Vintage Easter Postcard

Happy Easter!

Monogram mystery solved!

A few days ago I asked one of the mailing lists I am subscribed to for help in identifying an old monogram found on a pocket-watch and ring that were among items from my parents' safety deposit box. The monogram was so ornate it was hard for me to convince myself what the initials in the monogram are.

It appeared that the ring monogram contained the same initials although the surface is quite worn. 

Mystery solved!

I determined the watch and ring had belonged to my maternal grandfather, Harold Theodore Veith. What clinched the identity for me was finding a photo of my grandfather wearing this ring in 1909. In photos of him in later years, this ring is replaced on his hand by his wedding band and sometimes his masonic ring. Before I found this photo, I was browsing monogram fonts and came across a font entitled 'Monogram kk' in which the letters 'HTV' are pretty similar to the engravings. The letters can be closely traced with the additions of a few extra flourishes.

Harold Theodore Veith 1909

closeup of ring

'Monogram kk' font for initials 'HTV'

Rescued Photo #1 - Ann Brayton Pratt

When I was in Vermont last September, I spent an hour or so browsing at the Antique Center at Camelot Village in Bennington, VT. This shop is huge and is composed of many individual 'stalls' where all kinds of antiques are sold. I could have spent days in this place, and hope to go back on my next visit.

I spent most of my time there looking thru old photos and was amazed at how many of them had identification written on the back. If only all my old family photos were identified! I decided to buy a few that caught my eye and see if I could identify the families of the individuals, and possibly to locate a living descendant who would like to have these photos. Please contact me if you are related to these people and would like the original photo.

Ann Brayton Pratt 

back side of Ann Brayton Pratt photo

The first photo is identified as Ann Brayton Pratt, (Mrs Frank Pratt 2nd), daughter of Mr and Mrs Alanson Brayton. I was able to find her death certificate on FamilySearch.org .

"Massachusetts, Deaths, 1841-1915," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/N43L-8C3 : accessed 03 Mar 2013), Ann Eliza Pratt, 1910.

From the information on the death certificate we know that Ann Eliza Brayton was born 26 January 1833 in White Creek, New York, daughter of Elanson Brayton, birthplace unknown, and Matilda Crandall born in Hoosick, NY. She died at age 77, widow of George F. Pratt on 7 October 1910 at Sloan Road,  Williamstown, Massachusetts of  "senile degeneration complicated with cancer of liver". Ann was buried in Hoosick, New York on 9 October 1910. The informant for the information contained in this certificate was Mrs. Frank Young, of South Williamstown. Her relationship to the deceased is not given.

Ann E. Pratt is found with her husband Frank Pratt in the 1900 Federal census (citation at the end of this article), living in Williamstown, MA in the home of the Frank and Gertrude Young family. Ann and her husband are listed as father-in-law and mother-in-law to the head of the family, Frank Young. Presumably wife Gertrude Young is the daughter of either (or both) of the elder couple. In this census entry, Frank Pratt is listed as born in Oct 1829, age 70 and married for 32 years (1868). He and his father were born in Vermont, and his mother was born in New York. No occupation is listed. Ann E Pratt is recorded as born in Jan 1834, age 66. She is listed as having zero children, with zero children living. Ann and her mother were born in New York, and her father was born in Vermont.

In the 1900 census, children of Frank and Gertrude Young are  listed as Harry Young, age 20, Lulu Young, age 18, Bliss Young, age 16 and Ella Young, age 12.

Since Gertrude Young is age 39 on this record, she was born 7 years before Frank and Ann married and was probably Frank's daughter from a previous marriage. This correlates with the report of zero children and is consistent with the name of Mrs Frank Pratt 2nd on the back of the photo. Ann Brayton was probably Frank Pratt's 2nd wife and Gertrude is most likely Ann's step-daughter.

So it appears that Ann Eliza Brayton Pratt did not have direct descendants but her siblings may have had descendants who would value Ann's photograph. From the 1850 U.S. Federal census (citation below), Ann appears as one of probably nine children of Alanson and Matilda Brayton. The minors in this household are:
Caroline S Brayton, age 18, Ann E Brayton, age 16, Amon O Brayton, age 14, Julia G Brayton, age 12, Franklin B Brayton, age 10, Ardelia C Brayton, age 8, Marcus M Brayton, age 6, Mary J Brayton, age 4 and Charles E Brayton, age 2.

Hopefully, some descendant of the Brayton/Pratt/Young/Crandell family will someday see this post in a google search of names. Contact me if you want the original photo!.
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1900 U.S. Census, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, population schedule, Williamstown, Enumeration District (ED) 89, sheet 11-B, family 249, Frank Young household; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 2 March 2013), citing National Archives microfilm publication T623, roll 633.

1850 U.S. Census, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, population schedule, Williamstown, sheet 152-A, family 129, Alanson Brayton household, digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 2 March 2013), citing National Archives microfilm publication M 432, roll 305.

Jersey City, Then and Now

I was back east earlier in the month and spent part of an afternoon in Jersey City, New Jersey photographing buildings and visiting places my Badendick great-grandparents knew in the early part of the 20th century. According to family history, Carl Badendick came to this country from Barth, a small village on the Baltic Sea in Pomerania (now Germany) around 1880. He married my great-grandmother, Bertha Zerull on 9th September 1883 in Jersey City and they lived there for the rest of their lives. Carl died in 1916, and Bertha in 1931.


Current photo of former Badendick home
Corner of van Reypen Street and Stuyvesant Avenue
Jersey City, NJ

I remember visiting the house they had lived in when I was a very young child when some of my great aunts were still alive. I remember nothing of the inside but I do remember what seemed to me to be really tall front steps! Here is a photo of my great-aunt Edith Badendick on what I think are those same steps around 1900.

Edith Badendick

My great-grandfather operated a small store at the other end of the block from their residence, on the corner of Stuyvesant Avenue and what was then Hudson County Boulevard and is now John F Kennedy Blvd.

 

Carl Badendick's store on the corner of Stuyvesant and the Boulevard, Jersey City, NJ
around 1900

 

February 2013

The building is still recognizable with only a few modifications. The door has been moved from the corner to the center of the front facade, and the cupola has been modified. The store is now a coffee shop and 99 cent store. The sign in the window in the old photo says cigars and tobacco on one side, and confectionery on the other. There is a sign out front of the store advertising Reid's ice cream.

I plan to do more research with the deeds I have found for the house and store.  I suspect some of the building numbering has changed over the years which makes it difficult to detrmine which plots of land and buildings are in the deeds I have. Family history as well as some newspaper clippings indicate Carl ran a saloon in the basement of what I assume was his store. More research is needed to determine if this was indeed the same location.

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

 

Christmas 1954

Before my parents bought their first house on Reiners Road in Little Falls, New Jersey, they lived in an apartment in Clifton. The apartment was on the 2nd floor of a house at 75 Gourley Avenue, and I think my father had been living there for several years prior to his marriage to my mom in 1952.

This is my brother in the photo and he was around 11 months old here. It was his first Christmas. By the next Christmas, my parents had moved into the Reiners Road house.

I recognize many of the ornaments on that tree - they were ones that we had throughout my childhood. And when we split up my parents' possessions after they died, I ended up with some of those ornaments. They are hanging on my tree now and I treasure them and the memories of many Christmases past.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

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.