52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week #22 Theme - Conflict

My husband is a history buff.  While I research the history of both our families, he catches me up on what was happening in those years and locations.  Often we then take trips to the areas where family lived and learn more about them at history centers and libraries.  When we traveled through Alabama and Mississippi, we found that his paternal 3Gt. Grandfather, John Oliver Davis, a merchant from Tallapoosa Co, Alabama, had fought with the 37th Infantry at the second Battle of Corinth, Mississippi, Oct. 3-4 1862.  He had been elected First Lieutenant following the organization of the 37th Regiment, but had been promoted to Captain in the ensuing months.  At the 2nd Battle of Corinth, Captain Davis, age 40,  was wounded, seriously enough that he returned home and then resigned from service.  His daughter, Martha Lavonia (Vonie) Davis married Alonzo C. Bosworth, a young Confederate soldier,  who came home from the war after battles in Virginia and at Gettysburg. He was a sergeant with Company D of the Alabama 14th Infantry.  I will write more about this couple in the future.

Meanwhile in service to the Union was another of Gerry's ancestors, Gt Grandfather John McCool, born in Pennsylvania. His family had migrated to the frontier of Iowa, where John signed on as a private, with the Iowa Second Infantry, Co. B of Scott County.  McCool's regiment fought  alongside about 50,000 men under General U.S. Grant at Ft. Donelson, on the Cumberland River,  not far from Nashville, TN. The victory made Grant a national hero, and allowed the Union to push deeper into the heart of the Confederacy.  The 2nd Iowa was then involved at Shiloh (Pittsburgh Landing) and advanced on to the town of Corinth, Mississippi. Two railroads intersected in the downtown of Corinth... the Memphis / Charleston Railroad, running east and west, and the Mobile / Ohio Railroad, running north and south. These were necessary for moving supplies and had been under control of the Confederacy.  A Union victory there assured that the North could use Corinth and her railroads in relative safety for much of the remainder of the war.  However, there were thousands of dead and wounded on each side.   

I have found a map which shows the locations of regiments from both armies.  Within a few blocks of each other, in downtown Corinth, were McCool's 2nd Iowa Regiment of the Union, and Captain John O. Davis' 37th Alabama Regiment of the Confederacy. Blue is Union, Red is Confederate. I have marked these two in gold.   These men didn't hate each other, but they loved their homes and families, and stood to defend them.  Generations later, after the conflict of that battle was forgotten by descendants, the men are remembered as showing courage and loyalty, each to his own cause.

 

 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week #21 theme - Yearbook

Since it's time to honor graduates, here are a few yearbook photos of family members found in the 1932 "Bronze Book" of Central State Teachers' College, Edmond, Oklahoma.  (Now the University of Central Oklahoma.)  My sister, Christy Griffin Thomas,  has possession of several of the yearbooks for that era.  She found these for us to post and there are MANY more to be sure.  Top to bottom:  My father, Dan Griffin of Edmond, OK. Member of Arena Club and formerly of the Men's Glee Club. Arena Club was a debating society, which also held an annual Barn Dance. Although my father and mother were in the same graduating class, he was 4 years older... taking alternate years to work and attend college. His specialty/ major was Industrial Arts and everyone took Education classes. 

Our mother, Bess Avera, of Oklahoma City, OK.  She had attended Okla. College for Women in Chickasha before transferring to Central. She was a member of YWCA, Glee Club (2nd Soprano) and a group called W. A. A. (could be Women's Athletic Association). After graduation, she worked as a book keeper for Bell Telephone in Oklahoma City. 

Below  is my dad's first cousin, Dorothy Mann, of Edmond. She was a teacher and librarian and eventually came back to the University of Central Oklahoma, where she
developed and chaired the library science program for teachers. 

We also found a page with my Dad's brother, Charles (Chick) Griffin at top, and Dad, Dan Griffin, at bottom.  Don't know who is the fellow in the middle.  This may have been on the membership page for the Arena Club. 

Just for fun, here is a page called Circus. They must have had a great time with this event for silliness and costumes. We don't see any familiar faces in this crowd but imagining the lively atmosphere on campus. 

 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week #20 theme, Textiles.

May I introduce you to our Gt Aunt Mamie (Mary Lucinda McGill). Notice her beautiful blouse. She may have made it herself, as well as those of her sisters , since she was shown to be a dressmaker in 1900 Census. The McGill family had traveled by covered wagon from Iowa to the newly opening land in Oklahoma in 1889.  By 1910, she had left her rural home in Edmond Oklahoma, to live in the big town of Oklahoma City and work at the five story, marble-floored  Mellon Department Store as a milliner.  

We have found an advertisement from the Mellon Store which states:

Just received from the most authoritative producers of millinery styles, a shipment of hats in the new vogues for early  fall street and afternoon wear.

The new styles are strikingly beautiful and diversity is shown in models, large shapes and small shapes. The Watteau or ageless model  is a very novel one, having a flat round crown and an unusually shaped mushroom brim. Other styles find their inspiration from the ages of Louis XV.

Velvets, hatters' plush silk, and felt are the foundations, with folds, aigrettes, paradise feathers and other plumage as trimmings.

We now have very smart styles at prices ranging from $5.00 - $15.00.

The Mellon Company

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

I believe that Mamie was hired to reproduce those new styles  for the ladies of the city.  In later years she was a milliner at John A. Brown's department store, also in downtown Oklahoma City. She never married and lived in a boarding house where we would visit her.  She dressed stylishly, similar to Chanel styles, in linen dresses or suits, with strings of beads. She dyed her hair auburn all her life. 

These pictures are from a trip she made to California to visit a sister and some cousins.  You can see her ivory linen traveling dress with hat, shoes, hose and gloves to match, even though she and her niece, Evana, were up close and personal with an ostrich.  The second photo was made at the beach during that visit... about 1930.  This family scene carries out the theme of Textiles because of the variety of clothing. (Aunt Mamie is in black with sun glasses.) Makes me grin to see all this bunch dressed up  At The Beach !!!

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week #19 theme is Food and Drink.  

We were always told that our maternal Grand Daddy, R. E. (Dick) Avera, had a candy store in Frederick Oklahoma.  His only child, Bess, our mom, even told us that the name of his store was the Queen Bess. This week in a newspaper dot com search for Frederick Oklahoma, I found this 1929 ad. So now we know that the name of the store was Candyland and he served food and drinks, and ice cream, at the soda fountain, as well as the candies he made himself on big marble slabs.  Queen Bess was one type of candy he made. Oddly, my mom didn't like chocolate much, but in later years he always presented family members with Whitman's Sampler candy boxes. And we often keep up that tradition today.