A blog for genealogists and historians tracing the Robert Newton Turpin family into the past or the present and wanting to share information.
Wednesday, January 15, 2020
Tuesday, January 7, 2020
This week's challenge for 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks is "Favorite Photo."
This photograph was taken on the Niobrara River in northern Rock County, Nebraska. The year is probably about 1920 or 1921. A group of neighbors had gathered on the ice for a skating party. My mother, Letha Turpin, is the little girl standing in front of the 7th person from the left. She was born in 1915.
The photo is timely for a January blog post. But it appears the weather was not 49 degrees like it is today in eastern Nebraska.
My mother grew up "in the country." She had only one sibling, a brother Clifford, and few close neighbors. So she truly loved big get-togethers like this. She was always ready to have company or go visit friends and family. I'm sure she was having fun on this occasion. That's why this photo is a favorite. It reminds me of her and how much she loved people.
My mother could recall many memories of the river which passed by her grandparents' homestead. The river's water was pure -- fed from springs across the Sandhills and from ice melt in the Rockies. Ice was harvested from the river in winter and stored in ice houses for use in the summer. She was somewhat fearful of swimming in the river during the summer. I'm sure there were rapids and some nasty currents. And of course the waters were very, very cold. But she remembered times when the young people went down to the river in summer to shoot guns. She claimed she could shoot the eyes out of flies across the Niobrara.
That's a wide river! So I didn't believe she was that good of a shot. But it was a good tale.
Ice Skating on the Niobrara River |
This photograph was taken on the Niobrara River in northern Rock County, Nebraska. The year is probably about 1920 or 1921. A group of neighbors had gathered on the ice for a skating party. My mother, Letha Turpin, is the little girl standing in front of the 7th person from the left. She was born in 1915.
The photo is timely for a January blog post. But it appears the weather was not 49 degrees like it is today in eastern Nebraska.
My mother grew up "in the country." She had only one sibling, a brother Clifford, and few close neighbors. So she truly loved big get-togethers like this. She was always ready to have company or go visit friends and family. I'm sure she was having fun on this occasion. That's why this photo is a favorite. It reminds me of her and how much she loved people.
My mother could recall many memories of the river which passed by her grandparents' homestead. The river's water was pure -- fed from springs across the Sandhills and from ice melt in the Rockies. Ice was harvested from the river in winter and stored in ice houses for use in the summer. She was somewhat fearful of swimming in the river during the summer. I'm sure there were rapids and some nasty currents. And of course the waters were very, very cold. But she remembered times when the young people went down to the river in summer to shoot guns. She claimed she could shoot the eyes out of flies across the Niobrara.
That's a wide river! So I didn't believe she was that good of a shot. But it was a good tale.
Thursday, January 2, 2020
Fresh Start
What is 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks? Genealogist Amy Crow Johnson has offered the idea of doing
52 posts about ancestors in the 52 weeks of 2020. For more information: https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/52-ancestors-in-52-weeks/ Here is my first installment.
Letters from her companion, William H. Meverden say that he
had to commit Leta to a hospital as she evidently suffered from dementia in the
last years of her life. Leta died 4
February 1963 in Los Angeles.
Challenge #1: FRESH START
For this one, I’ll go back to one of Newt Turpin’s younger
daughters, Leta Arvilia Turpin. I’ve
posted items about her previously. After
leaving her quiet Rock County home for life in Omaha, Nebraska, Leta seemed to
live on the wild side. After multiple
run-ins with the law, Leta left for her FRESH START in California.
Leta was born in 1888 in Mariaville, Rock County,
Nebraska. By 1905 Leta had moved to Omaha and lived with her husband Bert Douglas. Leta ran a dance academy and her events were occasionally mentioned in the social
pages of the Omaha Bee. She held charity card parties, a Temple Israel
Sisterhood dance, and more.
Leta and Bert had a child between 1905 and 1910 according to
the 1910 census. That child died and
there are no family stories telling us what happened.
In April 1910, John Alfreds was a lodger in the building
where Leta and Bert lived. In September that
same year, Leta married John O. Alfreds, age 24, in Council Bluffs, Iowa. This relationship must have been tumultuous
and only lasted about seven years. When
Leta’s sister Susan died in March 1917, Leta was listed in the obituary as
Lettie Alfred, living in Omaha. By July,
Leta had filed for divorce from John claiming non-support and extreme
cruelty. The divorce was granted in
August.
Apparently, John found someone new and was anxious to remarry. It must have upset Leta because she began to
make the news with frequency within months.
Leta was in court in February 1918 accused of throwing hot coffee on
Agatha Zimmerman who Leta discovered keeping company with her divorced husband
John at the Metropolitan dance hall one evening. The incident was reported in the January 25th
Omaha World Herald. Leta surrendered to
police but the case was dropped when Zimmerman repeatedly failed to appear in
court and did not pursue the charges.
When Leta’s mother died in January 1926, Leta was using her
maiden name and living in Los Angeles as Lettie Arvelle Turpin according to the
obituary. However she still had ties to
Nebraska. In 1928 she was in trouble
again in Omaha. The World Herald
reported that a Mr. Myre and a Mr. Marfisi got into a scuffle over Leta at a
pool hall. Gunshots were fired and, in
the end, Leta and Mr. Marfisi were booked on charges of disorderly conduct.
Regardless, Leta ended up in California and got the fresh
start she sought. The 1930 census listed her as widowed and working as a dancing teacher. On February 20 1940 she was a resident of Los
Angeles, listed as Leta A. Turpin, the inventor in U.S. Pat. No. 2,190,895 for
Body Developing and Correcting Apparatus (see the February 25, 2012 post in
this blog).
Leta Turpin, about 1940 |
In obituaries for brothers William and James in December 1941
and June 1943 Leta was listed as Lettie Turpin of Los Angeles. In 1946 her address was 1142 W.
Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles, CA.
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