Jack Thomas
100 YEARS OLD - CRYSTAL GRAVES, SMITH, LINN - Born November 1, 1896
In May of 2022 my mother, Ruth Pendergraft, was going through some papers of her mother, Beulah Schmoker Houde when she found the following typed page written about Crystal Linn, a friend of my grandmother, Beulah. It turns out that Crystal Linn and I are related through her paternal - Offields [sic] [Offield] side of the family! We were 3rd cousins, once removed. EMILY MARTHA EDSON OFFIELD Pendergraft was Crystal's great-grand Aunt and my great-great-grandmother.
Here is the article:
100 YEARS OLD
CRYSTAL GRAVES, SMITH, LINN
Born November 1, 1896
Crystal Linn is the grand daughter of four wagon train families; the Graves, Henson, Glover and Offields ]sic] [Correct spelling should be Offield]. Crystal lives in the house she was born in, in the historic Canemah area of Oregon City, Oregon. the daughter of Martha (Henson, born 1/11/1857) and Franklin Graves, born 12/23/1854. Crystal was married [at age 18] to Louis Smith [age 26] for 49 years and after his death married a childhood friend who was also from a wagon train family Earl Linn, who has now also past away. Crystal continued to live in the historic 1889 Martha Graves house that she bought from her mother.
Crystal had three children, one died shortly after birth [Peter Stanley Smith
BIRTH 13 Feb 1924 Canemah, Clackamas County, Oregon, USA
DEATH 17 Feb 1924 (aged 4 days) Canemah, Clackamas County, Oregon, USA
BURIAL Canemah Historic Pioneer Cemetery, Canemah, Clackamas County, Oregon, USA ] . [A son]Eldon gave her two grandchildren; Olivia and Sibyl and two great grandchildren. [A daighter] Virginia (King) gave her four grandchildren: Michael, David, Patricia and James. This has given Crystal nine more great grandchildren and five great-great grandchildren. There are five generations, maternal, now [1996 WT adds] with Lauren born October 12. (Crystal 100, Virginia 77, Patricia 52, Stacy 30, Lauren 3 weeks).
Crystal intends to vote in this Presidential election as she has in every election since suffrage. Crystal can trace her family to Capt. Thomas Graves who came to Virginia in 1608. Capt. Graves was a member of the House of Burgesses, first convened by the colonist July 30, 1619. The House of Burgesses was the first legislative assembly in the new world [and] is said to be the birthplace of American democracy. Her stories of the early history, events and the people of Oregon City add color and understanding to what it took to make this great State of Oregon and the United States of America.
Notes:
Maternal heritage: Great Grandmother Lucinda Offield widowed on the Oregon Trail in 1850, continued on with five children, twelve to seven months. Saved by Indians, on the Barlow Trail, near what is now known as Government Camp, with no food, dry clothes and bedding. Grandmother Mary Jane Offield was one of the five children, then raised in Gribble Prairie 5 miles south of Canby. Grandmother married Ezra Henson who came to Oregon on the same 1850 wagon train at nineteen years of age. Mother married the son of John Pinkard Graves and Maria Glover, from the 1849 and 1850 wagon trains. For more information call Crystal's granddaughter Patricia Edgar (phone numbers no longer connected in May 2022. W. Thomas adds)
10/29/1996 poe CRYSTAL2.DOC.
Wendie Thomas adds: It's A Small World Department
Crystal was part of a friendship group that included Beulah and Adrien Houde, Vera and John Mason, Vera's sister Lucille Redenbacker and her husband Vern, Willard Bowles and his first wife Betty and his second wife Addie and other people who bonded together during World War II. Beulah and Vern met while working in the shipyards and Beulah and Vern's wife Lucille became life-long buddies. The foursome, Vern, and Lucille, Adrien and Beulah went on fishing trips all over Oregon. One fishing trip story was that as Vern and Lucille were driving down a steep hill pulling the camping trailer, Adrien and Beulah looked out the side window in the car and saw the trailer next to the car instead of being behind it. Someone had forgotten to fasten a safety chain that kept the trailer attached to the hitch and after going over a bump, the trailer came lose. It went off the road and over the side. No more trailer. Thank goodness no one got hurt.
Vern and Lucille lived in Oregon City and Lucille worked at a furniture store there; might have been Frederick's Furniture. Crystal worked at Frederick's Hardware store and that was most likely where they became friends. With all of the group now passed away it's hard to say just how they formed their close knit social kinship, meet once a month to celebrate birthdays, special events, play cards, picnic, go fishing, hear about the grandkids, you name it kind of group but as a child I remember Friday night trips to Vern and Lucille's It seemed to take forever to drive south on 82nd Ave. (long before the freeway was built.) The TV would be tuned in to wrestling or Friday night fights. I remember going to Vera and John Mason's house near the Christmas holidays. John gave us gold wrapped chocolate coins which were so good, and he took my brother Greg and I to our first semi-pro hockey game.
Because the group rotated meeting at different people's homes, I remember meeting Crystal at potlucks and picnics when they were held at my grandparent's home in Portland but at the time (the 1950's) I had no idea that Crystal and I were distant cousins on my paternal side. In fact, it wasn't until spring of 2022 that I knew the Pendergraft family was related to the Offield family at all. We had the name of Lucinda Offield's sister-in-law as 'Oldfield' and nowhere in my "hunt" for family had I found any Oldfields! And without EMILY MARTHA EDSON OFFIELD (daughter of William, sister of James Evermont Offield who had married Lucinda,) marrying THOMAS PENDERGRAFT there would have been no great-great granddaughter, Wendie Pendergraft Thomas, me.
Here is the article:
100 YEARS OLD
CRYSTAL GRAVES, SMITH, LINN
Born November 1, 1896
Crystal Linn is the grand daughter of four wagon train families; the Graves, Henson, Glover and Offields ]sic] [Correct spelling should be Offield]. Crystal lives in the house she was born in, in the historic Canemah area of Oregon City, Oregon. the daughter of Martha (Henson, born 1/11/1857) and Franklin Graves, born 12/23/1854. Crystal was married [at age 18] to Louis Smith [age 26] for 49 years and after his death married a childhood friend who was also from a wagon train family Earl Linn, who has now also past away. Crystal continued to live in the historic 1889 Martha Graves house that she bought from her mother.
Crystal had three children, one died shortly after birth [Peter Stanley Smith
BIRTH 13 Feb 1924 Canemah, Clackamas County, Oregon, USA
DEATH 17 Feb 1924 (aged 4 days) Canemah, Clackamas County, Oregon, USA
BURIAL Canemah Historic Pioneer Cemetery, Canemah, Clackamas County, Oregon, USA ] . [A son]Eldon gave her two grandchildren; Olivia and Sibyl and two great grandchildren. [A daighter] Virginia (King) gave her four grandchildren: Michael, David, Patricia and James. This has given Crystal nine more great grandchildren and five great-great grandchildren. There are five generations, maternal, now [1996 WT adds] with Lauren born October 12. (Crystal 100, Virginia 77, Patricia 52, Stacy 30, Lauren 3 weeks).
Crystal intends to vote in this Presidential election as she has in every election since suffrage. Crystal can trace her family to Capt. Thomas Graves who came to Virginia in 1608. Capt. Graves was a member of the House of Burgesses, first convened by the colonist July 30, 1619. The House of Burgesses was the first legislative assembly in the new world [and] is said to be the birthplace of American democracy. Her stories of the early history, events and the people of Oregon City add color and understanding to what it took to make this great State of Oregon and the United States of America.
Notes:
Maternal heritage: Great Grandmother Lucinda Offield widowed on the Oregon Trail in 1850, continued on with five children, twelve to seven months. Saved by Indians, on the Barlow Trail, near what is now known as Government Camp, with no food, dry clothes and bedding. Grandmother Mary Jane Offield was one of the five children, then raised in Gribble Prairie 5 miles south of Canby. Grandmother married Ezra Henson who came to Oregon on the same 1850 wagon train at nineteen years of age. Mother married the son of John Pinkard Graves and Maria Glover, from the 1849 and 1850 wagon trains. For more information call Crystal's granddaughter Patricia Edgar (phone numbers no longer connected in May 2022. W. Thomas adds)
10/29/1996 poe CRYSTAL2.DOC.
Wendie Thomas adds: It's A Small World Department
Crystal was part of a friendship group that included Beulah and Adrien Houde, Vera and John Mason, Vera's sister Lucille Redenbacker and her husband Vern, Willard Bowles and his first wife Betty and his second wife Addie and other people who bonded together during World War II. Beulah and Vern met while working in the shipyards and Beulah and Vern's wife Lucille became life-long buddies. The foursome, Vern, and Lucille, Adrien and Beulah went on fishing trips all over Oregon. One fishing trip story was that as Vern and Lucille were driving down a steep hill pulling the camping trailer, Adrien and Beulah looked out the side window in the car and saw the trailer next to the car instead of being behind it. Someone had forgotten to fasten a safety chain that kept the trailer attached to the hitch and after going over a bump, the trailer came lose. It went off the road and over the side. No more trailer. Thank goodness no one got hurt.
Vern and Lucille lived in Oregon City and Lucille worked at a furniture store there; might have been Frederick's Furniture. Crystal worked at Frederick's Hardware store and that was most likely where they became friends. With all of the group now passed away it's hard to say just how they formed their close knit social kinship, meet once a month to celebrate birthdays, special events, play cards, picnic, go fishing, hear about the grandkids, you name it kind of group but as a child I remember Friday night trips to Vern and Lucille's It seemed to take forever to drive south on 82nd Ave. (long before the freeway was built.) The TV would be tuned in to wrestling or Friday night fights. I remember going to Vera and John Mason's house near the Christmas holidays. John gave us gold wrapped chocolate coins which were so good, and he took my brother Greg and I to our first semi-pro hockey game.
Because the group rotated meeting at different people's homes, I remember meeting Crystal at potlucks and picnics when they were held at my grandparent's home in Portland but at the time (the 1950's) I had no idea that Crystal and I were distant cousins on my paternal side. In fact, it wasn't until spring of 2022 that I knew the Pendergraft family was related to the Offield family at all. We had the name of Lucinda Offield's sister-in-law as 'Oldfield' and nowhere in my "hunt" for family had I found any Oldfields! And without EMILY MARTHA EDSON OFFIELD (daughter of William, sister of James Evermont Offield who had married Lucinda,) marrying THOMAS PENDERGRAFT there would have been no great-great granddaughter, Wendie Pendergraft Thomas, me.
