Week 30 and we're 2/3rds of the way thru this trailride.. This cowpoke has been consistant in sewing only one block a week...I do have a good excuse...the Olympics......I don't know what Laurie was thinking when she decided on the blocks with "Y" seams...sooooo many of them!!
Now a couple of letters.
Week 19.. Gladys Ellwood, Franklin County,
VermontI could see no mention of siblings in Gladys' letter or in the photographs that
she sent to the Webb Publishing Company. Therefore, I wasn't surprised to find
that she was an only child. Gladys and her parents didn't travel far; they spent
their whole lives in the state of Vermont.
This genealogy will be in two sections--Gladys first, and then her parents.
What I could find about Gladys' life is very straightforward. She was born
Martha Gladys Ellwood, on February 25, 1902, and presumably lived with her
parents until she married at the age of 27. Her husband's name was Guy Cray, and
they married on October 20, 1929, just a few days before the Stock Market Crash
that began the Great Depression. Gladys and Guy lived very long lives; he died
in 1982 at the age of 84, and Gladys died in a nursing home in 1996, at 94 years
of age.
Her parent's records caught my eye because of the 1930 census. There are three
people listed in the household; Guy (age 31), Gladys (28) and Gladys' father
Clarence (52.) (I believe that it is most likely Clarence's picture on page 41.)
What became of Gladys' mother, Gertrude, I wondered? I found her death record in
1927. She died from asthma at the age of 61, two years before Gladys' marriage.
(I imagine they greatly missed her not being there!) I think that it is
interesting that Gladys' father was twelve years younger than his wife. Clarence
married again at the age of 65 to a woman named Lillian. Clarence died in 1961,
having been married to his second wife for almost 20 years.
(I just noticed--My grandfather's first and second wife's names were Gertrude
and Lillian, too!
Week 20.. Lee Mohr, Marshall County, Iowa
As some of you suspected, I could not find any positive information about Lee. I
found two "Lee Mohr's" but both were from the eastern side of Iowa. Since
Marshall County is in the central part of the state, I didn't want to guess. I'm
still going to work on it though, and I hope to find the correct one in time.