Previously published on my https://mito-trail.blogspot.com blog but moved here to consolidate my writings. This is a three part series.
Today, I'm going to share a letter we found while going through her things. My brothers graciously allowed me to take all of the pictures accumulated over the generations, and any memorabilia I might find interesting in compiling our family's story.
Today's letter was written by Mom's father as he celebrated his 50th anniversary with Gramma. My goodness, we should all be so lucky! Please, please, if you are married - write your own story.
I have no idea why Grandpa wrote it, or to whom, or how Mom ended up with it. Maybe she asked him to do it, I don't know - he was a great story-teller.
Grandpa and Gramma's wedding picture. While he wrote about the wedding, I do not know where the dress came from. She only said it was red, she made it, and it no longer exists because she wore it to church until it was worn out.
The letter is copied below in it's entirely, with paragraph breaks inserted for ease of reading interspersed with comments.
Hi. Mar 8 - 1923. Got up at 4 o'clock and got breakfast and got Arther up & fed the stock & milked [a nephew]. That was 7:00 and started the Maxwell & let it run to charge the battery. [There was a coupe and a touring car in that time frame. Somewhere I have a list of vehicles Grandpa owned and maybe will have more information included. Even better, he loved photography so hopefully a picture will surface!]
There was 2 ft. of snow on the ground.
Started out at 8 o'clock. Stopped at the Ramsey House to measure the windows for curtains. [This is the rental where Gramma and Grandpa first lived. I know which house it was and it is still standing.] Had our bed & rugs & stoves & kitchen cabinets - everything to start house keeping.
Went to start the car & had lost the grank which I lhad laid on the running board. Went up [to] Mr. Ransey's and got his crank on his Buick and started the Maxwell & took it back & Mr. Ramsey wanted to weigh me. Wt 137 lbs. Went back home and found the crank at the first corner in 2 ft of snow.
Went over to get Claribel and her dad and Clyde Liles was out in the barnyard. Mother [Claribel's mom whom Grandpa adored - well, actully everyone did according to the stories I've heard] came out and said that she should have spanked Claribel as she got up at 4:00 and did the washing and came down and told her mother that she was going to get married. [Ira and Claribel met at church, or a church function, and dated for about two years. As the story goes, Grandpa got tired of waiting for an answer, and on their way home from a date where they had to drive up over a bridge, he stopped the car and told her he wasn't driving off of it until he had an answer, one way or another. It was the bridge over the railroad at the Yelverton Cemetery and is no longer there since the railroad has been taken out. Part of the road today goes at ground level under where the bridge used to be on the north side of the cemetery.]
The Hardin County Courthouse in Kenton where Ira and Claribel received their marriage license. I remember seeing their certificate hanging on the east wall of the upstairs hallway. From a contemporary postcard. The courthouse was built in 1915 and still stands, with an anex to the south across the street. Many early courthouse records are housed in the genealogy society building, catercorner to the southwest. I think this might be the third courthouse building.
9:00 started to Kenton and pushed two cars on to the road that was stuck in a snow drift. Went to the courthouse and got our license from Judge Turner that was Mrs. Neville's brother-in-law which I knew. He deviled us a while [after] which I found that he put my birth date wrong I found out afterwards.
Contemporary postcard of the Methodist Church. I'm not sure where the parsonage was, I don't have access to a 1923 city directory, if there is one, but I have it on my Kenton research list.
Then went to the Methodist Church or the parsonage and got the ceremony over and it was 12:00 noon. Went uptown to the Home Restaurant for dinner. We waited till 1:00 as so many Jumbo students ate at the restaurants [wish I knew more about this because Jumbo is about nine miles from town.] When we walked in Wes Montgomery's sister was the head of Country Home. She came over and congratulated us and announced to the people in the restaurant that we just got married and everybody got up and clapped.
NEXT: Part II The Wedding & The Arrival Home.
Today, I'm going to share a letter we found while going through her things. My brothers graciously allowed me to take all of the pictures accumulated over the generations, and any memorabilia I might find interesting in compiling our family's story.
Today's letter was written by Mom's father as he celebrated his 50th anniversary with Gramma. My goodness, we should all be so lucky! Please, please, if you are married - write your own story.
I have no idea why Grandpa wrote it, or to whom, or how Mom ended up with it. Maybe she asked him to do it, I don't know - he was a great story-teller.
The letter is copied below in it's entirely, with paragraph breaks inserted for ease of reading interspersed with comments.
March 18, 1973
There was 2 ft. of snow on the ground.
Started out at 8 o'clock. Stopped at the Ramsey House to measure the windows for curtains. [This is the rental where Gramma and Grandpa first lived. I know which house it was and it is still standing.] Had our bed & rugs & stoves & kitchen cabinets - everything to start house keeping.
Went to start the car & had lost the grank which I lhad laid on the running board. Went up [to] Mr. Ransey's and got his crank on his Buick and started the Maxwell & took it back & Mr. Ramsey wanted to weigh me. Wt 137 lbs. Went back home and found the crank at the first corner in 2 ft of snow.
Went over to get Claribel and her dad and Clyde Liles was out in the barnyard. Mother [Claribel's mom whom Grandpa adored - well, actully everyone did according to the stories I've heard] came out and said that she should have spanked Claribel as she got up at 4:00 and did the washing and came down and told her mother that she was going to get married. [Ira and Claribel met at church, or a church function, and dated for about two years. As the story goes, Grandpa got tired of waiting for an answer, and on their way home from a date where they had to drive up over a bridge, he stopped the car and told her he wasn't driving off of it until he had an answer, one way or another. It was the bridge over the railroad at the Yelverton Cemetery and is no longer there since the railroad has been taken out. Part of the road today goes at ground level under where the bridge used to be on the north side of the cemetery.]
9:00 started to Kenton and pushed two cars on to the road that was stuck in a snow drift. Went to the courthouse and got our license from Judge Turner that was Mrs. Neville's brother-in-law which I knew. He deviled us a while [after] which I found that he put my birth date wrong I found out afterwards.
Then went to the Methodist Church or the parsonage and got the ceremony over and it was 12:00 noon. Went uptown to the Home Restaurant for dinner. We waited till 1:00 as so many Jumbo students ate at the restaurants [wish I knew more about this because Jumbo is about nine miles from town.] When we walked in Wes Montgomery's sister was the head of Country Home. She came over and congratulated us and announced to the people in the restaurant that we just got married and everybody got up and clapped.
NEXT: Part II The Wedding & The Arrival Home.
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