Linked Memories: Who Was “Cousin Mary”?

As kids in the mid-late 1960s, during visits to Ontario, California, our grandmother Margaret would sometimes send us to visit Cousin Mary. A short walk down the alley, left on Flora Street and down a couple of houses, these visits were win-win-win propositions–the elderly Cousin Mary got company for 45 minutes or so, grandma got us out of her hair for a while, and we got our pick from Mary’s candy jar. Although we were semi-aware of her last name Davis, throughout these visits we never really understood who Cousin Mary was.

The key to answering this is provided in a 1936 obituary.

From here, we have enough information to solve a logic puzzle and construct the family tree diagram which follows the rules of male-last-name-inheritance and places Edward Davis and Mattie (Mabel) Tuttle Swan as cousins.

Two other obituaries give us the information needed to fill in more of the missing names in the family tree.

The 1900 U.S. Census shows young Edward T. Davis (our cousin, we being 3x removed) living with his sister Franc and parents Christiana (our 2nd great-grandaunt) and Edward J. Davis in Blue Earth County, Minnesota. Edward Jefferson Davis (not a blood relative) was Civil War veteran (from the North, his name notwithstanding) and physician (who also comes with the bizarre poisoning story told in the obituary).

Edward J. Davis died on May 7, 1924 at his home just around the corner from the Swan’s home at 501 North Vine Ave. This death surely would have affected Henry Swan and may have contributed to his deteriorating mental state. Henry Swan took his own life less than two weeks later.

Benjamin Webber was a prominent orange grower and held various leadership roles in the Ontario Citrus Fruit Association. Newspaper accounts always identify him as B. F. Webber.

I have not been able to identify Mabel and Edward T’s common grandparents (our third great grandparents), although we know they were Thompsons. A possible answer comes from an 1860 census record from Wilmington, Illinois, giving the name Christiana (maiden name unknown) as the mother of Christiana and Jane Thompson. The ages of the children don’t quite line up, nor is there any mention of a father, so there remains some doubt as to whether this is the correct record.

Cousin Mary is Mary Noreen (not a blood relative). She married Edward Thompson Davis in 1913–they were married in Ontario but must have had some connection back in their common homeland of Minnesota. Mary was widowed in 1936 at age 60. She remained in the Flora Street house (with Grandma keeping an eye on her) for the remainder of her life, through 1969.

The mysterious “Olof” who lived with Mary was Olof Noreen, her younger brother, who died in 1968.

One mystery not explained by any of this is a photo of a Lewis Davis who was attending Chaffey Junior College in 1920. The photo was found in the family files of the Ontario Model Colony History Room, so there must be some family connection. But since Edward T. and Mary had no children, and Edward J. and Christiana had only one son, Edward T, there is no place on the tree to explain Lewis. Perhaps Edward J. Davis had another brother who also came to Ontario, with Lewis falling under this other branch.

By now we have seen many family branches that migrated from Minnesota to Southern California, and many others that came there from other places, including Maine and Vermont. Our grandmother kept track of most or all of them. It is difficult to keep up with who followed who in this grand migration, although Burton and Jane Tuttle still seem to have been the first, arriving between 1892 and 1894.