Documenting Our Maternal Family’s Pioneer Heritage

During our childhood, my four siblings and I learned very little about our extended and ancestral families. Why? Stated simply, both the maternal and paternal sides of our family were very splintered and disconnected.

◄ Nannie Anderson Perkins, born circa 1855

For example, I met our maternal grandmother only once and our maternal grandfather only twice in my life that I’m aware of (although we have a photo of me with him as a small child on an occasion I don’t recall).

We did have regular contact with our paternal grandmother, but we never met – or even saw photographs of - our paternal grandfather. In fact I didn’t even know his name until not long ago.

The result? We never had family reunions, Thanksgiving or Christmas gatherings with grandparents where stories about family were passed on, or any other sources of learning our family’s stories.

Previous Work on This Blog
 
That combination of circumstances left a void that turned into a yearning for me – a desire to learn about our heritage. After I retired from the business world I had the time to explore our family genealogy and history, and once I began I found it to be addictive.

As I progressed in assembling our Family History I uncovered stories that amazed me, saddened me, and made me want to learn more – and some of them filled me with pride. Making the stories available to the rest of my family is what led to the creation of this blog.

This page and one other page of this blog deal with people in our maternal ancestral family who were literally the pioneers in the newly-formed nation shortly after the U.S. Revolutionary war. Here’s a link to the other page. [Some of the material on this page is also included on that page, but I want to document our lineage to these pioneers and decided to add this page rather than rework that earlier page.]

So, this current page is designed to provide documentation of our links to the people in our family to whom I refer, both in the page linked above and to the information below.

Those in our Jones family line are directly descended from Thomas Perkins, Rev. John McPherson and Lewis Jones, who married McPherson's daughter Rebecca. Below is the lineage for them - compiled from various documents inherited from my generation's uncle DeRand Jones and extensive research conducted via Ancestry.com and other online sources.

The earliest reference I found to this part of our ancestral family is to Thomas Perkins, who would have lived through - and may well have fought in - the U.S. Revolutionary War.

Descendancy Chart for Thomas Perkins

Thomas Perkins (1742 – 1837) & Cassandra Casteel
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Samuel Perkins (1788 – 1861) & Elizabeth Hart
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Margaret Perkins Anderson & Rev. J. W. Anderson
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Dennis Parrott Anderson (1819 – 1890) & Margaret Skinner Bonar
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Mary Elizabeth (Mollie) Anderson Cash (1852 – 1927) & William Galen Cash
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Leona D Cash Jones (1873 – 1957) & Fleetwood Churchill Jones
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Rev. Carleton D Jones (1895 – 1967) & Nelle Virginia Field Jones
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Fleeta Claire Jones Dunn (b. 1921) & William Edward (Bill) Dunn]

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Other early references I found to our ancestral family are to Rev. John Wesley McPherson - who also lived through the Revolutionary War - and Lewis Jones, who was born shortly after the war ended.

Descendancy Chart for Rev. John Wesley McPherson

John W McPherson (1758 – 1856) & Ann Smallwood Acton
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Rebecca McPherson Jones (1795 – 1880) & Lewis Jones
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Dr. William M Jones (1831 – 1892) & Elizabeth Ann Goodman
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Fleetwood Churchill Jones (1837 – 1937) & Leona Cash Jones
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Rev. Carleton Duane Jones (1895 – 1967) & Nelle Virginia Field Jones
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Fleeta Claire Jones Dunn (b. 1921) & William Edward (Bill) Dunn

Claire was the mother of five children, including me, Patrick William Dunn, the editor of this blog, whom I’ve labeled the “East Chicago Dunns” for the purposes of this blog. Claire's siblings, Paul Wesley Jones and Virginia Lee Jones Pecaro, also had children who descend from Thomas Perkins, John McPherson and Lewis Jones.

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The first source from which I’m drawing information is this book, which was published in 1880: “History of Belmont and Jefferson Counties, Ohio” by J.A. Caldwell. Following are excerpts from that book in which members of our ancestral families are mentioned. (Source)

History of Kirkwood Township

"First Settlement

The first settlement in Kirkwood township was made on section eight, in 1800, by three brothers, Joseph, William and Barnet Groves, who migrated from Pennsylvania with their families, located and made improvements on this section...(snip). In 1805, Thomas Perkins and family settled on section seventeen...(snip); Rev. John McPherson, in 1816; Lewis Jones, in 1816...(snip).

And there are many others who were here in an early day and endured the hardships of a pioneer life, labored hard to clear away the dense forests, make improvements and prepare the soil for cultivation. Some of them are mentioned in the history of Sewellsville...(snip).

Kirkwood formed one of the first four original civil townships [in Belmont County, Ohio] and extended from the Ohio river to now Guernsey, in which part of said county was included. It was erected November 25, 1801, and named in honor of Robert Kirkwood, the pioneer…(snip).

Incidents

In about 1798 a party of hunters were camping at a spring near where Jonathan Perkins' dwelling now stands. One evening when they returned to camp one of their party, by the name of Robinson, was missing. Diligent search was made for him, but he could not be found. They supposed him to be carried off a captive by the Indians, as there were some in the neighborhood at that time. In 1807 there was a gun barrel and some human bones found on the Perkins' farm, section 17, which were thought to be the remains of Robinson. In honor of this unfortunate man one branch of Stillwater creek bears his name, and is known as Robinson's branch.

Salem M.E. Church

This society was organized in about 1810 or 1812, with eighteen or twenty members. They held their meetings in private residences until 1813 or 1814, they erected a hewed log church building near the western line of section ten, in Kirkwood township…(snip).

Class Leaders

The first class leader was John Fox; 2d, Isaac Midkiff, who acted in that capacity for about twenty-five years; 3d, Alex. Carr Skadden, for ten years; 4th, Samuel Douglass for six years; 5th Earl Douglass for three years; 6th Jonathan Perkins fifteen years."

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A 1903 History of Belmont County

Here’s another source from which I’ve drawn excerpts. It’s a 1903 book called “History of Belmont County, Ohio and Representative Citizens”, edited and compiled by Hon. A. T. Mckelvey. (Source)

"Kirkwood township was one of the first townships erected in the county. It passed the centennial mark in 1901; as heretofore noted, it was named after the Revolutionary hero, Capt. Robert Kirkwood.

THE FIRST SETTLERS

Among its first settlers were: Barnet, Joseph, and William Groves, John Israel, ___ McBride, John Bradshaw, Hugh Gilliland, Hugh Ford, John Burton, John McClain, A. Randall, Thomas Perkins, James McKinney, Ralph Cowgill, William Spencer, Robert and Thomas Griffin, Josiah McColloch, Hugh McMahon, Robert Waddell, Thomas Barrett, James Shepherd, B. Ridgeway, Thomas Green, Philip Ward, Alexander McCormick, Rev. John McPherson, Eli Taylor, Patrick Hamilton, Samuel Boden, Joseph Reynolds and Robert Armstrong.

Many of the descendants of these old pioneers reside on the lands that their forefathers cleared with infinite labor and toil 75 and 100 years ago.

THE STILLWATER VALLEY

The headwaters of the Stillwater rise in Kirkwood township at a point near Hendrysburg and pursue their sluggish course through one of the richest valleys in the world, to the point where the stream empties into the Tuscarawas….(snip).

One of the branches of the Stillwater is named Robinson's Branch, in memory of a noted hunter by that name, who, in 1798, while hunting with a party of friends and neighbors, disappeared. Nine years thereafter, his skeleton was found on the old Perkins farm, with his gun near-by.

THE POPULATION AND TOWNSHIP OFFICIALS

John Israel was one of the first justices of the peace in Kirkwood township. He was followed by William B. Beall, John H. Johnson, Jarvis A. Moore, T. Lacock, and John McPherson.

THE SCHOOLS

The School Board in 1902 consists of A. O. Campbell, O. H. Groves, John Wilson, John Rore, Frank Sample, Ed. Wheaton and [Samuel] W. Perkins.
THE KIRKWOOD METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH

Is the only church in Sewellsville. It was organized in 1818 by Rev. Thomas Ruckle, who preached in a little log cabin, near where the present church now stands. This building was also used as a school house. Previous to the organization, a class meeting was held at the home of Basil Ridgeway, and some of the members of the class were Thomas Frizzell, Mead Jarvis, Thomas Miller and Zachariah Marsh. Some of the early ministers were John Carper, William Knox, Thomas Taylor, Daniel Limerick, Pardon Cook and John McPherson, a local preacher."

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The Perkins Family (with references to the Anderson and Cash family links)

Here’s a biographical sketch about members of the Perkins family. The source is “Centennial History of Belmont County, Ohio and Representative Citizens”, published by Biographical Publishing Co., Chicago, Illinois , in 1903. Source

"SAMUEL W. PERKINS, a farmer and stock raiser residing in section 17, Kirkwood township, Belmont County, was born in this township July 14, 1849. He is a son of Rev. Jonathan and Rebecca (Majors) Perkins, and a grandson of Samuel Perkins, after whom he was named. The last named [Samuel] was soldier in the War of 1812, and his widow received a pension for nearly 15 years.

Rev. Jonathan Perkins was born June 15, 1820, where the house of our subject now stands, and was a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church for many years. He traveled the Moorefield circuit and was senior minister of the circuit.

He later had a local charge and was a man of great popularity, enjoying the distinction of having united in marriage and buried more people than any other minister in the county. He served as justice of the peace some 12 or 15 years, and his efforts were successful in amicably settling the differences of his neighbors without the intervention of the courts.

During the Civil War he was captain of a military company which he took out to oppose the Morgan raid [this link takes you to a page where this raid is discussed in detail]. He was a strong abolitionist and believed in a vigorous prosecution of the war.

At one time he owned nearly a section of land and was a very successful farmer. In 1872 he had a large quantity of wool destroyed in the great Boston fire, but his loss was comparatively slight, owning to the property being insured. His death, which occurred Aug. 28, 1887, was widely deplored, as he had lived a very useful life and came from one of the early families of the county.

He joined the church at the age of 17 years and ever after was a consistent Christian. He served as a class leader in the church at Salem, and during a period of 15 years never missed a class meeting.

He was united in marriage Feb. 8, 1846, to Rebecca Majors, who was born in section 18, Kirkwood township, Sept. 9, 1825, and died Aug. 25, 1902. She was a lifelong member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and for many years was quite active in church work. She was a great home woman until the death of her husband, when home lost its charms, and she thereafter spent her declining years at the homes of her children, whose chief joy was ministering to her wants.

Eight children blessed the union of Rev. and Mrs. Perkins, five of whom survive, namely: Sarah E., wife of George E. Smith; Samuel W.; Margaret R., wife of J. W. Anderson, a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church of Wichita, Kansas; Josephine O., wife of Albert S. Reynolds, a justice of the peace of Kirkwood township, and N. S. G., who resides where his father lived.

Samuel W. Perkins was educated in the common schools and later at Hopedale, after which he took to agricultural pursuits. He has 210 acres of well improved land, and all is underlaid with coal. He raises some stock that he sells, and winters about 35 head. He is one of the substantial men of his township, of which he is now serving his second term as trustee.

March 29, 1876, Mr. Perkins was united in marriage with Nannie A. Anderson, a native of this county, and a daughter of [Dennis Parrott] and Margaret Anderson, the former of whom died in 1890, and the latter April 18, 1902, at the age of 86 years. Mr. Anderson and wife had the following children: Rev. J. W.; Mary, wife of Rev. W. G. Cash, superintendent of schools at Morristown for a time; Nannie A., and Ella M., wife of G. W. Warrick, who resides on the old Anderson homestead in this county.

[Editor's comment: The evidence I've seen suggests that the photo at the top of the page, noted as "Aunt Nannie Perkins" is the mother, Nannie A Perkins, referred to above. In fact, I can find no census records that verify there was a daughter by that name.]

Our subject [Samuel W.] and his wife have four children, as follows: Emsley O., a member of the class of 1904 at Athens College; Isa Edith, who married F. J. Hamilton, a manufacturer of cigars at Hendrysburg, O., and has daughter, Carrie L.; Jonathan F., who lives at home on the farm, and Margaret R., who is attending school.

Our subject and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which he has been trustee and steward. He has frequently served as superintendent of Sunday-schools and has been a leader for about 10 years. Fraternally he is a member of the Knights of Pythias. In politics he is a Republican."

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Last revised 7/26/2011

Please refer to the disclaimer on the index page of this blog for a statement regarding the accuracy of - and documentation for - the information presented in this blog.

What was Leona D Cash Jones’ middle name?

In doing some online research about my generation’s maternal grandmother, Nelle Virginia Field Jones, I ran across a site for the county marriage archive where her marriage to our grandfather, Carleton D Jones, is recorded.

◄ Leona D Cash, circa 1905

◄ From record of Ohio Marriages, 1790-1950
(Click to enlarge - Source)

In that archive, seen here, Carleton’s information shows his mother’s maiden name as “Dove”. Simply stated, that’s incorrect, for it’s well established from many sources that her maiden name was Cash.

For example, her name is recorded in several censuses as Leona D Cash. If her middle name was Dove, that's consistent. In other words, perhaps her full maiden name was Leona Dove Cash.

A Cash cousin suggested that perhaps Leona adopted “Dove” as her maiden name. However, that doesn't seem to apply, for the marriage application for Carleton's side of his marriage record would presumably have been completed by him, not Leona. And he certainly knew her maiden name was Cash.

The idea that she may have used Dove vs. Cash also seems odd in that I've never seen the name Dove show up anywhere other than Carleton's marriage record. If she had used "Dove" it seems it would have been recorded in some other record along the way. It's not worth spending time researching it, but I've always been curious as to why her middle name isn't spelled out anywhere in the records I've seen, while those of her sisters are.

It's a small mystery that may have been cleared up via this marriage record.

Bottom line: Unless evidence turns up to the contrary, I'm thinking that Carleton submitted her whole maiden name, Leona Dove Cash, for the marriage record - and for some reason it was truncated to Leona Dove by whoever recorded it for the county archives.

Errors occur in genealogy records; in this example, Carleton's birthplace is incorrectly recorded as Hendesburg instead of Hendrysburg and his father's name is recorded as Fleet instead of Fleetwood. I've seen stranger things than these in other records.

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Last revised 7/23/2011
Please refer to the disclaimer on the index page of this blog for a statement regarding the accuracy of - and documentation for - the information presented in this blog.

The First American in Space – and Our Family Connection to This Historic Event

May 5th, 2011, was the 50th anniversary of an event that ultimately led to the United States sending the first man to walk on the moon. That event was Alan Shepard’s 1961 Freedom 7 flight into space.

A bit of historical background

The "Cold War" was a continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition between primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies – and the United States and her allies.

▲The Launch of Freedom 7

Although the chief military forces never engaged in a major battle with each other during this period, they expressed the conflict through military coalitions, strategic conventional force deployments, extensive aid to states deemed vulnerable, proxy wars, espionage, propaganda, conventional and nuclear arms races, appeals to neutral nations, rivalry at sports events, and technological competitions such as the "space race".

◄ Timeline of space race up to time of
Shepard's flight (Click to enlarge it.)

During the Cold War the United States was in intense competition with the USSR as to which country would lead the world in the space race. As you can see in the partial timeline of space exploration to the left, the USSR had sent the first man into orbit and the U.S. was playing "catch-up" in the eyes of many observers.

This video provides a look at the intense competitiveness of the events of that era. Here are links to a couple of YouTube videos about the Freedom 7 launch:
NASA Film - Freedom 7 - #1
NASA Film - Freedom 7 - #2

Shepard's 1998 New York Times obituary reported his experience as follows:

“On the morning of May 5, 1961, [Alan B. Shepard, Jr.] became an immediate American hero. A lean, crew-cut former Navy test pilot, then 37, he began the day lying on his back in a cramped Mercury capsule atop a seven-story Redstone rocket filled with explosive fuel. After four tense hours of weather and mechanical delays, he was shot into the sky on a 15-minute flight that grazed the fringes of space, at an altitude of 115 miles, and ended in a splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean 302 miles downrange from Cape Canaveral, Fla.

Though not much by today's [1998] standards, the brief suborbital flight stopped a whole country in its tracks, waiting anxiously at radios and television sets. When the message of success came through -- with a phrase that would enter the idiom, ‘Everything is A-O.K.!’ -- everyone seemed to let out a collective sigh of relief.'

Daniel S. Goldin, head of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, said the Shepard flight was ‘a tremendous statement about tenacity, courage and brilliance,’ adding with a tone of lingering awe: ‘He crawled on top of that rocket that had never before flown into space with a person aboard and he did it. That was an unbelievable act of courage.’ “

[Editor’s comment: When reporters asked Shepard what he thought about as he sat atop the Redstone rocket waiting for liftoff, he reportedly replied, “The fact that every part of this ship was built by the low bidder.”]

“[Three weeks later] On May 25 [president] Kennedy told Congress, 'This nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind or more important for the long-range exploration of space. And none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.' '' (Source)

The U.S. puts the first man on the moon

Kennedy’s goal was met, for on July 20, 1969, Commander Neil Armstrong became the first man on the moon. He spoke the historic words, "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." (Source)

Ten years after his initial flight in Freedom 7, Alan Shepard commanded the Apollo 14 mission and was the fifth person to walk on the moon. During the Applllo mission he planted an American flag on the surface of the moon.

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Our family connection to Alan Shepard’s first space flight

In December, 2010, my daughter gave me a collection of information she found in her deceased mother, Sonja’s, belongings. Sonja – my wife in 1961 – still had this 50-year old material from my time in the U.S. Navy. I had no idea the material still existed.

Because Alan Shepard’s flight occurred while I was in the Navy – and the ship I was on played a role in that event – this page of this blog features some of the information provided by my daughter. Why? Because, in retrospect, my small connection with the recovery of the first American in space seems worth recording in this blog’s Family History stories.

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Some personal background

The law in the era in which I approached my 18th birthday required every male to register with the Selective Service System at age 18, which made us subject to being drafted into the army.

What little I knew about the army didn’t appeal to me, so while I was still in high school I joined the Navy reserves. It was a six-year commitment that included attending a full-time “boot camp” for several weeks, weekly training meetings during the year, training for weeks at a time during summers, and two years of full-time active service.

▲The complete photo is too large to fit onto my scanner, but included here are parts of a photo of my boot camp company and me. It's captioned, “Co. A-58 U.S. Naval Reserve, J.J. Duncan, CSC, USN, Co. Cmdr – 30 June 1959, U.S. Naval Training Center, Great Lakes, Ill[inois]”. At the time this photo was taken I was 18 years old, married, had just graduated from high school in May, and two weeks later in July I was the father of a son.

As time passed I advanced in grade, ending my two years of active duty as Radarman 3rd Class. This photo of me at that stage of my service was taken with the Naval Air Station at Quonset Point, Rhode Island, in the background. This was the home port of the USS Lake Champlain, the ship on which I served.▼

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The recovery of the Freedom 7 capsule and Alan Shepard

◄ Crew members of the Lake Champlain seeing the capsule when it became visible as it returned to earth.

▲ After exiting the capsule following splashdown, Alan Shepard is hoisted up in a body harness by a U.S. Marine Sikorsky UH-34D helicopter recovery team of Marine squadron HMM-262 following the first Project Mercury suborbital space flight. ▼

















Shepard, along with his spacecraft, was then taken to the Lake Champlain. (Source)

◄ On the way to the ship...

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Life magazine, May, 1961

The story made the cover of Life magazine, and the article about it, in part, had this to say about the Freedom 7 launch and Alan Shepard.
(Click to enlarge it).

 

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My personal perspective: How a letter I wrote became a news story

In an article titled "Gary Seaman In On Space Feat", the Gary Post Tribune published the article below on 14 May 1961. I never lived in Gary, but had sent a letter about Shepard's flight to my mother, who then lived in East Gary (now renamed Lake Station), Indiana. She sent the letter and my high school graduation phototo to the newspaper - and they became the basis for the article (click twice to make it readable).

  

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▼The capsule on the deck of the Lake Champlain after its recovery

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Flying home from the ship after the birth of my daughter

Not long after Shepard’s flight, in September, 1961, I was at sea during one of the several-week anti-submarine warfare exercises in which the Lake Champlain was regularly involved. During that cruise I was hand-delivered the message below, which notified me of the birth of my eldest daughter. (Click to enlarge it.)

The Navy responded to her birth by flying me, a lowly seaman, from the ship back to our home base so I could be with my wife, son and new baby. It was a remarkable experience to be flung, like a rock from a slingshot, off the deck of an aircraft carrier.

The plane was designed for utility, not comfort, and once inside the aircraft I could barely move. I liken it to flying in a tin can, for there was no padding on the metal interior – and no luxurious seats. Nonetheless it was exciting and gratifying to get home to meet my new baby daughter!

All in all, 1961 was a meaningful year in the life of this young sailor!

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The Naval Base

As a sidebar to the story of Shepard's historic flight, readers may find it interesting to learn a little about the Naval Air Station at Quonset Point, Rhode island, the home port of the Lake Champlain. The article below provides a brief glimpse into its history, which dated back to WW II and its role in combatting the presence of German submarines on the east coast.
(Click twice to make it readable.)

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The USS Lake Champlain

◄ USS Lake Champlain, CVS 39, Circa 1960 (Click to enlarge it.)

Here's another sidebar to the story of Alan Shepard's flight; it's a brief look at the history of the Lake Champlain, as provided in a handout provided to visitors:

"HISTORY OF A CHAMPION
 

Endowed with the victorious fighting spirit of Commodore Mac Donough's naval triumph on Lake Champlain in the War of 1812 and equipped with some of the most modern weapons for naval warfare, the USS LAKE CHAMPLAIN has served as an ever-ready, powerful guardiari of American principles for almost twenty years.

Commissioned an Essex-type attack carrier (CVA) on June 3, 1945, in Norfolk, Va., the USS LAKE CHAMPLAIN joined the Atlantic Fleet in the latter part of World War II. Shortly after the armistice, she became part of the troop-transporting "Magic Carpet." During this good-will operation, the USS LAKE CHAMPLAIN set an Atlantic crossing speed record by whisking 5,000 GIs from Gibraltar to Virginia in 87 hours, maintaining an average speed of 32 knots over the 3,960 mile course. The "Ghamp," as she was now called, held the coveted speed record' for seven years.

The USS LAKE CHAMPLAIN was reclassified an antisubmarine warfare carrier (CVS) on Aug.1st 1, 1957. Since that time, she has strenuously engaged in NATO exercises and antisubmarine maneuvers throughout the Atlantic. Liberty ports in the, Mediterranean, Northern Europe, the British Isles, Canada, and the Caribbean have played host to the Champmen.

On May 5, 1961, the USS LAKE CHAMPLAIN, as primary recovery ship in the Project Mercury space program, gained world-wide fame when America's first astronaut, Navy Commander Alan B. Shepard, was brought aboard immediately after his dazzling flight through outer space.

The Battle Efficiency "E" was awarded to the USS LAKE CHAMPLAIN on August 16, 1961, for outstanding performance in keen competition against Atlantic Fleet carriers of her class. In addition, her Air and Operations Departments and her Antisubmarine Helicopter Squadron, HS- 5, won "E"s in individual Atlantic Fleet competitions.

In 1962, the LAKE CHAMPLAIN continued her work as one of the ready-duty ASW carriers. With her Air Group embarked and protected by destroyer escorts, she regularly departs her homeport of Quonset Point for duty in the North Atlantic Ocean."

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Finally, here's a look at logistical details about the ship, also from the handout mentioned above.

"THE CITY OF THE CHAMPION

In population and complexity, the USS LAKE CHAMPLAIN is a veritable 'city at sea'. Her chain of command can be compared to that of a municipal government, with the Commanding Officer as the 'Mayor', the Executive Officer as the 'City Manager' and the Chief Master-at-Arms as the 'Chief of Police'.

With a gross displacement of 40,000 tons and a 30 foot draft, the massive 'Champ' (896 feet in length with a 101 foot beam) can be driven through the water at speed in excess of 35 mph with 150,000 shaft horsepower transferred to her four giant 14 ton screws. She is the only 'straight deck' carrier presently in the U. S. fleet.

Working on, above, and below her 862 foot flightdeck are more than 2,000 men who comprise the ship's nine departments (Administration, Air, Dental, Engineering, Gunnery, Medical, Navigation, Operations, and Supply.) She operates with an embarked air group of over 40 antisubmarine aircraft.

Included in the scores of crewmen aboard the "Champ" are expert cooks, cobblers, tailors, barbers, laundrymen, printers, and storekeepers. Ship's Servicemen operate the ship's two variety stores, the soda fountain, and tobacco shop - which tend to the 'civilian' needs of her men. Recreational facilities include a well - stocked athletic gear locker, a weight lifting room, a ship's library, a crew's lounge, a reception lounge for the crew and their guests, and numerous TV sets.

Movies are shown nightly in the wardroom and in the hangar bay which is also the scene of basketball and volleyball games and boxing smokers, recruiting local talent. The 'Champ' also has varsity basketball, boxing, and softball teams which actively participate in many all-Navy tournaments. A case full of trophies attests to their successes. At sea, the 'Champ' publishes a daily newspaper, the 'Nighthawk Express', and operates radio station WVLC, devoted to shipboard news and popular music.

There is a fully-equipped, non-denominational Chapel aboard the 'Champ' which has been the scene of Navy weddings and christenings in addition to a full program of religious services.
 

Almost 200,000 meals are served monthly aboard the 'Champ'. Her monthly payroll tops the $500,000 mark. With more than 90,000 gallons of fresh water produced daily at sea, water ration days are rarely required.

All her attributes and conveniences only serve to make the USS LAKE CHAMPLAIN a more efficient deadly weapon against enemy submarines. She's a 'city at sea' to protect those on land."

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Last revised 7/14/2011

Please refer to the disclaimer on the index page of this blog for a statement regarding the accuracy of - and documentation for - the information presented in this blog.

Fleeta Claire Jones Becomes Claire Field

In 1921 Claire Dunn was born Fleeta Claire Jones, and in 1940 she married William Edward (Bill) Dunn (1918-1986). Claire's ancestral Jones line is as follows:

Lewis Jones (1791-1871) & Rebecca McPherson Jones
▼
Dr. William M. Jones (1831-1892) & Elizabeth Goodman Jones
▼
Fleetwood Churchill Jones (1857-1937) & Leona Cash Jones
▼
Rev. Carleton Duane Jones (1895-1967) & Nelle Virginia Field Jones
▼
Fleeta Claire Jones (1921-2012)
(This high school graduation photo is circa 1937)

Claire became the mother of the five "East Chicago Dunns", as I've labeled the family, including me, Patrick Dunn, the editor of this blog. 

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Setting the stage for what follows

Following is an excerpt from an autobiographical manuscript that Claire wrote about various events in her life. This excerpt refers to events that took place shortly after she graduated from high school, circa 1937. The Great Depression was underway and the U.S. had not yet entered the fighting in Europe that became known as World War II.

Her parents had divorced, and their father, Rev. Carleton Jones, was awarded legal custody of their four kids. This led to an onging "contest" of sorts in which Claire's mother, Nelle, repeatedly took some of the children away from him, often using sneaky, nefarious methods to do so, according to the information I've gathered from several sources. 

It wasn't that Nelle wanted to keep the kids. She apparently just wanted to take them away from Carleton, probably to cause him pain, if I'm interpreting the facts correctly. I say that because once she got them she'd find places to "dump" them, as Claire, in one of her letters to me, described Nelle's behavior.

Claire, in a letter to me, described the incident below as her being "dumped" by her mother.
 "…So, Mother [Nelle] decided to get rid of me. She went through this kind of thing often, getting rid of her kids by various means. She had sent [Claire’s brother] DeRand to Aunt Grace [Nelle’s sister] in Seattle when he was about ten or so. Grace kept him for three years. She [Nelle] had sent me to [my cousin] Maggie's for three months, and now she was going to get rid of me for good.

Aunt Bess [another of Nelle’s sisters], in Chicago, invited us to come for Christmas. This may have been a setup, now that I look back on it, as Aunt Bess was not that generous. She used to send us, the whole family, a five pound box of chocolates every Christmas, and that was it.

Of course, I did appreciate the chocolates. They were the only ones I ever tasted. Each Christmas each of us got two chocolates a day until the box was gone. I developed a fantastic craving for chocolates that has never been satisfied, to this day.

It got quite cold as we neared Chicago. We didn't have a lot of money, nothing new about that, so we ate hamburgers quite a bit. There was a chain of hamburger stands called the White Castle, that sold hamburgers for a nickel. Imagine, a nickel. You only got a bare bun and bare meat, and had to decorate it yourself, but it was tasty enough and filling.

Visiting Aunt Bess was interesting. I had never been in an apartment before, we always had houses. Here we were in a bee-hive of apartments, with people on all sides of us, top, bottom, both sides, Also the streets were full of these apartment houses, side by side with only about six feet between them, and no green grass, no trees, nothing of the country about them. It was exciting.

As far as I knew, we were all going home a day or so after Christmas.
Mother took me aside. "Claire, you're going to stay here and get a job."

"I am? What can I do?" A good question. I couldn't do anything that I knew of.

"Oh, you'll find something," my mother was calmly convinced. [The] Depression didn't mean anything to her. "You'll stay with Aunt Bess until you find a job, then you can pay her board.”

Aunt Bess apparently agreed to this. I have no idea how Mother talked her into this. But, as I mentioned before, Mother was a salesman. She could sell anybody anything.

When I thought it over, it really was a good idea. I had fallen in love with Chicago back when I stayed with Maggie. Maggie lived nearby and I could see her as often as I wished. She had a baby by this time, a little girl she called Mimi.

Mother left me and I didn't see her again for five years.

The first thing I did was change my name from Fleeta Claire, which I was still being called, to just Claire. Also I didn't like the name Jones, so as long as I was changing everything, I called myself Field, using my mother's maiden name. Claire Field sounded pretty good to me. A lot better than that hokey Fleeta Claire Jones. This was my chance to get past that awful name and change my whole self.

It took about a month to get a job, which really wasn't bad for the times. I would have liked to get a job [working] for the telephone company, but it turned out that you had to have a birth certificate to prove you were a citizen of the United States, and I didn't have one.

[Editor’s comment: The reason for that is that she was born in the home of a midwife, not in a hospital, and a birth certificate was not issued at that time. She later took the series of steps required, and in 1955 received a “registration of birth” from the Circuit Court of Oregon, which was amended in 1964 to reflect her change from her birth name of Jones to her married name of Dunn.

I have her “registration of birth” as part of a batch of paperwork collected from her house and sent to me. It shows that she was born in the city of Roseburg in Douglas County, Oregon, on 17 June 1921.

The confusion caused by her change from Jones to Field

We, her five children, grew up knowing she was born Fleeta Claire Jones and married our father, William Edward (Bill) Dunn. However, until much later in life we didn’t realize she had once decided to go by the name of Field. This resulted in what now seems like an amusing incident (it was somewhat aggravating at the time).

When one of his daughters was about to be married – in Costa Rica (officially the Republic of Costa Rica, a country in South America) – one of my my brothers applied for a passport and was turned down because he provided “Jones” as his mother’s maiden name.

As he later learned, she had used the name “Field” as her maiden name when we were born. Not having had any reason to have looked at his birth certificate, he hadn’t realized that fact when he applied for his passport. Thus, his birth record didn’t match his application, which caused his application to be declined.

With the date of the wedding fast approaching, my brother sent out an urgent request for clarification of what our mother’s maiden name had been. As it happened, I had recently looked at my birth certificate to get some details for this Family History project – and was able to tell him what she had done with her name when we were born.

With that data he was able to reapply - and obtained his passport just in time to get to the wedding!

Claire’s informal change of names was a source of satisfaction to her, but as evidenced above, has been an occasional source of confusion to her offspring from time to time when we’ve been asked to provide our mother’s maiden name!

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Last revised 7/10/2011

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