Amanuensis Monday - More Letters from Great Aunt Cleo, Part 2

Continuing Cleo's letter from last week:

That summer I worked in a camp across the road from our place. We had thirty boarders for meals the first one at six a.m. when they came home from working the night shift. They were mostly engineers and supervisors. They were putting a tunnel under Lake Youngs which was to be a reservoir for the City of Seattle. It was fed from the upper Cedar River. Below where the tunnel came out there was another camp of over one hundred men. My dad had built the mess hall and many other cabins for the thirty men to live in. We owned forty acres there.

For the four months that I worked there, I made enough money for my first year of college. I received one dollar a day working from six until nine in the evening. I was supposed to get two hours off in the afternoon but didn't always get it. I made two cakes a day and put up thirty lunches after the last dinner. Mrs. Cummings and I did all the work. In four months the only day I had off was the fourth of July.

The tuition at what is now Western Washington University was fifteen dollars a semester so outside of my two weeks in the hospital I had enough money for two semesters. It was the quincy that put me in the infirmary.  Of course, I worked for my board and room. One place the man of the house was Bellingham's head detective. The second was head of P.A.F. Cannery. They went to Alaska every spring so I moved across the street for the rest of that year and all of my last year. There I built the fire in the furnace and cook-stove, took out the ashes, cleaned the chicken roosts and cooked breakfast before going to school. Twice a week I wiped down four flights of stairs because the doctor was coming to give Mrs. Getty her therapy to help her recover from her stroke. She was seventy three years old. The 48 and 50 year old Getty girls worked in Bellingham's leading department store. I had dinner ready the minute they walked in the door six nights a week.

The second year I got ten dollars from my dad a few times for books. All the money I made that summer was from pitting pie cherries across from the Panther Lake school.

I taught two years above Wenatchee the first two years I was out of college. It was impossible to get into King County without experience. At that time there were two thousand trying for those positions and practically no openings. Then I got hired at Panther Lake teaching the first three grades. I received 105 dollars a month for twelve months and lived at home for 25 dollars a month. I had only received 100 dollars on Badger Mt. for the actual months that I taught and paid 30 a month board which wasn't all that great. The board I mean.

After one year at Panther Lake Mom died of a strangulated hernia. I stayed home and kept house for Pop and Chick. My dad died three years later and Chick lived with me on the ranch. Violet [Jurstrum] stayed with me too. When the ranch was sold we moved to Renton renting a house from brother Ray. Violet taught in a school a few miles farther on so we drove together.

After six years at Panther Lake I got a teaching position at Lake Meridian where I received quite a raise and in addition a teachers cottage with light, water, fuel and telephone free. It was here I saved most of my money. After three years I got married to John B (Bennie) Cavanaugh and gave up teaching.

Cleo and Bennie, 1934

We moved into the house I was born in. I had loaned my folks money and at my father's death received property as payment. Eleven months after we were married Jack was born.

(Right) Cleo holding Jack and my grandmother Aune holding my mom, 1939

When he was two and one half we moved to Richmond Beach where Myrna was born three months later. Then we moved back to Seattle into another house I owned. It was next to the home place. My dad had built this house too. After a year we sold it and moved to the Mt Baker district into a house I had bought and rented out. Here we lived for twenty years. The children finished grade and high school and the UW while here. After Jack had one year at the U and Myrna was a junior at Franklin High I went back to teaching at Panther Lake. The first two years I taught kindergarten and the next ten years first grade.

Cleo's students

For nine years I drove out from Seattle sharing rides with different people one of them being Violet. Then we bought a new large eight room house with two baths upstairs and a powder room on the first floor. We have really made money here since we paid somewhat over twenty six thousand cash and now 25 years later is probably nearer to one hundred seventy five thousand. We are less than a mile from the home at Star Lake where I lived as a child and attended Star Lake school. We are still here at 26511 Highland Ave. Kent as of Feb 1991...

When Jack was twelve and Myrna nine we drove through Yellowstone Park and on to Denver. We camped most of the way cooking out. Myrna was mostly responsible for the camping- she loved it. This could have been due to her scouting experiences. On the way there she wanted to stop at every river, irrigation ditch and mud puddle to go swimming. Her dad being a long distance truck driver wanted to plow right through and we made record time. In Denver we stayed a motel for a couple of days. Aunt Bess [Travis Gordon] had us for meals. We saw my cousin Paul and wife Ruth and their two children Richard and Lilah. Richard was fifteen and Lilah perhaps twenty, married with a small daughter...

The Gordons

Since we moved here I have lost four brothers, Everett in 1974 at seventy one years of age. He had cancer of the lungs. His two girls are Jean Hewitt at Salt Lake and Janis Moore in Vista Cal. Charles or Chick as I called him died in 1986 at 77 of Emphysema. He never married. Brother Namond or Ray as we called him died in 1987 at 86 or nearly so of strokes. He has three girls. Dorothy Snider of Bellevue, Doris Ann of Kent and Shirley Barger of Seattle. Roy the last of my brothers died in 1987 also. He had cancer of the lungs. He was eighty years old. I am left without siblings to reminisce with about my early years. Roy has five children.

The Proctor boys

I have a number of health complaints all of which have been in an acute stage for some time. They are diverticulitis, thalacemia with anemia, a severely degenerated lower back and an enlarged weak heart. None of these things seem to be bad enough to do me in...
After retiring about twelve of the teachers I taught with got together every two months for lunch in each other's homes. Also about the same number from my high school at Kent did the same. The last couple of years due to deaths, health problems and some who don't drive anymore we have given up the lunches. I still see a couple of the teachers I taught with in Auburn at retired teachers. I still keep up with a few of my high school chums. Namely Joyce, Thekla, Marguerite Gross, Helen Zanzow and Ruth Hoban...

Cleo, Thekla and Roy in Bellingham


I am one of those few people left who remember their first car ride and also remember seeing their first airplane. I remember the depression before World War One and how we lived mostly on eggs, milk, apples, potatoes all of which were from our own place. In the summers there were vegetable from our garden. My dad had four houses he rented out in Seattle but no one could pay their rent. After the war everyone paid their back rent.

I remember how worried we all were that brother Ray might have to go to war. If the war had lasted one more year he would have been old enough. My folks were so much against the army. It was probably due to their hearing so much about the Civil War. The Spanish American War could have had some influence on their concerns. My folks were even against the boy scouts because they felt it was somewhat in preparation for the army. Their dress was similar at that time or I should say uniform. All this probably influenced my aversion to making a career out of learning to kill people. My folks talked and discussed very openly things of a political and religious nature all our lives. I think this is partly responsible for my independent thinking...

Cleo, 1926

The depression of '29 didn't have much of an impact on me personally but I sure saw it on so many of the people around me. I was teaching in Kent and had a steady income. Ray and Everett had good jobs with the City of Seattle.  I stayed home. My dad's renters couldn't pay their rent again.
I love to dance and when Violet and I lived together we went dancing every week in Seattle. Mostly to the Trianon where Vic Meyers had a twelve piece orchestra. Violet liked to go to the Swedish Hall sometimes. I'm ashamed to say we even went in the middle of the week sometimes to do the shodishes, polkas and hambones. We always came home alone. One sure wouldn't dare do that now..."

For the rest of this letter, Cleo discusses details of her later life and other subjects not relevant for this blog. I have really enjoyed transcribing her letters, greatly appreciate her efforts and hope that more like these will surface in the future.

Amanuensis Monday - More Letters from Great Aunt Cleo, Part I

I came across another letter from my Great Aunt Cleo Proctor Cavanaugh. It was written on July 1, 1991. She reminisces about her childhood (as written with my notes in brackets):

Cleo Ruth Proctor was born Mar. 15, 1905 in Seattle at 4221 Ferdinand St in Seattle. It was the first house my dad Daniel Hewitt Proctor built after coming out here from a farm near Sidney, Iowa where he had lived with his mother, brothers Charles, William, George and one sister Sallie.  He was sixteen at the time. They had lived in Equality, Ill. before that time where his dad had owned and operated a livery stable.
My first and only memory of the home place was when I was three years old. Ray, Everett and I were playing across the street at the Myers with their little boy who was my age. Ray had put up two saw horses with a heavy plank across them and one plank going up to the saw horse and one going down. We ran up across and down this until our mother called us for dinner. I remember saying as we left we'll be back tomorrow and Ray, no we won't we're moving tomorrow.
Brother Roy was born and the two bedroom house had become too small. We moved to an old ranch west of Rainer [sic] Avenue where we stayed until I was five. Three things stand out in my memory there. The house was large, cold and drafty and one morning I came to the top of the stairs with my eyes stuck shut with pus from a cold. Mom as we called our mother [Millie Travis Proctor] was getting Ray and Everett ready for school. I can picture them so well in their little wool suits with the knicker pants of dark blue surge even though I couldn't see. Mom told me to sit down right there till she could get to me. There were no railings on the staircase. 
Another memory was when my 19 year old cousin Kate Travis came to visit from Iowa. I was so jealous of her. One time I was in the out house when Mom and Kate came out to go. They called me to hurry several times but I just sat there burned to a crisp.   Of course Mom was interested in catching up on the news of her dad, brothers and sisters in Iowa. That with the new baby Charles was leaving me out in the cold. 
I remember the day Charles was born and seeing him wrapped up and lying in a big rocking chair. Aunt Sallie Proctor was helping out. Mom had had such a difficult time with his birth. She got a rupture in the navel and had to wear a trust until I was fifteen at which time she had it operated on.
From there we moved to a nice home on Ferdinand St. west of Raineer [sic] Avenue. It was across from the Lees. They became my folks good friends which we kept until my folks died. I and Margarite Lee Smythe were good friends until she died a few years ago. At this time only 3 of the eight children are living. I don't know them as well as the older ones.
From here we moved to a one room shack my dad had built on a lot he had bought. There were two tents joining the shack. We stayed here for a year. It was there I started the first grade but due to measles, tonsilitis [sic], bad colds and what not and with slow recovery I missed most of the first grade so was only given credit for one half year. Seattle schools had half grades at that time. Next we rented a nice home back of the shack. The bedrooms were all upstairs. From seven until eight years of age Roy and I shared a large double bed in my folks room. The room was large and Chick had a cot in the room too. At eight years old my folks moved me to the head of the stairs to a room meant for a bath room. The plumbing was roughed in. It was large enough for a cot and a night stand. I think Everett was jealous of me because I had my own room, because he said robbers would get to my room first if they came but I reminded him the doors were locked but then he reminded me they would come through the bathroom window which opened out on the roof of the one story kitchen so every night for four years I went to sleep watching the window for robbers. 
When I was nine years old we moved to Star Lake to a house that was part log. The large kitchen and three bedrooms were added on to the large log living room.The south end of the log part was covered by a beautiful wisteria vine. My bedroom, which was in the middle, had a beautiful honeysuckle bush out my window. We owned ten acres. It was mostly in the apple trees. My folks made considerable money from the apples. I had my favorite tree in the back yard with a good seat among the branches and where I hid to dread such books as Uncle Toms Cabin, Rex Beaches books on Alaska and all of Zane Grey's books. My favorite was John Halifax Gentleman by whom I do not remember. Also there were magazines I got from my Uncle Fargo who worked at Fort Lewis and brought them home. My folks weren't hap[y about the magazines. True Story was one and I think there was the Red Book too. 
We walked about a mile and a half to a one room school which is still standing at 272 and Military Road. All five of us kids attended the first year we lived at the ranch. Ray in the eighth grade and Chick in the first. That first year was cold with lots of snow. Pop as we called our dad made a sort of sled using two small longs crossing them with boards. Our two good horses Topsie and Bird pulled us to the school. I think Ray and Everett walked. That year the stock well froze over after it had flooded out of its bank. It was here I had my first of four severe falls on my back. We ran down the slope and shot out over the ice which was frozen very thick. I slipped and landed on my back. It really shook me up, especially my back. The next two falls were when I was fourteen and jumping my horse over a log to head off cows I was trying to bring home for milking. This time I broke my arm. I was knocked unconscious from the fall. When I came to, Kate, my horse had come back over the log or come around it and had her head down in my face nuzzling me. The strap on the saddle had broken. I and the saddle was on one side of the log and Kate on the other.
The next fall was from a high rope swing in the school yard. I had pumped up so high standing up that the swing instead of going back in its ark [sic] dropped straight down causing the rope to break. I landed on my back and as usual was knocked out. When I came to Roy was leaning over me yelling, "Are you dead Cleo, are you dead." I had hit my head on a rock and cut a place on the back of my head. The blood ran down the back of my dress. I didn't even tell the teacher. I was either tough or dumb I guess. It's been only in about the last twenty years I guess that a piece of the scalp wasn't raised. 
The last fall was when I was sixty two. I was sailing down between the two rows of 35 kids in my first grade room when I hit some spilled milk from the thermos of one of the kids. I fell flat on my back so fast. It's no wonder after these falls my back is severely degenerated.  
We had to take state eighth grade exams to enter high school at this time. I passed with flying colors. 
At this time we sold the ranch- trading it for a house in Ballard in Seattle and one thousand dollars in cash. We moved into the house which still stands at 2820 W 71st. I attended Ballard high school which at that time was the largest high school in the city. We stayed here for a year and we all enjoyed our first full bathroom. We then moved to Swan Lake on the Seattle pipeline. The first year my dad drove Chick, Roy and I three miles in our seven passenger Buick to meet the school bus to Maple Valley school. There were only forty high school students the rest were grade school children. We picked up a couple of other kids on the way.  
Next year Ray and Everett were driving to Seattle to work so we rode to Renton to school with them. We sure got to school early. Only the janitors were there. The next year Ray and Everett got work with the city of Seattle's water department and my dad got the Kent school bus to come within a mile or so of our place so I graduated in 1924 from Kent High School. 
 

The Proctors- Sallie, Cleo, Millie, Roy, a friend, Chick, Dan

To be continued...

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...)

Sepia Saturday: A Family Gathering and a Well Identified Photo, 1920

Heavenly to have a well identified photo of so many family members!

Back row: Florence Byram Travis and Joe Travis, Namond "Ray" Proctor, Thomas Riley "Ned" Travis, Millie Travis Proctor and Dan Proctor, Sicily Island Page Travis (Ned's wife).
Middle Row: Everett Proctor, Bess Travis Hayes, Grace Travis (Ned's daughter), Laura Fleming Travis (Thomas Perry's wife), Cleo Proctor, Thomas Perry Travis (Ned's son).
Bottom Row: Velma Settle, Charles Proctor, Roy Proctor.
The unidentified little boys are probably Thomas Perry's sons Everett Earl (with Thomas Perry) and Francis (in front of Ned). I don't see their older brother Thomas.
I wonder who the photographer was...?

This photo was taken at a Travis family reunion in Sidney, Iowa in 1920. My great grandparents, Dan and Millie Proctor had driven from their home in Renton, Washington to Sidney with their children Ray, Roy, Cleo, Charles and Everett (my grandfather). They had slept in tents off the side of the road on the drive out, sometimes having to clear the roads by hand as they progressed. A long, hard trip, but by all accounts, it was a grand time!

Please visit my friends over at Sepia Saturday for more posts like this.

Sepia Saturday: William Emery Travis - a brief sketch

William Emery Travis c.1880s

This photo is one of the oldest in my collection. It was in the possession of my grandmother Aune Proctor. Written on the back it said, "Will Travis, brother of Everett's mom...Millie (Amelia Travis Proctor)."  By looking at my family tree, I can see right away that my great grandmother Millie had two brothers who could fit this description - William Emery Travis and Wilbur Reuben Travis. Since I know that Wilbur went by the name "Rube", I am quite sure that this "Will" must be William Emery. He was born November 20, 1859 in Sidney, Iowa to Abraham and Ruth (Stoalabarger) Travis.

Will's life is fairly easy to document. In the 1860 Federal Census he is living with his parents and, at six months old, is still unnamed. Abe and Ruth must have had a difficult time naming their children, since my great grandmother Millie is also recorded as unnamed at five months old in the 1870 Federal Census. Will appears to have continued living with his parents in Sidney until he married Minerva Henrietta McCluskey (known as Ettie) on February 16, 1888. By 1900 he is living in Brock Village, Nemaha, Nebraska working as a peddler and grocer of dry goods. In 1910 he is a landlord at a hotel on Main St in East Muddy, Richardson, Nebraska and in 1920 he is a hotel keeper in Weeping Water, Cass, Nebraska. In 1930 he is in yet another Nebraska town named Gresham in York County where he is working as a restaurant proprietor. He died at 80 years old in that town on April 6, 1940.

Will and Ettie had six children between 1888 and 1899. According to the 1900 Census, five survived. They were Donald, Walter, Thomas, Herschal Abe and Millie (probably Amelia named after her aunt and my great grandmother).

Now I have the basics of his life, but I sure would like to fill it in with some stories. It appears that only the descendants of Herschal Abe have dabbled in genealogy so far and the ones that I have contacted have not returned my messages. So, for now, I will close this brief sketch of the handsome young man pictured above. Hopefully, someone will find this post someday and tell me a little about Will.

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Follow Friday: Iowa Old Press for Iowa genealogy

While researching my Travis family for a post earlier this month, I came across a treasure trove of transcriptions of historic newspapers at the wonderful Iowa Old Press. On their site they state, "This IAGenWeb Special Project is dedicated to the scores of newspapers that are printed chronicles of the lives and times of Iowa and Iowans. Join us as we step back in time and learn how the Press reported the news & influenced our Iowa ancestors in the 1800's and early 1900's..."

If you are researching ancestors in Iowa, by all means, be sure to visit this site. There are myriads of genealogical gems. Even the entries that don't mention my family have my rapt attention. The details that these articles give on family structure (including adoptions), migration, deaths, local businesses and social events is amazing. I am constantly struck by how much this information could mean to many family researchers. I would like to publicly thank the volunteers who spent many hours transcribing for this excellent site.

When I entered "Travis" into the search engine, I got 52 hits. Most of those (if not all) are "my" Travises. There were many exciting tidbits on my Travises and even some promising hints to help solve the mystery of Asa Travis' origins.

After at least thirty-five years of research, none of the Travis family researchers have been able to successfully tie our branch into other Travis families. The recent DNA results of my third cousin have shown that we are indeed related to the New York branch of this family and, most likely, connect all the way back to the Colonial Travis family. However, we still do not know how. Perhaps the newspaper clips below will help to sort the connection out.

1. THE FREMONT SUN. September 3, 1896. "William Travis of Ottumwa [Wapello County, Iowa] is a cousin of the Travis brothers" 

I believe that "Travis brothers" refers to my great grandfather Abraham, a frequently mentioned pioneer of Fremont, and his brother Nicodemus who came together to Iowa in 1852. Ottumwa is right by Fairfield where they lived upon arrival. William was previously unknown to us as a family member. I found a William Travis in the right area at about the right time who was born in New York, Dec 1835/7.  He married Mary Taylor and lived in Carthage, NY in 1880. Both of his parents are listed as born in New York in the federal censuses. One Ancestry Tree lists his father as Joseph. 

THE FREMONT COUNTY HERALD. September 5, l929. "OUR OLDEST SETTLER TELLS OF EARLY DAYS. Came to Fremont County When Sidney Was But Two Years Old. SEVENTY-SEVEN YEARS AGO".--(Joseph Hiatt, Jr., the oldest settler of Fremont county now living, relates the following historic facts of the county in early days...)

In the fall of 1852 I came with my parents from Peoria county, Illinois, to Fremont county, then spoken of as the wild and woolly west. It sure was all this and more. It was a land of deprivation and hardship unknown in our nation today... we lived in a double log house together with Abe [my 2nd great grandfather] and Nick Travis and families. This house was located on the south side of the road across from the old Dr. McCracken place in west Sidney. It was here the late Sadie Travis Gordon was born...The claims were filed at the land office in Council Bluffs, known then as Kanesville."

If William is a cousin to Abe and Nick, then William's dad should be Asa's brother.

2. THE FREMONT HERALD. April 2, 1896. "Grandpa Travis died, aged 85 years, 6 months- son is M.A Travis of Sidney."

I found an Amos and Sarah Travis (b. born about 1807 in NY)  living with Martin A Travis of Sidney in 1885. Martin was born 1846 in Ohio. Amos was called "Grandpa Travis" and my Abraham was called "Uncle Abe". Amos was born in 1810 in Greene County, NY and his parents were probably Gilbert Travis of New York and Phoebe Fish.  Gilbert was one of the early settlers of Linn County, Iowa. He was born about 1775 and may have been Asa's brother. Maybe it is a coincidence, but Amos' wife was Sarah Emeline Armstrong Travis and Abraham's firstborn was Sarah Eveline Travis. Abe also had sons named Amos, William and Joseph.

I don't know how this all ties together yet, but it is very important new information.

I also found these articles about my family along with many other mentions:

1. THE FREMONT COUNTY HERALD. May 18, 1906. "STORIES OF OLD TIMERS". -- A. Travis came to Fremont county in 1853 and located two miles southeast of where Sidney now stands. He has mowed grass within what is now the city limits and stated that a most excellent spring was once where the town well now is...

2. SIDNEY ARGUS HERALD. Jan 1934. "TWENTY YEARS AGO". -- Abraham Travis, pioneer of Fremont county, passed away Monday at the age of 86 years. Deceased was born in Ohio December 1, 1827, came to Iowa in 1852, was married in Jefferson county and settled in Fremont county the following year. The father of twelve children, he was a continuous resident of this county until his death.

3. THE FREMONT COUNTY HERALD. September 2, 1897. "FAMILY REUNION". -- One of the most remarkable family gathering in the history of Fremont county occurred at the home of Uncle Abe Travis last Sunday. It was the first time in twenty years that all of this family were together, and it will, in all probability be the last. Within the last 45 years death has entered this family but three times and then taking grandchildren. The immediate family circle, consisting of father, mother,and twelve children remains unbroken. It was indeed a happy meeting and one long to be remembered.

Promptly at high noon father, mother, eight sons and four daughters were seated around the family board and thorougly discussed a bountiful dinner served on the highest art of the old fashioned school of cookery, where eatables take the place of dishes and style. In this gathering were 12 members of this branch of the Travis family, father, mother, 12 children, 20 grandchildren and 8 children-in-law. Mr. Travis has lived here 42 years.

The HERALD extends congratulations to Uncle Abe and wife and wish them many more such joyful occasions.

4. THE HAMBURG REPORTER, Hamburg, Iowa. Friday, January 9, 1914. Abe Travis, 86, died at the home of his son, A.L. in Sidney. Uncle Abe as he was generally called has been a resident of this county for many years and has seen the prairie when there were few houses on it and when there were few towns in this part of the state. In company with H.F. Brumback he laid out the town of Hamburg and Mr Travis owned one or two lots in Hamburg at the time of his death...The funeral services were conducted at Sidney Wednesday. He leaves several children among them Mrs H. Hayes of this city...
 

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Wedding Wednesday: Daniel Hewitt Proctor and Amelia "Millie" Travis, 1900

My great grandparents, Daniel and Millie (Travis) Proctor, Wedding- 1900

Right up front, I want to say that my grandmother Aune Reini Proctor said that Dan and Millie were the nicest people she ever met. Since she was their daughter-in-law, this is pretty significant. Aune met a lot of people in her 96 years of life and I never heard her say the same thing about anyone else. For this alone, they deserve to be remembered. Fortunately, this is not all that I know about them.

Thanks to the wonderful people over at Iowa Old Press who have transcribed and posted so many gems about my Travis family, I found their wedding announcement:

THE FREMONT COUNTY HERALD
October 25, 1900

Married
On October 24, 1900, at 7:00 o'clock p.m., Mr. Daniel H. Proctor and Miss Amelia Travis, Rev. E. Dickinson officiating. The wedding was a quiet one and took place at the home of the bride's parents, Mr. and Mrs. A. Travis, the immediate friends of the contracting parties only being present, with Livingston Mitchell who played the wedding march. The couple left on Tuesday morning for Omaha and will make a tour through Kansas to look up a location for a home. Their many friends extend warmest greetings and prayers for their happiness and success. 

Millie was 30 and Daniel was 34 when they married - unusually late for a first marriage in those days. I have found no evidence of an earlier marriage for either of them and in the 1900 Federal Census, just prior to the marriage, both lived with their tight-knit families. The Travises were one of the founding families in this area of Iowa and Millie was born and raised there, so it is a bit surprising that their wedding was such a quiet affair.

Daniel's family had moved from Equality, Illinois, the place of his birth, to Sidney sometime between the 1880 Federal Census and the 1885 Iowa State Census. I have not yet discovered what precipitated this move by Daniel's widowed mother, Mary Hewitt Proctor, and her children. Judging from the number of Proctors there in later censuses and in the cemeteries, it appears that others from the extended Proctor family may have been involved. Daniel's father, Ephraim, passed away in 1875, so Mary and the children may have been somewhat dependent on family members who decided to relocate. (Whatever it was, I am thankful!)

I had never heard that Dan and Millie considered living in Kansas before reading the snippet above. I have wondered what motivated them to move away from Millie's well established family in Sidney and settle in the Seattle area. This tells me that they had planned to move from the outset of their marriage, so it wasn't a spontaneous or rash decision. Judging from their children's birth dates and places, they came to Washington State between March 1903 and March 1905. Since their daughter Cleo Proctor Cavanaugh wrote in a letter from 1990 that she was born in the first house that Daniel built at 4221 Ferdinand St, Columbia City, they must have been there for awhile before her birth in March 1905 to allow time for the construction, thus narrowing the window.

4221 Ferdinand St, Columbia City, WA

I was so happy to find on my recent road trip to Washington that it still stands along with several other houses that Dan and his sons built. Isn't it pretty? It really was special to be able to touch something that my great grandfather created over 100 years ago.
[Update - Thanks to Scott R's comment below, I did some research on the house. Apparently, the current owner is running a yoga studio out of it (it must have good energy!). I will have to take a yoga class next time I am up there. Also, the state archivist is in the process of retrieving a photo of it from 1937. It was built in 1904.]

Millie and Dan spent the rest of their lives in the Seattle area and raised a happy family of four sons and one daughter. I have many photos of them in their later years, but I especially like the one below for the following two reasons:
1) They look every bit as pleasant as my grandmother Aune described them.
2) I am quite confident that I recognize the shadow on Millie's dress.

I find it a fitting metaphor that just as Aune's remembrances of Dan and Millie shaped my understanding of them, her silhouette is clearly visible in this image. In our search for our ancestors, we often find ourselves "chasing their shadows," so be sure to find out all you can about your family history from your older relatives. It may be the only real chance that you have to get to know those who have gone before you.

Sepia Saturday: Tough to Track- Laurence Travis Murphy (1892-1954)

Courtesy Jack Cavanaugh - Kent, WA

This is another old family photo from Cleo Proctor Cavanaugh's album. The back says, "Aunt Etta's son -Mom's nephew", then in different writing, "Laurence Murphy". Aunt Etta would be my great grandmother Millie Proctor's sister, making Laurence my first cousin twice removed. I have no information about him at all, so I will have to search the available records to see what I can piece together about this confident looking young man.

His parents were Arthur Douglas Francis and Etta May (Travis) Murphy. According to Laurence's WWI draft record, he was born on August 12, 1892, in Sidney, Fremont County, Iowa.  In the 1910 Federal Census, he is living in Pierce, Page, Iowa with his parents and little brother Maurice. On June 5, 1917, when he filled out his draft card, he was single and still living in Iowa. He was described as tall, medium build, blue eyes and light hair. He was working as a drug clerk for C.A. Hill in Ottumwa. Interestingly, it is noted that he had "2 years of university training".

In the 1920 Federal Census, there is a Reverend Laurence Murphy working as an assistant pastor at St. Anthony's Church in Davenport, Iowa. The age is correct, but both parents are listed as being born in Ireland and "my" Laurence's parents were born in Iowa. The only other one who looks possible is a Lawrence Murphy in Chicago. He was born in Iowa and so were both of his parents, but he is listed as 31 which would mean he was born in about 1889. Since I am not satisfied with either of these, I can't be sure where he was in 1920, which is probably about the time this photo was taken.

The sign behind Laurence reads, "Sargent's". There was a Sargent's Jewelry Store in Mt. Pleasant, Henry County, Iowa. According to the Daily Reporter from October 27, 1879, the proprieter was J(ames) F(ranklin) Sargent, Jeweler, Watch and Clock Repairer. He was also a "dealer in school books, stationery, blank books of every description and a thousand other items". The store was located on the "North side of the Park, Mt. Pleasant". After James' death in 1899, his family continued to run the store, so it may have still been there in the teens and twenties. I don't know if the storefront in this photo is the same one, but I think it is possible.
[Update- I did some more research on Laurence's employer C.A. Hill listed on his June 1917 WWI draft card. Finally some luck! It turns out that C.A. Hill bought out W.L. Sargent's drug business in Ottumwa in 1917! According to the Bulletin of Pharmacy (Volume 31, part 1, page 45), Mr. Sargent sold Mr. Hill his business and gave him a long term lease on the building located on the corner of Main and Market Streets in Ottumwa. The article also noted, "The business will be continued under the name of 'Sargent's.'" So, we now know exactly where this photo was taken! Based on this new info, I will place the date of the photo a bit earlier - c.1917. Like I always say, persistence does pay off!]

By June 11, 1924, when Laurence married Ruth Hulda Jones, he was in Burlington Junction, Nodaway, Missouri. In 1930 he was still there, farming with his wife and two children - Bill and Patricia. A couple of trees on Ancestry have his death listed as occuring on Feb 20, 1954 in Maryville, Nodaway, Missouri, however I can't find anything in the Missouri death records to support this.

I spent a couple of hours researching Laurence and, unfortunately, didn't come up with much. Notably, I am missing his 1900 and 1920 Census records. I checked Ancestry, Family Search Beta, Iowa Old Press and Google without a lot of luck. Some people are just more difficult to research and I guess Laurence is one of them. Oh well, better luck next time!

Thanks for reading and please go here to read posts from my talented friends at Sepia Saturday.

Sepia Saturday: Dating a Photo

Courtesy Jack Cavanaugh - Kent, WA

This is a Real Photo postcard of the Gordon home in Sidney, Iowa taken around the turn of the last century by "J.F. Lewis of Sidney, Iowa". According to various issues of the Fremont County Herald, Mr. Lewis opened a photography studio in Riverton, Fremont County in 1889 and ran his business from there until his studio burned down. He then moved to Sidney, Fremont County where he was again eventually burned out, moving West in 1917. I haven't yet been able to find the exact date that this move to Sidney happened, so it is difficult to date the photo from the photographer alone. Fortunately, I do have some other information from the back of the photo that should help to date it. The home is identified as that of Sadie Gordon, my great grandmother Millie Travis Proctor's sister. From other photos I recognize Sadie (Sarah Eveline Travis) as the woman standing on our left, so the man sitting next to her is most certainly her husband Andrew Marion Gordon. They married in 1893, so that narrows the date to after that year. A close-up of the photo gives me more clues. Although the three people on our right are unidentified, I have a pretty good idea of who, at least, two of them are. Sadie's parents were my 2nd great grandparents, Abraham and Ruth (Stolebarger) Travis. I own one photo of each (below).

From comparing these to the postcard, I am pretty confident that the elderly man and woman are Abraham and Ruth. Since Ruth died in June 1901, that further narrows the date to between 1893 and 1901. The photo that I have of Ruth was taken in 1893, so the postcard must be a few years later since she looks substantially older. It is pretty exciting to me that I have most likely discovered another photo of my great great grandparents!

I'm not sure about the younger woman standing on our right, but it is possible that she is my great grandmother Millie. She married my great grandfather Daniel Proctor in Oct 1900. Prior to that date, she was living with her parents in Sidney. The body, stance and arm look very much like hers from later photos that I have, but the face doesn't look quite like her wedding photo. I would conclude that it was another of the Travis sisters, but I have seen photos and it definitely isn't them. Below is a direct comparison of the young woman in the postcard versus Millie in a full length photo from later years and a close-up from her wedding photo in 1900. Could it be her? Looking at it like this, I think it just might be!

From all of this, I think I can safely conclude that the photo was taken no earlier than about 1897 and no later than June 1901. If that is Millie in the photo, that further narrows the time frame to before Oct 1900. The Gordons lived at 21 Clay St, Sidney Town, Iowa in the 1900 Federal Census, so I can further conclude that this photo was likely taken at that address.

Pretty neat what you can do with a little research!

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