Monday, August 2, 2010

Acts of Commerce (Georgia and more, 1910-1960)

The years between 1910 and 1920 also saw Voil's brother Gilder leave the nest. According to the census, he began the decade running a "pressing club"--what we would call a laundry and cleaners. Robert Webb said he had heard years ago that Gilder from time to time would borrow clothes from the pressing club when he needed something nice to wear. Robert said he didn't think much of the story until one time decades later, while down in Jackson County, he happened to run into some elderly ladies who remembered the young Gilder. "Oh, he was such a fancy dresser!" one of them said.
Gilder's son, Martin Gilder Webb Jr., said his father remained in school until about the eighth grade. He said his father had always wanted to join the Navy and tried to enter before he was old enough to enlist. He finally got in in 1915, just before the United States entered World War I.
An undated newspaper clipping, probably from the Commerce newspaper in 1919, reports: "The Observer received a letter this week from Gilder Webb, who is 'Somewhere at Sea' on the battleship Kansas. The letter contained a money order for $3.00 for the extension of his subscription to The Observer. Owing to the strict censorship pass on all correspondence of soldiers and sailors, Gilder could not express himself freely in regard to his activities and experiences. However, he states that Uncle Sam had an efficient fleet and that the Kaiser would have a lively time trying to show anything to Uncle Sam's sea-fighting craft. Gilder is a son of Mrs. M.L. Webb of this city. He joined the Navy about three years ago since which time he has seen a good portion of the world and encountered many thrilling experiences. In his letter he asked us to extend his regards to all the people of Commerce. His address is 6th Division Engineers, USS Kansas, care of Postmaster, New York."
Reality might not have been quite so glamorous, as it appears one of his main jobs was shoveling coal to power the ship's steam engines. According to an e-mail from Martin Gilder Webb Jr., "Dad was a coal passer on the USS Wisconsin on July 15-16, 1915, when it and the two other ships of the Naval Academy Practice Squadron--the USS Missouri and USS Ohio--were the first battleships to pass through the Panama Canal. The squadron was on its way to San Francisco, which I believe was the site of a world's fair." (He's right on that count: It was called the Panama-Pacific International Exposition.)
Gilder's travels also took him to Philadelphia, where in the suburb of Germantown, 25-year-old Edith Quay decided to keep up military spirits by writing to a serviceman. She did, thinking that her new penpal was somewhere in Europe. Instead, she got a phone call the next day from Gilder. Son Gilder Jr. says Edith didn't think much of him at first, but eventually was won over by the quality of his writing. On Christmas Day 1918, after being together fewer times than you could count on one hand, Gilder Webb and Edith Quay were married.
Gilder remained in the Navy until 1923, when he was discharged as a Machinist Mate First Class. He remained in the Philadelphia area the rest of his life. Aside from Gilder Jr. (born in 1924), he and Edith also had a daughter born a few years later named Helen Edith ("Edie"). The elder Gilder is remembered in part for his high spirits, and Voil's stern visage appeared to melt on those rare occasions when they got together.
Blondine and Gertrell remained in Commerce after Voil and Gilder left. Blondine attended a "Normal School" (as teachers' colleges often were called then) and by 1920 was teaching at a public school. Gertrell took the same route and by 1920 also was a public school teacher. Blondine eventually married Marvin Pierce Owen and settled in Barnesville, Ga., where she taught manual arts and drawing while raising two children, Marvin Pierce Owen Jr. and Charles Edison Owen. Marvin Jr. died in the Korean War in February 1951. He was a University of Georgia graduate, as Charles was. The latter also went to the University of Tennessee, where he became a dentist and built a career in Georgia. Blondine died in 1966 of arteriosclerosis.
Gertrell remained with her mother until Martha Wills Webb's death in 1933. Then, according to nephew Charles Owen, Gertrell worked for a physician and after that took up with Joseph Crews, an insurance agent from Tampa, Fla. Eventually they sold the store and moved to Florida, only to move back north years later and settle in Rome, Ga. That's where Gertrell died in March 1979.
(A personal note: It was during a visit to Georgia with my parents in 1970 that I met Gertrell for the first and only time. She told me about the family history she was working on, and because I was interested in radio at the time, I tape-recorded her as she read from her notes. Those notes are the foundation of this family history.)
The least-known of Voil's siblings is Alton Americus Webb. He lived in the Atlanta area, married a woman named Mattie Mae (Pat) Elrod Matthews, and died of a heart attack in 1958. According to a February 1961 letter from Blondine to sister-in-law Annie Webb, Alton died "when a whole artery bursted open from his heart down through his leg."

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