For My Family

With Henrietta’s photo albums still fresh on my mind, I thought I would post a couple of really nice photos of Great Grandpa Henry Stebbins with his daughter, my Grandmother, Helen Marion Stebbins Fry:

This one was taken at Watkins Glen in 1914:

I remember Grammie Fry saying that you could twist her hair around a finger and it would stay in a ringlet.

I’m still scanning in Henry & Henrietta Stebbins’ photo albums, and there’s many photos I want to post here, but this one caught my eye today. It’s of Grandpa Fry and Aunt Tee (Helen Theona Fry) at 5 months old.

She is such a little sweetheart. More later!

Dad just gave me the lastest ENC newsletter which contains Gwen Mann’s obituary. I remember her and her twin Genevieve coming to visit Grammie in the summertime when I was young.  Gwen had the nicest, biggest smile.  I was very intrigued by Gwen and Genevieve.

Photo courtesy of Muriel Baker (’70)

In Memory – Gwendolyn E. Mann, 1915-2006

Source: Eastern Nazarene College The Christian Scholar, Vol. 65, No. 2, Summer 2006, pg. 4

Gwendolyn Evangeline Mann, ENC associate professor emerita of education, died in Williston, VT, on April 27, 2006. She is survived by three siblings, her twin Genevieve C. Mann (36), Marguerite Nielson (44), and Roger Mann (35); two sisters-in-law, Muriel (Shrader, ’35) Mann and Katherine (Brown ’34) Mann; and many nieces and nephews, all dear to her heart.

Miss Mann graduated from Cambridge (VT) High School in 1932, attended Johnson (VT) Normal School, and then came to ENC. She returned to Vermont to teach in a one-room school and later taught kindergarten in Hingham for many years. She did graduate work at Boston University, earning her MEd degree in 1953.

She was an adjunct faculty member at ENC for five years before becoming a full-time assistant professor of elementary education in 1958. An esteemed faculty member and leader in the Education Department, she was tenured in 1975 and retired in 1980. She left her mark on many students through teaching, mentoring, and encouraging them in their studies and lives. She was a well-known and respected educator beyond ENC and an active member of her church, the college, and the faculty.

May 7, 1980, was Gwen Mann Day at ENC. The festivities in her honor included a special chapel and a picnic with the presentation of gifts and flowers, hosted by the Student National Education Association. A classroom in Gardner was named for her in recognition of 27 years of dedicated service to ENC on Heritage Day 1994, as part of a 1992 initiative by President Cecil Paul to highlight the importance of teaching.

She was recognized with an ENC Alumna of the Year award in 1991. The citation read, in part: “Gifted teacher, a tower of strength to her family, her students still say, ‘Miss Mann taught me,’ trusted Christian friend, she speaks not to a class but to a world.” Among those she taught was Muriel Baker (’70) who said, “Our aunt touched so many lives and was a true inspiration.”

Miss Mann returned to northern Vermont when she retired and continued to be active in her church and the community. Her funeral was at the Waterville (VT) Church of the Nazarene on May 1 and she was buried in the family lot in Mountain View Cemetery, Waterville.

Here's another photo I found in Henrietta's Red Album. This one is of Grammie Helen Stebbins Fry. There isn't a date on the photo, so I'm not sure when and where it was taken. Maybe it was taken when she was at Eastern Nazarene College.

Much more on Grammie later on!

I started scanning the photo albums of Henry & Henrietta Stebbins (my Great Grandparents), and found a photo of Grandpa Dalph Fry taken when he was at Eastern Nazarene College in a bunch of loose photos inside Henrietta's Red Album:

Much more to come later on Grandpa!

I was working at the Onondaga Historical Association Museum & Research Center this past winter, and while going through a folder labelled “Beak Family” I found this photo of my Grandmother Gladys Perry nee Cole, when she was about four or five, with her classmates at the South Onondaga School, District #21. I was so excited! She is the 7th from the left in the 2nd row:

Here’s a close-up of her face:

Isn’t she a sweetheart! Here’s a list of the children in the first photo:

Her brother Sterling Cole is also in the photo. He is 5th from the left in the 1st row. There are many familiar South Onondaga names.

If you would like to see a larger copy of any of these photos, please ask! I’ll be adding much more on Grammie Perry later.

We only have one known photo of my Grandpa Joe Perry:

Hazel Dusart had this photo in one of her albums, and she gave it to my Mom. It is part of a Perry family photo; the original is tiny. It was taken circa 1938 so he would have been about 59 years old.

We didn't know very much about Joe Perry. We knew he had a brother Ambrose Perry. We found the obituary for Ambrose Perry dated Oct 12, 1961 in the Syracuse Post Standard newspaper:

Since Ambrose was a native of Malone, we started searching for Joe Perry in Malone church records. We ended up hitting the jackpot in the Notre Dame Church Records (a catholic church with records written in French). It turns out Joe Perry was French-Canadian and his baptised name was Carolus Josephus PARENT. His English-ized name was Charles Joseph PERRY. Eventually, we found the Parent Family Association which traces his patrilineal line back to France. The Parent Family Association website is written in French, but you can go to Google's Language Tools, scroll down to the translate box and copy / paste the information you would like translated from French to English.

I'll write more about Joe Perry another day! Please comment if you have anything to add about Joe!