Bring Me a Letter From My Dear Old Mom

I have begun to digitize my great great grandmother, Hattie May Seamans Billings, diary. This diary only spans a few years but years when many things were happening in Hattie's life. In this diary she keeps track for 2 years of her son's service in WWI and that will be the focus of my blog today.

Ralph Everette Billings was Hattie and Elbridge's 4th child and second son.  Here is a picture of 12 of their 13 children.

Ralph is 3rd from the left in the middle row.

On June 1, 1917 when Ralph registered for the WWI draft he is listed as being 26 years old and the Superintendent of Schools at Hurley, Turner County, South Dakota. The following is from Hattie's diary.

Ralph Everette Billings, enlisted and went to Fort Snelling, Minnesota August 27, 1917 was there six weeks then went to Fortress Monroe, Virginia where on November 27 he received a commission to 2nd Lieut of Coast Artillery.

Here is a picture of Ralph is his uniform.

The Coast Artillery was the branch of the military that trained men to operate the big guns used during WWI. While Ralph spent time during the war at the Front, in letters he sent to Hattie on June 18 and 24th, 1918, He was busy teaching how to take the cannon apart and clean it and put it together again.  This is a picture of the one of the "Howitizers" that were used in WWI and may have been like the one's Ralph trained on.

Then Ralph told his mother that  he was also ordered to Angers France to start training center No. 4 on Aug 7, 1918.  Another picture of a big gun used during WWI.

Hattie stated in her entry that she was glad Ralph was an instructor. I am sure as a mother she was glad he was not at the Front. I am also sure that on Jan 4, 1919 when she says she received a telegram that Ralph had landed in New York and was going to Camp Mills, sent by the Salvation Army, she was relieved that her son had lived through the horrors of WWI when so many had not.

I found this song and picture of a family during this time period writing to their son far away just as Hattie did.

If you follow this link you can actually hear an old recording of this song that was written and recorded in 1918.  http://www.library.ucsb.edu/OBJID/Cylinder5743

Music Man - Frank Barton Neel

My great-grandfather Frank Barton Neel was born in 1883 in Marshall County, Kansas.
When he was 12 his family bought an eighty acre farm in Republic County Kansas 1/4 mile west of the town of Courtland.

This is a 1887 Township Map of Republic County Kansas. Courtland Township is the third township down on the left side of this map. The actual city of Courtland is not listed. Republic County has Nebraska as it's border on the north.

Frank became a musician while he lived in this area. He played in the Courtland Town Band.

This is a photo of the Courtland City Band on tour in Bryon Nebraska in 1909. Frank is 4th from the left in the back with his baritone.

And here is a formal picture of Frank with his instrument.

The Baritone is a low-pitched brass instrument.  You can listen to a Baritone playing a song here.

Grandma Neel and Aunt Diane go to town.

Aunt Diane Billings told me an early remembrance she has of her Grandmother, Edna Neel involved a trip to F. W. Woolworth's in Albuquerque, NM.

This is a photo of Woolworth's 5 & 10 cent store on the left in Albuquerque. Because of the cars in this photo it would of been about the time of Aunt Diane's adventure.

She said she remembers that Grandma Neel was all dressed up, dress, gloves, hat and purse, maybe something like this photo of her and Mildred Neel Billings and Roland Billings.

I am pretty sure this photo was also taken in the downtown Albuquerque area. Uncle Roland looks about 2 years old so the year should of been around 1939 or 1940.

Here is another photo of Edna Neel with Roland Billings maybe a year or two earlier.

This picture was taken at the house the Neel's lived at before and during the WWII years at 807 Armijo Rd. in Albuquerque. And here is a Google Earth picture of that house as it looks today.

Aunt Diane said that she was surprised that Grandma Neel could drive but that she did drive them downtown to Woolworth's and that there were neat things to look at.  Woolworth's had items displayed differently then we have today in stores. Most items were displayed in glass divide cases and then there were sales clerks behind the grouping of cases that helped customers and kept item restocked, much like the picture below.

Would our ancestor's have liked our way of shopping now, at home in front of the computer?

See you soon!

Edna Lorraine Hodgson Neel

Lto r- Mildred E. Neel Billings, Gerald W. Billings Sr., Judy Billings, Edna Lorraine Hodgson Neel

Edna Laurine Hodgson is my great grandmother. She lived most of her life in New Mexico coming there before it was even a state in 1908, when she was 14 years old.  She was a great seamstress and made beautiful quilts, one of which is shown here.

My uncle, Roland Billings, once told me that he remembers going with Edna to quilting group functions and playing under the quilting frames, while the ladies stitched.

My Dad, Gerry Billings, remembers that Grandma Neel made the best Vanilla Wafer Banana Pudding ever. In doing research on this "pudding" if found that  by the 1940's Nabisco company who make Vanilla Wafers was publishing the recipe for banana pudding on the side of it's Vanilla Wafer boxes. This may or may not have been where she got it. 

Here is the link to Nabisco's Original recipe, http://www.backofthebox.com/recipes/desserts/original-nilla-banana-pudding.html . 

Make a batch up and enjoy in memory of Grandma Neel.

My Aunt, Diane Billings remembers Grandma Neel as "speaking softly and always seemed to be in the kitchen cooking whenever we were visiting in Albuquerque.  She had a set of beautiful pink depression glass dishes that I loved."

Well, that's a start, more to come!

Why another blog?

Families are like fudge… mostly sweet with a few nuts. ~Author Unknown



Why another blog you are asking yourself, or I don't have time to read another blog. Well please allow me to introduce this blog and I hope you may want to follow it. 
My name is Judy Billings and I love love Family History. I have been actively working in this great pursuit since I was 13, I will not tell you how old I am now but let's just say the half century mark has come and gone a few years ago. This blog was created for the generations that did not have the opportunity to know these ancestors personally and for those who did but want to remember and hear the stories of cousins, siblings, etc. Over the years I have been fortunate to become the keeper of a great deal of family photos, and I want to share those with all of you. If you have any stories, memories or information you would like to share please send them to me auntjudysattic@gmail.com and I will post them.  Please, please share this Blog with your family members that you think would like to see it. The more that follow the better. You can send them this link http://branchesonafamilytreeneel.blogspot.com so they can follow the blog which will only be published once a week that way no one will be overwhelmed. I hope you enjoy these Branches on a Family-Tree Neel Family posts.

Judy