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!

Sarah Gardiner Lawton

Sarah Gardiner Lawton was my 3x great grandmother. Her daughter, Eliza Jane Carpenter married Zophar Skinner for whom this blog is named.

Sarah Gardiner Lawton

Sarah Gardiner Lawton was born in October 1828 to Clark Lawton and Sarah A. Gardiner in South Kingston, Rhode Island.

She married John Levy Carpenter, son of Daniel G and Mary Carpenter on 5 May 1845 in the Valley Falls Baptist Church in the village of Valley Falls, Rhode Island. At the time of marriage, both Sarah and John were both "of Smithfield" which bordered Valley Falls.

Marriage Record for
 John L Carpenter and Sarah G Lawton

"This may certify that Mr John L Carpenter and Miss Sarah G Lawton both of Smithfield were lawfully united together in Marriage on this the fifth day of May AD 1845 by me the Subscriber.
                                B.P. Byram
      Pastor of the Baptist Church
                      Valley Falls, R.I.

      Smithfield R.I.
                May 5, 1845"

Sarah Carpenter Obituary
Pawtucket Times, 1 March 1904

      Death of Mrs. Carpenter
Mrs Sarah Carpenter widow of John L Carpenter died last evening at her home on Braley's Hill in South Attleboro just over the state line at Valley Falls. Deceased was in her 77th year and had been ill but a few days troubles incident to old age being the immediate cause of death. Mrs Carpenter was an old resident of this section and was held in high esteem by a large circle of friends. She was the mother of Mrs. Zophar Skinner of Valley Falls.


I have not been able to determine where Sarah was buried but I suspect she was laid to rest next to her husband at Mineral Spring Cemetery in Pawtucket Rhode Island although there is no stone to mark her grave. Her parents are buried nearby, as are at least one of her children.

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.

Sunday's Obituary - Edna Veith

Sunday’s Obituary is an ongoing blogging prompt developed by Leslie Ann at Ancestors Live Here and tallied on the Geneablogger's site.

Edna Veith
1903 - 1994

Edna Veith was one of my grandfather's sisters. She and her twin brother, Edwin, were the youngest of five children and Edna is the only child who never married. She was born on 20 August 1903 in Hollisterville, Wayne County, Pennsylvania to Gottlieb Veith and Hannah Zeiler, and died 22 February 1994 in Atlanta, Georgia.  She had moved from her parents' farm in northeastern Pennsylvania by 1920 and lived with her sister and brother-in-law, Carrie and Charles Heffner in Hoboken, New Jersey. At some point, she and her sister, Esther Veith Foster, shared an apartment at 7 East 86th Street in New York City before they both retired and moved near their nephew Art Foster and his family in Georgia.

VEITH, Miss Edna, 90, Avondale Estates, Georgia, died Tuesday, February 22 at the Budd Terrace Nursing Home, Atlanta, Georgia.
   Born in Hollisterville, daughter of the late Gottlieb and Hannah Zeiler Veith, she was the last surviving member of her family. A graduate of Wyoming Seminary, she was an executive secretary in the banking business in New York City before retiring in 1964 to Atlanta, Georgia.
  Surviving are two nephews, Harold Veith, Jr., Lake Wylie, S.C., and Arthur D. Foster, Duluth, Ga.; a niece, Mrs Warren Grant, Little Falls, NJ; grand nieces and nephews, including Mrs. David Dulay and James Foster, both of Honesdale; several great-grandnieces and nephews.
   She was preceded in death by a brother, Harold Veith Sr; two sisters, Carrie Veith Heffner and Ester Veith Foster, twin brother, Edwin Veith; also a nephew, Burton W. Foster.

Thanksgiving 1956

Here is my first Thanksgiving at my parents' home in Little Falls, New Jersey. My mom, Dorothy Veith Grant (1922-2006) is on the left and her parents, Harold (1891-1978) and Minna (1893-1977) (Badendick) Veith are on the right. My brother is in the middle. My dad, Warren Westcott Grant (1922-2005) took the photo.

We always called this set of china the "chicken plates". It was a set that my mom purchased when she was first married. It is a Deruta pattern called 'Galletto' and it is still being made In Italy today. After my mom died, the set came to me and we use it for our holiday meals. I still love it as much as I did when we used the 'chicken plates' for special occasions when I was growing up. Unfortunately, the platter was broken a few years ago, when it skittered off the counter while the turkey was being transferred to it.

Thanksgiving 1956 - Little Falls, New Jersey

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!