Harriet Jane Salyards

Once Upon a Time there lived a Beautiful Princess...

Harriet Jane Salyards - Age 16

Harriet Jane Salyards was born on October 2, 1924, in Columbus, Ohio, to Wyatt Johnson Salyards and Mary Grace Miller Salyards.

Wyatt Johnson Salyards with Oma, and Mary Grace Miller Salyards

The original of the picture of Mom above is an 8x10 that Mom gave to Dad shortly after they were married.  The inscription on the picture in Mom's handwriting says, "Your Ever Loving Wife Harriett.  Yes, Harriet is spelled with two t's on the portrait!  Somewhere along the line Mom decided she preferred that spelling over the spelling on her birth certificate.  Even her gravestone, which she had partially engraved when she ordered Dad's headstone, has Harriett with two t's.  It wasn't until the last year or so of her life that she insisted Harriet be spelled with one t.  She would get so aggravated that her checks, insurance cards, mail, just about everything had her name spelled with two t's.  Of course she wouldn't believe any of us when we tried to tell her that it was all her doing  It was funny!  She would not have been happy at all with her headstone.  Then again, that is the spelling she used the entire time she was with Dad.

A few facts and oral history:

• If I remember correctly, Mom was named after her Grandmother Harriet Jane Johnson who passed in 1923, the year before she was born.  
• Mom's dad died on her seventh birthday.  Mom talked about it often.  I don't know exactly what happened, possibly a heart attack.  Whatever it was, I believe he got sick quite suddenly and was dead within a couple of days.  I remember Mom saying that he had come home from work feeling very bad one day and that he went to bed and didn't get back up.  Grandma was left to raise eight children on her own.  Oma, the oldest, was 16 and Ruthie, the youngest, was 3 months old.   Oma married shortly after her father's death, and Ruth went to live with friends for a couple of years so that Grandma could work and get her footing.  I don't remember the name of the couple that took Ruth in.  I know that they were friends of the family, had no children of their own and they lived a couple of hours away. 
• Mom had eight siblings.  A little boy (Wyatt Johnson Salyards, Jr.) died around the age of two before Mom was born.  No one seems to know for sure what happened.  I remember Mom and Aunt Lucy talking about it a few times.  There was a story about their dad coming home from work and the baby jumping into his arms and dying.  Apparently it wasn't something that Grandma talked about very much.

Wyatt Johnson Salyards, Jr.

• Here is some additional information from my cousin, Dawn Gatton, about Wyatt Jr.:

         Wyatt Johnson Salyards
         Ohio Death Certificate has Salyards spelled wrong – they have him as
         Wyatt J Salwards Jr.

         Ohio Death Certificate #27856

         He had been seen by J. E. Kershner M.D. from May 1, 1922 to May 9, 1922.
         The Dr. last saw Wyatt alive May 8, 1922. Wyatt died at 10 PM on May 9, 1922.

         Wyatt is buried in Union Cemetery (in Columbus, OH), Lot 88, Section 1915,
         5th space from the North West Tier. The undertaker was Glenn L. Myers.

         There is no marker.  

         

• When Wyatt Sr. died, Mom said that his brother, Jack (I think), came to visit Grandma and let her know that he was not going to help her financially and she might as well put the kids in an orphanage.  Grandma told him that the good Lord gave her the kids, and the Good Lord would help her to take care of them.  Mom said that he was really mean.  He was a preacher, but apparently not a nice person.  Mom said his wife was very sweet.

• Mom said that her dad used to buy her Bi-Lo baby dolls.  She had several.  She said she didn't think they could really afford it, but every now and then her dad would bring her home one.  I don't know if they were normally birthday gifts, or what.  Mom loved her Bi-Lo dolls and she kept them for years.  She had them packed in a chest in her mom's attic.  One day, two of her nephews (Oma's boys) Albert and Harold Spang went up into the attic and took hammers to the dolls heads.  They destroyed all of them.  Mom was fit to kill.  If Grandma had not stopped her, she said that she would have killed them.  This may have happened when Mom was living with Grandma after Ernie was born.  Dad was still in the Navy then.
• The picture below was taken by a photographer when Mom and her brother Russell were out playing one day.  In those days photographers went door to door.  Mom knew her mom wanted to have their picture taken, so when the photographer came around Mom and Russ let him take their pictures... dirt and all.  It wasn't exactly what Grandma had in mind for their pictures, but she bought them anyway!  From what Mom said, Grandma was fit to be tied! This picture was taken in 1929.  At the time, Mom lived at 40 East Engles St., Columbus, OH, and was five years old, or close to five.

Harriet Jane Salyards - Age 5

• Mom's brother Keith lost an arm due to a train accident.  Keith and his dad were walking home from somewhere and they had to cross a train track.  Keith was too close to it when a train came by and his arm was sucked under the train and severed.  Mom said that her Dad always blamed himself for the accident.  I wish I could remember the details better!  Mom used to tell stories about how Keith could do anything with his one arm that other people did with two.
• According to Aunt Murt (Mom's sister, Martha), per my cousin Dawn, this is what happened as far as the train accident goes: Mom told me that Grandpa and Keith had gone down to the RR track to pick up coal that would fall off of the coal cars. A train went by and Keith’s arm was taken off. I don’t know if he fell or was picking up coal too close to the track. It would be interesting to hear what Aunt Ruth heard. It is interesting how siblings remember things differently.

  The picture below is a list of all of Mom's siblings as well as Spouse and Children:

This picture is of Mom with Grandma and all of her sisters:

Back Row Left to Right: Lucy and Martha (Murt) Front Row Left to Right: Harriet, Ruth, Mary, Oma

Pages 2 and 3

First Things First

Ernest Charles Ely, Sr

I remember Dad talking about this picture to someone who had come to our house.  When asked why he had his picture taken with his Bible, he replied that more than anything else he wanted to be remembered for his love of the Lord, his Savior Jesus Christ.  I have paraphrased that according to my memory, but it is pretty close to his actual response.

At the time I was growing up I did not always realize what great parents I had.  I took them for granted.  Like any kid, I often disagreed with limitations that were put on me.  I would get frustrated at dad's seemingly never ending sermons, not being allowed to play cards (they were the devil's deck), not being allowed to wear "hot pants" or bikini swimsuits.  Lol... he had a sermon for everything!  I remember one time when I was very little, maybe four because both of the boys were still living at home, Ernie and Craig decided to aggravate dad by walking through the house singing the Beetles song, "I Love You Yeah Yeah Yeah".  I joined them.  My brothers could do no wrong... EVER... and I was always on their side.  Except when they took me by the arms and legs and swung me on the couch so they could hurry and run out the door and leave for somewhere without me!  Anyway, sure enough, Dad heard the singing and we got a sermon!

When I was older and would complain about my life, Dad would shake his head tell me, "You don't know how good you have it."  He was right.  I had no idea.  In fact, as a young adult, I just took for granted that all men were like my dad; all men loved and provided for their families, were faithful to their wives, had high morals, and walked the talk they talked.  Not.  Since reaching adulthood, I realize more and more how very blessed I am to have been born into the family I was.  In retrospect, no child could ask for better parents than what mom and dad were to us.

In the front of his wallet, Dad carried this picture of Christ.  Since their faith was the most important aspect of both of my parents lives I chose this to be on the first page of the scrapbook.

                                                                                    

Let's Get Started!

 

Scrapbook Introduction

Contained within the pages of this scrapbook is the story of my family.  Most of what you will see took place before my time because it is mainly the story of my parents, Ernest Charles Ely, Sr., and Harriet Jane Salyards Ely.

When mom left our sight and passed on into Glory this past November 7th, I got the idea to scrapbook all the old pictures and memories that were tucked away here and there and everywhere.  Afraid of losing these precious memories with time, or forgetting where I had safely tucked them away, the safest solution was to put them all in one place, and in such a way that they could be enjoyed by our family for generations to come.

My parents have a wonderful and unique story to tell.  They lived through a very important time in our country’s history.  As children and into young adulthood, they lived through the Great Depression that began with the crash of Wall Street in October of 1929 and lasted through the 1930s, and into the early 1940s. 

In 1932, Franklin Delano Roosevelt won the presidential election by a landslide victory over incumbent Herbert Hoover. To aid in our country’s economic recovery, Roosevelt instituted his “New Deal.”  One program that was created as part of the “New Deal” was the “Civilian Conservation Corps,” also referred to as “Roosevelt’s Tree Army.”  I am proud to say that my father was a member of the CCC in Washington and Idaho; a fact I knew nothing about until I started my little project!  Dad was in Company 554, SCS-2 out of Pullman, Washington.  He worked with the Soil Conservation Service planting trees and doing other various jobs to stop soil erosion.  I have some old pictures from a photo album of Dad’s that are marked “Oregon 1936”.  I only have records to validate that he was a member of the CCC in 1938, in Pullman, Washington and Lewiston, Idaho.  Craig remembers Dad telling stories of how he worked on the “Oregon Trail” to make it a paved road that could be used by cars.  I don’t have any proof of that.  It appears that the year was written down incorrectly on all the pictures of Dad’s CCC days, they all say 1936.  The postcards I have all say 1938, and coincide with the dates stated in his official papers.  My thought is that whoever made the photo album got the year confused.  However, I used the original captions for authenticity.

What a fabulous program the CCC was, and what a wonderful job these young men did for our country, as well as for their families that desperately needed the additional income to survive.  Of the thirty dollars they earned each month, twenty-five of it was automatically sent home to their parents.  These young men built many of our National and State Parks, and countless other attractions that we all enjoy, and most of us take for granted.  I hope you will take the time to research and learn more about the CCC, and what my father, Ernest, and many other young men like him accomplished during those years of economic recovery in our great country.  Next time you go camping, or hiking, take the time to reflect on the young men that made it possible and send a prayer of thanks their way.

On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought the United States into the Second World War.  The generation of young men who joined the CCC, were ready and well equipped to fight for our country.  My father was one of them, also.  He joined the Navy on October 5, 1942, just three days after my mother’s 18th birthday, and eight months after their marriage.  She, in turn, went to work at Curtis-Wright, where Dad had worked previously to joining the Navy. 

It’s funny, all those times I studied WWII in school, I never associated my parents as having a significant part in history.  They were just my parents.  I never realized until now that my mother was one of the women who took one of the many jobs left empty by men going off to fight for our freedom.  I never realized or appreciated the sacrifices either one of them made, so that the family they would later raise, could have a brighter future.

Our interesting family history doesn’t stop here.  The 1960s brings us into the spotlight once again.  The Sixties was the era of Vietnam, “Free Love,” The Beatles, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, and then of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, to mention only a few.  Some of these events are my earliest childhood memories.  Our parents were the blue collar version of “Ozzie and Harriet.”  In addition, my brother, Ernie, was a hippie in San Francisco, and my brother, Craig, dropped out of school and joined the Navy on his seventeenth birthday, and did three tours in Vietnam.  Oh yeah, and I was the little sister that looked on and tried to absorb everything going on around her, but that’s another story.

               I proudly present to you, my parents: Ernest and Harriet Ely.  This is their story....

Memories

I am so thankful for my memories and even more so that many of my memories are good ones.  I am fortunate and I know that.  While I can, I want to share some of our more recent family history.  My starting point is with my parents, Ernest and Harriet. 

Shortly after my mom passed away on November 7, 2010, I began a scrapbook on the life of my parents.  I have a lot of old pictures, postcards and other memoirs that my parents had saved over the years.  I decided the best way to preserve them and their history was to put as many as possible in the same place. I was determined to tell their story with the limited knowledge I possessed.  I had no idea how many hints would jump out at me as I read the backs of old pictures and postcards.  I ended up doing many hours of research based on little tidbits of information I came across.  New clues jumped out at me endless times from unexpected places and I learned SO much about my parents lives!  I am so excited about my discoveries!  The more I learned, the more questions I had, the more research I found myself doing... the more I learned.

To most of us, when we are growing up, our parents are just our parents.  We do not really realize at the time that they have a life, an identity, outside of being just "mom and dad," and that they have a history... a story worth knowing and sharing... a life worth remembering.

This blog may end up being a mind map of sorts, and a crazy one at that, because my mind is an organized mess after all!  I'm sure some posts will be very random and others may really make a lot of sense.  What I hope to accomplish is to introduce you to my family, and your family if you are a family member.  My only regret is that I did not ask more questions when mom and dad were with me... and that I did not listen better when they told stories of their past.  Ask questions of those you love... listen to the stories you have heard all of your life over and over and over again...  Really listen, write them down, record them... remember!  When we lose a loved one, we lose their memories and a part of our history if we did not take the time to listen...

I hope you enjoy listening to my memories...