Sunday's Obituary - Fern Bruce Warren Williams, Mt. Vernon, IL

Fern Bruce 1920's

Mt. Vernon Register News 28 Jun 1958

My great-grandmother, Charlotta Ruth Banks Wade Berry's half sister, Fern Bruce.  Fern was the daughter of Sarah Eva Talley and Frank Z. Bruce.  She was born 6 Jul 1900 in Mt. Vernon, IL and died 28 Jun 1958 also in Mt. Vernon.  She is buried at Oakwood Cemetery.

Wedding Wednesday - Joseph Wade & Charlotta Banks

Joseph W. & Charlotta Banks Wade

My great-grandparents, Joseph Washington Wade and Charlotta Ruth Banks were married on 24 Apr 1912 in Chester, Randolph County, Illinois.  Joseph was thirty-six (36) years of age, Charlotta, known as Lottie was just sixteen (16).  According to the "Application for Marriage License," Lottie's mother, Eva Bruce, gave her permission for her minor daughter to enter into marriage with Joseph.  She stated she was the legal guardian of Lottie who was born on 31 May 1896 in Allendale, Wabash County, IL.

Both Joseph and Lottie lived in Chester, IL at the time of the marriage.  I am writing a bio on Joseph and will talk later about how I believe Joseph and Lottie most likely met. Here is their Marriage License.

According to the Return of  Marriage to a County Clerk, Joseph was a Machinist, born in Carmi, Indiana.  His parents were Joseph Wade and Elizabeth Pelt.  It was his first marriage.  Lottie's father was Sherman Banks, although she was raised by her stepfather Frank Bruce.   The witnesses to the marriage were Thomas Devine, Justice of the Peace and Mary Bruce (most likely related to Frank).

Sunday's Obituary - Joseph Washington Wade

Joseph Washington Wade 7 Sep 1875 – 14 Jan 1942

Joseph Washington Wade 12 Apr 1912

My great-grandfather, Joseph Washington Wade, was born 7 Sep 1875 to Joseph R.H. and Elizabeth (Pelt) Wade in Carmi, White County, Illinois.    He was married to Charlotta (Lottie) Ruth Banks on 24 Apr 1912 in Chester, Randolph County, Illinois.  This small obituary was placed in the Mt. Vernon Register News (Mt. Vernon, IL)  on the day of his death.  

According to his death certificate (see below), he died of bronchial pneumonia and undernourishment.  The funeral director was H. A. Myers of Myers Funeral Home and he was eventually buried at Oakwood Cemetery in Mt. Vernon, Jefferson County, Illinois.

Sunday's Obituary - Charlotta Ruth Banks Wade Berry

Charlotta Ruth Banks Wade Berry

Charlotta Ruth Banks Wade Berry 
31 May 1895 - 9 Sep 1960


My great-grandmother, Charlotta Ruth Banks, was born 31 May 1895 in Wabash County, IL to Sarah Eva Talley and Sherman Banks (see previous story).  Charlotta grew up without her father and had four younger half-sisters when her mother remarried Frank Z. Bruce.  On 24 Apr 1912 at the age of sixteen Charlotta married Joseph Washington Wade who was twenty years older than her.  Their first child, my grandmother Doris, was born 27 Aug 1913 followed by Mildred in 1917 and Hugh Joseph in 1919.

Charlotta ca 1905 age 10

Great-grandfather Joseph was a foreman at the car shops in Mt. Vernon, IL cand they lived a good life for the times. Unfortunately, sometime around the late 1920's business slowed and Joseph lost his position.  Sometime after 1930 Charlotta and Joseph divorced and Charlotta later married Mack Berry.  Charlotta was bedridden in the last years of her life; as a little girl I remember going with my parents to her home in Granite City, Illinois.  She and her husband kept many Chihuahua's as pets and the dogs on her bed would growl and snap at me.  As I young child I was terrified of them, strangely enough I now have two chihuahua's of my own.  Charlotta died 9 Sep 1960 in Madison County, Illinois and is buried at Oakwood Cemetery in Mt. Vernon, Illinois.

Wordless Wednesday - Charlotta Ruth & Doris Charlotte Wade - Mt. Vernon, IL

My grandmother, Doris Charlotte Wade and her mother Charlotta (Lottie) Ruth (Banks) Wade
Mt. Vernon, Il Winter 1913-1914

100th Edition of COG - There's One in Every Family - The Baby Daddy Ancestor Who Skipped Town!

Submitted for the 100th Edition of Carnival of Genealogy - Topic "There's One in Every Family

Grandpa Sherman, you sure have led me on a merry chase!  When I first caught the genealogy bug in 1993, I asked my maternal grandmother about her family.  She told me a story about her mother’s father, Sherman Banks that had my eyes rolling.  It seems that Sherman had courted her grandmother, Sarah Eva Talley in Wabash County, Illinois in the early 1890’s, they married (maybe), had a daughter (her mother Charlotta Ruth Banks) and due to hard times he left for California to earn his fortune.  He was supposed to send for them once he was settled and making money.  According to Grandma, Sherman did quite well, became rich and even became the mayor of Los Angeles!  Now I am quite a skeptic (I get that from my father’s side of the family), but I loved my grandmother dearly and didn’t want to hurt her feelings so went along with the story.  Evidently unknown things happened and they were never able to join him and all contact with him was lost.  He and Sarah Eva divorced and she went on to marry Frank Bruce and have four more daughters in southern Illinois.  Sherman was never heard from again.

This was pre-Internet days when I first heard this story, but I was able to track Sherman to Los Angeles using census records.  His beautiful daughter Charlotta was born in 1895 and I don’t know when or why he left Illinois, but I suspect it was to escape the binds of marriage and fatherhood. 

Charlotta Ruth Banks Age 9

I found Sherman in Los Angeles living in a hotel in 1900 at age 29 working as a motorman.  In 1910 he was living with his wife Katherine and her family, and listed his occupation as policeman.  His marriage was listed as his first marriage which I was beginning to believe was true.  His former love interest Sarah Eva who had married (remarried?) Frank Bruce listed her marital status on the 1910 Randolph County, Illinois census as her second marriage.  I have never been able to find a marriage record in southern Illinois for Sherman and Sarah Eva.  Additionally, when I requested Charlotta’s birth record it listed her father’s name as Banks and her mother’s name as Talley, not her married name.  All the other entries on the page listed the mothers’ married names, then their maiden names.  My grandmother was a very proper woman who was always concerned about what other people would think and she would be mortified with me for telling this story; she would also vehemently deny every word of it.  When I discovered this information I was not about to break the news to her that her mother was born on the wrong side of the blanket!

Charlotta Ruth Banks Birth Record

Sherman was also found in the 1920 and 1930 census in Los Angeles still working in the humble, but noble profession of policeman – a far cry from mayor of Los Angeles!  In recent years I have found him in numerous Los Angeles City Directories listed as a Republican.  Just this year I was finally able to find his death date (12 Apr 1947) and ordered his death certificate.  I now know where he was buried (Forest Lawn Memorial Park Glendale, CA) and have requested a picture of his headstone through Find-A-Grave.  It appears that he and his wife never had any children.  How sad that he left his only child thousands of miles away in Illinois and never knew her and that she never knew him or what happened to him.  In 2005 my grandmother died and I flew home for her funeral.  I helped my mother and aunt clean out her apartment and among the many mementos she had saved, carefully stored in a small envelope, I was so excited to find this yellowed, torn and frayed note from Sherman to Sarah Eva which says:

                Mt. Carmel, Ill.  Sep. 12, 1891.  Miss Eva Talley, Kind friend I am coming up tonight and I will let you know so that you will look for me.  Yours respectfully, Sherman.

 

This broke my heart…. this note was the only thing my great-grandmother ever had of her father, no pictures, no mementos, no letters from him, only this short note to her mother and it had been kept all these years, first by her mother, then by her, and finally by her daughter.  Now it is in my hands.  Does this prove without a doubt that he was her father…..no?  Do I believe without a doubt he was her father….yes.  Oh, Grandpa Sherman, what you missed out on!

Sunday's Obituary - Doris C. Wade Smith

My Maternal Grandmother - Doris Charlotte Wade Smith