A Willis Christmas Thank You Note

Some time ago, I found a ninety-eight year old letter from my grandfather, Doctor Henry Noble Willis of Wilmington, Delaware, to his older sister Mary Clark in Preston, Maryland. The 31 December 1924 letter thanked her for a check, presumably a Christmas gift or a birthday present.[1]

Items like this are a treasure. They reveal our ancestors as real people. The brief note shows Doctor Willis was in poor health but retained a sense of humor. The letter mentions his daughter Mary Willis, his cousin Cora Willis Noble, his wife Jessie (“Boss”), and his son Noble, who was eight years old at the time.

The transcribed letter below is followed by some explanatory comments. A couple of words were unclear. I indicated them with a question mark in brackets:

Envelope Addressed:     Mrs. M. W. Clark        Preston, Md

Postmarked:               Dec 31, 1924, 7 PM         Wilmington, Del.

Dear Sister,

            Your check arrived ok and waited to find out if you were in Preston before thanking you for same.

            Mary leaves us tomorrow for supper in Phila. then on to Yonkers next morning.

            She certainly looks fine … weighs 148 almost as much as her Dad. I think she enjoyed her stay very much.

           We have had quite a cold snap. The weather man has predicted sun but has not arrived yet.

            Don’t kill yourself eating this Xmas with all the fine dinners.

            Cora stopped over between trains[?], think she’s looking better.

            Well, I am doing fine no change in my blood pressure for 6 weeks. Dr. T told me on Monday A M more[?] drainage and he thought I would be good for 5 or 6 years. Sounds good to me, I shall open the office with the New Year starting in slow – avoiding exceptional strain.

            Wishing you a Happy New Year and many of them. Noble had more Xmas in his bones than the rest of us.

           Boss says she will write later.

                                                Your Brother

                                                   H.N.W.

Henry Noble Willis

Henry Noble Willis was 59 years old at the time he wrote this letter. He was born and raised in Preston, Maryland. He graduated from Williamsport College, Pennsylvania in about 1885. After graduating from  the University of Maryland School of Medicine in 1888, he became a doctor like his father, Henry Fisher Willis. The younger Doctor Willis established his practice in Pocomoke City, Worcester County, Maryland. In  1890, he married Mary E. McMaster, daughter of a local physician. Mary died in 1898, leaving two children: Mary Catherine Willis, born in 1891 and Harry McMaster Willis, born in 1893.

In 1899, the widowed Doctor Willis married Jessie Sensor in Pocomoke City. She was a daughter of the Methodist minister who served several communities in the region. The couple had a daughter Grace in 1905. She died of meningitis at age five. Shortly thereafter, they adopted a daughter Kathryn, who had also been born in 1905. In 1908, Henry and Jessie moved to Wilmington, Delaware, where they resided until their deaths. In Wilmington, they had a son, Noble Sensor Willis who was born 1916.

Mary Willis Clark

The recipient of the letter was Doctor Willis’s 64-year old sister Mary.[2] She was born in Sussex County, Delaware, where their father then practiced medicine. About 1863, the elder Doctor Willis family moved Preston, Caroline County, Maryland. In Preston, he took over the practice of a doctor who had joined the Union Army. Mary grew up in Preston and married Joshua Bascom Clark there in 1878.[3] A report of the marriage indicated he was of Seaford, Delaware where he served as junior editor of “The Sussex County Index,” a local newspaper. The childless couple subsequently moved to Georgetown, Sussex County, Delaware where he became publisher and editor of the “Sussan Journal.”

Joshua Clark died in 1892, and Mary managed and edited the newspaper until 1894. She continued to live at her home in Georgetown until her death in 1941.[4] However, Doctor Willis mailed the 1924 thank you letter to Preston, Maryland rather than to her home in Georgetown. He must have known she was traveling, probably visiting relatives during the holidays, and somehow got word that she was in Preston. Mary or her relatives must have been well known in Preston, a town of about 300 people in the early 1900s, because Henry did not include a street address, just her name and the town.

Cora Fisher Willis Noble

Mary Willis Clark and Henry Noble Willis were the surviving children of Doctor Henry Fisher Willis and his wife Emily Rumbold Patton. Their other two children, Cora Fisher Willis and Emma Patton Willis died young … Cora died as a young school teacher in 1875 at age 18, and Emma died in 1863 before her first birthday.

The Cora referred to in the letter is a second Cora Fisher Willis, born in 1879. She was Mary’s and Henry’s first cousin, the daughter of Henry Fisher Willis’s brother James Spry Willis and his wife Mary E. Shufelt. About 1900, Cora married Charles Fulton Noble, son of Isaac Noble. The Nobles were close to the Willis family although this is the first record I have found of a marriage between the two families.

Isaac Noble was a successful carpenter and a neighbor of Henry Fisher Willis in Preston, Maryland. Doctor Jacob L. Noble joined Henry Fisher Willis’s medical practice in Preston. The elder Doctor Willis so admired the Noble family that he adopted their surname as the middle name for his son. It has been used now as a given name in the Willis family through five generations – the doctor’s son, Henry Noble Willis, grandson Noble Sensor Willis, great grandson Gary Noble Willis, great-great grandson Noble Sutherland Willis, and great-great-great grandson Christopher Noble Willis.

Doctor T

I cannot identify the “Doctor T” mentioned in the letter. However, he was overly optimistic about Henry Noble Willis’s expected life span. Henry died 11 April 1926, a little more than two years after this letter, rather than being “good for 5 or 6 years”. I haven’t found a death certificate, so don’t know the official cause of death. I suspect some sort of heart disease based on Henry’s mention of high blood pressure and “drainage.” Maybe some reader can speculate intelligently as to the cause.

Mary Catherine Willis

The Mary referred to in the second sentence of the letter is Mary Catherine Willis, daughter of Henry Noble Willis and his first wife, Mary McMaster. Mary Catherine was working at the time as a secretary at the YWCA in Philadelphia and had obviously come to Wilmington for the Christmas holiday and her father’s birthday. In 1925, Mary applied for a passport to visit Hong Kong, China and Japan. She later served in China as a secretary for a missionary group sponsored by the YWCA, returning to the United States before war broke out. After her years of employment, she retired in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Our family had the pleasure of Mary’s company when she visited Shreveport, Louisiana in the late 1940s. I remember her as an imposing woman. Doctor Willis’s estimate of her weight was far too low by that time. My mother frequently told a story about Mary, who never married or had children, instructing Mom on how to diaper my younger sister, Mom’s third child. Mary complained, “Charlotte, that diaper is too tight. That child is not going to be comfortable.” Mom backed off and said, “Here. You do it.” Mary did so and with a self-satisfied smile placed Barbara in the playpen. Five minutes later, the naked baby was standing in the playpen swinging the not-too-tight diaper over her head!

Noble and “Boss”

Henry’s and Jessie’s son Noble Sensor Willis referred to near the end of the letter was at the age when children are really excited about the magic of Christmas. With his half-siblings half a generation older than he, I can imagine Noble was an exuberant center of attention. Reading Henry’s letter reminded me that later in life Noble adopted some of his father’s habits. As an adult, Noble opened letters with “Dear Sister” and closed with “Your Brother” as did his father. Also, Doctor Willis called his wife Jessie “Boss” in the last line of the letter. Noble referred throughout his married life to his wife Charlotte as “Boss,” when he wasn’t calling her “Imp.” Noble also usually signed notes and messages with three initials rather than a full name. Interesting to note that those patterns all arose with his father.

The letter does not mention adopted daughter Kathryn who was nineteen by 1924 and possibly no longer in the household. She married William New in 1926. In the 1930 census, however, the two resided with the widow Jessie S. Willis and young Noble at Jessie’s home in Wilmington. The couple continued living in New Castle County, Delaware, but had no children.

That is about all I can glean from this letter right now. I have enjoyed re-discovering  more about these people and sharing it. Here’s hoping you can find such treasures among your family memorabilia.

Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

—–

[1] Henry Noble Willis was born 23 December 1865.

[2] Mary Willis was born 21 January 1860.

[3] Mary Willis and Joshua Bascom Clark married 23 January 1868.

[4] From Newspapers.com – The News Journal, Wilmington, Delaware, 31 Jan 1941, page 20.

A Willis-Rankin connection … with a foray into history

No, I am not talking about the Willis-Rankin connection in our immediate household. Instead, this is about a man named James Lee Rankin. However, the story begins with Gary’s father, Noble Sensor Willis.

Noble was a native of Wilmington, Delaware, but wound up in the deep south during World War II. On June 13, 1942, he graduated from the Navigation School, Gulf Coast Air Corps Training Center, at Kelly Field in San Antonio, Texas. His “Certificate of Proficiency” was signed by “D. H. Rankin, Captain, A.A.F., Secretary.”[1] “A.A.F.” stands for Army Air Force.

I saw that record for the first time this week. I wondered which (if any) lineage in the Rankin DNA Project could lay claim to Captain Rankin. I started searching for him the easy way – at Ancestry. How to begin with only the information on Noble’s certificate? Well, to have been a Captain in 1942, he was probably about 25 to 30 years old.[2] He was certainly born by 1920, probably in the 1910s. My search criteria were:

     D. H. Rankin, born 1915, plus or minus 5 years, and lived in San Antonio at one time

A “David H. Rankin” was #42 on the list of hits resulting from that search. Hit #42 showed that David was enumerated in the 1950 census in Ft. Worth, Texas. That made him an attractive choice, so I clicked on his name. The sidebar links suggested for him included a marriage record in May 1945 in Ft. Worth for Major David Henry Rankin, Adjutant, Army Air Force Training Command.

Bingo.

Records for him also included census entries for his family of origin,[3] a World War II draft registration card, the information that he graduated from the University of Nebraska, and a Find-a-Grave memorial.[4] The census entries reveal a brother James Lee Rankin (1907-1996), an attorney who also graduated from the University of Nebraska. He went by Lee.

Bells started ringing in my memory. I ran across Lee several years ago and had intended to write an article about his remarkable career. Something intervened. Here we are, better late than never.[5]

Lee Rankin’s career started with a private law firm in Lincoln, Nebraska. He quickly became involved in politics. A moderate Republican, he helped organize the 1948 campaign for Thomas E. Dewey in Nebraska. In 1952, he managed Dwight D. Eisenhower’s presidential campaign in Nebraska. He became assistant attorney general the following year.

In 1956, he became solicitor general, the third-ranking job at the Justice Department. In that capacity, he was instrumental in resolving claims among Western states to Colorado River water, as well as establishing a balance of Federal and state jurisdictions in offshore oil drilling. He developed the Justice Department’s position in lawsuits concerning legislative reapportionment fights that ultimately led to the principle of “one person, one vote.” If you have never had the pleasure of listening to former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, don’t miss this video  in which she and former Justice Stephen G. Breyer discuss Baker v. Carr and Reynolds v. Sims, two cases dealing with the issue.

After his career in the Justice Department, Lee was chief counsel for the Warren Commission, which investigated the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. He represented the ACLU as amicus curiae in the 1962 landmark case Gideon v. Wainwright, which established the right of an indigent person accused of a non-capital crime to legal counsel at public expense.[6] He was former New York City Mayor John Lindsay’s Corporation Counsel from 1966 to 1972, heading a staff of 378 attorneys. Their duties included defending New York City in a wide range of litigation and developing opinions on various municipal issues. Later, Lee taught constitutional law at New York University Law School.

Perhaps the most outstanding part of his career is that he argued dozens of cases before the U. S. Supreme Court in his capacity as solicitor general. The pièce de résistance in that job was his participation in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, a consolidation of five separate cases challenging the constitutionality of school segregation. The Supreme Court issued its unanimous decision in 1954.[7] Brown reversed the 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson, which had held that the constitution permitted separate facilities for Blacks and Whites so long as the facilities were equal.[8] For more than a half-century, Plessy had provided the legal underpinning for de jure segregation — i.e., segregation according to law. Brown eliminated that underpinning. The case is probably best known for the principle that “separate facilities are inherently unequal.” Thurgood Marshall, then the head of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, was the lead attorney for the Plaintiffs.[9]

But Lee Rankin also participated in the argument, which took place over several days. As Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Justice Department’s office of legal counsel in 1953, he supported the argument that Plessy’s “separate but equal” doctrine violated the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment.[10]

His New York Times obituary says this about Lee’s further role:

“In an effort to avoid violence that might arise from the decision, Mr. Rankin argued in a presentation requested by the High Court that the effort to desegregate schools — overturning decades of entrenched practices — should take place gradually. Accordingly, he suggested the plan by which local school districts submitted desegregation plans to Federal judges in their states.”

This was a radical departure from normal practice. Usually, the Court’s decision that a law was unconstitutional required an immediate end to enforcing that law, period. After the decision in Loving v. Virginia, for example, all laws forbidding interracial marriage became unenforceable immediately. In Brown, on the other hand, the Court ordered integration “with all deliberate speed.”[11]

Lee lived until 1996, so he was around to see how “all deliberate speed” played out. I would give my right arm to ask him whether he thought the principle gave rise to unconscionable delay, and whether it successfully avoided violence. What, I wonder, did he think of the need to send the U. S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock to allow the “Little Rock Nine” Black students to enter Central High School? Or the fact that all of Little Rock’s public schools were not fully integrated until 1972?[12]

On to the genealogy question: does James Lee and David Henry Rankin’s ancestry place them into one of the identified lineages of the Rankin DNA Project? The answer is YES. Their line belongs to Lineage 2, so I can happily claim the brothers as my genetic cousins. Their Rankin line is that part of Lineage 2C which descends from David and Jennett McCormick Rankin of Frederick County, Virginia. David, who died in Frederick in 1768, was most likely the immigrant Rankin ancestor in that line.

Here is a brief outline chart for Lee’s and David’s Rankin ancestors. When (!!!) I finally do a full-fledged descendant chart for the family of David and Jennett McCormick Rankin, I will include citations to evidence. Meanwhile, here are the bare names and places:

1 David and Jennett McCormick Rankin of (probably) Ulster, Ireland and Frederick Co., VA.

   2 William and Abigail Rankin of Frederick, VA and Washington Co., PA, see an article about them here. William was one of four proved children of David and Jennett. He and Abigail had ten known children.[13]

      3 John and Rebecca Rankin of Washington Co., PA. John predeceased his father William, who devised some Washington County land to John’s two children, James and Mary Rankin.[14] James moved to Harrison Co., KY.

         4 James Rankin Sr., b. Washington Co., PA, d. Harrison Co., KY. His wife was a Miss Montgomery. Two different men in this extended Rankin family married Montgomery women; Gen. Richard Montgomery was a near neighbor of the Rankins in Washington County. James Sr. and his wife had a son named Richard Montgomery Rankin.

            5 James Rankin Jr. m. Anna Dills of Harrison Co., KY and Menard County, IL.[15]

               6 William L. Rankin of Harrison Co., KY – Springfield, IL and his second wife Susan Jane Primm. [16]

                  7 Herman Primm Rankin of Menard Co., IL – Lincoln, Lancaster, NE and his wife Lois Cornelia Gable.[17]

                     8 James Lee Rankin and David Henry Rankin. [18]

And that is all the news that is fit to print about James Lee Rankin. If I could choose my relatives, Lee would be high on my preferred list. I am tickled pink that he actually IS a distant cousin, and that his brother David certified the passing grades in navigation school for Gary’s father Noble Willis.

In a strange coincidence, today is the anniversary of the date the so-called “Little Rock Nine” Black students first attempted to attend classes at Central High School.[19] Gov. Faubus had the Arkansas National Guard surround the school to prevent their entry.

See you on down the road.

Robin

[1] Noble’s certificate was signed on Captain Rankin’s behalf by E. W. Earnest.

                  [2] When Gary was in the Air Force, it normally took three years from an officer’s initial commission as a Second Lieutenant until a promotion to Captain. In the Army, it took two years. Gary doesn’t know what the standard was during WW II. He says there were some Lieutenant Colonels in their twenties, although he suspects they were typically fighter or bomber pilots. David Rankin was not a combat soldier, so his promotion progress would have been considerably less spectacular.

                  [3] 1920 federal census, Lincoln, Lancaster Co., NE, household of Herman P. Rankin, 42, printer, b. IL, father b. KY, mother b. VA, with wife Lois C., 39, daughters Marta M., 15, Lois C., 14, and Mary J., 10, and sons James Lee, 12 and David H., 5. All children were born in NE. See also the 1930 federal census, Lincoln, Lancaster Co., NE, Herman P. Rankin, 52, wife Lois C. Rankin, 50, sons Lee, 23 and David, 16, daughter Mary Jo, 20, and mother-in-law Josephine Gable, 70. James Lee’s S.A.R. application identifies his father as Herman Primm Rankin, b. 31 Jul 1877, and his mother as Lois Cornelia Gable, b. 20 Mar 1880. It also identifies his paternal grandparents, William L. Rankin, b. 15 Sep 1816, d. 1902, and Susan Jane Primm, b. 20 Mar 1809, d. 1885.

                  [4] David Henry Rankin’s find-a-grave memorial is at this link.

                  [5] For information about Lee Rankin’s career, see obituaries by Robert D. McFadden, “J. Lee Rankin, Solicitor General Who Was a Voice for Desegregation, Dies at 88” (New York Times, June 30, 1996, Section 1, p. 33) and Santa Cruz Sentinel, 29 June 1996, at 1, 12. Lee died in Santa Cruz, CA.

                  [6] Before Gideon v. Wainwright, a criminal defendant was only entitled to legal counsel at public expense if he were accused of a capital offense. For a description of the case, see this link.

                  [7] There is a good discussion of Brown at  at this link; see also the second link in Note 11 concerning “all deliberate speed.”

                  [8] For an example of a case dealing with allegedly equal facilities, see Sweatt v. Painter.

                  [9] A number of important SCOTUS cases concerning segregation and involving Thurgood Marshall are described in Gilbert King, Devil in the Grove (New York: HarperCollins, 2012). The central story in the book is a criminal case in Florida in which some Black men were wrongly accused of rape. The book is a clear-eyed and graphic account of Jim Crow-era treatment of Blacks. It won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.

                  [10] The fourteenth amendment has two clauses, known as the “equal protection” and “due process” clauses. Section 1 of the amendment reads in part, “[No State … shall] deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” (Emphasis added).

                  [11] See a brief discussion of the “deliberate speed” notion at this link. A more detailed explanation can be found here.

                  [12] Here are a few facts from post-Brown history. One of our acquaintances would refuse to read any of this, saying he will not participate in what he deems “white shaming.” He does not grasp the fundamental difference between recounting the history of an admittedly shameful event and seeking to make someone feel personally shamed about the event. I certainly don’t want anyone to feel ashamed. If you feel as our acquaintance does, please skip this footnote.

Lee Rankin would probably agree that, as a practical matter, “all deliberate speed” facilitated obstruction and delay. In Shreveport, my high school was still all-white when I graduated in 1964, ten years after Brown. It finally integrated several years later. Many churches in the city promptly opened all-white schools. De jure segregation — segregation as a matter of law under Plessy — became de facto segregation, i.e., separation of Blacks and Whites as a result of segregated neighborhoods, economic status, and alternatives to public schools. Shreveport’s experience was undoubtedly typical of many cities.

Further, gradual desegregation did not prevent violence, as the experience of the “Little Rock Nine” illustrates.  This History Channel article has their story. When nine Black students attempted to enter Little Rock’s Central High School on Sept. 4, 1957, they were met by a mob of 400 people shouting racial epithets and threatening violence. One Black female student was surrounded by the mob, which threatened to lynch her. Her stoic visage  and the women screaming at her became an iconic image of desegregation. Although the mob had grown to 1,000 by Sept. 24, the Black students were ultimately admitted after the 101st Airborne was called in. Throughout the school year, they continued to suffer verbal and physical assaults. One student had acid thrown in her eyes; one was pushed down a flight of stairs.

The ultimate iconic image of desegregation is probably the famous Norman Rockwell painting of four U. S. Marshalls escorting a six-year-old pigtailed and beribboned little girl into a classroom. The painting pictures stains left by tomatoes thrown at her, as well as a racial epithet scrawled on the wall. Ruby Bridges was probably Rockwell’s inspiration for the painting. As an adult, she recalled people throwing things and screaming by the hostile New Orleans crowd. Her father lost his job; her grandparents were forced off their land in Mississippi. Information on Ruby’s story can be found at this link. And see Rockwell’s painting here.

                  [13] Washington Co., PA Will Book 1: 206, will of William Rankin of Raccoon Creek identifying ten children, two of whom predeceased him.

                  [14] Will of John Rankin written and proved in 1788 naming his wife Rebecca and children James and Mary. Washington Co., PA Will Book 1 : 81.

[15] Here is a link to James Rankin Jr.’s Find-a-Grave memorial.

                  [16] See Note 3 and William’s Find-a-Grave memorial at this link.

                  [17] See Note 3. Here is Herman’s Find-a-Grave memorial.

                  [18] The Find-a-Grave memorial  for James Lee Rankin has a picture of him from an obituary. See a link to David’s memorial in Note 4.

                  [19] See Note 12.

The Case of the Unhelpful Mutant Marker

by Gary N. Willis

Rapidly mutating DNA markers can be extremely helpful for genetic genealogists. These mutations can identify sublineages that differentiate relatives within only a few generations and can sometimes solve mysteries where there are gaps in the written record. I recently thought I had discovered such a useful mutation. My Y-DNA test results differ from other members of the Maryland Group of the Willis DNA Project at position 439. That location is noted for being rapidly mutating. The genealogical paper trail indicates that seven of the nine members in the Maryland Group descend from Andrew Willis, son of John Willis the immigrant. The other two of us descend from John, Jr., another son of Immigrant John.

If the anomalous marker at 439 originated with John, Jr., it would clearly separate descendants of Andrew from descendants of John. However, the other group member who descends from John, Jr. does not share the anomaly. The mutation must therefore have originated in one of John, Jr.’s descendants rather than John himself. The paper trail shows that the line of the other John, Jr. descendant and my line diverge at Zachariah Willis, a great-great-grandson of Immigrant John. I am descended from Zachariah’s son Henry Fisher Willis, while the other Maryland Group member descends from Zachariah’s son Francis Asbury Willis. The mutation at 439 obviously occurred with Henry Fisher or his descendants, since Francis Asbury’s line lack the mutation.

Mutant Marker Chart

One of my brother’s test results are identical to mine, including the anomaly. The mutated marker at 439 therefore did not begin with my generation. It must have first occurred with one of three men: our father Noble Sensor Willis, his father Henry Noble Willis, or Henry Noble’s father Henry Fisher Willis. This conclusion is illustrated in the Mutant Marker Chart linked above. Unfortunately, this knowledge has limited value because there are so few male descendants of Henry Fisher. Henry Noble Willis was the only son of Henry Fisher, and Noble Sensor was one of only two sons of Henry Noble. The other son of Henry Noble was Harry McMaster Willis who had no sons. Absent actually digging up a dead relative, it is not possible to determine exactly where the mutation occurred. Thankfully, it is not necessary to be more precise. The remaining males in the entire line of Henry Fisher Willis are the three sons of Noble Sensor (my two brothers and I), plus our five sons and four grandsons. We should all share the mutant marker. No mysteries to be solved there.

Had the mutation occurred with Zachariah rather than further down the line, it would have been extremely useful in identifying kin. Zachariah had a number of sons including some who left the Eastern Shore of Maryland to establish families elsewhere in the country.

(For more information on this family, see “The John Willis Family of Dorchester and Caroline Counties, Maryland” and “The John Willis Family … The Second Generation” recently posted on this site.)