Updated June 2, 2025
Great Uncle Chauncey Sweet was a banker in Galveston. He and his wife had a huge house where my grandmother and her cousins visited frequently. As a matter of fact in one census year my teenage grandmother and her sister were included in their household as well as their own family's home.
Known as "Auntie," Ada Pulsifer Granger Sweet (Mrs. Chauncey Sweet) had been orphaned at the beginning of the Civil War, and she and her sister (my great grandmother) were raised in the homes of her mother's sisters. That was how she grew up with Chauncey Sweet, who was the son in one of those households.
They married, and the family apparently approved, or at least didn't make a public fuss. They had no children of their own. When Auntie died at the ripe old age of 71, Chauncey at age 67 moved to California and married a year later to Genevieve Frazier (age 41). Genevieve was from Tyler TX, a stenographer and had been quite athletic when in school back in Texas.
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** Thanks to fellow blogger, Mike Brubaker, here's the rest of the yearbook posting:
But in 1911 when she was a Senior at the Tyler Texas High School, she and other athletic senior girls challenged girls in other grades to a track meet at 4 am! It was so unusual that the San Francisco Call and Post gave it a short article.
Though the print is pretty bad, Genevieve won 6 of the events herself.
Today's quote:
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Then there's the one piece of art which has been handed down since Great Uncle Chauncey gave it to my Grandfather, who gave it to my father, and thus I inherited it. I blogged about The Laughing Dogs.
A famous Chicago cartoonist sent Uncle Chauncey this cartoon...kind of a spoof on the country dog with the sophisticated city dogs making fun of him...perhaps that was how Uncle Chauncey appeared to the artist. It does have an inscription by Dick Outcault.
And though one of my family members thinks she'll get rich by selling it, it's just a print on rather poor newsprint paper. But the fact that an artist dedicated it to an Uncle may influence later generations.
My own Uncle Jimmy became an artist. And his son, John is a gifted musician.
I called myself an artist, but didn't ever really make a living with it...though it makes me happy still (sharing what I've created!)
It's interesting to learn as much as this about ancestors!
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Sharing with Sepia Saturday. I may not be sharing a radio voice, but all bloggers these days are similar to being voices that are continuing while many have become silent. Much like our paper newspapers are no longer out there.
And just because I had nothing better to do, I found another ancestor who married his cousin. Soon!
Today's quote:
Something precious is lost if we rush headlong into the details of life without pausing for a moment to pay homage to the mystery of life and the gift of another day. |
Kent Nerburn |
