A to Z April Challenge: R is for Robert Rucker

 
This is day 18 of the A to Z April Challenge.
 

is for Robert “Bob” Rucker, my great grand uncle.  He was my maternal grandmother’s uncle, brother to her father Joseph Calhoun Rucker.  Uncle Bob ran the meat market in Shenandoah, Virginia.  He took over for his father Frank who had opened the shop in 1870.

Rucker Meat Shop at the corner of Virginia Avenue
and Main Street early 1900s
scanned from Shenandoah: A History of Our Town and Its People

The building was later torn down about 1920 and Uncle Bob moved his business to his home on Third Street.

Together Frank and Bob served the citizens of Shenandoah and Page County for 70 years.

Bob was born to Frank and Sarah Herndon Rucker August 15, 1863.  In 1901 he married Mattie Wood.  They had two children:  John (1904) and Mary Christmas (25 Dec 1906 – 22 Mar 1999).  Bob died on New Year’s Day 1951. 

Uncle Bob Rucker in his bloody apron
scanned from Shenandoah: A History of Our Town and Its People

Run Right over to the A to Z April Challenge for more Roaring good Reads.

©2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Sepia Saturday: Gardens - Size Matters!

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

This week’s Sepia Saturday prompt shows students tending a school garden.  What a timely theme for me as I’m just getting a new garden going.  When I was a new bride, my husband and I started gardening with some friends who owned plenty of land and had room for a sizeable garden.  We shared in the planting and weeding.  We also shared in the shelling of limas and peas, stringing of beans, and both canning and freezing our bounty.  It was a wonderful spring and summer producing our own food and being with our friends. 

We enjoyed comparing notes and tomato size with my father-in-law who was THE gardener of the family.  His garden was so large that were it not a garden, it easily could have held a house with room for a backyard garden.  Of course, he started that garden when he had 8 children at home to feed.  Even after most were grown and married, he kept plowing the same number of rows and sewing the same number of seeds.  The only changes he made were to the variety of corn or beans he might try that year.  His garden was always beautifully manicured as well.  Barry said growing up, all the kids were expected to help with the weeding, but few were allowed to plant as his dad was meticulous about spacing. 

Ervin Mathias tilling between rows
Timberville, VA  1985

When we moved from the Shenandoah Valley to Chesapeake, I tried square foot gardening.  It’s much smaller scale and more efficient than what we had done with our friends.  

Nice walkways between the squares make it easy
to weed and harvest.  A "cute" garden was fun for the kids too.

However, I’ve not gardened in a number of years – too many distractions – too much research to do - too many rabbits – let’s see, what other excuse can I think of?  Anyway, now I miss it.  I miss eating a REAL tomato.  So I’ve gotten my square-foot gardening book back out, added a garden fence when we installed a new fence, built some 4x4 boxes, and I’m ready to prepare the soil for the tomatoes, peppers, beans, cucumbers, corn, and herbs.   

Barry said to caption this:  Wendy in her play pen.

I'm really not planting in concrete -- this dirt looks BAD. 
I'm working on it but the THEME is ahead of me.

Square-foot gardening – it’s not your great-great-grandfather’s garden!

My great-great grandfather's garden
James Franklin Jollett
Harriston, Virginia
around 1920

Wouldn’t you like to plow through some lovely blogs at Sepia Saturday?

UPDATE:  Here are a couple new pictures of how my square-foot garden is coming along (April 30, 2012).

©2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

A to Z April Challenge: Q is for Quilters

This is day 17 of the A to Z April Challenge.

is for Quilters.  The creativity and artistry among members of my family are evident in the quilts they sewed.

My great aunt Velma Davis Woodring made several quilts, which are now mine.  The Dresden Plate pattern was very popular in the 1920s and 1930s.  The elaborate center suggests this is a variation on the typical Dresden Plate which had just a simple circle.  Judging by all the floral prints in this lovingly worn quilt, this one was probably made in the 1930s. I like to look at all the prints and imagine they were once dresses Velma and her sister Violetta might have worn as children. 

The edge of the quilt echoes the "petals" of the main design.
In this photo you can see just how worn out the quilt is.

I like how the design dictates the overall shape of the quilt.

The hexagon pattern is thought by quilt historians to be one of the oldest pieced patterns. This hexagon quilt in violet and yellow with coordinating floral print is Velma’s masterpiece, if you ask me.  She was the quintessential purple girl long before it was fashionable.  The pattern is very precise forming diamond-shaped groupings.  I KNOW this pattern has a name, but I can’t find it.  It is probably some variation on Grandmother’s Flower Garden. 

You can see how worn the violet fabric is.

Ervin and Helen Mathias
Wayne and Donald
about 1941 or 1942

My mother-in-law Helen Virginia Kohne Mathias made a quilt for each of her 7 children.  Upon her death, we each took one.  Apparently she made many more because somehow we ended up with 2.   This is my favorite.  I love the bright green and orange fabric arranged in the Greek Square pattern.  She machine stitched the top but tied instead of quilted. 

This gold patchwork of squares and triangles amuses me because the fabric is so unlike Helen.  It looks like an animal print in a way, but certainly a smaller scale and more subtle than something obvious like leopard or giraffe.  I’m not sure what it is.  Like the previous one, the top is machine stitched and the quilt is knotted. 

Mary Eleanor Davis Slade

My mother appliquéd and quilted this sampler quilt around 1977.  It was her first one.  She set two challenges for herself:  make no 2 squares alike and use only 2 shades of pink.  She used a pattern from a magazine but then had to design more center motifs herself. The beauty of this quilt is the balance of the two colors. 

This quilt is partly my own creation.  I was in my black and brown phase of decorating in 1977.  The maple leaves are hand appliquéd.  I machine stitched the squares and strips, but I gave up on quilting.  I ended up paying a Mennonite church quilting group to finish it for me.  They charged by the number of spools of thread used.  What a bargain!  Sadly, the quilt is badly faded on one side. 

Don’t be in a Quandry.  Don’t Quit now.  If you’re Quick, you’ll enjoy some Quirky and Quotable Quips at the A to Z April Challenge.

©2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

A to Z April Challenge: P is for Peluso

  This is day 16 of the A to Z April Challenge.

is for Mary Neville Peluso, wife of my 1^st cousin 2X removed, Lewis Logan Jollett.  Neville was born in 1896 in Virginia to an Italian immigrant. She and Lewis married about 1919 and resided a number of years in Greene County, Virginia. 

I am lucky to have found one photo of Neville which appeared in an Albemarle County, Virginia newspaper in 1977.  It was a birthday celebration for a number of Senior Citizens all enjoying an April birthday.

Mary Neville Peluso Jollett is 4th from the left

She looks like a reasonable woman, don’t you think?

So I wonder what crime against humanity she committed to be expressly written OUT of her father-in-law’s will dated 1934?  My great grand uncle Burton Lewis Jollett did not seek to be politically correct when he wrote this:

Item 10 I wish and desire that if Lewis Jollett should die before his wife Mary Nevell Jollett that she be not appointed adminstratrix over his estate or for as what he enhirt [sic.] from me around two thousand dollars I desire it go to the heirs of his lawful body. She would go through with it real soon do nobody no good I don't want her to have nothing from my estate whatsoever the way I have been mistreated by her.

If any person or persons are disstfied [sic.] with my last will and try to break same or disreguard [sic.] it they shall have but five dollar the rest to be divided among those that are willing to abide by the same.

 

I bet that’s a humdinger of a story!

 

For more Pontificating and other Pieces in Print, Pop over to the A to Z April Challenge.

©2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

A to Z April Challenge: O is for Orvin

This is day 15 of the A to Z April Challenge.

is for Orvin Owen Davis, my maternal grandfather.  I wrote about Granddaddy HERE .

As much as my family talked about FAMILY, I thought for sure I knew just about everything about my mother as a child growing up in Shenandoah, Virginia prior to World War II.  I thought I knew exactly where my grandparents were and what they were doing.  But the 1940 Census has me confused.

 

Some of the columns are what I expected:

 

• Address – 414 Sixth St – check!

• Owned their home – check!  (valued at $2000 – ok, that’s new information)

• Granddaddy completed 2 years of high school, Grandma completed 4 years, and Momma and her brother attended school – check!

• They were in the same house in 1935 – check!

 

Then columns 21-33 are where things go crazy. 

• #21 – Did the person work for pay or profit during March 24-30, 1940?  Answer:  No

• #22 – If not, was the person assigned to public Emergency Work (like WPA, CCC)?  Answer:  NO

• #23 – If not, was the person seeking work?  Answer:  YES

• #24 – If not seeking work, did the person have a job?  Answer:  a dash ( - )

• #25 – If the person answered NO to 21-24, indicate if the person was doing Housework, was unable to work, or other.  Answer:  a dash ( - )

• #26 – Number of hours worked March 24-30, 1940.  Answer:  Blank

• #27 – Duration of unemployment up to March 30, 1940.  Answer:  52 (I assume that means weeks)

What??  Granddaddy didn’t have a job!?!   How can that be??

 

The next section seems to contradict the previous information.

• #28 – Occupation.  Answer:  Manager

• #29 – Industry.  Answer:  own Grocery Store

• #30 – Class of worker.  Answer:  Own Account (that is, works for himself)

 

Doesn’t that sound like Granddaddy had a job?  He owned and managed a grocery store.  How was that NOT working for pay or profit?  (OK, I guess he could have been operating at a financial loss, but isn’t that still working??  Yes, according to the enumerator’s instructions.)

Grandma Davis behind the counter
of the Davis Store on Sixth Street

Let’s continue.

• #31 – Number of weeks worked in 1939.  Answer: 0

• #32 – Amount of money, wages, or salary received.  Answer:  0 

• #33 – Did the person receive income of $50 or more from a source other than wages?  Answer:  Yes

(At first I thought that was Grandma’s salary from working as an examiner in the hosiery mill.  She worked 20 weeks in 1939 and earned $300.  But instructions to the enumerator indicate contributions from family members do not count.  Possibly the $50+ is business profits, interest, or rent.)

Here’s a picture of Granddaddy picking Grandma up after work at the hosiery mill.  On the back is written:  Taken Wednesday, June 5, 1940.  That was just shy of 2 months after the census enumerator had come around.

 

Unfortunately, there’s no one living to clarify for me how Granddaddy was looking for work when he owned the family business.  My best guess is that Granddaddy was getting out of the grocery store business and preparing to move the family to Portsmouth, Virginia, where he worked as a mechanic in the shipyard.

The people who crafted the questions for the 1940 US Census have given us an amazing picture of our ancestors’ lives.  What a document!  As a 1940 US Census Community Project volunteer, I have helped index census records for Virginia, Delaware, Colorado, Indiana, and Kansas.  This project is creating an index that will always be free for you to search, but it takes time and plenty of hands to get the job done so that it will be easier for all of us to find that ancestor.   Indexing is easy and doesn’t take a lot of time.  I encourage you to go to the 1940 US Census Community Project website to sign up. 

DISCLAIMER: As part of the1940census.com ambassador program this blog post enters me into a drawing for a VISA gift card.

 

There are Oodles of Ocular feasts at the A to Z April Challenge.

©2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

A to Z April Challenge: N is for Nancy

This is day 14 of the A to Z April Challenge. 

is for Nancy.  On the television sit-com “Everybody Loves Raymond,” Frank Barone calls Raymond “Nancy” when he thinks Raymond is being a sissy.  My sister’s coworkers do not like the name “Nancy” because they view it as a slave name. 

I didn’t know “Nancy” came with such negative connotations.  It’s such a happy-sounding name. 

Everyone knows at least one person named Nancy.   The name enjoyed its peak of popularity from 1930-50 but has been on the decline since.  Yet one in every 407 Americans is named Nancy. 

I have 31 Nancy’s in my database, three of them in my direct line:  a 3^rd, 4^th, and 6^th great-grandmother.

 

James Jollett and Nancy Anne Walker  (4G grandmother)

àFielding Jollett and Mary Ann Armentrout

àJames Franklin Jollett and Lucy Ann Shiflett

àMary Frances Jollett and Walter Davis

àOrvin Owen Davis and Lucille Rucker

àMary Eleanor Davis and Fred Robert Slade, Jr.

è ME

Burton Shiflett and Nancy Elizabeth Frazier (3G grandmother)

àLucy Ann Shiflett and James Franklin Jollett

àMary Frances Jollett and Walter Davis

àOrvin Owen Davis and Lucille Rucker

àMary Eleanor Davis and Fred Robert Slade, Jr.

è ME

William White and Nancy Chapman (6G grandmother)

àCatherine Caty White and Richard Bruce

àMelinda Bruce and Joshua Shiflett

àIsaac Shiflett and Susan Jordan

àSegourney Shiflett and George Eppard

àMary Sudie Eppard and Joseph Rucker

àLucille Rucker and Orvin Owen Davis

àMary Eleanor Davis and Fred Robert Slade, Jr.

è ME

But the Nancy nearest and dearest to my heart isn’t a family member at all.  It’s Nancy Danielson Taylor, one of my mother’s best friends.  They cheered together in high school.

Nancy Danielson at Cradock High School
Portsmouth, Virginia
about 1945

 

And they were pals throughout their lives.  We were neighbors, so my sister and I grew up playing with her kids. 

Nancy’s family was famous for their most unusual Christmas tree.  It was a cotton tree.

The Taylors' Christmas tree
1973

They would go to the woods and cut a regular ol’ tree and remove all the leaves, then cover it with cotton.  They used to top it with angel hair too until the year the tree caught fire. 

Nancy was fun and funny.  When she laughed, she snorted, which made everyone laugh all the more. 

For Numerous Nice News and Notes, visit the A to Z April Challenge.

©2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

A to Z April Challenge: M is for Marsh

This is day 13 of the A to Z April Challenge.  The half-way mark!

is for Marsh.  Two of my earliest Jollett women married Marsh men.  I do not know if the men were related, but definitely the two women were sisters, daughters of James and Nancy Walker Jollett of Orange County, Virginia. 

One of the benefits of online research is contact with cousins and sharing information.  The number of descendants doing research on the line of Lucy Jollett Marsh is plentiful.  It requires pages upon pages for me to print simply names and dates of Lucy's line.  However, poor ol' Melinda Jollett Marsh's line can be printed on a single page.  Where are the Melinda researchers? 

Sometimes I sit and puzzle over the unbalance in genealogy, why some lines are overrun with descendants duplicating research while other lines are ignored.  Maybe the genealogy gene just didn't get passed along in Melinda's line.

Lucy Walker Jollett (1792 Orange Co, VA – 25 Oct 1870 Greene Co, VA) and Peter Marsh (1779 – 1860 Greene Co, VA) married 24 Oct 1806 Orange Co, VA

Issue:

Thomas J. Marsh 1816 – 18 May 1898, McGaheysville, Rockingham Co, VA & Columbia Ann King

Layton Marsh 1819 – before 1900 & Peachy Lamb
William Mansfield Marsh 1822 & Diannah Ley
James Madison Marsh 1828 - 1890 & Agnes McDaniel
Amanda Melvina Marsh 1831 – before 1878 & George W. Sampson
John C. Marsh 1835 & Louisa M. Sampson

Melinda Jollett (1800 Orange Co, VA - ) and Thomas Marsh (1796 - ) married 12 Mar 1822 Orange Co, VA

Issue:

Alexander Marsh 1825 & Ann Lee

Julia A. Marsh 1830
William Marsh 1832
Joseph A. Marsh 1834 & Elizabeth Jane Steele
Mary J. Marsh 1837
John G. Marsh 1839
Benjamin F. Marsh 1841
Sarah M. Marsh 1843

March on over to the A to Z April Challenge for More Marvelous blogs.

©2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.