A Post for Another Day--Emma Nevada Pauline Kleine Goforth Crithfield

My dear mother is an independent women who comes from a long line of strong English women--stiff upper lip and all that. She had her knee replaced last month. I was secretly hoping that surgery and recovery would induce her to accept some help from me and the kids. "Oh, not to worry. I'm fine."

Well, Mom was on my mind today, so, of course, I had to give her a call. Talk turned to genealogy. I've been trying to get her to tell me more about her childhood, her parents, her grandparents. She told me a wonderful story, one that she has told me many times before. It is a little worrisome that she repeats stories, I'm concerned about her memory. She will even ask, "Have I told you this before?" It doesn't matter what our answer is, she tells the story anyway. It's OK, she's a very good story-teller.

This particular story is especially amusing because, when I'm trying to get her to talk about my ancestors, she tells me about her ex-mother-in-law, Emma Nevada Pauline Kleine Goforth Crithfield. No blood relation at all, but grandmother to my older brothers and sister. (More about the importance of "no blood relation" in another post.)

My mother has always said how wonderful both her mothers-in-law were. According to my mother, Emma's father was a sea captain. Her mother came from Germany. She sailed around the horn to get to California. The captain gave up the sea and started a ranch in Oso Flaco, Santa Barbara County, California.

Emma's job on the ranch was to make the bread for the family and all the hands. She would roll up her sleeves to knead the dough and shape the loaves. One of the ranch hands, a young Charles Goforth, told her what lovely wrists she had. In a day and age when allowing your petticoat to show while dancing caused the little old ladies to comment on your virtue, a shapely wrist was probably exciting stuff--especially to a ranch hand who spends his days looking at cattle and horses.

Another time, Emma and Charles went for a buggy ride. The horse had eaten some green alfalfa and started spraying awful green alfalfa nastiness. They had to hide behind the buggy robe to avoid being sprayed with "you-know-what." Well, this struck them funny and they got a case of the giggles.

Emma and Charles were married in 1904. Early on the morning of April 18, 1906, they were awakened by their bed shaking. It continued to shake for several minutes. They grabbed onto the sides of the bed and held on. The ridiculousness of the situation struck them funny. They laughed and rode the bed till the earthquake stopped. They heard noises and people screaming in the streets. They went outside they saw that the chimney had fallen. It probably would have killed them had they gone out earlier. Then they saw the smoke and the fire across the bay in San Francisco.

When Mom was telling me this story the other day, it finally dawned on me that she was talking about THE San Francisco Earthquake and Fire.

Serendipity Moment: at the gym today, I was listening to back episodes of Genealogy Gems podcast by Lisa Louise Cook. She was talking about how to research victims of the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire. Don't you love it when that happens??? 

More about my Crithfield relations in another post.