52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: #52 Leona Violet Crispen Cole Allee

As the 52nd and last ancestor featured in 2014, I'm honoring my grandmother, who started me on this journey.

Over 20 years ago, my grandmother and I spent many hours going through her photo collection. If it were not for the photos, I might never have delved into my family history. When we started going through them, I had no idea who all these people were and how they related to me or to each other. I couldn't keep them straight on paper, so I bought my first genealogy program and started putting in names and dates.

The unknown photos captured my imagination, and I soon found myself launching into the research that has now grown my database to nearly 6000 names. Along the way I've identified unknowns, met new cousins and acquired photos for relatives I never knew I had. And I also turned to scrapbooking as a way to present and preserve the photos.

Leona Violet Crispen was born in Van Buren County, Michigan, on October 1, 1909, the youngest of three daughters of Daisy Myrtle Maddox and Clark Earl Crispen. The family later settled in the Lake Michigan resort town of Benton Harbor. Leona was the son her father never had. Instead of sewing, she learned to use his blacksmith forge, work on cars, develop film and print photographs.

Her parents divorced in 1921. I can't begin to image the impact on the young Leona. She must have lost friends and certainly her home life was disrupted. Her father moved to the house across the street, so she was able to move freely between her parents' homes. Because they had a civil and close relationship, she never doubted their love for her and her sisters.

During high school, Leona wrote poetry for the school newspaper and for the yearbook. Her love of writing poetry persisted through her life, as she contributed poetry to church and civic publications. After high school she took a job as a telephone operator.

On March 20, 1928, she eloped to South Bend, Indiana, with Clifford Royal Cole, a young man who worked in a foundry. She soon learned that he was unfaithful and cruel. His actions left their only daughter nearly blind and left Leona unable to have more children.

As the stock market crashed in the fall of 1929, her father lost the portfolio he had inherited from his sister. He was able to keep his house and, Leona, living with her father and her husband, decided to file for divorce. Imagine, for a moment, being 20 years old with a blind infant, an aged parent with no job, the economy in free fall and still choosing to end an abusive marriage. Her strength amazes me.

Leona decided about 1931 to leave the cold of Michigan and move to the warmth of California. Following the famous Route 66, she miscalculated a bit. She ran out of money and gas in the Northern Arizona town of Kingman. With her daughter, she lived under a bridge and in their car while she looked for some way to support them.

Her photography experience was her salvation. The old man who ran the local photography studio wanted to retire, so he hired her and she eventually was able to take over the business. However, she lived day-to-day and struggled through two more bad marriages and divorces during the Depression years. She married Everett Melvin "Jack" Stormer in 1932 and James Robert "Jim Bob" Turner in 1940.

About 1935, Leona had to place her daughter in boarding school at the Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind in Tucson. She left Kingman behind and relocated to be near her daughter. World War II found her fixing airplanes and later working at the ration board.

On December 20, 1941, she married Fayette Franklin "Fate" Allee, her daughter's math teacher and, as a family, they built a stable life. After the war she found a secretarial job in the Tucson school district, where she worked until retirement.

Template and elements from Weekend at Home by  Kate Hadfield for Digital Scrapper, 2014

Leona cared for her mother in her final years, as well as helping her sisters care for their father during his decline. She was a nurturing person who also raised a nearly blind daughter and married a nearly blind man. Her kind, loving, fun and generous spirit was an anchor for our family throughout her life.

She was diagnosed with both breast cancer and skin cancer in the final few years of her life. Gardening in the hot Arizona sun for many years was the likely cause of the skin cancer that took her arm in 1997.

We invited family, neighbors and friends to help us celebrate her 90th birthday at her Oklahoma retirement center in October of 1999. She had a blast being the birthday girl.

The cancer took her from us on February 13, 2001. She was buried with her husband and her mother in South Lawn Memorial Park in Tucson.

As Leona's choices shaped her life, they affect her family to this day. Her descendants are an Arizona family because she stopped and stayed in Kingman. Her photographic experience became a life-long passion, leading to the vast collection of photographs, negatives and slides that came to me at her death. It is directly due to her choices that I am a scrapbooker and genealogy buff. And, of course, because of those hobbies, this blog exists.

So ends the series, 52 Ancestors in the 52 weeks of 2014. Please join me at Murder at Mauvaisterre Creek, as I share the story of the murder of Leona's great-grandfather.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: #23 Sarah A Mooney Cole

As I study the image of my great-great-grandmother, I look for resemblances, but see none. I wonder who this woman was who appears so worn down by life before her 70th year.

Quick drop page, Sugar and Spice, Digital Scrapper, April 2010

Sarah A Mooney was the second of five children born to William C Mooney and Permina Alexander Mooney of Henry County, Tennessee. Born in September of 1847, Sarah was a young teen at the outbreak of the Civil War. She saw the young men of the area march off to war. Was she affected by the skirmishes in the area? Did she despair of finding a husband?

On March 02, 1865, young Sarah married Joseph M Cole, a farmer and doctor who was about 13 years her senior. She bore two children: William and Julia.

The 1900 census finds the widowed Sarah living with Julia Cole Carter and Robert Alphonso Carter in Clay County, Arkansas. By 1910, Sarah had moved to the Clay County home of her son, William. It seems that her daughter had also predeceased her.

William Cole and his family posed for a group photo with Sarah about 1914. There is no known record of Sarah Mooney Cole after that photo, so it is likely that she died in Arkansas between 1914 and 1920.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: #22 William J Cole

William J Cole was one of only two children born to Sarah A Mooney and Joseph Cole, who lived in Henry County, Tennessee. Joseph was a farmer and a doctor. My great-grandfather William followed only in his farming footsteps.

Quick drop page from Bookshelves kit, ClubScrap

On December 6, 1891, the 26-year-old William married Mollydine Alexander in neighboring Weakley County, Tennessee. The couple had four sons and also cared for William's aged mother near the end of her life. The family moved to Clay County, Arkansas, in the late 1800s.

The couple apparently had marital problems. In the 1930 census, "widowed" Molly and son Seborn were living in Michigan, near sons Noble and Clifford, while "widowed" William was living in Arkansas with son Carlos.

William J Cole died in Arkansas in 1937, and was buried in New Hope Cemetery in Pollard, Arkansas. He was buried in a different cemetery and even a different town from his wife.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: #15 Mollydine Alexander Cole and Twin

We don't talk much about the family of my maternal grandfather. Most of what I know has been gleaned from records, newspapers and very distant cousins. But I do recall one conversation about my great-grandmother, Mollydine Alexander Cole.

My Mom was telling me that only her mother's stubbornness stood between herself and the name Mollydine. She  was grateful that she had been named Molly, rather than Mollydine after her grandmother. I didn't ask about the spelling. Instead I wrote the name down as Molly Dean, thinking it was a clue to another ancestral line.

Quick drop page from ArtPlay Palette Family by AnnaAspnesDesigns
for Digital Scrapper, March, 2012

When I saw the 1880 census for Weakley County, Tennessee, I figured out how the unusual name came to be. Mollydine had a twin, Josephine. Can't you just see their parents trying to rhyme a name with Josephine? Give it a try -- I did!

The exact date of the twins' birth is fuzzy. Mollydine and Josephine were born on January 31, 1873, according to Molly's obituary. Josephine's typed death record gives a birth date of January 13, 1873, but I suspect that is a typographical error. Josephine Alexander Stacks showed a birthdate of February, 1875, in the 1900 Weakley County census. Molly showed January, 1874, for her birthdate in the 1900 census taken in Clay County, Arkansas. The twins never had identical ages in any census after 1880. Based on all the evidence, I believe that their most likely birthdate is January 31, 1873.

The twins were born to Thomas Jefferson "Jeff" Alexander and Rebecca Ann Maynard. Josephine's death certificate says that they were born in Weakley County.  They grew to womanhood there and were also married there. Mollydine married William J. Cole on December 6, 1891. Josephine married William Edward Stacks on January 19, 1899. Their lives diverged when Mollydine and her family moved to Clay County, Arkansas, leaving her twin behind in Tennessee.

Mollydine gave birth to four sons: Carlos, Noble, Clifford and Seborn. She and William apparently had marital problems. In the 1930 census, "widowed" Molly and son Seborn were living in Michigan, near her sons Noble and Clifford, while "widowed" William was living in Arkansas with son Carlos.

Mollydine Alexander Cole died in Arkansas on January 24, 1956, and was buried in Piggott Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Piggott, Arkansas. She was buried in a different cemetery and even a different town from William J. Cole, who had predeceased her.

Josephine Alexander Stacks died on July 19, 1948, in Hardeman County, Tennessee. Her place of burial was not given on her death certificate.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: #10 Clifford Royal Cole, A Royal Bastard

Over the years I've used a lot of terms to describe my grandfather. But until I started doing family history research, I has no idea how accurate the phrase "royal bastard" really was.

I never got to know my mother's biological father. I've met him and heard stories about him, but never cared to build a relationship. My grandmother's feelings about her ex-husband have thoroughly colored my  perspective.

Clifford Cole was born near Pollard, Arkansas, on July 16, 1908, the third son of Mollydine Alexander and William J Cole. Jealous of his older brother Noble, Clifford gave himself the middle name of Royal. He moved to Benton Harbor, Michigan, as a young man, to work in the automotive manufacturing industry.

He loved to party and soon gained a reputation for drinking and womanizing. On March 20, 1928, Clifford Cole eloped with Leona Crispen to South Bend, Indiana. Marriage didn't settle him down and he continued to act as if he were a single man.

When Leona quickly got pregnant, he refused to believe the child was his, forcing her to have a back-alley abortion. He took away her car keys and limited her contact with friends and family. A second pregnancy followed, with my mother being born in 1929.

An infection sprang up in the infant's eyes and Clifford refused to take the baby to the doctor. By the time Leona went to the doctor over his wishes, most of the baby's sight had been destroyed and Leona learned that she also was being ravaged by infection. Leona soon filed for divorce and left Michigan with her daughter.

Clifford was not a fast learner. He married at least three more times and fathered several more children. He left manufacturing behind and became a barber, opening his own shop in Benton Harbor. Ironically, he became bald and  wore a toupee. He finally settled into a marriage and later moved to Ellenton, Florida, where he died on June 4, 1997.

I never met any of Clifford's extended family. Through family history research, I connected with a second cousin, a granddaughter of Noble Cole. She told me that, though she had been raised in Benton Harbor, she had never met Clifford. When she would walk past the barber shop, she was curious and would have liked to walk in and meet her great-uncle. However, she was too afraid to do that. What a telling story about how the family felt about Clifford!

The historical research on the Alexander family has been fascinating, leading to ancestors from the British Isles. The pedigree includes ancestors descended from Charlemagne via wrong-side of the blanket nobility. Clifford was indeed a royal bastard, or at least a descendant of one.

Quick page from We Are Family by Dianne Rigdon for Digital Scrapper, June 2013

52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy, Week 18, Historical Books

One of my favorite types of historical book is the 19th-century county history book, or mug book. Some are indexed, some are not, but all are worth investigating. If you find one that contains a biography about your ancestor, the information gained can be invaluable. The subject of each biographical sketch generally provided the information himself, so the accuracy and truthfulness is variable. It is important to search the book for collateral relatives, as your ancestor may be discussed in the biography of a brother, grandson or son-in-law.

One of the books in my collection is the 1878 History of Morgan County, Illinois. This book is 768 unindexed pages, of which 300 pages contain biographies. 150 pages describe the history of Illinois and 40 pages contain abstracts of state laws. With multiple branches of my family passing through that state, this information may be of use beyond the Morgan County families. The remainder of the book discusses the formation of the county, towns, early settlers, organizations, military history, businesses and churches. 

This book has two biographies of great interest to me. My third great-grandfather had a short biography that lists his birth date and birth place and that of his wife, the names and birth dates of all their children, the death dates of their children who died, his father's name and, last but certainly not least, the names of each of his father's seven wives. My second great-grandfather did not have a biography in the book, but his older brother had one. This biography was similar in listing his parents and also includes the names of his brothers who served in the Union Army, along with the unit in which they served.

Portions of 19th century mug books are increasingly found online as the copyrights have expired. Indexes to the biographies are often found at the USGenWeb county pages. Sometimes there is a look-up volunteer who will transcribe a biography of interest.

A cousin found and shared a biography that is the best I've seen for my family's genealogical data. Imagine finding such a gem as follows for your family.

My ancestor, Clifford Cole, was the grandson of Rebecca Ann Maynard Alexander. Rebecca's oldest brother had a biography with these paragraphs (and more) published in 1891.

Milestones digital kit from Club Scrap, Tree from Scrapper's Guide

GOODSPEED'S BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL MEMOIRS
OF NORTHEASTERN ARKANSAS
1891

John Maynard
 ... He was born in the Old Dominion in 1823, and is a son of Evan and Judith (Ragland) Maynard, both of whom were born in Halifax County, of that State, the former's birth occurring March 3, 1793, and the latter's April 5, 1803, and their deaths in 1881 and February 16, 1874, respectively. Their marriage was celebrated July 13, 1820, and in 1847 they came to the State of Tennessee, where the father entered upon the practice of medicine, and he continued this occupation until his death, although he had previously been a farmer.
 

He and his wife were of French-English origin, and he was a soldier in the War of 1812. They were members of the Missionary Baptist Church, and became the parents of eleven children, nine of whom lived to be grown: Harriet (wife of Chris Adams), John, Judith F. (wife of Robert Hart. of Tennessee), Mary A. (wife of Bluford Alexander, a resident of this State), Stith, Patience (wife of Austin Simmons, a resident of Washington County, Ark.), Even (a resident of Missouri), Rebecca A. (wife of Jeff. Alexander, of Weakley County, [p.415] Tenn.) and Thomas (who is a resident of Randolph County). ...

What Did I Learn?

From this brief biography I have learned the names of the men that Rebecca's sisters married and that my great-great-grandfather went by the name of Jeff. More importantly, I've learned my 3rd-great-grandparent's names, birth dates, birth locations, marriage date, death dates, occupations, church affiliation, ethnic heritage, military service and migration year. Some of the items may not be accurate, but all are clues to my heritage.

Check out the mug books for the areas your ancestors lived. You may find some jewels.