Clan William: Marrying Up - William Edgar Mattison Jr

This is a short little story about a Munson-descended man "marrying up." William Edgar Mattison married Elizabeth Dean Alford, a descendant of Governor Thomas Dudley of Massachusetts.

Capt Thomas Munson > Samuel Munson > Samuel James Munson > William Munson >  Martha Munson > Eliakim Doolittle > Tirzah Doolittle > Mary Eddy Montgomery > Effa Roslie Galusha > William Edgar Mattison Jr m Elizabeth Dean Alford

William Edgar Mattison, Jr. was born to William Edgar Mattison, Sr and Effa Galusha on 07 Sep 1912 in Shaftsbury, Vermont. The Mattison's were of modest means. William Sr. worked at various labor jobs and farmed throughout his life. They had seven children. William was the second youngest. By 1935, they had both passed away.

By the time Jr. was 17, he was no longer in school and was working in a furniture factory. He then took a job as a night watchman at the newly opened women's Bennington College (1932) in southwest Vermont. Bennington was the first liberal arts college to offer visual and performing arts in its program. While patrolling the campus one night, he met young Elizabeth Alford, daughter of the prominent and uber wealthy Brookline, Massachusetts Mr & Mrs Edward Balch Alford family. 

Bennington College

Elizabeth had her society debut in the 1933-34 season and was most eligible. A freshman at Bennington, she was a  member of the junior league and the exclusive Vincent Club. 

The society wedding was held on November 5, 1935 at the Alford Estate in Brookline. The event was picked up on newswire and published all over the country as "handsome cop marries wealthy socialite."

You have to kind of wonder how the senior Alford's felt about a working class young man marrying their daughter.

William became a dairy farmer in Concord and dubbed the farm "Arrowhead Farm." This farm should not be confused with the Arrowhead Farm of Herman Melville in Pittsfield.  This house was the original homestead of Ezekiel Miles, built in 1741. The Mattison's raised their six children on the farm. Mrs. Mattison gave tours to school children and the children participated in 4H. They seemed to live a very happy life. You can read a lovely oral history by the eldest Mattison child, William, about the farm in the 1940s and 1950s.

Farm today. Photo credit JB the Milker

In 1940, Elizabeth's father died, leaving his fortune to his wife and two children, leaving the Mattison's even better off than before. There was an account of her brother, Edgar, after inheriting while serving in the Army, that also made the newswire. 

William died in 1972 while on a visit to his native Bennington. He had been a life member of Nashawtuc Country Club and the Bennington Elks. Elizabeth was listed in her obituary as the wife of William - not the wealthy socialite and descendant of generations of Boston Brahmins. In getting to know her, I'd say that was probably just the way she wanted it.

Click to Enlarge

Clan William: James Ralph Doolittle, WWI Flyer

James Ralph

Today's story is about a young man, who received some benefit from his great grandfather's fame and reputation, but it didn't keep him from the tragedy that would befall him.

Capt Thomas Munson > Samuel Munson > Samuel James Munson > William Munson >  Martha Munson > Reuben Doolittle > Reuben Doolittle > James Rood Doolittle > James Reuben Doolittle > James Rood Doolittle > James Ralph Doolittle

James Ralph Doolittle was born 07 Jan 1894 in Chicago, Illinois to James Rood Doolittle, publisher and grandson of Senator James Rood Doolittle of Wisconsin and Frances Sterling Golsen. 

Doolittle as a young man decided to volunteer with the American Norton-Harjes ambulance services that served the Allied Forces in France World War I. The cadre was made up of 600 volunteers. He later became the 37th American to join the LaFayette Escadrille, the French Air Force unit which began flying in 1917, nearly a full year before the US got into the war. The unit was made up largely of American volunteer pilots. 

Spad Aircraft

Doolittle trained at Buc, Avord, and Pau. During training. In April 1917, he was injured when his 
aircraft side-slipped into the ground, breaking his ankle and cutting his face, leaving scars. After spending eight weeks in the hospital, he joined La Fayette Escadrille on 02 July 1917. On 17 Jul 1917, he was flying to the newly created base at Dunkirk and became lost in the clouds. Two German aircraft attacked and shot him twice in the leg. While trying to come down, a British Archie (anti-aircraft gun) also hit him as they tried to fight off the German aircraft. On landing, his Spad aircraft flipped, but thankfully, in British territory. His injuries were severe, and his facial injuries were reopened. He eventually recovered and was released from the French service so he could return home. 

La Fayette Escadrille

He was not deterred in the flying department and became a civilian flight instructor for the US Air Service. He resided at the University Club in Chicago. While at Kenilworth Field near Buffalo, New York, he met  socialite Mary Louise Thomas and they became engaged. Their wedding was scheduled for 01 Aug 1918. 

On 26 Jul 1918, he was flying with another Air Service employee, Lawrence J Dunham in an experimental Curtiss a/c powered by a Liberty Motor. Doolittle, who was piloting, took a sharp turn, and apparently attempted make that turn with the engine throttled with insufficient air speed. The plane crashed, killing Dunham, 20, instantly. Doolittle survived the crash and was taken to the Buffalo hospital, where he died an hour after arrival. He was just five days from his wedding to Mary Louise. His ashes were sent to France to be buried with his comrades in arms.

Mary Louise Thomas
Murray Dier

I always wonder what happened to those left behind. At his memorial, his father said, "If death was to come to my son in the way it so happened, I only regret it did not come after he shot a number of enemy planes."

Mary Louise went on. She married a year later, in 1919,  to Clifford J. Murray, another person in her social realm. She went to Reno for her divorce in 1927. She married again and divorced again. She had one child from each marriage. She died in 1967 in Florida.

Clan William: Senator James Rood Doolittle

Senator James Rood Doolittle, who served as Senator to Wisconsin, was arguably, Abraham Lincoln's best friend. Senator Doolittle's line from William Munson is as follows:

Capt Thomas Munson > Samuel Munson > Samuel James Munson > William Munson >  Martha Munson > Reuben Doolittle > Reuben Doolittle > James Rood Doolittle

Doolittle was born on January 15, 1815 in Hampton, New York, "on the shores of the Poultney River..."[1] to Reuben Doolittle, Jr. and Sarah Rood.

As a young child, the family moved to Wyoming County, NY. J. R. went to the Middlebury Academy prep school in Wyoming Co. and to Geneva (later Hobart) College, where he graduated top of his class in 1834. 

J. R. then moved to Rochester to study law. In 1837, the year he was admitted to the bar, he married Mary Lovina Cutting, who had also attended Middlebury Academy. They moved to Warsaw, New York in 1841. He had some interest in politics and from 1845-1849, he served as District Attorney of Warsaw County. He identified at the time as a Democrat. In 1847, he jumped into the anti-slavery movement as a Barnburner. In 1848, the Democrats ran General Lewis Cass, who believed states should have the option of allowing slavery. Democrats were split on this stance, and J. R. firmly stood on the side that opposed slavery and broke off into leadership of the Free Soil Party. As a leader in this faction, J. R. wrote what would become the Cornerstone Resolution:

"Resolved: That while the democracy of New York represented in this convention will faithfully adhere to all the compromises of the Consitution and maintain all the reserved rights of the states, they declare, since the crises arrived when that question must be met, their uncompromising hostility to the extensioin of slavery into territory now free, or which may be hereafter acquired by any action of the government of the United States."

Finally, he became one of the leaders of the new Republican Party. Back home, his family had grown to five children by the time he and his wife moved to Racine, Wisconsin in 1851. J. R. practiced law, became a judge, and in 1857, ran for his first of two terms as a US Senator as a moderate Republican. In 1852, his final child, Sallie, would be born. 

During his terms in office, he became a favorite advisor of many.  He helped unify the young party - his speaking powers were strong and persuasive. J. R. made an excellent nominating speech on behalf of  Abraham Lincoln at the Republican National Convention. When Abraham Lincoln took office in 1861, J. R. became not only a trusted advisor, but according to Leonard Swett, advisor to Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln would say of him:

"During the years 1863 and 1864...often I saw Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Dolittle together, and often heard the president speak of him in his absence. The most cordian and friendly relations existed between them, and the president always spok of him in terms of warmest friendship and esteem." 

Once, while perusing a list of senators who would hopefully support Lincoln's re-nomination, Swett asked the president: "You don't consider all these your friends?" Replied Lincoln, "No...when you speak of friendship, I sometimes thought Doolittle was the only real friend I had here." James was frequently invited to breakfast with Lincoln, famouly riding his warhourse, Chacamauga, to the White House early in the morning."

Upon Lincoln's assasination, the president became Andrew Johnson. Johnson won the next election, but he would face many challenges.  J. R. supported Johnson's opposition to "radical reconstruction." J. R. was working in direct opposition to the instructions he received from the Wisconsin legislature and he was censured by his constituents. The legislature than passed a resolution directing J. R. to resign. It was supported by the then governor, Governor Fairchild. Doolittle refused. At the end of the day, J. R. was not going to be re-elected and his days in politics would be, for all intents and purposes, over. J. R. switched back to the Democratic Party after a brief foray with the new political party formed on the basis of Johnson's reconstruction model.

J. R.  then went to Chicago and started up his law practice. He continued to maintain his residence in Racine, but began teaching law at the Old University of Chicago, serving as acting president for one year, and remained on the Board of Trustees until his death. In 1884-1885 he served as president of the Chicago Board of Education. 

He died 27 Jul 1897 in Providence County, Rhode Island. 

The story of James Rood Doolittle is far more complex and interesting than can be addressed in a short introductory blog post and his impact was great. I hope that if you love history as much as I do, you take some time to learn more.

[1] https://www.adirondackalmanack.com/2012/05/north-country-abolitionist-james-rood-doolittle.html

[2] https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Article/CS7121

[3] https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/40193846.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A29994e1078884e9453d23f35113198f0&ab_segments=&origin=

[4] https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Article/CS7121

[5] https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1261&context=fvw-pamphlets

Clan William: Edith Minerva Brace, Teacher

Clan William descendant Emily Cowles and husband C Lusk Brace made smart little babies. Son Dr DeWitt Brace was a world-class physicist. His baby sister, Edith, is the one we will be talking about today. She was a biologist and teacher.

Capt Thomas Munson > Samuel Munson > Samuel James Munson > William Munson > Peter Munson > Lydia Munson > William Zelus Bristol > Emily Cowles Bristol > Edith Minerva Brace

Born 29 Dec 1867 in Lockport, Niagara County, New York, youngest child Edith was a smart cookie. 

She attended University of Nebraska at Lincoln, where brother DeWitt was on faculty. She studied biology with an emphasis on botany and zoology, her true passions.  I believe there was a good chance, since her mother was living with DeWitt prior to his marriage, that she also resided with them in Lincoln, though I have no source to prove that at this time. She received her bachelor of science degree, then attended the University of Chicago, where she recieved her master of science degree in biology. 

Rochester Free 
Academy

Many men of that era with such a scientific and resarch interest, might have gone on to teach at the college level. That was not an easy for a woman and an almost impossible option at that point in time, with rare exceptions. 

Women weren't open to attending University of Rochester prior to 1900, but at least 12 did, including Edith. Those individuals attended classes with men, but could not receive credit for their classes.

Her first noted teaching gig was beginning in late 1899 at the Rochester Free Academy, which was a secondary high school in Rochester, New York. While there she also stayed involved in the science research world, and was the editorial assistant for neurology for the Journal of  Applied Microscopy and Laboratory Methods from 1899.

It's not known when she left Rochester, but in 1904, she was teaching as a professor at Western Maryland University. During the summer of 1904, she participate in a summer program in zoology for the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Science teaching zoology.

In 1908, she began teaching at the secondary level in Brooklyn. Sorting through the various transfers was quite a project, but here's how it broke down so far.

Eastern District HS, Flatbush; Morris HS, South Bronx; Erasmus Hall HS, Flatbush

As I get access to more records, I hope to fill in the blanks for Edith's job history and housing history. Her obituary mentions she worked at Morris High School in the South Bronx between Eastern District and Erasmus Hall high schools, but the only reference I have to her teaching at Morris HS is in 1922, when in the 2nd semester, she was transferred from Morris to Eastern District. We do know she was at Erasmus Hall, teaching biology, from 1924 through her retirement in 1939. 

School and Home History

Some of Edith's residences

Edith wasn't all work. She also vacationed!  In a 1915 article in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, titled "Notables at Easthampton," it's mentioned that Edith was spending time at The Osborne House in Long Island. During the middle half of the century, the Poconos Mountains of Pennsylvania was a hot spot for vacations - honeymooing, skiing, camping, swimming, fishing and more. In the 1940s, Edith visited several times. Buck Hill Inn was built in 1901 on 1,000 acres. The resort, one of the premier resorts in the Poconos, had horseback riding, golf, and tennis. The Inn had a downturn in business in the 1960s and 1970s and closed forever in 1990 and was finally demolished after several failed starts at renovation, starting in 2016.

Buck Hill Inn Entrance, Dining Room, and Olympic-sized pool

World War I and Loyalty Oaths

Now, to the most interesting part of Edith's records. Her opposition to signing a "Loyalty Oath" in 1917 at the onset of World War I.

Summarizing the issue in the most compact way possible, before our entry into World War I against "The Hun," (Germans), a trend swept across the nation to bolster support for us entering the war that required people in government, education, and other industries to sign "Loyalty Oaths," which basically said they agreed with the US involvement in the war and would not do anything to hinder or subvert our policies or efforts around the war.

Now, many people took issue with signing such an oath. Many people lost their jobs for failing to do so and it became basically a witch hunt to punish those who would not sign. That included the Quakers, conscientious objectors, and others who did not agree with the war. Teachers in New York who failed to sign were put in front of what to me sounds like a tribunal and forced to state their case. They were nearly all fired or transferred to less desirable schools. Some would later be rehired, but many were not.

The mob mentality of a large group of teachers against those who refused to sign formed committees and organizations to vilify those who wouldn't toe the line. One group even supported having those who didn't sign interred, as we would later do with the Japanese during World War II.

Our brave Edith made headlines over the course of several days despite the fact she signed the loyalty oath. She refused to sign the next document proferred, which opposed settling for a "negotiated peace." Below is one of the articles that best explains the situation (click the article at the bottom to enlarge). They published her home address and her salary!  

It does not appear as any significant fallout befell Edith for this defiance, but many, many educators fell victim to this rabid "patriotism" from 1917-1919.

One More Fight

In 1915, Edith, along with 200 other NYC teachers, marched on Albany around two different Senate proposed bills.

The Cromwell Bill or Senate Bill 1414, which would put the responsibility for determining the number and pay of teachers, under the Board of Estimate and Apportionment and the Alderman of the city. The NYC Controller was in favor of the move and stated he would not only recommend no raises, but would recommend reducing salaries. The bill was almost universally opposed by teachers. Imagine.

The second bill, known as the Boylen-Kelly Pension bill was supported by the NYC Interborough Association of Women Teachers.

Neither bill seems to have been passed and were left to die in committee.

Alice retired from teaching in February of 1939. She lived the remainder of her days in Brooklyn. At the age of 86 she became ill and was hospitalized in Brooklyn Hospital, where she died on 10 Nov 1954. Her only living relatives were nieces and nephews. 

Edith's Refusal to Sign

Clan William: Physicist DeWitt Bristol Brace, PhD

Today's subject is the incredible pioneer scientist, DeWitt Bristol Brace, PhD. He was a brilliant physics professor and researcher who died young. Makes me wonder what he could have done had he lived a full life.

Capt Thomas Munson > Samuel Munson > Samuel James Munson > William Munson > Peter Munson > Lydia Munson > William Zelus Bristol > Emily Cowles Bristol > DeWitt Bristol Brace, PhD

DeWitt Bristol Brace was born to Emily Cowles Bristol, our Munson descendant, and C. Lusk Brace near Wilson, Niagara County, New York on 05 Jan 1859. Lusk was a farmer and later a Lockport mill operator. Lusk and Emily had four children, DeWitt being the second son and child.

DeWitt received both his bachelor's and master's degrees from Boston College in 1881-1882. He then studied under Dr. Henry Augustus Rowland at Johns Hopkins University for two years. He then went to Berlin, Germany to study under Dr Hermann Helmholtz and Dr Gustav Kirchhoff at the University of Berlin. He received his PhD in 1885 in Berlin after he completed his dissertation on the magnetic rotation of the plane of polarization.

Dr Brace returned to the US, he traveled to the University of Michigan, where he spent a year as an assistant professor of physics. 

Old Physics Lab at UNL

The University of Nebraska at Lincoln was founded in 1869 and built in a four block section of the city. It's farm campus was built in 1873, outside of the city of Lincoln on the prairie. In the beginning, the science department was not divided into specialties like Chemistry and Physics. It was the first university west of the Missisippi to offer a doctoral program. There apparently was a bias in eastern academic circles that the western education insitutions were inferior in both the academic backgrounds of its faculty and its research capabilities. DeWitt helped dispell this myth when he arrived to take a full professorship in 1887. Part of his charge was to create a physics department.

Research had not necessarily been a big deal at UNL, but Brace believed that such research was critical to the operation of the University. He believed strongly that higher education centers must develop research.  His own research led to great distinction for the University. With a growing reputation, Brace used his clout to lobby for updated equipment, laboratories, facilities, and money for research. He built a very strong Physics department but the department still needed a home on campus. 

UNL Physics Staff 1905
UNL Library Archives

 "Brace also began building a graduate program and hired two additional instructors in 1896, Burton Evans Moore and Louis Trenchard More. A few years later Clarence Aurelius Skinner and John Edwin Almy were also added to the physics faculty. In 1896 one of Brace's students, Harold Allen, was awarded a Ph.D. degree by the University of Nebraska. This was the very first Ph.D. given by any school west of the Mississippi. With one or two exceptions, no further Ph.D.s were given until the present Ph.D. program in physics was initiated after World War II. The photograph on the left shows members of the Physics Department in May 1905 in front of the old Nebraska Hall, which is where the Department was housed until it moved into Brace Laboratory later that year." https://www.unl.edu/physics/department-history

DeWitt made a special study of radiation and optics and published, "The Laws of Radiation and Absorption," in 1901. Life in Nebraska was good. His mother lived with him and had been with him for many years. But, it was time to focus on more than just science. That same year, he went east to marry Iowa native Elizabeth Wing on 16 Oct 1901 in West Newton, Massachusetts. The couple returned to Lincoln and began their family.

Lincoln Journal Star, 12 Oct 1901, p 6

In addition to securing several patents in the course of his research, his body of work had continued to grow as evidenced here: 

"Brace’s own contributions to physical science were almost exclusively in the domain of optics. By the invention of his sensitive-strip polarizer, and his half-shade elliptic polarizer, he extended the range of observation far beyond that previously attained, and he devised and partly executed many experiments in which this increased sensitiveness could be used in the study of fundamental optical problems. Returning to the question which he dealt with in his first published paper, he succeeded in showing that the beam of polarized light which undergoes rotation in a magnetic field is susceptible of resolution into two circularly polarized beams. He showed that, to a very high order of sensitiveness, no effect is impressed upon a ray of light by a magnetic field, if its lines of force are at right angles to the ray. He showed that, up to the third order of the ratio of the velocities, no double refraction could be observed in a medium due to its motion through the ether. He planned and tested a method for determining the velocity of light, from which he expected still greater accuracy than that attained in the classical researches of Michelson and Newcomb. He executed several repetitions, with greatly improved instrumental appliances, of classical experiments bearing on the fundamental question of the relative motion of matter and the ether."  ~ © American Astronomical Society • Provided by the NASA Astrophysics Data System

Brace fought mightily to get a building in which to house the Physics department. The Regents approved $75,000 for a new building. Brace guided it's development and building with the construction team. Then he hit a roadblock when the all powerful athletics department which believed the building was perilously close to its football field. To keep things on track, Brace altered the footprint of the building. Progress on the new building with its state of the art laboratories continued through 1904 and 1905. 

At the beginning of the 1905 school year in September of that year, Brace became ill. He developed septicemia believed to have stemmed from an infection in having a carbuncle removed from his face (an infected boil)  and would die on 02 Oct 1905, having never seen the completion of the project. The school named the building the Brace Physics building in his honor. Much of his research would not be completed by Brace, leaving other physicists to continue his work. Today's Physics Chair, Dr Dan Claes, believes that Brace's research provided a result that "contributed to Einstein's theory of relativity."

New Brace Physical Science Building
(Click to enlarge)

From 1903 to 1905, the Brace's had three children born to them. The youngest, Alice, was born after her father's death in 1905. 

Dr. DeWitt Brace, wife Emily, Lloyd and Roger Brace about
1905. UNL Library Archives

Mrs. Brace moved to Massachusetts after her husband's death and her children would be educated at top East Coast schools as far from the prairie as they could be.

Clan William: Super Nerd Television Pioneer George Harvey Seward

C. Fred Wolcott, Chief Engineer of Gilfilan 
Laboratories and Television Engineers'
Institute of America President
George H. Seward, 1939
Electronics Magazine, Jan 1941

One thing about the Munsons and their progeny, there are a lot who were involved in advancements in
science and education generally. Today's fellow, George Harvey Seward, is about the greatest science geek/promoter I've read about yet. Here's the descendency:

Capt Thomas Munson > Samuel Munson > Samuel James Munson > William Munson > William Munson II > David Munson > Miranda Munson > Alice Jane Bird > George Harvey Seward m. Jessie Leiba

George Seward was born to Alice Jane Bird and Harvey Seward in New Haven, Connecticut on 17 Feb 1873. The oldest of two sons, George attended the Hopkins Grammar School, built on the New Haven Green and founded in 1660. The prestigious schools continues today. The school's website had an original dedication that read: "breeding up of hopeful youths...for the public service of the country in future times."

Following grammar school, George received a bachelor's in philosophy from Yale in 1895. He worked as a optical cataloguer in 1900. At the age of 33, he married Jessie Lebia of Kentucky in 1905. I couldn't find the pair in 1910, but by 1920, they were located in Hollywood, California.

George was a real estate and insurance man and owned a 3-unit home at 765-767-769 Gower Street  on a 9,000 sq ft lot, right across the street from the storied RKO Studios (it's now Paramount Studios). From the earliest days in Hollywood he was nerding out. He operated a short wave radio station and became one of the earliest pioneers in developing television.

(Left) RKO Studios at the corner of Melrose and Gower
(Right) the Gower St. Entrance right across the street 
from the Seward residence (Click photo to increase size)

Sometime in the 1920s, his wife, Jessie, was sent to the Patton State Asylum for the Insane in Highland, San Bernardino. George then lived alone, with the assistance of an older woman, a housekeeper who made his meals and cared for the home for the amount of $600 per year. She would remain with him until his death.

While George was involved in a lot of community efforts, the thing he is most noted for was getting publicity for his hobbies in the press. He was a leader and organizer on a pretty decent scale and was always formulating ways to connect people with similar interests to advance the cause of his particular interest. He was also very involved in the Southern California Yale Club and was known to present scholarships to students attending Yale.

In 1935, he made time to write a clearly frustrated, but unrealistic plea for people not to take up the parking spaces in front of his house

Seward was a short wave expert and was selected by the War Department to participate in an emergency test to simulate a national emergency. While many, many short wave operators were invited to participate across the country, Seward was deft in getting the publicity to go with it! His channel was W6CCT. He also got press in 1935 when he sent an encoded message via his short wave - to advertise his Federated Radio Clubs banquet. 

Though many people and organizations had been working toward television broadcasts for many years, the first demonstration of television occured in London, England in 1926. From that moment, the modern race was on. In 1930, RCA created its first experimental television station, W2XBS. RCA then created the National Broadcast Channel (NBC) in 1931 and shortly after, Columbia Radio System (CBS) was started). These two experimental stations were broadcasting on a small scale. Enthusiasts across the country began working in earnest to advance the experimental capabilities. RCA would still not start selling televisions until 1956.

In the US, several people had developed home television receivers with varying degrees of success. Seward seemed to have a gift for pulling these people together with a lot of hype and publicity. Some of his more interesting television undertakings were related to communications via radio, short wave, and television.

• Organizing the Hollywood Producers-Consumers Cooperative, the focus of which was sound recording and reproduction. Men with or without sound equipment were invited as were housewives, who'd make baked goodies to sell or barter with other cooperatives. (1934)
• Television Engineers Institute of America, Inc. Organized by George to provided educational and social opportunities in the realm of burgeoning television research and application. (1939)
• He also incorporated the Hollywood Television Society (1938) and the Television Artists and Writers Guild. (1939)

He was a great spokesperson and got a lot of media to draw attention in hopes of getting fellow enthusiasts together to advance the cause of developing a commercial and international ability to broadcast television. 

Dr. Lee DeForrest, the "father of radio"

In 1940, he sponsored a conference of over 200 people which headlined Dr. Lee DeForrest, known as
the "father of radio" and other technical speakers in both radio and television. He too, spoke, and never seemed to be short of things to say about his hobbies.

In the last year of his life, Seward decided to run for the Los Angeles Board of Education. He died before the election was held. 

George was honored by many organizations after his death on 30 Oct 1940 in Hollywood.  He was recognized by a number of organizations for his accomplishments to the burgeoning field of television. 

Seward was honored after his death by
many technical publications

His industry obituary read:

International Photographer
Vol 13, Jan-Dec 1941
(Click to enlarge)

And, though not a robust obituary, the hobbyist's death notice made the AP wire. 

Oakland Tribune, Oakland, CA 
31 Oct 1940, Thu, Pg 9

As a side note, Jessie would pass away in 1947, still a patient at the Patterson Asylum for the Insane in Highland, San Bernardino. The house, with it's three units, has been updated and is currently valued at over $1.1 million and is across from what is now Paramount Studios. I wonder if they still have the parking problems?

765-767-769 Gower St

Clan William: Miles Standish Munson & Genevieve Mather

49th MA Infantry Regiment
Port Hudson, LA 1863

Today's post is about a fellow who left his New England home and went pioneering to Kansas. His name intrigued me - Miles Standish Munson. Along the way, I found some interesting tidbits about him, but moreover, about his wife, Jenny Mather.  

Capt Thomas Munson > Samuel Munson > Samuel James Munson > William Munson > William Munson II > David Munson > Stephen Munson > Miles Standish Munson m. Genevieve Mather

Miles Standish Munson was born to Stephen Munson, originally of Litchfield, Connecticut and his wife, Nancy Nash. An early account of the Munson's mentions that Nancy was related to a Virginia governor, but I don't know if that's true. Her lineage does go directly from the early Connecticut freeman, Thomas Nash, immigrant of England, who was a blacksmith.

By the time Miles was born on 05 Jul 1841, the couple lived in Sandisfield, Amherst, Massachusetts. Miles was the youngest surviving child.  Stephen was a carpenter and during the mid-1800s, many sawmills had popped up along the nearby river. A planned railway stop in nearby Farmington Hills failed and most industry in the area failed.

Miles was in Sheffield, Massachusetts in 1860. In 1862, he enlisted in the 49th Infantry Regiment of Massachusetts where he engaged in some minor skirmishes before being mustered out in Sep 1863. Miles arrived in Kansas in 1875 as a result of his Chicago business. 

Reportedly, Miles went to Chicago to work for SP Brownell on South Water Street and later at Board of Trade for "several years." He worked for a company that John Lake was president of that provided the grain and hay for the street car horses. He came to Kansas to find pasture for retired street car horses at both Burlingame and Council Grove, where he was buying corn for the Chicago market.

Genevieve "Jenny" Mather's parents were Jebediah Peck Mather and Sara "Sally" Amelia Deming who originally hailed from Watertown, New York.  Jenny was born in 1859 in Kansas City, Missouri. Her family had lived in Butler County, but were living in Council Grove in Morris County, Kansas in 1877. Her background was described as follows:

"...The father was extensively engaged in the lumber business and rafted lumber down the Ohio river to Cincinnati for a number of years. In 1857 he had a great amount of lumber on hand, owing to his inability to run rafts on the river the two preceding years on account of low water. Being unable to sell his lumber in Cincinnati when he reached that point, he went on down the Ohio river and up the Mississippi, and after selling most of his lumber at St. Louis, he went up the Missouri river to Leavenworth, where he sold the first shingles to be sold in Kansas, and after disposing of his lumber he bought machinery for a flouring and saw mill, which he shipped from St. Louis by river transportation to Westport, which is now the site of Kansas City." 

"He had determined to haul his mill machinery to Council Grove and build a mill near the Kaw Indiana reservation, but when he reached Westport the Border war was raging with such fierceness that he decided to remain there for a time. However, the following year, or in 1860, he continued his journey with his mill machinery and erected a mill at Council Grove, according to his plan. This was the most distant mill west located in Kansas and the third one to be built in the State, the other two being at Lawrence and Fort Scott."

"The Mather mill at Council Grove on the Neosho river was a substantial three story building, built of brick, and was located near the old Kaw mission, the brick being manufactured on the east side of the river. When this mill was built it was a great wonder to the 3,000 Kaw Indians who lived on the reservation there and they called Mr. Mather Ta-poos-ka."

"Mr. Mather also built a twelve-room house in the vicinity of the mill, which in those days was considered a mansion. The house is still standing and is in a good state of preservation...Mrs. Mather, who was active in the early suffrage movement in Kansas, entertained in this house, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Kady Stanton and other prominent women of the times. J. P. Mather spent the last six years of his life in Emporia, where he died on May 8, 1905, aged ninety years..."

"...Mrs. Munson had an opportunity to observe much of the early life in Kansas, living in such close proximity to the Kaw Indian reservation, she had an opportunity to study the "Noble Red Man" in his native heath, and she has had many exciting experiences with Indians. She has seen three thousand Cheyenne redskins on the warpath, and at one time a drunken Indian came to the Mather home and threatend to scalp her, demanding $5 and some flour. Her sister covered the Indian with a revolver, whereupon the inebriated child of the forest departed. Mrs. Munson could speak the Kaw language fluently, and knows a lot about the traits of Indians. When she was a girl she owned an Indian pony and was some rider, too..."[1]

The Kaw Nation

Miles and Jenny married in Council Grove on 09 Apr 1877. A year later, they moved on to El Dorado, Butler County. At that time, he and Capt JT Anderson had a lumber business. Miles bought him out at some point and continued to operate the business for an additional 14 years.

Miles had his fingers in lots of pies and was a leading citizen of El Dorado.  He ran the coal works for many years, had real estate holdings, and loaned money to folks to help finance the purchase of homes and farms, and owned a 640-acre well improved farm. Things were going so well, that Mrs. Munson had a housekeeper. Munson reportedly never foreclosed on anyone. His humor was described as dry and sparkling with philosophy.[1]

El Dorado Republican, 15 Aug 1902

About the time Miles sold his lumber yard, he built a market on lots he owned east of the lumberyard. He continued to farm and raise horses and cattle and his coal yard continued to flourish. Around the turn of the 20th century, Miles sold the coal yard.

All through this period, his wife, Jennie, would participate in all sorts of women's clubs, beautification projects, and good works and built a stellar reputation as a lady of substance. 

The couple raised five children; four sons and a daughter.

On 10 Oct 1906, Miles died of heart disease at age 49. Jennie was named executrix.

This loss did not slow Jenny down. In 1908, she was the local representative to the state-level Woman's Federation of Clubs meeting. She also served as the Treasurer of her local club. This was also the year her mother, Sally Deming Mather, died in Emporia. 

Women's Suffrage Win in Kansas!

Events, they were a'changing in the country. Women were battling all over the country to get the right to vote. Wyoming was the first state to grant women that right.  Kansas was the eighth state to grant women equal rights to vote in November of 1912.  Reform was moving at the speed of molasses - it had been since 1867 when the idea was first proposed in the US. It still would not be until 1920 when the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution would be ratified.

A strange thing happened in Butler County in 1912, shortly after women received their rights. A judge in Butler County sat the first all-women jury for a trial, which included Jenny Munson. And here's what happened:

Reportedly, the case in question was originally tried with a jury of men, who could not reach a verdict. The judge felt the only option he had was to empanel a group of women.

"The first jury composed of women to sit in a case in district court in Kansas was empaneled in El Dorado, Butler County, part of the 19th judicial district. Wednesday morning, November 27 (1912). The case before the court is H H Boeck vs Carrie M Schreiber, et al. The case is a damage suit where the plaintiff alleges he purchased a tract of land from the estate of Carrie M Schreiber and when he received the land, it was not the tract which he alleges was shown him when he made the deal."

"The empanelling of the jury was not attended with undue excitement from spectators other than men, for but few women knew that the jury was to be called Wednesday morning. "

"Undersheriff Purcell was kept busy Tuesday night and Wednesday morning summoning the women. Many and varied excuses were given the undersheriff, to which he turned a deaf ear. Most of the women summoned were at the court house by 9 o'clock, others were a little late, but by 10:30, a jury was secured. And it did not take any longer to secure the jury than it would a jury composed of men."

"The plaintiff's lawyers used two challenges and the defendant's lawyers used one. Each side is entitled to three challenges, besides their challenges for cause." When the jury box was filled, Judge AIkman addressed the women with a few remarks giving them to understand that he had called the women to act as jurors in good faith. Also that if any lady was offended by being called as a juror, he would excuse her. And htat if they would serve he would appreciate the honor."

"In the examination of the women in the jury box, only three were challenged, three being excused for cause. Mrs Meeks stated that she objected to women being on a jury as did Miss Edna Smith. Mrs Kilgore was excused on account of sickness. Mrs. Ida Lawrence was excused on account of her little boy being sick, she not having had time to secure someone to remain with him during her absence..."

"...Judge Aikman announced to the jury after it had been empanelled that he woudl adjourn court in the afternoon and give the women a chance to look after necessitites about their homes. Court will convene again Friday morning."

El Dorado Republican (El Dorado, KS) 06 Dec 1912, Fri, p1

Walnut Valley Times, 04 Apr 1913

 After the two days of testimony, the panel went to the jury room to deliberate. Three hours later, at 11 pm, the forewoman handed the verdict to her husband, the bailiff, and he to the judge. The plaintiff won $1,200 dollars. Each juror received $2 for each day of service.

The next year, both plaintiff and defendant attempted for a new trial. Part of the argument was based on the process by which an all-women panel was selected. The verdict stood. Also in 1913, the mayoral race was heavily weighted for the elected Citizen's Party, but Mrs Munson managed to pull in one vote!

In 1917, Mrs. Munson and her five children were beneficiaries of a Munson uncle's will. The amount  was not known. I believe this money came from Albert Munson, who died in 1915 by way of his wife Sara Heath Munson, who died in 1917. 

Mrs. Munson continued to work in the community for the rest of her life. She bought and sold real estate like a champ. Her daughter lived with her until her death in 1938. Her daughter would never marry and never have a career, so I would assume assets were such that the children were left comfortable.

[1] History of Butler County, Kansas by Vol. P. Mooney, Standard Publishing Company, Lawrence, Kans: 1916. ill.; 894 pages (pages 428-421)