Miller Family History, 8th Generation
Hattie (Miller Forbes Shaw) Mertens (1869-1954)
11827421. Hattie Mae Miller was born on May 2, 1869, in Iowa. She was likely named for her maternal grandmother Harriet (Cottrell) Andrews. She first married Hill Beacher Forbes on September 3, 1891, in Arroyo Grande, San Luis Obispo County, California, and had two children, one son surviving.[Cen 1900] She later married Clarence Norton Shaw, a carpenter from Kansas, about 1902 and had two more children. Later, in her 70s, Hattie married Ralph W. Mertens.
| Name | Birth | Death | Age | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 118274211. | Raymond Leland Forbes | 25 Jul 1892 | 23 Apr 1964 | (71) |
| 118274212. | Louis Carlton Forbes | (1893-1898) | (1898) | (2) |
| 118274213. | Herbert Dennis Shaw |
(1904) | 1 Mar 1942 | (37) |
| 118247214. | Dorris Ann Shaw | 2 May 1908 | 31 Aug 2004 | (96) |
Hattie and Hill were married on September 3, 1891, in Arroyo Grande by C. W. F. Nelson of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Witnesses to their marriage were Hattie's brother Orrin and his fiancée Sarah Startzer, who married later that same month.[Mar 1891]
Hattie's first son Raymond was born in Arroyo Grande, San Luis Obispo County, California. After Hattie's father died in 1896, she, her mother, and younger sisters moved north to Healdsburg, Sonoma County, California, and then further north to Gridley Township, Butte County, California by 1900. Hill's 16-year-old half-sister Ethel McCracken lived with the family and attended school in 1900.[Cen 1900]
Hill Beacher Forbes reportedly died around 1902 in Marysville, Yuba County, about 18 miles south of Gridley. He would have been about 32 years old.
Hattie remarried to Clarence Norton Shaw around 1902.
She settled for a time in San Francisco where daughter Dorris was born.
Hattie and Clarence settled outside of Fresno, Fresno County, California, by 1910.[Cen 1910, 1920] There Clarence worked as a carpenter for J. R. Church.[Draft 1918]
In 1910, Hattie allegedly committed her mother to the State Hospital at Stockton, San Joaquin County, where her mother died two years later.
Hattie and Clarence may have separated by 1930 when both were enumerated separately in the census. Hattie worked as a hospital waitress at the Veterans' Home of California in Napa, Napa County.[Cen 1930A] Clarence, on the other hand, was enumerated twice in Fresno, first at the Fresno County Hospital[Cen 1930B] and second with his widowed mother.[Cen 1930C]
In 1940, Hattie lived with the Frank and Nettie Heffelfinger family at 210 Randolph Street in Napa. There she and Nettie worked as practical nurses at private homes. In 1939 she had worked for 12 weeks and earned $90.[Cen 1940]
Son Herbert died during World War II when the U.S.S. Houston (CA-30), a Northampton-class heavy cruiser, was sunk on March 1, 1942, by the Japanese. He was a Construction Mechanic First Class (CM1C). The ship had been patrolling Indonesian waters when it ran into a Japanese invasion force in the Sundra Strait, off the northwest corner of the island of Java in the late hours of 28 February. The wounded ship sunk a few hours later at 00:40 on March 1st. 693 of the crew of 1,061 were killed and 368 survivors were taken prisoner by the Japanese.
Hattie and Ralph W. Mertens obtained their marriage license in August 1943. They were ages 74 and 76, respectively, and both were living in Calistoga at the time.[News 1943] Their marriage only lasted three years before it was annulled in Napa County in December 1946.[News 1946]
During their brief marriage in Calistoga, Hattie sold a portion of lots 9 and 10 in block “B” in the “Western” addition of Calistoga, to Frank E. Hembrow in July 1944.[News 1944] (The Hembrows were subsequently enumerated at 922 (West) Myrtle Street in Calistoga in 1950.)
Ralph William Mertens died on , in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, at the age of 82 years. He was interred at the Odd Fellow' Lawn Cemetery in Santa Rosa on .[Obit 1949]
Hattie Mae (Miller Forbes Shaw) Mertens died on , while residing in Fresno County, California. She was 85 years old. “Hattie M. Shaw,” as written on her headstone, was buried in Mountain View Cemetery in Fresno.[Grave]
Orrin Elbert Miller (1870-1941)
11827422. Orrin Elbert Miller was the eldest son of Isaac Dennis. He was born in July 1870 in Iowa and named after his maternal grandfather Orrin Andrews. He married Sarah Startzer on September 30, 1891, in San Luis Obispo, San Luis Obispo County.[Mar 1891] Sarah was a first cousin, once-removed through his paternal great-grandmother's second marriage. They had five children:
| Name | Birth | Death | Age | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 118274221. | Hazel Miller | 5 Jul 1892 | 11 Jun 1968 | (75) |
| 118274222. | Ilee D. “I.D.” Miller | 2 May 1896 | 3 Nov 1973 | (77) |
| 118274223. | Arlene Ann Miller | 24 Jun 1897 | 23 Nov 1988 | (91) |
| 118274224. | Harold Francis Miller | 30 Jan 1900 | 4 Feb 1965 | (65) |
| 118274225. | Esther Lillian Miller | 2 Apr 1904 | 20 May 1906 | (2) |
c. 1896
As a young boy, Orrin and his family migrated to California and moved around San Luis Obispo and southeastern Monterey County before finally settling in Arroyo Grande, San Luis Obispo County, in May 1887. There Orrin apprenticed as a blacksmith, worked for two years in Hollister, San Benito County, California, and afterward return to Iowa where he likely met his cousin, Sarah Startzer.
Orrin married Sarah Startzer, his father's first cousin through his paternal great-grandmother's second marriage. They were married on September 30, 1891, in San Luis Obispo by the Rev. James Healey, Minister of the Gospel. Both were 21 years old. Witnesses to their marriage were Orrin's brother-in-law Hill B. Forbes and his father I.D. Miller7.[Mar 1891] The following year the couple settled in Hollister, San Benito County, where Orrin worked as a blacksmith. His voter registration described him as 5' 10" tall with a light complexion, blue eyes, and light hair.[Vote 1892]
Orrin is believed to have inherited the Arroyo Grande estate following his father's death in 1896. As told by nieces, he had tricked his mother into signing the estate over to him, and afterward his mother and younger siblings moved to northern California. Orrin's family home was described as a large log house east of town, along the southeast bank of Arroyo Grande Creek, and identified with that later covered by the Zenas G. Bakeman home on the 300 block of Coach Road.[Madge 181] This area had been belonged to Francis Z. Branch and given to his daughter, Mrs. Anna Branch Newsom, [Madge 246] families for whom the nearby Branch Mill Road and Newsom Springs Road are named.
Orrin and brother Walter set up a blacksmith shop in Arroyo Grande and by 1900 Sarah's elder brother Valentine Startzer and his family lived two houses away.[Cen 1900] Orrin continued to work as a blacksmith through at least 1920 with son Harold.[Cen 1920]
Tragedy struck the Millers on May 20, 1906, a Sunday afternoon, when 2-year-old daughter Esther was swept down an irrigation ditch that ran across the back of the house and down over a quarter of a mile to Arroyo Grande Creek. Upon realizing that she was missing, a search began and two hours later neighbor William Thomas Clevenger found her lifeless body caught at the opening of a flume that carried water across the creek.[News 1906] Esther was buried in the Arroyo Grande Cemetery.[Grave]
By 1930 Orrin became a receiver at a creamery and continued through 1940. In 1940 the area was named as being along Huasna Road.[Cen 1930, 1940]
Orrin and Sarah attended the fourth annual Arroyo Grande Reunion picnic about 1935, which was organized by former Arroyo Grande residents who moved to the San Francisco Bay area and held at John Hinkle Park in Berkeley, California. An accounting of the event recorded that Orrin “came home to Arroyo Grande as happy as a kid at his first circus, because he had spent the day at Berkeley Park visiting with boyhood friends whom he had not seen for years.”[Madge 196]
Orrin Elbert Miller died on August 1, 1941, in San Luis Obispo County and is buried at the Arroyo Grande Cemetery.
Sarah (Startzer) Miller died two years later on October 4, 1943, in San Luis Obispo County, California. She is also buried at the Arroyo Grande Cemetery with her husband. Their son Harold joined them there in 1965.
John Walter “Walter” MillerΔ (1871-1947)
11827423. John Walter “Walter” MillerΔ was born on , in San Luis Obispo County, California. He married a woman named Cora M. Wilkinson of California about 1891 and had six children, of whom three sons served during World War I:
| Name | Birth | Death | Age | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 118274231. | William Leland Miller |
11 Feb 1893 | 10 Jan 1947 | (53) |
| 118274232. | Clarence Walter Miller |
5 Jun 1895 | 2 Apr 1965 | (69) |
| 118274233. | James Roy Miller | 31 Jan 1898 | Apr 1978 | (80) |
| 118274234. | Meynard S. Miller |
24 Feb 1900 | 12 Dec 1992 | (92) |
| 118274235. | Orval A. Miller | 19 Aug 1902 | 28 Dec 1983 | (81) |
| 118274236. | Burneice Dorothy Miller | 28 Oct 1904 | 11 Apr 1992 | (87) |
John Walter began his family in Arroyo Grande, San Luis Obispo County. He and his elder brother Orrin set up a blacksmith shop there by 1900. By 1910 he and his family either moved inland to Nipomo Township or the their home along Nipomo and Los Berros Road, southeast of Arroyo Grande, which was included in Nipomo Township. John worked there as a blacksmith in his own shop and his 17-year-old sister Iva lived with them.[Cen 1910]
The Miller family moved south to the oil fields of Kings County, California, by 1917, when son Clarence registered for the draft and gave his residence as Hanford, Kings County. The following year, son James also registered for the draft and gave his and his mother's address as R. B. 100, Hanford.[Draft 1918] The 1920 census recorded the family at Paddock, Lucerne Township, in the northern outskirts of Hanford. John farmed grain while his sons worked in the oil fields.[Cen 1920]
The Millers moved to 1636 East Street in Long Beach, Los Angeles County, California, by 1923, when eldest son William moved to Burma to drill for oil.[Con 1923] By the 1930 census, they and their son James were enumerated at 237 Willard Street. John Walter and James worked as oil pumpers.[Cen 1930]
at 1940s Miller Reunion
The Millers bought a home about 2 miles east at 3625 East 15th Street by 1935. It was valued at $3,000 in 1940. Daughter Burneice and her husband Thomas Givens lived with them and paid them $12 rent. John Walter continued to work full time as an oil pumper and Thomas was a general construction laborer who had been unemployed for 12 weeks during the previous 12 months.[Cen 1940, Draft 1942]
John Walter Miller died at the age of 75 on , in Long Beach, Los Angeles County, California. He was buried Tuesday, , at Sunnyside Memorial Park (later renamed as Forest Lawn Memorial Park) in Long Beach.[Grave]
After Walter's death, Cora remained at 3625 East 15th Street through at least 1950, when her granddaughter Mary Lou (Miller) Jackson and her husband rented the rear unit of her home. Mary Lou worked as a department store saleslady and her husband, Carlos Jackson, worked as clerk driver for a railroad.[Cen 1950]
Cora later moved in with her daughter Burneice (Miller) Givens and her husband, 5 miles west at 2346 Easy Avenue.[Obit 1960]
Cora M. (Wilkinson) Miller died 13 years later on Monday, , in Los Angeles County, California, at the age of 85 years. She was also buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Long Beach on Thursday, .[Grave]
Cora Ethel (Miller Fisher) Williams8 (1880-1967)
11827425. Cora Ethel Miller8 was the daughter of a Union Civil War veteran from Iowa. She was born in Old Creek, the southern portion of Cayucos, San Luis Obispo County, California, on January 29, 1880. She lived throughout California, but raised her two families in Sonoma and Napa Counties. She had seven children by her first husband, Theodoric “Bud” Leathe Fisher4, who died at age of 33, in 1911. She remarried to Albert Williams on January 21, 1915[Mar 1915], a week before her 35th birthday. They had another four children. All together, she gave birth to 11 children, and by the time of her death, at age 87, was grandmother to 41 grandchildren, 108 great-grandchildren, and 30 great-great grandchildren!
| Name | Birth | Death | Age | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 118274251. | Howard Earl Fisher | 30 Jan 1899 | 15 Jan 1966 | (66) |
| 118274252. | Pearl Elizabeth Fisher9 | 7 Jan 1901 | 30 Oct 1941 | (40) |
| 118274253. | Mildred May Fisher | 27 Dec 1902 | 8 Apr 1989 | (86) |
| 118274254. | Carrie Truett Fisher | 12 Aug 1904 | 18 Aug 1936 | (32) |
| 118274255. | Merle Everett Fisher | 23 Feb 1906 | 18 Aug 1990 | (84) |
| 118274256. | Sonoma C. Fisher | 8 Dec 1907 | 2 Jul 1993 | (85) |
| 118274257. | Alta Vivian Fisher | 3 Aug 1909 | 22 Feb 1910 | (6 mos.) |
| 118274258. | Elsie Alberta Williams | 7 Mar 1914 | 15 Feb 2001 | (86) |
| 118274259. | Gladys Elaine Williams | 30 Jun 1916 | 29 Mar 1998 | (81) |
| 11827425A. | Harold Williams | 17 Apr 1918 | 20 Apr 1918 | (3 days) |
| 11827425B. | Edward Carl Williams | 4 Apr 1920 | 6 Mar 2012 | (91) |
- Back Row: Mildred May Fechter, Hazel E. Goss, Chet Pettek, Gayle Pettek and Torynne Barnhart
- Front Row: Gaylynne Joyce Barnhart, Cora Ethel (Miller) Williams, Vern Williams, and Marilee Williams
Cora was a large woman. At her peak, she stood 5' 9" and weighed around 245 to 250 pounds.
Cora lived in Old Creek-Cayucos as a baby and then the family moved to the Cholame valley in and around Parkfield and Imusdale, Monterey County, around 1884. In 1887, the Miller family returned to San Luis Obispo County and settled in Arroyo Grande until the death of her father, Isaac Dennis Miller, in 1896. Months after Isaac's death, the family moved north to Healdsburg, Sonoma County, where Cora Ethel finished the 8th grade and then studied for two years at Healdsburg Academy (later Healdsburg College and finally Pacific Union College), the first Seventh-Day Adventist college in the west.
In 1898, at age 18, Cora married Theodoric Leathe Fisher, a Nebraska native, on 22 March 1898 in Fulton, Sonoma County, California. They were married by J. Brown. They lived in Forestville briefly, where their first son Howard Earl was born, and then moved briefly to Stillwater, Churchill County, Nebraska, along with Theodoric's parents, where they worked for the John W. and Hannah Freeman family.[Cen 1900]
By the January 1900, the Fishers had returned to California where daughter Pearl was born in Lockeford, San Joaquin County. They then returned to Forestville for by the birth of Mildred in 1902. Soon afterward they moved to the Asti Winery & Vineyard in the Cloverdale-Asti area around 1903.
Theodoric's father died in 1906 and in 1910 his mother remarried to Ira T. Williams, a widower Civil War veteran. During this time, Theodoric slowly wasted away from consumption (tuberculosis) over a period of six years, the last three or four he was mostly bedridden. Cora helped support the family by picking hops. Theodoric became friends with his new elder stepbrother, Al Williams, who kept the family fed with fresh game. They lived there until the Theodoric's death.
Theodoric “Bud” Leathe Fisher died the following year on January 25, 1911, in Cloverdale. He was only 33 years old and left Cora with six children, ages 3 to 11.
The following year Cora's mother died at Stockton State Hospital following two years of being institutionalized.
Cora remaried to Al Williams in Solano County, California, on January 21, 1915, a week before her 35th birthday; however, on their affidavit for marriage license she was recorded as 32 years old and Al was recorded as 38 years old, two short of his 40 years.[Mar 1915] With this marriage, Cora's former mother-in-law, Harriet (Chapman Fisher) Williams, became her mother-in-law once again!
Cora had been living in Napa, Napa County, when she and Al wed, and worked as a masseuse at Nance's Hot Springs in Calistoga for 21 years. She later worked as a nurse.
Cora Malugani, Iva (Miller) Chord, Pearl (Fisher) Malugani,
Rubye Fechter, Cora “Mom” (Miller Fisher) Williams, Hazel Malugani,
and Carrie (Fisher) Shelly
In 1919, the Williams moved to a vacant barn, miles from town in the hills above Calistoga on Gates Road, where youngest son Edward was born. The following year, the family moved to the Blunt place behind the Petrified Forest, which Al helped excavate and turn into a park. The Williams lived at the Blunt ranch for eight years before moving to the 115-acre Gill place in Sonoma County, just over the Buchi Grade. Cora is recalled to have driving a Durant Star up and down the gravel mountain roads between home and Calistoga.
In 1932, son Earl's home burned down and he and his young family moved in at the Gill place. Cora, Al, and the Williams children moved out to the Cogan place on Sharp Road, a 25-acre plot in the Porter Creek valley that they bought in 1933 with a loan that son-in-law Raymond Fechter backed for $2,000. This place was an old three-bedroom home with porches on two sides. It burned down about 1936 when mice got into matches stored in the pantry.
After the Cogan place fire, Al and Cora moved in with daughter Sonoma (Fisher) Clarke for several years while they rebuilt on the Cogan property for $3,000, with $1,500 from insurance. Al, sons Merle and Ed, Raymond Fechter, and Bill and Dave Sharp all dug the foundation for the new house.
Albert Williams died on May 14, 1940, at the age of 65, while still living with the Clarke family. He is variously reported to be buried at Oak Knoll (alternatively “Okie Knoll”) Cemetery on Sharp's property off Petrified Forest Road or the Butler property above Porter Creek Road.
Cora lived next-door to half-sister Mildred and her Fechter family off Petrified Forest Road in 1950. This was likely the small ranch on Sharp Road where the Cogan place had been. Her daughter Elsie and granddaughter Bette Ann lived with her.[Cen 1950] Cora lived on Sharp Road until 1957 when she moved in with her youngest son, Edward Carl Williams and his wife Carrie Lee (Moore) Williams in Richmond.
Cora Ethel (Miller Fisher) Williams suffered from severe diabetes at the close of her life. She was hospitalized at Santa Rosa General Hospital and had to have her legs amputated. She died there on July 18, 1967, at the age of 87. She was buried at Sunset View Cemetery in El Cerrito, Contra Costa County, California.
Elma Finetta (Miller Smith) Belvail (1884-1962)
11827426. Elma “Babe” Finetta Miller was born , in Parkfield, Monterey County, California. Her middle name was likely for her paternal aunt Finetta (Miller) Schley. She married George Edward Smith on , in Healdsburg, Sonoma County, California.[Mar 1904] She was 20 years old and he was 31. They had one son:
| Name | Birth | Death | Age | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 118274261. | Maurice Eugene Smith (Sr.) | (77) |
By 1910 the Smith family rented a home on East Yountville Road, Yount Township, Napa County, California, where George worked as a laborer at a stock farm.[Cen 1910] They later bought a home at 613 Lincoln Avenue in Napa by 1920, likely during World War I, where George worked as a general helper at a shipyard[Cen 1920], presumably Mare Island Naval Shipyard, 19 miles to the south.
Elma and George were listed as living a mile west on Lincoln Avenue at 1423 in 1925 and 1926. George worked as a machinist.[City 1925]
Elma and George split up and Elma remarried to Lewis C. Belvail on , in Yolo County, California. Lewis was a widower whose wife, Mary “Mae” Elizabeth Phillips, died earlier the same year in January. Lewis had a 24-year-old daughter who wed five months before he and Elma did.
The Belvails moved to 1436 I Street in Napa, Napa County, California, by 1930. Lewis worked as a shipfitter at a navy yard[Cen 1930], also presumed to be Mare Island Naval Shipyard.
Elma and Lewis apparently separated by 1940. Elma moved several blocks west to 2078 Lone Oak Avenue by 1940, where she was enumerated by herself and worked as a garment worker[Cen 1940A, City 1942]; however, interestingly, George Smith was enumerated next door (subsequent day on a different page) at 2076 Lone Oak Avenue.[Cen 1940B] Lewis Belvail, on the other hand, was enumerated the same day in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, living as a boarder with 52-year-old widow Laura F. Shire and her daughter Frances. Lewis worked as a flangeturner at a navy yard.[Cen 1940B]
George Edward Smith died on April 8, 1943, and was buried in Tulocay Cemetery in Napa. He was 69 years old.
Lewis C. Belvail reportedly died on , in Shady Cove, Jackson County, Oregon. He was 78 years old. Lewis is buried at Oak Mound Cemetery in Healdsburg, where his first wife is also buried.[Grave]
Elma moved about a mile southeast to 1628 Georgia Street where she lived from at least 1947 until her death in 1962.[City 1947-1960] Elma Finetta, a Seventh-Day Adventist, was a vice president of the American Federation of Labor and a business agent for the International Ladies Garment Workers Union in the Napa Valley.[Obit 1962]
Elma Finetta (Miller Smith) Belvail suffered a stroke on , while attending a holiday party in honor of her elder sister, Mrs. Cora Williams. She never recovered and passed away 10 weeks later on March 10, 1962. She was 77 years old. Elma was buried at Tulocay Cemetery in Napa on the 13th.[Obit 1962, Grave]
Minnie Isabelle (Miller) KivettΔ (1886-1928)
11827427. Minnie Isabelle MillerΔ was born July 24, 1886, in Arroyo Grande, San Luis Obispo County, California. She married Daniel “Dan” Webster Kivett, a native of Missouri born to parents from North Carolina, on August 5, 1903, in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, California.[Mar 1903] They had four children:
| Name | Birth | Death | Age | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 118274271. | Ogle London Kivett | 29 Jul 1905 | 18 Feb 1968 | (62) |
| 118274272. | Warren Luciene Kivett | 27 Jun 1908 | 14 Dec 1972 | (64) |
| 118274273. | Oceola Elma KivettΔ | 3 Aug 1910 | 10 Nov 1990 | (80) |
| 118274274. | Amy Isabell KivettΔ | 28 May 1922 | 30 May 1991 | (69) |
Minnie and Dan married on August 5, 1903, in Santa Rosa. Minnie's age was reported to be 18, but she more likely had just turned 17. Daniel was reportedly 22, but may have been as old as 25.[Mar 1903]
After their marriage, the Kivetts lived in Asti, Sonoma County, where their first son was born. By 1908 they moved to Shirley Avenue (later Shirley Street) in Graton, north of Sebastopol, where their second son was born, and lived there through the 1910 census and the birth of daughter Elma. Dan worked there as a house carpenter.[Cen 1910]
By 1920, the Kivett family removed north to Anderson Township (likely referring to the Anderson Valley), Mendocino County, California, where Dan continued working as a house carpenter.[Cen 1920]
Minnie Isabel (Miller) Kivett died on September 7, 1928, in Sonoma County and was buried at Santa Rosa Odd Fellows Cemetery.[Dth 1928, Grave] She is recalled to have suffered from severe diabetes and at the end of her life had to have her legs amputated. Minnie was only 42 years old.
Dan and his children continued to live in Analy Township, Sonoma County, where he worked as a farmer.[Cen 1930] Come 1940, Daniel was living along Edison Street in Graton, Analy Township, but was an unemployed fruit ranch laborer who had only worked 15 weeks the year before.[Cen 1940]
Dan later moved to San Joaquin County around 1952[Dth 1967], where his daughter Amy had started a family in the late 1930s.
Daniel Webster Kivett died of cardiac arrest brought on by arteriosclerotic heart disease and adenocarconoma prostate (prostate cancer) on , at Palm Haven Convalescent Hospital in Manteca. He had been living with his daughter Amy at family at 140 South Garfield Avenue. Dan was 90 years old. He was buried on December 14 at Park View Cemetery, between Manteca and Stockton.[Dth 1967, Obit 1967]
Iva Edith (Miller Cord) ArendtΔ (1892-1931)
11827428. Iva Edith MillerΔ was born July 8, 1892, in Arroyo Grande, San Luis Obispo County, California. She married George Frederick Arendt on May 20, 1911, in Fresno County, California.[Mar 1911] They had two children together. She later married Raymond William Chord.
| Name | Birth | Death | Age | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 118274281. | Evelyn Arendt | (3) | ||
| 118274282. | Blanche Aline ArendtΔ | (68) |
In her teen years, Iva lived for a time with her elder brother John Walter and his family in Nipomo Township, San Luis Obispo County. There, enumerated next, was Iva's future in-laws, Frederick and Caroline Arendt from Germany, by way of New York and New Jersey. George's whereabouts at this time are unknown.[Cen 1910]
Iva & George
Iva and George married on May 20, 1911, in Fresno County by Duncan Wallace, Minister of the Gospel. She was 18 years old and he was 27. Both had been living in Coalinga at the time. Witnesses to their marriage were Mrs. A. E. McElligot [sic] of Madera, Madera County and Charles H. Kerney of Fresno.[Mar 1911]
Before their marriage, George enlisted in the U.S. Army 8th Cavalry Regiment in San Francisco on March 21, 1905. He served for three years, much of which was likely in the Philippines where his regiment was deployed. George was discharged on March 20, 1908, at Fort Robinson in northwest Nebraska.[Army]
Iva and George had two daughters in San Francisco, the first of whom died at the age of three. Little Evelyn was buried at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in Colma, San Mateo County.[Grave]
The Arendts lived at 1308 Larkin Street, in the Nob Hill district, where George worked as a painter.[City 1917] They moved about a mile south to 156 Oak Street by the following year when George registered for the draft. He continued as a painter at the U.S. Naval Teaming Station and was described as tall, stout, and with blue eyes and brown hair.[Draft 1918] George's 1942 draft registration, at age 58, described him as 5' 8½" tall, 210 pounds, with blue eyes, gray hair, and light complexion. It also noted that he wore glasses and had a “lot of gold in lower jaw.”[Draft 1942]
After Iva and George separated, Iva moved north to Napa, Napa County, California, where she worked as an insane asylum attendant at Napa State Hospital.[Cen 1920A] George moved south to Santa Monica, Los Angeles County, where he opened up an auto tire repair shop and rented at 651 Santa Monica Boulevard.[Cen 1920B] Both reported still being married but daughter Blanche, 2 years old, was placed in the care of the Joseph and Marion Frediani family at 469 (later recorded as 569) 2nd Street in Calistoga, Napa County.[Cen 1920C] The Fredianis are recalled to have been close family friends.
George moved in with daughter Blanche and her family in Los Angeles by 1942.[Draft 1942, Cen 1950]
George Frederick Arendt died on June 8, 1959, in Los Angeles, at the age of 75. He was interred at Valhalla Memorial Park, North Hollywood, Los Angeles County.[Obit 1959]
Iva & Ray
Iva and Ray Chord married on October 20, 1924, in Marin County 1930; he was five years younger and a native of St. Helena, Napa County. They and Blanche lived along St. Helena Highway (Route 29) in Yountville. There Ray worked as farm truck driver and Iva worked as a hospital dietician, perhaps still at Napa State Hospital or even the Veterans Home of California in Yountville.[Cen 1930A] A week later daughter Blanche was enumerated again, but as a lodger living with the widow Marion Frediani, her son, and two young grandsons at 569 (previously recorded as 469) 2nd Street in Calistoga.[Cen 1930B] One of the Frediani grandsons, Charles Campbell, went on to marry one of Blanche's cousins, Rubye Fechter.
Iva was recalled to be care free and loved to party, but that love of partying caused her demise. During Prohibition she and Ray drank some “bad whiskey” which killed her and made the other party-goers violently ill. According to her nephew, Ed Williams, who was at her bedside in a Napa hospital, Iva underwent the most horrible death imaginable. She bit her lips and tongue and tried to gnaw at her hands in a mortal struggle which she finally lost.
Iva Edith (Miller Arendt) Chord died on February 20, 1931.[Dth 1931] She was only 38 years old. Iva reportedly was buried at Tulocay Cemetery in Napa.[Grave]
After Iva
By 1940, Ray, was living and working as a power operator at the Veterans Home of California.[Cen 1940A]
George moved from Santa Monica to 154 South Commonwealth Avenue in Los Angeles, where he lodged with eight other lodgers in a home run by the widow Amelia J. Schellenback by 1935. He worked as a house painter, but reported only having worked 12 weeks in 1939. This home was about 7 miles north of where daughter Blanche (Arendt) Bendel and her young family lived.[Cen 1940B]
George Frederick Arendt died on June 8, 1959, in Los Angeles County. He was 75 years old. George was buried in Valhalla Memorial Park in North Hollywood, Los Angeles County.[Grave]
Raymond William Chord died on April 25, 1975, in San Francisco County. He was 77 years old. Ray was also buried at Tulocay Cemetery in Napa, along with his father and younger brother.[Grave]