Treasure Chest Thursday - Uncle Rollin's Letter: My Webster Family: Coming Full Circle - From The U.S.A. to Brazil and Back Again - Part 3

This is part of a series of posts dedicated to the immigration story of Debs Webster and his family.



Rollin Waterman Webster

This sweet gentleman is Rollin Waterman Webster.  The photo was taken in 1952 in Chicago, Illinois.  He would be about 81 or 82 years old at this time.

Rollin wrote to my Grandfather Debs Warren Webster after Mr. Harper C. Pendry's help in reuniting them.  Here's Rollin's letter:

Rollin's Letter:

Dear Nephue Debbs, I received your nice letter and I am very glad that you got my address we have been here since 1947.  We bought this 6 room house, a large attic and basement, and a 1 car garage.  I keep my bicycle out there, I shop a lot on my cycle, I have no car but my Son Francis J. next door has a car, he is a 6 ft 2 in tall and a Cook Co, sheriff he use to be a Fireman on the R. Road for 7 years, he is also a very good piano player.  I started him taken lessons when he was about six years old he playes around quite a bit, my oldest daughter is married and has two children a girl 15 and a boy 6.  Her name is Marge Gill, I lost a boy in 1912 Raymond Daniel 7 years.

Now Genevieve Anthony my youngest daughter about born in 1910, 41 years she has two children Carol 16 and Billie 10 years, they live with us, we payed $10,500.00 in 1947 for our house.  I am retired from the Railroad I worked 31 years as Stationary fireman and Engineer on car repairer. I started in Denver, Col, in 1890 then worked for the I.C. R.R. 10 years and the Santa Fe 21 years.  Now I get a Pension $118.00 per month.  I also get social security old age Pension.  I am feeling very good lots of people think I am in the 60ies.  I play my violin banjo guitar and piano most evry day my violin cost $105.00 in 1901 banjo 25.00 guitar 15 and piano $500.00 small 44 inches latest style.  My son Frank has a good piano, his mother died in 1915. I married her sister Ellen in 1916.  She has a brother and sister left her brother is in Ireland.  Ellen is about 6 years old never had any children.

Debbs the picture of yourself and wife is a very nice.  I hope you will come here and locate.  I think you would like Chicago Illinois.  We have over 3,000 population now.  I think you could get plenty of practice.  I have two sets of false teeth they cost me $195.00 in 1936 their very good yet.  Our brother Frank Webster died in 1932 he was 5 years older than me, sister Lura died in 1942 she was 9 years older than me, your father Watson Emery Fred Webster was 7 years older than me.  My sister Lura Dell Burket died around 1898 she was 46 when she died.  I am the only Webster left in our family.  We are all well and hope to see you folks soon.  I suppose you would have to become American citizens in order to stay here.  The last time I seen your father, two sisters and yourself was when came here from S. Americ to Chicago then I seen you again in Loueasanna soon after you left Chicago.

Debbs your oldest sister that you left in old Mexico that married a Mexican who got to be a dentist, do you hear from her or is she dead  I forget her name your youngest sister died, but I forget their names, if you no your sister address, I wish you would tell me.  I also forget the town that you left when you went back to So America, in Louisana.

So good luck and goodby our best wishes and write soon

My thoughts on Rollin’s sweet letter to my grandfather -

This letter is chock-full of genealogical gold as well as interesting tidbits of information.  I highlighted in bold the pertinent genealogical gold nuggets.  Rollin talks about his siblings, his children, who he married, where he worked and when, and even information about Debs and his family visiting him in Chicago, etc.  Priceless!  Thanks Uncle Rollin!

Another interesting bit of information is the population of Chicago at the time this letter was written.  Rollin put the population at 3,000 people.  I don’t have the exact date of this letter, but I think it’s safe to say it’s sometime between January 1952 and July 1952, because the latter date is when my grandfather and his family immigrated to the United States from Brazil.

Also, I find it cute that Rollin listed the prices he paid for things in his letter:

• $10,500 – house in 1947
• $105 – violin in 1901
• $25 – banjo
• $15 – guitar
• $500 – piano
• $195 – two sets of false teeth in 1936

Uncle Rollin’s letter is truly a treasure in our family!  Do you have any old letters tucked away somewhere that could hold genealogical gold?

The next installment of my Webster family’s journey back to the United States will find them on the ship The S.S. Brazil headed to New York City. 

I'm also looking forward to sharing with you some early 50’s postcards that I recently found in my grandfather Debs Webster’s scrapbook.  Some in this collection look like they were purchased on their road trip from New York City to their final destination in Southern California.

Thanks for reading!

Copyright © Jana Last 2012

Mystery Monday–Who’s the Gentleman with Grandpa Webster?

Here’s a little mystery for you.  Can anyone identify this man sitting on the chair pictured with my grandfather, Debs Warren Webster?  My grandfather was born in 1914 in Brazil.  I'm not sure how old he is in this picture.  If you look closely there is writing on the right bottom corner of the photo.  I had my mom look at the writing and she deciphered it as "Debs e un amigo."  Translation - "Debs and a friend."  So, we know that this was a friend of Debs and or his family.  My son had a good suggestion.  Maybe he was a teacher.  Hmm.  We just don't know who he is or where and when this photo was taken.

And because Debs' father, Watson Emory (Frederick) Webster, a.k.a. The Traveling Dentist, seemed to travel so much this photo could have been taken almost anywhere!

Thanks for reading!


Copyright © Jana Last 2012

Sepia Saturday 128–Grandpa Iverson Plays his Mandolin

Sepia Saturday provides an opportunity for genealogy bloggers to share their family history through photographs.

Arthur Harry Iverson

This week's Sepia Saturday suggests a musical theme.  I love this photo of my paternal grandfather, Arthur Harry Iverson, playing his mandolin.  From what I’ve read about him and his family, they must have been musically inclined.  His older brothers, Christian Julius Iverson and Lawrence Nicholas Iverson played guitars and violins and also made the instruments as well.  This is fascinating to me, as my husband and I are the parents of five children, all of whom sing and also play or have played one or more instruments.

My paternal grandmother, Ingrid Anna Gilberg, Arthur’s wife, also came from a musical family.  Her vocal personal history recounts how her mother, an immigrant from Sweden, played the guitar and sang.  In this history Ingrid said,

“Another thing I’d like to tell you that mother played the guitar as a young girl in Sweden and she would play at gatherings with her friends and they would harmonize and sing all the songs they knew in Sweden.  When she came to America she continued this.  She played the guitar at home and with friends and she taught us Swedish songs.  And we learned to harmonize my sisters and I.  It was a beautiful gathering each time we would stand around our mother and she would play the guitar and sing Swedish songs.”

Ingrid’s twin sisters, Edith and Ida were called upon many times to sing solos in church.

To see more Sepia Saturday posts, click here.

Thanks for reading!

Jana

Copyright © Jana Last 2012

Follow Friday–Fab Finds for 6/1/12

My Fabulous Finds for this week actually are from the last two or three weeks.  So here they are in no particular order -

1. Questioning the Scanner by Ancestral Breezes
2. Camera People vs. Scanner People  by Marian’s Roots and Rambles
3. Using OneNote to Keep Up With Those Ancestors by 4 Your Family Story
4. More OneNote Features to Rock Your Researching World by 4 Your Family Story
5. Creating an Ancestor List ("Ahnentafel") in Legacy Family Tree 7.5 by Genea Musings
6. The Best Way to Network: Serving People  and 25 Blogging Tips for Newbies and Veterans by Jeff Goins
7. Sepia Saturday: On the Street Where You Live by Jollette etc.
8. Why Genealogy Blog Comments are Important by Blogging Genealogy
9. Honoring Civil War Veterans at The Ridges by A Sense of Family
10. SnagIt by TechSmith (nope, it’s not a blog, but it is a new discovery to me and I’m having fun with this new tech tool)

Treasure Chest Thursday - My Webster Family: Coming Full Circle - From The U.S.A. to Brazil and Back Again - Part 2

This is part of a series of posts dedicated to the immigration story of Debs Webster and his family. 

Debs Warren Webster

Mr. Harper C. Pendry and my grandfather Debs Warren Webster apparently became friends following the amazing assistance Mr. Pendry provided to my grandfather in helping him connect with his Webster family here in the United States.  The following is a letter from Mr. Pendry to my grandfather written in January of 1952. 

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I’ve included the envelope for this letter as well. I like how my grandfather wrote the word “valuable” on the outside of it. Yes, grandpa, you were right, this is very valuable!

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Transcription of Mr. Pendry’s letter:

Dear Dr. Webster:

The day I received your welcome Christmas card a reporter from the local paper dropped in and was fascinated by the story I told him about our correspondence.  From the file he wrote up a short story about the incident which was carried in the Athens Messenger on January 1, 1952.

I enclose the page on which your story appears.

My best wishes for a happy New Year.

Yours very truly
ATHENS BOARD OF TRADE

Harper C. Pendry
Secretary-Manager

So, how cool is it that my grandpa’s story was written up in The Athens Messenger newspaper?  My grandfather saved the newspaper article and I am including it in this post, with the permission of The Athens Messenger.

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Transcription of newspaper article:

Board of Trade Search Finds Brazil Man’s Kin
By Charles Woodruff

You may suppose that the Athens Board of Trade is only interested in affairs connected with commerce, that it is a completely impersonal thing.

But you’d be wrong.

Take the recent case of the South American dentist for an example.

Dr. Debs Warren Webster, of Sao Paulo, Brazil, wrote to the Athens board asking for information.  Dr. Webster said that he was hoping to locate relatives in Athens because his father had been born here.

The letter, written in an ornate script reminiscent of old world handwriting, said that his father’s name was Frederic Emory Webster; his grandfather, Abenezer Webster, and his grandmother, Cinthia Maria Webster.

Dr. Webster concluded that the reason he wanted to locate his relatives was because “I intend to go back to the states as soon as I get in touch with them.”

Harper C. Pendry, secretary-manager of the Athens Board of Trade, got hold of the letter last August, and things began to happen.

He acknowledged the letter to Dr. Webster and asked for more definite information, meanwhile conducting local inquiries and writing to the Brazilian Embassy in Washington, D. C.

Pendry asked old-timers around Athens if they knew anything about a family of Websters.  He learned that the only Websters in the county lived in Canaanville, and that they were not related.

The next letter from Dr. Webster provided the clue that ended the search.  After relating that he was born in Santos, Brazil, in 1914, three years after his father went there, and that his mother, a native Brazilian, died in 1920, the dentist described a visit to the United States in 1921.

It was while he was in Chicago that he met an uncle, Rollin Waterman Webster, his father’s younger brother, who worked in a pumping station for the New York Central Railroad.

From there on it turned out to be easy for Pendry.  He merely swiveled around in his office chair, took the Chicago city directory off the shelf and looked up Rollin Waterman Webster.  A quick letter to the Chicago uncle followed, and Pendry soon learned he had the right party.

The board secretary wrote a letter to Dr. Webster giving him the good news on Sept. 29.  Dr. Webster wrote back on Oct. 15, an excited letter offering profuse thanks and sending a picture of himself.

No, sir, you never know what job might fall to a board of trade office.

(In the newspaper article it states that Debs' mother was a native Brazilian.  That was incorrect.  She was actually born in Mexico.)

Mr. Harper C. Pendry and my grandfather must have kept in contact over the years because I have a letter from Mrs. Alice E. Pendry to my grandfather dated July 10, 1961 informing my grandfather of  the death of Mr. Pendry.  Here is her sweet letter:

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Transcription of Mrs. Pendry’s letter:

July 10, 1961

Dear Friends,

This note is to inform you of the passing of my beloved husband and your friend, Harper C. Pendry on June 16, 1961.

I wish to extend deep appreciation for the many kind notes and letters which brightened his days through his prolonged illness.

Sincerely,

Alice C. Pendry


Thanks for reading!

Copyright © Jana Last 2012