#69 Flora Gertrude Bancroft's Timeline and Will

Flora G Bancroft Timeline and Will

I just found a will that my great grandmother wrote the year she died.

The will is short and reflects how much (or how little she possessed). Floras' life was circumscribed by difficulties and some personal tragedies. She lived through World War 1, the Great Depression and World War 2. Her own father had served in the Civil War. Her mother died when she was young. I am not sure where she was schooled still I'm sure her father was sure she had it. Like many people of the era she lived nearly her entire life with extended family. This post is a time line of her life events-connecting them to those people I believe she was closest to. After all, what affects our loved ones, affects us,

I believe it relevant information when writing a personal history.

Birth and Youth

Birth - 22 June 1867 in Meadville, PA to Isabell (Bella) Sarah Brinker (d of Sarah Anna Graham and Col. Jacob Brinker of Butler PA) and Peter Sanford Bancroft (1830- 1916) disabled Civil War vet, professor, and editor, born in Colebrook, CT.

Age 7- 1874-Death of her mother Isabell Brinker (born in 1846, three children)

Age 13- 1880- Residence - Butler, Butler, PA Her widower father moved the family

to the small city of Butler. Living in town meant she and her brothers were now close to her mother's family and their children (her cousins on the Brinker side).

I imagine she would have spent much time with the girls in the Brinker family.

Her 20s

With her Butler cousins

1892

1894

Marriages

On Oct 16 in 1895 Flora married William Henry Tilton (son of Louisa August Copes and Henry A Tilton.)

Flora filed for her marriage license giv­ing her first name as "Flo."

He was 22 years old and she was 28 years old when they wed.

William Tilton was born in Brooklyn, NY. His family moved to Butler for a job. His parents moved from Butler to Detroit, then to California.

Tiltons: Earlier that month, William's sister, Isabella C Tilton, wed Charles Roe in Butler on Oct 2. Flora and Isbella were friends: Flora's son, my grandfather, was named after Bella's husband Charles. And, Aunt Bella gave her nephew Charles Tilton her engagement ring upon her passing.

Her husband’s brother Clarence A Tilton had married and was divorced, living in Michigan. He subsequently married a divorcee writer Bertha Francis Parker (no children).

Bancroft Siblings: Flora's brothers Earl and Grove were wed already married and living in Butler.

Her 30s

In 1899 her brother Grove Graham Bancroft died at age 30, leaving wife Etta (Bowman) and young daughter Irene Bancroft.

She was 32 when she had her first child Henry Addison Tilton, Butler, PA in 1900. The same year her brother's infant son, Sanford Bancroft died ( son of Earl Bancroft & Clara Ryan) died.

Then, a death: Flora and William's infant son Henry died in 1901. She was 33.

In 1902 her 2nd son (and only child who grew to adulthood, my grandfather) Charles Bancroft Tilton was born at 130 E Cunningham St, Butler, PA. She was 35 that year. 

1904

In 1906 (she was 39) her brother's son 2-year-old Alfred Bancroft (son of Earl Bancroft & Clara Ryan's son) died.

About 1907

 

Her 40s

In 1910 she was 43 and lived with her husband, son and father in Butler, PA.

1916 was a bad year: Her father Peter S Bancroft died on 17 May 1916 at her home on 318 West Cunningham St, Butler, PA.

Father, PS Bancroft; and son Charles Tilton (at 2)

Less than a month later and a week before 48th birthday, her husband William H Tilton died on June 15, 1916. His obituary ran on Jun 16, 1916. The death certificate states the cause of death as throat cancer (with other cancers).

My grandfather was 14 years old the year she was made a widow. 

Her 50s-60s

She remarried a "Pat" (Alexander) Moore who promised to care for her financially. That didn't work out; as soon as her son Charles was out of college in 1926, he found the couple a small hut on the farm he was managing, they were in desperate straits.

Pat Moore died in 1935, by which time the couple was living with Charles, his wife and their children in Philadelphia. Flora continued to live with the family till the end of her life.

Pat Moore and Flora abt 1931

Flora, and granddaughters Ann and Margaret 1940s

Her 70s-80s

The Great Depression had forced my grandfather to take up jobs which were wholly unsuitable for him. He never made much money-enough to keep body and soul together. His wife did what she could to contribute. At the start of World War 2 began, her son found out he could become a commissioned officer, so he signed up. In the war he was with Air Force intelligence. When the war was over, he returned unscathed.

During the war, the family had moved out of Philadelphia to Elizabeth's family's hometown in northern Adams County, PA The eldest grandchildren went off to college and the 'baby' was still at home. When Charles returned from the war, he and Elizabeth set up a nursery business that was limping along.

In February of 1949, Flora was not yet 82. She made out her will in her own hand. I don't know why but since she died later that year, perhaps the doctor gave her some bad news? She turned 82 that June. The month following on July 6, 1949, she died in Gettysburg, PA. My grandfather was 47 years old. (The following year my mother got married to my father). She is buried at the Menallen Friends Meeting.

Her Will (son & wife & grandchildren, l don't know who Helen is)

 

Flora Bancroft Tilton Moore's Will

Transcription:  February 1949

My will or wish is that the little I have of worldly goods viz- the silver in chest & china Since they came from Charles grand­parents on his father's side. I wish Charles & his wife Elizabeth to have them so long as they both or one of them live. Charles may leave them as he wishes--only that Elizabeth has use of them for life. Then Billy--should have it(?) Flora Bancroft Tilton Moore

I wish Ann to have 3 gold bowl table­spoons & the silver ladle Margaret to have 3 gold bowl tablespoons & the salad spoon Helen to have the little silver nut spoon. Flora Bancroft Tilton Moore

#9 - (Great-Great) Aunt Frances Parker Tilton - Western Author and Divorcée (Clarence Addison Tilton's wife)

Genealogy is just the story of humanity only set in the past. The ups and downs and heartaches of life all happened before. Though I don't typically focus on uncles and aunts, now and then one catches my fancy.

I was snagged by my grandfather's uncle's wife. The story of their lives was so different from his siblings, that I had to pursue it.
 As I was researching my great grandfather (William H Tilton), I was drawn to his brother's Clarence story. I finally answered the call to unlock his & his wife's story: 
Oddity 1 - An obituary of William & Clarence's father (Henry A Tilton) contained a sentence about one of two his sons:
“A son, Clarence Tilton, was coroner's clerk under Dr. Morgan Parker, but now resides in the south.” [from the Paint, Oil and Drug Review Vol LII-No. 15, Chicago, Wednesday, October 11, 1911.] Then the next paragraph repeats the surviving members of the family--and Clarence is included in this as well. Why does the father’s obituary mention Clarence twice and why include this Dr. Parker? Who was he?

Then I found Clarence and his parents listed in a Detroit social club "The Wallace."

While that is not surprising, it did tell me something about this eligible bachelor (not a problem, just additional information).
Oddity 2 - Clarence moved many times after Detroit--to sparsely settled areas of
the country. My spouse suggested a scandal. Maybe, or maybe an itchy foot.
Oddity 3 - Clarence had a son according to the census records. However, the son was born in  Montana in the years Clarence was in Detroit. How'd he -or why did he do that?

Finding the answer: I wasn’t very clever, I just backed over the answer -
I looked for the wife to find out more about the husband. This isn't the most efficient route, normally. But in this instance it was a gold mine. Once I found out her complete name (Bertha Francis Parker), I found that she gives her name (variously) as Bertha Parker, Francis Parker, and Frances Parker. I did a simple internet search for Frances Parker and
found this about her:
 “She was now a sought after author—McClure’s Magazine had asked her to write short
stories. It was most likely at this time that she found that which had been missing from
her life—true love.
The object of her affections was Clarence Tilton, a handsome accountant two years younger  than Frances. Tilton had moved to Detroit from Brooklyn, New York, in 1893 and now served as Clerk for Frances’s brother, Dr. Morgan Parker, the Wayne County coroner.”

I backtracked with that name and was able to piece together this: she (Bertha Francis Parker) was born January 17, 1875 in Detroit, Michigan to (Dr.) Dayton and Ida Cogswell Parker.  Her father became a professor at the Michigan College of  Medicine & Surgery.
So they were well-off. But she lost her mother on August 15, 1889. Only four months later in December 1889, her father got remarried to a widow, and Frances had a stepmother who was 15 years younger than her father.

Less than 2 year later when Bertha Francis Parker (or Frances Parker, as she called herself)
was 16, she graduated from school. Life at home was no longer to her liking so she looked for an escape. As it turns out, her cousin going to Montana to join her brother there, so Frances decided to go along.

While in Montana she met Carson Minor (C.M.) Jacobs, the manager of the N Bar N Ranch. She had fallen in love. When her father came out late in the year, the 34 year-old CM Jacobs asked for permission to wed his 16 year-old daughter.

Frances and CM were wed in Detroit in December 1891. And they eventually returned to the ranch in Montana to live. 
Yet despite the distance, Frances enjoyed annual visits from family, and sometimes gained household help through their generosity. In addition, she often returned to visit her family in Detroit. In her free time in Montana, she spent a good deal of it writing her "romance" stories based on in Montana. Her husband left the N Bar  N to do his own ranching, which moved house for them--putting her in a more isolated location.

Their son Parker was born on August 1, 1897. By November Frances with baby Parker, and her sister Beatrice, were back in Detroit for the winter.

Frances looked for publishers--and finally in 1903 C. M. Clark Publishing Company (Boston) published her western romances, Marjie of the Lower Ranch. Her next book was Hope Hathaway, A Story of  Western Ranch Life, which contained watercolor illustrations by Charlie Russell.
 
By 1904 it was clear that the family changes, lifestyle changes and her long absences, had taken its toll on the marriage: it was is falling apart.  In 1905, Frances ignored a court summons of desertion and abandonment, and instead collected her belongings and her son. She then returned to Michigan--never to return Montana. Officially the marriage was  over in October 1905. Son Parker did eventually return to Montana where he lived there till after high school (1915).

Frances moved to her father’s farm south of Detroit to Rockwood, Michigan. But she was now a published author. The famous women's magazine, McClure’s, has asked her to write short stories. Then, according to the biographer quoted in the start, Frances met and married Clarence Tilton in 1906. 

Bertha Francis Parker & Clarence Addison Tilton abt 1907

 

It turns out that the Coroner named Dr. Parker mentioned in Henry Tilton's obituary is his wife's brother, not her father. It’s possible that  Clarence and Frances met at a family event--a party or a dinner to which he was invited.
 

The couple lived in Detroit for four years before moving to Bradenton, FL. Possibly once out of the Detroit social circles - where divorced women were still a scandal-it's possible Bradenton was more to their liking.

But by 1911, Clarence’s father (Henry Addison Tilton) was at his daughter’s in Chicago dying. Son Clarence travels from Florida, and son William from Butler, PA, to go to their father’s bedside.
I wonder if the their wives went, too: if so, how Flora G Bancroft Tilton (wife of William Tilton) and Bertha Frances Parker got along? Likely the two women knew how to behave. I wonder if  Frances was bold? Did she give Gertrude an autographed book? I wonder if my grandfather (who would have been a young boy) go with them?
Next Clarence became the County Auditor in Florida. 
But as World War 1 drew near, he moved on to New Mexico. Sometimes the facts aren't enough: If I had known nothing of his wife’s first marriage, I would have thought he might have dragged her there. Now I am not sure this is the case at all. She might have been planning to incorporate Southwest Indian traditions in her next novel. 
In New Mexico Clarence worked as an Auditor for the US government. Apparently the Southwest agreed with them: after New Mexico, Clarence takes a job in Arizona at  a mine. Frances' son Parker came to stay with them. Parker Jacobs (his father's name) tends to pop up in the census bearing with the Tilton last name.
One biographer wrote this about their final days:
“By 1920, Clarence and Frances had moved to Jerome, Arizona, where William A. Clark’s United Verde Copper Company operations were booming, and Clarence found work as an accountant. 
Frances’s sister Beatrice and her family moved to Jerome, and, surprisingly, Parker Jacobs [Tilton--in the census], who had graduated from Chinook High School, also lived with them, working as a machinist at the mine. 

 
Not long after this, Clarence became ill with bronchial asthma, and his declining health meant Frances needed to earn an income.
She began writing in earnest … but C. M. Clark had gone out of business, and she had no connection with another publisher. Neither her personal life nor her professional life improved. 
Clarence Tilton died of heart and bronchial ailments at age forty-eight in October 1925. Thereafter, Frances buckled down to finish “A Woman of the Border” and submitted it to Curtis Brown, International Publishing, in April 1926. It was rejected.” -- **from "Romancing Montana - Frances Parker, Western Writer" by Mary L. Helland, 2010. *** 
I am indebted to Ms Helland's research on Frances Parker for filling in the gaps-and used large portions of her article. Full Article by Ms. Helland is here:
Montana Womens History - Mary L Helland