It is my understanding that my grandmother was married three times and had four children. She lived most of her adult life in a very small hamlet called Shinhopple, NY between Walton and Downsville.
As a child, I spent many summer vacations at her house, with my older sister Janet, playing on the porch, in the creek and exploring what we called the squirrel cage. (a small room that she rented out to hunter's in the fall- it was just a niche in a storage shed of sorts.)
We also walked barefoot everywhere - even about a mile down the dirt road with a dime to pick out our favorite penny candy at the general store.
Mayme Niles , George Hawley and Lottie Biggs - Downsville, NY 1900
Mayme married George Hawley about
the time this picture was taken.
She was about 17 years old. Lottie was her best friend.
Mayme and George had one son, Frederick
.
Uncle Fred Hawley
Uncle Fred
My memories of Uncle Fred were when we were visiting at Uncle Doug and Aunt Lil's.
He was always joking and loved to use the "I bet you can't spell hippopotamus - spell "it"
on us all the time. I never remember meeting his wife Dorothy or any of his children - they were quilt a lot older than we were - he was 12 years older than my mother.
A picture that my grandmother had of her Hawley grandsons. I love this picture and regret that we never knew them. I think Uncle Fred had remarried and they lived with their mother.
Edwin Fantan, Fredrick Jr. and William Hawley.
Uncle Carl Crandall
I have never been able to determine the first name of Grandma's second husband, Mr. Crandall and if I even saw Uncle Carl I was too young to remember. He served in the army but died of alcohol poisoning shortly after her finished his time in the service. He was married to a lovely woman named Laura and she always came to our family get togethers and never remarried.
Douglas and Elizabeth Krom
My mother and her brother Doug in the 1920's
Grandma married her third husband, William Krom and the children from that marriage are my mother who married Andrew Hendrickson (5 children) and Uncle Doug who married Lillian Maroney (2 children).
Apparently Grandmother moved on from that marriage also as I remember my mother nursing my Grandfather at our house until he passed away when I was about 5 or 6 years old.
