We began looking at today's family last week, with Tom and Amanda (Myers) Cool, and their eldest children: daughter, Helen Cool Davis; and son, Charles Lewis Cool. Let's pick up where we left off with their second son:
III. Walter Perry Cool (1887–1979)
Walter was a lifelong Indiana farmer. He grew up on his father's farm in Jackson township, and married Edna Barnhart (1890–1960) on 21 December 1907. They set up their own farm near Wilmington, in De Kalb county, eventually moving to Union City later in life. They raised two daughters, and their grandson
Edna suffered from chronic kidney disease which put her in the Barkley Nursing home for the last month of her life; she suffered a stroke and died of respiratory failure in December of 1960. Walter lived to be 91 years old; he lived with arteriosclerosis for his last 15 years before he, too, suffered a stroke in 1979.
A. Phyllis Naomi Cool (1909–1927) grew up and married Roy Lee Free (1903–1980) on 18 July 1925. The couple had a son, but it wasn't long before Phyllis fell victim to typhus in 1927. Walter and Edna adopted the baby boy, Leroy. Roy eventually remarried, and had two sons with his second wife in their home in Louisville, Kentucky.
1. Leroy E Cool (1926–1982) was adopted by his grandparents, and raised as their son; he never used the surname Free. He grew up on their farm, and eventually enlisted in the U.S. Army, serving from 28 March 1945 to 26 November 1946 at the end of World War II. Leroy married Eva Mary Ording (1921–2014) after the war, on 26 November 1947. They were married for 35 years and had four children together before Leroy's death in 1982. Eva survived until 2014, and when she died, she left two surviving children, 8 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren.
a. Phyllis Catherine (Cool) Wachter (1951–2000) was married, and died in Lansing, Michigan, at only 49 years of age.
b. Julie Cool (1962–1962) died in infancy.
B. Dorothy Opal Cool (1913–2014) lived to be 101 years old, and spent her whole life in De Kalb county, Indiana. She married Trever J "TJ" Mavis (1908–1983) on 12 October 1929. TJ was from Williams county, Ohio, but worked as a pressman in a metal plant in De Kalb county to support his family. Before TJ's death in 1982, they had six children: three sons, and three daughters, one of whom survives.
1. Donald Eugene Mavis (1930–2004) married Margaret Eileen Carpenter (1925–1996). Donald and Eileen had two daughters, still living. Donald lost Eileen to cervical cancer in 1996. He worked as a tool and die maker in the auto industry, and he died from a stroke.
2. Dale Elsworth Mavis (1932–1998) graduated Auburn High School in 1951, and according to his senior yearbook, he intended to study to become a veterinarian. He attended college in Michigan, and after 1993, he lived in Morris, Grundy county, Illinois. After his death at 66, he was buried near his parents in the Farmer Cemetery, Defiance county, Ohio.
3. Elenor Elain Mavis (1934–2004) married Kenneth Howard Mitchell (1913–1992) on 14 November 1975, when she was 41 and he was 62. She worked as a scheduler for a manufacturing company, and died from a coronary event attributed to arteriosclerosis related to obesity, according to her death certificate.
4. Darell Walter Mavis (1935–2011) married and left behind his wife, daughter, two sons, 8 grandchildren, and 8 great grandchildren.
6. Ellen Jean (Mavis) Wood (1944–2007) married Danny Duane Wood (1944–2006) on 16 September 1963. They later divorced. Danny died the year before Ellen died from cervical cancer. She left behind a son, two daughters, 7 grandchildren, and one great-granddaughter.
IV. Grace E Cool (1890–1984)
When Grace married Harry Brandon (1892–1965) on 14 April 1917, she became his second wife, and she brought two children into the family. It's hard to tell from 100 years away what their situations were and what motivations and social pressures were driving them, so I will try to spell out what the records tell me in a non-judgmental way. If you are descended from this side of the family, and you have more information about them, please let me know so I can tell their story properly.
The records seem to show that Grace had her first son, Nelson, with a man named George Oberlin in May 1911. There is no indication that Grace married Mr. Oberlin, but his name is on the birth certificate.
At around the same time, Harry was married to Wava Mae Howlett (1893-1960) and they had a daughter. The couple married in April of 1910, and when their daughter was born on 22 February 1911, they named her Ilene Lillian Brandon. Harry and Wava divorced in June 1911, while Harry was serving part of his National Guard duty at Fort Benjamin Harrison, and Wava remarried three or four times in rapid succession, making it hard to tell where she might appear in the 1920 Census. It looks as though after the divorce, Wava kept custody of the baby, and called her "Eileen Hazel."
I have not been able to find a birth record for Grace's second child, but Wanda Lillian was born on 12 June 1914 (according to the Social Security records). I don't have any evidence that Harry is Wanda's biological father, but since the marriage records say he and Grace were married on 14 April 1917, and Harry, Jr. was born 27 February 1917 - they may well have been together unofficially well before 1917. And in August of 1917, Harry was granted an exemption from the draft quota due to having a wife and three dependents.
Harry adopted Nelson, and raised Wanda, Harry, Jr., and the twins, along with Grace. Harry died in 1965 from pulmonary congestion after suffering from Parkinson's disease for the previous 15 years. By the end of his life, he was a resident of Souders Hospital, which was torn down in 2008. Grace survived him by nearly 20 years, and died from a heart attack at the age of 94.
A. Nelson B. "Nellie" Brandon (1911-1995) married Ruth Geneva Wheeler (1914–2006) who was the daughter of Greenwood and Lola (De Witt) Wheeler. Nellie worked as a factory laborer until his retirement. Later in life, he suffered from Alzheimer's disease, and died three days after he suffered a stroke in 1995. Ruth also suffered from dementia in her later years, and died of a heart attack at 91 years of age. They had at least one daughter, who is still living.
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| From their Find-a-Grave memorial page |
C. Harry Lewis "Bud" Brandon, Jr. (1917–1996) was married around 1939, and his wife survived him. Bud served in the U.S. Navy during World War II.
D. Cleo Brandon (1919–2005) was one of a set of twins born to Grace and Harry Brandon on 29 December 1919. She married Wilbur Nelson Johnson (1921–1997) on 3 May 1941. Wilbur was the youngest son of Nelson Columbus "Lum" Johnson (1891–1980) and Blanche E Getts (1892–1977).
When they married, both Cleo and Wilbur were employed by the former Auburn Rubber Co. and Cleo was later an employee of the Cooper Jewelry Store in Butler, Indiana. They had two sons, still living, and a daughter, Melanie, who died some time before her mother.
E. Claude Brandon (1919–1982) was Cleo's twin brother. He enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II, serving from 19 August 1941 until 10 December 1945. After the war he married Martha Jean McNabb (1928–2003) at St. Mark's Lutheran Church on 19 February 1949. (And, no - she is not related to the McNabb families we discussed earlier this year. I checked!)
Jean worked as a bookkeeper for two Auburn drug stores for a combined 25 years: Romeiser Drug Store and Keltsch Pharmacy. She also served as assistant to the controller of Mid American Electronics in Auburn for six years, and she was a receptionist for Dr. Stanley Greenberg in Garrett for six years.
Claude and Jean had two children; a daughter, still living, and a son, Thomas James Brandon (1954–2003), who left behind a widow and two children of his own.
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That's all I have time for this week, but we still have three more Cool siblings to talk about next week.
As always, if you are related to anyone mentioned in this post, please say hello - you can drop a comment below, join our Callin Family History Facebook group, or email my Gmail address: callintad at gmail dot com.
Corrections and editorial comments are not only welcome, but encouraged.
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