This keepsake photograph shows my grandmother Clara Lzina Barker Pugmire on the left of the photograph and her friend and neighbor, Mrs. Dittman. I am told that they were preparing to clean the chicken coop at the Pugmire home in Union (now Midvale), Utah. The name of Mrs. Dittman came up regularly in my childhood. Many stories included her. I love the contrast between the 1930s and today. Even though they were embarking on a dirty job, they were wearing their house dresses with aprons and had found some gloves. Both women have hats on their heads. My grandmother has her characteristic pleasant smile. I am grateful for these wonderful photographs, especially because I have NEVER had to clean a chicken coop !
This wonderful keepsake photograph captures the fifth grade class at Union Elementary School in Union (now Midvale), Utah in 1937. It captures the styles of the times and the poverty that many people were still experiencing following the Great Depression if judging clothes is any indicator. I love the crossing guard in the front row.
This wonderful and odd photograph was in my mother’s collection. It shows Clara Barker Pugmire, without her teeth and looking quite cold. Also her husband Justin G. Pugmire with their two daughters; Theora Pugmire Hammer next to her father and June Pugmire next to her mother. Theora is likely holding her oldest son Ronald. I don’t know at what point my grandmother Clara was able to have teeth made. This keepsake photograph was likely taken in the spring of 1940 in Midvale, Utah.
This companion photograph was taken the same day as the previous photograph. On the back row is my grandfather Justin Gerald Pugmire. Left to right in the middle row are Norval Pugmire, Hannah Elizabeth Winterbottom Pugmire, Justin Pugmire, Elenore Pugmire, Pearl Pugmire, Roy Steadman who is the husband of Betsy Josephine Pugmire and Clyde Pugmire. In the front are Fred Liebert, husband of Elenore Pugmire, Ross Pugmire and Thomas Pugmire. This keepsake photograph was taken about 1946 in Utah.
I found this wonderful photograph among my mother’s belongings. The man in the middle with the white beard is my grandfather Justin Gerald Pugmire (1892-1949 ). He is the oldest child in the family of Justin ( 1866-1956 ) and Hannah Elizabeth Winterbottom Pugmire (1870-1958 ). His arms are around his parents. On my grandfather’s right is his brother Clyde ( 1899-1977). On his left are his brothers Norval ( 1906-1986 ) and Thomas ( 1894-1956 ). In front are his sister Pearl ( 1913-1997 ) and his brother Ross ( 1910-2000 ). Justin and Hannah were the parents of thirteen children. This photograph was probably taken about 1946 in Utah.
Robert Clinton Watrous was the son of LeRoy C. Watrous and Eva Strickland. His father was the first cousin of our ancestor Henry Reynolds Watrous. Thus, Robert was the grandson of William Watrous and Harriet Janet Rose. In 1920 he married Anna Elizabeth Melcer. They were the parents of one daughter named Virginia. Robert was a veteran of World War I and was an engineer by profession.
This keepsake photograph is from the collection of Gilbert Jones who is a descendant of William Watrous and Harriet Janet Rose.
Eugene was the sixth child born to William Watrous and Harriet Janet Rose. His sister Jane is also featured on this website. He was born in Peoria County, Illinois. In 1883 he married Hattie Mohler. Nothing else is known about her or whether they became the parents of any children. He later married for a second time so the assumption is that Hattie died or perhaps they were divorced.
The R&L Polk directory for the City of Guthrie, Oklahoma for the years 1907-1908 list Eugene Watrous of Enid as the Game Warden. Eugene also owned an ice cream factory and was a survivor of the Chatsworth Train Wreck in Livingston County, Illinois in 1887. He was sent to Enid, Oklahoma in 1893. He also served as the Secretary/Treasurer of the Enid Ice and Fuel Company. He was the Territorial Game Warden from 1900-1907, a member of the first legislature, first the house and then the senate until 1919.
He was the first cousin of direct ancestor Henry Reynolds Watrous whose father Jerome Timothy Watrous was a half- brother and first cousin to Eugene’s father William Watrous.
The keepsake photograph above is from the collection of Gilbert Jones who is a descendant of William Watrous and Harriet Janet Rose.
The preceding photograph shows Eugene later in life. This publication was for a centennial celebration of the Oklahoma Pharmaceutical Association.
The story which accompanies the photograph of the Watrous-Harley Drug Company is interesting. Apparently a David George went into the drug store and bought some strychnine to poison a troublesome dog. The clerk gave him the substance. He came back when Eugene Watrous, the owner of the store was the clerk in the pharmacy and bought more. Then he went to the Grand Avenue Hotel in Enid, Oklahoma and took the strychnine himself. This event occurred in 1903 and was carried in the local newspaper.
The migration of Eugene Watrous
Illinois to Oklahoma
Jane Marion Watrous was born in 1844 to William Watrous and Harriet Janet Rose. She was the oldest of ten children born to her parents. Her father William and our ancestor Jerome Timothy Watrous were both half-brothers and first cousins. Jane’s father’s parents were Timothy Watrous and Mabel Rowley. Our ancestors were Timothy Watrous and Mary Rowley. Mary and Mabel were sisters. After Mabel’s death, Mary became Timothy’s wife. She cared for her sister’s children William and Samuel and added our ancestor Jerome Timothy Watrous shortly after her husband’s death in 1818.
In 1863 Jane married John Raymond Nash, also of Rome, Peoria County, Illinois. He was born in 1840 and died in 1919. They became the parents of seven children. When Jane Marion Watrous Nash died, the following obituary appeared:
OBITUARY
Jane Marion Watrous, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Watrous, born March 16, 1844, Rome, Illinois and died in Chillicothe Oct 31, 1911 aged 67 years, 7 months and 15 days. All of her early years were spent in Rome where she was schooled and taught school. She married John Raymond Nash of Rome, Illinois in 1863. Seven children were born to this union. Three deceased, and William of Chillicothe, Oscer of Chillicothe, Leslie of Fort Wayne, Indiana and Mrs. Bertha Ruck of Chillicothe. She leaves one sister, Mrs. Tom Ellis of Peoria and Jerome of Rome, Illinois together with her husband and children to mourn her departure. She joined the church in early years and has been a constant member all of her life whenever possible.
So live that when thy summons come to join
The innumerable caravan that moves
To the pale realms of shade
Where each shall take his chamber in the silent halls of death.
Thou go not like the quarry slave at night
Scourged to his dungeon
But sustained and soothed.
Jane and her husband are buried in the Chillicothe City Cemetery. She lived her entire life in Peoria County, Illinois. This keepsake photograph is from the collection of Gilbert Jones who is a descendant of William Watrous and Harriet Janet Rose.
My grandmother Clara Lzina Barker Pugmire played the guitar. She learned to play as a young girl and became good enough to play with her brothers at community dances. Her brothers played a variety of instruments. Together they spent many evenings in the beautiful Bear Lake Valley, both in Utah and Idaho, making music for others to enjoy. Without radios, records or television, and living in rural places, music meant more to our ancestors than it might to us. They had to make their own. My grandmother often said that it helped to have music around on long, dark, winter nights. Often the community dances lasted well into the morning hours.
Even in her older years, my grandmother loved to get her hands on a guitar. She liked to repeat the stories of her youth and play a run or two before handing the guitar back to its owner. When I saw this wonderful painting, I thought of my grandmother and the joy past generations felt when they got together . . . to make music. Almost every ancestral story includes music. Music from native lands. Instruments made by hand. Heirloom instruments. Pianos, organs, violins, guitars, flutes, drums. Some primitive and some classical. Folk music. Blue grass. Worship music. Ancestral music. Oh, to hear it today.
Mary Ellen Byrnes was the adopted daughter of ancestor Jerome Timothy Watrous and his wife Mary June Reynolds. She became the sister of direct ancestor Henry Reynolds Watrous. The LaHarper newspaper became the central point for all information about people who lived or had lived in the counties of Hancock and Henderson, Illinois. This notice of Mary Ellen’s death appeared in the La Harper on Friday, December 9, 1932
DEATHS
Mrs. J. L. Hoover
Mrs. F. A. Warren of Seattle, Wash., sends us a clipping telling of the death of Mrs. Joseph L. Hoover on Sunday, Nov. 27, 1932, at the age of 72 years. At her request she was buried at Evergreen Memorial Park just as the sun was setting, following services held at the University Funeral Chapel.
The lady whose maiden name was Minnie Burns, was reared in the Watrous family of Terre Haute and for a while was an art teacher in Gittings Seminary and while in LaHarpe boarded with Mrs. Mame Moon.
She was married to Jos. Hoover at the home of Mrs. Rebecca Watrous Gittings of Terre Haute. For many years they lived in Colorado, but went to Seattle twenty-six years ago. Her husband was audit clerk in the King County auditor’s office for several years and was afterward with the Port Commission.
Her husband and a daughter, Mrs. P.P. Hensley survive her. The family home is 901 E. 65th Street.
This notice was kindly provided to us in 2010 by Ada Hubbard of La Harpe, Illinois. She has long been involved with research and family history in the area and has helped countless people with ties to the area. The daughter mentioned is Merdeces Hoover Hensley, whose brief biographical sketch and portrait is on this site. ( Remember that the name of the town, Terre Haute, is in Henderson County, Illinois . . . not in Indiana.)