Kate Elliot Trowbridge

 

The fourth Trowbridge sister, and my actual ancestor, born 12 October, 1886.  The necklace she is wearing in the third row right is still in the family.  The identifications of the top, 2nd row right, and 3rd row left pictures as Kate Elliot are tentative.  But looking at them all together, they seem undeniably the same person.  Some that look the least alike are positively identified as her, while the tentative pictures each strongly resemble at least one of the definite pictures.  The top three pictures are from the photographs taken by Jessie June Trowbridge of her siblings, and the bottom four pictures are from the collection of Kate Elliot's daughter Elliot, containing pictures of her immediate family.

She attended Cal, class of 1907 (1), but left during her freshman year to care for her mother who was an invalid (2).  Her 2nd cousin and future husband, Wallace Foote Turner, was at Cal at the same time, class of 1905.  Family stories say that she was a piano teacher in Glen Ellen when Wallace was courting her.  They married in 1908, in Oakland.  Kate Elliot Jr. was born in 1909 in Esparto.  Wallace Foot Jr. ws born in 1912 in Ione, and Adeline Ruth in 1916 in Santa Barbara.

Wallace Sr. was a high school teacher, and then went to Europe with the YMCA towards the end of WWI (approx 1917-1919).  When he returned he had serious health problems that prevented him from working.  The family moved from Santa Barbara to Lancaster for the drier climate, and the family experienced a serious decline in their standard of living.  They ran a small dairy farm, with Kate Elliot and the children taking much of the responsibility for the chores. 

After Wallace Sr. died in May 1922, Kate Elliot moved the family to Tulare, to be near her sister Leslie.  She took a job as a companion, and studied for and took the teacher's examination.  She took a job teaching 5th grade in September 1923.  During this period the eldest daughter Elliot had the responsibility for caring for her younger siblings.

The following April Kate Elliot married her widowed brother-in-law Frank Ellis (Eloise's husband) who lived in Oakland.  She died in childbirth October 18, 1927, when Elliot Jr. was in her first semester at Cal.

Wallace Foot Turner and Kate Elliot Trowbridge Turner, with their three children: Adeline Ruth, Wallace Jr., and Kate Elliot Jr. (my grandmother).

This is Wallace Jr., Frank Ellis ("Dad"), Ruth, and a Mrs. McLean, Spring 1928, about half a year after Kate Elliot died.  He would be 52 in this picture.  We don't know who Mrs. McLean was.

(1) The Golden Book of California.

(2) Affidavit of Kate Elliot Turner Studt, personal collection.