Grandma Mary's siblings: A Sister at Last!

With three brothers to contend with, my grandmother Mary surely was happy when her sister Alice arrived on 8 October 1890, the fifth child born to Rachel and Eli Waggoner in Bland County, Virginia. It was likely a clear fall day with blue skies and sunshine, the trees on Walker Mountain splashed red, orange, and yellow, among the green. I’m sure Alice learned to do all the housework that her older sister had learned. Maybe Mary helped to teach her. Yet, Alice didn’t seem to share Mary’s desire for an education for she attended school only through seventh grade.[1]

Mary and her sister Alice (right) Waggoner, about 1909.

 

When the family moved to Missouri about 1909, Alice was 18 years old. In 1910, the Eli and Rachel Waggoner family lived just a short distance from T. C. and Nancy J. Ellington and their 21- year-old son, Herbert, and 28-year-old daughter, Minnie.[2]

Ellington and Waggoner families in 1910 census, Audrain County, Missouri.

In time, a romance ensued between Herbert and Alice, who were married on 19 February 1912 in Mexico, Audrain County Missouri.[3] When the Waggoner family moved to Nebraska later that year, Alice must had felt apprehensive about being left behind.

Marriage record for Alice Ellington and Herbert Ellington.

 In 1920, Herb and Alice lived in Prairie Township, Audrain County, where Herb worked a rented farm and Alice kept house. By this time, they had a 6-year-old daughter named Hazel, who seems to have been their only child.[4]

About 1922, Alice’s father Eli came to live with her and Herbert on their farm seven miles northeast of Mexico, where he stayed until he died in February 1925.[5] Whether Rachel also came to live with them, I’m not sure. Whatever the case, Rachel didn’t stay in Missouri after Eli’s death, but returned to Nebraska where she died fourteen years later.

In 1930, Herbert, Alice, and Hazel lived in a rented home in Mexico, Missouri. Herbert is listed as a farm laborer, Alice is at home, and 17-year-old Hazel is a stitcher in a shoe factory.[6]

By 1940, Herbert and Alice lived on W. Liberty Street in Mexico. Herb is unemployed and Alice is working as a tree-er in the shoe industry.[7] Hazel’s whereabouts is unknown. What happened between that time and their deaths is also unknown. Herbert died in 1973[8] and Alice died in August 1980 at the age of 89.[9]

I wonder whether Alice kept in contact with Grandma Mary and her other siblings. During my family's annual travels from Nebraska to Virginia to visit my mother's parents, we sometimes stopped on our way through Missouri to visit Dad's relatives, but I do not remember whether he took us to see his Aunt Alice. I wish he were here so I could ask him.

---

[1] 1940 U. S. census, Mexico, Audrain County, Missouri, population schedule, Salt River township, enumeration district 4-16, sheet 12-B, visit no. 279, Alice Ellington; digital image Ancestry.com (http://ancestry.com ; accessed 15 October 2013); NARA microfilm publication T-627, roll 2082.

[2] 1910 U. S. census, Salt River, Audrain County, Missouri, population schedule, enumeration district [ED] 11, p. 7-B, dwelling 140, family 140, Eli P. Wagoner family; digital image Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 5 October 2013); NARA microfilm publication T624, roll 767. 1910 U. S. census, Salt River, Audrain County, Missouri, population schedule, enumeration district [ED] 11, p. 7-B, dwelling 138, family 138, T. C. Ellington family.

[3] Mexico, Audrain County, Missouri, Missouri Marriage Records, 1805-2002, p. 65, digital image Ancestry.com (http://ancestry.com : accessed 15 October 2013); from Missouri Marriage Records, Jefferson City, MO, USA: Missouri State Archives, microfilm.

[4] 1920 U. S. census, Prairie, Audrain County, Missouri, population schedule, enumeration district [ED] 8, p. 3-A, dwelling 50, family 50, Herbert Ellington; digital image Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 15 October 2013); NARA microfilm publication T625, roll 903.

[5] “Eli P. Waggoner Obituary,” Mexico Weekly Ledger, Mexico, Missouri, Feb. 19, 1925.

[6] 1930 U. S. census, Prairie, Audrain County, Missouri, population schedule, enumeration district [ED] 8, p. 3-A, dwelling 50, family 50, Herbert Ellington; digital image Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 15 October 2013); NARA microfilm publication T625, roll 903.

[7] 1940 U. S. census, Mexico, Audrain County, Missouri, population schedule, Salt River township, enumeration district 4-16, sheet 12-B, visit no. 279, Alice Ellington.

[8] Social Security Administration, “U.S. Social Security Death Index,” database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 14 October 2013); entry for Herbert Ellington, 1973, SS no. 373-26-8893.

[9] Social Security Administration, “U.S. Social Security Death Index,” database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 14 October 2013); entry for Alice Ellington, 1980, SS no. 491-05-5278.