My Adema Cousins - Part 2

by Glenn N. Holliman

Recently while sojourning in the warmth of a February Florida, my wife, Barb, and I stopped and visited my cousins, the Bob Ademas.  You may recall I wrote of the Ademas, my 2nd cousin, through the George W. (1844-1928) and Frances Wilson Osborne (1851-1940) line; these two persons are great grandparents of both Bob Adema and myself.

Below, Bob and Gayle Adema in Brandenton.  The photographer in the mirror is yours truly.

This time in what is becoming a twice annual meeting, we met Bob and Gayle's daughter and son-in-law, Vicki Adema McIntyre and her husband, Todd McIntyre.  Below, Vicki, Todd and Barbara Holliman.

Vicki for many years was with the Ringing Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus, in charge of ordering feed for the many animals, and especially the elephants.  With the closing of the circus, she is now taking some time off before her next adventure.  Todd is writing a book on chemicals we may not know we are ingesting or inhaling in our 21st Century lives.

Below, Bob holds a picture of his mother, Vicki's grandmother, Gladys Osborne Adema (1913-2003) who lived in Damascus, Virginia.  Gladys met and married Bob's father, Howard Adema (1909-1984), who was working in the 1930s for the Civilian Conservation Corp in Virginia, but whose hometown was Buffalo, New York.

During our meeting this year, I remembered discovering a photograph of Gladys when she visited my Aunt Louise Stansbery Sherwood (1915-2006), a grand daughter of G.W. and Frances Wilson Osborne.  Louise and Gladys were first cousins.  Below, Louise, right and Gladys at Louise's home at Scenic Point, Louisville, Tennessee, April 2, 1978.  Ft. Loudon Lake (the Tennessee River) is in the background.

So, I close this remembrance with a picture taken in Damascus, Virginia in 1938, almost 40 years earlier, in which both Gladys and Louise were present.  Left to right are Geraldine Stansbery Holliman Feick (the writer's mother, 1923-2015), Louise, Gladys and Doris Osborne Akers (1912-1986). Two sets of sisters, both first cousins visiting the home of Dave and Pearl Osborne Wright.

Some Families of Damascus, Virginia, Part XIV

The Larger Family of Dave and Pearl Osborne Wright
by Glenn N. Holliman

In 1938, two cousins and an aunt from Bristol, Tennessee visited Doris Osborne Akers (1913-1980) and Gladys Osborne Adema (1914-1998) at the home of Dave and Pearl Osborne Wright (1890-1980) in Damascus, Virginia.  The two cousins were my Aunt Louise Stansbery Sherwood (1915-2006) and my mother, Geraldine Stansbery Holliman Feick (1923-2015).  Their mother, my grandmother, Mayme Osborne Stansbery (1896-1943) was with them.

Posed in front of the Wright Inn (their home) in Damsacus in the late 1930s is from left to right Doris, Louise, Mayme, Geraldine and Gladys.

In 1938, America was still emerging from the Great Depression, Hitler was grabbing Austria and parts of Czechoslovakia, and in Damascus, the Civilian Conservation Corp was about to close down its forest restoration projects.  The United States was entering a debate on whether a huge arms build up was necessary to counter the growing militarism of Japan and Germany.  The world stood at the cusp of violent change and war.

In 2011, numerous America wars later, the only survivor of the group photo, Geraldine, returned with her son, Glenn N. Holliman (yours truly b 1946) and one of the sons of Gladys, Bob Adema, on the left. We stood in front of the old Wright Inn, now owned by others.  Yes, just as in 1938, the country was emerging from a Great Recession, but fortunately today our Asian wars are winding down, not up.

Some Families of Damascus, Virginia, Part X

by Glenn N. Holliman


This is the tenth in a series of stories with photographs of  my great uncle and aunt, Dave and Pearl Osborne Wright and their many years of life in Damascus, Virginia.  Pearl is the grand daughter of Isaac and Caroline Greer Wilson of Ashe County, North Carolina. As ever I am grateful to Phyllis Mink, daughter of Doris Osborne Akers,  Bob and Rob Adema, descendants of Gladys Osborne Adema and Geraldine Stansbery Holliman Feick, a niece of Pearl Osborne Wright and this writer's mother, for making many of the historical photographs available.

Above Bascomb Wilson Osborne rests his arms on his two daughters, Doris and Gladys Osborne who after their mother, Dora Kruger Osborne, died in 1922 were raised by Dave and Pearl Osborne Wright in Damsacus, Virginia. Bascomb Wilson is named after his mother's family, the Isaac Wilsons of Ashe County, Virginia.

To the right, Gladys Osborne (1914 - 1998) poses in Damascus, Virginia.  In the first quarter of the 20th Century, loggers stripped the mountains surrounding the valley village.  In the 1930s, Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal created the Civil Conservation Corp which came to Washington County, Virginia and began to replant the forests and restore the streams.  One of the officers of the local CCC was a handsome young man named Howard Adema, a native of Buffalo, New York.  He met Gladys, sparks flew and they soon married.



Below, young Howard Adema, left, stands with his supervisor, Earl Watson, at the CCC camp in Damascus.  The year was 1935 and tens of thousands of young America men were building roads and parks in the national forests.

Seventy six years later, one of the sons of Gladys Osborne and Howard Adema, Bob Adema, visits the stairs and bench built by his father and the CCC at the Backbone in the National Forest just south of Damascus.

Next posting, more on the lives of a family in Damascus, Virginia....

Some Families of Damascus, Virginia, Part IX

By Glenn N. Holliman


This is the ninth in a series of stories with photographs of  my great uncle and aunt, Dave and Pearl Osborne Wright and their many years of life in Damascus, Virginia.  Pearl is the grand daughter of Isaac and Caroline Greer Wilson of Ashe County, North Carolina. As ever I am grateful to Phyllis Mink, daughter of Doris Osborne Akers,  Bob and Rob Adema, descendants of Gladys Osborne Adema and Geraldine Stansbery Holliman Feick, a niece of Pearl Osborne Wright and this writer's mother, for making many of the historical photographs available.

One will find information on persons recorded here at Ancestry.com in the Gallery sections.

In Baltimore, Maryland in 1922, a young mother (right) named Dora Kruger Osborne died suddenly and unexpectedly.  She left her husband, Bascomb Osborne, a native of Ashe County, North Carolina and brother of Pearl Osborne Wright, with three young children.  Bascomb, devastated by the loss his wife, was not able to care appropriately for the son and two daughters.  Pearl and Dave Wright generously took them in and raised them as their own in Damascus, Virginia.

The oldest, Bascomb K. Osborne, born 1910, joined the U.S. Navy as an enlisted man in 1927, and rose to the rank of Lt. Commander by the time of retirement in the early 1950s.

The oldest daughter was Doris Osborne (1913-1980)
seen here on the right standing in front of the new high school which was finished in the late 1920s.  Doris would meet and marry a new chemist in town who eventually ran the Beaver Works, a chemical dye company.

Below is Elmer F. Akers, who courted Doris Osborne, won her hand, and together they raised a family in Damascus.

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.

Osborne and Stansbery Photos

by Glenn N. Holliman

1920s

This is Bascomb Osborne, my great uncle (1887 - 1970) with his two daughters, Doris and Gladys. I love the straw hat of the times and the sheep. Where was this taken? Damascus, Virginia after his wife, Dora Kruger Osborne, died in 1922?

1938

Years have passed and Gladys and Doris have grown up and married. Left to right in Damascus, Virginia are Geraldine, age 15, my mother; Louise, my aunt, Gladys and Doris. My mother was age 15, and she was striking a saucy poise that day!

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....