Granny Jo and the Catnappers

Once upon a time in the land of Ohio, there lived a cat. This cat's name was Snowball, and she was very happy at her farm home with the family that cared for her. She was a beautiful fluffy white cat that charmed all those who saw her. Many people were envious of Snowball's owners because they wished they had a cat just like her.

One day as Snowball was taking a walk in the yard, a sinister-looking car pulled up beside her. Before she knew it, a hand reached out of the car and pulled her within. Snowball was the unwilling captive of a strange family!

Unbeknownst to the catnappers, Jo--the mother of the family that owed Snowball--had seen the car that drove off with her pet from the kitchen window. She was pretty upset that they had taken her cat, and she planned on getting Snowball back!

Every day, Jo watched the cars that drove by her house, looking for the car that had taken poor Snowball away. She was pretty sure that the car belonged to someone that drove by her house often, as she lived in a small town. Sure enough, the car came driving by a few days later.

Jo was ready for them.

As soon as she saw the car drive by, she rushed to her car and began the chase! After winding through country roads and bumping over potholes, the sinister car turned in to a driveway. Jo waited for the driver and passengers to enter the house, then pulled in the driveway, got out of her car, and knocked on the door. A woman answered.

Jo got straight to the point. "Where is my cat?" she demanded. The woman pretended ignorance. "Your cat? We don't have your cat." At that point, Snowball entered the room. Jo said, "That's my cat! Come here, Snowball." Snowball came, Jo picked her up and stalked out the door.

They never had a problem with catnappers again.

We Have an Astronaut in Our Family

Karl Gordon Henize is the closest relative I have that is (at least a little bit) famous. He was a NASA astronaut, and logged 188 hours in space. Most of his life work was studying outer space. He is my Grandma Kathleen's first cousin, so he is also my first cousin, but twice removed. He was the son of Grandma Kathleen's uncle Fred Henize, brother to Grandma Lucy.

When he was 66, Karl tackled Mt. Everest. Unfortunately, his lungs were not able to withstand the high altitude (although I'm guessing he had an oxygen tank) and he passed away while climbing the mountain. He had reached an altitude of 21,000 ft. That is FOUR MILES above sea level! I am incredibly impressed that he tackled such a daunting mountain at that age, and even more impressed that he climbed so far (he ascended about 7,200 feet from the base of the mountain).

This website has more information on why he was on Mt. Everest at the time. It says, "He died in 1993, during a Mount Everest expedition. The purpose of this expedition was to test for NASA a meter called a Tissue Equivalent Proportional Counter (TEPC): testing at different altitudes (17,000 ft, 19,000 ft and 21,000 ft) would reveal how people’s bodies would be affected, including the way bodily tissues behaved, when struck by radiation, and this was important for the planning of long duration space missions.[2] Having reached Advanced Base Camp at 21,300 feet (6,500 m), the expedition was cut short when Henize died from high altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE) on October 5, 1993."

He's so famous, there's even a Wikipedia article about him!

NASA also has a short bio on him on their website.

J.O. Thompson's first family

I asked my mom's cousin Rita (my 1st cousin once removed) about J.O.'s first wife, Lula J. Hanson. Lula was only 13 when they married (J.O. was a few days away from his 22nd birthday), and she died when she was only 17. While looking at her information, I noticed that she and their two children all died around 1915, and I wondered if there was some sort of tragedy associated with their deaths. This is what Rita told me:

"Their children were Emma and then Leonard. Then in 1919 the great flu epidemic came along and got all three of his little family. Granddaddy about lost his mind. He was studying to be a preacher like his grandfather David Nolan. He took to hoboing on trains back and forth across the country and reading the bible as he went. He read it over and over. I believe that's why our granddaddy had the power to heal. He could stop blood and fire. He told God he couldn't go on and start another family if he might loose them like he lost his first. He asked for the power to heal and God gave it to him. And that is the story of J.O.'s first family."

Amazing story, right? Also definitely a tragedy. I had wondered what had taken J.O. away from his home in Georgia that made him end up in Charlotte, North Carolina, and now I know.

EDIT: Lula, Emma, and Leonard died of measles (source: Grandma Izzy); the flu epidemic came a few years after they had already passed away. When Grandma told me about it, she said, "Isn't it ridiculous that someone died from something as easy to cure [now] as measles?" She seemed to still feel the pain of their deaths, even though she had never met them.

Josephine Agnes "Jo" Grupenhoff

Josephine Agnes Grupenhoff, known to family and friends as "Jo" or "Granny Jo," depending on when you were born and how you're related to her.

Granny Jo had flaming red hair and was an excellent horsewoman. She was a single mother in an era when mothers didn't often have to be single. She raised one of the best men I know and I am proud to be related to her. She was full of spunk her entire life: when she was eighty-six, she dared to water ski, and at another point in her eighties, she broke her wrist while jumping over a bar stool for a game of leap frog that she was playing. She also chased down some cat-nappers in her younger years. What a woman!

Birth date: March 13, 1910 in Cincinnati, Ohio
Marriages:

1. July 27, 1929 to Clifford Winspear "Cliff" White; Jo was 19 years old.
2. October 17, 1986 Edwin C. "Ed" Sutton; Jo was 76 years old.

Death date: October 14, 2009 in Columbia, Maryland. Granny Jo lived to be 99 years old.

Her children were my grandfather, Gerald Lee "Jerry" White and Roger Thomas White, who passed away when he was only 16.

Records of Josephine A. Grupenhoff:

1910 Census

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1920 Census

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There are several interesting similarities and differences found between these two censuses. The similarities are that Frank worked as a trunkmaker in both. You can also see that he owned his house, but was paying back a mortgage at the time of both censuses.

The differences are what are really interesting, though. The most striking difference is that in the 1910 census, it shows that Frank's mother was born in Germany, but the 1920 census says she was born in Ohio. There are several sad differences, too. As you can see, the family is considerably smaller for the 1920 census. Jo's mother and her two sisters Rosella and Clara are missing from the 1920 census. It looks like Frank's mother, Mary, came to help with the house and children after Jo's mother passed away.

Censuses after Jo's marriage to Cliff White:

1930:

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As you can see, the 1930 census was taken soon after Jo and Cliff's marriage. They were renting their place for $35.00/month. One thing that you don't see here is that their neighbors (the rest of the census page) were mostly all renters and small families, as well. Several of the other small families are also newlyweds. Cliff worked as a book keeper and I think Jo was working as a sales lady at a department store. I'm not sure, though, because the image is really hard to read.

Interestingly, one of the questions asked by the census taker was if they had a radio set. This modern couple sure did!


1940:

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In the 1940 census, you see that Jo is no longer working outside the home, but is a home maker (that's what that long line of "no's" followed by an "H" means). They have two fine boys, aged 5 and 3 years old. Cliff is still working at the brokerage, but now is working as a margin clerk (whatever that is). I included the next family on the census, because I happened to know that that is the family that Cliff came from. How awesome is that?

One thing that I didn't see to make note of in the picture of the census is that Cliff and Jo were renting at $25/month and were living on a farm (this information is in the columns preceding their names). G-G-Granddad Cliff (Cliff, Sr.) was also living on a farm, but he owned his house. I'm guessing that this is White Acres. His house was valued the highest of all the owned houses on this census page.

We're related to the founders of Alexandria, VA!

Here's a little tidbit of family history from our very own Renee Hall!

"The Alexanders, also in the Campbell line, founded Alexandria, VA and helped to found Charlotte, NC. I read about it in a book called "Pioneers and Planters"--a fascinating book about the history of the South. Aunt Lois had already told me about the Charlotte part, but I didn't know about Alexandria. It stated that they were Presbyterian Merchants--meaning Scottish, as it was a Scottish sect, akin to what the Anglican church is to England, if I am not mistaken."

When I get around to the Alexanders, I will try to expand on this. Thanks, Renee!

What's in a name: Foy

Up until a few weeks ago when I started this blog, I thought I only had two Uncle Foys. Well, it turns out that I have three!

Here they are:

Uncle Foy, my mother's brother.
Great-Uncle Foy (b. mid 1920's), my maternal grandmother's brother.
Great-Great-Uncle Foy (b. 1903), my maternal great-grandmother's brother (brother to Grace Viola Campbell).

I didn't find any other Foys, but I only looked at Great-Great-Uncle Foy's aunts and uncles.

Searching for "Foy definition" on Google gave me some neat results.

From the Merriam-Webster website:
foy chiefly Scottish: a farewell feast or gift

From dictionary.com:
foy
1. chiefly Scot. a farewell gift, feast, or drink.
2. faith

The Scottish origin makes sense, since I'm pretty sure that both the Campbells and the Dunns (the parents of the first Foy) originated from Scotland. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Also, I like to check name popularity on a parenting website called babycenter.com. It shows popularity of a name through time, and it's really fun to play with. Here's the graph for Foy:

Before finding this graph, I thought we were the only family that used the name Foy. It's fun to see that there were other people that used the name! I think it's funny that the graph ends in 1938. I guess the name didn't catch on, which I think is too bad. I've always thought the name Foy was really cool.

Cecil Denver Wallace, Sr.

Birth date: 2 November 1908
Marriage: 26 March 1927 (age 18) to Lucy Elizabeth Melisa Henize (age 19)
Death date: 16 May 1959

In the 1930 Census. The census says it's in Batavia township, but I wonder if they made a separate page for Amelia, since it was so small?

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In the 1940 Census. His family was living in Pike County, KY at the time.

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Something interesting from this 1940 census is that it lists the yearly income of the families. If you enlarge the picture, you'll see that Cecil's yearly income was $1,640. For comparison, a civil engineer on the same page of the census earned $3,000 and a store manager earned $2,400. The clerk at that store earned just over $500 a year.

EDIT: I found more records (birth and census) for Cecil Wallace. I put them in this post about his mother, Julia Anna Peters.