BABYSITTING

1947 - Aunt JoAnn and Grandmother Ann Forward babysitting Janice Sue Hughes (b. May 1946), Toni Ann Coulter (b. Sept 1945) and Diana Moser (b. Oct 1946).

Jerusha Jane "Dula" Foss Forward
31 March 1929

This is my great grandmother, Dula Forward, mother of  my grandfather, Glenn Lee Forward. Born Jerusha Jane Foss, 2 July 1854 in Prophetstown, Whiteside, Illinois to Harris Benjamin and Martha (Berlin) Foss. She was called "Dula". (I wish I knew the story behind that name change.)

She married Charles Newton Forward 10 Sep 1872 and they were blessed with four children, Pearl (1873-1955), Delbert Foss (1876-1954), Bessie Ellen (1891-1893), and Glenn Lee (1894-1981). The family moved from Whiteside County, Illinois to Goddard, Sedgwick, Kansas sometime between 1876 and 1880, where she lived until her death 4 April 1929. She was buried in the Pleasant Ridge Cemetery on 6 April 1929.

I wish I knew more of G-Grandmother Dula's personal story. I noticed that there were several years between the births of her children and that makes me wonder if she had a difficult time having her family. She married at 18 and two children were born when Dula was 19 and 22 so that is pretty normal. But then her last two children were born 14 and 18 years later. I wonder if she had several miscarriages during those years. Of course that is something that would never be talked about in those days but it's a pretty open subject now.

Also I wish I knew how she died. In this photo (the last known photo of Dula) she looks so healthy. But she passed away just 4 days later. I'm so thankful that this photo was taken and shared.

SESSLER FAMILY PHOTOS

Dad, Greg & Connie - I'm holding my favorite doll - Thumbelina.
My hair is up in pin-curls under that scarf.

Daddy's Girl - Connie Sessler, Bob Sessler

1964 - Snow Storm - Dad (Bob Sessler) shoveling the driveway

Dad's Big Red Truck - Greg, Bob, Connie Sessler

1954 - One of the few photos of my Grandpa Forward holding me.
This photo was taken at our home in Amarillo, Texas.

Greg & Connie - Waiting for our bedtime story.

1953/1954 - Tummy Time - Greg and Connie Sessler
at home on Lipscomb Street, Amarillo, Texas.

Greg and Connie Sessler and our "sweet rides".

Kisses for big brother - Greg and Connie Sessler

I could always count on my brother to protect me
from the Boogie Man and bad dreams.

Greg and Connie (Sessler) Miles - Christmas 2012

Greg and Connie (Sessler) Miles Family - Christmas 2013

Bob, Judd, Greg, Sam Sessler - Four Generations

Greg and Jude Sessler

Greg, Sara, April Sessler - Wedding Day-June 2013

FORWARD FAMILY PHOTOS

Dave Moser - H.S. Graduation 1972 - Such a handsome guy!!
I carried this photo in my wallet and all the girls Ooo'ed and Aww'ed
over it and thought he should be a movie star!! 

Greg Sessler with our cousins: Steve Forward, Di and Denny Moser.

1955 - Barbara Thomason (Beth's friend), Beth Ann Forward-3, Connie Sessler-2)

We were the cutest cousins in 1953!!

Left-right: Front: Greg Sessler, ?(a friend's child), Dennis Moser, Rex Coulter;
Middle: Jane Phillips Porter, Beth Forward Elliott, Connie Sessler Miles, Kaye Phillips Keith;
Back: Toni Coulter Hamlin, Steve Forward, Diana Moser Hittle, Dona Coulter Kirk

I always looked up to these girls. I was in awe of them. They are my amazing cousins:
(front) Toni Ann Coulter, (l-r) Dona Rae Coulter, Janie Phillips,
Kaye Phillips, Diana Moser and Janice Sue Hughes.

1951-Grandmother Ann Forward is holding Greg Sessler
and Maxine Phillips is holding Dennis Moser.

THE GREATEST GIFT

These are my sweet parents - high school sweethearts, married in 1948, 25th anniversary, and today - 66 years of marriage and still going strong! (They are 86 and 85). The handwritten note was on the back of Dad's high school senior photo that he gave to Mom. The greatest gift they gave their children is that they truly, madly, deeply love each other.

Created with digital scrapbooking kit, "Love To My Mom and Dad" -BUNDLE by Scrapyrus Designs.

The Wedding of Anna Helena Helfrich and Glenn Lee Forward - A Heritage Scrapbook Page

WOW - it's been over two years since I last posted to this blog. Thought I'd share a scrapbook page I just finished. It's a "heritage" page about the wedding of my grandparents, Glenn and Ann Forward in 1918!! That's 94 years ago!! (click on the photo for larger view)

Created with digital scrapbooking kit, "Timeless" by Scrapyrus Designs.

The Simple Life

We think of these times before television, computers and other technology as the "simple life." However life during the Dirty Thirties certainly wasn't EASY!! I can't imagine how my grandmother kept her children clean when they had only dirt to play in and their only real bath was just once a week - on Saturday night.
This was the Forward Farm near Hugoton, Kansas.
l-r: JoAnn Forward, Mary Francis Chambers, Mary Jo Standridge, Wallace Standridge, Charles Forward, Wayne Forward.

Minnie and Martin Sessler

"Minnie" (Arminta Wright) and Martin Ullus Sessler

Minnie (Arminta Wright) and Martin Ulus Sessler were my Great Grandparents. They lived in Barton, Kansas where Martin was a Veterinarian  and Minnie was a full-time, stay-at-home mom to Ernest, Warren (my grandfather), and Cedric. 

Martin's father, Jacob Robert Sessler, immigrated from Mannheim, Baden, Germany with his parents, Adam and Johanna (Brandenburger) Sessler and his brothers and sisters. Jacob married Martin's mother, Mary Kuhn, in Lake, County, Illinois. Martin had 4 sisters and 5 brothers.

Minnie is a bit of a mystery. She was born in Missouri in 1872. The 1900 Census lists her parents as born in Pennsylvania. In 1876 in Davis County, Iowa, John Wright married Nancy J. Harrel, widow of William Harrel. Nancy was born in Indiana. If the Census information is correct, we can assume that Minnie's mother died sometime before 1876 and Nancy Harrel was not Minnie's mother, but was her stepmother. 


Some family members speculate that Minnie was part American Indian. I have not been able to confirm or dispute this claim. And I have not been able to determine who Minnie Wright's mother was.

A Love Story

My Great Grandmother - Jenny Morgan Helfrich Wessels

How I'm related: Connie Sessler - JoAnn Forward - Ann Helfrich - Jenny Morgan

ODESSA JANE MARY GENOFEVE MORGAN HELFRICH WESSELS
Such a long name for such a little lady. 

Odessa Jane Morgan was born on 4 Nov 1871 in Bronson, Bourbon, Kansas. She was the first of the eight children that were born to Levi George and Mary Ann (Turley) Morgan.


In the spring of 1886, when Odessa was 14 years old she went with her father, Levi and three of the older children, Jessie (12), Catherine (9) and Willie (8) to Morton County. They traveled in a wagon train with several neighbors.  It took them three weeks of traveling through rain, snow, hard winds and other discomforts of the cold weather to make it from Bourbon County in the eastern part of Kansas all the way to Morton County in the extreme south-western corner of the state.

Levi filed on a pre-emption claim close to the town of Frisco in Morton County and with the help of his children built a 12' x 20' soddy. They dug and cut the sods for the walls and used curved wood planks for the roof, covering them with sod and dirt.

When the house was built and ready, Odessa's mother and two brothers boarded a train and arrived in Hartland on May 1,1886 where Levi met them and took them to their new home.

The Morgans gathered cow chips for fuel to heat and cook with and hauled their water all the way from Frisco. The sod house was as cozy as necessary until a large rain washed away the dirt and sod on the roof. Their solution to this problem was to build a dugout. It was larger, two rooms, and had wooden sides and a shingle roof.

To make a living, Levi hauled freight from Syracuse, Hartland and Lakin for stores in Richfield and Frisco.  Odessa got a job at the T. B. Porter ranch on the Cimarron River and the whole family picked up dry bones, scattered over the prairie, which they sold for $10 per wagon load.  By autumn 1886 they had managed to save enough to buy a cow so they could have their own milk.

Things were looking good for the Morgans.  They had rented land  and houses all their married lives but now, at last, they owned their own home along with the land beneath it.  Plentiful rain gave a promise of a good yield from crops in the Spring of 1887.  And then one day while Levi was traveling to a nearby town to buy trees for planting to improve the claim, a tornado blew through the Morgan farm, destroying all the improvements on the place, including the family home.  Mary (mother) and the children were unable to save any of their belongings except for those they wore as they fled to a neighbor's house for shelter.  The next day Mary (mother) moved the family to an empty house on the Will Robinson claim. It wasn't long before Levi moved his family to the Vangundy farm on the Cimarron River where they stayed through the years of 1888-1890.

On March 13, 1892, Odessa (20) married George Nickolas Helfrich (age 32), the son of German Catholic Immigrants, Georg and Anna Maria (Scherer) Helfrich. She changed her name to Mary Genofeve, presumably for religious reasons, but throughout life family and friends called her "Jenny." George N. took his young bride to Ellinwood, Barton, Kansas where the Helfrich Family had lived for many years.

On Dec. 1, 1892 their first child was born. George William Helfrich lived 5 days and died on Dec. 6, 1892.  George buried the little baby in the St.s Peter and Paul Catholic Cemetery in Ellinwood, Barton, Kansas on Dec. 7, 1892.

In 1893 Jenny and George N. moved to Richfield, Morton, Kansas where George N. farmed and also served 2 terms as Morton County Sheriff, 1898-1899.  While in Richfield, five children were born to Jenny and George N.; Barbara Katherine, December 10, 1893; Henry Cornelius, May 10, 1895; Mary Gertrude, April 6, 1897; Anna Helena, December 8, 1898 and Teresa Francesca, June 19, 1900.

On Sunday, May 6, 1900 a terrible cylcone sweeped through the farm of William Helfrich, brother of George Nickolas, near Ellinwood, Kansas. The following is an excerpt from the "Barton County Beacon" printed May 7, 1900: "A half mile north of St. Peter and St. Paul Church stood the house of William Helfrich. There had been a meeting at the church in the afternoon and the aged father (George Helfrich) and mother (Anna Maria Scherer Helfrich) of William Helfrich and some other parties had just driven into his yard when the storm came upon them. The women had started for the house and the men were unhitching their teams when they were scattered in all directions.  Their horses and buggies were torn apart, the vehicles demolished and the harness torn from the horses. Mr. and Mrs. George Helfrich were picked up and thrown out on the prairie. The old lady died about 2 o'clock that night and the old gentleman is considered bery dangerously hurt.  Four of his ribs are broken and he is bruised up considerably. Mrs. William Helfrich had her hip bruised and a large piece of flesh torn from her thigh.  Her little girl had an arm broken. Their house, barn and other buildings were blown entirely away and everything in it."

The George Nickolas Helfrich family moved back to Ellinwood in 1900. Three more children were born: Sophia Christena, February 24, 1901; Anthony George, May 5, 1904; and John Engelbert, February 25, 1906.

A great sadness occurred in the Helfrich household when baby John died in August 1906 at age six months. Tragedy struck again less than two months later when on October 3, 1906 George Nickolas Helfrich was killed, reportedly in a train accident.

The following is an excerpt from the "Barton County Beacon" printed October 5, 1906: "Early Wednesday morning George Helfrich, a man about 50 years old, was killed by being run over by a train east of Ellinwood, his home. From the evidence before the coroner's jury it seems he had gone out east of town where he was running a threshing engine.  He had been drinking heavily and had created a distrubance with the crew. They got him quieted down but about 3 a.m. he got up and said he was going to fire up the engine. Instead, he must have started for Ellinwood down the railroad track and was run over by some passing train."

The family of George Nickolas Helfrich had the opinion that George met with foul play rather than being accidently killed by a passing train. George had just started a much sought after job as a threshing engineer early in the week that he was killed.  The family also believed that the company circulated the story that George had been drinking heavily to avoid paying the insurance money to the widow and seven small children.

Shortly after the death of her husband, Jenny (age 35) learned that she was pregnant with her tenth child.  The family lived in Ellinwood until the birth of Georgia Elnora, June 6, 1907.  Shortly thereafter, Jenny moved her family to Stevens county and proved up a claim in 1913.

Life on a prairie farm was hard, especially for a widow and eight children. Things were further complicated by Jenny's failing eyesight.  Jenny hired a man to help her with the farm maintainence and chores.  When he took advantage of the situation and of Mary, she fired him.  Jenny's 11th child, Dorothy Irene, was born January 10, 1913.

Jenny's father, Levi G. Morgan died in October 1916 and her mother, Mary Ann (Turley) Morgan died 3 months later, January 1917.

Jenny moved to Ellinwood in 1920 where she later met and married Henry Wessels on June 9, 1924.  Their marriage was cut short when Henry died of a heart attack on September 14, 1929.

Jenny lost two more of her children: Georgia Elnora died June 3, 1928, just three days short of her 21st birthday; and Henry Cornelius drowned March 14, 1935, after saving a child from the river.

Mary Genofeve Morgan Helfrich Wessels died Friday, May 12, 1950 at Tulsa, Oklahoma, the home of her daughter, Christena Marshall.  She was 78 years and 6 months old at the time of her death.  Jenny was buried in the Ellinwood Catholic Cemetery, by the side of her husband, George Nickolas Helfrich.

Moscow House in 1942

This is the house near Moscow, Kansas where my grandparents, Ann and Glen Forward and some of their children moved to in 1942. Wayne and Mary Ann Forward moved here after they married in 1951. Ann, Glen and JoAnn had moved into town (Hugoton) some years before.

(I love the chickens running around in the yard, and the rocking chair on the front porch.)

This is the West side of the Moscow house. Wayne is in the basement window.

The Forward Seven

35 YEARS - Wedding Announcement of Connie Sessler and Gregory Miles

Mr. and Mrs. W. Robert Sessler
of Amarillo, Texas
are happy to announce the marriage
of their daughter


Connie LeAnn
to
Gregory Lance Miles


son of Mr. and Mrs. Farrel T Miles
of Los Angeles, California
Saturday, the twentieth day of December
nineteen hundred and seventy-five
in the Los Angeles L.D.S. Temple


Reception
Saturday, December 20, 1975
from 7:00 until 9:00 p.m.
7806 Reseda Blvd.
Reseda, California

Open House
Monday, December 29, 1975
7:00 until 9:00 p.m.
home of the bride's parents
Amarillo, Texas

Marjorie Sessler Patterson

Marjorie Sessler

Marjorie Sessler Patterson

Marjorie Sessler and Bill Patterson

Rena Marjorie Sessler, the first of six children, was born to Warren and Beulah (Boaz) Sessler, on 13 Jun 1924 in Elkhart, Baca, Kansas. She lived in Pratt, Pratt, Kansas (1926) and Hugoton, Stevens, Kansas (1930) where she graduated from Hugoton High School in 1941/1942. She married Bill "Pat" Patterson, also from Hugoton, and they owned and operated a successful tile business in Phoenix Arizona for many years. They had three children: Kyle (1944), Charlotte (1946), and John (1950).

On Sunday, 2 May 2010, Marjorie passed away quietly in her sleep at her home in Sun City, Arizona. She was 85 years, 10 months and 19 days old. Survivors include her children, one grandson, Dane Patterson, three brothers: Robert (JoAnn) Sessler of Amarillo TX / Quartzsite AZ, Mike Sessler of Glendale AZ, David (Ann) Sessler of Phoenix AZ, one sister: Betty Tackett of Hugoton KS, and numerous nieces, nephews and other extended family members. She was preceded in death by Bill Patterson, brother, Harry Sessler, and her parents.

Aunt Margie was as kind and generous as she was beautiful. She was an intelligent and successful businesswoman who worked first as a secretary in Baltimore, Maryland and then many years as Bookkeeper and Office Manager of Phoenix Tile. She was loved by all who knew her and she is greatly missed.

Forward Farm 1930-1940

This farm, located 3 miles South of Feterita, a tiny town south of Hugoton Kansas, is where Glenn, Ann and their 7 children lived from 1930 to 1940. The twins, Maxine and Mildred, were 10 years old and the youngest, JoAnn, was almost one year when they moved here in 1930.The children's school teacher lived with the family during the school year. The parlor was converted for her bedroom and she ate her meals with the family.

Photo courtesy of Glenna Jean Forward Coulter. (Thanks Aunt Jean!)

Warren Martin Sessler

This is a photo of my grandfather, Warren Martin Sessler.
So Handsome!!

Sessler Family and Great Grandpa Henry Clay Boaz

front - Margie, Bobby, Harry
back - Warren, Beulah, Henry Clay Boaz

Warren Sessler, holding Bobby on the colt
with Margie and Harry in front

Harry Sessler

Harry Sessler - 1943

Uncle Harry Sessler ~ 1944

Harry Elliott Sessler was born 31 July 1926 in Pratt, Pratt, Kansas. He was the 2nd of six children (1st of 4 sons) born to Warren Martin Sessler and Beulah Maybelle Boaz Sessler. He graduated from Hugoton High School in the spring of 1944 as class Valedictorian. 

Harry served in the United States Marine Corp during World War II and enlisted on 18 Oct 1944 at Hugoton, Stevens, Kansas - Board #1; Service #950614; Registered Order #10305.  

He fought in the South Pacific and witnessed the deaths of his closest buddies. After the war he suffered from Post War Traumatic Stress and never fully recovered from it. 

He attended college in Stockton California but left after the first semester and then worked in Colorado on a bridge building job. He fell from the top of the bridge and suffered a head injury. He was mentally handicapped afterwards, partially because of the fall and partially because of his experiences in the war and post-war from the electric shock treatments he received in the Veterans Hospital. 

Harry lived with his parents until their deaths and then spent the remainder of his life in rest homes. He never married. 

The Sessler Family ~ December 1951

The Sessler Family ~ 1951

Greg Sessler ~ December 1951

Greg - 18 months

Greg - 18 months - Dec 1951

My Brother - Gorgeous Greg

1956 - Greg - 6 yrs

1957 - Greg - 7 yrs

I love these photos of my brother, Greg. In the first one he looks like he's such a little scrapper. He could be a character right out of the Little Rascals. I love how he is smiling big to show us his missing teeth. I hope the Tooth Fairy was good to him. 

And in the second photo he is such a lady's man. It makes you want to reach up and gently brush his hair back as you drown into his gorgeous blue eyes.

Connie Sessler - 6 months old

Feb 1954 ~ Connie LeAnn Sessler
6 months ~ 19.5 lbs