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Family Histories:

 

MILLER Family History, Part VII

Hattie (MILLER FORBES SHAW) MERTENS (1869-1954)

11HBG421. Hattie Mae MILLER was born on May 2, 1869 in Iowa. She was likely named for her maternal grandmother Harriet (COTTRELL) ANDREWS. She first married Hill Beacher FORBES about 1891 and had two children, one son surviving. She later married Clarence Norton SHAW, a carpenter from Kansas, about 1902 and had two more children:

11HBG4211.	Raymond Leeland FORBES	25 Jul 1892	23 Apr 1964	(71)
11HBG4212.	Herbert Dennis SHAW	(1904)	1 Mar 1942	(37)
11HB4G213.	Dorris Ann SHAW	2 May 1908	31 Aug 2004	(96)

Hattie's first son Raymond was born in Arroyo Grande, San Luis Obispo County, California. After Hattie's father died in 1896, she, her mother, and younger sisters moved north to Healdsburg, Sonoma County, California and then further north to Gridley, Butte County, California by 1900. She settled for a time in San Francisco where daughter Dorris was born.

Finally, Hattie moved to Fresno, Fresno County, California by 1910.

In 1910, Hattie committed her mother to the State Hospital at Stockton, San Joaquin County where her mother died two years later.

Hattie and Clarence may have separated by 1930 when both were enumerated in the census separately: Hattie working as a hospital waitress at the Veterans' Home of California in Napa, Napa County, California, and Clarence living with his widowed mother in Fresno.

Hattie's son, Herbert died during World War II when the U.S.S. Houston (CA-30), a Northampton-class heavy cruiser, was sunk on March 1, 1942 by the Japanese. He was a Construction Mechanic First Class (CM1C) at the time. The ship had been patrolling Indonesian waters when it ran into a Japanese invasion force in the Sundra Strait, off the northwest corner of the island of Java in the late hours of 28 February. The wounded ship sunk a few hours later at 12:40AM on March 1st. 638 of the crew of 1,008 were killed, the rest were taken prisoner by the Japanese and forced to build the Burma Railroad and the Bridge over the River Kwai.

Hattie later remarried to Ralph MERTENS about 1943.

Hattie Mae (MILLER FORBES SHAW) MERTENS died on June 17, 1954 while residing in Fresno County, California. She was 85 years old.

Orrin Elbert MILLER (1870-1941)

11HBG422. Orrin Elbert MILLER was the eldest son of Isaac Dennis. He was born in July 1870 in Iowa and named after his maternal grandfather Orrin ANDREWS. He married Sarah STARTZER, a first cousin, once-removed through his paternal great-grandmother's second marriage. They four children:

11HBG4221.	Hazel MILLER	Jul 1891
11HBG4222.	I.D. MILLER	May 1896
11HBG4223.	Arlene Ann MILLER	24 Jun 1897	23 Nov 1988	(91)
11HBG4224.	Harold F. MILLER	30 Jan 1900	4 Feb 1965	(65)

Orrin married Sarah STARTZER, his father's first cousin through his paternal great-grandmother's second marriage.

Orrin is believed to have inherited the Arroyo Grande estate following his father's death in 1896. His mother, Candace Mandana (ANDREWS) MILLER and younger brothers and sisters moved to northern California soon afterward. In 1900, Orrin Elbert and his family were still in Arroyo Grande where he worked as a blacksmith. According to niece and nephew, Elsie (WILLIAMS) HITCHCOCK and Edward WILLIAMS, Orrin later moved his family a little ways north to Pismo Beach.

Orrin Elbert died on August 1, 1941 in San Luis Obispo County and is buried at the Arroyo Grande Cemetery.

Sarah (STARTZER) MILLER died on October 4, 1943 in San Luis Obispo County, California. She is also buried at the Arroyo Grande Cemetery with her husband and son Harold.

John Walter MILLER (1871-1947)

11HBG423. John Walter MILLER was born in November 11, 1871 in San Luis Obispo County, California. He married a woman named Cora M. of California about 1891 and had at least six children:

11HBG4231.	Leland O. MILLER	Feb 1893
11HBG4232.	Clarence W. MILLER	6 Jun 1895	Apr 1965	(69)
11HBG4233.	James Raymond MILLER	Jan 1898
11HBG4234.	Maynard MILLER	Feb 1900
11HBG4235.	Orville MILLER	(1903)
11HBG4236.	Dorothy Bernice MILLER	(1905)

John Walter began his family in Arroyo Grande, San Luis Obispo County and by 1910 had moved over to Nipomo in the same county where John worked as a blacksmith in his own shop. By 1920 the family moved to Kings County in the oil fields of Paddock/Lucerne township. John farmed grain while his sons took jobs in the oil fields.

Within ten years, the MILLERs relocated to Long Beach, Los Angeles County, California by the 1930 census, where they and their son James were enumerated at 237 Willard Street. John and James worked as oil pumpers.

John Walter MILLER died at the age of 75 on September 19, 1947 in Long Beach, Los Angeles County, California.

Cora M. MILLER died 13 years later on October 17, 1960 in Los Angeles County, California. She was 85 years old.

Cora Ethel (MILLER FISHER) WILLIAMS⁸ (1880-1967)

11HBG424. Cora Ethel MILLER⁸ was the daughter of a Union Civil War veteran from Iowa. She was born in Old Creek, the southern portion of Cayucos, San Luis Obispo County, California on January 29, 1880 (or 1881). She lived throughout California, but raised her two families in Sonoma and Napa Counties. She had seven children by her first husband, Theodoric Leathe FISHER, who died at age of 33, in 1911. She remarried to Albert WILLIAMS on January 21, 1914, a week before her 34th birthday, and they had another four children. Altogether, she gave birth to 11 children, and by the time of her death, at age 87, was grandmother to 40 grandchildren, 108 great-grandchildren, and 30 great-great grandchildren!

11HBG424A.	Howard Earl FISHER	30 Jan 1899	15 Jan 1966	(66)
11HBG424B.	Pearl Elizabeth FISHER9	7 Jan 1901	30 Oct 1941	(40)
11HBG424C.	Mildred May FISHER	27 Dec 1902	8 Apr 1989	(86)
11HBG424D.	Carrie Truett FISHER	12 Aug 1904	18 Aug 1936	(32)
11HBG424E.	Merle Everett FISHER	23 Feb 1906	18 Aug 1990	(84)
11HBG424F.	Sonoma C. FISHER	8 Dec 1907	2 Jul 1993	(85)
11HBG424G.	Alta Vivian FISHER	3 Aug 1909	22 Feb 1910	(6 mos.)
11HBG424H.	Elsie Alberta WILLIAMS	7 Mar 1914	15 Feb 2001	(86)
11HBG424I.	Gladys Elaine WILLIAMS	30 Jun 1916	29 Mar 1998	(81)
11HBG424J.	Harold WILLIAMS	17 Apr 1918	20 Apr 1918	(3 days)
11HBG424K.	Edward Carl WILLIAMS

Five Generations

Back Row: Mildred May FECHTER, Hazel E. GOSS, Chet Ronald PETTEK, Gayle Ann STEELE and Torynne Deanne WALIZER

Front Row: Gaylynne Joyce KAINOA, Cora Ethel (MILLER) WILLIAMS, Vern Edward WILLIAMS, and Marilee BOSSI

Cora Ethel was a large woman. At her peak, she stood 5' 9" and weighed around 245-250 pounds.

Cora Ethel lived in Old Creek-Cayucos as a baby and then the family moved to the Cholame valley in and around Parkfield and Imusdale, Monterey County around 1884. In 1887, the MILLER family returned to San Luis Obispo County and settled in Arroyo Grande until the death of her father, Isaac Dennis MILLER, in 1896. Months after Isaac's death, the family moved north to Healdsburg, Sonoma County where Cora Ethel finished the 8th grade and then studied for two years at Pacific Union College.

In 1898, at age 18, Cora Ethel married Theodoric Leathe FISHER, a Nebraska native, on 22 March 1898 in Fulton, Sonoma County, California. They were married by J. BROWN. They lived in Forestville briefly, where their first son Howard Earl was born, and then moved briefly to Stillwater, Churchill County, Nebraska, along with Theodoric's parents, where they worked for the John W. and Hannah FREEMAN family.^{[Cen 1900]}

By the January 1900, the FISHERs had returned to California where daughter Pearl was born in Lockeford, San Joaquin County. They then returned to Forestville for by the birth of Mildred in 1902. Soon afterward they moved to the Asti Winery & Vineyard in the Cloverdale-Asti area around 1903. During this time, Cora's husband was wasting away from consumption (tuberculosis) and helped support the family by picking hops. They lived there until the death of Theodoric on January 25, 1911.

On January 21, 1914, Cora Ethel, age 32, married Al WILLIAMS, a native of Kansas and friend of Theodoric's. The following year they moved to St. Helena, Napa County. Cora worked as a masseuse at Nance's Hot Springs in Calistoga for 21 years. She later worked as a nurse.

Sometime after Cora Ethel's marriage to Al WILLIAMS, her former mother-in-law, Harriet (CHAPMAN) FISHER, married her then father-in-law, Ira T. WILLIAMS, thus becoming her mother-in-law once again!

In 1919, the WILLIAMS moved to a vacant barn, miles from town in the hills above Calistoga on Gates Road, where youngest son Edward was born. The following year, the family moved to the BLUNT place behind the Petrified Forest, which husband Al helped excavate and turn into a park. The WILLIAMS lived at the BLUNT ranch for eight years before moving to the GILL place in Sonoma County, just over the Boochi Grade.

In 1932, son Earl's home burned down and he and his young family moved in at the GILL place. Cora, Al, and the WILLIAMS children moved out to the COGAN place on Sharp Road, a 25-acre plot in the Porter Creek valley that they bought in 1933 with a loan that son-in-law Raymond FECHTER backed for $2,000. This place was an old three-bedroom home with porches on two sides. It burned down about 1936 when mice got into matches stored in the pantry.

After the COGAN place fire, Al and Cora moved in with daughter Sonoma (FISHER) CLARKE for several years.

Albert WILLIAMS died on May 14, 1940, at the age of 65, while still living with the CLARKE family. He is various reported to be buried at Oak Knoll (alternatively "Okie Knoll") Cemetery on SHARP's property off Petrified Forest Road or the BUTLER property above Porter Creek Road.

Cora later moved back to the small ranch on Sharp Road where the COGAN place had been and lived there until 1957 when Cora moved in with her youngest son, Edward Carl WILLIAMS and his wife Carrie Lee (MOORE) WILLIAMS in Richmond.

Cora Ethel (MILLER FISHER) WILLIAMS suffered from severe diabetes at the close of her life. She was hospitalized at Santa Rosa General Hospital and had to have her legs amputated. She died there on July 18, 1967 at the age of 87. She was buried at Sunset View Cemetery in El Cerrito, Contra Costa County, California.

Elma Finetti (MILLER SMITH) BELVAIL (1884-1962)

11HBG425. Elma "Babe" Finetti MILLER was born May 12, 1884 in Parkfield, Monterey County, California. Her middle name was likely for her paternal aunt Finetta (MILLER) SCHLEY. She married George SMITH around 1904 at the age of 20 and had one son:

11HBG4251.

Maurice E. SMITH

(1906)

In 1910 the SMITH family was living in Yountville, Napa County, California and moved into Napa by the 1920 census.

By 1930, Elma Finetti remarried to Lewis BELVAIL and continued to live in Napa, Napa County, California.

Elma Finetti, a Seventh Day Adventist, was the head of a union in the Napa Valley. Elma Finetti (MILLER SMITH) BELVAIL died on March 10, 1962 at the age of 77. She was living in Napa County at the time.

Minnie Isabelle (MILLER) KIVETT (1887-1967)

11HBG426. Minnie Isabelle MILLER was born July 24, 1887 in Arroyo Grande, San Luis Obispo County, California. She married Daniel W. KIVETT, a native of Missouri born to parents from North Carolina, about 1902. They had four children:

11HBG4261.	Ogle London KIVETT	29 Jul 1905	18 Feb 1968	(62)
11HBG4262.	Warren Luciene KIVETT	27 Jun 1908	14 Dec 1972	(64)
11HBG4263.	Elma Oceola KIVETT	3 Aug 1910	10 Nov 1990	(80)
11HBG4264.	Amy KIVETT	28 May 1922	30 May 1991	(69)

After their marriage, the KIVETTs lived in Asti, Sonoma County, California, where their first son was born. By 1908 they moved to Shirley Avenue in Graton, north of Sebastopol, where their second son was born, and lived there through the 1910 census and the birth of daughter Elma. Daniel worked there as a house carpenter.^{[Cen 1910]}

By 1920, the KIVETT family removed north to Anderson Township (likely referring to the Anderson Valley), Mendocino County, California where Daniel continued working as a house carpenter.^{[Cen 1920]}

Minnie Isabel (MILLER) KIVETT died between 1926 and 1930. She is believed to have suffered from severe diabetes and at the end of her life had to have her legs amputated.

By 1930, Daniel and his children had returned to Analy Township, Sonoma County, and worked as a farmer.^{[Cen 1930]} He later moved to San Joaquin County, where his daughter Amy had started a family in the late 1930s.

Daniel W. KIVETT died on December 10, 1967 while living in Manteca, San Joaquin County, California. He was 87 years old.

Iva Edith (MILLER CORD) ARENDT (1892-~1920)

11HBG427. Iva Edith MILLER was born July 8, 1892 in Arroyo Grande, San Luis Obispo County, California. She married Ray CORD and George ARENDT and had at least three children:

11HBG4271.	ARENDT	9 Jul 1915
11HBG4272.	Blanche ARENDT	26 Feb 1917	30 Jun 1985	(68)
11HBG4273.	Evaline (CORD)

Iva Edith was young, care free, and loved to party, but that love of partying caused her demise. During Prohibition she and her husband drank some "bad whiskey" which killed her and made the other party-goers violently ill. According to her nephew, Edward Carl WILLIAMS, who was at her bedside in a Napa hospital, Iva underwent the most horrible death imaginable. She bit her lips and tongue and tried to gnaw at her hands in a mortal struggle which she finally lost. Following her death, her daughter Blanche went to live with the FREDERINI [sp?] family, close family friends.