Amanuensis Monday - Letter from My Great Aunt Cleo, Part 3

Cleo Proctor Cavanaugh, 1934

I am concluding my series transcribing a 1990 letter from Cleo Proctor Cavanaugh with the final pages [and my notes] below:

Millie Travis was born January 19, 1870 three miles out of Sidney, Iowa. She was baptized in 1883 in the Nishnabotna River, which I think bordered her father's farm. Later she became a Bablist and when she married Daniel Hewitt Proctor Oct 24, 1900 she joined the Presbyterian Church. She died July 6, 1929 in Renton, Washington and is buried there. 

Millie Travis Proctor, 1900

She learned to play the organ when quite young. Later her dad Abraham Travis bought her and her younger sister Bess the first upright grand piano in the Midwest. She became good on the piano and played very difficult music of all the old masters. I remember every Sunday when we were young, she played and sang for a long time.  She was a good worker, but in the evenings after the dinner dishes were done we had fun times. She read to us from the classics. We played checkers, authors and some dominoes. We spent a lot of time discussing the issues of the day. We were a close knit family partly due, I am sure, to living so far from neighbors and town. After we were grown, cards were her game. She was good at checkers. Mr. Pardee a friend of our folks from Iowa was a champion player in the Seattle area. He came to play with her to sharpen his skills for his tournaments. She always managed to win one out of three games with him. 

In the summers when we were small, we played baseball. Our mother and father played too. Our dad was a steady pitcher. [Ray Proctor went on to play in Seattle area leagues and was said to be a professional level pitcher.]

Ray Proctor, 1927

Our mother has a large repertoire of poems and songs which she recited and sang. We learned a great deal about life from them. She had a very good voice with lots of volume and I remember being in church with her when the minister and the choir director urged her to join the choir. Maybe it was the influence of the half Welsh ancestry she was that gave her a good voice.  [Millie was almost certainly not half Welsh. Cleo probably got this erroneous information from All In The Family.]  She was half Pennsylvania Dutch too. Her great grandparents came from the Upper Rhine in Germany. This is more of a farming area and not so military an area of Germany as the industrial North. Our great grandmother had red hair and its shown up in every generation since then. I don't know about the generation just starting however. 

Abraham Travis

When our Grandfather [Abraham] Travis died on Jan 5, 1914, his more than fifty acre farm sold for more than fifty thousand dollars. The money was divided between his twelve children. The land was some of the best in the world. I guess it was Neshna bottom land. Our mother said in the evenings that you could hear the corn growing.

Her grandfather Asa Travis was born in the late 1700s in Wales. It is not known whether he came to this country as an adult or whether he immigrated as a young child in the company of his parents. Sometime prior to 1809 he was married to a woman whose maiden name was Edwards. They had seven surviving children, Abraham M Travis being the sixth. [This information was copied word for word from Julia Travis' All In The Family (as Cleo references below) and is in great dispute by Travis researchers. One thing that is for certain is that his wife was not an Edwards. His first marriage was to Sophia Howard on June 15, 1800. His second marriage was to Susannah Roderick on April 9, 1807. She is believed to be the mother of all of his (at least 10) children. You can read more about the search for Asa's roots here.]

Millie Travis Proctor, her ancestors, brother and sisters and their children and grandchildren are written up in All In The Family. Joyce and I both have the hard-bound book. [I do want to note that this book, errors and all, was quite an accomplishment pre-Internet when it was written and I have a lot of appreciation and respect for it's author, Julia Travis.]

Milllie and Cleo

Cleo Ruth Proctor Cavanaugh, the third child and only girl, at this writing Feb 1990 is still living. All five of Daniel Proctor's children went to the Star Lake's one room school. It still stands at 272nd and Military Road. Ray was in the eighth grade and Charles in the first.


Star Lake School, 1920

 We learned a great deal listening to the older children in their classes. I remember in the eighth grade learning parts of William Cullen Bryant's poem "Thanatopsis". It was not more than ten years, I believe, before Ray died that I remember him reciting some of the lines.  They were probably not perfect or in order, but this was the way he said them:

I will live so that 

When the last hour is upon me

And the all beholding sun

I shall see no more

I will wrap the draperies

Of my couch about me

And lie down to pleasant dream.

Our dad was what was then called Clerk of the Star Lake School Board for four years. The three oldest children graduated from the eighth grade there after taking state exams. Cleo and Roy graduated from Kent High and Charles lacked only a couple of months.

Roy Proctor, Kent High School graduation

Cleo graduated from what is now called Western Washington University. She taught two years in a one room school on Badger Mountain, east of Wenatchee, and 31 years in Kent.

Cleo "teaching" Chick


[With a note in the margin, Cleo instructed this next part to be inserted into an earlier part of the letter.]

When Ephraim and Mary's children were small Dr. William Campbell, Ephraims' sister's son, took care of the younger children's health needs. [This simple sentence sent me on a very intensive search and provided me with the clues needed to solve quite a genealogical puzzle. Dr. William Campbell (1842-1912) was, actually, Mary Hewitt Proctor's younger half-brother. Her father William F. Hewitt (1806-1838) had died young and her mother Sarah/Sally Ann Gillett Hewitt (1810 - ?) remarried in 1842 to William Charles Campbell (1791 - ?) and had, at least, two more children with him. The oldest was William. Mary named her oldest child Charles Campbell Proctor in honor of her stepfather who helped raise her and her brother after their father's death.]

Charlie Campbell Proctor and Sallie Proctor Fargo

Our great uncle Sam and John Proctor were both Presbyterian Ministers. During the Civil War, they entered the war on the side of the South as chaplains. [Samuel Lampkin Moore Proctor actually fought for the Union. John was Ephraim's brother. I do not know on what side he fought or even if he fought at all.] They were from Kentucky. I guess chaplains fought too at that time. I know my dad always thought that he should have had one of their swords. Their names were engraved on them. 

I, Cleo, have original clippings and records to substantiate much of what I have written here. [I sure wish that I had the clippings to which she is referring, not to mention the swords!]

FR:Roy, Everett, Aune Proctor.B:Myrna, Cleo, Bennie Cavanaugh


This is the end of this letter from Cleo, but I do have more of her letters that I will transcribe at a later time.

Part One
Part Two

Amanuensis Monday - Letter from My Great Aunt Cleo, Part 2

Dan, Sallie, Millie, Cleo, Chuck, Ray and Everett Proctor

Continuing from last Monday, a transcription of a 1990 letter written by Cleo Proctor Cavanaugh:

Since our dad was only nine at the time of his father's death, our Uncle Charley had a big part in bringing him up. Uncle Charley was nearly sixteen years older than our dad. 
Charles Campbell Proctor died May 19, 1932. He was superintendent of Foster Kleiser's advertising in Seattle. We kids benefited by getting many samples of food; It was our introduction to dry cereal. We also got tickets to circuses, etc. He had a job when he was seventy-some getting the outgoing mail from the post office and hanging it on a standard for the train to pick up as it traveled through South Tacoma. He fell doing this job and broke his hip. It was this injury that caused his death at eighty-one...Both he and Uncle Will were well educated. It's too bad their dad died young or I'm sure the rest of the children would have received the same education.
Uncle William Ephraim Proctor died December 21, 1921. He owned a butcher shop in Sidney, Iowa. He was very religious and wrote a book on the subject which was never found. He probably left it in Tucson, Arizona where he want to get cured of tuberculosis. He died a couple of weeks after he came home to Tacoma and is buried there.
John Martin died at birth.
George F. Proctor died of tuberculosis of the lungs Nov 24, 1945 at eighty six years and is buried in Tacoma.
Mary Proctor died at birth and her twin Sallie Proctor Fargo died in 1940 and is buried in Tacoma.
Daniel Hewitt Proctor, the only one to have children, died August 18, 1932 from a strangulated hernia. He was operated on for this, but he died in the Auburn Hospital and is buried in Renton. After farming in Iowa, he moved to Seattle with his wife Millie Travis Proctor and their two sons -  Ray two years and Everett six months. He built many houses there. If he didn't sell them soon, he rented them. Bennie and Cleo Cavanaugh moved into the first house he built when they were first married. Both Cleo and Roy had been born there. It still stands at 4221 Ferdinand St, Seattle. He built the houses west, east and south of the home place as well as several houses on forty-fifth and other places for different people. 

Dan and Millie Proctor

Namond Hewitt "Ray" Proctor died March 22, 1987. Ray was the leader of the children in our family. Of course, he was the oldest child. I remember when I was real young, Ray was organizing and putting on little plays, assigning the parts of Little Red Hen and Chicken Little. After rehearsing our parts behind the piano, we put the plays on for our parents. He also learned songs in the second and third grade and taught them to the rest of us children. One was Red and Golden Tulips, another Little Yellow Dandelion.
When Charles was born he had us hide behind a fence when the doctor came with his valise. Ray told us he had the baby in his black bag.
In the seventh grade in Seattle he was captain of the seventh and eighth grade ball team. They played other Seattle grade schools at Doug-dales Ball Park, later called Sic-Seattle stadium. 
He was very strong, especially in his legs. He did what we called the monkey dance when he was real young. I guess it was really a Russian dance. I've seen him put one of his small daughters on his shoulders and execute the dance when he was grown. 

Ray (center) with his brothers Chuck and Roy

Our mother canned many quarts of wild blackberries each year. It was Ray who thrashed around through the logged off brush and found new patches of berries for the rest of us to pick in. It was the same with the hazelnut bushes. We gathered many nuts and had several pillow cases of the nuts after the outer husks were removed. 
He only went one year to high school where he received all A's. The long walk to school was not easy, but he really quit to help my folks out I think. He and Everett helped their folks buy their first car and later in 1920 he and Everett did all the driving to Iowa in our seven passenger Buick. The roads were all gravel and I remember at one point the roads were so poorly defined, we ended out in a field. There were no motels along the way, so we all slept on the ground in a large tent and cooked on the campfire.  

Dan, Cleo, Roy and Millie Proctor

Before Ray was two mom took him to visit his uncle's hardware and grocery store in Sidney, Iowa. Uncle Al gave Ray a banana from a bunch hanging from the ceiling. Ray ate it and a second and asked for another. 
When Ray was about twelve, he got up in the late evening walking in his sleep complaining of an older friend stabbing him in the back. It was some time before my folks could persuade him to go back to bed. The doctor said that he had just played too hard all day and become too tired. It never happened again though Ray nearly always worked and played at a fast pace it seemed to me.
Our dad got a job at Fort Lewis, then called Camp Lewis, building barracks for the soldiers during World War One. He got work for Ray and Everett there as his helpers. Ray, I think, was just seventeen and Everett sixteen. The worked one summer until the war ended.
Ray and Everett worked in a small logging camp for awhile. It was about a mile from our place near Star Lake. It was here Ray got a desire to go into logging for himself later on, I am sure. 
Ray and Everett were very close through their growing up years. They kept their money and car together and built at least one house together. Everett tried so much to keep up with his older brother from the time he was real small. I think it was this that made Everett quite competitive.
A couple of falls, they hopped freight trains and rode to Wenatchee to pick apples. It was quite common for men to ride the rails at that time. Later, it became against the law.
Everett Herman Proctor who was Daniel Proctor's second son died May 1, 1974 of cancer of the lungs. He was a heavy smoker. He worked for the Seattle Water Department and became supervisor for the whole works from South Seattle to the intake at Cedar River. 

Everett's business card

Ray worked for the department too for years. There was only one person between Everett and superintendent of the Seattle Water department. He loved golf and became very good at it, playing the best golfers in this area. He is buried in Renton.

Everett and Cleo c.1925

Cleo and Everett, 1967

Charles William Proctor, the youngest son of Daniel and Millie Proctor died Feb 10, 1986. He was a very good pool player and loved playing the piano. He owned two chairs in a barber shop in the Venetian Pool Hall in Renton for years. His smoking probably caused the emphysema that was the cause of his death.  

Charles and Roy Proctor, c.1914

Roy Daniel Proctor died June 1, 1987. He owned three cranes at the time and operated one of them. He operated a huge crane in Todd's Shipyard in Seattle for a long time. He drove a truck when first married. He died of cancer of the lungs which had spread to his liver. He is buried in Renton.

Cleo and Roy Proctor, 1924

There is more about Daniel and Millie Proctor's children above mentioned in All In The Family written by our cousin Julia Travis...if you want more about the children, grandchildren and their wives, etc...

(To be continued next Monday...)

Mapping Out a Life: Joseph Travis

Courtesy Jack Cavanaugh -Kent, WA

Last spring, we went on a roadtrip to visit relatives in the Seattle area. While there we had a mini-reunion for my mom with her Proctor cousins. During the get-together, our host, Cleo Proctor Cavanaugh's son Jack allowed me to go through his late mother's photo albums and scan family photos. Over the next few months, I am going to post some of them here and discuss the people in them.

This photo is of Joseph Travis and his wife Florence Byram Travis of Sidney, Fremont County, Iowa. He was the brother of my great grandmother Amelia "Millie" Travis Proctor. As you can see from the writing on the photo, it was taken in July 1913. It is a Real Photo postcard and was sent through the mail from Sidney to Seattle. On the back, it discusses Millie and Joe's father Abraham Travis' deteriorating health, who died on January 5, 1914. Their mother was Ruth Ann Stolebarger Travis who passed away June 23, 1901.

Joe (26 Dec 1866-21 Nov 1942) lived his entire life in Fremont County, Iowa. Like most of his siblings, he didn't marry until relatively late for that time and did not have any children. He and Florence married on October 6, 1897.  He appears to have lived a pretty simple life, running a farm and spending time with his eleven siblings. Most of the Travises stayed in Sidney and they remained a very close family.

Julia M. Travis' book All in the Family discusses this family in great detail and is, undoubtedly, what first sparked my interest in genealogy when it was published at the end of 1975. Detailing the many descendants of Asa Travis, the book included me and my family in its pages - very exciting for a six year old.

To get a better look at Joe, I cropped and enlarged the photo below. His horses made the cut since they were probably an important part of his family.

My elusive great (great, great) grandfather Asa Travis

Sometimes people ask me what sparked my interest in genealogy. The only thing that comes to mind is something that happened when I was only about six years old. At the end of 1975, Julia M. Travis published her book All in the Family about the descendants of my third great grandfather Asa Travis. Each family who was mentioned in the book received a copy, including ours. I was fascinated by it, but it disappeared shortly after we received it when a cousin borrowed it and didn't return it. I never forgot about it.

In this book, Julia stated that Asa was born in Wales. From that time on, the search began. I am told that for 35 years, genealogists have been trying to discover the true origins of Asa Travis. Nobody yet knows where or when he was born. The Wales reference seems to have come from a census in which his youngest son Nicodemus states that he was born in Wales. There is nothing else to support this belief.  Nicodemus was very young when Asa died, so he may not have known much about his father. One excellent Travis researcher believes that he may have, actually, been referring to West Wales, Pennsylvania - a town that was created by a Travis family after the Revolutionary War.

In 1796, an Asa Travis (who very well may be our Asa) came with Nathaniel Massie to set up the town of Chillicothe, Ohio. However, nothing is definitively known about our Asa's early life before he first shows up in Adams County, Ohio on June 15, 1800 when he married a Sophia Howard. Next, Asa is recorded in Ross County, Ohio marrying my third great grandmother Susannah Roderick on April 9, 1807.  In 1810, the Federal Census shows Asa in Pike County, Ohio where he stayed until 1830 when he moved to Tippecanoe, Indiana. Only a few years later Asa died there, leaving lots of children and quite a mystery for those who came later.

For a couple years now, I have left Asa alone, sitting in my tree with empty branches above him, but I have never stopped thinking about this adventurous man whose genes I, most certainly, carry. Over the last few years, I have become progressively more involved in Ancestry DNA testing and increasingly determined to solve the mystery of Asa's origins using his paternal line Travis DNA.  After reading success story after success story of Y-Chromosome DNA testing triumphing over long-standing brickwalls, I finally decided now was the time to revisit the mystery of Asa.

Since 1929 when my great grandmother Millie Travis Proctor died, none of my family have carried the Travis surname, so I needed to look elsewhere for the required Travis Y-DNA. Fortunately, my most prolific Travis research collaborator is married to my third cousin who does indeed carry this Travis Y-Chromosome passed down to him through the generations from our Asa. As luck would have it, he agreed to be tested through the Travis DNA Project at FTDNA.

When we received his results last week, we were thrilled to see that he matches three other Travis testees from families to whom we previously had no knowledge of relatedness. One of those families has a long pedigree back to Garrett Travis, known as the "Dutchman," b.c.1633 from Westchester County, New York. While we have yet to establish a documented connection to Garrett, this discovery has breathed new life into this 35-year-long search and given us a hint as to where to look further for our Asa Travis and his long-lost family.

[Disclosure - My company StudioINTV has an existing production agreement with FTDNA that has no bearing on the opinions I express. I receive no other compensation in relation to any of the companies or products referenced in my blog.]