Census Saturday - Gipson Bates

I conducted a search of census records via HeritageQuest online. I was looking for details on Gipson Bates, father of Nellie Belle Bates. She was Elvis John Brassfield's Grandmother. Basically all I'm starting with is Census Records and a gravestone in Sergeant Bluff, Iowa, saying Gipson Bates and dated January 7, 1834 - June 15, 1910. The Census records seem to differ on spelling and date of birth, but that is fairly typical for the census.

The executive summary of this information is:

• Gipson Bates was born in Vermont in 1834, his father appears to have been Moses Bates. Moses Bates was apparently a rather infamous person and mentioned as a "Prairie bandit" in the "History of Black Hawk County, Iowa" book in 1878. Gipson moved from Vermont to Iowa between 1835 and 1837. 
• In 1850, he was living in Black Hawk County, Iowa.
• In 1860, he was living with his brothers in Sergeant Bluff Township, Woodbury County, Iowa.
• In 1870, he was married to Elizabeth and had three children living in Sioux City Township, Woodbury County, Iowa. Their first child was born around 1864.
• In 1880, he was still married to Elizabeth and had eight children living in Liberty Township, Woodbury County, Iowa.
• In 1893,his wife Elizabeth died buried at Sergeant Bluff Cemetery, Sergeant Bluff, Woodbury County, Iowa.
• In 1894, Gipson married Lorena (Jett) Brassfield.
• In 1900, he was living in Liberty Township, Woodbury County, Iowa and was married to Lorena. He had 2 children with Lorena at that point.
• In 1910, he was still married to Lorena and was living with their two daughters in Sergeant Bluff, Woodbury Township, Woodbury County, Iowa.
• Gipson Bates died June 15, 1910 and is buried at Sergeant Bluff Cemetery, Sergeant Bluff, Woodbury County, Iowa.

Gipson Bates is connected to the Brassfield surname through his daughter Nellie Belle. She married Elvis H. Brassfield. Another very interesting thing is that his second wife Lorena (Jett) Brassfield appears to have been previously married to Nelson P. Brassfield. Nelson was the brother of Elvis H. Brassfield, so Gipson married the former wife of his daughter Nellie's brother-in-law. No blood relationship, but still a complicated situation.

Floyd, Thelma and Elvis Brassfield photo

This is a photo of Floyd Gipson Brassfield, his wife Thelma (Hunt) Brassfield and son Elvis John Brassfield. It is captioned only with the year 1937. Note in the background the sign that says Ice Phone 289.289 was the phone number for the trucking company on Floyd's business cards and the milk lids.

Tombstone Tuesday - Alexander

This is the main headstone for the Alexander plot at Oak Hill Cemetery, Town of Westfield, Marquette County, Wisconsin. In the plot behind the stone are several other stones that have been featured here. Robert Alexander, Henry Alexander, Elizabeth (Dewar) Alexander, Maggie (Haney) Alexander and Gilbert Alexander.

Elvis the scout

Here is another photo of Elvis John Brassfield (1920-2006). The only caption was on the reverse and it said "scout". Looks like he must have been a boy scout or something similar. There appears to be a reel lawn mower in the background, maybe he was out mowing lawns? No date is listed, but it is with photos from the early 1930s.

Bates siblings 1932

Here is another photo in the sequence of Bates family photos in from 1932. On the reverse it is captioned Nellie Belle Evers, Dr. Smith Bates, Mrs. Rose Smith, Will Bates, Mrs. Lizzie Barbour, Robert Bates. It is also stamped by the photo developer, "Toller's Photo Finishing, A Mirro-tone print, Sep 7, 1932, Davidson Building." The Davidson Building was located in downtown Sioux City, Iowa.

This photo was on the same page as the photo of just the Bates sisters and the photo of just the Bates brothers that I posted earlier this week. This photo depicts 6 children of Gipson and Elizabeth Bates of Woodbury County, Iowa. According to my notes there were at least 9 children in that family, but several died at a young age. I need to do a bit more research on this family. The woman listed as Rose, is also listed as Rosie and Rosa so that is a variable in searching for details on this family. I have Lizzie listed as Elizabeth as well.

The connection to the Brassfield surname is that Nellie Belle Bates (1873-1940) married Elvis H. Brassfield (1870-1904). Nellie was Elvis John Brassfield's (1920-2006) Grandmother.

Bates Brothers circa 1932 - Smith, Rob and Will

This one is a followup to the Bates sisters photo on Monday. It appears to have been taken the same day. It is captioned "Smith Rob Will" on the front. On the back it says "Bates Brothers, Uncles of Floyd Brassfield, Smith, Rob, Will" It is also stamped by the photo developer, "Toller's Photo Finishing, A Mirro-tone print, Sep 7, 1932, Davidson Building."

These are brothers of Nellie Belle (Bates-Brassfield) Evers. My notes from the census records differ a bit, I have no males named Smith in that family. I have a Willie, James S. and Robert G. Bates. I'll have to do a bit more research, maybe the S. is James Smith? The Bates family lived in Woodbury County, Iowa during the 1880 census. Their parents, Gipson and Elizabeth Bates were buried at Sergeant Bluff Cemetery, Woodbury County, Iowa. Several Brassfield's and Bates family members are buried there as well.

Tombstone Tuesday - Robert E. Alexander

This is the tombstone of Robert E. Alexander at Oak Hill Cemetery, Town of Westfield, Marquette county, Wisconsin. Robert was the son of Henry (1831-1899) and Elizabeth (Dewar) Alexander (1850-1916). He is not exactly connected to the Brassfield surname, but his brother Gilbert Alexander has a Great Granddaughter that married a Brassfield. Robert E. Alexander would be her great grand uncle and my 2nd great grand uncle .

The Bates Sisters circa 1932 - Nellie, Rosie and Lizzie

I finally finished scanning Elvis's Brassfield-Hunt memories album so I have quite a few photos to post again from the 1930s and early 1940s. They a few of them were quite difficult to remove from the "magnetic" sticky album, and I used that trick with the dental floss to remove them with out much damage. Still tricky to remove, but no bending. Luckily the majority of the sticky stuff had dried and most fell right out.

This photo is captioned 1932, Nellie, Rosie, Lizzie on the front, but on the back it says Bates sisters, Nellie, Lizzie, Rosa. Another photo captions the woman on the right as Lizzie (Bates) Barbour (spelling?) and the one in the center as Rosa (Bates) Smith. My notes have a Rosa and an Elizabeth Bates, from the 1880 census of Liberty, Woodbury county, Iowa.

Nellie Belle (Bates-Brassfield) Evers (1873-1940) was Floyd Gipson Brassfield's mother and Elvis J. Brassfield's Grandmother.

Frank Fowlie with his shovel in 1973

This is a photo of Frank Brown Fowlie (1892-1977). It is dated April 8, 1973 and captioned "Frank shoveling." He is standing in front of the Fowlie home on Black Hawk Lake at 117 Denison Beach Drive, Lake View, Iowa. A bit of research shows me that this was a massive snowstorm setting records and dumping more than 15 inches of snow in some parts of Iowa. On April 11, 1973, UPI attributed the storm with 42 deaths in the Midwest. Frank was over 80 years old, so that's some pretty impressive shoveling.

Interesting things in the photo is the Pontiac in the garage. I noticed the license plate number is 117, matching the house number. I wonder if that was a personalized plate or if that was something that was normal at the time in Iowa. Also noteworthy is the green color of the home. Seems like he painted everything that color.

I tweaked this photo a bit by rotating it 5 degrees and cropping off some of the corners. Clara (Ross) Fowlie was in her mid-70s when she took this photo, so I'll cut her a bit of slack for not holding the camera perfectly level...

The connection to the Brassfield surname is that Frank's daughter married Elvis J. Brassfield.

For more about the storm, see an article about disaster response in Des Moines by the Disaster Research Center, in Ohio. Des Moines got 13" of snow and 50 mph winds creating drifts 8 to 20 feet tall. On top of that, the snow was very wet, 50 pounds per cubic ft instead of normal 5-10 lbs pr cubic ft. Pretty heavy stuff for an 80 year old to shovel!

Ceramic Christmas tree

Here is a photo of my Christmas tree. I received it from Grandma Parker a few years ago, prior to her death in 2009. It's pretty much the only Christmas decoration I have on display. It is labeled "Parker '80" on the bottom along with "Atlantic Mold 74" so I'm under the assumption that she made it 30 years ago. It was a familiar fixture in the Parker home around Christmas time. From an electrical standpoint, it was probably one of the safest decorations they had, no fire hazard and only one plug on it.

To try to learn more about it, I googled Atlantic Mold Christmas Tree and found a similar looking "Vintage Lighted Ceramic Christmas Tree 16" Large Lites" selling for $175 on E-bay. I don't know if they will sell it for that price, but I do know that mine is worth way more than that to me.

All that I could find out about the mold is that it looks like a model 74 or A74 mold made by Atlantic Mold of Trenton, New Jersey. According to their website from 2001, they made their first ceramic tree mold in 1958. They closed their doors in March 2001. Some of the molds are still around, but I have no idea about model 74. Maybe they broke the mold on these.

Irene and Ben

This is a photo of Irene Brassfield (1924-2010) with Ben Evers (1872-1954) in front of his home in Cherokee, Iowa in 1925. Ben Evers was married to Nellie Belle (Bates, Brassfield) Evers (1873-1940). He would have been the equivalent to Grandpa to Elvis and his siblings since Elvis H. Brassfield (1870-1904) died many years before they were born.

The Floyd Gipson Brassfield Family in Lake City 1926

Floyd Gipson Brassfield and his family moved to Lake City, Iowa around 1926. This photo was taken after the move and is captioned only 1926. It is Irene, Thelma, Elvis, Floyd and Betty Brassfield in front of Middleton house on South street in Lake City. I'm assuming they rented the house from someone named Middleton and the for sale sign just behind them appears in several photos even a year later. Behind them are some plants that are trying to climb some strings similar to the ones in the Cherokee, Iowa photo.Also notice the truck at the right. Floyd operated a trucking company after moving to Lake City, so I thought I should leave that in the photo.

This photo presented a unique problem. It was a bit crooked and I had to rotate it 5 degrees, but then I would have had to crop out some of the minor details like the truck in the background on the right and things at the top. So, instead of doing that, I used the clone tool and filled in a large blank area of grass at the bottom right so I could keep the detail on the right side. Here are the two photos, the top one is the rotated and cloned image, the bottom one is the original. You can see the grass area at bottom right is fake and wasn't in the original photo.At this resolution you can't really tell, but I didn't blend the area in, so you can make out the line if you look closely.