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.

Leslie Amelia Trowbridge

The third Trowbridge sister, born abt. 1882.  Attended Cal, class of 1905, but didn't graduate.  Married William M. Brown, b. abt. 1867.  Son William M. Jr. was born 1906, and Nelson T. was born 1908.  In 1910 they were living in Oakland, along with the mother of the Trowbridge siblings, Katie Clayton Trowbridge (presumably widowed) and siblings Nelson (age 21) and Olive (age 19).  Son Edwin W. was born 1917.

In 1930 they lived in Tulare, CA, and sibling Kate Elliot's second daughter Ruth lived with them for a while after the death of both parents.  She was around the same age as the youngest son Edwin.  (Kate Elliot's older daughter Elliot was in college, and son Wallace still lived with step-father Frank Ellis.)  In Tulare Leslie's profession is listed as Christian Science practitioner.

Leslie lived long enough to be in the living memory of my family as "Aunt Leslie."  By 1942 she and Uncle Will had moved back to Oakland and were living at 148 Bayo Vista Ave. (1).  Living family members visited them in Oakland in the 1940's.  Leslie and Will visited Japan at some point, and brought back Japanese art pieces which they had in their house in Oakland.  Will died in 1950, and Leslie some time after that.

Leslie was the only Trowbridge sister to survive past middle age.  The pictures of her as an older woman are from a Turner-Trowbridge family gathering in San Francisco, hosted by Elliot (daughter of Kate Elliot), some time around 1947 or 1948.

(1) Nelson Trowbridge Jr.'s WWII draft card

Jessie June Trowbridge

The oldest Trowbridge sibling (except for James who died in infancy), she was born in June 1874.  In various censuses she reported that she was born in Utah, though we don't have any other record of the family spending time in Utah.

She was a photographer, and her pictures of the scenery of the Cal campus were published in the Cal yearbook when she was a sophomore (1).  She also took pictures of Alaska scenery and mining operations when the family lived in Alaska (2).

She graduated from Cal in 1898 with a B.S. in Natural Sciences, and married Robert Kelsey Haskell, also a 1898 Cal graduate with a B.S. in Civil Engineering (3).  They moved to Hawaii in 1900 and lived on the island of Kuwai.  They had two children, Eloise M., b. abt. 1899, and Robert Kelsey Jr., b. abt. 1901 (4).  Robert Sr. died March 15, 1904 (5).

By 1910, Jessie June was back in California, living in Glen Ellen with her new husband, George Cobb, a poultry farmer.  The two Haskell children lived with them (6).  There is also a record of a George Cobb with a wife named Jessie (but a different middle initial) living in Fresno at 1035 Ferris Ave (7).

Jessie died some time before 1937 (8).

(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6) 1910 Federal Census.
(7)
(8) The Golden Book of California.

Eloise Hammond Trowbridge

The second sister of the Trowbridge family, born abt. 1877 in Nevada.  (The two middle-aged pictures, taken abt. 1913 when she was abt. 36, are tentative, but it seems like it's got to be her.)

She attended Cal, class of 1901 (1), but didn't graduate, and also attended the San Francisco Art Institute (2). This painting is hers.
 

She married Frank Freeman Ellis (b. 1875), a teacher in the Smith-Hughs program at Fremont High School in Oakland (3).  According to family stories they had no biological children, but adopted an earthquake baby.  Their daughter Hope would have been born around 1906 (4), the year of the SF earthquake.  (Pic of Frank Ellis is from his passport application.  Pic of Hope is a tentative ID from a picture of various family members.)

In August 1918 Frank applied for a passport to go to Europe with the YMCA (5), to aid the war effort towards the very end of the war.  His brother-in-law Wallace Turner (husband of Eloise's sister Kate Elliot) also went with the YMCA, around the same time.

By 1920 Eloise and Frank had a niece living with them, Olive Trusty, age 5, daughter of Eloise's youngest sister Olive Rose.  From this it would seem that Olive Rose had died. 

In 1923 Eloise died, at the age of 46, we don't know why.  Olive Trusty ended up with other relatives in LA (6).  One year later Frank married Kate Elliot, also widowed.  My grandmother Elliot and her two younger siblings became Frank's step-children. The daffodil painting is in my family because of this.  Three years later, in 1927, Kate Elliot herself died in childbirth.

 This picture is from a photograph of the two younger step-kids, Wallace Jr. and Ruth, with "Dad," from Spring 1928.  We know that Wallace and Ruth continued to live with Mr. Ellis for some period of time after Kate Elliot died in 1927, so this has got to be him. 

Frank Ellis then married Gladys Charles, nee Maul, who had a son from her previous marriage (coincidentally also named Elliot).  Frank and Gladys had one child, Barbara Minora Ellis (Frank's only biological child, though he parented six others). (7)

(1) Sibley, Robert (Ed.) (1937).  The Golden Book of California.
(2) Hughs, Edan.  Artists in California, 1786-1940.
(3) Kate Elliot Turner Studt's personal affidavit, private collection.
(4) 1920 Federal Census.
(5) Passport application photocopy downloaded from public records.
(6) 1930 Federal Census.
(7) Family records on Ancestry.com