Other Events:

• Physical Description: 5'2" light brown hair turned to silver white
• FamilySearch Id: M75P-CR1
• _MARNM: Just
• _UID: B23D3D09E354F045BFEA569B4A2130FED4DD

Notes:

New boyfriend (Um-er as Barb calls it) in 2007: Selmar Johansen (born Feb 1919, his daughter is LDS, Donna & Dayle Murray, live in Woodland, Dayle is a dentist. Another daughter Judy and husband Jim live next door to Laura and Selmer)




Discover Your Family Story
California Birth Index, 1905-1995 Record
Name: Laura May Collis
Birth Date: 10 Aug 1926
Gender: Female
Mother's Maiden Name: Sherman
Birth County: Sutter

Laura Mae Collis was born August 10, 1926, at Yuba City, Yuba County, CA. She is the 2nd child of six of Bertha Irene Sherman and Ernest Russell Collis. The family lived in Brentwood, California, but had gone to Yuba City to pick fruit. They moved back to the family ranch in Brentwood until the bank took it, for a $3000 debt owed by Grandma Collis after Grandpa Collis died.

Laura remembers Grandpa Collis had a built up shoe, perhaps about 4 inches. He was kind of crippled up. Grandma Collis was little, had white hair twisted into a little bun on top of her head. She was really sweet, gentle, loving; kind of like Aunt Gladyce.

When Bertha, Russell and their 3 children first moved from the ranch in Brentwood, they went to Oregon and built a log cabin. They didn't live there long, however. They then moved to Washington State, as Bertha's mother lived there in Diamond. They first lived in a little apartment in a warehouse in Thera. It was a building about 2 blocks long, between the highway and the railroad tracks. The farmers would bring their sacks of wheat to the warehouse and put them on the conveyor belt. When the sacks got to the top of the belt, the farmer would open the sack and the grain would fall in a pile into the railroad car. Dad would let the kids ride up the conveyor belt on the sacks and jump into the wheat when they got to the top. There was no bathroom in the little apartment. The bathroom was at the other end of the warehouse. When the children needed to use the bathroom, they would put on roller skates and skate down the entire length of the warehouse. There was little food during this time. Mother would often boil the wheat to eat.

They then moved to a ranch about 2 to 3 miles outside of Colfax, Washington. The ranch was left to Grandpa Lamb and his sisters when their parents died. When we lived in Colfax,Washington, it snowed a lot. Everything went in the slop bucket for the pigs, even the dish water. Dad strung a wire from the house to the barn so we wouldn't get lost during a blizzard. We still had to go feed the animals, and we could grab ahold of the wire during the blizzard and find the way back to the house without getting lost. The bus stop was up the hill, and on snowy days, Mom would have to push us up the hill to catch the bus. When the highway was built during the summer, Mom fed the highway crew lunch. Laura remembers washing dishes and cooking for the better part of the day. There was one big room with a big table. The stove and sink were in this room also. There was a little pantry off the dining room where Mom rolled out the pie crust. Dad used to come in from working on the farm, roll up his sleeves, and wash his hands and face in this dining room sink. Laura remembers driving the hay wagon, with Dad and Roy and the farm help pitching the hay.

They had a Jersey cow that the children had made into a pet. Every time one of the kids walked by, the cow would go through the fence to get out. Dad would get so mad. He said, "You've got to stop petting these cows. They are not pets".
Mom got really sick, possibly with diptheria, when they lived on the ranch and was in bed for a long time. Laura remembers being really scared. Laura, being the oldest girl was responsible for all the kids and house, and mother too. Dad was working so hard trying to take care of the ranch and working in town at the hardware store. We had one of those baby jumpers that hung in the doorway. Darlyne was in the jumper and got her hand caught in the wing of the hot wood stove and burned her wrist before we could get it out. Roy used to tie Laura to the tree outside the door and throw dirt clods at her. She hit him over the head with a cast iron frying pan and knocked him out. There weren't many friends around so the kids only had each other to play with and torment.

Dad called the square dances in the Grange Hall. There were benches lined around the wall where the kids sat. Mom and Dad were very good dancers, and Dad was an excellent caller. Laura doesn't ever remember going to church in Washington. They seldom went to town except to shop. The Grange Hall had dinners and dances. There was no money so people made their own entertainment.

Grandpa and Grandma Lamb were wonderful people. Grandpa Lamb had a huge big sled. He would pack all of us kids in the sled, hook it to his little coupe and pull us kids all over in the snow. He took us for a sleigh ride. He had no hair, but once in a while one would grow on the top of his head. Which ever one of us kids was sitting on his lap at the time, he would let us take the tweezers and pull it out. He was about 6 foot 2 inches tall, and Grandma was about 4 foot 2. She was really sweet. She loved to fish and he hated it. She couldn't drive, so he would drive her and Laura to the crawdad hole teaming with crawdads. Grandma would put a crawdad on the hook and fish for catfish. Laura said they tasted like mud and she still can't eat catfish. Grandpa would let them sit there all day and then he would come back and get them. Grandma liked gardening but most of all liked her grandchildren. She loved them to come and would read them a story, take a walk or just talk to them or take them fishing. She textured her walls by using a round tuffy, dipping it in different colors of paints and painting the walls with it. The Collis family left Washington for California in1941 when the Lamb ranch sold.

Laura was an avid reader. Mother said she always had her nose in a book. She spent a lot of time in the library when they lived with Aunt Gladyce and Uncle Pete.

Charles Paul Just was born on the 27th of December 1925, in Sacramento, His mother was 45 years old and it was a difficult birth. He weighed only 2 pounds at birth and the doctors thought he wouldn't make it, so they gave their attention to trying to save his mother. Her sister-in-law, Nellie, said she rescued him from the wastebasket and saved his life. Charlie's mother kept him in the drawer of a dresser in the kitchen because he was so small. He didn't walk or talk until he was 2.

Charlie was the youngest of 8 children. One child died when she was 2 years old. 3 girls and 3 boys survived. His oldest brother, Charles Raymond died when Charlie was 6 years old. His earliest memories of his sisters were after they were all married. His sister Alice (Babe) died at age 28, when Charlie was about 20. His sister Ellen died 3 years later, and Edith died a few years after that. Only three of the eight children, Bob Charlie, and Margie survived past the age of 40. Their dad had wanted to be a farmer and ended up being a carpenter. They lived in many places in Sacramento, but lastly on 12th Avenue

Charlie spent many summers with his Aunt Nellie and Uncle Gene and cousin Laurence in Colfax, CA. They owned cabins and a restaurant there. Charlie and Lawrence would gold pan and explore. When Charlie went deer hunting and got a deer, he would go tell Aunt Nellie and she would go out and help him skin and clean it.

Charlie skipped school often. His parents were older by the time he was growing up and he pretty much did as he pleased, just as long as he got there by himself and got home by himself. His parents believed children were seen and not heard. His parents were uninvolved in any childhood activities. Consequently he was not a good student, sometimes got into mischief, and was even a time or two brought home by the sheriff. He used to go out hunting by the airport and shoot holes in the farmers water tanks. Of course they didn't like that. He had a little dog named Brownie, wonderful dog. At the Municiple Airport on Franklin Boulevard in Sacramento, an airplane started up. Brownie ran and jumped into the propeller. It killed the dog and broke the propeller. The incident made the front page of the newspaper. Someone told him he'd better get out of there before he ended up having to pay for the propeller. So he took off. Charlie rode all over on his bicycle. There used to be Indian burial mounds out by Sloughhouse. He had lots of Indian bones in his basement, not realizing exactly what they were.

During the summers of his Sophomore and Junior years of high school, Charlie worked for the forestry at fire camp in Auburn. They were short of fire fighters due to the war, so you could become a fire fighter at a fairly young age.
By the time Charlie came out of the service and was married, he became a better student and graduated with honors from Sacramento Junior College. Later one of his teachers, Miss Jones, saw him at the wedding of his friend, Ken Patton's, sister. When they told her that Ken was a teacher and Charlie was an attorney, She was surprised. She thought they would both end up in reform school. Obviously, she wasn't a very good teacher.
Charlie left high school in January of 1944, before graduating from McClatchy High School to serve in the Armed Forces. He enlisted in the Cadet Program, as an on-the-line trainee in the capacity of crew chief on a C 47 airplane. He served for 2 years until November of 1945. He was stationed in Texas, California, Colorado, and Douglas,Arizona.

Laura and Charlie met in the Spring of 1941 when the Collis family moved from Washington to California and temporarily moved in with Aunt Gladyce and Uncle Pete Ping. Eddie Bond, a friend of Charlie's, lived on the same street as Laura's Aunt Gladyce. Eventually Eddie became a friend of Laura's brother, Roy. Laura was 15 in 1941 and she and Roy would join in with the neighborhood kids in playing "kick the can" and other games. Charlie was usually there although he didn't live in the neighborhood. Laura thought Charlie was kind of cute. He was nice to her. He didn't smoke like most of the boys did. They were both kind of quiet and reserved.

Frank Jacinto was also a friend of Charlie and lived close to the house Laura's parents bought on 41st and Y Streets. Charlie and Frank used to come down to visit Roy. One time Laura took Barbara to the California State Fair on Stockton Boulevard. She knew Charlie was there with 'the boys". Laura and Barbara rode the Ferris Wheel looking all around for the boys until finally she spotted them and accidentally ran into them. Laura and Charlie didn't really date, but Charlie would ride his bicycle over to the house and they would stand around and talk. When Mom and Dad Collis would go for their usual Sunday afternoon drive, Charlie would be invited whenever he was there. Neither Charlie's nor Laura's families had much of a social life. They didn't go to friend's houses for dinner nor socialize in any way. Their
backgrounds were similar and they felt comfortable together. They each felt that they didn't have many social skills.

When Charlie was in fire camp, probably when Laura was 17, he wrote a letter to Laura saying he was, "coming home for the weekend, and Let's go to a movie". Laura had never been to a movie. Mom had never allowed it. She decided to just face Mom and said, "Charlie's coming home and he wants me to go to the movies!" Mom didn't object. They went to see "The Moon is Blue". The folks were really. Mom was actively involved in the restrictive Nazarene religion. Skating, swimming, dancing, was not allowed. There was really no dating, going out somewhere. Going to church was allowed and Charlie would go to church with Laura every Sunday and Wednesday night. Mostly it was just out for a drive, then sitting in the car, talking. When Mom heard them come home, she would turn on the porch light. If they sat out there too long, she would flick the porch light. Then if they didn't get the message, the door would open. If they still didn't get the message she'd be knocking on the car window. Mom and Dad Collis instilled something in their chidren to help them develop strength of character. Whether it was fear or the fear of dissapointing them or wanting to be a good example for the rest of the children in the family, it worked.


When Charlie's brother, Bob, went into the service, Charlie inherited Bob's '35 Ford with a rumble seat. He would borrow his dad's T stamps for gas to get around. What fun for the kids, to ride in the rumble seat. Dad Just sold the Ford when Charlie went into the service in 1944. Laura and Charlie became engaged December 6, 1945, probably after a drive. They eloped on the 26th of January, 1946 by first taking a streetcar to the Greyhound bus station located in a really bad part of downtown Sacramento near 5th and I streets. They then took a Greyhound bus to Sparks, Nevada. They were married by a minister who pulled in his wife and a neighbor as witnesses. Charlie said, "They were married amongst strangers and have been living their lives that way, ever since." They chose Sparks because Charlie's sister Babe had eloped to Sparks and had stayed in an old railroad hotel there. Laura and Charlie stayed in the same hotel and said, "Think of the worst hotel you've ever stayed in, and then picture one worse.' They were smart enough to get out of there the next day and go to Reno. There were no big hotels, but the little hotel they stayed in in Reno was much nicer than Sparks. They had no money, but a few dimes. They went into one of the clubs. A lady was playing two machines. Laura watched her and the lady asked if she wanted to play one. Laura said she had a few dimes and put in a couple and hit a $37.50 Jackpot. The lady was quite mad, but Laura was quite delighted with her luck and didn't offer to share. That was a lot of money in those days. That was a highlight of their festivities. Someone took a picture of them on the bridge of the Truckee River. This is their only picture of their wedding trip. They had a picture taken in Sacramento a week later.
Laura had sent her parents a telegram from Reno saying that she and Charlie had eloped. Mom Collis was very angry when they came home. The reason is not really known. Perhaps her lack of insight into helping them to be married, perhaps in her concern over their future, or seeming lack thereof. At any rate she would always get up and go into the bedroom when Laura and Charlie came to visit. She would not talk to them. The newly weds were living with Charlie's parents at the time. Dad tried to talk to her, but she continued to go into the bedroom and not speak to them. Charlie finally talked to mom and told her that if she continued to act as she did, they wouldn't come to visit any more. That was the last time she did that. She finally accepted them. She later said that Charlie was wonderful. Laura and Charlie only lived with his parents a few months and then moved in with Charlie's sister, Edith. Laura was pregnant with Patricia, but before the baby was born, they moved in with Mom and Dad Collis. They moved into the back bedroom off the kitchen. Roy came home from the armed services and slept in the basement. Dad made a room down there. Patty was born and Laura and Charlie moved out to the family housing at Sacramento City College on Freeport Boulevard. Jimmy was born while they were there. Charlie was going to college and working nights at the Highway Patrol. Laura worked at the Department of Motor Vehicles as a key punch operator until Jim was born. Both the city college and the state college were on the same campus, so they lived there for four years while Charlie went to Junior College, then Sacramento State College..

One of the challenges of their early marriage was the time that Charlie wrecked their car. His burning the candle at both ends caught up to him and as he left for work, he was still sleeping. He ran a red light and crashed the Dodge he had bought and rebuilt with his mustering out pay, into two other cars. They had no insurance. Dad Just finally helped them pay off the debts of the two other cars. The worst part of the whole scenario was that a friend of Charlie's was a patrolman on the scene and gave Charlie a ticket for running a red light. They couldn't afford another car, so they got two bicycles. They went to the dump and got two broken down tailor tots. Charlie jury rigged the two tailor tots, for Patty and Jimmy, onto the back of the bikes. That was their transportation for quite a while.

Charlie was taking Education courses when he was a senior in college. He substituted at McClatchy High School and California Junior High and that convinced him that he didn't want to be a teacher. He changed to a pre-med major until he got into Chemestry. He worked harder at that class than all of the other classes and got a C.,so he changed to Law.
They finally moved to Berkeley to continue Charlie's education. Uncle Pete sold them his old Hudson. It had a tendancy to vapor lock (a wet clutch). The traffic on the road would back up for miles, as there was no freeway at that time. You would have to slow down for the traffic, and when you slowed down, you couldn't shift. They had to pull off the road and wait for early morning when there was no traffic. They first lived in some very awful government housing apartments in Albany. They later moved into a flat in a lovely old house in Alameda with great tall windows. Barbara and Tom were married by then and Tom was in the navy, stationed near by. They all lived together there with their children, Patty and Jimmy and Karen. Barbara and Charlie worked nights and Laura and Tom worked days. So the neighbors couldn't figure out who was with whom.

Times were very difficult financially through these college and law school years. Money was very tight. When they would go visit Charlie's parents in Sacramento, Charlie would ask his mother, "You don't happen to have any dirty old twenty dollar bills lying around, do you?" She always seemed to be able to find one. Mom and Dad Collis always brought a box or two of groceries when they came to visit on the weekends. Many times Laura said they would be down to their last twenty-five cents. Hamburger was 25 cents a pound. They hadn't had meat for awhile. They would buy a pound of hamburger because they knew Mom and Dad Collis were coming that weekend and would bring some groceries. A Godsend. When Patty got the chicken pox, Laura used up all her time off to be home with her. Then when Jimmy got the chicken pox there was no time off left, so they packed up the kids and took them to stay with Charlie's folks until they were well enough to go to child care. Without the help of their parents, Laura said they could not have made it.

There was no money for entertainment, so most of it was picnics in the park or at the river, camping, visiting Aunt Gladyce, lots of family gatherings. Most of the fun was with the family. There was a lot of struggle in their early years of marriage. Charlie graduated from Law School in 1953. They moved to Sacramento and Charlie's Dad, at age 83, built the first house they owned on Elvas Avenue. They adopted Carolyn, Charlie's neice. Carolyn's mother, Alice (called Babe), was Charlie's sister. When Carolyn was three years old her mother died. Carolyn went to live with her Aunt Ellen, another of Charlie's sisters. But Ellen died when Carolyn was 6 and Carolyn went to live with her grandma and grandpa Just, Charlie's parents. His parents were old by that time and Carolyn spent much time with Laura and Charlie, and finally came to live with them permanently when she was 10 years old.

Peggy was born about this time. Being 7 years younger than Jimmy, She had a lot more of her parent's time. Life was busy but with Charlie now working in his career as an attorney, life became a little less of a financial struggle.
They always had family time at night. They ate meals together and encouraged their children to talk. Charlie would read to the children every night. He was a very patient father. He would patiently help them with their homework even when they insisted it wasn't the right way. He would just wait until they were ready for his help. Many of the girls had friends who had a hard time growing up and spent a lot of time in the Just home. Laura and Charlie had a great influence in the lives of these youth as well as their own children, grandchildren, and even great grandchildren.

They tried to instill a family closeness with their children. Holidays were important in their family. Their cabin at Strawberry on Highway 50 was a great gathering place for their family, and all of the family have great memories of being there. They always opened the cabin on Memorial Day, and closed it in October during the World Series. It was a great investment for their family unity.

Laura and Charlie bought and restored old homes in Sacramento for rentals for a while.
Laura loves to crochet and always has a project going. She took up oil painting for a while. Although Laura had worked through the years at various jobs and for quite some time for the Bank of America, she had really devoted her whole life to being a wife and mother. After the children were grown, on their own, and with families of their own, Laura decided she needed a diversion in her life and the opportunity arose to buy a beauty shop business to manage. Charlie fully supported her in this venture and even helped her remodel the shop. She rented out spaces to beauty operators. It was a very successful venture for 10 years.

They feel they can't claim credit for their accomplishments because so many people and incidents influenced their lives. "We make decisions in regards to our families and their needs". One accomplishment is the fact that they lived together relatively happily for 50 years, with health, a good family (all nice people), and a positive attitude.
Charlie loves moving rocks, and they bought the appropriate property in Auburn Lakes Trails. They feel the need to keep busy and prefer it to simply puttsing around. They have traveled to Europe (England, France), Tahiti. The Carribean, Mexico, They loved the small out of the way places and the feeling of history and wonderment of the areas, but they feel there are so many places to see in the United States., and even here in California. Their goal is to see some of these.
Laura admires Charlie's honesty, the support he gives her, and his ambition. He has many interests and activities. He is patient and think things through.

Her strength of character, her understanding and support for the things that he wants to do are the qualities in Laura that Charlie admires.
Their compatibility and common interests have led to 50 interesting and happy years.

Interview by Marilyn Parker, January 12, 1996

Laura has had back and hip pain for many years and was found to have a congenital problem with her spine. She had bladder cancer but had it taken care of in the early stage.

Date: Tue, May 24, 2011 9:52 pm (email from Peggy)
Today Mom had a consultation with a rheumatologist and he made a preliminary diagnosis of polymyositis, an autoimmune disease. They will do a muscle biopsy sometime tomorrow to confirm it. The biopsy requires general anesthesia, so she's spending one more night in the hospital, hopefully coming home tomorrow (Wednesday). Mom also had an MRI today, and that may provide more diagnostic information.
Treatment of polymyositis is with prednisone - high doses to start, then lowering the dose as the symptoms dissipate. Of course, prednisone has some unpleasant side effects, so Mom is struggling a bit with the information. And other medications may be part of the mix too, we'll have to see.
The Mayo Clinic has good information: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/polymyositis/DS00334
Thanks for all your good wishes, Mom really appreciates having such wonderful family and friends.

update: Dec 2011. Laura is doing much better and is planning to move home from Escaton on Douglass Blvd. to her Roseville home in mid Jan 2012. She now has diabitis and blood clots and still has polymyositis. She is still on Prednazone and blood thinner.

Subject: news about Mom - Laura Just Date: Mon, May 21, 2012 3:12 pm
Dear family, just wanted to let you know that Mom took a terrible fall Saturday, outside her home. She fell backwards onto the sidewalk, hitting her head and fracturing her skull. The impact caused serious bleeding in her brain which worsened overnight, although the medical staff did what they could to stop it. Mom is not expected to improve and is receiving comfort care. She is unconscious but the rest of her vital signs are good, so she could pass away quickly or it could take some time.
If you'd like to visit, right now she's at Kaiser Roseville, in room 1006. Please don't feel obligated, however; she is unconscious and totally unresponsive. If you'd rather keep your current memory of her we totally understand.
She will not be at Kaiser for long, so (after today) be sure to call the hospital before you go to be sure she's still there: (916) 784-4000. We're still planning the next steps, I'll send an update when that has been decided. We appreciate your thoughts and prayers.
Love, Peg .

Date: Wed, May 23, 2012 9:09 am
Dear family - Mom died peacefully this morning. We'll keep you posted as we make plans. Thank you to all who forwarded my earlier message, and to everyone who came by to visit.
Love, Peg

Laura married Charles Paul JUST on 26 Jan 1946 in Reno, Washoe, Nevada, United States. Charles (son of Charles Robert JUST and Ethel ANGUS) was born on 27 Dec 1925 in Sacramento, Sacramento, California, United States; died on 16 Oct 2004 in Roseville, Placer, California, United States. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Living
2. Living
3. Living
4. Living

Other Events:

• Physical Description: 5'8", dark hair, hazel eyes, med build
• FamilySearch Id: 5 foot 10, dark brown hair
• FamilySearch Id: KFFK-QHZ
• Occupation: farmer in early life, laborer, Construction worker
• Reference Number: *
• _UID: 361DD35EF91ECF438BF212FECAC4F00FC785
• Census: 1900,1910,1920,1930

Notes:

from Contra Costa Gazette prior 1900
COLLIS male 31 Dec 1896 Brentwood Walter Collis 9 Jan 1897

things to do:
1. when did Russell retire? Bertha?
2. newspapers in Brentwood & Colfax (marriages; Hazel, Gladyce, Russell, births, + news of the area
3.Social Security registration?

Timeline for Ernest Russell Collis

1896 Dec 31, Russell born Brentwood, Contra Costa, CA
1900 US Census: Contra Costa, CA age 3
1906 April 18, lived in Brentwood behind Blacksmith shop during SF earthquake/fire according to his recollection.
1910 moved with parents to Diamond, Whitman, Washington
1910 US Census: Diamond, Whitman, WA age 13
1915 met Bertha Sherman at the Whitman County Fair.
1917 WWI draft registration; Diamond, Whitman, Washington age 21
1920 US Census: Diamond, Whitman, Washington age 22 living with sister, Gladyce & Pete Ping and brother
Winner
1923 Oct 14, marriage certificate: Russell Collis & Bertha Sherman at Colfax, Whitman, Washington
1924 Sep 27, son, Walter, born in Brentwood, California
1926-28 Polk Stockton directory, Russel & Bertha at Horace and Anderson
1926 Aug 10, daughter, Laura born in Yuba City, Yuba, CA
1930 US Census: age 32, Township 9, Contra Costa, California
1930 Nov 20, daughter, Barbara born in Stockton, San Juaquin, CA
1931 lived on Collis Ranch in Brentwood Ca with mother
1933 After ranch was taken over by bank in 1932, moved to Gobel, OR, built cabin there
1934 Move to Thera, WA
1935 Feb 2, son, Stan, born in Thera, WA
1936 Polk Stockton City Directory at 1435 E Park, iron worker-Kyle & Co. (probably carried over from ealier
1937 Apr 18, daughter, Marilyn born in Colfax,
1939 Jul 7, daughter, Darlyne, born in Colfax.
1940 US Census: South Colfax, Whitman, Washington, age 44
1941 May 4, moved with family to Sacramento, Sacramento, CA
1942 WWII draft registration: 2486 41st St, employed- Lyon Darwin Hardware, Oak Park, Sacramento
1943 Sacramento City Directory: Collis, E Russell (Bertha I) driver h2486 41st St.
1970 Death: June 30 Bertha died in Traverse City, Michigan while visiting with newly found brothers and sister.
1976 Death: June 26, Russell died in bed in Sacramento while living with son, Roy. Cause of death:
Arteriosclerotic Heart desease


Ernest Russell Collis’ Story
Brentwood, California
Gladyce, Arthur, Russell, Hazel, Winner
Ernest Russell Collis was born in Brentwood, California on the 31st of December, 1896. He was the second child of six born to Walter Winner and Laura Susan (Grigsby) Collis. The oldest child, Hazel Crystal, was born in 1894; then Ernest Russell. Next were: Gladyce Esther, born 1898; Winner Winwood, born 1900; Arthur, born 1902 (he died in 1907 just 12 days before their last child, Edgar Dawain, was born on the 19th of September of 1907. His father, Walter was a blacksmith and had a shop in Brentwood.

Russell, as we called him, remembered living in a 2 story house behind the blacksmith shop during the great San Francisco earthquake and fire on the morning of April 18, 1906. He was 10 years old. During the earthquake Russell's bed rolled across his upstairs bedroom floor. He jumped out of bed and with the entire family hurried out of the house and into the yard. Water was sloshing over the top of the huge water tank near the house. The ground under foot was rolling and undulating like waves on the ocean. The fire in the city across the bay gave an eerie red glow to the sky. Perhaps thoughts of Armageddon went through their minds. News wasn't instantaneous as it is today. Some time later, Russell went to Market Street with his Uncle Byron Grigsby, to observe firsthand the damage and devastation. They later heard that Walter's sister, Florence Gates, watched the fire and destruction all around her from a doorway in San Francisco. Aunt Florence is said to have rushed into the house to save the oil painting of her mother, Ann Randall Collis, as a child, by cutting it out of the large heavy frame. Florence was living in San Francisco at the time with her husband, Merville Gates. Her father, William Collis, had died 6 years previous and her mother, Anne Collis, was living in Brentwood with 2 of her daughters. Florence had married in 1903 at age 29, and never had any children. Prior to her marriage, Florence was living on her own and was a portrait artist in San Francisco.

Russell’s brother, Winner, wrote the following story about Russell and how Winner broke his arm: “I must have been about 7 or 8 years old. It was during the summer. We lived just a short half block from the old blacksmith shop in Brentwood. Russ, your dad, and I were playing on an old hitching rack which was a 1 ½ or 2 inch pipe run through the branches of three locust or pepper trees. It was about 3 or 4 feet above the ground, but seemed higher to me then. I was standing on the pipe. Russ was up in the tree above me. He said he was coming down and would step on my fingers if I did not get out of the way. I let loose of the tree, turned on the pipe and started walking on the pipe to the adjoining tree. I suppose I was barefooted. Anyway, I slipped and fell to the ground with my right arm under my body and broke so many bones in my elbow, that old Dr. Cool just put it in a towel and tied the towel around my neck so I could be as comfortable as possible with all the broken bones in a mess.” (Later he told me that the doctor told him to carry a bucket of sand around with that arm to straighten it out.) “In 1954 I looked at the bones in a fluoroscope in Portland, Oregon, and saw all the mess of odd shaped bones with one piece of bone floating all by itself in the middle of the elbow. The Doctor said, 'that is the kind of break we like to turn over to our competitor'.”

As the automobile became more affordable and thus more popular, the need for blacksmiths became less necessary. In 1908 Ford Motor Company mass produced more than 10,000 Model T's. About 1907, Russell's father was working for Holt Harvester Company as a salesman and demonstrator of combine harvesters. He was away in Washington State when his 5th child Arthur died and the family had the baby's body lie in the home on the kitchen table, waiting for the father's return before culminating the funeral arrangements. What a sad time for all. It must have been a traumatic time for the family, with father traveling so far away and travel being slower in those days. Did they have a car, or did he travel by train? Train travel was quite expensive at the time.

Uncle Winner sent me a letter with the following information about Russell: “Before we moved to Diamond, Washington, your dad must have been about 12 or 13; he had been somewhere and seen one of the old time roller coasters. So in back of the house at Brentwood, he built one; must have been 30 or 40 feet long, with humps and dips. The high point was possibly 6-7 feet high, with smooth 2 or 3 inch boards as the track, which he greased with soap. We had a good many short rides on it. Don’t know where he got the lumber for all the post and scaffolding, plus braces.”

Berkeley, California

Shortly after the death of Arthur, the family moved to Berkeley so they could be close to Laura's parents, Elmira and Erasmus, (called Dorwin) Grigsby. Walter was still traveling quite frequently with his sales job. Laura's parents lived on Grant Street at that time. Laura, Russell’s mother, played the piano and organ quite well and Grandma Grigsby, wanted the same for her grandchildren. Russell had other ideas though, so when he was supposed to be practicing the piano, Uncle Byron would sneak him out the back door and off they would go to the baseball game in Emeryville. Grandma Grigsby was also concerned about the children's need for spiritual training. She insisted that the children read the Bible and thus Russell developed strong moral ethics and became quite familiar with the scriptures even though in later years he seldom attended church with his family.

Grandpa Grigsby had a little barn along side the house in Berkeley in which he kept a little roan mare, “Kitty”. He would take the kids for a ride in a one horse buggy or surrey with the fringe on top down Shattuck Avenue.
Grandpa & Grandma Grigsby with mare Kitty
Winner also wrote: “I don’t know how old he was when your dad sold candy strings in Oakland. Grandma Grigsby got him the job. But I remember the round candy strung on strings. Before or after that, he had a paper route in Oakland. I got up one morning to help him. I know and remember it was 4 o’clock in the morning; too early for a little kid.

State of Washington

In March 1910 Walter moved his family with 5 growing children to the Colfax area in the southeastern part of the state of Washington. Russell was 13 at the time. Perhaps Walter was drawn to the area while there selling harvesters. The area had vast rolling hills planted in wheat. Walter again took up blacksmithing in a small blacksmith shop near Diamond, Washington. At the time the wheat harvesters were using an eight or twelve mule team, so there was a need for shoeing. There was a big flood that year.

Hazel was the oldest daughter of the family, and married shortly after their arrival in Washington; she was just seventeen at the time and married Fred Kasdorf, whose family had moved to Colfax, Washington about 1890. His parents were born in Germany.

Russell quit school during his eighth grade year. Did the move to a new school in Washington make it too hard for him to adjust? But, then he never did like the containment of the classroom. He would sit on the schoolyard fence, spit tobacco and taunt the kids in school, according to his sister, Gladyce, who was 2 years younger than Russell. He never went back to school after that. Gladyce would occasionally work for May Lamb, helping in the house. May and Roy Lamb were the parents of Bertha Sherman. Bertha was living with her maternal grandmother, Elizabeth, called "Libby", Smith, and step grandfather in Eureka, Montana, at the time, but Bertha would occasionally visit her mother and stepfather in Diamond. (How did she get there? Train? Car? I doubt it. Horse and buggy?)

Russell's youngest brother, Edgar, was 7 years younger than Winner, and 11 years younger than Russell. I have no information of his involvement with the older children. He later married Alma and lived in Salt Lake City, Utah. He had no children

In about 1915, Russell met Bertha Sherman for the first time at a county fair during one of her visits to her mother's house. She was only twelve years old at the time. Russell was a handsome young man of sixteen. There must have been some attraction, as it was a remembered event throughout their lives. Bertha went back to Montana to continue living with her grandmother. Bertha's grandmother suffered from breast cancer, and during Libby's illness, Bertha nursed her and administered morphine shots to her to ease the pain. Libby died when Bertha was sixteen, so she came back to live with her mother in Diamond, Washington.

According to Winner Winwood, "After Dad and Mom (Laura and Walter Collis) moved back to California from Diamond, Washington, Russ and I rented a house in Diamond and batched. Russell was acting as one of the sparring partners to help train Ernest Ping, Uncle of Pete Ping, to fight a local boy who had done some fighting while in the navy. One evening Russell was sparring with Ernest, when Ern hit Russell square on the `button' or nerve center on the chin. Russell got a funny look on his face and simply wilted in a heap on the floor, much to the consternation of everyone. He `came to' very soon, however."

Russ’ sister Gladyce married Pete Ping in November of 1917 in Dayton, Washington. Pete was born in 1896 in Washington. Pete was living with his family in Diamond, Washington. He worked for Roy Lamb at the time. In the 1920 Census, Russell and Winner were living with Pete and Gladyce in Diamond, Washington. Pete and Winner were working for the railroad. Russell was working as a farm laborer.

Since Southeastern Washington is wheat country, most of the jobs were involved with planting and harvesting the wheat. In the early times an eight-mule team was used to pull the harvester and involved lots of hand work. Russell often talked about how many rattlesnakes he would find on his pitchfork as he hoisted hay into the wagons. The men traveled from field to field harvesting each crop as it was ready. It was a cooperative effort. They generally worked in the field from dawn to dusk, eating at a big trailer with benches down both sides, and slept on a bed roll in the wheat fields at night. (With the rattlesnakes?) .

Because Diamond was such a small community, Bertha and Russell were both at many local social events. Both were attending a box social and grange dance where each lady prepared a box lunch for two and each man was to bid on the lunch of his choice (or the lady of his choice.) The young man bidding on Bertha's lunch was someone she didn't want to be with. She asked Russell to bid on her lunch and he did. They began going together from then on. Bertha was about 18 at that time.

In 1917 All young men had to register for the draft during WWI and Russell was no exception. Stan said he was told by Roy that Russell was sent to New York, but he got the flu and by the time he was well, the war was over. The war ended 28 June 1919, when the Treaty of Versailles was signed in France, so he must have been in New York at that time. I could find no record of his service. There were 1,500,000 people who died from influenza in the United States during 1918 and 1919.

After they became engaged, Russell decided to go back to Brentwood for a while. He said, "I probably got mad at her". While in Brentwood, Russell had quite an experience. Winner wrote, "Russell, a friend named Fred Orr, and I decided to join the Merchant Marines in San Francisco. ( They had all just registered with the draft board for WWI. Perhaps that had something to do with their decision.) We had signed up, had one physical and passed, had gone to the base in San Francisco for a final exam and to be sworn in. We were standing around waiting, when a merchant seaman asked if we were joining up. We said, `yes'. Then he said, `Don't do it! You will regret it.' We talked it over and sneaked out of there, ran like crazy, got a street car to the ferry and went into Oakland and caught a train for Brentwood: all the time looking over our shoulders for a couple of MPs to come and take us back. The MPs never showed up." We were much relieved.

During this time, Bertha was attending Catholic school. She sent Russell his diamond ring and told him she was going to become a nun. (And she didn't even like Catholic school.) Fortunately for us this did not happen. Perhaps spurred by his Merchant Marine experience, Russell forgot he was mad at her. He took the ring and went to Washington to find out what was going on. They reconciled and were married October 14, 1923.

After Russell and Bertha were married, they boarded at a farmhouse in Mount Hope, Washington, near Spokane, while Bertha taught at Harp School and Russell helped out on the farm. Since they were married in October after the wheat was harvested, Russell went off to look for work. He stayed in a Hotel and this is one of the few times they spent a night apart during their entire married life. Mostly, Russell worked in the wheat fields, sometimes using an eight-horse team. At one time he was a grain receiver in the warehouse and did general farming work. Bertha quit her teaching job at the end of the year and never taught school again.

(Much of the foregoing was told to me by Russell in January 1976. Some parts were quoted from a letter dated July 13, 1976, to Marilyn Parker from Uncle Winner Winwood Collis. Some of the information also came from Bertha and some from the children of Bertha and Russell.)

Brentwood, California Again

In 1924 Russell and Bertha Collis moved back to the Grigsby/Collis ranch in Brentwood where Walter Collis, had built a small one room house with a little screened porch for them. Laura had inherited property in Brentwood, from her mother Elmira Grigsby, who died in 1923. Russ' sister, Hazel, lived with her husband and three children in another little house on the property. Walter and Laura lived in their house behind the others

Shortly after moving back to Brentwood, Walter Leroy, called Roy by the family, was born in September of 1924, in Mrs. Pemberton's Nursing Home with Dr. Cook attending. The same doctor had delivered Russell. Roy was named after Russell’s father, Walter, and Bertha’s step-father, James Leroy Lamb.

Russell needed work, so they left the ranch in late 1924 and moved to Stockton for a time where Russell worked for a box factory, He also worked as a steam pipe fitter's helper in building the river boats, the Delta King and the Delta Queen. He also worked on the Carquinez bridge. He then went to work for Holt Harvester Company.

When Holt Harvester Company closed down, Russell and Bertha moved to Yuba City with their baby, Roy. There he worked for farmers picking peaches and later for a cement contractor until he became ill and had to have an emergency appendectomy. In August of 1926, Laura was born in a small private hospital in Yuba City, with Dr. Johnson delivering her. The hospital was so small that the doctor carried his patients from the delivery room to their rooms. Times were hard for the average family during this time before the great depression. Russell and Bertha were no exception and had no money and couldn't pay the doctor. Dr. Johnson, who had delivered Laura, said, "Well, I can't just let him die." He was a great big man and carried Russell to the operating table. He performed the surgery with the bill owing.
After the surgery, Russell, Bertha, and the two children returned to the ranch in Brentwood for Russell to recuperate. Russell was not able to work for a while. This compounded the financial situation. They were living on the ranch in Brentwood in 1930 when Russell's father, Walter, died from Carcinoma of the bladder at the hospital in San Francisco. He had been doctoring for some time. Barbara was born in November of that same year. Their old Brentwood doctor had died by that time and so Bertha went to Stockton to have Barbara at Dammeron Hospital. Perhaps Russell was influenced by his cousin, Langley Collis, who was a doctor in Stockton. Stockton was only about 30 miles from Stockton along the Sacramento River. Russell had worked there before and was familiar with the area.

Due to the expense of Dad’s illness and an untimely hailstorm causing the crops to fail, Russell's mother, Laura, mortgaged the property and all the tools and equipment to the Bank of America. Walter was gone and Russell was trying to keep the ranch going. There was no money and the ranch and all the farm equipment were taken over by the Bank of America in 1932, for a debt of $3000. Three years later it sold for $30,000. Russell was angry. He didn't think the bank should be taking the tools and equipment along with the ranch. However, they, to, were listed in the mortgage. Russell took all the household belongings that the bank hadn't taken and which they would not be able to take with them, and put them on the burn pile. This included a large organ that had belonged to his mother. (This was according to Aunt Gladyce. She was frustrated with him.) Russell often reacted to situations with anger rather than thinking things through rationally.

Russell's mother, Laura, went to live with her daughter, Gladyce, and her husband, Pete Ping, on 76th Avenue in Oakland. Pete’s parents also were living with them at the time. It seemed Gladyce and Pete were often to have relatives living with them. They had no children of their own.

They now had three small children and times were still hard. The price of bread was 7 cents a loaf, milk 43 cents a gallon, gas 18 cents a gallon and a stamp cost 3 cents. The cost of a car was $540, a house $6,514 and the average income was $1,431 a year. Two of the top songs were: April in Paris and Willow Weep for Me. Perhaps the Willow was to weep because finding the 7 cents for a loaf of bread was hard.

What to do now?

Russell and Bertha decided it was time to move. They went to Gobel, Oregon. Russell's brother, Winner, was living in Oregon at the time. Roy helped Russell build a log cabin in Gobel, but they were only there a few months, before heading back to Washington. Russell was a mover. Bertha’s stepfather’s mother, Emma Lamb, had died in 1931 and their house was available for rent from the estate.

Back to Washington

Since Bertha's mother still lived in Diamond, Washington and that is where she and Russell had met, they moved back to Washington. Bertha wrote, "By this time the depression was in full swing and Russell worked at any job he could get. Summers he worked in a warehouse receiving the grain harvest. In winter he worked shipping the grain out when a farmer sold his crop. He also helped the farmers butcher. He sometimes would work all day and get in return a couple of hog's heads, feet and a liver for his day's work. Not too much when a dressed carcass could be bought for 5 cents a pound. Anyway, head cheese and pickled pig's feet are pretty good, and I still like liver."

The family lived in a warehouse near the train tracks in Thera. Thera was a little town near Diamond and is no longer there. It was probably just a little railroad stop. There was a small apartment built into a wheat warehouse. Daughter, Laura, remembers the bathroom was at the far end of the warehouse and the children would put on roller skates to go to the bathroom.

Bertha and Russell were involved in community plays while living in Thera. It seems strange to me that they were involved in any social events as the only social involvement they had in Sacramento was mostly visiting with relatives according to my recollection. We would often visit at Gladyce and Pete’s. Sometimes we would visit with Hazel and her family, but the children were older than most of us.

Stanley Richard was born at home on Feb 2 1935 while they lived in the warehouse in Thera. He was the 4th child of Bertha and Russell Collis. When Stan was 14 months old, they moved to a small ranch 3 miles west of Colfax. The ranch was owned by Bertha's stepfather, Roy Lamb, and his sister, Melba. They had inherited the ranch from their mother who died in 1931. Barbara remembers holding hands and touching the electric fence surrounding the pig pen. A shocking experience! Bertha stated, "It was pretty small. Russell clerked in the hardware store in Colfax during the day and worked the ranch in his off hours. We had six cows, some pigs, and grew wheat on the few acres rich enough to support a crop. With the garden, my chickens, milk, cream, and eggs we managed pretty well.

The effects of the depression were evident everywhere. Bertha and Russell were hard workers and took advantage of every opportunity to earn wages and care for their family. Russell would take whatever odd job he could find and Bertha would help in whatever way she could. While living in the home near Colfax, Bertha would prepare meals and feed the road crews working on the highway. The crew would sit at long tables in the yard for their meals.

Bertha and Russell attended many dances where he often called the square dances. The coats would be piled in a corner where the babies and small children were put to sleep on the piles of coats. Roy said he did not like being at the dances, so he would sneak out and find his friends.

Russell was good at "witching" water with a green stick. He could tell how far down to drill and how much water could be found. He located many wells for friends in Washington, Oregon, and Brentwood. He never liked to boast about it and often worried that his predictions would not prove out. It was definitely a gift that he had and he was pretty much "right on".

Marilyn Louise was born April 18, 1937 in Colfax in Mrs. Marbell's Nursing Home, with Mrs. Dimich, a nurse, attending. Marilyn was the 5th child of Bertha and Russell.

Gladyce Darlyne was born on 7 July 1939 in the same Nursing home. She was the 6th child of Bertha and Russell. Bertha said she was a happy baby.

May Lamb, Bertha’s mother loved to fish for catfish in the stream near her house. She would snag whoever she could to go fishing with her. Laura and Roy each remember fishing with her. Laura said the fish tasted like mud. Norman Kuntz, a neighbor boy also was a fishing companion of hers after her grandchildren no longer lived close by. Roy Lamb gave Norman May’s fishing pole after she died. Norman subsequently gave it to Scott, Marilyn's son, when they visited him in Diamond. May also loved her little rock garden in the front of her house and was often found there weeding and caring for the plants. Stan and Barbara remember her often serving cut up oranges with powdered sugar when they were there for breakfast.

In 1941 Melba, Roy Lamb's sister, wanted or needed her money out of the house and so the house that Russell and Bertha were living in was sold. Bertha said, “When the ranch sold, we packed all our belongings in a home made trailer, stashed our kids and the dog in an old 1927 Buick and started back to California." Away they went pulling the trailer behind. Where to go now was the question. Pete Ping, Gladyce's husband, was working at McClellan Air Force Base in Sacramento. They started back to California on May 29th of 1941. What a tearful time for May to lose her daughter and all of her grandchildren again. Do you suppose her thoughts were that she probably would never see them again, but hoped to go visit? I can’t imagine stuffing that car full of 2 parents and 6 children from ages 16 down to 2 years, along with all the stuff to get by on that long of a trip.

Sacramento, California

Russell's sister, Gladyce, and her husband Pete Ping lived in Sacramento at 4964 13th Avenue. Gladyce's brother Edgar was living there for a time in 1941. Pete worked as an electrical engineer at the Sacramento Air Depot, according to the 1942 Sacramento City directory. Russell and his family stopped by to visit Gladyce and Pete and ended up staying with them. Russell found a job clerking at Lyon Darwin Hardware store in the Oak Park section of Sacramento. While they looked for a house, all eight members of the family moved in with Pete and Gladyce. Their home was a one bedroom house with a little room off the kitchen that served as a dining room, and a small living room. That made 10 people in about 600 square feet. Fortunately it was summer time. What an interesting time that must have been. Some slept in the screened porch and others slept on the floor in the small living room.

Few people would rent to a family with six children and a dog. Finally a house for rent was found at 2486 41st Street in Sacramento. When it came up for sale, Bertha and Russell bought it. The house was on the corner of 41st and Y Streets. It originally sat on a lot in the middle of what is now Y Street, but had been moved when the street was cut through.

The house was a two bedroom 1 bathroom house with a wall bed in the living room and a small screened room in the back southwest corner. Stan and Roy slept in the screened porch area, the girls in the middle bedroom. (Where did Laura and Barbara Sleep? Wall bed?) Mom and Dad slept in the bedroom off the kitchen. The sleeping arrangements would changeoften as the need appeared. When Laura and Charlie were married, They moved into the bedroom off the kitchen and Mom and Dad slept in the middle bedroom and the three younger children slept in the screened porch. Roy was in the army. The 1942 Sacramento City Directory lists E. R. Collis at that address as a clerk with Lyon Darwin Hardware.

Roy tells the story of Dad losing his temper with someone as he was driving truck for the Lyon Darwin. Someone cut him off and said something obscene. Russell stopped the truck, got out, grabbed the tire iron out of the back and went after the guy. Roy stopped him, thankfully. Russ did lack patience at times in his early years. If he became upset with his employer, he would quit his job.

Roy was the first child to leave home as he went into the army in 1943 during World War II. He had not graduated from high school yet, but the draft registration was being invoked, so he decided to enlist. He became part of the 705th Tank Destroyer battalion and was one of those who were cut off and surrounded in the Battle of Bastone. Mom stated, "It was sure good to have a job at that time, for I had to keep my mind on my work. On the days when I was home and the kids were coming home from school, I'd listen for his steps on the porch even though I knew he was far away. When he came home after the war, I thought I'd go mad before he settled down and quit pacing the floor. I guess it's pretty horrible what they have to go through" In 1946 Roy was home and Dad made a bedroom in the basement for him. I remember hearing Roy's radio playing "Intersanctum" or " The Shadow". I remember the sound of the squeaking door that began one of the programs.

Moving days were finally over for the family. Russell had an "itchy foot". He liked change. When he talked about moving again, Mother told him, "If you move again, you will go without me and the children!" She had had enough moving. They lived in the house on 41st Street until they both retired. Perhaps Dad’s “itchy foot” was one reason we went for rides so often on Sunday afternoons. We visited and camped at most of the historic spots in Northern California: Yosemite, Wright's Lake, Lake Tahoe, Big Trees, Caverns, Volcano, The Mystery Spot, The Winchester House, San Francisco, and many more.
They lived in that house for the next 23 years and Russell held a variety of jobs. He worked for a short time at McClellan Air Force base repairing carburetors. He also picked fruit at several of the farms in the area. We would go glean pears after the regular picking and Mom would can them at home. He was a mechanic at the Wonder Bread bakery in Oak Park in 1945. I still remember the smell of the bread cooking as I walked by. He worked for a short time as a janitor at Stanford Junior High School. He was very offended by the language the kids wrote on the walls of the restrooms. He quit that job fairly quickly. By 1949 he was working as a Construction worker.
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In the 1950's Russell remodeled the house, changing the whole configuration of it. He added an upstairs bedroom, extended the back of the house to accommodate a bedroom where the screened porch used to be, and added another bathroom and laundry room on the back. This was a difficult time as money was tight and Dad was working double time; a paying job during the day when weather permitted, and working on the house nights and weekends. He was burning his candle at both ends. There was a time when he was on the roof with an electric skill saw. He missed the board and cut through his thigh. It was a bad cut. He was alone so he had to climb down and get himself to the emergency room at the county hospital on Stockton Boulevard. Fortunately, it was only two blocks away.

After those initial years, Russell worked most of his years in Sacramento for Construction Companies on different houses and buildings. He drove a truck for Robinson's Construction Company during the tearing down of the old Buffalo Brewery and construction of the Sacramento Bee building on the site on Q Street. In the 50's he worked on a $100,000 home near the American River. We were all flabbergasted at that outrageous price for building a home was rare at that time.

The holidays were always special times at the Collis house. Aunt Gladyce and Uncle Pete were always there along with friends, Lois and Carl Carlson. We had barbequed hamburgers on the 4th of July with Mom's special barbeque sauce, watermelon, and lemonade made with real lemons. Dad had built a brick barbeque on the site of the old garage turned into a grape arbor. It was frightening when that old garage caught fire and burned to the ground. On summer nights we would sleep in the back yard as the house was too warm. Beds would be moved into the back yard and covered with tarps to protect them from occasional summer rains.

On Thanksgiving morning Mom would get up about 3:00 A.M. to start the turkey cooking. Aunt Gladyce would also cook a turkey. We always had lemon jello with pineapple, shredded carrots, and chopped celery in it. There was always the special chopped cabbage and shrimp salad, stuffing, cranberry, mashed potatoes and gravy. Mom's homemade mince meat pie from an old English recipe which came from Dad's grandmother, Ann Collis, and pumpkin pie were the traditional desserts. The teenagers always went to the Sacramento/ McClatchy high school football game in the morning, and then come home to hopefully help put the finishing touches on dinner. There was a long table that went from the dining room into the kitchen. Turkey sandwiches with cranberry, mayonnaise, and lettuce, were absolutely necessary in the evening.

Our house was about 3 to 4 blocks from the old California State Fair Grounds on Stockton Boulevard and Broadway. Kids could get in free so we were there quite often. In the evenings we would sometimes go to the fair to watch the horse show as Dad's cousin was driving the Budweiser wagon there. Dad liked the harness races and we would attend those also. Maybe we would get an original orange freeze at Merlino's across the street from the fairgrounds.

A favorite thing to do was to sit on the front porch in the early evening and watch the fireworks high in the night sky. Fairgoers would park on all the streets for many blocks around the fairgrounds. We would put sawhorses in front of the house to save a place to park our car. The state fair was a big part of our lives when it ran during the summer.

Each summer we would go on a week long camping trip. At times we would go to Yosemite, or more often we went to Wright's Lake to stay at Fred Held's camp near the Dark Lake Road. Fred Held was a friend of Uncle Pete. He camped at the lake every summer from the time it opened until it closed in the fall. Uncle Pete, Aunt Gladyce, Lois and Carl and our family would join him for a week. Stan usually brought a friend, Frank Marchi, as Barbara had Dixie, Lois Carlson's daughter. Darlyne and I had each other. Laura and Charlie were married by that time. There was a lot of stuff to take for that many people. Dad was a genius when it came to packing the trunk of the car. He had built a special cabinet for the kitchen stuff and knew just where everything went in the trunk so it would all fit. We would hike up to Twin Lakes or some of the other lakes in the high country.

Darlyne wrote, "I still remember the trips there in the old Ford (I think). Daddy always said, 'She’s a boilin.' I thought camping was fun because Mom did all the work." We always carried a canvas water bag over the hood ornament in case the car boiled. We would stop by the side of the road. Let the car cool for a while and then add water from the water bag to the radiator. Then off we would go again. We could use the water for drinking as long as we didn't use too much. We forded Lyon Creek when we got to the top of the hill and would refill the water bag and all take a drink of the fresh Mountain water from the creek. When we got to Wright's Lake, we hung blankets from tree to tree to give us privacy and to separate our camp from the others. We probably looked like a bunch of “okies”, but we had fun.

Russell liked to listen to the baseball game on the radio. At times we would attend the Sacramento Solons baseball game at the ball field on Broadway. I loved going with Dad and Uncle Pete. It wouldn't be a ball game without a hot dog. His main interests were ball games and reading the newspaper. Dad was a hard worker. He often worked late into the night to keep the car running. No computers in cars in those days.

Since Russell worked in construction, and thus he showered in the evening, he would cook breakfast for the family while mother got ready for work. He loved pancakes and we would often eat pancakes with syrup. When it rained and he didn't work, he would clean house. He liked to have everything clean and orderly. When we would come home from school, the house would be shiny and clean and the floors waxed. He was a hard worker. We loved it when it rained. We weren't really cognizant of the loss of his income, we only thought of him picking us up from school so we didn't have to walk the 12 blocks in the rain. We didn't laugh a lot together, but I remember our childhood as peaceful and wonderful. We had supportive, kind parents and we were the most important things in their lives. He didn’t spank us often, but when he did, we knew we had been spanked.

Russell retired in about 1963, three years before Bertha retired in December 1966. After retirement, they sold their house and bought an Airstream trailer. One of Bertha's greatest wishes was to see New England in the fall. They traveled for a year across the northern states to New England, then down the east coast to Florida. Bertha had heart problems in Florida and they remained there for a time while she convalesced. They then traveled back west across the southern states. They parked their trailer in a small trailer park on Stockton Blvd. near Florin Road in Sacramento. To me it was a small confined and dark place, but I never heard them complain.

After Bertha's death in 1970, Russell continued to live in the trailer with his little long haired Chihuahua, Chi-chi. Life did not hold the interest it had when his life long partner was alive and with him. One day he ran a red light and he couldn't get the idea out of his head that he might have hit someone; a car, a kid on a bicycle or a pedestrian. He gave up driving. He also had a slight stroke and it seemed unwise for him to be alone. He moved in with his oldest son, Roy, on Middleberry Street in Sacramento and he lived there until he died in his sleep of a stroke on the 24th of June in 1976, at the age of 79. He was buried beside Bertha in Eastlawn Southgate on Highway 99 near Florin Road in South Sacramento.

Addendum:
1. Some of Russell's favorite sayings were:

· "Children should be seen and not heard."

"It's just as cheap to run the car on the top half of the tank as on the bottom."

· Regarding wearing lipstick: - "Any old barn looks better painted."

· Regarding accumulating worldly goods: "I've never seen a hearse pulling a trailer!"

· "Life is backwards; when the children are young and you need the money and the big house and
you don't have them. When you no longer need them, you have them."

Whenever he teased me, I would cry, and Dad would say, "Your eyes are too close to your bladder." It made me sad, because I didn't want to cry, but couldn't help it.

2. Interview with Barbara on the phone in 2007.
She remembers going to the Grange dances and the kids would sleep on the pile of coats on the floor. When they lived in the warehouse in Thera, Dad would load the wheat sacks into the boxcars. He would let the kids ride up the conveyer. The Colfax house they lived in was about 3 miles on the left from Colfax, going toward Diamond. They would skate in the living room. The school was in Colfax and the kids would return home from school walking on the railroad track. The school was a dance studio last time Barb visited. She remembers dad talking on the old crank phone when receiving a call that his mother had died. Dad had a white suit which he ruined when he threw up after drinking wine. She also remembers driving down the streets of San Francisco and the chinamen all went running into the buildings with their pigtails flying.

3. Letter from Jim Just
March 26, 2008
Dear Aunt Marilyn,
I've just finished reading your short history of Russell and Bertha Collis. I found it fascinating. Thanks so much for doing this. Memories and lives are so fragile and fleeting, it's important to preserve what we can.
I don't have much to add. I do remember the wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. The whole family would always gather at the 41ST Street house for Christmas Eve, and exchange gifts. The really precious things weren't the trinkets, but the warmth of the family and the precious memories of being together.
We kids practically lived at that house during the - what was it, 10 or 14 day run? - of the state fair. Bertha must have been a saint to put up with us, always welcoming and never a complaint.
I remember Russell as very kind and having a wicked sense of humor. I loved working with him and the other men of the family, and learned carpentry and construction skills that still serve me well today.
In my junior year -1 believe, I was suspended for a week for flipping off my gym coach (do kids still have to take P.E. these days)? As "punishment," I was assigned by my folks to work with Russell building a garage in our back yard at the Elvas Avenue house. While shingling the roof, I stepped off the edge, hit the top of a fence on the way down, flipped over, and landed on the back of my head, knocking myself silly. Russell came over, looked down at me over the edge of the roof, and said, "Lazy kid. You're the hardest kid to keep working I've ever seen."
But he gave me the rest of the day off.
Love, Jim Just

4. The Delta King is an authentic 285-foot riverboat. The King and her identical twin, the Delta Queen, were christened on May 20, 1927, and began their daily river voyages between San Francisco and Sacramento in June of that year. At 6:00 p.m. each evening, the grand ladies of the Delta left their docks for the 10 hour trip that included prohibition era drinking, jazz bands, gambling and fine dining. A stateroom was $3.50, but for a dollar and "’your own blanket" the night could be spent on the Cargo Deck.
The King and Queen reigned on the Sacramento River until the late 1930's when an increase in the number of roads, bridges and automobiles made riverboating a less efficient means of transportation. Depression and World War II signaled the end of the sternwheel era and both the King and Queen were drafted into the U. S. Navy to serve on San Francisco Bay as net tenders, floating barracks, troop transports and hospital ships. At the conclusion of the War, the Delta Queen was purchased and taken via the Panama Canal to the Mississippi River where she still serves. The engines of the Delta King were taken for spare parts. The King was shuttled between Canada and California as a derelict with hopes of becoming a floating Ghiradelli Square or Chinese Restaurant dashed at each turn by sinkings and litigations. In 1984, after being sunk for 18 months in San Francisco Bay, the Delta King was towed to Old Sacramento, where it underwent a complete renovation. Five pain-staking years later the Delta King reopened to reign, once again, as the heralded monarch of the Sacramento River.


1900 United States Federal Census
Name: Walter Collis
Home in 1900: Supervisors District 5, Contra Costa, California
Age: 33 Occupation: farmer
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1867
BirthPlace: California
Relationship to head-of-house: Head
Spouses's Name: Laura
Race: White
Household Members: Name Age
Walter Collis 33
Laura Collis 33
Hazel Collis 5
Russel Collis 3
Gladys Collis 2

1910 United States Federal Census
Name: Russel Collis
Age in 1910: 13
Estimated birth year: abt 1897
Birthplace: California
Relation to Head of House: Son
Father's name: Walter L
Father's Birth Place: California
Mother's name: Lora
Mother's Birth Place: California
Home in 1910: Diamond, Whitman, Washington
Marital Status: Single
Race: White
Gender: Male
Household Members: Name Age
Walter L Collis 42
Lora Collis 44
Hazel Collis 15
Russel Collis 13
Gladys Collis 11
Wynner Collis 9
Edgar Colli 2

*World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 Record
Name: Ernest Russell Collis
City: Diamond
County: Whitman
State: Washington
Birthplace: California;United States of America
Birth Date: 31 Dec 1896 age 21
Roll: 1992258
DraftBoard: 0
Employer: self Nearest Relative: Walter Height med Build:med Color of Eyes brown Hair dark brown:

*1920 United States Federal Census
Name: Russel Collis
Home in 1920: Diamond, Whitman, Washington
Age: 22 years
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1898
BirthPlace: California
Relation to Head of House: Brother-in-law
Father's Birth Place: California
Mother's Birth Place: California
Marital status: Single occupation: farm labor
Race: White
Sex: Male
Able to read: Yes
Able to Write: Yes
Image: 889
Household Members:Name Age
Elmer F Ping 28 railroad labor
Gladys E Ping 21
Russel Collis 22 farm labor
Winnie Collis 19 railroad labor

Marriage Cert in posession of Darlyne Frost; Family Bible.

California Voter Registration, 1926-28 Stockton, 5th Ward, 8th Precinct
line 22 Collis, Ernest R , benchand, Horace Ave. and Anderson Dem
line 23 Collis, Mrs Bertha I, housewife Horace Ave. and Anderson Dem

*1930 United States Federal Census
Name: E Russel Callis
Home in 1930: Township 9, Contra Costa, California
Age: 32
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1898
BirthPlace: California
Relation to Head of House: Head occupation: farmer
Spouses's Name: Bertha I
Race: White
Household Members: Name Age
E Russel Callis 32
Bertha I Callis 27
Walter L Callis 5 1/12
Laura M Callis 3 6/12
Allen E Morrison 25 roomer - farm hand

1940 United States Federal Census
Name: E Russell Collis
Age: 44
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1896
Gender: Male
Race: White
Birthplace: California
Marital Status: Married
Relation to Head of House: Head
Home in 1940: South Colfax, Whitman, Washington
Farm: Yes
Inferred Residence in 1935: South Colfax, Whitman, Washington
Residence in 1935: Same Place
Sheet Number: 3A
Number of Household in Order of Visitation: 46
Occupation: Clerk
House Owned or Rented: Rented
Value of Home or Monthly Rental if Rented: 10
Attended School or College: No
Highest Grade Completed: Elementary school, 7th grade
Hours Worked Week Prior to Census: 48
Class of Worker: $720 Wage or salary worker in private work
Weeks Worked in 1939: 52
Income: 780
Income Other Sources: Yes
Neighbors: Ted Ackerman
Household Members: Name Age
E Russell Collis 44
Bertha L Collis 37
Walter Leroy 15
Lora Mary 13
Barbara Jean 9
Stanley R Collis 5
Marilyn Collis 2
Gladyce D Collis 8/12

U.S. World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942 about Ernest Russell Collis
Name: Ernest Russell Collis
Birth Date: 31 Dec 1896
Birth Place: Brentwood
Residence: Sacto, California
Race: White
Roll: WWII_1734613

1939 Sacramento City Directory: Collis or Ping not found
1940 Sacramento City Directory: Ping, Elmer F (Gladyce E) h4964 13th av
Ping, Frank (Mary E) h5018 14th av
1940 Sacramento City Directory: Collis, Edgar, D, gdnr, PG&E co, h4964 13th av
1941 Sacramento City Directory: Ping, Elmer F (Gladyce E) h4964 13th av
Ping, Frank (Mary E) h5018 14th av
Ping, Peter r 4964 13th av
1943 Sacramento City Directory: Ping, Elmer F (Gladyce E) Elec eng SAD h 4964 13th av
Ping, Frank (Mary E) h5018 1/2 14th av
Ping, Gladyc E clk DMV r 4964 13th av
1943 Sacramento City Directory: Collis, E Russell (Bertha I) driver h2486 41st St.

*California Death Index, 1940-1997 Record about ERNEST R COLLIS
Name: COLLIS, ERNEST R
Social Security #: 542034134
Sex: MALE
Birth Date: 31 Dec 1896
Birthplace: CALIFORNIA
Death Date: 26 Jun 1976
Death Place: SACRAMENTO

Died in his bed at his son, Walter LeRoy Collis', home on Middleberry St., Sacramento from a stroke.

*Social Security Death Index Record
Name: Ernest Collis
SSN: 542-03-4134
Last Residence: 95815 Sacramento, Sacramento, California, United States of America
Born: 31 Dec 1896 California
Died: Jun 1976
State (Year) SSN issued: Oregon (Before 1951 )

Ernest married Bertha Irene SHERMAN on 14 Oct 1923 in Spokane, Spokane, Washington, United States. Bertha (daughter of Milton Kellum SHERMAN and Addie Mae SLY) was born on 2 Mar 1903 in Kalispell, Flathead, Montana, United States; died on 30 Jun 1970 in Traverse City, Grand Traverse, Michigan, United States; was buried in Eastlawn Southgate, Sacramento, California, United States. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events:

• Physical Description: 5'2", light brown hair, hazel brown eyes, heavy set
• FamilySearch Id: 5 foot 3, light brown hair, med build,
• FamilySearch Id: KFFK-QHG
• Occupation: Supervisor- Drivers Lisc Dept of Motor Vehicles for CA
• Reference Number: *
• Religion: Nazarene, Sacramento, Sacramento, California, United States
• _MARNM: Collis
• _UID: CC42A326D290344E91B6EDDD17737D9467E8

Notes:

BERTHA IRENE SHERMAN

Bertha was born in Kalispell, Montana, on 2 March, 1903. Her mother, Addie May Sly, and father, Milton K. Sherman, had met in Michigan where May was a waitress in the restaurant of the Elliot House Hotel. Milton and his brothers were loggers. Milton's sister, Matilda, wrote, "May Sly was a very beautiful girl. She had most of the young men in a whirl for sure. However, Milton won her. I recall that her parents worked for the Elliots also." May and Milton married February 17, 1902 in Oscoda, Michigan. The marriage was registered in Tawas City, the county seat. Matilda (or Tillie as she was called) continues, "When May's parents decided to move to Montana, May insisted on going too. Milton, being so mad about her, gave in and went along. Milton was always a very calm, quiet man. He would never argue or quarrel with any one."

May's parents spoken of here are her mother, Elizabeth, and step father, Richard Smith. Elizabeth Close had married Loren Sly in Michigan in 1877. Addie May was the second of their three children. Loren left for the Gold fields about 1888 during a recession. The family received a few letters then heard no more from him. Elizabeth took in roomers to make ends meet after her husband disappeared. Richard Smith was one of those roomers. He was a logger and said he liked to take a room with a widow to help her out. Although Elizabeth was not officially a widow, she was raising her three children by herself. Richard Smith and Elizabeth were married in Michigan about 1900.

Elizabeth (Libby) and Richard Smith moved to Montana in 1902 and took up a homestead near Eureka. May and Milton went with them and also filed for homestead land. They lived in what was called the "Love Cottage". Bertha's father, Milton, left when Bertha was about 2 years old, and according to Bertha, she never heard from nor saw him again. Maye Alverson, a step cousin to Bertha, wrote that someone had taken a shot at Milton while he sat in his home. The suspected person was Richard Smith, who supposedly did not care for Milton. Richard Smith was often upset with one or another of the neighbors and eventually lost much of his land through unsuccessful law suits.

In the book: "The Story of the Tobacco Plains Country, the Autobiography of a Community," Page 164 in a chapter on "Fortine Area Homesteads." It says, "Among many other Michiganders who homesteaded in this vicinity were Dick Smith and his wife, and Mrs. Smith's son and daughter, Ernest and May Sly. For years Dick Smith was the community "radical"--always fighting the capitalist lumber companies and writing accusing letters to his Congressmen: "Just sore at everybody in the world," as Harry Weydemeyer puts it. Mrs. Smith died and her son and daughter went west, but Dick stayed on, living alone at his homestead, and died there at a ripe old age, still kicking."

Milton decided he could not stay any longer. It is said that when Milton left, he asked May to come with him, but she refused. I later learned that Milton had returned to his parent's home in Michigan. His sister, my Aunt Tillie, wrote," What happened between May and Milton I never heard. I do know he loved May and Bertha very much. When he came home, I was only about 6 or 7 years of age, but I remember he had a picture of Bertha at about 1 and a half or 2 years of age. He had that picture enlarged and it hung in our parlor. Several times I have gone into the parlor and found him standing there before that picture with tears running down his face." Maye Alverson wrote that Milton had sent money and gifts to Bertha which never reached her. Perhaps her step-father, Richard (Dick), had intercepted them. Bertha said that Grandpa Dick was never anything but kind to her and she loved him.

After Milton and May separated, May went to Spokane, Washington to look for work. She worked as a waitress in one or another hotel there. She left Bertha in the care of her grandparents, Libby and Dick Smith. Bertha had fond memories of her time with her Grandmother. She remembered playing on the kitchen floor with an egg beater and a bowl, beating imaginary eggs while her grandmother prepared a meal. Bertha had diphtheria when she was four years old and lived in a little house in Eureka Montana. It's not clear whether she was living with her mother or grandmother at that time. When Bertha's mother, May, married James Leroy Lamb in 1908, they wanted Bertha to come live with them in Diamond, Washington, but Grandmother Libby felt she couldn't part with her, so Bertha continued living with her grandmother. Periodically she would visit her mother and step father. Roy had graduated from college with a business degree. He was a bookkeeper when he married May, but he didn't like it. He later became a road overseer. Later he managed the warehouse near the railroad.

Bertha attended Therriault (pronounced Tarry-o) School in Eureka, Montana The school was held in a log cabin close the 'Love Cabin' previously belonging to her father. The school and 'Love Cabin' were about 3 miles from the Smith's homestead. As the Smith homestead was several miles from school and any neighbors, Bertha would often ride her horse to school. At times she would be the only child at school. I'm sure she was a lonely child, but perhaps didn't know any different. She did have her animals for friends and playmates.

It was a hard life in the far Northwestern corner of Montana. Richard was never a good provider. Libby was a hard worker.and had a strawberry patch and vegetable garden. She would sell eggs and vegetables to the neighbors to make ends meet. She would even hire out as a cook.

Hunting was a necessity to provide food for the winter. There would be a deer hanging in the shed all winter. It was so cold that the deer would freeze, and a saw would be used to cut off a chunk of meat for dinner. Bertha learned to can the deer meet in the oven. She also learned to shoot a gun at a young age and was a good shot. There wasn't much opportunity to shoot a gun when she lived in Sacramento and in fact there were no guns in the home, but she liked to target practice when she would visit her daughter and son in law, Barbara and Tom Alexander, in Arizona.

In 1917 Bertha started Lincoln High School in Eureka, Montana. She lived with her Grandma in a rented house next door to her Aunt Carrie Fletcher and her family. The Fletchers lived in a house they built on a lot owned by Bertha's mother. Bertha was a regular Tom boy, according to her, and she played "Follow the Leader" with the Fletcher boys all over the mill pond and the lumber yard. Uncle Fred Fletcher was the tender at the dam but never stopped them even though it was a danger as the logs bobbed and rolled as they jumped from one to another. What fun they had. At one time Uncle Fred was a diver repairing boats on Flathead Lake and as a child, Bertha would go visit them where they lived in Somers, Montana. At that time so many children bothered her, so Aunt Carrie let her go into the cellar and kept the other kids away. She stated, "I guess I had spent to much time alone that I couldn't stand the commotion." It seems she outgrew that by the time she was in high school.

Bertha's Grandmother, Libby, had breast cancer, and said to have been caused from falling down a well. Libby went to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, New York, but they could not cure the cancer and prescribed morphine for the pain. Libby was there during the flue epidemic of 1918 and Bertha had the flu and was alone in the house in Eureka. In the spring of 1919, Libby's illness and the resulting pain became very bad, and she kept asking for Bertha. Bertha quit school to tend to her. A couple of times May came to care for Libby, but when she wasn't there, Bertha nursed her and administered morphine shots to ease the pain. At times Ernest Fletcher would give Bertha a break and he would care for Libby. She died the 8th of July in 1919 when Bertha was just sixteen.

After her grandmother's death, Bertha went to live with her mother and stepfather in Diamond, Washington. They had no children of their own. Bertha told me that she didn't know why, but she assumed that her parent's wouldn't want her to live with them. Perhaps she felt rejected as she had visited but had not really lived with her mother since the age of two. In retrospect Bertha stated that her stepfather, Roy Lamb, "was very tolerant and understanding of what must have been a very bratty and spoiled sixteen year old. Anyway, I have only pleasant and affectionate memories of him." Roy was very good to her and they developed a very close relationship. Bertha and her mother also became very close after she moved back home. Bertha was still an only child and longed for brothers and sisters.

For whatever reason, Bertha decided she wanted to go to catholic school. She attended St. John's Academy, a Catholic girl's boarding school for a year and a half. She had met Russell by then and Barbara said that Russell told Bertha she needed to give up Catholic School or him. She moved back with Roy and May.
Bertha was a good student and she loved learning. She took Latin in school which served her well throughout her life, as she had a good vocabulary and a good understanding of words. She loved working crossword puzzles. She attended Colfax High School, where she graduated 23 May 1922. She was an officer and treasurer in the Campfire Girls-Tenega. Campfire girls were first organized in 1910 as the first non sectarian organization for girl in the the United States.

Bertha attended State Normal School at Cheney, Washington, in 1923. She started teaching in September 1923 at Harp School in Mount Hope, just out of Spokane, Washington. She had met Russell Collis at a fair when she was 15. They were married 14 Oct 1923. Bertha quit teaching at the end of that school year as she was pregnant with Roy. She never went back to teaching again. She would have been a wonderful teacher. She was smart and patient and loving.

When Bertha and Russell moved to Sacramento in May 1941, Bertha worked at the Libby McNeil Cannery on Stockton Boulevard, canning apricots, and peaches. The next summer she worked at Bercut Richards canning tomatoes. It was tiring hard work, but she was used to hard work. She had been a stay at home, but work at home mom throughout the early years of marriage; she had cooked for road crews in Colfax while they were living there. She had helped roof a house when 8 months pregnant with Barbara.

Bertha was an active member of the Nazarene church on 21st and S Streets. It was a strict religion which discouraged dancing, makeup, jewelry, and movies. She wrote many poems embracing religious themes. She was Sunday school superintendent and at one time printed the Sunday bulletin on the mimeograph machine; a messy job. She took her children to church by herself as Russell only attended on Easter and Christmas. He would often cook dinner while we were at church and after dinner, we would take a ride. There were many such trips around the area. One by one her children quit attending as they reached their teenage years. Eventually Bertha quit attending.

Bertha began working for the State of California, Department of Motor Vehicles on 15 Dec 1942 and remained there until she retired in April 1965 as a Supervisor in the Division of Drivers License. She was 62 years old. She was a finger print specialist in analyzing and comparing finger prints. She was well liked and well thought of in the department. As she got older, she seldom drove the car as Russell took her where she wanted to go. They even went grocery shopping together. They were compatible and excepting of their differences and strengths.

Bertha was quick to figure things out. She was always ready to fix things. I can remember her taking apart the toaster or iron and putting them back together again and they worked. That was in the days when you fixed what you had rather than throwing it out and buying a new one. We had an old electric curling iron as I remember. You had to be really careful not to get it too hot or you would burn your hair and it would break off. She was always working on some kind of hand work; knitting, crocheting, tatting, and sewing. She made most of our clothing when we were young and taught us to sew at a very young age. She could create any garment you could show her. Every Easter we would have a new homemade out fit to wear to church. She knitted many Barbie doll sweaters for her first grandchildren. As she aged, she developed arthritis in her hands and no longer did handwork. She wrote lots of poetry, much of it of a religious nature, but some with a bit humor also. She was a lady of many talents. My most vivid memories of her were of the times I would have a bad dream in the night. I would creep into my parent's room and stand or kneel beside her bed. She would wake up and take me into bed with her until I was ready to go back to my own bed. When I was young, Stan, Darlyne and I slept in the same room. One night I woke up and saw Stan standing beside my bed; and yet when I looked over at his bed, he was fast asleep in it. The person standing beside my bed disappeared into my parent's closet in the nest room. I was scared out of my whits. My parents got up and searched all through their closet and even into the attic opening in the ceiling of their closet. No one could be found. I was sure that someone was there. They were so patient with me even in the middle of the night, knowing it was a bad dream.

One cold night in January of 1953 Bertha received a telephone call during the night. Her mother had been in an automobile accident and was killed instantly from a ruptured aorta and spleen. The car she was riding in and another car had collided in a snowstorm just south of Spokane, Washington. She had been shopping with other women from her home town area. (See addendum 6).It was a terrible shock. I woke up to Bertha's screaming. Roy had always promised to bring May down to Sacramento to see her daughter and grandchildren. Now that was no longer an option and Roy was devastated. Bertha and Russell drove up to be with Roy. It was a sad reunion. Roy, May's husband, came to visit us in Sacramento with a neighbor boy, Norman Kuntz after her death. Norman was about 16 at the time and probably helped with the driving. Roy was so lonely. Roy died July 31, 1955. Bertha and Russell took a trip to Diamond to settle his affairs.

When Bertha retired, she and Russell fulfilled one of her lifelong dreams of seeing New England in the fall with all of the beautiful colors. They sold their home, bought an Airstream trailer and traveled across the United States. While they were gone, I found some of her treasures that she had stored at Darlyne and Bill's house. Among her papers, I found May Sly and Milton Sherman's marriage certificate stating they were married in Bay County Michigan. I called the operator and told her I was looking for Milton Sherman and explained the reason. She gave me the names and phone numbers for all of the Shermans in that area. One of the persons I called gave me the name and number of Tillie Sherman Chambers who was a sister to Milton. Milton had died in 1953 of a heart attack. That was the same year but about a month after May's death. Aunt Tillie told me that Milton had come home and married Zoë Sharrow in 1908. Milton and Zoë had four children; 3 boys and a girl.

Another of Bertha's desires was fulfilled even though she hadn't known it. The family discussed whether Bertha should be informed of the news of her new family since she had a serious heart condition. Stan said that we had no choice. She needed to be told. When Bertha and Russell returned from their year long trip across the States, I broke the news to her that she had 3 half brothers and a half sister. She was so excited! She could hardly wait to talk to them on the telephone. She had a conversation with Joe, the oldest brother and wrote to the cousin who was involved in researching the genealogy of the family. She decided to fly back to Michigan to meet them. We knew it was risky due to her heart condition. She had had a heart attack in Florida and was confined to the trailer for quite some time. Russell did not wish to go as he was not comfortable meeting so many new people. We talked about the risk, but they decided she should go and the new family in Michigan was anxious to meet her.

When she got to Michigan, a cousin, Vernon Sherman, arranged for a large Sherman family reunion. Milton's sister, Tillie, his wife, Zoey, and all of Milton's children and their families attended. There were also many cousins. Bertha loved it all and had a wonderful visit. (See Addendum 18 - letter from Vernon Sherman).

After a couple of days in Michigan, Bertha felt lots of pain in her legs and back. She knew something was not right. She ended up in the hospital in Traverse City, Michigan. Russell, accompanied by his oldest son, Roy, flew back to Michigan to be with her. Despite his reticence, he met all the Sherman family. They were very good to him and he liked them. Bertha was in the hospital for about a week. Surgery was performed to remove the embolism, but it was too late. She died in the hospital June 30, 1970. Her body was shipped back to Sacramento for burial at Eastlawn South. (See addendum 7). Joe, her half brother, and his wife Lora came to visit us in Sacramento a while later. It was nice for the family to meet him. We met his daughter Norma and her husband, Bud, and their children also, but never met the rest of the family.

Some of Bertha's Legacies:

·She loved all nature, from the most delicate flower to the high majestic peaks.
·She was a conservationist before it was popular to be one. We could never throw even a bit of paper on the ground.
·She cared about all humans, from the intellectual to the down trodden.
·She had a deep spirituality.
·She loved a good joke.
·She was a good shot with a gun.
·She had a good command of the language with a large vocabulary. She felt the Latin she took in high school accounted
for this. She loved doing crossword puzzles.
·She knew and loved poetry. Just a word would prick her memory and she would recite a long loved poem. She wrote
poems both spiritual and humorous.
·One of her favorite sayings was; "Necessity is the mother of invention." Another regarding attitude was; "You can catch
more flies with honey than with vinegar."
·She insisted in honesty and truthfulness in all things minor and major. We could never bring anything home that wasn't
ours. She would say quietly and calmly, "It isn't yours, go put it back where you found it."
·She was an excellent seamstress and had always wanted to take dressmaking courses. She could look at a picture of a
dress or outfit and create one like it.
·Her hands were always busy with knitting, crocheting, tatting or other handwork.
·She was not an exceptional housekeeper. One of her favorite sayings was, "It will never be noticed on a galloping
horse."
·She always took a position against gossip, but was not concerned if she was the butt of the gossip. She would say, "If
they're talking about me, then they're not talking about someone else."
·She loved life and lived it.
·She had often stated that she only had three desires: "To live to see her family raised; to see New England in the fall;
and to have brothers and sisters." She fulfilled all three of them.


One of her sayings,"When they are little they step on your toes. When they are big they step on your heart!"

*1910 United States Federal Census
Name: Bertha I Hserman [Bertha I Sherman]
Age in 1910: 7
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1903
BirthPlace: Montana
Relation to Head of House: Granddaughter
Father's Birth Place: Austria
Mother's Birth Place: Michigan
Home in 1910: School District 10, Lincoln, Montana
Marital Status: Single
Race: White
Gender: Female
Neighbors:
Household Members: Name Age
Richard Smith 44
Elizabeth Smith 31
Bertha I Hserman 7 ( Should be Sherman)

1920 United States Federal Census
Name: Bertha Sherman [Bertha Shorman]
Home in 1920: Diamond, Whitman, Washington
Age: 16 years
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1904
Birthplace: Montana [Washington]
Relation to Head of House: Stepdaughter
Father's Birth Place: Michigan
Mother's Name: Mae
Mother's Birth Place: Michigan
Marital Status: Single
Race: White
Sex: Female
Able to read: Yes
Able to Write: Yes
Image: 887
Household Members: Name Age
Roy Lamb 35
Mae Lamb 36
Bertha Sherman 16

Notes:

Washington, Marriage Records, 1865-2004
Name: Russell Earnest Collis
Spouse: Bertha Irene Sherman
Marriage Date: 14 Oct 1923
Marriage Place: Spokane
Reference Number: easpmca33989

Other Events:

• Occupation: Blacksmith, farmer, house builder
• Reference Number: *
• _UID: 142FDE5B63C1224EB7529AE60363D684593A
• Census: 1870, 1880, 1910, 1920

Notes:

Things to do:
1. Look in Brentwood CA newspapers 1880-1910, for articles and wedding, birth, death of Arthur, etc.
2. Look in Colfax WA newspapers 1910-1918 for articles.
3. Look in Winner's letters for info
4. Do I have a will and death cert? for both Laura and Walter?

Timeline:
1868 Walter born Berry Street, San Francisco, CA
1870 Census, Walter age 2, living with parents San Francisco, CA
1880 Census, Walter age 11, living with parents Contra Costa County, CA
1892 Oct listed in California voter registration, age 24, farmer in Briones Valley residence, Brentwood
post office, 5 foot 10 in tall, fair complexion, hazel eyes, dark hair, left leg shorter,
1893 Marriage Certificate -Walter and Laura in Brentwood, Contra Costa, CA
1894 daughter, Hazel, born, Brentwood, CA
1896 June California voter registration, farmer in Brentwood
1896 son, Ernest Russell, born Brentwood, CA
1898 daughter, Gladyce, born, Brentwood, CA
1900 Census, Walter age 33 Contra Costa County, CA; living with wife, Laura, and three children,
Hazel, Russell, & Gladyce,.
1900 Oct; son, Winner, born, Brentwood, CA
1901 & 1902, he is listed as a blacksmith living at 4164 17th Street, San Francisco. He shoed horses for
the San Francisco Streetcars.
1902 Aug; son, Arthur, born, Brentwood, CA
1907 Sep, 5; son, Arthur, died in Brentwood while Walter was on business selling farm equip. in
Washington.
1907 Sep 19; son, Edgar, born Brentwood, CA
1910 Census, Walter, age 42, Diamond, Whitman, Washington; living with wife, Laura, and five
children, Hazel, Russell, Gladyce, Winner, & Edgar
1912 daughter, Hazel married in Whitman County, Washington
1917 daughter, Gladyce married in Dayton, Washington.
1918 Walter, Laura, and son Edgar moved back to Brentwood, CA to farm left him by his mother
1920 Census, Walter, age 51, House Construction; Oak St., Brentwood, Contra Costa County, CA; living
with wife, Laura, and Edgar and 2 boarders in construction.
1923 Walter fell off ladder while picking apples in Wenatchee, WA.
1930 Jan 22, Walter died of bladder cancer in San Francisco.
1930 Census, Laura living in Oakland, Alameda, CA with daughter, Gladyce and husband Pete Ping
1940 Census, Laura living in Sacramento, CA with daughter, Gladyce and husband Pete Ping
1940 Aug 7, Laura died of old age. She had been with her son, Winner in Oregon and Gladyce had gone
to Oregon to bring her home to live with her and her husband Pete Ping. Laura was in a rest home
at the time of her death at age 74.

Walter Winner Collis and Laura Susan Grigsby were married 4 Oct 1893 in Brentwood, Contra Costa County, California. They met in Brentwood where their parents had adjoining farms. Her wedding veil was adorned with live orange blossoms. They were the parents of 6 children; Hazel, Ernest (known as Russell), Gladyce, Winner, Arthur, and Edgar. Five of the children lived to adulthood. Arthur died as a young child. They lived in Brentwood behind Walter's blacksmith shop later moving to Colfax, Washington, then back again to Brentwood.

Laura was born 2 Jul 1866 in Napa County where her parents had met and married. She was the oldest of 4 children, all of which attended school in Brentwood, California. Her father was a successful farmer there. Her mother was often ill, and many times Laura stayed home from school to care for her mother. She was an accomplished piano and organ player. When her husband died, Laura moved to Oregon to be with her son, Winner, but was soon retrieved by her daughter, Gladyce, who brought her to live her last days in Sacramento. Laura died in 1940 at the age of 74 from heart disease.

Walter Winner Collis was born 14 Sept 1868 at 130 Berry Street, San Francisco, California, Walter was the 8th of 10 children born to William and Ann (Randall) Collis of England. William Collis, is listed in the 1868-1874 San Francisco directory as having a saloon and residence at that address. It is reputed to have been nice real estate at that time. In the 1888 San Francisco directory, Walter was listed as a lamplighter and trimmer for The Cal Electric Light Co. in San Francisco, living at 1517 Vallejo Street. (is this our Walter Collis?) Before the turn of the century he was a grain farmer in Brentwood, Contra Costa County, California. My father, Russell Collis, said that farming was never his best occupation. In 1902, he is listed as a blacksmith living at 4164 17th Street in San Francisco. He shod horses for the San Francisco Streetcars. In 1906, during the earthquake, he and his family were living behind the blacksmith shop in Brentwood, California. He later worked for the Holt Harvestor Company as a traveling salesman, demonstrating and selling equipment. His family was living in Berkeley during that time. He was sent to Washington State and was there in 1907, when his son, Arthur, choked to death. Aunt Gladyce remembers the body lying in the living room for about one week while they waited for Dad to return for the funeral. Two weeks after Arthur's death, Laura gave birth to her sixth child, Edgar. The family moved to Diamond, Washington and in the 1910 census he is listed again as a blacksmith in his own shop.

The following information was told to me by Russell Collis in January of 1976.
"In 1910 the family (Walter Winner's family) moved to Diamond, Washington. Walter worked in a blacksmith shop there. In 1918, Walter inherited $700 from his mother. He took Laura, Edgar, a cow and the furniture on a freight train back to Brentwood to 40 acres of property left to Laura by her father, Erasmus Grigsby. Walter nearly died of the flu. Gladyce and Hazel had both married in Washington. Russell and Winner both stayed to work."
"In 1923 Walter, Laura and Edgar returned to Washington for Bertha and Russell's wedding and then went on to Wenatchee, Washington, to pick apples. Walter fell off the ladder onto his back. He later developed kidney and bladder problems attributed to the fall. They called it cancer. It was hardening of the bladder. The bladder was like granite inside and they would chip it off in chips. Walter was never really well after that. Doctor Regen and Doctor Reynolds at the University hospital in San Francisco wanted to operate. The cost of $150, Walter felt was too high and the county owed him something after all these years. He went to the County Hospital in Martinez. It didn't help and when he went back to University Hospital, it was too late. He died there in 1930 at age 61.

He left the farm in debt and it was taken over by the bank shortly after his death. Farming was not his best interest." "Walter played the coronet well and he played any kind of brass instrument. He played in the band in Diamond for a while. He also played the mouth organ well. He had a short leg and walked with a limp, but he was a very strong, husky man. He could pick up a one hundred-fifty pound anvil by the horn and hold it straight out at arm's length. He also was an expert swimmer and at one time made a wager he could swim the river from Brentwood to San Francisco Bay. No one took him up on it so he didn't swim it."

MEMORIES OF Walter Winner Collis by Grandson, WALTER LEROY COLLIS
(as told to Marilyn Parker, June 4, 1988)

I remember little of the ranch in Brentwood; just going through the orchard between Grandma Collis' and our little shack, Grandpa sitting in the rocking chair on the porch with tears rolling down his cheeks because he hurt so bad. Yet Grandpa always had time to play with me. Whenever I'd come, he'd hold me on his lap.

I can remember Grandma chasing him around, telling him, "Walter! do this." Boy! He'd move. She was just a little tiny squirt. We used to gather around the piano and sing the old traditional stuff on Christmas Eve. Money was tight so we would go out and cut down a tree whether it was pine or whatever, and decorate it with homemade decorations. I remember stringing popcorn, making chains and paper decorations.

Grandpa Collis was a big man, religious, a blacksmith, 6 feet 1 inch on one foot and 6 feet 2 inches on the other; A big man with big arms. He wouldn't hurt a fly. He fell across a ladder picking fruit and developed cancer of the bladder.


!BIRTH: Berry Street, 10 pm (William Collis family bible in possession of Marilyn Parker)
!MARRIAGE: Marriage Cert. in possession of Laura Mae Just. (I have a copy)

1870 United States Federal Census
Name: Walter W Collis
Age in 1870: 2
Birth Year: abt 1868
Birthplace: California
Home in 1870: San Francisco Ward 9, San Francisco, California
Race: White
Gender: Male
Post Office: San Francisco
Value of real estate:
Household Members: Name Age
Wm Collis 43 (male citizen of US)
Annie E Collis 41
Ada A Collis 16
Wm A Collis 15
Austin W Collis 6
Rachel Collis 4
Walter W Collis 2

*1880 United States Federal Census
Name: Walter W. Collis
Home in 1880: Township 5, Contra Costa, California
Age: 11
Estimated birth year: abt 1869
Birthplace: California
Relation to head-of-household: Son
Father's name: William
Father's birthplace: Eng
Mother's name: Esther A.
Mother's birthplace: Eng
Occupation: Going To School
Marital Status: Single
Race: White
Gender: Male
Household Members: Name Age
William Collis 54
Esther A. Collis 51
William A. Collis 24
Austin W. Collis 15
Rachael Collis 12
Walter W. Collis 11
Florence E. Collis 10
Lillian E. Collis 8

1900 United States Federal Census
Name: Walter Collis
Age: 33
Birth Date: Sep 1866
Birthplace: California
Home in 1900: Supervisors District 5, Contra Costa, California
Race: White
Gender: Male
elation to Head of House:
pouse's Name: Laura Collis
Marriage Year: 1893
Years Married: 7
Father's Birthplace: England
Mother's Birthplace: England
Occupation: Farmer rented farm
Household Members: Name Age
Walter Collis 33 farmer
Laura Collis 33
Hazel Collis 5
Russel Collis 3
Gladys Collis 2

*1910 United States Federal Census
Name: Walter L Collis
Age in 1910: 42
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1868
BirthPlace: California
Relation to Head of House: Head
Father's Birth Place: England
Mother's Birth Place: England
Spouses's Name: Lora
Home in 1910: Diamond, Whitman, Washington
Marital Status: Married
Occupation: Blacksmith, own shop (own it free, house)
Race: White
Gender: Male
Household Members: Name Age
Walter L 42
Lora Collis 44
Hazel Collis 15
Russel Collis 13
Gladys Collis 11
Wynner Collis 9
Edgar Collis 2

1920 United States Federal Census
Name: Walter W Callis
Home in 1920: Brentwood, Contra Costa, California, Oak Street
Age: 51 years
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1869
Birthplace: California
Relation to Head of House: Head
Occupation: Construction, House builder, for wages
Spouse's Name: Laura E
Father's Birth Place: England
Mother's Birth Place: England
Marital Status: Married
Race: White
Sex: Male
Home owned: Own farm
Able to read: Yes
Able to Write: Yes
Image: 492
Household Members: Name Age
Walter W Callis 51
Laura E Callis 53
Edgar D Callis 12
Samuel S Logan 37 boarder, builder, house builder
Roy C Motter 21 boarder, painter, house builder

1930 United States Federal Census
Name: Laura S Collis
Birth Year: abt 1867
Gender: Female
Race: White
Birthplace: California
Marital Status: Widowed
Relation to Head of House: Mother-in-law
Home in 1930: Oakland, Alameda, California
Map of Home: View Map
Street address: 76th Ave
Block: 3099
House Number in Cities or Towns: 1446
Dwelling Number: 255
Family Number: 262
Age at First Marriage: 27
Attended School: No
Able to Read and Write: Yes
Father's Birthplace: Missouri
Mother's Birthplace: Missouri
Able to Speak English: Yes
Household Members:
Name Age
Elmer F Ping 32
Gladys E Ping 30
Frank E Ping 57
Mary E Ping 52
Laura S Collis 63

1940 United States Federal Census
Name: Laura Collis
Age: 73
Estimated birth year: abt 1867
Gender: Female
Race: White
Birthplace: California
Marital Status: Widowed
Relation to Head of House: Mother-in-law
Home in 1940: Sacramento, Sacramento, California
Map of Home in 1940: View Map
Street: 13 Avenue
House Number: 4964
Inferred Residence in 1935: Sacramento, Sacramento, California
Residence in 1935: Same Place
Sheet Number: 10A
Attended School or College: No
Highest Grade Completed: Elementary school, 5th grade
Weeks Worked in 1939: 0
Income: 0
Income Other Sources: No
Neighbors: View others on page
Household Members:
Name Age
Elmer Ping 44
Gladyce Ping 41
Laura Collis 73
Edgar Collis 32

!DEATH: died age 62, State file #5389 vol. 10 page 1322, buried:Brentwood Union Cemetary

findagrave.com
Walter W. Collis..
Birth: 1864
Death: 1930
Burial:
Union Cemetery
Brentwood
Contra Costa County
California, USA

From the dawn of the Iron Age through the 19th century, the blacksmith trade grew in demand and became increasingly specialized in the process. America would not even exist were it not for the smithy. Indeed, civilization itself is indebted to the blacksmith for virtually all material innovation up to the advent of the factory floor. The importance of the blacksmith cannot be overstated. But then, something happened: machines.
The smithy trade began to decline in the mid-19th century, as machines began to produce items that were formerly made by the blacksmith. At first it was the simple things: nails, hooks, fence rods. In time, more complex products were machine-crafted, such as hinges and barbed wire. The smithy simply couldn't compete with the economics of machine-crafted implements, a phenomenon that soon gave rise to a virtuous cycle of machine-dominance in the production of most material goods. What the machines didn't take from the smithy was soon eaten by other competitive innovations and historical events:
Ransom E. Olds' re-introduction of the assembly line (circa 1901) to meet demand for the new "horseless carriage" meant the smithy's skill in shaping iron rims for wheelwrights was rendered superfluous to transportation needs.
Soon thereafter, the extensive adoption of large open-geared tractors negatively impacted demand for simply farm tools, horse shoes, and other finely crafted items previously considered agricultural necessities.
The Great Depression killed a last bastion of the blacksmith market niche when architectural ironwork became a symbol of a luxury-laden bygone age. In a matter of less than 100 years after Longfellow's poem was published, the vital trade of smithy was all but dead.

. research Holt Harvester Co during 1910-1930:
History Of Holt Harvester Co
1883 The Stockton Wheel Company was established by Benjamin and Charles Holt.
1886 The first Holt "link belt" combined harvester was sold, replacing unreliable mechanical
geared harvesters.
1890 Benjamin Holt unveiled his version of the steam traction engine with new, patented steering
clutches.
1892 The Stockton Wheel Company was incorporated as The Holt Manufacturing Company.
1904 Benjamin Holt tested a steam powered machine that moved on self-laying tracks instead of
wheels. He named this invention the "Caterpillar".
1931 Marysville Tractor & Equipment Co. was formed by Daniel W. Beatie to cover Marysville,CA
1935 Roseville facility in Placer County was opened.
1939 Holt Bros. was formed by Parker M. Holt and Harry D. Holt to cover Santa Maria, California.

Walter married Laura Susan GRIGSBY on 4 Oct 1893 in Brentwood, Contra Costa, California, United States. Laura (daughter of Erasmus Dorwin GRIGSBY and Elmira MILLER) was born on 2 Jul 1866 in , Napa, California, United States; died on 7 Aug 1940 in Sacramento, Sacramento, California, United States; was buried in Union Cemetery, Brentwood, Contra Costa, California, United States. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events:

• Reference Number: *
• _MARNM: Collis
• _UID: DD783B4B9C73BE4FB84E64B8055DDF78D288
• Census: 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930

Notes:

NDGW # 69-004

1870 United States Federal Census
Name: Laura S Grigsby
Age in 1870: 4
Birth Year: abt 1866
Birthplace: California
Home in 1870: Yount, Napa, California
Race: White
Gender: Female
Post Office: Napa City
Value of real estate:
Household Members: Name Age
E D Grigsby 29
Almira Grigsby 21
Laura S Grigsby 4
Warren M Grigsby 3
Infant Grigsby 3/12

1880 United States Federal Census about Laura S. Grigsby
Name: Laura S. Grigsby
Age: 13
Birth Year: abt 1867
Birthplace: California
Home in 1880: Township 5, Contra Costa, California
Race: White
Gender: Female
Relation to Head of House: Daughter
Marital Status: Single
Father's Name: Erasmus D. Grigsby
Father's Birthplace: Missouri
Mother's Name: Elmira Grigsby
Mother's Birthplace: Illinois
Neighbors:
Occupation: Going To School
Cannot read/write: Blind: Deaf and dumb: Otherwise disabled: Idiotic or insane:
Household Members: Name Age
Erasmus D. Grigsby 39
Elmira Grigsby 30
Laura S. Grigsby 13
Warren M. Grigsby 13
Lillie J. Grigsby 10
Byron L. Grigsby 8
Mary J. Miller 53
Tillie M. Huey 5m
Jack Ellsworth 50
Jim 17
Thomas Murphy 27
Edward Ferguson 33
William O Brien 30

*1930 United States Federal Census Laura S Collis
Name: Laura S Collis
Home in 1930: Oakland, Alameda, California
Age: 63
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1867
BirthPlace: California
Relation to Head of House: Mother-in-law
Race: White
Household Members: Name Age
Elmer F Ping 32 head
Gladys E Ping 30 wife
Frank E Ping 57 father
Mary E Ping 52 mother
Laura S Collis 63 mother in law

1940 United States Federal Census about Laura Collis
Name: Laura Collis
Age: 73
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1867
Gender: Female
Race: White
Birthplace: California
Marital Status: Widowed
Relation to Head of House: Mother-in-law
Home in 1940: Sacramento, Sacramento, California
Street: 13 Avenue
House Number: 4964
Inferred Residence in 1935: Sacramento, Sacramento, California
Residence in 1935: Same Place
Sheet Number: 10A
Attended School or College: No
Highest Grade Completed: Elementary school, 5th grade
Weeks Worked in 1939: 0
Income: 0
Income Other Sources: No
Neighbors:
Household Members: Name Age
Elmer Ping 44 city recreation
Gladyce Ping 41 telephone operator
Laura Collis 73
Edgar Collis 32 service station, gasoline

Laura was an accomplished organist. As a young girl she often stayed home from school to care for her sick mother and thus had much oportunity to practice. It was told to me by aunt Gladyce that dad, Russell, was so angry when the bank took the ranch, that he built a big bonfire and burned most of the furniture, including the organ, and anything else that he couldn't take with him to Washington.
1893 Married at age 27
1930 After losing the ranch, Laura Susie Collis went to Portland, Oregon, to live with her son, Winner Collis. Her daughter Gladyce Ping went to get her mother and brought her back to Sacramento to live with her.
1930 Census, Alameda, Oakland 76th St. Laura living with Gladyce and Pete Ping along with Pete's parents.
1940 Laura died in Sacramento. Gladyce had gone to Oregon to bring her back to Sacramento to live with her and Pete. She had been living with Gladyce and Pete but was in a rest home at the time of her death.She was buried in Brentwood Union Cemetary (I have a copy of her death Certificate).

California death records CALLES LAURA SUSIE 07/02/1866 FARIES GRIGSBY F CALIFORNIA SACRAMENTO 08/07/1940 74 yrs

Notes:

Contra Costa County records vol 4 pg 358

Other Events:

• Reference Number: *
• Religion: Houghton, Norfolk, Ontario, Canada
• _UID: 61748A19D8CBF84C988BA1DA2F4AD2276FDC

Notes:

MiThings to do:
1. Check out the 1901 census as there are 3 entries for Milton Sherman
2. read letters from Milton's sister, Matilda, for info, also other letters.
3. find Milton's children and locations.
4. location relationships of counties:
5. border crossings?
6. Oscoda, Iosco, MI newspapers
The Sherman books at genealogybooklinks.com have been updated and now lists more than 30 books.

Timeline for Milton Sherman:

1880 Nov 26, Milton Kellum Sherman born in Kingsmill, Ontario, Canada
1883 immigrated to the US with family
1901 Census, listed in the Houghton, Norfolk, Ontario, Canada
1902 Feb 17, married Addie May Sly in Tawas City, Iosco, Michigan
1902. Feb 17th, Milton K born 1881 laundryman of Tawas City MI Iosco Co, was married to Miss Addie May/Mae Sly
born May 5 1881 in MI, of Tawas City MI. His parents Jas M Sherman and Martha Smith, her parents Jno Sly and
unknown (Addie's DR; IOS/MR 3-104; Tawas Herald Feb 28 1902 p1c5; marriage certificate, Rev D I Barry Baptist
Minister).
1902. Milton of Oscoda is the new proprietor of the Tawas City Laundry. He comes well recommended as a good
workman (Tawas Herald Jan 3 1902 p5c1).
1903 Mar 2, first child, Bertha Irene born in Kalispell, Montana
1905 left family and returned to Michigan
1908 Aug 18, married Zoey Elizabeth Sharrow in Harrisviille, Alcona, Michigan
1909 Feb 5 daughter, Alma Elizabeth born in Oscoda, Iosco, Michigan
1910 Census, in Mikado, Alcona, Michigan with wife and daughter
1912 Nov 8, son James Joseph born in Oscoda
1915 Feb 13, son, Daniel Clayton born in Oscoda
1916 moved with family to Detroit, Michigan
1917 May 15, son, Basil B born in Detroit
1920 Census, in Detroit Ward 21, Wayne, Michigan (Station Ave.) with wife and four children
1930 Census in Shelby, Macomb, Michigan, (Auburn Rd.) with wife and 3 sons
1930's moved to Manton, Michigan
1940 Census, Caldwell, Missaukee, Michigan Zoe and son, Clayton
1953 Feb 25, died in Manton, Wexford, Michigan at age 72 from heart disease.


Milton Kellum Sherman and Addie Mae Sly married 17 February 1902 in Oscoda near Tawas City, Michigan. They had met when Mae, as she was called, worked as a waitress at the Elliot House Hotel. Milton and other loggers were patrons there. The two fell in love and planned to marry. Mae's parents were moving to Montana and wanted her to go with them and Milton to follow. They could then be married out west. Instead Mae and Milton married in Michigan. She then went west with her family and Milton followed. They lived in a little cabin on Mae's parents homestead.They had one child, Bertha Irene Sherman. They separated and he went back to Michigan about 1905. Bertha was about 2 years old. Bertha knew nothing more about her father"

Milton Sherman was born 26 Nov 1880 in Kingsmill, Ontario, Canada. He immigrated to the US in 1884 with his family. He was the 1st of 13 children born to James and Martha Sherman. His youngest sister, Matilda, said about him, "I have never known Milton to be anything but kind and gentle to everyone. He was always a very calm, quiet man. He would never argue or quarrel with any one. As a young man, he worked as a lumberman." Milton also logged after moving to Montana with Mae. It is said someone shot just above his head while he was in their cabin and he decided he had to leave. He asked Mae and Bertha to go with him. Mae refused.Mae's sister, Carrie, said that he sent letters and money for support, but Bertha never knew about it.. I was told that Addie's step father was ornery and did not like Milton. Milton returned to Michigan. Matilda stated, "What happened between Mae and Milton I never heard. I do know he loved her and Bertha very much. When he came home I was only about 7 years of age, but I remember he had a picture of Bertha at about age 2. He had that picture enlarged and it hung in our parlor. Several times I have gone into the parlor and found him standing before that picture with tears running down his face." In 1908, he married Zoey Sharrow and they had four children. In 1916, he moved to Detroit and worked in an auto factory. His WWI draft registration in 1917 lists him as medium height, slender with blue eyes. After WWI, he moved to Auburn, Michigan, a farming community, and became a farmer. He moved to the farm in Manton, Michigan sometime in the 30's, staying there until his death." Milton died in Michigan in 1953 at age 73 from heart problems.

Addie Mae Sly was born 3 May 1881 in Oscoda, Michigan, the 2nd of 3 children of Loren and Libby Sly. Mae's father left in the 1890's for the gold fields. He did not return. Her mother later married Richard Smith. The following was written by Milton Sherman's sister, Matilta: "As a young girl, Mae Sly worked as a waitress at the Elliot House Hotel. It included a restaurant and bar. I seem to remember that her parents worked for the Elliots also. Mae Sly was a very beautiful girl. She had most of the young men in a whirl for sure. However, Milton won her. When her parents decided to move to Montana, Mae insisted on going too. Milton, being so mad about her, gave in and went along. After Milton left Mae, she went with her aunt, Carrie Fletcher, to Port Angeles, Washington to seek work as a waitress. She left Bertha with Grandma Libby and Dick Smith. She worked in Washington, Montana, and perhaps Alaska until her marriage to Roy Lamb.
.Mae married James Leroy Lamb in Lacrosse, Washington, 23 Dec 1908. They lived in Lacrosse, Washington until Oct., 1911, when they moved to a farm on a hill back from the mercantile on the main road that goes to Endicott, one mile East of Diamond, Washington. In 1919, Libby Smith died, so Bertha came to live with her mother and step-father (she considered him her father as she knew no other.) Mae loved working in her garden and fishing in the creek nearby. Scott has her fishing pole. Mae died in an automobile accident 16 January 1953 in Spokane, Washington from a ruptured Aorta and spleen. The car she was in slid on the ice. She was 72 years old when she died.

Milton Kallinn Sherman
Ontario Births, 1869-1912
Name Milton Kallinn Sherman
Event Type Birth
Event Date 26 Nov 1880
Event Place Malahide, Elgin, Ontario, Canada
Registration Date 1880
Gender Male
Father's Name James Milton Sherman
Mother's Name Martha Metora Smith
Certificate Number 004965

English Canada Came to US in 1884 with father

!SOURCE: Marriage certificate in posession of Marilyn Parker.
!NOTE:Milton Sherman was a farmer, trapper and logger in Michigan and Montana in his early manhood. He married Addie Mae Sly and went to Montana to homestead. They had one child, Bertha Irene Sherman. They separated and he went back to Michigan about 1904 or 1905. He sold his releasement of the homestead to Dan Alverson, father of Fred Alverson about 1906. He married Zoey Sharrow and they had four children. Milton worked at the auto plants in Detroit, Michigan during his middle years. In his later years he was a farmer in Arlene, Michigan. He was known as a gentle man.

1901 Census of Canada
Name: Milton K Sherman
Gender: Male
Marital Status: Single
Age: 20
Birth Day & Month: 26 Nov
Birth Year: 1880
Birthplace: Ontario
Relation to Head of House: Son
Father's Name: Milton Sherman
Mother's Name: Martha M Sherman
Racial or Tribal Origin: English
Nationality: Canadain
Religion: Methodist
Province: Ontario
District: Norfolk (South/Sud)
District Number: 94
Sub-District: Houghton
Sub-District Number: B-2
Household Members:
Name Age
Milton Sherman 44
Martha M Sherman 40
Milton K Sherman 20
Alma R Sherman 18
Arther L Sherman 17
Claryton Sherman 16
Mary E Sherman 14
Frank W Sherman 12
Clarance C Sherman 3
Matilda S Sherman 2

*1910 United States Federal Census
Name: Milton Sherman
Age in 1910: 28
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1882
Birthplace: Canada
Relation to Head of House: Head
Father's Birth Place: Canada
Mother's Birth Place: Canada
Spouse's name: Zvae
Home in 1910: Mikado, Alcona, Michigan
Marital Status: Married occupation: labor odd jobs
Race: White
Gender: Male
Year of Immigration: 1900
Household Members: Name Age
Milton Sherman 28
Zvae Sherman 20 (Zoe)
Elizabeth Sherman 1

*World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918
Name: Milton Kellum Sherman
City: Not Stated
County: Wayne
State: Michigan
Birth Date: 26 Nov 1880
Race: White
Roll: 1683036
DraftBoard: 2
Age: Occupation: Nearest Relative:wife-Zoey Height-med/Build:slender; Color of Eyes: Blue /Hair:

*1920 United States Federal Census
Name: Milton K Sherman
Home in 1920: Detroit Ward 21, Wayne, Michigan (Station Ave.)
Age: 39 years
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1881
Birthplace: Canada
Relation to Head of House: Head
Spouse's name: Zsey E
Father's Birth Place: Canada
Mother's Birth Place: Canada
Marital Status: Married (occupation: woodworker, auto bodies)
Race: White
Sex: Male
Home owned: Own
Year of Immigration: un
Able to read: Yes
Able to Write: Yes
Image: 734
Household Members: Name Age
Milton K Sherman 39
Zoey E Sherman 29
Alma E Sherman 10
Joseph Sherman 8
Clayton Sherman 4 10/12
Bazil Sherman 2 6/12

*1930 United States Federal Census
Name: Milton K Sherman
Home in 1930: Shelby, Macomb, Michigan (Auburn Rd.)
Age: 49
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1881
Birthplace: Canada Immigrated 1883, naturalized
Relation to Head of House: Head
Father's name: James M
Spouse's name: Zoey
Race: White
Occupation: Automobile trimmer; Military Service: no; owns /home value: 2000; Age at first marriage: 21; Parents' birthplace: both Canada
Household Members: Name Age
Milton K Sherman 49
Zoey Sherman 39 born Michigan
Joseph Sherman 17 son, born Michigan
Henry C Sherman 14 son, born Michigan
Basil B Sherman 12 son, born Michigan
James M Sherman 73 ( father) born Canada

1940 United States Federal Census
Name: Milton Sherman
Respondent: Yes
Age: 59
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1881
Gender: Male
Race: White
Birthplace: Canada English
Marital Status: Married
Relation to Head of House: Head
Home in 1940: Caldwell, Missaukee, Michigan
Farm: Yes
Inferred Residence in 1935: Caldwell, Missaukee, Michigan
Residence in 1935: Same House
Citizenship: Naturalized
Sheet Number: 4B
Number of Household in Order of Visitation: 74
Father's Birthplace: Canada English
Mother's Birthplace: Canada English
Occupation: Farmer
House Owned or Rented: Owned
Value of Home or Monthly Rental if Rented: 300
Attended School or College: No
Highest Grade Completed: Elementary school, 8th grade
Hours Worked Week Prior to Census: 50
Class of Worker: Working on own account
Weeks Worked in 1939: 52
Income: 0
Income Other Sources: Yes
Native Language: English
Veteran: No
Veteran Father Dead: No
Social Security Number: No
Usual Occupation: Farmer
Usual Industry: Farm
Usual Class of Worker: Working on own account
Neighbors:
Household Members: Name Age
Milton Sherman 59
Zoey Sherman 49
Clayton Sherman

http://www.sherman-roots.com/sherman/pioneers/sp'ott.doc
1. Milton Kellum9 Sherman born 1881 in Norfolk Co Canada (his MIS/DR); or born Nov 26 1880 at Kingsmill Ontario (mc/mp).
1902. Feb 17th, Milton K born 1881 laundryman of Tawas City MI Iosco Co, was married to Miss Addie May/Mae Sly born May 5 1881 in MI, of Tawas City MI. His parents Jas M Sherman and Martha Smith, her parents Jno Sly and unknown (Addie's DR; IOS/MR 3-104; Tawas Herald Feb 28 1902 p1c5; marriage certificate, Rev D I Barry Baptist Minister).
1902. Milton of Oscoda is the new proprietor of the Tawas City Laundry. He comes well recommended as a good workman (Tawas Herald Jan 3 1902 p5c1).
1902/04. Milton and Addie Sherman homesteaded in Montana, Milton returned to MI and Addie stayed in MT. Milton and Addie separated, and later divorced.
1908. Aug 18th, Milton K of Greenbush MI Alcona Co a farmer, married Elizabeth "Lizzie" Zoe Sharrow born 1881, his 2nd and her first marriage, his parents J M Sherman & Martha Smith (ALC/MR 2-54). Zoe born in Algonac MI StClair Co (Mary Elizabeth's BR).
1910. Census of Alcona Co indicated: Milton age 28; Zoe Sherman age 20, born 1890 in MI; child Elizabeth (Soundex e3/f50).
1915. Milton lived in Detroit (GVWS) p7).
1920. Census of Detroit MI Wayne Co indicated: Milton K age 39, naturalized; Zoey E Sherman age 29; children Alma E, Joseph, Clayton, Basil (Soundex e658/p25).
1938. Oct 13th Milton wrote a letter from Manton MI to Vernon Wesley Sherman in Belleville NJ, included story about his father (mc/mks).
1950. Milton lived on farm near Manton MI (mc/mp).
1953. Jan 16th, Addie May Lamb, aka Addie May/Mae Sly (Sherman), aka Addie May/Mae Smith, died Spokane WA from auto accident on the same day. Her usual residence was Diamond WA Whitman Co; parents not given; buried in Colfax WA; informant Roy Lamb her husband (WA Certificate of Death file number 1692; mc/mp).
1953. Milton Sherman died Feb 25 1953 at Manton MI (mc/mp; mc/sp); Milton K age 72, farmer, spouse Zoey, no military service, buried in Caldwell Twp Cemetery Missaukee Co,Michigan. (MIS/DR A-16).
1977. Zoey Elizabeth Sherman, aka Zoey Elizabeth Sharrow, age 88 (sic) in MI, from Manton MI Wexford Co, died at Cadillac MI Wexford Co, widow, informant Mrs Mabel Sherman; buried in Caldwell Twp Cemetery Missaukee Co (WEX/DR). Also shown as died 1970 (mc/mp). 5 Children:

Milton married Addie Mae SLY on 17 Feb 1902 in Tawas City, Iosco, Michigan, United States. Addie (daughter of Alvannah Loren SLY and Elizabeth Close) was born on 3 May 1881 in Oscoda, Iosco, Michigan, United States; died on 16 Jan 1953 in Spokane, Spokane, Washington, United States; was buried in Colfax Cemetery, Colfax, Whitman, Washington, United States. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events:

• Also Known As: May
• Reference Number: *
• _MARNM: Sherman, Lamb
• _UID: BC8E4DCBA85B074B8A6691067B6D96D08C16

Notes:

Time line for Adie Mae Sly Sherman Lamb
1881 3 May born Oscoda Iosco, MI
1897 8th grade graduate Pinconning, Bay, Michigan
1900 US Census Mae living with Aunt Torisa Close Pierce, Milton, Rock, WI
1902 17 Feb,Mae married Milton Kellum Sherman, Tawas City, Iosco, MI
1902 Mae & Milton Sherman moved with her parents to Eureka, Lincoln, Montana
1903 2 Mar daughter, Bertha Sherman born
1906 Milton left Mae and Bertha and returned to Michigan, Mae went with Aunt Carrie Fletcher to Port Angeles, then
waitressed in Davenport Hotel in Spokane WA
1908 23 Dec married James Leroy Lamb, lived in Lacrosse, Washington
1911 moved to farm 1 mile E of Diamond, WA, then moved into town of Diamond
1953 16 Jan Died in Auto Accident in Spokane, Spokane,Wash

*Washington Death Index, 1940-1996 Washington Death Index, 1940-1996
Name: Addia M Lamb
Place of Death: Spokane
Date of Death: 16 Jan 1953
Age: 71
Gender: F
Certificate: 1692

COLFAX GAZETTE, COLFAX, WASHINGTON, JANUARY 5, 1912.
Pg 3
LACROSSE.
Mr. and Mrs. Roy Lamb of Diamond
are visiting friends here since
last Thursday. Mr. Lamb returned
Saturday and Mrs. L. will remain
another week.


Note from Marge Collis:
I enjoyed reading this very much. I seem to remember Roy saying his grandmother worked in Nome, Alaska, as a phone operator? Was that somewhere in the story also? I know he loved his grandmother, and had fun times with her. She took him fishing - which she apparently loved doing? Perhaps, she just thought HE needed the experience, being the oldest, and needed some 1 on 1 attention, I don't know - whatever it was, he had wonderful memories of his Grandmother.

Grandma and Grandpa lamb lived in Diamond Washington on a hill back from the mercantile on the main road that goes to Endicott. Thera was just outside of Colfax 1.5 miles toward Endicott. The house there that Bertha and Russell lived in has been torn down.
Addie Sly (Slyh), graduated 7 June, 1897, from Pinconning School, Bay City, Bay County, Michigan.
!NOTE: The following was told to Marilyn Parker by Bertha Sherman Collis, 13 Jan 1970:
"Elizabeth Close married Loren (Lorian) Sly and probably lived at Fort Wayne, Indiana when her children were young. Lorian walked with a limp. He left during the panic of 1893 (or near that time), to go to the gold fields. He wrote 2 or 3 letters, but was not heard from again. It was not made clear whether his wife, Elizabeth, moved to Tawas City before or after he left. She took in roomers to make ends meet. Richard Smith was a logger and boarded with her as he felt widows needed the money. They later were married. Addie Mae met and married Milton K. Sherman against her mother, Elizabeth's will. Elizabeth and Grandpa Dick were moving to Montana and wanted Addie to go with them and Milton to follow. They could then be married out west. Instead Addie and Milton were married in Tawas City. She went west with her family and Milton followed. They lived in the little cabin close to Addie's parents. Milton left when Bertha was about 2 years old. Bertha knew nothing more about her father"
!NOTE: The following was taken from a letter dated New Year's 1970, to Marilyn Parker from Maye Alverson:
"I always thought if Dick Smith had been a different man, your grandparents (Mae and Milton Sherman) would have made a go of it. But you would have had to know Dick to understand. He sure never made Aunt Lib happy. But that is a long gone story now and so are all those connected with it." The following was taken from a letter dated 19 Feb, 1970, to Marilyn Parker from Maye Alverson. (72 year old step daughter of Jennie Close Butler who was a sister to Elizabeth Close Sly Smith.) "Mae and Milton might have got along but Dick never got along with anyone. One night he shot at Milton through the wall and put two shots above his head. Poor old Dick was always on the outs with his neighbors, wouldn't let them use his road and such. Roads were pretty hard come by in those days." "Dick always seemed to be good to Bertha. She must have been quite small when Mae left her with Aunt Lib. When Mae left here, she went with Carrie Fletcher to Port Angeles. From there I lost track." "When Milton and Mae separated, he sold his re-leasement to Dan Alverson, Fred's father (Maye Alverson's father-in-law). It has been in the Alverson name until about 10 years ago. When Mrs. Burr Alverson remarried to a man by the name of Anderson. It was known as Alverson and Anderson for several years. Yes, Fred did own Dick's (Richard Smith) old place until about 5 years ago. He sold to a friend and his brother-in-law. They in turn made the meadow into a lake. It's on Terriaul Creek. Made a nice lake, but the neighbors fish it out, so Henry don't get much use of that as they live out on the flats at Iowa Flats as it's called". "Both of the Andersons are dead now and that place is owned by a young couple by the name of Arle Burk. Jack A. got $19,000 for it. Times do change. Acreage has gone sky high since the Libby Dam Project has started. Fred sold his for $40 per acre and now could easily get $75. And over near the recreation zone on the Kootenai, the land is going as high as $125 per acre." "Ernest Sly built a place on Glen Lake and it still stands and people live in it. I wouldn't be surprised but what Dad built the chimney on it as he has built so many in this country, also fireplaces. You can't get into Glen Lake only on one lot that the county owns but was taken over by the Fish and Game commission. The Lake now is so much larger than your grandmother knew it as the water from Grave Creek-Terriault Creek runs in it and it's used all over the valley and is known as the Glen Lake Irrigation Ditch.
The following information was taken from a letter dated January 28, 1970, to Marilyn Parker from Mrs. M. O. Chambers, (Great Aunt Tillie, Milton Kellum Sherman's sister) " Mae Sly worked at the Elliot House Hotel. It included a restaurant and bar. She was a waitress. I seem to remember that her parents worked for the Elliots also. Milton Kellum Sherman and Mae Sly were married in Oscoda, Michigan. However, the marriage was registered in Tawas City, the county seat. Mae Sly was a very beautiful girl. She had most of the young men in a whirl for sure. However, Milton won her. When her parents decided to move to Montana, Mae insisted on going too. Milton, being so mad about her, gave in and went along. Milton was always a very calm, quiet man, would never argue or quarrel with any one. What happened between Mae and Milton I never heard. I do know he loved her and Bertha very much. When he came home, I was only about 6 or 7 years of age, but I remember he had a picture of Bertha at about age 1 or 2. He had that picture enlarged and it hung in our parlor. Several times I have gone into the parlor and found him standing there before that picture with tears running down his face. In all the years, I have never known Milton to be anything but kind and gentle to everyone. A real good man." "Now about his work and living. While he remained in the Oscoda area, he worked for the most part as a lumberman as did most of the other men in those days (unless they were in business). Later, about 1916, he moved to Detroit and he worked in a factory. After the War (1st WW), he moved out to Auburn, Michigan, a farming community not too far from Detroit, and became a farmer. He moved to the farm in Manton, Michigan area sometime in the 30's, I think, staying there until his death in July, 1953."
Extract from a letter dated March 6, 1970 to Bertha Sherman Collis from Bacil B. Sherman, (youngest child of Milton Kellum Sherman). "When I was younger, I used to travel quite a little. Dad asked me to try to locate you, but I had no success in any way."
When Milton went to Michigan about 1905, it is said that he wanted Mae to go with him, but she wouldn't. She went to town to find work as a waitress and left Bertha with Grandma Libby and Dick Smith, Addie Mae`s mother and step-father. She worked in Montana, Washington and perhaps Alaska. When she married "Roy" Lamb, she hated to take Bertha from her home with the Smiths.
"Mae" and Roy lived in Lacrosse, Washington until Oct., 1911, when they moved to a farm one mile East of Diamond, Washington, where they lived twenty-nine years until her death. In 1919, Libby Smith died, so Bertha came to live with her mother and step-father (she considered him her father as she knew no other.)

(the following note accompanied each framed piece of quilt that I sent to each of my children, grandchildren and sisters and brother, stan)
This piece of quilt is from a "Grandmother's Flower Garden" quilt top made in the 1940's by my grandmother, Addie Mae (Sly) Sherman Lamb. She is the mother of my mother, Bertha (Sherman) Collis. Mae, as she was called, was born 3 May 1881 in Michigan. She moved as a newly wed with her husband, Milton Sherman, to Kalispell, Montana, where my mother was born. Milton left Montana and returned to Michigan when Bertha was about 2 years old. He asked for Mae and Bertha to accompany him, but to no avail. She left Montana to look for work in Alaska and Washington. She later married James Leroy Lamb and moved to Diamond, Washington, where she lived out her life. She was killed in a car accident while on a shopping trip to Spokane, Washington on 16 January, 1953.
As I quilted this small piece of her quilt top, I couldn't help but think of her loving fingers making the small delicate stitches. How appropriate that it should be called 'Grandmother's Flower Garden' as she loved her garden. Perhaps some of the fabrics were from her dresses. She also loved fishing in the stream near her home in Diamond. When Scott was living in Moscow, Idaho, just across the Washington border from Diamond, we took a drive over there. We looked around and found the spot where her house used to be. We met a man about my age named Norman Kuntze, who used to go fishing with Grandma. He just happened to have her fishing pole and retrieved it from his garage and gave it to us. Scott now has it as he too was doing some fishing at that time. I hope you enjoy this small piece in memory of her. I wish I had known her.
Love, Marilyn Parker

PS. I remember with fondness the 1 dollar bill she would send to each of us on our birthday. One time a large box arrived at our house. It was full of fancy dress up clothes. My did Darlyne and I have fun with those.

(email from Stan after I sent him a framed piece of Addie Mae's quilt)Thanks for the quilt. Roy and I were the last of the family to see grandma. We went to wash in 1949 or 50. I remember as a little boy she would fix sliced oranges for breakfast. Guess what she served when Roy and I visited. She sure looked good for her age. It was a shock to me when she was killed.

Memories from Barbara about Grandma Lamb: Barbara felt she was special to Grandma. Grandma would put leftover bacon on the butter dish. She also remembered the sliced oranges with powdered sugar. She had a back room with many windows but not heat. She would warm bricks and wrap them in a towel for their beds. She was always doing handwork; Tatting, crocheting, knitting. She worked in her rock garden and had mostly flowers. Barb remembers going to the general store with Dad and Grandpa. The school was a dance studio last time she visited. Grandma wanted to come visit when we moved to California, but Grandpa said, "wait until I retire." For whatever reason, they never came.

bother, "Earnest Slyh" living in Rutland, Dane, WI as servant?
1900 United States Federal Census
Name: Addie M Sley
Home in 1900: Milton, Rock, Wisconsin
Age: 19
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1881
Birthplace: Michigan
Relationship to head-of-house: Niece
Race: White
Occupation:
Neighbors:
Household Members: Name Age
David A Peirce 45 Harness born in Germany came to USA 1862
Torisa Peirce 35 married 10 years (had 4 children, 2 are living)
Bertha A Peirce 13 born Kansas
Rosa N Peirce 9 born Colorado
Addie M Sley 19

1910 United States Federal Census
Name: Addie M Lamb
Age in 1910: 29
Birth Year: abt 1881
Birthplace: Michigan
Home in 1910: La Crosse, Whitman, Washington
Race: White
Gender: Female
Relation to Head of House: Wife
Marital Status: Married
Spouse's Name: James L Lamb
Father's Birthplace: United States [United States of America]
Mother's Birthplace: United States [United States of America]
Neighbors:
Household Members: Name Age
James L Lamb 25
Addie M Lamb 29

1920 United States Federal Census
Name: Mae Lamb [Mae Titcomb]
Age: 36
Birth Year: abt 1884
Birthplace: Michigan
Home in 1920: Diamond, Whitman, Washington
Race: White
Gender: Female
Relation to Head of House: Wife
Marital Status: Married
Spouse's Name: Roy Lamb
Father's Birthplace: Indiana
Mother's Birthplace: Indiana
Able to Read: Yes
Able to Write: Yes
Neighbors:
Household Members: Name Age
Roy Lamb 35
Mae Lamb 36
Bertha Sherman 16


1930 United States Federal Census
Name: Addie M Lamb [Addie N Lamb]
Gender: Female
Birth Year: abt 1883
Birthplace: Michigan
Race: White
Home in 1930: Diamond, Whitman, Washington View Map
Marital Status: Married
Relation to Head of House: Wife
Spouse's Name: James L Lamb
Father's Birthplace: Indiana
Mother's Birthplace: Indiana
Occupation: Education: Military service: Rent/home value: Age at first marriage: Parents' birthplace:
Neighbors:
Household Members: Name Age
James L Lamb 43
Addie M Lamb 47

1940 United States Federal Census
Name: James L Lamb
Respondent: Yes
Age: 56
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1884
Gender: Male
Race: White
Birthplace: Illinois
Marital Status: Married
Relation to Head of House: Head
Home in 1940: Diamond, Whitman, Washington i
Farm: No
Inferred Residence in 1935: Diamond, Whitman, Washington
Residence in 1935: Same House
Sheet Number: 3A
Number of Household in Order of Visitation: 47
Neighbors:
Household Members: Name Age
James L Lamb 56 caretaker wheat warehouse
Addie M Lamb 58

Other Events:

• Occupation: Brewer, Carpenter and Bar Keeper
• Reference Number: *
• _UID: 9AD4983E54D12041B7753B0AE56EB762A723

Notes:

Things to do:
1. look for George Collis, brother to William in 1861 census as a painter? found him in 1891 and probably also 1901.
2. How do I know that in 1859 William arrived in Philadelphia, PA?
3. Newspapers of Hammonton, NJ and graves in Kensington. Did they choose Kensington because of Kensington, ENG
4. Naturalization papers Petition Aug 1858, New York county
5. Find any info on William 1826 to 1841. Ask Bert any newspaper accounts about Father?
6. Info on Chipping Hill, Witham, Essex, England
7. Who did the temple work for William's father, Christopher? and Anne's sealing to parents, 22 Jan 1971 S G
8. Who is Henry W. Chappell, grandson, in 1851 census?
9. Is there a will for Thomas Randall and also Elizabeth Randall?
10. Plot town's lived in: Witham, Brixton, , Hammersmith, Barnes, Richmond, Camberwell, Southwark.
11. Brentwood homestead papers. Did they choose Brentwood because there is a Brentwood near London?
12. Cemetary in Southwark for Randall and Laura Elizabeth Collis
13. Christening of first four children in England
14. Why did he enlist in Union Army
15. Why did they come to California?
16. Is there information on the saloon on Berry Street, SF? land records?

Timeline for William Collis
1826 May, William bn Chipping Hill, Witham, Essex, England
1833 May, William's mother Maria died, Chipping Hill, Witham
1838 Oct, William's father, Christopher Collis, marries Eliza Parker, St Giles, Cripplegate, London
1841 Census: living with father Christopher Collis, step mother, Eliza and several brothers and sisters,
Civil Parish:Lambeth (St. Mary Lambeth Parish), Brixton, Surrey, England, Camberwell Lane So
1846 July, William's father marries Alice Honeysett
1851 Census: William is an Inn keeper living with brother, George, and sister Dorcus in Lambeth, (also a Betsey Ann
Collis, a neice, and Wesley W Chappell who is listed as a grandson, probably to William's father, Christopher.)
Brixton, Surrey,England. (Brixton is a short distance from where Anne Randall lived)
1852 Nov, married Anne Randall, St. Pauls Parish, Hammersmith, Middlesex, England
1853 Nov, daughter, Ada Annie born in Barnes, England
1854 Nov, son, William Arthur born in Barnes, England
1856 Apr, daughter, Laura Elizabeth born in Richmond, England
1857 Jan, Anne's father, Thomas, died.
1857 Aug, daughter, Anna Bertha born in Camberwell, England
1858 April 6 - Laura Elizabeth died at London Rd. Southwark, England (apparently at grandparent's
house just after Anne's father, Thomas, died.)
1858 April 25 - Sailed from port in London, England, to America
1858 June 3 - Arrived New York (It looks like the trip took less than 1 1/2 months.)
1858 Aug, Petition for Naturalization, New York County
1859 May 9, son, Alfred George born in Buffalo, New York
1860 Census in Buffalo, New York, Wm, Ann and 4 children, he is listed as a brewer
1861 May 12, enlisted in Company F 21st regiment of New York Volunteers of Union Army in Elmira,
New York
1861 July-Oct served as a nurse in hospital
1862 June - Feb 1863 was ill in hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with war related disability
1863 Feb 9, discharged due to disability
1864 son, Austin Watson born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1865 Jan, daughter, Anna Bertha, age 7, & Feb, son, Alfred George, age 5, buried in Kennsington, Pennsylvania
1866 daughter, Rachel born in Hammonton, New Jersey
1867 Sep 3 - 1 1/2 story house on 3 1/4 acres for sale in Hammonton, New Jersey for $100. (Philadelphia Exchange)
1868 listed in San Francisco directory at Mission & Precita
1868 Sept listed in San Francisco directory at Berry Street
1868 Sept son, Walter Winner born Berry Street, San Francisco
1870 Census, San Francisco, Wm, Ann and 5 children, He is listed as a Carpenter
1871 daughter, Florence born San Francisco
1872 daughter, Lillian born San Francisco
1871-74 listed in San Francisco directory at Berry Street as a saloon keeper
1876 homesteaded in Brentwood, Contra Costa, California
1880 Census, Tnp 5 Contra Costa County, Wm Ann and 7 children, He is a farmer
1884 homestead recorded'
1896 California great register Contra Costa County, farmer, age 70, 5 feet 6 1/2 inches fair complexion, hazel eyes,
brown hair, born Entgland. naturalized 4 Sept 1870, Dist. San Francisco, registered 5 Aug 1896
1900 William died at age 73 in Brentwood of a brain hemorrage and is buried in the Point of Timber cemetery, now
called the Union Cemetary
1900 Census, Ann, widow, and 2 daughters living in Contra Costa County, CA
1910 Census, Ann and one daughter living in Contra Costa County, CA
1918 Anne Esther died in Brentwood of old age at almost age 90.

William Collis and Anne Esther Randall

William Collis and Anne Esther Randall were married by license on the 18th day of November in 1852 in Saint Paul's church in the Parish of Hammersmith, Middlesex County, England. This is where William's father lived at the time. It is said that Anne's parents did not approve of the marriage. The story passed down is that her father was not pleased and may have disowned her when she married William Collis, who was a brewer. The 1851 Census shows William is an Inn keeper, or publican, of the Royal Veteran at # 8 Zoar Place, living with his brother, George, and sister, Dorcus, in Lambeth, a civil parish and within the ecclesiastic parish of Brixton, in the county of Surrey, England. The Inn in Lambeth was probably no more than a mile from Thomas Randall's butcher shop. Did William Collis meet Anne Randall at the Inn or at her father's butcher shop when he bought pork for the Inn? Perhaps William and Anne met at some local social activity. It is unknown where and when they met.

Anne was born 13 March 1828 at Southwark, (which means south of London Bridge), England. She was the oldest of 8 children of Thomas Randall and Elizabeth Benfield, his wife. In the 1851 census, she is listed as a butcher's assistant. Anne Esther Randall was said to have been a lady in waiting to queen Victoria. The story is told by the family that the queen gave Anne a pair of silk stockings that are still in the family. As far as can be proven, it is just a fun family story. ( The royal archives in England have no record of this and they say that they keep very good records of Ladies in Waiting. Nor do they have any record of her mother, Elizabeth or Ann Benfield as a lady in waiting). There is a photo on glass of Elizabeth Benfield Randall. There is also a photo and an oil painting of Anne Esther as a child. The oil painting is said to have been hanging on the wall of her home during the San Francisco earthquake on April 18, 1906. Florence saved the painting by cutting it out of the frame and rolling it up. Thus Florence kept it in her home eventually giving it to her brother, William's oldest son, Langley.

Anne's father, Thomas Randall, was a pork butcher at 78 London Road in Southwark, England. He had his own coach and footman and at least one servant. In the 19th century at least 80% of the population was working class. In order to be considered middle class you had to have at least one servant. Anne was christened in Saint George the Martyr Church and a part of the Church of England, which was just down the street from their home and butcher shop. The family very likely attended church with Charles Dickens. There was a debtor's prison, Marshalsea jail, next door to the church. At the time Anne was growing up, Charles Dicken's father was in that debtor's prison. Charles Dicken's would visit his father there. Although he worked outside as a boot black, it is most likely that Charles Dicken's also attended that same church as a child. Even the prisoners were let out to attend church.

Conditions in early 19th century towns were often dreadful as seen through the eyes and stories of Charles Dickens. towns were dirty, unsanitory and overcrowded. Streets were very often unpaved and they were not cleaned. Rubbish was not collected and it was allowed to accumulate in piles in the streets. Since most of it was organic, when it turned black and sticky it was used as fertiliser. Furthermore in the early 19th century poor people often had cesspits, which were not emptied very often. Later in the century many people used earth closets. (A pail with a box containing granulated clay over it. When you pulled a lever clay covered the contents of the pail). In the early 19th century only wealthy people had flushing lavatories and poor families often had to share toilets. On Sunday mornings queues (long lines) formed at the public toilets. In the late 19th century flushing lavatories became common.

Given these horrid conditions it is not surprising that disease was common. Life expectancy in towns was low (significantly lower than in the countryside) and infant mortality was very high. British towns and cities suffered outbreaks of cholera in 1831-32 and again in 1848-49. Fortunately the last outbreak at last spurred people into action.
In the late 19th century most towns dug sewers and created piped water supplies, which made life much healthier.

Within 4 1/2 years of their marriage, William and Anne had 4 children: Ada Anne, William Arthur, Laura Elizabeth, and Anna Bertha; all born in England in varying towns just west of London. Ada Anne born November 12,1853 and William Arthur, born November 24, 1854, both in Barnes, Surry County; an area just south of London with several breweries. Laura Elizabeth born April 6, 1856, in Richmond, and Anna Bertha born 23 August, 1857,in Camberville.

Why did they decide to come to America? Was it adventure that prompted them to emigrate to the United States? Was it lack of funds? Was it the falling out with her father? Whatever the reason, they were preparing to leave England, when their 3rd child, Laura Elizabeth, died suddenly, at 2 years of age, just 8 days before sailing. Ironically, she died at Anne's parent's home on London Road in Southwark. Anne's father, Thomas Randall, had died the previous year. It is believed the baby died from the inoculations received in preparation for the trip. The dye was cast. Their tickets had been purchased, so on the 25 of April in 1858, they left from London, England, and sailed for America on the ship, Cornelius Grinnell, with Capt A. G. Fletcher. They arrived in New York on the 3 of June of that same year. The voyage had taken less than one and a half months. What kind of a hardship was it to sail across the Atlantic Ocean in that small ship with three small children and to leave a little one behind in a new grave? Anne surely was grieving in her heart, but kept busy in body by the needs of her other three children.

The first known place of residence in the U.S. is Buffalo, New York, where their 5th child Alfred George was born May 9, 1859. William and his family were living in Buffalo during the 1860 census and he was listed as a brewer, his occupation in England. It is from Buffalo on the 4th of May, 1861, at age 34, that William enlisted in the 21st Regiment of New York volunteers in the Union Army and served as a private under General Wadsworth in Virginia. His description is given as light complected, hazel eyes, brown hair and 5 feet 6 inched tall. He mustered in May 12, 1861 at Elmira N.Y., and was in the detached service from 1 Aug 1861, serving in the hospital as a nurse, (possibly using his chemistry background as a brewer). In March and April 1862, he was in the Washington Street Hospital in Alexandria, Virginia. Then again in June 1862 through February 1863 he was a patient in the Christian Street General Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia was known for its several hospitals for Civil War casualties, but it was not a place of heavy military conflict.

On February 6, 1863, William was discharged from Captain Clinton's Company, for physical disability, (by reason of general disability connected with spinal irritation due to wearing the cartridge belt.) William appears on the Company muster out roll dated 18 May 1863, Buffalo, N.Y. In later years he was unable to work due to rheumatism in the small of his back and hips and collected disability. He lived in Antioch, CA at the time of application for disability.

The family was living in Philadelphia after his discharge and another child, Austin Watson, was born there on January 29, 1864. Philadelphia must not have seemed a happy place to live considering William's hospitalization and the tragedy of the deaths of 2 more of their children. Alfred age 5, and his sister, Anna, age 7, died within 2 weeks of each other in late January and early February of 1865. They were buried in Kensington, Pennsylvania, a northern area of Philadelphia. Perhaps they chose Kensington because it reminded them of the Kensington back home in England. Their 7th child, Rachael, nicknamed Rettie, was born a year later in 1866. She was never quite normal. On the mother's widow's pension application it states that "Rettie was an imbecile from birth." Rettie never married and lived to be 46 years old. She lived with her mother her entire life.

An article appeared in the Philadelphia Exchange on September 3, 1864, offering land owned by William Collis for sale for $100. The place was listed as a small farm, 3 1/4 acres situated on Hammonton Avenue in the village of Hammonton, Atlantic County, N. J. about 1 mile from the station of the Camden and Atlantic Railroad. It was a 6 room, 1 1/2-story frame house; cellar, kitchen and storeroom, conveniently fitted with sink, closet &c; barn, cart shed and lots of berries, fruit and shade trees.

Sometime between February 1866 and September 1868, Anne and William moved with their family to San Francisco. They went by Steamer down the Atlantic coast to the Isthmus of Panama. Then traveled across the Isthmus about 7 miles by train and then by donkey to the west coast. Their son, William Arthur remembers being in awe of the monkeys there. They then boarded a freighter up the Pacific Coast to San Francisco. (See appendix 1. Crossing the Isthmus of Panama.) Their furniture was shipped "around the horn" of South America. They settled in San Francisco. In 1868, William Collis is listed as a saloon keeper in the San Francisco Directory as living on the corner of Mission and Precita Avenue. On September 14, 1868, Walter Winner was born at 130 Berry Street, San Francisco. Florence was born January 8, 1871 and Lillian, their last child was born October 11, 1872. Both were also born at Berry Street, San Francisco. William Collis is listed in the San Francisco Directories of 1871 through 1874 as a saloonkeeper at 130 Berry Street. In the 1871 directory he was also listed as a carpenter.

In 1873, William and his family settled in Brentwood, Contra Costa County, California. They were familiar with the name Brentwood as there was a Brentwood just north of London in England close to where they had lived. A Patent for 160 acres of Homestead Land was granted to William Collis in Washington, D. C. on 25 Sep 1876 and was not recorded in the Martinez County Recorder's office until 10 Nov 1884. (This land is located on the official map of Contra Costa Co. published in 1908. They lived there until William's death on February 3, 1900. He died of hemorrhage into the brain at the age of 73, and was buried February 5th, at the Point of Timber Cemetary, in Brentwood, Contra Costa County, California. William was said to have a bit of an ornery streak later in life.

After the death of her husband, Anne maintained a home in Brentwood with her two unmarried daughters, Lillian and Rachel. In 1903 she lived at 566 Walter Street in San Francisco. She had a dowager hump caused by osteoporosis. The last 4 years before her death, she lived with her daughter, Florence Gates, because she needed contant attending. Anne died at age 90, January 2, 1918, of old age. She is buried in the Point of Timber Cemetary in Brentwood, Costa County, California. Her will left the ranch in Brentwood, valued at $1000, to be divided among her 6 surviving children.

William and Anne Collis had 10 children born to them; 4 in England, 3 on the east coast of the United States, and 3 in San Francisco. Three of the 10 children died young. One was disabled for life. Two daughters married later in life and had no children. Only 4 of the 10 children had children. William and Anne had fifteen grandchildren and 25 great grandchildren.



William Collis was born, 20 May 1826, at Chipping Hill in Witham, Essex County, England. Chipping Hill means market place. It is in East Essex, 1 mile north of Witham Parish on the River Brain. It was the site of a Roman Camp. William was the 3rd of 6 children of Christopher Annett and Maria (Bridge) Collis. His brothers and sisters were: Jane, Samuel (who died young), George, Maria, Dorcus and Samuel. William and his father were both brewer's. William is listed as a Publican in the 1851 census (Pub comes from Publican). William's mother died when he was 7 years old. 5 years later his father married Eliza Parker and Christopher and Eliza had two children, Joseph and Eliza. Christopher's wife, Eliza, also died as in 1846 he is listed as a widower and marries a widow named Alice Honeysett Leste. As far as is known, they had no children.

In the Lambeth, Surrey, England 1841 Census William Collis, age 15, was living with father, Christopher and Eliza Collis and brothers and sisters: George, Maria, Samuel, Joseph, Dorcus and Eliza. Lambeth is just a bit southwest of Southwark, Surrey, England. Christopher was a brewer. They lived on Camberwell Rd. which may be the same as the current Lambeth Rd. By 1851 William, George, and Dorcus along with a grandson and niece of Christopher, were living apart from the family, but still in Lambeth on what looks like #8 Zoar Place, Royal Veteran; probably an Inn or Saloon owned by Christopher as William, George and Dorcus are listed as sons and daughter. William was a brewer or Publican (which is British for Inn or Saloon). Dorcus is listed as a Publican assistant. George is listed as a painter. There are also 2 servants and a lodger listed there.

William and his father, Christopher, were both brewers. In the 1851 census Christopher is now married to Alice and is living at 177 London Rd, Hounslow, Middlesex County, England. Hounslow is about 10 miles west of London and Southwark. Christopher is a Brewer and has 3 of his children with him; Eliza, Joseph, and Samuel. He is listed as a brewer employing 1 laborer and 2 sons. Where is daughter, Maria? Is Henry Chappell, listed as the grandson, the son of Maria? It appears this may be the case.

According to Langley Collis, William came across the isthmus by rail. He homesteaded Deer Valley, by Mount Diablo, by a Government War Grant. Watt and Will both worked Balfour- Guthrie share crop.

The following information was written by Florence Elizabeth Collis Gates, daughter of Ann Esther Randall and William Collis. "William Collis was born 20 May 1826 at Chipping Hill*, Witham, Essex, England. He was educated in London, England and was an accomplished musician, specializing on the violin. He owned a Stradavarian violin, which he played at concerts. He also played a cornet professionally." "His father was a brewer and wealthy. so he had to study chemistry. Before his marriage, he made music his profession. "He was married to Anne Esther Randall on 18 November 1852, in St. Paul's Parish Chapel, London, England. She was born 13 March 1828. Two years after his marriage, he owned and operated a brewery in Richmond, England. He disposed of this when leaving for America." They left England 25 April 1858 for America." "In 1861 he enlisted in the 21st Reg. N.Y. volunteers at Buffalo, NY. He served under General Wadsworth, at Richmond, Virginia. He was injured and sent to Christian St. Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. When he recovered, he was placed in charge of the lab in the hospital. He was discharged Feb 9, 1863. He moved with his wife and family to San Francisco, California, in 1867."

The following information is from a letter dated 1 March 1975 to Marilyn Parker from Alma Collis, daughter of William Arthur Collis, Who was the son of William and Anne Collis. Arthur was born in Barnes, England in 1854. He always said that he was born within the sound of "Big Ben". He was about 13 years old when he moved with his parents to San Francisco. Langley Collis is Alma's brother. "Langley and Marge Collis came to see me last Saturday. We had quite a visit and did some reminding each other about this and that. Langley says Dad and his family came from New Jersey via boat, across Panama, through jungles via donkey. Dad couldn't get over the monkeys. Then they got on another ship and came to San Francisco. Their furniture came around the horn."

The following is taken from a letter dated December 1977 to Marilyn Parker from Marjorie Collis Ward, daughter of William Arthur Collis who was the son of William and Anne Collis. "I do hope you did (go to visit Langley Collis, her brother). You would have seen the portrait of Anne (Collis as a child). Langley had it hanging over the mantel in their living room. It is a charming painting. I loved it as a child and as an adult too. It hung in Aunt Florrie's house in Brentwood when I saw it first to remember. Although the old folks were great for `everything to the oldest son', who was my father William Arthur, I think he always felt Aunt Florrie deserved the portrait. She went into their burning home in San Francisco, the result of the earthquake of 1906, cut it out of its frame, rolled it up and ran back out through flames with it. Aunt Florrie gave it to Langley as `the oldest son of the oldest son'. He and Margaret treasured it. I believe their oldest, Reyburn, has it now."
*Chipping Hill means market place. It is in East Essex, 1 mile north of Witham Parish on the River Brain. It was the site of a Roman Camp.

England births and Christenings 1538-1975
The index is an electronic database of information transcribed from original records.
William Collis
baptism/christening: 16 Jun 1826
Witham, Essex, England
father: Christopher Annett Collis
mother: Maria
indexing project batch# 104624-5
source film # 1702677
ref # item 8 p 107


1841 England Census
Name: William Collis
Age: 15
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1826
Gender: Male
Civil parish: Lambeth
Hundred: Brixton (Eastern Division)
County/Island: Surrey
Country: England
Street Address: Camberwell Lane, South
Registration district: Lambeth
Sub-registration district: Brixton
Neighbors:
Household Members: Name Age
Christoper Collis 40
Eliza Collis 35
William Collis 15
George Collis . 10
Maria Collis 10
Samuel Collis 5
Joseph Collis 5
Dorcas Collis 5
Eliza Collis 5
Henry Parker 20 carpentar (probably Eliza, the wife's, brother

The following is our William. The abstraction is incorrect. These should be two separate households with William at the start of the second. He couldn't possibly be the son of Richard and Sarah. Look at the ages of Richard and Sarah.
1851 England Census
Name: William Collis
Age: 24
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1827
Relation: Son
Father's Name: Richard F (No he's not)
Mother's Name: Sarah (No she's not)
Gender: Male
Where born: Witham, Essex, England
Civil parish: Lambeth (Lambeth is just southwest of Southwark, England)
Ecclesiastical parish: Brixton
County/Island: Surrey
Country: England
Street Address: 8 Zoar Place, Royal Veteran
Occupation: brewer now publican (British saloon keeper or inn keeper)
Condition as to marriage: unmarried
Registration district: Lambeth
Sub-registration district: Brixton
ED, institution, or vessel: 6
Household schedule number: 18
Household Members: Name Age
William Collis 24 son, brewer now publican
George S Collis 23 son, painter
Delene Collis 19 should be Dorcus, daughter, publican assistant
Belen A Collis 22 Should be Betsy Ann, neice
Henry W Chappell 3 grandson
Thomas Waite 22 servant
Mary Ann Garling 34 servant
Edward Turner 40 lodger

Surrey, England, Church of England Baptisms, 1813-1912
Name: William Collis
Gender: Male
Occupation: Brewer
Abode: St John's Grove
Parish as it Appears: Richmond
Spouse: Anna Esther Collis
Child: Laura Elizabeth Collis
born 6 Apr 1856
baptized 16 Jul 1856 Richmond, St Mary Magdalene
Reference Number: P7/1/14

New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957
Name: William Collis
Arrival Date: 3 Jun 1858
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1826
Age: 32
Port of Departure: London, England
Destination: United States of America
Place of Origin: England
Ship Name: Cornelius Grinnell (Note:This was the 2nd Cornelius Grinnell, the first one having wrecked at Squan Beach, NJ in 1853 without loss of life.)
Search Ship Database: Search the Cornelius Grinnell in the 'Passenger Ships and Images' database
Port of Arrival: New York
Line: 14
Microfilm Serial: M237
Microfilm Roll: M237_184
List Number: 439
Port Arrival State: New York
Port Arrival Country: United States

New York Port, Ship Images, 1851-1891
Name: William Collis
Arrival Date: 3 Jun 1858
Age: 32
Port of Departure: London, England
Port of Arrival: New York, United States
Ship Name: Cornelius Grinnell
Ship built: 1850
Shipping line: Swallowtail Line
Ship tonnage: 1,118 tons
Ship description: 3 masts

Soundex index to petitions for naturalization from New York County.
More information below
New York Petitions for Naturalization Record about William Collis
Name: William Collis
Naturalization Date: 23 Aug 1858
Former Nationality: English
Title and Location of Court: Common Pleas Court, New York County
Volume: 206
Record Number: 164
Note! Philadelphia Naturalization Rocords (fische # 6100592

1859, Oct 8 -Collis, William - GR Brit - CP Court - Date of Declaration of intent/and or oath of allegiance.

New York, Town Clerks' Registers of Men Who Served in the Civil War, ca 1861-1865
Name: William Collis
Birth Date: 1827
Birth Place: England
Residence Place: Buffalo, New York
Enlistment Date: 8 May 1861
Enlistment Location: Buffalo, Erie, New York
Regiment: 21st Regimetn
Company: F
Rank: Private
Race: White

Civil War, Company Muster Roll:
William Collis- Pvt. Co. F 21st Reg't of NY volunteers
Enlisted by Captain Clinton, 4 day of May 1861, at Buffalo, N Y, to serve for 3 years.
Mustered in 12 May 1861, Elmira, NY
Detached service in hospital as a nurse, July -Oct 1861
Returned to his company, 24 Oct 1861
March/June 1862-sick in Washington Street Hospital, Alexandria, VA
June 1862 Feb 1863-sick in Christian Street US General Hospital, Philadelphia, PA
Discharged 9 Feb 1863 as incapable of performing the duties of a soldier
(By reason of general debility connected with spinal irritation).

! BIR-MAR:Collis family bible in possession of Marilyn Parker

William arrived in Philadelphia Pennsylvania in 1859, (source: 9292 pg. 166, United States Works Projects Administration, Index to records of Aliens' Declaration of Intentions and or oath of allegiance, 1789-1880 in U. S. Circuit Court, U.S. Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia, 11 Vols. Compiled by WPA Project #10837. Sponsored by Pennsylvania Historical Commission, 1940, Lancour 188, (Vol. 1: Letter C, PP1-297) Wm. Collis was naturalized 6 Sept 1870, San Francisco, CA, 4th Dist.

*1860 United States Federal Census
Name: Wm Collis
Age in 1860: 33
Birth Year: abt 1827
Birthplace: England
Home in 1860: Buffalo Ward 2, Erie, New York
Gender: Male
Post Office: Buffalo
Value of real estate: $200
Household Members: Name Age
Wm Collis 33 Eng Brewer
Ann E Collis 32 Eng
Ada Collis 6 Eng
William Collis 5 Eng
Bertha Collis 3 Eng
Alfred Collis 1 NY

U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995
Name: William Collis
Residence Year: 1868
Street address: Mission and Preeita Avenue
Residence Place: San Francisco, California, USA
Occupation: Carpenter, Dwl
Publication Title: San Francisco, California, City Directory, 1868

*1870 United States Federal Census
Name: Wm Collis
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1827
Age in 1870: 43 house carpenter
Birthplace: England
Home in 1870: San Francisco Ward 9, San Francisco, California
Family and neighbors:
Annie E. 41 England
Ada A. 15 Eng
Wm A 16 Eng
Austin W. 6 PA
Rachel 4 NY
Walter W. 2 CA
Race: White
Gender: Male
Value of real estate:
Post Office: San Francisco

U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995
Name: William Collis
Residence Year: 1871
Residence Place: San Francisco, California, USA
Occupation: Liquor Saloon And Carpenter
Publication Title: San Francisco, California, City Directory, 1871

U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995
Name: William Collis
Residence Year: 1872
Street address: llaggin and Berrv
Residence Place: San Francisco, California, USA
Occupation: Liquor Saloon
Publication Title: San Francisco, California, City Directory, 1872

U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995
Name: William Collis
Residence Year: 1873
Street address: 130 Berry
Residence Place: San Francisco, California, USA
Occupation: Liquor Saloon
Publication Title: San Francisco Directory, 1873

U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995
Name: William Collis
Residence Year: 1874
Residence Place: San Francisco, California, USA
Occupation: Sticker (with B & J S Doe - doors, sashes, & blinds )
Publication Title: San Francisco, California, City Directory, 1874

*1880 United States Federal Census
Name: William Collis
Home in 1880: Township 5, Contra Costa, California
Age: 54
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1826
Birthplace: England
Relation to head-of-household: Self
Spouse's name: Esther A.
Father's birthplace: ENG
Mother's birthplace: ENG
Neighbors:
Occupation: Farmer
Marital Status: Married
Race: White
Gender: Male
Household Members: Name Age
William Collis 54
Esther A. Collis 51
William A. Collis 24 (Ada A. was also listed on this line)
Austin W. Collis 15
Rachael Collis 12
Walter W. Collis 11
Florence E. Collis 10
Lillian E. Collis 8

U.S., Civil War Pension Index: General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934
Name: William Collis
Gender: Male
Place Filed: California, USA
Relation to Head: Soldier
Spouse: Anne E Collis

Search for Type: Births Surname: Collis County: Surrey England
Birth date Surname First name(s) District Vol Page
Dec 1853 COLLIS Ada Annie Richmond S
Jun 1856 Collis Laura Elizabeth
Dec 1857 Collis Anna Bertha
Dec 1854 Collins ? William Arthur Richmond S

Search for Deaths Surname: Collis County: Surrey England
Mar 1839 Collis Female St George Southwark
Mar 1839 COLLIS Female St Geo Southwk
Dec 1839 Collis Female St Geo Sthwk
Dec 1839 Collis Female St George Southwark
Mar 1842 Collis Sarah St George Southwark
lizabeth St George Southwark
Jun 1849 Collis Herbert Richard Charles St George Southwark
Jun 1853 Collis George St Geo Sk

Appendix 1.
The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft, Vol. XXXV, 1888
California Inter Pocula by Hubert Howe Bancroft
http://books.google.com/books?id=pu0NAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA155&dq=California+by+the+isthmus+of+Panama#PPA177,M1

The Voyage to California P157-8 (Crossing the Isthmus of Panama)

(The Panama Railroad of seven miles was completed Jan 1858
Seven miles of that great undertaking-great considering the time and the place -the Panama railway was accomplished when, on the first of March, 1852, we dropped anchor off Chagres; and to afford the company due encouragement, those seven miles must be traveled over, and contribution levied for the same, at the rate of nearly one dollar a mile, on every passenger crossing the Isthmus thereafter. So orders were given to weigh anchor, and proceed thence two or three leagues easterly to Colon, or Navy bay, then called Aspinwall, the name and glory of the first admiral being thrust aside for those of a New York money magnate. However, the old name of Colon was a few years after restored. There we disembarked, and rode over the seven miles of completed work, paying for the same quite liberally, when we were permitted to engage boats and ascend the Chagres river which we could as easily and as cheaply have done before as afterward.
Crossing the Isthmus in early times, for an untravelled, provincial people, was a feat altogether individual and unique; a feat very different from a three or four hours' ride in comfortable rail-cars, through ever changing scenery which affords the observer constant delight, as the journey is now made.
Chagres at this time was a town of about seven hundred native inhabitants, dwelling in some fifty windowless, bamboo huts, with thatched, palm-leaf roofs, and having open entrances, and the bare ground for a floor. The town was surrounded by heaps of filthy offal, and greasy, stagnant pools bordered with blue mud. It is situated on a small but exceedingly picturesque and almost land-locked bay, well nigh buried by the foliage that skirts its banks and rolls off in billowy emerald toward the hill beyond. Between the shore and mountains stretch away for miles in every direction broad, open savannahs, cut into farms covered with chaparral, and stocked with cattle. Where the river and ocean meet rises a bold bluff crowned by the castle of San Lorenzo, whose ruined fortress and battlements, gnawed to a skeleton by the teeth of time, gaze mournfully out upon the sea which lashes its waves against its steep foundations, as if determined to uproot in all these inhospitable parts the last vestige of the olden time. Fallen to the bottom of the cliff were parapet and guns; screaming sea-birds occupied the crumbling, moss-covered watch-tower; while within the dismounted cannon, bearing, with royal arms of Spain, the date of 1745, were slowly changing into rust. Remnants of the old paved road which ascends the hill were there, and the drawbridge over the moat--once wide and deep, but now rank with vegetation--leading to the main gateway; likewise the drawbridge to the citadel on the verge of the cliff, whence a charming view of sea and land may be had. At Chagres, passengers were accustomed to stay no longer than sufficed to engage boats and start on their journey. This region is specially noted for the insalubrity of its climate.

COLON
Aspinwall, or Navy bay, where the first blow upon the railway was struck, occupies a small swampy mud-reef called Manzanilla island, fringed with mangrove trees, and originally covered with interlacing vines and thorny shrubs, and inhabited only by reptiles, beasts and poisonous insects.
The rainfall at Aspinwall is very heavy. During the rainy season, which is from May to January, the windows of heaven are opened, and in October and November there is a quick succession of deluges. Glued furniture falls in pieces; leather moulds, and iron oxidizes in twenty-four hours.
Quite a contrast between the old and the new! In making the transit by rail, the day before reaching Aspinwall every one descended into the hold of the steamer, either in person or by proxy, selected his baggage, had it weighed and checked, and paid ten cents a pound for all over fifty pounds if a holder of a steerage ticket, and all over one hundred pounds if a holder of a cabin ticket. Baggage was then transferred to the steamer on the other side without further trouble to the owner. No sooner was the plank out than the slosely penned passengers, with a rush squeezed and stampeded--the American style of disembarking--hastened ashore, scattered themselves among the hotels, shops, and fruit venders, and were soon lost in present gratification of appetite, and in laying in a store of comforts and disease for the future. The pleasure of placing foot on shore after a long voyage, even though it be the soft spongy shore of Aspinwall, is exquisite. To a cramped sea-rolled landsman any spot of earth looks lovely, especially when viewed from the sea. To tread on solid ground, and feel mother earth beneath your feet again, seems like a return from supernatural regions. Thus to land and thus to cross the Isthmus is a pleasant change from the tiresome life on board the steamers. Railway passengers wish the ride was longer, wish they could so ride all the way to San Francisco. Seated by an open window, the face fanned by the motion of the train, and armed with a pitcher or pail of iced water, the ride is indeed charming. But at the time of which I write crossing the Isthmus was a very different affair, as I shall show.

REDUNDANT VEGETATION

Surpassingly beautiful is the foliage along the banks of this Circean stream. Rolling up from either side are mountains of impervious forest, gigantic, Rank, and wild. Every shade of green, somber and bright, mingles with rose-red, purple, white, and yellow, orange, blue, and pink in endless varying kaleidoscope. Solemn palms, thick-leaved mangoes, bold majestic teaks, and bounteous bananas are linked by crimson-blossomed parasites, which, twining, interlacing, creeping, and pendant, mat and unite all brotherhoods in close embrace, and over-reaching the glistening banks meet their image in the glassy waters. Bending acacias dig their sinewy roots into the soft earth to prevent falling, and weave their branches into thick screens; bread-fruit hangs in huge clusters overhead, and plantain pine-apple and orange, mango and lime, papaw alligator-pear and sugar-cane, yield profusely their spontaneous favors. It is no trifling matter to be a tree in the tropics. If erect and strong it is made a plant-patriarch, whether it will or not, and must support a dense mass of orchids, purple convolvuli, and creeping plants of almost every genus and species, which if spread upon the ground would form a thick carpet covering a space five times the area of the tree's shadow at noon-day; and when at last the forest behemoth is smothered to death, and dragged down by these relentless parasites, its sapless trunk is speedily buried in broad leaves and tender vines and bunches of spongy moss, and its tomb decorated with flaming flowers and delicate microscopic blossoms.
Underneath dark vistas of shadowy colonnade are tall grasses and tangled shrubbery through which wild beasts with difficulty force their way. What in our colder climnes are rare exotics, here riot in the open air, bursting with exuberance. Innumerable flowers of every hue gild the landscape; the tiny blossoms of the north spread out in flaming proportions, or assume shapes in which they almost lose their identity, while innumerable species unknown to the northern naturalist abound in rank profusion. Chief among those, and one of the most remarkable that blooms in any clime is the Flor del Espiritu santo, the flower of the holy ghost. Lifting its graceful form from marshy pools and decayed logs to a height sometimes of six or seven feet, it throws out broad lanceolate leaves by pairs from jointed leaf-stalks, while on a leafless flower-stalk springing from the bulb are sometimes ten or fifteen tulip shaped blossoms of alabaster whiteness, and powerful magnolia perfume, enfolding within their tiny cups the prone image of a dove, formed in such consummate grace and symmetry as no art could approach. And with this emblem of innocence and celestrial purity rising from a sensual paradise; with its gentle head bent meekly forward, its exquisitely shaped pinions hanging listlessly by its sides, its tiny bill, tipped with delicate carmine, almost resting on its snow white breast, in form and feature the very incarnation of ethereal innocence--shall we blame the early priests for pointing the pooor natives to this flower, and telling them God is here:

ANIMATED NATURE

Palm trees of various descriptions line the banks, and gorgeous water lilies dip their fragrant heads as the boat passes over them. Every shower of rain is like the sprinkling of perfume on the vegetation. Birds of richly painted plumage and shrill song illuminate the forest; the dark, scarlet-breasted toucan, which tosses its food from its long serrated beak into the air and catches it in its throat, and in drinking, as the padres say, makes the signh of the cross, whence they call it Dios te de, (May God give thee); screaming parrots, parroquets and flamingoes with their harsh discordant voices, and black and yellow turpiales, wild turkeys, peacocks, and herons, and multitudes of others, gorgeously feathered and sweet of song, glitter amidst the shadowy green. Chattering monkeys leap from tree to tree and swing upon the pendent vines; mammoth blue butterflies, brilliant as the rainbow, dance in the sun and rise to match the azure of heaven on wings a hand broad; and bumming birds, beautiful as the butterflies, buzz and poise and dart from flower to flower. Myriads of insects with burnished coats of mail sparkle in the air and people the plants, while all through the day the shrill whistle of the chicharra--a kind of green grasshopper--is heard, which beginning in a low gurgle, rises into a clear blast like the whistle of a steam engine, and which may be distinguished a mile distant.

Pg 177
Down from the mountains and out of the tropical wilderness we approach the borders of the broad Pacific. Fromm a series of plains dotted with patches of black thorn and cactus, and groves of citron, orange, and mango, we strike into the paved road, cross the old stone bridge, and are soon among the plantations and suburban residences of Panama. Goats and herds of cattle now mingle with bands of pack mules, mounted stragglers, and pedestrians; water-carriers ply their trade with increased activity as the day draws to a close; houses, two and three stories in height, of wood and adobe, supplant the remoter reed huts, and following the current of gold-seekers we leave behind the shops outside the walls, cross the moat, and passing under the arched and towered gateway of Puerta de Tierra, with its old stone cross and bell, we enter Panama
The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft, Vol. XXXV, 1888

William married Anne Esther RANDALL on 18 Nov 1852 in Saint Pauls Church, Hammersmith, Middlesex, England. Anne (daughter of Thomas RANDALL and Elizabeth Benfield) was born on 13 Mar 1828 in 77 London Rd, Southwark, Surrey, England; was christened on 15 Jun 1828 in St. George the Martyr, Southwark, Surrey, England; died on 3 Jan 1918 in Brentwood, Contra Costa, California, United States; was buried in Union Cemetary, Brentwood, Contra Costa, California, United States. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events:

• Reference Number: *
• _MARNM: Collis
• _UID: 2FCFE0BF19CAEE4B9563558B9287E802948E

Notes:

London, England, Births and Baptisms, 1813-1906 about Ann Esther Randall
Name: Ann Esther Randall
Record Type: Baptism
Date: 15 Jun 1828
Father's Name: Thomas Randall, butcher, London Rd.
Mother's Name: Elizabeth Randall
Parish: St George the Martyr
Borough: Southwark
County: Middlesex

In February 1832 an outbreak of cholera broke out downstream in Rotherhithe, then part of Surre, quickly spreading pstream to Southwark and Lambeth in the same county, 13 Metropolitan police officers died of the disease along with the general public. written by Bernard Brown.

NDGW # 69-005
Anne's death certificate states her mother's maiden name as "Ann Beufield" could be Benfield.
!CHRISTENING: LDS Extracted records- Batch # C022442 sheet 5665, call # 307693
!BIRTH: Family Bible in possession of Marilyn Parker.
!DEATH: State File #437 vol. 2 pg. 2084
!CENSUS: 1900 California, Contra Costa County, film # 1240085, book # 280, Sheet # 6, she was living, a widow, as head of household with Lillian E., age 27, and Rachel, age 34, who were both single. The census stated she owned the home free. The value of her home in Brentwood upon Anne's death, 3 Jan 1918, was &1000.

Sealed to Parents 22 Jan 1971 S G

Anne Esther Randall was said to have been a lady in waiting to queen Victoria before Anne was married. ( The royal archives in England have no record of this and they say that they keep very good records of Ladies in Waiting. Nor do they have any record of her mother, Elizabeth or Ann Benfield as a lady in waiting.). The story is told by the family that the queen gave Anne a pair of silk stockings that are still in the family. As far as can be proven, it is just a fun family story.

Anne Esther'Randall's family had their own coach and footman. Her father was a pork butcher on London Road in Southwark, England. Anne was christened at the church of England, Saint George the Martyr, just down the street. There was a debtor's prison next door to the church. At the time Anne was growing up, Charles Dicken's father was in that debtor's prison. Charles Dicken's would visit his father there. It is most likely that Charles Dicken's also attended that same church as a child. I don't know where she met her future husband, but the story passed down is that her father was not pleased that she married William Collis, who was a brewer. They married in 1852. Within 4 1/2 years they had 4 children: Ada, William, Laura, and Anna. Was it adventure that prompted them to immigrate to the United States? Whatever the reason, they were preparing to leave England, when their 3rd child, Laura Elizabeth, died suddenly, at 2 years of age, just 8 days before sailing. It is believed she died from the inoculations received in preparation for the trip. On 25 April 1858 they left from London, England, sailed for America on the ship Cornelius Grinnell with Capt A. G. Fletcher, and arrived in New York 3 June 1858. What a hardship to leave a little one behind. Another little boy, Alfred, was born to Anne almost a year after arriving in the U.S. Another little boy, Austin, was born nearly 5 years later. At ages 5 and 7, both Alfred and his sister, Anna, died within 2 weeks of each other. Rachael was born a year later in 1866. After being discharged from the Union Army, William and Anne decided to move west. Rachael was born in New Jersey before they left by freighter to go to the Isthmus of Panama. They crossed the Isthmus where they marveled at the monkeys. They then boarded a freighter up the Pacific Coast to San Francisco. Their furniture was shipped around the horn of South America. They settled in San Francisco where William was a saloon keeper. Their last three children, Walter, Florence, and Lillian were born in San Francisco, California. They had 10 children born to them, 3 of which died young. One child, Rachael, was listed as an imbecile, rumored to have been caused by a fall on her head,and never married.
After the death of her husband, Anne maintained a home in Brentwood with her two unmarried daughters, Lillian and Rachel. In 1903 she lived at 566 Walter Street in San Francisco. She had a dowager hump caused by osteoporosis. The last 4 years before her death, she lived with her daughter, Florence Gates, because she needed contant attending. Anne died at age 90, January 2, 1918, of old age. She is buried in the Point of Timber Cemetary in Brentwood, Costa County, California. Her will left the ranch in Brentwood, valued at $1000, to be divided among her 6 surviving children.

1841 England Census about Ann Randall
Name: Ann Randall
Age: 13
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1828
Gender: Female
Where born: Surrey, England
Civil Parish: St George The Martyr
Hundred: Southwark
County/Island: Surrey
Country: England
Street Address: Occupation:
Registration District: St George Southwark
Sub-registration District: London Road
Neighbors:
Piece: 1086
Book: 5
Folio: 37
Page Number: 18
Household Members: Name Age
Thomas Randall 38
Elizabeth Randall 32
Ann Randall 13
Edwin Randall 7
Elizabeth Randell 5
Amelia Randell 4 Mo


1851 England Census about Ann Randall
Name: Ann Randall
Age: 28
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1823
Relation: Daughter
Father's Name: Thomas Randall
Mother's Name: Elizabeth Randall
Gender: F (Female)
Where born: St. Georges, Surrey, England
Civil Parish: Southwark St George
County/Island: Surrey
Country: England
Street Address: Occupation: Condition as to marriage: Disability:
Registration District: St George Southwark
Sub-registration District: London Road
ED, institution, or vessel: 4
Neighbors:
Household Schedule Number: 42
Piece: 1565
Folio: 99
Page Number: 14
Household Members: Name Age
Thomas Randall 48
Elizabeth Randall 42
Ann Randall 28
Thomas Randall 20
James Randall 18
Edwin Randall 17
Elizabeth Randall 15
David Stonehill 20
Samuel Atterbury 23
Emma Luck 29

1860 United States Federal Census
Name: Ann E Collis
Age in 1860: 32
Birth Year: abt 1828
Birthplace: England
Home in 1860: Buffalo Ward 2, Erie, New York
Gender: Female
Post Office: Buffalo
Value of real estate: 200
Household Members: Name Age
Wm Collis 33 butcher
Ann E Collis 32
Ada Collis 6
William Collis 5
Bertha Collis 3
Alfred Collis 1

1900 United States Federal Census
Name: Annie E Collis
Home in 1900: Supervisors District 5, Contra Costa, California
Age: 42
Estimated birth year: abt 1858
Birthplace: England
Relationship to head-of-house: Head
Race: White
Home owned free
Immigration year: 1857
Household Members: Name Age
Annie E Collis 42
Lillian E Collis 27 Asst. Post mistress
Rachel Collis 34

1910 United States Federal Census
Name: Anne E Collis [Anne E Callis]
Age in 1910: 82
Birth Year: abt 1828
Birthplace: England
Home in 1910: Township 9, Contra Costa, California, Railroad Ave.
Race: White
Gender: Female
Immigration Year: 1858
Relation to Head of House: Head
Marital Status: Widowed
Father's Birthplace: England
Mother's Birthplace: England
Neighbors:
Household Members: Name Age
Anne E Collis 82 10 children, 6 living
Rachel Collis 40

Notes:

England, Select Marriages, 1538–1973
Name: William Collis
Gender: Male
Marital Status: Single
Age: 26
Birth Date: 1826
Marriage Date: 18 Nov 1852
Marriage Place: St. Paul, Hammersmith, Middlesex, England
Father: Christopher Aus...Ett Collis
Spouse: Ann Esther Randall
FHL Film Number: 1966291
Reference ID: it 1, pg 190, rn 379

Other Events:

• Occupation: Farmer
• Reference Number: *
• _UID: 212F7DE2F6992C4CA4CAAA9596B605772B26

Notes:

Things to do:
1. Check Napa and Brentwood newspapapers
2 Deeds in both counties as well as Berkeley.
3. Death notices and wills

Timeline for Erasmus Dorwin Grigsby:

1841 E D born Wright County, Missouri
1850 Census lived in Laclede County which was previously Wright County, Missouri
1852 age 11 moved with his parents by wagon train to Napa County, CA
1860 Census listed in Yount township, Napa county, CA with his parents.
1864 age 23 Married Elmira Miller in Napa County, CA
1866 Jul 2, daughter Laura Susan born Napa County
1867 Mar 20, son, Warren Miller born Napa County
1868 leased land in Contra Costa County, CA
1870 Mar 14, daughter Lillie Jane born Brentwood, Contra Costa, CA
1870 Census, listed with wife and three children in Yount, Napa County, California
1872 Mar 2, son Byron Lindsay born Brentwood, Contra Costa, CA
1875 took a trip to Texas
1880 Census listed in Contra Costa County, CA with wife and four children plus wife's mother and her
grand daughter, 2 servants, and three laborers.1900 Census, listed in Contra Costa, County with wife, 2 sons and 1 boarder.
1910 Census listed in Berkeley, Alameda, CA with wife and 1 servant
1912 Sep 18 died in Berkeley, Alameda, CA, age 70
1923 23 Jan Elmira died in Oakland, California, 2 days before her 74th birthday


Erasmus Dorwin Grigsby and Elmira Miller were married 28 Oct 1864 in Napa County, California. Elmira was only 15 at the time. Elmira's father had brought his family to Napa from Oregon, presumably by wagon, only a few years previous. Elmira and Dorwin were the parents of 4 children; Laura, Warren, Lillie, and Byron. After Laura was born, the family moved to Contra Costa County in California.
Elmira was born 20 Jan 1849 in DuPage County, Illinois; the only child of Daniel and Laura (Crumb) Miller. It is believed Laura died during or shortly after giving birth. When just a few years old, Elmira moved to Washington County, Oregon with her father and soon after removed to California with her father, step mother and half sister, Matilda. Elmira was often sick. Her grandson, Russell Collis, remembers being at his Grandma and Grandpa Grigsby's house in Berkeley and practicing the piano according to Grandma's (Elmira's) wishes. Uncle Bryon would sneak Russell out the back door to a baseball game when Grandma wasn't looking. Russell remembers riding in a surrey with a fringe on top. It is said Elmira practiced the Christian Scientist faith. She died from heart disease in Oakland in 1923 just 4 days short of age 74.
Erasmus or Dorwin as he was called was born 2 Oct 1841 in Wright County, Missouri. He was the 2nd of 8 children born to Terrell and Cynthia Grigsby. He came with his parents, Terrell and Cynthis Grigsby, to California by wagon train in the spring of 1852, at age 11. In 1868 he leased land in Contra Costa County and in Stanislaus County. He later sold all his stock and farming implements, and made a trip to Texas and returned in June, 1875. The next spring he purchased a quarter section, situated some 2 1/2 miles from Brentwood station, on the Central Pacific Railroad, four mile north of Point of Timber, and engaged in general farming. He was one of the most successful farmers of the county. He plowed with 8 mules and a jerkline. He was well liked. Dorwin became sick and he and Elmira moved to Grand Street in Berkeley. Byron took over the homestead. Dorwin died in Berkeley from heart disease in 1912 at just short of 80 years of age. Upon his death each of his children received 45 acres of land in Brentwood.

(See copy of "the History of Contra Costa County" SF, 1882, W. A. Slocum and Co. pg 570. and "Illustrations of Contra Costa County", 1878, pg 29.
Methodist Church at Point of Timber (50 members)

Have a picture of him and his wife.
Have copy of their marriage License. (father had to give consent as Elmira was underage at the time of her marriage- is listed as age 16)
!DEATH: State file #30376 vol. 3 pg 4257 (I have another state file #25627) Have a copy of his death certificate.

1850 United States Federal Census
Name: Arasmus D Grigsby
Age: 8
Birth Year: abt 1842
Birthplace: Missouri
Home in 1850: District 45, Laclede, Missouri
Gender: Male
Family Number: 290
Household Members: Name Age
Leonell L Grigsby 31
Cynthia Grigsby 31
Robert T Grigsby 11
Arasmus D Grigsby 8
Elfonza D Grigsby 6
Mary Susan Grigsby 2

*1860 United States Federal Census
Name: Erasmus B Grigsby
Age in 1860: 18
Birth Year: abt 1842
BirthPlace: Missouri
Home in 1860: Yount, Napa, California
Gender: Male
Post Office: Sebastopol
Household Members: Name Age
Terril l Grigsby 42
Sinthea Grigsby 42
Erasmus B Grigsby 18
Elfonga d Grigsby 16
Mary S Grigsby 13
Laura J Grigsby 9
Orina E Grigsby 6
Thos A Grigsby 2
James H Grigsby 1
James Edington 21
Wm Alred 30
Alfred Boyd 25

1870 United States Federal Census
Name: E D Grigsby
Age in 1870: 29
Birth Year: abt 1841
Birthplace: Missouri
Home in 1870: Yount, Napa, California
Race: White
Gender: Male
Post Office: Napa City
Value of real estate:
Household Members: Name Age
E D Grigsby 29
Almira Grigsby 21
Laura S Grigsby 4
Warren M Grigsby 3
Infant Grigsby 3/12

*1880 United States Federal Census
Name: Erasmus D. Grigsby
Home in 1880: Township 5, Contra Costa, California
Age: 39
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1841
BirthPlace: Missouri
Relation to head-of-household: Self
Spouses's Name: Elmira
Father's birthplace: TN
Mother's birthplace: NC
Occupation: Farmer
Marital status: Married
Race: White
Gender: Male
Household Members: Name Age
Erasmus D. Grigsby 39
Elmira Grigsby 30 wife born Illinois
Laura S. Grigsby 13 daugh
Warren M. Grigsby 13 son
Lillie J. Grigsby 10 daugh
Byron L. Grigsby 8 son
Mary J. Miller 53 wife's mother nurse
Tillie M. Huey 5M boarder
Jack Ellsworth 50 servant farm labor
Jim Ah 17 servant cook on farm
Thomas Murphy 27 labor
Edward Ferguson 33 labor
William O Brien 30 labor

*1900 United States Federal Census
Name: Erasmus H Grigsby
Home in 1900: Supervisors District 5, Contra Costa, California
Age: 58
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1842
BirthPlace: Missouri
Relationship to head-of-house: Head
Spouses's Name: Elmira
Race: White
Household Members: Name Age
Erasmus H Grigsby 58
Elmira Grigsby 51
Warren M Grigsby 32
Byron L Grigsby 28
Edward Elway 16 boarder

*1910 United States Federal Census
Name: Erasmus D Grigsby
Age in 1910: 68
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1842
BirthPlace: Missouri
Relation to Head of House: Head
Father's Birth Place: Tennessee
Mother's Birth Place: North Carolina
Spouses's Name: Elmira
Home in 1910: Berkely, Alameda, California
Marital Status: Married
Race: White
Gender: Male
Household Members: Name Age
Erasmus D Grigsby 68
Elmira Grigsby 66
Fannie Bennink 35 servant

Erasmus married Elmira MILLER on 28 Oct 1864 in , Napa, California, United States. Elmira (daughter of Daniel Miller and Laura CRUMB) was born on 20 Jan 1849 in , DuPage, Illinois, United States; died on 16 Jan 1923 in Oakland, Alameda, California, United States; was buried on 18 Jan 1923 in Brentwood, Contra Costa, California, United States. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events:

• Reference Number: *
• _MARNM: Grigsby
• _UID: 46FBBCD9CF24EF459D982CCD4069492C4977

Notes:

1860 United States Federal Census
Name: Elmira Miller
Age in 1860: 11
Birth Year: abt 1849
Birthplace: Illinois
Home in 1860: Yount, Napa, California
Gender: Female
Post Office: Sebastopol
Value of real estate:
Household Members: Name Age
Daniel Miller 50
Mary J Miller 35
Elmira Miller 11
Matilda J Miller 5



CA voter registration,
1912, Berkeley, Alameda County precinct 23
Grigsby, Elmira 2245 Grant Ave., housewife, fem Rep
1920 Oakland, Alameda County precinct # 84
Grigsby, Mrs. Elmira, 838 Arlington Ave. housewife, Rep

Brentwood Union Cemetary

!DEATH: age 73. state file #122 vol 3 pg 4257 (Have copy of death certificate.)
She came to California from Oregon by covered wagon with her father between 1856 and 1860.
NDGW # 69-001
In the 1914 Oakland Directory she was listed as wid of E.D with business at 1417 Myrtle.

Notes:

extracted records batch # 7207415

Other Events:

• Occupation: farmer
• Reference Number: *
• _UID: E2885283A697E74DB28725F9ECFD6BA0FB54

Notes:

Things to do:
1. Newspapers in Houghton
2. border crossings
3. reread letters and info from Clayton Sherman
4. Letters from Matilda for her records
5. tombstone in Lot 31, Section 10, Forest Lawn Cemetary, Detroit, Michigan,

Timeline for James Milton Sherman:

1857 Nov 26, James Milton born in Houghton, Ontario, Canada
1861 Census, James living in Houghton, Norfolk, Ontario, Canada, with parents Joseph & Matilda Sherman
1871 Canada Census, HoughtonNorfolk South, Ontario, Canada with parents
1879 Dec 24 James married Martha Madora Smith at Glenmyer, Ontario, Canada
1880 Nov 26, first son, Milton Kellum, born in Kingsmill, Cockran Dist., Ontario
1881 spring, moved to Lumberton, Michigan (may have missed 1880 US census & 1881 Canada census)
1882 Jul 15, daughter Alma Rolettie, born in Lumberton, Michigan
1883 bought 50 acres and old farm in Norfolk, Ontario, Canada
1883 Oct 28, son, Arthur Lewellyn born in Houghton, Norfolk, Ontario, Canada
1885 Jan 7, son Henry Clayton born in Houghton (James Milton was in Oscoda, Iosco, MI at the time)
1886 Apr 18, daughter, Mary Elizabeth born in Houghton
1887 May 1, son, Joseph Bernard born in Houghton
1888 May 29, son Frank Wesley born in Houghton\
1889 Sep 10, son Ira Hamilton born in Houghton
1891 Census of Canada, Houghton, Norfolk, Canada
1893 Jan 21, son William Austin born in Houghton
1894 Sep 14, son Lawrence Edmond born in Houghton
1895 Oct 20, son Earl Romain born in Houghton
1897 Jul 14, son Clarence Clifton born in Houghton
1899 Feb 5, daughter, Matilda Sepperal born in Houghton
1901 Census, living with family in Houghton
1910 Census, living with family in Oscoda, iosco, Michigan
1913 divorced Martha Madora.
1913 17 April, married Anna Reaume, in Harrisville, both of Greenbush, MI, both married 1 time before,
1916 moved to Detroit to work in car industry.
1921 quit working in Detroit
1930 Census living in Shelby, Macomb, Michigan with son, Milton K Sherman and Milton's family
1934 Sep 14, James Milton, age 76, died in Eloise, Michigan, poorhouse, buried in Detroit, Wayne, MI 1934. . Buried in Forrest Lawn Cemetery Detroit MI, arrangements were made by the widow of his son Henry Clayton Sherman

Joseph's grown son, James Milton, lived at Lumberton, Michigan, (1881-1883) then moved back to Fairground, Ontario, and lived there until he finally moved to Oscoda, Michigan (1900). It follows that family data for the period 1827-1900 may exist at either end of this Ontario-Michigan axis, particularly near the towns mentioned or along logical travel routes between them.

James Milton was the father of Milton Sherman who was the father of Bertha Sherman (Collis).
The following story was taken from the family genealogy by Vernon Sherman:

" James Milton was born November 26, 1857 at Houghton, Ontario, Canada. His wife was Martha Madora Smith whom he called "Dorie". She called him "Milt". They were married at Glenmyer, Ontario, Canada, Christmas Eve, 24 December 1879. Their first child was born eleven months later. Their thirteenth child was born twenty years later.
Martha's father was a Methodist minister for fifty years, and was sixty-one years old when Martha was born. He came from London, England and his wife from the vicinity of Glasgow, Scotland. He died at age 83. They lived on a farm east of Glenmyer at the time of Martha's marriage, having moved there from Walsingham Township.
During the period 1879-81, James Milton and Madora lived at Kingsmill, Ontario, 3 or4 miles northwest of Aylmer and about 30 miles northwest of Fairground. Their first child, Milton Kellum was born at Kingsmill. In the spring of 1881 they moved to Lumberton, Michigan, near Big Rapids, and here their second child, a daughter, Alma, was born. They moved back to Houghton, Ontario in the fall of 1883 and here the rest of their 13 children were born, none of them in the same house.
The town of Hemlock, Ontario consisted of three stores, a school, a church and a blacksmith shop. The gristmill was at Vienna, nine miles away. Fairground, Ontario, was the nearby location of the annual tounship fair and reunion. James Milton soon found need for additional money to support a growing family. He heard great talk of high wages in the Michigan woods and decided to work there during the winter months. About 1884, he left the winter management of the farm to his wife and children and went to the Michigan woods near Oscoda. He is known to have been in Oscoda during the winter of 1885, when his son, Henry Clayton, was born (7 January 1885).

In a letter (dated 13 Oct 1946) to his nephew, Vernon Sherman, Milton Kellum Sherman wrote concerning his father, James Milton Sherman.
"In 1883 he bought the north 50 acres of the old farm in Houghton Township, and built a 3 room house on it. While the plaster was drying, we went down to Uncle Charles Mercer, and there Arthur was born. We were there for about two weeks. In 1884, J. M. Sherman bought the south 50 acres of the farm, making his 100 acres of land. He had 30 sheep, 10 milch cows, and a good team of mares, also hogs and chickens, and farm tools. The land was swampy, wet and uncleared. Father worked very hard to clear and ditch that land, 'til he got rheumatism and was laid up for three years and six months. After the doctors got his farm, stock, and tools, they cured him of his rheumatism. He tried hard to recover the farm by working out. But he had a large family to feed, a lot of sickness and five deaths. He worked for 50 cents a day around our neighborhood. It was in Cleveland's administration and times were hard. He finally lost the farm and moved off. After Matilda (the last child) was born, father went back to Oscoda to work. He had worked there some before. We had one old mare left to do our work with. Clayton, Arthur and myself worked hoeing corn for Charlie Beech. We got 25 cents a day. We moved from the Sprag house to a house on the third concession across the road from Moris Fultons. From there we moved to the Pridle house, on the third concession just north of the third side road. While there, we traded the old mare for a little gray mare. She was a good horse. Art and I came to Oscoda and a year and a half later the rest of the family came over and brought the little gray mare with them. From that mare, father raised a mare colt, from that colt he raised three colts, one for your father (Henry Clayton), one for Art, and one for myself.
J.M. Sherman bought 80 acres of timber land at Handy, Michigan, near Mikado, on Pine River. Father, Art, Clayton, and Frank, cut the cedar off the land and sold the land, and bought 180 acres on the west side of Cedar Lake, 5 miles south of Greenbush and 6 miles north of Oscoda. About 1907 he bought a barn of Vern Sharky, of the Woods estate. He tore it down and moved it up to Cedar Lake to build a home there for himself and mother. But there was too much interference from A and F, 'til father had no home in Oscoda. And finally mother was persuaded to move back to Canada in 1911, just before the Oscoda fire. She was there only a short time, and moved to Detroit with Clarence and Matilda. Also A and F.
In 1913 father applied for a divorce and got it. I think he married Widow Reeves in the spring of 1914. He was living on her farm when World War I started. Her farm was 4 miles north and 1 mile west of father's farm. In 1916 father went to Detroit to work. In late fall of 1917 we both went to work for the Fisher Co. at Detroit plant # 7. He was a sweeper. He worked till the strike in 1921. Then he went back to the farm and moved his (then) wife to Detroit, and with the lumber that he had bought from Sharky, he built the two family flat in Detroit.
His second wife made him sleep in the attic. He got up in sleep one night and fell down the stair well to the basement, about 25 feet, and broke his hip. Several days later the police found him laying a short distance from the sidewalk in the grass and tall weeds near Mack Avenue on Conners Creek Road. He was taken to the hospital and the rest I think you know. The doctor in the hospital told me that father was not crazy, but worn out in mind and body."


James Milton is believed to have applied for his first U. S. papers in 1884 at Tawas City, Michigan. The declaration of intention is on file but bears no date. However, the order admitting him to citizenship shows 17 November 1900 as the date of application for the final papers. Final citizenship papers were signed 19 September 1904 by Judge J. Kennine at Tawas City, Iosco County, Michigan.
Those Michigan days were of tarpaper, sawdust and forest fires. Lumber Barons came into being overnight by the simple expedient of stealing timber from the boundless state forests. Later, fires set in the "slashings" removed all evidence of theft. What a forest fire did to Oscoda in 1911 is part of the Henry Clayton chapter in this story. Oscoda was a lumbering town and one of the most active lake ports. Sandy streets were surfaced with Cedar and Tamrack bark. The fresh smell of tar paper and of rough sawed new boards filled the air.
In the spring the Au Sable River ice broke and the "run" was on. The river was choked with logs. A system of river Bayous above the town stored the overflow of timber until the mills could handle it. Floating necklaces of chained logs, known as log-booms lashed timber shipments to river banks and lay in mill ponds. Other shipments of timber came down Lake Huron as huge rafts bound with chain were towed by tugs to mills at the lake shore. Still a third flow of timber arrived via the narrow-gage logging trains creaking and groaning out of the woods. The ringing whine of the great saws continued 24 hours a day. At 6 hour intervals the blasts of mill whistles told the change of shift.
Michigan was the Nation's lumber pile in those years. It was the country of Paul Bunyon, his famous "talking boots"; the Winter of the blue snow; and his mighty ox, Babe, whose eyes were as big as cartwheels and measured two ax-handles between centers.
In 1910, James milton Sherman took up farming on a place near Greenbush, Michigan, some 20 miles N.W. of Oscoda. His family remained by choice in Oscoda where Arthur and Frank headed it up. Most of the children were self supporting and when the family moved back to Fairground, Ontario, that same year, Henry Clayton and Milton Kellum remained in Michigan.
In 1914, James Milton married the widow Reeves. She was a small dark woman with eleven children, many of whom were at that time well grown boys. She was Catholic. They lived first on her farm but later moved to Detroit In 1934, when a Police Ambulance took James Milton to Detroit Receiving Hospital, all he would tell them was his name and that he was the father of 13 children. When advised that her husband was critically ill at the hospital, the ex-widow Reeves consulted with her sons (all now able to support themselves) and announced that they were not interested. She refused the hospital's repeated requests that she talk to them and so in a few days her husband was transferred to the County Poor House at Eloise, Michigan where he died 14 September 1934 in his 77th year.
When a person dies in the Poor House and the body is not claimed, the county's procedure is set by law. The cadaver is clothed in a suit of long underwear, put in a rough box, and buried in "Potter's Field" However, James Milton Sherman is buried in Lot 31, Section 10, Forest Lawn Cemetary, Detroit, Michigan, along with his son Henry Clayton. Arrangements were carried out by Henry Clayton's widow and son acting for Henry Clayton. James Milton's headstone reads, "Grandfather"

1861 Census of Canada about James M Sherman
Name: James M Sherman
Gender: Male
Age: 5
Birth Year: 1856
Birthplace: Canada West
Marital Status: Single
Home in 1861: Houghton, Norfolk, Canada West
Religion: Methodist
Film Number: C-1052
Page Number: 7
Household Members: Name Age
Joseph Sherman 34 farmer, born Canada
Matilda J Sherman 30 born Canada
William L Sherman 10 born Canada
James M Sherman 5 born Canada
Sarah E Sherman 2 born Canada

1871 Census of Canada
Name: James Sherman
Gender: Male
Age: 14
Birth Year: abt 1857
Birth Place: Ontario
Religion: Baptist
Origin: German
Province: Ontario
District: Norfolk South
District Number: 11
Division: 02
Subdistrict: Houghton
Subdistrict Number: a
Neighbors:
Household Members: Name Age
Joseph Sherman 43
Matilda Sherman 39
William Sherman 19
James Sherman 14
Sarah Sherman 12
Mary Sherman 9
Louisa Sherman 7
Lambert Sherman 3

Ontario, Canada Voter Lists, 1867-1900 about James M Sherman
Name: James M Sherman
Year: 1885
Locality: Houghton Township
Province: Ontario
Country: Canada

1891 Census of Canada
Name: James M Sherman
Gender: Male
Marital Status: Married
Age: 34
Birth Year: abt 1857
Birthplace: Ontario
Relation to Head of House: Head
Religion: Baptist
French Canadian: No
Spouse's Name: Martha M Sherman
Father's Birth Place: Ontario
Mother's Birth Place: Ontario
Province: Ontario
District Number: 97
District: Norfolk South
Subdistrict: Houghton
Neighbors:
Household Members: Name Age
James M Sherman 34
Martha M Sherman 30
Millon K Sherman 10
angelell L Sherman 8
Aurthur L Sherman 7
Henry C Sherman 6
Mary E Sherman 5
Frank W Sherman 3

1901 Census of Canada
Name: Milton Sherman
Gender: Male
Marital Status: Married
Age: 44
Birth Date: 28 Nov 1856
Birthplace: Ontario
Relation to Head of House: Head
Spouse's Name: Martha M
Racial or Tribal Origin: English
Nationality: Canadain
Religion: Methodist
Occupation: W E
Province: Ontario
District: Norfolk (South/Sud)
District Number: 94
Sub-District: Houghton
Sub-District Number: B-2
Family Number: 53
Page: 6
Household Members: Name Age
Milton Sherman 44
Martha M Sherman 40
Milton K Sherman 20
Alma R Sherman 18
Arther L Sherman 17
Claryton Sherman 16
Mary E Sherman 14
Frank W Sherman 12
Clarance C Sherman 3
Matilda S Sherman 2

*1910 United States Federal Census
Name: James M Sherman
Age in 1910: 52
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1858
Birthplace: Canada English
Relation to Head of House: Head
Father's Birth Place: Canada English
Mother's Birth Place: Canada English
Spouse's name: Martha M
Home in 1910: Oscoda, Iosco, Michigan
Marital Status: Married
Race: White
Gender: Male
Year of Immigration: 1902
Household Members: Name Age
James M Sherman 52
Martha M Sherman 49
Frank Sherman 21
Clarence Sherman 12
Matilda Sherman 11

1920 United States Federal Census
Name: James M Sherman
Age: 63
Birth Year: abt 1857
Birthplace: Canada
Home in 1920: Greenbush, Alcona, Michigan
Race: White
Gender: Male
Immigration Year: 1881
Relation to Head of House: Head
Marital Status: Married
Spouse's Name: Anna Sherman
Father's Birthplace: Canada
Mother's Birthplace: Canada
Home Owned: Own, farm
Able to Read: Yes
Able to Write: Yes
Neighbors:
Household Members: Name Age
James M Sherman 63 [43] immigrated 1881, naturalized 1900
Anna Sherman 45 [43]
Vernice A Reaume 15
Marie Reaume 14
Dennis H Reaume 12
Aloysious C Reaume 10
Elbert Reaume 8


1930 United States Federal Census
Name: James M Sherman
Home in 1930: Shelby, Macomb, Michigan
Age: 73
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1857
Relation to Head of House: Father
Occupation: Education: Military service: Rent/home value: Age at first marriage: Parents' birthplace:
Household Members: Name Age
Milton K Sherman 49
Zoey Sherman 39
Joseph Sherman 17
Henry C Sherman 14
Basil B Sherman 12
James M Sherman 73 father, came to US 1883, naturalized

Ontario, Canada Voter Lists, 1867-1900 about James M Sherman
Name: James M Sherman
Year: 1885
#484, Juror, yes lot W 1/2 5 conc 1 owner PO7
Locality: Houghton Township
Province: Ontario
Country: Canada

Ontario, Canada Voter Lists, 1867-1900 about James M Sherman
Name: James M Sherman
Year: 1886
#489, Juror, yes lot W 1/2 conc 1 owner PO7
Locality: Houghton Township
Province: Ontario
Country: Canada

Forest Lawn Cem. He died in Eloise
History of Eloise Westland, Michigan

http://www.sherman-roots.com/sherman/pioneers/sp'ott.doc
3. James Milton8 Sherman born Nov 28 1857 in Houghton [Twp] Norfolk Co Ontario Canada (mc/mp; GVWS p0). (Gen Refs: not in DPS, NES, SD, LDS/AF, LDS/IGI).
1871.
1879. James married at Glenmyer Ontario Canada to Martha Madora "Dorie" Smith, who was born c1860 [born 1861] (mc/mp), she and parents born in Canada (1910 Census; GVWS p1).
1879/81. James lived in Kingsmill Ontario (mc/mp).
1881/83. James lived at Lubmerton MI, near Grand Rapids MI (mc/mp).
1883/84. James moved to Fairground Ontario, and purchased 50 acres of land. He added another 50 acres in 1884 and built a 3 room house. He had 30 sheep, 10 milch cows, a good team of mares, hogs, chickens and farm tools. The land was swampy and uncleared; he worked hard to clear and drain the land. He got rheumatism and was laid up for 3 year and half years; the doctors took the farm for medical bills.
1884/85. James a farmer, left his family in Houghton Center Ontario, and worked the winter in the lumber mills in Oscoda MI Iosco Co (GVWS p1).
1893. James' son Henry, was kicked by a horse. James was so angry with the horse that he rushed into the house, got his Yankee musket, and shot the horse dead. He tanned "old Charlie's" hide and it was a rug on the floor in front of his bed all the rest of his life (GHCS p1).
1900. James move to Oscoda MI Iosco Co (mc/mp).
1901. James and family immigrated to Oscoda MI Iosco Co (GVWS p2).
1904. September 19th, James became a citizen at Tawas City MI Iosco Co (mc/mp).
xxxx. James purchased 80 acres on the Pine River at Handy MI Alcona Co, and cut the cedar and then sold the land (mc/mp).
1906. James's father Joseph died in Ontario, James lived in Oscoda MI (mc/mp).
1910. Census of Oscoda MI Iosco Co indicated: James age 52, carpenter working at odd jobs; Martha M Sherman, age 49 born 1861, married 31 years, 13 children 8 alive; children Frank, Clarence, Matilda; they lived on Lake Street (p278/d139/f140; nb/7.46).
1910. James purchased 180 acres, located on the West side of Cedar Lake about 5 miles South of Greenbush MI and about 6 miles North of Oscoda [this would be near the Alcona and Iosco county line (mc/mp, from GVMS).
1911. James and family experienced the great fire of 1911 (GVWS p5), Martha had moved back just before the fire (mc/mp from GVWS).
1913. James divorced Martha (mc/mp).
1913. James M age 56, a farmer of Greenbush MI Alcona Co, born in Canada; married in Harrisville MI Alcona Co to widow Anna Reeves/Reemes (uc) age 40 born 1873; 2d marriage for both; his parents Joseph Sherman and Jane Fick (ALC/MR 2-68).
xxxx. James was living on Anna's farm when WW-1 started, located 4 miles North and 1 mile West of his farm.
1914/16. James worked for the Fisher Co Plant #7 in Detroit MI as a sweeper, until the 1921 strike (mc/mp; GVWS).
1917. James built a two family flat in Detroit, and brought his wife there to live.
1920. Census of Alcona Co indicated: James M age 63, immigrated 1881 and naturalized in 1900; Anna Sherman age 45 born 1875 in MI, wife; five step-children named Resume (Soundex e3/p8).
1920. Census of Flint MI Genesee Co indicated: Martha age 59 born 1861 in Canada, mother-in-law, immigrated 1901; enumerated with Earnest Rathburn (Soundex e38/p14).
1921. James move to Detroit MI (mc/mp).
xxxx. Martha Sherman died in Dearborn MI Wayne Co (GVWS p0).
1934. Anna made him sleep in the attic, one night he fell down the stairway 25 feet to the basement and broke his hip and was taken to Detroit Receiving Hospital. Anna refused to accept James from the hospital, so he was transferred to the County Poor Farm at Eloise MI (mc/mp).
1934. Sep 13th, James Sherman died at the poor house at Eloise MI Wayne Co (GVWS p0; mc/mp; mc/tb). Buried in Forrest Lawn Cemetery Detroit MI, arrangements were made by the widow of his son Henry Clayton Sherman (mc/mp).

The history of Eloise actually begins in Detroit were a vote of the people on March 8, 1832, under the name of Wayne County Poor House, named the institution County House Infirmary, it was then located on Gratiot and Mt Elliott Avenues. After the county purchased The Black Horse Tavern, a Detroit-Chicago Stagecoach stop, in 1839 this became the location of the second County Poor House. Of the 146 people living in the original Poor House, only 35 transferred to the new location. The other 111, refused to go into what was than mostly wilderness. Eloise is often referred to as Eloise Sanatorium, Eloise Hospital or even, The Crazy Hospital. The Sanatorium was applied when the hospital opened a out-door treatment center for tubercular patients. The name, Eloise Hospital was adopted by the Board of Superintendents of the Poor on August 18, 1911. It would later become, again The Wayne County Asylum. The term, Eloise, was originally used, because the United States Government, set the Post Office located here in the general office building, it was named Eloise. Later the name, Eloise was applied to the Michigan Central Railroad depot here, the American Express Company located here, and the Detroit, Ypsilanti & Ann Arbor road, all became known with the name Eloise attached. 
But why Eloise ?
Prior to the year 1894, there were no post offices, express offices, or railroad offices, located at any institutions. This slowed deliveries in the Wayne, Westland and Detroit areas and the Superintendent motioned for a post office located at the County House May 1, 1894. The Postmaster General at that time, approved for the location, however to avoid any annoyance to his Department, he established the order that all newly established post offices, would have only short names, or names of one word, and none, could resemble closely to any other within the State. Freeman B. Dickerson, recent postmaster of Detroit, was then President of the Board. He was largely responsible for getting the new County House Center, built, and was very interested in the establishment of the post office. His only living child, a daughter, who was four years old, was called, Eloise. Members of the Board, submitted the name, Eloise, which was than sent to Washington, and approved. On July 20, 1894, the post office was established, under the name Eloise. (Eloise Dickerson, later married and became the wife of Harlow N. Davock, of Detroit. She died in 1982 at the age of 93.) Eloise evolved over time, and expanded and by the 1930's there were 78 building on almost 1,000 acres of land. It was a self-sufficent community, within Westland Township. It had it's own dairy farm, piggery (or pig farm), greenhouses, a fire department, power plants, bakeries, and its own Post Office. The main building, called "N Building" was over 380,000 square feet and housed 7,000 indigent persons. Over 3,000 of them, working throughout the large complex.
What Else did Eloise Have ?
Eloise was not only a General Hospital, and housing unit for the poor of Wayne County, but it is commonly referred to as the "Crazy Hospital." Eloise was a facility for mentally disturbed patients. In the small Eloise Museum located inside of the Kay Beard Building still standing on Michigan Avenue, are artifacts including leather arm restraints. Eloise also had a section for a morgue. There is said to be 7,145 former Eloise residents buried in the old Eloise Cemetery, which is located on the South side of Michigan Avenue, just across from the Kay Beard Building. The last burial is said to have occured in January 1948. ( SEE BELOW for VIEW of Eloise Cemetery and Markers) The Keeper's residence had originally been located in the west end of the main building, however in 1865, it was approved a new structure be built, for the keeper and his family. The building was drawn up by James Anderson, and built by Henry Metz, by contract. The building had a frontage of 46 feet and was 37 feet wide, and also two stories high. The first keeper to live here was A.L. Chase. This building was also used by the Board for meetings and office space, located on the second floor. The previous portion of the main building, that had been used by the keeper and his family, was turned into bedrooms, a dispensary, and nursery. By 1876, there were buildings for the Insane Asylum. The name used for these buildings was the Third County House. In 1839, there was also a school district with a school house located on the property. There were several children in the County House at the time it was first opened in Detroit, who's parents had died from cholera, and the County House was their only home. In Section 52 of Chapter 2 of the Laws of 1838, it stated that the Superintendent of the Poor, in every county, were obligated to look after the education of all children between the ages of five and sixteen. Therefore a room was set aside and apart where the children would assemble for school. In 1859, an old building, that had been used during a small pox epidemic, was made into a schoolhouse. The next year the Board erected a schoolhoues along Plank Road. Legislature later passed a bill stating that the Wayne County Farm, used for the benefit of the poor, would be named a school district, and should be numbered by the School Inspector of Nankin. This would later be named, School District No 10 of Nankin, and entitled to the school money provided to all the other school districts. The first teacher here was Chloe Walker, she was replaced in October of 1862 by Harriet Chase. The building however was destroyed in a fire, and the school had to be run , again from the main building. The Board elected to not erect a new schoolhouse located on the property, as another was being built in the area. The children on Eloise property began to attend the State Public School in May of 1874. The number of children inside the community here, outnumbered the limit to be excepted by the Public School, and by 1880, they had to erect a separate school building . The last recorded money recieved for school purposed was in 1887. There were at times, after 1887, that the State School could not take in the extra number of children from Eloise, and the Superintendent was in charge of educating those children that could not be placed, or adopted out. The Board approved a $5,000 appropration for a seperate "cottage" to be used for the children. They were to be completely seperated from any of the inhabitants of the main hospital area. The cottage was never built, because , massive and quick steps were taken to place every child in other institutions. The State Public School and State Institutions were from then, established to take care of these existing children and those that would become orphaned, or outcast. The schoolhouse built in 1880, was later used for special cases of male patients in the County House, and later as a laundry for the Asylum. The building was located on the north side of Michigan Aveaue, at Merriman Road. In 1825, the grounds in and around the Wayne County Poor House (or Eloise) were almost completely covered by trees of all types. Many of the older white oak trees stood over 130 feet high. These woods of course housed many wild animals such as fox, lynx, deer, bear, and wolves, as well as other smaller animals and birds. Joseph Moss surveyed this property for the Government, for the laying of Military Road. It would extent from Detroit to Chicago, and was then an old Indian trail. The Torbert family built a log house along this "road", cleared the land, and cultivated a small farm. In 1839, the County purchased the Torbert cabin, which Torbert had named and used as the Black Horse Tavern. They also purchased the 280 acres, four cows, a yoke of oxen, and vegetables seeds from Torbert, to run a farm for the County. In June of 1840, 2 horses and a harness were added, and that August, 3 plows, a fanning mill, and other farm tools were purchased. The first farm report to the County Commissioners produced the following:
600 bushels of corn, 35 bushels of beets, 180 bushels of rutabagas, 28 bushels of peas, 55 bushels of oats, 14 bushels of onions, and 2 bushels of pickles.
At the time the County purchased this property there is said to have been 2 log buildings, located north of the log house (or Black Horse Tavern). One was a barn and stable, and the other was a shed for teams of animals. There is some indication that the shed would later become mental health institution, and the barn remained standing until 1886, then was sold for its lumber and hay. In 1875 a grain barn was built south of the Michigan Central RailRoad, which was 56 feet long and 46 feet wide. Another barn was built in 1886 for hay, grain, stock, and other tools, it also had a horse and cow stable, and a wagon shed. This structure was 144 feet long and 36 feel wide. In 1886 an addition was added for a dairy, and a solo was added in 1904. In 1896, the County built another barn northwest of the County House originally intended for use by the Asylum farm. In 1884, a new root cellar was constructed and was built between the bakery building, and the gas house. It was 52 feet long and 20 feet wide and divided into seperate bins for vegetables and fruit. Another root cellar was built to house tubers in 1895, it stood on a small hill. It was tore down in 1922, to make room for a small street. In 1935, an underground root cellar was completed east of the farmhouse , and South of Michigan Avenue. This was 40 feet wide and 100 feet long, housing almost 5,000 bushels of produce. A second underground root cellar was built in 1942. At the beginning of the County House's existence, the farmers were the keepers. In 1842 T.T. Lyon was offered the position as keeper and farmer, but claimed he would starve to death on the salary of $300 a year. An investigative committee was form during the Civil War period, to establish the need, and importance of the County House. The farm embraced 280 acres of land, of which 180 were good for cultivation. Another 60 acres were cleared , well-fenced, and useful for pasturage, and 40 acres in timber land. They reported it to be a good arrangement for farming with a house, and out buildings situated in the center, on the south side of the Rouge River. The River was reported to be a valuable supply of water to the stock and water to the house and washrooms. They also found, however, that the population of the paupers was not sufficent to run the entire farm, and that renting or leasing out work on shares of the land, would be adventageous. In short, the committee felt to take away any of the farm would injure the value of the surrounded community. In 1872, they purchased 157 acres adjacent to the land, which was owned by the Cady family, for use of the Asylum. There were at this time, two seperate keepers, one was the Keeper of the Asylum, and one was the Keeper of the County House. There was a competitive feeling between the two Institutions and the Keeper of the Asylum felt there would be a more leveling of administration if this farm was placed under their direction. In 1893, Dr. E.O. Bennett, took charge of the Asylum and the Cady Farmland was placed under his jurisdiciton. In 1897 a new wire fence was built around both farms and all fields, and a deep well was sunk as well as a windmill and large tank. The two farms remained seperate and distinct from one another for several years. It wasn't until 1908 when they discontinued this, and both became a single unit, and remained so until the function of farmkeeper was discontinued in 1955. Other additions and enlargements were made after the purchase of the Cady farmland. 2 henneries were constructed; a blacksmith shop was installed in 1915; and several piggeries were built. In 1889 a County piggery was built north of the County House barn , but had to be removed in 1913, to make room for a railroad trestle. In 1895 an Asylum piggery was built north of the Keepers residence, but was dismantled in 1917. Cement piggeries with also constructed in 1917, a half of a mile south of Michigan Avenue. 
When Did This Become the Wayne County Psychiatric Hospital ? There was no distinction between the rational and the insane inmates in the County House until March 22, 1841. It was this date, that the first of five patients were registered as insane, her name was Bridget Hughes, an Irish immigrant, she remained a patient here until her death on March 8, 1895 it is likely that she is buired among the indigent in Eloise Cemetery. During these first years there was at least one and possibly two building located northeast of building "C". They were constructed to house the psychiatrically distrubed. The County House was at this time, the home of the criminally insane who were sent from the Detroit House of Corrections. For several years, the County House was the only place for an asylum in the State of Michigan. The only division of patients in the County House, was by sex. Other than that, babies, old men, the blind, as well as the insane, were all housed together. Finally with the assitance of the Wayne County Board of Supervisors, insistant on legislation regarding the insane, in 1848, an act was passed creating a State Asylum. The first asylum was planned on ten acres of land, in Kalamazoo, Michigan, the County House never showed an interest in having a seperate psychiatric Asylum on the property. However, they did continue to care for the insane and house them as best they could. In 1859, the Michigan Asylum in Kalamazoo, was ready to receive a limited number of female patients, however, they indicated that only the "curable" patients would be housed here. Over the years the number of insane people housed at the County Poor Farm, increased, until it was so intolerable, that the Hospital Board, determined to make an effort to provide a seperate building for the insane patients, approved the establishment in 1867 of a seperate building. In 1868, a two-story brick building was erected which was 42 feet long, 35 feet deep, with 57 feet of frontage. It was located 290 feet west of the Main County House. East and West wings were added in 1876 and in 1881 the management of the Asylum was transferred to a professional physician. Dr. E.O. Bennett, and his wife were employed as Medical Superintendent and Matron. After serving 19 years Dr. Bennett retired, and was replaced by Dr. John J. Marker. Marker's first act, was to erect a second Asylum Building, it was the year 1900. In 1882, the population of the Asylum was 307 patients, 224 of them resident patients. In 1887, a special building was contructed which combined the insane wards, the adminstrative headquarters, and the chapel. In 1885, the State of Michigan, passed a law for the insane, which basically stated any insane person continuously housed by the county of two years or more, would became a State charged patients, thereafter. This law was amended in 1891, stating that any insane person committed by a judge could be commit directly to the Wayne County Asylym, however, none would be confined there, if there was room in the State Asylum, but the State Asylum, could return patients to the County, when their beds were full. There was a devasting fire in 1892 at the Eastern Michigan Asylum located in Ypsilanti, and a large number of patients were moved to Eloise. The following year was the purchase of the Cady farmland and a "Women's Building" was erected west of the first Asylum building. Over the years there were additions, undates, and more buildings added to the main Asylum area. By 1907, alcoholics and drug addicts were maintained in State and County Hospitals. The population in 1913 was 576, with an employment of 22 males and 44 female attendents. By 1923, the population had grown to 1,700 patients, and additional buildings were erected. The first in 1921, another in 1923 with a new dairy barn and enlargment of the power plant, one in 1925, one in 1928 and one in 1929. The last psychiatric patient to leave Eloise was in 1979. Inside of the Kay Beard Building, still standing on Eloise property is a small museum run by Frank Rembisz, the director of the Wayne County Office on Aging. 
Eloise Cemetery in the News
An article published in the Observer in October 1999, located also in the historical reference file at the Public Library of Westland at 6123 Central City Parkway Westland, MI 48185, tells of Eloise's "ghostly activities." L. Keas who chases ghosts .. for fun, moved to Westland from Chicago in 1998, and now resides in Canton, where she works as a website builder, and also runs, The Michigan Ghost Hunters Society, founded by Keas. (http://www.tmghs.com) Keas seeks out locations throughout all of Michigan, that are known to have interesting histories, like the old Wayne County Infirmary, Psychiatric and General Hospital Complex, also known as Eloise. The complex itself, now houses the Wayne County Office on Aging, as well as some social programs such as "Meals on Wheels." It is located on Michigan Avenue, just east of Merriman Road. Keas is said to believe that she captured ghosts hovering over an Observer photographer while taking photos for the article done at Eloise. Below are two photos that I took this September (2000) of the area known as Eloise Cemetery. At the time, the grass had just been cut and volunteers from, The Friends of Eloise(734-727-7377 Frank Rembisz), had come in, and started uncovering the markers located here. There are apparently 593 markers in the cemetery itself, marked only by number. The Friends of Eloise is working on complying death records, Eloise records, and death indexes to try and determine who might be matched with these 593 stones. 

Looking across the entire field where the Eloise Cemetery is located. You can not see that there are any markers here at all, unless you enter the field. There is no gate, and are no signs. 
Here is a picture showing 3 of the 593 numbered markers. The area had recently been cut and cleared, or locating any of the stones may have been near impossible 1900 Census of Wayne County House & Insane Asylum Elijah McCoy, resident of Eloise Inventor and Ex-slave. Return to Wayne County Cemetery List Return to Wayne County MALHN Main Page

James married Martha Madora SMITH on 24 Dec 1879 in Clear Creek, Houghton, Norfolk, Ontario, Canada, and was divorced. Martha (daughter of Ephraim Kellum SMITH and Mary STEWART) was born on 15 Feb 1861 in Bayham, Elgin, Ontario, Canada; died on 5 May 1928 in Superior, Washtenaw, Michigan. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events:

• Also Known As: Dorie
• Reference Number: *
• _MARNM: Sherman
• _UID: 1083749A7DD50E4F98202241BB3DF78CE6FB

Notes:

Martha M Sherman
Michigan Death Certificates, 1921-1952
Name: Martha M Sherman
Event Type: Death
Event Date: 05 May 1928
Event Place: Superior, Washtenaw, Michigan, United States
Gender: Female
Age: 67
Marital Status: Married
Birth Date: 15 Feb 1861
Birthplace: Ontario Canada
Father's Name: Ephram Smith
Mother's Name: Mary Stewart

Ontario, Canada Marriages, 1857-1922 ancestry.comabout James Milton Sherman
Name: James Milton Sherman
Birth Place: Houghton
Age: 23 residence: Houghton
Father Name: Joseph Sherman
Mother Name: Matilda Sherman
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1856
Spouse Name: Martha M Smith
Spouse's Age: 18 residence: Middleton
Spouse Birth Place: Bayham
Spouse Father Name: Ephraim Smith
Spouse Mother Name : Mary Smith
Marriage Date: 24 Dec 1879
Marriage Place: Clear Creek, Norfolk (Methodist)
Marriage County: Norfolk , District of Houghton

1910 United States Federal Census Martha M Sherman
Name: Martha M Sherman
Age in 1910: 49
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1861
Birthplace: Canada English
Relation to Head of House: Wife
Father's Birth Place: Canada English
Mother's Birth Place: Canada English
Spouse's name: James M
Home in 1910: Oscoda, Iosco, Michigan
Marital Status: Married 31 years 13 children, 8 living
Race: White
Gender: Female
Year of Immigration: 1902
Household Members: Name Age
James M Sherman 52
Martha M Sherman 49
Frank Sherman 21
Clarence Sherman 12
Matilda Sherman 11

Martha Sherman
United States Census, 1920
Name Martha Sherman
Event Type Census
Event Date 1920
Event Place Flint Ward 3, Genesee, Michigan, United States
Gender Female
Age 59
Marital Status Widowed
Race White
Race (Original) White
Can Read Yes
Can Write Yes
Relationship to Head of Household Mother-in-law
Birth Year (Estimated) 1861
Birthplace Canada
Father's Birthplace New York
Mother's Birthplace Canada
Sheet Letter A
Sheet Number 14
Household
Role
Gender
Age
Birthplace
Ernest Rathbun Head M 32 Michigan
Matilda Rathbun Wife F 20 Canada
Norman Rathbun Son M 1 Michigan
Martha Sherman Mother-in-law F 59 Canada
Thomas T Hackett Lodger M 34 Michigan
Citing this Record
"United States Census, 1920," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MZS1-MGR : 14 December 2015), Martha Sherman in household of Ernest Rathbun, Flint Ward 3, Genesee, Michigan, United States; citing sheet 14A, NARA microfilm publication T625 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 1,820,765.


Martha M Sherman
Michigan Death Certificates
Name Martha M Sherman
Event Type Death
Event Date 05 May 1928
Event Place Superior, Washtenaw, Michigan, United States
Gender Female
Age 67
Marital Status Married
Birth Date 15 Feb 1861
Birthplace Ontario Canada
Birth Year (Estimated) 1861
Father's Name Ephram Smith
Mother's Name Mary Stewart
Citing this Record
"Michigan Death Certificates, 1921-1952," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KF7K-5HY : 12 December 2014), Martha M Sherman, 05 May 1928; citing Superior, Washtenaw, Michigan, United States, Division for Vital Records and Health Statistics, Lansing; FHL microfilm 1,973,123.

Notes:

Ontario, Canada Marriages, 1857-1922 ancestry.comabout James Milton Sherman
Name: James Milton Sherman
Birth Place: Houghton
Age: 23 residence: Houghton
Father Name: Joseph Sherman
Mother Name: Matilda Sherman
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1856
Spouse Name: Martha M Smith
Spouse's Age: 18 residence: Middleton
Spouse Birth Place: Bayham
Spouse Father Name: Ephraim Smith
Spouse Mother Name : Mary Smith
Marriage Date: 24 Dec 1879
Marriage Place: Clear Creek, Norfolk (Methodist)
Marriage County: Norfolk , District of Houghton

Divorced
He filed for divorse on account of desertion Sep 25, 1912
Circut Courd, Alcona, Michigan

Other Events:

• FamilySearch Id: KFFK-QD8
• Reference Number: *
• _UID: ACE9B1E9CFA0B34FA10EA025755230444F94

Notes:

Things to do:
1. divorce papers, Oscoda, Cheboygan counties?
2. Isabella, Bay, Oscoda County newspapers. (gold rush news, marriages, divorces, deaths)
3. What was Loren's occupation? lumber?
4. Where were the gold strikes in 1888?
5. location of Michigan counties: Eaton, Bloomfield, Mecosta, Isabella, Iosco, Cheboygan.

Timeline for Alvanus/Alvannah Loren Sly:
1854 Loren born in Michigan
1860 Census, Loren, listed as Alvanus, lived with parents and siblings in Oneida, Eaton, Michigan
1863 Jan 11, Loren's father, William W Sly, age 56, died in Isabella county, Michigan
1864 Oct 4, Loren's mother, Elizabeth, married Sylvester Brown. The children were farmed out.
1870 Census, There is an Alvin Sly, age 17, living with John and Almira Sly in Bloomfield, Oakland, MI
1873 Loren's mother, Elizabeth, age 53, died in Michigan
1877 Loren married Elizabeth Close in Hinton, Mecosta, Michigan
1878 Nov 30, daughter, Clara or Carrie, born in Ausable, Mecosta, Michigan
1879 owned 40 acres of land in Hinton, Mecosta County, MI (T 13 N, R 8 W)
1880 Census. Loren A Sly, wife, Elizabeth, and daughter, Carey living in Fremont, Isabella, MI
1881 May 3, daughter, Addie May, born in Oscoda, Iosco, Michigan
1883 Jul 26, son, Ernest Wayne born in Mackinaw City, Cheboygan, Michigan
1888 near this time Loren left for the gold fields and disappeared. ???


Alvana Loren Sly and Elizabeth Close were married 23 September 1877 in Hinton, Mecosta, Michigan. According to his cousin, Alonzo Daniel Sly, Loren borrowed the suit of his brother, Lester, to be married in. In1880 Loren and Elizibeth lived in Fremont, Isabella County, Michigan with their 1st child, Carey. Elizabeth's parents lived nearby. They had 2 more children, Addie Mae and Earnest, and times were hard. Loren (as he was listed in the 1880 census) decided to go to the gold fields. Just where he went is unknown. It is said that he sent a couple of letters home and then was not heard from again. According to Olive Sly Huff, the daughter of Ernest Sly, who was Loren's son, "Ernest said he was 5 years old ( about 1888) when his father left for the west." After her husband left, Elizabeth took in roomers to make ends meet. Richard Smith was one of her roomers. Richard and Elizabeth married and moved to Montana to homestead, ten miles east of Eureka. Elizabeth (Libby) and Richard Smith raised her grand daughter, Bertha Sherman. According to a cousin, "Old Dick wasn't too gifted in work. It was always Aunt Lib that did the work. She even worked out at cooking. It's still a wonder to me how people got by in those days."
Alvanus or Loren A. Sly was born about 1854 in Michigan, the 3rd child of 6, of William and Elizabeth Sly. His father died when he was about 9 years old. His mother remarried, but most of the children were farmed out. Bertha Sherman said that her grandmother, Elizabeth Sly described Loren as a red-haired man who walked with a limp. When Bertha was just a little girl she ran into the house and said "Grandma, there is a red-haired man who walks with a limp coming up the road!" When they went to look, the man was gone. They wondered if it could have been Loren Sly. Loren's brother, Lester, lived and died in Billings Montana in 1933. The place and time of death of Loren are unknown.
Elizabeth Close was born in Adams County Indiana on the 25 December 1858. She was the second child of 6 born to James and Nancy Close. Her father had been married before and Elizabeth had a half brother, George. She grew up in Indiana, later moving to and marrying in Michigan. After her first husband left and she remarried and moved to Michigan, Libby raised vegetables and strawberries to sell to the neighbors. She also sold cottage cheese, eggs, milk, chicken, cookies, etc. She was well liked by everyone. Elizabeth (Close) Sly Smith was diagnosed with breast cancer at the Mayo Clinic and Bertha often administered Morphine to her grandma to make the pain bearable. Elizabeth died from the cancer in July 1919 at the age of 60.

Alaska Gold Rush 1880-1914 (Valdez 1898)

!SOURCE: Sealed to spouse, 10 Dec 1985 SL, Marriage sealing batch # M518622, sheet #1003, film# 1004849

1860 United States Federal Census Record about Alvanus Sly
Name: Alvanus Sly
Age in 1860: 7
Birth Year: abt 1853
Birthplace: Michigan
Home in 1860: Oneida, Eaton, Michigan
Gender: Male
Post Office: Grand Ledge
Household Members: Name Age
William Sly 52
Elizabeth Sly 33
Wm W Sly 12
Lester 8
Alvanus 7
Daniel Sly 6
George Sly 3


1870 United States Federal Census (There is a George, age 45, and Jane Sly on this page 2 families up)
Name: Aline Sly ( this definitely is written Alvin perhaps our Alvanus Loren?)
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1853
Age in 1870: 17
Birthplace: Michigan
Home in 1870: Bloomfield, Oakland, Michigan
Race: White
Gender: Male
Post Office: Franklin
Household Members: Name Age (All born in Michigan
John Sly 47 born abt 1823 Michigan
Almiea Sly 40 (looks like Almira)
Aline Sly 17 (looks like Alvine) farmer
Charles Sly 5
William Watkins 20 farmer

U.S., Indexed County Land Ownership Maps, 1860-1918 about Loren Sly
Owner's Name: Loren Sly
State: Michigan
County: Mecosta
Town: Hinton
Year: 1879

This is a census of John and Almira who Alvine was living with in 1870
1880 United States Federal Census about John B. Sly
Name: John B. Sly
Age: 57
Birth Year: abt 1823
Birthplace: New York
Home in 1880: Bloomfield, Oakland, Michigan
Race: White
Gender: Male
Relation to Head of House: Self (Head)
Marital Status: Married
Spouse's Name: Almira D. Sly
Father's Birthplace: New York
Mother's Birthplace: Pennsylvania
Neighbors: View others on page
Occupation: Farmer
Household Members:
Name Age
John B. Sly 57
Almira D. Sly 47
Charles B. Sly 14


1880 United States Federal Census Record Loren A. Sly
Name: Loren A. Sly
Age: 26
Estimated birth year: abt 1854
Birthplace: Michigan
Occupation: Farmer (Noted that he was employed 2 months during census year)
Relationship to head-of-household: Self
Home in 1880: Fremont, Isabella, Michigan
Marital status: Married
Race: White
Gender: Male
Spouse's name: Elizabeth Sly age 21, daughter Carey age 1
Father's birthplace: NY
Mother's birthplace: MI


Lawrence Sly
mentioned in the record of Earnest W. Sly and Blanch R. Holbrook
Name: Lawrence Sly
Gender: Male
Wife: Elizabeth Close
Child: Earnest W. Sly
Other information in the record of Earnest W. Sly and Blanch R. Holbrook
from Montana, County Marriages
Name: Earnest W. Sly
Event Type: Marriage
Event Date: 30 Jun 1907
Event Place: Kalispell, , Montana
Age: 24
Marital Status: Single
Race: White
Birthplace: Mack City, Mich.
Birth Year (Estimated): 1883
Father's Name: Lawrence Sly
Mother's Name: Elizabeth Close
Additional Relatives: X
Spouse's Name: Blanch R. Holbrook
Spouse's Age: 21
Spouse's Marital Status: Single
Spouse's Race: White
Spouse's Birthplace: Pine Valley, Oregon
Spouse's Birth Year (Estimated): 1886
Spouse's Father's Name: Henry W. Holbrook
Spouse's Mother's Name: Mahala E. Neil
Reference ID: V3p513 , GS Film number: 1902479 , Digital Folder Number: 4350527 , Image Number: 287
"Montana, County Marriages, 1865-1950," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/F33W-J42 : accessed 21 Oct 2014), Lawrence Sly in entry for Earnest W. Sly and Blanch R. Holbrook, 30 Jun 1907; citing V3p513, Kalispell, , Montana; FHL microfilm 1902479.

Bertha Sherman said that her grandmother, Elizabeth Sly said that Loren was red-haired and walked with a limp. According to a letter from Olive Sly Huff, the daughter of Earnest Sly, who was Lorian's son; Earnest said he was 5 years old ( about 1888) when his father left for the west. Elizabeth and Lorian Sly were living in Michigan, Bay County, Pinnconning Village. When money became scarce, Lorian left for the gold fields. There were two or three letters received from him. Then no more word. Elizabeth took in roomers to make ends meet. Richard Smith was one of her roomers. Richard and Elizabeth married, after 1894, and moved to Montana to homestead, ten miles east of Eureka. Addie Mae Sly and Milton Sherman married and went with them. Libby and Dick Smith raised Bertha Sherman, daughter of Addie Mae and Milton Sherman. When Bertha was just a little girl she ran into the house and said "Grandma, there is a red-haired man who walks with a limp coming up the road!" When they went to look, the man was gone. They wondered if it could have been Lorian Sly. Lorian's brother, Lester, lived and died in Billings Montana in 1933. ( Bertha was born in 1903.)

findagrave.com
Loren Alvanus Sly..
Birth: 1853
Grand Ledge
Eaton County
Michigan, USA
Death: unknown
Yellowstone County
Montana, USA
Loren married Elizabeth Close on Sept 23, 1873 in Michigan.
Loren, apparently, left his family in 1888. He was going to look for gold in Montana. He sent a few letters and then was not heard from again.
Death: aft 1898.
Family links:
Parents:
William Wesley Sly (1807 - 1863)
Elizabeth Morris Sly (1827 - 1879)
Spouse:
Elizabeth Libby Close Sly (1858 - 1919)*
Siblings:
William Wesley Sly (1848 - 1922)*
Hattie Sly (1849 - 1859)*
Lester Daniel Schley (1850 - 1935)*
Loren Alvanus Sly (1853 - ____)
Daniel Sly (1856 - 1942)*
George Albert Sly (1858 - 1942)*

*Calculated relationship
Burial: Body lost or destroyed

Created by: RMW
Record added: Jun 01, 2012
Find A Grave Memorial# 91113176

Alvannah married Elizabeth Close on 23 Sep 1877 in Hinton, Mecosta, Michigan, United States. Elizabeth (daughter of James CLOSE and Nancy Ann DOUGHERTY) was born on 25 Dec 1858 in , Adams, Indiana, United States; died on 8 Jul 1919 in Eureka, Lincoln, Montana, United States; was buried on 9 Jul 1919 in Tobacco Plains Cemetery, Eureka, Lincoln, Montana, United States. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events:

• Reference Number: *
• _MARNM: Sly, Smith
• _UID: 9108D5F346F2C24DB55FBF8C540299564CD1

Notes:

Things to do:
1. send for homestead application and or land records.
2. Stump farms?
3. Subsistance farms?
4. R R in Lincoln county?
5. History of Lincoln county (Historical society?)
6. local mail delivery?
7. Bay County newspapers? property sales, etc.
8. 1860's Gold rush in Montana - became a state in 1864.
9. 1880's railroad crossed Montana
10. Divorce Papers?
11. Land records for May Sherman in Eureka
12. Land records for Elizabeth Smith

Timeline:
1858 15 Dec Elizabeth born Adams Co. Indiana to James and Nancy Daugherty Close
1860 US Census Madison, Allen, Indiana age 1 with parents and sister, Eliza age 2 and half brother George age 11
1862 Decatur, Adams, Indiana
1865-1869 Siblings born Indiana
1870 US Census Root twp, Adams, Indiana with parents, James & Nancy Close
1877 Elisabeth married Loren Sly Hinton, Mecosta, MI
1878 Sister Diantha married Sylvester, Allen, MI
1880 US Census Eliz & Loren Sly Freemont, Isabella, MI, with child Carrie age 1
1894 MI State Census Elizabeth Sly Marr with 3 children, Pinconning Village, Bay, MI
1900 Eliz Sly & Richard Smith marr Rockford, Winnebago, Wis
1910 Census Eliz & Richard Smith Lincoln Co, Montana
1919 8 Jul Libby died of breast cancer in Eureka, Lincoln Co., Montana (death cert gives cause of death as Uterine Carcinoma)

1900 Census, Michigan - searched all of Bay County, Pinconning twp and found no Smith, Libby or Richard nor did I find any Slys

After her husband, Lorian Sly, left for the gold fields (about 1888) during a recession, Elizabeth Sly took in roomers to make ends meet. After a few letters from Lorian, she never heard from him again. Elizabeth (Close) Sly eventually married Richard Smith, one of the roomers, (between 1894 and 1901) and moved to Montana near Eureka to homestead. Elizabeth (Libby) and Richard Smith raised her grand daughter, Bertha Sherman. Libby raised vegetables and strawberries to sell to the neighbors. She also sold cottage cheese, eggs, milk, chicken, cookies, etc. She was well liked by everyone. Richard Smith was a bricklayer, then a ditch tender of the irrigation ditch (circa 1916). It is said that little by little he lost most of his land through lawsuits he initiated. The homestead burned and he lived in the little cabin on the property. It is said that he was onery, but Bertha remembers him as kind to her. The land was eventually bought by Fred and Maye Alverson. She was a cousin to Bertha Sherman. Richard Smith died in Eureka, Montana. The following was taken from a letter dated 19 February, 1970, to Marilyn Parker from Maye Alverson, (daughter of Jennie Close Butler who was a sister to Elizabeth Close Sly Smith.) " Dick Smith's place was built on a piece of land that was not his and when he went to prove up, found it out. So he bought 3 acres from a Henry Wedymeyer. When Dick got too bad, he moved to town with one of their old neighbors and I think some one took what they wanted out of the house and touched a match to it, as it was burned. So nothing was left." "When Dick was buried, I was surprised as he was a real good looking man. He always wore a mustach and the undertaker shaved it off. The reason he wore a mustach, he had a big birth mark on his upper lip. And he was so clean." " Old Dick wasn't too gifted in work. It was always Aunt Lib that did the work. Even worked out at cooking. It's still a wonder to me how things and people got by in those days. (Lib for Elizabeth). At one point Elizabeth lived in a boxcar while picking huckleberries and cranberries in a cranberry bog.
Elizabeth (Close) Sly Smith was diagnosed with cancer at the Mayo Clinic and Bertha often administered Morphine to her grandma to make the pain bearable. Elizabeth died in July 1919.

"The Story of the Tobacco Plains Country,
the Autobiography of a Community"
Page 164 is in a chapter on "Fortine Area Homesteads." It says, "Among many other Michiganders who homesteaded in this vicinity were Dick Smith and his wife, and Mrs. Smith's son and daughter, Ernest and May Sly. For years Dick Smith was the community "radical"--always fighting the capitalist lumber companies and writing accusing letters to his Congressmen: "Just sore at everybody in the world," as Harry Weydemeyer puts it. Mrs. Smith died and her son and daughter went west, but Dick stayed on, living alone at his homestead, and died there at a ripe old age, still kicking."

Boom and Bust: Montana's Homestead Era By Gary Glynn
Although the homestead era in Montana lasted for more than 70 years, the vast majority of those who homesteaded in the state did so during a ten-year period beginning in 1908. The original Homestead Act was signed by Abraham Lincoln on May 20, 1862. The new law stipulated that any head of household over 21 years old could stake out a 160 acre farm on government land with only a $10 filing fee. If the farmer lived on the homestead for five years and improved the property, he or she would receive title to it. Several different variations on the Homestead Act were passed over the years, and depending on which one a farmer filed under, he could receive 160, 320, or as much as 640 acres.
Despite giving away land for free, the Homestead Act proved to be a failure in the arid West, where even 640 acres was simply not enough land to enable a farmer to succeed. It was an invitation to disaster.
Nevertheless, to many the promise of free land was irresistible. By 1900, half a million families had moved West to homestead. It wasn't until the early 1900s that large numbers of would-be farmers began arriving in Montana, lured by a slick advertising campaign paid for by railroad magnate James J. Hill, the man who controlled the Great Northern, the Burlington and Northern Pacific railroads. Hill knew that customers for his railroads were hard to find in sparsely populated Montana, and he realized that with the help of the Homestead Act, he could convert the empty plains of Montana into a potential gold mine for his railroad empire. All he had to do was convince farmers that the dry plains of Montana were rich farmland.
By 1908 his campaign to bring thousands of small farmers into Montana was in full swing. Hill had thousands of brochures distributed throughout the United States and Western Europe extolling the virtues of the Great Plains as a farmer's paradise. Hill also promoted the "Campbell System" of dry-land agriculture, devised by South Dakota farmer Hardy Webster Campbell. Campbell stated that with deep plowing and scientific agricultural methods, the plains of Montana could produce tremendous yields of grain. Hill also hired another agricultural expert Professor Thomas Shaw, who described eastern Montana as a farmer's paradise. By 1910, Shaw was operating 45 experimental farms in Montana, and the favorable results of his experiments were widely publicized.
Along with promoting the promise of free land in an agricultural paradise, Hill announced cut-rate fares on his railroad to entice farmers to move to the state. His promises of free land, cheap transportation, and rich soil appealed to many people, and Montana's Homestead Boom was on.
Most of the newcomers were Americans, but thousands were Germans and Scandinavians drawn by Hill's European advertising campaign. The cowboys and miners of the state, who had flooded into Montana during earlier booms, watched the trainloads of newcomers arriving, and derisively nicknamed them "honyockers."
By 1908 the boom was in full swing, and every westbound train brought new homesteaders. They erected tar paper shacks and hitched up their plows, eager to make their fortune in the golden fields of wheat. The Great Falls land office averaged 1000 to 1500 homestead filings a month in 1910, and agriculture surpassed mining as the state's number one industry for the first time. At least 40,000 homesteaders filed claims in the state during the first twenty years of this century, and new farming communities began springing up all over the eastern plains.
For several years it appeared as if the small farmers would succeed and prosper. A period of unusually high rainfall blessed the new farmers, and the freshly plowed prairies produced record crops of wheat. When James J. Hill passed away in 1916, it looked as if his plan to populate the empty plain of eastern Montana with homesteaders had paid off.
The one thing that James J. Hill and his agricultural experts had not counted on was drought, and periodic droughts are a fact of life on the Great Plains. The spring rains failed to appear in 1917, and by the summer of 1918 the drought was widespread. Suddenly, thousands of Montana's homesteaders were in serious trouble. Their crops burned up in the fields, and the nonstop winds blew the carefully plowed and powdered topsoil away. Finally, hordes of grasshoppers arrived to complete the devastation. Many farmers found themselves unable to pay their bills, and by the summer of 1919 thousands had been forced from their farms. The same railroads which had brought the homesteaders into Montana now carried them away. The banks and seed merchants and implement dealers, all of whom had fueled the homestead boom with easy credit, declared bankruptcy in record numbers. Although the Homestead Act remained in effect until 1935, the homestead boom had ended in Montana by 1918.
The steamboat trade, with its expense and limitations, dropped off sharply in the mid- 1880s, as the first railroads reached Montana and opened up to passenger service. "Emigrant cars," specially designed for the prospective settler, afforded dismal and cramped accommodations to those with enough money to pay for the cost of trip. Passengers in emigrant cars were often forced to spend their journeys sitting upright on uncushioned, backless benches. On many trains, the management offered thin straw mattresses (at a cost of $3.00 each), which could be laid on the floor beneath the benches. One settler remembered, "My mother had a real hard time getting any sleep on the train. Anytime she laid down under the benches, her feet stuck out into the aisle, and the conductor would come along and kick her." Privacy in the cars was minimal, with no dividing partitions and a common toilet and cookstove for as many as 30 emigrants. Wealthier settlers could rent out entire boxcars, in which to transport not only their family members, but also their household goods, farming equipment, and up to six heads of cattle.

Bay County, Michigan land records? The date is before Libby and Richard Smith's marriage?
Smith Libby J Sec 32 T 15N R 4E 80 acres Land office 04 (East Saginaw) Document #639 signing date 1874/04/10

1860 United States Federal Census Record about James Close
Name: James Close
Age in 1860: 33
Birth Year: abt 1827
Birthplace: Ohio
Home in 1860: Madison, Allen, Indiana
Gender: Male
Post Office: Fort Wayne
Value of real estate: $300 farmer
Household Members: Name Age
James Close 33
Nancey Close 23
George Close 11
Eliza Close 2
Elizabeth Close 1
1880 United States Federal Census Elizabeth Sly
Name: Elizabeth Sly
Home in 1880: Fremont, Isabella, Michigan
Age: 21
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1859
BirthPlace: Indiana
Relation to head-of-household: Wife
Spouses's Name: Loren A.
Father's birthplace: OH
Mother's birthplace: OH
Occupation: Keeping House
Marital status: Married
Race: White
Gender: Female
Household Members: Name Age
Loren A. Sly 26
Elizabeth Sly 21
Carey A. Sly 1
Laura Bronk 10 nurse

The 1894 statecensus, Michigan, Bay Co. Pinconning Village, dated June 8, 1894 (film #915292) page 206 family 822:
Smith,Richard, age 30 M Board, single, carpenter bp Indiana, father bp Canada, mother bp Indiana
15 years in state.
Sly, Elizabeth. age 35 F wife marr, 3 children, 3 living, bp Indiana, fath bp Canada, mo bp Indiana
15 years in state
Sly, Carrie age 15 F daug single, bp Michigan, father bp Indiana, mother bp Indiana
Sly, Addie M age 12 F daug single, bp Michigan, father bp Indiana, mother bp Indiana
Sly, Earnest age 10 M son single, bp Michigan father bp Indiana, mother bp Indiana

1910 United States Federal Census
Name: Elizabeth Smith
Age in 1910: 51
Birth Year: abt 1859
Birthplace: Indiana
Home in 1910: School District 10, Lincoln, Montana
Race: White
Gender: Female
Relation to Head of House: Wife
Marital Status: Married
Spouse's Name: Richard Smith
Father's Birthplace: Ohio
Mother's Birthplace: Ohio
Neighbors:
Household Members: Name Age
Richard Smith 49
Elizabeth Smith 51
Bertha I Sherman 7


Marr: film # 1004849, Book A, page 53 "Marriages, Mich, Mecosta County" #787

Montana Death Index, 1860-2007
Name: Elizabeth Smith
Age: 61
Estimated birth year: abt 1858
Gender: Female
Death Date: 8 Jul 1919
Index Number: Lin 34

findagrave.com
Elizabeth Smith
Birth: 1858
Death: Jul. 8, 1919
Burial:
Tobacco Valley Cemetery
Eureka
Lincoln County
Montana, USA
Created by: Jim Lee
Record added: Nov 19, 2009
Find A Grave Memorial# 44563149
Elizabeth Libby Close Sly
Birth: Dec. 25, 1858
Adams County
Indiana, USA
Death: Jul. 8, 1919
Eureka
Lincoln County
Montana, USA
Elizabeth married Loren Sly on Sept 23, 1873 in Michigan.
Loren disappeared sometime in between 1888 to 1898.
Elizabeth married Richard Smith on July 14, 1900 in Illinois.
Parents:
James Close (abt 1827 - Unk)
Nancy Ann Daughterty-Close
(abt 1836 - Dec 8, 1910)
Family links:
Spouse:
Loren Alvanus Sly (1853
Burial:
Tobacco Valley Cemetery
Eureka
Lincoln County
Montana, USA
Created by: RMW
Record added: Jun 01, 2012
Find A Grave Memorial# 91113262