As I mentioned last week, (9 Jan 2022) generally I do not have favorites. But I do find photos that I especially like and this is one of them. I posted this photo once before as a part of a group of three when I wrote a post 17 Nov 2017 entitled: Fotos of Some of Sarah Lollar’s Children. Now I want to tell you more about the person in the photo.
This photo of Rebecca (O'Neal) Monroe was handed down to me from the belongings of my grandmother, Florence (Bond) Falk. Rebecca was my grandmother's mother's aunt. This photo was one of those printed on a postcard and the card was sent to my great-grandparents, probably in an envelope since it has no stamp. But a message was written on the post card side. It was addressed “To John and Molly Bond From Aunt Becca.” This was first time I learned that my great-grandmother Mary Ann was called Molly.
The message section said: “We are all well and hope your the same. I wish you was here to have thanksgiving dinner with me. Write soon. Becca Monroe 286 11st Portland, Org.” Using the book, Real Photo Postcards Kwik Guide, I discovered that the post card stock used was from 1908 to 1924. Since Rebecca gave her address, I decided to try to find out when she lived there. I did find her on the 1910 census, living with a married daughter, at that address. Then I wondered about how long she had lived there. The next logical step was to look at city directories, since Portland was the largest city in Oregon and Ancestry.com had many directories in their database from Portland. A search for Rebecca Monroe showed me that she was listed in 6 different years from 1906 to 1920. I was surprised to find that she was at a different address in each one of those. However,in the 1911 city directory, her address shown was 286 11th. Possibly the information was gathered near the same time that the 1910 census had been taken. So this dates this postcard to about 1910.
But what other information have I found about Rebecca She was born 9 Jun 1845 in Bartholomew County, Indiana, the youngest child of Thomas and Sarah (Lollar) O'Neal. She would have been a small child when her father died in 1847. The 1850 census gives the family location as Sand Creek Township in Bartholomew County. Rebecca was still young when her mother died in 1854. Some of the family had moved west to Davis County, Iowa, and by 1860, as a teenager, she was in the household of her brother Commodore Perry O'Neal and his wife and daughter. When Perry and family went to California with his wife's family in 1865, Rebecca traveled with them. But this signaled a big change in Rebecca's life. On the journey west, in Salt Lake City, Rebecca married Alexander Monroe. They apparently stopped in Nevada for awhile, since their oldest daughter, Alice, was later listed as born in Nevada. But by the 1870 census the family; now with 3 children: Alice Augusta, Perry and Mary; was located in Coyote Valley, Lake County, California.
It was probably the next year when Rebecca's family moved north to Oregon. They were near where Rebecca's brother, Commodore Perry O'Neal, had settled in 1870 in the Coast Fork Precinct of Lane County, Oregon. Rebecca and Alexander and their 8 children were enumerated on the 1880 census in Coast Fork Precinct. The younger 5 had been born in Oregon: Rachel, Sarah, James, Charles and William. Then 4 more children were born: Mattie, George, Marie and Lottie. Alexander bought 8 acres of government land in 1895 in the nearby Cloverdale area. But it was just a little over 3 years later, 29 Sep 1898, when Alexander died. He was buried in the Pleasant Hill Cemetery.
So, on the 1900 census Rebecca was enumerated with her oldest daughter's family in the Creswell Precinct of Lane County. Alice had married John Cruzan in Dec 1883 and they had 4 children by 1900. I found it interesting that Rebecca’s 2 youngest children, Marie and Lottie were very close in age to her Cruzan grandchildren.
It was in 1905 that a tragic incident happened for the Monroe family. One of Rebecca’s married daughters, Rachel (Monroe) Stoops, was murdered. This could never be a pleasant memory for Rebecca. I did write about the tragedy on my blog on 10 Oct 2017.
By the 1910 census Rebecca had moved to Portland to be with another daughter, Lottie, listed as Bernie Pinard. As I noted earlier, they lived at 286 11th. Rebecca’s son-in-law, John Pinard, worked as a bartender in a saloon. Rebecca was living with yet another daughter, Marie Adams, at the time of the 1920 census. Marie was working as a housekeeper at a hotel.
At age 79, Rebecca died on 10 Oct 1924 in Portland, Oregon and was buried at Rose City Cemetery there. Her obituary stated 10 of her children were still living, 6 daughters and 4 sons. I am glad that now some of her descendants are among my DNA matches.
I liked reading about your ancestry. I have been checking dates of birth and death on my dad's side of family. I've found some of them. My grandpa Ernest Albertson had some picture postcards when he was in WWI in France 1918. I should scan them one of these days. Make it into a album. We'll see if I remember to do it.
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