Table of Contents -Volume II
CHAPTER 10
Ewing Family Lineage: John-James
The 10th and last of the children of John and Ann was Samuel. He was born 1 May 1797 in the Ewing cabin on Stony Creek in what was Bath County, Virginia. He was only 4 years old when the Ewings departed Stony Creek in favor of George's Creek in Addison Township, Gallia County, Ohio. And George's Creek is where he remained some 45 years.
After his mother died in 1809 when he was 12, Samuel remained on at the cabin with his father, and one or two older sisters. By 1816 all of the other children had left the roost and had established homes of their own. 1816 was the year John wrote his will, and he left the 150 acre farm to Samuel. John then went to nearby Vinton to spend out his years with his daughter, Sarah, leaving Samuel alone in the cabin on George's Creek. On John's death in 1824, Samuel became the owner of the 150 acres, Lots 495 and 497.
By then Samuel was 27 - but he was still a bachelor - and he remained one for eight more years. It was not until the 14th of August 1832, when Samuel was 35, that he married. Samuel married Elizabeth JONES, daughter of William P. and Lucy (EDWARDS) JONES, recent arrivals in Gallia County from Bedford County, Virginia where Elizabeth was born 10 December 1807. They were married by Reverend David SMITHER.
Samuel and Elizabeth were listed in Addison Township, Gallia County, Ohio in the 1830 and 1840 census, and Addison is where their four children were born. On an 1838 school list Samuel is down as a teacher in the District Six School, located in Addison's Section 25, adjoining the southwest corner of his land.
At some time in the 1840s, Samuel left the only home he had known and moved one township south - to Gallipolis Township, that is where he is found in the 1850 census.
In the meantime Elizabeth had died - whether on George's Creek or in Gallipolis Township has not been proved. There is no record of her burial in either township. The date was 5 August 1849, when she was 41 and Samuel 52.
Samuel's four children were at the time 16, 14, 12 and 8 years old. In 1853 all five left Gallipolis Township and were Iowa-bound.
Their destination was Van Buren County, Iowa, where so many of the family were, including Samuel's sister, Susannah, and her husband, Stephen HOLCOMB, and Samuel's nephews, Andrew and Archibald EWING, sons of John Smith EWING (No. 2).
Samuel and his four joined their relatives at Portland, now called Leando, on the Des Moines River and started to carve themselves out a farm. On 4 July 1855, another pair of hands joined them when Eliza married W. Robert KNOWLTON.
But whatever dream Samuel had of a new life in this New Found Land it was not to be. Samuel died 17 September 1855 at the age of 58 years and is buried at the Portland (Leando) Cemetery.
His daughter, Rhoda, later described him as 5 feet 7 inches, 150 pounds with broad shoulders, black hair and blue eyes.
ISSUE:
10-1 1. Eliza EWING, b. 22/27 June, 1833, Addison Township, Gallia County, Ohio.
10-2 2. Rhoda EWING, b. 16 July 1835, Addison Township, Gallia County, Ohio.
10-3 3. Thomas Shelby EWING, b. 28 Feb 1837, Addison Township, Gallia County, Ohio.
10-4 4. John EWING, b. 21 Apr 1841, Addison Township, Gallia County, Ohio.
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10-1 ELIZA EWING
Ewing Family Lineage Samuel-John-James
Eliza had a life that was a bit different than that led by other women of the times. She went from Addison Township, Gallia County, Ohio, where she was born 22nd or 27th of June 1833, to Iowa, California, Kansas, Colorado and Arizona - in that order - all in her 65 years of life.
Eliza was 16 when her mother died and 20 when she went with her father and siblings to Portland (Leando), Van Buren County, Iowa in 1853 Within two years of their arrival, Eliza was married to W. Robert KNOWLTON. The date was 4 July 1855.
Two months later her father died and that made Eliza and Robert pretty much the heads of the household.
Gold fever had not abated by 1855. Many men across the country were certain that vast fortunes awaited them in the Promise Land of California. All they had to do was trek some 2,000 miles across Indian-infested prairies and danger-ridden mountains, find the right spot and dig or wash it out. Simple!
John FRIEND had been there and he knew. John, husband of Eliza's deceased first cousin, Susannah HOLCOMB (2-9), had returned from California to Van Buren County and told the men of the wonders awaiting them there. And he was going out again, taking his new wife and daughters with him.
Nothing would do but 15 year old John EWING had to go too. And Robert Knowlton as well!
With a baby on the way, Eliza probably was not too happy about the idea. But Robert was not to be dissuaded. He would make his fortune and come back for her, he told her.
In the spring of 1856 the wagontrain was off and Eliza never saw her husband again.
He just disappeared. He could have been killed by Indians or drowned, or just wandered off when the party reached California. Apparently, no one, not even Eliza's brother John ever knew.
In 1859, Eliza's sister, Rhoda and George BRIGGS were married. The Ewings sold out and they all, Briggs and Ewings, moved together a few miles up the Des Moines River to Mahaska County, Iowa - near Eddyville.
By that time it had become necessary for Eliza to go to work to support her child, so she got a teaching position at a school in Leon, county seat of Decatur County, Iowa - about 60 miles from Eddyville. Eliza got her teaching certificate in 1860.
While in Leon she and her daughter, Cora, boarded with a family there. Also living in the house was a man by the name of Stephen WALKER. It is almost unfathomable how Stephen got all the way from Hartford, Connecticut by way of Chicago and many other spots on the map to the little country town of Leon, Iowa just at a time when Eliza was there. It makes you have great faith in this thing called Fate!
Stephen was born 14 September 1829 in Hartford, Connecticut to Marcus and Mary (RICE) WALKER. His mother died when he was 7 and two years later his father remarried. This was not the greatest thing in the world for young Stephen and at 9 years old he set off on his own. He joined up with a wagontrain heading from Hartford to Chicago, Illinois, and upon his arrival there he joined up with a group of trappers going to Wisconsin for furs. He was their "camp boy." His job was to hobble horses, shoot wolves who came in for the hides, and generally make himself useful.
At the age of 15 he signed on aboard a vessel, apparently plying the Great Lakes, and served as a sailor for seven years.
Stephen was 22, young and adventurous, and he headed for St. Joseph, Missouri and got a job as a "freighter" across the plains. Mining camps, army posts and the growing settlements of the West relied on freighting firms for their supplies. A standard "bull outfit" consisted of a crew of around 30 men, 300 oxen 25 freight wagons and a mess wagon. The biggest freighting firm on the Plains was RUSSELL, MAJORS AND WADDELL, originators of the Pony Express.
After freighting, more adventure awaited and Stephen had a part in history - the Kansas-Nebraska raids. The South was trying to get enough settlers into those territories so that they could become states - slave states. There were many men opposed to the idea, and some very bloody fighting took place. Stephen joined the anti-slavery forces by signing on for two years as a private in the 45th Iowa Volunteer Infantry.
At the end of those two years Stephen found himself boarding with a family in Leon, Decatur County, Iowa.
And there was Eliza EWING KNOWLTON.
And for Stephen WALKER, that was the end of the line.
But Eliza was a married woman and, by then, there was a gigantic struggle enveloping the nation - the Civil War.
The first was easily taken care of when the second was finally out of the way. Eliza applied for a divorce on grounds of desertion. It was granted in 1865 and she and Stephen were married in Wapello County, Iowa on 9 June 1866 by the Reverend J.O. WILSON.
But first - the war.
Stephen had come to know Eliza's family and when President Lincoln called for volunteers in 1861, both he and Thomas EWING went to Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa to sign up. Thomas, the story goes, was accepted, but Stephen, recovering from a bout with typhoid, was told to come back when he was stronger.
On 15 September 1864 Stephen enlisted at Oskaloosa in Company G, 7th Regular Iowa Cavalry. He was mustered in at Fort McClellan, Davenport, Iowa. In October his outfit was ordered to Cottonwood Springs, Nebraska by way of Omaha, and then to Fort Kearney. There they were given the job of guarding a wagontrain bound for Fort Laramie, Wyoming. This was in January 1865 - in the middle of a cruel Nebraska winter. Across the plains, following the Platte River, 190 miles without saddles or tents - only a wagon for shelter. Stephen began to feel the effects. He complained of his throat, chest back and soreness of his lungs.
The wagon train got as far as North Platte - and Stephen could go no further. He was left there, even though there was no hospital. Finally he made it back to Cottonwood Springs, and at least there he had medicine.
At the war's end, the 7th Cavalry was ordered to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas and Stephen was discharged there 31 July 1865 after 10 months and 21 days of service.
His army days were over, but the lung problems - diagnosed as asthma which he developed during his enlistment with the army, stayed with him a very long time.
Stephen returned to Iowa and Eliza, and they were married the following June. They settled in a log cabin on a farm at Eddyville. That first year, 30 year old Thomas and Eliza's daughter, Cora, lived with them.
A daughter, Florence, was born in the cabin in 1867. The story is that Eliza did not call for the assistance of a doctor or midwife, but took care of the entire proceedings herself. She did not even call her husband in from his work.
It was either in 1867 or the next year that Stephen had to leave Iowa because, as his wife put it in a later letter to the pension board, "he could not stand the severe winter there."
In 1869 the Walkers, along with the Briggs family and Thomas, moved about 10 miles north of Eddyville, to Cedar, Mahaska County, Iowa. They had 80 acres in Section 23 in Harrison Township. That is where they were listed in the 1870 and 1880 census. Their son, Friend Ewing WALKER, was born there in 1872. In 1877, Stephen took a trip to Phoenix, Arizona, apparently to invest in land.
Stephen was very sick with asthma, but Eliza was worse. Eliza had tuberculosis. Between the two it seemed advisable to seek a better climate. "I have went to his home when he was very poorly with asthma," said a Cedar neighbor, John STEELE, in 1898. "He was obliged to leave Iowa on account of it."
The Walkers chose California as their destination. They left Iowa by train on 3 September 1883 and arrived in Sacramento on a day of celebration - 9 September 1883, Admission Day - 53 years of statehood.
Eliza, Stephen and family settled in Colusa County near the town of Williams, northwest of Sacramento. But they were there only four years. It seemed like where they really wanted to be was Oberlin, Decatur County, Kansas and that was their next stop.
The children completed their high school education in Oberlin, Friend graduating in 1892, but in the meantime Stephen was off to a little town north of Colorado Spring, Colorado, near Denver called Roswell. Roswell is not on a map today. It is now the site of the U.S. Air Force Academy.
Stephen was in Roswell from at least April 1890 to November of that year, boarding with two men, James EICHORN and James H. NEWSOME, who later testified in his behalf for the pension board that he "is entirely unfit for labor."
After Friend's graduation in 1892, Eliza, Florence and Friend left Oberlin and joined Stephen at Roswell, Colorado and then they were on their way to Phoenix. It turns out that Stephen's investment was an ostrich farm! That may sound like lunacy, but remember in the 1890s ostrich plumes were very big and the plume industry was a thriving one. Stephen had bought 1,272 acres for $1,100. That farm is now a part of the city of Phoenix.
Not long after their arrival in Phoenix, Florence fell in love with a young minister, Florian Arthur AMES, and there was to be a wedding in Los Angeles, California. The whole family accompanied the bride-to-be to Los Angeles by train while the groom drove a horse and wagon across the desert. The Walkers evidently stayed in California for a while as Santa Monica, California was Stephen's address on 25 August 1892, and Eliza's letter to the pension board was written 10 February 1893 from Los Angeles.
But then Eliza and Stephen returned to Phoenix, Arizona where the climate was much better suited for Eliza's tuberculosis.
Eliza died in Phoenix, Arizona 9 or 19 of May in 1899 at the age of 65 years.
Stephen was 69 when Eliza died. The normal man would have been thinking of retiring, but not Stephen. He left Phoenix and went back to California, his active years far from over.
Right up until the time of his death 29 years later, Stephen did not stop. All of Southern California was his home - Long Beach, Fullerton, Uplands, Brawley, Beaumont. Once in 1902 he went into a soldiers home, but that was definitely not it. "It was near the sea, and damp and foggy. I have gotten poor and down to 111 pounds. I want to go to the desert," he wrote the pension board.
In this long life of his, Stephen had only three months of formal education. He could and did read avidly but writing was not among his strong suits. Once in 1889, while visiting in Eddyville, he had his brother-in-law Thomas Ewing write to the pension board for him, "Stephen being a poor scribe," as Thomas put it in the letter.
Physically, even old age could not stop him. He celebrated his 95th birthday by cutting down a eucalyptus tree three feet in diameter, later sawing it into 14-inch lengths for stove wood. He loved to hunt - rabbits, quail, doves - and he loved to walk. At one time he lived in Fullerton, California and his daughter in Garden Grove, nines miles distant. On many occasions, Florence and her family would awake early in the morning to find Stephen on the porch awaiting breakfast with them.
Stephen was married twice after Eliza's death. In 1913 he was in Brawley, California, in the Imperial Valley east of San Diego, when he married, at the age of 84 years, a woman known only as SMITH. She died about 1917 and Stephen returned from Brawley to the Los Angeles area.
Stephen was living at Beaumont, California in 1924 when he met Katheryne SHORT, also of Beaumont. A native of Indiana, Katheryne was 68 and had been twice married also - widowed and divorced.
Four days after his 95th birthday on 18 September 1924, Stephen and Katheryne were married - with his son-in-law, Reverend Florian A. AMES, doing the honors.
They lived together for three years, but one day Katheryne took off and was not heard from again until after Stephen's death. It seems Stephen and his grandson, Howard AMES of Indio, had a joint bank account amounting to $136.77. After Stephen died Howard went to the bank to withdraw the money - and discovered Katheryne had beaten him to it.
"I was referred to the district attorney at Riverside," Howard wrote the pension office.
Katheryne herself wrote the pension board - on another matter. She wrote asking for an application so she could receive Stephen's pension of $22 a month. The board replied that she was not eligible in that they had married too late, after the government's 1905 cut off date.
That did not stop her, she wrote again asking for the necessary forms to bill the government for "three years of nursing and housekeeping for the dear old man."
In March 1928, arrangements were made for Stephen to visit his grandson, Faber K. AMES and his family in Los Angeles for awhile. On 27 March, Florence and Florian picked him up at his home in Beaumont and drove him to their home in Garden Grove, where he was to spend the night before going on to Los Angeles.
Stephen had always been an early riser, but when Florence arose the next morning she noticed her father was not up. She knew that he must be ill. Florian went for the doctor, but when the doctor arrived, Stephen was gone. As his obituary put it, "It was simply a matter of the clock of life running down and stopping."
Stephen was 98 years, 6 months, 14 days at the time of his death. Services were held in Santa Ana, California and Stephen was buried at the West Los Angeles Veterans Cemetery, Los Angeles, California.
ISSUE:
10-1-1 1. Cora KNOWLTON, b. Oct 1856, Van Buren County, Iowa.
10-1-2 2. Florence Alma WALKER, b. 6 Jun 1867, Eddyville, Wapello County, Iowa.
10-1-3 3. Friend Ewing WALKER, b. 28 Apr 1872, Eddyville, Mahaska County, Iowa.
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10-1-1 CORA KNOWLTON
Ewing Family Lineage: Eliza-Samuel-John-James
Cora, fatherless from the day she was born in October of 1856 in Van Buren County, Iowa, managed to survive that handicap very nicely. Cora and her mother shared together the years after Robert Knowlton's disappearance in 1856. Eliza provided for her as best as she could on a teacher's income, in Leon, Decatur County, Iowa. Cora grew up in Leon where she and her mother boarded with a family.
Cora was 10 when her mother married Stephen Walker and they went to live in Wapello County, Iowa first and then Mahaska County, Iowa. She was with them in the 1870 Mahaska County census.
Back in Leon lived an industrious family headed by John B. LUNBECK. John and his wife, Aurelia BATES were from New Jersey and Virginia respectively, and had a large family. Among their sons was Narcassus, born in 1852 in Iowa.
Romance developed across the miles between Narcassus and Cora and they were married about 1872 and Cora went to live in Leon, Decatur County, Iowa.
The Lunbecks had arrived in Leon in the 1850s and established a nursery on the north side of the town. They had, says a DECATUR COUNTY HISTORY, "a large and well-stocked nursery of fruit and ornamental shrubbery of almost every variety." Cora and Narcassus lived next door to his parents in Center Township just outside of Leon. At first Narcassus was a "poulterer", per the 1880 census, but later he followed his father's profession.
Narcassus had a brother, Lemuel, born in 1841. There is a strange coincidence that Lemuel, an adventurous youth, enlisted for Civil War service at about the same time and place as Cora's uncle, John EWING. John Ewing enlisted 30 October 1861 at San Francisco in the 2nd California Cavalry and Lemuel on 24 November that year at Sacramento in the 5th California Cavalry.
It is possible that the Lunbecks had once lived in Van Buren County and had known the Ewings there, and perhaps Lemuel had gone out to California at the same time John did, on the wagontrain that departed Iowa in 1856.
Cora and Narcassus lived in Leon for a good many years, and their three children were born there. Sometime before 1900 they began contemplating a move to Kansas. In the 1900 census they were at 225 Union Street, Emporia, Lyon County, Kansas with only their son Richard, 25, listed with them.
In the 1910 census they were at the same address, just the two of them, Narcassus listed as florist and gardener. They had been married 38 years and Cora had three children, two then living. Sadly, the other two of Eliza's children lost track of Cora - the stepsister - through the years, and descendants of those two did not know much about her at all- not even the name of her husband.
Thanks to the Federal census and contact with a descendant of Narcassus' brother, Lemuel, we have the above information.
ISSUE:
1. Claridel LUNBECK, b. 1873, Iowa. Not with family in the 1900 or 1910 census.
2. Richard S. LUNBECK, b. Nov 1875, Iowa. 1900 census: 25 years, at home.
3. Florence LUNBECK, b. Dec 1879, Iowa. Not with family 1900 or 1910 census.
4. _____ LUNBECK, deceased by 1910
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Ewing Family Lineage: Eliza-Samuel-John-James
Florence was not really of gypsy blood, but there may have been times when she thought so. It was not just those years when her own family moved around considerably, but as the wife of a minister, Florence never knew where she was going to be living one year to the next.
Her first 16 years were placid enough. They were spent right there, near Eddyville, where she was born. In Wapello County, Iowa first and then in Mahaska County where she did her growing up.
In 1883 the Walkers left Iowa in favor of a town called Williams in Colusa County, California. The nearest school was in Sacramento. Florence and her brother, Friend, lived in a dormitory provided by the state while attending school. They were able to get home about one weekend a month, traveling on the railroad those 50 miles.
In their four years in the Cortina Valley, Florence finished grade school and started high school.
Then came the move to Oberlin, Decatur County, Kansas where Florence completed her education. The next stop was Roswell near Colorado Springs, Colorado and then Phoenix in Arizona Territory.
When Florence was 14, back at Eddyville, she had joined the Methodist Episcopal Church. On arrival in Phoenix she became a charter member of the newly formed Phoenix Free Methodist Church, having joined by letter dated 24 January 1892.
The new church was the result of efforts of Rev. C.B. EBEY and his young assistant, Florian Arthur AMES.
Florian was born 9 June 1865 in Durand, Wisconsin. When he was 16, his parents, Henry and Anna (SUTTON) AMES, moved to North Dakota. Here Florian became a school teacher, his calling for several years.
But as the result of a revival meeting he attended in 1890 given by the Free Methodists, Florian was converted, and soon felt the call to the ministry. He heard that Rev. Ebey needed two young men to assist him at revivals in Southern California, and Florian vowed to be one of them. On arriving in Los Angeles in June 1891 he was accepted, on trial, as an Evangelist in the newly organized Southern California Conference. During his first year he received $20 in salary, his room and board and a second hand suit of clothes.
For the next few months he accompanied Rev. Ebey to meetings in Southern California and then they were sent to Phoenix to organize a new church there.
It was in Phoenix that Florian met Florence Alma WALKER in 1892. The two were immediately attracted to each other and a whirl-wind courtship resulted in their marriage in July that same year.
By that time, Rev. Ebey was back in Los Angeles. The young couple wanted him to marry them, so there was nothing to do but go where he was.
Florence's family would be going too, of course, and some friends as well. For them it was simply a matter of getting on the train and chugging off.
But for Florian it was not that easy. He would be traveling by horse and wagon!
Three hundred eighty-nine miles across the Arizona and California desert in a light spring wagon under a blazing July sun. It took Florian ten days following two ruts in the sand that was the old Butterfield stage route - roughly Interstate 10 today.
The marriage ceremony took place Friday, the 13th of July 1892 in the First Free Methodist Church, located at 606 E. Sixth Street. At that time the church was out in the country, next to a 20 acre orange grove. It is now in the heart of downtown Los Angeles in an area long known as Skid Row, and the building at 606 E. Sixth Street became a mission for transient men in the 1980s.
For Florence, life from then on seemed to be constant turning of wheels as the minister and his wife and their ever-increasing family moved from one appointment to another - Artesia, Paso Robles, Pasadena, back to Phoenix where Florian served as District Elder, then back to Artesia, on to Whittier, then La Habra, Sawtelle and Santa Monica - all in a space of 12 years, with more moves to come.
While at Sawtelle, Florian built a church, which is still standing, plus a home for his family. The lumber for their six room house cost $256. It was owned by the family until 1940 when it was sold to the City of Los Angeles for $1,000 to become a part of the police garage.
In 1906 Florian was sent to Garden Grove and Anaheim, and in 1907 he was back in Phoenix. Here he served as pastor and stationed Elder of the Phoenix District. His next appointment was Santa Ana in 1909 and then to the Watts area of Los Angeles.
Two years later Florian was sent to a place called Bethel out in the country. Because there were no schools in Bethel, the Ames lived 6 miles away in Ontario and had to drive to church. Their 1905 Franklin car with its carbide lights had no top, no windshield and of course no heater. In some weather that 6 mile drive could be miserable!
From Bethel they went to Coachella. Florian's appointment after Coachella was at Brawley in the Imperial Valley east of San Diego. Florence and daughter Alma took the train, but Florian plus sons Faber and Homer went on ahead in the Franklin, loaded down with household goods, a crate of chickens and miscellany. They left at 4 in the morning. When they had gotten a little way out in the desert they discovered that a cloudburst had preceded them, and the road was washed out in many places. They had to do a lot of digging and pushing but they made it.
While they were living in Brawley the United States entered the World War, 17 April 1917 and the Ames sent their eldest son Homer off to serve. They were in Corona when the Armistice was signed 11 November 1918, and Howard came home, not quite the same for his service.
In the years ahead there were more ministries - in just about every community in the Los Angeles area and Southern California. Each service was gratifying for the preacher - a new building or an addition to an old one, freeing a debt-ridden church, always some accomplishment he could look back on with pride.
In 1937, Florian was sent to San Pedro. He was by then 72 years old. For three years he engaged in one of the most successful ministries of his long and active career. Then suddenly on the 8th day of August in 1940 - his career was ended. Florian died of a heart attack.
Florence was 73 years old. She had never been in robust health, having been thrown from a horse as a girl which resulted in a permanently injured back. Then about four years before Florian died, it was discovered that she had cancer. She knew it would not be long until she followed Florian.
Though she had not been able to be active physically in her lifetime, never let it be said her mind sat still! She devoured the printed page, reading everything she could get her hands on. She spent hours reading to herself, and aloud to her children.
And she wrote - oh, how she wrote. She carried on correspondence with missionaries all over the world, with parishioners she had met on the long trail from church to church, and especially with her own family. She wrote them at least weekly, sometimes even more often than that. She also kept a daily diary.
Along the way she became fascinated with the story of Indian John Ewing, her great-grandfather, and that led to an interest in genealogy. She corresponded with people all over the United States to learn of family and family history.
A pioneer minister's wife had to endure many hardships and make tremendous sacrifices. In the management of money Florence had few equals. In the years 1905 to 1927 the family income averaged $500 a year - but Florence made it take care of a family of six - and managed to give generously to the Ames' favorite charities.
In the end Florence Alma Walker Ames could look back on her 75 years with satisfaction. She had brought six children into the world and had seen four of them mature to become not just accomplished but successful. She had been a help-mate to a dedicated preacher and had seen churches all over Southern California and Arizona flourish under his ministry.
It had been a good life. Florence's life ended on the 24th of March 1943 in Los Angeles, California when Florence was laid to rest beside Florian in the Westwood Memorial Park.
ISSUE:
10-1-2-1 1. Howard Byron AMES, b. 7 Dec 1894, Paso Robles, California.
2. Avis Eliza AMES, b. 4 Aug 1896, Pasadena, California, d. 20 Oct 1897, Phoenix, Arizona.
3. Florian Arthur AMES, JR., b. 6 July 1899, Phoenix, Arizona, d. 20 Dec 1899, Phoenix, AZ.
10-1-2-4 4. Alma Florence AMES, b. 11 Sept 1901, Whittier, California.
10-1-2-5 5. Faber Kanouse AMES, b. 18 Dec 1905, Los Angeles, California.
10-1-2-6 6. Homer Stephen AMES, b. 1 Dec 1907, Phoenix, Arizona.
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Ewing Family Lineage: Florence-Eliza-Samuel-John-James
When Howard was born 7 December 1894 in Paso Robles, California his father was a fledgling member of the fledgling Southern California Conference of the Free Methodist Church. As the years progressed Howard became accustom to the constant moving about as his preacher-father was called to one church after another. Life for him was a progression of schools - almost eight of them to complete that many grades.
During his high school years the family was living in the Watts area of South Los Angeles. In order to get to class at Los Angeles Pacific High -a special school for Christian education, by 7:45 a.m., Howard had to get up at 4:00 a.m., ride his bicycle 4 miles from Watts to Huntington Park. There he caught the "yellow car" for the ride to Highland Park - which cost a nickel, and then he still had to walk a mile from the car line to the school! And reverse the process going home at each day's end! He must have been the reason school buses were invented.
Howard started his senior year at Chaffee High after the family moved to Ontario, but his health failed and he left school and went to the Coachella Valley, where he lived with his grandfather, Stephen Walker and worked on a ranch.
After two or three years Howard went to live with his parents, who by then were in Brawley and Grandfather Stephen went with him. Howard started working for the Ruth DREDGER Company.
One day in 1917 Howard and Stephen were returning to Brawley from Coachello, 80 miles across the desert. In those days the road was a couple of ruts in the sand. Ahead of them they saw a stalled car. They knew that the only way they could get by was to speed up the car, turn out into the sand and be carried back onto the road by sheer force of momentum. they did, and after getting back on the road, Howard backed up to the stalled car. They found that, not only did the car's occupants have car trouble but, one of the men had been overcome by sunstroke and they were out of water. Howard always carried 15 or 20 gallons of extra water across the desert. He was a first-class mechanic and soon had their car running. They followed him into Brawley, where they took the sunstroke victim to the hospital and then Howard invited the rest to stay in the parsonage with his folks.
The tourists were Imogene MC AFEE from Rome, Georgia, her cousin and two uncles. They were on a vacation trip from Georgia to California.
After the sunstroke victim recovered the quartet went on to Los Angeles and then back to Georgia. Later Howard got a letter from the young Imogene, addressed to "The Good Samaritan." The two corresponded for many years, and eventually...but that comes later.
In the meantime for Howard, there was Mexico and then a World War. Howard had gotten a job running a dredger on a large ranch in Mexico. While there he was called by the draft. He was turned down twice because of weak lungs, but the third time he was passed. He went to Palo Alto, California for training and emerged a machine gunner.
Then the Army, in its infinite wisdom, sent a man who had been turned down with lung problems to Vladivostok, Siberia!
It goes without saying that Howard came down with a cold - on Armistice Day. That cold settled in Howard's lungs and developed into tuberculosis.
Howard was returned to the States and spent two or three years in the hospital at the Presidio in San Francisco, California, but Howard did recover.
In the meantime there was Imogene and her letters. They came regularly while he was in the hospital and during his four years at Chaffee College, whence he emerged with a degree in Agriculture. And always he was her Good Samaritan. Across 3,000 miles after a chance meeting in the desert, the long years of correspondence blossomed into romance, and in 1924 Imogene returned to California.
Howard and Imogene were married 22 November 1924.
Actually she was Jessamine Imogene, but she always used her middle name. She was born 8 October 1890 in Rome, Floyd County, Georgia. Her father was Kentucky-born John MC AFEE.
The newlyweds, 30 year old Howard and 34 year old Imogene, lived in Riverside County. Imogene became cashier of the bank in Indio and held that position several years.
At first, Howard had a job with the State of California as a Border Patrol Inspector. Later he worked for the Department of Agriculture in the Coachella Valley. During his 11 years with the department he helped eradicate a scale insect that had threatened the California date industry with complete destruction.
Howard then got into real estate and that was his profession for the rest of his short life.
Howard and Imogene had two children, born when she was 39 and 41 years old. When their youngest child was 15, Imogene died. That was on 16 August 1948 at 56 years old. She is buried at Coachella Valley Cemetery, Indio, California.
One day, a year later on 7 October 1949, Howard was helping to remodel a metal out-building into an apartment in Thermal, near Indio, when an electric wire became fused to the metal siding and electrocuted him when he touched the building.
Howard is buried beside his wife of 22 years at the Coachella Valley Cemetery in Indio, California.
ISSUE:
1. Byron Walker AMES, b. 27 Feb 1930, Loma Linda, California. Married: Nancy JACKSON.
2. Harriet Jeanne AMES, b. 2 June 1932, Loma Linda, California. Married: 1st Al THOMAS; Married 2nd A. DODERO; Married 3rd Charles BUCKRIDGE
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Ewing Family Lineage: Florence-Eliza-Samuel-John-James
Alma was born 11 September 1901 in Whittier and did her growing up all over Southern California. The family was in Brawley when she completed elementary school and in Los Angeles when she started high school.
Like her brother, Alma selected Los Angeles Pacific High School. While there she became acquainted with Herbert John JOHNSON and they were married 4 January 1920 in Garden Grove, California, by Alma's father, Florian.
Herbert was born in 1899 in New York. His father was Hiram B. JOHNSON and his mother was a MARTINDALE.
After their marriage they settled on a ranch at Hinkley on the high desert, where they raised alfalfa and operated a dairy. In 1922, Alma went home to her parents, then living in Orange, California, long enough to have Arthur Burton JOHNSON.
In 1925 the Johnsons moved their dairy from the desert to San Jacinto, where Clyde Ewing JOHNSON put in an appearance. While there, Alma's Grandfather Stephen spent a lot of time with them. He was always a welcome guest, as he was wonderful help. He loved to cut wood, make a garden or babysit.
Alma and Herbert next moved to Signal Hill near long Beach and started the Red Wing Dairy. They operated this dairy for seven years and then sold out and organized the Regal Oil Company. Regal sold fuel oil, smudge oil and hot oil for roads and air bases.
In 1944 they sold out their oil business and moved to Shingletown near Redding, California. They engaged in several businesses such as ranching, operating a saw mill and logging. In their lifetime they accumulated several thousand acres of property.
Alma died 19 October 1960 at Redding and is buried at the Midway Cemetery. Herbert was a victim of a disastrous fire at the Golden Eagle Hotel in Redding, California on the 24th of September 1962. He too is buried at the Midway Cemetery.
ISSUE:
1. Arthur Burton JOHNSON, b. 1 Sept 1922, Orange, California. Married: 25 Aug 1951, Eva PARONEN, daughter of Kalle and Emmi (NURMINEN) PARONEN natives of Finland. Eva was born 2 Apr 1928, Astoria, Oregon.
2. Clyde Ewing JOHNSON, b. 28 July 1925, San Jacinto, California. Married: 13 Feb 1951, Reno, Nevada, Martha Janice HANSBERGER, daughter of John and Betrice (BLACKBURN) HANSBERGER.
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Ewing Family Lineage: Florence-Eliza-Samuel-John-James
Every once in a while we come across a Faber Kanouse Ames. It is rare but thank goodness there are people like him. Through his mother's influence he cared enough about his heritage to not only record his and her heritage - but to put it into print.
Faber's work on the Ames family was published in 1969 and it is that book which was the basis of much of what you are reading in the Walker-Ames section.
Faber was born 18 December 1905 at Sawtelle, California - now a part of the city of Los Angeles and 77 years later in the 1980's was still going strong not far from where he was born at 4081 San Rafael Avenue, Los Angeles, 90065. Faber's name was selected for him by his 11 year old brother Howard. Faber was the surname of a Catholic priest Howard liked, and Kanouse was the surname of a ranking prohibition lecturer of the day. Faber says that as he grew up he'd punch Howard a lot - in jest, for his name. He did have his name changed legally to Faber K. AMES.
Faber did his growing up in Sawtelle- and Garden Grove, Phoenix, Santa Ana, Watts, Bethel, Brawley, etc., etc., but always with a smile and the knowledge that this was the way of life when you were a minister's son.
When Faber looks back on those early years, many fond memories pop to mind. He remembers, for instance, starting school in the Watts section of South Los Angeles, which made history in the 1970s as the scene of a racial riot, but which then was a quiet farming community.
He remembers particularly the summer of 1914, when he was 8, which he regards as one of the most enjoyable of his young life. His father had been sent to Brawley which is in the Imperial Valley, where 100 degrees was regarded as a cool day. Florian went on ahead, but the rest of the family laid over for the summer at a fruit ranch at Banning, just west of Palm Springs, California.
The family consisting of Florence, Homer, Alma, a cousin, Charles WALKER and Grandfather Stephen, camped on the GILMAN
RANCH, which was part of a large Spanish land grant.
"We had all the fruit and vegetables we could eat", Faber recalls. "There was a large reservoir where we could go swimming. We earned money cutting fruit - we received 5 cents per 50-pound box. We had a team of donkeys we could ride over the hills or drive the 3 or 4 miles into town. What more could a boy of 8 want?"
He remembers well the trip when he left Banning for Brawley in September. Florence and Alma took the train to Brawley, but Howard, who had been working on a ranch in the Coachella Valley, had come with a load of watermelons and wanted Faber and Homer to go back with him for a visit.
"We started out, with the team of donkeys and a small spring wagon. The road from Banning to Indio was about 45 miles and was only two ruts in the sand. The temperature was 110 degrees, and more than that at time. We had no shade of any kind.
"We started at 4 a.m. and by 8 that evening we reached Whitewater, a distance of about 15 miles. There was only a ranch at Whitewater. The next day we followed the same schedule and reached Palm Springs. At that time there was only one building in Palm Springs and that was a crude hotel run by a woman by the name of HENDERSON. There were also a few Indian brush shacks. You probably could have bought all of Palm Springs and environs for $1,000.
"Our third and last day was from Palm Springs to Indio. We started at our usual time, 4 a.m., but we did not get into Indio until about midnight. In the three days of travel we only passed one other vehicle. It is hard to realize that in those days it took three days to go 45 miles."
Faber completed the eighth grade in Garden Grove and entered high school in Santa Ana. The following year he decided he wanted to go to Los Angeles Pacific High as his brother and sister had done. He calls it one of the most important decisions of his life. "The Christian training and influence I received there had a profound effect upon my entire life."
Faber graduated in 1924. By going to the school's Junior College during his senior year, registered as a college freshman, and to summer school, he was able to graduate from the college in 1935 with an Associate of Arts degree. He attended the University of Southern California, and then entered Greenville College in Illinois in 1925. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree there in 1926, and the following year he received a Master's. He also completed a preacher's course on the side.
Through college he maintained a 3.5 grade point average, and was elected to Phi Delta Kappa (honorary education), Biology Honor Society, Phi Kappa Phi (all-university scholarship) and later Gamma Rho Tau (business education honorary).
Faber started teaching in the Los Angeles City School System in 1927. His first assignment was at John Muir Junior High where he taught General Science for two years and then was made Registrar.
Back in his days at Los Angeles Pacific he had met a fellow student, Maymie Anna COULTER. Maymie was born 4 October 1905, in Hastings, Michigan, but attended school in Phoenix, Arizona. During her junior year in high school - 1922, Maymie received distinction by becoming High School Champion of the United States by typing 92 words per minute for 15 minutes.
After leaving Los Angeles Pacific, Maymie and Faber kept up their friendship, which blossomed into romance, culminating in their marriage on 24 February 1928.
They were married by Faber's father in an automobile parked at the side of the road in Santa Ana Canyon, Riverside County, California.
Why the strange setting? Maymie was employed by Richfield Oil Company, one of the many firms in the county which frowned on married women working. By going out of the county their marriage would not be published in the Los Angeles papers, and no one would ever know. To satisfy family and friends there was a second ceremony the next day at the home of Maymie's parents, Smith Lovejoy and Carrie (CHAMBERS) COULTER, in Los Angeles, but the Riverside County ceremony was the official one.
The newlyweds spent their honeymoon at the home of Faber's brother, Howard, on his desert place just outside Indio. Then they returned to the home they had bought at 539 W. 88th Place.
In 1932 they purchased two lots on top of Mt. Washington, from where they had a 360-degree view of all Los Angeles and environs. In 1934, Faber, with his father's help, built a garage apartment, and Faber and Maymie and their baby daughter moved in September. During the next few years they acquired a total of 11 lots on top of Mt. Washington. They fenced in six of them and purchased several milk goats. As the children came along, they all had their turn at milking and caring for the goats. They also raised rabbits, chickens, geese, dogs and cats. They planted numerous fruit trees and a large vegetable garden. They were completely surrounded by the city, yet were living in the country.
In time they enlarged the house so that by the 1980s it had 3 1/2 baths and a total of 14 rooms. They built a cement play yard which could be used for badminton, volleyball, basketball, skating, bicycle riding and numerous other pastimes.
During the war years, Faber, who was exempt because of his age, was nevertheless able to give to the cause, helping on the home front. He taught school from 9 to 3 and drove an ambulance for the city from 4 to midnight, for the duration of the war.
In 1955, Faber took the exam for Adult School Principal and came out number 2 on the list. The second school to need a principal after the list was published was Lincoln Adult School where Faber was already teaching and had been for 20 years. Lincoln had an annual enrollment of about 5,000 and a teaching staff of 85.
About the same time, Maymie, who had given up her career at Richfield when the children started coming, resumed a life in the professions. She became a teacher at Belmont Adult School, teaching English to the foreign-speaking.
In the years from 1958 to 1961, Faber and sons, Loal and Faber "Art", built a new family home on Mt. Washington, just two doors away from where the family had been raised. In 1961 Faber and Maymie moved into their new home. Young Faber took over the old place, almost completely rebuilding it. In the 1980s, He and his family lived there.
In 1971, Faber retired after 44 years with the Los Angeles City Schools, during which time he never missed a day, nor was he ever late. Maymie retired about the same time.
ISSUE:
10-1-2-5-1 1. Eleanor Frances AMES, b. 15 Feb 1934, Los Angeles, California.
10-1-2-5-2 2. Sylvia Ilene AMES, b. 28 Mar 1937, Los Angeles, California.
10-1-2-5-3 3. Loal Coulter AMES, b, 24 Nov 1943, Los Angeles, California.
10-1-2-5-4 4. Faber Arthur AMES, b. 11 Dec 1944, Los Angeles, California.
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10-1-2-5-1 ELEANOR FRANCES AMES
Ewing Family Lineage: Faber-Florence-Eliza-Samuel-John-James
Eleanor was born 15 February 1934 in Los Angeles, California and like her father and mother, attended Los Angeles Pacific High School. After graduation she married Burton Harold ROCHELLE. Burton was born 3 July 1931 in Liberal, Kansas to Harold and Ruby (DEARDORFF) ROCHELLE. Burton grew up in Branch and Hillsdale Counties and Detroit, Michigan. He enlisted in the United States Air Force the 2nd of January 1951.
The date of their wedding was the 24th of December 1951. The couple had three months and two days of married life. Burton was at Davis-Monthan Air Base in Tucson, Arizona when on the 26th of March 1952 his B-29 crashed and he was killed.
A year and half later Eleanor married Russell Duncan CRAMER. Russell was born 15 August 1932 in Los Angeles and was the son of Howard and Reba (JOHNSON) CRAMER. Russell and Eleanor were married 19 November 1953 in Los Angeles. In the 1980s they were living in Orange County, California.
Ewing Family Lineage: Faber-Florence-Eliza-Samuel-John-James
Sylvia was born in Los Angeles 28 March 1937. Like her parents and sister, she too attended Los Angeles Pacific High and then went on to obtain her Associate of Arts Degree, her Bachelor of Arts and her teacher's credentials.
She was married on 19 November 1955 to Gilbert BROWN. They were in Hawaii when their daughter Connie was born. The marriage ended in divorce and Sylvia married, a second time, on 28 August 1960 to Donald Alexander THOMAS. Donald had been seriously wounded in the South Pacific during World War II. He had been previously married and had two children, Donald Jr., born in 1952 and Kathy, born in 1954. Donald Sr. had a very successful business career in the data processing field prior to his death on the 31st of March 1967, of cancer.
Sylvia married a third time about 1975. She says she and Charles HAMMOND were like teenagers in puppy love - ideally suited and so happy. They worked together in their educational supply store in Los Angeles and loved their life together.
But it was not to last long. After only 14 months Charles too was taken by cancer - 10 years almost to the day after Donald.
Sylvia sold the store after Charles' death. In the early 1980s, Sylvia was making her home with her parents and drove many miles each day from Mt. Washington to school where she taught fourth graders.
In 1986 she married Carlos SCOTT.
ISSUE:
1. Connie BROWN, b. 16 Nov 1956, Hawaii. Married and lived in Colorado in the early 1980s.
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Ewing Family Lineage: Faber-Florence-Eliza-Samuel-John-James
Loal was born 24 November 1943 in Los Angeles and in the family tradition attended Los Angeles Pacific High. Loal received his A.B. degree from Pacific College with the Class of 1965, the last class to graduate from Los Angeles Pacific College. That year the college united with Azusa College to form Azusa Pacific College.
During the Vietnam War, Loal's younger brother, Faber, was stationed in that war-torn country, and Loal got the urge to go visit him. He decided to take a trip around the world. He took in the Hawaiian Islands, the Philippines, Taiwan, Hong Kong and then Saigon where he had a week with his brother. Then the two went to Bangkok for three more days together. Then for Loal it was on to India for 10 days, then the Holy Land, Greece and finally home.
On his return, Loal entered Asbury Theological Seminary in Lexington, Kentucky to start work toward a Bachelor of Divinity Degree. Eventually Loal got not only his Bachelor's but his Master's in Divinity from Asbury. He then went to Princeton, New Jersey Theological Seminary for a Master's in Theology, and then to Michigan State University at East Lansing for a Master's in Curriculum and Instruction. He also has a Bachelor's Degree from Azusa Pacific and has completed work toward a doctorate in Curriculum Research at Michigan State University.
Career-wise, Loal started out as general manager of the Information Processing Division of Mattron, Inc. in Lansing, Michigan, where he specialized in management seminars. He then went to Spring Arbor College at Spring Arbor, Michigan near Lansing, as registrar.
In July 1983, a whole new career opened up. Loal became Director of Institutional Research and Planning at Roberts Wesleyan College at North Chili, near Rochester, New York. In the 1980s he was responsible for Title III funding and various grant research projects for the college.
Loal was married in Lexington, Kentucky on 17 July 1970 to Alice Christine CAVIT, a native of Lexington. Alice was born 1 March 1942 to Charles and Anna (HART) CAVIT. Loal and Alice made their home in North Chili, New York in the early 1980s.
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Ewing Family Lineage: Faber-Florence-Eliza-Samuel-John-James
Faber, who goes by the name "Art", was born 11 December 1944 in Los Angeles and attended Los Angeles Pacific High as the rest of the family had done. He completed his freshman year at the college there and then joined the Air Force as a helicopter pilot candidate. He took his basic training at Fort Ord, California and then went to Fort Wolters in Texas for flight training. He was sent to Fort Rucker in Alabama to complete his pilot's training, and emerged a Warrant Officer. Of the 120 men who started at Fort Ord, only 54 graduated at Fort Rucker. The family went to Fort Rucker to see Faber get his wings on 11 August 1964.
Faber was given a month's leave before being sent to Vietnam. During this leave he became engaged to Janet Sue RIGGS, his high school sweetheart.
He left for Vietnam in September 1964 and was stationed at the Bien Hoa Air Base. During his year there he had many exciting and hazardous flights. For 25 hours of combat, flight pilots receive an Air Medal. Faber received the Air Medal with 26 Oak Leaf Clusters, which means that he had all told, 675 hours of combat flight. (Actually that represents only about one-half of his time in the air there.)
In that year 10 of his 54 buddies were either killed or wounded seriously enough to be sent home. Faber was very lucky. His plane was hit on three different occasions, but he never received so much as a scratch.
When he returned to Los Angeles in September 1965 he and Janet were married in the Hermon Free Methodist Church by her father, Reverend John RIGGS, with Faber's father assisting.
Janet was born 12 December 1944 at St Francisville, Illinois. Her mother is Dorothy (GINES) RIGGS.
After the wedding on 17 September 1965 the newlyweds honeymooned in San Francisco, Lake Tahoe and the Yosemite Valley, and then set out for Fort Rucker.
At Fort Rucker, Faber received training as a helicopter instructor. He was then sent to Munich, Germany to train fixed-wing pilots for helicopter duty. As soon as he was set up in Munich, he sent for Janet.
After two or three years in Germany they returned home to the United States. In the early 1980s they were the owners of the original family home on Mt. Washington, which has been almost completely rebuilt, and lived there with their two daughters.
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Ewing Family Lineage: Florence-Eliza-Samuel-John-James
Homer, Florence and Florian's youngest, was born 1 December 1907 in Phoenix when Arizona was still a territory. He entered Los Angeles Pacific High in 1922 and graduated in 1926. He tried a number of different enterprises before going into business as a building contractor.
Homer was twice married. He and Lillian DOIG, a Registered Nurse, were married 2 November 1929 in Yuma, Arizona. That marriage ended in divorce about 1934. In 1936 Homer and Louetta WRIGHT were married. Apparently these were two unhappy people. Louetta drank considerably and after five years of marriage, one day the two got into their car, put a hose into it from the exhaust, turned on the motor, and sat there in each other's arms to await their fate. The suicide broke Florence's heart. Homer was her much-beloved "baby." He was only 33 years old when he died the 14th of November 1941 in Napa, California.
ISSUE by Lillian:
1. Dorothy Louise AMES, b. 24 Dec 1933 , Long Beach, California. Married: 1. 22 Aug 1953, Harold C. RAMSER, II, divorced. Married 2nd Jack Ellis RANDALL, who adopted her Ramser sons.
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Ewing Family Lineage: Eliza-Samuel-John-James
Friend was born in Mahaska County, Iowa on 28 April 1872. His travels and schooling were much the same as Eliza's - Williams, California; Oberlin, Kansas - where he was graduated from high school; Roswell, Colorado; Phoenix, Arizona Territory and then finally California to stay.
Friend was married in Phoenix on 6 March 1896 to Florence Taylor WILKINSON who was born in 1872, in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. They had three children, the last born in 1903 in Holtville, California.
It was just a year later, 1904, that Florence was killed in a tragic accident. She was returning home after a shopping trip to town in a horse-drawn wagon. Something scared the horse and it bolted and in the process kicked Florence in the chin. The blow broke her neck. Friend, who had seen all this from their porch, ran to her and she died in his arms. She is buried in Imperial, California.
Friend was 32 years old at the time of Florence's death, with three youngsters, 7, 4, and 1. Friend did not remarry and died 40 years later, on 16 June 1944 at Garden Grove, California, where he is buried.
ISSUE:
10-1-3-1 1. Isabel WALKER, b. 20 July 1897, Phoenix, Arizona.
2. Flora Ewing WALKER, b. 11 Oct 1900, Long Beach, California. Married: 27 October 1923, Berkeley, California, Charles Vernon COVELL, son of Burness and Mahala COVELL, b. 11 May 1898, Bronson, Minnesota.
Issue:
1. Charles Richard COVELL, b. 3 Feb 1928, Oakland, California. Married: 1953, Gertrude EDER of Stuttgart, Germany.
3. Charles Stephen WALKER, b. 9 Mar 1903, Holtville, California. Married: 26 July 1929, Santa Barbara, California, Dorothy DURNBAUGH, b. 9 May 1907, Orange, Calif, daughter of Mordecai DURNBAUGH.
Issue:
1. Edwin Charles WALKER, b. 16 Oct 1933, Long Beach, California. Married: 4 May 1957, Belle ENDTER.
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Ewing Family Lineage: Friend-Eliza-Samuel-John-James
Isabel was born 20 July 1897 in Phoenix, Arizona Territory and she was married in Los Angeles, California to Hugh HOWARD. Hugh was born 4 July 1887 in Marble, Arkansas to Joseph and Harriet (LITRELL) HOWARD. Hugh died the 5th of October 1962 in Jackson, California.
In 1983 Isabel was living with her daughter, Lola, in Santa Cruz, New Mexico.
ISSUE:
1. Opal HOWARD, b. 6 Aug 1915, Los Angeles, California. Married: 1st 1947, Loren DALTON. Married: 2nd 1965, Ervin YANCEY.
2. Lola HOWARD, b. 1918, Arkansas. Married: Clark VIEGAS, d. 3 July 1961. Lola lost her husband, her daughter and her father all in 15 months. In 1983 Lola was living in Santa Cruz, New Mexico where she manages apartments. Her mother lives with her.
3. Clarence HOWARD, b. 1921, Arkansas.
4. Juanita HOWARD, b. 1923, Castleford, Idaho. Married: John HESELTON.
5. Flora HOWARD, b. 1925, Castleford, Idaho. Married: 1st Carl WALKER. Married: 2nd Robert RAMIREZ.
6. JoAnn HOWARD, b. 1931, Fullerton, California. Married: Robert SNYDER.
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Ewing Family Lineage: Samuel-John-James
Unlike her sister, Eliza, Rhoda got to Iowa and stayed put. She spent most of her 84 years - 49 of those a widow, right there in Van Buren and Mahaska counties. She did venture forth on at least one occasion, though - for two Ewing reunions in Ohio and Michigan in 1901.
Rhoda was born 16 August 1835 in the cabin of Samuel and Elizabeth on George's Creek in Gallia County, Ohio. She lacked 11 days of being 14 when her mother died, and was 18 years old when her father and family headed for Van Buren County, Iowa, in 1853. Within two years of their arrival in Portland, Iowa, her father died, and within a year of that, her youngest brother, John EWING, along with their brother-in-law, Robert KNOWLTON, headed for California.
That left Rhoda, 21; Thomas, 19 and Eliza, 23 - and expecting a baby soon, on their own.
Among their neighbors at Portland were the Briggs. The family consisted of William G. BRIGGS, his wife, Zoni, their seven children and William's brother, George. George was born 16 June 1831 in Columbiana County, Ohio and was just the right age to be a suitor for Rhoda.
In 1859, George told Rhoda that he and his brother had acquired two adjacent parcels of land in Harrison Township, Mahaska County, Iowa, near Eddyville. They would be leaving soon for their new home and he would be mighty pleased if Miss Rhoda would go with him as his wife.
Miss Rhoda would. She and George were married on the 22nd of May 1859, and shortly thereafter, the Ewings sold out and they all departed Van Buren County, and heading up the
Des Moines River, a few miles, to Eddyville. By that time Eliza and her little girl, Cora, had left the household for a teaching job in Decatur County, but Thomas remained in the Briggs household for the time being.
Rhoda and George's new home was a few miles north of Eddyville, a town which is actually in Wapello County. George and Rhoda had a farm in Section 34 of Harrison Township, Mahaska County, Iowa. William and Zoni's farm was in Section 33, adjoining.
George and Rhonda were ensconced there at the time of the 1860 census, and that is where their first child was born in March 1860. They named him William G. for George's brother.
Four more children followed William - John, Anna, Sarah and Edwin. The farm prospered. They had the companionship of William and his family just a farm lane away. A sixth child was on the way. Life seemed good.
But on the 12 of August, 1871 tragedy struck.
The story, as it originally appeared in a local newspaper, is complete in "THE HISTORY OF MAHASKA COUNTY," published in 1878 and which calls it "one of the most terrible disasters which ever occurred in the coal fields of Central Iowa."
"On the farm of William G. BRIGGS was a coal shaft, about 150 yards from the house. The shaft was 32 feet deep, and about 8 feet square, in which considerable water had gathered. The water was used for watering stock, the water being drawn out by a bucket raised by horse power.
"On the morning of 12 August 1871 about 7:30, two of Briggs' sons, Mahlon, 18 and Charlie, 10, went out to the shaft to water the stock. While they were there a neighbor's boy named Jimmie COWDEN came along in search of some lost hogs. He was assisting them when the bucket failed to fill because the water was very low in the shaft, and Charlie was sent down to fill it by dipping. He had only been down a moment when he called to his brother that he was suffocating. Mahlon immediately went down to his rescue. He put his brother in the bucket and got in himself and called to Jimmie to draw them up which Jimmie was able to do with the aid of the horse. But when the bucket almost reached the top, Mahlon let go and fell to the bottom. Charlie was brought out, but it was too late.
"Jimmie then called to William, who was near the house. Briggs ran to the shaft and started down the ladder, probably not thinking of the damps, but under the impression his son Mahlon was drowning. Seeing his mistake he started out, but before reaching the top he lost his hold and fell to the bottom of the pit.
"Seeing him fall, young Jimmie started for the field for help. On the way he mat Anna BRIGGS, William's daughter, about 14, running over from the house, and told her not to go into the shaft. He then ran across the fields over half a mile to where some men, including William's brother, George, were threshing, and gave the alarm.
"While he was gone, however, the girl went down and met the fate of the rest.
"The threshers all ran to the pit. George was the first to reach the mouth of the pit. He started down and was immediately overcome.
"Edward GREER, an Irishman who had been working on the farm for four years, arrived and started to go down. The threshers, and others who had gathered, tried to dissuade him, but could not. Then they said they'd tie a rope around him, but he would not wait. He went down to his fate.
"Grappling irons were procured and the bodies raised, but of course not until after death had ensued.
"Thus briefly we sketch from the Herald, the report an account of one of the most heart-rending catastrophes this Iowa historian has been called upon to record. Six persons, five of them from the Briggs family, stricken in the prime of life, in a single half hour."
The grief in the two families was beyond measure. Rhoda had lost her husband, George, leaving five children fatherless. Zoni had lost her husband, William, and three children - Mahlon, Anna and Charles - in a terrible tragedy.
Two months later Rhoda gave birth to a daughter. She named that daughter Georgia, honoring the father the infant would never know.
But life had to go on. And for Rhoda it went on for 49 more years. Her eldest was only 11 at the time of George's death, but between them they managed to keep the farm going.
Zoni tried to keep her farm going too. In the 1878 history she was listed as a farmer. But by 1880 she had moved in with Rhoda.
At the time of the 1900 census, Rhoda was head of the household in which lived her daughter, Georgia CLARK and family. Rhoda was recorded as having had seven children, only four then living. The 1910 Mahaska County, Iowa census is missing.
Rhoda ventured afield in 1901. That was the year a big push started among the Ewings to raise a monument to Indian John and Ann Smith Ewing at Vinton back in Gallia County, Ohio. Rhoda did her bit to promote it. She and her daughter, Anna, got on the train and headed first for Ewington, Ohio and the Ewing reunion there, and then for Hillsdale County, Michigan where the descendants of Enoch EWING (No. 18) were gathering, and helped drum up contributions. Rhoda had written an account of her grandfather's life, as told to her by her father, Samuel, Indian John's youngest and the last to leave the nest. (Actually the nest left him) Rhoda read her story at both reunions and then it, along with a similar story written by a great-grandson, Anselm Tupper HOLCOMB of Portsmouth, Ohio (5-8-4), was sent to the WEST VIRGINIA HISTORICAL MAGAZINE, for publication in its July, 1904 issue (Vol. 4, No. 3).
At some time prior to about 1915, Georgia died. Rhoda gave up the Harrison Township farm and went to live with her daughter, Anna, by then Mrs. Jacob HOHL, in Given, Mahaska County, Iowa. In February, 1920, the Hohls moved across the county line to Kirkville, Wapello County, Iowa and Rhoda went with them. That is where she died on Friday, 17 December 1920 at the age of 85 years, 5 months, 1 day. She left three children, 11 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. The funeral was held the following Sunday afternoon at the Eddyville Baptist Church of which Rhoda had been a member since she was 18 years old.
Rhoda is buried at Highland Cemetery, Eddyville, Wapello County, Iowa.
ISSUE:
1. William G. BRIGGS, b. Mar 1860, Mahaska County, Iowa. 1880 census: at home; deceased by the 1900 census.
2. John D. BRIGGS, b. 1862, Mahaska County, Iowa. 1880 census: at home; deceased by the 1900 census.
10-2-3 3. Anna Eliza BRIGGS, b. 1863/64, Mahaska County, Iowa.
10-2-4 4. Sarah Elizabeth BRIGGS, b. Sept 1965, Mahaska County, Iowa.
10-2-5 5. Edwin Thomas BRIGGS, b. Apr 1869, Mahaska County, Iowa.
10-2-6 6. Georgia E. BRIGGS, b. Oct 1871, Mahaska County, Iowa.
7. _____BRIGGS, b&d probably about 1867
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Ewing Family Lineage: Rhoda-Samuel-John-James
Anna, called Tish by her close associates, was born in Mahaska County, Iowa in 1863 or 1864. She spent the first 40 or so years of her life single. She accompanied her mother to the Ewing reunions in Ewington, Ohio and Hillsdale, Michigan in 1901 and wore a hatchet in her belt as a symbol of her connection to Indian John.
She was Anna Briggs in 1904 when she sent a letter to the reunions in Ohio and Michigan that year, but at some time thereafter, before 1917, she became Mrs. Jacob HOHL. In 1917 when she sent a letter to the Ewing reunion at Burnside, Illinois, she signed it Mrs. Anna HOHL. At that time she lived in Given, Mahaska County, Iowa. Her mother was living with her. Later the Hohls, and Rhoda, moved to Kirkville, Wapello County, Iowa.
Later in life, Anna had a second husband, John A. ANDERSON.
She was about 90 years old when she died in 1954.
No issues could be located for Anna.
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Ewing Family Lineage: Rhonda-Samuel-John-James
Sarah was born in September 1865 and was married in 1889 to Minded W. HARDING, born in November 1867 in Illinois. In the 1900 census the family was living in Harrison Township, Mahaska County, Iowa and had a boarder, William J. MILLER, 66.
The family were listed in the census three properties away from Sarah's brother, Edwin BRIGGS.
ISSUE as of the 1900 census:
1. Anna HARDING, b. Nov 1892, Iowa.
2. Callie HARDING, (dau) b. Nov 1895, Iowa.
Ewing Family Lineage: Rhoda-Samuel-John-James
Edwin was born in April of 1869, just two years prior to that tragic accident in which his father lost his life. He was married about 1894 to Mary E. BURNS. Mary was born in June of 1868 in Iowa. In the 1900 census Edwin and Mary were listed three properties away from the Minded HARDINGS in Harrison Township, Mahaska County, Iowa. Edwin died in 1928
ISSUE as of the 1900 census:
1. Phillip BRIGGS, b. Sept 1895.
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Ewing Family Lineage: Rhoda-Samuel-John-James
Georgia was born in October 1871, two months after her father's death in the mine shaft accident, and was obviously named for him. She was married in 1895 to John CLARK, who was born in Iowa in April of 1860. In the 1900 census, John and Georgia and their children were living with Rhoda in the town of Eddyville, Wapello County, Iowa. John was recorded as a day laborer and Georgia was listed as having had two children, both living.
Georgia died prior to 1915.
ISSUE as of 1900 census:
1. Helen CLARK, b. June 1896, Iowa.
2. Frank CLARK, b. Oct 1898, Iowa.
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Ewing Family Lineage: Samuel-John-James
Thomas was born 28 February 1837 on George's Creek in Addison Township, Gallia County, Ohio. He was 12 when his mother died and 16 years old when the family left Gallia County for Van Buren County, Iowa. With his father's death in 1855, 18 year old Thomas had to assume a leadership role in the family, which may have had something to do with the fact that he was 42 years old before he married.
In the meantime there were the marriages of his sisters and the move to Harrison Township, Mahaska County, Iowa. In the 1860 census, Thomas was listed there in the census as a farm laborer working for William G. BRIGGS, brother of the husband of his sister Rhoda, who had a farm adjoining Rhoda's.
It is said that Thomas served the entire four years of the Civil War. A picture exists of him in a soldier's uniform. However, no records were found of any service and he does not appear to have a file with the pension bureau.
On 5 November 1879 Thomas and Mary E. OVERMAN were married. Mary was born in June 1849 in Iowa to Abner and Mary A. OVERMAN of Columbia Township, Wapello County, Iowa. At first, after their marriage, they lived in Harrison Township, where the two of them were listed in the 1880 census, but by the 1900 census they had moved to Columbia Township, Wapello County, Iowa. That is where Thomas died 9 September 1911.
ISSUE:
1. Amanda EWING, b. Oct 1882, b. 1967, Eddyville, Wapello County, Iowa. Never married, lived with parents and after their death, lived alone.
2. Son EWING, died in infancy
3. Son EWING, died in infancy
4. Son EWING, died in infancy
5. Son EWING, died in infancy
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Ewing Family Lineage: Samuel-John-James
John was born 21 April 1841, in the cabin his grandfather, for whom he was named, had built some 40 years before on George's Creek in Addison Township, Gallia County, Ohio.
He was 8 years old when his mother died. For some reason he was not listed with his father and siblings in the 1850 Gallipolis Township census.
In 1853 when the family made their move to Van Buren County, Iowa, John was along. Two years later, at age 14, he was orphaned with the death of his father in Portland, Iowa.
That was the year the men of Van Buren were hearing tales of the glories of California from one John FRIEND who had been there and was about to return. John Ewing's brother-in-law Robert KNOWLTON was among those who would be joining Friend on the long trek to the west coast.
Full of an adventurous spirit, young John begged to sign on too. The following spring a large entourage of men, women and children departed from Portland, Iowa with the experienced Friend their acknowledged leader. (see 2-9 for details of that journey)
On arriving in California the party broke up, but John remained with the Friend family and went with them to Cherokee Flats, Butte County and began a career as a miner - of gold.
That was his life for the next five years. When the Civil War started he was 20 years old, 5 feet 5 inches tall, had blue eyes, light hair and light complexion.
In September he went down from the mountains to San Francisco to enlist on 10 September 1861 for three years as a private in Captain Moses A. MC LAUGHLIN'S company - Company D, of the 2nd California Cavalry Volunteers.
He was mustered in the same date and was sent to Camp Union. The 2nd Cavalry mostly saw duty in the immediate vicinity of Camp Union. But John was not there very long. His three-year enlistment turned out to be less than three months. John developed epilepsy.
He had two seizures in about that many months. After his seizures, he returned to duty almost immediately. "He is a good and intelligent man," his captain wrote. "He has never been punished since he has been in the service."
But J.M. WILLIAMSON, the regimental surgeon, who was called on the occasion of both seizures, had to certify that as an epileptic, John was not fit for duty, and the young soldier was discharged 19 December 1861 at Camp Alert, San Francisco, California.
John returned to Cherokee Flats in Butte County to be with his friends, the Friends.
The following year, 1862, the two Johns, Friend and Ewing, decided to go back East for a visit. Friend had some business to take care of and Ewing had been harboring a secret urge to see his family again. The two men set out on horseback.
They reached Iowa without mishap - and what a great reunion it was for the Ewings, John, Eliza, Rhoda and Thomas.
But is was brief, and soon the two were getting ready for the return trip to California. This time they would be traveling on the railroad.
They departed - and John Ewing was never heard from again.
If he died enroute - say of an epileptic seizure - and John Friend relayed that information back to the Ewings in Iowa, it has not come down through the years. As far as John's family was concerned, it was as big a mystery as the disappearance of Robert KNOWLTON six years before.
NO ISSUE