The Drinkwater and McCain Family Reunion

Henry Charles Drinkwater

About two years ago, I learned that my great great grandfather, Henry Charles Drinkwater, died in 1925 but was never buried. 

I had found a Find A Grave memorial for him in Minneapolis's Lakewood Cemetery, and as is my custom when I find one of my ancestors on that site, I contacted the person who had set up the memorial and asked if he would transfer the management to me so that I could easily edit it. He did so, but he also advised me that Lakewood’s records state that the final disposition of Henry’s ashes, who had been cremated according to them, was “Storage - Hold, Section 313, Tier 1, Crypt F, Garden Wall Crypt”. This was how I found out that my ancestor's ashes, or cremains, had been in storage for almost 90 years.

After learning this astonishing news I shared the information with Susan Drinkwater Wrasmann. I had been corresponding with her over the last few years about our Drinkwater ancestry. She is Henry's great granddaughter through his son William Downs while I am descended from William's sister, Lily Drinkwater McCain. 

Knowing that Henry's wife Emma had died and been buried in Jackson, Wyoming I had a desire to reunite them, but knew it would be too costly for me to do alone. I told Susan that I would like to canvas his other descendants to see if any would be willing and able to help with the associated costs of obtaining and properly burying Henry's ashes in Jackson. It would satisfy my desire and give substance to my belief that everyone should have a proper burial.

Susan liked the idea. We appealed to Henry's descendants who responded generously. This gave us the impetus to plan further. After some of his descendants told us that they had seen Henry's death certificate, and believed that he was buried, we scrutinized that document. While it did have a date of burial, we noted that box 19 was confusing because it indicated that Henry was cremated. It also said "over" and to our knowledge none of the family had ever seen the back.  

Wanting to be sure Lakeside was correct, and that we didn't bury the wrong person, Jon Freshour, another cousin (Lily's descendant), called the state of Minnesota and obtained the back of Henry's death certificate. It, we felt, was definitive. 

Now that we knew that the cemetery was correct, Jon, Susan, and I all called them to find out how we could obtain Henry's cremains. We found it was a matter of paying them after which they would ship the ashes anywhere we wanted. We paid them with donations from Henry's descendants and they were shipped to Susan's brother Mike Drinkwater's home in Utah. There they awaited a proper burial with Emma while Henry's descendants worked on "part two" of the plan.

We wanted to be sure that Aspen Hills Cemetery in Jackson would agree to our idea. Susan contacted the manager, Al Zuckerman, who not only agreed but suggested that we bury Henry's ashes in Emma's plot. Susan then contacted Hunter's Idaho Falls Monument, who designed and created a headstone that matched Emma's as closely as possible. They also mounted it with Emma's on a new granite slab.

From the beginning, we wanted to have a reunion of the descendants who could come to Jackson. Susan, Mike, their sister, Kay Coates and Mike's son Gregg, generously hosted us at a beautiful and spacious house in Teton Village rented for this historic occasion, held on September 12, 2015. I'm happy to say that descendants of all of Henry and Emma's three children who lived to adulthood (Charles Henry, Lily McCain and William Downs) were able to come to the reunion. Some had never met one another. Some had never realized that they had so many cousins. All of us were thrilled to find and be with one another.

Those who came - Back row, L-R: Kay Coates, Brent Miller, Ed Wrasmann, Susan Wrasmann, Connalu Drinkwater, Mike Drinkwater, Gregg Drinkwater, Aaron Moulton, Bruce Burrows. Behind the couch: Carma Miller, Chris McCain Miller, Kristin Burgoyne, William Seeley,  Kathleen Schofield, Paul Schofield. On the couch: Dana Drinkwater Falkner, Kathi Reynolds Seeley, Carol McCain, Mary McCain Moulton holding Shaylieann Moulton, Robin Miller holding Annaleisha Moulton. In front of couch: Laura Koehnen (leaning on Dana), Jill Miller Hayes, Averi Hayes.

Wanting a lasting keepsake of the reunion, Susan put together a compilation of writing by herself, myself and Jon Freshour in a book titled Drinkwaters and McCains, telling the ancestry of this remarkable family that came together to honor and bury our long departed grandfather. The foreword is so applicable: "In every conceivable manner, the family is link to our past, bridge to our future" - Alex Haley.

If you would like a copy of the book, please let me know, and I will obtain one for you. Here is a link to the chapter about Henry and Emma's life, starting in England, and ending with his death: Henry Charles Drinkwater, A Restless Soul, by Kathleen Ellen Schofield: http://bit.ly/1KiMivF.

Henry Charles and Emma Hall Drinkwater

I believe that I can speak for the Drinkwater and McCain families by saying, may Henry finally rest in peace.

Henry and Emma reunited. We decided to allow Henry's stone to age and darken as has Emma's.
It shouldn't take long under the pine trees of Aspen Hill.

All photos courtesy of Kathleen Ellen Schofield

Postscript: our cousin, Jon Freshour contributed much to this whole process. Unfortunately, his health prevented him from traveling to Jackson. We missed you, Jon, and we appreciate all you have done.

What's In A Name?

"A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death, than the day of birth." Ecclesiastes 7:1

Last names, or surnames, are the basis for outlining one's family history. First, or given, names, especially when naming patterns were followed, can help us to fill in the contents of that outline.* However, even when this pattern was not followed, families often had a tendency to repeat the same given names. These names, especially when unusual, also help us to fill in the content of our outline.

Lily Agnes

Lily Agnes Drinkwater, 
1881-1964

One of my great grandmothers emigrated from Chester, England to the United States with her parents, Henry Charles and Emma Drinkwater, in the mid 1880's. She had an unusual and lyrical given name - Lily Agnes.

Lily's mother was Emma. Emma's mother was Hannah Alice Hall. But Hannah was never married to Emma's father. This, and the discrepancy in our records, have resulted in confusion in our family about his surname. On Emma's marriage certificate, her father is listed as Charles Edwards. But her obituary and death certificate state that she was Emma Baker Drinkwater. We didn't know whether he was Edwards or Baker. This confusion made it difficult to trace him, and so his family line ended with Emma.

Hints

One day a few months ago, while working on my Drinkwater family tree on the website ancestry dot com, I was presented with hints from another family tree, and I noticed the name Lily Agnes for two different people on this tree. Usually, I avoid hints from family trees because they may or may not be trustworthy. This time, my curiosity got the best of me.

Lily Agnes Harvey, 
1894-1922

I contacted the owner of the tree, telling her that the name Lily Agnes was so unusual that I felt that it was significant and must indicate a connection between us. She responded that Lily Agnes was the name of her grandmother, who was the daughter of Frederick John Harvey. And that she could provide me with information on the Harvey family. I eagerly accepted this offer because I knew that Hannah had married George Robert Harvey in 1862. I didn't know if they had any children, and I was curious to learn whether George's mother was named Lily, thinking that perhaps there was a naming pattern in the Harvey family, since I hadn't found one in Emma or Hannah's Hall family.

Lily Agnes Maguire,
1915-1982

As it turned out, the owner of the tree is Pat Evans, who lives in Wales. She and I are both descendants of Hannah Hall. And, her mother, Lily Agnes Maguire, was named after her grandmother. They were the two Lily's that prompted me to contact her.

From Pat I learned for the first time that Emma had an older brother, George Charles Edward Hall, also born before Hannah married George. And that they had seven half siblings, who were all the children of George and Hannah Harvey. That two of their sons, Emma's half brothers Frederick and William, named their oldest daughters Lily Agnes and Lily Agnes May. 

Hannah Alice Hall
1837-1916

Suddenly, I went from knowing of one Lily to learning that there were five Lily's in the Hall/Harvey family who were cousins** who shared an unusual name. I also learned that George's mother's name was Hannah as was his wife's, and not Lily. I still don't know why the family named so many of their daughters Lily, but, the name repetition I noticed led me to Pat, who sent me the information that allowed me to know who all of Hannah Harvey's children were and to fill in the content of my outline of the Hall/Harvey family tree. I went from thinking of Hannah as an unmarried "spinster" who gave birth to one child to knowing that she was the married mother of nine, who was widowed at the age of 45 while still having young children to care for.

Charles Edwards

Pat also shared enough information to confirm that George and Emma Hall's father was definitely named Charles Edwards. According to Emma's marriage certificate, his profession was baker. Pat sent me records showing that he was in a flour and baking business with his family whom I've been able to trace a couple of generations back. I also now know that he never married or had any other children.

When he died, in 1866, at age 32, he named his sister Catharine as his only heir, leaving her his estate of £100. It seems that he never acknowledged his two children and certainly didn't leave them money when he died. Family gossip says that he couldn't marry Hannah because he was connected with the Chester castle***. I now know that his only connection would have been to provide flour and baked goods to the castle, but I doubt that would give him a status that stopped the marriage. The informant for Emma's death certificate was her daughter Lily, who probably wrote her obituary also. We may never know why Lily said that Emma's maiden name was Baker, but I suspect that she saw no need to acknowledge her grandfather Charles, who didn't acknowledge his own children.

Postscript

Pat told me that her given name is Patricia, as was my mother's. They didn't know each other, yet they were cousins who shared the same name. And, when Pat's daughter recently gave birth to a daughter, she named her Lily. A meaningful, though perhaps unintended, repetition of given names.

Notes

*For instance, it was once common in the British Isles for oldest sons to be named after their father's father, second sons to be named after their mother's father, oldest daughters to be named after their mother's mother, second daughters to be named after their father's mother and so on.

**Cousins named Lily:

1. Lily Agnes Drinkwater, 1881-1964, daughter of Emma. Ellen's great grandmother, 
2. Lily Agnes May Harvey, 1887-1973, daughter of William Walter, Emma's half brother. Mother of Lily Evans Saltuer 
3. Lily Agnes Harvey, 1894-1922, daughter of Frederick John, Emma's half brother. Pat's grandmother  (these three were first or half-first cousins)
4. Lily Agnes Maguire, 1915-1982, Pat's mother
5. Lily Rose Harvey, 1922-, granddaughter of Frederick John, Emma's half brother.

***Sometimes interpreted that he was of the royalty.