Tag Archives: Marjorie Coates

Eveline’s Senior Year: Family and Friends on Chairs – or Not

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I shared a photo of my grandmother Eveline Coates’ high school graduating class in Mystic, Iowa a few weeks ago. Along with the photo and her diploma, a couple of other mementos were saved. One is the program for the Junior-Senior Banquet in honor of the graduating Seniors. It was interesting to see how World War I seemed to be the overarching theme of the festivities. I decided to take a deeper look at what her life may have been like during the 1917-1918 school year. There was a lot going on, a war and the beginning of an influenza pandemic to name the two biggies. See:
Eveline’s Senior Year: Part 1
Eveline’s Senior Year: The Draft and a Carnival
Eveline’s Senior Year: A Look Around Town
Eveline’s Senior Year: Musical Notes

The prompt photo for Sepia Saturday this week features a heavily carved chair circa 1900.

Old Chair In Reykjavik Museum, Cornell University Library Collection : Sepia Saturday 619 Prompt Image

How to make a chair fit with the theme of Eveline’s senior year? I looked for photos that might have been taken inside her home. I didn’t find any, but there are a few photos of people sitting on chairs. There are also photos of people outside her home. They were taken not long before or after, if not during, Eveline’s 1917-1918 school year and provide another glimpse into her life during that time.

I’ll start with a photo of Eveline holding her youngest sister, Nellie. Eveline and Nellie both had February birthdays – Eveline born in 1901; Nellie born in 1912. Nellie would have been about six during Eveline’s senior year. She looks a little younger here, I think. I wonder if the photograph was to commemorate their February birthdays?

Eveline and Nellie Coates, circa 1915-1917

Below is Eveline’s brother Leonard (“Lindy”). He was born in March of 1910, so he would have been about eight during Eveline’s senior year. He might be a little younger in this photo, but close enough. The dog is tied to the handle of the wagon where Lindy sits, holding a long stick.

Leonard “Lindy” Coates

Eveline’s older brother, John, had his photo taken in uniform while sitting in a carved chair. John registered for the draft during the summer of 1917. This photograph was likely taken not long after Eveline’s graduation in 1918.

John Coates, 1918

That’s the end of the photos of family members sitting circa 1917-18. So we will move outside. I have shared this photo of Eveline’s parent’s before. The backdrop of a painted house with white trim is consistent in other family photos. It must be the family home.

Joseph and Mary Harris Coates

Eveline’s sister Marjorie was born in 1906, which would make her about twelve in 1918. I’m going to call this close enough. Her hat looks the same as the one Lindy wore in the earlier photo.

Marjorie Coates

These are not all of Eveline’s siblings, just the ones I found photos of around this time in her life. It must have been a busy house with at least eight of the nine living siblings at home. As the oldest girl, it would fall to Eveline to help with the chores and the care of her younger siblings.

Eveline kept some photos of friends and neighbors.

Bernard and Mary Reinscop, neighbors
Marion and Eveline Morlan, neighbors
Maggie Train

As I looked through old newspapers, names of other Mystic residents appeared repeatedly – motoring to Centerville or attending a club meeting or a party. Eveline’s family very rarely made mention. They never seemed to go anywhere with anyone. Until …

Centerville Daily Iowegian and Citizen, Centerville, IA, 21 Jul 1917

Eveline had a party! She hosted her class. At the covered bridge. In the middle of the week in July.

Finding this made me inexplicably happy.

Unfortunately, I have not seen any photo that records the events of the day or who was there. Although her graduating class was small, they would not all fit into one car. The names Fenton and Ford do not appear on a list of classmates, so the drivers of the cars must have been family friends who offered to drive those who did not live within walking distance. There is one photo of Eveline with some girlfriends.

Top to bottom: Unknown, Eveline Coates, Unknown, Alice Tingle, Unknown

I only know the identity of the two girls leaning left – Eveline and her friend and classmate Alice Tingle. I think you can tell which one is Eveline by her hair! All of the girls look like they could be incoming high school seniors and there is water, so it’s possible this photo goes with the newspaper reference to a party, but their long sleeved dresses make me wonder about it being July. Eveline and Alice attended normal school in the summer of 1918, so this photo could have been taken with friends there. In any case, they look like they are having fun – and at least one of them is sitting. On something.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday and my family history. Get comfortable in your chair and visit other Sepia Saturday bloggers here.

Sepia Saturday: An Uncle I Never Knew – Funeral Record

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The month of January and a health emergency declared in the northwestern U. S. because of a measles outbreak had me thinking about an uncle I never knew.

This is a continuing series about my uncle Wilbur Thomas Hoskins, who died at five years of age due to complications following measles. You can catch up here:
A Tow-Headed Boy
Measles
Who was with the family?

On Monday, January 20, 1930, Tom Hoskins made a payment toward the funeral expenses for his young son, Wilbur. The $78 bill included embalming, a casket, and hearse. Tom paid $42, leaving a balance of $36.

The funeral service was held the same day at the residence of Tom, Eveline, and Wilbur at 406 S. Church St. in Rockford, Illinois. The only information about the funeral is found in a Memorial Record book provided to the family.

My grandmother used a pencil to add information to the record.

Name    Wilbur Thomas Hoskins
Born      April 3, 1924
Mystic, Iowa
Passed Away  Jan 18-1930
Rockford, Illinois
Age      5 Years   9 Months    15 Days

I do not know who Harry Cobble was. Perhaps the family was living in a boarding house, or rented rooms from Harry Cobble.

Services
At    Harry Cobble
       406 S. Church St.
Officiating Clergy
      Salvation Army Captain
Music
     S. Army Lassies
By

Cemetery
     Wilwood

The rest of the Funeral Record is blank.

  

My grandmother did not record any “floral tributes,” but there are a couple of cards that look like they might have come with flowers.

Parents of Tom Hoskins

Tom and Eveline Hoskins

Mr. and Mrs. J. O. Hitchcock Mr. and Mrs. Joe Hitchcock

I don’t know who the Hitchcocks are, but I found entries that seem to match in the 1930 Rockford city directory.

Although the funeral record does not list attendees, I can assume that those present were Tom’s sister Ethel and her husband Mark Bland; Eveline’s sister Marjorie Coates; and Tom’s brother Warren Hoskins. Perhaps the Hitchcocks were there. If my grandparents rented a room from Harry Cobble, maybe he was also in attendance.

Albert Hoskins

Eveline was in the first trimester of pregnancy with my mother, who would be born the first week of July. Missing from the family group was Tom’s and Eveline’s other son, Albert, who had remained in Mystic, Iowa with his grandparents and had not come with his parents to Rockford.

It is especially heartbreaking to realize that my grandparents buried Wilbur on the day of younger son Albert’s fourth birthday. How they must have longed to hold both boys in their arms that day.

Grandma noted in the funeral record that the Salvation Army Captain was the officiating clergy and the Salvation Army Lassies provided music. I wanted to know more about what the funeral service might have been like and found The Salvation Army Central Territory Historical Museum. We have been in contact through email and I was told to expect an answer to my questions on Monday.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday. Please visit others who have responded to the prompt this week.

Sepia Saturday provides bloggers with an opportunity to share their history through the medium of photographs. Historical photographs of any age or kind become the launchpad for explorations of family history, local history and social history in fact or fiction, poetry or prose, words or further images. If you want to play along, sign up to the link, try to visit as many of the other participants as possible, and have fun.

Sepia Saturday: An Uncle I Never Knew – Who was with the family?

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The month of January and a health emergency declared in the northwestern U. S. because of a measles outbreak had me thinking about an uncle I never knew.

This is a continuing series about my uncle Wilbur Thomas Hoskins, who died in 1930 at five years of age due to complications following measles. You can catch up here:
An Uncle I Never Knew – A Tow-Headed Boy
An Uncle I Never Knew – Measles

I thought I had this post almost finished, but I’m starting over. I reread some things and did a little more research and hope I’ll be able to pull something together. I’m also dealing with a brain that doesn’t like screens post surgery and that has REALLY slowed me down!

Yesterday I spent time trying to place my grandparents and their siblings during the time of Uncle Wilbur’s illness and death. Wilbur’s parents (my grandparents, Tom and Eveline Hoskins) and their siblings were raised in Mystic, Iowa. Most of the men were coal miners. Mining was not always steady work and the Great Depression made matters worse. A few left Mystic for work in Rockford, Illinois. At first, I thought only my grandfather and his brother Warren were in Rockford, but I was wrong. It looks like their sister Ethel may have been the first of the group to settle in Rockford. Ethel and her husband, Mark Bland, make an appearance in the 1927 Rockford city directory along with several members of Mark’s extended family.

1927 Rockford city directory

I’m a little confused by the 1928 city directory. I’m not sure if the Ethel listed as a cashier living at a different address from Mark Bland is our Ethel or someone else.

In the 1929 city directory, Ethel and Mark, Tom, and Warren are living at 831 Kishwaukee in Rockford and the extended Bland family is consolidated on Kishwaukee Street.

I suspect one other member of Tom’s and Eveline’s extended family was in Rockford when Wilbur died. I found Eveline’s sister Marjorie Coates in the 1930 census in Rockford, although I have not found her in the city directories. A letter from their sister Blanche also places Marjorie in Rockford.

It’s been comforting to know that Margie has been with you doing the little acts of kindness that I would have been glad to do; you have always been so good to me. An I know you realize how hard it is for me to get out with four little ones and the weather staying 26 below.

I started trying to piece this together while thinking about the funeral for little Wilbur and wondering who was there. The information recorded in the Funeral Record book is sparse. It does not include the names of those present, or even the date of the funeral. I guess Grandma did the best she could under the circumstances.

I was able to determine the date of the funeral from two sources. The first is a newspaper clipping that is a mixed bag of correct and incorrect information.

First name correct. Middle and last name incorrect.
Age correct.
Parent’s first name correct. Last name incorrect.
Address correct.
Day of death matches death certificate; time does not.
Location of death correct.
Cause of death pneumonia – does not match death certificate.
Day of funeral – Monday

The second is the letter mentioned above from Blanche Coates. The letter is dated January 23rd and confirms that the funeral was held on Monday, January 20th.

If we had only know you were not taking the little fellow home we could have been there Monday, By driving as far as Elgin in the car then taking the bus. But we did not know and Im very, very sorry.

Blanche Coates and her husband Miles Bankson were living in Wheeling, Illinois when Wilbur died. She assumed her sister’s family would take Wilbur back to Mystic for burial and realized too late that they could have made it to the funeral.

My guess is that my that my grandmother Eveline and little Wilbur may have only been in Rockford for a few weeks when he became ill. Ethel and her husband Mark had been in Rockford a couple of years and Marjorie may have left for Rockford sometime in 1929 – or maybe came with Eveline and Wilbur. Most of the extended family remained in Mystic. Google maps gives the distance from Mystic to Rockford as a little over 300 miles and a trip of five hours by car today. Who knows how long the trip took in 1930?

It is comforting to know that there was at least some family with my grandparents during Wilbur’s illness and immediately following his death.

Ethel Hoskins and Mark Bland

Warren Hoskins

Marjorie Coates

This is about all my surgery-rattled brain can put together this week and is my contribution to Sepia Saturday.

Sepia Saturday provides bloggers with an opportunity to share their history through the medium of photographs. Historical photographs of any age or kind become the launchpad for explorations of family history, local history and social history in fact or fiction, poetry or prose, words or further images. If you want to play along, sign up to the link, try to visit as many of the other participants as possible, and have fun.

Please visit other participants at Sepia Saturday.