52 Ancestors - LAND: Lot 8 Section T

Who has not dreamed of finding buried treasure? Maybe a bag of gold buried in the garden. A diamond broach behind a panel in an old cupboard. A bundle of letters and mouse-chewed papers in a hidden compartment of an attic.

That last scenario is mine.

 

The "secret attic" is in the part of the house
that extends in the front
(my grandparents' bedroom)

The current owner of my grandparents’ house is installing new insulation in the attic where she discovered the “secret attic.” Thanks to this blog, she found me. No gold though. And no fancy jewelry. But there are a few good things like baby clothes that had been worn either by my sister or me, one baby shoe that was probably our mother’s, a college yearbook, and LOTS of letters from our mother’s high school and college friends.

There are also a lot of papers that most people would have thrown away 70 years ago when the house was built - papers like store receipts, canceled checks, and property tax receipts. But the family historian in me says, “Thanks Grandma! Thanks Granddaddy!” Each mouse-chewed piece of paper is a treasure.

 

Receipt for tax payment 1941

Before World War II brought my grandparents to Portsmouth where Granddaddy worked in the shipyard, they lived in Shenandoah, Virginia. I am intrigued by the property tax receipts from the Page County treasurer.  

 

My grandfather paid $16.03 in 1939
which included a head tax, personal property and
real estate taxes on Lot 8 Section T

I want to know more about Lot 8 Section T. Maybe it was their house on Sixth Street or possibly their store at the corner of Sixth and Pennsylvania Avenue.

snipped from Google Maps
House on 6th Street built by my grandfather and great-grandfather and Davis store on the corner
This is my mother's childhood home. 
The house in the middle faces Pennsylvania Ave. 

My grandfather paid $14.92 in 1941
Lot 8 Section T

I remember seeing an index for Page County deeds at the Library of Virginia umpteen years ago. I thought I made a copy but apparently I did not. However, in looking through my files, I found an important deed that possibly sheds light on these property tax receipts.

From Page County Deed Book 38, pp 147-148

This Deed made the 12^th day of May in the year Eighteen hundred and ninety-six between J. G. H. Miller and S. P. Miller his wife, of the first part of Rockingham County, Virginia, and Walter B. Davis of the second part, of Page County, Virginia, Witnesseth that in consideration of sixty-five dollars cash in hand paid, the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged, the said J. G. H. Miller and S. P. Miller, his wife, doth grant, with general warranty of title unto the said Walter B. Davis, his heirs and assigns forever, all of a certain lot or parcel of land situate in the town of Shenandoah, County of Page, State of Virginia, designated and descried as follows to wit: Lot No. 7 in Block No. 6 of Millers Addition in the town of Shenandoah in the County of Page, State of Va, fronting fifty-feet on East side of 3^rd Street and running back 130 feet to an alley, between lines

perpendicular to sd 3^rd Street, together with all appurtenances to the said lot or parcel of land belonging, to have and to hold said lot or parcel of land with the appurtenances aforesaid, unto the said Walter B. Davis, his heirs and assigns forever.

Witness the following signatures and seals.

J. G. H. Miller {seal}

Sallie P. Miller {seal}

State of Virginia

County of Rockingham

I, W. K. Jennings, Notary Public in and for the County and State aforesaid, certify that J. G. H. Miller and Sallie P. Miller whose names are signed to the writing above having date on the 12^th day of May 1896 have acknowledged the same before me in the County and State aforesaid. Given under my hand this 13^th day of May 1896.

W. K. Jennings N.P.

Page County to wit:

The forgoing Deed was received in the Clerk’s Office of Page County Court, Augt 2^nd 1897 and entered to record.

Teste

A Broaddus C.C.

My great-grandfather purchased a lot on “3^rd Street” – that is where my cousins lived as children. Whenever we visited them, my grandfather would point to the big white house next door and say, “That is the house I grew up in.” I guessed Lot 7 then must be where Walter Davis built the family home.

My granddaddy Orvin with his sisters and cousins
the Davis house on N. 3rd near Williams Ave. Shenandoah, VA

snipped from Google Maps
How the house looks today

Could “Lot 7, Block 6” and “Lot 8, Section T” be neighboring properties? Maybe Granddaddy owned the lot where my cousins’ house was eventually built. 

snipped from Google Maps
My grandfather's boyhood home and my cousins' house as they look today

For answers I turned to the friendly folks in the “Remember Shenandoah Back When” group on Facebook to see if there is a map of how the town was laid out “back when.” Right away one person said there is a map on the wall in the town office. Before I could find a phone number or email address, a woman who works there responded also. She reported that “Section T” is Sixth Street.

What’s more, she included a link to the Page County Geographic Information Systems website. There you can search by owner, by address, by street, and by several other designations as well. 

Block map showing Lot 8 Section T
from Page County GIS

When I searched “Sixth Street,” up came a map with every lot numbered. I clicked on #8, and there it was: my grandparents’ house, my mother’s childhood home. Photos of the front and side and a description of the building’s interior and exterior provided more information than I could have hoped for.

 

View of the house my mother grew up in
414 Sixth St, Shenandoah, VA
from Page County GIS

Side view of the house my mother grew up in
414 Sixth St, Shenandoah, VA
from Page County GIS

As I was on a roll, I went ahead and searched Third Street for my granddaddy’s boyhood home. It turns out that “Lot 7, Block 6” is a VACANT lot. It was vacant when Walter Davis bought it in 1896 and it is still vacant today. I suppose he just wanted more land between his house and whoever might build on Lot 6.

 

Block map N Third St, Shenandoah, VA
Lots 8 and 7 - Granddaddy's boyhood home
Lots 6 and 5 - my cousins' childhood home

As I clicked on lot after lot, I saw a pattern. EVERYONE bought 2 lots. No wonder. Each parcel was only .16 acres.

It appears then that Walter Davis built the house on Lot 8, not Lot 7. My cousins’ house is on Lot 6 with Lot 5 as their BIG side yard we played in. They had a nanny goat that kept it mowed for us. 

A view of Lot 5
My cousin Bobbie and moi 1960
and either Punky or Chunky - I couldn't tell those dogs apart

See how much there is to learn from mouse-chewed paper!

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: Flower Power

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

Look at all those flower-print dresses in this week’s Sepia Saturday prompt.

This photo of my great-grandmother and her sisters taken at one of the Jollett reunions is certainly a good match.

  

Jollett Sisters 1939
Laura Sullivan, Victoria Breeden, Sallie Clift, Mary Fances Davis,
Emma Coleman seated

And this one too.

 

Jollett Sisters 1934 at the latest
Vic, Sallie, Mary Frances, Leanna, Laura, Emma
(hard to see the print but it's there!)

One hold-out though was Emma Jollett Coleman, the oldest sister. According to family legend, she followed the Dunkard faith and always dressed in dark clothing.

ALWAYS? Where did that story come from? Ever since I was a child, I pictured Emma as some old serious and gloomy person who was not much fun.

However, several photos of Emma in light-colored print dresses have altered my view.

 

1929
Mary Frances Jollett Davis
Jack and Emma Jollett Coleman

4 Generations 1923 Jollett Reunion
Emma Jollett Coleman, James Franklin Jollett
Minnie Coleman Maiden, Virginia Maiden

And Emma was smiling. Even in her dark dresses.

No one would ever accuse my grandmother of being “gloomy” due to how she dressed. In the 1960s she rocked the flowery moo-moo.

 

My grandparents Orvin and Lucille Davis
one of Grandma's MANY moo-moos

My mother and I also did our part to rock another trend of the decade: floral-print Villager a-line skirts with pin tuck blouses. Villager was pricey. Because Momma was such a skilled seamstress, we both could dress to impress in our floral pastel Villager knock-offs.

 

Mary Slade and moi at the Manassas Battlefield 1967

At our wedding in 1973, the hubster and I were right in style, but I thought my aunt was really a showstopper in a floral print gown. She was definitely bold and ahead of her time.

At Sepia Saturday, everyone is dressed and ready to impress with delightful old photos and stories.

Wendy

© 2020, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.

52 Ancestors - AIR: Planes on Deck

I never knew my grandmother’s older brother Ray Rucker. But a box of photos he left behind when he took his own life in 1927 shows he lived an eventful 28 years.

 

Ray Ellsworth Rucker
1899-1927
Shenandoah, VA

He was a sailor for a time serving on the USS Colorado, a recently commissioned Maryland class super dreadnought, in other words a big-gun battleship. He must have been among the first crewmen.

 

USS Colorado with Corsair seaplanes

The ship carried Corsair float planes on catapult rails, two on the after deck and one on top of the gun turret.

Sea plane being catapulted off the ship

Sailor walking on the wings of the float plane

The Corsair float planes were used for reconnaissance and to adjust fire for the ship’s big guns

Among the photos Ray saved are these of bomber planes. They are just small professionally produced photo cards about 1.5” x 2”.

Unfortunately, Ray did not live to see the Colorado and the Corsair aircraft in their mission to find Amelia Earhart. Wouldn't that have been a story to tell!

 

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: Granddaddy Bought a Car

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

Even though I have quite a few photos that are a better match to this week’s Sepia Saturday prompt, I am going with this one.

Orvin and Lucille Davis
5 June 1940 Shenandoah, VA

It is a picture of my maternal grandparents Orvin and Lucille Davis sitting in their car on 5 June 1940.

I betcha anything that this is the same car Granddaddy purchased from Graves Motor Company in February that year.

And it was a NEW car too – a Chevrolet Master 85 KB.

 

from Google Images

Granddaddy traded in SOMETHING worth $200. He kicked in $50 in cash and financed the rest through GMAC.

The car cost $740!
That's hardly one car payment today.

The final cost  was $825.28.

For 18 months straight, Granddaddy recorded his monthly payment of $31.96 in a little coupon book. Remember those?

I have this strange collection of papers only because my grandparents did not bother to throw them away, instead leaving them in a box that they stuffed into an attic. The current owner of their house is installing new insulation. When she pushed open that little door under an eave, it must have been like opening King Tut’s tomb, but with the deflating result of Geraldo Rivera’s opening of Al Capone’s vault.

There is nothing of great value in those boxes, only personal tidbits that shed a light on my family’s life. For example, my grandparents apparently could not afford the top of the line or they were more practical. The KB version was at the low end of the Master series. It lacked running board moldings and had plain upholstery and slightly less standard equipment.

Just like today’s cars, there were some options. My reaction to some of them is “What?? That’s an OPTION?” Options like a Clock. Heater. Hood ornament (plastic). Radio antenna. Rear view mirror. Cigar lighter.

The sales receipt and finance contract do not indicate whether Granddaddy got any of the options. I’m pretty sure he would have wanted that cigar lighter though.

Granddaddy's cigar
from no later than 1963
found in the attic

Hop in your car and drive on over to Sepia Saturday. Shotgun!

Wendy

© 2020, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.

52 Ancestors - FIRE: Family Heirlooms

I come from a sentimental family that likes to save old things and repeat old stories. With that in mind, I am repeating bits and pieces of stories from my blog about some of our family heirlooms, all related to this week’s theme.

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?

FIREPLACE GRATE

This fireplace grate belonged to my great-grandmother Mary Sudie Eppard Rucker. I am trying to imagine the day in 1958 when my grandmother and her sister and brothers stood around picking over their freshly-deceased mother’s dishes, jewelry, furniture and whatever else. My grandmother inherited many fine items, but did she really want Sudie Rucker’s fireplace grate?

I guess she did. Or maybe it was my mother who wanted it. My sister insists it was in our fireplace when we lived in Cradock and that it followed us to “the new house” in 1971.

A little over 50 years after Sudie Rucker’s fireplace grate came home with us, my sister and I stood staring at it, debating who would get it. Throwing it away was not an option - it had age, it had family history even if we didn’t know what that history was. I’m pretty sure I grunted and said, “What am I going to do with it?” But my sister had a vision for it.

 

Fireplace grate has become a planter in my yard.

FIREPLACE CHAIR

I got the fireplace grate – my sister got this chair.

 

The Jollett fireside chair

It is a fireside chair from my great-grandfather’s boyhood home in Greene County, Virginia. That dates this chair to the late 1830s-early 1840s IF it were new then. I can imagine young James Franklin Jollett sitting in that chair while tending the fire under the watchful eyes of his parents Fielding and Mary Ann. Maybe Mary Ann took a rest now and then while stirring the stew.

While the seat and back are normal size for an adult, the short legs make it look like a child’s chair. I suppose children liked the chair because it did not require climbing; they could easily plop down with both feet firmly on the floor. 

THE MAJESTIC LID LIFTER

This basket of antique kitchen tools has been on display in my kitchen for many years. Egg beaters, potato mashers, wooden spoons, and pastry cutters conjure up images of “woman’s work” and what my great-grandmother’s everyday life was like. I bet in her day Mary Frances Jollett Davis had all the modern conveniences.

She probably had a wood-burning stove like this one, a Majestic:

 

image from Google Images

I’m only guessing about the stove, but I have Mary Frances’ Majestic lid lifter that was used to lift the stove plates which covered the holes in her range top. 

The word MAJESTIC stretches across the flat part
but I could not get a good picture of it.

With this simple tool, she could lift the plate to stoke the fire or stir the ashes with the flat end. Admittedly it is not very glamorous or particularly valuable, but certainly it was important to keep it handy and not lose it.    

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: Violetta Makes the News

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

When I saw this week’s Sepia Saturday prompt, I could not help thinking of this studio portrait of my grandaunt Violetta Davis Ryan taken probably in 1920 when she was just 16 years old.

I’ve written so many times about Violetta that I thought for sure there was nothing left to tell. I turned to NewspaperArchive hoping to find something new and interesting. Her name popped up often, usually when she was reappointed as principal at Pleasant Hill Elementary School or when she was attending a conference for educators. Meh ~

But I did find a couple keepers:

VACCINE VOLUNTEER

When Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine was licensed in 1955, there was a campaign to inoculate all school children. In Rockingham County where Violetta was a principal, the schools and other facilities were set up as polio vaccine clinics. Violetta was named as chairman for one of the clinics.

 

from Harrisonburg Daily News Record
22 Apr 1955

PHOTO DATED

Originally I dated this photo “1960 or 1961” based on a wild-guess at my sister’s age. 

This little item in the Shenandoah Social News column provided a correct date.

Glenn, Me, Violetta, Mary Jollette, Bobbie
Easter 1962

from Harrisonburg Daily News Record 27 Apr 1962

Come to think of it, I do remember that dress as my Easter frock that year. It looks white, but it was a print of pastel watercolor swirls and splotches. That doesn’t sound nearly as pretty as it actually was.

SIDE JOB

from Harrisonburg Daily News Record
8 Nov 1960

That’s right!  Violetta sold encyclopedias. My parents bought the 1960 World Book plus the annuals – obviously from Violetta. We also had the accompanying Childcraft books (in their "handsome Heritage binding") which were written in simpler text to serve like encyclopedias for younger children. I used World Book to death but rarely bothered with the Childcraft.

Until I saw this ad, I had forgotten Violetta sold encyclopedias. Years ago, they were sold door to door. It is not likely she did that though. She probably sat right at her desk and used her position as teacher and principal to influence parents and other teachers for which she earned a nice little 15% commission.

While you’re at your desk or on your phone, please visit my friends at Sepia Saturday.

Wendy

© 2020, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved. 

52 Ancestors - WATER: Queenstown to Castle Garden

Before there was Ellis Island, there was Castle Garden. Originally Castle Garden was part of a system of forts built in the early 1800s to protect Manhattan from British invasion. In 1823 the fort was deeded to New York City and served as an opera house and entertainment center until 1855. That is when Castle Garden became the official immigration processing center.

from Wikimedia Commons

My great-grandmother Mary Theresa Sheehan Killeen Walsh was one of the 300,000 immigrants to pass through the massive circular building in 1886. Over 8 million immigrants were processed there before it closed in 1890.

from Wikimedia Commons

Try as I might, I cannot say with any certainty exactly the day and month of her arrival from Ireland. However, I am certain of the year. One thing I can say for my Irish ancestors: they were consistent in reporting their month and year of birth and their year of arrival in the United States.

Both Ancestry and FamilySearch bring up only 2 women named Mary Sheehan born in Ireland in 1869 who arrived in New York in 1886. One Mary Sheehan arrived on the 30^th of August aboard the Aurania. This Mary Sheehan arrived with a mother and a passel of siblings whose names and dates do not match what I know to be true about my Sheehans. She is not likely to be MINE.

The other Mary Sheehan landed on June 21 aboard the SS Celtic, part of the White Star line. She, like other single women, was classified as a “spinster.” There were no other Sheehans immediately before or after her name, so apparently she traveled alone. My one hesitation with this Mary Sheehan is that according to the manifest, she hailed from County Mayo. I guess it is possible, but her baptismal records indicate her family lived in Limerick. If this is MY Mary Sheehan, she was number 558 on the manifest.

image from Ancestry

Why Mary Theresa emigrated is still a mystery although not much of one. Her journey was well-past the time of the potato famine that caused such a large number of Irish to brave crossing the Atlantic. Likely Daniel and Bridget Sheehan just wanted something better for their children. How difficult it must have been for them to send one child after another every couple of years – Johanna in 1883, Mary Theresa in 1886, Elizabeth in 1890, Margaret in 1894,and Delia in 1896. A ticket for passage in steerage was $12 (about $345 today).

 

The White Star Pier in Queenstown around 1880-1890
a.k.a "Heartbreak Pier"
from Flickr

I can imagine the family standing at “Heartbreak Pier” sobbing and waving as one more daughter clutching her cloth bag stepped onto the ship’s tender that would shuttle her out to the liner headed to New York.

St. Colman's Cathedral in Cobh (Queenstown)
from Wikimedia Commons

As the skyline of Queenstown with its majestic cathedral spires faded from sight, what did Mary Theresa think about during that two-week voyage across the ocean?

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.