The Family of Mr. & Mrs. William Laurie Severance
William Laurie Severance |
Ethel Lavinia
Jones (& Mom) |
William Laurie Severance
Grandfather William Laurie Severance, was the second son born to Sam and Caroline Severance. Grandfather Laurie (the name he preferred), was born in New Troy, Florida on February 20, 1891.
Grandfather Laurie’s life as a young man is unknown to me and I'm not certain that Mom knew much about his early life. When Grandfather Laurie was nineteen, his father Samuel purchased the family farm, in addition to several mills in town. One of the mills Sam converted into a lumber mill. It was at this mill that Grandfather Laurie worked, his job being the crane operator on a river barge. The barge, used to drag for logs in the Suwannee River, belonged to my grand uncle, Jimmy Jones. Papers later found in a steamer trunk indicated that Jimmy and Sam became business partners in the mill operation. Grandfather Laurie, while working the barge for his father and Jimmy, met Jimmy’s youngest sister Ethel (Ethel was also Jimmy’s court appointed ward since the death of their parents). In February of 1912, Grandfather Laurie and Grandmother Ethel (only sixteen years old) were married, and together continued to work for Sam and Jimmy as commissary operators, and payroll clerks for their several mills.
For more stories of Grandfather Laurie and the sawmill/river barge operation visit Great Grandfather Sam Severance's page.
After the lumber mill closed in 1917, Grandfather Laurie and Grandmother Ethel returned to the farm, working the land alongside his parents and brothers who were still living at home.In January of 1919, Grandfather Laurie suddenly became ill, and within a short time succumbed to pneumonia.
My maternal grandmother Ethel Lavinia Jones is the link by which I enter into the family of Jones.
Ethel and Albert Jones
Grandmother Ethel, the youngest of eleven children was born to Allen and Malinda Jones 6 April 1895, in the community of Hatch Bend (sometimes referred to as Hatch’s Bend). Hatch Bend is a small community located in Southeast Lafayette County, Florida.
Ethel, shown above with her brother Albert, was a very young six years old when their father passed away. Then three years later, Ethel’s mother was taken ill and then she too passed away. It is little wonder that Ethel, from this day forward would have problems adjusting to her new life.
I have always considered my mother a beautiful woman and never did I give much thought as to where such beauty originated. That is, until I was given the two photos of Grandmother Ethel that appear in this web site. Then, there was little doubt that such beauty came from my grandmother.
Before I continue with Grandmother Ethel’s story, I would like to pause a moment and introduce you to Ferris (Sam) Jones, and my three Jones cousins. All are the most genuine people you might ever have the pleasure of meeting.
Sam & Debbie, Jones
with son Shane
My genealogy research began when Sam and his wife Debbie Jones (shown here with their son Shane) shared with me their fifteen years worth of names, and information on my Jones family. I will be forever grateful that they also shared a good deal of information on my mom’s Severance family. This was information that I had never before heard. Please remember that, as I stated in the beginning, I never knew a grandparent maternal or paternal. I did not know their names, where they lived, from where they came, nor even how or when they died. Only that they had never lived in my lifetime.
Samuel Ferris Jones is the son of Grandmother Ethel’s brother, Albert Zonder Jones. For years, Sam lived in Branford and knew all of the members of the Jones family as well as most of the members of the Severance family. Sam and Debbie married in 1987 and spent the last fifteen years of their married life tracing family members.
Sam and Debbie, in their initial phone call told me, that if I wanted more information on my mother, grandparents, and other members of the Jones family, I should contact three cousins who at that time were living in Mayo, Florida (Mom’s birthplace was a few miles east of Mayo). I did visit Mayo some months later and, for the first time, met my cousins Johnnie and Ora Jones (Alice, another sister, was away visiting her daughter). Ora, Johnnie and Alice are children of Avner Oscar Jones, my grandmother’s older brother. Ora was living in Branford, about twenty miles east of Mayo, but happened to be visiting Johnnie when I called and asked to stop by for a visit. Now, thanks to three cousins (who were complete strangers to me six or seven years ago), I have come to know my grandparents almost as well as I would have known them if Mom were alive to tell me their stories.
Ora Jones Peterson,
Johnnie Jones, and
Alice Jones Fuller
Ora, Johnnie, and Alice have given me countless hours of stories about mymother, my grandparents, and other relatives that I am now able to pass on. Many of the stories will appear elsewhere in this site along with the people to whom they refer. Never, until recently, did I realize just how much I missed not knowing my grandparents.
With Ora, it was love at first sight. No, not that kind of love, since Ora was then a very active ninety-two years young. However, I can tell you that I have never met a more lovable, adorable family in my life. They have taken me into their home as someone that they have known and loved all of their lives. I feel very blessed having them in my life. Ora recently celebrated her one hundred first birthday.
The information that you will read here about Grandmother Ethel and others, are stories passed on to me by Ora, Johnnie and Alice that have been combined with findings of my research and the research passed-on to me by Sam and Debbie Jones.
Ethel was nine years old and Albert was 12 when their mother Malinda died. Because of their young age, they were made wards of their eldest brother James Theron Jones (called Uncle Jimmy by the cousins). Uncle Jimmy and his wife Molly lived in New Troy; a small community located about fifteen miles to the north of Hatch Bend.
Unfortunately, Grandmother Ethel and Albert were unable to cope with the drinking habits of their brother James, and before long, moved into the home of another older brother Avner Oscar (who was married, and the father of Ora, Johnnie, and Alice). Ora does not remember exactly how long Ethel and Albert lived with them, but she said it was “a good while.”
Grandmother Ethel in 1912, and at the very young age of seventeen, married William Laurie Severance. They had three children. First, there was Uncle Steve, followed by Aunt Pearl, and last, but certainly not least, Mom (shown here in Grandmother Ethel’s lap).
Uncle Steve,
Grandmother Ethel with Mom in her lap,
Aunt Pearl
The family worked and enjoyed life together for the next seven years. Then suddenly without warning, Grandfather Laurie now twenty-seven became ill, and within a short time, passed away at home in bed with pneumonia. Mom (at the young age of one and a half), her mother Ethel, along with her brother and sister, moved in with Ora’s family staying only a short few months this time.
Soon after the death of Grandfather Laurie, Grandmother Ethel’s Aunt Amanda introduced her to George Hunter of Alachua County. That same year, Grandmother Ethel married Mr. Hunter, who had five children from a previous marriage. Two years after their marriage, the family of ten became a family of eleven and then twelve, with the births of Aunt Dorothy and Aunt Caris.
Several years after her marriage to Mr. Hunter, Grandmother Ethel, now at age 27, became terribly sick with the measles. Her brother Avner, knowing that Mr. Hunter would be unable to care for her and the five children, insisted that Grandmother Ethel and her first three children move in with him and his family. Mr. Hunter would keep Aunt Caris and Aunt Dorothy, along with his other children, in Alachua and care for them.
Ora, now a young woman of nineteen was home in bed, sick with the measles when Grandmother Ethel and her young family arrived. It was but a week or two later, that Ora heard strange sounds coming from Ethel’s bedroom and got out of her sickbed to see what might be wrong. She made her way to Ethel’s bedside to see if she could be of any help. Ora found Ethel struggling to breathe, and with all the strength she could muster, lifted Ethel’s head high to keep her from strangling. Then, within minutes, on 14 March in the year 1924, and one month before her twenty-eighth birthday, Grandmother Ethel passed away while being held in Ora’s arms.
In a recent phone conversation, Aunt Dorothy Hunter Daigle, Mom’s half-sister, has a different memory of her mother’s death. Although she was only two years old at the time of her mother’s death, her father told her the story many times. Aunt Dorothy told me that she and Ora talked about her mother’s illness a year or two ago, and Ora agreed with her version. The place of Grandmother’s death had been the only difference in the two stories.
Aunt Dorothy believes that possibly all ten of the children had measles at the same time. Grandmother Ethel, while trying to care for all ten, also contracted the measles. Mr. Hunter found that he could not take care of everyone himself and asked Ora’s father Avner, if Ora could come to Alachua and help him.
Within a week or so after arriving at the home of Mr. Hunter, Ora also contracted the measles. It was but a week or two later, that one day Ora heard strange sounds coming from Ethel’s bedroom and got out of her sickbed to see what might be wrong. She made her way to Ethel’s bedside to see if she could be of any help. Ora found Ethel struggling to breathe, and with all the strength she could muster, lifted Ethel’s head high to keep her from strangling. Then, within minutes, on 14 March in the year 1924, and one month before her twenty-eighth birthday, Grandmother Ethel passed away while being held in Ora’s arms.
Stories like this inspired me so much that I vowed to continue my research, so that I might pass all that I learned on to you. This story in particular is the reason that I wanted to introduce you to my cousins, so that you might see just how much they have enriched my life. By passing-on their stories, I hope that I can enrich the lives of you as much.
The Family of William Laurie and Ethel
Name: William Laurie Severance
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Birth: 20 Feb 1891 New Troy, Lafayette County, Florida
Death: 16 Jan 1919 Lafayette County, Florida
Burial: Maypop Cemetery, Lafayette County, Florida
Father: Samuel Stephen Severance (1865-1937)
Mother: Caroline Catherine Krimminger (1865-1945)
Marriage: 11 Feb 1912 Mayo, Lafayette County, Florida
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Spouse: Ethel Lavinia Jones
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Birth: 6 Apr 1895 New Troy, Lafayette County, Florida
Death: 14 Mar 1924 Haigue Station, Alachua County, Florida
Burial: Antioch Baptist Church Cemetery, Haigue Station, Alachua County, Florida
Father: Allen J. Jones (1851-1901)
Mother: Malinda Dees (1853-1904)
Other spouses: George W. Hunter
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Children
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1 M: William Steve Severance
Birth: 14 Nov 1912 Lafayette Co., FL
Death: 20 Apr 1990 Lafayette Co. FL
Spouse: Louise Milford
Marriage: Location Unknown
Spouse: Margaret
Marriage: Florida
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2 F: Pearl Carolyn Lavinia Severance
Birth: 17 May 1915 Lafayette Co. FL
Death: 13 May 1952 Clearwater, Florida
Spouse: Hubert Emory Hudson
Marriage: 13 Aug 1932 Lafayette County, FL
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3 F: Leola Malinda Severance
Birth: 25 Aug 1917 Lafayette County, Florida
Death: 28 Jul 1973 Lancaster, New Hampshire
Spouse: James Edward Chancey
Marriage: 19 Apr 1935 Clearwater, Pinellas County, Florida