Helen: The People

Helen’s father was Isaac Strohm Mowrer (1841-1925) and he was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania to a family of Pennsylvania Dutch Mennonites. Helen’s mother was Hannah Maley (1846-1920) and she immigrated to Ohio at the age of 5 from Galway, Ireland. They were married in 1869 and had 6 children together. Isaac was traveling salesman for a lock company. Hannah died in Xenia in 1920 and Isaac died just a few years later in 1925.

The first of the children born was Frank Roger (1870-1942). Frank was a lawyer and diplomat and served as the consul general in Copenhagen. It was here that he met is first wife, Genevieve Winterbotham. She was a socialite from Chicago and the two met while she was in Europe. Four years after meeting, in 1908, she traveled back there to marry him since he wasn’t allowed to leave his post to come to the states to marry her. This semi-scandalous marriage was the subject of many newspaper articles at the time, especially because she and her millionaire father were well-known in high society. They had one daughter together, Frances (1909-1999). Just a few years later, they divorced, with her stating that Frank was jealous of other men. Again, this made the papers and Genevieve was given sole custody of Frances. In 1918, Frank married Blanche Van Horn Armstrong (1877-1960). He became a claim agent with an oil company and died in Los Angeles in 1942.

The next oldest sibling was Charles Beatty (1874-1967). He stayed in Xenia all his life and served the community as a deputy county treasurer, a tax deputy in the auditor’s office, and a deputy collector of internal revenue. He married Rose Winnifred Higgins (1879-1939) in 1920 and they didn’t have children.

After Helen came Mary Mowrer Zartman (1881-1919). She married Fred Barnett Zartman (1878-1955) in June of 1918. He was a banker; he founded the Franklin Board and Paper Company and was President of the Franklin National Bank. Just over a year after they were married, Mary died in Xenia after a short illness with a toxic goiter.

The second youngest sibling was Alice Mowrer McGervey (1883-1920). She married Walter Edmund McGervey (1883-1944) in 1906. He was also in banking and was the President of the Third National Bank and Trust Company after holding other positions in the banking industry. Helen even asked for his council when she was thinking of taking a job in investments to make sure it was all above board. Sadly, Alice died shortly after her older sister in June of 1920 after an operation in Columbus, Ohio.

The youngest sibling in the family was Gertrude Mowrer Hamilton (1885-?). She married Charles Hamilton (1883-1945) in 1907 and moved with him to Elizabeth, New Jersey. Charles was a Sales Manager of a stock company (so, another family member in finance!), and they have one daughter, Jane (1908-?) together. Unfortunately, it become difficult to trace both Gertrude and Jane in their later years. I can find Gertrude in Elizabeth in 1957 and I know they were both living when Helen died in 1965. Further, Jane’s last name was still Hamilton, so it doesn’t seem she was married then. Helen talked about “her niece’s small daughter” when she was living with Gertrude in Elizabeth, and included a picture of a 2-year-old girl named MaryLynn. Again, I unfortunately can’t find anything about her either.