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CONVERSE Family History, Part IIIA

Jacob Henry CONVERSE (1861-1938)

121A. Jacob "Jake" Henry Converse was born October 10, 1861, at the Converse ranch in Greeley Hill, Mariposa County, California. He was likely named after his uncle Jacob Poole who died in his teens, probably around the time Jacob was born. Jacob married Amelia "Millie" Elizabeth Lux, the daughter of German immigrants from Pennsylvania, on June 8, 1898, in Modesto, Stanislaus County. He was 36 years old and she was 30. They are believed not to have had any children.

Jacob, as "Jacob C. Converse," registered to vote in Mariposa County as a resident farmer in Coulterville in 1882, 1884, and 1886^{[Vote 1882-1888]}; but by 1892 he, as "Jacob Henry Convers," moved down the Merced River valley to Snelling, Merced County, where he worked as a teamster. His voter registration described him as 5' 11" tall with fair complexion, blue eyes, and black hair.^{[Vote 1892]}

Jake is recalled to have driven an oxen team to pull logs for the Hoborn Mill on Greeley Hill in 1895.^{[Webb 1979]}

Jake and Amelia were married on June 8, 1898, in Modesto, by Presbyterian Minister E. G. Mathena. Witnesses to their union were George T. and Julia Goodwin of Modesto. A month later, Jake's younger sister Alice⁴ married George T. Goodwin's nephew, Ben Goss².

After their marriage the Converses resided for a time in Coulterville North (Greeley Hill) where Jacob registered to vote in 1898 and continued to work as a teamster^{[Vote 1898]}; but they later returned to Modesto where Jacob worked as a farmer.^{[Cen 1910-1930, Vote 1936]}

Jacob Henry Converse died on the Saturday morning before Christmas, December 24, 1938, at his home on Adams Avenue in Modesto. He was 77 years old. He was interred at the Independent Order of Odd Fellows (I.O.O.F.) Cemetery (now known as the Modesto Pioneer Cemetery^[Grave]) in Modesto on Tuesday, December 27.

After Jake's death, Amelia moved back east to Clyde, Wayne County, New York, where her family had settled when she was a child.

Amelia Elizabeth (Lux) Converse died on April 13, 1948, at around the age of 80. She is buried with her parents and some of her siblings in Maple Grove Cemetery in Clyde.^[Grave]

William CONVERSE (1863-1884)

121B. William Converse was born November 22, 1863, at the Converse ranch in Greeley Hill, Mariposa County, California. He was likely named for his uncle William who stayed back in Iowa.

William Converse died of pneumonia on April 28, 1884, near Coulterville. He was only 20 years old.

George Leonard CONVERSE (Sr.)^Δ (1865-1954)

121C. George Leonard "Len" Converse (Sr.)^Δ was born on August 28, 1865, at the Converse ranch in Greeley Hill, Mariposa County, California. He was likely named for his paternal uncle who died the year before his birth during the Civil War. He married Mary Harris, a native of Pennsylvania and daughter of English immigrants. They had two children:

121C1.	George Leonard Converse (Jr.)Δ	5 Dec 1894	20 May 1936	(41)
121C2.	Ethel Mae ConverseΔ	21 May 1897	May 1987	(89)

George held land patents in the 1890's for 160 acres in Mariposa County Township 3S, Range 18E spanning:

• Section 27, NW¼ of SW¼ (40 acres)
• Section 28, N½ of SE¼ (80 acres) and SW¼ of SE¼ (40 acres)

These plots lie about 3 miles north of Briceburg and the Merced River and adjoined those of George's younger brother Frank to the north.

By 1910, George and Mary resided in Township 2 in the Stanislaus Forest Reserve in Mariposa County.^{[Cen 1910]} In 1912 George registered to vote as Republican in Coulterville, presumably supporting the reelection bid of President William Howard Taft, who lost to Woodrow Wilson (Democrat) when Theodore Roosevelt (Progressive) split the Republican vote. George listed his occupation as a lumberman.^{[Vote 1912]}

They later moved down into the valley and settled on the outskirts of Modesto, Stanislaus County, where George worked as a farm laborer.^{[Cen 1920]}

By 1930 the Converses moved to Dry Creek Road on the outskirts of Modesto, where they resided next door to son George Jr., who worked as a foreman at a chemical plant, and George Sr. as a laborer there.^{[Cen 1930, City 1935, Vote 1936,1944]}

Son, George Jr., died on May 20, 1936, at the age of 41.

George Leonard Converse died on May 21, 1954, at the age of 88, and was reportedly buried at Modesto Citizens Cemetery.^[Grave] He was living in Stanislaus County, California, at the time.

Mary (Harris) Converse died eight years later on April 6, 1962, in Stanislaus County, at the age of 86 years. She was also reportedly buried at Modesto Citizens Cemetery.^[Grave]

Franklin CONVERSE^Δ (1867-1946)

121D. Franklin "Frank" Converse^Δ was born July 26, 1867, at the Converse ranch in Greeley Hill, Mariposa County, California. He married Jane (Jennie) May Adams about 1896 and had seven children. Three sons served in the U.S. Army: their eldest during World War I, three during World War II, and their youngest during the Korean War.

121D1.	Fred Frank Converse	26 May 1897	31 Oct 1964	(67)
121D2.	Grace Irene Converse	(1899-1900)	--	--
121D3.	Albert W. Converse	(1901)	27 Oct 1926	(25)
121D4.	Doris Agnes ConverseΔ	7 Aug 1906	23 Nov 1983	(77)
121D5.	Earl L. Converse	31 Dec 1911	Nov 1972	(60)
121D6.	Evelyn Elizabeth ConverseΔ	28 Oct 1918	26 Oct 1986	(67)
121D7.	Elmer Francis Converse	14 Apr 1920	16 May 1986	(66)

Frank held land patents in the 1890's for 160 acres in Mariposa County Township 3 South, Range 18 East spanning:

• Section 27, N½ of NW¼ (80 acres)
• Section 27, SW¼ of NW¼ (40 acres)
• Section 28, NE¼ of NE¼ (40 acres)

These plots lie about 3 miles north of Briceburg and the Merced River and adjoined the plots of Frank's elder brother George to the south.

Son Fred was born in La Grange, Stansiaus County, in 1897. Later Frank and Jennie lived in Oakdale, Stanislaus County, since as early as 1920, on Railroad Avenue (likely North Yosemite Avenue (Highway 120) or North Sierra Avenue) and C Street.^{[Cen 1920]}

In 1926, the Converse family, including Frank, Jennie, son Albert, and mother Susan, registered to vote for mid-term and gubernatorial election in Red Cloud Precint (Greeley Hill), Mariposa County. They all registered as Republicans, and Frank gave his occupation as a rancher.^{[Vote 1926]}

The Converses moved back to Oakdale, four blocks south of their previous residence, at 860 Davitt Avenue by 1930. Frank worked as a general laborer.^{[Cen 1930]}

Next the Converse family moved to Modesto by 1931 and lived at 322 3rd Avenue (sic).^{[City 1931]}

Jennie May (Adams) Converse reportedly died on December 2, 1932, and was buried at Oakdale Citizens Cemetery, however, her headstone reads that shed died in 1933. She was about 55 years old.^[Grave]

Between 1935 and 1940, Frank moved in with son Earl and his family on Benson Avenue on the south side of Modesto.^{[Cen 1940]}

Frank Converse died on November 6, 1946, in Stanislaus County at the age of 79. He was buried with Jennie in Oakdale Citizens Cemetery.^[Grave]

Daisy J. CONVERSE (1869-1874)

121E. Daisy J. Converse was born on December 23, 1869, at the Converse ranch in Greeley Hill, Mariposa County, California. She died reportedly died on July 3, 1874, at the age of 4, and was buried at Dudley Cemetery on Greeley Hill.^[Grave]

Caroline (CONVERSE SULLIVAN) HANNAH (1871-1963)

121F. Caroline "Carrie" Maria Converse was born January 17, 1871, at the Converse ranch in Greeley Hill, Mariposa County, California. She may have been named for her maternal aunt, Caroline (Poole) Olney. Carrie first married John T. Sullivan, born in Wisconsin to parents from New England, about 1892. She was 20 years old, he 30. They had no children.

In July 1893, Carrie (age 22) led a two-week ladies' campout to Yosemite with sister Lizzie (age 13), friend Mattie R. Turner, and friends Birdie (age 14) and Maggie Wagner (age 17).

After their marriage they moved to San Francisco where they are found in 1900 at 43 LaFayette Street. John worked there as a motorman on an electric bus.^{[Cen 1900]} They moved about 14 blocks south to 2892 Folsom Street by 1910 where John worked as a cigar salesman.^{[Cen 1910]} They later moved about 15 blocks west to 1090 Noe Street by 1920 where John managed a pool room.^{[Cen 1920]} Interestingly, Michael D. Ryan, a boarder who worked as a saloon bartender was enumerated with the Sullivans at both residences on Folsom and Noe streets.

By 1930 the Sullivans moved across the bay to Oakland, Alameda County, California, where they lived at 473 60th Street (or McAuley Street), a block east of Telegraph Avenue.^{[Cen 1930]}

John T. Sullivan died of cancer, probably between 1937 and 1940, while living with Carrie's sister Alice (Converse) Goss on Roberts Avenue in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County.

After John died, Carrie lived with her widowed sister Ida (Converse) Johnson at the Oakland home on 473 60th Street.^{[Cen 1940, 1950]}

Remarriage to Crockett Hannah

Carrie later married Samuel Crockett Hannah, a native of Missouri, who had been married for a time to Carrie's good friend Bertha "Birdie" E. Wagner (1878-1974). He remarried to the widow Florence A. (Blodgett) Trumbly (~1868-1939) in 1929 but she passed in 1939. Carrie and Crockett were married by minister Dudley H. Nebeker (1907-1987) on August 7, 1940, in Oakland. They continued to live in Oakland until their deaths in 1963.^{[Cen 1950]}

Carrie M. (Converse Sullivan) Hannah died on February 10, 1963, at the age of 92. Services were held at 1:00 p.m. on February 13, 1963, at the Telegraph Avenue Chapel at 2850 Telegraph Avenue, Oakland. Services were presided over by Rev. George S. Siudy.

Samuel Crockett Hannah died three months later on May 31, 1963, in Castro Valley, Alameda County, at the age of 95 years. Services for his inurnment were also held at the Telegraph Avenue Chapel in Oakland on June 4.

Charles Albert CONVERSE (1873-1925)

121G. Charles Albert Converse was born September 24, 1873, at the Converse ranch in Greeley Hill, Mariposa County, California. He married his cousin's daughter, Mabel Converse, about 1904 and worked as a teamster. They were noted living with Mabel's mother in Hancock, Pottawattamie County, Iowa, during the 1910 census but moved back home to Greeley Hill by 1920.

Charles died on the 4th of July in 1925 when he jack-knifed his Model-T truck near Greeley Hill and broke his neck. He was 51 years old.

Ida Mae (CONVERSE) JOHNSON^Δ (1875-1963)

121H. Ida Mae Converse^Δ was born August 17, 1875, at the Converse ranch in Greeley Hill, Mariposa County, California. She married Peter Nicholas Johnson^Δ on December 2, 1896, in Modesto, Stanislaus County, California. They had two children:

121H1.	Daisy Loretta JohnsonΔ	31 Mar 1898	28 Dec 1990	(92)
121H2.	Peter Carl JohnsonΔ	29 Apr 1904	11 Jan 1993	(88)

Peter Nicholas Johnson died on April 9, 1929, in Modesto, and was buried at Modesto Citizens Cemetery. He was 58 years old.

After Peter's death, Ida lived with her widowed mother and next door to her younger brother John in Greeley Hill.^{[Cen 1930]}

Later, after Ida's sister Carrie (Converse) Sullivan was widowed, Ida lived with her at her home on 473 60th Street in Oakland, Alameda County.^{[Cen 1940]}

After Carrie remarried, Ida moved to 2152 San Jose Avenue in Alameda, Alameda County, by 1949, where she worked as a housekeeper for 86-year old widower Fred W. Morrison. He worked part-time as a janitor at a retail dry goods store.^{[Cen 1950]}

Ida Mae (Converse) Johnson died in Coulterville, Mariposa County, California, on June 2, 1963, at the age of 87. She is also buried at Modesto Citizens Cemetery.

Elizabeth Ann (CONVERSE) GREELEY^Δ (1877-1958)

121I. Elizabeth "Lizzie" Ann Converse^Δ was born July 3, 1877, at the Converse ranch in Greeley Hill, Mariposa County, California. She married Horace "Doc" A. Greeley on January 16, 1901, in Merced County. They had three children:

121I1.	Lawrence Converse Greeley	1 Mar 1904	29 Oct 1982	(78)
121I2.	Gladys Sarah GreeleyΔ	17 Apr 1906	3 Jul 1980	(74)
121I3.	Laverne "Der" Everett Greeley	18 May 1917	1 Sep 2006	(88)

In July 1893, elder sister Carrie (age 22) led a two-week ladies' campout to Yosemite with her (age 16, her birthday being on the third day), friend Mattie R. Turner, and friends Birdie (age 14) and Maggie Wagner (age 17).

Lizzie and Doc wed on January 16, 1901, in Merced County.

Horace Austin "Doc" Greeley died on February 11, 1930, on Buckhorn Mountain, south of Greeley Hill in Mariposa County, California. He was 57 years old. Doc was buried on February 13 in Coulterville Cemetery.^[Grave]

Elizabeth (Converse) Greeley died on 28 years later on February 25, 1958, at the age of 80. She was living in Stanislaus County, California, at the time. Lizzie was buried in Coulterville Cemetery.^[Grave]

Alice Lucretia (CONVERSE) GOSS⁴ (1879-1951)

121J. Alice Lucretia Converse⁴ was born on the Converse Ranch in Greeley Hill, Mariposa County, California on August 19, 1879. She lived there until marrying Coulterville native, Benjamin Roland Goss², in Coulterville on July 21, 1898, a year and a half after Alice's elder sister Ida married Ben's maternal uncle, Pete Johnson. They had two sons:

121J1.	William Albert Goss	3 Aug 1899	13 Mar 1966	(67)
121J2.	Lloyd Andrew Goss5	19 Sep 1912	1 Aug 1981	(68)

Alice Lucretia Converse grew up on the Converse Ranch, the 10th born of 13 children. She was very close with her three older sisters, Carrie, Ida, and Lizzie, as well as as their friend Birdie Wagner (Carrie, Birdie, Ida, and Alice pictured to the left).

In Coulterville, she met and married Benjamin Roland Goss, a son of a Swedish immigrant. They married on July 21, 1898, in Coulterville, and the following August, their first son, William Albert, apparently named in the memory of Benjamin's older brother, was born in Coulterville. Sometime later, the Goss family moved to Jamestown in neighboring Tuolumne County, where, on September 19, 1912, their second son, Lloyd Andrew Goss⁵, was born.

Several years later, the family left Jamestown for Colusa, Colusa County. The family resided at 222 Market Street and Benjamin worked as an auto mechanic.^{[Cen 1920]} In the early 1920's, the family temporarily settled for a year in Myrtle Point, Coos County, Oregon, where they lived in a tent prior to returning to California and settling down in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County.^{[Cen 1930]} While in Oregon, son William worked in a theater in Coos Bay.

The Goss family moved to the eastern section of Roseland in Santa Rosa by 1924 and opened and operated the first "Shell" gas station in Santa Rosa on Roberts Avenue until Highway 101 was built through that area. They then moved to a new house at 1200 Brush Creek Road and lived there until they died. The original house on Brush Creek was a two story building with living quarters upstairs and a garage downstairs. Upon Benjamin's death in 1956, the house and property were left to his 10 year old grandson, Gary Goss.

The second week of February, 1951, Alice's granddaughter, Judy had spent the week, the week of her 10th birthday, sick with either the chicken pox or some other childhood disease on Alice's couch. Daughter-in-law Hazel came that Thursday to pick up Judy as Alice was getting ready to attend a social, likely the Pocahontas Club. Hazel commented on how great she looked and Alice went off to her social. That night she suffered a cerebral thrombosis (blood clot in the brain) caused by her hypertensive cardiovascualar disease. She was rushed to Sonoma County Hospital on Chanate Road in Santa Rosa where she died five hours later, at 1:20 AM on Friday, February 10^[Dth]. Alice Lucretia (Converse) Goss was buried on February 13 at the Chapel of the Chimes. She and Ben had been married for 52 years.

Alice is remembered for her outgoing personality and infectious laughter. She had a strong volunteer spirit and used to take her granddaughters on trips to the hospital to hand out magazines to the elderly.

Granddaughter Judy recalls that Alice attended church, believed to be part of the "New Thought Movement," which, among other things, believed in the power of the mind and metaphysical healing practices. As such she did not believe in seeking doctors to treat illnesses, which led her son Lloyd to decry that her church killed her. Among Alice's belongings is a handwritten copy of one of Mary Baker Eddy's earliest essays from the Christian Science Journal in 1883. Alice often snuck her granddaughters off to church, knowing that Lloyd would vehemently disapprove.

Alice did look to natural treatments as well, often eating cucumbers and whole cloves of garlic to treat her hypertension. Judy recalls her eating a garlic clove just before taking her to a movie so that the audience would give them some space.

"Infant" CONVERSE

121K. Another infant was born to the Converse family but died before being named. The child was only known as "Infant," and so it is inscribed on the child's tombstone.

Charlotte (CONVERSE PORATH) ELLIOT (1883-1908)

121L. Charlotte "Lottie" Converse was born October 5, 1883, at the Converse ranch in Greeley Hill, above Coulterville, Mariposa County, California. She appears to have first married Herman Henry Porath, a California-born son of German immigrants, about July 2, 1902, in Coulterville. That marriage only lasted briefly because three years later Lottie remarried to Todd Berry Elliott in Modesto, Stanislaus County, California, about September 6, 1905. How the first marriage ended is unknown but Herman remarried by around 1909. Lottie and Todd had two sons before her untimely death in 1908:

121L1.	Earl Elliot	(1906)	19 Jun 1922	(16)
121L2.	Ronald (Elliott) Hammill	25 May 1907	13 Apr 1964	(56)

The Porath's marriage lasted less than three years. She remarried to Todd Berry Elliott in Modesto, Stanislaus County, California, about September 6, 1905.

Only three years into their marriage, Lottie (Converse) Elliott died of consumption (pulmonery tuberculosis) on November 21, 1908, at the early age of 25. She is buried at the Dudley Station Cemetery in Greeley Hill.

Todd Elliott and Sons

After Lottie's death, Todd left his two young boys in the care of the Weller and Hammill families and headed off to San Francisco, where he was noted as a widower living as a lodger living on Haight Street with his brothers Hugh and Clarence in 1910.^{[Cen 1910E]} Son Earl was listed as a 3-year old "boarder" with the Henry Weller family on Oak Street, two blocks to the north of Haight.^{[Cen 1910W]}

Young Ronald was enumerated in the 1910 census as an adopted son of the George W. and Mary M. (Tiscornia) Hammill family in the Stanislaus Forest Reserve, Township 2 (likely Greeley Hill), Mariposa County.

By 1920, Todd continued as a boarder in San Francisco, this time on 5th Street. Earl, then reported to be age 12 (but likely 14), was living as a boarder with a David R. Highland in Dent, San Joaquin County, California, and Ronald, age 12, had taken on the Hammill name and was living in Sonora, Tuolumne County.

Tragically, 16-year-old son Earl committed suicide and was found dead the night of June 19, 1922, in his room in Oakland with a bullet wound over his heart. The Press Democrat of Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, reported that a Mrs. W. H. Brazil of Petaluma told police that a girl had left a note addressed to Earl's father that read "Don't blame Earl. I am going the same way." The reported letter had the name "Lillian Strutz" on the envelope. Petaluma police conducted a search for the girl, but at the time Todd expressed his disbelief in the story of the girl and the letter and claimed no knowledge that his son had any girlfriends. Todd said "...the only reason he could suggest for his son to be despondent was the death of his mother when he was 2 years old. The boy often asked about his mother and expressed sorrow that she died in his infancy."^{[News 1922]} No further reporting in the Press Democrat was found on the alleged girl and letter.

Todd remarried to a "G. Ollie Elliott", a native of Colorado who was about 11 years his junior, around 1926 and moved to Angels Camp, Calvaras County, California, by 1930.^{[Cen 1930E]}

Ronald Elliott Hammill enlisted in the U.S. Navy on August 11, 1942, at the age of 35, during World War II. He became and Electrician's Mate First Class (EM 1).^[Vets]

Todd Berry Elliott died in Los Angeles County, California, on April 20, 1955. He was 70 years old.

Herman Henry Porath

Lottie's first husband, Herman Henry Porath, was born on June 14, 1877, in California to German (or likely German-Polish) immigrants. His mother's maiden name was Bretz.

In 1900 he was an employee of the Eugene and Pauline Muller family in Tuolumne, Tuolumne County, California. Among the Muller children is a 14-year old Louisa.

Skip ahead 10 years to the 1910 census (after his brief marriage to Lottie) and Herman is remarried to Louisa for at least a year and is taking care of Louisa's mother Pauline and her youngest sister and brother. The census notes that this was Herman's second marriage.

By the 1920 census the couple removed to Snelling, Merced County, with no children noted.

Herman Henry Porath died on December 12, 1958, in San Joaquin County, California, at the age of 81.

Louisa (Muller) Porath died eight years later on December 6, 1966, in San Joaquin County. She was 80 years old.

John Lyman CONVERSE (1887-1980)

121M. John Lyman Converse was born on the Converse Ranch in Greeley Hill, Mariposa County, California on February 21, 1887, the youngest of 13 children, 3 of whom died before he was born. He lived on Greeley Hill his whole life, married Grace Lenore Covell on September 27, 1911, and had six children on the ranch:

121M1.	Converse	20 Mar 1913	20 Mar 1913	(0)
121M2.	Lyman Covell Converse	12 May 1914	13 Dec 1986	(72)
121M3.	Lyle Delmore Converse	4 Jul 1915	2 May 2003	(87)
121M4.	Richard Converse	(1916-1919)	Infancy	--
121M5.	Alda Ione Converse	21 Aug 1920	15 Mar 2001	(80)
121M6.	Lila Mae Converse	3 Dec 1925	6 Sep 2004	(78)

As a young man he and one brother operated a lumber mill on Greeley Hill, where he also ranched and teamed. He bailed hay in the Hetch Hetchy Valley, now the Shaunessy Dam.

He worked for the U.S. Forest Service for a few years, prior to employment in the C.C.C. at Buck Meadows (1933-1941).

Grace Lenore (Covell) Converse died on November 9, 1949 in Sonora, Tuolumne County, California, and was buried in Greeley Hill.

John later remarried to Martha Fay (Graves?) Steely.

John retired from the Forest Service in 1951, to his birth place, the Converse Ranch. In his retirement years he enjoyed gardening and was the winner of many produce awards at the Mariposa County Fair. He served as Grand Marshal in the 1961 parade.

He was active in community affairs and served many years as a trustee for the Greeley Hill Grammar School. He contributed to the construction of the Wildwood Chapel and the Greeley Hill Community Club, of which he served as the first president and was a lifetime member. He was also a 70 year member of the Coulterville I.O.O.F. Lodge No. 104.

John Lyman Converse, Jr. died at the Sonora Community Hospital on August 16, 1980 from complications following surgery. He was 93 years old and the last surviving of his siblings. Graveside services were conducted on Tuesday, August 9, at 11:00 a.m. at the Dudley Cemetery on Greeley Hill by the Coulterville I.O.O.F.

CONVERSE-WAGNER Campout at Yosemite, 1893

In July 1893, Carrie (Converse) Sullivan (age 22) led a two-week ladies' campout to Yosemite with sister Lizzie (age 16), friend Mattie R. Turner, and friends Birdie (age 14) and Maggie Wagner (age 17). Carrie documented the trip on the back of a photo the above photo. They set out on July 1 along the Old Coulterville Road and arrived at the Valley Floor the afternoon of July 2. On the Fourth of July they watched fire works dropped from Glacier Point and on the 6th hiked the Yosemite Falls Trail up to Eagle Peak on the north side of the valley. On the 7th they toured the vally floor as far as Nevada Falls and the base of Liberty Cap, and the following day hiked the Four Mile Trail to Glacier Point and Overhanging Rock. After a day's break for church on the 9th, they toured Mirror Lake on the 10th and returned to Vernal Falls on the 12th. A transcript of the account follows with annotations in brackets and some punctuation added for clarity: