Leroy H Gammon and Nellie M Cain

I got a message on Ancestry.com today from a man who asked me how I was related to his great-great-grandfather William Henry Cain, who is in my family tree. I honestly had no idea, so I looked it up. As it turns out, Williams's daughter Nellie Cain (pink)  married my great-great-grandfather's cousin Leroy Gammon (blue):

I couldn't give the man who contacted me any new information about his family because I only know about Leroy and Nellie through my research. However, I came across an interesting question.

Nellie, from what I can tell, lived in Illinois her whole life until the 1910 census when she is listed as Leroy's wife of six years in Eden, Iowa. Leroy lived in Eden his entire life. So, how did they meet? I went back to the 1900 census record I had saved to Leroy and discovered the answer.

That's the 1900 Census from Eden Township, Iowa. First is William E. Gammon and his wife Caroline as well as their son Leroy H - the Leroy in question. The next family is the one of interest. The household consists of Watson and Julia Cain as well as a great-nephew and great-niece. I recognized the Cain name and looked up Watson in the family tree of the man who contacted me. Watson, it turns out, is Nellie's grandfather, who lived next door to Leroy and his parents in 1900. He's in green in the tree above.

It's not often that we know how two people met, especially not if they are from different places. It is really amazing to find that connection for someone in my tree.

Eugene Arthur Gammon - WWII

Eugene Arthur Gammon, my third cousin twice removed, was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado on the third of June, 1915, to Eugene Gammon and Gertrude Evelyn (Dunning) Gammon.

I do not know when he joined the Navy, but I have no record of a draft card so it would seem that he enlisted. He was assigned to serve in the Southwest Pacific Theater on the USS Canopus (AS-9) as a warrant officer. The ship was a submarine tender. The Canopus was scuttled after the surrender of Bataan, and her crew were evacuated to Corregidor, where they served in the Marines 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th battalions. Most of the crew were captured at the fall of Corregidor on May 6, 1942, including Eugene Arthur Gammon. He was taken as a POW by the Japanese military and apparently held captive for two years.

The Japanese used unmarked freight ships to transport their POWs in horrible conditions, earning them the name "hell ships." These ships were often attacked by American forces who were unaware that they carried American soldiers. One such ship was Arisan Maru, which was hit by three torpedoes from an American submarine, either the USS Shark or the USS Snook, on October 24, 1944. It was carrying almost 1800 prisoners from Manila to Japan, including Eugene. Only nine prisoners survived the sinking of the Arisan Maru. Eugene Arthur Gammon was lost when the ship sank in the South China Sea. His name is among the tablets of the missing at Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.

He has two gravestones in America. One is in Fort Logan National Cemetery in Denver, Colorado. He is also  included on his parents' gravestone at Evergreen Cemetery in Colorado Springs. Here's a photo of the stone in Denver:

Eugene was awarded the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, and Prisoner of War medals, presumably posthumously. 

The Possible Duplicity of Lulu Johnson

Lulu Johnson is the daughter of Rebecca Johnson and sister to my great-grandmother Florence.

Lulu was born in 1895 in New Jersey and died about 1971. Her childhood is rather interesting - she is apparently listed on the 1900 and 1910 Federal Census twice, both with her biological family and an adoptive family.

You may recognize this image from my earlier post about her mother - this is the family in Bradley Beach, NJ in 1900 when Lulu was five. 

At the same time, on Atlantic Avenue in Neptune Township, we find the Landin family:

Lulu Johnson is listed here as George Landin's niece.

Now, in 1910 she is again listed with the family:

And also with the Landins, although here their name is spelled Landis. Now she is listed as an adopted daughter.

I'm not completely sure that this is the same Lulu, particularly because the one with the Landin/Landis family is listed as being black and because they have different birth months in 1900 - the one that I know is my relative is listed as being born in February 1895 while the other says May 1895.

However, there has been talk among my mother's family about Lulu being given away as a child so it seems odd that she would be listed with her parents at all. It's not impossible that her adoptive family didn't know her birthday. And the census taker could have assumed that George Landin's niece/adopted daughter was black because he and his wife were; perhaps he never saw Lulu himself.

I wonder if we'll ever conclusively solve this mystery.

Rebecca Johnson

Rebecca Johnson was my great-great-grandmother. One of her daughters, Florence, had a daughter named Phyllis, who had my mother Wanda.

Ancestry.com has a feature on the profile page of everyone in a family tree; when you add an event with a date attached, it automatically displays the age the person was when that event occurred. I noticed today that Rebecca Johnson's profile listed her marriage in 1888 - when she was just fourteen years old. This is indicated by the 1900 U.S. Federal Census (click to enlarge):

There is the family living in Bradley Beach, NJ in 1900. The third-to-last column on the right is "number of years married;" Rebecca and George reported 12 years. Their oldest child, Helen, was eleven in 1900, and was therefore born the year following their marriage. The last two columns are "Mother of how many children" and "Number of these children living." As you can see, by the age of 26 Rebecca had already given birth to five children and lost one. This snapshot of her life is very meaningful to me, at twenty-two. I'm not married nor do I have children, and I cannot imagine the struggles and joys of this woman without whom I would never have been born.

Rebecca's maiden name and married name are the same. I don't know her parents' names but have been assured by family members that she was a Johnson before she married George Washington Johnson, who was eighteen at the time of their marriage. He died at the age of 56 in 1926. Rebecca at least matched his age; I don't know when she died but the 1930 Federal Census shows her living with her son Walter in Belmar, NJ.