Mattie Frerichs b. 1911

Mattie Frerichs 2nd great aunt on RootsMagic tree.

Mattie Frerichs was born November 4, 1911 in Butler County, Iowa. She was the youngest Enno and Annie Henrichs Frerichs’s 10 children, their births spanned 20 years from 1891 to 1911. On the Butler County, Iowa 1920 census Mattie was 9 years old and living with her parents and siblings: Sena (Cazina), Martena, Etta, John and Enno Jr. Mattie’s older brother George and sisters Mary, Kate and Flora were married with children and Mattie was an aunt to at least 3 nieces and nephews including Stanley b. 1915, son of Mary Frerichs and George Roose.

Frerichs, Mattie and Hilko Janssen 1936 marriage (1)

After high school Mattie graduated from Iowa Teachers College and taught in rural Iowa schools. On November 25, 1936 she married Hilko Janssen at the Lutheran church in Clarksville, Iowa. Mattie’s sister Sena and husband Hubert Ressler were attendants at the wedding.

Mattie and Hilko farmed and had 3 children. They celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary November 23 1961 at St James Lutheran Church in Allison, Iowa with a program presented by their nieces and nephews and a reception.

Mattie died on January 30 1984 at age 72. She and Hilko are both buried at Allison Cemetery. Hilko lived another 13 years, he died in 1997. In July 1995 he was in the Clarksville Star newspaper remembering the annual Butler County Fair. In 1995 Hilko was attending the fair for the 80th year in a row and remembered his first fair in 1916 when he walked a mile to the fairgrounds and bought an ice cream cone for 10 cents.

Sources

Kathlyn, Lora, Raymond Perry b. 1920s

Lora, Kathlyn and Raymond Perry 2nd cousins 1x removed.

1940 Des Moines, Iowa

Gladys’s mom Mary Fries and the Perry kids’s grandma Lora Fries were sisters. Lora married John Jackson they had a daughter Pearl Irene Jackson. Pearl married Roy Perry and they had 2 daughters Lora and Kathlyn and a son Raymond. Gladys Cable was the aunt of the Perry kids and just a couple years older. They all grew up together in Pleasant Grove near Greene, Iowa. By 1940 the Perry family was in Des Moines where Roy was the manager and Pearl a cone maker at Krispy Homemade Kones owned by Ewing Lambert, brother to Gladys Cable, cousin to Pearl, uncle to the Perry kids. IN 1940 Kathryn and Lora were students at the American Schools of Business, Raymond was 17 and still in high school.

In 1941 all 3 enlisted in the Army. Raymond enlisted  December 30, 1941 and stayed in the Army until at least 1958 when he was Captain of the Transportation Corps, probably in Oregon. He died in 2013.

Perry, Lora and Kathlyn 1942 WAC graduating class

Kathlyn and Lora enlisted too, in the new Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps WAAC, later WAC. Lora enlisted August 24,1942 and Kathlyn enlisted September 9, 1942. Fort Des Moines, Iowa was the first WAAC training camp, it opened in July 1942. WAAC soldiers were pioneers, the program was phased out in the 1970s when soldiers were soldiers no matter the gender. Lora was probably in that first graduating class, Kathryn in a following class.

Lora and Kathlyn’s military service is harder to trace. Lora was probably still in the Army until as late as August 1956 when she was on a crew list flying from NY to Frankfort Germany. There’s no further detail on Kathryn’s service, yet. Lora married Donnally Langston, they lived in California. Kathlyn married Howard Manley and also lived in California. Lora died in 2004, Kathlyn in 2000. Both are buried in Sierra Hills Memorial Park Sacramento, California.

Sources

Allen Preston Gaines b. 1900

Allen Preston Gaines 1st cousin 1x removed (1 generation back) from Faber Miller who married Gladys Cable. Allen’s aunt Mary Ella Gaines Miller was grandmother to Faber Sr.

Allen Preston Gaines was born September 25, 1900 in Wadena, Minnesota, the oldest child of Charles and Mary Trewie Gaines. Allen and his family were in Lane, Oregon when Allen was 10 years old, then in Everett, Washington by 1920 when Allen was 20. Allen married Mary Ingram April 4, 1925, they settled in Boise Idaho, raised a family then in later years moved back to the Everett, Washington area where both are buried.

Allen was an apprentice mariner on the SS Emergency Fleet Corporation at the Port of Seattle and has a record: Applications for Seaman’s Protection Certificates, which includes a photo, thumbprint, physical description and identifying details, including tattoos if any. This application was a passport and provided protection on sea voyages from -forced recruitment by navies of other nations-. The Protection Certificates began in the American Revolution, disappeared for a while, returned around WW 1 then were obsolete by the 1940s, more at Wikipedia: Protection papers

Gaines, Allen 1919 page 2 application for Seaman's protection

Allen Preston Gaines March 7 1919