.

Here, gathered in our beloved South Dakota, are a few members of our Williamson / Mattson Clan. Charles and Luella are to be blamed (be kind, they didn't know what they were doing). We're generally a happy bunch and somewhat intelligent (notwithstanding our tenuous grasp on reality). I'm also proud to say that most of us still have our teeth.

Sunday, August 28, 2011

More From Grandma Violet's Photo Albums (Four Generations in One Post!)


From the Fortress of Solitude
Pleasant Grove

Hello All,
Today in our digital family reunion we peer through the blinds into the past using Grandma Violet's Photo Albums as our vehicle. Invite Grandma to have a seat beside you as you enjoy her photographs. She'd enjoy being remembered. Click on each picture to enlarge to full size.

These photographs span four generations and are in the same general order she had them in her albums (Grandma wasn't much for order in her old age).

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Deaver's Ranch around 1925. The Deaver's Ranch was next door to the Albert Mattson Ranch in Montana. Grandma Violet met Grandpa Walter at school in Pinele, Montana. In those days Pinele had a hotel and several stores. The town slowly disappeared when highway 212 bypassed the town. Luella remembers Pinele still had its hotel and general store when she was growing up.

"I remember the smell of the pickle barrel. The brine smell filled the store," she remembered.


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Violet Mattson (third from the left) in Montana as a young girl, mid 1920's.

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Written on the back of this photo, "Vesta, Violet and Walter taken down at our ranch this fall" Great Grandma Vesta divorced Violet and Walter's father around 1919 and a few years later married Jim Deaver. They moved from Rapid City to the Deaver Ranch in Montana. This picture would have been taken in the mid 1920's.


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Luella Mattson taken during her sophomore year at Spearfish High School (1953). Grandma Violet colored it herself (the picture was originally black and white).

"My parents gave me the necklace for Christmas that year," Luella remembered. "I hated Christmas. We didn't have a lot of money and I hated the thought that my parents would be spending what little money we had on gifts for me."


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Spearfish High School (mid 1950's). John Mattson's football team. John Mattson is kneeling on the far left.


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Written on the back of this photo: "Don't we look good? What a swell couple. No Kiddin." This is a picture of Great Grandmother Vesta and her last husband, Jim Logan. Vesta and Jim rode the bus from California to South Dakota for Luella's wedding in 1956. They are standing in front of the Mattson home in Spearfish.


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Written on he back of his photo: "Two Birds and a log." Grandma Violet with her step father Jim Logan taken along the Needles Highway in the Black Hills of South Dakota, summer of 1956.


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We jump ahead several years to another section of the photo album. Beverly Mattson (married John Mattson) and her brood (left to right... Gina, Kirk and Joseph. Angie is on Bev's lap). The picture was taken in Spearfish, South Dakota.

"I don't know who the man is in the chair," Luella said when I handed her the picture and asked her to identify the year it was taken. She lost her magnifying glass yet once again.

"The ancient Irish used drops of water to magnify their stitching," she said as she reached for her bottled water. I kept quiet while she tried to get the picture to focus through the water and plastic. Another Luella moment. Priceless.....

"That Bev," I corrected her.

"Oh, her hair is so short," Luella responded. "This doesn't work," she added putting the bottle back on her table of multiple treasures beside her recliner. I call it her table of treasures because she keeps nearly everything she owns on it.

"If its here I don't have to get up so often," she explains when anyone asks. Most people are too polite not to.

I'm sure her magnifying glass is buried in the pile somewhere. We'll find it when we work our way through her things after she's, well......... you know.



This picture accompanied the one of Bev and the kids. I'm thinking it could be Thanksgiving? Aunt Bev will know. I'll wait for her verdict. The candles confuse me. Williamsons and Mattsons believe candles are only good for power outages. Why would anyone want to eat by candle light? We like to see what we are eating.


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Lisa Williamson's third Halloween (1975). She's trick or treeting the Holtz family next door. Lisa was independent at a young age. You can tell she dressed herself. I believe she tried to dress up as a cat.

Lisa's surprised by my camera's flash. She escaped from our house while the rest of us ate our traditional Potato Soup (made of potatoes swimming in a sea of watered down condensed milk, a sneeze of onion and Scotch Brand margarine). She wanted to get an early start on the doors. Lisa learned not to go trick or treating with us from her second Halloween. That year her bag of goodies was as empty on her return as it was when she left :)

We convinced her the purpose of Halloween was to scare the people who answered the door. We knocked, the door opened. Lisa shouted "Boo!". We shouted "Trick or Treat!" Lisa laughed, we all got candy and walked away. It's what happened on the way down the sidewalk that convinced her not to go out with us again.

"Lisa, let me see what you got."

The next house.

"Lisa, let me see what you got."

The next house.

"Lisa, let me see what you got."

etc... You get the picture. Sorry Lisa. And no, you can't sue to get that candy back. There is a statute of limitations on stolen Halloween candy. All older brothers and sisters will agree.



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Written on the back of this photo in Luella's handwriting: "Family picture. February 1973. Dad's funeral".

Grandpa Walter died in California. His body was brought to Belle Fourche for burial. Here's a test, can you name everyone in the picture (at least everyone with a face. I wasn't the best photographer back then. You've got John and Bev's kids. The Williamsons, Marvin and Pam's kids, Linda's kids etc).

This post's Hair Do of the Week Award goes to Aunt Pam. The Undo Hair of the Week Award goes to Janice (blue shirt, vacant expression). Screams were common whenever Luella tired to run a brush through that mess.

Have a Great Week!

Simply,
Victor

Our 10th Great Grandparents, Pilgrims and Founders of Wethersfield, Conn. (Williamson / Morris Line).


From the Fortress of Solitude
Pleasant Grove

Hello Williamsons!
Our best wishes go to our family members on the Eastern Seaboard as they deal with the effects of Hurricane Irene. I was happy to hear the storm was downgraded to a Tropical Storm when it reached New York City.

Today in our digital family reunion we learn about our feisty 10th Great Grandmother, Elizabeth Deming, proof positive we descend from good puritan stock!

Great Grandmother Elizabeth was born about 1595 in Colchester, Essex, England. She died on July 28, 1683 in Wethersfield, Connecticut. She had seven children and was another of our first generation in America families.

Our 10th Great Grandfather, Nathaniel Foote was her first husband. She married Gov. Thomas Welles of the Connecticut Colony after Nathaniel died.

Elizabeth and Nathaniel Foote founded the village of Wethersfield in 1634 along with 9 other Puritan families hailing from Watertown, Massachusetts. The settlers were led by John Oldham and Nathaniel Foote. Wethersfield is the second-oldest town in Connecticut after Windsor. Along with Windsor and Hartford, Wethersfield is thought by some to be represented by one of the three grapevines on the Connecticut state flag signifying the state's three oldest settlements.

Let's begin with the Relationship Chart:

Relationship Chart

10th Great Grandparents. Nathaniel Foote and Elizabeth Deming
to
Elizabeth Deming Foote and John Crane
to
Sarah Rose Crane and Captain John Morris III
to
Daniel Morris and Mary Riggs
to
Daniel Morris and Hannah Armstrong
to
Isaac Morris and Rebecca M. Hathaway
to
Benjamin Morris and Mary Spinning
to
(?) Isaac Morris and Sarah
to
Nancy Morris and Whitty Victor
to
Effie Helen Victor and William Jonathan Williamson
to
Vennie, Ima, Inez, Lille, Josie, Emmett, Walt, Charles and Maurice
to
Us

The following is an article on the Deming Family and Great Grandmother Elizabeth:
source:  http://www.footefamily.org/elizno1.htm
Very little is known of the Deming family before they left England. Since the first Puritans left England to secure a better place to practice their religion. It might be assumed that the Demings left England for similar reasons.

That they held strong religious convictions is evident in the records they left in Connecticut. Elizabeth was born in England in the last part of the 16th century. In January of the year 1616, a short time after he finished his apprenticeship training, she married Nathaniel Foote in Colchester, Essex, England.

After the birth of their sixth child Nathaniel decided to sell his grocery business in Colchester and immigrate to the New World. By some he is considered to be the first settler of Wethersfield.

Whether or not that is true we do not know. We do know he was one of ten men who settled along the bank of the Connecticut River and named their settlement, Wethersfield. They are know as the "Ten Adventurers"

Elizabeth was the sister of John Deeming, who was one of the first settlers of Wethersfield Conn. in the year of 1630. John Deeming was for many years one of the magistrates of the " Colony of the Connecticut " and one of the patentees named in it's charter.

Since Elizabeth Deming married Nathaniel Foote who spent his early life in Shalford, Colchester, England, it can be assumed that

(1.) John and Elizabeth lived in the same area of England.

(2) Elizabeth and Nathaniel were known to have been in the Colony of Massachusetts Bay and residing in Waterton when it is recorded Nathaniel took the oath of a freeman.

(3.) The Foote family must have joined with the Demings in feeling some dissatisfaction with the manner of life in Watertown and joined with others in making the 100 mile trek in 1635 through the forests of the New World until they arrived at Pyquag on the shores western shore of the beautiful Connecticut River.

Nathaniel Foote was one of those named in the charter of patentees of Wethersfield. The Foote family became one of the leading families of the little Connecticut Colony. He became a magistrate, a leading land owner, eventually owning more than 500 acres of land in Wethersfield, some of the great meadow, and his home on the south end of the green, next to the present Broad Street.

The family was saddened by Nathaniel's death at age 61. Elizabeth was so respected that she was allowed to be executor of his estate. Elizabeth was left a wealthy widow, but did not remain in that status for long. In 1646 she married Thomas Wells who was a widower with several children from his first marriage. Thomas Wells served as Governor of Connecticut Colony for two terms, 1655-1658. When he was not serving as governor he was a Deputy Governor. He died during his last years of being deputy governor, 14 January 1659/1660.

Elizabeth was again a widow, having two families instead of one. She was in control of a large estate from both husbands.

Elizabeth Welles was a tenacious and feisty old woman. She had not only survived a perilous voyage from England but while tending to six exuberant children and a husband, she had made a new life for herself and her family in a world they knew nothing about. This world was inhabited by Indians who were not always friendly with those pale face people. The rigors of life and managing a household did not daunt her.

Things went quite well through the intervening years since arriving on shores of the newly discovered continent, until she reached old age. In 1676 as she approached the age of 80 years, she ran into trouble with one of her step-grand children.

This was Robert Welles, a favorite of grandfather, Governor Thomas Welles when the governor was alive. Robert had arrived at the Governor's home, there to be taken care of and educated.

But now his grandfather was dead and Robert and his step-grandmother disagreed. Maybe she did not think him old enough to be married at age 24. Never-the-less it was 1676 when Elizabeth brought Robert Welles to court, because he "...hath dammyfield her Barne by Parting with the other part of the Barne that did adjoin to it."

Exactly what he did to her barn is not clear. The court's decision was clear. He was ordered to repair the barn and also to pay his step-grandmother rent for it. Elizabeth made sure the barn incident was not her last word.

Two years later, in 1678, she made sure all of the Welles were taken care of when she made her will. She left them nothing. She stated someone outside the family would be executor of her will. Everything she had she left to her own family. That is the family she and Nathaniel has raised and nurtured. The Welles family got nothing.

Elizabeth died in 1683, at the age of 88.