Joel Graves

Eli Graves (22 April  1839 - 1 July 1924) was born in Claiborne County, East Tennessee, and seems to be named after his Uncle Elias. He married Margaret Jane Norman (30 January 1845 – 19 October 1911) in Morgan County, Indiana on 4 November 1860. Over the years, Eli was a farmer and merchant.

Picture of Eli and Margaret Norman Graves as found in Charity Keck Graves' photo album, probably from about 1870.

Note the G.A.R on Eli Graves' marker. That stands for Grand Army of the Republic, the fraternal organization of the veterans who served in the Union Army during the Civil War. Their motto was Fraternity, Charity, and Loyalty and they worked to promote veteran rights. By working with the Republican Party, they promoted the right of their black veterans to vote. Their model was used by the American Legion which formed after World War I and the Veterans of Foreign Wars which started after World War II. Until the early 1900's, if you wanted to be President of the United States, you needed the GAR's endorsement. The GAR disappeared after their last surviving member died in 1956.

Eli and Margaret had 12 children, all born in Atchison County, Kansas: William Henry (September 19, 1864), Fanny Bell (May 10, 1866 – October 30, 1867), Joseph Foster (February 26, 1868), Mary Loualice (January 30, 1870 – April 10, 1872), Daniel Cass (June 20, 1871), Charles Edward (September 29, 1873 – November 25, 1873), Frederick Alfred (April 3, 1875 – August 22, 1957). Francis "Frank" Goodall was born March 1, 1856 and became a part of the family. He died March 30, 1931 in Owensmouth, California.

           
Also from Charity's photo album, picture at right, her grandson Frederick Graves, probably about 1877.

PHOTO: Frank Goodall (adopted), Josie, William, Della, Harry, and Frederick with Eli and Margaret seated. In 1869 the railroad was completed from St. Joseph, Missouri to Oakland, California, and Eli moved his family by train to California in 1876. After they settled in Santa Clara, California, Harry Curtis was born (July 26, 1877 – July 12, 1930), and Della Myrtle (August 29, 1879).

DONNER PARTY  (Note: The Donner Party was snowbound in a Sierra Nevada pass, near present day Truckee and Donner Lake, in the winter of 1846-47. Out of 87 people, 48 survived, and some people thought our family was from a member of this group named Graves - not so. Our family followed them to California 30 years later on the train).

We have a form for the census taken on 14 and 15 June 1880, and it lists the Graves family as living in Temecula, San Diego County, California. They must have moved to Downey a few years later. Click to view
After Eli moved the family to Downey, California in the early 1880’s, Josephine was born (June 30, 1883 – November 2, 1952). Joseph Foster and Daniel Cass both died in Downey, California at 15 and 14 years old, respectively.

October 19, 1911, in Long Beach, California, Margaret Jane died. On October 4, 1913, two years later, and at the age of 74, Eli remarried Miranda A. Cowell, who was 59 years old. Eli lived another 11 years. While visiting his daughter Della, he died July 1, 1924 at the age of 85.

Aunt Della's Memoirs

Fred was nine months old when Margaret and Eli Graves and family came from Kansas to California by Emigrant Steam Train. They all slept on the floor. Robbers were plentiful, so there was a man on guard duty in each car. Papa was on guard duty when a man came into our car with a sore hand and asked Papa to look at it. Papa, being wise, stepped back and told him, ‘No doctor.’ Those days they wore brass knuckles to knock one out. Another night, a man came in, knelt over Papa and was feeling inside his shirt. Mama saw the man and she kept touching Papa until he woke up. When Papa asked him what he wanted, the man whispered that he wanted to warn them that robbers were on the train. The man was the robber.

Frank Goodall was living with the Graves family at the time that Grandma Margaret and Grandpa Eli got married. They asked Frank to come live with them and he did. He had no known relatives living except a young sister. He later married Sue, and they were wonderful people and greatly loved by all the family and friends. They were very stable people and raised two sons, Erle and Ralph. Erle and his wife raised two children and Ralph and his wife, Helen, raised two children. Frank Goodall died on March 30, 1931.

Aunt Della died October 27, 1965.

Frederick Alfred Graves (April 3, 1875 – August 22, 1957) married Emma Louise Johnson (April 16, 1874 – November 16, 1962) (daughter of Grandma Johnson). He owned 160 acres through the 1862 Homestead Act - Click to view.

INTERESTING FACT. Joel Graves was born in 1953 and remembers Grandpa Fred.

Fred and Emma had six children: Jesse, Queenie, Warren, Curtis, Cecil, and Theodore who died at one year old.

Fred Graves' Obituary From the West Valley Letters, Chatsworth, California, August 29, 1957. Editor: Betty Straka.

Chatsworth has bade farewell to one more old-time resident, one who had many tales to tell of the early days of our town.

More than 100 relatives and friends were present at the graveside service for Fred A. Graves, which was held Monday afternoon at Oakwood Cemetery at 2pm with Dr. Harold Hayward officiating with a fine tribute. Mr. Graves passed away Thursday in the Wasco Community Hospital following an illness of several months.

Fred Graves was born in Kansas on April 3, 1875, coming to Southern California when two years old, and settling in Chatsworth when he was 17. In 1896 he married Emma Johnson, the first white child to be born in the San Fernando Valley, and they have enjoyed 61 years of married life together! In the “old days” when Chatsworth was not a part of L.A. (Los Angeles), Fred served as Constable and also Deputy Sheriff – this was when Chatsworth also had its own jail, by golly! (As the constable, Fred would go about his duties riding around the countryside. He carried a pistol on the saddle, and on his way home it was his custom to shoot rabbits for dinner). 

And he was County Fire Warden in charge of the lookout on Oat Mountain. He and Lovell Hill were the joint owners of one of the first grocery stores here, on Topanga near Murilla (the building has since been torn down) doing a bit of farming on the side, and when the store sold, he raised cattle on the Jaughin Ranch north of Chatsworth in the vicinity of Browns Canyon. In the days when we had a little county school house, Fred was on the School Board, and before the streets were dressed up with this hard top modern look, he was Road Foreman, looking after the dirt roads.

Yes, Fred Graves led a full life and a busy one and his many friends will miss him. He leaves his wife, Emma, and four of six children: Queenie Billings of Chatsworth, the only girl; Jesse of Redding; Curtis of Buttonwillow; and Warren of Santa Susana Knolls. Emma Graves' Memoirs

Someone asked Emma Graves to write about her memories of the Chatsworth area, and she typed them out on a typewriter on December 14, 1952.

You wanted me to tell you when the Stage Coach road come through here. Well, I’ll tell you, but as far as I know, I don’t know. I knew a woman who said she came across here in the stagecoach from San Francisco in 1871 and the first name of this place the personalities call “Chatsworth” was Las Felicitas, and from Las Felicitas it was called “Santa Susana.” When they organized the school it was called Santa Susana because they [wanted] to give the school a name. Afterwards it was called Chatsworth, and that’s the name that stayed with them, I guess. In fact, it was called Chatsworth Park, but they cut the “Park” off, because they have no park here.

Adobe for San Fernando Mission

The adobes were made over near, very close in fact, to the ____ park [part?] of
Chatsworth because they had the lime, and the hills there had lime in them, and the adobe ground was there. They made the adobes and heated them in the lime kilns which were in Brown’s Canyon and in the Lime Kiln Canyon and then the bricks were carried over, I presume in wagons or something, to San Fernando to build the San Fernando Mission. After they were pretty well organized there, I think they had something near a thousand Indians, according to the history, smallpox broke out, so the Padres went [took] a lot of these Indians and people who had the smallpox, to the Sulphur Springs of which there were several in Chatsworth and some down now where the Chatsworth Lake is. There are grave yards in both places. At that time it was called Las Pilitas which some say means “pools” and others, “sticks.”

The adobes were made and put out in the hot sun to dry, but we still see where the lime kilns were that cured the first adobes that were made here. The Fathers apparently knew how to make them. Some were made by putting straw in them but the lime was there close to the adobes and they made forms and then put them down in these lime pits which I suppose either rocks had been put in the bottom and heated and the bricks put in there or else – that part of it I don’t know much about. Maybe somebody that’s mechanically inclined can tell you.

Emma Graves’ Mother and Father (Grandma Ann pictured)

My father was born in Denmark, and though a very strong man, didn’t like to fight. The boys there were compelled to join the army and fight, so he came to America. My mother [Ann] was born in Sheffield, England. Her people came here from England when she was four years old. They belonged to the Mormon church in Utah. That was where my mother and father met. They had three little girls and moved to Nevada, and from Nevada they came to California and eventually settled in the hills north of Chatsworth.

The young people met in Utah and of course he seemed to be such a wonderful man, which probably he was, because he was big and strong. They were married in the Mormon church. When their third daughter came, my father decided that he didn’t like it there and so he told my mother he was going to Nevada and she said, “Well, I don’t like to have you go alone.” He said, “Listen, you’re going to come when the next train comes through. I’ll fix that,” but he said, “I’ve got to go now.” So he took the two horses, one a pack horse, and went to Utah [Nevada], and eventually she went to him and from there they came through by wagon to California.

The Johnson Family

Of course the family of Johnsons settled at the old homestead when I was about five or six months old – maybe not that old because they carried me their in their arms. There were nine children. My mother had five boys and five girls. The one boy died, just older than I was. Naturally when we married we had families and I think there are still several hundred of them [still] wandering around in Chatsworth, making beautiful homes and working wherever they like to work. I really wouldn’t know – I haven’t got fingers enough to count them all on so of course since I haven’t been educated too well maybe I couldn’t count them right.

Emma Graves
I was born in Brown’s Canyon in 1873. My brother just older than I was also born there but he passed away when he wasn’t but six years old. When my folks moved to the homestead, I was about five or six months old, and they carried me up to this level flat, way up in the mountains, so my life has been spent, practically always, in Chatsworth.

Brown’s Canyon in the 1800’s

We did well to have candles. My first recollection was candles and then later on it was lanterns and lamps. There were no people lived in Brown’s Canyon, the families just staying there long enough. They had little dobe [adobe] houses or shake houses or something like that, to chop wood and they hauled the wood to Los Angeles and traded it for groceries. There were very few of those kind of people up there and they would steal you blind if you didn’t have everything shut up tight.

Fred Graves

I married a man that had come from Missouri and I met him in Chatsworth. His brother had a ranch out near Calabasas and I met him there, and married him, and we had six children. One died. They have all married except Cecil, the one who is a polio victim some forty years ago. We have five children, twelve grandchildren, and ten great grand children. My oldest son, Jess Graves, is a forestry man, has been for a good many years. At present he is in Redding. The next son was hit by polio when he was 9 ½ years old. My daughter was next. We were boarding the men that were working on the tunnel – the engineers – so when my husband went in and announced that he had a newcomer in the home, they said, “What is it, a king or a queen?” And he said, “A queen,” and they said, “Alright, that’s her name,” and my goodness, I gave her a name but nobody knows her by it. She’s always been called “Queenie.” She lives right there in Chatsworth close to us. The next one was Curtis and he, at present, is making his money in cotton at Buttonwillow. The baby was Warren. He’s been working for the Navy for a good many years, construction work. Most of it is bridge building and things like that. He’s quite proficient in the work that he carries on but most of it is wharf building and things like that. The Navy, of course, let out contracts to contractors and he
really is working for a contractor that is working for the Navy. He has been here all the time, fortunately. They lived at Wilmington for quite a while and then afterward he moved up to Oxnard and they live now over here at the Knolls in Ventura County. So there are none of them that are very far away only that we have four grandsons in the service. Mikey was the first great grandchild – no, the second. Jess’s son had the oldest family, then of course my daughter’s daughter had two children and Mikey is the one that seems to be sort of a favorite in the family.

Breakwater and SP Spur

Where the stage coach road was, when the breakwater was built in Santa Monica, there was a small branch railroad line put out to Chatsworth and on up to the rock quarries, sand rock, and when they were building the railroad, their crew was stationed over in Simi or in Ventura County. Many of the men ate in my home in Los Angeles County. Right on the line was a small cabin. In this cabin a woman held out and had plenty to drink – I don’t know whether she made it or bought it but I imagine she made some of it – I dunno – and she would take blankets and anything that the men would bring there, and trade for drink. Eventually she got in trouble. When the Ventura authorities came after her, she was in Los Angeles County. Los Angeles County got interested and they came after her and she was in Ventura County so apparently they didn’t get together because she stayed there until the railroad was all through, all fixed and traveling in to Los Angeles.

Curtis Harry Graves (September 3, 1906 – February 26, 1963) married Margaret Anastia Hill  HILL FAMILY   (November 19, 1907 – November 12, 2000) and had 3 children: Marie, Curtis, Norma Jean.

Curtis was born in Chatsworth, California. He spent his childhood as a country boy helping his father with farm and cattle needs in the Chatsworth area. In high
school (Owensmouth, now Canoga Park), he was active in sports and excelled in
football. Because of his efforts, he was called, “Tiger.” When he was older, the
name changed to “Tige,” which became his nickname for life. Tige loved to hunt
and could be persuaded to go at just about any time. In high school he met Margaret Hill (Peggy), and they were married in Chatsworth on August 11, 1928. He died in Bakersfield.


  

Margaret Anastacia Hill was born in Cleveland, Ohio on November 19, 1907 but also lived in Windsor, Canada. Her father and mother, Joshua and Frances Hill, were Canadian citizens. He was a steel fabricator and inventor. Because of her mother’s poor health, the family moved to Canoga Park, California in 1923. The trip took them two months in a Model T Ford. In Canoga Park, the family raised chickens and her father worked at inventing. Margaret died November 12, 2000 in Plattsburg, Missouri and was buried with Tige in Bakersfield, California. Click on this link to learn about the Hill family.

Margaret Marie was born on February 20, 1929 at Los Angeles Orthopedic Hospital. On October 8, 1930 Curtis Allen was born in Chatsworth, and Norma Jean was born in Chatsworth on July 31, 1941.

Over the years, Tige was employed as a carpenter, tool dresser for an oil company, Assistant Ranger/Fire Fighter for the California State Division of Forestry. He was self-employed as a farmer in the Chatsworth area and grew grain, had an orchard, and did custom tractor work. In 1943 the family moved to Buttonwillow, California, bought an 80 acre farm, and Tige built their house. Tige and Peggy enjoyed playing cards. Tige excelled in public service and was a member of the Buttonwillow School Board, Kern County School Board, the Farm Bureau, and the Lions Club.

A year after he died in 1964, Peggy sold the farm and moved to Los Gatos, California to be close to her parents. In 1968 her parents moved to Hollister, California and she joined them in 1970. After her parents died, she moved to Bedford, Iowa to be near her daughter, Norma. In 1988 she moved to the Foxwood Springs seniors center in Raymore, Missouri. When her health failed, she was moved to a nursing home in Plattsburg, where she died.

Curtis Allen Graves (October 8, 1930) on August 9, 1952 married Patsy Ruth Kirkham (February 14, 1933) and had 5 children: Joel, Timothy (July 13, 1956 – March 17, 1960 died of childhood Leukemia), Susan, Peter and Andrew.

Curt was born in Chatsworth, California, October 8th, 1930. His childhood was spent as a country boy helping his father with farming activities. He attended grammar school in Chatsworth until he was in the 8th grade. In 1943 his father decided to move to Buttonwillow, California to continue his farming practice. Curt completed grammar school at Buttonwillow, then attended Bakersfield High School. He graduated in 1948. He then attended Bakersfield Junior College and graduated in 1950 with an Associate of Arts in Business Administration. After college he had various jobs and finally went to work for the California State Division of Highways on a survey crew. At this time the Korean War was active, and he was about to be drafted in to the U.S. Army. He elected to join the U.S. Army Air Force as an Aviation Cadet in March 1951. The quota for a class was set in August 1951, so he was sent to Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio,
Texas for basic training as a private. After six weeks he graduated at the rank of Private First Class (E-3). He was sent to San Angelo, Texas to work on the
flightline until his cadet class started. In August 1951 he started Basic Cadet Training (Class 52F).

The first six months was spent flying the AT-6. He also studied weather, military law, and instrument flying. In February 1952 he was transferred to Big Springs, Texas to complete Cadet Advanced Training, and was trained in the T-28 and T-33 aircraft. He completed this program in September 1952. His class was scheduled to go to the Korean War, but Curt was sent to the Air Defense Command, and later the Strategic Air Command. In October 1951 Curtis met Patsy Ruth Kirkham of San Angelo, Texas. After dating they were engaged in July 1952 and married August 9, 1952.

Patsy Ruth Kirkham. Pat was born February 14, 1934 in San Angelo, Texas, Tom Green County. Her parents were Edwin Oliver Kirkham and Joy Marie Cannon Kirkham.

Patsy went to Reagan Elementary school only a block from home. When she started seventh grade, her parents moved to the Lakeview district, where her dad was just finishing building their new house and where just a few blocks away he was the Captain of the fire station for that district.

She was very active in junior high and high school. In junior high she organized and cataloged a library for student use, published the junior high newspaper, and worked part-time before and after school in the principal’s office. On weekends and holidays, she was an usher at the Texas Theater making 25 cents an hour – her first paying job!

Patsy graduated from Lakeview High School in three years instead of the customary four by going to summer school at San Angelo High before her freshman year. Then during the ensuing three years, she took extra courses for the additional credits for graduation.

She played bass drum in the high school band her freshman year and was elected Freshman Favorite, and continued to work in the school office, but now in the superintendent’s office, where she stayed until graduation.

Her sophomore/junior year (2nd year), she was a class officer, varsity cheer leader, and member of the student council. She was elected the State Land Commissioner at Girl’s state and went to Girl’s State in Austin, Texas, where the highlight was attending a formal tea at the governor’s mansion. During all these activities, she also worked Saturdays and holidays at Sears Roebuck and Company in the auditing office, where they took care of the books for two Sears stores. Gradually, she assisted in the cashiers “cage” and helped make store deposits. Sundays were spent playing the piano for church services at the Lakeview Baptist Church.

In her senior year, Patsy was head cheer leader, vice-president of the student council, and was elected to numerous other honors. She was 17 when she graduated in 1951 and went to work in the circulation department of the San Angelo Standard Times – the local newspaper published twice a day. The office work was all possible because of two years of typing, bookkeeping, and short-hand classes taken in high school and taught by a very capable and tough professional business teacher, Mrs Dorothy Salsbury.

After graduation she moved into the house of her grandmother and great grandmother. They lived in town where there was a bus stop right in front of their house. There she had a large front bedroom with a closet, but everything else was shared. For a short time, she went to work for a used car salesman who owned his own business, and it was during this time that she met Curtis Graves. In fact, it was in October, but they didn’t have a date until February of the following year. In July she went to work as a cashier and bookkeeper at the Cadet Club at Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo.

On July 4th, 1952, Curtis proposed marriage and they were married August 9th, 1952 in Portales, New Mexico. She continued working until Curt graduated a 2nd Lieutenant on September 13, 1952 from cadet training at Webb Air Force Base in Big Springs, Texas.

Joel Curtis Graves (October 16, 1953) married Rena Lynn Grizzle (April 30, 1953) on June 16, 1973. Their son, Joshua Thomas Graves was born June 24, 1974, and their daughter, Christina Anne Graves was born July 30, 1977. This picture was taken November 2004 on the occasion of Joel’s ordination as a Lutheran minister, at their house at 5522 Jackson Farm Loop, SE, Lacey, WA. In September 2009 Joel and a group of like-minded people started New Hope Anglican church in Lacey. Then on November 15, 2009 Joel was ordained an Anglican Priest and pastored New Hope Anglican Church in Lacey, Washington for over two years. Picture of Rena hiking in Olympic Forest.

Joshua Thomas Graves (June 24, 1974) and Steffanie Chambers ...

Elias David Graves (October 30, 2011) Now you know why I highlighted the names Elias and Eli above.