A to Z April Challenge: Z is for Zenith

This is Day 26 – LAST DAY – of the A to Z April Challenge.  My theme is women with unusual names although I must cheat now and then or I’ll have a name and no story.

is for Zenith Hubbell.  “Zenith” means the highest point in the path of a star, the peak, the apex, the culmination.  Appropriate name for the end of the A to Z Challenge, don’t you agree?

Much of Zenith’s life seems rather unremarkable.  She was born in 1901 to Flossie Bucklew and Nelson Hubbell, a clayworker in a factory in Brazil, Indiana.  She attended school, and at age 15 she married Harry Sanders Boes.  However, in three short years she was divorced and back home living with her mother and working as a telephone operator.

In 1921, Zenith married Lee Roy McDonald, my first cousin twice removed.  (Side note:  Lee Roy’s parents were Malvina Davis and Grattan McDANIEL – I’m wondering when and how McDaniel morphed into McDonald!).  They had one son, Lee Roy Jean.

But what interests me about Zenith is that in 1942 she enlisted in the Women’s Army Corps. 

I wonder why.  Was it a burst of patriotism?  Was it for pay and some sense of security?  Sigh ~ another question that will probably never be answered.

Zip, Zoom, or Zigzag over to the A to Z April Challenge Zone for Zillions of Zesty Zingers by Zealous Zanies before they are Zapped.

© 2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

A to Z April Challenge: Y is for Yonnie

This is Day 25 of the A to Z April Challenge.  My theme is women with unusual names although I must cheat now and then or I’ll have a name and no story.

is for Yonnie Virginia Mathias Cook, my aunt by marriage.  That is, she was my father-in-law’s sister.

Yonnie Mathias

Yonnie was the last child and only daughter born to John Roy and Essie See Mathias on June 5, 1923.  Throughout her youth she lived in Lost River, Hardy County, West Virginia. 

John and Essie Mathias

Essie and Yonnie
When Yonnie grew up, she looked
just like her mother!

However, when she married Ernest Franklin Cook, they became hard-working dairy farmers in Timberville, Rockingham County, Virginia.  In addition to raising cows, they raised four children:  two boys and two girls. 

Ervin, Yonnie, Wilmer, Marvin
Mathias

A family reunion was an important event to Yonnie and her brothers.  It was always held on Father’s Day at Lost River State Park in Mathias, West Virginia.  After Yonnie’s parents died, she assumed the role of matriarch over the Mathias brothers and cousins and saw to it that the family reunion continued.  On Father’s Day.  Yonnie loved the symbolism of honoring the Mathias ancestors on that date.

In recent years, the younger generation has grumbled over the timing of the reunion, mainly because those who married a Mathias are deprived of spending Father’s Day with their own fathers.  Even though Yonnie passed away in 2009, no one has been brave enough to propose a date change.  Soon my husband’s cousin will send out the reminder of date, time, and place for the Mathias Reunion. 

The love and admiration Yonnie and her three brothers had for their parents, and then their children had for their grandparents is a testament to John and Essie Mathias.  That the reunion continues to bring cousins together – on Fathers Day! – is a testament to Aunt Yonnie. 

Yippee!  There will be no Yawning over the Yarns Yielded by Yuppies, Youngsters, Yokels, and Yodelers over Yonder at the A to Z April Challenge.

© 2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

A to Z April Challenge: X is for the eX Wife

This is Day 24 of the A to Z April Challenge.  My theme is women with unusual names although I must cheat now and then or I’ll have a name and no story.

is for X-wife.  OK, give me a break.  Not many people have a name that starts with “X.”  So I give you a strange family situation involving an ex.

I wrote about Margaret Ann “Maggie” Johnson previously, the mother of Sudie Belle Life.  Mother and daughter were married to the brothers Sell and Will Shiflett. 

Margaret’s oldest daughter Mary was born out of wedlock.  Margaret later married and was widowed by two men:  Jacob Life and George Hott.  Margaret had 2 daughters by Life and 3 daughters by Hott.  I doubt it’s fair to call a widow an “ex wife,” so let’s move on.

Then Maggie married a Mr. Ford about 1894.  The couple and her six daughters settled into farm life in Rockingham County.  The two added three more children to the group:  2 girls and a boy. 

And then the unthinkable happened.  Ford ran off with Maggie’s oldest daughter Mary.  Margaret became the ultimate X-wife in 1900. 

Before December 1954
Maggie Johnson Life Hott Ford Shiflett in the bed
Sell Shiflett holding one of his grandchildren
Alice Lam Shiflett Wolf, Sell and Maggie's ex-daughter-in-law
holding another grandchild
photo courtesy of Erica Shiflett

If you’re caught between a Xenolith and Xylols, you might want to head over to the A to Z April Challenge for some Xeroxing.

© 2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

A to Z April Challenge: W is for Wrennie

This is Day 23 of the A to Z April Challenge.  My theme is women with unusual names although I must cheat now and then or I’ll have a name and no story.

is for Wrennie Louise Jollett, my second cousin twice removed.  She was born in 1900, the fourth of five children of Charles Belsin and Nannie June Fogg Jollett.  They lived in Shenandoah, Page County, Virginia at the time, but by 1910 they were in Portsmouth where Charles worked for the railroad. 

In fact, he might have gotten Wrennie a job with the railroad.  In 1920 she was a clerk and her father was foreman.

However, in 1930 Wrennie was a sales clerk at a department store.

Sometime between 1932 and 1938, Wrennie married David Gregory Holland of Virginia Beach.  He was a civil engineer, and in 1940 they were living in Luray, Virginia, since he was working for the national park service at that time.  They had a daughter, Dora Cornelia.

Many years ago when I had a website at the now-defunct Geocities, I received a letter from Wrennie’s godchild along with a photo. 

Wrennie J. Holland
photo courtesy of Emily VanHazinga

Emily tells this story about her godmother, Wrennie Jollett Holland: 

"David was a civil engineer, and worked for the park service, though by the time I knew him, a diabetic condition had reduced him to the kitchen chair.  I remember him as a sweet and thoughtful man; he died when I was about 6.  Wrennie helped keep house for her in-laws.  It was an old-fashioned extended family, with the grandparents, their unmarried adult daughter Cornelia, and David and Wrennie and their daughter sharing the large home.  Mom says Wrennie and David had had a home of their own, nearby, on Lake Holly, but after it burned, they moved back in to 12th Street [Virginia Beach], and stayed.  I recall that each day Wrennie would dress nicely and walk up Atlantic Avenue at noontime to her sister-in-law's yarn and fabric shop, to allow her to escape an hour for lunch.  Wrennie was simply the best knitter and seamstress that ever lived, and a wonderful cook who delighted in surprising us youngsters with special baked goods.  Mom says she was a very large woman when she was a girl, but I knew her at 89 pounds. She was a devoted smoker of unfiltered Camels, and died of emphysema in the library at home, which had been rigged as a sick room, just a few weeks before my wedding in 1977. She's buried with the Hollands at Eastern Shore Cemetery in Virginia Beach, and was, I believe, a member of Galilee Episcopal Church."

Why don’t you Work your Way over to the A to Z April Challenge for more Wonderful Writings?

© 2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

A to Z April Challenge: V is for Virenda

This is Day 22 of the A to Z April Challenge.  My theme is women with unusual names although I must cheat now and then or I’ll have a name and no story.

is for Virenda Jane Shiflett.  My third great grandaunt, Virenda descended from one of the oldest families in Orange County, Virginia and married into one of the other oldest.  She was daughter of Jacob Shiflett and Mary Polly Self Jarrell; granddaughter of John and Mary Mobb Self and John and Susannah Davis Shiflett; great-granddaughter of Thomas and Patience Shiflett.

Virenda was born about 1821 and in 1844 married Michael P. “Miley” Frazier.  Incidentally, Virenda’s brother Burton and Miley’s sister Nancy also married; they are my 3G grandparents.

Virenda and Miley had at least 8 children, 2 girls and 6 boys. 

• Julia Ann (1845 - )
• John T. (1847 – 1860)
• Henry Timber (1849 – 1931)
• Jacob Emanuel (1853 - )
• Austin Jackson (1855 – 1920)
• Jacob Mitchell (1859 - )
• Polly Jane (1862 – 1936)
• George D. (1866 - )

Virenda’s name was carried on when their son Austin Jackson and his wife Nancy Morris Frazier named a daughter after her. 

Virenda was grandmother to Mahulda Jane Frazier, the subject of the popular “M” post.

I don’t have an exact death date for Virenda, but in 1900 the widowed Miley Frazier was living with his daughter Polly, so it’s safe to assume she died between 1880 and 1900. 

Why don’t you Vege out and Venture over to the A to Z April Challenge to View a Veritable Vortex of Veracious Verbalization before they Vanish.

© 2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

A to Z April Challenge: U is for Ursula

This is Day 21 of the A to Z April Challenge.  My theme is women with unusual names although I must cheat now and then or I’ll have a name and no story.

is for Ursula Clarissa Boyd.  My half-second cousin twice removed was the daughter of William Preston Boyd (a.k.a. William H. Jollett) and Hattie Echols Boyd.  She was born March 25, 1887 in Giles County, Virginia.  In 1909, she married John Arthur Hebb in Monroe County, West Virginia. 

They lived most of their married life in Beckley, West Virginia, where Hebb was an electrician for a coal mine.  They raised five sons, most of whom also became coal miners.

The 1940 census for Beckley, West Virginia recorded that “Ersie” had taken back her Boyd surname, suggesting she was divorced.  She was earning a living as a laundress and her sons were still with her.  John Arthur Hebb, meanwhile, had a new family:  a much younger wife and six children, the oldest of whom was 12.

Interesting.  Why?  Because John Arthur was still head of household with “Ersie” and the boys in 1930. (Doing the math….)  Ever in search of the dirt, I then checked for the 12-year old in the 1930 census to see where she was.  What a surprise:  just 11 miles away in Slab Fork, that frisky J.A. Hebb was head of household for his young wife and 2 children too.  Was he leading a double life? 

No wonder Ursula took back the Boyd name.

I Urge you to Unite with Umpteen Users over at A to Z April Challenge  to Uncover some Utterly Unequal blogs.

© 2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

A to Z April Challenge: T is for Tabatha

This is Day 20 of the A to Z April Challenge.  My theme is women with unusual names although I must cheat now and then or I’ll have a name and no story.

is for Tabatha.  I always thought “Tabatha” was a new name invented by the writers of “Bewitched.”  Do you remember Tabatha?  She was the witchy daughter of Samantha and Darrin Stephens.

These little actresses played Tabatha Stephens
on "Bewitched"

So I was surprised to learn we have a VERY OLD Tabatha in the family, specifically Tabatha Jollett of Greene County, Virginia.  Gathering her complete story is difficult.  If her name is on a will, a deed, a marriage or death certificate, I have not found it.  She appears by name in only two census records.  In 1850 Greene County, she is listed as 50 years old, living with Elizabeth (Jollett) King (54), Thomas Marsh (34), Fanny Jollett (28), and Columbia King (25).  No relationships are indicated.

In 1860, Elizabeth was living with Thomas and C.A. Marsh, so it is safe to assume that Columbia was her daughter, and now Thomas was her son-in-law.  “T” (age 63) and “FEA” Jollett (age 39) were on their own in Greene County.  So likely Fanny was Tabatha’s daughter. 

The question then is whether Tabatha was Elizabeth’s unmarried sister with a child out of wedlock or possibly a sister-in-law.  If she had married a Jollett boy, the only candidate would be James Jr. who left in the early 1830s headed for Indiana with his sister Clarissa and brother-in-law John Sampson.  However, James claimed he never married.  But if he deserted his wife and child, he might have lied too.

Looking at the 1830 and 1840 census records for James and Nancy Jollett, Elizabeth’s parents, Tabatha and Fanny could very well have been living in the household.  The numbers fit:

1830 Orange Co, VA Census (part of Orange became Greene in 1838)

Males 
1 15-20 – best guess James Jr.

1 20-30 – best guess Reuben King

1 50-60 - best guess James Jollett

Females 
2 under 5 – best guess Fanny Jollett and Columbia King

2 20-30 – best guess Tabatha Jollett and Elizabeth King  
1 60-70 – best guess  Nancy Jollett

1840 Greene Co, VA Census

Males
1 70-80 – probably James Jollett (listed as James Jolly)

Females
2 40-50 – best guess Elizabeth King and Tabatha Jollett

2 20-30 – best guess Elizabeth’s daughter Columbia King and Tabatha’s daughter Fanny Jollett

Either way, it fits for Tabatha to be a daughter or abandoned daughter-in-law.

Now there is one more piece of weirdness to confound the question:  When Elizabeth King died, her death was reported by “Fanny Jollett, granddaughter.”  That makes no sense at all.  That has to have been a recording error.  Fanny might have been Elizabeth’s niece, but certainly not her granddaughter. 

For more Terrific Tales, Trot on over to the A to Z April Challenge.

© 2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.