52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 2024 - Week 17 - War

War!  Huh!  What is it good for?  Absolutely nothing!

Those who were around in the 1960s will recognize that line.

Though rational people would prefer to avoid war, one thing that comes out of it: stories.  At least it is good for stories.  Many of the stories that come out of war are, as one would expect, grim and gruesome.  Some are sad stories, some touching tales of humanity or the lack of it.  And some are just downright funny.

My father, Arden Packard, was in the U.S. Navy in World War II.  He graduated from the Naval Academy in 1934.  Having been fascinated by flight since he was a lad, he applied for flight training, and was so assigned in 1937, at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida.  He became a carrier-based naval aviator and his first assignment as a naval aviator was to USS Yorktown.  One story that came out of his days afloat concerned the commanding officer of a destroyer assigned to a carrier group.  One night, after the captain had retired to his cabin for the night, one of the other ships lost control and began to drift into the destroyer's path.  The captain was summoned to the bridge and quickly briefed.  He began to give orders.  "Now, everyone stay calm.  Stay calm, like me," he urged.  Then he barked out this order:  "Two toots on the rudder; right full whistle."  Dad never mentioned whether the ships collided or managed to avoid it.

There were sad stories about friends who never got to see peace restored.  Dad had two best friends at the Academy.  Their names were Edward "Ned" Worthington and James "Jimmy" Newell.  Ned Worthington was killed at Pearl Harbor.  Dad died in April of 1954 of pneumonia.  Jimmy Newell outlived them both, and my mother and I visited him and his wife in Norfolk, Virginia, when I was in high school.  The three Navy buddies had an agreement that they would each be cremated and their ashes scattered from a U.S. Navy aircraft.  Ned Worthington's ashes were scattered off Koko Head in Hawaii.  Dad's were scattered over Glendale, California.  I don't know about Jimmy Newell, who most likely passed on many years ago now.  My father assigned the nickname "Ned" to my brother, in remembrance of his friend.

[This post is a little late.  I'm catching up.]

A to Z Challenge 2024 - Professionally Speaking - P is for Pullman Conductor

I'm jumping in this entry from my family to the family of my husband, Keys Rhodes, to his grandfather Andrew Lewis Rhodes (1882-1966), who began as a Pullman Conductor in June of 1912, and ended that career in retirement in September of  1952.  

He was born 23 September 1882 in Morgantown, Pike County, Ohio, son of Samuel H. Rhoades and Ida May Dewey.  It was during Andrew Rhodes's lifetime that the spelling of the familial surname was changed, for reasons unknown.  Andrew Rhodes spelled the surname both ways in his Railroad Retirement paperwork, finally settling on the spelling we all bear today.  I knew the Rhodes family from church since I was 7 years old, when Keys and I first met.  Andrew Rhodes had a wonderful thick head of pure-white hair in his later years.  He died 12 March 1966, while Keys and I were in college.

He began his railroad career in February of 1903 as a clerk for United States Express Company, a freight delivery company that operated from 1854 to 1914.  He alternated between Clerk and Messenger in Ohio until June of 1912, at which time he signed on with Pullman as a conductor and was assigned to Jacksonville, Florida.  Early on, he served in the Tampa area, and that is where he met Della Mae Marshall of Lakeland.  They were married in Lakeland on October 14, 1918.(1)  A year later, almost to the day, their son L. Marshall Rhodes was born in Tampa.  Their movements can be traced to Jacksonville around 1922 by an Abstract of Title for a period from 3 November 1922 to 26 March 1928.(2)  Their daughter, Della Mae Rhodes, Jr., was born 12 February 1925 in Jacksonville.  The family remained in Jacksonville.

(1) Andrew Lewis Rhodes, Railroad Retirement File. United States of America, Railroad Retirement Board, copy conveyed by letter to M. Keys Rhodes dated 11 July 2006.

(2) Title & Trust of Florida, Abstract of Title, 3 November 1922-26 March 1928, for Andrew Lewis Rhodes.  Original in possession of Karen Packard Rhodes.

A to Z Challenge 2024 - Professionally Speaking - O is for Optician

 I wore glasses from the age of four to the age of sixteen, as my eyesight went from far-sightedness to "normal."  I resumed wearing them a few years later, as my eyesight began to trend toward near-sightedness.  My eye doctor was local, in Jacksonville, Florida, where I grew up, but the professional who made my eyeglasses was in Cleveland, Ohio.

He was my granduncle, Lawrence Leslie Reed (1896-1971), my mother's uncle.  He was an optician.  He was born into the large family of Francis Harvey Reed and Florence Elizabeth McKee on 2 May 1896 in Logansport, Indiana.  No matter the degree, we all just called him Uncle Lawrence.  I never met him, but for years, I wore glasses he made for me.  My aunt Elizabeth Reed would order glasses for me every time I was given a new prescription by my eye doctor.  And when the new pair arrived, I would go around the corner to the next street, where Aunt Elizabeth, whom we all called "Sissy," as she was my mother's adoptive sister, lived with her mother, my grandma Mary Reed, and pick up my new glasses.  My grandma's nickname was "Chollie."  Yes, there's a story there.

I never had a choice of frames, and for some reason -- I guess because I was a young girl -- Uncle Lawrence favored sending me glasses with pink frames.  I never could stand pink.  I was a tomboy, a climber of trees, player of baseball, and rider of my bicycle all over the south side of Jacksonville.  My favorite color has always been blue.  But sometimes, when in my adult years I did pick my own frames, after Uncle Lawrence passed on, I would pick pink.  Maybe it was in tribute to the far-away granduncle who made my glasses and selected my frames so long ago.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 2024 - Week 16 - Step

Step lively, there!

Oh, sometimes lively is not what I am feeling, but I do perk right up when I'm working on genealogy.  It might be mine, it might be my husband's, it might be that of our son-in-law, who has added the lively step of Germany and the Netherlands to our genealogical mix, which has been rather boringly British with just a dash of Swiss.

I say, the more the merrier!

One Step I took a few years ago was to sign up with the National Geographic Society's Genographic Project, in which they took my DNA back much farther than anyone else has done -- about 700,000 years!  They determined that I am 2.1% Neanderthal and 1.1% Denisovan, the latter being another offshoot strain found in the Denisova Caves in Siberia.  A waggish friend said that this revelation means I am "3.2% extinct."  Sometimes I feel like it.

Genealogy will broaden our perspective, as long as we do it correctly, and don't try to either do it lazy by just collecting names whether they belong to us or not, or by using genealogy to press an agenda.  That's been done in the past, from Spanish subjects in the 1400s to 1600s trying to hide disapproved ethnicities from the authorities and the Inquisition, or by some citizens of St. Augustine, Florida, during the 400th anniversary celebration in 1964 to "clean up" their backgrounds.  Other citizens, marginalized by the first lot, knew what these folks were up to, and knew how bogus these scrubbed genealogies were because they were descended from the same people, and could snicker behind politely-held fans.

I've signed up late, because I just found out that Amy Johnson Crow, originator of this series of blogging prompts, is still at it after, what, 10 years?  Nice!  

So Step into my parlor (said the spider to the fly), and let me see if I can entertain you with posts concerning whoever I can dredge up that I have not already blogged to Infinity and Beyond.

A to Z Challenge 2024 - Professionally Speaking - M is for Military

 From the very first English emigrations to the New World, my family has had individuals in it who did military service of one form or another.

As with most men in early colonial times, Samuel Packard, my eighth great-grandfather, served in the militia of his town of residence.  He came to the New World first at Hingham, Massachusetts, shown in some records as New Hingham, named for a town in England.  From there, he moved to Weymouth, and eventually settled in Bridgewater, the part that is now known as Brockton.  A town in New England at that time was centered around the church; and it was the church.  Church membership was required for a man to be considered a "freeman," to be able to vote and hold office.  Now and then, there would be a squabble in a church over something-or-other, and a group would break off and set up another church in another part of town, creating thereby a new town.  Bridgewater eventually split into East Bridgewater, West Bridgewater, and North Bridgewater.  It was in the latter town that Samuel Packard lived, and which later became Brockton.

Samuel's fourth-great-grandson Richards Packard served in the American Revolution.  His name was Richards; he signed several documents, including at least one in his Revolutionary War Pension file, as Richards.  He was probably so named after his mother's maiden name; her name was Mercy Richards.  I have written a booklet on Richards, his ancestors, and his descendants.  In it, I describe his military service:

"Richards Packard’s original enlistment was at Western, Massachusetts, for a term of six months. Western is in Middlesex County, north and west of Bridgewater. Richards mustered in at Springfield, Hampshire County (that part which is now Hampden County), in Captain Wade’s company, Colonel Jackson’s regiment. The company went to West Point, New York; Richards was at Kings Ferry and, as Richards says in his sworn statement, at Haverstraw “when Andre was hung,” referring to the execution of Major John Andre, the British spy who was hanged 2 October 1780 at Tappan, New York. Richards Packard was discharged in the fall of 1780. 

"He enlisted again in February, 1782, at Leverett, Massachusetts and again was at West Point, this time under Captain Smith in Colonel Rufus Putnam’s regiment. During this time, he suffered from smallpox, but apparently recovered. The troops went to Verplank’s Point in the spring of 1783, and were there until fall, when they retired to winter quarters at Newburgh, New York. He was discharged in February of 1783."

I have two direct ancestors who served the Union in the Civil War.  My paternal great-great grandfather, Mathew Hale Packard (not a typo; there was only one "t" in Mathew's name) served in two different regiments of New York Cavalry, the 15th New York Cavalry, and the 2nd Regiment, New York Provisional Cavalry.  My maternal great-great grandfather, Charles Reed, served in the 140th Indiana Infantry.  Both survived, but were disabled by disease.  

My father, Arden Packard, enlisted in the Navy and was admitted to the U.S. Naval Academy in 1930, having passed a competitive exam offered to enlisted personnel.  He graduated from the academy in 1934.  He took flight training at Pensacola Naval Air Station in 1937, and that is where he met my mother and they got married in July of 1937.  He received exemplary fitness reports, placing him in the top 5% of Naval aviators -- "Top Gun" territory.  But he was grounded due to medical problems, and became a flight instructor.  In that capacity, he was sent by the Navy Department to the Empire Central Flying School, outside of London, England, to learn the tactics the British were using against the Germans.  He brought that knowledge home and taught these tactics to his students, who would be shipping out with the Atlantic Fleet to English waters to fight the Germans.

Inspired by our father's service, my brother enlisted in the U.S. Marines after high school, and I enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve when I saw how much my husband was enjoying his Coast Guard service.  Our family very much has a military tradition.

 

A to Z Challenge 2024 - Professionally Speaking - L is for Lawyer

My great-great granduncle Major Wellman Packard (1820-1903) was not a military officer.  Major was his given name, not a rank. He has been known down the generations in the family as Wellman Packard.  He was a lawyer in Illinois, and was friends with another Illinois lawyer named Abraham Lincoln.  In the collections of the Library of Congress is a letter that Wellman wrote to his friend Abe on 22 February 1860.  Lincoln had previously written to Wellman asking him to take care of a matter that Lincoln had somehow overlooked:  he was supposed to have paid the Bloomington, Illinois, property taxes of one William Florville, a Haitian immigrant.  In his letter to Lincoln, Wellman reports that he has done as Lincoln asked and paid the taxes.  Wellman had collected ten dollars from another man who owed it to Lincoln, and used it to pay Florville's taxes of $10.10.  On the balance of ten cents, Wellman dismissed any debt on Lincoln's part, saying, "Bal 10 cts which will be just enough to drink my health with, which please do if it suits you -- but in any event you need not "remit" at the present high rates of exchange!  

Wellman goes on to ask Lincoln about a certain case.  Then a bit of the politics of the day comes in to Wellman's next remark: "My brother-in-law N. S. Sunderland has just returned from Ohio, and he assures me the tide of politics is settling decidedly in favor of 'Old Abe' for President."(1)

 Twenty-five years after Welllman died in 1903, a small book that he had written was printed in a very small edition of only 30.  It was reprinted in 1971, also in a limited edition, but larger, of 500 copies.  I was provided a copy by a cousin.  In this small book, Wellman wrote of a trip he took to California with a party of "forty-niners," people lured by the discovery at Sutter's Mill of gold.  Wellman went on the trip to observe, not to go panning for gold.  One of his observations: "It was indeed providential that the news came to us late in the autumn months of 1848, and the journey overland could not be attempted until the following spring.  Even then very many started without the necessary preparation, and suffered the penalty of their want of foresight in much suffering and unnecessary hardship and privation."

One of the more thrilling events was the day the wagon train in which he was traveling found a tremendous herd of bison bearing down directly on it.  The herd was as has been described of herds that once roamed the plains in the thousands, and it took several brave men on horseback, with their lungs and with firearms fired into the air to turn the herd and save the wagon train.(2)

Major Wellman Packard, a man of law and letters, returned to Bloomington and died there 28 February 1903.

(1) Abraham Lincoln Papers, Series 1.  General Correspondence.  1933-1916: Major W. Packard to Abraham Lincoln, Wednesday, February 22, 1860 (Florville's Taxes), https://www.loc.gov/resource/mal.0241700/?st=pdf (accessed 17 April 2024).

(2) Packard, Major Wellman. Early Emigration to California, 1849-1850.  (Reprint: Fairfield, Washington: Ye Galleon Press, 1971).

A to Z Challenge 2024 - Professionally Speaking - J is for Journalist

 I am pleased to find a journalist in the family, and more pleased that this family journalist was a woman.  Helen Augusta "Gussie" [Packard] DuBois, my great-grandaunt, was a feature writer for the Pasadena Star-News in the 1920s and 1930s.(1)   She was born in Chautauqua County, New York in 1851, probably in New Harmony Township.  She died in Los Angeles County, California, in 1941, probably in Pasadena, where she lived for many years.  She married Louis Stanley DuBois in 1880.  He died in 1911 and she never remarried.  

She contributed stories to a number of California newspapers and magazines, and was also known as a poet.  Speaking to her broad range of interests, she also wrote for religious publications, being a member of a Presbyterian congregation, and was known for her celebrity interviews conducted with "skill and tact."(2) 

For the funeral of her friend Nellie M. Russ, head of Pasadena's public library, Gussie DuBois wrote a poem she titled "Friends."

To be a friend, O strong and subtle power

That so demands the best the soul has known.

Life has no greater honor for its dower:

I hold it higher than to win a throne.(3)

 (1)  "Helen Root Wolf New Organist-Director of Local Christian Church," San Pedro (California) News-Pilot, 28 Aug. 1941

(2)  "Mrs. Gussie Packard DuBois Dies at Home," Bloomington (Illinois) Daily Pantograph, 17 Sept. 1941, Page 2.

(3)  "Noted Librarian is Laid to Rest," Pasadena Post, 3 Nov 1927, Page13.

 

A to Z Challenge 2024 - Professionally Speaking - I is for Insurance

One of the occupations my father Arden Packard (1911-1954) pursued after retiring from the Navy at the end of World War II was as an insurance salesman.  He worked for the Angus B. Rosborough agency in Jacksonville, Florida in the early 1950s.  The Rosborough Agency represented Massachusetts Mutual Insurance Company in the Jacksonville area.  

A half-page ad in the 1951 R. L. Polk Jacksonville City Directory answered one question, solving a small mystery for me.  For many years, as a teenager and adult, I had heard my mother and grandmother mention a man of the surname Stoudemire as a family friend.  I had never met this individual; I don't remember him being a guest in our house either before or after my father died in 1954.   But there in the half-page ad in the city directory was the name right below that of my father.

Another insurance salesman -- one who over the years sold policies to my grandmother, my aunt, my mother, myself and my husband, and our daughters -- told me one time that my father had mentored him in insurance sales when he was a young man just starting out in the field.  

But again, as he had so many times before, my father got happy feet and, even having been fairly successful in insurance sales, he wanted to move on to something else, and soon we were on our way to California.  Once again. 

A to Z Challenge 2024 - Professionally Speaking - H is for HVAC

HVAC stands for Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning.  After my brother Arden ("Ned") Packard II (1942-1996) was medically retired from the Marines, he took some training in HVAC.  His MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) in the Marines had been Aviation Electronics, so the switch was not all that much of a change.  

He was placed in charge of the HVAC facilities on an aircraft carrier out of Bremerton.  That meant, for one thing, that he got to go out to sea on the carrier from time to time.  He later went to work for CDI Marine, of Bremerton, as their Senior Electrical Designer.  

All this was a result of being different from most of the other boys we knew, who could be found hunched over the engines of their cars or their parents' cars.  Not Ned.  No engines for him.  He could be found lying upside down on the front seat of Mom's '51 Packard with his head under the dashboard as he fiddled with the radio.  His interest in electronics was lifelong.

A to Z Challenge 2024 - Professionally Speaking - G is for General Freight Agent

 My adoptive grandpa, Perry Wilmer Reed (1885-1938), was a railroad man.  While his father was a conductor, and his brother Frank was a switchman, Grandpa Perry was a freight agent.  This meant that he had to be able to handle all the rates, rules, routes, regulations, and requirements the railroads he worked for had to meet in order to do the business of carrying goods from here to there.

Having worked in the labor relations department of a major railroad for a while, I can attest that these rules and regulations and requirements are complex, indeed.  The key in such a complex field is not to have it all stored in your brain, but to know where to find out what you need to know.  That means how to assemble, organize, and use a great many publications, tables, and books of regulations.

He was also enrolled to practice before the Interstate Commerce Commission, the federal agency that has jurisdiction over railroads in the U.S.  This meant that he could represent his railroad before the I.C.C., argue cases, and present testimony in matters involving the railroad relating to its role as a commercial carrier.  According to his son Robert Reed, in this capacity Perry Reed (like that other Perry, one Mr. Mason of literary and television fiction) never lost a case.(1)

(1)  Robert Reed, "Little Man," Pensacola History Illustrated, vol. 3, no. 4 (Winter 1985), p. 27.

A to Z Challenge 2024 - Professionally Speaking - F is for Farmer

 It would seem logical that most early arrivals to New England became farmers by necessity.  They had to have a way to feed themselves.  It wasn't any different for Samuel Packard, my 8x-great-grandfather.  He arrived with a wife and one child in 1638 at Hingham, Plymouth Colony.  Not long after, he removed his family to Weymouth, and finally settled in Bridgewater.  By the time of his death in 1684, he had acquired a goodly amount of land, much of it farmed.  

Much later, my great-great grandfather Nelson Reed McKee was listed in the 1860 census as being a farmer in Allen County, Indiana.  Either he did not succeed as a farmer, or he just found that he did not like the occupation, for in the 1870 census, he is listed as a silversmith.  At that time, he was living with his wife and two children in Portland, Jay County, Indiana.  

A several-times great-granduncle was a farmer in Maryland.  His name was Jean-Pierre LeSueur, and he had come over from France to fight on the side of the American colonies in our Revolution.  His descendant, my great-granduncle Levi Curtis LeSourd (the spelling varied over time) was also a farmer, in Indiana.  He and his family lived in a small town called Sleeth, in Carroll County. named for the family of Levi's wife Rachel Anna Sleeth.

Harold Blaine White was the third husband of my grandmother Ruth Nave.  Her first husband, Benjamin Franklin Reed, was my grandfather.  He died in a railroad accident in 1917.  Harold White was raised on a farm, and his first occupation was as a farmer.  From what I have learned of him, he was not a success as a farmer.  He apparently was not much of a success at much of anything, because he attributed to himself several occupations, but in each census in which he was listed, he is shown as unemployed.  His earnings for the year, as shown in censuses, were much less than that of my grandmother.

Farming did not survive as an occupation in my family into the 20th century.  

A to Z Challenge 2024 - Professionally Speaking - E is for Engineer

 My father, Arden Packard, graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1934, with a degree in civil engineering.  During World War II, he devoted his career to his first love: flying.  Medically retired in early 1941, he was recalled to active duty in October of 1941, as the country experienced a military buildup in anticipation of future involvement in war raging across the world.  The surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941, brought the future into focus for everyone in the nation as the U.S. entered World War II by declaring war on Japan.

After the war, unable to find engineering work, he entered into the world of advertising with his brother, Jack.  This endeavor was chronicled in the first entry in this year's A to Z Challenge: A is for Advertising.  After the agency dissolved and my uncle went into business for himself, also in advertising, my father served as the general manager of a printing company, then sold insurance.

Finally, in about 1951, he landed a civil engineering job helping design a duPont chemical plant in Pensacola, Florida.  My memory is sketchy on this because I was only four years old at the time.  There was a book published on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Class of 1934, but our copy of it was disposed of without our knowledge by someone who shared living quarters and wanted our space for her belongings.  I have tried to track down a copy of that book, and intend to try again this week.  In that book is an essay by my mother on my father's life and career, and she mentioned this engineering job of my father's.  

A to Z Challenge 2024 -- Professionally Speaking -- D is for Doctor

 So far, I have found two individuals with doctoral degrees of one sort or another among my ancestors.  And there's an added note at the end.

Great-granduncle Herbert Roy Packard (1876-1964) was a dentist.(1)  He practiced in California.  I have not yet determined where he received his degree.

Charles Packard (1812-1883), a great-great granduncle, was a physician.(2)  I do not have a great deal of information about him, either.  One of his daughters, seven years old at the time of the source census, was born in Massachusetts.  Did Charles get his medical degree at Harvard?  An older daughter, eleven years old, was born in Canada.  Did Charles get his medical degree there?  That will require future searching.  He practiced in Bloomington, Illinois.

Finally, one note I have to add, not about an ancestor, but about a descendant, my daughter Marti Meyers.  In April of 2022, she received her Doctor of Audiology (Au.D.) degree from the University of Florida.  Our daughter, the doctor!  She is, obviously, not the first doctor in the family, but she is the first female doctor in our tree.

(1)  1930 U.S. census,   population schedule, Los Angeles, enumeration district (ED) 19-1208, sheet 1B,  dwelling 25, family 25, Packard, Herbert R.; NARA microfilm publication T626.

(2)  1870 U.S. census, population schedule, Bloomington, enumeration district (ED) not recorded, printed page number 98, dwelling 457, family 468, Packard, Charles, NARA Microfilm publication M593, Roll 258.

A to Z Challenge 2024 - Professionally Speaking - C is for Crafts

 At least three of my ancestors were craftspersons who made their living with their crafts.  My mom and dad were hobbyists at particular crafts.

My paternal great-great grandfather Mathew Hale Packard (1822-1881) was a carpenter in New York and in Illinois.  His occupation as a craftsman was interrupted by the Civil War, in which he served in two different regiments of cavalry from New York.  After the war, he moved the family to Bloomington, Illinois, and returned to his craft.

While Mathew was being a carpenter or a soldier, his wife, Emily A. Hoyt (1823-1904) was a milliner.  I have not been able to find any more information about how she practiced her profession: whether she worked from home or had a shop, or whether she designed for women only, men only, or for both.  I'm thinking local newspapers might have advertisements she may have bought.

My maternal great-great grandfather, Nelson Reed McKee (1838-1908), was a jeweler and watchmaker.  He had a shop in Monticello, White County, Indiana.  In 1879, he disappeared, sparking a search of the town and its surroundings.  Later, he turned up in Wisconsin, where he married again . . . without the benefit of a divorce from his first wife, my great-great grandmother Sarah Ann Sunderland (1848-1922).  Sarah eventually married again, taking pains to obtain an uncontested divorce from Nelson first.  Finally settling in Beloit, Wisconsin, Nelson again practiced his craft as a jeweler and watchmaker.

My mother, Martha Shideler Reed (1916-1980) was a craftsperson.  Her crafting activity was confined to home and family, rather than in any commercial venture.  She could knit like a pro, and knitted socks, hats, sweaters and other garments for us.  She was working on a pair of socks for my father when he died in 1954.  She never took up her knitting needles again after that.  She was also good at sewing -- a pursuit at which I am totally incompetent.  She made dresses for my sister and me and shirts for my brother out of flour sacks when we were very young.

My father, Arden Packard (1911-1954) also had a craft, as a hobby.  He did leatherwork.  One of my last memories of him was sitting at the dining room table working on a belt.  He also made wallets.  He also was a great storyteller, which is a craft as well.

A to Z Challenge 2024 - Professionally Speaking - B is for Business

 Some of my ancestors were involved in business in one way or another.  

My adoptive maternal grandfather, Perry Wilmer Reed (1885-1938), was a railroad freight agent, having to do with the business of shipping goods for all sorts of commercial enterprises by rail.  After retiring from railroad work, he became the Executive Secretary of the Pensacola, Florida, Chamber of Commerce.

My paternal grandfather, Walter Hetherington Packard (1879-1937), had his fingers in all sorts of pies relating to business.  He was a builder and developer in California during the early 20th century boom.  He was a stock broker.  He sold real estate.  He had mining interests.  Whatever fortune he may have accumulated from these enterprises up to that point vanished in the Crash of 1929.  He managed to rebuild some of that by the end of the Depression. It was on his way to sign a mining contract that he was killed in an automobile accident. 

My paternal great-grandfather, Oscar Merry Packard (1849-1932), began his professional life as a builder and developer in the Chicago area, but moved to California at the end of the 19th century.  He settled in the Los Angeles area at the beginning of a real estate boom.  

With my father Arden Packard (1911-1954), the apple didn't fall far from the tree, as he had some projects relating to business after retiring from the Navy after World War II.  The Navy was his primary and most-loved occupation, being graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1934.  I've already posted about his brief adventure in advertising with his brother, John Creighton "Jack" Packard (1909-1987).  After their advertising partnership dissolved, Uncle Jack continued in advertising, with his sole proprietorship, Jack Packard Advertising, until his retirement.  My father also sold insurance in California and in Florida, and used his degree in engineering on a project in Pensacola, Florida.

Francis A. Packard (1833-1911), brother of my great-great grandfather Mathew Hale Packard, was a merchant in Bloomington, Illinois.  His career also was interrupted by the Civil War, in which he served in a unit of Illinois volunteer infantry.  After the war, he returned to Bloomington, where he sold insurance and real estate.   

Some of my ancestors got up to business of a different kind -- monkey business!  I've blogged about that in the past, and as soon as I find out about any more monkey business on the part of my ancestors, I'll blog about that too.  It's the mischievous who are most interesting.

 

A to Z Challenge 2024 - Professionally Speaking - A is for Advertising

When my father, Commander Arden Packard, USN, retired from the Navy after World War II, one of the first jobs he had was in partnership with his brother, John Creighton "Jack" Packard, in the advertising business.  They opened their agency, Packard & Packard Advertising, in Los Angeles, both being natives of that city.  The firm was written up in two case studies of successful advertising campaigns.

One of their projects was for a company in Glendale, in Los Angeles County, whose owner did not believe in advertising.  Before the war, his small company had made shoelaces.  During the war, it ended up making nylon cording for parachute shrouds under government contract.  On a parachute, a shroud is any of the lines running from the canopy to the harness.  After the war, the company, left with some twenty tons of surplus nylon, decided to make nylon fishing line.  The business got off to a rocky start and was in danger of folding, when the owner decided that maybe he should try advertising, after all.  He contacted Packard & Packard for the job.

The Packard brothers advised a national advertising campaign.  The company's owner produced twelve thousand dollars as a budget.  The brothers started with full-page, color ads in periodicals aimed at the hardware trade, where the fishing line would likely be sold.  One-third-page ads were placed in sporting periodicals aimed at consumers.  The business owner favored the use of coupons in the ads, which consumers could fill in and use to request more information.  Coupons sent in would show the effectiveness of the advertising campaign, and provide data for further refinements of the campaign.  

The coupons sent in requesting more information were answered with the information and samples of the fishing line.  Consumers returning the coupons had also been asked to provide the name of their local sporting-goods store.  Initial response was 2,900 coupons mailed in, and hundreds of inquiries from dealers interested in carrying the product.  According to this case study, when the campaign began, the fishing-line company owner was "cautiously counting the mail resulting from the ads.  By the end of the campaign he was weighing it."(1)

The second case was for a Los Angeles company that manufactured rectifiers, equipment that converts alternating current into direct current, for technical applications.  Though having been in business for nearly two decades in manufacturing technical equipment, the company had been ill-served by its former advertising agency, and was only locally-known.  This company needed a national advertising campaign, and they turned to Packard & Packard.

The problem was not the battery-charger market the company had always produced for, which was the military and commercial aircraft industry.  The company was entering, simultaneously, two new markets:  motion-picture projection equipment and quick-charging equipment for automotive repair businesses.  The target for the advertising campaign would be jobbers and distributors rather than the general public.  The ads had to be technical enough to convince the target audience of the manufacturer's ability, but also had to be massaged into the proper technical language for each of the three different industries to be served.  Even at this technical level, the Packard brothers again used coupons effectively.  The campaign was a success in both domestic and international markets for the manufacturer's products, and the CEO of the company remarked that the campaign would be expanded as needed.(2)

As successful as the Packard brothers were in advertising, they dissolved their partnership.  I doubt it was because of any disagreement between my father and my Uncle Jack.  There certainly was no animosity between them, as they remained in contact, with frequent visits always jovial in nature, as I remember.  Our families were very close into the 1950s, and after my father died in 1954, remained so.  Uncle Jack and Aunt Billie were very close to all of us, and were among my favorite relatives.  Jack stayed in advertising, in his own firm, Jack Packard Adversing, of Glendale.  He retired in the 1980s, and he and Aunt Billie moved to Florida, where we lived.  Visits were much more frequent with them living so much closer to us. My father may have received or had notice of a job opportunity in his field of engineering, and might have welcomed the chance to use his degree from the Naval Academy.

Notes:

1.  "Didn't Believe in Advertising; Tried It; Now Does," in Printer's Ink Editors and Contributors, Case Histories of Successful Advertising: Problems - Solutions - Results.  (New York: Funk and Wagnall's and Printer's Ink Publishing Company, 1949), 42-44.

2.  "Hit-or-Miss Ads Failed, but Consistent Campaign Clicked," in Printer's Ink Editors and Contributors, Case Histories of Successful Advertising: Problems - Solutions - Results.  (New York: Funk and Wagnall's and Printer's Ink Publishing Company, 1949), 128-132.

Military Monday: An Unexpected Tradition

 My husband's draft number was about to come up in 1970, and not wanting to go to Viet Nam and not wanting to go to Canada, he signed up for U.S. Coast Guard officer candidate school.  Nearly all Coast Guard personnel who served in Viet Nam volunteered for that duty.  We got married when he completed his officer training, emerging as a newly-hatched ensign with a reserve commission.  Later on, when I saw what fun he was having in his many and varied assignments, I said I wanted to sign up, too.  I had a desire to serve our country since I was 10 years old, squashed by the ridiculous objections of a too-traditonal family.  I was finally able to fulfill that desire.  So both of us ended up in the Coast Guard Reserve.

We thought my husband was the first in his family to serve in that branch of service.  However, when my father-in-law died in 2004, my husband went through his papers and found a surprise.

During World War II, there were two types of Coast Guard reservists:  the Regular Reserve and the Temporary Reserve.  The Temporary Reserve consisted of both paid and volunteer personnel, serving only for the duration of the war or any part of it.  They provided coastal patrol and port security personnel.(1)

The surprise was that not only my husband's father(2), but also his grandfather(3) had served in the Temporary Reserve of the U.S. Coast Guard.  My husband was not the first to serve in the Coast Guard; he was, in fact, the third member of his family to do so.  It was a proud tradition, indeed.

(1) United States Coast Guard Reserve, "Reserve History," https://www.reserve.uscg.mil/about/history/ (accessed 25 March 2024).

(2) U.S. Coast Guard, Volunteer Port Security Force, letter of 27 September 1944, congratulating VPSF member L. M. Rhodes, Seaman First Class, on his marriage.  Family papers.

(3) U.S Coast Guard, Certificate of Disenrollment as a Temporary Member in the United States Coast Guard Reserve (honorable conditions; without pay), Andrew L. Rhodes, 30 September 1945.  Family papers.

"Let's Have Accurassy!"

That expression was on a sign my mother displayed on her desk when she was a medical secretary, a field in which accuracy is vitally important.

Accuracy is also important in genealogy, so that we connect the correct people to our family trees.

I just had an encounter on Ancestry, where two different cousins attached an Ohio teaching certificate dated 23 February 1852 . . .

. . . to a person born 24 April 1879.(1)

There is another indication of this document's inappropriateness for the ancestor in question, Mary Anna Fry, wife of Herbert Roy Packard, a grand-uncle of mine.(2)  The Ohio teaching certificate was issued to Mary E. Fry.  Was that a mistake, or was the certificate in fact issued to a different Mary Fry?  Mary Anna Fry was born in Maine.  She married Herbert Roy Packard in Ontario, San Bernardino County, California, 19 August 1902.  She died in California.(3)  Was she ever in Ohio?  Of course, all that is moot in the face of the glaring date discrepancy.

The idea is to examine a document rather than just glancing at the name and saying, "Oh, this must be grand-aunt Mary's, so I'll just hook it up to the tree."  And thus begins a false trail.

In that same block of hints is a newspaper article on the new officers of a civic organization in Pasadena, California in 1932.(4)  The name "Annie Packard" appears in the article, and Ancestry has suggested the article as possibly related to Mary Anna Fry.  Again, questions arise:  Did Mary Anna Fry ever go by the nickname "Annie?"  Was she a member of the subject civic organization?  Was there another woman named Ann, Anne, Anna, or some other name in Pasadena who used the nickname "Annie?"  The date of 1932 is not a problem.  Mary Anna Fry died in 1947 in Pasadena -- four days after I was born, in fact.(5)  I have "Ignored" this hint for now, giving as the reason the fact that it requires further corroboration.  Not sticking that one on my tree unless I know that it does refer to the correct individual.  I may never know that.

Let us indeed have accuracy.

(1) Unfortunately, I was unable to find the source for this Ohio teaching certificate.  Sources do not appear when the object is posted by another Ancestry member, probably out of privacy concerns.  That may also depend on the level of security the owner has given their tree; i.e., whether it is public or private.  The document appears authentic, but then it is not possible to judge with certainty its authenticity without the source.  In any case, it does not belong attached to Mary Anna Fry (1879-1947).

 (2)  "California Marriages, 1850-1945", , FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:4188-4WMM : 24 March 2020), Mary Anna Fry in entry for Herbert R. Packard, 1902.

 (3)  Ancestry.com. U.S., Find a Grave® Index, 1600s-Current [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. 

 (4)  https://tinyurl.com/bdd98sm4 (goes to article on newspapers.com; scroll down to the bottom, article headline mentions a Mrs. Jeffs being elected president of the organization.)

(5)  "California, County Birth and Death Records, 1800-1994", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:CSWV-6VPZ : Sat Mar 09 04:49:33 UTC 2024), Entry for Mary Anna Packard and Holland Fry, 16 Apr 1947.

Military Monday -- a Deserter in the Family? Or a POW?

 I found out that my 2x great grandfather, John P. Taylor, deserted from Union forces on 24 December 1864, leaving his unit, Company I, 8th Tennessee Cavalry.

Deserted?  At the end of this file, which is his compiled service record, there is a form regarding prisoners of war.  Problem is, it doesn't mention him having been a prisoner of war.  The only comment is that he was formerly enrolled in Company K, 10th Tennessee Cavalry.  No date for the change of unit is given, but it may have been on the expiration of his original enlistment and the beginning of re-enlistment.  

On other pages, there are notations that he had not been paid for several months.  Having been through something similar as a Coast Guard reservist on special active duty, I can tell you it gets you pretty crazy when the bills keep coming in, there's little food in the house, and your pay is fouled up.  I, for one, would not blame him if that's why he deserted.  If he did.  Finally, there is in the file a notation dated about twenty years after the end of the Civil War that his charge of desertion had been removed by order of the Secretary of War.  Yes, indeed -- military efficiency!

When I have time, I'll have to order great-great grandpa Taylor's full service record.  I hope there will be more information that will answer this research question:  Did John P. Taylor desert, or was he a prisoner of war?

A to Z Challenge: Theme Reveal

 I have been looking for a blog carnival or challenge to participate in, as a means of helping resurrect this tired old blog that has been neglected for the past several years.  I found it.

Each April comes the A to Z Challenge for genealogy bloggers.  Posting a Theme Reveal post is not required; we aren't even required to have a theme.  But it helps focus the mind.  So my theme for the 2024 A to Z Challenge is:

Professionally Speaking.

In this series of blog entries, I'll talk about the occupations and professions of my ancestors.  I have one line stretching all the way back to 1638, so there should be a goodly amount of fodder for this theme in that bunch, my father's line.  I haven't got my mother's line back that far yet, but it was a pretty big family, so there should be a selection of occupations and professions to write about.  I'm just wondering how I'm going to handle the letters Q, X, and Z!