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| August 2003 | Biographies | Last updated on 06/17/2006 |
Mildred Irene Stilwell was the second daughter of Lynn Arthur Stilwell and Birdie Ella Gerard. She was born on St. Patrick’s day 1911 in Minneapolis, Hennipen Co., Minnesota. Her sisters were Marion Leona born in 1909, Elsie Letitia born in 1912 and Eleanor Winifred born in 1918. These four women would stay close for the rest of their lives. When my grandparents were married my grandfather came with a ready made family. He had been married two other times, first to Viola Eastman from this union came one child, L, next he was married to Edith Stockfish from this union came three children; Vera born in 1902, Granville born in 1904, Myrtle born in 1907.
Mother started school in Minneapolis and talked a lot about her mom and dad in the early years of her life. She explained that you mother Birdie would make the girls learn to say good morning and good night in French. Mother spoke French and I believe that the rest of the girls had to learn how to speak French. Her mother’s thought was that they had a lot of French in their history and so they should speak French.
About 1920 or so the Stilwell family moved to Denver. Of course, as mother explained it wasn’t as easy moving in the 1920’s as it is now. Most of the highway’s were dirt and they didn’t have motel’s but had to pitch a tent every night, start a fire, cook over an open flame. All of the things that we do now was everyday things for them. They had to make sure that they had gas because you couldn’t just pull off like we do and get gas. Food couldn’t be kept too long because they didn’t have the regeneration that we do. All in all it was a long, hard, dirty trip to make. Mother said they had a dog named buddy and that he rode on the running board the whole way, she also said that she felt like it rained the whole way. The other thing that mother remembered was that she got a head ache and her mother gave her an answer, mom said that when the head ache went away she thought that her mother was a witch and it was pure magic.
They finally reached Denver and settled in Ideldale, it is up in the hills of Colorado and he worked at a stone quarry. I have been told that a relative of my grandmother owned the quarry. Later they would move to Denver and in 1933 they would have a homestead in Tabernash. The finial move for the Lynn Stilwell and wife Birdie was to East Yosemite St. in Denver.
I have to put a note in here about Lynn’s other children. The way that I have it figured out is this; Lynn married Viola Eastman in 1898, in 1900 Luella was born. Luella lived with Birdie and Lynn for one year at least and then moved back with her Grandparents James and Nettie Stilwell. I don’t know what happened to Viola, I can’t find a death certificate for her but in 1901 Lynn seems to be married to Edith Louise Stockfish. Their children were Vera born in 1901, Granville born in 1904, Jeanetta born in 1904 and died in 1909 and Myrtle born in 1907.
Birdie and Lynn were married in 1909 and according to the 1910 Minneapolis census Vera age 8, Grandville age 6, Myrtle age 3 and my aunt Marion age 6 months were all living together. The 1920 Census for Owatonna which is in Steel Co., Minnesota shows the family as being Lynn, Birdie, Myrtle, Marion, Mildred, elsie and Eleanor.
In or about 1928 mother’s older sister Elsie was dating a man by the name of James Tracy. According to mother the girls were not allowed to date alone so, Elsie had Jimmy bring along a friend for mother. The “friend” ended up being my father Donald Edward Franklin Sr., They dated for awhile and one night dad told mom that they could go camping up on Trail Ridge for a week or so if she wanted to. Mother informed dad that “she was not that kind of a girl” mom said that dad just shrugged and said “ok, if you don’t want to get married it is ok with me”. needless to say they were married. On June 29, 1929 in Denver Donald Franklin married Mildred I. Stilwell also of Denver.
Mother and Dad moved in with his parents for awhile but like all new brides my mother wanted her own home. She said that when she married dad she was working at Montgomery Wards as an Order Filler, this meant that she would work on filling the orders from phone calls or people who ordered something downstairs. To do this she said that all of the girls wore roller skates. I would have loved to have seen this! One of the stories that mom always loved to tell was the night that she came home from work to find the tops of the asparagus out in the compost pile. She said that her mother in law Jessie knew that mom liked asparagus and so she got some but having never fixed them before she threw away the good part and had tried to cook the bad. Of course mom couldn’t say much about it because my dad’s best story was about mom’s cherry pie. He said that she made the best looking pie that he had ever seen until he bit into it and found the cherry pits. He said they ate the whole pie but had to spit out all of the bits. He would tell us about that and then laugh, he loved to tell that story.
My dad’s step father was Russell Graham who was a contractor in Denver and he knew that mom wanted her own home so he built her a little cabin on Cherry Creek. Russell and Jessie had a large cabin and just above that is where they put mom and dad’s cabin. The cabin was up some very steep steps, it only had one bedroom and a small living room and a kitchen. Of course the stove was a wood burning and the ice box was just that a box that was cooled by ice. Mom said that one of the hard part for her was keeping the boys quiet while dad slept. He was working night at Gates. One of the stories that was told to me by mom was when my younger brother wouldn’t lay down for his nap, she said that she lifted the blanket By this time Donald and Mildred had two little boys, my brothers. When Cherry Creek flooded it was kind of the last straw for mom. Dad was working at Gates and it was a long way back and forth. So, they moved into Denver out someplace near Sand Creek, again, the creek flooded and mom and dad moved to 606 Quitman St. Denver. Mom loved that house and always said if we got back to it to be sure that we looked over the kitchen door because she had a five dollar bill hid up above it. So if you live at 606 Quitman look above the door.
The second world war came along and mom and dad were still living on Quitman and gas was hard to come by. So, a gentleman who worked with dad a Mac McBroom told dad that he would sell his house to them if, he could live with them. So about 1942 mom and dad moved to 1175 s. Grant. It wasn’t a big house but it was a home. The biggest surprise to the Franklin’s came in 1944 when I was born.
I remember mother having a victory garden in the back yard and we raised chickens. One winter we had a big snow storm and it broke some tree limbs off of our cottonwood trees. One of the branches came through the kitchen. I was so mad because my brothers both got to go out and look at the tree and mom kept telling me I was too little. Of course my cares about the tree went away when my brothers brought all of the baby chicks into the back porch to keep them warm. I thought we should keep them in the house all of the time but mom and dad had other ideas about that.
Mom and dad lived at 1175 S. Grant until 1970 when they moved to Thorton. Where they lived until mom died.
Mother was always full of surprises, some good some not so good. Getting a kiln wasn’t one of them. They didn’t have the power in those days to handle a kiln in just a regular home and it kept throwing the fuses.
Mother died on September 10, 2001, just one day before our world changed. I like to think that she was in heaven to welcome all of the good people who died on September 11. She has been dead for four years now and I still think of her every day. She drove me crazy a lot of times but I am sure that I did the same for her. She was a wonderful lady and a wonderful mother.
In memory of Mildred Irene Stilwell
Franklin.
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© 2003-2006 Denise Wells
Copyright © 2003 by Sheila Hanna
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