My grandfather, "Jack" Laird, was the 4th generation of our Laird ancestors to live in California, the first pioneers being his great grandparents Peter and Julia Adaline (Lindsay) Laird, who arrived in the gold fields of California in about 1852, with two young children in tow. One child, John Whitcomb Pierpont Laird, Jack's grandfather, distinguished himself as an attorney and Democratic politician in Southern California. His father, Joseph Ernest Laird, was for many years a court reporter in Kern County.
By the time Jack was 7 years old, his parents were divorced and his mother was married to her second husband, Arthur Rench. Jack lived with his father in Bakersfield. In 1916, Jack was only 13 when his father died, and he went to live with his mother and step father. Just 3 years later, however, Jack's mother, Adella "Della" Gertrude (Cox) (Laird) Rench died, leaving 17-year old Jack with his step-father in the 1920 census.
Shortly thereafter, a lonely Jack Laird, traumatized by the recent deaths of his parents, began a romance with a young local girl by the name of Belle Lydia McKenzie. Originally, he had been interested in her older sister Maude, but somehow he and Belle developed a liking for one another. Through this romance, a child was born in October of 1921. Her name was Edith Jane Laird, and she was born in Los Angeles, rather than Bakersfield, where her mother and father had been living, due to the scandal it caused in the small town.
Sometime between her birth and the 1930 census, little Edith was adopted by her maternal grandparents, Henry and Edith Lydia (Coovert) McKenzie, and Edith's surname was legally changed to McKenzie. In the 1930 census, she is the youngest child in the house and she is designated as their daughter, due to the adoption.
Sometime after 1920, Jack became a miner and was living in the desert town of Randsberg in the Mojave desert. This is where he met his future bride, Emzaella Mabel Channing, daughter of Francis "Frank" Channing, also a miner. Mrs. Wilson, a long-time resident of Randsberg, said that Jack was quite handsome and "a real good dancer" at the Grange Hall dances.
Jack fell in love with Emzaella and followed her to Denver where she went to nursing school. According to her, he begged her to come back and marry him, but she resisted because she did not want the life of a miner's wife. She'd had enough of that kind of life, thanks to her father (who was, by some accounts, a rough sort of man who did not show affection to his children.) Jack convinced her to marry him, promising they would stay in Randsberg only one year. After she graduated, they married in about 1932, but my grandmother was stranded in that desert town for 7 years because Jack became ill with tuberculosis and languished in the hospital at nearby Red Mountain until he passed away on March 25, 1939, leaving his young wife with two toddlers clinging to her skirts.
I also hear from my 1/2 first cousin, the daughter of Jack's love child, that my grandfather went to see his daughter shortly before his death. I do not yet know when this meeting took place, but the child would have been in her late teens.
It is his first daughter, Edith Jane Laird McKenzie Wood, who purchased and maintained the tombstone marker in this cemetery. I am told that she regularly placed flowers at it when she was alive and that HER daughter continues this ritual when she is able.
There is a family story that my grandmother repeated to me many times, telling me that my grandfather was a hero. He owned the lease on the Yellow Aster Mine, which was producing silver at that time. A couple of dynamite salesmen had sold him some goods that were supposed to be completely safe and would not allow poisonous gases to collect in the mine shafts. There was an explosion and a release of poisonous gas. Jack gave his gas mask to another miner. This incident was supposed to have contributed to his death, but his death certificate cites "advanced pulmonary tuberculosis" as the cause.
As of a few years ago, the Yellow Aster Mine was still being worked, this time for copper.
Jack and Emzaella's offspring went on to marry and have children. Their descendants live all over the United States, from Wisconsin to California.
Biography Copyright (c) 2011,
Silver Rose Parnell
All rights reserved.
Written permission required to use copyrighted material for any purpose.
By the time Jack was 7 years old, his parents were divorced and his mother was married to her second husband, Arthur Rench. Jack lived with his father in Bakersfield. In 1916, Jack was only 13 when his father died, and he went to live with his mother and step father. Just 3 years later, however, Jack's mother, Adella "Della" Gertrude (Cox) (Laird) Rench died, leaving 17-year old Jack with his step-father in the 1920 census.
Shortly thereafter, a lonely Jack Laird, traumatized by the recent deaths of his parents, began a romance with a young local girl by the name of Belle Lydia McKenzie. Originally, he had been interested in her older sister Maude, but somehow he and Belle developed a liking for one another. Through this romance, a child was born in October of 1921. Her name was Edith Jane Laird, and she was born in Los Angeles, rather than Bakersfield, where her mother and father had been living, due to the scandal it caused in the small town.
Sometime between her birth and the 1930 census, little Edith was adopted by her maternal grandparents, Henry and Edith Lydia (Coovert) McKenzie, and Edith's surname was legally changed to McKenzie. In the 1930 census, she is the youngest child in the house and she is designated as their daughter, due to the adoption.
Sometime after 1920, Jack became a miner and was living in the desert town of Randsberg in the Mojave desert. This is where he met his future bride, Emzaella Mabel Channing, daughter of Francis "Frank" Channing, also a miner. Mrs. Wilson, a long-time resident of Randsberg, said that Jack was quite handsome and "a real good dancer" at the Grange Hall dances.
Jack fell in love with Emzaella and followed her to Denver where she went to nursing school. According to her, he begged her to come back and marry him, but she resisted because she did not want the life of a miner's wife. She'd had enough of that kind of life, thanks to her father (who was, by some accounts, a rough sort of man who did not show affection to his children.) Jack convinced her to marry him, promising they would stay in Randsberg only one year. After she graduated, they married in about 1932, but my grandmother was stranded in that desert town for 7 years because Jack became ill with tuberculosis and languished in the hospital at nearby Red Mountain until he passed away on March 25, 1939, leaving his young wife with two toddlers clinging to her skirts.
I also hear from my 1/2 first cousin, the daughter of Jack's love child, that my grandfather went to see his daughter shortly before his death. I do not yet know when this meeting took place, but the child would have been in her late teens.
It is his first daughter, Edith Jane Laird McKenzie Wood, who purchased and maintained the tombstone marker in this cemetery. I am told that she regularly placed flowers at it when she was alive and that HER daughter continues this ritual when she is able.
There is a family story that my grandmother repeated to me many times, telling me that my grandfather was a hero. He owned the lease on the Yellow Aster Mine, which was producing silver at that time. A couple of dynamite salesmen had sold him some goods that were supposed to be completely safe and would not allow poisonous gases to collect in the mine shafts. There was an explosion and a release of poisonous gas. Jack gave his gas mask to another miner. This incident was supposed to have contributed to his death, but his death certificate cites "advanced pulmonary tuberculosis" as the cause.
As of a few years ago, the Yellow Aster Mine was still being worked, this time for copper.
Jack and Emzaella's offspring went on to marry and have children. Their descendants live all over the United States, from Wisconsin to California.
Biography Copyright (c) 2011,
Silver Rose Parnell
All rights reserved.
Written permission required to use copyrighted material for any purpose.
My grandfather, "Jack" Laird, was the 4th generation of our Laird ancestors to live in California, the first pioneers being his great grandparents Peter and Julia Adaline (Lindsay) Laird, who arrived in the gold fields of California in about 1852, with two young children in tow. One child, John Whitcomb Pierpont Laird, Jack's grandfather, distinguished himself as an attorney and Democratic politician in Southern California. His father, Joseph Ernest Laird, was for many years a court reporter in Kern County.
By the time Jack was 7 years old, his parents were divorced and his mother was married to her second husband, Arthur Rench. Jack lived with his father in Bakersfield. In 1916, Jack was only 13 when his father died, and he went to live with his mother and step father. Just 3 years later, however, Jack's mother, Adella "Della" Gertrude (Cox) (Laird) Rench died, leaving 17-year old Jack with his step-father in the 1920 census.
Shortly thereafter, a lonely Jack Laird, traumatized by the recent deaths of his parents, began a romance with a young local girl by the name of Belle Lydia McKenzie. Originally, he had been interested in her older sister Maude, but somehow he and Belle developed a liking for one another. Through this romance, a child was born in October of 1921. Her name was Edith Jane Laird, and she was born in Los Angeles, rather than Bakersfield, where her mother and father had been living, due to the scandal it caused in the small town.
Sometime between her birth and the 1930 census, little Edith was adopted by her maternal grandparents, Henry and Edith Lydia (Coovert) McKenzie, and Edith's surname was legally changed to McKenzie. In the 1930 census, she is the youngest child in the house and she is designated as their daughter, due to the adoption.
Sometime after 1920, Jack became a miner and was living in the desert town of Randsberg in the Mojave desert. This is where he met his future bride, Emzaella Mabel Channing, daughter of Francis "Frank" Channing, also a miner. Mrs. Wilson, a long-time resident of Randsberg, said that Jack was quite handsome and "a real good dancer" at the Grange Hall dances.
Jack fell in love with Emzaella and followed her to Denver where she went to nursing school. According to her, he begged her to come back and marry him, but she resisted because she did not want the life of a miner's wife. She'd had enough of that kind of life, thanks to her father (who was, by some accounts, a rough sort of man who did not show affection to his children.) Jack convinced her to marry him, promising they would stay in Randsberg only one year. After she graduated, they married in about 1932, but my grandmother was stranded in that desert town for 7 years because Jack became ill with tuberculosis and languished in the hospital at nearby Red Mountain until he passed away on March 25, 1939, leaving his young wife with two toddlers clinging to her skirts.
I also hear from my 1/2 first cousin, the daughter of Jack's love child, that my grandfather went to see his daughter shortly before his death. I do not yet know when this meeting took place, but the child would have been in her late teens.
It is his first daughter, Edith Jane Laird McKenzie Wood, who purchased and maintained the tombstone marker in this cemetery. I am told that she regularly placed flowers at it when she was alive and that HER daughter continues this ritual when she is able.
There is a family story that my grandmother repeated to me many times, telling me that my grandfather was a hero. He owned the lease on the Yellow Aster Mine, which was producing silver at that time. A couple of dynamite salesmen had sold him some goods that were supposed to be completely safe and would not allow poisonous gases to collect in the mine shafts. There was an explosion and a release of poisonous gas. Jack gave his gas mask to another miner. This incident was supposed to have contributed to his death, but his death certificate cites "advanced pulmonary tuberculosis" as the cause.
As of a few years ago, the Yellow Aster Mine was still being worked, this time for copper.
Jack and Emzaella's offspring went on to marry and have children. Their descendants live all over the United States, from Wisconsin to California.
Biography Copyright (c) 2011,
Silver Rose Parnell
All rights reserved.
Written permission required to use copyrighted material for any purpose.
By the time Jack was 7 years old, his parents were divorced and his mother was married to her second husband, Arthur Rench. Jack lived with his father in Bakersfield. In 1916, Jack was only 13 when his father died, and he went to live with his mother and step father. Just 3 years later, however, Jack's mother, Adella "Della" Gertrude (Cox) (Laird) Rench died, leaving 17-year old Jack with his step-father in the 1920 census.
Shortly thereafter, a lonely Jack Laird, traumatized by the recent deaths of his parents, began a romance with a young local girl by the name of Belle Lydia McKenzie. Originally, he had been interested in her older sister Maude, but somehow he and Belle developed a liking for one another. Through this romance, a child was born in October of 1921. Her name was Edith Jane Laird, and she was born in Los Angeles, rather than Bakersfield, where her mother and father had been living, due to the scandal it caused in the small town.
Sometime between her birth and the 1930 census, little Edith was adopted by her maternal grandparents, Henry and Edith Lydia (Coovert) McKenzie, and Edith's surname was legally changed to McKenzie. In the 1930 census, she is the youngest child in the house and she is designated as their daughter, due to the adoption.
Sometime after 1920, Jack became a miner and was living in the desert town of Randsberg in the Mojave desert. This is where he met his future bride, Emzaella Mabel Channing, daughter of Francis "Frank" Channing, also a miner. Mrs. Wilson, a long-time resident of Randsberg, said that Jack was quite handsome and "a real good dancer" at the Grange Hall dances.
Jack fell in love with Emzaella and followed her to Denver where she went to nursing school. According to her, he begged her to come back and marry him, but she resisted because she did not want the life of a miner's wife. She'd had enough of that kind of life, thanks to her father (who was, by some accounts, a rough sort of man who did not show affection to his children.) Jack convinced her to marry him, promising they would stay in Randsberg only one year. After she graduated, they married in about 1932, but my grandmother was stranded in that desert town for 7 years because Jack became ill with tuberculosis and languished in the hospital at nearby Red Mountain until he passed away on March 25, 1939, leaving his young wife with two toddlers clinging to her skirts.
I also hear from my 1/2 first cousin, the daughter of Jack's love child, that my grandfather went to see his daughter shortly before his death. I do not yet know when this meeting took place, but the child would have been in her late teens.
It is his first daughter, Edith Jane Laird McKenzie Wood, who purchased and maintained the tombstone marker in this cemetery. I am told that she regularly placed flowers at it when she was alive and that HER daughter continues this ritual when she is able.
There is a family story that my grandmother repeated to me many times, telling me that my grandfather was a hero. He owned the lease on the Yellow Aster Mine, which was producing silver at that time. A couple of dynamite salesmen had sold him some goods that were supposed to be completely safe and would not allow poisonous gases to collect in the mine shafts. There was an explosion and a release of poisonous gas. Jack gave his gas mask to another miner. This incident was supposed to have contributed to his death, but his death certificate cites "advanced pulmonary tuberculosis" as the cause.
As of a few years ago, the Yellow Aster Mine was still being worked, this time for copper.
Jack and Emzaella's offspring went on to marry and have children. Their descendants live all over the United States, from Wisconsin to California.
Biography Copyright (c) 2011,
Silver Rose Parnell
All rights reserved.
Written permission required to use copyrighted material for any purpose.
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