My dad, Warren Westcott Grant, was born 97 years ago today

It's hard to believe how fast time passes. If my dad was still alive, he would have turned 97 years old today! He was born 11 January 1922 at St Mary's Hospital in Passaic, New Jersey, and grew up in nearby Clifton, New Jersey. He died on 22 January 2005, just 11 days after he turned age 83.

Warren Westcott Grant abt 1940

Miss you Dad!

GRANT surname distribution

Randy Seaver over at the blog Genea-Musings has an on-going series, Saturday Night Genealogy Fun. I decided to try out tonight's exercise, which is to map out where families with the Grant surname resided In the USA in a few selected census years - 1840, 1880 and 1920. The Surname Distribution Map is located at the link here on Ancestry.com. Besides the maps, the page also presents some facts about families with the chosen surname.

For my GRANT surname, I learned that -

Grant Name Meaning

English and (especially) Scottish (of Norman origin), and French: nickname from Anglo-Norman French graund, graunt ‘tall’, ‘large’ (Old French grand, grant, from Latin grandis), given either to a person of remarkable size, or else in a relative way to distinguish two bearers of the same personal name, often representatives of different generations within the same family.English and Scottish: from a medieval personal name, probably a survival into Middle English of the Old English byname Granta (see Grantham).Probably a respelling of German Grandt or Grand.

Source: Dictionary of American Family Names ©2013, Oxford University Press

The Grant surname distribution map for 1840 -

Grant surname distribution in 1840

In 1840, New York and Maine had the highest number of Grant families. My direct descendants were living on both sides of the Rhode Island/Massachusetts border in Bristol County, RI and Bristol County, MA. Some families had moved in the proceeding 20 years to early mill towns in Rhode Island.

The GRANT surname distribution map for 1880 -

Grant surname distribution in 1880

New York and Maine are joined by Massachusetts, and the two southern states of Georgia and South Carolina as having the largest numbers of Grant families in 1880.

The GRANT surname distribution map for 1920 -

Grant surname distribution in 1920

New York, Massachusetts, Georgia and South Carolina have the most Grant families in 1920. Maine has dropped down to the next category size. Notice that the "number of Grant families" color divisions do not stay constant for all three map time periods. There is a large increase in total Grant families in 1880, and a decrease in number in 1920. Randy noticed the same thing in his post for the Seaver surname distribution, and this is counter-intuitive to me. I would think, in general, that the total number of families in a not uncommon surname would increase with time. It is possible, however that both the Seaver and Grant surnames buck that trend. Perhaps the Ancestry.com counter does not work the same for both census years??

There are a few other facts about the Grant surname from the same link on Ancestry -

Family origin of the Grant surname in the US -

• England (985)
• Scotland (824)
• Ireland (750)
• Great Britain (275)
• Germany (60)
• Canada (32)

from the New York Passengers List

Ancestry computes the number of Grant families who immigrated to the United States thru New York for the period, 1851 - 1891. These Grant families came after my direct ancestors who were living in Massachusetts and Rhode Island by the mid-17th century.

 Grant immigration information, 1851- 1891

In general, the following chart shows that Grants tended to live as long as the general public for the years tracked by the Social Security Death Index (SSDI), 1940 - 2000. It is interesting how life expectancy slowly increased in the post-war period,  increased steeply after 1960, and leveled off for the next 40 years. Ancestry says "An unusually short lifespan might indicate that your ancestors lived in harsh conditions. A short lifespan might also indicate health problems that were once prevalent in your family." I think there are too many Grant families to detect any meaning from this chart.

Average Life expectancy for persons with the Grant surname

Family Occupations from the 1880 US census data-

Families with the Grant surname are over-represented with respect to the general public in farming occupations in 1880. This is probably due to the many people of the Grant surname in the mostly rural southern states of Georgia and South Carolina, as well as the mostly rural state of Maine. By 1880, most of my Grant ancestors had moved from farming and were working as spinners in the Rhode Island mill towns.

Ancestry.com has a large index for Civil War soldiers. From its Civil War Service Records index, there were 2845 men with the Grant surname in the Civil War. Twice as many served in the Union Army as the Confederate Army - the numbers were 1881 for the Union and 964 for the Confederates. All of my known Grant ancestor Civil War soldiers were in the Union Army. This is not surprising since they all came from Rhode Island and Massachusetts!

And lastly, Ancestry maintains the message boards on Rootsweb. There are 34 messages on 2347 threads. Some might have been posted by me way back when I first started looking into my family history about the year 2000. Now social media is used much more for querying about ancestors.

All in all, this was an interesting project. I think I need to do it also soon for my maternal  line of Veith. I suspect there will be far fewer individuals with that surname, and possibly more useful information can be gleamed.

Thanks Randy for a fun project!.

My Dad - August 1990

In honor of my dad, Warren Westcott Grant, 1922 - 2005, on Father's Day.

Warren W Grant at "Tall Pines"

Miss you, Dad!

What does a mule spinner do?

Many people are familiar with how the New England mill towns got their start due to the Industrial Revolution. The early mills were built where there was water power from rivers and diverted channels  - later mills were powered by steam. The first mill in New England was built in 1793 in Pawtucket, Rhode Island by Samuel Slater, who had learned the mechanized spinning process in England. Mills were quickly added along rivers in much of New England - particularly in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, southern New Hampshire and Maine - and mechanization of yarn manufacture was quickly followed by the production of whole cloth in the mills. Early on in Rhode Island, mill owners built whole villages around the mill and housed entire families who worked together in the mills. In contrast, the mills first formed in Waltham, MA and later in Lowell, MA and along the Merrimack River relied on young women recruited from New England farms as their labor source.

Slater Mill Complex, Pawtucket, Rhode Island

By the 1920s, the heyday of the New England mills was over and textile production went into a decline as textile manufacturing moved out of the region. However, the mechanized production of yarn and cloth had radically changed New England - prior to the textile mills, yarn was spun on individual spinning wheels and cloth was made on small looms, usually within family units. The invention of  mechanized spinning and weaving created an entire new industry which radically transformed a rural mostly farm-based economy into centers of manufacturing and trade.

In my family tree, there are many of my ancestors who moved from farms in both Bristol County RI and Bristol County MA to the early mill towns surrounding the Blackstone River in Rhode Island in the early 1800s. Succeeding generations worked in the mills and related industries until the mill closures in the early 20th century. Their job titles are often machinist or operative, and sometimes 'mule spinner'. A few were even listed as 'overseer' which generally meant they had managerial or supervisory roles in the mills.

The subject of my last blog post, was Ira W Grant. His father, Sylvester Grant, Jr was employed in the mills in Fall River by 1844 when Ira was born and in Smithfield RI where he was enumerated in  the 1850 Federal census. In both documents, Sylvester's occupation was listed as 'mule-spinner'. So what was a mule-spinner?

Mule spinner creating cotton thread. Museum of Work and Culture. Woonsocket, Rhode Island.
 Photograph by George P. Landow, October 2004. 
http://www.victorianweb.org/victorian/technology/textiles/t2.html

Specifically, mule spinners operate the spinning machinery that create yarn of any kind - in early Rhode Island mills, it was cotton thread. Mule spinners worked a dangerous job and injuries were common, particularly among the young boys who worked in tandem with the adult men. The machinery was heavy and the mules (spinning machinery) moved quickly back and forth on tracks. Repairs to broken threads, and spool changes, were done on moving machinery. Another hazard was a particular type of cancer caused by the lubricating oil used by mule spinners in cotton yarn production.

For an interesting interview of the life of a mule spinner in an 1883 Fall River, MA textile factory see the account at History Matters. It references the testimony of mill-worker Thomas O'Donnell and was originally published in:
 U.S. Congress, Senate Committee on Education and Labor, Report on the Relations Between Labor and Capital, Vol. 3 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1885), 451–457.

Ira Whitaker Grant, 1842 - 1864

For Memorial Day, this post is honoring one of my ancestors who died in battle during the Civil War.Although I have many ancestors who fought in all of this country's wars, I only know of two who died while in service. I wrote about Clifford E. Stalls, who died during World War II here. Clifford was known as "Buddy" and he was my mother's cousin or my first cousin, once removed. In this post, I honor the memory of another first cousin, three times (3 generations) removed, Ira Whitaker Grant, who died during the Civil War.

Ira was the son of Sylvester Grant, Jr and his wife Susan L Boomer. He was born 28 January 1844 possibly in Fall River, Massachusetts. His family moved soon after to Valley Falls, Rhode Island, where his father was a shoe-maker. Ira had nine known brothers and sisters - he was the fifth child as well as fifth son, and had six brothers and three sisters who lived to adulthood. In the 1860 census for Valley Falls, Ira's occupation is that of jeweler, and he is living with his parents, his next older brother George, and five younger siblings.

Ira enlisted for service in Company E, 7th Infantry Regiment of the Rhode Island Volunteers on 11 August 1862 when he was 18 years old. He mustered into service on 6 September, on the same day his older brothers, Samuel and George mustered into service in the same company. Ira died during the battle at Cold Harbor, Virginia on 3 June 1864 - his two brothers had been previously discharged on surgeon's certificates - George in December 1862 and Samuel in March 1863. George died a month after he was discharged, of consumption, and is buried in the Grant family plot at Moshassuck Cemetery in Central Falls, Rhode Island. Samuel died in 1915 at age 82 of pneumonia and also is buried in Moshassuck Cemetery in a different plot with no headstone.


From "The Seventh Regiment of RI Volunteers in the Civil War, 1862-1865" by William P. Hopkins, Snow & Farmham Printers, Providence, RI, 1903: p 386-387, copy found in Google Books:

IRA W. GRANT 

 Ira Whitaker Grant, fifth child of Sylvester and Susan Boomer Grant, was born at Valley Falls, Cumberland, April 12, 1842. [ I think this might be the birth-date of brother George, not Ira, and birth location of his younger siblings]. There were three daughters and ten sons in the family of whom only three sons are now living (November, 1902). Ira received a common school education and was employed as a clerk at the time of his enlistment. Two brothers, George S. and Samuel, accompanied him to the field. He was mortally wounded at Cold Harbor, June 3, 1864. Joseph Taylor was ordered to assist him to the rear and see him well started toward a field hospital. Now Grant was a small man so his comrade could readily handle him. They had reached the border of the swamp to the rear of the line of battle when he became exhausted from loss of blood. Taylor laid him down and he fainted. Just then a rebel shell knocked a large limb from an overhanging tree which fell and covered them both. Taylor finally succeeded in throwing off the limb, but Grant still remained in his faint. The former had never seen a person in that condition and had not the slightest idea what should be done. None were near to call. Shells and bullets filled the atmosphere above them. He feared his comrade was dead and that he would be obliged to leave him. Just then he noticed Grant's head was settling in the swampy water to his face and lips, and began to move. He then seized him by the shoulders and dragged him through the swamp where in places both sank knee deep in the soft mud. Beyond they found some men with stretchers, on one of which the wounded soldier was placed and hastily borne to the field hospital. A surgeon examined him and found that while one bullet had gone through his left thigh, another had entered his breast just below his heart. The former was supposed to be his only injury until the search revealed the other. He lived but half an hour longer.

According to family papers, Ira had a headstone on the family plot at Moshassuck Cemetery but it is no longer there. In the same family papers, he is listed as "left on battlefield". I called Richmond National Battlefield Park headquarters around 10 years ago and was told by the Park historian that many bodies were lost in temporary graves before they were repatriated back to home cemeteries. There is no record for Ira's body - presumably his is one of those that was never found, or if found was never identified.

The battle at Cold Harbor was a major defeat and disaster for the Union Army. Under the direction of General Grant (no relationship) the Union Army tried a frontal assault on the Confederate Army in the hopes of breaking thru the rebel lines and taking the Confederate capitol at Richmond. Instead, the Union Army lost around 7000 men in less than an hour to the well-entrenched rebel soldiers. It is not clear exactly how the Union Command miscalculated the battle so badly, except that it appears there was conflict between Generals Grant and Meade. And it was the common soldiers, including Ira Grant, who paid the price.

"Grant at City Point  [i.e. Cold Harbor], Va., June 1864

Library of Congress image 

Howard M Grant, Moshassuck Cemetery, and the Saylesville Labor Riot

I wrote about my great-uncle Howard Mellor Grant and his service during World War I in this post a few months ago. Since then, I have come across a few more photos of Howard, and an interesting account written by my great-uncle George H. Wood. George was married to Howard's twin sister, Marion Mellor Grant. In Uncle George's account of Howard's service and burial in Moshassuck Cemetery, he writes:

"Lot is in front row - turn right as you enter the cemetery and it has a large stone with a marble statue of Christ, with arms extended and mounted on the same base as the stone. His grave was marked with the usual granite marker on a base, as used then for veterans. The stone was broken off from the base during a strikers riot at Sayles Bleachery. Several fingers and the head of the statue was broken off at the same time. The statue was repaired by the Taylor Monument Works just across the street from the cemetery and the stone was laid against its base and partly buried. In the years since, the stone has almost completely sunken into the ground."

In his notes (written in 1980), Uncle George talked about his plans to order a new stone marker for his brother-in-law and to see if he could get a new bronze VFW flag holder to denote a veteran's gravestone. I do not know why this work was never completed - Howard's stone is still partially buried. Another veteran gravestone in the same family plot, that of George S Grant who served in the Union Army in the Civil War and died 16 January 1963 from consumption after being discharged, does not appear to have been damaged in the riot, but is almost totally unreadable today. In the photo below, Howard's stone is on the right, and George's Civil War Veteran's stone is just behind and to the right of the statue.

Grant Family Plot
Moshassuck Cemetery, Central Falls, RI
Clematis Avenue, Section A, Lots No. 123 & 124

When I last visited the cemetery, I enquired about getting Howard's gravestone reset. I also placed flags on both graves, indicating their service in two of our country's wars.

Howard M. Grant Gravestone
Moshassuck Cemetery

When I drove through Moshassuck Cemetery last summer, I noticed a monument commemorating the riots of 1934. It is located not too far from the Grant plot, on the same side of the road. I had not previously known of the 1934 Labor Riots or the history of damage both to Howard's gravestone and the family monument statue. From an account of the riots by the Rhode Island Labor History Society :

"On Labor Day, 1934, a national textile strike began in Rhode Island and spread to southern cloth mills in an attempt to raise wages and improve working conditions during the Great Depression.

The event turned ugly when local management ask for protection at the non-union Sayles Finishing Company. National Guardsmen, with fixed bayonets, confronted hundreds of unarmed strikers and chased them into the Moshassuck Cemetery. Ironically, union picketers too cover behind headstones in the graveyard. The bullet holes remain dozens of stones to this day. Strife there lasted almost three weeks resulting in the injury and wounding of hundreds of protesters and the deaths of several others. The strike would erupt in violence in Woonsocket as well."

Saylesville Massacre Monument
Moshassuck Cemetery

 

My Great-Aunt, Marion Grant Wood

 

I was setting out Christmas decorations yesterday and found these in the bottom of one of my boxes. Both are quite small lacquer metal trays, about 6" on the longest side. They have sepia-toned drawings (cut-outs from Christmas cards?) glued to the tray and painted on decoration. The trays are shellacked. I'm not really sure that they can be used for anything other than decoration. They were made by my great Aunt Marion years ago and were given to my parents at some time in the past.

My great aunt, Marion Mellor Grant,  was born in Central Falls, Rhode Island on the 27th of January 1898 to William Sprague Grant and his wife, Mary Helen Mellor. Marion and her twin brother, Howard Mellor Grant, were the younger siblings of my grandfather, Ralph Westcott Grant.

Aunt Marion was the wife of  George Henry Wood, Jr. They were married in 1920 in Central Falls and lived in the Grant home there until around 1939 when they moved to East Greenwich, Rhode Island.

When I was a kid, we would stop by Uncle George and Aunt Marion's house on our way to Cape Cod. It was from Aunt Marion that I learned alot of our family history but unfortunately I never took notes and was unable to recall much of what she had told me when I started doing genealogy years later. As a kid, it was just a jumble of names of people who I never knew and were no longer living. I remember her showing me many old family photographs, but to me at the time, they all looked the same - lots of  black and white photographs of stiff looking people dressed in what to me were formal and funny-looking clothes. Now I have all those photographs and wished I knew who was who in them. Aunt Marion did mark the names on some of them, but not all. I would give anything now to have ten minutes with her - I bet she could give me the answer to many of my brick walls! And I think she would be very pleased to know that even though alot of the family history didn't soak into me back when I was a kid, she did plant a seed in me. It just took many years to take hold.

Thanksgiving 1953

These photos are from before my time - This is my father's side of the family celebrating Thanksgiving dinner in the Skinner family home in Valley Falls, RI. My Aunt Shirley had been married earlier  that year and she and her new husband Malcolm, drove up from Connecticut. Annie Betts Skinner was the matriarch at this table - she was 83 years old here and her husband, J. Frank Skinner had died four years earlier. One of her daughters, F. Hazel Skinner (my grandmother) was also gone but her daughter Myrtle Skinner Blackmar was there, along with at least 3 of her 4 sons. My Mom and Dad drove up from New Jersey - my mom is in the pink sweater. My father took the photo. Aunt Shirley and Cousin Allan - enjoy! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone!

Howard Mellor Grant - Veteran of World War I

I read last night that the last remaining veteran of World War I died just last year. In some respects, it is astounding that any veterans from this war were still alive. However it is sobering that no one alive has a remembrance of this war for which Veteran's Day was originally founded. And in the not too distant future, there will also be no surviving World War II veterans.

Howard Mellor Grant
1898 - 1922

Howard Mellor Grant was my great-uncle. He was born on 27 January 1898 in Central Falls, Rhode Island to William Sprague Grant and Mary Helen Mellor, and had a twin sister, Marion Mellor Grant.

According to family documents, Howard enlisted on 5 June 1917 and served in the 104th Ambulance Company, 26th Division, of the American Expeditionary Forces. Since this Division drew most of its members from New England, it was called the Yankee Division.

According to family papers, Howard was called into service on 25 July 1917 and sailed for France 2 Sept 1917. He landed in England on the 17th of October. He participated in many of the important battles and engagements of World War I in France, including Chemin des Dames on the Toul Sector, Seicheprey, and Chateau Thierry during the spring and early summer of 1917. Howard and the Division also served in the Aisne-Marne Offensive and saw battle near St. Mihiel, and participated in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive on the Trojan and Verdun Sectors.

After the Armistice was signed on 11 November 1918, Howard's unit sailed from Brest in Brittany, France and arrived in Boston. He was honorably discharged on 29 April 1919 from Camp Devens in Massachusetts.

Howard received shrapnel wounds in the leg during the Aisne-Marne Offensive on 22 June 1918. He rejoined his command and was gassed in the battle of Seicheprey and severely wounded by shrapnel over the left eye.

Howard worked as a clerk before the War and I assume he returned to that occupation upon his discharge. He probably returned to the family home on Jenks Street in Central Falls, but his family was missed being enumerated there during the 1920 census. He was active in the Valley Falls Baptist Church.

Howard died suddenly on the morning of 20 February 1922 probably due to a blood clot breaking loose from the piece of shrapnel still in his head, according to a report from the Medical Examiner in family papers. He had just turned 24 years old less than a month before. He is buried in the Grant Family plot in Moshassuck Cemetery in Central Falls.

Sixty years ago today

Sixty years ago, on 11 October 1952, my parents were married in Harwich Port, Massachusetts. In 2002, my sister and I flew to New Jersey to spend a few days with them and to celebrate their 50th anniversary. They had both decided they did not want a large celebration and instead, just wanted to have dinner at a nice restaurant. We went to the Chart House in Weehawken NJ and had a great time.

Scrapbook page commemorating Warren and Dot Grant's 50th anniversary

Mom and Dad were married for 52 years. My dad, Warren Westcott Grant died in 2005. Mom, Dorothy Veith Grant, died in 2007.

Last year on this day, I created a post that included some of their wedding photos.

Father's Day 2012 - Warren Westcott Grant

Warren W Grant

My father, Warren Westcott Grant was born on 11 January 1922 in Passaic New Jersey and died on 22 January 2005 in Pomptom Plains New Jersey at the age of 83.
I have many old photos of my father and mother taken before I was born and/or before I have my own memories of where the photos were taken and who was in them. This one is probably from the late 1940s. It may have been taken at his friend's 'ranch' in Cedar Grove, NJ. This friend was named Tex and my Dad (and Mom) used to ride there but I don't know anything else about the place except it was long gone before I could remember.

Dad once told me that Tex drove down to Amarillo, Texas to pick him up after he had been discharged from the Army Air Force in late November 1945. They had been planning to make a road trip of it back to New Jersey but Tex apparently started getting very anxious and needed to get back home as quickly as possible. Dad said he drove for as long as he could before he told Tex he couldn't drive any further. Now, I wonder why Tex couldn't drive part of the way back (he clearly drove down to Texas).  In any case, it was not the road trip my dad was expecting!

Moshassuck Cemetery Civil War Memorial

When I was in Rhode Island last summer, I went to Moshassuck Cemetery in Central Falls. Many of my ancestors on my Dad's side are buried here, including both my Skinner and Grant grandparents and great-grandparents. I noticed there is a monument to the Civil War in Moshassuck Cemetery and thought it made an appropriate post for Memorial Day.



Civil War Memorial - Moshassuck Cemetery
Central Falls, RI

 
 The inscription on the monument reads:

ERECTED BY THE

TOWN OF LINCOLN

AS A TRIBUTE TO

THE BRAVERY OF HER SONS

IN THE

WAR OF THE REBELLION

1861 - 1865

DEDICATED BY

BALLOU POST NO. 3. G.A.R

MAY 30, 1888

Many graves of Civil War veterans surround the monument but my family's Civil War veterans are buried in their family plots - Zophar Skinner is buried with his wife, 3 sons, adopted daughter, daughter-in-law and 2 grandchildren (including my grandmother, F. Hazel Skinner Grant). Their gravestone is pictured in a previous post here. 

I don't have any direct Grant Civil War ancestors but 3 grandsons of my g-g-g-grandfather, Sylvester Grant served in the Civil War. These three soldiers were the sons of Sylvester Grant, Jr and his wife, Susan L. Boomer. They are first cousins to me, three times removed. Samuel Grant survived the war and died in 1915. George S. Grant, was discharged for medical reasons and died of consumption a month later in 1863. Ira Whitaker Grant died in battle at Bethesda Church, VA on the 3 June 1864. His body was not recovered but according to family records, both he and his brother George originally had gravestones on the Grant plot at Moshassuck Cemetery. Ira's stone is missing and George's in almost undecipherable. I will write more on brothers Samuel, George, and Ira in a future post.

My Mom - Dorothy M. Veith - Part 2



Dorothy M. Veith 1942 Age 20
Chicago

My very first blog post a year ago was on Mother's Day and it was about my mom, Dorothy Minna Veith Grant. It seems appropriate to celebrate my mom in another post on this Mother's Day 2012

I've recently started scanning the photos in my mom's old scrapbooks and have found some great photos of her. Here are a few of her, possibly taken by her old boyfriend who was a professional photographer.


Dorothy M Veith 1943  Age 21
Lake Mohawk, New Jersey

My mother was born 19 August 1922 in Englewood, New Jersey. She was the daughter of Harold Theodore Veith and Minna Bertha Badendick. Mom grew up in Englewood and graduated from Dwight Morrow High School in 1940. She then attended Stephens College in Columbia Missouri for 2 years and graduated with an Associate's degree in 1942, when she was 20 years old. She worked as an executive secretary for her father at the furniture store he owned, Franklin Furniture, in Englewood until after she married my father, Warren Westcott Grant in 1952.


Dorothy M Veith 1944  Age 22
Bear Mt, New York

My mom worked part time at Franklin Furniture when we were young kids until my grandfather sold the store. She and my dad lived in their house in Little Falls, New Jersey until 2002 when they moved to a retirement community in Pompton Plains, New Jersey. Mom died just before Thanksgiving on 17 November 2006 while she was napping. She was 84 years old.

Mom was artistic and fun-loving and always looked on the bright side. My sister and I often said that she never remembered anything bad. She hated to cook, yet took on a cooking class with a bunch of girl scouts when I was around 10. I remember the theme was 'international' and we made sukiyaki out of "The Joy of Cooking". I never remember her cooking it another time! She was also a Den Mother for my brother's cub scout troop for several years

Happy Mother's Day!

A January Wedding

My paternal grandparents were Ralph Westcott Grant and Florence Hazel Skinner. I wrote about Ralph here and Hazel here.

Ralph and Hazel probably knew each other from the time they were young children. Although Ralph grew up in Central Falls, Rhode Island, and Hazel's home was in Valley Falls, their houses were just blocks apart. Their families also attended the same church, Valley Falls Baptist Church and they must have known each other from Sunday School and church outings.

Ralph and Hazel  married on 15 January 1918 in Valley Falls, Rhode Island. Both were 23 years old. If there were any formal photos taken at Ralph's and Hazel's wedding, I don't know what happened to them.

Ralph on his wedding day

Hazel's younger sister, Myrtle, was Hazel's attendent.

Myrtle and Hazel Skinner on Hazel's wedding day

Wedding Announcement
Florence Hazel Skinner & Ralph Westcott Grant

Mr. and Mrs. John F. Skinner

announce the marriage of their daughter

Florence Hazel

to

Ralph Westcott Grant

on Tuesday, January the fifteenth

one thousand nine hundred and eighteen

Valley Falls, Rhode Island.

At Home
after March 1st
at the Puritan Apartments
Erie, Pennsylvania

"Hazel's going away outfit"

Florence Hazel Skinner

My paternal grandmother was Florence Hazel Skinner. She was known as "Hazel" during her life-time. Hazel was the 3rd child and oldest daughter of John Francis (Frank) Skinner and Annie Florence Betts. She was born on 6 September 1894 in Valley Falls, Rhode Island. 

F. Hazel Skinner about 1898

Hazel had 2 older brothers both also born in Valley Falls. Harold Fulton Skinner was born 25 February 1892 and died at the age of 4 months of cholera on 16 July 1892. Second son, Harold Lamert Skinner was born on 23 January 1894.

Despite the 19 month age difference between Harold and Hazel, they were in the Valley Falls School 4th grade together when they received year end report cards on 24 June 1904. Both were good students although it looks like Hazel did better than her brother Harold in all subjects except arithmetic.

Subjects they received grades in were:

Reading

Spelling

Language

Arithmetic

Geography

Grade 4 report cards for Hazel and Harold Skinner,  June 1904

Hazel's family was living on Carpenter Street in Valley Falls in 1900 as enumerated in the Federal Census. The family moved to 18 Abbot Street by the time of the 1905 RI state census. Hazel lived at this address until her marriage on 15 January 1918 to Ralph Westcott Grant.

Hazel about 1910

Hazel about 1915

Hazel about 1944

Hazel died at age 50 on 12 January 1945 just as she was about to be released from the hospital after a routine surgery. Her obituaries are posted here. My father had just turned 23 and his sister was 19. Hazel's husband, my grandfather Ralph, had predeceased her. She was buried with her parents in Moshassuck Cemetery in Central Falls, Rhode Island.

Death Certification of Hazel Grant
Department of Health. State of New Jersey, certificate # 330, 12 January 1945

I don't really know much about my grandmother. Her family were Baptists and she was active in the Valley Falls Baptist Church groups growing up. By the time she and Ralph moved to New Jersey and had children, religion was less important. She was an accomplished pianist and she and her husband often enjoyed playing in string quartets with friends. My father told me it was a disappointment to his parents that he and his sister had no musical talents (and neither do I!).

Ralph Westcott Grant

Ralph Westcott Grant
about 1900

I never knew my paternal grandparents - they died long before I was born. I am lucky though to have some of their documents and photos so I know something of their lives, including the time before my father was born to them in 1922. There are quite a few photos of my grandparents dating from the first couple of decades of the 20th century from the time that cameras first became available to amateurs. I only wish that someone had noted the subject's names on the photos since most are unidentified.

My paternal grandfather was Ralph Westcott Grant. He was the oldest child of William Sprague Grant and Mary Helen Mellor. He was born 17 April 1894 in Valley Falls, Rhode Island but he grew up in nearby Central Falls, Rhode Island.

Ralph W. Grant

It is unknown where his middle name came from but he is the first of 4 generations of Grant males to use it as a middle name. There were families with the surname of Westcott living in Rhode Island during the late 19th century, but none that can be identified as being associated with the family. Perhaps it was just a name his parents liked, or a name of a friend.

1913

I don't know many details of Ralph's childhood. He did attend the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) after high school and graduated with a 2 year degree in drafting. While there he played Center on the school football team and was the captain in 1913. He graduated from the School of Design around 1915 but I have not found his school records yet. I was told that his Aunt Mary Grant helped pay his tuition at RISD, and that enabled him to enroll there for his post-secondary education. After graduating, I think he worked as a draftsman in the Providence area for several years.

Draft Registration Certificate, 5 June 1917

Ralph registered for the draft in June 1917. He did not serve in World War I perhaps because his younger brother, Howard was already in the RI National Guard at the beginning of the war and was posted overseas (subject of a future blog post). It is also possible that Ralph was excused from active duty because he had an essential war-time job. From family reminiscences, I know he worked at the Watervliet Arsenal near Troy, New York and also in Erie, Pennsylvania during the war.

Ralph at unknown work location

Ralph  married Florence Hazel Skinner (she was always known as Hazel) on 15 January 1918 at the Baptist Church in Valley Falls, Rhode Island and they lived after their marriage in Erie, Pennsylvania. By the time their first child, my father Warren Westcott Grant was born on 11 January 1922, they were living in Clifton, New Jersey where Ralph and Hazel would live the rest of their lives.

around 1939

My grandfather died 2 months after his 45th birthday in Baltimore, Maryland on the 27 June 1939. He had gone to Baltimore to march in the Shriner's Band and felt ill while marching. He went back to his hotel and suffered a heart attack. He was taken to the hospital and died there early the next morning.

Ralph was an accomplished saxophonist and I think he also played flute at home. At the time of his death, Ralph was the General Manager of the National Rubber Machinery Company in Clifton, New Jersey. As a hobby, he did museum-quality taxidermy.

My father would have been 90 today




Warren Westcott Grant
about 1940

My dad, Warren Westcott Grant, would have turned 90 years old today if he was still alive. Unfortunately, he died almost 7 years ago, on 22 January 2005, just eleven days after he turned 83 years old.

My dad learned photography when he was young, and probably while he was in high school. I think he took it up as a hobby partly because he was unable to participate in sports due to a heart murmur.  His best friend in high school, Matt Zuck, became an accomplished photographer and perhaps Dad and Matt learned together.

 At one point, my Dad intended to make photography his career. On his 1945 Army Separation papers, his civilian occupation was listed as "Photographer". I'm not sure how much professional photography he had accomplished by that point since he was 21 when he enlisted in the Army Air Force. I think the occupation title might have been aspirational!

However, it was either before Dad enlisted, or right after the war ended, when he did some industrial photography for his employer, Curtiss-Wright. At some point during the late 1940s, he started working as an engineer (also for Curtiss-Wright). This probably coincided with his graduation from Rutgers University in 1949. He took night classes there while he worked at Curtiss-Wright during the day. I guess at some point,  he realized that engineering was a better career choice for him than photography.



Cape Cod Windmill

By the time we kids were born, Dad was taking mostly just snapshots, but in the form of slides. After he received a Polaroid camera as a Christmas present from my Mom in the early 1960s, he switched to that. Around 1980, he started using the new inexpensive cameras that were coming on the market. He retained all his old knowledge and helped my brother and I set up a darkroom in our basement while we were in high school and  when we both got interested in photography. He taught me how to use a light meter.


Cape Cod house with interesting tree.
 Dad made this photo into a Christmas card

I still have Dad's cameras in a closet, in their original brown leather cases, alongside my old SLR (single lens reflex) camera body and lenses. I think I made the switch to point and shoot cameras about the time my kids were born, similar to my Dad. When digital cameras were introduced, I jumped into using my first digital camera. And now I usually just use the camera on my iphone...

Wellfleet, Massachusetts

I copied this last photo last summer when I visited Dad's cousin, Ken Skinner. Ken said my father took the photo and that he, Ken, was the person in the photo. Ken had another photo where he was standing in the same posture on the other side of the path. I guess Dad experimented to get the best photograph.

Most of Dad's early photos have not yet been digitized because they are on heavy glass slide mounts. I hope to get them all digitized in the not too distant future.

Christmas

This picture dates from around 1950. It was taken at my aunt and uncle's apartment on Grand Avenue in Leonia, New Jersey.

Christmas circa 1950
Top row, left to right: Anita Scanlon Veith, Minna Badendick Veith, Harold T. Veith, Sr
bottom row: Dorothy Veith Grant, Harold C Veith

My father, Warren W. Grant took the photo of my mom, her parents, and her brother and sister-in-law.
Merry Christmas!

Military Monday - San Antonio Aviation Cadet Center (SAACC)

As I mentioned in this post, my dad, Warren Westcott Grant, was in the Army Air Force during World War II and was honorably discharged as an Aviation Cadet just before he finished his flight training. At the time of his discharge, he was stationed at AAAF Amarillo, TX. Before that, he was an Aviation Student at San Antonio Aviation Cadet Center (SAACC) in Texas.  My father spent 11 months (according to his Separation Qualification Record) at San Antonio before moving on to Amarillo.

According to Wikipedia:
"On 8 January 1943, the War Department constituted and activated the 78th Flying Training Wing (Preflight) at San Antonio and assigned it to the AAF Central Flying Training Command. The 78th provided aviation cadets the mechanics and physics of flight and required the cadets to pass courses in mathematics and the hard sciences. Then the cadets were taught to apply their knowledge practically by teaching them aeronautics, deflection shooting, and thinking in three dimensions. Once completed, the graduates were designated as aviation cadets and were sent to one of the primary flight schools for pilot training."

The San Antonio Aviation Cadet Center is now part of Lackland Air Force Base.

My father successfully completed the course at San Antonio before he moved onto Flight School in Amarillo. Here are the cards that indicate the completion of his Flight Checks at SAACC.



Flight Check Cards - SAACC, San Antonio, Texas

The second flight check took place on his 23rd birthday. It was just one day later his mother died in New Jersey and his flight training was interrupted for a month-long leave to settle his mother's estate. His father had died 5 years earlier.