Returning from the recent Cleland family reunion in Danville, Meigs Co., Ohio I realized just lucky I was. I had so few Cleland family photos and now I have a memory card full of copies of several very old family photos.
I've always been very envious of those who have albums full of family photos, probably because I am not one of those. Several years ago after my grandmother Olvea Cotterill passed away my Aunt Bessie, her daughter and my father’s sister, told me I could have anything that was left of her things. Of course all the other children [6] and grandchildren [23] had already taken what they wanted since they all lived locally, so very little was left.
When I walked into her parlor I noticed a stack of old photos, a few papers and letters. To me those were priceless and I deeply treasure having them today. One of the pieces of paper gave the marriage date for Oleva Gotschall to Jonah Cotterill, something that I didn’t have [their marriage date has already been a bit of a mystery] and I’m still unable to verify it since she did not give the location where they married. More on this at another time.
I have side tracked myself again, which you will learn over time that is one of my bad habits. This blog is about my Cleland Photos and Anne Jeannette Cleland.
This year I requested everyone to bring family photos to the reunion; something as far as I know had never been done in the past. My Aunt Anna Circle Cleland [09 Dec 1926 -- 21 Nov 2007] had always been in charge of the family reunion for as long as I can remember. She never changed what she did from year to year. With her untimely death in 2007 there was not much of a reunion in 2008. This year her daughter, Linda Louise Cleland, my mother, Frances Cleland and I tried to put together something a little different.
I added two things; the picture request and a Family Trivia Game.
Both were a great hit. Plus I now have new photos to add to my files and working on next year’s questions for the trivia game.
The reason I had so few photos for the Clelands is in 1946 their home and contents were destroyed by fire plus the cause of death of Anna Jeannette Cleland. Years ago I asked my mother about photos and was always told everything including the Family Bible was lost. I should have, and believe me I will be, more persistent in the future and ask others.
Aunt Janice [Erma Janice Cleland Hampton], mother’s older sister brought a lot of photos to the reunion. I told she’d become my new “best friend” -- LOL.
I now have copies of photos that I thought no one had. I am trilled to have them but especially delighted to have photos like the one of Josephus C. Carpenter [Bet. 10 Dec 1827 & 10 Dec 1834 - 10 Feb 1907] and his wife Phoebe Ann Dailey’s [05 Apr 1849 - 24 Jun 1925] my 2nd great grandparents.
However there were two particular ones that stood out -- the photos of Donald Rodger Cleland [01 Jan 1943 - 22 Nov 1945] and Anna Jeannette Cleland [04 Nov 1928 - 29 Sept 1946] . All I had before the reunion for either of them were photos of their tombstones and the newspaper articles telling of their very tragic deaths.
Anna Jeannette, I love her name. It just rolls off your tongue and has a nice ring to it. It is a name if I had known when my daughter was born I would have given her. Anna Jeannette was given the first name of her two grandmothers. Something in it's self that is very special.
Anna Jeannette was born 04 Nov 1928 near Dexter, Salem Twp., Meigs Co., Ohio to my grandparents Floyd Cleland [18 Jul 1894 - 21 Apr 1985] and Neva Blanche Romine [04 Nov 1896 - 26 Apr 1951]. She was their 9th living child at the time. Neva had lost a child in miscarriage between 1917 & 1920. Seven more children would be born to her before she died in 1951.
I was only 1 at the time of the fire. We had recently moved from Rutland to Columbus before Anna Jeannette’s death. I of course would not remember her or the fire. However my Aunt Anna told Mother took the death of Anna Jeannette very hard and that she really had not recovered from the lost of her little brother, Donnie. To this day she is very reluctant to talk them. The few things she has mentioned about Anna over the years are how much fun she was; she was always smiling and joking around and liked by all who knew her.
Aunt Janice brought two photos of Anna Jeannette. I grabbed both of them as soon as I saw them and took digital pictures my camera. I was like a little kid in a candy shop who couldn’t stop eating all the candy. Unfortunately one of the two pictures did not turned out. The smaller one with her brother Weyland [07 Feb 1926 - 30 Mar 1994] is very burry.
Just looking at the photo one can see what mother meant from the way Anna Jeanette is standing and the look on her face. I am sure she was a fun sister and would have been a great aunt. Anna is standing in front of the Cleland hill on Cleland Hill that was lost in the fire.
In September of 1946 Anna would have been almost 18 years old. She had "just" graduated from Rutland High School in Meigs Co., Ohio and was planning to move to Columbus to live with us and attending OSU. All those plans came to a tragic end that September afternoon when she picked up the wrong can and added gasoline to the stove instead of oil.
According to the newspaper article the explosion was heard by neighbors some distance away. This occurred on Friday afternoon and she suffered until she passed away Sunday evening.
I can’t imagine how I would have reacted or how it would affected me to receive a phone call telling me the home I had grownup in was destroyed by fire and everything in it plus learning your sister was also in the home at the time and was not expected to live.
This was the second tragic loss of a sibling for my mother in less than a year ..... that had to have had a definite affect her.
