by Donna Shreve
July 2004
2004
Over the years I have heard stories from my mother about her unusual childhood and what it was like to grow up without a mother. I have always been curious. When I was a teenager living at 2435 Calhoun Way I received a letter from Nell Houseley, a friend of Virginia, my grandmother. Nell enclosed a picture of my grandmother taken when she was thirty-seven years old. I already had seen a picture of Virginia when she was twenty-one. These two pictures were the only pictures I had ever seen of my grandmother. I do believe I sent a thank you note to Nell but don’t remember any other correspondence.
Virginia had died in 1943 before I was even born. My father never met her, which bothered my mother because she really wanted her mother to see what a prize she had gotten. Nell’s letter basically told me that Nell had been fond of my grandmother and felt it was important that I have a picture of her.
I also have a photo taken of the Early Dawn Dairy that Grandfather Boone owned and ran from 1919 to 1924 or 1925. The bank foreclosed on the dairy for Jesse lacking two hundred dollars as the story goes. In the photo were the main house, a creamery, and a barn. Also there are two cars and Jesse on one side of the photo and Virginia on the other side. There is a railroad running in front of the property. The photo was taken in the 1920s but much more than that I didn’t know.
Mom and Dad had gone through Boise, Idaho in 1970s on their way to the east coast for the wedding of Terry Crabb. The Crabbs drove cross-country with my parents. The four of them stopped in Boise for the night and Mom tried an old address she had of Virginia’s older sister, Nola Cantrell. Nola was no longer living there and the present occupants said a lady down the street had lived there a long time and could tell Mom what had happened to Nola. The lady was not home and Mom and Dad continued on their trek to the East Coast.
Mom had also mentioned that after her mom’s death in 1943, Nola had written to her and asked for a contribution for a headstone for Virginia. Money was tight and Mom did not reply. I needed to find out more. I sent off for Virginia’s death certificate in Vancouver, British Columbia and discovered some more clues.
Virginia had died April 18, 1943 in Vancouver. Her husband was Charles Foster and she was listed as a Canadian citizen. She had resided in Canada for the last fourteen years. What caught my eye was that her body was removed April 20, 1943 to Meridian, Idaho, U.S.A. I had to find her.
With this information I took off for Boise, Idaho with my dear friend Vinnie who is quite good at research. We left June 22, 2004 on a Tuesday. We wanted to be at the Genealogical Library when it opened Wednesday morning. We drove into Boise and took a quick tour of the city. We located the library and count house and then started looking for a motel. We found a great one very close by called “The Statehouse.”
The next morning we were at the library doors when it opened. Vinnie started in on the city directories and I hit the old newspapers. The Meridian Times was published every Friday and had a gossip column. I had already searched the marriage records at the court house in the entire state of Idaho at the courthouse the hour before the library opened and had not found my grandparents’ wedding. In the newspaper gossip column was a quick note about Jesse Boone and Virginia Brown going to Salt Lake City, Utah to get married on July 1, 1918. At the library I found the divorce judgment of Margaret Boone versus Jesse Boone. They had gotten divorced five weeks before his second marriage to Virginia. Mom had always thought Jesse had gotten divorced in Missouri, several years before. I ordered the complaint of the divorce, which would contain all of the court details. I had to wait until the next day for the librarian to dig it out of the archives.
Onward through the newspapers I found an obituary for Jesse Brown, Virginia’s father, in 1928 and later was able to get a copy of his death certificate. From his death certificate I now know the names of his parents. I also found out that daughter Virginia Boone from Vancouver, British Columbia came to the funeral. I found the obituary for Mary Jane Brown who died in 1944. In this obituary I noticed the oldest daughter (Lydia) Pearl had a new last name. She is the oldest daughter that stayed in Missouri with her husband while the rest of the family came to Idaho.
I spent a lot of time trying to find where the Early Dawn Dairy would be in present time. The address given in the City Directory was in terms that only made sense in 1920s. Many of the land maps in the library were not in the right years.
Before we left the library, we got directions to the Meridian cemetery. It was time to find Virginia’s grave. We found the place and went to the office. We rang the buzzer which made a horrible noise that it turned out only we could hear the buzzer as the sexton was rather hard of hearing. Fortunately he saw us and came over. I gave him the names of Virginia, Jesse, and Mary Jane Brown and he looked them up on his computer and then an old register. He soon found them in Lot 40 and took us over to see the graves. Lot 40 contains six graves and only three of them were marked. Virginia and her brother Charles were not marked and there was an unknown grave. It upset me that there were no markers and I asked for the nearest monument place. It was just down the road. I took pictures of all that I could. I also asked for directions to the Joplin Cemetery where Nola and her husband Bill were buried. We found it and took my pictures and we returned to the hotel.
I got curious and opened the Boise area phonebook. I found a Roy J. Cantrell who was the son of Nola Cantrell. He would be Mom’s first cousin. There were 15 Cantells but I decided the name just could work. I called and Rachel, Roy’s widow answered.
“Hi, I am looking for a Roy Cantrell.”
“Yes”
“Nola was his mother.”
“Yes”
Nola had a sister Virginia, who had a daughter Melva, and I am her daughter!”
“Yes”
After I rattled off of bunch of relatives and explained my connection she was thrilled to hear from me and invited me over the next day. We agreed to a 1:00 P.M. meeting at her house.
That night at the hotel I made out a list of everything I hoped to find at the library the next morning. Also I was hoping to find some more information on the land of the Early Dawn Dairy. I now wanted the divorce judgment for Jesse and Virginia.
The judgment was easy but the complaint would mean going back to the courthouse. Vinnie and I were getting help from well meaning people but they couldn’t find it. Vinnie got looking and found it. Her job as a legal assistant paid off. Vinnie put the microfilm in the machine and started printing. I was not prepared for the information in the divorce complaint. All these years I felt that Virginia was the victim. Now I knew that Jesse was the wronged party. The clerk at the courthouse the day before had researched any land bought or sold by Lafe Boone, Jesse Boone, or Clyde Summers, a partner of Jesse’s. There were several pages that I need to investigate at a future time. I was so pleased with the clerk’s extra help.
We left the library and it was now on to Rachel’s house in Nampa, which is right next to Meridian. Rachel entertained us as a wonderful host and told me stories of Roy, Nola, Mary Jane, and Jesse Boone. I learned more about the two brothers Charles and Fletcher. Fletcher’s son Larry still lives in Eagle. She will contact him and tell him we are coming back. I also asked Rachel about the unknown grave in the Brown lot. Rachel said they, the Browns, discovered the grave when they buried Charles in 1931. The story is that it was a flu victim and those victims were buried all over because there were so many at one time. Rachel put me on the phone with Claudia, her daughter who lives in Winnemucca. We planned to visit her on our way home the next day.
We then went back to the cemetery to take the pictures again. I had messed up the pictures transferring them to my computer the night before. I told the family story about the unknown grave to the sexton. He said they had a Freemen’s section or pauper graves where unknowns were buried. Whoever is buried in Lot 40 is a Brown he assured me. Interesting mystery. We then went to the monument place and I ordered two headstones, one for Virginia and one for Charles. We then returned to Joplin to retake the pictures I messed up from the day before.
I was determined to take Vinnie out to dinner our last night. We looked through literature and Vinnie checked on line for a fun restaurant close by. We found Mortimers and staggered over. Mortimers turned out to be quite a find. We had quite a fine dining experience.
Off we went early the next morning. As I drove out of town, Vinnie and I were turning all of the information we had found over and over. We were both shocked at the real facts compared to Mom’s version of her parents’ divorce. We missed our turn and ended up one hundred miles up north in Oregon and had to turn around. It ended up being two hundred miles out of our way. At the beginning of the day I had worried about getting to Claudia’s too soon. Now we were late. As soon as my cell phone worked again, I called and we met in Winnemucca at the Model T casino where we had dinner. We then went to their house where Claudia brought out the family pictures. What treasures! We had a grand time chatting away but we had to drag our tired bodies away and find a place to sleep. Buck and Claudia had offered their extra bed but we kindly declined. Vinnie and I are dear friends but did not want to share a bed.
Back in Winnemucca there was not one room available on that Friday night. There was some special RV event going on. We drove down the road about forty-five minutes to a truck stop and got the last two rooms. We collapsed and then got going the next morning. We got home in time for Vinnie to make an Oakland As baseball game with her family.
I was concerned about what to share with Mom. I had discussed my findings with my brother and sister and we went back and forth on whether to share or not. Mom had such an idealized vision of her mother and I would destroy that with my findings. I let her make the decision and she read every word of everything. We are going back August second through August fourth to visit the now marked grave and to visit with Rachel. Rachel’s son Dan will take us by the Early Dawn Dairy so I plan to take a modern picture from the same place the old one was taken. Maybe Rachel will have found Cousin Larry Brown and we can meet him. August third is Jennifer’s birthday so all seven of us will celebrate at Mortimers. Jane and Jennifer are flying in and Brian, Mary Lou, Mom, Aaron and I are driving. I am sure there will be more to this tale.
My first dilemma when I returned home was what to share about my trip to Boise with my mother. I had complied a two-inch thick binder with all of the court records, land grants, newspaper articles, new family information and some pictures. I had discussed all of the possibilities with my brother and sister and we are wavered on what was best. In the end I gave Mom the choice. I informed her that the binder was divided into several sections and the toughest section to read would be the court records. She came over to my house and sat at our kitchen table and read every word of every page. It took her over an hour to complete the information. I had court records that revealed her mother was not the person she had always wanted to believe she was. Virginia, her mother, had become tired of being married to Jesse and was not interested in being a mother.
I had found Rachel, the wife of Mom’s first cousin Roy. Rachel was hoping to round up another first cousin from Virginia’s side of the family. I reached out to Brian and Jane about returning to Boise as a family in one month. Seven of us agreed to go. I brought my oldest son, as he was available. Jane flew up with her oldest daughter Jennifer. Brian brought his wife, Mary Lou.
Brian agreed to drive and five of us took the long drive to Boise. I made reservations for us at the Statehouse Motel that was quite comfortable and had a very convenient location. Our first stop took us to the cemetery that now contained a new headstone for Virginia and her brother Charles. We had stopped by a grocery store and purchased some roses to scatter over the graves.
The sexton was still working there and recognized me. He escorted our group to the graves and agreed to take our picture as we gathered in front of the new family graves that Mom had had me purchased a month before on my previous trip.
We now had a date with Rachel. On we drove to Nampa just a few miles away. I wanted Mom to be open to Rachael. She lived in a doublewide trailer and her home contained knit and croquet items in abundance. Mom could be a judgmental snob and I didn’t want that trait to get in her way. My concerns were unfounded. As mother was approaching the front door, Rachel came out to greet her. Melva immediately welled with tears running down her face. Rachael greeted Melva with, “Oh you so remind me of Nola, your aunt and my mother-in-law.” Melva desperately wanted to feel she belong to a family bigger than just her father and brother. For the first time, she was meeting relatives from her mother’s side of the family.
2004
Waiting for the seven of us was Rachel along with her granddaughter and son, Dan and his wife. Plus Rachael had invited Cousin Larry, who was the son of Virginia and Nola’s brother Fletcher. Larry had brought a family album, which he shared with Melva. Mom sat down in a living room chair and we surrounded her as she went through each page. She was observing family pictures she had never seen before. The most poignant picture had been taken when Melva was six and Ronnie was four. They were posed in a studio and were all dressed up. Virginia had this picture taken just for her before she left the family. Mom paused after staring at this picture for a while and asked us, “How could she have left us?” That moment will stay burned in my mind forever. Larry shared stories to go along with the pictures. It became obvious to me that Virginia and Fletcher were the wild children of the family
Mom and Rachael bonded so quickly and shared stories while Larry tried every thing he could think of to shock us. Aaron, my oldest, commented it was as if Larry had an internal checklist to see what would shock us the most. I was proud of all of us as we maintained a calm façade and did not give Larry the shocked reaction he wanted.
After our visit to the cemetery and Rachael’s home, the seven of us went out to dinner at Mortimer’s before we left the next morning. Larry’s daughter and I were in contact and she made copies of so many of the family pictures for me. Yvette, Larry’s daughter also shared what little genealogy on Virginia’s family she had. I have since found so much more family information but lost track of Yvette. I so wish I could return her generosity with my new research.
Jane and Jennifer flew home and Brian drove the rest of us on the long road home. We stopped in Winnemucca, Nevada to visit Rachael’s daughter Claudia and husband, Buck. Mom got to meet another relative. I feel the best result of the trip was my mother realizing she was lucky to have been raised by her father instead of her mother. I like to think that she made peace with her father at last.
Swagerty-Aldrich Family Web Site 