Wayfarers and Such, Part II

This post is originally from my blog that I kept while I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Bulgaria and was originally posted on 31 March 2007. There have been several "discoveries" in the search for the Clinton-Wolfe family since then, which I've posted. Just moving it from that blog since I've made it private and the post is genealogy-related.

Just a few more pics from the Clinton-Wolfe Family.

Mary West Wolfe: Charles E. Clinton/David W. Wolfe's mother. Date of picture unknown. Taken in Lewes, Sussex Co., DE.
Reece Beckett Wolfe: Grandpa Clinton's father. Same info as above. I found both of these photos tucked away in an old cedar box (small box) at my grandmother's house about 10 years ago or so. No one remembered seeing them before then. The box had been Belle Clinton's before she died.
Nellie & Dessie Wolfe: I don't know which child is which but these are Grandpa & Grandma Clinton's first 2 children.
The picture tells the tale: This likely would have been taken in Texas or Oklahoma, more likely in Texas.
Charles & Belle Clinton: As members of the Salvation Army in California, likely taken in the 1920s.

AFN
DCC 31 March 2007
V. Preslav, apartment

Wayfarers and Such: The Clinton-Wolfe 'Saga'

This post is originally from my blog that I kept while I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Bulgaria and was originally posted on 31 March 2007. There have been several "discoveries" in the search for the Clinton-Wolfe family since then, which I've posted. Just moving it from that blog since I've made it private and the post is genealogy-related.

Nope, this post has nothing to do with any travels that I've done or that any volunteers have done. However, it has everything to do with the travels and family of my great-grandfather Charles Everette Clinton, Sr. (nee. David West Wolfe) and his wife Belle Crenshaw Clinton (her first name was Rebecca, but she didn't care much for it). Oh, them and the 13 kids they had between 1898 and 1920, when my grandfather Robert H. Clinton was born in Los Angeles. The pictures, in this post and others are mostly of Charles (I'll call him Grandpa Clinton). There are two of his parents and a couple of their oldest children Nellie & Dessie.

Just a few 'quick' facts to explain why I'm as interested in this 'case' as I am (as if them being my direct ancestors weren't enough). Grandpa Clinton was born in Delaware in 1860 as David West Wolfe--we think his middle name was West, but in the various census records (before 1910), his middle initial is either W., S., L., or R., go figure. Anyway, by 1898, he's living in Texas and married on Christmas day of that year to Belle, who was 20 years his junior. The reason we know nothing about him between 1880 & 1898 is that they 1890 census records burned and for some reason had no copies anywhere.

So, from that point, Grandpa Clinton, David at that point in time, and Belle start their journey, staying in Bonita, Montague County, TX just long enough for Nellie to be born in 1899. By 1900 they are living in Jacksboro, TX and it goes from there. So as to spare you the entire litany, from that first move to Jacksboro until they finally 'settled' in Los Angeles in 1920, they moved at least 13 times, living in five different States, and with almost every move it was California-Arkansas or Arkansas-Kansas or Texas-California. Moves that would be logistical nightmares even today, but that would have been monumental in that time period, not to mention that they were having 13 children along the way, 9 of whom lived to adulthood. No cars, no planes, no personal movers, you get the idea. And even after they 'settled' in Los Angeles they moved 3 times within the city of LA itself. Ok, that's about it for now here are the pics . . .

I almost forgot . . . For some unknown reason (there are 3 stories, but I won't get into that just yet), he changed his name from Wolfe to Clinton. Likely, the change came by 1904 when his second son (first to live) was given for his newly chosen name, i.e. Charles E. Clinton, Jr.

And oh, by the way, he was employed as a butcher, as you could probably gather from the pictures.

All of these are scans that Dad did of the originals that we have at the house in Vidalia. If you want to download them click on them to open up the full sized picture and right click & 'save image as'.
Charles E. Clinton (Grandpa) probably in Oklahoma: Some of the pictures have the information for location and all that written on the back or in the picture. This one I'm not sure about. As you can see the man kept a massive mustache. For those of you who call me 'The Beard', now you know where I get it from
'That's not a knife! THAT'S a knife!': Grandpa Clinton in a very well stocked store, the one holding the knife. MAYBE in California.
Again, possibly OK: As you can tell, this is a cropped & lightened picture of the one above. Grandpa Clinton again, no wonder I like big knives.
When the pictures label themselves: This is quite possibly one of my favorite pictures, not just of Grandpa Clinton, but in general. He's in the middle. We know this is Mangum, OK based on the letters on the right hand side above the over-hang 'MANG' and based on the fact that Grandpa Clinton & Belle's 3rd child, Sanford Wolfe, was born there in 1902 and died within the same year.
Again, labeled on the picture: This one has the label written in pencil on the back. Grandpa Clinton is behind the counter.

I'll post a couple other pics that I talked about above a little later today.

Books: Kind of on a rest/hiatus from the books for the moment. I've been doing a lot of genealogy 'work'/investigating lately so my time for reading has been replaced by that.

Weather: Never thought I'd WANT it to be January again, but it was actually warmer in Jan . . . go figure.

AFN
DCC 31 March 2007
V. Preslav, apartment

Mystery Solved? (the 2-Truths-and-a-Lie version)

After years of searching & speculating, I think we've (two cousins and I) have finally cracked what might be considered a brick wall. Whether you want to call it a brick wall could certainly be debatable, as the information that we lacked never kept us from researching generations further back, but certainly kept us in the dark about the eternal "why?". 

Why the load of philosophical rambling? Well, as it has been for as long as I can remember, the easy part was defining the problem. In this case: why did my great-grandfather, who was born David West Wolfe in Lewes, DE, change his name to Charles Everett Clinton?

As with any 'why' question there are quite a number of facts that have to be examined, which I have done extensively here, here, and . . . here

A summary of those examinations you ask? Certainly . . . while using his birth name, David W. Wolfe married Rebecca Belle Crenshaw (Belle) in 1898 in Bonita, Montague Co, TX. Belle was 20 years his junior. Between 1898 and David's death in 1942 in Los Angeles, they moved no fewer than 13 times (and those are the ones we know about), living in states as far apart as California, Arkansas, and Kansas, and many in between. The moves were not easy, 1) because they were often cross-country--think multiple moves to & from CA; 2) because between 1899 and 1920, they had 13 children, 9 of whom lived to adulthood. Sometime in or slightly before 1904, David most likely changed the name as Charles Everett Clinton, Jr. was born and you can't very well have a 'Jr.' without a 'Sr.' as an eponym. Great-grandpa David/Charles was a butcher.

Thus the 'why?'

The possible explanations that I grew up hearing started with (from earliest to latest): Explanation 1) Great-grandpa changed his name because there was a criminal with his same name and he didn't want the authorities bothering him again. Explanation 2) Great-grandpa was trying to evade an ex-wife - courtesy of his son, Uncle Howard. And Explanation 3) Great-grandpa was in fact a criminal himself--my supposition, but in my mind, being creative as I am, I saw him as 'the butcher' rather than simply 'a butcher', gallivanting across country to cover up a string of serial killings and never actually getting caught (I was about 18 when I came up with the murder part), but the thought that he might have been another type of criminal was always the more likely scenario as a part of the third explanation.

However, life seldom presents anything as grand as we imagine, and ironically enough, it turns out that 2 of the 3 explanations were, at least in part, true. Almost as if Great-grandpa were playing a version of 2 truths and a lie or more appropriately, we were creating one for him.

1) False

2) True. Great-grandpa, as David W. Wolfe, married a woman named Fannie Johnson (of Delaware). With her he had 2 children, William & Margaret, both of whom married and had children, so there may be cousins through David/Charles who still have the Wolfe name. (Ironically, William and his family, followed by Fannie had relocated to Montana by 1920 and William's wife and 2 of their children were in San Diego, California by 1930, perhaps in search of our elusive progenitor).

3) True . . . ish. Great-grandpa was a criminal, more appropriately a debtor (which in England would have landed him in debtors prison, so true after a fashion), and I'm waiting on more details on this from my cousins with whom I'm working. But one of them has found newspaper articles showing that the courts in Delaware repossessed his property in payment of his debt.

So . . . there you have it. Not an answer for why he chose Clinton, which we probably will never know. Not nearly as glamorous as 20+ years of searching (yes, I actually remember talking about this as a 5 year old when we visited Uncle Howard) would have led you to believe it might be. But an answer nonetheless and one that I'm elated to have found.

The funny thing is, now that I've found out 'why' . . . what do I do next?

As long as this is, please know that I can go into much more detail if you want, or if you want to see some of the details of the documents.

Now, about those Delaware Wolfes . . . all those Reeces (and I don't mean the candy).

Happy Hunting!

AFN

DCC

19 May 2010

Athens, Georgia

Nicholas Diehl 1811-c1890

Looking for Dead People
Dad & I took a trip up to Jefferson & Burke Counties yesterday to do a little digging and preservation. Here's some of the 'found' material. We've known a good bit of this for a while and had the picture below for 10+ years, but here it is . . .

Nicholas Diehl's first signature in Jefferson County records as court ordinary, July 1, 1850.

Nicholas Diehl was the grandson of an immigrant to the US, Johann Nicolaus Diehl (also was a captain in the Revolutionary War and served in the Long Island Campaign), as such in all of my records, I've noted him as Nicholas Diehl, III as his father is also Nicholas Diehl. The Diehl family lived in and around the Philadelphia area and owned land on Tinicum Island, on which now sits the Philadelphia International Airport. He moved with his sister Margaretta to Savannah, GA.

By 1839 he was living in Jefferson County, GA's 82nd Militia District, said more succinctly, Louisville, GA and listed in the tax digest of 1839. The last official record that I've found for him was a land record that he signed in 1888. His will is unprobated, but dated 1889 (what that means is that there is a record of the will, but it was not administered or entered into the official record in the books in Jefferson County). As confusing as that might be, his will exists, but is in the drawers of documents in the Probate vault in Jefferson County, GA in Box #13 (1/2 De-Ey, Fa-1/2 Fl).

Aside from that he was also, as indicated by the signature above, the Court Ordinary (in today's terms Clerk of Courts) for Jefferson County and served in that capacity from 1850 until at least 1888. Unfortunately we have no pictures of him, but his writing and signatures are well preserved throughout the records of Jefferson County during that time.

"Marriage Licenses Granted since the Surrender to White Persons": Also in the hand of Nicholas Diehl. As I'm sure you can guess the records in this particular section started in 1864-5, with a few coming before the surrender at Appomattox Courthouse. Ironically, his son Robert A. Diehl, who would later be county coroner, is part of the fourth marriage on this list, marrying Sarah A. Thomas on Jan. 1, 1865.

He also served as a photography as there is an add in the Louisville paper for him making Daguerreotypes in the upper floor of the courthouse. Also, though we do not have proof of it, it's likely that he took this picture which is of Jefferson County Civil War soldiers who were home from the war. One of them is Pvt. John Jesse Thompson whose son Seabron Augustus would marry Nicholas' granddaughter Lela Eleanor Diehl.

Civil War soldiers in Jefferson Co, Georgia during the war. The private standing on the right is John Jesse Thompson, my great-great-great grandfather. John Jesse had his left arm amputated from the shoulder down as a result of injuries in the Battle of Fredericksburg. In this picture, you can see that his left shoulder is essentially missing and that his left sleeve is apparently pinned where his elbow would have been.

Nicholas Diehl is my 4th-great grandfather and one of only two family lines (on both Mom's & Dad's sides) that I've found that originate north of Virginia/the Mason-Dixon line.

AFN
DCC
Vidalia, GA 29 December 2009

A Special Time

There may be a glut of posts over the next few days after a 6 month hiatus. This one is one that my grandfather 'Pa' wrote about a stroll he took with my cousin Jennifer when he was visiting her and her parents in Packwood, Washington back in the early '80s.

"'A Special Time'
They stroll down the tree shaded mountain lane hand in hand. Love and affection is predominant as they smile and gather wild flowers for grandma. They make a rather unique picture. The long & short or the Mutt & Jeff appearance adds to the scene. The tiny hand of the diminutive granddaughter, swallowed up in the gnarled grip of her bearded grandpa, who towers over her like the large pines that line the road.

They pick up pebbles to throw at imaginary targets. The flowers, ferns and grasses all get their share of special attention but the smiles widen as wild berries are found. To pick wild berries for grandma is the main reason for the walk. The taste of these berries widen the smiles even more and the goo intentions go by the wayside. Grandma must be content to smell the flowers.
After a time they wend their way home, having partaken fully of the love & affection that exists between grandpa & granddaughter. May it ever be so.

B.C.
7/17/1982"

I love the scene.

AFN
DCC
Vidalia, GA, 24 December 2009

Digitizing (read preserving) the Past

Man, did May ever fly by! I didn't realize that I'd gone a month again without posting. Here's a preview of things to come, albeit that they will come VERY slowly, merely because of the nature of the work. Of course, my pace probably doesn't help. Here's the list though.

Digitization of Letters:
I've digitized one letter on here from 1920, this is the plan for those to follow.

As I embark on the long, but necessary journey of digitizing and transcribing my grandparents’ letters and letters of older generations (what few I have), I want to note a few observances regarding the letters.

First, I intend to digitize into *.jpeg format each of the letters into files in which each of file will be named for the date the envelope was postmarked denoted as follows 1957.06.01 pm. A date/file name without the ‘pm’ indicates that there was a letter, but no envelope.

I will try to get them organized in related segments/events, and then of course by date. My goal, ultimately, will be to have all of them digitized and typed. As best I can, I will digitize and type the older ones first.

The letters generally will fall into the following groups.

Pre-1940
Most of these fall into the WWI era time frame with one coming just after the war in 1920 (which has already been digitized and transcribed) and a group of letters having been written from a family in France who had befriended Edward Gordon Ponder and kept up correspondence with his youngest sister Dollye Elizabeth Ponder Thompson, Mme. Guiggard and her daughter according to the letters. The spelling is the best interpretation/transcription I can decipher.

Military letters:
Most of these that I will publish will be from WWII, so as to maintain the standard that the primary writers are no longer living, to protect identity, etc. as much as possible. The bulk of these letters were written from Allen Vernon Tuten to his parents Joseph Alexander and Ruth Rogers Tuten. I will also scan and transcribe a journal that one of A. V. Tuten’s crew-mates kept regarding their missions in Europe. There are a few letters that Marguerite Elizabeth Thompson, while in boot camp, wrote to Ralph and Naomi ‘Jane’ Bowden. There are a few military documents as well that I will scan and include.

1957
These letters were written while Robert Harold Clinton & Marguerite Elizabeth Thompson Clinton, referring to each other as Baja and Tommy or Tombone respectively through out the letters, were living apart from each other between May 1957 and Sept. 1957. Baja was in Norwalk, California writing to Tommy and their children in Watkinsville, Georgia and vice versa. Unfortunately, the letters for the month of July that Tommy wrote to Baja are currently missing, and likely lost to posterity. All of the letters written from Baja to Tommy, to my knowledge are accounted for.

While writing to each other during this time, they rarely missed a day of writing, and the letters that I have read thus far have been descriptive of their days and especially full of love for each other and almost disconsolate longing and loneliness while apart.

For each set of letters, mistakes within the letters will be kept as is with the typical notation of [sic] after each.

I will try without too much commentary to let the letters speak for themselves. When narration is necessary or beneficial, I will provide it.

AFN
DCC
Athens, GA 4 June 2009
Rainy

Robert Harold Clinton, Sr. Ancestry, Matthew, Ch. 1, Pt. I

A continuation/start to the post that I started back in January. I'll post links and such later when not at work and I have more time to do anything other than cut & paste what I typed last night. You should get the idea.

A lineal ascent to my grandfather, Robert Harold Clinton, Sr.

I think ascent works there. I’ll first follow the male then the female lines of each as I have knowledge of them, with a couple lines about each with full ‘details’ to follow later. I’ll provide dates so you know where this runs.

Robert H. Clinton (May 12, 1920 Los Angeles, CA-March 25, 1990 Athens, GA; Bob, Baja, Clint, Pa, Doc), later adding Sr. to his name, was the son of Charles Everett Clinton, Sr. (nee. David West/Roland Wolfe) and Rebecca Belle Crenshaw (preferred Belle). Robert was an architect and cabinet maker by trade. As mentioned in Wayfarers and something I’ll repost eventually Charles/David changed his name sometime around 1904, as evidenced by the naming of their first three children with the last name of Wolfe and that the son who was born that year they named Charles E. Clinton, Jr.

Charles/David (1860 Lewes, DE-1942 Los Angeles, CA) was the son of Reece Becket Wolfe, II/Jr. (there’s some debate in the family as to whether he ever used the II or Jr. at all, but it’s easier to delineate using that) and Mary Hazzard West. Reece and Charles/David were both butchers by trade. At this point, this line, very much like the rest of my ancestors with the state of Georgia, stays very fixed geographically around and in Lewes, DE almost to the founding of the colony, including as an ancestor Rev. William Becket, from whom Reece gets his middle name. As you will see, there are also many Reece/Rice/Riss names (but not Reese) in this line as well.

Reece B. (Nov. 30,1828 Lewes, DE-June 18,1901 Philadelphia, PA) was the son of Reece Becket Wolfe I/Sr. and Nancy Waples. We have no further information regarding the Waples family.

Reece B., I/Sr. (1791 Lewes, DE-1854 Lewes, DE) was the son of William Wolfe and Mary Becket Futcher. Through Mary B. Futcher, we are descended from Rev. William Becket, who was one of the earliest Anglican missionaries in the Delaware area as a member of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, arriving in Lewes Sept. 1, 1721. The Beckett family is originally from Over Peover, Cheshire , England .

William Wolfe (July 15, 1766 Lewes, DE-July 7, 1818 Lewes, DE) was the son of Reece Wolfe/Woolf, Jr. (both spellings are in the records) and Mary White. We have no further information on the ancestry of Mary White. William was a lawyer by profession.

Reece/Rice Wolfe/Woolf (July 15 1733 Lewes , DE -bef May 10, 1797 Lewes DE , date indicated is the date of will probate) was the son of Francis Wolfe and Sarah Brooksby. We have no further information on the ancestry of Sarah Brooksby. Reece/Rice was a yeoman farmer.

Francis Wolfe/Woolf (bef. 1715 Lewes, DE-c1755 Lewes , DE ) was the son of Rice/Riss Woolf and Mary Cornwell. Francis was a carpenter by trade. Francis acquired 1500 acres on what would become known as Wolfe’s Creek, a branch of Lewes Creek.

Rice/Riss Woolf (bet 1670-75 Lewes, DE-1715/16 Lewes, DE, will was made Feb. 18, 1715/16) was the son of William Woolf, who is the first known ancestor to live in the American colonies though we do not know the country of origin. Rice/Riss was a yeoman farmer by trade.Tradition states that the Wolfe/Woolf line comes from Germany , but it is possible that the line originated in England or Sweden or the Netherlands , given that those were the original colonial powers in the Delaware area.

William Woolf/Wolfe is the first known ancestor in this line to live in the American colonies. There are land deed records referencing transactions between William Woolf and other parties beginning as early as Sept. 1693 and going as late as March 1694.

AFN
DCC
Athens, GA, 7 May 2009