52 Ancestors - week 4 - education

 Just a note first - I missed week 3.  It was "out of place" and I just couldn't think of any ancestors that are out of place.  Closest I could come is my dad, whose ashes are (at least supposedly) in my stepmother's closet instead of buried with his parents as they should have been.  I digress....

This week, the topic is education.  Many directions that I could take this.  Education is important to me, as my career focus has been teaching.  The picture I chose was a typical picture for the early 20th century, all the students in a one-room schoolhouse lined up outside the building.  The posted picture is of my grandmother, Lillian Stilwell, and her siblings included in the class.  Schoolhouse unknown, somewhere in the Bartholomew or Jackson County, Indiana area.  I recently colorized the picture through ancestry.com, since of course color film had not yet been invented in the early 1900's.

Could I have taught in a one-room schoolhouse?  I would like to think so.  There would be a lot of organization necessary to meet the needs of a diverse group of students.  Anywhere from teaching the young ones to read to advanced learning for the older ones.

52 Ancestors - week 2 - Favorite Photo

 This week we are to choose a favorite photo.  I am enclosing two. The first is of my son, Scott Clayton Cooper (born 1985.) The second photo is of my husband's grand uncle, Arthur Emil Lindenman (1902 - 1983.)  

What puts these photos on my favorite list is the way that they look alike.  I have shown Uncle Art's picture to others, and they truly think that it is Scott.  Uncle Art is in his army uniform, and Scott is in his Air Force uniform. 

Genetics are amazing!

 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 1 - I'd Like to Meet

I was browsing Facebook and saw a post about #52 Ancestors.  Idea being you pick one of your ancestors each week and write a little more in depth about that person.  Weekly themes each week.  Sounds cool.  Going back to my old blog to post these.

Week 1 is "I'd Like to Meet."    The first ancestor that comes to mind is my great-grandmother, Ella Josephine Cox Stobo Brockman.  There are several parts of her life that I'd like to explore more.

First would be the circumstances of her birth.  From what I've been able to find, her adoptive mother may well have actually been her grandmother.  Ella was born in 1879, and was adopted by Ellen Cox Stobo and her husband, Thomas Stobo.  Ellen's oldest daughter, Henrietta Cox, died in 1884 and her will mentions the five year old girl, Ella, and part of Henrietta's estate went towards Ella's care and benefit.  I suspect that Henrietta was actually Ella's mother.  No records exist of a marriage for Henrietta, so perhaps the potential stigma of an out of wedlock child caused Ellen to adopt her own grandchild.  Not sure.  Maybe it'd be just as beneficial to meet Ellen or even Henrietta?

Second would be her life after she became a widow.  Ella married William Franklin Brockman in 1899 and they had three children.  One of those children was my grandfather, William Thomas "Tom" Brockman.  William Franklin died in 1918.  By 1921, Ella was named as the "other woman" in a lawsuit from the wife of a local businessman in her town.

From a contemporary newspaper article:  Margaret Crump charged that her husband Charley, a wealthy sportsman and air pilot, drove his airplane thru the skies more than convention permitted with Mrs. Ella Brockman, a wealthy widow and that he used the widow's cow pasture for a landing field.  At the same time, Mrs. Crump asked $25,000 alimony and $25,000 for alienation of affections from Mrs. Brockman.  

The court fight was to have developed over whether a couple could love in approved manner in the clouds while an airplane propeller drowned all conversation and prevented the driver from turning around and whispering into the lady's ear.  The divorce suit was withdrawn by both Mr. and Mrs. Crump before it went to trial.  The newspaper article claimed that it was the first airplane divorce suit in the United States.

Ella sounds like a very interesting lady and I would have loved to have met her.