Border disputes in this area of the world meant your ancestors country of origin could change every few years. It makes it hard to know which nationality your ancestors actually were. For example, my great great grandmother is listed as being from Germany (1900, 1910), Prussia (1880) and France (1870, 1920) on US Federal census records. It all depended on the which country was controlling the area she was from the year the census was taken.
Prussia, German, or France? Where was she from?
The tragic accidental death of David C Whitney at the age of 51. He was survived by wife, Elizabeth, and children, Ada, Charles, and Emmett.
The first article had most of his personal information wrong. C L Whitney was the name of his son who just happened to work for the railroad too.
In a strange coincidence Elizabeth’s brother, Alexander, would be killed in the same way 20 years later.
There’s not a picture of all of them together and, sadly, I only remember meeting one of the, Uncle David. Here’s a list of all my aunts and uncles. Siblings of Philip Lloyd Whitney, 1934-1996.
Emmett Leroy “Bob” Whitney Jr., 1913-1996
Anna Marie Whitney Uselton Altmeyer, 1915-1965
David Wayne Whitney, 1921-1994
Paul Jean Whitney, 1922-1945
Dale Keith Whitney, 1925-1937
Joseph Dean Whitney, 1931-1937
My grandmother abandoned her four little girls after the death of her first husband, Arthur Huff, and I don’t have much information on them. Three were adopted out in Nebraska around 1920. One, Winifred, supposedly died in the flu pandemic of 1918.
I did find two of the girls but unfortunately they had passed before I found them. The girls were named Berniece, Pauline, Gladys and Winifred before adoption. Only Berniece kept her given name. I’m not sure which girls are Pauline or Gladys.
Berniece Lorraine Rickard Grosvenor, 1912-2002
Winifred Huff, 1914-1918
Rosemary,
Elizabeth Ann “Bette” Brown Smith, 1918-2003
“Preserve your memories, keep them well, what you forget you can never retell.”
Louisa May Alcott
Emmett Leroy Whitney was a piano man from an early age. At age 15, he was already advertising as a music teacher in the East St Louis, Illinois City Directory (1906).
Emmett liked to play the piano in a ragtime music style that was popularized in the late 1890’s but he could also perform the classics with style and grace.
He wrote, performed and recorded music across the United States. He was comfortable playing in churches, theater productions and saloons. Also he tuned and repaired piano’s when not performing.
In the late 1940’s, and throughout the 50’s, he was the music director of Rose Hill Church Of the Nazarene in Little Rock.
Emmett Leroy Whitney was born in 1891 to David C. and Elisabeth Ann (Linder) Whitney in Ramsey, Illinois.
He married in 1911 to Carrie Isabel Montgomery and they had two children, Emmett Leroy “Bob” Whitney, Jr and Anna Marie Whitney
Emmett married around 1920 to Fanny Susann (Roberts) Huff and they had five boys, David Wayne Whitney, Paul Jean Whitney, Dale Keith Whitney, Joseph Dean Whitney and Philip Lloyd Whitney.
During his time at Rose Hill, he married for a third time to Viola Smith. They had no children. Emmett and Viola retired to Chetopa, Kansas in 1964. Unfortunately, both died there in 1965.
“Preserve your memories, keep them well, what you forget you can never retell.” – Louisa May Alcott
Write them down, take photos, do anything you can to remember. Memories do fade. Things are forgotten. Time and family slips away.
“Rosa Adeline Kaufman, aged 81 of 7200 Gable Drive, widow of Edward Robert Kaufman, died Monday. Born in Little Rock, she was a daughter of J. D. and Delilah Williford Henslee and was a retired grocer and member of Tatum Street Baptist Church. Survivors are two sons, Thomas David Kaufman of Little Rock and James Estes Kaufman of Atlanta, Ga.; three daughters, Lucille McAllester, Nettie Mae Mann and Nancy Arlene Davis of Little Rock, 21 grandchildren, 32 great-grandchildren and four great-great-grandchildren. Funeral will be at 11 a.m. Wednesday in Griffin Leggett Healey and Roth by Rev. Lloyd Goodman. Burial will be in Pine Crest memorial Park.”
Arkansas gazette January 11, 1983
A PERSONAL REFLECTION OF LOVE
Grandma Kaufman always had a smile and could make me laugh at her stories. I can still smell her rolls baking in the oven. Oh how I would give anything if I had her roll recipe.
We had moved into the same neighborhood where Grandpa and Grandma Kaufman lived and one day, on the way home from the bus stop, I dropped in for a visit. Grandpa and Grandma were out in the yard working and she was clearing out from under a huge wisteria bush that was in a corner. She had seen me coming and grabbed a couple of peaches from the tree and we sat down underneath the wisteria canopy she had just created and ate our peaches. We talked until it was almost dark about this and that and I can’t even remember what we talked about. Around dinner time Grandpa came out from the shed and demanded dinner. Grandma just fussed back at him telling him that the girls were a talkin’ and she’d get dinner done when she got it done.
Those two always fussed and fumed at each other but you always knew they really loved each other. One day we stopped by to visit Grandma after Grandpa had died and she was sitting on the couch working on a quilt. She looked sad so I leaned over and asked her how she was doing and she simply replied, “I miss him.”
from: Laurie Skillern, Kaufman GAZETTE, July 2000, EDITED
Beat eggs. Add sugar, oil and vanilla. Mix dry ingredients together and add to egg mixture, alternately with milk. Add raisins. Pour into greased oblong pan and sprinkle with brown sugar that has been mixed with cinnamon. Dot with butter. Bake at 400 F for 30 minutes.
First Generation
Marion Oliver England son of William Thomas England and Elizabeth Harris on 26 Aug 1897 in Ramsey, Fayette, Illinois. Marion was born on 4 Jan 1876 in Ramsey, Fayette County, Illinois. He died on 27 Nov 1963. He was buried in Taylorville, Christian County, Illinois.
Marion married Ada Levina Whitney daughter of David Case Whitney and Elisabeth Ann Linder on 26 Aug 1897 in Ramsey, Fayette, Illinois. Ada was born on 8 Sep 1880 in East St. Louis, St. Clair County, Illinois. She died on 18 Sep 1953 in Taylorville, Illinois. She was buried in Taylorville, Christian County, Illinois
They had the following children:
+ 2 F i. Rachel E. England was born in 1898. She died on 1 Feb 1979.
+ 3 M ii. Earl Leroy England was born on 25 Aug 1900. He died in Jan 1972.
+ 4 M iii. William David England was born on 24 Mar 1910. He died on 4 Jul 1996.
Second Generation
2. Rachel E. England (Ada Levina) was born in 1898 in Ramsey, Fayette, Illinois, United States. She died on 1 Feb 1979. She was buried in Decatur, Macon County, Illinois, United States of America.
Rachel married Noah Edward Keith son of William H Keith and Minnie M in 1924. Noah was born on 4 Nov 1896 in Martinsville, Clark, Illinois, United States. He died in Mar 1979. He was buried in Decatur, Macon County, Illinois, United States of America.
They had the following children:
5 F i. Esther Keith was born about 1928 in Illinois. She died on 18 Apr 1936 in Decatur, Macon, Illinois. She was buried on 21 Apr 1936 in Decatur, Macon, Illinois.
3. Earl Leroy England (Ada Levina) was born on 25 Aug 1900 in Ramsey, Fayette, Illinois, United States. He died in Jan 1972 in Taylorville, Christian, Illinois, United States. He was buried in Taylorville, Christian County, Illinois, United States of America.
Earl married Eloise M Franklin daughter of James Franklin and Ellen Prether in 1924 in Taylorville, Christian, Illinois, United States. Eloise was born on 30 Aug 1908 in Illnois. She died in Apr 1989 in Taylorville, Christian, Illinois, United States. She was buried in Taylorville, Christian County, Illinois, United States of America.
They had the following children:
6 M i. Franklyn O England was born on 19 Nov 1932 in Taylorville. He died on 2 Feb 2015 in Springfield, Sangamon County, Illinois, United States of America.
Franklyn married Mary Jean Mellenberger daughter of Elizabeth Kuntz and Francina Kuntz on 21 Apr 1956 in Springfield. Mary was born about 1933 in
Illinois. She died on 13 Jun 2015.
4. William David England (Ada Levina) was born on 24 Mar 1910 in Ramsey, Fayette, Illinois, United States. He died on 4 Jul 1996 in Marshall, Calhoun, Michigan, USA. He was buried in Augusta, Kalamazoo County, Michigan, United States of America.
William married (1) Anna .
They had the following children:
7 F i. Viola England .
8 F ii. Anna England.
William married (2) Fanny Janette.
Granny, Nettie Mae Kaufman Mann, would have been 99 today.
She once joked, “I was born in the northbound lane of I-430,” and she really was, just long before the interstate ever existed. What is now known as the Big Rock Interchange in Little Rock is where the farm once sat.
She lived most of her life within a mile of that old farm. Raising her family of 4 girls and one boy. Her husband, Harold Curtis Mann, died in 1957 when her oldest child was 16 and the youngest almost 2.
Granny attended church at Rose Hill Church of the Nazarene, which was located right down the road from the farm (Shackleford and Kanis Road) from her mid-teens until about 2 years before her death.
Granny loved her family and her church but she also loved to cook. She could make anything taste good with ease. Every year, around this time, she would be in the kitchen baking bread to give to family and friends.
One of my biggest regrets is that I don’t have any of my Grandmother Whitney’s recipes. So when I got married the only thing I requested as a wedding gift from Granny were some of her recipes.
I don’t remember ever meeting any of my grandfather’s first family. Before he met my grandmother, he had been married and had two young kids when he just up and left. I don’t even know why he left them or exactly when. He left sometime around 1920.
Sadly, I never met my grandmother’s first family either. Shortly after her first husband died in December 1918, she abandoned her 3 (or 4) little girls somewhere in Nebraska. By 1920, three of the girls had been adopted out. It was said she had four daughters with one dying in the 1918 flu pandemic but so far that’s just family talk with no actual records of a fourth child being found.
By 1921, Emmett and Fanny met, married and had their first of five sons. Out of their total of 10 (or 11) children I only knew my dad and his brother David.
From the estate of Hubert Skillern, Cabot, Arkansas.
Backroads Soul 