The picture above is probably the oldest family picture that
I have. It is a picture of my mother and her family, the Edwin John Knowlton
and Ermina Delphine (Haight) Knowlton family. My mother is the teen-age girl on
the left side of the group. It was taken in Sterling, Kansas about 1905. When
it came into my possession I was thrilled to see a picture of my mother when
she was a girl. I do not have many pictures of my mother. When I was a child
all of these uncles and Aunt Marjorie lived in California, and had for a long
time. I believe that I met most of them. One was a lawyer, one was a streetcar
conductor, one worked for the electric company, and several worked for
California oil companies. Several lived in the San Francisco Bay area.
Sterling lies in the southern-central part of Kansas. It is
somewhat half way between Wichita and Salina. It is close to the Santa Fe
Trail. Christian missionaries reached this area from Mexico before Plymouth.
Wyatt Earp came from this area. It is good farmland.
Sterling is a pretty little town. I bet a lot of it looks just like it did in
1905. Scenes for the movie “Picnic” were shot in Sterling. In particular the
scenes that were around a lake. The lake is still there with a big swan on it.
My grandfather was from Michigan and my grandmother was from
New York. Here they are farmers in Kansas in 1905. And from the looks of the
clothes in the picture I would say that they were prosperous farmers. See the
suits and ties, and the sailor suit on the youngest boy. They look so settled
in Sterling, Kansas. One of my sisters said that Grandpa Knowlton was a
gentleman farmer. He lived in town and would ride a fine horse out to his farm
to oversee operations.
My Dad was Grandpa Knowlton’s hired man. In the 1900 Census
my Dad is listed as living in the Knowlton household. In the 1910 Census he was
a Ranch Foreman living in California. On the way to California he stopped at an
Uncle’s (Monson) home in Oklahoma so my Mom could give birth to my oldest
sister. Mom and Dad had been married in Sterling about 8 months before the
birth.
Most of these folks moved to California soon after this
picture. Why would they move to California when they looked so well off in
Kansas? I never thought much about it until I started getting into genealogy
recently. I have made two visits to Sterling.
The visits were a couple of days long. I would drive around the town and
the surrounding farmland and think about my Mom and Dad
A Christian College was established in Sterling around 1880.
It is still in operation. Sterling College has a few nice buildings and
beautiful grounds. A train station that was built around then was built with
his and her waiting rooms. You would not want men and women waiting for trains
in the same room, would you?
In the 1910 Census all of the Knowltons, six sons and my
Aunt Marjorie were living in Long Beach, California. My Mom and Dad and two
oldest daughters were living in the Imperial Valley. They were to have nine
children. I am number nine.
Here is my deduction from this data. Sterling and America in
1905 were very straitlaced. My Mother became pregnant. Dad and Mom were married
and left town. The Knowltons sold their farm and moved to Long Beach,
California soon after that. The Knowltons could not live in Sterling after the
early pregnancy of my Mom. So they moved. Parents and seven children. It must
have been a traumatic time for the Knowltons. And my Mom and Dad.
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