7. Hunter-Thomas

Albert Douglas Hunter and Ida Frances Thomas

Albert Douglas and Ida Frances Hunter with daughter Ullie, circa 1893 Ida Frances Hunter shares her stiking facial features with several of her Thomas siblings and cousins Ullie, my material grandmother, was the 1st-born of 9 Hunter-Thomas children This portrait was probably taken around 1893 because Ullie was born on 9 January 1891. Ida Frances may well have been expecting their 2nd child when this photograph was taken. Ullie's 1st younger sister, Sophia Obedience was born on 6 July 1893 and died on 11 July 1894. The Hunter's would have 7 more children, all of whom survived into their adult years. The family moved from Missouri to Idaho in 1899, and the last 4 children were born in Idaho -- in Peck as a matter of record, but on Central Ridge as matter of delivery. Scan of glossy print dated 1964 in Wetherall Family Collection

Profile of life of Albert Douglas Hunter by his 2nd cousin thrice removed William R. Hunter from Sketches of Andrew M. Hunter and Family, 31 May 1982 Cropped from scan of copy of report in Wetherall Family Collection (see below)

0. Albert Douglas Hunter was born in "Chamois Misouri" [sic] according to his son Orval Hunter's birth certificate. His tombstone at Central Ridge Cemetery says he was born in 1862, the 1900 census says April 1862, and Ullie Hardman's notes say 1862. Ullie's notes say he died in 1945.
   1. Chamois is in Osage County in the middle of Missouri. Many family trees, including some of Ullie Hardman's notes, say he was born in Howell County, on the middle of Missouri's southern border with Arkansas. But Howell County appears to have become a standard place of birth for both Albert and Ida (see next).
0. Ida Frances Thomas was born in "Hutton Valley Misouri" [sic] according to Orval Hunter's birth certificate. Some of Ullie Hardman's notes say she was born in Howell County.
   1. Hutton Valley is in the northern part of Howell County, which sits on the southern border of Missouri immediately north of Arkansas.
1. Albert and Ida married in March 1890 in Peace Valley, Howell County, Missouri (license 17 March 1890, marriage 20 March 1890). They had 9 children, of whom 8 survived their infancy.
   
   Their 1st born was Ullie (Hunter) Hardman, through which they became the maternal grandparents of Orene (Hardman) Wetherall and the maternal maternal great grandparents of the Wetherall-Hardman children, including this writer.
   Orene called Albert "Grandpa Doug" and Ida Frances was "Mudder".
   
   Both Albert Douglas and Ida Frances are buried at Central Ridge Cemetery in Lewis County, Idaho. Ida Frances reportedly of influenza during the last year of the 1918-1920 epidemic.
2. Ullie May married Owen Hardman on 2 April 1910.
   
   Owen Hardman (1890-1949) died in San Francisco on 24 August 1949. Ullie purchased a plot for him and herself in Normal Hill Cemetery, where he was buried. Ullie died in Lewiston on 25 January 1980. Her children cremated her, interred her relics with Owen's coffin, and sold the other plot.
3. Sophia survived barely one year. Family records give 6 July 1893 birth and 11 July 1894 death. Missouri Register of Deaths she ddddiiiiiehhhh21 July 1894 death 1894 if computed from stated age at time of death (1 year 2 days). . The cause of her death is unknown. She has to have been buried in Missouri, as the Hunter family did not migrate to Idaho until 1899, four years after the opening of Central Ridge, which had been Nez Perce land, to homesteading. The fist burial in Central Ridge Cemetery, where several members of the Hunter family are interred, did not take place until 1898.
4. Mary Eva or "Evie" Hunter is also reported to have died on 23 April 1973. She married Wade Thomas Keene in Spokane, Washington on 19 or 22 October 1913. They had two children, Eula Maxine Keene, born on 22 January 1917 in Moscow, Idaho, and Louis Blaine "Tom" Keene in Kendrick, Idaho on 24 April 1919. At the time of Tom's birth Wade and Eva were farming on American Ridge near Kendrick.
   
   Orene became very close to the Keene family. Maxine and her family especially, but also Tom, would remain among her closest relatives throughout their lives (see 7.3 below).
   
   Wade, born in Illinois 28 March 1889, died 19 March 1973 of arterosclerosis, a month before Eva herself died of arterosclerosis. He is buried in Normal Hill Cemetery in Lewiston.
   
   The 1920 census places the family (Keene Wade, Mary, Maxine, Louis) at W203 24th Avenue in Seattle, Washington in a home Wade owned free of mortgage. He is listed as salesman of real estate.
   
   The 1930 census places the family (Keene, Wade T., Nellie, Eula M., Louis B.) on Main Street in Kendrick, Idaho. Wade owned the home, valued at $1,800, and the family had a radio set. Wade was engaged as a warehouse man at a grain elevator.
   
   The 1940 census places the family (Keene, Waide [sic = Wade], Mary E., Louis ab) ["ab" after name = "temporarily absent from household"] on South Main in Kendrick Village in a their own own vallued at $1,200. Wade is an agent of a grain warehouse. Louis is a laborer at a warehouse. Wade worked 52 weeks out of the year and earned $1,800. Louis worked 12 weeks and earned $400.
5. Viola married William Franklin Frank McGee on 31 January (or 1 February) 1917. Frank was born on 24 May 1889 and died on 21 June 1943. The circumstances of Franks death were tragic (see 7.4 below). 16 months after his death, on 19 November 1944, Viola married Earl Wells.
   
   Viola and Frank had two children.
   
   1. William Earl McGee, born 12 March 1918, died 11 April 2005 at 87.
   2. Elwyn Keith McGee, born 16 July 1921, died 2 May 1943 at 21.
   
   Keith enlisted on 19 August 1942 and was serving in the U.S. Army Air Corps when he died.
6. William Albert was "Albert" in the family. An obituary published in a local paper on Friday, 27 May 1960 states that William A. Hunter had died on Monday in Clarkston. Other reports say he died in Whitman County, which is near Aostin County (Clarkston). The pall bearers were Edward Lucas, Richard Devlin, Douglas Hunter, Jerry Hunter and Earl McGee. Dwight Oglesby was Almeda's son. Jerry Hunter was Orval's son and "Douglas Hunter" was probably Jerry's older brother. Earl McGee was Viola's son.
   
   Ullie (Hunter) Hardman notes state that William Albert married Florence Devlin (deceased) and then Ida Puckett (deceased).
   
   Orene (Hardman) Wetherall said that "Uncle Will" was an alcoholic. She also reported a somewhat different story about the conditions of his death (see 7.5 below).
7. Louie Ellis Hunter was the first Hunter child to be born in Idaho. He was "Uncle Louie" to Orene (Hardman) Wetherall, who appears to have liked him the best of her older Hunter uncles, though she liked best Burton, her younger uncle, who she grew up as a foster brother.
   
   Louie was preceded in death by his mother when he was 17 years old, and he preceded his father in death by 3 years. The 1930 census, and a 1943 obituary, show his name as "Lewis". Other documents have "Louie" or "Louie E."
   
   Like his parents and two Hunters of a collateral Hunter family, Louie is buried at Central Ridge Cemetery in Lewis County, Idaho. His headstone reads "L.E. Hunter".
   Ullie (Hunter) Hardman's notes say Louie was born on 28 April 1902 and died in January 1942, but his obituaries and headstone, and other records, say he died in 1943, information from one obituary suggests 25 January 1943. His death certificate reads "Drowning / Circumstances unknown".
   1. Orene reported that the circumstances of his death were unclear (see 7.6 below).
   2. About 15 years after he died, Ruth married Gwen Thad Maynard (1903-1961) of Peck. Gwen, who had been widowed in 1956, died in 1961 and was buried in Riverside Cemetery in Orofino. Ruth passed away on 5 July 1999 and is buried in Normal Hill Cemetery in Lewiston.
   
   Louie married Mary Ruth Shortlidge on 26 September 1923. Ruth was born in Peck on 25 January 1904. They had two children, a son Vernon Douglas "Doug" Hunter, born in Orofino on 27 September 1925, died in Lewiston on 3 April 1993, and a daughter Alene Frances Hunter, born in Orofino ion 16 December 1927).
   1. Vernon Douglas Hunter was born on 27 September 1925 in Orofino, Idaho. On 27 September 1952 he married Frances Lou French, born 5 August 1925 in Beckley, West Virginia. She died 12 March 1989 and he died 3 April 1993 in Lewiston, Idaho. Their ashes are consecrated in the same niche at a mausoleum in Lewis-Clark Memorial Gardens in Lewiston.
   2. Alene Frances Hunter was born on 16 December 1927 in Orofino, Idaho. On 30 May 1962 she married Anthony "Tony" Maria, born 1 November 1922 in Niles, Alameda County, California. He died 12 October 2006 and is buried in either Normal Hill Cemetery in Lewiston, Idaho (Memorial 115812399) or in Irvington Memorial Cemetery in Fremont, Alameda County, California (Memorial 27787558). Which is the actual grave, and which is only a cenotaph, has not yet been confirmed.
      1. A gravestone in Normal Hill Cemetery in Lewiston shows Alene's husband, "Anthony Maria / US Marine Corps / Nov 1 1922 / Oct 12 2006" above "Alene F. Maria / Dec 16 1927". If she is still be living in Lewiston as of this writing, in 1923, she would be 96.
8. Orval Douglas Hunter shared his father's middle name. Though born in 1905, apparently his birth was not reported for certification purposes until 1942, just 4 months before the midwife who delivered him died.
   1. According to a State of Idaho Certificate of Birth, on a "United States / Department of Commerce / Bureau of the Census" form, "Orville [sic] Douglas Hunter" was born in Peck in Lewis County [sic] on 4 August 1905. The certificate states that his father, Albert Douglas Hunter, was born in "Chamois Misouri [sic]", while his mother, Ida Francis Thomas, was born in "Hutton Valley Misouri [sic]".
   2. The certificate form was received for filing on 18 July 1942. The Attendant's Certificate part of the form was signed on 10 June 1942 by "Mrs. Bertha Setlow" as the midwife who attended Orval's birth. The 1900 and 1910 censuses for Central Ridge enumerated Bertha as born in Sweden. Her signature on the certifcate is extremely labored and shaky. She affirms that personal particulars on the form were provided by Ida Hunter [who had died in 1920]. Bertha was born in Sweden on 1 July 1861 and died in Clarkston on 21 October 1942.
   3. Orval and Ella were also living in Clarkston, and 1942 marked the year they moved to Seattle, apparently for him to begin a job in wartime aircraft assembly and maintenance. Perhaps he needed proof of U.S. citizenship, hence a birth certificate. And lacking one -- but told by his sister Ullie or their father, who were living in Peck, that the midwife who delivered him was still alive -- he filed the census bureau form.
      1. Peck is not in Lewis county, which did not exist at the time Orval was born. I suspect that Orval was born on the Hunter-Thomas ranch on Central Ridge, which at the time was a precinct in Nez Perce county. In 1911, parts of Nez Perce county were partioned off to form new counties -- Clearwater county, with its seat in Orofino, on 27 February 1911 -- and Lewis county, with its seat at Nez Perce, on 3 March 1911. Central Ridge, including the post office at Steele, became part of Lewis county. Peck -- near the Clearwater river just below Central Ridge, and just downstream from Orofino -- remained in Nez Perce county, with its seat in Lewiston.
      2. Births on Central Ridge (Steele), as part of Lewis county, were reported to the county office in Nez Perce. My San Francisco birth certificate says my mother was born at Peck, and she usually said she was born in Peck in 1913. But she began her unfinished memoirs with an account of her birth at the Hardman ranch on Central Ridge. And many years after she died, her birth certificate turned up in Nez Perce -- and it states that she was born in Steele, the postal address of Central Ridge.
      
      The 1910 and 1920 censuses for Central Ridge show Orval living with his Hunter-Thomas parents and siblings.
   4. The 1930 Census for Teton in Wyoming shows "Hunter Orville" [sic], 24, born in Idaho of parents born in Missouri, boarding with a family while working as a laborer at a saw.
      1. Orval married Ella Marie Coon (1913-1978), both of Peck, Idaho, both "American, White" by "Color or Race" on the Washington state marriage return, married in Asotin on 2 January 1932.
      2. Ella was the daughter of Missouri-born Ira Pearl Coon (9 Jan 1882 - 8 Nov 1936) and Missouri-born Mamie Vianna (Quinn) Coon, who married in Missouri. 1900 censuses show Ira Coon (18) and Mamie [Mary] Quinn (13) living with their birth families in neighbouring households in Lindley, in Mercer County, Missouri. The 1910 census shows them married and living on Central Ridge in Idaho. Ella was born on Central Ridge (Steele) in 1913, the same year my mother, Orene (Hardman) Wetherall, was also born on Central Ridge (Steele). By the 1920 census, Ella was living with her family in South Clarkston.
      
      The 1940 Census for "Peck Village" shows "Hunter Orval", 34, and "Ella", 26, with three children -- "Jeannine", 7, "Duane", 6, and "Gerald", 4. Orval is working for W.P.A. (Work Projects Administration), whether as a beneficiary or bureaucrat is not clear. The program, which provided jobs in public works projects for mainly men without much education, began in 1939 and ended in 1943. The census shows Orval and Ella with respectively 2 and 4 years of high school.
   5. The 1950 Census for Seattle shows "Hunter Orville" [sic = Orval] D.", 44, "Ella M.", 36", and 3 children -- "Ida J. [Jeannine]", 17, "Douglas D. [Duane]", 15, and "Gerald G. [Grant]", 14. Orval was employed as a "supervisory aircraft mech." in "Assembly & Repair", and Ella was employed as an "instr. mech." [instrument mechanic] also in Assembly & Repair.
   6. In 1953, the family moved to Alameda, California, where Orval became a supervisor of aviation repair at the Alameda Air Station, a carrier base in San Francisco Bay. As such he was an employee of first the Department of Navy and then the Department of Defense.
   7. Given the proximity of Alameda to San Francisco but also Grass Valley, the Wetheralls and Hunters regularly got together for family dinners. The circumstances of Orval's death, while vacationing in Peck with one of his son's, were somewhat equivocal (see 7.7 below).
      1. Ida Jeannine Hunter, born on 1 July 1932 in Peck, married "Charles R. Cochrell" on 18 February 1961 in Seattle as "Ida Jeannine Hunter". On 26 July 1969, she married "Larry A. Mitchell" as "Ida J. Cochrell". "Ida J. Mitchell" and "Laurence A. Mitchell" were divorced on 25 August 1971 with 3 children pursuant to a petition she filed.
      2. Douglas Duane Hunter appears to have married 3 times. Douglas D. Hunter (19), born in Orofino, married Frankie E. (Ellen) Maack (20), born in Kirkland, on 1 May 1953 in Seattle. Douglas D. Hunter (26), born in Orofino, married Nina E. Huster (19), born in Riverton Heights, married on 17 October 1960 in Coeur d'Alene. Hunter Douglas Duane married Melody Jean Shafer on 24 December 1978 in Weippe -- between Orofino and Pierce, all in Clearwater county in Idaho.
      3. Gerald Grant Hunter (22) married Joan Wargi (17), both of Peck, he born in Orofino, she in Moscow, on 22 May 1958 in Lewiston.
9. Almeda married Rance Edmund Oglesby (1903-1965), a ranger with the forest service then a lumber mill owner, on 9 January 1928. They had one son, Dwight. Almeda would become and remain the closest of Orene Wetherall's Hunter aunts. The Wetheralls visited her a few times in Clarkston, where she and Rance settled after living in Peck, and she visited the Wetheralls a few times in Grass Valley (see 7.8 below).
10. Burton Douglas Hunter, the last of the Hunter children, was raised mostly by Ullie (Hunter) Hardman, the oldest, on the Hardman farm in Central Ridge, then at the Hardman home in Peck. Though an a younger uncle of Babe and Orene, he virtually grew up as their little brother. He died a tragic death in 1973 (see 7.9 below).
    
    Burton married Mary Margaret "Peggy" Foley (b 27 August 1917) in 1939.
    
    Burton and Peggy had six children.
    1. Burton Douglas Hunter, born 1 November 1941.
       Burton ("Little Burt" to the Hardman and Hunter clans) became an attorney. University of Idaho, B.A., 1963; Harvard University, J.D., 1969; admitted to New York Bar, 1970.
    2. Mary Judith Hunter (Sherrill), born 14 January 1944 in Lewiston, Idaho.
       Judy married James Ellis Kimble [Sherrill], born 8 February 1943 in Pomeroy, Washington. The couple have three children.
       1. Shana Lisa Sherrill, born 17 January 1970 in Ft. Lewis, WA.
       2. Shalinee Marisa Sherrill, born 25 October 1972 in Spokane, WA.
       3. Gulliver Jimason Sherrill, born 25 October 1978 in Olympia, WA.
          
          In 1999, Gulliver came to Japan as a college exchange student.
          During his stay, he had an unusual experience that required unusual measures.
          See 7.923 below.
    3. Kim Randel Hunter, born 27 July 1951.
    4. Tye Forrest Hunter, born 1 March 1954.
    5. Michael Shane Hunter, born 5 November 1957, died 16 March 1999.
    6. Patrick Shaun Hunter, born 17 June 1959.

Hunter-Thomas family portrait (circa 1916)

The 8 surviving Hunter-Thomas children from 1st-born Ullie to 9th-born Burton 2nd-born Sophia Obedience died 5 days after she turned 1 year old Back   Ullie (1), Louie (6), Viola (4), Albert (5), Eva (Evie) (3) Front   Grandpa Doug with Burton (9), Orval (7), Mudder, Almeda (8) Scan of glossy reprint in Wetherall Family Collection

"Grandpa Doug" and "Mudder" were Orene Wetherall's (this writer's mother's) terms. She said that Ullie, her mother (my grandmother), referred to her own mother (my great-grandmother) as "Mudder", and that this was what everyone called her. Orene called her mother, Ullie (Hunter) Hardman, "Mama" and her father, Owen Hardman, "Papa". Owen's father was Albert Christopher Hardman and Ullie's father was Albert Douglas Hunter. Both also went by their initials -- A.C. and A.D. -- but were generally differentiated as "Albert" and "Douglas" -- hence, to my mother, "Grandpa Al" and "Grandpa Doug".

A second child, Sophia Obedience Hunter, died in infancy (born 6 July 1893, died 11 July 1894).

Hunter-Thomas family portrait of immediate members only (late 1919)

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Standing in back   Almeda Hunter, Ullie (Hunter) Hardman, Viola (Hunter) McGee, Eva (Hunter) Keene, Orval Hunter Sitting in front   Louie Hunter, "Grandpa Doug" (Albert Douglas) Hunter, Burton Hunter, "Mudder" (Ida Frances (Thomas) Hunter), and William Albert Hunter Scan of print in Wetherall Family Collection Concerning the late 1919 date of this photograph see the note below the following portrait, taken in the same setting with sons-in-law and grandchildren

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Hunter-Thomas family portrait with sons-in-law and grandchildren (late 1919)

Standing in back   Ullie (Hunter) Hardman, Viola (Hunter) McGee, Louie Hunter, Almeda Hunter (girl in center), Eva (Hunter) Keene, Orval Hunter (boy) Sitting in front   Owen Hardman with Orene (Bug) Hardman on lap, Frank McGee with Earl McGee on lap, "Grandpa Doug" (Albert Douglas) Hunter with Burton Hunter on lap, Ullie (Babe) Hardman (standing in center), "Mudder" (Ida Frances (Thomas) Hunter) with Tom Keene on lap, Wade Keene with Maxine Keene (standing), and William Albert Hunter Scan of original print in Wetherall Family Collection "Taken in about 1919 -- she [Mudder] died 2-4-20 [4 February 1920] of flu in Spokane after returning from their trip (at age 48) back to southeast [Missouri] on a visit" is pencilled on the back in what appears to be Ullie's hand at a later date, when she is going through family photos and making notes on their backs. The "about" is overstruck by the red ballpoint pen in which the names and years of birth were written on the back in the same hand. The 1919 date is confirmed by the facts that Tom Keene was born on 24 April 1919, while "Mudder" (Mother) died on 4 February 1920 upon her return from a trip which began in late 1919. The 1920 census for Central Ridge, enumerated 21-24 January for residency as of 1 January 1920, shows Almeda and Albert living with the McGees, their older sister Viola's family. The same census shows Louie Hunter and Orval Hunter living with the Hardmans, their older sister Ullie's family, also on Central Ridge. Burton Hunter appears to have been traveling with his parents on their trip to Missouri at the time of the census. "Mudder" died on the way back, of influenza, at the Seattle home of her daughter Mary Eva (Hunter) Keene.

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Hunter-Thomas family portrait with sons- and daughters-in-law and grandchildren (1930)

Ullie Hardman's notes on back of original print (left) and circa 1960s copy (right) The pencilled note at the bottom of the original copy states that "Papa" (as Ullie called her father Albert Douglas Hunter) still owned the ranch on Central Ridge when he died in 1945. The blue-ink note on the back of the original print was written in the 1960s when copies were ordered. The pencilled note appears to have been written after the blue-ink note. It is possible that Ullie wrote the pencilled note during the 1970s when her memory, which was generally sharp when it came to Central Ridge stories, was beginning to play tricks. Scans of prints in Wetherall Family Collection

Last known photograph of
extended Hunter-Thomas family

Standing left to right
Rance Oglesby (1908-1965) -- Almeda (Hunter) Oglesby's wife
Almeda (Hunter) Oglesby (1910-1999) -- Douglas Hunter's 5th daughter
[back] Louie Hunter (1902-1943) -- Douglas Hunter's 2nd son
Douglas Hunter (1862-1945) -- Father of Hunter siblings
[baby in arms] Dwight Oglesby (1929-1997) -- Almeda and Rance's son
[girl in front] Alene Hunter (1927) -- Louie and Ruth Hunter's daughter
Maxine Keene (2017-2001) later Jones -- Eva and Wade Keene's daughter
[back] Wade Keene (1889-1973) -- Eva (Hunter) Keene's husband
Eva (Hunter) Keene (1895-1973) -- Doughlas Hunter's 2nd daughter
[women in back] Ruth (Shortlidge) Hunter [tentative] -- Louie Hunter's wife
[back] Burton Hunter (1914-1973) [tentative] -- Douglas Hunter's 4th son
Orene Hardman (1913-2003) later Wetherall -- Ullie and Owen Hardman's 3rd daughter
[back] Owen Hardman (1890-1949) -- Ullie (Hunter) Hardman's husband
Babe Hardman (1911-1983) -- Ullie and Owen Hardman's 1st daughter
Ullie (Hunter) Hardman (1891-1980) -- Douglas Hunter's 1st daughter
[back] Orval Hunter (1905-1970) -- Douglas Hunter's 3rd son
Theo Thomas (1916-2007) later Vincent -- John Wesley Thomas's daughter
[front] Deloss Thomas (1920-1992) -- Martin's son, Theo's nephew
[back] Martin Thomas (1901-1955) -- Theo's brother
John Wesley Thomas (1870-1933) -- Martin and Theo's father
[back] Lottie (Stillman) Thomas () [tentative] -- Martin's wife
Albert Hunter (1898-1960) [tentative] -- Douglas Hunter's 1st son
Florence (Devlin) Hunter (1905-1943) [tentative] -- Albert Hunter's wife
Kneeling in front left to right
Vernon Douglas Hunter (1925-1993) [tentative] -- Louie and Ruth Hunter's son
Kenneth Hunter (1923-1992) [tentative] -- Albert and Florence Hunter's son
Keith McGee (1920-1943) -- Viola and Frank McGee's 2nd son
Earl McGee (1918-2005) [tentative] -- Viola and Frank McGee's 1st son

This photograph appears to include all of the living Hunter-Thomas siblings except Viola (the tallest of the siblings). It appears that Viola's children, Earl and Keith McGee, were there, but not their mother Viola, or their father Frank McGee -- unless "Burton Hunter" is "Frank McGee".

Thomas Wesley Thomas and his daughter Theo Thomas were living in Clarkston but the 1930 census shows them on Central Ridge, where according to Theo's memoirs he still had some property and often visited.

The 1930 Census shows three related families in succession.

1. Thomas Howard, head, 35, with wife Ethel, 36, and 4 children -- Johnny, 16, George, 14, Loyd, 12, and Mary, 2.
2. Thomas John W., head, 59, with daughter Theodosia, 14.
   1. Theo is at her father's ranch without her mother or siblings.
3. Hunter Albert D., 68, father, widowed, son William [Albert], head, 31, wheat farm, and his wife Florence, 25, and their son Kenneth W., 6.
   1. Albert Douglas Hunter, though listed 1st, is the father of the head, William [Albert] Hunter, listed 2nd. But Albert D. Hunter is the owner of the property, valued at 10,000 dollars, while his son William [Albert] is renting.
   2. Of greater interest is that the entries for Albert D. Hunter, William, Florence, and Kenneth W. on Sheet 1B are struck out with the notation "Sheet 2B Lines 51-54". And Sheet 2B shows only their household -- with listed 1st as head and Albert D. listed 4th as father. William is renting the property valued at 10,000 dollars. Albert D. is not listed as the owner.

Wheat farms

The 1930 census shows the Thomas and Hunter men on central ridge as farmers -- all on wheat farms, except Albert D. Hunter, who was farming on a truck farm.

Ullie's note on back of 1960s copy

1930 --
At Papas home -- Albert & Florence on ranch at this time. (See
Of this group, at the present time (1965) these have died: Papa, Rance, Frank, Owen, Louie, Albert, Florence, Uncle Wes, and Keith. (9)
Added to the family Orval has three children, Maxine, 2,; Bug, 3: Babe, 2: Burton, 6: Theo; 1; tom, 5: Earl, 4: Kenneth, 3: Dwight, 4: Viola, 4] I Ullie have 5; Albert, 3:
In order 3 generations are represented in this picture, Papa, Ullie & Babe being oldest of each, Dwight is another 3 generation child. Also Viola, Eva and Albert have 3rd generation children

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Grandpa Doug and Mudder Hunter with the youngest children in the family Albert Douglas Hunter holding his granddaughter Maxine Keene (born 1917) Ida Frances Hunter holding her youngest child Burton Hunter (born 1914) Circa 1918, probably on Central Ridge, if not in Kendrick Wetherall Family photo

Hunter-Thomas family breakup

1919-1920 marked the breakup of the Hunter-Thomas family -- temporarly while Ida Frances Hunter went to Missouri to visit relatives sometime late in the fall of 1919 (apparently with Albert Douglas Hunter and their youngest child Burton Lyle Hunter) -- then permanently when, on the way back, Ida died in Spokane, a victim of the last phase of the flu pandemic, and arrangments had to be made for taking care of the youngest children Orval, Almeda, and Burton.

1910 and 1920 censuses

The 1910 census is the last to show the Hunter-Thomas family together -- with all but Ullie, the oldest of the 7 surviving children of 8 children Ida had borne by then, and Burton, the 9th child, who would be born in 1914. The 1920 shows the family as it was broken up to facilitate Ida's 1919-1920 visit to Missouri, presumably with A.D. and Burton.

The 1910 census places the Hunter-Thomas family on Central Ridge Road in Central Ridge Precinct of Nez Perce County, Idaho, on a farm owned by the head of household, Albert D. [Douglas] Hunter. His wife is Ida, and their children are Mary E., Beulah V., William A., Louie E., Orville [sic = Orval] D., and Gracie E. [sic = Grace A.]. The census was enumerated on 28 April with a datum of 1 April. Ullie, who had married Owen Hardmen on 2 April, is listed with the Hardman family as a daughter-in-law of Albert C. Hardman, and an arrow is drawn between her name and Owen's. See Table 6 on the Hardman-Gallaher page.

The 1920 census for Central Ridge Precinct, enumerated from 21 to 24 January with a datum of 1 January, shows "Hunter, Albert", 21, and "Hunter, Almeda", 9, as the brother-in-law and sister-in-law of "McGee, Frank", 30, with his wife "Viola", 22, and their son "Earl", 1-10/12. Louie, 17, and Orval, 14, are living with the family of their sister Ullie Hardman on the Hardman ranch on Central Ridge. Eva, who had also married, was living in Spokane with her husband Wade Keene and their 2 children.

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1930 censuses

The last known photograph of the extended Hunter-Thomas family was taken on Central Ridge in the summer of 1930. Censuses taken earlier that year for Central Ridge and Peck show most of the people who present in the photo.

1930 Central Ridge census

Sheet 1B of the 1930 census for Central Ridge shows two Hunter-Thomas families and the related Thomas-Jayne family in adjacent households.

Lines 81-86 show the household of Howard Thomas (35), wheat farm farmer, his wife Ethyl (36), and their sons Johnny (16), George (14), and Lloyd (12), and their daughter Mary (2). None of the members of this family appear to be present in the 1930 family photograph.

Lines 87-88 show the household of John W. Thomas (59), also a wheat farm farmer, and his daughter Theodosia (14). John Wesley Thomas is Howard's father, and according to Theo's memoirs, Howard was either running the farm for his father or leasing the farm as his own operation. Both are present in the 1930 family photograph. Theo's oldest brother Martin, and his wife Lottie and their son Deloss, also appear to be present. Presumably they were visiting the J.W. Thomas ranch at that time.

Lines 89-92 show Albert D. Hunter (68), a truck farm farmer, as father of head, William A. Hunter (31), a wheat farm farmer, with his wife Florence (25) and their son Kenneth Albert (6). Florence was born in Idaho to an Ireland-born father and Germay-born mother. The lines are struck out with a reference to Lines 51-54 of Sheet 2B, which shows the same data, but first lists "William Hunter" (31) as the head and last lists "Albert D. Hunter" (68) as his father. These are the only entries on this sheet, which apparently was added for the purpose of correcting the entries on Sheet 1B. "A" sheets have lines 1-50, and "B" sheets have lines 51-100. All four are present in the 1930 family photograph.

1930 Peck census

Sheet 1A of the 1930 census for "Peck Precinct" dated 11 April 1930 shows on Angel Ridge Road the household of Rance E. Oglesby (22), a general farm farmer, with his wife Almeda (20) and their son Dwight H. (5/12 months). All three are present in the family photograph.

Sheet 1B of the 1930 census for "Peck Town" dated 7 April 1930 shows on Manion Street the household of Frank McGee (41), a laborer in trucking, with his wife Beulah V. [Viola (Hunter)] (33) and their sons William E. [Earl] (12) and Elwyn K. [Keith] (9). Only the boys seem to be present in the 1930 family photograph.

Sheet 2A of the 1930 census for "Peck Town" dated April 8 1930 shows on Pine Street the household of Owen M. Hardman (40), a drayman for the mail express, his wife Ullie M. (39), their daughters Ullie A. (18) and L. Orene (16), Coren Memphis (25) a boarder who was teaching in a public school, and Burton L. Hunter (15), a brother-in-law to the head. Burton is Ullie's youngest brother and Owen's foster son. All 5 family members of the Hardman-Hunter household appear in the 1930 family photograph. The boarder, Coren Memphis, may also be present (the woman behind Burton may be Coren rather than Ruth Hunter).

Lines 59-61 of Sheet 2B of the 1930 census for "Peck Town" dated 8 April 1930 shows on Pine Street Ruth M. Hunter (26), someone's daughter, with two boys, Douglass (4) and Aileen F. (2) listed as someone's grandson and granddaughter. A note by the lines reads "See Sheet 1A Line 26". This refers to Line 26 on Sheet 1A for "Peck Town" in "Peck Precinct" dated 7 April, Lines 26-27 of which show on Main Street the household of Allen J. Shortlidge (69), an assistant post master at the post office, and his wife Carrie M. (56), a post mistress. A note directs to Page 2B, Line 59. Both listings are identified as Dwelling 9, Family Number 10, but the streets are different. Sheet 1A is dated 7 April 1930 and Sheet 2B is dated 8 April 1930. Why the separate "McGee" and "Hunter" have the same dwelling and family numbers on different streets on different sheets is not clear. The cross references had to have been added after the sheets were completed, presumably by the enumerator, who all Peck sheets (whether for "Peck Town" or "Peck Precinct") identify as Herman G. Riggers. I would guess that Ruth was visiting with her parents at the time. There is no mention of Louie Hunter, her husband.

1930 Kendrick census

Louie Hunter appears to be boarding with a Thomas uncle in Kendrick. The 1930 census for the town shows "Lewis Hunter" (27), a barber, boarding with Martin V. [Van Buren] Thomas (77), a banker at the State Bank Kendrick ("State" and "Kendrick" overstruck on census), and his life Lucy [Lucy E. Lemons] (67). Martin was born in North Carolina to North Carolina-born parents and Lucy was born in Missouri to Kentucky-born parents. "Lewis" (apparently an error for "Louie") was reportedly born in Idaho to Indiana-born parents (apparently an error for born in Idano to Missouri-born parents). The age is correct as Louie was born on 24 April 1902 and the datum for census, enumerated on 2 April, was 1 April 1930.

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The Hunter-Thomas family in my life

Of the surviving 8 Hunter-Thomas children, shown above, I knew Ullie well as my grandmother. Almeda, my closest great aunt, visited the family in California a couple of times, and we visited her whenever we went to Idaho. I also remember her husband Rance, and met their son Dwight when he was little. I met Viola at her home in Peck at least a couple of times that I can clearly remember, when I was younger and older. I met Eva and her husband Wade, and their daughter Maxine, who remained close to my mother, her 1st cousin, all her life. I can't recall meeting Eva's son Tom Keene, though he is very familiar to me in family photographs. And I knew of rather than knew Maxine's daughter, George-Anne, a 2nd cousin, and we spoke on phone after both her mother and my mother had died.

Among the Hunter brothers, I knew Orval best, for the Wetherall family often dined with him and Ella. Orval and Ella lived in Alameda, California, across the bay from San Francisco, where the Wetherall family lived until 1955. Even after moving to Grass Valley, we often visited them in Alameda, and they visited us in Grass Valley, which was less than a 3-hour drive. After Orval died in 1970, Ella moved to Lewiston, and the last time I met her was in 1973 when she hosted a reunion dinner at her home there. I don't recall meeting their son Jerry Hunter and wouldn't recognize him in photographs.

If I met Louie or William, or even Burton, who was more like a brother than an Uncle to my mother, I have no recollection. I was aware of Burton's son, Burton Douglas Hunter or "Burton Doug", when growing up, as he was my age, but I can't recall ever meeting him. I have, however, exchanged a couple of emails with him concerning family history, about which he appears to have little interest. My mother remained in touch with Peggy, Burton's wife, after his death in 1973, and also corresponded with their daughter, Burton Doug's sister Mary Judith, a 1st cousin to my mother. And I met Judy, and her son Gulliver, a 2nd cousin to me, in Japan of all places in 1999.

"Mudder" had of course died when my mother was only 7 years old, but "Grandpa Doug" I met when a baby, and there are several photographs of him holding me. He passed away when I was 3, hence I have no direct memories of him.

Four unnatural deaths

All four Hunter boys died from unnatural causes of death. Albert was found in his car, shot in the head (see 7.5). Louie either fell off, or was pushed off, a pier (7.6). Orval choked on a piece of steak (7.7). Burton shot himself (7.9).

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7.3 Eva and Wade, and Maxine and Tom

Eva and Wade were among Orene Wetherall's Hunter aunts and uncles. Maxine (Keene) Jones was her closest cousin, and she also kept in touch with her younger brother Tom, who ran a market and other businesses in Kendrick, Idano before retiring to Washington.

Eula Maxine Keene was born on 22 January 1917 in Moscow, Idaho. On 24 September 1939 she married George James Jones, who born on 16 February 1917 in Humeston, Iowa. They had two daughters, George-Anne and Penelope. Both -- but especially George-Anne -- would also become part of Orene's extended family.

Orene and Maxine married just a year apart and had their children during the same period. George-Anne Jones (later Kintzley) was born on 13 June 1941 in Colfax, Washington, a couple of months after this writer (WOW), Orene's first son, was born in San Francisco. Penelope Jones (later Bayman) was born 2 June 1944 in Colfax, Washington, between the births of Jerry Wetherall in 1942 and Mary Ellen Wetherall (later Zweig) in 1945.

Maxine passed away on 30 April 2001 in Kennewick, Benton County, Washington.

George-Anne passed away on 15 April 2017 in Kennewick, Washington, where she and her husband, Dale Kintzley, had settled. They couple had one son, Roy Kitzley. George-Anne's sister, Penelope K. ("Penny") Bayman, also lives in Washington.

The Wetherall and Jones children, as children of first cousins, were second cousins, but they lived too far away to be aware of each other's existence. They met only during rare Wetherall visits to Idaho, when the Hunters and their local descendants converged on someone's home for a reunion. One such visit was in 1973, when I was at Berkeley. Eva, perhaps even more than the other Hunter sisters, was known for her cooking, and she and Wade hosted a dinner at which the Hunter sisters and their daughters-in-law vied with one another to show off their "homemade" culinary skills.

Maxine and George also visited the Wetheralls in Grass Valley. George was a rather successful businessman in the frozen-meat business in Kennewick, where the family moved from Idaho in 1947. He became a well-known community figure, fund raiser, and philanthropist in the Tri-Cities (Kennewick, Pasco, and Richland) area of Washington.

Tom Keene died at his Moses Lake, Washington home on 21 October 1994 (Moscow-Pullman Daily News, 24 October 1994, page 3A). After operating grain elevators and working as a federal warehouse examiner, he become a bit of an entreprener, owning at various times a market, restaurant, and bar among other small buisnesses in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington.

This writer, Billy Wetherall, last spoke with George-Anne in August 2003, on the phone in Grass Valley, California, when he was there for his mother's memorial service. George-Anne had called to convey her condolances to Bill. Bill said something to the effect that "Billy's here" and of course she wanted to speak. "It's George-Anne" he said to me. Perhaps my brows raised. "George-Anne Jones. Maxine's daughter." That's all it took. "Sure," I said, and we started talking as though we actually knew each other.

This is what happens in far-flung families. Relatives are more likely to know more about each other than they actually know each other. It's a funny feeling. I couldn't picture George-Anne's face, and I don't imagine she could picture mine either. But there we were, talking like the cousins we were -- mostly about how our mom's had been so close.

George-Anne's children and mine, techinically third cousins, will mostly likely never know even of each other's existence -- unless perhaps they read this.

George-Anne (Jones) Kitzley obituary

The following obituary was posted by www.legacy.com, which attributed it to the Tri-City Herald, 19 and 20 April 2017. The received version was unparagraphed. The paragraphing in the following version is mine.

GEORGE-ANNE (JONES) KINTZLEY Obituary GEORGE-ANNE (JONES) KINTZLEY George-Anne (Jones) Kintzley passed away peacefully on Saturday, April 15, 2017. George-Anne was born on June 13, 1941 in Colfax, Washington, to George and Maxine (Keene) Jones. George, Maxine, George-Anne and younger sister Penny relocated to Kennewick, Washington, in 1947, where George built Jones Frozen Food Lockers. Young George-Anne was an avid reader, an academically inclined student in the Kennewick school system, and held a State office in Rainbow. She also assisted her parents with the family business. George-Anne attended Columbia Basin College before transferring to University of Washington to complete her undergraduate degree. While at CBC, she met future husband Dale Kintzley. The couple married on December 16, 1961. George-Anne graduated from UW with a degree in Elementary Education in 1964. During the early years of their marriage, George-Anne spent several years teaching at the elementary level, first in Issaquah, then in Othello, and finally in Pasco after the young couple relocated to the Tri-Cities in 1974. After son Roy was born, George-Anne stepped away from elementary school teaching to devote more time to motherhood and to the family business, although she maintained a part-time position at CBC teaching English at the Learning Skills Center. Over the course of their 55-year marriage, Dale and George-Anne owned a number of small businesses, the most memorable of which was Court Street Video in Pasco. Court Street Video was in operation from 1987 2001, and George-Anne was a friendly, familiar face to store patrons. After selling the business in 2001, George-Anne focused her energies largely on community involvement. She was a devoted member of the Kennewick First United Methodist Church, where she loved singing in the choir and the bell choir. George-Anne was also a long-standing member of P.E.O. and the Kiwanis Club of Kennewick. In addition, she gave countless volunteer hours to The Children's Reading Foundation as a reading buddy to elementary students at Amistad Elementary, and she thoroughly enjoyed her aerobics classes at the Kennewick Senior Center. George-Anne's heart was her family; son Roy was her pride and joy, and she warmly welcomed daughter-in-law Heather into the family in 2008. George-Anne's long-awaited wish to be a grandmother was finally realized in 2010 with the birth of her grandson, Jackson. Granddaughter Madison followed in 2012. Very few things made George-Anne light up like sweet kisses and hugs from her two beautiful grandbabies. George-Anne is survived by her husband Dale, son Roy (Heather), grandchildren Jackson Roy and Madison Grace, sister Penny (Bob) Bayman, and extended Keene and Kintzley family. She is preceded in death by her parents, George and Maxine Jones, and Baby Girl Kintzley, infant daughter. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorial contributions be made to the Alzheimer's Foundation of America or the Kiwanis Scholarship Foundation. Services will be held at 6:00 p.m. on Friday, April 21, 2017 at Mueller's Chapel of the Falls, 314 W 1st Ave, Kennewick.

Private Kieth McGee's Christmas card to O.M. [Owen Monroe] Hardman Posted on 23 December 1943 from La Garde General Hospital in New Orleans before transfer to McCaw General Hospital where he died of cancer on 2 May 1943 Owen was Keith's uncle-in-law Wetherall (Hardman-Hunter) Family collection Frank McGee's application for Kieth's headstone Frank shot himself a month later Copped and cropped from Ancestor.com

7.4 Viola and Frank McGee of Peck, Idaho

Orene (Hardman) Wetherall said Frank was illiterate. He could barely read. He never went outside Central Ridge and Peck except Lewiston. He was bewildered by a trip to Indiana [sic = "Illinois" according to December 1942 Chrismas card]. He was depressed by Keith's death and fear of cancer. He shot himself twice under the chin with a shotgun upstairs in their house across the street from the Hardman house in Peck. Viola heard shots and went to the Hardman house. A close friend of Grandpa Hardman heard the shotgun blasts and found McGee.

Keith, while in the Army during World War II, was diagnosed with cancer and sent to an Army hospital in Indiana [sic = Illinois?] -- hence Earl's need to go there. He died, however, in Walla Walla, Washington, on 2 May 1943, probably at the just-built U.S. Army McCaw General Hospital. Frank shot himself a few weeks later on 21 June 1943 [sic = 20 June 1943 according to death certificate]. His older son, William Earl McGee, was away in the service when his father shot himself.

McCaw General Hospital was built as a temporary barrack facility near Fort Walla Walla. It opened on 5 March 1943 and closed on 25 November 1945. At one point it had 1,502 beds and during its operation it handled some 14,000 patients. The hospital specialized in neuropsychiatry, orthopedics, and general surgery. A camp for German POWs was attached to the hospital. The POWs took care of the hospital's grounds and laundry.

The first time this writer (WOW) recalls meeting Viola she was working at (and possibly living at and running) the Peck store. Behind the store, and part of the store operation, was a dairy that processed and bottled fresh milk from Peck farms. I recall Viola making ice cream.

One could drive from the store up a road that switched back to the more highly elevated part of the town where most people lived. The summer I remember being there, most people walked up and down long, steep, wooden stairs that were flanked by nettles one dare not touch.

The Hardman home was straight up the hill, from the top of the stairs, on the corner of Pine Street. Immediately across from the front porch of the Hardman home was the farm where the McGees had lived. The barn, and possibly the home, were still there. The pasture was still there, and full of cow pies.

Fresh cow pies draw flies like honeysuckle blossoms attract bees. And active cow pastures are full of pies in various stages of drying. Dry pies are collected for fertilizer. Wet pies are reason to watch your step when walking through a pasture. This writer quickly learned to discriminate between dry pies, which were fun to kick, and pies that looked dry but were still soft. The secret was to observe the flies, which were thicker on the fresher pies. Filling a burlap sack with dry cow pies was a hard way to earn a nickle. It was easier to collect empty pop bottles from neighbors.

7.5 William Albert Hunter

Orene reported that Albert was found in his car, shot in the head. Police ruled his death an accident. He had been hunting, and it appeared that he had put his rifle in the back seat, and when he reached around to get it he accidently set it off.

7.6 Louie Ellis Hunter

Orene reported that Louie either fell off, or was pushed off, a pier in Seattle. Later some bones were found that may have been his. He liked to fish off the pier, and he may have been drinking. The waterfront was near a rough neighborhood, and he may have gotten into a fight and been pushed off.

7.7 Orval and Ella Hunter

Orene reported that Orval chocked on a piece of steak. He was eating dinner in a restaurant and went to the men's room. When he didn't return, Ella went to find him. He was found dead on the floor of the lavatory.

7.8 Almeda Oglesby

I was sitting the living room one afternoon working on something on a leavy laptop, in the spring of 1999, with my mother, who was reading a novel. The phone rang, and she took it in the kitchen. From what little I caught of her part in the conversation, I gathered that the call was from or about her Idaho relatives, and that the news was not good.

She returned to living room, sat in her reading chair, and just looked at me, as I was watching her. To a third person, we might have looked like two gun fighters about to draw on each other. Either she would tell me what's going on, or I would beat her to the draw and ask.

Well, Billy, it looks like I'm the last of the clan," she said.

"Almeda died?"

"Yes. In January."

"And they're just calling you now?"

"Yep. I talked to her on Christmas day. She hadn't been that well last year, but she was doing fine then."

We talked about who called and that led to talk about the falling between Almeda and her daughter-in-law, and squabbling over inheritance issues. Almeda's home was full of antiques that she had collected over the years, and though Almeda had promised a number of pieces to various friends, and something to my mother, her daughter-in-law wouldn't hear of it.

What struck me, though, was how my mother took the news. She'd lost her mother, all her maternal uncles, and all her maternal aunts except Almeda, and her own sister had already passed away, and only Almeda had remained -- an aunt who, only 3 years older, had lived with my mother and her sister for a while when a girl since her mother, my maternal great grandmother, had died. Almeda was more like a sister than an aunt. But now she, too, had gone.

There were still a few 1st cousins, and close college friend, and a close 1st-cousin once-removed lived near Grass Valley. But there were no immediate family members with whom to share her memories and future. She was, indeed, the last of her clan. But I remimded her that she had three successors in me, my brother and sister, and have stepped over to the chair and gave her long hug.

I didn't see or hear her cry. But her silence was full of tears.

7.9 Burton Hunter

Orene, my mother, reported that Burton shot himself, an undisputed suicide.

Burton's daughter, Mary Judy Hunter, born 14 January 1944 in Lewiston, Idaho, married James Ellis Kimble [Sherrill], born 8 February 1943 in Pomeroy, WA. They have three children as follows.

Shana Lisa Sherrill (Peschek), born 17 January 1970 in Ft. Lewis, WA.
Shalinee Marisa Sherrill (Hunter), born 25 October 1972 in Spokane, WA.
Gulliver Jimson Sherrill (Kimble), born 25 October 1978 in Olympia, WA.

7.923 Gulliver Sherrill's adventures in Japan

Gulliver came to Japan in the spring of 1999 for a year of study as a foreign student in the International Exchange Department of Ajia University (Ajia Daigaku 亜細亜大学) in Musashino city in Tokyo. I met him for the 1st time in 25 April.

On the 1st Sunday or possibly Monday of July, I got a call from a bilingual woman in office of the international department, reporting that Gulliver was in the hospital with a broken back. She asked me to mediate with Gulliver's parents, who also contacted me by email. She wanted me to visit him at the hospital with her, so I could directly observe his situation and talk with the doctor, then report my impressions to his parents, who would then decide whether they should come to Japan immediately or later.

I met the woman from the office on Tuesday, 6 July, and reported that Gulliver was wearing a plastic brace that encircled his entire trunk and virtually immobilized him. A CAT scan showed that he had a compound fracture of his 2nd lumbar vertebra. The prognosis was for a recovery that would take several weeks followed by several weeks of rehabilitation. His parents came, and I met them with the woman from the office on Sunday, 11 July 1999.

Gulliver had fallen off the roof of his dorm while he and some dorm mates were partying and otherwise violating dorm and university rules. Luckily his fall was broken by an awning and he didn't suffer permanent injuries.

I met Gulliver and his girl friend, with and my children, in Shinjuku on Friday, 10 December, for dinner. The following evening he left Japan from Narita. After he returned to America, we exchanged a few emails, from which I learned that he and his girl friend had parted ways -- which did not surprise me. In time I lost touch with him and his family.

Since Gulliver's mother Judith was the daughter of my mother's uncle, Burton, Judith was my mother's 1st cousin, which made her my 1st cousin once removed. Hence Gulliver and I are 2nd cousins, and he and my children are 2nd cousins once removed.

Chronology of Hunter-Thomas family through censuses

Hunter sisters

Three Hunter sisters L-R   Ullie Hardman, Viola McGee, Eva Keene Postcard, circa 1919, Wetherall Family Collection

Three Hunter sisters L-R   Ullie Hardman, Viola McGee, Eva Keene Large print from negative, circa 1960s, Wetherall Family Collection

Three Hunter sisters L-R   Eva Keene, Viola McGee, Ullie Hardman A different take of oldest threesome, circa 1919 Find a Grave photo added by Mandy McGee

All 4 surviving of 5 hunter sisters L-R   Ullie Hardman, Almeda Oglesby, Eva Keene, Viola (McGee) Wells Snapshot dated 25 April 1962, probably Almeda's Oldsmobile by her Clarkston home, Wetherall Family Collection

7.1 Ullie May (Hunter) Hardman

Ullie Hunter August 1907, 16 years old Wetherall Family Collection

Ullie Hunter Reportedly late 1900s, by photographer Anton Lee From Niki Lee, Lee (Thomas) Family Collection

Ullie Hunter In full photo studio regalia Wetherall Family Collection

Ullie (Hunter) Hardman Crop from wedding portrait with Owen Hardman Wetherall Family Collection

Ullie (Hunter) Hardman Crop from circa 1915 Hunter sister threesome From Niki Lee, Lee (Thomas) Family Collection

Ullie (Hunter) Hardman Portrait, circa late 1910s, 1920s Wetherall Family Collection

Ullie (Hunter) Hardman Portrait, circa 1938 Wetherall Family Collection

Ullie (Hunter) Hardman Circa 1941, Piedmont, San Francisco Wetherall Family Collection

Ullie (Hunter) Hardman Portrait, late 1970s, Lewiston Wetherall Family Collection

Ullie Hardman (center) as advisor to makers of Lewis and Clark flag for Lewiston Centennial Sunday, 7 May 1961, Lewiston Morning Tribune Wetherall Family Collection		Ullie Hardman (left) of Luna House Historical Society with Idaho governor Smylie and LHHS president Ware Thursday, 11 May 1963, Lewiston Morning Tribune Wetherall Family Collection		Ullie Hardman celebrating 80th birthday "I haven't had money, but I've kept covered up." Saturday, 9 January 1971, Lewiston Morning Tribune Wetherall Family Collection
Ullie Hardman in the news Ullie (Hunter) Hardman is mentioned in a number of briefs on the gossipy social pages of local papers during her life. But in her later years, she became a bit of public figure through her local history activities, which involved representing the groups she belonged to in publicity events at which she met a number of state and local dignitaries, as shown in two of the newspaper clippings. In these articles, she is twice said to have come to Idaho from Missouri in 1900. She remarked at one time that she was 8 years old when she rode the train west along the northern route through Montana, northern Idaho, to Spokane, from which the family made its way to the Clearwater river area of Idaho. The 1900 census for the Juliaetta Precinct of Latah county, above the northern banks of the Clearwater river upstream from Lewiston, shows the household of "Hunter, Albert D.", 38, with his wife "Francis [sic] I.", 27, and the 4 still living children of 5 who had been born -- "Ulla [sic] M.", "Marie [sic] E.", "Viola", 3, and "Albert William". Douglas is a "farm laborer" and Ullie is "at school".

7.2 Sophia Obedience Hunter

Sophia died on 11 July 1894, 5 days after her 1st birthday. She was the only Missouri-born Hunter-Thomas child who did not survive long enough to move with the family to Idaho. Ullie, being only 3 at the time Sophia died, had no memory of her 1st younger sister.

Sophia is reportedly buried in Mount Zion Cemetery in Olden in Howell County, Missouri. Presumably her mother and father went to the cemetery when visiting their families in Missouri in late 1919 and early 1920, with their 9th and last child, Burton.

This writer, Ullie's grandson, who is in possession of Ullie's photographs, has never seen any photographs of the Hunter-Thomas family while in Missouri.

7.3 Mary Eva (Hunter) Keene

Eva Hunter and Wade Keene wedding portrait Married in Spokane, Washington, October 1913 From Niki Lee, Lee (Thomas) Family Collection		Eva (Hunter) Keene Crop from circa 1915 Hunter sister threesome From Niki Lee, Lee (Thomas) Family Collection		L-R   Almeda, Kay, Eva (standing), Ullie, Irene Shaw Gathering at Almeda's home in Lewiston, 18 April 1957 Wetherall Family Collection
The 18 April 1957 gathering at Almeda's home was in celebration of her 47th birthday. Almeda (Hunter) Oglesby and her husband Rance Oglesby were then living in Lewiston. At the gathering was their son Dwight and his wife Kay, Almeda's sisters Ullie (Hunter) Hardman and Eva (Hunter) Keene, possibly Eva's husband Wade Keene, and Rance's bookkeeper Irene Shaw. Rance was then the foreman of a wholesale and retail saw mill he partly owned. Dwight drove trucks for his father. Ullie was living alone in an apartment in Lewiston while working as a bookkeeper for the Idaho state liquor department. Eva and her husband, formerly a farmer, then a Department of Agriculture Federal Warehouse Inspector, lived in Kendrick on the Potlach River on the northern watershed of the Clearwater river upstream from Lewiston. According to the note on the back of the snapshot, in Ullie's hand, Irene Shaw was then convalescing from breast cancer removal.
4 generations of Hunter-Thomases The description on the back of the snapshot to the right, in Ullie's hand, read "4 Generations Hunters / Doug-Eva-GA-Maxine" -- by which she means their order right to left. Generationally, they are Doug, Eva, Maxine, and George-Anne. Albert Douglas Hunter (1862-1945) Mary Eva (Hunter) Keene (1895-1973) Eula Maxine (Keene) Jones (1917-2001) George-Anne (Jones) Kintzley (1941-2017) George-Anne was born on 13 June 1941, about 3 months after this writer, which dates the photograph to the fall of 1941. She passed away on 15 April 2017 in Kennewick, Washington. In the summer of 1941, when I was a babe in arms, I met Douglas Hunter, my maternal great-grandfather -- "Grandpa Doug" to my mother, who was Ullie Hardman's daughter -- at the Hardman home in Peck, Idaho, where he lived the last several years of his life. I also met Eva at least once that I can remember. I cannot recall meeting Maxine, but I definitely heard a lot about her from my mother. Maxine and her brother, Tom Keene, grew up in Kendrick on the other side of the Clearwater river from Peck, where my mother and Burton Hunter went to high school after moving to Peck from Central Ridge. Numerous family photographs show the cousins together. My mother and Maxine, as sister-like 1st cousins, remained in close touch throughout their lives. I knew of, but did not know much about, George-Anne -- a 2nd cousin. I talked with her briefly on the phone when she called my father in Grass Valley, while I was there in 2003 shortly after my mother died. My father, finding her address in my mother's address book, had sent her a notice of my mother's death.

Eva and Ullie

L-R Eva and Ullie Postcard, circa 1920 Wetherall Family Collection		L-R Eva (Hunter) Keene and Ullie (Hunter) Hardman "Hunting widows" / "Praying for the hunters' safe return", 1921 Wetherall Family Collection		L-R Eva and Ullie Snapshot, before 1918, ranch at Peck Wetherall Family Collection
The descriptions of the above three prints are shown as penciled on their backs, apparently in Ullie's hand. The photo to the left, printed ona postcard, reads "Ullie & Eva / Taken about 1920". There are two vintage prints of the photograph in the middle. The back of the print shown here reads "Hunting Widows" and is dated 1921. The other copy, says "Praying for the hunter's [sic] safe return" but is undated. Ullie's daughter, Orene (Hardman) Wetherall, told this writer, her son, that the photograph was taken near "Central Ridge barn". The back of the photograph to the right reads "Twins (?) / Taken on ranch at Peck / Before 1918". Ullie is saying, "Don't we look like twins?" The significance of 1918 is not clear. The "ranch at Peck" may be an error for "Ranch at Central Ridge", where the Hardman's lived until the early 1920s. As far as this writer (Bill Wetherall) knows, there was no ranch at Peck, where the Hardmans moved to a home with a small barn and a vegetable field after selling the ranch on Central Ridge. Ullie's and Eva's families close The Wetherall Family Collection centers on the photographs and documents left by Ullie (Hunter) Hardman to her daughter, who was my mother, Orene (Hardman) Wetherall, and includes my mother's photographs and documents. The collection has several photos of Ullie with her 1st surviving younger sister Eva (Hunter) Keene, and none of just Ullie with her 3rd surviving sister Viola (Hunter) (McGee) Wells. There are also many snapshots of members of Ullie's and Eva's Hardman-Hunter and Keene-Hunter families. Ullie and Eva were probably closer growing up and even immediately after their marriages, but after Ullie and Viola moved with their families from Central Ridge to Peck, Ullie and Viola were both geographically and socially much closer. I suspect that the abundance of photographs of Ullie and Eva and their families was mainly due to the relationships that developed between the Hardman-Hunter and Keene-Hunter cousins, which did not develop with the cousins in Viola's family, or with the Hunter brothers and their families -- except Burton, who Ullie raised throughout his schooling.

7.4 Beulah Viola (Hunter) (McGee) Wells

Viola Hunter Reportedly taken in 1900s by photographer Anton Lee Scan from Niki Lee of photograph in Lee (Thomas) Family Collection

Viola Hunter Crop of Hunter sister threesome reportedly taken circa 1915 (1919?) [see above] Scan from Niki Lee of photograph in Lee (Thomas) Family Collection

Viola Hunter Crop from undescribed photograph reportedly taken 4 July 1912 at Peck Scan from Niki Lee of photograph in Lee (Thomas) Family Collection

Viola sitting on porch and Eva sweeping Reportedly taken in February 1914 at Hunter home on Central Ridge Note, however, that while Viola married in 1917, Eva married in 1913 Scan by Niki Lee of photograph in Lee (Thomas) Family Collection

Viola (Hunter) McGee's 1st son William Earl McGee (1918-2005) According to Orene (Hardman) Wetherall Wetherall Family Collection		Earl McGee U.S. Army, World War II Wetherall Family Collection		2nd son Elwyn Keith McGee (1920-1943) U.S. Army Air Corps, died of cancer Wetherall Family Collection
Beulah Viola (Hunter) (McGee) Wells (1897-1975) married William Franklin McGee (1889-1943) on 31 January (or 1 February) 1917. Both sons were serving in the military during World War II when Viola and Frank learned that their younger son Keith had been diagnosed with cancer. A month after Keith's death in 1943, Frank shot himself at the McGee home in Peck across the street from the Hardman home. See William Franklin McGee's obituary and related stories below. 16 months after Frank's death, Viola married Earl Robert Wells (1894-1958).

7.8 Grace Almeda (Hunter) Oglesby

Forthcoming.

Hunter brothers

The Hunter sisters, especially the older 3, who were the closest in age -- Ullie (1891-1980), Eva (1895-1973), and Viola (1897-1975) -- were commonly photographed together. And all 4 sisters, including Almeda (1910-1999), who was 13 years younger than Viola, remained very close after they married and moved apart. The brothers as the marriedor repre

Brother's in law William Albert Hunter with dressing knife (left) and Owen Monroe Hardman with gloved hands (right) With a fat buck on hunting expedition near Clearwater river in Idaho in 1920s Wetherall Family Collection

7.5 William Albert Hunter

Lines 89-92 of Sheet 1B of the 1930 census for Central Ridge shows Albert D. Hunter (68), a truck farm farmer, as father of head, William A. Hunter (31), a wheat farm farmer, with his wife Florence (25) and their son Kenneth W. (6). Florence was born in Idaho to an Ireland-born father and Germany-born mother.

The lines are struck out with a reference to lines 51-54 of Sheet 2B, which shows the same data, but first lists "William Hunter" (31) as the head and last lists "Albert D. Hunter" (68) as his father. These are the only entries on this sheet, which apparently was added for the purpose of correcting the entries on Sheet 1B. "A" sheets have lines 1-50, and "B" sheets have lines 51-100.

William Albert Hunter's immedidate neighbors on the 1930 census were John W. Thomas (59) and his daughter Theodosia (14). Their immediate neighbors are John W. Thomas's son Howard Thomas (35), a wheat farm farmer, his wife Ethyl (36), their sons Johnny (16), George (14), and Lloyd (12), and their daughter Mary (2).

William Kenneth Hunter was born on 17 May 1923 in Mohler in Lewis County, Idaho. A Montana death roll shows that died on 6 June 1992 in Montana. He was residing in Saint Regis, was divorced, was born on 17 May 1923 in Idaho, was 69 at the time of his death, and had been a truck driver in logging. His father's name is given as William Albert Hunter and his mother's name as Florence Elma Devlin. His 30 June 1942 draft registration card states that he was employed by his father and next-of-kin William A. Hunter. His physical traits were Weight 125lbs, Height 5ft 6in, Complexion Light, Eye Color Brown, and Hair Color Brown.

Florence Alma (Devlin) Hunter was born in Idaho on 18 December 1905 to Ireland-born Owen Devlin and Germany-born Maggie Sturm. She died in Craigmont, in Lewis County, Idaho, on 8 Sep 1943. Her middle name is given as "E." or "Elma" on a number of records, but her death certificate shows "Alma".

The 1940 census for Mohler shows W. A. Hunter (41) farming with his wife Florence (35) and son Kenneth (17). Albert finished the 8th grade, Florence 2 years of high school, and Kenneth also 2 years of high school. The family had lived in the same place in 1935.

7.6 Louie Ellis Hunter

Ruth (Shortlidge) (Hunter) Maynard Doug's and Alene's mother Wetherall Family Collection		L-R Doug Hunter, Owen Hardman, Willam B. Wetherall San Francisco, Golden Gate Park, 1943 Wetherall Family Collection		Alene Frances Hunter Clipped from New Years letter Wetherall Family Collection
The Wetherall Family Collection does not contain much detritus about Louie Ellis Hunter (1902-1943) or his family. However, Ruth (Shortlidge) (Hunter) Maynard (1904-1999) was close to the Hunter-Hardman family on both Central Ridge and in Peck. She appears in the Peck years of my mother's diary, and she and my mother, Orene Hardman (1913-2003), remained in touch after my mother moved to San Francisco in 1938 to marry. I knew Ruth as the Peck postmaster at Viola's store during my summer visits in the 1940s. Ruth married Louie on 26 September 1923. And about 15 years after his death in 1943, she married Gwen Thad Maynard (1903-1961) of Peck. Gwen lived near the Hardmans, and I played with his son, also Billy, a bit younger than me. On one of my summer visits, in 1948, Gwen showed me his collection of firearms and ammunition in the basement of his home, where he had a place to fire weapons. He gave me some Pacific War souvenirs, and a variety of shell casings, including an expended 20mm cannon shell and an unexpended 50 calibre machine gun shell with a primer and bullet, but without powder, and a hole in the side of the casing. He also gave me Remington cartridge chart that decorated my bedroom wall for many years and inspired my own collection of ammunition. Though I never owned a firearm, I shot a variety of pistols, rifles, and shotguns owned by friends. Vernon Douglas Hunter (1925-1993) happened to pass through San Francisco while serving in the U.S. Army during World War II. Owen and Ullie Hardman happened to be visiting the Wetherall Family, and we spent some time in Golden Gate Park, where several photos were taken. I was about 2, and my brother Jerry was about 1. Alene Frances Hunter (b1927) may have become Alene F. Maria by the time the above photograph was taken. Her head was trimmed from a portrait and pasted to the lower right corner of a letter that ended Happy Hew Year! My mother, perhaps, torn just the picture from the lower corner of the letter with "[Hap]py New Year!" hand printed above Alene's head. The line above her head in the above scan is the tail of an uppercase "y", and she has signed the photo "Alene". A gravestone in Normal Hill Cemetery in Lewiston shows Alene's husband, "Anthony Maria / US Marine Corps / Nov 1 1922 / Oct 12 2006" above "Alene F. Maria / Dec 16 1927". If she is still be living in Lewiston as of this writing, in 1923, she would be 96.

7.7 Orval Douglas Hunter

Orval and Ella Hunter In living room of Wetherall Grass valley home Scan of 120 6x6 b&w negative

Orval commanding the chair and flashing his tattoos Wetherall Family Collection

Ella Hunter and Orene Wetherall in kitchen of Hunter Alameda home after Thanksgiving dinner, 1968

Orval Douglas Hunter (1905-1970) was the youngest of Orene (Hardman) Wetherall's 3 older Hunter uncles. None of the 4 Hunter brothers lived very long -- William Albert Hunter (1898-1960) died when 61 -- Louie Ellis Hunter (1902-1943) made it to only 40 -- died 22 months after the 1968 Thanksgiving dinner when 64, shortly before he would have retired -- and Orene's younger Hunter uncle, Burton Lyle Hunter (1914-1973), her "pseudo brother" as she called him, shot himself when 58. That's an average longevity of about 56 -- only 2/3rds the 83 years for the 4 hunter aunts, not including Sophia, who lived only 1 year.

Orval, who had been in the Navy during World War II, worked the rest of his life at the Alameda Navy Air Station in Alameda. Given the several times the Wetherall clan drove to his and Ella's home -- first from the Wetherall home in San Francisco, later from their home in Grass Valley -- you would think there would be more pictures in the Wetherall Family Collection. Orval had everything his civil service salary would buy, from the larger car to a bigger color TV set, and the latest camera, and he took pictures of us -- including the one of my mother doing dishes with Ella in the Hunter kitchen in 1968.

Among her uncles, my mother didn't know a lot about Albert. She seemed to like Louie and was close to his wife Ruth. Burton, who she grew up with as a foster brother, under the same roof at home and in the same classroom, was her "favorite uncle". Diary entries she didn't like Orval. But Ella, nee Coon, was born the same year she was on Central Ridge, and whenever the families got together, they had no shortage of stories to share.

Orval and Ella had three children, but I recall meeting only their youngest son, Jerry (Gerald), at a Thanksgiving gathering in Alameda. As I recall, Jerry -- possibly with his wife -- didn't eat with us but just stopped by to say hello.

I most remember Ella's cooking -- sometimes the usual turkey with stuffing and mashed potatoes -- but more likely duck or pheasant that Orval had bagged on a hunt, with wild rice, and a warning that chomp into some buckshot.

Orval was an inveterate hunter, and he died -- apparently of a heart attack -- while deer hunting near Peck in the fall of 1970, thus ending the Thanksgiving get togethers.

7.9 Burton Lyle Hunter

Orene Hardman about 22 months old with 5-month-younger uncle Burton Hunter On Thomas ranch, Central Ridge, 1915 Wetherall Family Collection Douglas Hunter holding granddaughter Maxine Keene with Ida (Thomas) Hunter and their youngest son Burton On Central ridge around 1918

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Burton Hunter with 5-month-older niece Orene Hardman Probably taken in 1928 when they were seniors at Peck High School Burton was raised by Orene's mother, his older sister Ullie (Hunter) Hardman He and Orene grew up together and were classmates throughout their schooling Glossy print in Wetherall Family Collection Glossy print made in 1965 from vintage print not in collection. Collection includes vintage print taken on same occasion showing Burton and his niece (Orene's 1st cousin) Maxine Keene hugging

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Left Peggy Foley and Orene Hardman   Middle Orene Hardman, Burton Hunter, Babe Hardman Burton was Orene's and Babe's younger uncle but raised as a brother Taken in Lewiston, around 1935 or 1936, according to Orene Babe married Howard Dammarell no later than 1937 Orene married William Wetherall in 1938 Burton and Peggy married in 1939 Wetherall Family Collection

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Left Tom Keene -- Orene Hardman with Brutus -- Burton Hunter Middle Orene Hardman -- Ullie Hardman -- Burton Hunter Right Ullie Hardman with Brutus -- Burton Hunter These photographs, in the Wetherall Family Collection, were taken around 1935 in front of Eva (Hunter) Keene's home in Kendrick, Idaho, according to Orene (Hardman) Wetherall. Tom Keene is Eva and Wade Keene's son. Ullie (Hunter) Hardman and Burton Hunter are Eva's oldest and youngest siblings, and Orene Hardman is Ullie's daughter. Hence Orene and Tom are 1st cousins, and Burton is their uncle. Orene's favorite uncle However, as the oldest of the 9 Hunter-Thomas siblings, Ullie had raised Burton, the youngest, as her son, along with her daughters, Babe and Orene Hardman. Burton was 5 months younger than his niece Orene -- but they were in the same grade, and were classmates, throughout grade school on Central Ridege and high school in Peck. The Wetherall Family Collection has two copies of the photo in the middle of Orene, Ullie, and Burton. On the back of one is a note, in Orene's writing -- "Reading from left to right -- you-know-who, Mother, and my favorite Uncle. Pardon the nose, but I distinctly remember you telling me there wasn't a knob on the end of it!" This may have been a copy Orene sent to her 1st cousin Maxine Keene, Tom's older sister, which Maxine's daughter George-Anne returned to Orene, with some other photographs, after Maxine died in 2001. Orene died in 2003. Tom died in 1994. Ullie died in 1980. Burton shot himself in 1973. Brutus Keene probably died in the 1940s. Burton's pipe Orene remarked on the back of the photograph to the left -- "I detest people who pose for pictures. Anyway, this is Tom, the cat, and Burton (the pipe isn't a permanent fixture!)". On the back of the photo to the right she wrote -- "Mother, Burton, and Brutus the cat. That facial expression seems to run in the family." Burton's hands are either helping hold Orene, or in his pockets, or behind his back. He doesn't need them to boost his pipe's self-esteem. It dangles from his mouth as though it belongs there, without impairing his smile. Burton's death 1973 was full of sadness for the Hunter-Thomas family. From 2-4 March 1973, my mother recorded a tape letter in Grass Valley, Sebastapol, and Berkeley, California, to send to Maxine Jones, Eva's daughter. The tape reveals that Almeda (Hunter) Oglesby, in Clarkston, called Orene (Hardman) Wetherall, in Grass Valley, to tell her about Eva (Hunter) Keene's stroke and Burton Hunter's death. Orene called Theo (Thomas) Vincent, in Berkeley, to inform her of these events, and also about Ullie (Hunter) Hardman's increasing inability to care for herself at her apartment in Lewiston. Theo had lost her voice, and Orene had not been able to talk with her for a while. Orene talked about all these matters on the tape, which begins in Grass Valley. She drives to her daughter Mary Ellen's home in Sebastapol, then to Berkeley, where Theo and her husband Wilton were living while he was completing a graduate program at the Pacific School of Religion, and where I was going to school at the University of California. The tape ends with Theo's words of encouragement to Maxine. In the first part of the tape, Orene updates Maxine on developments in the Wetherall family, particular in the lives of her children, Billy, Jerry, and Mary Ellen. Burton shot himself on 22 February 1973. Almeda calls Orene, and Orene sends Maxine a tape letter in early March. Eva died a month after Orene sent the tape to Maxine. Ullie Hardman died in a convalescent home in 1980. Almeda Ogelsby died in 1999. Maxine (Keene) Jones died in 2001. Maxine's daughter George-Anne (Jones) Kintzley returns tape to Orene. Wilton Vincent died in 2002. Orene Wetherall died in 2003. Theo Vincint died in 2007. Cremated. Specifically: "Was cremated and ashes would be returned, and would be put back in Clearwater River" according to written report about memorial service given his sister Ullie by their 1st cousin John A. Thomas.

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Burton Hunter in uniform Photograph of Burton Hunter, sent to his niece Orene (Hardman) Wetherall, datelined "Pazig Rezal / 1945" and signed "unc Burt". The photograph, in the Wetherall Family Collection, shows Burton him standing in uniform in front of the Immaculate Conception Cathedral of Pasig in the Plaza Rizal in Manila in The Philippines. The city was the site of the Battle of Manila from 3 February to 3 March 1945. Fighting continued in parts of The Philiippies after Hirohito's general order to cease hostilites on 15 August 1945, and after Japan's formal surrender on 2 September 1945. However, most of the islands were under the control of U.S. military forces by the spring of 1945. "I wouldn't trade a rustic log cabin for this shack" Burton wrote the following message on the back of another photograph, possibly a sourvenir print, of an undamaged edifice by a pond. Manila, June 1945   Here is one of the samples of Oriental architecture near the Chinese Cemetary, which in itself is a lot of ornate tombs in miniature, very similar to this.   I wouldn't trade a rustic log cabin for this shack.       Burt An unvetted transcription of an enlistment rececord shows that Burton Hunter, married, a retail manager with 3 years of college, residing in Nez Perce [County] in Idaho, enlisted on 29 March 1944 at Fort Lewis in Washington. A scan of Burton's D.S.S. [Department of Selective Service] Form 1 Registration Card, filed on 16 October 1940, shows that at the time he was working for J.C. Penny in Lewiston. Notations typed later on the card say "Ind. [Inducted] Army 3-29-44" and "1-24-1946 Honorable Discharge "Demobilization".

14. Hunter-Ellis

Owen Monroe Hardman and Ullie May Hunter

0. Andrew M. Hunter was born in Missouri to parents who were born in Missouri. Sophia J. Ellis was born in Missouri to parents born in Tennessee. When they married is not yet known. Both are buried in New Hope Cemetery in Peace Valley, in Howell County, Missouri.
   On 29 April 1897, 4 years after the Sophia's death in 1893, Andrew remarried Elizabeth Jane Earls in Howell County, Missouri (see below).
1. William Walter Hunter, called "Will" by some family members and friends, is said to have never married. The 1900 census states he was born in April 1883.
2. James Wesley Hunter is "Joshua" (4 years old) on the 1860 census and "James W." in the 1870 census. He died in 1872, and presumably he is buried in or near Benton, where he was living in 1870.
3. Alexander is "Columbus" (2 years old) on the 1860 census, "Columbus A." (13) on the 1870 census, and "C. Alexander" (22) on the 1880 Cencus. He married Mary Ann Eldringhoff, who was born in Montgomery County in Missouri on 7 Apr 1862, died on 3 March 1941 in Pomona in Howell County, Missouri, and is buried in Saint Joseph Cemetery in White Church, Howell County, Missouri. Their 2 children, Joseph Andrew Hunter (1883-1947) and Ernest Benjamin Hunter (1904-1963), are also burined at Saint Joseph Cemetery. Alexander is buried in Mount Zion Cemetery in Olden, in Howell County, Missouri.
4. Laura is 1 year old in 1860 census. She married James Branford Ferguson (1853-1919), with whom she had two children, Martin and Albert. She and Jim are buried in New Hope Cemetery in Peace Valley in Howell County, Missouri.
5. Andrew F. Hunter is 9 years old in the 1870 census but he died in 1871 before reaching his 11th birthday. Possibly he was buried in or near Benton, where he was living in 1870.
6. Albert D. Hunter was born in 1862 according to his tombstone on Central Ridge in Lewis County, Idaho. The 1900 census states he was born in April 1862.
   He married Ida Frances Thomas in 1890, and they had 11 children, beginning with Ullie May Hunter, who was "Mama" to Orene (Hardman) Wetherall, and "Grandma" to the Wetherall-Hardman children (see 7. Hunter-Thomas).
7. John Hunter's full name was John Richard Grant Charles Henry Rosencrans Hunter. He married Emily "Emma" A. Thomas (1874-1894), with whom he had 2 children, Milton Nathan Hunter (1890-1983), who was 3 when Emily died in 1894, and an infant son who died 25 February 1892 and is buried near his mother at Mt. Zion Cemetery. John then remarried Emma's sister Mary Jane (Thomas) Thompson (1863-1923), who had 1 daughter, Sophia I. Hunter, by him. Mary had had a number of children with her 1st husband, Francis "Frank" Marion Thompson (10 Aug 1856 - 10 Jun 1923), who she divorced. John is buried in Mount Zion Cemetery in Olden, Howell County, Missouri, near Emma and Jane, who share the same headstone. See 14.7 Hunter-Thomas-Thomas (below) and "John Hunter and his two Thomas wives" thereunder for details.
8. Martha's full name was Martha Ann Elizabeth Susan Jane Caroline Hunter. Martha married and had one daughter, Rhoda.
9. Elcia was "Elsie" in the family and to friends, and "Aunt Tippie" to Ullie (Hunter) Hardman. On 16 January 1889, she married Walter Farmer, with whom she had 5 children -- Andrew, Quincy, Guy (?), and twins Ole and Ollie. She is buried in Dry Creek Cemetery in Pomona, in Howell County, Missouri.
10. Philip married Myrtle Frances (Phillip), who was born in Monett, in Barry County, Missori, on 25 December 1880, and died on 21 March 1962 in Carthage, Jasper County, Missouri. Both are buried in Worsley Cemetery in Bronaugh, in Vernon County, Missouri. Their son, Walter C. Hunter (1902-1973), and his wife Frances E. Hunter (1905-1995), are buried in Salem Cemetery, in Mount Vernon, in Lawrence County, Missouri.
11. Sarah, Philip's fraternal twin, died in 1871 during her 2nd year of life. Possibly she was buried in or near Benton, where she was living at the time of the 1870 census.
0. On 29 April 1897, 4 years after the death of Sophia J. Hunter in 1893, Andrew M. Hunter married Elizabeth Jane Earls in Howell County, Missouri.
   The 1900 census shows Andrew M. married to Elizabeth J., who was born in Kentucky in March 1834 to parents who were born in Kentucky. According to the census, he and Elizabeth had been married for 3 years, and Elizabeth had had 8 children of whom 4 survived.
   Ullie (Hunter) Hardman recalled in 1973 that her paternal grandfather's second wife's name had been Pentecost. This was the name of her 1st husband, Eli Blankenship Pentecost (1830-1872), who she married on 10 March 1850 in Cumberland, Kentucky. After Eli's death, Elizabeth married in turn Jonathan G, Smith on 16 February 1873 in Clay, Tennessee, then E. Pleasant Earls on 21 September 1876, also in Clay, Tennessee. She then married Andrew M. Hunter, her 4th husband, on 29 April 1897, in Howell County, Missouri.
   Elizabeth was born on 23 March 1834 in Cumberland, in Harlan County in Kentucky. She died on 28 December 1919 in Brandsville, Howell County, Missouri, and is buried in Meltabarger Cemetery in West Plains, Howell County, Missouri.

Hunter-Ellis family census data

The 1860 census for Fredericksburg postoffice households in the township of Benton, in Osage county in Missouri, shows A.M. Hunter (32), married to Sophia J. Hunter (30), with 4 children -- Wm. W. (8), Joshua (4), Columbus (2), and Laura (1). All are listed as born in Missouri. A.M. Hunter's estate is valued at 250 dollars.

A "Consolidated list of all persons of Class II, subject to do military duty in the Second Congressional District [of Missouri]", enumerated for June, July, August, and September of 1863, and dated 30 September 1863, shows "Hunter Andrew M, White, Farmer, Mo [Missouri born], none [no former military experience]".

The 1870 census, enumerated on 8 July for Fredericksburg postoffice households in the township of Benton, in Osage county in Missouri, shows Andrew M. Hunter (40), Sophia J. (39), William W. (16), James W. (15), Columbus A, (13), Laura L. (11), Andrew F. (9), Albert D. (8), twins John (6) and Martha (6), Ellsie M. (4), and twins Sarah L. (8 months) and Philip K. [sic = C.] (8 months). Albert M. Hunter is a farmer, Jophia J. is keeping house, William W. and James W. are farm hands, and Columbus L. is a farm boy. The other children are "at home".

The 1880 census for Sisson township, in Howell county in Missouri, enumerated on 2 June 1880, shows Andrew M. Hunter (52) farming, his wife Sophia J. (51) keeping house, W. William (27), C. Alexander (22), Laura L. (21), Albert D. 18), twins John R. (John R. (16) and Martha A. (16), Elcia M. (14), and Philip C. (10). William, Alexander, Albert, and John are "working on farm", Elicia and Philip are "at school", no occupation is shows for Laura or Martha.

Andrew F. Hunter is missing from the 1880 census because he passed away in 1871. The son identified as "Joshua" in 1860 census and "James W." in the 1870 census is missing from the 1880 census because he passed away in 1872. Philip C.'s twin sister Sarah L. is missing because she died in 1871. Andrew's and Sarah's deaths occured within a week of each other, most likely because of a common illness.

Andrew Milton Hunter's obituary as reported by his 3rd cousin William R. Hunter in Sketches of Andrew M. Hunter and Family, 31 May 1982 Cropped from scan of copy of report in Wetherall Family Collection (see below)

The above obituary gives Andrew Milton Hunter's age at the time he died -- Wednesday, 9 September 1908 -- as 78. According to received accounts, he was born on 18 December 1828, which would have made him 79, going on 80, when he died. New Hope Cemetery is in Olden, Howell County, Missouri.

Andrew Milton Hunter

All 11 of Andrew M. Hunter's children are accounted for in the 1870 census.

By the 1876 Missouri census, Columbus and James have left, and Andrew has died, leaving 8 children living with Andrew M. and Sophia J. Hunter -- William W., Alexander C., Laura, Albert D., John R.. Martha E., Elzia (sic) M., Phillip (sic) C.

By 1880, Andrew M. and Sopia (sic) J. Hunter are still co-residing with the same 8 children -- William W., Alexander C., Laura L., Albert D., John R., Martha A., Elcia M., and Philip (sic) C.

Apparently Andrew M. Hunter remarried after Sophia J.'s death in 1893.

In conversations with Ullie Hardman, which I taped in Lewiston in 1973, she twice refers to Andrew's "second wife" as "Pedacost" (as I initially heard and transcribed the name). Listening again to the tape, I concluded that the "Pedacost" I heard, through the noise on the tape and other conversations going on at the same time, was "Pentecost" -- and that Ullie was referring to Elizabeth Jane Pentecost (nee Smith). Andrew married her in 1897. Apparently it was her 4th marriage, for the marriage license shows her as "Earls". And between being "Pentecost" and "Earls" she had been married to a man named Smith.

Lining up all her names, in the fashionionable way of representing people in family histories, she would be Elizabeth Jane Smith Pentecost Smith Earls Hunter -- which adds up to a lucky "7" names.

I suppose a woman who survives 4 husbands and leaves over 40 grandchildren and over 40 great grandchildren could be called lucky.

14.7 Hunter-Thomas-Thomas

John R. Hunter and Emily Allis "Emma" Thomas then Mary Jane (Thomas) Thompson

The "14.7 Hunter-Thomas-Thomas families" discussed here consist of the families of John Hunter (14.7) with, in succession, two Thomas sisters, first the younger Emily Allis Thomas (15.11) , then the older Mary Jane Thomas (15.6). These families are related to, but distinct from, the "7. Hunter-Thomas" Hunter-Thomas family" of Albert Douglas Hunter (14.6) and Ida Francis Thomas (15.10), which is the focus of this page.

0. John R. Hunter had families with first Emily Allis Thomas and then her divorced older sister Mary Jane (Thomas) Thompson.
   
   Thomas family biographers Robert C. and Ruth Thomas wrote as follows about John R. Hunter and Emily A. Thomas
   in "The Thomas Family: North Carolina to the West Coast" (dated after July 1983).
   1. "They were parents of two Children (sic). One infant son died February 24, 1892[.] He is buried near his mother in the Mt. Zion Cemetery, Howell County, Mo. Emily A. is buried next to her sister Mary Jane and near her husband in the Mt. Zion Cemetery[.]"
    
   Emily and Jane share the same headstone. See Hunter-Thomas graves (below).
   See 14. Hunter-Ellis for John R. G. C. H. R. Hunter (14.7) and his birth family (above).
   See 15. Thomas-Forbes for Emily Allis Thomas (15.11) and her birth family (above).
1. Milton Nathan Hunter, John's son with his first Thomas wife Emily (Emma), is the most important person in John R. Hunter's line from the perspective of his brother Albert D. Hunter's Hunter-Thomas family in Idaho, including my mother, Louida Orene Hardman, who was Milton's 1st niece once removed. Later in his life, John R. Hunter spent some time with Milton in Idaho.
2. As of this writing (2018), I can find no information on Emily's unnamed son.
0. Mary Jane Thomas (1863-1923) married Francis Marion ("Frank") ("F.M.") Thompson (1850/1856-1923), a farmer and Baptist minister, in 1882.
   Mary J. and F.M. divorced, possibly by the end of the 1890s, as he has remarried by 1903, and on 1 December 1904 she and her sister Emma's widowed husband John R. Hunter were issued a license to marry.
   
   The 1910 census reports that 8 of 11 children born to Mary Jane survived.
   The census shows 4 children -- Fannie, Virgie, and Lora, her daughters with F.M. -- and Sophia, her daughter with John.
   
   Mary Jane had at least the following 6 children with F.M. Thompson.
   1. Ella Margaret (Thompson) Shanholtz (1884-1978).
      Born in Missouri.
      Died in Moody County, South Dakota.
      Buried in Colman Cemetery, Colman, Moody County, South Dakota.
   2. Anna Obedience ("Anna") ("Anna O.") ("Biddie") (Thompson) Raymer (25 May 1886 - 19 May 1968)
      Born and died in Missouri.
      Buried in Sunset Cemetery, Pacific, Franklin County, Missouri.
   3. Robert Martin Thompson (3 Sep 1889 - 18 Jan 1972)
      Born in White Church, Howell County, Missouri.
      Died in West Plains, Howell County, Missouri.
      Buried in New Hope Cemtery, Peace Valley, Howell County, Missouri.
   4. Francis Mae (Thompson) Clemmons (6 Feb 1889 - 2 Apr 1938)
      Born in Howell County, Missouri.
      Died in Moody County, South Dakota.
      Buried in Colman Cemetery, Colman, Moody County, South Dakota.
   5. Vergie A. [Almeda] (Thompson) Delaplain (27 May 1894 - 21 Oct 1987).
      Vergie T. Thomson married C. W. Delaplain in Howell County on 19 Dec 1913.
      She is buried in New Hope Cemetery, Peace Valley, Missouri.
   6. Lora Agnes (Thompson) Pettijohn (1896-1991)
    
   See 15. Thomas-Forbes for Mary Jane Thomas (15.6) and her birth family.
3. Sophia Irene (Hunter) (Houghton) (Morton) Jones was Mary Jane (Thomas) (Thompson) Hunter's only child with John R. Hunter.
   Sophia was born on 13 August 1906 two years after Mary J. and John R. were married.
   Sophia appears on the 1910 census with 3 of her mother's daughters by F.M. Thompson -- Fannie, Virgie, and Lora.
   Sophia died on 20 June 1990.

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John R. Hunter marriages and children

With Thomas sisters and their descendants

John Richard Grant Charles Henry Rosencrans Hunter was born on 9 May 1864 in Howell County, Missouri.

A Howell County, Missouri "Application and Affidavits for a Marriage License" for John R. Hunter and Emily A. Thomas was approved on 3 February 1890.

Milton Nathon Hunter was born on 19 December 1890. A second son (name and birth unknown as of this writing in 2018) died on 15 June 1893.

Emily died on 25 February 1894, leaving John R. Hunter with their one suriving son, Milton Nathan Hunter.

The 1900 census for Sisson township in Howell County, Missouri, shows John R. Hunter (36), widowed, farming, with his son Milton (9), at school.

A Howell County, Missouri "Application and Affidavits for a Marriage License" for John R. Hunter and Mary J. Thompson [nee Thomas] was approved on 1 December 1904.

The 1910 census for Black Pond, in Oregon County, Missouri, shows John R. Hunter (46), a laborer, working out for wages, married to Mary J. Hunter (46). The couple had been married for 5 years, and it was the 2nd marriage for both. The census states that Mary had given birth to 11 children of whom 8 survived. Living with them were 4 daughters -- Fannie N. Hunter (22) [born c1888], Virgie Hunter (16) [born c1894], Ora A. [sic = "Lora Agnes"] Hunter (14) [born c1896], and Sophia I. [Irene] Hunter (3) [born c1907]. Fannie, Virgie, and Lora were Mary's children with Frank Thompson. Sophia was Mary's child with John.

The 1910 census for Southfork Township in Fulton County, Arkansas, shows the household of "Thompson F[rank?] M." (49) with his wife "Abzenia A." (24) and 3 daughters -- "Bert" (6), "Bertha" (2), and "Beluah" (4/12). They have been married 7 years in what is his 2nd and her 1st marriage. She had given birth to 3 children of whom all 3 survived as enumerated in the census. F.M. Thompson is a farmer on a general farm. Everyone in the household are said to have been born in Arkansas -- except Frank, who was born in Tennessee.

The 1920 census for Black Pond township in Oregon County, Missouri, shows "Hunter, John" (26) [sic = 56], married to "------, Mary J." (26) [sic = 56], with a daughter, "------ Sofia" [sic = Sophia] (13). John owns their home free of mortgage and is farming. He was born in North Carolina, Mary J. in Arkansas, and Sophia in Iowa.

Enumerated immediately after the Hunter household is the family of "Pettyjohn [sic = Pettijohn], Connie" (23), who is living in a rented home and farming, and his wife "----- Flora" [sic = Lora (Agnes)] (23), with no children.

Lora Agnes Thompson [Hunter] was a daughter of Mary J. Thomas [Hunter] with Frank Thompson. She was 11 years older than her half sister Sophia Irene Hunter, but she was the youngest and closet of Sophia's older half sisters. Lora was born on 18 December 1896 in Peace Valley, Howell County, Missouri and died on 12 January 1991 at age 94 in Missouri. She is buried in Union Star Cemetery in Union Star, DeKalb County, Missouri with her husband Connie Pettijohn.

"Miss Laura Hunter" married "Mr. Connie C. Pettijohn" (1896–1965) about 19 November 1919 (Howell County, Missouri "Application and Affidavits for a Marriage License). They had at least 3 children -- John Austin Pettijohn (1921–1995), Mildred Luella (Pettijohn) Buntin (1923–2018), and C. Noel Pettijohn (1932–2018).

The 1920 census for Wilson Township in Fulton County, Arkansas, shows "Thompson Francis M." (61), widowed, with 3 daughters -- "Bertie" (16), "Bertha" (12), and "Bula" [sic = Beluah] (9). F.M. Thompson is a farmer on a general farm and Bertie is a performing farm laborer on a home farm.

A Howell County, Missouri "Application and Affidavits for a Marriage License" shows a marriage license issued to Clarence Hougton (23) and Miss Sophia Hunter (22) on 14 November 1928.

Clarence Theodore Houghton was born on 18 February 1906 in Hume, in Bates County, Missouri. He died on 8 March 1930 in Oregon County, Missouri, and is buried in New Hope Cemetery in Peace Valley, Howell County, Missouri.

Lorraine Jean Houghton was born on 20 December 1929 in Peace Valley in Howell County, Missouri, the daughter of Sophia Irene Hunter and Clarence Theodore Houghton.

The 1930 census for the township of Sisson in Howell County, Missouri, shows "Hunter John" (65), widowed, as the head of household, with his daughter, "Holton [sic = Houghton] Sophia" (23), widowed, and his grand-daughter, "----- Lorrine [sic = Lorraine (Jean)]" (4/12). John is renting their home while working as a laborer on a farm. The census, for 1 April 1930, was enumerated on 24 April 1930, barely 6 weeks after Clarence's death. John and Lorraine were born in Missouri, Sophia in Arkansas.

John R. Hunter's household is enumerated between the households of "Delaplain C.W." (40) with his wife "Virgie" (35) and 3 children, and "Pettyjohn Denny" (31) with his wife "Eileyne" and 5 children.

Sophia Houghton is "Sohpie Hougton" on her half-sister Francis Mae (Thompson) Clemmons's 1938 newspaper obituary (see above).

Sophia Houghton is "Sopha I. [Irene] Houghton" on an "Application and Affidavits for a Marriage License" she filed with Roy. C. Morton in Howell County on 12 May 1939.

The 1940 census for Silverton in Briscoe County, Texas, shows "Morton, Roy C." (39), a carpenter building homes, as head of a household with his wife "------, Sopha I." (33), daughter "-----, Jane Annie" (8/12), and stepdaughteer "Houghton, Loraine" (10). Roy and Jane were born in Texas, Sopha in Arkansas, and Loraine in Missouri. In 1935, Roy was living in the same place (Silverton), while Sopha and Loraine were living in Peace Valley, Missouri. Both Roy and Sopha had completed 7 grades of school.

William Wallace McGeorge (35), a truck driver, born on 29 April 1917, and Lorraine Jean Houghton (22), a waitress, born on1 20 December 1929, both residing in Mena in Polk County, Arkansas, are issued a marriage license on 12 July 1952.

Lorraine Jean Houghton (1929-1999) was the daughter of Sophia Irene Hunter (1906-1990) and Clarence Theodore Houghton (1906-1930). Sophia was the daughter of John R. Hunter (1864-1954) and Mary Jane (Thomas) Thompson (1863-1923). William Wallace McGeorge (1917-1975) was the son of William Wallace McGeorge (1871–1922) and Helen Virginia McSpadden (1889–1966). William Wallace McGeorge, the son, was born in Mena in Polk County, Arkansas, on 29 April 1917 a and died in Mena on 23 April 1975. He is buried with his parents in White Oak Cemetery in Mena.

William Wallace McGeorge's tombstone reads "GM2 US NAVY / WORLD WAR II" which signifies that he served as a gunner's mate rating 2. His D.S.S. [Department of Selective Serivce] Form 1 Registration Card states that he registered on 16 October 1940 with the local board of Mena in Polk County, Arkansas, where he was born on 29 April 1917. He was White by race, height 5'8", weight 140, blue eyes, blonde hair, and ruddy complexion.

Muster rolls for the U.S.S. Enterprise (CV-6) show that William Wallace McGeorge was a member of its crew as of the quarter ending 31 March 1945. McGeorge's rating at the time was "GM3c V6" [bleeding difficult to read]. He appears to have first registered for duty onboard the ship on 4 April 1942. Veterans Affairs records show he enlisted on 31 January 1942 and was released on 29 September 1945. This means he served virtually the entire period of the Pacific War with Japan and participated in most of its major sea battles and island invasions and landings aboard the Enterprise.

The U.S.S. Enterprise, a Yorktown-class carrier, was ordered in 1933, laid down by Newport News Shipbuilding on 16 July 1934, launched on 3 October 1936, commissioned on 12 May 1938, and decommissioned on 17 February 1947. The Enterprise was only one of three American aircraft carries built before World War II to survive the war, the others being the Saratoga and Ranger. She was known as "The Big E" in the Pacific Theater, where she saw more major actions against Japan than any other American warship. She was the only carrier to participate in the defense of Pearl Harbor, when 7 of 18 dive bombers from her air group were shot down. Some Ancestry.com records identify her as CVN-65, but this is the designation of her successor, the first Nimitz-class nuclear carrier, which is no longer in service.

John R. Hunter died on 21 Feb 1954 at age 89 in Howell County, Missouri. He is buried at Mt. Zion Cemetery in Olden in Howell County.

The 21 September 1969 edition of News-Press, a St. Joseph, Missouri newspaper, reported from Union Star, Missouri, as follows (page 7C).

     Brown-Pettijohn
  UNION STAR (Special) -- Mrs. Joyce Brown, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Roy Morton of Fayetteville, Ark., and Noel Pettijohn, son of Mrs. Con Pettijohn of Union Star, were married Aug. 18 in Fayetteville.
  Mr. and Mrs. Pettijohn reside in King City. Mr. Pettijohn operates a radio and television shop in Union Star.

Noel Pettijohn was C. Noel Pettijohn or Connie Noel Pettijohn (1932–2018), the son of Lora Agnes (Thompson) Pettijohn (1896-1991) and Connie C. Pettijohn (1896–1965). Joyce Brown was Ramona Joyce Morton, born in Texas on 18 December 1941 to Sophia Irene (Hunter) (Houghton) Morton and Roy C. Morton. Both Noel and Joyce had been previously married.

Since Lora and Sophia were half-sisters, Noel and Joyce were half-1st-cousins.

Milton Nathan Hunter, born in Howell County, Missouri on 19 December 1890, died in Kamiah, in Lewis County, Idaho, on 17 June 1983 at age 92. He is buried in Kamiah Cemetery in Kamiah.

Lorraine Jean (Houghton) (Morton) (McGeorge) Jones died in Mena in Polk County, Arkansas, on 26 July 1999. An obituary in the 31 July 1999 edition of the Palladium-Item of Richmond, Indiana (page A5), states that she had been a diatician at a nursing home. She left her husband, Lennie Marvin Jones, a daughter, Carol Jeffers of Richmond, Indiana, a son, Bill McGeorge of Mena, Arizona, and two sisters, Jane Brown of Lewisville, Texas, and Romonia Pettijohn of St. Joseph, Missouri, among a number of step-children, and grandchildren and step-grandchildren.

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Fourth cousins

Email contact in October 2020 from Bill McGeorge, of Mena, Arkansas, referring to the death of Nathan Clingman Thomas (1832-1881), spurred me to put together fragments of information in my Hunter-Thomas family records. Other than my line of descent from Albert Douglas Hunter and Ida Frances Thomas, I had details only on Milton Nathan Hunter, my maternal grandmother's 1st cousin, and his father, Douglas Hunter's brother John R. Hunter. I know John R. Hunter had married in succession two Thomas sisters, first the younger Emily, and when Emily died her younger sister Mary Jane. I had the name "Sophia I. Hunter" as the daughter of John R. and Mary J. That was all,

Bill McGeorge provided enough information about his line to pursue our connections through information mainly from Ancester.com and Find a Grave. Some other information popped up in various Thomas and Hunter materials I collected over the years from deceased relatives I knew fairly well -- all of whom were based in Idaho, Washington, or California.

The contact with Bill McGeorge was the first from a cousin east of the Rockies. The Hunters and Thomases that went west kept in touch with their relatives in Missouri, North Carolina, Arkansas, and elsewhere in the south. However, contact was most lost from the 2nd generation, and 3rd generation descendants like me -- born and raised in California -- knew little or nothing their southern relatives.

It turns out that Bill McGeorge, a descendant of Sophia Irene Hunter (1906-1990) -- and this writer, Bill Wetherall, a descendant of Ullie May Hunter (1891-1980), Sophia's 1st cousin -- are straight-up 3rd cousins through both the "Hunter-Ellis" and "Thomas-Forbes" lines.

Hunter-Ellis                      Thomas-Forbes

Andrew     Sophia                 Nathan       Bridget  
Milton_____Jane                   Clingman_____Obedience
Hunter  |  Ellis                  Thomas    |  Forbes
        |                                   |
        |     ______________________________|______________
        |    |                      |                      |
   _____|____|______________________|__________            |
  |          |                      |          |           | 
Albert     Ida       Francis      Mary       John        Emily
Douglas __ Frances   Marion __1__ Jane __2__ RGCHR __1__ Allis
Hunter     Thomas    Thompson |   Thomas |   Hunter  |   Thomas
             |                |          |           |
             |                |          |           |
Owen       Ullie            Lora       Sophia       Milton
Monroe ___ May              Agnes      Irene        Nathan
Hardman    Hunter           Thompson   Hunter       Hunter
             |              Pettijohn  Houghton
             |                |          |   Morton
             |                |  Half    |     |
             |                |  sisters |     |________________
             |                |          |                      |   
             |                |          |                      | 
William    Louida           Connie     Lorraine   William     Ramona
Bascom ___ Orene            Noel       Jean _____ Wallace     Joyce
Wetherall  Hardman          Pettijohn  Houghton   McGeorge    Morton
             |                |        McGeorge               Brown
             |                |        Jones                  Pettijohn
             |                |_________ | _____________________|
             |                           |      Half 1st cousins
           William                     William
           Owen       3rd cousins      Wallace
           Wetherall                   McGeorge

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Mary Jane Thomas's children with F.M. Thompson

Based on censuses, vital records and obituaries

A Find a Grave scan (not a transcription) of a newspaper obituary for Francis Mae (Thompson) Clemmons (1889-1938) accounts for her step-father and 7 siblings -- 5 sisters and 2 brothers -- as follows (transcription and [bracketed matter] mine).

She is also survived by her stepfather, John Hunter of Peace Valley, Mo.; and seven brothers and sisters, Mrs. Lora Pettijohn of St. Joseph, Mo., Mrs. Anna Raymer of Union Star, Mo., Mrs. Virgie Delaphane [sic = Delaplain] [,] Mrs. Sophie Houghton [,] and Mr. Martin Thompson, all of Peace Valley, Mo.; Mrs. Ella Shanholtz of Colman [,] and Marion Thompson of Newellton, La. Her father and mother preceded her in death."

A Find a Grave transcription (not a scan) for the obituary of Robert Martin Thompson (1889-1972) accounts for 10 siblings -- including 5 sisters, 1 brother, and 4 half sisters -- as follows.

Preceding him in death . . . three sisters and one brother. . . . Survivors include . . . two sisters, Virgie Delaplain, West Plains; Ella Shanholtz, Mitchell, S. D.; four half sisters, Bertie Wright, Peace Valley; Lora Pettijohn, Union Star, Mo.; Sophia Martin [sic = Morton], Mena, Ark.; and Beulah Honeycutt, Wichita, Kan.

The 3 sisters and 1 brother who preceded Robert Thompson in death appear to be as follows.

1. (?) Marion Francis Thompson (1873-1949)
   A half brother by a different mother.
2. Anna Obedience (Thompson) Raymer (1886–1968)
3. ?
4. ?

The 4 putative "half sisters" are as follows.

1. Bertie Thompson Wright (29 Oct 1903 - 6 Aug 1989)
   Born in Salem in Fulton County, Arkansas.
   Father Francis Marion Thompson (42 at time)
   Mother Ibbie Zena Ann Brewington (18 at time)
   Died in West Plains, Howell County, Missouri.
   Buried in New Hope Cemetery, Peace Valley, Howell County, Missouri.
   Half sister with different father.
2. Lora Agnes (Thompson) Pettijohn (1896-1991)
   Lora is presumedly the last daughter of Mary Jane Thomas with F.M. Thompson.
   As such she should be a full sister.
3. Sophia Irene (Hunter) (Houghton) Morton (1906-1990)
   Daughter of John R. Hunter (1864-1954) and Mary Jane (Thomas) Thompson.
   Half sister with different mother.
4. Beulah M. (Thompson) Honeycutt
   Father Francis Marion Thompson
   Mother Ibbie Zena Ann Brewington
   Half sister with different father.

F.M. Thompson appears to have brought the following daughter to his marriage with Mary Jane Thomas.

1. Marion Francis Thompson (1873 - 2 Feb 1949)
   Born in Howell, St. Charles County, Missouri.
   Died in Newellton, Tensas Parish, Louisiana.
   Buried in Legion Memorial Cemetery, Newellton, Tensas Parish, Louisiana.

Jane and Frank Thompson divorced, possibly the by the end of the 1900s, and Jane remarried John R. Hunter in 1904 (see above).

Frank remarried Ibby Ann (Brewington) Thompson (3 Apr 1885 - 24 Sep 1915) in 1903. Ibby died in 1915, leaving Thompson with 3 daughters, who are listed in both the 1910 and 1920 censuses (see above).

Ibby is buried in Mount Calm Cemetery, Viola, Fulton County, Arkansas. Her tombstone reads "IBBY / Wife of / F.M. THOMPSON" et cetera.

Frank died 8 years later in Howell County, Missouri. He is buried as "F.M. THOMPSON" in Mint Spring Graveyard, Howell County, Missouri. His death certificate states that he drowned in a creek. A hand-written report states that his body was found downstream in a knee-deep creek he attempted to cross while returning home at night.

Ancestor.com family genealogy listings of the children of Mary Jane Thomas and Francis Marion Thompson typically messy. Many Ancestor.com users appear to simply copy or merge other lists without vetting or otherwise considering contradictions. Find a Grave memorials by George Thompson, apparently a descendant of F.M. Thompson, appear to be reliable but they are far from complete and the few comments do not address the multiple marriages or half- and step-sibling relationships.

F.M. Thompson's birth year is contested. His Find a Grave memorial by George Thompson, who appears to be a descendant, states that while his tombstone shows 1856, the 1850 census shows him to be a few months old.

Most family trees on Ancestry.com -- and George Thompson's list of siblings on Find a Grave -- list "Marion Francis Thompson" (1873-1949) as the oldest of the children of Frank Thompson and Mary Jane Thomas. However, this would make Mary Jane, who was born in 1863, a mother at age 10 -- hence my regard of Marion Francis Thompson as a child Frank brought to the 1882 marriage when he was about 32 years old and she about 19.

I have not heard any stories about what brought Mary Jane and John R. to remarry each other. John had been a widower for 10 years. To what extent he raised Milton by himself is not clear but the 1900 census shows him with Milton in their own household. Milton was then 9.

Milton Nathan Hunter and Frances Albert Langdon were licensed to marry in Lewis County, Idaho, and married on 29 June 1913 in Peck, in Nez Perce County.

By the 1917 military draft registration, Milton is living in Steele, which was on Central Ridge above Peck, with a wife and 2 children. Milton would farm in Idaho for the rest of his life.

Milton Nathan Hunter, born on 19 December 1890 in Peace Valley in Howell County, Missouri, died on 15 June 1983 at age 92. He was preceded in death by his wife, Frances "Fannie" Albert Langdon (1895-1974), who he had married on 29 June 1913. They share a headstone at Kamiah Cemetery in Lewis County, Idaho.

An undated newspaper clipping of an obituary for Milton Hunter in the Wetherall Family Collection (see image below) includes the following information.

Hunter was born Dec. 19, 1890, at Peace Valley, Mo., to John and Emma Hunter. He arrived at Peck on Aug. 2, 1909, and four years later, on June 29, 1913, he married Fannie Langdon at Steele, between Mohler and Peck, on Central Ridge. . . .

Survivors include . . . two half-sisters, Lora Pettijohn of Union Star, Mo., and Sophia Morton of Mena, Arkansas . . .

Lora was Milton's 1st-cousin and step-sister.
Sophia was his half-sister with a different mother.
Lora and Sophia were half-sisters with different fathers.

1. Lora Agnes (Thompson) Pettijohn (1896-1991) was presumably the last daughter of Mary Jane Thomas with Francis Marion ("Frank") ("F.M.") Thompson (1850/1856-1923).
2. Sophia Irene (Hunter) (Houghton) Morton (1906-1990) was Mary Jane (Thomas) Thompson's daughter with John R. Hunter (1864-1954).
3. Lora's mother, Mary J. Thomas, was the older sister of Milton's mother, Emily Allis Thomas (1874-1894).
4. Lora was therefore Milton's 1st-cousin and step-sister.
5. Sophia was Milton's half-sister with a different mother -- his maternal aunt.
6. Lora and Sophia were half-sisters with different fathers.

Mary J. Thomas brought at least three Thompson daughters to her marriage in 1904 with John R. Hunter, the widowed husband of her younger sister Emma A. Thomas -- Fannie, Virgie, and Lora (see above). Mary J. helped raise Milton until he left Missouri for Idaho no later than the summer of 1909.

John Hunter and his two Thomas wives

Large farming familes living close to each other commonly produced marriages between the children of the families. The "boy-meet-girl" conditions were satisfied by geographical proximity and social community -- which in the past, unlike today, were congruent. Today, the internet facilitates meetings across huge distances, even national borders, that would have been impossible in the past, when most people met their future marriage partners at family or neighborhood events, or at church, school, or workplace.

Only 4 of the 11 children of 14. Hunter-Ellis family are known to have survived into adulthood, as opposed to 10 of the 12 children of the 15. Thomas-Forbes family. But Albert Douglas Hunter and John Richard Hunter would marry respectively Ida Francis Thomas and Emily Allis Thomas, and John would marry Emily's older sister Mary Jane Thomas after Emily died shortly before her 20th birthday.

Given the intimacy between large families that grew up on neighboring farms, remarriages between siblings-in-law were fairly common and accepted. There are several in my large extended family, the most important of which (for me) was the remarriage of my great-great grandfather John R. Baldwin (1828-1909) to his sister-in-law Martha A. Howard (1835-1912), my great-great grandmother, after the death of her older sister Rebecca Howard (1828-c1853) in my father's 10. Baldwin-Howard line.

John R. G. C. H. R. Hunter during sojourn to Idaho "John Hunter 1949" according to Ullie Hardman Crop from Wetherall Family photo (below)		John R. G. C. H. R. Hunter during sojourn to Idaho Circa 1951 when about 87 years old Cropped from image received from Karen Hunter		Milton Nathan Hunter (left) and Howard Thomas (right) 1913 according to notation on back of print Wetherall Family photo
John R. G. C. H. R. Hunter during sojourn to Idaho "John Hunter 1949" written on back by Ullie Hardman Wallet-size print in Wetherall Family Collection			Orene Hardman (left), Milton Nathan Hunter, and Babe Hardman (right) A fairly new and clean late 1910s Model T, Central Ridge, circa 1920 Wetherall Family photo Milton was the son of John R. G. C. H. R. Hunter and Emily "Emma" A. Thomas. Orene and Babe were the daughters of Owen Hardman and Ullie Hunter. Ullie's father, Albert D. Hunter, was John Hunter's brother. And Ullie's mother, Ida Frances Thomas, was Emma Thomas's siter So Ullie and Milton were 1st cousins through a double-sibling marriage. Formally, Milton was Orene's and Babe's 1st cousin once removed. Socially, though, he was their uncle.

Fannie Hunter's obituary Copy of clipping in Wetherall Family Collection	Milton Hunter's obituary Clipping in Wetherall Family Collection
	Headstone for graves of Milton Hunter (1890-1983) and Fannie Hunter (1895-1974) Kamiah Cemetery, Lewis County, Idaho Photograph by Tipp's Mom copped from Find a Grave

Milton Nathan Hunter

Milton Nathan Hunter was born on 19 December 1890 and died on 15 June 1983 (according to Karen Hunter). He married Frances Albert Langdon on 29 June 1913 in Peck, Idaho, and they had at least 8 children.

The 1900 census shows "John R. Hunter" (36), born May 1866, widowed, living in Sisson in Howell County, Missori, with a son, "Milton Hunter" (9), born December 1890. John is a farmer and Milton is at school.

Milton stated on his 5 June 1917 draft registration card that he was born in White Church, Missouri, on 19 December 1891. He was living in Steele, Idaho (i.e., on Central Ridge), with his wife and two children, and was working for himself as a farmer. He was of medium height and build, had brown eyes and red hair, and no disabilities, according to the registrar, Cora B. Steele, representing Central Ridge Precinct.

Cora B. Steele (nee Lentz) was the wife of Major J. Steele, who migrated west from Missouri. In 1896, he homesteaded 240 acres on Central Ridge, which was part of the Nez Perce reservation. His brother, Robert F. Steele, who also homesteaded on Central Ridge, built a general merchandise store and became the first postmaster of the "Steele" post office, which operated until 1923.

The 1920 census shows Milton (29) and Frances (24) farming on a general farm on Central Ridge in Lewis County, Idaho, with 3 children, Lawrence (5), Wallace (3-1/2), and Edith (1-0/12).had

The 1930 census shows Milton Hunter (38) with Frances (35) farming in Russell, in Lewis County, with 6 children, Lawernce [sic = Lawrence] E. (15), Wallace M. (13), Edith F. (11), Jammie C. (9), Lowell N. (7), and Rhoda W. (5). Milton was 22 and Frances 18 when married.

The 1940 census shows Milton Hunter (48) and Fannie (44) living in Eureka, in Clear Water County, with 4 children, Lowell (17), Rhoda (15), Dwight (8), and Vollie (2). Milton was said to have completed 4 years, and Fannie, Lowell, and Rhoda 8 years of grade school. Lowell and Rhoda were said to be farming in agriculture, while Milton was widening raods for the W.P.A. (Work Projects Adminsitration) -- a depression-era program to relieve unemployment.

Milton stated on his 25 April 1942 draft registration card that he was born in Peace Valley, Missouri, on 19 December 1891. He gave Mrs. Fannie Hunter, R.R.5, Orofino, Idaho, as the name and address of the person who would always know his address. They were living in Orofino, where he was working for himself on a ranch.

Milton (1890-1983) and Fannie (1895-1974) share a headstone at Kamiah Cemetery in Lewis County, Idaho.

Karen Hunter, John Hunter's great granddaughter Karen Hunter, wrote that her aunt told her that "he was crippled from a young age but was still a hard worker. He was an alcoholic and could be mean. This picture was taken the only time he came to Idaho for a visit" (email, 30 December 2013). Karen said John was 87 years old when he visited, which would be around 1951, or about 3 years before he died.

It appears that a few Hunter men were heavy drinkers who had trouble holding their alcohol.

15. Thomas-Forbes

Nathan Thomas and Obedience Forbes

6 sons of Nathan Clingman Thomas and Bridget Obedience Forbes at 1903 reunion Portrait taken in Howell, Missouri, on or about 15 January 1903 Standing   John Wesley [older], Ulysses S. Grant, Nathan Clingman [Jr.] Sitting   Jobe Cornelius, Martin Van Buren, Christopher Columbus Scan from Niki Lee of photograph in Lee Family Collection

5 Thomas siblings at 17 October 1926 reunion John Wesley, Jobe Cornelius ("Uncle Neil"), Christopher Columbus ("Uncle Lum"), Sarah Amanda (Aunt Mandy), and Martin Van Buren (Uncle Martin) Scan of large glossy reprint in Wetherall Family Collection The reprint was sent to Bill and Orene Wetherall by Bob and Ruth Thomas, who lived in Santa Ana, California. They had visited the Wetheralls in Grass Valley, California, in connection with Thomas family history. Robert "Bob" C. Thomas was a cousin of Orene, as well as of Theo (Thomas) Vincent in nearby Auburn, California. He and his wife Ruth were the authors of The Thomas Family: North Carolina to the West Coast, which concludes with Theo's article on Thomas Lore, dated July 1983 (see below).

West Plains Journal, Howell, Missouri 15 January 1928 article looking back 25 years reports that 6 Thomas brothers came converged on the town to meet for the first time since separating in North Carolina Scan from Niki Lee

0. Nathan (born 1825 or 1832?) was the son of Jobe Thomas and Nancy Dayton.
   Bridget Obedience "Biddy" Forbes (born 1831, 1833, or 1834?) was the daughter of William Charles Forbes and Lydia Garland.
   Nathan and Obedience were married on 16 January 1853 in Yancey County, North Carolina by S.M. Collins. They were Baptists. They later divorced and Biddy married George White circa 1878.
   Nathan served as a private in C Company of the 16th North Carolina Infantry Regiment, a Confederate unit in the Civil War. The men in the company were known as the Black Mountain Boys, as they were mainly volunteers from Yancey County, where most of the Black Mountain Range is located.
   The 1880 census lists Obedience as head of the family, divorced.
   Nathan died in Walla Walla, in Washington Territory, which was incorporated as part of the United States on 2 March 1853. Part of the original territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Washington on 11 November 1889.
1. Martin Van Buren Thomas was originally buried in American Ridge Cemetery in Juliaetta, Latah County, Idaho. His remains were removed to Clarkston, Washington, in 1955.
2. William Waitsell Thomas died of burns in infancy.
3. Christopher Columbus "Lum" Thomas married California Isabelle While on 8 December 1866 in Howell County, Missouri. The couple had five children.
   1. Albert Leslie Thomas, born 6 December 1883
   2. Pony Allan Thomas, born 18 October 1885
   3. Phronia May Thomas, born 12 September 1887
   4. John Wesley Thomas, born 3 October 1891
   5. Abraham Marvin Thomas, born 29 July 1889
   John Wesley Thomas's namesake was his father's (Christopher Columbus "Lum" Thomas's) younger brother. My maternal grandmother, Ullie Hardman, was the older J.W. Thomas's niece and the younger J.W. Thomas's 1st cousin.
   1. Ullie called Christopher Columbus Thomas "Uncle Lum" and his son, the younger J.W. Thomas, who was her 1st cousin, "Wesley".
   2. She called the older J.W. Thomas, who was "Uncle Lum" Thomas's younger brother, "Uncle Wes".
   3. Uncle Wes was the father of Theo Thomas, who was thus also Ullie's 1st cousin, hence my mother's 1st cousin once removed and my 1st cousin twice removed. Age-wise, however, Theo was closer to a 1st cousin to my mother and an aunt to me.
      See 15.9 John Wesley Thomas, and 15.93 Eleanor Theodosia Thomas, below.
4. Jobe Cornelius "Neil" Thomas was the Sheriff of Howell County, Missouri, from between 1898 and 1900. He represented his name as "J. C. Thomas" on the business card he used when running as a Republican candidate for the office. He is "Jobe C." on 1860 census, "Job" on 1880 census, "Joseph C." on 1900 census, "Job C." on 1910 census, "Joseph C." on 1920 census, and "J.C." on the 1930 census and on his tombstone. " Talso "Jacob" and "Joseph C." on 1920 census,
   Jobe married Margaret Caroline Winchester (1862-1953), born 25 November 1862 in Gainsville, Missouri, on 16 October 1881 in Center Hill, Arkansas. She died on 29 December 1953 in Howell County ("Application and Affidavits for Marriage License" dated 15 October 1881).
   Jobe and Caroline had the following 8 children.
   1. Lillie Maude Thomas (1884-1917) was born "Siby Maud Thomas" on 27 January 1884 in was born as Howell County, Missouri, to "Margaret Caroline Thomas" and "J.C. Thomas", a farmer, with the assitance of "Mrs. Jones", a midwife, according to an image of a "Register of Births" for the county. She signed her cousin Ullie May Hunter's autograph book as "Maude Früchtl", spelling her name "Maude" and putting an umlat on the "u" hence "ü" in her married name.
   2. John Abraham Logan Thomas (1887-1982) (see 15.42 John A. Thomas)
   3. Sydney Garfield Thomas (1889-1962)
   4. Lydia Adelaide Thomas
   5. Cornelius Fernando "Nando" Thomas (1895-1991)
      1. Cornelius Fernando "Nando" Thomas was born on 25 January 1895 in West Plains, Howell County, Missouri. He married Amanda L. Vaughn, who was born on 9 December 1900 in Pamona, Howell County, Missouri. They lived for a while in Idado, then settled in Placerville, Eldorado County, California, where she she on 7 June 1981 at age 80. She was buried in Westwood Hills Memorial Park in Placerville, with a headstone that included Nando's name and "1895-19". Nando then moved to Oregon, and died in Applegate, Jackson County, Oregon, on 23 July 1991 at age 96. He was buried with Amanda in Placerville, and Theo (Thomas) Vincent, his 1st cousin, and Orene (Hardman) Wetherall, his 1st cousin once removed, attended the memorial service. The Vincents were then living in Auburn, north of Placerville on Highway 49, and the Wetheralls were living in Grass Valley, north of Auburn on 49. The Vincents later moved into a retirement home in Placerville, and the Wetherall's adopted daughter Clara Yang is now living and practicing law in Placerville.
   6. Dewey Lee Thomas
   7. Ada Catherine Thomas (1900-1995)
   8. Sophia Caroline Thomas
   Of these children, John A. Thomas was the most significant 1st cousin of my grandmother Ullie (Hunter) Hardman and 1st cousin once removed of my mother, Orene (Hardman) Wetherall (see 15.42 John A. Thomas). Ullie also kept in touch with Nando Thomas and Ada Thomas.
5. Nathan Clingman Thomas may or may not have been a junior. On 12 April 1883 he married Martha L. "Lou" Finch in Pomona, Howell County, Missouri, and they had 5 children, all of whose names began with "O" -- Oskar M., Ollie M., Osie Violet, Opal Vivian, and Otha Maxwell. Otha was born on 6 May 1905 in Kendrick, Latah County, Idaho.
   1. Osie, who signed her cousin Ullie May Hunter's autograph book in Peck, was born in Missouri on 3 April 1892, married Ernest A. Randall in Kendrick on 15 November 1915, and died on 7 May 1959 in Orange County, California.
6. Mary Jane Thomas ("M. Jane Thomas" in Theo's records but "Mary J." on her headstone") married Francis "Frank" Marion Thompson (10 Aug 1856 - 10 Jun 1923) in Howell County, Missouri, in 1882. She and Frank had at least 6 children, the last two of which appear to have been Virgie (Thompson) Delaplain (1894-1987) and Lora Agnes (Thompson) Pettijohn (1896-1991). Mary then divorced Frank, and on 1 December 1904 she and her sister Emma's widowed husband John R. Hunter were licensed to marry. Thompson, a Baptist minister, reportedly remarried Ibby Ann (Brewington) Thompson (3 Apr 1885 - 24 Sep 1915), was widowed by her, and "Drowned in attempting to cross creek" according to his death certificate.
   1. John Hunter was the widowed husband of Jane's sister Emma (Note 11) and the younger brother of A. Douglas Hunter, the husband of her sister Ida Frances (Note 10). Jane had six children -- four Thompsons and two Hunters.
      
      See 14.7 Hunter-Thomas-Thomas (below) and "John Hunter and his two Thomas wives" thereunder for details.
7. Sarah Amanda Thomas first married Harry S. Cantrell, who is buried in Mount Zion Cemetery in Olden, Howell County, Missouri. She then appears to have married Alfred T. Wiley (1869-1942). Amanda and Alfred are buried under similar head stones in Oak Forest Cemetery in Birch Tree, Shannon County, Missouri. Her headstone reads "Wiley / Amanda Cantrell / 1866-1943". Alfred's 1st wife, Jennie B. Wiley (1872-1906), is also buried in this cemetery.
8. Ulysses S. Grant Thomas, like his older brother Christopher Columbus Thomas, was named after a famous historical figure.
   Ulysses was engaged to Virginia Emmaline Jayne. But "Jenny" as she was also called married his younger brother, John Wesley Thomas, according to John's and Virginia's daughter, Theo (Thomas) Vincent (see 15.9 Thomas-Jayne), and Ulysses would remain single.
   He was buried in American Ridge Cemetery in Juliaetta, Latah County, Idaho, where his brothers Martin and Nathan, and Nathan's wife, Martha "Lou" (Finch) Thomas (1862-1947), were also buried.
9. J. Wesley Thomas married Virginia "Jenny" [Jennie] Emmaline Jayne at Kendrick, Idaho on 20 May 1894. They were the parents of Eleanor Theodosia "Theo" (Thomas) Vincent. Theo was Ullie's younger first cousin, Orene's 1st cousin once removed, and Billy's, Jerry's, and Mary Ellen's 1st cousin twice removed, et cetera. Orene called Theo's father -- technically her great uncle -- "Uncle Wess". Orene related, and Theo confirmed, that Jennie was said to be "one-sixteenth Cherokee". See Table 15.93.
10. Ida Frances Thomas married Albert Douglas Hunter (Table 7) on 6 March 1890. They had 9 children, the first Ullie May Hunter (Orene Wetherall's mother), the last Burton Douglas Hunter (Orene's younger uncle who was raised by Ullie). Ida "died during the epidemic" (Spanish influenza pandemic of 1918–1920)
11. Theo Thomas listed Emily as "Emma (Emily)" in her notes. Emma married John Hunter in Howell County, Missouri, on 6 February 1890.
    According to Karen Hunter, Emma and John had 2 sons -- Milton Nathan Hunter (see below) and an unnamed boy who reportedly died on 25 February 1894. Emma also reportedly died on 25 February 1894, suggesting that mother and child died in childbirth.
    In 1895, John Hunter married Emma's divorced sister Jane (Note 6) and they had two children.
    Emma and Jane share the same headstone in Mt. Zion Cemetery in Olden, Howell County. John is buried in the same cemetery.
12. Minnie May Thomas married Benjamin Eddington Callison (born 29 September 1878, died 2 November 1953). Their son, Norla Samuel (aka "Norlie Sammie") Callison (born 9 May 1903, died 9 July 1983), was an informant in Theo (Thomas) Vincent's Thomas lore research (see below).

15.32 John Wesley Thomas

John Wesley Thomas was born on 3 October 1891 in Howell County, Missouri. He and Bessie V. Koonce applied for a marriage license in Howell County on 25 August 1914 in Howell County, and they had 4 children, the first two in Missouri, the second two in Oklahoma where they settled around 1918.

The 1910 census shows John W. living with his parents, C.C. and Lora E. Thomas. His father is farming, and he and mother have no occupation as such. The 1920 census shows him operating a farm in Chandler, Oklahoma. Their 2nd child and 1st son, Robert C. Thomas, then 3-5/12 years old, was born in Missouri, but their 3rd child and 2nd son, Byron G. Thomas, then 2-5/12 years old, was born in Oklahoma, which implies that the family had moved there aroun 1918. The 1930 census shows John operating his own farm, but the 1940 census shows him employed as the Superintendent of Schools of Lincoln County, Oklahoma. He died on 18 January 1977 in Chandler.

John was 9 months younger than his 1st cousin, Ullie (Hunter) Hardman, who he knew as a child growing up in Missouri. Ullie moved to Idaho when she was 8, but the two cousins exchanged postcards in 1909 and 1910. A 1909 card from "your cousin Wesley Thomas", posted in Moutain View, Missouri, is addressed to Miss Ullie Hunter in Peck, Idaho. Two 1910 cards from Wesley are addressed to Miss (sic) Ullie Hardman in Peck.

Robert C. Thomas

John Wesley Thomas's son, Robert "Bob" Thomas, settled in Calfifornia, where he did considerable work on the history of his Thomas family. He shared his interests and work with, and visited, both Theo (Thomas) Vincent, his 1st cousin once removed, and Orene (Hardman) Wetherall, his 2nd cousin, who also lived in California.

15.42 John A. Thomas

John Abraham Thomas was born on 2 March 1887 in Howell County, Missouri, the 1st son and 2nd child of Jobe and Caroline Thomas. He migrated to Kendrick, Idaho, in 1908, and worked at a brick factory and as a logger, but he saved money to return to Missouri. He was a 1st cousin of my maternal grandmother (1891-1980), who had migrated with her family to Idaho in 1899. Though her family farmed on Central Ridge, she was attending high school in Kendrick at the time John arrived.

30. Thomas-Deyton

Jobe Thomas and Nancy Deyton

0. According to notes records compiled Theo Thomas Vincent of Auburn, California on 26 October 1983, based on notes compiled by Robert C. Thomas of Santa Ana, California, supplemented by her own information, Jobe was born in Buncombe or Yancey County in North Carolina in 1808 and married Nancy in Yancey in 1830. Jobe was reportedly buried in the Thomas Cemetery, [unreadable], Indian Ck., and Nancy was buried in Pleasant Grove Cemetery in Yancey County, North Carolina.
1. Married Obedience "Biddy" Forbes on 16 January 1863. 1850 US census for Yancy County, North Carolina states Nathan was at school within the year. Theo's record states his place of burial is unknown.
2. No notes.
3. No notes.
4. No notes.
5. Cynthia attended school (1860 census).
6. Aaron attended school (1860 census).
7. David G. McD. married Hannah Hall on 27 September 1866. He attended school (1860 census) and is buried in Double Island Cemetery in Yancey County.
8. Jobe McKesson or "Kes" married Rachel Helton and is buried in the Thomas Cemetery in Knox County, Kentucky.
9. Stephen married Malinda Jane Helton and is buried in the Helton Cemetery in Knox County, Kentucky.

Theo's handwritten note reads as follows.

Note: Mistakes can be made on tombstones. The marker on Jobe Thomas's grave gives his birth as 14 Nov. 1810. Other information gives his birth as early as 1808. If the first date is correct, he would have been 17 years old when his son Nathan was born.

60. Thomas-Hunsucker

Aaron Obadiah Thomas and Elizabeth Hunsucker

0. Aaron and Elizabeth married about 1795 in North Carolina. He was the third remembered son of Joseph Thomas, Sr. and was himself a Sr. with respect to his own son. She was the daughter of Abraham Hunsucker and Carther Zirkle. Both are buried in unmarked graves in the Thomas family cemetery on the original Thomas farm on the westside of the Toe river, and overlooking farm the river, in present-day Roses Branch in present-day Yancey County, North Carolina.
1. John Thomas married Lucinda "Cindy" Wilson about 1826 in North Carolina. She was born about 1806 in the state and died 21 June 1891 in Yancey County.
2. Joseph married Nancy Robinson.
3. Pleasant married Sarah.
4. Robert married Sarah Elmira "Mira" Howell. She was born in 1802, and she died 1894 in Union Co, Georgia.
5. James married Mary Louise Ralston 10 October 1855 in Union County, Georgia.
6. William married Nancy Willis, who died in Union County, Georgia.
7. Nancy married Austin P. Jones on 28 September 1828 in Wilkes County, North Carolina.
8. Cynthia married James A. Howell, Jr. in Yancey County, North Carolina. She was born in 1811, and she died in December 1861 in Yancey County, North Carolina.
9. Catherine married twice, first someone named Howell, then Henry "Hal" Willis.
10. Jobe Thomas, Ullie (Hunter) Hardman's and Theo (Thomas) Vincint's great grandfather, married Nancy Deyton in 1830 in Yancey County, North Carolina. She was born on 11 September 1819 in Buncombe County and died on 15 July 1886 in Yancey County.
11. Henry married Elizabeth, who was born about 1820 in North Carolina, and who died in Fannin County, Georgia.
12. Aaron Obadiah Thomas, Jr. married Elmyra "Mira" Ray about 1844 in North Carolina. She was born in the state in 1824 and died in Mitchell County in 1904.
13. Adam married Rebecca Denna on 25 January 1869 in Yancey County.
14. Thomas married Rachel Silver. She was born on 1 January 1833 in North Carolina and died on 28 June 1919 in Yancey County.
15. Elizabeth married William Buchanan. who was born in North Carolina about 1825 and died in the state on 7 April 1917.

15.9 Thomas-Jayne

John Wesley Thomas and Virginia "Jenny" Emmaline Jayne

John Wesley Thomas (1870-1933) and Virginia "Jennie" Emmaline Jayne (1874-1928) Scanned from Theo Vincent's autobiography, Missouri Transplant (1985, page 43)

0. John Wesley Thomas was born in Howell County, Missouri to Nathan (Clingman?) Thomas and Bridget Obedience Forbes. Virginia Emmaline Jayne was born in Ste. Genevieve County, Kentucky to Andrew Jackson Jayne and Sarah I. Howell.
   John and Virginia were married in Kendrick, Latah County, Idaho, on 20 May 1894.
1. Howard married Ethel Mae Bloodsworth on 7 May 1913. They lived on Central Ridge close to Hunter, Hardman (Hardman-Hunter), and McGee (McGee Hunter) familes. Ethel was born in Missouri on 7 May 1893 and died in Lewiston, Idaho on 26 October 1957. She and Ullie corresponded, and the Wetherall Family Collection includes a letter from "Ullie Hardman" to "Mrs. Ethel M. Thomas", postmarked 20 November 1922 in Steele, Idaho, on Central Ridge, with a Peck, Idaho return, and Kamiah, Idaho address.
2. Martin B. Thomas married Lottie Stillman on 15 April 1920 in Lewiston, Nez Perce County, Idaho, according to a "Marriage License" and "Certificate of Marriage" bearing the same date. According to Theo's records, Martin later married Mabel Bualeigh about 1932 and Katheryn Muller about 1938. However, I can verify only a second marriage of Katheryn Barton.
   1. On 8 July 1938, Martin B. Thomas and Kathyryn M. Barton [nee Melcher] filed an "Application for LIcense to Wed" and a "Marriage Affidavit" in Clark County, Washington. A "Certificate of Marriage" stamped 15 July 1938 states that they were married on 9 July 1938 in Vancouver, Clark County, Washington. The certificate states that Martin was born in Idaho while Kathyryn was born in Russia. Both were said to be residing in Portland, Oregon at the time.
   2. Yet Martin B. Thomas and Kathyryn M. Barton also filed an "An Affidavit for Application for Marriage License" dated 17 October 1938 in Skamania County, Washington. A "Marriage Return" declares that a marriage took place at Stevenson, Washington, on 17 October 1938. The document states that both were 37 years old and that it was their 2nd marriage. A formal "Certificate of Marriage" gives 17 October 1938 as the date of the marriage license, and states that both parties were residents of Multnomah County, Oregon, and notes that her maiden name was Melcher.
   3. At the bottom of the Skamania County "Marriage Return" are the following notes regarding completing the "Color" and "Birthplace" lines.
      1. NOTE -- (a) -- State color distinctly, so race may be known, as White, Black, Mulatto, Indian, Chinese, Mixed, White and Indian, etc.
         -- (b) -- Give State or Foreign Country, so nationality is plainly shown.
    
   Martin's ashes are consecrated in a mausoleum at Rose City Cemetery in Portland, Multnomah County, Oregon.
3. Theo married Hubert Wilton Vincent in Tacoma, Pierce County, Washington on 5 June 1938 . They had one child, Stephan Ward Vincent (see 15.93 below).

15.93 Vincent-Thomas

Eleanor Theodosia "Theo" Thomas and Hubert Wilton Vincent

0. Theo and Wilton married on 5 June 1938 four days after Orene and Bill married.
1. Stephen was born with a very severe from of cerebral palsy and caused him to exhibit what were then call "spastic" behaviors. The term was also used to label people like him, and was inevitably used to insult someone. For most of his life after infancy, he was restricted to a high chair when not reclined. He was unable to walk or feed himself, and could not talk, but he responded with notable joy to the presence of people and certain recordings of classical music. Theo and Wilton took him with them wherever they traveled. He was part of every family gathering I attended in which they were present.

Theo's oldest brother Martin Benjamin Thomas married Lottie Stillman in Lewiston in Nez Perce County, Idaho, on 15 April 1920. Their only child, Vincent Deloss Thomas, was born in Lewiston on 6 September 1920. He died on 28 April 1992 in Marion, Oregon.

The 1920 census for Clarkston, Washington, shows Martin B. Thomas (18), born in Idaho, living with his Missouri-born parents John. W. Thomas (49) and Virginia E. Thomas (46), and his Washington-born sister Eleanor T. [Theo] Thomas (3-9/12).

The 1930 census for Okanogan in Washington shows Deloss Thomas (9) in the care of his widowed grandmother Dillie Stillman (61), in the household of her son-in-law Martin Larson (29), a highway supervisor, and her daughter Barbara Larson (26).

Peck-born Martin B. Thomas remarried Russian-born Kathyryn M. (Melcher) Barton on 17 October 1938 in Stevenson, Skamania County, Washington. Both were 37, and it was the 2nd marriage for both. He worked for the telephone company, and she was a telephone company supervisor.

Theo's childhood memories (1985)

Wilton's biography of grandfather (1986)

Wilton's father's autobiography (1988)

Theo and Wilton Vincent

As a clergy member of the California-Nevada Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, Wilton was generally assigned to churches in communities fairly closs to San Francisco and Grass Valley, such as Farmington, Clearlake, Reno, and Loomis. The Vincents and Wetheralls often celebrated their wedding anniversaries together. Thanksgivings, too, who typically joint Wetherall-Vincent affairs.

Wilton originally majored in chemistry. After serving in France during World War II, he turned to music and then theology. He was a graduate student at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley. His dissertation on early Biblical (Hebrew) history, however, was rejected for what appear to have been differences in opinion that he was unable to accept. Such things happen in graduate schools. Wilton, though, soldiered on. He continued to read broadly in theology and other fields, including geology, and regularly clipped articles from Scientific American. He subscribed to the Christian Science Monitor and for many years clipped articles he thought would be of interest to me -- and most were.

Theo and Wilton shared an interest in genealogy, and after his retirement, they made a number of automobile trips throughout the United States, during which they investigated records of their family lines while visiting the sites.

In the early 1980s, they retired to a condominium they bought in Auburn during the late 1970s while Wilton was a minister at a Methodist church in Reno. It was the first and only home they would own. All the churches he had served with had a residence for the minister's family. After retiring to their Auburn home, Wilton served as the choir director at the Loomis Methodist Church. Originally a Japanese American church, its congregation was still largely Japanese American. Many Japanese has settled and farmed around Loomis before 1924 when racist "national origin" quotas limited immigration from Asia.

Failing health, however, led the Vincents to trade their condominum for an assisted living arrangement at Golden Center Court in Placerville, where Wilton died. Theo returned to Auburn, where she lived in a room in another assisted living facility. She buried Wilton in the New Auburn Cemetery, where they bought a family plot. They moved the grave of their son Stephen from Mendocino County, where he had been buried, to the Auburn cemetery, where Theo is also buried.

Theo's obituary

An obituary for Theo was published in Gold Country Media Newspapers on 26 August 2007, according to www.legacy.com, from which the following version was copied and slightly reformatted (the "sic" remark is mine).

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Theo's memoirs

Theo was an ardent Thomas family history researcher and wrote at length about her own life. She 38-page story "Thomas Lore -- From North Carolina to the West" (July 1983) appears in Robert C. and Ruth Thomas, The Thomas Family: North Carolina to the West Coast (undated). She wrote an account of her parents and of her own childhood in a 103-page publication called Missouri Transplant (1985).

After Wilton died in 2002, Theo typed a 5-page single-spaced "obituary" for him, which she distributed at his memorial service. The first page reads as follows.

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In preparation for her own death, Theo then typed a single-spaced, roughly 5-page "memoirs" of her life, leaving the year of death blank. The copy that survives in the Wetherall Family Collection has the 4 pages of what appear to have been at least a 5 page report, and the 4th page is defective. The 1st page reads as follows.

MEMOIRS

Eleanor Theodosia (Theo) Thomas Vincent - 1916 --

Eleanor Theodosia (Theo) Thomas was born March 13, 1916 in Clarkston, WA to parents John Wesley Thomas and Virginia Emmaline (Jayne) Thomas. At the age of 12, she lost her mother, living the following year with an aunt, then roaming and boarding with friends until graduating from H.S. in 1933. She was active in H.S. in Girl Reserves, Girl's Glee Club, and the H.S. Orchestra, playing double bass next to Wilton Vincent who began dating her when both were fourteen years of age.

One month after graduation, her father died at the height of the great depression. With his entire estate mortgaged, Theo was allowed $250 to attend Lewiston State Normal School and earn an elementary teaching certificate for the state of Idaho. She taught one year in a small rural school, then, at a brother's invitation, went to live with him in Astoria, OR.

Meanwhile, Wilton Vincent was completing his fifth year at the College of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA and his mother wrote to Theo, urging her to go go CPS for that last semester. This she did, to his astonishment. She studied piano and joined the Adelphian Choral Society in which Wilton belonged, and before its annual trip, they had sealed their relationship permantly [sic = permanently]. But both needed to work.

Wilton accepted a teaching position at Yelm H.S. in western Wash. while Theo taught in Jerome, ID, near Twin Falls. This was much too far apart. So on June 5, 1938 Theo and Wilton were married in the chapel of the College Puget Sound with Wilton's father officiating.

Music Summer Schools followed for the next five summers, first at Washington State College at Pullman, then four summers at the U. of Idaho at Moscow while Wilton completed his MA in Music.

The first four years of marriage, they lived in Winlock, WA where Wilton taught all H.S. music classes, science, and math. Theo accompanied vocal groups and played piano for the little Methodist church choir which Wilton directed.

The attack at Pearl Harbor brought many changes. First, was a move back to Tacoma, a teaching job for Wilton at Gault Jr. Hi. and direction of the Epworth Methodist Church Choir in which Theo sang. Soon she joined the large work force of women doing War work and took a job at Mt. Rainier Ordnance Depot near Ft. Lewis while Wilton waited for a call into the army. He was inducted in Jan. 1944, a member of the Railway Operating Battalion, and sent to France for the duration. Theo moved into town, rooming and boarding, first with a family near the college, then sharing a house with a friend who was also an army wife. A few months later, a son, Stephen Ward Vincent, was born in Tacoma General Hospital, Jan. 16, 1945.

On Valentine's Day, 1946 Theo was surprised by Wilton's return and presented him with his first glimpse of his 13 month old son. To top off the surprise, a loud earthquake jarred the neighborhood. Sadly, before the age of two, Stephen's normal development ceased, and he was diagnosed as a victim of cerebral palsy.

[ Rest of 5-page memoirs omitted ]

Headstones of Stephen, Wilton, and Theo Vincent New Auburn Cemetery, Auburn, Placer County, California Photograph by MockingbirdTales copped from Find a Grave Theo's date of death is shown on a plate attached to the headstone after her death, as she had the headstone made for herself as well as Wilton after he died.

Stephen Vincent

Stephen Ward Vincent (1945-1966) was born on 16 January 1945 in Tacoma, in Pierce County, Washington, 8 days before the birth of Mary Ellen Wetherall, my sister, later Mary Ellen Zweig, in San Francisco. Several photographs in the Wetherall Family Collection, of Stephen alone or with his parents, show that, for the first 2 or 3 years of his life, he appeared to be like other children his age.

Gradually, though, he showed symptoms of a condition that, in the vernacular at the time, was called "spastic" -- in his case, the symptoms of a very severe from of spastic cerebral palsy. For most of his life after infancy, he was restricted to a high chair when not reclined. He was unable to walk or feed himself, and could not talk. However, he responded with notable joy to the presence of people and certain works of recorded music.

The Vincents took Stephen out in public, and he was always present when the two families visited, typically for Thanksgiving feasts, but sometimes on other occasions. The first get-together that I can remember was at their home in Farmington, California, shortly after we moved from San Francisco to Grass Valley in 1955, but I believe we also visted them a couple of times when we lived in San Francisco. The Vincents moved ever few years, to wherever he was assigned a church by the regional United Methodist Conference.

Stephen was usually in the living room or dining room with us, in a high chair to the side, participating in the conversation with occasional expressions of approval or disapproval. Wilton and my father were classical music buffs -- Wilton had majoried in music after studying chemistry in college and before becoming a minister -- and Stephen had his favorite works.

Stephen passed away on 8 August 1966, 7 months after turning 21, in Mendacino, California. Today he is buried with his parents -- or rather their ashes are interred with him -- at New Auburn Cemetery in Auburn, California, about 30 minutes south of Grass Valley on Highway 49. The Vincints lived in Auburn during his last assignment to the Methodist church in nearby Loomis. They retired there in a duplex, the first home they owned, and lived there until moving into an apartment in a retirement facility in Placerville, California.

However, I am not sure that Stephen was originally buried in the New Auburn Cemetery. He may have been buried elsehwere. I recall an incident in which the Vincents, who at times visited Stephen's grave, had not visited it for a while, and could not find it. They worried about this. Eventually it was found. Apprently the headstone had been entirely covered by grass.

An Illustrated History of North Idaho, 1903 Image copped and cropped from Wessel & Lieberman Booksellers. John M. Henderson, William S. Shiach, and Barry F. Averill An Illustrated History of North Idaho (Embracing Nezperces [sic], Idaho, Latah, Kootenai, and Shoshone Counties, State of Idaho) [Seattle]: Western Historical Publishing Company, 1903 xxvii, 1238 pages, plus numerous full-page portraits
John W. Thomas entry in An Illustrated History of North Idaho, 1903, page 270 Screen capture by Yosha Bunko from pdf file downloaded from Internet Archive (archive.org)

John W. Thomas

The following report on John W. Thomas, published in 1903, is written with essentially the same "boilerplate" that was used in many of the accounts, changing only the names and dates and some of the laudatory "fluff" words, by way of putting a positive face on turn-of-the-century homesteading success stories. Highlighting and [bracketed remarks] are mine.

    JOHN W. THOMAS.   is a progressive and capable young man, whose labors have been crowned with abundant success in the acquisition of the goods of this world, while also he has been one of the foremost ones in the upbuilding and material welfare of the reservation portion of Nez Perces county, where he has labored faithfully since taking his present place, ten miles southeast from Peck, in 1896. From the wild land, it hasbeen transformed to a valuable and fertile farm that is placed under tribute by his skillful husbandry to return annual dividends of bounteous crops. A large orchard of bearing trees, a modern and tasty six-room house, a commodious barn and many other improvements testify to the labor and wisdom manifested.

    John W. Thomas was born in Howell county. Missouri, on September 14, 1870, being the son of Nathan and Obelia [Obedience] (Forbes) Thomas, natives of Yancey county, North Carolina, and Lee county, Virginia, respectively. They were married in North Carolina and came to Howell county. Missouri, where the father farmed until January 21, 1881, the date of his death. The mother died in September. 1891. In the spring of 1893, Mr. Thomas came to Juliaetta and went to work for his brother. He had five dollars cash then and all his goodly holdings have been wrought out by his industry since that time. Just previous to the opening of the reservation, Mr. Thomas spent some time traveling over it and when the opportunity presented itself to file he was in position to locate the ground he desired. Time has shown his judgment to have been good.

    On May 20, 1894. Mr. Thomas married Miss Jennie Jayne, who had lived in Howell county. Missouri. Two children have come to gladden the union, Howard, born Tanuary 14, 1895; Benjamin Martin, born April 21, 1901. Mr. Thomas' father was a soldier in the Confederate army and participated in the following notable battles, Fair Oaks, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, besides others and many skirmishes. Our subject is a zealous disciple of Nimrod and has made four different trips to the Salmon river country to hunt deer. In these he has taken as his trophies thirty-six of the fleet footed creatures and he is a skillful man with a rifle in the chase.

Most of the names, and the dates of birth, are consistent with those on collected family documents. Of interest is "Obelia" for "Obedience" as Bridget Obedience is usually represented in family accounts.

A third child -- Eleanor Theodosia Thomas (1916-2007), who would be very close to my mother when growing up and to our family later in life -- was born 15 years after Martin Benjamin, and was clearly unplanned, as Theo herself relates in her autobiography, Missouri Transplant (1985).

Note that the entry following JOHN W. THOMAS in An Illustrated History of North Idaho is for ALBERT C. HARDMAN, the father of my maternal grandfather, who married Ullie May Hunter, whose mother Ida Frances Thomas (1872-1920) was John W. Thomas's younger sister. See the Hardman-Gallaher family page for details.

"the reservation portion of Nez Perces county"

The description of the homestead of John W. Thomas is similar to that of Albert C. Hardman in the immediately following article. The two men were neighbors on Central Ridge, the name given the prairie. And

Peck

Note the similar description in the entry for Albert C. Hardman. The distance between Peck and the Thomas and Hardman settlements on Central Ridge may have been about 10 miles. But the distance defies the difficulty of travel, then and even now, along a route that today is still an adventure in scary cliff-side driving. Note the similar description

Nimrod

In the Hebraic (Jewish) Old Testament of the Christian Bible, Nimrod is known as a great hunter among other deeds noble and ignoble. Some latter-day paintings depict him with prey fallen by his spear.

"he has taken as his trophies thirty-six of the fleet footed creatures"

See Hunting (above) for photographs attesting to the Nimrodesque feats of Thomas hunting parties.

Juliaetta

The village of Juliaetta is a short distance north of Arrow, where the Potlatch River empties into the Clearwater River, upstream on the Clearwater from Lewiston. Arrow Junction marks the junction of Highway 3, which follows the Potlatch River, and Highway 12, which follows the Clearwater River. One passes through Juliaetta when going to Kendrick, which is higher in the mountains north of the Clearwater, If, from Arrow, you continue up the Clearwater, today on Highway 12, you pass Peck and Orofino, and eventually get to Kamiah and Kooskia. Central Ridge is above Peck on a prairie from which one can also go to Kamiah.

See Idaho on "Place names" page for several local maps and other geographical details.

William R. Hunter, May 31, 1982

Sketches of Andrew M. Hunter and Family

The following account of Andrew M. Hunter and his family is a machine copy of a 5-page typescript by William R. Hunter and dated 31 May 1982, It was mailed by William R. Hunter, 1901 W. Anna, Grand Island, Ne. 68801 to my mother, Mrs. William B. Wetherall, 10481 Silver Way, Grass Valley, California 95945 on 10 April 1983. Included in the envelope was a 3-page hand-written letter to Mrs. Wetherall, also dated 10 April 1983, and signed Bill Hunter.

In the cover letter, William R. Hunter identified himself as my mother's 4th cousin once removed, which makes him my 5th cousin. I find "William R. Hunter" (18) with is father "R. Raymon Hunter" (51) and mother "Frances Hunter" (49) in a 1 March 1953 handscrip census for Berlin, Harper County, Kansas. In the 1940 census for , I find "William R. Hunter" (5) with his father "Robert R. Hunter" (38), mother "Frances F. Hunter" (36), and sister "Alice Hunter" (19) living in Garland, Garfield County, Oklahoma.

My mother had sent William R. Hunter information about her Hunter and Hardman families, for which he thanked her. She had also sent him an article I wrote for a Japanese newspaper published for students of English. The article was titled "Grandma" and included annotations in Japanese. And it was about my maternal grandmother, Ullie May (Hunter) Hardman. toward the end of his letter, William R. Hunter wrote this.

The article on Grandma was quite interesting to me. It must have been written by your son, and it seems to be a Japanese / American newspaper. Is this right? I was disappointed that our daughter's friend was not here to translate the characters. We had a visitor for 10 days recently -- a Japanese girl, age 19, visiting in this country as part of the Youth For Understanding exchange program. Her name is Katsuko Yoshida, and she is from a town near Osaka, Japan (Suita). Our daughter, Annette, stayed with Katsuko & her family in Suita for two months last summer as part of the YFU exchange. Then Katsuko came to USA last fall to a small town in Idaho (Kooskia), and is living with a family by the name of Godwin, as well as attending high school in Kooskia. She visited with us in Grand Island, Ne. over the spring break and is now back in Idaho. She returns to Japan this coming July.

3-page letter (10 April 1983), 5-page "Sketches" (31 May 1982), and 1-page chart (29 January 1982) Sent Louida Orene Wetherall on 10 April 1983 by her 4th cousin once-removed William R. Hunter Yosha Bunko scans

Transcription of W.R. Hunter's 5-page "sketches"

In the following transcription, highlighting and [bracketed remarks] are mine.

Central Ridge ranch

Central Ridge refers to the high prairie on the top of the mountain between Big Canyon Creek, which runs west of the ridge and passes Peck just before it empties into the Clearwater River, and Little Canyon Creek, which runs east of the ridge and spills joins Big Canyon Creek just upstsream from Peck. The ridge itself runs from the north (where the two canyons meet) to the south (toward Nezperce).

Once on Central Ridge, you can drive the full length of the ridge until, leaving the ridge, the prairie reaches Nezperce, the county seat of Lewis County. The county, and Central Ridge, called Central Ridge Precinct in the 1900 and 1910 censuses, were part of Nezperce County until 1911, when Lewis County was created. The name change creates some confusion in family histories that fail to note such redrawings of administrative districts. From Nezperce, the prairie continues to Kamiah, which is on the Clearwater River downstream from where the South and Middle Forks of the river flow together near Kooskia. This entire stretch of land represents the heart of the Nez Perce Reservation that was opened for homesteading in 1895 and 1896.

Central Ridge was nether a township nor a village. Its post office, which appears to have operated from 1896-1923, was situated in a ridge settlement called Steele, after the man who established his homestead there and began to develop the area. Some corresponsdence in the Wetherall Family Collection, letters and postcards, bear "Steele" postal franks. An autograph book that belonged to Lucy (Gallaher) Hardman, this writer's maternal-paternal great-grandmother, includes the signatures of a number of ridge residents, including the "Major" Steele after which the settlement was named. Nothing remains of Steele today, andthe settlement today. The name appears only on only a few historical maps.

See Central Ridge and Steele on the "Places and Times" page for maps and other details.

Central Ridge in 1900, 1910, and 1920 Censuses

The 1900 census was the first to embrace the homesteads that were opened on the Nez Perce Reservation in 1885-1886. The 1900 census for Central Ridge Precinct consists of 6 enumeration sheets on which census data is recorded for 297 individuals living there as of 1 January 1900 in 88 households residing at 85 locations.

The 1910 census also consists of 6 enumeration sheets, but none of the sheets -- which accommodate up to 50 individuals -- is full. Only 236 individuals living in 48 households at as many locations are listed. This suggests that people were already leaving the ridge, presumably selling their homesteads to neighbors

The 1920 census consists of 4 enumeration sheets, all but the last of which is full. They list 214 individuals living in 39 households at the same number of locations. Depopulation and consolidation continued at conspicuous rates.

Household names

Many of the family names figure in stories told by my maternal grandmother, and by my own mother and other relatives who were raised on Central Ridge or in neighboring communities.

Among my immediate ancestors, the most closely realted, through marriage, were the Hunters, Thomases, and Hardmans. My mother was a daughter of a Hardman-Hunter union, and her mother was a daughter of a Hunter-Thomas union. The McGee-Hunter and Hardman-Hunter unions were collateral. The Hunter wives wives in the two families, including my maternal grandmother, were sisters, and their children, including my mother, were 1st cousins.

Locations of ranches

I have photographs of the approximate location of the ranch homesteaded by Alfred Christopher Hardman and Lucy Jane (Gallaher) Hardman, which was succeeded to by their 4th and last son Owen Monroe Hardman, my maternal grandfather. Owen married Ullie May Hunter, a niece of John W. Thomas, who also homesteaded on Central Ridge. This is the J.W. Thomas ranch" alluded to in the following flyer advertising the sale of the ranch on Tuesday, 14 October 1919, by its then owner, Albert Douglas Hunter, who was Ullie's father, hence my maternal maternal great grandfather.

I have no descriptions of the homesteads, other than those that appeared on facing pages in An Illustrated History of North Idaho, which was published in 1903, just a few years after the two homesteads were opened. See John W. Thomas and Albert C. Hardman for transcriptions and comments.

John W. Thomas family leaves Central Ridge

Theo Vincent, born Eleanor Theodosia Thomas (1916-2007), the daughter of John W. Thomas, was born in Clarkston, Washington, across the Snake River from Lewiston, Idaho, in 1916 -- after her parents left Central Ridge. She describes the occasion for their move in her autobiography, Missouri Transplant (Vincent 1985, pages 5-6, [bracketed] remarks mine).

Theo says nothing about the disposition of her family's Central Ridge ranch. About "the Ranch" she says this (Vincent 1985, page 89).

Another summer rolled around. After school was out in May, I went up to visit the ranch with Daddy to spend some time at Howard's, but mostly, to visit my cousin Bug.

Howard Thomas

Theo describes her oldest brother, Howard, as follows.Thomas (Vincent 1985, page 35).

"The upshot of all this was that Daddy was eventually forced to mortgage land in order to pay Howard's gambling debts," she wrote. "The end result was only too predictable."

Left   Theo's brother Howard Thomas at the home place on Central Ridge aiming revolver Top right   Sep Puckett, Ted Hamilton, Howard Thomas (2nd from right), and father John Wesley Thomas (right) after hunting at lower place on Central Ridge Photos scanned from Theo's autobiography, Missouri Transplant (1985, page 48) Bottom right   Headstone of Howard Thomas (1895-1958 and Ethel May (Bloodsworth) Thomas (1893-1957) Normal Hill Cemetary, Lewiston, Idaho Photograph by Baily copped from Find a Grave (www.findagrave.com)

The narrative at this point continues like this (Vincent 1985, page 92, [bracketed] remarks mine).

Sale of J.W. Thomas Ranch by A.D. Hunter

Be thankful for packrat ancestors

Theo writes nothing about the disposition of her father's properties -- when, and under what conditions, he sold them.

The 1910 census for Central Ridge list the family of John W. Thomas (39) with his wife Virginia E. (36), son Howard (15), son Martin B. (9), and boarder Arthur Shoemaker (28), immediately after the family of Albert C. Hardman (49), his 2nd wife Jennie M. (24), and sons Coral P. (24), William A. (22), and Owen M. (20), and daughter Emma M. (6 months) and daughter-in-law Ullie M. (19), who was Owen's wife. Howard, the oldest of J.W. Thomas's sons (his daughter Theo was not yet born), and 5 years younger than Owen, the youngest of A.C. Hardman's son's, but photographs of them together survive.

Ullie, of course, was the oldest daughter of A.D. Hunter, who acquired J.W. Thomas's ranch at some point before the 1920 census, by which time neither family is living on Central Ridge. My mother, Orene Wetherall, who was born and raised in the A.C. Hardman ranch, states that when she was born in 1913, her father, Owen, called his mother in law -- i.e., Ullie Hardman's mother Ida Frances Thomas, who was J.W. Thomas's sister, on the telephone, and that she came running over the hill from where she lived near the Hardman ranch. How "near" was "near" is not clear. Whatever the distances between their homesteads, the Hunters, Hardmans, and Thomases were neighbors.

Thanks to Ullie Hardman's attachment to the detritus that she accumulated over the years, concerning the history of her families, as the oldest daughter of Albert Douglas Hunter and Ida Frances (Thomas) Hunter, and the husband of Owen Monroe Hardman, the youngest son of Albert Christopher Hardman -- and thanks to my own mother's nostalgia for things her mother thought to save from the old days -- I found in 2015 and 2017, among the things my mother left, which had been in my sister's garage since my father died in 2013, the following notice of A.D. Hunter's sale of J.W. Thomas's ranch.

The sale took place -- if on "Tuesday, October 14th" with banknotes due "October 1, 1920" -- in the fall of 1919.

Scan by William Wetherall of original copy in Wetherall Family Collection

Hunter-Thomas obituaries

Obituaries are often places where facts are suppressed or spun to avoid creating bad impressions. I have no idea, for example, how Orval Hunter (1905-1970) actually died, but the account in the newspaper clipping to the right -- citing only a "heart attack" -- was much less complicated than the story my mother told me.

My mother, Orene (Hardman) Wetherall, was one of Orval's nieces, and he was one of the closest of her maternal uncles and aunts geographically as well. We often visited Orval and his Wife Ella at their home in Almeda, when Ella would lay out a fancy table of delicious food centering on pheasant, duck, or venison that Orval had brought home from his most recent hunt in California or Idaho.

My mother told me that Orval had chocked on a piece of steak. He was eating dinner in a restaurant, went to the men's room, didn't return, and Ella went to find him.

At the time, Orval was visiting his son, Jerry Hunter, in Peck. The drive from Peck to a hospital in Lewiston would take about an hour if you knew just where to go. And local people would have known exactly how to go.

It is possible that the obituary reported "heart attack" as the immediate medical cause of death. Possibly the attack was precipitated by the chocking, which would make it a contributory cause. Who knows what actually happened.

Ida Frances (Thomas) Hunter 24 Nov 1872 - 4 Feb 1920 Wetherall Family clipping

Louie Ellis Hunter 24 Apr 1902 - 25 Jan 1943 Wetherall Family clipping Louie Ellis Hunter 24 Apr 1902 - 25 Jan 1943 Spokane Daily Chronicle Friday, 26 January 1943, page 5 Clipped from Newspapers.com

Albert Douglas Hunter 19 Apr 1862 - 10 Feb 1945 Wetherall Family clipping

William Albert Hunter 28 Dec 1898 - 23 May 1960 Wetherall Family clipping

Orval Douglas Hunter 4 Aug 1905 - 11 Sep 1970 Wetherall Family clipping

William Franklin McGee 24 May 1889 - 21 Jun 1943 Wetherall Family clipping

Beulah Viola (Hunter, McGee) Wells 14 Feb 1897 - 30 Jul 1975 Wetherall Family clipping Above -- Viola (Hunter) (McGee) Wells The last time I clearly remember seeing and talking with Viola was in 1973 when the Wetherall family visited my maternal grandmother, Ullie Hardman, and her hunter sisters and other relatives in Idaho. Viola was still living behind the store in Peck. I have no clear memory of seeing Viola in 1977, the last year I visited Idaho, driving up with my mother in her Volkswagen, to visit Ullie and Ullie's youngest sister Almeda. Babe Emerson, my mother's sister (Aunt Babe to me), drove to Lewiston , where we were staying, in her larger but older car, and I drove the three of us in her car to Peck then Central Ridge and back to Lewiston via Nez Perce. Left -- Frank McGee The story of Frank McGee's death was verbally revealed to me in bits and pieces over the decades before I found the obituary among my mother's family papers after she died in 2003. The obituary describes the forensics in the sort of detail that neither Ullie nor my mother would have told me. My mother, of course, had heard the story from Ullie and Owen, and probably also from Viola. It was not a topic that anyone would raise except in a private conversation. I knew Viola only as "Wells" -- the name of the man she remarried after Frank McGee died. I had met a couple of McGees in Peck when younger, and I had the impression that they might be related. Only when talking with my mother about family photos during what proved to be the last few years of he life, before she died in 2003. did I learn about Frank McGee. And only after subscribing to Ancestry.com after my father died in 2013 did I gain a fuller understand, from census records, of the relationship between the McGees, Hunters, and Hardmans from Central Ridge and then Peck. Right -- Burton Hunter Burton's death was also not a dinner-table topic. I recall learning that he had shot himself fairly early in my developing understanding of my mother's family history, but sitting alone in the living room with my mother, she had no difficulty sharing what she knew about his death with me. The pain of remembering her mother's son-like-brother, and her brother-like uncle and classmate throughout elementary school and high school, was visible and audible. But my mother understood my interest in the subject of suicide, and she wanted me to know everything about her family. Again, though, it was not until I found Burton's obituary among her papers after she died, and other information through Ancestry.com after my father died, that I gained my present understanding of the circumstances surrounding Burton's death. In my mother's words -- "It devastated everyone in the family."

Burton Lyle Hunter 22 Apr 1914 - 22 Feb 1973 Letter circa Feb 1973 in hand of John A. Hunter passed to Ullie Hardman Wetherall Family Collection [ Page 1 -- Blue pen ] A Spokane man died Feb-22, 1973, Thur afternoon of an apparent self-inflicted shotgun wound in the head. Deputy County Cornoer [sic], Dr. H. Lloyd Moor ruled the death of Burton L. Hunter, 58, to be suicide. Burton, L. Hunter -- Passed away Feb 22.-73 in Spokane. Survived by his wife, Mary Margret [sic] Hunter, at there [sic] home: 5, sons, Burton D. New-York; Kim Randall, Tye Forest, Michall [sic] Shane, and Patrick Shan [sic], all of Spokane: One daughter, Mary Judith Scherrill [sic], Spokane: Three grandchildren. Memorial services Mon, Feb, 26, at 3=30 P.M. at the Finch Arboretum. Memorial donations to the St. Joseph's Children's Home, N. 1016, Superior, Spokane, 99202. Memorial services were held Mon at 3=30 at Finch Arboretum under the pines, and only the oldest boys spoke about their dad. Of all his kindest, helping hand in life. What he taught them. One thing was to listen and see, but keep your mouth shut. [ Page 2 -- Dark pencil ] He was for the wild -- didn't care to be boxed in. Loved nature. Was a very unusual service, but was touching. No minister or flowers. Was cremated and ashes would be returned, and would be put back in Clearwater River. Had bin [sic] ill at home for three weeks with flue. Also had a disease, and other problems. His wife is very ill -- had bin [sic] in hospital for some time. Was at home at time of funeral. Attended services -- unable to walk. Had her daughter-in-law from New York who's a registered nurse, and someone else was with her at all times. They're trying to build her up so she can do surgery on artery in head. The oldest boy is studying in New York to be a lawyer. I didn't mention the disease was contacted [sic] in the war 30, years ago.

Albert and Ida Hunter's headstone Central Ridge Cemetery, Lewis County, Idaho Scan of undated glossy photo in Wetherall Family Collection
Albert and Ida Hunter's headstone Central Ridge Cemetery, Lewis County, Idaho 21 September 1977 photograph by William Wetherall	Albert and Ida Hunter's headstone Central Ridge Cemetery, Lewis County, Idaho 15 June 2014 photograph by Niki and Tom Lee
Headstone of Owen M. Hardman (1890-1949) Normal Hill Cemetery, Lewiston, Idaho 1949 photo in Wetherall Family Collection	New stone with Ullie M. Hardman (1891-1980) Urn with Ullie's ashes placed with Owen's casket 1980 photo in Wetherall Family Collection
Headstone of Mary Eva Keene (1895-1973) and Wade Keene (1889-1973) Normal Hill Cemetery, Lewiston, Idaho Photograph by cskow, image copped from Find a Grave (www.findagrave.com)	Headstone of Beulah Viola Wells (1897-1975) Nee Hunter, widow of Frank McGee Riverside Cemetery, Orofino, Idaho Photograph by Nell Smith, image copped from Find a Grave (www.findagrave.com)
Headstone of William Earl McGee (1918-2005) Riverside Cemetery, Orofino, Idaho Photograph by Nell Smith, image copped from Find a Grave (www.findagrave.com)	Elwyn Keith McGee and Frank McGee Viola's 2nd son, Elwyn Keith McGee (1920-1943), who died of cancer while serving in the U.S. Army Air Corps, and her husband William Franklin McGee (1889-1943), who shot himself shortly after Keith's death, are buried in Central Ridge Cemetery, and their names are graves are included on published lists of interees. Presumably Keith's tomb is marked by the government-issued headstone his father applied for on 18 May 1943. Frank shot himself a month later, on 20 Jun 1943. Frank's parents, an older brother, and a "Baby McGee" are also buried at Central Ridge Cemetery.
Headstone of William Albert Hunter (1898-1960) Normal Hill Cemetery, Lewiston, Idaho Photograph by cskow, image copped from Find a Grave (www.findagrave.com)	Headstone of Louis Ellis Hunter (1902-1943) Central Ridge Cemetery, Lewis County, Idaho Photograph taken 14 June 2014 by Niki Lee Image copped from Find a Grave (www.findagrave.com)
Headstone of Orval Douglas Hunter (1905-1970) and Ella Marie Hunter (1913-1978) Normal Hill Cemetery, Lewiston, Idaho Photograph by Kelly, image copped from Find a Grave (www.findagrave.com)	Headstone of Grace Almeda Oglesby (1910-1999) and Rance Edmund Oglesby (1908-1965 Normal Hill Cemetery, Lewiston, Idaho Photograph by Bailey, image copped from Find a Grave (www.findagrave.com)
Headstone of Emily Allis (Thomas) Hunter (1874-1894) and Mary Jane (Thomas, Thompson) Hunter (1863-1923) Buried under common headstone as sisters who married John R.C.G.H.R Hunter Headstone of John Richard Grant Charles Henry Rosencrans Hunter (1864-1854) Mt. Zion Cemetery, Olden, Missouri Photographs by Chris J, images copped from Find a Grave (www.findagrave.com)

Hunter-Thomas graves

Hunter and Thomas graves can be found in a number of Missouri and Idaho, and other, cemeteries.

Mount Zion Cemetery

Mount Zion Cemetery in Olden, in Howell County, Missouri, has the following Hunter and/or Thomas graves.

1. Alexander Columbus Hunter
   11 Dec 1857 - 18 Jul 1928
2. Emily Allis "Emma" (Thomas) Hunter
   5 Apr 1874 - 25 Feb 1894
3. John Richard Grant Charles Henry Rosencran Hunter
   9 May 1864 - 21 Feb 1954
4. Mary Jane (Thomas, Thompson) Hunter
   4 Oct 1863 - 26 Sep 1923
5. Sophia Obedience Hunter
   19 Jul 1893 - 21 July 1894

Sophia was the 2nd daughter of Albert Douglas Hunter and Ida Francis (Thomas) Hunter.
Her parents are buried under a common headstone in Central Ridge Cemetery in Idaho.

Alexander and John were Albert Douglas Hunter's brothers.
The brothers were children of Andrew Milton Hunter and Sophia Jane (Ellis) Hunter.

Emma and Mary Jane were Ida Frances (Thomas) Hunter's sisters.
The sisters were children of Nathan Thomas and Obedience (Forbes) Thomas.

John R. Hunter married Mary Jane after Emma's death.
See 14.7 Hunter-Thomas-Thomas (above) for details.

Central Ridge Cemetery

Several Hunter-Thomas family members, beginning with Albert Douglas and Ida Frances Hunter, are buried on Central Ridge in the small cemetery that bears its name.

Albert Douglas and Ida Frances Hunter

Albert Douglas and Ida Frances Hunter share a headstone with the following inscription.

   HUNTER
 A. DOUGLAS
1862 -- 1945
   IDA F.
1872 -- 1920

Ullie Hardman's notes say Albert Douglas Hunter was born on 19 April 1862 and died on 10 February 1945. These dates appear to be correct.

Central Ridge Cemetery is the home of the following members of the Hunter-Thomas family that lived on Central Ridge, and others related to this family other than Hardmans, which see on the Hardman-Hunter and related families page. The following list is a summary of information culled from lists of known burials at the cemetery. Unbracketed, (parenthetical), and {braced} comments as received, [bracketed] comments mine.

1. A. Douglas Hunter
   19 Apr 1862 - 10 Feb 1945
   (h of Ida) [ Grandpa Doug ]
2. Florence Hunter
   18 Dec 1905 - 8 Sep 1943
   (no stone)
   [ Florence Alma (Devlin) Hunter ]
   [ Wife of William Albert Hunter (1898-1960) ]
3. Ida F. Hunter
   1872-1920
   (w of Douglas) [ Mudder ]
4. L. E. Hunter
   1902-1943
   [ Louie Ellis Hunter ]
   [ 6th child of A.D. and Ida ]
5. W. W. Hunter
   1853-1923
   [ William Walter Hunter ]
   [ 1st child of Andrew Milton Hunter (1828–1908) ]
   [ and Sophia Jane Ellis (1829–1893) ]
6. A. D. Jayne
   3 Sep 1882 - 5 Apr 1903
   [ Related to Theo (Thomas) Vincent's Jayne line? ]
7. Baby McGee
   1 Aug 1941 - 1 Aug 1941
   (child of Jack McGee)
8. Charles S. McGee
   6 May 1886 - 7 Dec 1918
   [ Brother of William Franklin McGee ]
9. Elwyn K. McGee
   16 Jul 1920 - 2 May 1943
   IDAHO / PVT / AIR CORPS
10. Francis May McGee
    30 Jun 1865 - 1952
    MOTHER
11. James McGee
    31 Jan 1863 - 14 Oct 1938
    FATHER
12. William Franklin McGee
    1889 - 20 Jun 1943
    { son of James & Frances }
    [ Viola's first husband ]
13. Baby Thomas
    17 Feb 1919 - 20 Feb 1919
    (no stone) {ch of M/M Howard Thomas}
14. Infant Thomas
    (no stone) {ch of John}
    [ Related to Theo (Thomas) Vincent's Thomas line? ]