52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – 30 – Colorful

My aunt had a colorful name. Violet was my mother's youngest sister. My mother, Wilma Falk, was 12 when Violet was born on 11 Mar 1924. There were 2 other sisters between them and a baby brother was born in 1927.

I decided to check happenings in Violet's life in the 22 years before she was married in 1946 by using the Newspapers.com website. Since she lived in Harrisburg Oregon the nearby newspaper in Eugene did include her name in over 30 issues. Also I found a mention in the Corvallis paper when she attended the England family reunion in Corvallis in 1930 with her parents and siblings. Since she was only 6, I wonder if she would have remembered that.

Reading about her activities in the newspaper, I learned a number of new things about her. When she was 5 years old in 1929 she attended a Sunday school party. In 1937 she was attending Busey school and

appeared in two of the plays presented at the school pie social. She was the only eighth grade graduate from Busey school that year and went on to attend Harrisburg High School. She did well in school, listed on the honor roll at least 3 times and graduated in 1941 with a class of 17 as the salutatorian. She appeared to be active in school: she was vice president of her junior class; appeared in the junior class play, played in a trumpet trio for the school band concert and went with the group to the coast for the Senior “Skip Day.”

She also was involved with the church as in 1939 she went with a group of Christian Endeavorers from Harrisburg to Portland. She played in a trumpet duet for the 1939 Christmas Sunday School program. I never knew she played the trumpet.

The newspaper named Violet as one of those who attended the bridal shower for her sister Lois in 1939 and again for the wedding shower for her sister Erma in 1941.

At some point Violet moved to Eugene where she was employed in office work. The 1944 Eugene city directory lists her as Violet Falk as a secretary at Oregon Mutual Life Insurance Company. Oregon Mutual was located at 132 E. Broadway in the Miner Building, room 343. I have memories of visiting the Miner Building, although it was not for Life Insurance. Violet was living at 710 Lawrence and her phone number was 2977. According to Google Maps today, it is ½ mile from where she was living to where she was working and it would take about 11 minutes to walk that distance.

While living in Eugene Violet still had friends. She was the maid of honor at a wedding and was in charge of the guest book at another, plus she was listed as a guest at a couple of bridal showers. She joined the Business Girls club, aka the Employed Girls club at the YWCA. In 1946 she was the chairman of their social committee and helped with at least 3 of their dances. She also served as a Junior Hostess for the USO, and received a 200 hour pin at their closing meeting in February of 1946. I read a little more about the USO Junior Hostesses and discovered they had some fairly strict rules: no slacks allowed, no smoking inside the USO areas, no drinking alcohol on the job, no dancing with other women and no refusing to dance with a service man unless he was “ungentlemanly.”

Finding out more about my aunt from reading in the newspapers made me wish that I had talked with her more often and asked questions about her life.

Ancestor Birthday – October 18 – Florence Edna Bond 1891 – 1979

My grandmother, Florence Edna Bond, was born 18 October 1891 in Creswell area, Lane County Oregon to John Howard and Mary Ann (O'Neal) Bond. She was the youngest of 5 children, with 2 older brothers and 2 older sisters. When she was about 3 years old the family moved to Eastern Oregon, Lone Rock in Gilliam County. A little over 10 years later the family moved back to the Willamette Valley to the Halsey area in Linn County Oregon.

It was 27 Mar 1910 when Florence married Julius Adolph Falk. They moved to his farm between Halsey and Harrisburg, with a Harrisburg address. Their first child, Howard Ludwig Falk, was born late in November of 1910 and lived about 3 weeks before his death on 22 Dec 1910. It was a little over a year later when my mother, Wilma Anna Falk, was born 27 Jan 1912. The family increased with Lois in 1915, Erma in 1919, Violet in 1924, and Gerald in 1927. Florence became a widow when Julius died in 1944. She lived most of the rest of her life on the farm until she suffered a stroke in March 1979 and died in June of that year.

I have written about her before on my blog:

22 Oct 2014—Her wedding

4 Jan 2017—Attending England family reunion in 1929

6 Jan 2017—Attending Bond family reunion in 1939

7 Jan 2017—Attending Bond family reunion in 1949

13 May 2017—Mother's Day 4 generations

10 Sep 2017—Grandparents Day

It is good to remember her in many different ways.

Families Visit Each Other

Often I find it very interesting how the older local newspapers report on who visited whom.

Checking out some of the Falk families I found that in August 1915, nine family members of the Leonard Falk clan from Albany, Oregon, traveled by automobile to Salem Heights to visit their brother George's home.

In October of 1925, Roy Bond of Glide, a brother of Mrs. Julius Falk, my grandmother, came to Harrisburg area to visit her. I suspect he was glad to tell her that the prune ranch operated by he and his brother Perry had a good yield that year.

There was quite a strange item in the paper of December 1925. It stated: "Julius Falk and family, who reside southwest of town, [Harrisburg, Oregon] motored to Roseburg Thanksgiving day and spent a few days visiting with Mrs. Falk's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Bond."

What is strange is that her parents had died in 1918 and 1919. I suspect it is probable that they visited her brothers who lived at Glide, which is in the Roseburg area.

It was in August of 1934 when my grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Julius Falk, along with their seven year old son Jerry, went to Halsey on Sunday morning and attended church services at the Church of Christ. Then they had dinner at my parents' home, Lester and Wilma (Falk) Albertson. Wilma's ten year old sister, Violet, had been visiting with them and now later that day she went back home with her parents.

A year later, August of 1935, the paper reported that my parents went up to Harrisburg and visited my grandparents' family on a Sunday afternoon. I wonder if they visited other times too rather than just once a year.

She Didn't Win First Prize

I have been reading in old newspapers on-line and found my mother mentioned in May of 1928 in the Harrisburg section of the Albany Democrat-Herald, Albany, Oregon..

It stated that she had an entry for cake bakers at the local Achievement Day. She was Wilma Falk, a teenager who belonged to the 4-H cooking club which had been organized a few months before.

Wilma came in third in that contest. But that's all right because I know that by the time I was her daughter she could bake very good cakes.

A Special Friday the 13th

According to the story told to me by my father, it was on Friday the 13th that the Halsey Christian Church and the Harrisburg Christian Church had a party. My father, Lester Albertson who was a member of the Halsey church, attended that party. My mother, Wilma Falk who was a member of the Harrisburg church, also attended that party. Wilma and her younger sister Lois were brought to the party by someone who has never been identified to me. But he or she had to leave early so Wilma and Lois needed a ride home. They lived about halfway between Halsey and Harrisburg and Lester agreed to take them home. So my father always thought that Friday the 13th was a day to celebrate, since later he and my mother were married for over 48 years until her death.

In thinking about this I began to wonder exactly which Friday the 13th was that fateful party. My father's baptismal certificate was dated March 28, 1928. Among my father's belongings which I found after his death was a group of letters which my mother had written to him before they were married. The earliest letter was dated October 4, 1929. So the Friday I was looking for should be between March of 1928 and October of 1929. Using a perpetual calendar, the following Fridays were found: April, 1928; July, 1928; and September, 1929.

My mother graduated from Harrisburg High School May 31, 1929. I couldn't remember any stories about her dating my father while she was in high school, so that would make September 13, 1929 the most likely date. Was there any other thing I could do to find it that was correct? I remembered that the Eugene Register-Guard was online at Google News Archive, so thought maybe I could check and see if there happened to be any mention of a church party on that date. Eugene is about 20 miles from Harrisburg and often included items from the surrounding areas. After browsing several of the online issues I hit paydirt. On September 18, 1929, the following item was found in the Harrisburg section: "The Halsey Christian Endeavor entertained the Harrisburg C. E. Friday evening. A number of the local members attended and report a fine time." I'm sure that my father always thought that he had a fine time on that Friday the 13th.