Remembering Aunt Hazel

I remember always being excited that Aunt Hazel was coming home for a visit.  I can't really put a finger on any specific reason, but she held a special place in my heart.  She was my grandmother's sister, yet so different, and maybe that was what was so intriguing about her.  I remember a vacation I took to Florida in March 1989.  Grandpa and Muriel were also down there at the time and the three of us went to visit Aunt Hazel and Uncle Paul for the day.  We had a very nice time, ate lunch, sat by the pool, and Aunt Hazel made me an Old-fashioned, which is basically whiskey with a slice of orange.  It was a good day!  The picture from that day is of Aunt Hazel, Uncle Paul, and their dog with this incredible poinsettia growing in front of their house. 

I don't have any whiskey in the house to make an Old-fashioned, but I have poured a glass of wine to raise in memory of Aunt Hazel in honor of her birthday, March 13th.  Happy Birthday Aunt Hazel!

Raising Robert

I was born at 11 A.M. on February 17, 1916 on Oil City's Southside. I was given the name Robert Norman Reese. I was named after my two uncles; one was my great-uncle Robert Reese, a Civil War veteran who died ten year before I was born; my middle name came from my mother's brother Norman Walker who was said to have been kicked in the head by a horse [I think that he was actually born with something like Down syndrome]. My father was Edward Aaron Reese, a tailor by trade, and hard-working, but like his father Samuel, Eddie, as he was called, was always looking for a quick path to wealth. My mother was Mary Elizabeth Walker from Cochranton, Pennsylvania. She was 4 years older than my father and 40 years old when I was born. 

I lived with my parents at 201 East Front Street, in Southside Oil City. This was located roughly were the Riverside grocery story and Southside Post Office are now located on the four-lanes today. Next door lived my Grandpa and Grandmother Reese, my widowed Aunt Minnie Hookins, and her two children, my older cousins, Arthur and Lucille. This was a wonderful place to grow up, surrounded by family and a close knit neighborhood. Mrs. Dale lived on one side and next door to her was Mrs. McCollum, aunt of my lifelong friend Leroy Blair.

I was an only child and was undoubtedly doted on by my family. Grandmother Reese saw my first smile when I was 1 week old. Mother discovered my first tooth when I was 22 weeks. And my first word was papa. I got my first hair cut in August 1917 at the barber shop--I sat very still. I could count to 10 before I was 2 years old--Mother was so proud.

Birthdays were family affairs. On my first birthday, my Grandmother Walker was visiting from Cochranton. We had cake and father gave me a "kiddie kar" and I got stockings from Uncle John Walker. On my second birthday, Uncle John Walker got me 2 pair of stockings; from Aunt Bessie, Uncle John's wife, a silver spoon; Harry Reese Jr. gave me a toy and his brother Gerald gave me a handkerchief. Grandpa Reese gave me 5 cents for my bank and Daddy and Mother gave me a rocking chair and new shoes. On my 4th birthday in 1920, we had a chicken dinner with cake. Grandpa and Grandmother Reese, Grandmother Reese's sister Aunt Sarah Smith, and Uncle John Walker were there. Daddy gave me a bowling alley and from Mother 2 pair of stockings. Uncle John gave me $1 (guess he figured I had enough stockings); Grandpa Reese gave me another 5 cents for my bank; cousins Gerald and Harry Jr. gave me 4 pennies, 2 handkerchiefs and a card; cousin Lucille gave me a little cake; and Grandma Reese and Aunt Sarah gave me cards.

My father operated a tailor shop and a dry cleaning service, first out of our house, but later from a shop down Front Street closer to the State Street Bridge. He provided for mother and me very well. On a sunny day in June 1923 when I was 7 years old, my father was sitting on the front porch when he had an aneurysm and died. It would be years before I realized fully how that changed things, especially for my mother. This happened before social security, before insurance, and other programs that are now in place to take care of widows and orphans who lost their sole source of income. 

Widowed at the age of 47 with a young son and no income meant that mother had to find a way to support us. Besides income she received from renting the garages in the alley behind out house, mother earned money making pies, dressings (sauces such as ketchup), and mayonnaise for Cribbs Grocery store on the Southside. At first, mother would make all of the pies and dressing in our kitchen and a delivery boy would take them to Cribbs. Later she worked in the kitchen at the grocery. Remember that this was in the early days of modern conveniences. Refrigeration was still being developed and preservatives that are in food today to prolong shelf life did not exist. That meant that mother would work everyday to supply the grocery store with the fresh pies and dressings for its customers. Mother worked hard and all of our needs were met. Even during the Great Depression of the early 1930s, we managed better than most because the wealthy families from Oil City's West End still wanted fresh pies and dressings for their tables.

As a boy, I remember the trains pulling endless lines of oil tankers, coal cars, and flatcars loaded with timber which would pass in front of our house on the tracks across the street. My mother would complain about the soot that was left behind by the steam locomotives. She would have to sweep the front porch after each train passed to keep it from being tracked into the house. From the train station across the river, we would take the train to visit my mother's family in Cochranton. During the summer 1927, I took the train to Cochranton to stay with Mother's family on the farm outside Cochranton. That was with Mother's brother's Uncle Will and Uncle Wilson and their family. That was a big deal for this 11-year-old city kid and my first time away from my Mother. Uncle Will and Uncle Wilson raised draft horses--the biggest animals I had ever seen. 

I attended elementary school in the Central Avenue School which was an imposing stone structure on Central Avenue where the firehouse now stands. This was the school that John Dewey, Father of Modern Education, kicked off his teaching career. The school was several blocks away and uphill in the morning. I attended the South Side Junior High before going to the Senior High school on the north side. Crossing the bridge and walking up the hill to the senior high during the winter or rainy weather was miserable. I was well behaved and had perfect attendance in 1926, 1928, 1930, and 1931. The most days I missed were in March 1922 when I was in First Grade. I got the chickenpox and was quarantined for 16 days, missing 10 days of school. Book wise, I was just an ok student, and struggled through junior high. I excelled at what was called industrial or manual arts and I was very good at fine art. I was especially good at drawing and my favorite subjects to draw were cowboys.  

Mother and I attended the Grace Methodist Church, just a short walk up to the corner of Central Avenue and West First Street. Mother was a praying mother who made sure I knew the importance of living a good clean life. But she also knew that without a father, I still needed a male influence in my life. A Godly man [I can't recall his name] from the church stepped in to take on that role. He made sure that I was involved in activities that would help me learn a sense of duty and hard work. I also developed a strong group of friends from my neighborhood where our favorite past times were playing marbles or stick ball in the alley behind our houses.

I was a very active member of the Sea Scouts which was an offshoot of the Boy Scouts--but with cooler uniforms! I was on the crew of the good ship "Crusher," local Sea Scout Troop 3 from the Grace Church. I was an active member of the Sea Scouts until I graduated from high school. 

I helped mother around the house and helped with her work at Cribbs which allowed her to get done early. After I learned to drive, I also earned money driving for women from Oil City. I would take them to town to help with shopping, take them to visit relatives and friends in other towns like Titusville or Mercer. The longest drive I made was in 1936 when I took Miss Phillips and Mrs. Lee of Oil City on a two week driving tour to Bangor, Maine.

I graduated from High School in 1935. I was glad to be done with school. In fact, my yearbook says “Bob is mostly an outdoor man who has little use for school or other commonplace activities.” I did not really have a plan for what to do after I graduated, but I liked to work with my hands and solve problems so I toyed with the idea of going to engineering school and even took a few engineering and chemical correspondence courses. But I lost interest in that. I would rather spend my time racing my new Harley Davidson motorcycle and finding the girl of my dreams—and that is just what I did. But that story is for another time…

Raising Al

By all accounts, Al Redmond had a typical childhood for a child raised in rural Pennsylvania at the turn of the last century. But what was typical in the early 1900s would look very different from those of our family being raised in the early 2000s. It is interesting to note that Katie, Perry, Amanda, Josie, Chloe, and Kyle are being raised almost exactly 100 years after their Great-great Grandfather Redmond! So what was typical for the child born in 1897 and growing up in the early years of the 20th Century? Hopefully, this post will give you some idea.

[Before I go on with the story I want to make two points--one, for the purposes of clarity throughout, I will refer to Grandpa Redmond as Al; two, the circumstances of Al's birth where not so typical and will be the subject of a future post, but suffice it to say that Al was born to an unwed mother and was raised by an unrelated couple named Albert and Mary Redmond.]

Al was born on February 15, 1897 in New Castle, Lawrence County, Pennsylvania. I don't know how Al came to be a part of the Redmond household. It has been suggested that Al's birthmother was related to Mary Redmond, but I have not been able to find any connection between the two. So what do we know of this couple that raised Al as their own?

Albert Redman (Redman would evolve to Redmond) married Mary Margaret Haggerty in 1889 in New Castle. Albert was from Neshannock Falls, a small village near New Wilmington, Lawrence County, Pennsylvania. Mary was born in Pennsylvania, but was living in Youngstown, Ohio when she was married. It appears that they had a rocky start to their married life. In 1891, it is recorded in a New Castle newspaper that Albert was thrown in jail. According to the report, Mary claimed that Albert had beaten her and "otherwise abused her." She also claimed that Albert had abandoned her. I don't know how this act of domestic violence was resolved or what this might tell us about the type of household Al was raised, but Albert and Mary did remain together the rest of their lives.

Albert and Mary lived in Neshannock Falls.  Albert had no particular trade or skill, but was a day laborer, and in 1910 he was working in a quarry which was certainly not easy work. While not much more is known of Albert and Mary, it is clear that they were a couple of little means, but generous hearts. While Albert and Mary did not have any children of their own, they took in several children over the years. However, as far as I can tell Al or Allie, as they called him, was the only one they gave their name to and raised truly as their own. Albert and Mary most certainly did not adopt Al in a legal sense, and in modern terms, the arrangement could probably be described best as foster parents.

Neshannock Falls School, 1909

Albert Redmond, back row, 3rd from left

As far as a typical childhood is concerned, Al went to school, had friends, and played ball as evidenced in the photographs left behind. The class photograph proves that Albert did attend rural public schools. At that time in Pennsylvania, school was compulsory through the 8th grade. Passing the 8th Grade test was mandatory for graduation and/or to enter high school. However, continuing on to high school was not mandatory and a great number of children upon graduation from 8th grade went to more "practical learning," that is learning a trade and contributing to the family income. It appears that Al finished 8th grade in 1909 and went to work, earning money that no doubt was contributed to the family household.

Allie Redmond (right) and friend Billy Buxton

In 1910, at the age of 13, Al was working as a laborer at the Neshannock Falls Creamery, a place where dairy products are processed, and in 1910, the main products would have been cream, milk, and butter (although butter was still churned at home at that time). Remember that this was a full time job and early in the development of Child Labor Laws.  Forty hour, 5-day work weeks are largely a post-World War II phenomenon.  I do not know how many hours he worked a day, but it was likely at least 8 hours and he most certainly worked 6 days a week. 

By the time Al married Myrtle in 1916, at the age of 19, he was working as a laborer for the brickyard, Youngstown Clay Product Company, in Volant, Lawrence County. The Volant plant produced fireproofing and hollow brick for construction.

Within three years of Al's marriage to Myrtle, Al's "adopted" parents had died. Al and Myrtle would find their way in the world for themselves and their three daughters over the 58 years that would follow. From his humble beginnings, Al would go on to be a hard-working, successful business man, a leader in his church and his community. But that is a story for another time.

February Birthdays in the Redmond-Reese Family

February is a unique month for the Redmond-Reese Family.  In this one month of the year, we celebrate five birthdays in our family, but what makes it unique is that all five generations of our family are represented in these five February birthdays.  A special shout out to Kim who celebrated her birthday on the 4th.  Kim's daughter Katie will be 15 on the 20th of February!  Sharyn will celebrate her birthday on 24 February.  And in between those special days, our family remembers Grandpa (Al) Redmond's birthday on the 15th and Grandpa (Bob) Reese's on the 17th.  If you consider that Grandpa Redmond, the originator of our Redmond family, was born in 1897, these five generations represent 113 years of our family.  Below are baby pictures of Bob, Sharyn, Kim, and Katie.  While I don't have a baby picture of Al, the earliest picture I have is from a class photograph taked in 1909 when he would have been about 13.

Albert Redmond, b. Feb. 15, 1897

taken 1909

Robert Norman Reese, born February 17, 1916

Sharyn Colleen, born February 24

Kimberly Jane, born February 4

Katie Nicole, born February 20

So whose birthday is January 6th?

Ninety-one years ago on January 6, 1919, Ethel Geraldine Redmond was born in the small village of Volant, near New Castle, Pennsylvania, the oldest daughter of Albert and Myrtle Redmond. Gone from our lives way too early, we are left with many memories. Whether daughter, sister, wife, mother, grandmother, sister-in-law, aunt, or friend, I would say that Ethel was a very special person. I remember many things about her from her great smile, her amazing laugh, her love for her family, her dedication to her friends, her church, and her community, or positive outlook wherever life or Bob would take her. Not that she didn't have disappointments, troubles, or hardships, because she surely did, but often times she was a model of how to come through the difficulties of life with grace and dignity. What I remember and loved so much about her was how she treated each one of us as uniquely special, worthy, and loveable--what I would say is the true picture of how Christ taught us to love each other. And I think that was the rare gift that she had.

It would be great to hear your memories of Ethel, what she meant to you, and what impact she might have had on your life. Take a look at the attached collage of photos of her life, roughly in chonological order going clockwise, starting in the upper left-hand corner. Also, I have tried my hand at my first "multi-media" video, a slideshow of those pictures which you can find at the following link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp0XzW1TsKM (or go to youtube.com and search on Ethel Redmond Reese; it is also on my Facebook page and I think it looks better there). The music might not be the best choice, but everytime I hear the song I can still hear her voice singing it. I will probably be refining the slideshow so if anyone has any other suggestions please let me know. I hope you enjoy the photos and the slideshow!

Give someone special a yellow rose in memory of Ethel...

"Dorothy!" called Polly Parrot

Aunt Lois reminded me of this story she had told me some time ago. She does remember visited her mean grandmother Claudia in Erie. Aunt Lois never remembers her grandmother smiling or happy, but she does remember that Claudia had a "Polly Parrot" who would wake them up in the morning calling "Dorothy" from a low to high pitch that sounded like Grandma Claudia's angry voice. She who was Dorothy? Well the parrot was call to Dorothy Ball, daughter of Claudia and Frank, and Grandma Redmond's half-sister. Born 13 January 1924, 5 years after Ethel and almost 2 years after Hazel, her nieces. Dorothy, born when Claudia was 44, would have been called a "change-of-life baby" at that time, but by today's standards it would be down right fashionable! Dorothy married and lived in Erie. She died in November 1982, just a couple months after Ethel died.

Two Family Birthdays on December 29th

"Two?" you say. Why yes, two. Of course 29 December [2009] was Betsy's birthday--certainly a milestone birthday, but I was taught never to divulge a woman's age--at least not for the living... but the other, also a woman, would have been 130 years old on the 29th--and she is certainly not living. But first, a very happy, slightly belated, birthday to you Aunt Betsy; hope you had a great day and have a wonderful new year.

So who was the other woman in our family who was born 130 years ago and shares a birthday with Betsy? Attached is a photo of her as a young girl, probably taken about 1890, and another from later in her life, probably 1940. Any guesses? One clue is that Ethel was even going to name Betsy after her. If she had, Betsy's name would be Claudia. Probably a good thing that Betsy wasn't named after her as Claudia was described as the meanest woman to ever live--or something to that affect. So who was she? Why she was Grandma Redmond's mother, of course--Claudia Ann (Winters) Thomas. So do any of you (Terry, Roger, Bobbie, Sharyn, Dale, Todd, or Betsy) remember your great-grandmother? Some of you should as she died in 1952--which is the same year that Bob's mother died and Terry and Bobbie certainly remember her. I would love to know if any of you remember Claudia! I am fascinated by the fact that she does not seem to be remembered by her family, family that should have at least been aware of her. And it can't be the case that she was alienated from her family. She continued to visit with her sisters Aunt Jessie Crooks and Aunt Clara Bessler in Oil City and Grandpa Redmond was the one who signed Claudia's death certificate.

What I know about Claudia is that she was born 29 December 1879 in Petroleum Center (which would have been a oil boom town in decline and called the wickedest place in the world at the time, but now a ghost town, literally), the daughter of John Winters, an immigrant to the oil regions from England, and his wife Catherine Baney, a local girl from Cherrytree area. Claudia married at the age of 18 or so to Samuel Thomas who was from the Dempseytown/Rocky Grove area. After their marriage Samuel and Claudia lived in and around the Petroleum Center area for a number of years where Samuel worked as a pumper in the oil fields. Around 1909, they moved to Volant near New Castle, PA, lived in a rented house and Sam continued to work as a oil well pumper. Living in Volant is where Grandma Redmond would meet and marry Grandpa Redmond.

So how many children did Claudia and Sam have? Well, some of you may remember Grandma Redmond's brother Clyde who lived in Erie (his children and grandchildren still live there) and you may remember a mention of another brother Carl, but there where others. The oldest child was Charles Hunter Thomas who died at the age of 19 in November of 1918 of the Spanish Influenza which killed millions worldwide. Until recently that was all I knew about, but it appears that there were at least two others who died young, a son Ralph and a daughter Viola, both younger than Grandma Redmond. Chances are they also died of the Spanish Flu, but don't know for sure.

So I bet you are still wondering about the comment that she was called the meanest woman in the world. That comment is attributed to her very own husband Sam Thomas and may explain why Grandma Redmond married when she was 14 or 15 years old (which contrary to myth marrying that young was not the norm). I don't know any specifics of why Sam said that about his dear wife, but I do know that they were divorced in September of 1922 and two days later, Claudia remarried a guy by the name of Frank Ball in Tionesta, PA (Sam also remarried, but that is a story for another time). I don't know much about Frank. I have heard references to him being anything from an "evangelist" to a "drinker" which might explain why Claudia wasn't around very much. But what I do know is that Frank worked in a boiler factory in Erie, PA which is where Claudia and Frank lived and died, Claudia in 1952 at the age of 72.

Whew! I certainly didn't mean to go on so long, but who would have known that Grandma Redmond's family was such a soap opera. But just wait until to you hear about Grandpa Redmond's family--talk about drama and intrigue!