me. Here are some of my biggest and best blunders along with the new and improved version setting the story straight – unless I discover otherwise.

Segourney Shiflett Eppard

    Before: Genealogy Photo a Day: Week in Review

    After: Is She or Isn't She?

Velma Davis Woodring

    Before: Sport Center Saturday - Velma Davis Woodring

    After: A Doppelganger for Velma

Josie Sheehan

    Before: Pay Attention to the Woman in the Hat

    After: Hiding in Plain Sight

Robert Byrnes

    Before: Sadie's Family

    After: In Search of Nephews 

        and Favorite Photo - Helen and the Byrnes Cousins

Amy Johnson Crow continues to challenge genealogy bloggers and non-bloggers alike to think about our ancestors and share a story or photo about them. The challenge is “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.”

Wendy

© 2020, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.

Sepia Saturday: Transcendere Montes

Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers to share family history through old photographs.

I don’t know why this week’s Sepia Saturday photo prompted me to think of this one:

Velma Davis October 1926

Clearly it does not show a billy on a fire. Heck, it’s not even a campfire. My grandaunt Velma Davis had probably pulled over on the side of the road and poured a little water or lemonade from a thermos.

Velma seated
others unknown but in another photo
the woman looks like her friend Olive Williams

I do not know the occasion, but she was not alone. 

Woody and Velma
Oct 1926

It was October 1926 and Velma and Woody Woodring had recently become engaged. Perhaps it was just a Sunday drive with friends looking to enjoy the fall color on the route from Rockingham County, Virginia to Greene County. Today tourists come from miles around for “leaf peeping” along the Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park. However, in 1926, the park did not exist.

Today one of the main entrances to the Skyline Drive is at Swift Run Gap. Anyone entering the park will see the little pyramid that features so prominently in many of Velma’s photos from that day. 

Velma on the right
Oct 1926

Woody Oct 1926

It had been along the road at Swift Run Gap only since 1921. It was erected by the Colonial Dames of Virginia to commemorate the 205^th anniversary of Governor Alexander Spotswood’s expedition into the valley.

As the royal governor in the early 1700s, Spotswood received a lot of pressure from “back home” in jolly ol’ England to expand westward. In September 1716, he gathered some prominent citizens and embarked on a journey across the interior of Virginia and on across the Blue Ridge Mountains. In celebration of their amazing expedition, Spotswood gave each officer a stickpin made of gold in the shape of a horseshoe. The pin was inscribed in Latin: “Sic jurat transcendere montes” which means “Thus he swears to cross the mountains.” In time, they became known as “the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe.” There is no such organization, so the name must have been a little joke.

At one time, the pyramid enjoyed prominence along Route 33. Even when the park was under construction, the pyramid sat in a triangle plot complete with rustic posts and small plants. 

From National Park Service - in public domain
1936

1946 from CardCow.com

In 1969, the pyramid and other markers were moved across the road. Grass and gravel.

Markers across from Swift Run Gap entrance
to Skyline Drive

Nevertheless, this little pyramid is near and dear to my heart because the Shenandoah Valley is the center of my genealogical world. As a kid, I went with my grandparents to visit my cousins in Shenandoah every summer. I always looked for that marker, although I didn’t know its significance. To me it merely signaled that we had finished climbing UP the mountain, and we’d be going DOWN the other side.  (I bet Governor Spotswood thought the same thing!) Almost there!

Grab a cup of your favorite beverage and enjoy more stories and old photos at Sepia Saturday.

Wendy

© 2020, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.

52 Ancestors - DIARY: The Next Best Thing

I keep hoping a tell-all diary will find its way to my “gene cave” with answers to all my questions:

• James Jollett, was Thomas Jollett your father? If so who were HIS father and mother?
• Nancy Walker Jollett, who were your parents?
• John Fleming Walsh, are you SURE your father was named Patrick, not John?
• Margaret Slade, were you sneaking around with John Calhoun in the 1850s?
• Stephen Slade, what made your mother pick up roots and leave Florida for Virginia?
• William Boyd, we got your number. We know you were really William Jollett. What was that unspeakable crime that set you on the run and made you hide the truth?
• Frank Rucker, so which line should I follow - Jarvis or Angus?
• And so on and so on.

Although apparently none of my ancestors left behind a diary, several kept wonderful scrapbooks that serve like a picture diary.

My grandaunt Velma Davis Woodring kept a scrapbook during her freshman year at Harrisonburg Teachers College (now James Madison University - Go Dukes!). It is filled with wonderful photos of classmates, campus covered in snow, her dorm exterior, her room which she shared with two others, the hockey field, and the “new” swimming pool.

One of the best entries in the scrapbook though is a story about a hike up the Massanutten in October 1924. Probably the most recognizable physical feature of the Shenandoah Valley is Massanutten Mountain. People often say it looks like an elephant’s head and trunk.  

Massanutten Mountain
Shenandoah Valley of Virginia

Velma and her friends were accompanied by the college president, Samuel Duke. 

Samuel P. Duke
College President from 1919-1949

Here is a transcription of her report along with the photos she took to remember that day. I had to guess what Velma wrote in some places where the white ink has faded. Impressions in the paper helped.

One Saturday about 250 girls went to the station at H.T.C. and went to the foot of the Massanutten Peak on the train. Here we all got off and started on our way up the mountain. About every five minutes, when climbing the mountain, we would stop and rest. We got to the top about one thirty. We stopped and ate our lunch and walked over to the peak as we wanted to. 

Thelma Hockman and Velma

Then at three o’clock when everyone was tired of looking around at the beautiful Valley we started down the mountain. We got to the station about four o’clock and had to wait a while for the train. During the time we were waiting we found many ways to amuse ourselves. We got back to H.T.C. just in time for dinner.

Velma captioned this photo
"Hikers"

Oh how I wish Velma had revealed how they amused themselves. That would surely be diary-worthy.

Amy Johnson Crow continues to challenge genealogy bloggers and non-bloggers alike to think about our ancestors and share a story or photo about them. The challenge is “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.”

Wendy

© 2019, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.

Sepia Saturday: Nothing Too Good for Tourists

Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers to share family history through old photographs.

This week’s Sepia Saturday prompt made me take another look at a couple photos of my grandaunt Velma Davis Woodring and her friends. The date was 25 March 1925. The place, Edge Lawn Inn.

 

Elise Taylor, Velma Davis, and
Thelma Hockman
March 25, 1925

Since in 1925 the girls were students at Harrisonburg Teacher’s College (now James Madison University - Go DUKES!), I could not imagine why they would have been staying at an inn. And where was it?

 

Elise Taylor, Leta LeVow and
Thelma Hockman
March 25, 1925

A search for the Edge Lawn Inn brought up a brief mention of it noting it was south of Harrisonburg. By “brief,” I mean THAT was the extent of the information. No picture. No history. Not even an exact location. My inquiry at the Harrisonburg Rockingham County Historical Society produced nothing either.

So I gave up on trying to find out more. After all, what is there to be gained other than perhaps a little factoid that had nothing to do with Velma or her friends?

Leave it to Sepia Saturday to make me look again. A broad Google search for a misspelled Edge Lawn - I typed “edgelawn” - gave me this ad for the Edge Lawn Inn.

from Automobile Blue Book, vol 2
on Google Books

Velma Davis, Leta LeVow, and
Thelma Hockman
March 25, 1925

The picture of the inn rang a bell. I remembered another photo of the same group of girls in front of a house that I always assumed was the home of one of Velma’s friends. I reasoned that the girls probably spent the weekend with a friend from school. I knew it was not Thelma Hockman’s house since she lived next door to Velma in Shenandoah. Maybe it was Leta LeVow’s house in Waynesboro. Maybe it was Elise Taylor’s home in Staunton.

Velma Davis and Thelma Hockman
Elise Taylor
March 25, 1925

I checked the date. 25 March 1925.

I checked the clothes. Same clothes.

The house was apparently the Edge Lawn Inn.

Using my online newspaper subscriptions, I found several mentions of the Edge Lawn Inn as the venue for reunions, birthday parties, card parties, bridal showers, and other social events. The Edge Lawn Inn placed an ad promoting its Thanksgiving Dinner menu. A small notice advertising dishes and furnishings for sale hinted that perhaps updating was underway at the Edge Lawn Inn. Coincidentally - or not - there was an estate auction next door to the Edge Lawn Inn on March 25, 1925. Were the girls there to bid?

I saved the best for last. The news article is not about the Edge Lawn itself but about its former owner. What a headline!

from Harrisonburg
Daily News Record
14 Oct 1927
Newspaperarchive.com

There you have it - the sum total of what I have learned about the Edge Lawn Inn.

However, I learned quite a bit about the Automobile Blue Book in which the ad appeared. Published between 1901 and 1929, the Blue Books were a series of guides for people traveling the United States and Canada by car. The highway system was in its infancy. Roads were built for local travel, not intercity. The Blue Books relied heavily on maps and landmarks denoting when and where to turn since road signs did not always exist. Originally the aim was to provide point to point directions along routes connecting automobile supply businesses, auto repair and auto maintenance businesses. Advertisements were primarily for hotels, restaurants, auto dealers, and garages.

Unlike today’s GPS devices that point to shortest or fastest routes, the Blue Books followed the routes that offered interesting scenery and places for rest and maintenance.  

Places for rest - like the Edge Lawn Inn. “Nothing too good for Tourists.”

Follow the route to Sepia Saturday - no Blue Book necessary.

Wendy

© 2019, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.

A to Z April Challenge: K is for Korean Dishes

This is a continuation of LAST APRIL’s challenge about HEIRLOOMS. When my sister and I cleaned out our parents’ home, we had to make many decisions about what to do with all the stuff. Which things are truly “valuable” and which have only sentiment in their favor? Should we sell it, keep it, or throw it away? To help ensure a future for our family’s heirlooms, I plan to leave a booklet for my daughters telling the stories of what they will inherit one day. (Not TOO soon, I hope!)

is for the Korean dishes that were purchased by my grandaunt Velma Davis Woodring when she was a teacher and principal for the Department of Defense Dependents School in Seoul, Korea back in the 1960s. She brought back lots of souvenirs for all of us - jewelry, kimonos, dolls, AND dishes.

This set is very pretty in colors of very dark green and white, metallic gold, and a band of dark red or maroon. The overall pattern appears to be daisies or maybe some similar flower. Since the design does not feature Korean ladies or cultural scenes, the set was probably not produced merely as souvenirs.

Included in the set are dessert plates, a tea set complete with sugar bowl and creamer, sake set, and some random pieces that I cannot identify. Possibly one is a rice bowl. A tall piece with lid might serve to hold tea. I have no idea. I have never used these dishes; they are merely decorations filling one shelf of the corner cupboard in my living room. They are thin and delicate. Surely we would scald our lips should I ever serve hot tea in those thin, translucent tea cups.

My cousin inherited some of these dishes as well. At a party she hosted for her co-workers in the Foreign Language Department at James Madison University, a couple of the Asian instructors were fascinated by the sake set. They explained to her that the script inside each cup was a poem.

A lot of good that does me!

Wendy

© 2019, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.

Sepia Saturday: Picnic at Tomahawk

Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers to share family history through old photographs.

When I saw this week’s Sepia Saturday prompt, I knew it would be easy to answer. Yes, my photo is dark.  It is out of focus, but I cannot resist showcasing it.

 

Woody Woodring at Tomahawk Pond August 1928

My grandaunt Velma Davis Woodring captioned the photo “Picnic at Tomahawk Aug ’28.” I suspect that this was Tomahawk Pond, located in the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests in Shenandoah County, Virginia.

I recognize Velma’s husband Woody as the main subject, but everyone else is unknown. That might be Velma in the background, second from the left. It looks like her hair.

Despite the poor quality of the photo, I can’t help studying it. It amuses me. Can you see why?

What is with this picture? I expect a young boy to be smaller than Woody, but this kid looks like a puppet. The perspective is off. Were two photos superimposed by mistake?

Row your boat over to Sepia Saturday to see what my friends made of this week’s prompt. Try to stay focused.

Wendy

© 2019, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.

Sepia Saturday: Crazy Poses

Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers to share family history through old photographs.

The unusual pose of the man and young girl in this week's Sepia Saturday prompt reminded me of some of the funny pictures in the album belonging to my grandaunt Velma Davis Woodring. The pictures were taken during her freshman year at Harrisonburg Teacher’s College (now James Madison University - Go DUKES!).  Apparently they enjoyed being silly.

Thelma Hockman, unknown,
unknown, and Leta LeVow

I am not sure what they were drinking
but they were having a good time!

 

While the pose itself isn't all that unusual,
what's with the skirt?

I admit, silliness must be genetic. Forty-five years later, my friends and I were doing the same thing at the same school.

Girls in my dorm
Onesies, pigtails, and sucking their thumb - CRAZY!

Strike a pose at Sepia Saturday.

Wendy

© 2019, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.

Sepia Saturday: Jelly Beans and Kidney Beans

Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers to share family history through old photographs.

This week’s Sepia Saturday prompt shows a man standing beside one of those 1930s-1940s cars that my family refers to as “jelly bean” or “kidney bean” cars because of the bulbous shape.

Anyone who is obsessed with family history and challenged by trying to identify people in unmarked photos has surely heard of Maureen Taylor, the Photo Detective. She is everyone’s go-to expert on finding clues in old photos. With her instruction, even the casual family historian has learned to pay attention to details like styles of clothing, use of props, and what the photo is printed on.

In my best imitation of the Photo Detective, I decided to try my hand (and eye) at dating photos by studying jellybean cars.

Photo 1

Wendy and a Nash Statesman Custom

Can you date a photo with just a partial view of a car, specifically the wheel? Why, yes, you can. When I zoomed in, I could read “Statesman Custom.” Hmm, not familiar. With the aid of Dr. Google, I learned it was a Nash, an American car manufactured between 1916 and 1954, and then until 1957 after the creation of the American Motors Corporation. Since I know that adorable child, I used those sturdy walking shoes and balancing fists to narrow down the years the photo was taken to 1952 or 1953. Therefore, the car had to be older than that. 

Even someone who doesn’t know the child can date this photo if they pay close attention. As I studied wheel after wheel, I noticed that in early Statesman Customs, the model name appeared closer to the door, not over the wheel like in my photo. Then look what happened in 1952.

1952 Nash Statesman Custom

The folks at Nash moved the model name over the wheel.

MY GUESS - 1952 (early 1953 at the latest)

Photo 2 

The deckle edge is a sure sign that this next photo dates between the 1930s and 50s, but the car will surely point you to the later years of that range. Knowing these people made it easy to guess the make of this car and year. My father was a Ford man, so I guessed his father was too. The grill, the hill-shaped hood, the vented door window all cry FORD. My grandparents never had much money, so I could not imagine they bought a new car very often. Therefore, I started with 1949. However, from 1949 through 1951, the shape and placement of the fog lights or signal lights did not match my photo. The 1952 Ford however introduced the propeller-looking light mounted on the edge of the grill in a direct line below the headlights. But was it the Mainline, Crestline, or Customline Ford? The answer probably lies INSIDE the car, but I will guess the Mainline, certainly not Customline as my grandparents’ finances probably would not have allowed it.

1952 Ford Crestline looks similar
to my grandparents' car

MY GUESS - 1952 or later

Photo 3

Glenn on Granddaddy's Buick

The ultimate “jelly bean” was my grandfather Orvin Davis’s Buick. I do not know how many cars he owned in his lifetime, but I know this Buick with its iconic VentiPorts and gunsight hood ornament was his last. It was the car he chauffeured me and the neighborhood kids in to buy penny candy at the drugstore. It was the car that carried us across the state every summer to visit my cousins. As a child, I thought it was the biggest, heaviest, and ugliest machine ever imagined. I was probably right. 

But I digress - back to my detective work. I tried zooming in to read the name of the model etched across the grill. The best I can decipher is that the word is 5 letters, so that eliminates the Roadmaster. It could say Super. It could say Eight. From what I can tell, they were the same thing, but I find more photos showing “Eight,” so I will go with that.

Cropped  - small image from a large photo
Granddaddy's Buick

Since the 1948 Buick Super Eight had more of that jelly bean shape with a semi-fastback style than Granddaddy’s car which had more definition, his car probably dates after 1948. The metal strip on the windshield seems to have been eliminated from the 1950 models. Therefore, it seems likely the car was a 1949 model, and because I know the car was still around in 1963, dating this photo more accurately will require studying the little boy and his clothes.
MY GUESS - 1949 model but photo around 1953

Photo 4

Violetta Davis and Dick Ryan
between 1935 and 1941

One last jelly bean car is this one. I confess it has given me a fit. Knowing the people, I can say for sure the car dates before 1941 which is the year Violetta’s husband Dick Ryan died. The object of most of my research was this wing-like rear fender. I compared cars from 1935 (they married in 1936). Apparently that wing fender was popular among car manufacturers.

The Chevrolet, Lincoln, and Buick had a rear fender most like the one on Dick Ryan’s car.

Next I tried comparing the small rear window and exterior spare tire holder. The search was hampered by the fact that most of the pictures I found were of cars that have been restored by auto enthusiasts who might have altered the exterior. But for the most part, most cars did not have the same slope as Dick’s car.

Then I remembered I have another picture showing the front of the car.

First two women are unknown
Violetta and her sister Velma Davis Woodring 

Once again, like Dick’s car, the front fenders on the Chevrolet, Lincoln, and Buick had the same gentle slope like a sliding board. The other cars’ front fenders were more like a hill with a definite stop where it met the running board.

Furthermore, the shorter length and VERY pronounced vent on Dick’s car eliminated most of the contenders which had narrow vents and long front ends.

But I could find no car with a vent like this one. The very pronounced vent on the Buick seemed somehow related but not an exact match. I was beginning to think the car rehab artists of today may have substituted the vents. I put my research aside for another day.

Then BOOM - just like that, this picture popped up:

1935 Ford Slantback

Look at the side vents. Look at that slope and spare tire. This has to be the car.

And that led to this YouTube video. 

It’s long with a lot of talking. But I sat through it because my grandaunt and uncle had that car: a 1935 Ford Slantback which had NO TRUNK, by the way. The car in the video has not only the very large vent but also the same molded lines around the window and along the slanted back. One of the interesting features of this car shown in the video is the ashtray that spins around like a revolving door. Violetta was a smoker, so she probably liked that.

MY GUESS - 1935 or 1936

I am no Maureen Taylor, but studying the details of old cars has been a fun little exercise for me. Admittedly, there was no new revelation, no new connections to anyone, just little factoids to add to my family history.

Hop in your car and enjoy the ride to Sepia Saturday.

Wendy

© 2019, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.