For several years, a search for the parents of Sophronia Abbott Jacobs has not proven successful so I assembled all the information Writemapper, a mind-mapping tool and then a simple memo format with sources listed to create a conclusion.  It is uploaded to Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org and has invited additional sources to be recommended to me.  

It doesn't really matter for long term genealogy because the men believed to me her father are brothers.  One or the other, the Abbott line is an interesting one and I look forward to concrete sources if there are any.  

It does matter if anyone is ever interested in Daughters of the American Revolution application because only Ebenezer Abbott is documented to have served in the revolution.  

At this time, I am confident in my research and opinion but will update if there are any comments or suggestions.  There are, of course, many generations between Sophronia and Ebenezer and Rufus and still more to their ancestors.  With great interest and appreciation of their lives and struggles, this is the story.  

Who Is the Father of Sophronia Abbott Jacobs?

Sophronia Abbott Jacobs’ daughter Mary Jane Jacobs Rider emigrated with her husband Azariah Rider from a farm community near Ridgefield, McHenry County, Illinois to Sioux City (1) Iowa  before 1874 (2).  She is my maternal 3x great-grandmother.  The family history passed along to my generation centered around Sioux City and Omaha, Nebraska, my hometown.   None of it included Sophronia or Illinois much less Massachusetts so there is no word-of-mouth or family tradition information.

This is the direct line from me to Sophronia:

Mary Sharon Wilmes

Mary Virginia Ryder Wilmes, my mother

Thomas Francis (Frank Thomas) Ryder, her father

Fred Rider, his father

Mary J Jacobs Ryder, his wife

Sophronia Abbott Jacobs, her mother

 

She also may have used the spelling Safrona or Sopronia but the probate documents use Sophronia (3). Her children listed in the probate include my great-great-grandmother Mary J or Mary Jo Jacobs then residing in Sioux City, Iowa, the wife of Azariah’s son Fred Rider. 

Over several years, a considerable amount of research about Sophronia has presented me with this question:  who were her parents? 

 Unsourced claims of her parents and place of birth

 Many in Ancestry.com, Family Search.org and MyHeritage.com name her father as Rufus Abbot who was born in 1784 in Murrayfield, Hampshire County (originally Hampden), Massachusetts which became Chester, Massachusetts in 1775.  I have used the AmericanAncestors.org databases, including the Chester Births to 1850 compilation (5) but found only the birth of Ebenezer’s daughter Tryphena in 1812 in Chester Births to 1850 about their children.  It is my belief that it is possible that few of the children of either brother were born in Chester. 

 Is her father Rufus Abbott?

 Some online family historians are quite firm about their claim of Rufus as Sophronia’s father but not even one of many who claim him have even one source citation for that claim.  In fact, there are no birth records for any of the children for either man. At least one, Ebenezer’s son George Abbott, in federal census lists, repeatedly states New York as his place of birth.  Some of the children of Rufus may have been born in Norfolk, Lichfield County, Connecticut.  Although the names Rufus and Ebenezer are unused in the modern era, there were so many of each in the records that it seems impossible to identify these two specific Abbotts in New York State. 

Several years ago, when Family Search staff included Sophronia in a list of the Rufus Abbott family in Jackson County, Missouri, I offered the sources to select Ebenezer as her father, and they agreed that Sophronia is not mentioned anywhere in Missouri.  In fact, she was married (1835) (7) by the time one Family Search source suggested she was in Missouri.  Rufus was probably in a different county, Caldwell County, Missouri by the early 1830’s.  This was a county created by the state of Missouri to isolate Mormon immigrants.  There is an unsourced listing on an ancestry.com tree of persons who forfeited land for tax defaults in the mid- 1860’s which includes Rufus.  Because it is not sourced and I could not locate it, it is not included here. 

 The result is an endless loop of cross-referenced family trees with the 1850 federal census for McHenry County, Illinois as the earliest and only source of Sophronia’s birth occurring in Massachusetts.

 Neither Sophronia nor her siblings – or cousins, whichever man is her father – are shown in Chester Records to 1850 or (just confirmed with the help of the staff of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Berkshire Athenaeum) in the index of Chester Baptist Church Records (6). Those Baptist Church names are not included in the Chester Births to 1850.

 In addition, the tax records for Chester do not show either brother owning real property there, only their father.  It does appear that their grandfather Joseph, as well as uncles Joseph Jr., Abiel and John Abbott owned real property in Chester. The father Joseph’s land and tax responsibilities fell to his widow Lois by 1798. (8)

 There may be reasons there are so few records in Western Massachusetts which is discussed below.

 The Abbotts’ Conversion by Mormons

 I include this section because the demographic material might have provided documentation of her birth and birthplace.  There are brief records that show both brothers converted to Mormonism after they both moved to central New York, but not where or precisely how long they remained there.  The index card records I obtained indicated that Rufus was converted by “Thomas” in New York and that Ebenezer “denied the faith” at an undated point.  There is a Thomas Abbott included in lists of persons who lived in Jackson County, Missouri during the period of Mormon settlement there.  That is the same list that does not include Rufus.  It is possible to trace Rufus’ later move across the country, all in Mormon communities.  I have not found records for the births that occurred in early Mormon communities in upstate New York.

 Of course, the Ohio area to which they moved was part of the new Northwest Territory.    I think it is reasonable to say that following removal of native Americans from those lands, the federal government opened them to further settlement on legally documented purchases or land bounties from Revolutionary War Service.  There were federal requirements and mortgages were available to assist settlers with land purchases.  Ebenezer the father of Rufus and Ebenezer, a documented Revolutionary War veteran, may have used a land bounty in the Northwest Territory/Ohio or Illinois but I have not found it.  It does not appear from searches through documents about the area that there were birth records kept at that early time.

 It is not yet clear when both eventually moved on to the Cuyahoga County, Ohio area but it was somewhere during the same time as the large Mormon migration from the region where it was founded in central New York.   As suggested earlier, Rufus moved on again in the early 1830’s with his some of his family to Missouri, where, after his departure, his son Hiram died from injuries suffered in an October 1838, anti-Mormon pogrom at Haun’s Mill (9a).  Rufus and his wife moved back to the Nauvoo, Illinois area (Hancock, Illinois), on to the Council Bluffs, Iowa/Omaha, Nebraska area and then by a pioneer wagon or cart train led by Daniel Snyder to Salt Lake City (9b) in 1848.  I spoke with a representative of the Mormon Trail Center at Historic Winter Quarters in Omaha and Rufus and Anna were not located in the records of the Council Bluffs or Omaha Mormon Winter Quarters so they may have been with a daughter’s family settled in that area of Iowa until the westward migration. Rufus remarried twice after the death of his first wife Anna Owen and is buried in Payson, Utah County, Utah.    I did not locate a probate for Rufus.

 It appears that several of the children of Rufus and Anna relocated to or remained in Iowa.  A full family history of all children of Rufus Abbott has not been completed because there are still no birth records but a number have been traced.  Using the genealogical term “FAN” (Friends, Associates, Neighbors), some research has been done but without birth records, it has not been possible to prove anything about birth locations-or the precise family size.  

 Rufus was the older and it appears that he left Massachusetts by 1811.  Ancestry.com family trees show two or three of his daughters whose birth dates fit that report:  Minerva 1811 born in Litchfield Connecticut (no source cited), Malona with the same birth date in one tree and Parintha or Perentha born 1816 or 1817 (cemetery records show birth 1817) in Hartford County, Connecticut.  The 1820 federal census report for Rufus in Mayfield, Cuyahoga, Ohio (7Aug 1820) shows two females under 10 when there might have been three or four if Sophronia was part of the family. Two of those women appear in Mormon records, one California and the other Iowa.  The other three all lived into the late 1870’s and 1880’s. 

 Sophronia’s obituary, probate records and headstone show 23 February 1816 as her birthdate.  All the unsourced entries for Sophronia show her birthplace as Chester, Massachusetts.  That would mean theoretically that if Rufus is her father, he stayed in Connecticut for a time and moved back to Massachusetts before moving back to Connecticut or on to either New York or Ohio.  The next two daughters of Rufus and Anna are apparently Dora 1819 and Ruby Ann 1821, possibly in Ohio.  It is certainly possible that both brothers left for these new areas without their families for a time and returned but the distances are considerable and meant difficult journeys.  

 Is her father Ebenezer Abbott?

 I have found several ways Sophronia is possibly the daughter of Ebenezer Abbott.    Sophronia’s possible sister and brother-in-law connected her to Ebenezer Abbott.  Sophronia married Norman James Jacobs in Cuyahoga County, Ohio in 1835 and it appears that Ebenezer’s daughter Juliette Abbott a year earlier married Norman’s brother Riley.  A 1906 historical encyclopedia of McHenry County, Illinois citizens does refer to another daughter, Betsey A. Abbott, who married a local McHenry County farmer and businessman Mark Hickox (10).  The entry states that Betsey arrived with her sister Sophronia before her parents Ebenezer and (Berniece) Nicy Pomeroy moved there a short time later.  Ebenezer and Nicy died and are buried in McHenry County (11).  Rufus and Anna Abbott never lived in McHenry County, Illinois.

 As discussed above, entries in Family Search, Ancestry and My Heritage use the document compilation Chester Births to 1850 (5) to list the birthplaces of children of both brothers in Chester, Massachusetts.  There should be church records of that. There is no entry for Sophronia’s birth or any other children of Rufus or Ebenezer except Tryphena Abbott in the Chester Births to 1850 data for either church.  Searches in towns around Chester and Hampden and Hampshire Counties in Massachusetts and Connecticut do not find records of her there.  Some of the children of Rufus and Anna include Norfolk, Litchfield, Connecticut as the birthplace.   I did eliminate from consideration one Sophronia born in eastern Massachusetts because it appeared that woman married and died in eastern Massachusetts. 

 Sophronia died in Ridgefield, McHenry County, according to an obituary in a local paper and her birthdate is listed as 23 February 1816.   A search for births in the central New York area is difficult and has located nothing about Sophronia.  It is not clear to me that any central New York church would have the birth record of a child born to a Mormon convert there.  One of Ebenezer’s sons, George, repeatedly states in federal census records and his Civil War draft registration that he was born in New York.   

 It is possible that Rufus, the older of the two, was living in upstate New York by the 1810’s. Tax roll entries are available for both brothers in both New York (only possibly because there may have been multiple Ebenezers and Rufuses) and Ohio (definitely, Rufus in Mayfield in 1820 and Ebenezer in Mayfield in 1833 and 1837) but do not really pinpoint their exact departure or arrival dates.  There is no record of Sophronia’s birth in Ohio. 

 Perhaps their rapid relocations meant they did not have local church relationships which would have recorded her birth.  I have not yet fully researched deeds in New York to establish specific addresses for land purchases and occupancies but have begun “browsing” FamilySearch unindexed deeds.

 Reasons the records were poor

 Working to provide any other explanation for the missing birth records, I also noted that 1816 was a very unusual weather year because high level atmospheric pollution caused by a massive volcanic eruption in Indonesia led to massive crop failures across New England (12).  The authors of Upstate Cauldron (13) note that it was the reason that Mormon founder Joseph Smith’s family moved to New York from Massachusetts.  Further, it might have been economic disruption from the Panic of 1819 that led to church record omissions. 

 There was a political and doctrinal split between factions of the Chester Congregational Church leading ultimately to establishment of a new Chester Baptist Church but those records do not include birth records of any Abbotts, either Rufus or Ebenezer (14).  One of the Elders of the Baptist Church was Sam Abbott but the index contains no reference to either Rufus or Ebenezer.  Perhaps there was a time between the division of the Congregational Church of Chester and formation of the new Chester Baptist Church during which some births may have gone unrecorded. 

 It is possible that Sophronia was adopted but I found nothing in court records available on Ancestry and Family Search that recorded an adoption.  I have been told that adoption was a rather informal matter at that time. 

 I list only some of the sources and material located in this research.  If helpful, I will email or mail copies of any of the other sources. Also, my full name is Mary Wilmes and that is my Member Name in ancestry.com. 

 I believe Ebenezer is the father of Sophronia Abbott Jacobs. 

 What other values or weights of proof should I put on this information? What other records or sources should I search?

 Sources

 (1) Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Illinois State Archives, www.CyberdriveIllinois.com, Vol A.,Lic. No. 2316, Accessed 9/4/2014.

 (2) Original data: Microfilm of Iowa State Censuses, Ancestry.com. Iowa, U.S., State Census Collection, 1836-1925 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2007.

(3)  Probate packets, 1840-1957; Author: Illinois. County Court (McHenry County); Probate Place: McHenry, Illinois

 

(4)  [https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Massachusetts_County_Creation_Dates_and_Parent_Counties

 (5)  New England Historic Genealogical Society; Boston, Massachusetts; Vital Records of Chester, Massachusetts to the Year 1850 and Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, U.S., Compiled Birth, Marriage, and Death Records, 1700-1850 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2018.

(6)  Chester Baptist Church Records.  Held by Pittsfield Berkshire Athenaeum, Call Number LH BERKCOL 974.49 C42.15v.3.  Accessed by email March 2021 from Donald Warfield, Local History and Genealogy Department, Berkshire Athenaeum, 1 Wendell Ave., Pittsfield, MA 01201 (413) 499-9480. 

(7)  Cuyahoga County Archive; Cleveland, Ohio; Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Marriage Records, 1810-1973; Volume: Vol 3-4; Page: 92; Year Range: 1832 Oct - 1849 Sep

Title Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Marriage Records and Indexes, 1810-1973

Author.  Ancestry.com. Publisher Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.Publisher Date 2010 Publisher Location  Provo, UT, USA

(8)  Massachusetts and Maine:  Direct Tax, 1798, (Online database.  /AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2003) Original Manuscript:  Direct tax list of 1798 for Massachusetts and Maine, 17998.  Accessed March 20, 2021. 

(9a) Ancestry.com. Membership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-1848 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013. Original data: Black, Susan Easton, compiler. Membership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830–1848. 50 vols. Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Religious Studies Center, 1989. Private Donor.  Description:  A “Who’s Who” of early LDS church members with a genealogical goldmine of details.

(9b) Rufus was a Pioneer of 1847 arriving in Salt Lake Valley with Capt. Daniel Spencer's 100, Capt. Ira Eldredge's 50 and Capt. Samuel Ensign's 10 Source: Publication: Pioneers of 1847: a Sesquicentennial Remembrance.  Ancestry.com. LDS Pioneer and Handcart Companies, 1847-1856 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com, 2013. Original data: Black, Susan Easton. Pioneers of 1847: A Sesquicentennial Remembrance. Provo, Utah: © 1980. Private donor.

(10)  Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois, edited by Newton Bateman and D. Paul Selby, vol. 2, Chicago: Munsell Publishing Co., 1903.  Arrived with her sister and brother-in-law, Sophronia and Norman J. Jacobs.

(11)  Ebenezer Abbott  Death1 Nov 1852 (aged 61) McHenry County, Illinois, USA
Burial	Ostend Cemetery McCullom Lake, McHenry County, Illinois, USA
Plot	B8
FindAGrave Memorial ID	14587511 ·

 (12)  The Year Without Summer:  1816 and the Volcano That Darkened the World and Changed History by William Klingaman.  Kindle Edition, 351 pages.  Published February 26, 2013 by St.

(13)  Upstate Cauldron: Eccentric Spiritual Movements in Early New York State by Jocelyn Godwin.  Paperback, 386 pages.  Published June 1, 2015, by Excelsior Editions/State University of New York Press ISBN: 1438455941

(14)  From Our Country and It’s People

Accessed through Google Play Books 2/20/21 page 368 original

 Regarding the Baptist Church:

 “It arose from a personal difference between the pastor Rev. Mr. Bascom and Dr. Martin Phelps, one of the prominent members of the church.  Out of this feud is said to have grown the Baptist church enterprise, organized in 1811.  Dr. Phelps, either voluntarily or by compulsion, withdrew from the Congregational church, and with others joined in the formation of a Baptist church, which was incorporated by an act of the legislature dated February 26, 1811.   (Long list of incorporators). The people above named were from all the different parts of Chester.  Elder Grant became the first minister. Elder(Samuel?) Abbott…

 From chestermass.com, Vol. 3, Issue 1 March 2004

Accessed 2/20/21 through google.com

 

The Baptist and Independent Society of Chester

 “The story of political and religious divisions in Chester that led to the creation of the Chester Baptist Church as covered in a previous edition of our newsletter (Volume 1, Issue 2, May 2002).  In summary, Dr. Martin Phelps arrived in Chester late in the 1790’s at the invitation of the Reverend Aaron Bascom, pastor of the church here, after Phelps was involved in a dispute with his pastor in Belchertown.  Though his early years in the Chester church were harmonious, Dr. Phelps was eventually excommunicated partly due to some doctrinal differences with the church, but also because he was a Jeffersonian Democrat and the Rev.  Aaron Bascom and his deacons were Adams’ Federalists.  Upon his excommunication from the Congregational Church in 1808 he sought to join the Baptist faith and practices.  They asked him to explain his past criticisms and he wrote “Scripture Reasons for Renouncing the Principles of Pedobaptism and Uniting with the Baptists”.  He read the pamphlet publicly in the Hinsdale church, which accepted his conversion and baptized him on July 29, 1809.”

Other Sources: 

St. Martins Press Accessed through google Play Books  H

History of the town of Goshen, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, Chapter III, 1782.  “1816. This year was remarkable for its cold summer.  Severe frosts occurred in every month.  June 7 and 8 snow fell, and it was too cold for comfort even  in winter clothing, and frosts cut this corn down to the roots, but it was replanted.  September 25, corn was still in the milk and so thoroughly frozen by three wintry nights, that it never ripened and was scarcely worth gathering.  Breadstuffs were scarce and prices high, and the poorer class of people were often in straits for want of food.”

Gutman, Robert.  “Birth and Death Registration in Massachusetts. I.  The Colonial Background, 1639-1800.” The Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly Vol. 36, No. 1 (Jan 1958): 58-74  (Accessed through JSTOR, which requires registration)

A Driving Tour of Ryder Family Omaha Homes

Touring With Katy Ryder Finnegan, April, 2013

Frank T. Ryder and Ruth Harriet Gearen were married June 29, 1921, in Sioux City, Iowa, and their first son and first child James E. Ryder was born here on July 30, 1922.  The 1923 City Directory for Sioux City, Iowa shows Frank and Ruth living at 617 Rebecca Street.  My uncle James E. Ryder was born there on July 30, 1922.  My mother Mary Virginia Ryder Wilmes was born January 15, 1924, and Frances Ruth Ryder was born August 22, 1925.  The City Directory entries continue to list the Rebecca Street address until their move to Omaha which might have been shortly after Frances was born.

In April, 2013, my mother's sister Kathleen "Katy" Ryder Finnegan, her youngest daughter Kathleen Finnegan Hiatt, my husband Gene Spruck and I rode through Omaha to each of the houses Katy could remember.  My cousin Kathleen drove that day, a misty, gray spring day but one that will save the information and her memories for her family and her siblings families as Katy died on April 5, 2015, in Omaha.   

By 1925, the Omaha City Directory shows their address as 412 South 48th Street at Howard Street, in Omaha, Nebraska.  There is a family story about this house, which directly borders Holy Sepulchre Catholic Cemetery.   Ruth was uncomfortable with the location, and they apparently did not stay very long.  The City Directory for 1926 does not include an address for them but Frank's occupation  is listed as electrician at Cudahy Packing.  The 1930 Federal Census lists their address as 215 South 35^th Avenue (between Frances and Martha Streets, Omaha).  There is no photo for this address because we did not go there on the tour day.   

2322 South 33rd Street

The first house Katy Ryder Finnegan (born in 1927) could remember is 2322 South 33^rd Street, confirmed by the 1931 Omaha City Directory. Katy:  "Go to the end of this street, then take a left. That is it, the white one.  Boy, you know, we thought this was a big house.  Gosh, I had forgotten.  The drug store was down there...I thought it had a porch on it."

Brick Street South 33rd Street

The streets are still brick.  This looks back north and east from the house.

Sherry:  How many grades did you go to Our Lady of Lourdes School?  Katy:  "From first grade.  Until we moved to Sioux City " (later than 1935 and by 1939 living at 1223 Morningside Avenue in Sioux City according to the City Directory for that year). 

1223 Morningside Avenue, Sioux City, IA

This picture was captured from Google Earth on June 3, 2015. This house was next door to the Rectory of the Catholic Church across Morningside Avenue.  

Katy:  "Turn left and back to 32^nd Avenue. Many is the time I went up here (to a grocery store on the corner of South 32^nd Avenue).  Mom would say I need a loaf of bread.  I would get that penny saver bread and I'd ask her (you know it had a wrapper  with a coupon), can I spend that on candy and she would say yes."

The 1940 census shows that they were living at 1335 South 36th Street and a census question asks where the respondent lived in 1935.  The answer to this question for the Ryders is “Same”  so it is possible that they rented this house before and after they moved back to Sioux City for a few years which the Sioux City Directory shows included the year 1939 at 1223 Morningside Avenue.  Frank's occupation at that time is listed as “Department Superintendent".

2227 Hanscom Blvd.

Katy:  "North, turn on Martha Street.  Now left here.  See how convenient it was to church and school (Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church).  Now left here.  Do you remember Higgins?  The Higgins lived right up there.  We lived in this second house.  2227 Hanscom Blvd.  I doubt that we planted that tree.

2205 Hanscom Blvd. - the Wilfongs

"Right down here was Rene's (Wilfong Garvey's) house."  Kathleen:  You and Rene were friends from grade school?      Katy: "Kindergarten.   It's 2205 Hanscom Blvd.  That was a big house."

"Look how close we were to Hanscom Park.  I never will forget Patty (her younger sister) burning her hands at Hanscom Park skating.  They had a big old stove that they threw in stuff to keep it burning.   Patty and I were skating and she went inside, you know because it was cold and her hands were wet and she accidentally put her hands on it.  And they just burned.  She cried and cried.  I didn't even bother to take off my skates and she didn't either and we ran all the way home through the snow."

Driving north towards Center Street:  "Evans and Reed ice cream store.  Both right there on Center.  People would walk there.  Ice cream and goup sundaes.  Chocolate goup.  Hanscom Park was so much fun.  The City greenhouse wasn't there then (as it is now).  This is President Ford's (memorial) house.  We walked from Our Lady of Lourdes all the way down here (from 1335 South 36^th Street) after we came back from Sioux City.  That was a Joslin (George and Sarah) house (traveling north on South 36^th in Field Club (Joslin's mansion on North 40^th Street near Dodge Street was heavily damaged by the Easter Tornado of 1914 so the family moved to a house in Field Club at least for a time).

1335 South 36th Street

"This one with the porch (1335 South 36th Street).  It was so nice. Everybody used their porches.  They would come out and read their papers.  But you know what, I can't remember that this berm was built up that high on the other side of the street".  Perhaps the berm was erected by the Field Club Golf Course across South 36th Street to keep golf balls from striking cars. 

1009 Mercer Blvd.

The Ryders may have lived at 2227 Hanscom Blvd. until at least 1942.  In 1945, according to the Omaha City Directory, they were living at 1009 Mercer Park Blvd.  Frank's occupation is listed as Chief Engineer.  The 1948 City Directory shows that they still lived on Mercer Park Blvd.  Katy is listed as residing there and it incorrectly notes that she worked at Mutual Benefit and Accidental Insurance Co. but her employer actually was the Union Pacific Railroad at that time.

By the time the Ryders moved to 1009 Mercer Blvd., the five daughters and two sons had reached an age where many friends visited very often.  Sports of all kinds were played often on the wide driveway and the quiet street and Katy always joined in.    Katy:  "At Mercer Blvd., when a game got underway, I was out there for a long time playing basketball until Bob Wear (later her brother-in-law, Franny's husband) would poke me in the ribs.  He was an instigator (fun loving but pesistent)."  Kathleen:  Connie Wear Rensch and I talked about Bob's love of trouble-making.  Katy:  "Straight across Leavenworth Street,  Kenneys lived down here and Moylans."

Sherry:  How did you get to St. Mary's High School?  Katy:  'I had to take two street cars.  One on North 40^th Street.  Rene always reminds me what one of the nuns used to say.(about being late).  Here's the Blackstone Hotel.  That was very big (a social destination).  And Mutual (of Omaha) on the right.  Ilene Ryan (Krebs) lived in one of those houses."  

"Now left.   Dad drove a Packard, dark I think.  Here are the Carberry Apartments on North 40^th Street.  Mom had many friends who lived there.  Jim (Finnegan, her husband) could tell you all about Dr. Kelly.  Howells.  Langdons.  Jim could tell you.  The Austin Apartments.  The Bishop's house (was originally near St. Cecilia's Cathedral) was down here (gone now).  This was Methodist Hospital. On the corner of Cuming Street and North 38^{th  (}now the Salvation Army)."

Sherry:  This was an elegant neighborhood in Omaha.  There is a little park on the northeast side of Walnut Hill Reservoir with a large fountain and wading pool (between North 38^th and 40^th on Hamilton Street which is a small city water reservoir and it is where my mother and father had their first date on the 4^th of July, 1943). 

Sherry:  1009 Mercer Blvd.  I remember walking down this stone wall to go to the stores, pharmacies and soda fountains across Cuming Street.  This is the Mercer Mansion on the right.   Do you remember Dr. Sullivan (He was a physician and mentor to Jim Ryder and delivered many of us of the third generation and his picture was on Uncle Jim Ryder's office wall on Missouri Avenue in South Omaha)?  Katy:   "Oh yes, he was nice.  He's the one who used to chase me to give me a shot."          

Sherry:  After Grandpa Ryder died, this duplex on North 40^th and Izard Street is where Grandma lived.  (No photo)   It was large, three bedrooms.  Katy:  "She liked it there."    Sherry:  I can remember the night there in 1960 before Bernie got married.  Her sisters and some nieces came over here and each of us had a job, shining shoes, folding clothes, packing for her honeymoon.  It was a great night, one of those sweet memorable family occasions.

There was a fire station right here next to the apartments.  There is Duschesne Academy (North 36th and California Streets) where Patty and Bernie went to high school. 

Katy:  "Nearys lived right down on the corner here."

Sherry:  On Cuming Street.  A drug store on the corner.  Blackstone Pharmacy.   Red leather twirl stools in the soda fountain.  We went there all the time.  Cherry Cokes.  There was a grocery store across the street there. 

3828 Cass Street

Sherry:  3828 Cass Street:   This is where you moved after you were married?  Katy:  Yes.  Jim lived in those apartments (before they were married with his mother and two sisters Geraldine and Grace).  He went to (Creighton) Prep. It is the one (Jim and Katy’s apartment) on the right, second floor.  Screened porch.  Jim's family lived across the hall on the second floor. 

Sherry:  In the late 1950's, we, Colleen, Patricia and Maureen and I, would go out the back stairway from the apartment kitchen and play in the alley.  The kitchen had a small door to the hall way where ice for ice boxes was delivered before electric refrigerators were available.  The apartment also had green and white striped wall paper in the dining room.  The alley appears to be blocked by a fence now.  There was another grocery store on the corner of California Street.  We went there often, too.  The first disc of Finnegan Family Memories DVD's shows the apartment and many other family events shot in 8mm film by Jim Finnegan.  

Sherry:  Then Grandma and Granpa Ryder moved out to Rockbrook Blvd (South 102^nd Street).  A previous Long Since Dispersed post discussed the architectural kit that Frank purchased to build this home:  Building Rockbrook Blvd.

This photo is of the house that replaced their house which was a three bedroom white ranch.  It became a rose covered cottage with large yards on the south side and rear (which ran downhill to Rockbrook Creek).  It also had a driveway that ran downhill slightly into the garage, less level than shows here.  There was a narrow screened porch across the back of the garage and a door from the basement to the back patio where he had built a large stone barbeque ).   Bernie and Tommy (and Patty who was a dance instructor at Arthur Murray), all lived there for a time.  I spent a lot of time with Frank and Ruth and I remember it being built.  It wasn't done when they moved out of 1009 Mercer Blvd. and so he rented a house at Lake Okoboji , Iowa, for the summer – probably 1949 or 1950 - for Grandma and my mother and I went with her for a part of the summer. 

Katy: "The first year Tommy(her youngest brother) went to (Creighton) Prep, Grandpa bought him a scooter.   I gave Maureen (her oldest daughter)rides on it. "  

Sherry:  On the way out here to Rockbrook Blvd., I was reminded that about 1952-3, this South 90^th and Center area was cornfields.  Katy:  "The city was growing and Dad wanted somewhere he could go out in his cutoff shorts and be in the yards.  He died at 67 in October, 1957.   It was peripheral artery disease.   That's what made him have to retire."

Kathleen:  He (Frank) just sort of picked up electrical engineering by himself?  Katy:  "Well, yes, and he had all of these books that he read all the time.  He didn't go to school very long (according to the 1940 census entry, he attended high school for one year)."  In a previous Long Since Dispersed post, I recalled more about Frank T. Ryder: Remembering Frank Thomas Ryder

Oh Laus! - Remembering Ruth Harriet Gearen Ryder

Ruth Harriet Gearen about 18-20 yrs.

How I loved my grandmother!  I always considered her one of my best friends.  As I wrote here in the Long Since Dispersed post about my grandfather, Frank T. Ryder, I spent a very great deal of time with my grandparents and always begged to spend even more time with them.

Since my grandmother Ruth lived for twenty years after her husband who died in 1957, I was able to spend even more time with her. There are simple, sweet memories of those times.  It was very painful to communicate with her in her last years because of the strokes she suffered after 1975 and I now wish that I had the skills to be a better friend to her then.


I knew my family well but did not know much about their lives before their life with me and my immediate and extended family. That would have been very interesting, so now I spend time trying to learn more about them. Despite all the time I spent with her, I cannot remember many conversations. One I do remember was an afternoon out with her doing errands. She asked me what I looked at first when I met someone. I told her truthfully I hadn't really thought about it and she told me for her it was  their eyes. She didn't elaborate about what it meant to her but she lived in a time when personal contact was everything. That was the basis of her first impression.

But she was not really a simple person.  She had faced many challenges and many disappointments, raised her seven children safely through the Depression, moved her family between and within two cities probably 10 times, faced the terrifying early death of her husband which left her with a very small income for the rest of her life, faced the crushing heartache of her daughter Bernie's early death and many other crises, as every family does.  She remained steady, cheerful and loving.

America was changing rapidly in the 60's, and in her 70's then, she had lived through many different eras.  I spent a great deal of time with her even then, visiting, taking her grocery and birthday card shopping and running errands, picking up birthday cookies to deliver.   Forty years before smart phones, my mother and aunts were in touch with her regularly but not daily as we have been with our parents who lived to advanced ages.  Many of the things Ruth valued and wanted to cook and sew seemed quaint then but those are precious memories now.

All precious memories except the Emeraude!  She had a number of colognes and perfumes on her dressing table but her favorite seemed to be Emeraude.  I remember my reaction to it clearly.  In fairness to her and the fragrance, I visited this website:  Yesterdays Fragrances - 1921 Emeraude by Coty  It was a popular fragrance among women her age and yet my sister Peggy and I would run the other way when she picked it up!

Ruth, probably 1950's

Ruth Harriet Gearen was born August 15, 1892, in Sioux City, Iowa, the second daughter and fifth child of James Edward Gearen and Dora Virginia Curtis Gearen.  It is not entirely clear when his father Patrick arrived in the United States or how they moved gradually west to Iowa. Their two oldest sons John Florence (1883) and William Edward (1886) were born in Chicago, Illinois but Marie (1888) was born in Iowa.  According to the City Directories for Sioux City, James was a plumber in a family-owned plumbing business that bore the name of his brother John F. (J. F. Gearen Plumbing) in Sioux City. Catherine was "at home" and, unfortunately, I have no successful research about her.

To-date, I have not located proof of Ruth's birth or baptism, but the Iowa and federal censuses, the SSDI (Social Security Death Index) and her headstone list this birth date and it is the one she used. Ruth was my maternal grandmother, mother of my mother Mary Virginia Ryder Wilmes.  Ruth died September 13, 1978, at the Mercy Care Center in Omaha, several years after her first severe stroke in approximately 1975.  

James Edward and Dora Curtis Gearen

Her Parents.  The picture at left of her parents is a copy of a copy but original framed portraits were included in my mother's family history collection which I acquired when my father died in 2013. James was born in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1859 to an Irish immigrant couple, Patrick J. Gearen and Catherine Crowley both from County Cork, who very likely fled aftermath of the Irish famine. County Cork and Cork City were among the hardest hit famine communities in all of Ireland.






They were married in Chicago on December 20, 1882, and a copy of their license was forwarded to me by a newly found cousin. It is an important document but it is a fuzzy copy and I will work to get a clearer version to post.

Ruth's mother was Dora Virginia Curtis Gearen who was possibly born in Virginia in February 22, 1864 (the date February 22 is known only because it is listed in Ruth's Birthday book and her note "birthday anniversary" probably indicates that might be the date but it is not certain). There are not enough records located to-date to confirm very much about Dora, including the date of her relocation to Chicago from the Virginia home of her parents in Lexington, Virginia at the time of the 1870 Federal Census, or her family's religion.  The census of 1870 names her parents John Wesley (a "tinner") and Harriet Edmonds Curtis but other than a set of military documents about her father, who was for a short time a Confederate soldier discharged early for health reasons, I have not yet successfully completed enough research about them. The Confederate service records for John Wesley Curtis were located on Fold3.com.

James and Patrick Gearen died in Sioux City within one day of each other - January 27th and January 28th, 1923.  The story was noted on January 29th, 1923 in the Nebraska Business Journal with the headline "Pals During Their Life Succumb On Same Day".  Patrick was quite elderly in 1923, perhaps born about 1836, but I asked once about why James died so early and my aunt Katy Ryder Finnegan told me he had been suffering from pernicious anemia for some time before his death.  It would be necessary to search for a death certificate in Sioux City to confirm that.




Education.  The 1940 federal census includes "highest educational level achieved" information for each person listed.  The enumerator noted that Ruth had reached the second year of high school and that Frank had completed one year (I have not researched this any further).  We don't often think of women working during the early years of the twentieth century but Ruth had a career for at least 5 years.  The 1915 Iowa Census entry for Ruth, then aged 23, indicates that she was a stenographer. The 1920 federal census also shows her as a stenographer at a "packing plant". Almost certainly that was the Cudahy plant in Sioux City where both Ruth's older brother "Fleury" or "Florry" (John Florence) Gearen and her future husband Frank T. Ryder also worked.

Friends.  Apart from her immediate family, I know almost nothing else of her life before my life with all of them. There is an address book (discussed later) with names of women unfamiliar to me. One future project will be to research the names:  Mrs. Mabel Meyer, Mrs. Gunnar Nelson, Irene Kellogg, Mrs. Catherine Follis, Mrs. Helen Nothnagel (the only name familiar to me), Mrs. George Wissing, Mrs. Kenneth Keane, Mrs. Kate Brennan.  Almost all of them show addresses from Sioux City, Iowa, and I suppose they were childhood friends or married names of relatives.

Ruth and Frank with Ann and Jack Walsh

Marriage.   I cannot be certain that this is the wedding picture of Frank and Ruth, but it is very likely that it was close to that time if not. The other couple in the picture is Ann and her husband Jack Walsh.  Ann remained a very close friend of Ruth's for all of their lives.

Marriage Recorded by Archdiocese

The Archivist of the Catholic Archdiocese of Sioux City, Iowa has an index which notes their wedding date at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Sioux City, Iowa on June 29, 1921 (fourth from the bottom, marked by yellow x).  It appears that there are no digitized marriage record pictures and I have not yet visited the governnent offices in Sioux City to search the records.  An index entry is available through Family Search.org at Iowa, County Marriages, 1838-1934.  (Frank's full name at his baptism and marriage according to additional Archdiocesan records was Thomas Francis although he used Frank Thomas Ryder personally and professionally and his headstone also shows Frank T. Ryder).



Her Catholic Faith.  Ruth was a woman of great faith, born in a time of significant growth in the Catholic community in Sioux City, according to to Cathedral of the Epiphany, Diocese of Sioux City Historyhttp://www.sccathedral.org/history.aspx.  She was devoted the the Blessed Virgin Mary, to the Rosary, to many saints, and to her brother, the Right Reverend Monsignor Percival Patrick ("Perc") Gearen, who became the pastor of St. Cecelia's Catholic Church in Algona, Kossuth County, Iowa, five years her junior (1897-1970).

Her Family.  She was devoted to every member of her immediate family - four sisters and five brothers in these pictures.  I love the picture of Ruth and her sisters because of their dresses.  They are all drop-waisted and much shorter than their earlier photos.  Marie's headdress suggests early 1920's "Flapper" style! Before seeing this, I would never have imagined my grandmother as a Flapper! There are several other photos of the Gearen siblings grouped together like this, so they gathered often.   A separate blog post will describe the information available for her siblings.

Ruth, Mimi (Marie), their mother Dora, Marge, Grace, Babe (Lucille)

Leo Wilson, Gearens and Frank Ryder

Oh, Laus!   (Pronounced LAWS") It is no surprise, then, that her favorite expression of exasperation was one which might have been associated with Catholicism.  "Oh, Laus!"  Problems with baking, cleaning, ironing, family, television, shopping, her husband Frank calling out for her  - "Oh, Laus!"  I have always assumed that this expression was something liturgical or scriptural.  I went looking for a source and while there is nothing direct, there are some possibilities.  

First, there is the Latin translation of "Laus Deo" or Praise the Lord as defined in Websters.com.

Our Lady of Laus and Benoite Rencurel

Our Lady of Laus.  There is also the story of a Marian apparation (an apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary to a living person) to a simple shepardess named Benoite Rencurel at Saint Etienne-le-Laus, France, at the foot of the Alps, sixty miles from Grenoble, over the years 1664-1718 (approved by the Vatican in 2008, a story I had not heard).  The Catholic Encyclopedia at Who is Our Lady of Laus? describes the story at length.  This dictionary, dating to approximately 1910, states:  "At the heart of the message given to Benoite is a conversion of souls which aims to bring full reconciliation with oneself, with others, and with God."

The Temperance Pledge.  I cannot say where Ruth acquired the expression "Oh Laus!" - maybe at a Catholic school, through instruction at her parish church, from her brother or somewhere else.  But we know from oral family tradition that she had taken a temperance pledge when she received the Sacrament of Confirmation as a teenager. The Iowa section of  The Church in Iowa, 1910 (the Diocese of Dubuque, of which Sioux City was a part until 1902) states that the Bishop was "an enthusiastic advocate of temperance and many temperance societies had been formed across the state".  She had followed the exhortations of her religious leaders on temperance and it is possible that "Oh, Laus" was a common or her own personal use of this story of Our Lady of Laus.  She was faithful to the temperance pledge all her life except when her son-in-law Bob Wear, Sr., would mischievously make her a Creme de Menthe on ice after an occasional dinner without telling her - and she didn't refuse it!

She remained faithful to the rosary, as well, and recited it daily.  As she was older, she would "say her prayers" in the early afternoon, remarkably, often kneeling in front of a living room chair to pray and recite the rosary.  I recall many visits to her at Cornish Heights Apartments in the early 70's and finding her in prayer (and I waited until she was finished!) or at her other afternoon past-time - the daily soap opera dating from April 2, 1956, As The World Turns.  She was a devoted fan of Lawrence Welk, as well.

After her marriage, Ruth, like her mother, was also "at home".  She baked, and cooked, and kept house.  And then, she cooked some more.

Doughnuts and Breakfast.  To the right of the kitchen stove was a coffee can. Perhaps two.  One had bacon grease and the other lard. The lard was an essential ingredient for doughnuts in the early days (also pies, I think). Three varieties - cake donuts, plain, powdered sugar or sugar-cinnamon combination. Crispy, crunchy, warm, fresh from the small round cast iron pot never too far from the stove. There were doughnut dunkers in her family, especially Frank and his oldest son Jim.  And, of course, the breakfast meats were quite good quality because they came directly from the Cudahy "packing house" where her husband was the "Chief Master Mechanic".  Bacon, sausage, Canadian bacon. Ruth was very fond of buttermilk and she continued to drink it even into the 70's for lunch, for example, with some cottage cheese and tomato slices.
.  

Fried Mush.  There were also pancakes considered unusual today - buckwheat pancakes - one of my mother's favorites - but they were not favorites of her daughters.  And, there was fried "mush", Mother's most favorite. Water, salt, corn meal and butter.  Mixed, poured into a loaf pan, refrigerated overnight, then sliced and fried to very crisp exteriors, buttered and served with syrup.  Some modern cooks attribute the popularity of fried mush to the availability of inexpensive corn meal during the Depression years. Probably true, but it is also possible Ruth's own mother's southern roots influenced her cooking.

Shirred Eggs. When all of her family except Bernie and Tommy were married and living in their own homes, there were grumblings about the three different menus she prepared daily for Frank, Bernie and Tommy. There is only one clear memory of an item that was different for one of them. Bernie's choice for breakfast was "shirred" eggs - scrambled eggs prepared in a double boiler. Actually, most recipes for shirred eggs available online today seem to involve baking the eggs in a water bath but I have clear memory of the double boiler.

Recipes.  The first Christmas after my mother Mary died, in  2000, my sister Laura made copies of her recipe book.  I found recipes that are clearly associated with Ruth.  The date that each recipe was created is not known so it may be that ingredients and baking techniques have changed over time, making the precise directions shown here less successful today. In some cases, the recipe directions seem incomplete but they are offered here as the only ones found.

Here is the recipe as written out by her daughter Kathleen Ann Ryder Finnegan, who also loved "Mush":

1 cup Quaker yellow corn meal
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup cold water
3 cups boiling water

Combine corn meal, salt and the cold water.  Gradually pour into boiling water, stirring constantly. Return to boil, stirring constantly.  Reduce heat; cover.  Continue cooking over low heat about 5 minutes.  Slice and fry in Crisco or oil . 

This is the recipe for her Banana Bread as recorded by my mother:

2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup soft shortening
2 eggs
Stir in:  3 tablespoons sour milk (probably buttermilk?)
1 cup mashed bananas
2 cups sifted flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon (baking) soda
1/2 teaspoon salt 

Blend in 1/2 cup nuts
Let stand 1 hour before baking at 350 degrees for 50 minutes

Here is a recipe from my mother's collection labeled Grandma's Devils Food Cake (but I am not certain if it is Ruth's or her mother Dora's):

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
1 stick of margarine, put in cup and fill with boiling water
2 eggs
1 cup flour
1 cup buttermilk
Stir flour with 1 teaspoon (baking) soda and 1/4 teaspoon (cream of) tartar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Add in order above.  Bake 350 degrees until done.

And finally, this is Ruth's recipe for my sister Peggy's favorite cookie - the Refrigerator Cookies (previously called the Ice Box Cookie):

1 cup shortening
1 teaspoon salt 
1 cup white sugar and 1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
3 cups sifted flour
1/2 teaspoon (baking) soda
1 cup nuts
1 teaspoon vanilla

Roll in 2 rolls and chill several hours
Slice.  Bake on greased cookie sheets.  375 degrees. 

Cookies For Your Birthday

Cookies for your birthday.  Whenever possible, she made cookies as birthday gifts for every grandchild. She kept careful records of the birth dates of her grandchildren in a Birthday Book (which will be attached in full to a future post). My favorite was chocolate chip cookies made according to the back of the Nestle's Chocolate Chip bag, as I recall. Each child's cookies' gift was a small wax-paper lined coffee can (like this more modern Folgers can) - there were no special wrappings but love!  

Housekeeper.  Besides baking, she was a great housekeeper.  Each day of the week had a task,  Monday was wash day. Tuesday was ironing day, and so on. Fabrics were 100% cotton and everything was ironed.  At their Rockbrook Blvd. house, there was a basement laundry room and I remember her ironing there on a "mangle" she used to iron shirts, sheets, pillow cases, underwear. Most of the vintage mangles shown online have rollers like an old fashioned washing machine but my recollection is that it was similar to the steam presses of modern dry cleaners with a top raised by a long horizontal bar.  It is likely that her husband made or had the device made for her. There was no residential air conditioning at that time and summer ironing was and perhaps it was intended to speed her work.  I do remember (because I did it often in my own family) that each item was sprinkled to moisten it, then rolled and kept cool in a refrigerator until time to iron it.   

A Goebel-Hummel Figurine

Hummels.  Perhaps Ruth decided quickly that one way to keep a pre-schooler busy was to create a job for her.  My jobs were emptying the wastebaskets around the house daily and, if there for the weekly cleaning day, dusting the figurines. The clearest memories were "Hummel" figurines (see the Goebel-Hummel-Collectibles Guide). She received them as gifts for special occasions and as they were special, each had to be dusted with care. There are several remaining in the collections of family members, this one is in my sister Laura Wilmes Ramirez's living room.  

1970's Sewing Box

Sewing.  Most women of Ruth's generation had good if not great sewing skills.  I cannot recall her completing full womens' pattern sewing as my mother and her sister Bernie often did, but she was a good cross-stitcher and mender. These are the contents of her sewing box from the 1970's:  needles, measuring tapes, scissors, wooden spool threads, iron-on denim patches snaps, hooks and eyes, binding tapes, and needle-pointed pin cushion. I know that she continued to cross-stitch through all of the 70's, even with arthritis in her hands and after her first stroke.

Health. Her first stroke followed a terrifying and devastating event in her life, an F4 tornado which struck Omaha on May 6, 1975 (1975 Omaha tornado outbreak).  The apartment complex in which she lived was severely damaged.  Hearing the civil defense sirens, a neighbor living below her walked her down to his garden apartment level and although they were uninjured, the buildings were severely damaged.  Her daughter Frances Ryder Wear's home nearby had almost a total loss and the Wears' Cornish Heights Apartments were heavily damaged. She moved immediately to Whitehall Apartments further west on Dodge Street in Omaha but that Fall she suffered the first of the strokes. She did not really recover from the first so she moved, first to St. Catherine's Nursing Home and later to Bergan Mercy Care Center.

Ruth's Birthdays At-A-Glance Book

Birthdays, anniversaries, dates-of-death.  Dates and mail were very important to Ruth, so important that she even noted the name of her Postman - Milo A. Karnik -  in her Birthdays book  The cards she mailed to each person in her book were purchased at a Hallmark card store before the beginning of the month, handwritten with a fountain ink pen in her beautiful spidery script, then stamped and mailed weekly as the date approached. This is the cover of her book, which was included in my mother's collection of family history.  The full, scanned contents will be a separate Long Since Dispersed post soon.

Special Dinner With Flowers

Opposite Side View

Getting Together.  There were many family gatherings. Sunday dinners were standard for the years before my grandfather died in 1957. Roast chicken, mashed potatoes with white gravy, a vegetable. Homemade Clover rolls. Perhaps some fancy jello mold.  Dessert cake or pie, with ReadiWhip or occasionally homemade ice cream, of course!

The basements of both homes had large spaces that held huge dining tables and chairs for a crowd. These pictures are from a 1949 dinner at 1009 Mercer Blvd., perhaps about the time that Jim and Jeanne Walden Ryder were married or leaving for the Philippines.  Note the multiple platters of fried chicken and mashed potatoes. There is a vacant chair between my aunts Franny and Katy so I think that the picture was probably taken by Katy's husband Jim Finnegan.  The second photo shows two children near Franny, and along with the notation in my mother's handwriting of "1949" on the back, it is definitely that later year.

Birthday Parties.  Individual birthdays were cookie gift days but there was often a monthly celebration for all the grandchildren with birthdays that month.  There soon were so many children that parties were held in city parks, weather permitting - Elmwod Park or Fontanelle Park.  Each was a dynamic event! These photos are of an indoor summer 1955 party.

Rockbrook Summer 1955 (not Oct '55 print date)

Spider Man (Bob Wear, Jr.) and the girls

Of course, we took our treat bags to her house for Halloween. This photo is also at Rockbrook Blvd. and is probably earlier than the birthday party above, perhaps 1953 or 1954.  I remember the desk in the corner and the round table with the bowed legs very well. From top left, Sherry Wilmes, Ruthie Wear, Bob Wear, Jr. masked, Connie Wear, Maureen Finnegan and Peggy Wilmes masked.

My husband and I sat with Katy's lifelong friend Rene Wilfong Garvey and her daughter at the lunch following the funeral my beloved aunt Katy Ryder Finnegan in Omaha on April 10, 2015. In addition to wonderful recollections of their girlhoods, Rene told us that she spent many hours at the Ryder houses with Katy. One of her recollections was that Ruth found her husband Frank very funny and I remember that about all of the Ryders, they loved laughing!  Her daughters gathered at her house or apartment often, cooking, sewing, giving each other permanent waves, caring for their mother.

There was another family party that evening at Julie Wear and Gene Cammarotta's home following Katy's funeral.  More than half of Ruth's 26 grandchildren were there, many of their children, almost a dozen great-great-grandchildren, and several more unborn. Ruth would have been delighted to see them and to hold them and to enter each one into her treasured Birthdays book!  This story is for all of you.  I hope that you will remember that she loved her family deeply, taught them to love each other and would unquestionably loved you.


Notes and Sources

1. All of the United States Census and state census documents mentioned here were accessed at Ancestry.com, a paid genealogy database program.  They are also available online without cost at FamilySearch.org.  I have created an extensive family tree at Ancestry.com titled Wilmes_Ryder Family  Tree.  Periodically, access to Ancestry.com is available free for very limited periods, especially during holidays such as Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, etc.  I have not yet created an extensive tree at FamilyTree.org but it is my intention to do so.
2. The source for the news article about James Gearen and his father Patrick Gearen dying within 24 hours of each other is: Ancestry.com. The Nebraska State Journal (Lincoln, Nebraska) [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005.  Original data: The Nebraska State Journal. Lincoln, NE, USA. Database created from microfilm copies of the newspaper. Accessed May 8, 2015.
3. Reference is made to Fold3.com as the source of the John Wesley Curtis (Ruth's maternal grandfather) Confederate Army documents.  Fold3.com is a paid database and is occasionally available free for very limited periods near holidays, especially those with military associations.  Copies of the documents are saved to my Ancestry.com tree.
4. The marriage record information was obtained from the Archdiocese of Sioux City, Iowa, 1812 Jackson Street, Sioux City, Iowa 51105 which has an Archives:. Archives of the Archdiocese of Sioux City, Iowa.  Note that the office has limited office hours on Monday and Tuesday at this time. 712-255-7933.   I obtained the marriage index, as well as a baptismal index record for Frank T. Ryder and his older brother Arthur Benjamin Ryder from the archdiocese in 2014.
5. Most of the photos and the Birthdays At A Glance book and the sewing box in this post were found in photo albums and a collection retained by my mother, Mary Virginia Ryder Wilmes until her death in 2000 and maintained by my father James A. Wilmes until his death in 2014. In addition to those items in my possession now, I have the framed original prints of Ruth's I have acquired them as we have packed their home in Omaha for sale.  They are all now in my home in Brooklyn, NY.
6. Most other items are identified as to their current location or owner or linked directly to a website source.