#52Ancestors Week 4 Invitation to Dinner: Lois Gongo Evans Vernon

#52Ancestors: Week 4

While I have many family members who seem to be interesting characters and would probably be interesting dinner guests, one person from the family tree that I would really love to meet is Lois Gongo.  Lois, the daughter of Anthony Gongo and Faith (Wilson?), was born around 1660, probably in Anne Arundel County MD.  Lois is not a direct ancestor of mine; she is something like the mother--in-law of my 8th great-uncle. (Lois's granddaughter married into the Scrivener family, which is what brought her to my attention.) What makes Lois so interesting to me is that she was apparently a feminist long before feminism became a thing.

Lois married first Lewis Evans, a Welshman like her father, about 1674.  Lois and Lewis had four daughters: Catherine, Elizabeth, Sarah and Ann Evans. 

Catherine married first John Clark and second William Thornbury and died about 1768 in Anne Arundel County MD.
Elizabeth married first Francis Anktill and second Moses Faudry. She died about 1762 in Anne Arundel County MD.
Sarah married Samuel Griffith, with whom she had eight children.
Ann married Benjamin Battee and had two daughters with him.

After Lewis's death about 1690, Lois married secondly Christopher Vernon, a fairly well-to-do landowner from an old British family in Hertfordshire, who had emigrated to Anne Arundel County MD.  Lois and Christopher had five children: Ephraim, William, Lois, Thomas and Ann Vernon, recorded in the records of St. James Parish, Anne Arundel County MD.

Christopher Vernon died in England in 1724 and here is where the story gets really interesting.  Christopher was apparently a very unhappy man.  He left a will in England, which does not mention his wife and children.  He leaves his estate to aunts, nieces, nephews and other relatives.

Curious, yes?  However, back in MD, there is an earlier handwritten will, apparently never recorded that explains the will in England.  In the earlier document, Christopher castigates Lois as "stubborn and brutish" and  claims he was never really married to her since she absolutely refused to say the words "honor and obey"  when she married Christopher. (Imagine that in 1691!)  Further, he claims that Lois tried to poison him.  Likewise, he is furious that his daughter Ann married against his wishes.  And the document is full of complaints about his other family members.

The one person he seems like is his step-daughter Elizabeth Evans Anktill, beside whom he wishes to be buried and whom he wishes to be his executrix.  Christopher then apparently left for England where he proceeded to give away all his property in England so that Lois could never get her hands on it. Elizabeth did attempt to probate the earlier will, but the courts threw it out because the later English will was already on file.

Lois seems to have made out all right in the long run.  She had property from her first husband, Lewis Evans.  She made over property to her son Thomas Vernon in 1738 and died in Anne Arundel County in 1739.

So, Lois is definitely someone I would like to have a conversation with to get her side of the story.

#52Ancestors Week3: Longevity Theresa Evalina Wallis

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This week's challenge focuses on longevity.  The longest-lived of my direct ancestors was my maternal great-grandmother, Theresa Evalina Wallis Sasscer.   She was born in Kent County MD on 28 December 1874 and died 25 March 1964 in Owings Mills, Baltimore County MD at the age of 90. (I should note, however, that my own mother is still going strong at 93, so I think she will eventually hold the longevity record!)

Eva Wallis was born the same year as poet Robert Frost, industrialist John D. Rockefeller, and magician Harry Houdini.  She grew up in the rural Eastern Shore of Maryland, close to where Harriett Tubman helped the Underground Railroad move slaves to freedom. Ulysses S. Grant was president, following the death of Millard Fillmore.  James Black Groom from Cecil County was the Governor of Maryland. The Wallises came from Quaker roots and were not slave holders.

Eva Wallis was the 8th of the 13 children of Francis Adolphus Wallis and Mary Georgianna Willson. She was a school teacher and met her husband, Thomas Reverdy Sasscer, when she was teaching at a small one-room school in Prince George's County and boarded with Mr. Sasscer, a farmer whose home was across the road from the school.  (Not to worry about any impropriety there because Reverdy's unmarried sister, Mary Loretto Sasscer, was living with her brother as his housekeeper.) Reverdy Sasscer, the son of John William Sasscer and Julia Ann Gibbons of Prince George's County MD,  was some 20 years older than his bride when they married in December 1894 at Sacred Heart Church in Chestertown, Kent County MD.  This picture shows Eva in her wedding outfit. According to the newspaper account of the wedding, it was a gown of tan henrietta cloth with gloves and hat to match.

By the time of her marriage in 1894, Maryland was moving away from its rural roots and becoming more industrialized, although Prince George's County, where Eva raised her family was still mostly farmland, supplying wheat, corn, potatoes, fruits and vegetables for the nation's capital.  Tobacco fields still covered significant areas of the county.

Reverdy and Eva had four children:  Francis Wallis (1895), Eunice Loretto (1897), Theresa Evalina, my grandmother, (1898), and Clarence DeSales (1900).   The Sasscers grew up on a tobacco farm at Breezy Hill and attended the one-room school across the road, where, incidentally, Clarence later met his wife, Madge, who was the teacher there.

Thomas Reverdy Sasscer died in 1920 at the age of 68, so Eva spent the last 44 years of her life as a widow, running the farm with her sons and happily enjoying her brood of 16 grandchildren. It was my mother, Anne, who gave Eva the name by which she was known in the family--Dama--Anne's attempt to say "Grandma."  In her later years, Dama often spent the winters in Florida and my mother, who was her oldest grandchild,  remembers trips to Florida with her grandmother as a teenager.  Dama was very proud of her family heritage and was a member of the DAR and other patriotic societies.  

My memories of my great-grandmother center around the annual family Christmas parties that were always held at Dama's home, Breezy Hill.  It was there that I would see my numerous aunts and uncles, great-aunts and great uncles and dozens of cousins.  I remember her as a very elegant woman. The picture below shows her in 1951 with two of her great-grandchildren at a Christmas party. 

At the time of Eva's death in 1964, J. Millard Tawes, an Eastern Shore native, was governor of Maryland and Lyndon Johnson was initiating the Great Society, amid increasing calls for more minority rights. The Chesapeake Bay Bridge had opened up Eva's native Eastern Shore to greater tourism and Ocean City became a boom town.  The Beatles made their famous appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show and Martin Luther King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. 

Both Theresa Evalina Wallis Sasscer and Thomas Reverdy Sasscer are buried in Mt. Carmel Cemetery, Upper Marlboro, Prince George's County MD, along with many of their ancestors and descendants. 

#52Ancestors Week 2: Favorite Photo The Romance of Frank Scrivener and Lib Dent

It's so hard to choose a favorite photo from among all the family photos I have accumulated over the years, but I think I would have to go with this charming picture of my grandparents, Frank Scrivener and Elizabeth (Lib) Dent. Of course, I only knew them when they were much older, so I have always loved this fascinating glimpse of their youth.

The picture is not dated, but I think it was taken shortly before their marriage in 1924.  The clothes certainly seem to fit that time period.  My grandmother definitely has the flapper look going.  (And isn't she gorgeous?) Frank seems to be going for the Great Gatsby look.  Look at that natty bow tie!  I am not sure where the picture was taken, but perhaps it was in St. Mary's County at Lib's family home.  It does seem to be a rural rather than an urban location judging by the porch and flowers in the background.

Frank was the only child of Frank Scrivener and Louise Gwynn (see #52Ancestors Week 1), born in Baltimore in August 1900.  He attended Loyola College High School, where he played baseball, and enlisted in the Navy in WWI.  He was stationed at Great Lakes Naval Air Station, where he acquired quite a reputation as a quarterback on the football team.  Family legend has it that he even played a game against the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame while he was at Great Lakes.  After his discharge, he got a job with the Maryland State Roads Commission, where he worked for the rest of this life.

Lib was the daughter of John Marshall Dent and Mary Peterson Turner, born in Oakley, St. Mary's County MD in 1902, the third of their four children. She was born Ida Elizabeth Dent (named after her grandmother)  but she never liked the name Ida and never used it.  Lib attended St. Mary's Female Seminary in St. Mary's County and taught school in Prince George's County MD after her graduation.  Here she met Frank, who travelled around the state inspecting roads as part of his job.  Apparently Frank would often hang around the school where Lib was teaching, whistling outside her classroom window, and would sometimes delight her students by telling them that class was dismissed.  (No word on how the principal felt about this!)

Lib and Frank were married at St. Mary's Church in Upper Marlboro, Prince George's County MD on June 20, 1924, coincidentally just a few months after my maternal grandparents, Paul Summers and Evalina Sasscer, were married at the same church in April 1924. Twenty-three years later, my parents were married at the same church.

Lib and Frank had six children: Frank, Bill, Jack, Reds, Keene, and Bob, and raised them in Baltimore and St. Mary's County through the Great Depression.  Frank was fortunate to have a state job that enabled him to support his family.

The picture above suggests a loving and romantic relationship between Lib and Frank and from everything I know about them, that remained true throughout their lives.  I inherited one of the many loving notes that Lib wrote to her husband over the course of their long marriage.

Frank died in 1980 and Lib in 1987.  They are buried in New Cathedral Cemetery in Baltimore, next to Frank's parents. 

#52Ancestors Week 1: My Start in Genealogy

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Week 1: Start

I have decided to work on the 52 Ancestors in 52 weeks challenge.  The prompt for this first week is "Start," so I have decided to write about what got me started doing genealogy.

It was my grandfather, Frank Scrivener. Sometime in the late 70's, he cleaned out his basement and came up with a box of family history materials from his mother, Louise Gywnn Scrivener.  He asked me if I would like to have them and I said yes.  From then on, I was hooked on genealogy.

My great-grandmother, Louise Gwynn, was really into family history.  She was a Regent of the DAR and belonged to several genealogy-based societies like the Pilgrims of St. Mary's, which she helped to found.  She had done a lot of research including many visits to the Maryland State Archives in Annapolis.  The box that my grandfather gave me included several notebooks full of her genealogy research.  But perhaps more importantly, Louise Gwynn was a saver.  The box also contained her scrapbooks where she had carefully pasted stories of her family members, marriages, deaths, graduations, you name it.  Even now, 50 years later, I still go back every now and then and look over the scrapbooks and I often find some detail that I previously overlooked or did not previously realize the significance.

Now, some of my great-grandmother's conclusions about family history were incorrect.  It took me many years of my own research at the Archives to find more accurate information, but I would not have started down that path if Louise Gwynn had not been there first.

Now a little about Louise Gwynn.  Louise Carmelite Keene Gwynn was born in Brooklyn NY in 1872 and died in Baltimore MD in 1946, although most of her early life was spent in Spartanburg SC where the Gwynns settled after the Civil War.  She was the third child, second daughter, of Captain Andrew Jackson Gwynn (wounded at Gettysburg) and Marie Louise Keene, both native Marylanders. She had three younger brothers and a younger sister.  I never met her as she died before I was born, but my parents and aunts and uncles say she was quite a force to be reckoned with.  According to them, I resemble her somewhat in temperament. :-)

The lavalier she is wearing in this picture is a family heirloom, worn by several generations of Scrivener brides (including me) at their weddings. 

She attended Mt. St. Agnes College in Baltimore and throughout her life she was a fierce advocate for women's education.  Louise Gwynn married Frank Phillip Scrivener Sr. in 1899 at her sister's residence in Prince George's County MD.  Her brother, Msgr. Andrew Keene Gwynn, officiated.   Louise and Frank settled in Baltimore where Frank worked as an accountant.  They had one son, Frank Phillip Scrivener Jr. born in 1900.  He attended the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute and enlisted in the Navy during WWI. 

Louise was always involved in one civic project or another, charitable work and even politics.  After women got the right to vote, Louise was one of the first women to run for office, a seat on the Democratic State Central Committee.

When Frank retired, the couple moved to Upper Marlborough in Prince George's County near Louise's sister Effie.  Louise ran a small lending library from her home.  Her six grandchildren, including my father, often spent the summers with their grandparents, and this actually led to my father meeting my mother whose family attended the same church.

So, thank you, Louise Gwynn, for many, many happy hours of genealogy research.