Itowapi Photo

Eva was only 7 when she was sadly murdered at Auschwitz Birkenau on June 16,1944

Linda

Wedding photo

Article about Barry and Peter Rhodes (brothers) being commissioned in 1940s

Helen Irene Graham teenage glamour photo.

Annie Lois was born on March 5, 1852 to John and Lydia Young. Her father was a fisherman on the Atlantic and gone for long periods of time. She was raised in the family home in Lincolnville, Waldo Co., Maine. She joined a sister Nell and there would be three younger brothers, Wilbur E. 'Will' and Roscoe J. Young.
She was a quiet, helpful child, and considered herself to be a 'mother's helper' since birth. She also recalled with fondness attending the Methodist Church and the honors that she earned in Sunday School. She spoke of the trinkets being lost later in life and how she thought often about them.
She left the home when she was 11, to work in a cotton mill in Manchester, NH in 1863. She was very proud to say that she never missed an hour of work, although she was very homesick. At 13, she went to work in a mill in Lowell, MA and was living in a rooming house nearby. This is where she was introduced to a young man who was just returning from service in the Civil War and seeking local employment.
The courtship began immediately, and on Oct. 2, 1868 Annie was joined in marriage to Horatio Gates Townsend in Lowell, MA. Annie was just 16 years old and Horatio was 22. They continued to reside and work in Lowell until April of 1869 when they moved to Lawrence, MA in hopes of better pay and living arrangements. Horatio found work with Albert Blood Machine Shop and Annie worked at Pacific Mills until their first son was born in June 1870. A second son arrived in Nov. 1876.
The small family heard the call of the west and in began to make plans to follow Annie's brother Will, Horatio's brother Ed and Horatio's Civil War companion Joe Dunnells to Nebraska. The family of four arrived in Schuyler Nebraska in Feb. of 1873.
They stayed with their family until a dugout could be constructed, and then they moved in. The four of them slept in the single bed and for a long time shared a single spoon, but they were persistent. The homestead in Butler Co., Sec. 4, Township 15N, Range 2E, was their home. They suffered grasshoppers, cave-ins, droughts and storms.
Annie found work in Omaha working for a woman with ten children from Oct – Mar. 1973-74, with a goal of improving their circumstances. She was paid $2.50 per week. In the spring of 1882 the family moved to David City and in 1902 they moved to University Place, just outside Lincoln, NE.
Living in University Place with all of her children grown, Annie's health became frail, and her youngest son, returning from World War I, hired a private duty nurse from the East to come and help in the care of his mother.
Annie was a loving mother and grandmother, she loved her children deeply. She was always strong in her Christian faith, simple and trustful; her disposition was quiet and retiring. Her Christ was her daily companion.
Annie and Horatio had seven children: Warren Everett 1870, Charles Herbert 1871, Lewis Franklin 1875, Emma Ada 1877, Cora Eda 1879, Harvey Gates 1885 and Walter Ernest 1887.

May was born to Charlie and Nellie Mae William Townsend on October 10, 1911 in White Clay, Nebraska. May did not have a middle name, as her father expected her to retain the Townsend name in the second position after she married.
On October 6, 1933 she married Clifford Wayne Coon in Chadron, Nebraska. The couple were blessed with four children; Rita May 1934, Merle Roy 1935, Charles Wayne 1937, and Alma Charlene 1940. All of the children were born while the couple was still living in White Clay, Nebraska.
Eventually the couple moved to San Leandro, California, near May's brother John. May was widowed on June 11, 1980 when Clifford passed away.
May never learned to drive but she remained fiercely independent, even into her eighties. She continued to reside in San Leandro, using the city bus system to get about town for her errands.
May continued to enjoy pretty good health although her eyesight failed with age, and she was no longer able to read or write. She outlived one daughter and two grandchildren.
She died on November 19, 2003 and was cremated.

James

What a beauty!