Adema, Wright and Osborne Photographs

by Glenn N. Holliman

2010

Rob Adema took this photograph of his parents, Gay and Bob Adema along with yours truly (far left) at their summer home over looking Lake Erie. We are overlooking Cedar Bay at Pt. Claborne, Ontario. Bob's parents, Howard and Gladys Osborne Adema, purchased the home in 1940. We spent much of our day together, not just eating the Western New York favorite - beef on wick - but reviewing old photographs.

Photo by Rob Adema

1940s

Is Bob in the photo below? Back row left to right are Flea and Doris Osborne Akers, then Gladys Osborne Adema, the girl is Virginia Osborne, the daughter of Bascomb K. Osborne (in the Navy uniform) and his wife Edith, far right, back row. Now I am on uneasy ground. I think front row looking down is Phyllis Akers, then Bob Adema (?), Bascomb K. and then Peg Adema Noeltner.

Where and when was this taken? Gladys and Doris are my mother's first cousins, all having grown up in the same area of southwest Virginia and upper East Tennessee in the 1920s and 30's.

From Phylllis Akers, Sept. 14, 2010: The picture of all of us was taken in front of Mom and Dad's house in Damascus. The people are: Back row, l to r - Flea Akers and Doris Osborne Akers, Gladys Osborne Adema, Edith Osborne - Bascom's (Bab) wife. 2nd row: Phyllis Akers, Bob Adema, & Peg Adema. Front, kneeling: Bascom (Bab) Osborne with daughter Gini. Don't know the date of that but looks like I'm sad that everyone is leaving.

Adema, Osborne, Aker and Stansbery Photographs

by Glenn N. Holliman

Photos provided by Bob Adema and his family albums.

1938

This picture is of Osborne and Stansbery ladies with spouses. My mother, Geraldine Stansbery, Mayme Osborne's second daughter, is far left and at age 15, unmarried, but with a brilliant smile!

Moving to the right from mother is Frazier King, the husband of Louise Stansbery, my aunt who has her arm in his. This marriage was ill-fated and dissolved after only a year and half. Frazier's family owned King's Department Stores in East Tennessee.

To the right of Louise is Howard Adema and his wife, Gladys, the parents of Bob Adema and Peg Adema Noeltner. Elmer 'Flea' Akers stands next to his wife, Doris. 'Flea' and Doris had two children, Phyllis and David.

This series of photos was taken in front of David and Pearl Osborne Wright's home in Damascus.

1930s

Below is a cute photo of 'Flea' and Doris Osborne Akers in southwest Virginia. So formal in those days with Flea wearing a tie and Doris in high heels and yet curled up on the grass in front of a cabin. Doris is my mother and Aunt Louise's first cousin by Bascomb Osborne. Flea and Doris are the parents of Phyllis and David Akers. Phyllis has been sharing photos and information also with me on our family.

Photos in the Post WWII Era

by Glenn N. Holliman

Last night, July 6, Rob Adema visited Barb and me here in Newport, PA, as he was en route to business calls in Central Pennsylvania. Rob is a great great grandson of G.W. and Frankie Osborne, through their son, Bascom, a brother of my grandmother, Mayme Osborne Stansbery. Bascom is sometimes spelled with or without a 'b' on the end.

Photo above is l to r, Glenn Holliman (b 1946) and Rob Adema (b 1966) July 6, 2010 in Newport, Pennsylvania practising genealogy. Glass is of Coca-Cola, sort of. Photo by Barbara Holliman.

We sat up late examining documents and old photographs. In celebration of his visit, I am posting several photos we looked at closely as they reflect both his direct line and our over lapping families. I believe the 1945 photo is courtesy of Phyllis Ackers, and the 1954 picture, a family snapshot by my father.

A contemporary photo of Rob's parents, Bob and Gay, and his Aunt Peg Adema can be found on the Contributors page of this blog. August 20, Barb and I will be visiting Rob and his parents, Bob and Gay, outside of Buffalo, NY to look at more family memorabilia of when our ancestors lived in Southwest Virginia, East Tennessee and Western North Carolina.

Now the Wilson/Osborne frontier families, under many different names, are spread across the nation.

Photo above taken approximately 1945 at the Elmer 'Flea' Akers home in Damascus, Virginia of the children and grandchildren of Bascom Wilson Osborne, one of the five son's of G.W. and Frankie Osborne. Back row, l to r - 'Flea' Akers, Doris Osborne Akers, Gladys Osborne Adema, Edith Osborne (wife of Bascom Kruger Osborne, who is kneeling). Front row, l to r - Phyllis Akers, Bobby Adema, Peg Adema, Uncle 'Bab' Bascom K. Osborne, in Navy uniform, and his daughter, 'Gini' Osborne.

Photo of Pauline Osborne Smith, daughter of Thomas 'Toby' Osborne, one of the five sons of G.W. & Frankie, in the early 1930s rowing a boat. In the photo below, she is pictured in the 1950s with her children in a visit to her first cousin, Geraldine Stansbery Holliman Feick.

Taken in the summer of 1954 in Johnson City, Tennesse at the home of Geraldine Stansbery and her husband, Bishop Holliman. Left to right in front of the 1948 Plymouth are: Louise Stansbery Sherwood (daughter of Mayme Osborne Stansbery), Rebecca Louise Holliman Payne, then 4 years old on her aunt's knee, and standing is one of Pauline Osborne Smith's children, name unknown.

Kneeling with his Cocker Spaniel, Sandy, is the writer, Glenn Holliman, age 7. Behind standing sans shirt is Vance R. Sherwood, Jr., also age 7, now a published clinical psychologist. The tall young man is another of Pauline's children, name unknown.

Continuing left to right are Dave Wright, husband of Pearl Osborne Wright, Geraldine (Gerry) Stansbery, sister of Louise Sherwood, Pauline Osborne Smith (whose photo above is of her rowing a boat), and Pearl Osborne Wright, who is Geraldine and Louise's aunt.

Pauline and children lived in Sumner, Washington at the time. Pearl and David Wright in Damascus, and Louise and her son, Vance, in Knoxville, Tennessee.

An aside, it was Dave Wright who in 1912 gave his mother-in-law, Frankie Osborne, her first automobile ride from Damascus to Glade Valley, Virginia and back!

More family history in the next posting....