Maggie was a quiet petite woman (barely 5 feet tall) with a soft "Missourah" accent from her Ozark heritage. Due to Vitamin D deficiency and lack of proper nutrition as a child, her legs were horribly bowed from rickets . She needed a cane to walk with by her 40s. Her doctor told her she would never have children because of the rickets. She sure showed him to be wrong.
My grandmother (her daughter) said Maggie's mother died from Meningitis in Jan 1899. Nancy Cantrell Cobb was only 33 years old, leaving 6 children motherless. By September, Uriah Cobb remarried "Dora " - Jesse Isadora Davis. She'd been married prior times and had two children already. Dora had 4 children with Uriah Cobb before he died in 1908. In 1910, Dora married again, then the following year, another marriage.
By 1907, Maggie had the absolute responsibility of caring for her younger siblings and keeping house in Webb City. 1908-1909, George Ager moved into the area, having gained a position in the local mines. He'd been born and raised in Washington Territory/State. He became smitten with petite Maggie Ager and wanted her to marry him. Dora refused permission and banned him from the property. She didn't want to lose her free labor and childcare.
One frozen January night, George showed up at her window and asked Maggie to elope with him. She didn't hesitate. While Dora was trying to get into the room, Maggie escaped out the window. They were married within 2 days over in Carthage, MO on 25 Jan 1910 . Her place of residence was Webb City and his was Prosperity, MO.
George took Maggie back to Washington with him. They lived in Bellingham at a time when it was very wet and cold. Their firstborn daughters, Mildred Effie and Eva Mable, died within a day of one another in Sept 1913 at young ages during a cholera epidemic. Maggie was ill and depressed. She had another daughter, Lillian, in 1915. She looked forward to cuddles with another little baby girl. That was not my grandmother. From the very start, independence and activity surrounded Lillian. Cuddling and stillness were not part of her personality.
A few years after her birth, the 1918 Influenza epidemic spread throughout the world. Quiet little Maggie put her foot down and told her husband that the rainy and chilly Washington State would not take any more of her children's lives. She insisted on returning to Missouri, where she stayed for the next 20 years.
These accounts were told to me by my grandmother, Lillian Ager McGinnis.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There is a story that Great Granma Maggie told her children, her grandchildren, also her great grandchildren. I recently discovered it written down. I've attached it to this memorial so the very extended family can download and keep it if they like. But here is the transcription:
The B'ar Story
A way out west in a pioneer cabin, so they say, tottered a great big grizzly bear one night.
He seated himself on the hearth, of milk and potatoes, an elegant meal, then he proceeded to empty the contents of a three gallon pail. (jug)
The lord of the mansion awoke from his slumber, and screamed in alarm to his slumbering frau. "There's a b'ar in the kitchen as big as one cow"
"What then?, Sean", "We shall murder him then?" Yes, Betty, dear, if you will first venture in."
So the old woman seized the poker and into the kitchen she ventured. The old man he shut the door and against it he squeezed.
And he cried thru the keyhole, "now one to the head, now one to snout, now take the poker and poke his eyes out." So was rapping and poking poor Betty alone till Sir Bruin lay as dead as a stone, and When the old man saw the bear was nomore, into the kitchen he ventured to peek,
And off to the neighbors he hasten to tell and he published the marvelous story a far of how he and his brave Betty slaughtered the B'ar."
--- notes: "The Story was repeated my Grandpa Ager (Arthur), many times to children (Lillian, Perl), handed down to grandma his wife, Artie Ager, to the grandchildren,
Great Grandma (Artie Ager0
July 29th, 1971.
"
Daughter of Uriah Cobb and Nancy Catherine Cantrell.
Stepdaughter of "Dora" Jesse Isadora Davis (Sep 1862- 1 Jun 1944) {married to David Armfield, Thomas H. Routh, Uriah Cobb, W.I. Jackson, Hawey H. Smith.}
My grandmother (her daughter) said Maggie's mother died from Meningitis in Jan 1899. Nancy Cantrell Cobb was only 33 years old, leaving 6 children motherless. By September, Uriah Cobb remarried "Dora " - Jesse Isadora Davis. She'd been married prior times and had two children already. Dora had 4 children with Uriah Cobb before he died in 1908. In 1910, Dora married again, then the following year, another marriage.
By 1907, Maggie had the absolute responsibility of caring for her younger siblings and keeping house in Webb City. 1908-1909, George Ager moved into the area, having gained a position in the local mines. He'd been born and raised in Washington Territory/State. He became smitten with petite Maggie Ager and wanted her to marry him. Dora refused permission and banned him from the property. She didn't want to lose her free labor and childcare.
One frozen January night, George showed up at her window and asked Maggie to elope with him. She didn't hesitate. While Dora was trying to get into the room, Maggie escaped out the window. They were married within 2 days over in Carthage, MO on 25 Jan 1910 . Her place of residence was Webb City and his was Prosperity, MO.
George took Maggie back to Washington with him. They lived in Bellingham at a time when it was very wet and cold. Their firstborn daughters, Mildred Effie and Eva Mable, died within a day of one another in Sept 1913 at young ages during a cholera epidemic. Maggie was ill and depressed. She had another daughter, Lillian, in 1915. She looked forward to cuddles with another little baby girl. That was not my grandmother. From the very start, independence and activity surrounded Lillian. Cuddling and stillness were not part of her personality.
A few years after her birth, the 1918 Influenza epidemic spread throughout the world. Quiet little Maggie put her foot down and told her husband that the rainy and chilly Washington State would not take any more of her children's lives. She insisted on returning to Missouri, where she stayed for the next 20 years.
These accounts were told to me by my grandmother, Lillian Ager McGinnis.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There is a story that Great Granma Maggie told her children, her grandchildren, also her great grandchildren. I recently discovered it written down. I've attached it to this memorial so the very extended family can download and keep it if they like. But here is the transcription:
The B'ar Story
A way out west in a pioneer cabin, so they say, tottered a great big grizzly bear one night.
He seated himself on the hearth, of milk and potatoes, an elegant meal, then he proceeded to empty the contents of a three gallon pail. (jug)
The lord of the mansion awoke from his slumber, and screamed in alarm to his slumbering frau. "There's a b'ar in the kitchen as big as one cow"
"What then?, Sean", "We shall murder him then?" Yes, Betty, dear, if you will first venture in."
So the old woman seized the poker and into the kitchen she ventured. The old man he shut the door and against it he squeezed.
And he cried thru the keyhole, "now one to the head, now one to snout, now take the poker and poke his eyes out." So was rapping and poking poor Betty alone till Sir Bruin lay as dead as a stone, and When the old man saw the bear was nomore, into the kitchen he ventured to peek,
And off to the neighbors he hasten to tell and he published the marvelous story a far of how he and his brave Betty slaughtered the B'ar."
--- notes: "The Story was repeated my Grandpa Ager (Arthur), many times to children (Lillian, Perl), handed down to grandma his wife, Artie Ager, to the grandchildren,
Great Grandma (Artie Ager0
July 29th, 1971.
"
Daughter of Uriah Cobb and Nancy Catherine Cantrell.
Stepdaughter of "Dora" Jesse Isadora Davis (Sep 1862- 1 Jun 1944) {married to David Armfield, Thomas H. Routh, Uriah Cobb, W.I. Jackson, Hawey H. Smith.}
Maggie was a quiet petite woman (barely 5 feet tall) with a soft "Missourah" accent from her Ozark heritage. Due to Vitamin D deficiency and lack of proper nutrition as a child, her legs were horribly bowed from rickets . She needed a cane to walk with by her 40s. Her doctor told her she would never have children because of the rickets. She sure showed him to be wrong.
My grandmother (her daughter) said Maggie's mother died from Meningitis in Jan 1899. Nancy Cantrell Cobb was only 33 years old, leaving 6 children motherless. By September, Uriah Cobb remarried "Dora " - Jesse Isadora Davis. She'd been married prior times and had two children already. Dora had 4 children with Uriah Cobb before he died in 1908. In 1910, Dora married again, then the following year, another marriage.
By 1907, Maggie had the absolute responsibility of caring for her younger siblings and keeping house in Webb City. 1908-1909, George Ager moved into the area, having gained a position in the local mines. He'd been born and raised in Washington Territory/State. He became smitten with petite Maggie Ager and wanted her to marry him. Dora refused permission and banned him from the property. She didn't want to lose her free labor and childcare.
One frozen January night, George showed up at her window and asked Maggie to elope with him. She didn't hesitate. While Dora was trying to get into the room, Maggie escaped out the window. They were married within 2 days over in Carthage, MO on 25 Jan 1910 . Her place of residence was Webb City and his was Prosperity, MO.
George took Maggie back to Washington with him. They lived in Bellingham at a time when it was very wet and cold. Their firstborn daughters, Mildred Effie and Eva Mable, died within a day of one another in Sept 1913 at young ages during a cholera epidemic. Maggie was ill and depressed. She had another daughter, Lillian, in 1915. She looked forward to cuddles with another little baby girl. That was not my grandmother. From the very start, independence and activity surrounded Lillian. Cuddling and stillness were not part of her personality.
A few years after her birth, the 1918 Influenza epidemic spread throughout the world. Quiet little Maggie put her foot down and told her husband that the rainy and chilly Washington State would not take any more of her children's lives. She insisted on returning to Missouri, where she stayed for the next 20 years.
These accounts were told to me by my grandmother, Lillian Ager McGinnis.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There is a story that Great Granma Maggie told her children, her grandchildren, also her great grandchildren. I recently discovered it written down. I've attached it to this memorial so the very extended family can download and keep it if they like. But here is the transcription:
The B'ar Story
A way out west in a pioneer cabin, so they say, tottered a great big grizzly bear one night.
He seated himself on the hearth, of milk and potatoes, an elegant meal, then he proceeded to empty the contents of a three gallon pail. (jug)
The lord of the mansion awoke from his slumber, and screamed in alarm to his slumbering frau. "There's a b'ar in the kitchen as big as one cow"
"What then?, Sean", "We shall murder him then?" Yes, Betty, dear, if you will first venture in."
So the old woman seized the poker and into the kitchen she ventured. The old man he shut the door and against it he squeezed.
And he cried thru the keyhole, "now one to the head, now one to snout, now take the poker and poke his eyes out." So was rapping and poking poor Betty alone till Sir Bruin lay as dead as a stone, and When the old man saw the bear was nomore, into the kitchen he ventured to peek,
And off to the neighbors he hasten to tell and he published the marvelous story a far of how he and his brave Betty slaughtered the B'ar."
--- notes: "The Story was repeated my Grandpa Ager (Arthur), many times to children (Lillian, Perl), handed down to grandma his wife, Artie Ager, to the grandchildren,
Great Grandma (Artie Ager0
July 29th, 1971.
"
Daughter of Uriah Cobb and Nancy Catherine Cantrell.
Stepdaughter of "Dora" Jesse Isadora Davis (Sep 1862- 1 Jun 1944) {married to David Armfield, Thomas H. Routh, Uriah Cobb, W.I. Jackson, Hawey H. Smith.}
My grandmother (her daughter) said Maggie's mother died from Meningitis in Jan 1899. Nancy Cantrell Cobb was only 33 years old, leaving 6 children motherless. By September, Uriah Cobb remarried "Dora " - Jesse Isadora Davis. She'd been married prior times and had two children already. Dora had 4 children with Uriah Cobb before he died in 1908. In 1910, Dora married again, then the following year, another marriage.
By 1907, Maggie had the absolute responsibility of caring for her younger siblings and keeping house in Webb City. 1908-1909, George Ager moved into the area, having gained a position in the local mines. He'd been born and raised in Washington Territory/State. He became smitten with petite Maggie Ager and wanted her to marry him. Dora refused permission and banned him from the property. She didn't want to lose her free labor and childcare.
One frozen January night, George showed up at her window and asked Maggie to elope with him. She didn't hesitate. While Dora was trying to get into the room, Maggie escaped out the window. They were married within 2 days over in Carthage, MO on 25 Jan 1910 . Her place of residence was Webb City and his was Prosperity, MO.
George took Maggie back to Washington with him. They lived in Bellingham at a time when it was very wet and cold. Their firstborn daughters, Mildred Effie and Eva Mable, died within a day of one another in Sept 1913 at young ages during a cholera epidemic. Maggie was ill and depressed. She had another daughter, Lillian, in 1915. She looked forward to cuddles with another little baby girl. That was not my grandmother. From the very start, independence and activity surrounded Lillian. Cuddling and stillness were not part of her personality.
A few years after her birth, the 1918 Influenza epidemic spread throughout the world. Quiet little Maggie put her foot down and told her husband that the rainy and chilly Washington State would not take any more of her children's lives. She insisted on returning to Missouri, where she stayed for the next 20 years.
These accounts were told to me by my grandmother, Lillian Ager McGinnis.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There is a story that Great Granma Maggie told her children, her grandchildren, also her great grandchildren. I recently discovered it written down. I've attached it to this memorial so the very extended family can download and keep it if they like. But here is the transcription:
The B'ar Story
A way out west in a pioneer cabin, so they say, tottered a great big grizzly bear one night.
He seated himself on the hearth, of milk and potatoes, an elegant meal, then he proceeded to empty the contents of a three gallon pail. (jug)
The lord of the mansion awoke from his slumber, and screamed in alarm to his slumbering frau. "There's a b'ar in the kitchen as big as one cow"
"What then?, Sean", "We shall murder him then?" Yes, Betty, dear, if you will first venture in."
So the old woman seized the poker and into the kitchen she ventured. The old man he shut the door and against it he squeezed.
And he cried thru the keyhole, "now one to the head, now one to snout, now take the poker and poke his eyes out." So was rapping and poking poor Betty alone till Sir Bruin lay as dead as a stone, and When the old man saw the bear was nomore, into the kitchen he ventured to peek,
And off to the neighbors he hasten to tell and he published the marvelous story a far of how he and his brave Betty slaughtered the B'ar."
--- notes: "The Story was repeated my Grandpa Ager (Arthur), many times to children (Lillian, Perl), handed down to grandma his wife, Artie Ager, to the grandchildren,
Great Grandma (Artie Ager0
July 29th, 1971.
"
Daughter of Uriah Cobb and Nancy Catherine Cantrell.
Stepdaughter of "Dora" Jesse Isadora Davis (Sep 1862- 1 Jun 1944) {married to David Armfield, Thomas H. Routh, Uriah Cobb, W.I. Jackson, Hawey H. Smith.}
Inscription
Above her name: "Mother"
