My Family Her-Story Part 1

  I started this post last year during Women's History Month and missed finishing it before the end of the month. This is what I have so far and will be posting more later this month. When I read it was Women's History Month, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to share the story of my mitochondrial dna and the known women in my history who've gifted it to me, my daughters and granddaughter.

March is Women's History month. And well, if you know me you know that I'm usually late to the party. I started this blog post in March but well, life happened. However, when I discovered that March was Women's History month, I knew I needed to write this post. 

 I love that the world has finally recognized that the stories of women throughout history deserve to be discovered and told.  My Granny, Juanita Hankins Richards, knew this idea to be important many years ago. Granny and I shared a love of travel,  history, documentaries and genealogy. She understood the importance of history and noticed how absent the stories of the mothers, wives and daughters were. So she spent months collecting information and typed up for me a 4 page  story of the history of my female line back five generations  to the mother country of Lithuania, pun intended. Granny said, history is written about men and I want you to know her-story/ our story, Maggie. And so, I look at this old discolored paper story of my female line and imagine that you will be interested in knowing anything at all about my maternal line. Just like the generations that went before, I doubt many will care but Granny did and so do I. 

I will celebrate these women by typing word for word what my Granny shared with me all those years ago. Interposing photos of these beautiful and strong women and adding stories that I have personally discovered or learned along the way.

My Granny, Juanita Louise Hankins Richards.

Juanita Louise Hankins (Furniss/ Balmer) Richard was my mother's mother. Here is the story she wrote for me. Whenever possible I will include a photo of the people she mentions.  I could clean it up for you all and someday I will but for now. I am going to type it all out word for word to honor my Granny and the time she invested. It's hard to believe it's been 11 years since she wrote the letter and sent it to me. 3 1/2 years since she left this world for the next. 

"Dear Maggie,

It has occurred to me (more than once) that if I don't pass along to you all that I know about the female side of the family it will disappear. It seems unreal that I am now the "oldest" as I always thought somebody else was keeping track of the family tree, but now I know that "somebody" is me.

 I know a little about my great grand-parents, and they are the most interesting, but I won't start at the oldest, but with the birth of your mom, and you can ad yourself and Daulton, and of course your lovely babies at the end, to bring the whole thing up to date.

So, starting with mom, and working back.---born Wilma Jean Furniss (aka Willa Rose) in Mount Vernon, Ohio, November xx, 19xx (edited for privacy) born on Thanksgiving day at noon, no big bird dinner for me! The names are what you will find on a record if ever you need them (passport?)

Mom will have to supply you with any information on the Furniss ancestry, and her half-brother Bill Furniss, your uncle. Your Uncle Ty Edward Balmer is also half-brother to your mom and Wesley Ty-William Balmer who is Ty's son. 

It's tedious with all there names but needed for records. Your mother's parents, William Furniss (now deceased) born Dec 17 1928? and myself Juanita Louise Hankins Furniss, born in Lynville, Ohio on March 14, 1932. 

I have been married 3 times, after Furniss, to Kenneth Balmer for 10 years and had 2 children, Anita Elaine Balmer born 1956 on the freeway in Baldwin Park California. She was 17 when she died of encephalitis on May 6th, 1975, a very trying time. And Ty Edward Balmer, born August 13 1959 in Norwalk California and now resides in West Covina with his son Wesley. I am currently married to Peter G. Richards, and have been for 35 years this year --2001-

My beginnings were as different from today as to take place on another planet, I was born in a gas station with residence in the rear which was just sitting on the highway in Lynville. When we took a trip back to Ohio after 45 years and it doesn't stand there anymore. Just a nice green lawn. That was during the midst of the depression and a terrible time to get even enough food. I remember my father spelling out my name in pancake batter just so that it would be more interesting to eat, that was dinner by the way.  Another time we were living out in the country (water was by handpump in the front yard and outhouse in the back) there were thousands of rats that came across the fields. I remember one climbed up the screen door and my mother killed it with a broom. I can still see that house, I started first grade there. 

There was a delightful stream nearby that my sister and i spent many an hour digging around in, and the grasshoppers! By the time I would walk halfway down the lane I would have "tobacco juice" from the grasshoppers on my stockings. I don't think I was the speediest of kids so I think they probably had time. My father worked for my grandfather in the second hand furniture store for $5 a week. The rent on our house was $5 a month. My father drove a model T Ford and I remember how thrilled we were when Daddy brought home a radio and regular car batter and hooked it up.  

We moved to town finally, that was about 1940 and then the war broke out (I must've been 10) My sister's husband went to war and it seemed that about half the town went too. I was allowed to play under the streetlights and to come home after dusk from the moves (12 cents) I always stayed thru it twice. The environment was safe then. The war years were tough  in a different way, there were ration stamps, for almost everything, and we saved our cooking grease in a can for the "war". We had air raid drills and fire drills in school. At home we had blackouts where we had to cover our windows. Nobody went anywhere as gas was the most rationed of all. Everybody worked as well in a glass plan (Ball) making jars. She saved all her money and bought 3 lots facing the street on Sunset ST and half an acre behind.

My father got into the police department about that time and he began to build a house on one of the lots, a few years later he sold that one a build another bigger one. They are still standing and in good repair, they are cement block houses.

In my teen years my sister and I went to a state park about 20 miles north of Mt. Vernon. We went as often as we could and always stayed overnight. We were backpacking crazy, sometimes we would stay 3 or 4 nights. There was nobody on the road and we would stick out our thumbs and try to hitch a ride, if not we'd catch a bus. Hitching was an ok thing to do then. Remember all the men were at war and there was peace without them. 

Then I married at the age of 16. When I was single again I went to work at the "San" state sanitarium for the tubercular insane outside Mt Vernon. From there I worked in Columbus for Bell Telephone, my sis and I decided to go west from there and arrived in California in 1954. I married again in 55, divorced in 65 and married Pete. We moved to Washington in 67. Now we are moving to Arizona permanently. 

I have mentioned my sister, born Edna Jenette DeJonge 1924 in Dayton, Ohio, Father was  Albert. My sister never knew her father, as our mother divorced when she was an infant. She was married 4 times and had no children. Her third marriage to James Rainery, a widower with 2 daughters, are the closest to children of her own, as she raised them from an early age. 

My father was born Vertice Leon Hankins, birthdate 7-23-1901 in Swazyee (Grant Co) Indiana. I am copying from a delayed registration of birth dated Aug 2 1962. This is because, as my father explained to me at the time, his birth was written in the family bible. That was the way it was done in the early part of the century, especially since his father was a preacher himself. Dad needed verification for his social security and had to apply for a birth certificate at that time. Vertice was one of 4 children, one brother Chris (Creston), and two sisters Beatrice and Vera. Chris had a son, and I don't know his name, but there was mention of him living out west somewhere. Beatrice had 2 children she did not raise, the were raised in Colorado. In later years they were reunited but for whatever reason it didn't last as when she died she left all of her property to her sister, Vera. Vera had 2 children Robert and Katherine. Pete and I took a trip back to Mt Vernon, Ohio a few years back and we had a chance to visit with cousin, Bob. 

Dad's childhood was spent traveling a great deal because Grandpa was a preacher in the Seventh-Day Adventist church. Their diet beliefs are strong and I remember Grandma throwing a skillet away because she found out that someone had cooked a pork chop in it. The children resented having to give up their beds for visitors coming for worship and never forgot it as I heard it many years later from Aunt Vera and Dad. 

Mom and Dad were married in 1929, the year of the stock market crash, and the country was plunged into the great depression. There were soup lines and work lines and a great many men deserted their families and rode the "rails" drifting from one hobo camp to another. It was a very hard time for a young couple to get married and expect to be able to just have food on the table. 

Their honeymoon was spent traveling out west and they made a circuit from Ohio to Montana, Wyoming, California and back to Ohio. I remember Dad working for Grandpa at the second hand store for $5 a week-rent was $5 a month on the country house with no plumbing, the pump was in the front yard and the outhouse was in the back and the sears catalog in the outhouse was not a joke.  When the war broke out dad went to work for the police department in Mt Vernon and even Mom had a job. About this time he began to play Santa at Christmas time and did so for many years, and did so for many years braving the cold as he had to sit outside in a small shelter in the town square. After the war Dad did security work on his own and then they moved to Washington State and he officially retired. 

Both Mom and Dad went to Evergreen College after the age of 65 and it was a big event when they graduated. You were there although you may not remember. Dad died Aug 3 1982, he was 81. 

Grandpa Hankins was born Sep 29 1873 in Paulding , Ohio. Named Frank E Hankins and had 2 brothers John Hankins of Van Wert, Ohio and Ray A Hankins of Terra Haute Indiana. On his obituary it says he was a retire evangelistic colporteur, died August 18, 1961.

Grandma Hankins was born Ibbie Mae Carrick Sep 27,1880 in Maysville KY. Father was Aberham Carrick and mother's name was Hattie Breeeze. She had one sister Cora M (Carrick) Kirk of S. Lancaster, MA. She had 2 sons, Fred Kirk dropped out of school and started on the first plastics factory's in the country. Grandma Hankins had a pretty drab life but managed to be a strong backbone of the family.

Ibbie Mae Carrick was Irish (There is a town in Ireland, called Carrick). Frank E Hankins was a Scot. Dad told me there were 5 Hankins brothers who came to America to "seek their fortune". I don't think that "Hal" was one of them as his name suggests that he was firstborn in America, however I don't know this for a fact. Frank E.'s father Capt. Benjamin Franklin (Hal) Hankins was in the Civil War- G14 Ohio Inf. E1924 C68 Ohio Inf. -H 132 Ohio Inf. Widow Nancy L.- Invalid 1887 June 14 and benefits to widow Nancy April 2 1913, I presume that was the death date. I am coping from his pension benefits card that I found in the archives in Washington DC.

Hal was a short man and very much the head of the family, he lined up the Hankins boys at one time and told them in no uncertain terms that they WOULD vote republican because that was what the Hankins did. I have his watch that he carried thru the Civil War that Frank gave to my Dad and will go to the first born of the family. (edited-Willa, then Maggie, then Brietta and then Piper). It is engraved and a very nice piece of history. Your Mom has black crocheted shawl that belonged to Nancy, Dad said her hair hung way down her back and was red. There were a lot of redheads in the family, I'm sure it came from the Scots side of the family. If you ever do any more research it would be interesting to find out if any of Ibbie's relatives fought in the civil war for the south, as they came from below the Mason-Dixon line. The Civil War was a terrible war where relative found themselves fighting one another-brother against brother, a heartbreaking time. And it was 99% not about slavery. 

Well now, I'm going to change the format a little and start at the end instead of the beginning with Gramies side of  the family.....To be continued (including photos)