Mary Endicott Interview of Mildred
(Robinson) and Carl Perry
10 June 1978
2634 Manker, Indianapolis, IN 46203 317-786-5122
(transcription of audio tape recording)
Participants:
Mildred (Robinson) Perry [MP]
1. Isaac Coonfield - Julia Ann Persinger
2. Daniel Wesley Coonfield (5) - Mary (Day) Sutton
3. Julia Anna Coonfield (1) - Herbert Robinson
4. Mildred Robinson (1) - Carl Perry
Carl Perry [CP]
1. Isaac Coonfield - Julia Ann Persinger
2. Barbara Etta Coonfield (4) - Richard Day
3. Dessie Day (1) - Herman Perry
4. Carl Perry (4) - Mildred (Robinson) Hogan
Mary (Coonfield) Endicott [ME]
Virginia (Coonfield) Dill [VD]
Peggy (Dill) Lyons [PL]
1. Isaac Coonfield - Julia Ann Persinger
2. Daniel Wesley Coonfield (5) - Mary (Day) Sutton
3. Everett Isaac Coonfield (4) - Olive Mabel Persinger
4. Mary Coonfield (6) - Donald L. Endicott, Sr.
4. Alice Virginia Dill (3) - Alfred Dill
5. Peggy (Dill) Lyons (1)
Begin Side
1
[ME]
The thing that I want to know mostly from you that he [Don Jr.] hasn't been able to get and we didn't either because none of us were alive were the Grandparent Coonfields, Grandma and Grandpa Coonfield and I would like to know what you remember about them if anything.
[MP]
Oh yes, I remember when they lived down there in the hills in Morgan County and I can remember the little house but the house is gone. I wish we could go down there sometime.
[ME]
Yes. They didn't have the farm when you were there, right? In Morgan County?
[MP]
They just had a few acres at the last. He had at one time had 40 acres and it was woods across the road then some way or other, I don't know, that got away from them.
[ME]
Well, yes, it was in a bankrupt sale, I think it was called. My son's got the papers on that.
[MP]
Well, I know that that got away from them. Then they had a few acres left that they farmed and then Grandpa was sick and they came up to our house which we lived near Smith's Valley then.
And they came there and that's where Grandpa died at our house.
[ME]
Was at your house.
[MP]
Yes. And of course Grandma and Marie too. See she raised Marie.
[ME]
Now who's Marie?
[MP]
Well, her daughter Emma died when Marie and Ralph, she had two children, then she had married a Perry. Of course, her name was Sutton.
[ME]
Yes, she married Sutton first.
[MP]
Yes, and he died. And then she married a Coonfield.
[ME]
Now Marion was the only child she had by the Sutton?
[MP]
No, she had this Emma Sutton and Emma married a Perry and then when Emma died, why Grandma took Marie and raised her. She was just a little girl. Her picture is probably in this. If it isn't in this, it's over there.
[CP]
And Marion Sutton took Ralph.
[MP]
And he took Ralph and raised him and then of course Ralph's dead now. Been dead several years.
[CP]
Marie was still living with Ralph when he died.
[MP]
Yes, she's in the Continental Hotel Building for the Elderly downtown, right on Meridian Street.
[ME]
So she would be how old now? How old would she be?
[MP]
She's six years older than I am so
[ME]
So she would be 78.
[MP]
78. But she's still gets around I guess. I thought I'd get up there and wanted Doris to go with me because I won't go myself. I don't think I could get him to go.
[ME]
(laugh)
[MP]
But Doris is .. we never get around to it, you know. And Doris wants to see you while you're here.
[ME]
Now who is Doris?
[MP]
Doris Day. Well, that's Aunt Pearl, that's my mother's sister's girl.
[ME]
Oh, that's Pearl's daughter then.
[MP]
Yes.
[VD]
I forgot to tell you that. I could have had it straightened out.
[ME]
Ok, on the paper that Donald has saying that the farm was sold in a foreclosure sale. Oh, that's what it was. It was sold in a foreclosure sale, it was in Grandma Coonfield's name.
[MP]
Oh, was it?
[ME]
Yes, and on the thing it said that Grandpa Coonfield, Wesley Coonfield, couldn't read or write. Now do you think this was probably why it was in her name, maybe?
[MP]
I don't know.
[ME]
Or maybe she had it before she married him. It was part of the Sutton's ...
[MP]
She might have had, she could have. Now see, I don't know any of that and I don't expect Inez would know. Inez and Lisa both live around here. They're Uncle Marion's daughters. And I don't think Inez would know, do you?
[CP]
I doubt whether Inez would know. No, I don't think so.
[MP]
Norris would come the nearest to knowing and she lives in Iowa. But I don't know. But I do know that they came there and then, after Grandpa died, why of course she couldn't go back there in that kind of down in the holler and the [distis?].
[ME]
Yes, all by herself.
[MP]
And Marie wasn't big enough to help too much. So anyhow, they rented a little place that was just back across the crick there from us, but they didn't stay there too long and Marie then got old enough to start to work ..
[ME]
Who is Marie again?
[MP]
Well, it's the girl Grandma raised, it's her daughter that died, her
[ME]
It was Emma's daughter.
[MP]
Emma's daughter.
[ME]
Ok, so Marie was actually Grandma's granddaughter.
[MP]
Yes. And she raised her.
[ME]
Now see these are people I've never even heard of.
[VD]
That wouldn't be Marie Sheppard?
[MP]
Yes, it is.
[VD]
I've known Marie Sheppard but I didn't know that was in the ..
[ME]
This is something I've never heard. Is Marie Sheppard ..
[VD]
The last I heard was Marie Sheppard lived over on the west side, over NWI. That's the last I heard from my Dad, you know, would talk about Marie Sheppard.
[MP]
I didn't know she lived over there.
[VD]
And she lived over by NWI.
[MP]
See, she used to live on a farm out south, out near Stone's Crossing, near Greenwood. And when her husband died, then she moved to Indianapolis and lived kind of east side. It was east,
East Washington Street.
[CP in background]
Yes, 642[4] something.
[MP]
And Marie had quite a bit of money from her husband but she was a type that knew everything, let it get away from her.
[CP]
Now Marie's husband had plenty of money. He owned 51% of Greenwood Bank.
[ME]
Ok, now then first Grandma married a Sutton and she had Marion and Emma.
[MP]
Yes.
[ME]
Ok, Emma died when Marie was young.
[MP]
Well they both were young. And I don't know, they wasn't much difference in their age. I'd say two, three years.
[ME]
So then Grandma raised Marie as her daughter and Marion took Richard.
[MP]
Ralph. Ralph Perry.
[ME]
So Emma had two children. I'm trying to get .. I'm confused. That's why I'm putting it on tape because if I try to write it down I'd never get it.
Ok, then, Marion Sutton stayed down in ..
[MP]
Yes, he farmed and had a little place at the last.
[ME]
This is down by ..
[MP]
Greenwood, in White River Township, down in there, Johnson County.
[ME]
Is this near Mount Pleasant?
[MP]
Not far.
[CP]
Just south of [?] Forest, near to Smith Valley.
[ME]
Yes, well see that's what is on the death certificate. Smith's Valley ... I've got, I'll get the death certificate.
[MP]
Of Grandma?
[ME]
Well, Grandpa and Grandma I think.
[MP]
Well, we were near Smith's Valley when Grandpa died in our house.
[ME]
Ok, this is Grandpa's death certificate see, and Marion Sutton signed it Greenwood Indiana. And this is where we got the Persinger. Grandpa's mother's name was Persinger, so I've got Persinger's on both sides.
[MP]
Henrietta went back and picked up where these people came over here and came in and one married a Tresslar and she picked that up out of that book when she's talking to me.
[PL]
Tresslar was a Republican state chairman. If Tom found out that I was in anyway related to him ..
[ME]
He'd die, wouldn't he. (laughter) We won't tell him, Peggy.
[MP]
Well it seemed Henrietta told me that name was first Drachsel.
[ME]
Yes, I've got it here. Yes. John P. Drachsel came from Germany. His father was Johannes Drachsel. He was born in 1690 in Germany.
[MP]
That's out of that same book.
[ME]
Yes, and his son was John P. Drachsel who was born in 1718.
[MP]
And he changed the name to Dresslar. And then Dresslar, one of the women, then, changed it to Tresslar.
[ME]
Barbara. Barbara Tresslar. She changed it to Tresslar. Now I have that. I have the marriage certificate on that.
[MP]
This is interesting when you get into it. Very interesting.
[ME]
That's Rebecca Perry and William Day. Now do you know who they are?
[MP]
Rebecca Perry ... Yes ... yes. That's my grandmother's mother and father.
[ME]
Great-grandparents. They're our great-grandparents.
[MP]
And they're buried at Mount Pleasant too.
... more discussion of Barbara Tresslar, marrying William Persinger, in 1815, in Virginia ...
[ME]
I got this one. This is out of the Revolutionary War book from Botetourt Virginia.
... discussion about qualifying for DAR and that Doris Day is active and goes all of the time. She and here daughter. Her daughter married a McCarty. And Doris married a Day ...
[ME]
Ok, now here I have ... this is Rebecca Perry and William Day's certificate. My son got that.
[MP]
Rosie would love to see that. Her and Ruth. We do have cousins, they were Days. Uncle Tom Day's father and mother and my grandmother's father and mother, you see. And it's Uncle Tom's children and they live down near where I lived in the country.
[ME]
Now what relation are they to me?
[MP]
Well, they'd be second cousins, wouldn't they, because you and I are first cousins.
[CP]
My mother's name was Day.
[MP]
Her mother was a Coonfield and her father was a Day.
[ME]
So it's the other way around in your family where the father was Coonfield.
[MP]
Now I think in that book, Henrietta told me, gave me the names of the children, and she said someone died and she didn't have the right name. I think that was Carl's mother that they were talking about.
... discussion regarding genealogy forms Don Jr. had prepared and how Mildred had marked them up ...
[ME]
Now Doris is ... it's Doris instead of Dorothy, right?
[MP]
She had a Doris and a Dorothy.
[ME]
She had four children?
[MP]
Let's see (looking at Duke Dresslar-Tresslar Genealogy). Chester and Doris and Dorothy and Barbara Pearl.
[CP]
Ola might be home today.
[ME]
It didn't look like there was anybody over there when we went up to the door. ... See, I have your name and Ola's name together in my book and when she said have you got the address, I looked up and said 2640 and your's is right below Ola. It's a good thing you live close. (laughter)
Let's see, I gave you this one on Grandma Coonfield's parents, when they got married. And this is Grandpa Coonfield's parents when they got married, Isaac and Julia Ann Persinger. Your mother was named after her, I assume.
[MP]
Yes. But then she put an "a" on hers and made it Anna, but they used to call her Ann. And Joanne named one of her, her only daughter, she had a daughter and a son, she named her ...
[ME]
This is Grandma and Grandpa Persinger's, Gin, that's there marriage certificate. ... Now, I think that's all the information that I had to give you. As far as you know, they were not on the farm when you knew Grandma and Grandpa Coonfield.
[MP]
No, that farm wasn't theirs.
[ME]
That farm was already gone. They were living in a small house down there?
[MP]
(yes) There was a small house and barn and out buildings and ...
[CP]
They had a few acres there. Just a few. Not very much.
[MP]
He always raised a little corn and raised a big garden.
[ME]
Now that was in Morgan County, right?
[MP]
That's in Morgan County.
[CP]
See, they lived right around the hill from my grandfather.
[ME]
Ok, this is still in Morgan County we're talking about instead of Johnson County. See, I'm confused about the counties.
[MP]
Well, they're close there. The line's close there. Not far over into Morgan County. But it's pretty hilly there. And then when Grandma moved away from down there, the little place, Day bought that. What was that Day that lived back up there? ... Omer Day. Omer Day bought that. His ground joined it. And then I
understand that the buildings are gone. Doris and I just have always said we going to walk down and go back in there. They closed that road. There's been no road there for years, now. For years and years, since I was small, because after Grandma died, see, and he bought that and that belonged to him so he ...
[ME]
He closed the access to it then, when he bought it.
[MP]
Yes
[ME]
Do you know about when it was that he would have bought it, about what year?
[MP]
Well, whatever year Grandpa died, was after he died.
[ME]
He died in '14. In 1914.
[MP]
Then I wouldn't be sure of the year that ...
[ME]
But it was close to the year that Grandpa died, so it was between say 1914 and 1920 he would have bought it.
[MP]
Yes. And I imagine they used some of that expense for funeral expense and whatever they had, you know, right then.
[ME]
Well when I went to Mount Pleasant Cemetery two years ago when we were here, the man and woman that run it now are some relation of ours, too.
[MP]
Well, it might be her. (Renny) might be related to her.
[ME]
I don't know, but he knew all the Coonfields and they had the record book there and I was looking for it listed in Grandpa's name, the plots, because I knew they were all buried there, and it was listed in Marion Sutton's name.
[MP]
The plots?
[ME]
The plots are all listed in Marion Sutton's name and Grandma and Grandpa are buried there.
[MP]
Well, now Rosie Day, her name's (Tenture) now, she told me that it was the Days that, you know, that his parents, Grandma's parents, William Day and her, that the lot was theirs and of course Grandma ... at that time they had large lots there and that they would bury the whole family and so Grandma and Grandpa were both buried on that lot.
Then, not too many years back, I didn't know it until one day Doris and I were up at the cemetery and there was a new stone there that said William Day and whatever (her name) and the dates and that was Grandma's mother and father and we couldn't figure out who would put that on there.
Well, then Rosie and Ruth and them was up here one day and we were talking and they had bought that because they, Rebecca had wanted to, she was still living then, she wanted to buy that, she said her mother and dad always wanted a stone there, because, that would have been Uncle Tom see, your grandmother's brother, because they carried that tree away that turned a rock, they used that as a stone. And everybody had carried pieces of that away until they weren't going to have any marker there. So they put that stone on there and at that time, Doris and I said we'd like to put a stone on Grandma and Grandpa's there. But, we never did do it. We'd like to.
[ME]
I couldn't find Grandma and Grandpa. Yes, I'd like to, too, but I couldn't find ...
[MP]
Well, it had some of the stone on it but the stone's gone now but it's close to this William and whatever that woman's name is, Day ...
[ME]
So if we can find William ...
[MP]
Well, I know where it is. Now Doris said, she was telling me, that when I was telling about you coming, she said she'd like to go to the cemetery with us, but she said that Uncle Everett's two younger children that were dead in infancy were buried on the same ...
[ME]
Both of them and my sister are all buried there, by Mom and Dad, and Aunt Lill ...
[MP]
Oh, by your mother and dad. Well your mother and dad aren't buried over there, where Grandma and Grandpa are.
[ME]
Yes, I know they're not. No, we found Mom and Dad's grave. That's what they were telling us. When Mom and Dad bought their plot it was big enough for all of us. But they've changed the sizes now and so there's my two brothers, my sister, and Mom and Dad, and that filled it up.
[VD]
No, there's a place for me.
[ME]
Oh, there's a place for you?
[PL]
I think there's one more left.
[VD]
There's one more. Remember, she said there's one more left.
[ME]
Ok, there's one more left. Then Uncle John and Aunt Lill are behind them in that same area.
[MP]
They're kind of to the east of our lot. They're just east of our lot.
[ME]
Across the road from where they are is where I found Louisa and Franklin, you called him Uncle Frank.
[MP]
Yes, well that's Grandpa's brother ...
[ME]
And Grandma's sister ...
[ME & MP]
... married again.
[ME]
Yes, now we found those but my daughter was with us at that time and she looked all over the cemetery and couldn't find .. and they did not have it marked in their book ... exactly where it was so we couldn't find it.
[MP]
Well I think I know where the whole family is.
[ME]
Well if you know where they are. See this is what I wanted to do, was to go down there and get some pictures and get the layout of it and I would like to have a headstone put there, too.
[MP]
Well, maybe we could all go, everybody go together. It wouldn't have to be expensive, just be small one and enough to have the names and the dates.
[ME]
We just did this for my husband's father and grandfather and grandmother. They had never had marker's on their graves. They're buried in Shannondale. My husband and his brother and us, we went together and put a marker on their grave so we could find it. So, I would be very happy to go in on it, you know, put a marker on it so we could find it. So you think you could find it if we went down there?
[MP]
Oh, I'm sure. He probably would have to show you the lot. I know ...
[ME]
Well, I know we can go and look through the books, because we did this before.
[MP]
If he can show you the plot of the lot, well then he would have where they were buried, whether it was at the top of the older people or the bottom. I thought it was a foot ...
[ME]
It's in the older section. This is what we found out.
[MP]
I know where it is.
[ME]
I don't remember if he said he didn't know exactly where it was. He knew the section but he didn't know exactly where the grave was when I talked to him.
[MP]
But I thought that they had a plot where they were buried.
[ME]
They did. It was a whole plot in which several of them were buried. But they were all in Marion Sutton's name.
[MP]
Well isn't that odd.
[ME]
Marion Sutton was ... See, what they do is they put the purchaser of the plot because you bought plots then, I guess, for whole families, and Marion Sutton's name and then it's got who's buried there and when they were buried and it's got Wesley Coonfield and Mary Coonfield and there was somebody else buried
with children ...
[MP]
Well that would have to have been bought before they died because the older people were buried there. So I can't understand why Uncle Marion's name ... unless there was nobody's name to put on that and when he went there after Grandpa died to get that done.
[ME]
Well the way she explained it to me on this book was that the person that bought the plot was the one they put their name on, that's why I couldn't understand Uncle Marion ... I just call him Uncle Marion ... I call him Uncle Marion too. I never knew him.
Ok, our Grandma, our grandmother, your great-grandmother Coonfield, was married once before she married to Grandpa Coonfield, to a Sutton. And she had two children. Marion and ...
[MP]
Emma.
[ME]
Emma. And then he died. And then she married Grandpa. So Marion Sutton would be your great-uncle (addressed to Virginia).
[VD]
I didn't know that. That's news to me.
[ME]
Donald found this out. It was in the records.
[MP]
You see, my mother and Uncle Marion were always pretty close. They were half brother and sister. They were real close because he wasn't so old and my mother was the oldest. I think there's about ... an awful lot of years between my mother and your dad and Uncle (??).
[VD]
So was Marion Sutton my dad's half brother?
[ME]
Yes. We've got their dates here somewhere.
[VD]
He came to our house a lot. That's what I was trying to get.
[MP]
Of course, he was nearer my mother's age and of course Grandma raised ... and they were together more when they were young.
[ME]
See you mother was seven years older than my dad. She was born in '83 and Daddy was born in '90. So Marion would have been born when? Do you know how old Marion would have been?
[MP]
No, I can't tell you.
[ME]
We didn't have any of that information either, you know. Other than that she had married a Sutton before. Now see this is where it said can't read, can't write, speaks English, and owns a farm and it was mortgaged. This was before it went into foreclosure. But on the records that my son found, Mary E. Coonfield was
listed as the owner. And her name was on it. And Wesley's name isn't. The only thing we can figure out as we were talking about it was that Wesley couldn't read or write and this was why his name was not on it and her's was.
[MP]
And they, you know, those Pierce's went and got that. They always said they'd ...
[ME]
Who's the Pierces, now?
[MP]
Well, they're no relation, but he must have held the mortgage but
they always claimed that it wasn't (chuckle). He's kind of a, I
guess, a shyster. Or he was at that time.
[CP]
Well, that crowd was up north of my granddad's.
[ME]
It says here it was in an unincorporated area in Green Township. Where's Green Township? Do you know where Green Township is?
[CP]
That must be Green Township. The name of that.
[ME]
See this is off the 1900 Census. This is where he got this
information, was off
[MP]
It might be Green Township down there. I don't know, but it isn't too far into Morgan County.
[CP]
That's not so far south.
[MP]
And Carl's sister lives down there. I hope we get to go down in there while you're here.
... discussion about plans to go visit the area latter in the same week ... go to Mount Pleasant one day ... eat over at Gray's ... might stop back by Carl's sister's on the way back to Gray's ... Mary needed to leave by noon Wednesday ... had to be Saturday to Tuesday ... Carl getting slacks fitted Monday morning, by lady who comes in from Greenfield ...
[MP]
... and come back Barbara's, his sister. I'd just like to show you where the different one's in the family lived. And then his mother, but of course that isn't too close in your family, but she was a Coonfield, his mother's mother was a Coonfield and married a Day. Well, they're buried in Salem Cemetery, which is
near where his sister lives.
[ME]
Oh, one of the things I was going to ask you - you said if I told you where Grandpa Persinger was buried, you might be able to tell me where it is.
[MP]
Yes, what's the name of the cemetery?
[ME]
That's what I'm going to look up right now ...
... some discussion of Mary's different appearance from when she came to her father's funeral ... Mary was a blond then ...
[MP]
You know Grandma Coonfield had black hair. And your dad. And then Inez, Uncle Marion's daughter, had the black hair. See that was her grandmother too. And so she married a Richardson and she
has the black hair. And my sister had the black hair.
[ME]
Ok, what did Grandpa ... Can you remember what Grandpa Coonfield looked like?
[MP]
Yes.
[ME]
Ok, was he tall?
[MP]
Very tall.
[ME]
And Grandma Coonfield was very short, right? And tiny.
[MP]
She was tiny. And he was tall, like Carl, big ... look at Carl's hands.
[CP]
Long whiskers.
[ME]
Oh my word. You do have a big hand.
[CP]
My grandfathers on both sides.
[MP]
And his grandfather and then so the Coonfields, he takes it from both sides.
Grandpa was in pictures in here. He was the tallest.
[ME]
Did he have black hair or was his hair ...
[MP]
No, it was more blondish, I think.
[ME]
So we get our light hair ...
[MP]
That's him. Look at how much taller he is than the rest of the people.
[ME]
That's Grandpa.
[MP]
Yes. But see that's so old, you can see the date on there, 1901. Now there was another family picture that I'll show you in the other bunch. This is a bunch I got out for you. But he wasn't really mean.
[ME]
See how mean he looks.
[MP]
He wasn't really mean.
[ME]
You know, this is one of the stories that went around. That he could stand up Grandma could stand under his arm without touching it.
[MP]
That's true. Because he was so tall and he was big-boned with it, like Carl is.
[ME]
Well I'm big-boned, too, but nothing like that, but for the rest of the family, I'm awfully big-boned.
Now, Carl, let me ask you. Had you heard this legend of the Indians in the Coonfield family on your side anywhere ... as you were growing up? That there was Indian blood in our family somewhere?
[CP]
I don't know.
End of Side 1
Begin Side 2
Note: Possibly later in the day or another day. It sounds like Ola has joined in the discussion of photos. Some mention of photos seen earlier that Mary now has somewhere else.
... discussion of family photos ... if Mildred is relation of Perry's down in Greenwood, Smart & Perry, Dave Perry, not related ...
[VD]
See, this was taken over on Ringo Street, that's the step that I ...
[MP]
Well I didn't take that so I don't know.
[ME]
Is that where I was born? on Ringo Street? Ok, when you put the date on there put 'Where Mary wasborn'.
[VD]
You weren't born in that house. You were born across the street in (doubles?).
... more discussion of pictures, especially photos of Uncle Everett ... putting on names and dates ... putting the date of 1918 on Everett's WWI picture ... picture that include Virginia about 1925 ... Grandpa (Wesley) Coonfield as a young man ... comparing to family picture ... noting that there weren't any
names or dates on any of the old pictures ... Isaac, great-great-grandfather Coonfield ...
[MP]
Look at that chair in there and then look at this, at what he's sitting in. Look at that chair in the den, there.
[ME]
Oh, for goodness sakes. It's the same chair, isn't it?
[PL]
It certainly is.
[MP]
Well I always thought that was ... Mom said that was her mother's chair and I thought that was ... Grandma, it probably came from the Days, but it must have come from the Coonfields.
[ME]
Now this is Isaac Coonfield, my great-great-grandfather. I mean my great-grandfather. And this is his daughter.
[MP]
Your great-grandfather. And his daughter and her son and his son. That's her grandson, see.
[PL]
... Wesley's father.
[ME]
Yes, Wesley was your great-great-grandfather. Your grandpa's father.
[PL]
Oh, ok. Ok.
[ME]
We got that one cleared up.
[MP]
Now here's the dates on William Day when he died. And that was on Emma. We were talking about here awhile ago ... Marie Sheppard's mother.
[PL]
(??) years old is all she was?
[MP]
Well, see she died, and I don't know what was the matter. Now Marie might know what was the matter.
[ME]
My name's Emma, too. Mary Emma. What was Grandma Coonfield's middle name? Do you know?
[MP]
Was it Mary (?)
[ME]
It was Mary E. but I don't know ...
[MP]
Mary Elizabeth, I think. That's what I said first. Maybe it is, but I'm not positive.
[ME]
I was named after both of my grandmothers, I know. And Grandma Schafer, Persinger, was Emma Schafer Persinger. And I knew Grandma Coonfield ... and when I went to go down and get the death certificate, it was really weird for me to ask for Mary E. Coonfield's death certificate. (laughter) It was like asking for your own.
[ME]
Oh, Mildred, I'm so glad I got in touch with you. These are just fantastic pictures.
... discussion of tintypes, speculation that one was "Uncle John", Everett's brother, but could not be ...
[MP]
I want to keep this one, this one is my mother, I know, because I remember her talking about it. Now see, that couldn't have been Uncle Everett or Uncle John, one, because my mother's in this
tintype. Of course, she was a little older but see that's my mother and that's Jim Perry, I know, and I don't know who the other two are. Now these were in my Grandmother Robinson's album, that's her, and that's her and her sister, which married a (Doley?), my father's side.
[ME]
But tintypes were taken long before ... This would be Grandpa Coonfield because that looks like Uncle John, I remember Uncle John. That's Uncle John, all the way. So that's got to be Grandpa Coonfield.
[VD]
Great chin and all, he was ...
[ME]
This kind of ... where's the one of Daddy in the uniform. Here. See, it kind of ... see the nose ... well, it could be Isaac Coonfield ...
[MP]
Well I thought it could be, but on the other hand, you see how he's dressed up there. Isaac and that bunch always, all their pictures was, they were pretty dressed up. See, here, look at his tie.
[ME]
He was a dude, wasn't he.
[MP]
And look here. See. And look at Sara. Look at Sara. And I know from going up there they were kind of fixy people. You know.
[ME]
Oh, fancy.
[MP]
(laughter) I've never been the fancy type.
[ME]
Me either, Mildred. I'm so down to earth, down home, it's not funny. I definitely think that's got to be Grandpa Coonfield. It's just got to be.
[MP]
I do too. And that could be a Day.
[ME]
It could be a Day or maybe it's Franklin, his brother. Could it be his brother, Franklin?
[MP]
Yes, well, Uncle Frank, where is he? Here's Uncle Frank. See, he looks like a Coonfield.
[ME]
I bet you it's Uncle Frank. Doesn't that look like him? ... younger ... so bet this is Uncle Frank and that's Grandpa. Ok, we're going to say that's who it is. (laughter) Who's to know?
[VD]
They're not going to come back and say they aren't. (laughter)
[PL]
You don't know that. They might. (laughter)
[ME]
Now you didn't know who this one was either, right?
[MP]
Grandma. 'Grandma Coonie'.
Carl's mother's father was a Richard Day and he died before this picture was taken, see. So I put this on here just ... see, he was already deceased. It's her family, yeah, Grandma Coonie's family. But now they were getting on up in years when that was taken. I don't know how old they were.
[ME]
Well, she died in '28 ... Grandma died in '25.
[MP]
I wanted to write some of that down.
[ME]
Oh, I'm going to give you this copy. I copied it down off of Donald's and I'm going to give it to you. ... I think Doris has all of this too.
Now Sis, what were you telling me about Grandma Persinger?
[VD]
She had a daughter by another marriage, I guess, I don't know. That her name was Carrie (Mae Outerbridge?). She lived in (Boston?). She was a nurse.
[ME]
Oh, so she had more than the nine who are listed on here?
[VD]
She had eight girls and one boy.
[MP]
From that family. But she had the daughter before.
[ME]
Well she was older than Grandpa Persinger. She was born in 1856 and Grandpa Persinger was born in 1861. So she was five years older than Grandpa was.
... to be continued ...