AN ORPHAN'S CHILD

    "NINETY-FOUR DOLLARS and FIVE CENTS"

Above: My maternal grandparents

Frank White Lee and Alta Violet Sage circa1930

  "Ninety-four dollars and five cents..."

   (It will make more sense later on.)

[Again, terribly unedited. ✓]

Sometimes, I wonder what brings people together. I wonder too about all those things that will, in later years tear them apart. At least for today though, I thought I'd write about the things that might have made them somehow feel right for each other. You know, like my grandparents, Frank and Alta.

(I know, I know, it's just crazy Jeff doing his thing, right?)

                                                                             *******

Recently, a cousin sent me a picture of Frank and Alta I'd never seen before. As I looked at it, I was able to get a sense of my grandparents' close if not necessarily intimate relationship. As I uploaded it to Ancestry.com and "gussied it up" (and as some new information has shown up this week) some of the reasons "Frank and Alta" got together in the first place became clear. 

I believe that people are often drawn to each other as mates out of a sense of similar history. Call it a personal bias that drives us towards a mate that will somehow understand our ancestry. I don't think there's any specific indicator here. It could be that they both like orange-lemon jello with pineapple on holidays, or more so, that they understand "the need" to have orange-lemon jello with pineapple when family comes around.

Personal history. Personal bias.

The photograph triggered in me the query and understanding of these things Frank and Alta might have had in common beyond sagebrush, sheep ranches, and dancing at the Wilcox Ranch. What I realized was that both Frank and Alta have a history of similar family 'events' in common. 

So you see my silly genealogical epiphany here started out this week with "Nana's father Samuel Selah Sage. You know "Grandpa Sam." (He's actually my great-grandfather...) I posted about him and his siblings a week or so ago in Water for Sages. 

https://atroubledsage.blogspot.com/2024/03/water-for-sages.html

At the time I wrote that, I was waiting to see if Sarpy County, Nebraska would be able to find and release "Grandpa Sam's" father's (Selah Sage's) probate record. On Monday, I was pleased to see an email with a seventy-two-page (!!!) attachment. They had found the administration records for the estate of Nana's grandfather, Selah Sage who died one hundred and fifty years ago this coming April. Some kind soul had bothered to find Selah Sage's file from 1874. So I guess you could say it all started this week here...

(And no, I am not crazy. But sometimes the simplest of 72-page things...)

Now if I had bothered to do the math previously, I would have easily seen that Nana's father Sam was orphaned (and that both of his parents were dead) by the time he was eleven years old. I guess for some reason I was too dimwitted to see this until the probate record for Nana's grandfather arrived last Monday. (Grandpa Sam's mother Mary died in 1872) Our Great-Great Grandfather Selah Sage died intestate leaving four minor children. Much of the probate records are letters from Grandpa Sam's older brothers and sisters basically begging the probate court to allow them to keep the minor children - and for them not to be given away to strangers.

                          

The Sarpy County, Nebraska Probate Court appears to have agreed with the petitions of the Grandpa Sam's older brothers and sister. Grandpa Sam was taken in by his older brother Silas Sage. Sam stayed close to Silas for the rest of his life. There is evidence of this in a handwritten note by Grandpa Sam when he either wrote or took down the names and addresses of Silas's children (along with his brother Alvin's)

                  

 Grandpa Sam's brother [Uncle] "General Sherman" Sage went to live with his (much) older sister [Aunt] Nancy (Sage) Roberts. From what I know of Sherman's life it was a difficult one.

                           

 Above: Nana's "Aunt Nancy" and the woman who raised her "Uncle Sherman" as a boy.

                                   

Grandpa Sam's brothers Jerome Spillman Sage and Alvin Hall Sage were taken in and raised by Grandpa Sam's much older brother (and administrator of probate) Henry Sage. Jerome died a few short years later but brother Alvin Hall Sage "got away." Nana's "Uncle Alvin" lived for many years in San Gabriel, California.

So how come no Christmases were spent with Uncle Alvin? Gotta wonder...

In any event - all of Great-Great Grandpa Selah's living children received "ninety-four dollars and five cents" once the estate was settled about a year later. This equates to roughly $2,500.00 in today's money. This tells me that Nana's grandfather wasn't broke. 

Then there was the amount of money that had to be paid to Great-Great Grandpa Selah's sister and maiden aunt Miss Elizabeth Sage. She made a claim against her brother's estate for four hundred dollars half of which was allowed. 

So not broke here. Just orphaned.

                           

Above image: Great-Grandpa Sam Sage - Nana's father in later years.

Now about here, I need to mention that Nana's mother Mary (Ginder) Sage died when she was eighteen years old. 

I need to mention that Frank Lee's father Burton Arthur Lee died when Frank was seventeen.

(The story of how Nana's mother was blinded by bees is a good one for a later date...)

Enter Frank White Lee...

His father Burton Arthur Lee was an orphan too. Burton's father John E. Lee died in 1885. His mother Lucy Melinda (Nestle) Lee in 1888. Burton's sister "Lucy Jr." was put in charge of the minor children.

                                   

                    

     Franks' mother Ono Wilcox Lee of course died when he was eight years old and he was raised by his Aunt Hazel Wilcox. Though not necessarily an orphan per se, Frank surely was on his own by the age of seventeen.

                                 

Above: Mrs. Clark Wilcox - "Hazel Wilcox"

So I guess it might have gone something like this...

The year is 1929.

FRANK: "Hey Alta, I hear that your dad was orphaned as a kid. Mine was too. I heard that your mom died last year. You might have heard my mom died when I was eight years old. I understand what that must be like."

ALTA: "I sure understand what you've been through. It's rough. Hey, do you like to go to dances? I do. Do you think you would ever want to go out to the dance at Amos Wilcox's ranch?"

FRANK: "Why yes, I'd like that Alta. I hate to miss those dances at the Wilcox ranch too. Tell me, if it's not too crazy a thought, have you ever thought about what you might want to name a baby girl?"

ALTA: "Well, if I ever have a baby girl... I think I like the name Yvonne..."

We are often bound together in life by the strangest things in common.

REST IN PEACE DEAR ONES.