Person Page - 536

     Ruby (?) was born circa 1898 at IL.¹ She married Leonard H. Tompkins, son of James Martin Tompkins and Dollie Melissa Holcombe, circa 1927.¹

     LaVerna L. Cook was born on 17 September 1912 at Durant, IA.^1,2 She married Leonard H. Tompkins, son of James Martin Tompkins and Dollie Melissa Holcombe, on 16 August 1952 at Sterling, Whiteside Co., IL.¹ LaVerna L. Cook died on 4 December 1992 at Sterling, Whiteside Co., IL, at age 80.^1,2 She was buried at IOOF Cemetery, Rock Falls, Whiteside Co., IL; Sec. 14, Lot 23.³

     William Griswold was born circa 1891 at NY.¹ He was the son of Edgar John Griswold and Mary Jane Hall.¹

     Thomas Snodgrass died on 14 March 1886 at May Twp., Lee Co., IL.

     Edward Wellington Ellingwood was born on 1 July 1880 at Woodstock, Oxford Co., Ontario, Canada.¹ He married Mabel Dolly Karr, daughter of Thomas William Karr and (?) Simons, on 29 July 1901 at Windsor, Essex Co., Ontario, Canada.¹ Edward Wellington Ellingwood died on 6 March 1962 at Pasadena, Los Angeles Co., CA, at age 81.¹ He was buried at Mountain View Cemetery, Altadena, Los Angeles Co., CA.¹

     Raymond Thomas York was born on 27 February 1900 at Chicago, Cook Co., IL. He married Kathryne Mary Armstrong, daughter of Willard Warren Armstrong and Sarah Alvira Wynkoop, on 8 May 1926. Raymond Thomas York died on 26 October 1962 at Wayland, MI, at age 62. He was buried at Elmwood Cemetery, Wayland, MI.

     Robert E. Honer was born on 16 January 1921.¹ He married Marilyn Kugel, daughter of Leonard Arthur Kugel and Rebecca Bates. Robert E. Honer died on 22 April 1988 at La Canada Flintridge, Los Angeles Co., CA, at age 67.¹

Bob was one of the founders of Scientific Atlanta.

     Edith Kermit Carow was born on 6 August 1861 at CT.¹ She married President Theodore Roosevelt Jr., son of Theodore Roosevelt Sr. and Martha Bulloch, on 2 December 1886 at St. George's Church, London, England.¹ Edith Kermit Carow died on 30 September 1948 at age 87.

     Mary Gaylord was the daughter of John Gaylord and Mary Clark.¹ Mary Gaylord married Ebenezer Bliss in January 1707.¹

     Ebenezer Bliss was born on 27 July 1683. He married Mary Gaylord, daughter of John Gaylord and Mary Clark, in January 1707.¹

     Jedediah Bliss was born on 7 February 1709 at Springfield, Hampden Co., MA.¹ He was the son of Ebenezer Bliss and Mary Gaylord.¹ Jedediah Bliss married Miriam Hitchcock on 19 August 1748.¹ Jedediah Bliss died on 30 November 1777 at Springfield, Hampden Co., MA, at age 68.

     Miriam Hitchcock was born on 14 July 1720.¹ She married Jedediah Bliss, son of Ebenezer Bliss and Mary Gaylord, on 19 August 1748.¹

     Alexander Bliss was born on 11 October 1753 at Springfield, Hampden Co., MA.¹ He was the son of Jedediah Bliss and Miriam Hitchcock.¹ Alexander Bliss married Abigail Williams.¹ Alexander Bliss died on 25 July 1843 at Springfield, Hampden Co., MA, at age 89.¹

     Abigail Williams married Alexander Bliss, son of Jedediah Bliss and Miriam Hitchcock.¹

     Nathan Hoyt was born on 27 February 1793 at Gilmanton, Belknap Co., NH.¹ He married Margaret Bliss, daughter of Alexander Bliss and Abigail Williams, on 25 August 1826 at Springfield, Hampden Co., MA.¹

Nathan and Margaret were enumerated in the 1850 Athens, Clarke Co., GA, federal census. He was a Presbyterian Minister, age 57; she was 55. Children in the household were Louisa 20, William 18, Henry 16, Robert 14, and Margaret 11.

     Margaret Jane Hoyt was born in 1838 at Athens, Clarke Co., GA.¹ She was the daughter of Nathan Hoyt and Margaret Bliss.¹ Margaret Jane Hoyt married Rev. Samuel Edward Axson, son of Rev. Isaac Stockton Keith Axson and Rebecca Longstreet FitzRandolph, on 16 November 1858 at Savannah, Chatham Co, GA.¹ Margaret Jane Hoyt died in 1881.¹

     Rev. Samuel Edward Axson was born on 23 December 1836 at Liberty Co., GA.¹ He was the son of Rev. Isaac Stockton Keith Axson and Rebecca Longstreet FitzRandolph. Rev. Samuel Edward Axson married Margaret Jane Hoyt, daughter of Nathan Hoyt and Margaret Bliss, on 16 November 1858 at Savannah, Chatham Co, GA.¹ Rev. Samuel Edward Axson died on 28 May 1884 at age 47.

S. E. and Margaret J. were enumerated in the 1860 Beach Island, Edgefield Co., SC, federal census. He was a clergyman age 23, she was 21. the only child in the household was Ellen L. 3 months. They were enumerated in the household of S. G. U. Black, a planter.

     Rev. Isaac Stockton Keith Axson was born on 3 October 1813 at Charleston, Charleston Co., SC. He married Rebecca Longstreet FitzRandolph, daughter of Isaac FitzRandolph and Eleanor Hunter.

I.S.K. and Rebecah were enumerated in the 1850 District 15, Liberty Co., GA, federal census. He was a clergyman age 36, she was 36. Children in the household were Edward 13, Randolph 12, and Sarah 9.

     Rebecca Longstreet FitzRandolph was born in 1815 at Charleston, Charleston Co., SC. She was the daughter of Isaac FitzRandolph and Eleanor Hunter.¹ Rebecca Longstreet FitzRandolph married Rev. Isaac Stockton Keith Axson.

     First Lady Ellen Louise Axson was born on 15 May 1860 at Savannah, Chatham Co, GA.¹ She was the daughter of Rev. Samuel Edward Axson and Margaret Jane Hoyt.¹ First Lady Ellen Louise Axson married President Thomas Woodrow Wilson on 24 April 1885 at Savannah, Chatham Co, GA. First Lady Ellen Louise Axson died on 6 August 1914 at White House, Washington, DC, at age 54.¹

from the National First Ladies' Library online.

Ellen was 5’3” tall, with dark reddish brown hair, piled high in a pompadour style, away from her face, and brown eyes. She had soft, feminine features and a good figure. Later in life, as her health failed due to Bright’s Disease, she became somewhat puffy and appeared tired all the time. Her later photographs show a woman not well or in good spirits.

The eldest of four children, born in Savannah, Ellen later moved to Rome, Georgia, which she always regarded as “home.” She was the daughter of a Presbyterian minister and both parents believed in education for girls as well as boys. Tutored at home by her mother, Ellen then attended the local female college (a.k.a. high school) and after her graduation in 1876, she continued to study. She studied French and German, and pursued her great love of art, showing great skill in both landscape and portraits. Ellen spent time studying art in New York City, which gave her a more expanded view of life.

In the summer of 1883, Ellen met Thomas Woodrow Wilson at her father’s church and fell in love. Both were highly principled, motivated and widely read people who had deeply passionate and romantic hearts. Both Woodrow and Ellen were religious, she more open minded than he and both were to be deeply dependent on one another. Their early courtship was made more difficult due to Rev. Axson’s collapse and later commitment to an insane asylum, which was a drain on Ellen’s emotions and physical strength. Axson’s death on May 28, 1884, a probable suicide, saddened Ellen and made her question her desirability as a wife, but Woodrow overcame her fears. Using some of the money left to her by her father, Ellen returned to New York to study art at the Art Student’s League and on Sunday afternoons she taught African-American children at the city mission. She and Woodrow wrote each other of their hopes, dreams, and when he was offered a teaching position at Bryn Mawr College, they were able to marry. They married at her grandparents’ home in Savannah, the ceremony being conducted by her minister grandfather and father-in-law on June 24, 1885.

Lonely as a girl, she chose not to pursue romance and became know as “Elly-Lou, the man-hater.” Her father thought her somewhat forward and often cautioned in her views. Her mother’s death in childbirth in 1881 changed Ellen’s life. Her father’s slow decline into depression and mental illness made her want to raise her siblings but her grandparents took over. Ellen was a strong woman with an artistic nature. She was a passionate woman who centered her life on home, husband, and children, but saw no reason why couldn’t pursue her love of painting. She felt that no one should surrender totally to the career of another. She was the perfect helpmate for an overly sensitive, often quarrelsome, and easily bruised husband. She was tactful, gentle, loving, and clear-eyed. She could also take up dislikes and was unforgiving to those who hurt her husband. She retained her love of reading and even translated works for her husband. She used her eye for beauty to furnish their home in Princeton. She was only able to do one thing at a time, whether sewing, painting, or reading.

While Wilson never wanted to teach at an all girls’ school, the years at Bryn Mawr were wonderful for Ellen, in that she had three daughters, pursued French, German, political science and philosophy. She helped her husband with his research for his books. She also opened her home to her brothers and sister and helped her younger brother overcome his stuttering. The Wilsons moved to Princeton, New Jersey in 1890 where Woodrow taught history. In 1902, he was elected President of the University. Among those Ellen got to know in Princeton were former President and Mrs. Grover Cleveland. They both attended the funeral of the Cleveland’s oldest daughter, Ruth, who died in 1904. While at Princeton, it was Ellen who encouraged Wilson to go on lecture tours, encouraged his interest in politics, and ran the household and all of the finances. He was terribly dependent on Ellen and even the slightest shift in her moods could cause him to react negatively. They took trips to Europe to broaden their horizons. While there, Ellen was thrilled to see how liberated women had become and called the new century, “…the woman’s century.” Both Wilsons continued to study and share ideas together. The death of her youngest brother, sister-in-law, and their child in 1905 threw Ellen in a deep depression that threatened her centered life. As she struggled for religious faith, she also took up philosophy. Still, it was art that helped restore her faith. She joined an art colony in Connecticut, and she would pursue her painting until the end of her life. At some point, Woodrow formed a close friendship with a widow, Mary Hillbert Peck, a friendship Ellen later said caused her great grief. In 1910, after stepping down as President of Princeton (over a dispute with the college and its fraternities) Woodrow, with Ellen’s help, threw his hat into the political arena. It was Ellen who made sure that he met William Jennings Bryan who was instrumental in his eventual nomination as President in 1912. Elected to the Governor’s chair of New Jersey in 1910, Woodrow Wilson made a name for himself for his views on reform, which did not include suffrage. Ellen learned to be the perfect political wife: to be frank, honest, and know when to keep quiet. The election of Woodrow as President of the United States in November 1912 filled Ellen with joy and some fear. By them she knew she was not well, having been stricken with kidney problems since the birth of Eleanor in 1889. That winter she put on a one woman show of her paintings and had the thrill of selling over 25 of them.

Ellen Wilson had but a year and five months in the White House. The second Mrs. Wilson would soon overshadow the public’s memory of Ellen, which is unfortunate because Ellen made her own contributions while First Lady. Her gentle manner and soft Southern drawl made the staff call her “the Angel in the White House.” She would be aided by all three of her daughters and her cousin Helen Bones, who served as her personal secretary. She also hired Belle Hagnar as her social secretary. She averaged over 41 receptions with 600 guests at each that spring and found time to redecorate the family quarters of the White House, including artwork from the Appalachians Hills. Ellen also oversaw the creation of the Rose Garden, bringing her gardener from Princeton to the White House. It was in the area of reform that Ellen Wilson made her greatest impact. On March 22, 1913, she listened as the head of the women’s department of the National Civic Federation told her of the plight of Black citizens in Washington. Two days later, Mrs. Wilson toured the city and saw first hand the slums of the nation’s capital. She also saw the working conditions of women in the Post Office, where they didn’t have sanitary facilities. Mrs. Wilson had difficulty in getting the attention of the President’s advisor, Colonel Edward House, until she pointedly asked him questions at a White House dinner in a loud enough voice to gain everyone’s attention. The situation was soon corrected, at least for women in the Post Office. Ellen Wilson joined a committee of 50 to campaign for the passing of an bill that would destroy the slums and create better housing for Washington’s poor. She became interested in child labor laws, the enforcement of school attendance laws, and the use of schools as recreation centers. In the summer of 1913, Ellen went to join an art colony in Cornish, New Hampshire. The letters between husband and wife showed how much Wilson needed and depended on Ellen. Jessie’s wedding on November 25, 1913 in the White House was a moment of great joy but for Ellen, it depleted her small reserve of strength. In March 1914, Ellen fell in her bedroom which shook her already weakened body. The doctors by then knew she had Bright’s Disease, but she was not told for a long while. She begged her husband to see her bill passed and shortly before she died, she was told that the Alley Dwelling Bill had passed.

Ellen Axson Wilson gloried in the achievements of women and saw the new century as the woman’s century. While devoted to her husband and his caree, Ellen Wilson saw nothing wrong with a wife having interests, opinions, and even a career of her own. She deplored anyone who reached middle age and had not expanded their horizons. While her time in the White House was short, she expanded the role of the First Lady to include civil responsibilities, to go out for one’s self to see the world, and to do what one could to make improvements.

     President Thomas Woodrow Wilson was born on 28 December 1856 at Staunton, Augusta Co., VA. He married First Lady Ellen Louise Axson, daughter of Rev. Samuel Edward Axson and Margaret Jane Hoyt, on 24 April 1885 at Savannah, Chatham Co, GA. President Thomas Woodrow Wilson married First Lady Edith Bolling, daughter of William Holcombe Bolling and Sallie Spears White, on 18 December 1915 at Washington, DC.¹ President Thomas Woodrow Wilson died on 3 February 1924 at White House, Washington, DC, at age 67.

from the whitehouse.gov web site:

Like Roosevelt before him, Woodrow Wilson regarded himself as the personal representative of the people. "No one but the President," he said, "seems to be expected ... to look out for the general interests of the country." He developed a program of progressive reform and asserted international leadership in building a new world order. In 1917 he proclaimed American entrance into World War I a crusade to make the world "safe for democracy."

Wilson had seen the frightfulness of war. He was born in Virginia in 1856, the son of a Presbyterian minister who during the Civil War was a pastor in Augusta, Georgia, and during Reconstruction a professor in the charred city of Columbia, South Carolina.

After graduation from Princeton (then the College of New Jersey) and the University of Virginia Law School, Wilson earned his doctorate at Johns Hopkins University and entered upon an academic career. In 1885 he married Ellen Louise Axson.

Wilson advanced rapidly as a conservative young professor of political science and became president of Princeton in 1902.

His growing national reputation led some conservative Democrats to consider him Presidential timber. First they persuaded him to run for Governor of New Jersey in 1910. In the campaign he asserted his independence of the conservatives and of the machine that had nominated him, endorsing a progressive platform, which he pursued as governor.

He was nominated for President at the 1912 Democratic Convention and campaigned on a program called the New Freedom, which stressed individualism and states' rights. In the three-way election he received only 42 percent of the popular vote but an overwhelming electoral vote.

Wilson maneuvered through Congress three major pieces of legislation. The first was a lower tariff, the Underwood Act; attached to the measure was a graduated Federal income tax. The passage of the Federal Reserve Act provided the Nation with the more elastic money supply it badly needed. In 1914 antitrust legislation established a Federal Trade Commission to prohibit unfair business practices.

Another burst of legislation followed in 1916. One new law prohibited child labor; another limited railroad workers to an eight-hour day. By virtue of this legislation and the slogan "he kept us out of war," Wilson narrowly won re-election.

But after the election Wilson concluded that America could not remain neutral in the World War. On April 2,1917, he asked Congress for a declaration of war on Germany.

Massive American effort slowly tipped the balance in favor of the Allies. Wilson went before Congress in January 1918, to enunciate American war aims--the Fourteen Points, the last of which would establish "A general association of nations...affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike."

After the Germans signed the Armistice in November 1918, Wilson went to Paris to try to build an enduring peace. He later presented to the Senate the Versailles Treaty, containing the Covenant of the League of Nations, and asked, "Dare we reject it and break the heart of the world?"

But the election of 1918 had shifted the balance in Congress to the Republicans. By seven votes the Versailles Treaty failed in the Senate.

The President, against the warnings of his doctors, had made a national tour to mobilize public sentiment for the treaty. Exhausted, he suffered a stroke and nearly died. Tenderly nursed by his second wife, Edith Bolling Galt, he lived until 1924.

     John Root Jr. was born on 15 November 1705 at Westfield, Hampden Co., MA.¹ He married Anna Loomis, daughter of William Loomis and Martha Morley, on 13 December 1733.¹ John Root Jr. died in 1781.²

     Anna Loomis was born on 27 August 1710 at Westfield, Hampden Co., MA.¹ She was the daughter of William Loomis and Martha Morley.² Anna Loomis married John Root Jr. on 13 December 1733.¹

     Gay Allen was born circa 1835 at OH.¹ He was the son of Alexander P. Allen and Cornelia Hayden.¹

     Henly Allen was born circa 1838 at WI.¹ He was the son of Alexander P. Allen and Cornelia Hayden.¹

     Ophelia Allen was born circa 1842 at WI.¹ She was the daughter of Alexander P. Allen and Cornelia Hayden.¹

     Cornelia Allen was born circa 1845 at WI.¹ She was the daughter of Alexander P. Allen and Cornelia Hayden.¹