The Hales Newsletter

Motto: United Force is Stronger

NEW SERIES Summer 2001 Vol. 6. No. 2.

Membership

The Hales Chronicles on the internet

News and Views

In Memoriam

Robert Allen Hales

James Howard Hales

Opal Hayles

Margaret Jane Hayles will

Newsletter Articles Index

The Herbert Lee Hales Family

Parish Register Extracts

Posterity

This is on-line version of The HALES Newsletter. The HALES Newsletter is the Journal of the HALES Family. It is a quarterly publication of the HALES Family History Society and variant spellings, including HALES, HAILS, HAILES, HAYLS, and HAYLES. The information includes current events, historical sketches and genealogical information pertaining to the Hales family. The pictures can be viewed by clicking on words that are highlighted. It is published by Kenneth Glyn Hales, secretary of The Hales Genealogical Society from 1970 through 1981 and The Hales Family History Society since 1995.

The intent of the HALES Family History Society is to document all HALES, HAILS, HAILES, HAYLS, and HAYLES families wherever they are found in all parts of the world. This documentation is found in the multi-volume The Hales Chronicles. This information is provided as a service to the Hales Family.

The Hales Chronicles contains the genealogical information published by the Hales Family History Society. This database can be found on the Hales web-page at www.hales.org and can be found in book form at The Family History Library of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at Salt Lake City, Utah; The Library of Congress at Washington, D.C.; The Library of The Society of Genealogists at London, England; and the Centre for Kentish Studies at Maidstone, Kent, England. The Hales Chronicles is also found on-line. Look here to verify your family information and to search for your ancestors.

The Hales Newsletter is provided to the above cited repositories and the Allen County Public Library at Fort Wayne, Indiana. The Allen County Public Library indexes our publication and provides articles through their Periodical Source Index (PERSI).

Printed copies of The Hales Newsletter are provided to members of The Hales Family History Society. If you desire to be come a member, refer to the membership section on our home-page. If you would like a printed copy of individual Hales Newsletters, reprints are available at a cost of $3.75 each.

MEMBERSHIP

This Hales Newsletter is the second issue of volume 6. Please note the expiration date on your mailing label. If it indicates VOL6.NO2 or earlier, this is the last issue you will receive unless you renew your subscription. I usually circle the last volume to be received in red to indicate your subscription has expired. There is no further notice of lapsed subscriptions.

The Hales Family History Society

Due to changes made by Primenet, the internet provider previously used by The Hales Family History Society, we have had to change from Primenet to our own internet server. Instead of primenet.com, The Hales Family History Society is now located at hales.org. All of our files have been moved to this server.

Since the address of this server is different, you need to use www.hales.org to get to our Hales Family History Society home page. Also, please note that the email address of the Hales Family History Society has also changed to this new server and is ken@hales.org. In the long run the effect of these changes should be positive and more efficient.

The Hales Chronicles on the internet

The Second Edition of the Hales Chronicles has now been printed and the on-line version forms the basis for the Third Edition. This on-line version is the master copy of the Hales Chronicles so it contains all information that I have and all corrections that have been made since the Second Edition. It is updated on a weekly basis.

The internet Hales files have been balanced to approximately the same physical size. These small pieces are used to make the display of the files easier.

If you find a mistake in these files, the index to these files, or if your family information is not there, please send me a copy of your records. The method you use to send me the information is not important. I can receive any type of GEDCOM file, any text file from your word processor, or you can mail the information to me. However, please send the dates and the locations that the birth event, marriage event, or burial event took place.

News and Views

In Memoriam

He was born on May 24, 1917 in Ogden, Utah a son of George LeRoy and Georgenia Frandsen Hales. He attended Ogden City schools, graduating from Ogden High School. He was very active in all sports. He played third base in many leagues and for the Ogden Reds of the Pioneer League. He was an avid bowler and golfer, receiving numerous trophies and awards.

Bob worked for the Union Pacific Railroad, formerly OUR&D, retiring in 1977 after 42 years of service.

He was an active member of the Presbyterian Church, the UP Old Timers Club #6 and the SP Old Timers Club #1.

Bob married his sweetheart, Lucy Rebecca Verhaal on September 24, 1938. They have one daughter, Marjorie. He was a devoted husband, Father and grandfather, attending all of his grandchildren’s activities. He adored his great-grandchildren.

He is survived by his loving wife, Lucy; daughter and son-in-law, Marge and Blaine Newman; grandchildren: Becky Kline; Julie (Scott) Berry; Kim Palmer; Dane (Jodie) Palmer; six great-grandchildren: Cody and Brandon Berry; T. J. and Jamie Berry; Payton and Rhett Palmer; three step-granddaughters and three step-great-granddaughters. Also surviving are two brothers, George and Glenn Hales, both of Ogden.

He was preceded in death by his parents and three brothers, Francis, Arthur, and Stanley.

Following services, interment was at the Lindquist Washington Heights Memorial Park in Ogden, Utah.

James Howard Hales, 69, a long time resident of the Pike Lake area died at Lakeland Memorial Hospital Friday, June 9, 1967 from injuries received in a car accident on Highway 70 Sunday about noon when his car ran into the ditch avoiding a deer.

Born April 16, 1898 at Chicago, Illinois a son of Burton F. and Frances Howard Siddell Hales was former chairman of the town of Fifield. He lived a secluded life at his Pike Lake home. He came to the area some 40 years ago, following service in World War One to manage extensive timber holdings owned by his father. He established a silver fox fur farm at Pike Lake and later owned a mink ranch in Phillips.

An avid sportsman, he was the holder of many first place trophies in golf and skeet, won on the west coast where he was a member of the Los Angeles Country Club. He held the Diamond Tuna Club pin for two years, an honor for catching the largest tuna on record. He also caught a record black marlin weighing 438 pounds.

A known philanthropist, he had contributed to many projects both locally and nationally.

Mr. Hales was a graduate of Chicago University and a member of Beta Kappa Epsilon fraternity.

Survivors include a son, James H. Hales of Everett, Washington, a noted bronze sculptor, whose work is now being shown in Japan in the sculpture exchange with the United States; and a sister Laura Hales of Evanston, Illinois.

Burial was in the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Tuesday, March 27, 1934 – A Jonesboro Child Died in Hamilton today from Carbolic Acid Burns.

Opel Hayles, one year old daughter of Mr. and Mrs W. J. Hayles of Jonesboro, was carried to a Hamilton hospital Wednesday suffering from carbolic acid burns.

Mrs. Hayles had left the baby alone in the room for a few minutes while busy about other parts of the home. When the mother returned to look after the little one, she found Opal lying on the floor, limp and unconscious, with the empty bottle nearby. The bottle containing the acid had been left on the window sill, it was thought, out of reach of the baby.

The child was rushed to the sanitarium after Mrs. Hayles had poured some weakened vinegar down the throat to neutralize the effects of the acid. She had deep burns on her stomach, legs, hands and on the fore part of her arms, and on the side of her face. Apparently she had swallowed only a very little of the acid.

The baby passed away Wednesday night. Funeral services were held at the Little Cowhouse Cemetery, Thursday afternoon at 2 o'clock, with Rev J. L. Evans officiating.

Baby Opel is survived by her parents, three sisters, Mary Alice, Marie and Helen, two brothers, Clifford and James.

Margaret Jane HAYLES (will)

(P)7 Sep 1846, pp209,210.

I, MARGARET JANE HAYLES, being of sound mind make this my last will and testament.

Item 1. To MARGARET, SARAH, JEMINAH COLLIER and LAWSON (?)COLLIER, children of my daughter EMMA LOUISA and her husband NEEDHAM COLLIER, my entire estate and any other child or children born to them shall share equally.

Item 2. To my daughter EMMA LOUISA, six hundred dollars annually from the profit arising from my estate as long as she lives.

Item 3. My executors shall invest any money owing to me in negroes and land and these are to be part of item 1.

Item 4. The money from rents and profits remaining after paying item 2 are to become part of item 1.

Item 5. No part of item 1 is to be paid to the legatees until they reach age 21 or marry nor until the death of EMMA LOUISA.

Item 6. I appoint my son-in-law NEEDHAM W. COLLIER as my executor.

signed MARY J. HAYLES.

Witnessed by J. O. JELKS, JOHN V. MITCHELL, THOMAS G. PACKILL.

Proved by the witnesses 7 Sept 1846.

NEWSLETTER ARTICLES INDEX

This is an alphabetical index to articles that have appeared in the first five issues of the Hales Newsletter New Series (NS) published by the Hales Family History Society (HFHS). In the next issue I will attempt to index the Old Series (OS). Articles, items in News and Views, and obituaries are included in this index. It cites which issue and which number the article appeared in.

V1.N4. NS -- 1996 Hales Directory

V2.N1. NS – Alexander of Hales

V3.N4. NS – Andrew Hales

V3.N3. NS – Bernell Woodruff Hales

V1.N1. NS – Book Reviews

V2.N1. NS – Brief Notes on the Hales Family by Rev. R. Cox Hales, M.A.

V2.N2. NS – Chilson Manor sketch

V4.N2. NS – Clara Emma Hales

V1.N1. NS – Editorial (Introducing the HFHS)

V2.N2. NS – Sir Edward Hales (Will)

V4.N3. NS – English Nobility (dating purposes)

V4.N3. NS – English Civil War problems

V2.N2. NS – Family Life and Ministry of Reverend Isaiah Hales

V3.N4. NS – Frances Elizabeth Brunyer Hales

V5.N2. NS – George Elon Hales family, Part 1.

V5.N3. NS – Part 2. (continuation)

V5.N4. NS – Part 3. (conclusion)

V4.N3. NS – George Willard "Will" Hales

V4.N2. NS – The Gypsies are Coming!

V1.N1. NS – Hales or Hails or Hailes or Hayles

V1.N3. NS – Hales Chronicles 1st Edition

V5.N4. NS – Hales Chronicles 2nd Edition

V5.N4. NS – Hales Chronicles Preface

V5.N4. NS – Hales Chronicles Introduction

V1.N1. NS – Hales Coat of Arms and Article

V1.N3. NS – Hales Demography

V4.N4. NS – Hales Family of Guelph, Ontario

V3.N2. NS – Hales Family of Kent

V3.N4. NS – Hales or Lodden-Hales

V1.N2. NS – Hales Name

V2.N2. NS – Hales Place or Places (Manors)

V3.N3. NS – Hales Place Canterbury

V2.N1. NS – Hales Reference in Pipe Rolls

V3.N1. NS – Henry William Hales (1829-1909)

V2.N4. NS – John Hales of Eaton (1584-1656)

V1.N2. NS – John Hales Headstone (1694-1756) Photo, Boxley, Kent, England

V2.N4. NS – John Hales of Virginia descendancy

V3.N3. NS – Julia Ann Lockwood Hales

V3.N2. NS – Kent Parish Registers

V5.N1. NS – Kent Parish Registers

V1.N2. NS – The Kentish Hales

V2.N1. NS – Kentish Names

V5.N2. NS – Lewis Henry Hales descendants

V1.N2. NS – The Man Who Came Down The Chimney

V2.N4. NS – The Manor of East Greenwich and the American Colonies

V4.N3. NS – Mathew Heale or Hales

V2.N3. NS – Mormon Hales Families

V2.N3. NS – Mormon Hales Family Relationship chart

V4.N1. NS – There goes Matilda (Hales)

V1.N1. NS – Preface to Hales Family History Society

V2.N1. NS – Research Notes

V3.N4. NS – Ann Hales

V3.N4. NS – Edward Hales

V3.N4. NS – Elizabeth Hales

V1.N1. NS – Hugh Hales

V2.N1. NS – Hugh Hales

V3.N4. NS – Hugh Hales

V3.N2. NS – John Hales of Lenham

V3.N1. NS – Martha Hales (abt 1741)

V3.N4. NS – Roger Hales

V3.N2. NS – Research Standards

V1.N2. NS – Sketch of Hales Place Tenterden

V1.N3. NS – Stephen Hales – Clergyman and Scientist

V3.N1. NS – Stephen Hales and Anna Goodhew posterity

V5.N4. NS – Thomas Hales of Stockbury

V4.N3. NS – William Hales

V5.N4. NS – William Hales of Essex (Will)

V5.N1. NS – William Hales of North Bradley

V2.N2. NS – Breyden Emila Hales (Birth)

V2.N4. NS – Christopher Hales marries Kristin Miller

V1.N2. NS – Danny Foy Hales (Birth)

V3.N3. NS – Frank T. Hales (Days of 47)

V1.N2. NS – Gregory Glen Hales marries Becky Jean Michelson

V1.N1. NS – Jeffrey L. Hales (new PGA Pro)

V1.N2. NS – Julianna Hales married Neal Reed Sorenson

V1.N4. NS – Madeline Ashley Hales (Birth)

V1.N3. NS – Mari Elizabeth Germundson (Birth)

V5.N4. NS – Nicholas Pan Wa Hales (Announcement)

V1.N1. NS – Niclas Dean Hales (Eagle Scout)

V1.N4. NS – Riley Chad Hales (Birth)

V2.N4. NS – R. Stanton Hales inaugurated

V2.N1. NS – Sam S. Hales marries Patricia Wehr

V3.N1. NS – Samuel Alexander Hales (Birth)

V5.N2. NS – Skyler Reid Hales (Birth)

V5.N4. NS – Shauna Lynn Hales marries Jimmy Levi James

V1.N3. NS – Stephen Hales stone carving

V1.N1. NS – Stephen D. Summerfield (Birth)

V1.N1. NS – Terry Hales (Instruction Director Starr Pass Golf Course)

V1.N2. NS – Anna May Patten Hales

V5.N3. NS – Barksdale Hales

V5.N3. NS – Beth Gardner Hales Boyle

V3.N3. NS – Beverly Jane Tanner Hales

V3.N2. NS – Carl Allen Hales

V2.N2. NS – Corinne Hales Hardy

V1.N2. NS – Dennis Luther Hales

V5.N1. NS – Dewey Hales

V5.N3. NS – Edythe Cordelia Mathews Hales

V5.N3. NS – Emma May Crane Draper Hales

V2.N3. NS – Emmeline Utahna Hales Wedge

V1.N3. NS – Gary D. Hales, PhD

V5.N3. NS – Gina Marie Brunatti Hales

V4.N3. NS – Gladys Brassfield Hales Dempster

V5.N3. NS – Hal Archie Hales

V3.N3. NS – Harry Harmon Hales

V5.N3. NS – Henry Allen Hales

V5.N2. NS – James Andrew Hales

V4.N4. NS – James Howard Hales

V2.N2. NS – Jerrie Larena Jensen Hales

V2.N4. NS – John Hales

V5.N1. NS – Johnnie Franklin Hales

V4.N1. NS – James Vern Hales

V3.N2. NS – Katherine Hales Chamberlain

V5.N1. NS – Keith Lockwood Hales

V3.N1. NS – Lael Torgerson Hales

V3.N1. NS – Leah Hales Harrison

V4.N2. NS – Leah Hales Harrison

V5.N3. NS – Lela Wilda Hales Tennant

V4.N2. NS – Lillian Bradford Hales

V3.N3. NS – Margaret Jane Weir Hales

V5.N1. NS – Marguerite Ruff Hales

V5.N3. NS – Marilyn Ruth McRae Hales

V3.N4. NS – Mary Ann Hales

V5.N3. NS – Mary Evelyn Wright Hales

V2.N1. NS – Mary Undine Hales

V3.N4. NS – Max Bliss Hales

V4.N2. NS – Melba Hales Lundberg

V3.N3. NS – Monte Frank Hales

V1.N3. NS – Narris K. Hales

V2.N2. NS – Odetta Hales Bramwell

V5.N3. NS – Opal Jenette Christensen Hales

V4.N1. NS – Orlo Franklin Hales

V4.N3. NS – Ralph Watkins Hales

V4.N2. NS – Richard Allen "Dick" Hales

V4.N1. NS – Roxie Anne Hales McGuire

V3.N2. NS – Stephen Alvord Hales

V4.N1. NS – Valda Bosshardt Hales

V4.N1. NS – Widtsoe M. Bastian

V4.N1. NS – Clifford "Buss" Bennett

V4.N1. NS – Rex Marsh Bowers

V4.N1. NS – Roy Cowlishaw

V4.N1. NS – Velma M. Jensen

V4.N1. NS – Iona Falkner Meiling

V4.N1. NS – Inez LaRue Neilson

V4.N1. NS – Bliss E. Nisonger

V5.N2. NS – Clara Schofield Warner

The Herbert Lee Hales Family

This article is based on a sketch compiled by a grandson, Vernon Charles Hales. He relates that the information is based on bits and pieces picked up over the years that he heard his father tell to other people, information gleaned from Delbert Scott, a contemporary of his father, and what he learned talking to aunt Elaine Hales Panagos. Delbert was of Erskine’s generation, though a few years older. Delbert’s father, Tom Scott, was Superintendent of the open-hearth furnaces at Sheffield Steel Corporation at Kansas City in 1930 and he hired Erskine to work there.

My father, Erskine Lee Hales, once told me that his grandfather Hales, father of Herbert Lee Hales, was a policeman named Riley Hales and that he was missing a thumb – his pistol accidentally went off and shot off his thumb. They had at least two children: Herbert Lee and Charles "Charlie." Charlie had a crippled arm and apparently never married. Herbert Lee Hales was born in 1888/1889 in Alabama according to the 1920 census. (Probably near Birmingham)

Herbert Lee Hales married Mary "Mamie" Lathrop. Erskine related that his grandparents, Tom and Callie Macklay Lathrop owned a grist mill which burned down. He remembered that, after the fire, all that was left was the stationary gas engine that powered the mill. The Lathrop family had at least four children: Mabel, Ida, Whit and Mamie, my grandmother.

Herbert was a steel worker. The 1920 Census shows Herbert, Mamie and three children living at 1028 18^th Street in Birmingham, and lists Herbert as a steel plant laborer. Next door, at 1030 18^th Street, lived Samuel Hales, age 33, an ironworker at a steel plant. Herbert was 31 at the time, so Samuel was probably a brother. Samuel’s wife, Bettie, age 31, was also listed, along with daughters Lillian, 5; and W. Juanita, 5 months.

Erskine remembered his father, Herbert, not as a laborer, but as an open-hearth furnace melter. The job of melter was a skilled and responsible one. The melter was in charge of the technical operation of one or more open-hearth steel-making furnaces. He decided what to put into the furnace, how to "work" the heat, and when to tap the furnace.

Herbert always drove Model "T" Fords, but once bought a Cole 8. While in the Cole 8 they once hit a bump and Erskine was bounced out of the rear seat of the open car onto the road with no serious damage to him. They didn’t keep the Cole long – Herbert probably found the stick shift difficult to use and Fords had no gearshift lever.

Erskine remembers a long, long drive in their Ford from Ohio to Alabama when he was about 5 years old. A Ford "T" had a cruising speed of around 30 miles per hour (slower uphill). They were traveling with a relative and his family who owned an older Ford which had no self-starter or battery. The headlamps on their older car were powered by the ignition magneto, and the lights would dim or brighten as it slowed or sped up. Since Elaine was born in Gadsden in 1918, I would guess that they made the trip South shortly before that, since Erskine could remember the trip.

Herbert must have worked his way up to a skilled job, one which paid good money. Unfortunately, he went on long drinking binges and lost several jobs. Because of the need to find work, the family lived in a number of different cities. He probably used his steel-working friends to help him find work. The family lived in a number of steel towns, including: Gary, Indiana; Massillon, Youngstown, and Steubenville, Ohio; Wheeling, West Virginia; as well as Gadsden and Birmingham, Alabama.

The family grouping from the Hales Chronicles is as follows:

Born 1888/1889 in Alabama and of Sand Springs, Tulsa, Oklahoma the son of Riley HALES and ... Married about 1909 Mary "Mamie" LATHROP. She was born 17 MAR 1891 at Decatur, Morgan, Alabama and of Sand Springs, Tulsa, Oklahoma the daughter of Tom LATHROP and Callie MACKLAY. Herbert Lee HALES died 2 JUL 1934 at Sand Springs, Oklahoma and is buried in the Woodland Memorial Park Cemetery at Sand Springs, Tulsa, Oklahoma. Mary "Mamie" LATHROP died 28 APR 1930 at Fairfield, Jefferson, Alabama and was buried at the Oakland Cemetery in Birmingham, Jefferson, Alabama.

Children:

The first child of Herbert Lee and Mamie Hales was Otis Herbert Hales who was born in 1910. There exists a photo of Mamie with a baby, probably Otis, which shows Mamie to be a very pretty woman.

Their second child was Erskine Lee Hales. Born in Gary, Indiana in August of 1912, he died in June of 1969 of a coronary occlusion while driving his car – a 1962 Mercury Meteor – pulling a small trailer, about 5 miles west of Cheyenne, Wyoming. His wife, Imogene Nora Grace Hales managed to steer the car to the side of the road and get it stopped, although she did not drive a car. A few miles earlier they had stopped at the scene of a serious accident with injuries and he was upset by the scene. Perhaps this was a factor in his death.

The third child of this family was Elaine Elsie HALES. She was born July 2, 1918 at Gadsden, Alabama. She thinks she was first called Elsie Elaine, but it was then switched around. Elaine lives in Florissant, Missouri, a suburb of Saint Louis. She married Edward Panagos on the 1^st of July in 1939. He died of cancer in the 1980s.

While the 1920 census shows the family living in Birmingham, towards the end of the 1920s they were living in a suburb called Pleasant Grove in Jefferson County near Fairfield. Herbert’s father apparently owned several houses in a sort of cluster very near to what was then called the Harmony Baptist Church. I think there was one main house and three small rental houses. The church is much larger now, and has changed its name – I think that it is now the Pleasant Grove Baptist Church in Fairfield.

Erskine told of accidentally setting a grass fire while burning trash, and almost setting the church on fire.

Years later, about 1950 the church asked him to sign a Quit Claim deed renouncing any ownership in the property. The church had probably purchased the Hales property and was wanting to build on it and needed a clear title.

I suspect, but do not know for sure, that by the late 1920s Herbert’s mother had died, and that Herbert and Mamie moved into the main house. Herbert’s father and Charlie moved into one of the rental places. One Saturday, Herbert and Mamie’s house burned down. Elaine remembers the day of the week because on Saturday she was always given a nickel and she had gone to buy candy. She saw the flames while she was gone. Erskine said that a neighbor came to their door and told them that their roof was on fire. In those days people heated and cooked with wood or coal, and fires were common – sparks from the chimney would land on the roof. They must have had insurance, however, because the house was rebuilt. Elaine remembers that the house had a beautiful fireplace. Erskine remembered that Herbert was unhappy with the first fireplace that was built, and he made the contractor tear it out and told him to get a union bricklayer to rebuild it.

Elaine said that theirs was an unhappy and dysfunctional family, with Herbert’s drinking and wandering. Erskine and Otis attended Hueytown High School, and Otis drove a school bus. Around 1928 Otis started having mental problems and was finally committed to Bryce Hospital, Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He spent the rest of his life there. I am not sure what his symptoms were. Delbert Scott said that Otis ran away from home and was found in another town. Someone also said something about him running through the neighbor’s houses. Elaine felt that there was really nothing much wrong with Otis, but that Herbert had him committed because he was afraid of Otis. Otis was threatening Herbert because of the way that Herbert was treating the family. From my vantage point of 70 years later it seems unlikely that the hospital would have taken Otis unless there was something wrong with him. Otis wasn’t the only one threatening Herbert – the Ku Klux Klan once showed up at the church, looking for him. They wanted to punish Herbert, or at least threaten him with punishment for his treatment of his family.

Erskine and Elaine were both so ashamed of what had happened to Otis that they never told their children about his existence. I heard about him from Grace several years after Erskine’s death. I was profoundly shocked, and even more so when I queried Bryce Hospital and found that Otis was still alive! Ilene and I went to visit him in the 1970s. He was a small, thin man who acted as though he was frightened, sort of cringing back in his chair and staring at us through wide-open eyes. It was possible to pry words out of him, though, and he was still able to write. He thought that I was Erskine and said that he had greens for lunch.

I remember that Erskine once or twice mentioned to me dementia praecox and said that it was a mental illness that affects young people, usually in their teens. I never knew why he mentioned it, but Grace later told me that this was Otis’ diagnosis, and Erskine was afraid that his children might be afflicted.

In the 1920s Herbert was working at the US Steel plant near Fairfield, Alabama, and in the late 1920s, Mamie got cancer of the uterus. The exact sequence of events is no longer known, but Herbert went to Sand Springs, Oklahoma where he worked at the Tulsa Steel Works, later known as Sheffield Steel Corporation Sand Springs Works. Herbert mortgaged the house, presumably to get money for the trip. The family was left behind, and Mamie found out that he had taken another woman to Sand Springs with him. Elaine said that after he left they found some of the other woman’s things around the house. It is not known whether he left before or after he learned of Mamie’s cancer. Herbert had probably been fired from his job in Alabama, and Tommy Scott, brother of E. Delbert Scott, son of Tom Scott, was a supervisor at Sand Springs, and he probably gave Herbert a job. It is not known just how the family survived in Alabama – possibly Herbert sent money home – or friends and relatives may have helped. Erskine played harmonica and guitar in a small combo to earn money – they even played some on a small local radio station.

One can barely imagine Mamie’s agony and despair. Her eldest son was in a mental hospital, her husband was in Oklahoma living with another woman, and Mamie was dying of cancer.

Erskine would walk to a drug store to get a painkiller for his mother. Delbert said that it was around five miles by road, but Erskine may have known some shortcuts. Elaine, who was around 11 at the time, often stayed home from school to care for Mamie, and finally the truant officer checked on her. Other arrangements had to be made and their neighbors, the Otwell’s had a teenage daughter, Ruby. Ruby’s mother, Roxey, who was about the same age as Mamie (Mr. Otwell worked at the Steel Mill where Herbert had worked), checked with the doctor to see if the cancer was contagious, then had Ruby stay with Mamie and take care of her. In the 1970s Ruby was blind and living in Atlanta. I called her when I was in Atlanta. Needless to say, she was much surprised to hear from me, not having heard from the Hales family in nearly fifty years.

Mamie’s condition worsened, and she wrote to her sister Mable, who was now Mable Treber and was living in Saint Louis. She asked if she would take Elaine. Mable and Mamie’s mother Callie, now widowed, was living with Mable and she urged Mable to do so. Elaine said that her grandmother Callie Lathrop, who lived with Mable, was terribly crippled by arthritis, and that her body was in a permanent sitting position.

On the day before Easter, April 20, 1930 Mable arrived in Alabama. Mable was near death, and word was sent to Herbert. Mamie said that she never wanted to see Herbert again. He returned, and when he walked in Mable was sitting in the kitchen. The sisters looked a lot alike, and Herbert thought that it was Mamie, and said something like, "I knew there was nothing wrong with you, this was just a trick to get me to come back." Mable told him to look in the bedroom. When he went in, Mamie turned her head to face the wall and refused to look at him.

Mamie died April 28, 1930. Since there was no money to buy a grave plot, the Otwell’s allowed her to be buried in one of several that the Otwell family owned in Oakland Cemetery in Birmingham. Ruby told me that they were to be paid for the grave, but that they never were. Mamie’s friend, Roxey, died about a year later of a stroke or brain hemorrhage. She was about 40 years old. Mamie and Roxey are buried next to each other. Mamie’s grave was never marked, but recently Elaine, my sister Sharon Hales Shaw and I purchased a grave marker.

After the funeral Mable and Elaine went to Saint Louis. Mable had a daughter, Mildred, who was four years older than Elaine. Mildred was, I think, an only child, so Elaine and Mildred were sort of like sisters. Mable treated Elaine well, but she was divorced when Elaine was 18 so Elaine had to move out. She came to Kansas City and lived with Grace and Erskine at 444 North Topping for about 6 months. She had known Ed Panagos for several years, having met him at church shortly after going to Saint Louis. They missed each other, so after 6 months Ed went to Kansas City, took her back to Saint Louis, and they were married. Elaine says that theirs was a good marriage which produced three children: Eddie, Dennis and Karen. There was also a girl who died as an infant.

I understand that at one time Herbert was a structural steel worker who was hit on the head by a thrown hot rivet. He had a depression on the top of his head where he could place a ball without it rolling away. In those days, girders for buildings were joined by rivets which were heated red hot and were then tossed to the riveter, who caught the rivets in a sort of bucket.

After the funeral for Mamie, Herbert returned to Sand Springs, Elaine went to Saint Louis and Erskine was sort of left adrift. Delbert Scott said that he thought that the house was eventually sold for taxes. I don’t know what happened to Charlie or if Herbert’s father was still alive at the time.

Erskine lived with a friend for a while. Then Tom Scott, superintendent of the open hearth furnace department at Sheffield Steel in Kansas City told him that if he came to Kansas City, Tom would give him a job. Erskine borrowed some money from his friend and most likely rode freight trains to Saint Louis. Elaine said that when he arrived at Mable’s house he was shaking all over. It must have been a terrible and terrifying trip for a 17 year old boy. Presumably Mable gave him train fare to Kansas City. It is not known where he stayed when he arrived – probably with the Scotts – but he got a job at the steel mill where he worked the rest of his life. He had to lie about his age since he was only 17. I can remember when he got the company records corrected. He started as a laborer doing shoveling and such things. The steel plant was not a fun place. One of the worst aspects was the shift work: one week of days, one of evenings, and one of nights.

In 1925 my uncle on my mother’s side, Hugh Charles, in partnership with his brother Roland, purchased a new house at 405 North Belmont, just north of the Montgomery Ward catalog order house and within walking distance of the steel plant. Roland was in the Navy. He graduated from Annapolis in 1925 so he didn’t live on Belmont in this house.

My mother, Imogene Nora Grace Charles and her mother, Mary Florence Charles, moved from Sheldon, Missouri to Kansas City and moved in with Hugh. Mary had been widowed in the great influenza epidemic of 1918 and was having a difficult time making a living at Sheldon. By lying about her age – she was in her 50s – she got a job at Wards where Hugh was employed.

Grace attended Northeast High School, graduating in 1927, and later she, also, worked at Wards. Hugh moved to Denver in 1928 and Mary Florence and Grace continued to live on Belmont. Wards paid little, and by the early 1930s the economy was in the throes of the great depression. It was common back then for people to rent out extra bedrooms in order to make extra money, so Mary Florence rented a room to a young steelworker named Erskine Hales. One thing led to another and, in 1934, Mary moved to Denver to live with her son, Hugh, and in June 1934, Grace and Erskine were married. In July of 1934 they drove to Denver in their 1930 Model A Ford, a rumble seat coupe, to visit Hugh and his mother. While there they received word that Erskine’s father, Herbert, had died at Sand Springs. As an aside, Mary Florence once said that the time that she spent living with her son Hugh in Denver was the happiest time of her life.

Herbert apparently had been doing better. He was still working at Tulsa Steel works – now Sheffield Steel – he had married his companion, and he had found religion. I don’t know what his job was. I recently wrote to Sheffield Steel and asked if they had records dating back that far, but they never replied.

Grace and Erskine drove from Denver to Sand Springs and Elaine took the train from Saint Louis. While no one now remembers, they probably didn’t get there until after Herbert was buried. According to cemetery records, Herbert died July 2, 1934, and was buried the next day at Woodland Memorial Park, Sand Springs. The records show that he died of a brain hemorrhage and that Tulsa Steel paid for a plot and for opening and closing the grave for a total of $25. Since Herbert died on the job, Tulsa Steel probably paid for everything and had him buried quickly to save mortuary costs.

Elaine, who was 16 at the time, says that she was very frightened at having to take the train alone to Tulsa. She probably had to change trains at Kansas City. Also, when she arrived at Tulsa there was no one there to meet her. She managed to contact the Tommy Scott family, but there was no one who could come to get her for about six hours. She had to wait at the station and was frightened.

Herbert had been working in the open hearth furnace department. It was very hot and something needed to be done, but the equipment to cool the workers was not working and none of the men would attempt to fix it. Herbert did it and presumably got overheated. He started down a flight of stairs and collapsed. About 1960 I worked for a while in the chemical laboratory at Sheffield Steel at Kansas City. An older man from the laboratory at Sand Springs visited the Kansas City Laboratory and I asked him if he was there in 1934. He remembered Herbert’s death on the job.

Little is known about Herbert’s second wife. Elaine was at her house and said she was not very attractive. There were several children there, presumably hers. The widow said that the night before he died, Herbert was calling out Mamie’s name in the night.

Elaine rode back to Kansas City with Grace and Erskine, then probably took the train back to Saint Louis.

Erskine and Grace lived in several apartments in the northeast area of Kansas City until the bought a very small house at 903 Harris about 1935. A co-worker at Sheffield sold it to them. It was actually a garage that had serviced a house at 903 – the house had burned down. The housing development, Fairmount Highlands, was developed in the boom times of the late 1920s. When the depression became severe in the early 1930s, many people were unable to make the payments on their homes. Also, the value of real estate fell, so that in many cases, the people owed more that the property was worth. Several houses burned. When I was young there were two foundations of burned houses in the neighborhood, in addition to the one at 903 Harris. There was little left to show that there was ever a house other than the garage converted to a house plus a storm cellar which caved-in in the 1940s. The house had an outdoor privy, but it had water piped into the kitchen. Erskine added a room onto the tiny house and built a garage in back with the driveway leading to Ninth Street. I believe this is where the family lived when I, Vernon Charles Hales, was born on the 28^th of March in 1936 at the now-gone Saint Vincent’s Maternity Hospital at 23^rd and Indiana.

In the summer of 1937 Grace contracted the scourge of the era, polio, though it was called infantile paralysis at the time. Polio, like AIDS some 70 years later, just sort of appeared out of nowhere in the late 1800s. Grace became paralyzed below the waist and spent two or three weeks in isolation at General Hospital in Kansas City. When she came home she was unable to walk; she rolled around in a kitchen chair that Erskine equipped with rollers. In September they rented a house at 444 North Topping and we lived there until May, 1939, when we moved to the house at 905 Harris, which was next door to the one that they owned at 903 Harris. They had moved to the Topping house so that the visiting nurse would stop by to help Grace. The nurse wouldn’t go to 903 Harris because that was out in the county at that time in what was called the inter-city area. The house on Topping had a long flight of steps leading up from the sidewalk, and Grace remembers how Erskine would pick her up and run up the steps. The house and steps are still there.

The 1930 Ford was long gone by this time. The summer of 1936 we had driven to Saint Louis in it to visit Elaine and Mable. On the way back an old man in an old Whippet pulled onto the highway from a side road and, unable to stop in time, Erskine swerved left and hit a six-inch-round post that the highway department once used to mark drain culverts. The man in the Whippet looked to be an old bum, but he took us to town to see a doctor. Grace had hit her knees on the dash panel and baby Vernon had hit his head and would not stop crying. The doctor told Erskine that the "bum" was a farmer who owned half the county. After we left the doctor, the farmer took Erskine to a local used car lot and told him to pick out a car comparable to the Ford. The Hales family came home in a 1931 Chevrolet 4-door with side mounts. By 1938 the car was getting to be well worn. Chevy’s of that era used wooden framed bodies, and since they were low priced cars they used a cheap grade of wood. Model A. Fords were common sights until around 1950, but Chevy’s of that era faded fast. The wood framing loosened and rotted on the Chevy’s, but the steel bodied Fords stayed together.

In the fall of 1938 the ‘31 Chevy was traded in on a new 1938 Chevrolet Master 2-door sedan with a trunk. Those without a trunk had a sort of fastback rear with the spare tire mounted outside at the rear, but those models were very rare. Nearly all cars by this time had trunks. It was purchased at DeWitt Chevrolet, 2800 Truman Road – or 15^th Street as it was known then. I was only 2 ½ years at the time, but I can still remember this. It was the first time I had ever seen an overhead garage door, which was on the west side of the DeWitt building. When we got into the new car, my mother Grace had to drag me in. I was crying and kept saying, "I want the old car."

In 1939 the Hales family learned that the house at 905 Harris was for sale. Built about 1928 a mortgage company had repossessed it in the depression years and was trying to sell it. This house, along with the one at 907 Harris, were mirror images of each other and were supposedly built for a man and his son. An offer of $2,500 was made for the house, and the Hales family was surprised when the offer was accepted. I remember the day we moved from North Topping. Originally the houses at 905 and 907 had their back doors on the sides of their kitchens so the doors faced each other – both houses were later modified to exit at the rear.

The house at 903 continued to be rented out, but during World War II the rent was frozen at $9 per month. Low-rent properties brings low-rent renters and the renters caused trouble. Since wartime restrictions prevented eviction, so, to get rid of something that was more trouble than it was worth, Erskine told the appropriate agency that he wanted to convert the house to a chicken house. The renters didn’t leave graciously, but they did leave. Erskine tore down the original garage part of 903, retaining the room that had been added on the north side, and this room was used as a chicken house for several years. The Hales family owned the property all the way to Ninth Street. The original lots in Fairmount Highlands had a 100 foot frontage, and each house was built on the side of the lot so that another house could be built on the other side. The houses at 905 and 907 were on what was originally one 100 foot lot. In the late 1950s Erskine tore down the chicken house and sold 75feet of the lot to some people named Cox, who then built the house at the southeast corner of 9^th and Harris.

Lois Elaine Hales was born on March 7, 1940, and Sharon Louise Hales was born on September 7, 1945. The house was getting to be somewhat crowded by this time, especially since Grace’s mother, Mary Florence Charles, lived with the Hales family part of the time. Vernon was sleeping in the living room, or on an army cot in the dining room, when Mary Florence was there.

Mary Florence Charles, mother of Grace, was sort of dependent on others. My earliest recollection is of her living with her son Vincent and his wife Lela on Lockridge near Benton Boulevard in Kansas City. This would have been in the early 1940s.

Another of her sons, Hugh Allen Charles, married sort of late in life, in mid-30s, and he and his wife, Elizabeth "Beth," had purchased a home at 6736 Monroe – a block west and almost one block south of the southwest corner of Swope Park. They didn’t own a car, so this was a good location. The Swope Parkway streetcar ran along the west side of the park, then turned east and ran along the south edge of the park to what was an easy walk from Hugh’s house. Hugh and Beth were married in 1938 and about 1942 Beth became Ill. Mary Florence went to live with them to help out and also to have some place to live.

Doctors were unable to determine what was wrong with Beth. Mary Florence, and several others of the family, thought that she was just lazy, but in 1942 she died. Hugh once told Erskine that "she had to die to prove that she was sick." Erskine replied that "some of them still aren’t convinced." An autopsy showed that she had a bacterial infection of the lining of the heart. Even if she had been properly diagnosed there was probably little that could have been done – there were no antibiotics then. She was about 30 years old when she died.

Mary Florence continued to live with Hugh, and when I was in grade school I would sometimes walk to Fairmount, catch the bus to Mount Washington, transfer to the Kansas City Independence bus, ride to downtown Kansas City, then transfer to the Swope Parkway streetcar and ride it to their house. Today this would be considered too dangerous for a child alone.

Hugh Charles worked for Sinclair in their office in Kansas City, Kansas. The refinery was located west of the Procter and Gamble plant, on the south side of Kansas Avenue. After World War II he was sent to school – probably at IBM – to learn data processing. He then moved to different cities where Sinclair had offices (New York, Atlanta and Chicago come to mind) to set them up with data processing. He told Mary Florence that she could live in his house as long as she wanted to, but for some reason, she didn’t want to. She sort of moved around, living with her children, except for Roland, who was in Washington D.C.

Around 1950 Erskine built a rear room onto the house to give Vernon a bedroom. In the late 1950s he rebuilt and extended the front porch.

Erskine continued to work at the steel plant as an overhead crane operator. The crane was an arrangement that traveled along on wheels on a set of elevated rails, one rail on each side of the building or scrap yard, and the crane spanned the yard. The crane had a huge electromagnet which could be switched on and off, and was used to load scrap iron and steel into a huge bucket so that it could be dumped into a furnace to be melted. At least this is how it worked at the electric furnace; memory fails me as to just how the cupola furnace was charged.

The cupola furnace had a continuous process for melting scrap. The cupola was a tall cylindrical affair. It could melt heavy scrap such as engine blocks. Scrap was added at the top and molten iron flowed from the bottom into a large bucket called a ladle. The ladle was dumped into the open hearth furnace where the steel was processed. Lighter scrap was melted in the open hearth furnace and the molten heavy scrap from the cupola was added to this. In the early 1950s Sheffield Steel installed a new electric-arc steelmaking furnace on the south side of Highway 24 at the Blue River. The building is still there, unused. The open hearth department had been at the place where Wilson Road would have gone through the plant north of Highway 24. Wilson road at the plant had been closed when the new Highway 24 viaduct was build in the 1930s. At that time the streetcar line to Independence was changed to a motor bus line. If Kansas City Public Service had run its streetcar tracks across the viaduct, they would have had to pay part of the construction and maintenance costs for the viaduct.

Erskine was given the opportunity to operate the scrap loading crane for the new electric furnace, but he wasn’t sure that he wanted to change jobs. Vernon advised him to change, since the new furnace would probably be there after the old open-hearth furnaces were gone. He changed and, sure enough, in a few years the open hearth and cupola furnaces were gone. I worked at Sheffield for a while in the late 1950s (in the chemical laboratory) and I once went up onto the crane and watched Erskine run it, though I probably wasn’t supposed to do so. It was the only time I ever saw him at his job, and I was amazed at the skill he displayed. The huge magnet, dangling at the end of several wire ropes moved in three directions at once, and he could manipulate the controls and place it where he wanted it in one easy motion – every time!

Vernon, Lois and Sharon all attended Carlisle Elementary School located one block west of Sterling on the south side of Highway 24. The original building was built in 1926. Probably in the 1960s the building was considered to be obsolete, too small, and too close to the highway, so it was torn down and a new building was built. It is still there, but is now used by the National Guard. Vernon attended Northeast High School, graduation in 1954. Van Horn High School opened in the fall of 1954 so Lois and Sharon went there.

Vernon and Lois claimed to be both very shy, unpopular teenagers who shunned and were shunned by the opposite sex.

After high school Vernon attended Kansas City Junior College, which was located in the old Westport Junior High School building at 39^th and Gillham. He then attended the University of Kansas for three semesters. He considered himself lost as a very small frog in a very large pond. He then transferred to Central Missouri State University (CMSU), then called Central Missouri State College (CMSC) at Warrensburg, Missouri, and managed to graduate in 1960 with a major in chemistry and a minor in mathematics.

After graduation he floundered about for awhile. Then he taught high school for one year which he considered to be a disaster. He then worked for one year in the office at Deady Chemical Company, located in Fairfield, Kansas City, Kansas. Deady treated boiler water, cooling tower water, etc. He then worked three years in the laboratory at Colgate-Palmolive Company at 18^th and Kansas Avenue in Kansas City, Kansas. He then went to Trans World Airways (TWA), working three years in the plating shop, then the rest of the time in the Airframe Electric Shop (later called the Avionics Shop) until his retirement in 1998.

Lois didn’t attend college, but got a civil service job at the Veterans Administration Hospital as some sort of secretary or clerk. She was still there when she developed breast cancer in the early 1980s. She died September 11, 1982.

Sharon was a different breed of cat altogether, attractive and vivacious. After graduation from Van Horn, she got a civil service job with Social Security and she still works there as a supervisor. She retired in October of 2000.

While Vernon was a junior in college at CMSU, Lois talked him into going to a Youth for Christ meeting. The meetings were then held in the Grand Avenue Temple. She probably wanted me to meet her friend, Judy Gottman, but instead, I met Irene Dessert. Irene was very friendly with me and I didn’t know what to make of that since girls just weren’t friendly with me. I kept company with her for a while, but wasn’t very interested. After a while she sort of wandered off with Gene Sheridan. I found myself missing her. I was sort of kicking myself for not doing better with her. However, she had an identical twin sister, Ilene, and I managed to meet her. One thing led to another and we were married August 29, 1959. We bought a mobile home and lived for two years at 1900 Blue Ridge, lot 99.

Lois had met and was keeping company with Thomas Rountree who was a relative of Judy Gottman. The wanted to get married, but Erskine and Grace were firmly against this. Tommy was quite a bit older than Lois and had two children from a previous marriage. Perhaps they just didn’t care for him. Ilene and I were married on rather short notice – we just went to Jack Liles’ wife’s uncles house and he married us. Lois kept asking me when we were going to get married, and when she found out she married Tommy one week before we did. I assume that by bunching the marriages together she hoped to divert some of our parents anger.

Parish Register Extracts

The following are Parish Registers that I have extracted all Hales and variant spellings of that name since Volume 5, Number 2 of the Hales Newsletter. If anyone else is working on Parish Registers please extract all of these names and send me a copy of your findings. Make sure to include the name of the Parish and the dates you have looked at (from and to dates).

Postling, Kent, England (1563-1812)

No Hales Entries.

Preston near Favorsham, Kent, England (1563-1812)

9 FEB 1605/6 Benett daughter of Edward Hales and Benett

31 Jan 1606/7 Mary daughter of Edward Hales and Benett

6 Jun 1609 Edward son of Edward Hales and Benett

8 Jul 1610 Elizabeth daughter of Edward Hales and Benett

19 Jul 1611 Margaret Hales daughter of Edward Hales and Benett

2 Nov 1603 Edward Hales, Gent. And Benett Finch

25 Oct 1613 John Saywell of Otford and Elizabeth Hale of Faversham

30 Jan 1660 William Hale and Mary Benty

17 Mar 1614/15 John son of Edward Hales and Benett

8 Nov 1629 Elizabeth ... of Mr. Edward Hales, gentleman

Preston near Wingham, Kent, England (1566-1812)

No Hales Entries

Queenborough, Kent, England (1570-1812)

10 Mar 1639 Joane Hayles, servant to Thomas Gwins

Ringwould, Kent, England, (1569-1812)

No Hales Entries

I will tell you some facts that are hard of believin’

Of things that concern the descendants of Stephen.

Before him, forsooth, very little is known,

But there is enough to cause millions to groan.

If you knew all the facts, one’s soul it bewails,

Pray don’t tell it all, of the family of Hales.

A lot has been told and lot more unsaid;

If all had been told, We’d have long since been dead.

Of this I was cautioned in childhood and youth –

That it’s not always wise to tell all of the truth.

So try to be cautions, in relating your tales

And don’t tell all you know, of the family of Hales.

There was grandfather Charles, who’s no longer alive,

Who, with only two women, produced twenty-five.

Then came William Parley, who’d not be outdone,

and who with one wife scored a dozen and one.

This is part of the story, there are many more tales

Just as sure as you live, that are true of the Hales.

Of the number who’s here we are somewhat perplexed,

‘Cause there’s some not here, who at others are vexed.

Some busy at tasks, who cannot attend

And so there’s excuses, without any end.

For now they are scattered, O’er mountains and vales

They’ve become astronomic, the number of Hales.

And then there are those, from almost every nation

By adoption and marriage, that are our relation.

They are lank, slim and tall, they are short, thick and fat

But no one pays any attention to that.

From Sweden and Denmark, from Iceland and Wales

All proud of the fact, they are kin of the Hales.

There are those of us too who seek after fame

And are ever alert to exalt our fair name.

Of these we are proud, Yea our hearts are made glad,

Instilled in our souls, by the rearing they’ve had.

And this was accomplished by precept and flails

Because it’s been practiced by all of the Hales.

There are farmers, professors and business men too,

Who all take delight in the crafts they pursue.

There are Doctors and Lawyers and Dentists and Clerks

And then those that build and are proud of their works.

Some are quick and alert, there are others like snails

But never-the-less, they are kin of the Hales.

There are also some virtues, perhaps they are few

And some are renounced by the things that they do.

Their display of talent at this celebration

Makes all of us glad, that they are our relation.

So by talent displayed, music, art, and fair tales

We are proud to belong to the tribe of the Hales.

There are also some tales, not too hard to believe

Of the things that’s been done by descendants of Steve.

Of things they’ve accomplished as years have rolled by

Can be seen all around, by a glance of the eye.

With stone, bricks and mortar, with hammer and nails

They are many, the monuments built by the Hales.

Perhaps as you’ve journeyed in daylight and dark

You’ve observed many buildings around Spanish Fork.

There’s the Court House, the Central, the Big Co-op Store

The canneries and factories and houses galore.

A front on the highways, the streets and the trails

All are evidence mute, of the thrift of the Hales.

It’s not necessary, this late to relate,

Since so long it has been of the family a trait,

Of fairness and justice, for which we’ve gained fame

The respect we command for our great family name.

Where honesty, honor and justice prevails

Which was always a trait of the family of Hales.

Much more could be said, of things that’s been done

Of the things we’ve accomplished, since time first begun,

By us who are here, and those of us fore –

And so there’s no need, that we say any more,

And thus make and end of our jestre and tales

But there never can be any end of the Hales.

Jesse Fielding Hales