Transcribers Log #004 - ELIZABETH RIDGELY JACKSON of Winchester, Virginia

Welcome to... My Darling Emma 1857

If you are NEW HERE be sure to read the beginning of the journey I am on transcribing my family's 19th century letter collection!

Sometimes I wonder how (and WHY) these letters survived a century, spending decades basking in a dusty barn and eventually ending up in my basement closet sitting decades more... Well, I don’t have an exact answer, but I do know for many years they were safe guarded by one of Emma’s 5 daughters, Elizabeth Ridgely Jackson (1897-1983) and she is who I want to write about. I wouldn't be writing this here today if Miss Jackson didn't safe guard these letters!

    Ridgely as she preferred carried on the family historian torch from her mother Emma and not only kept these family heirloom treasures, but she gathered & recorded family genealogy really earning her that historian title. I now have her hand-written family tree charts along with some notes and photos she compiled back in the 50s and 60s (I assume) going by correspondences.

Ridgely Jackson photo from my personal collection/photo also in James Madison yearbook

Elizabeth Ridgely Jackson 
Photo from a family member. Ridgely graduated from James Madison University in 1922.
Approximately 7% of American women earned a bachelors degree around this time.

In a time-period when women DID NOT have some of the freedoms as we do now and only about 25% of them held jobs, Ridgely Jackson wasn't like the other gals. She went on to earn herself a college degree, owned a nice home with her two "spinster" sisters, enjoyed a fulfilling teaching career, traveled at a time others did not (The Great Depression) and was VERY independent for a women of that era. 

I recall my father speaking of his great Aunt Ridgely a time or two and said she "saint like" and that she was very intelligent like his sister (who also became a school teacher.) He said Ridgely was a “traveler” like us (though her for adventure and us because he joined the Marine Corps.) I never met Aunt Ridgely, only heard about her. I was told she wrote faithfully to her nephews (one being my grandfather) while they were homesick drafted in the military during WWII. I NOW have some of those wartime family letters, postcards AND telegrams in the closet in my basement...

    Ridgely’s niece (My great aunt) Louise (Travers) Kleh wrote an article in REMINISCE magazine (published in 2019) about Ridgely's cross-country road trip after I gave her a copy of Ridgely’s travel journal that I had found in along with the family letters. In the article, Louise wrote “Ridgely was a perfect example of “The Church Lady” with her insistence on good manners and respectable behavior, but she also had a keen curiosity about other cultures and a wonderful sense of humor. She was a well educated woman who read books and magazines that sparked her interest in seeing the world.”

I find it a pretty cool to have a box of Ridgely’s personal affects after hearing of her as a kid. Her handwritten journal from her travels in the late 1930s details part two of the "girls summer road trip." Unfortunately the part one journal was lost somewhere over time and I doubt its still in existence. BUT what an adventure she writes in the journal entires I do have! Ridgely makes the trip with her 5 girlfriends (and one male companion driver) - ALL IN ONE CAR!! -driving across the country from Virginia to California taking in new sights, new food and making lasting memories along the way!  

Ridgely's travel dairy is a story all on its own and deserves its own center stage! You hearing me Taylor Sheridan!? The journal has A LOT of beautiful pristine colored postcards, ticket stubs & brochures from all the various places they visited. This TRULY once in a LIFETIME ADVENTURE carried the group to places some of us only dream of visiting still today! Maybe one day I'll write about the travel journal more in depth and share the cool touristy memorabilia that are taped among the daily entries. But for now my time is focused on transcribing the 100s of really old family letters & notes my ancestors never used as fire kindle like they were instructed to. 

I WILL go ahead and give you one snippet of the Ridgely's travel dairy/journal and that is the VERY last paragraph of it. Enjoy my friends. 

“My heart took another curious leap as we entered old Winchester and I caught a glimpse of the roof of my ‘home sweet home’ from Braddock street. Stirring goodbyes were said as members of our wonderful crowd were left at their homes, safe and sound, by our most efficient driver who had safely taken us over 7,977 miles of hot plains, steep mountains, and dry deserts; through wind storms, sandstorms and rain storms; through heat and cold, over good roads and bad roads, back to the ‘Garden Spot of the World’ where the cotton, corn, and taters grow … back home with memories of sea and pleasures that will stay with us as long as we live.”

-E. Ridgely Jackson August 15, 1939

From the back of the magazine of REMINISCE (Sept 2019) of Ridgely and co. riding mules down into the Grand Canyon. The picture was taken by the Kolb Brothers, early Grand Canyon explorers/tour guide/photographers. They are well known for essentially inventing early tourism photography. I found a lot to read about these mega thrill seeking brothers online and if you too wanna go down that rabbit hole yourself here is a website to get you started:

https://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/historyculture/kolbconflict.htm

NOW I GOTTA ASK.. Would YOU ride on a mule’s back down into the Grand Canyon?

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REMINISCE magazine (Sept 2019) top left corner photo I provided of the diary and some of its memorabilia

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When Ridgely wasn't seeking out new places & thrills, she was a well liked school teacher. Miss Jackson loved learning and she loved teaching. Her teaching degrees and many certificates I found in the box tell me so. 

Ridgely graduated from James Madison University and spent her life teaching elementary age pupils with the Winchester Public Schools for about 40 years! How do I know this? In her box of paper “treasures” I inherited were her teaching contracts- ALL 40 of them! Her first contact starts in 1922 when her salary was $1050 for the term of 10 months (teaching 200 days.) Fast-forward FORTY YEARS LATER to 1961 and Miss Jackson’s salary was $5000 for 10 months (teaching 180 days + 10 inservice days AND paid sick leave.)

    I found a pretty cool photo of Ridgely online in the Stewart Bell Jr. Archives at The Handley Regional library. Ridgely is seen attending the retirement party of a coworker, Lola Moore, principal of John Kerr elementary school. The photo was taken in 1958 & I noticed right away Ridgely on the left. 

The photo can bee seen here 📷

Ridgely's own report card from 1915.

In Ridgely’s box of letters and papers were also photos, including class photos. These were Elementary age students when yearbook were not common. So I am sharing these photos below in the hopes they may reach others who may recognize their ancestors names that I added to each picture. 

    Hope you enjoyed learning a little about my Great Aunt Ridgely, the teacher, the traveler, the historian, the gal who adored her hometown of Winchester, Virginia. If you get a chance for a summer road trip, maybe with your girlfriends, take a minute and just think how different your adventure would be if it was 100 years ago!  

Till the next one folks.   

Sincerely,

    CT 

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Handley Elementary 3rd grade class Miss Jackson 1929

L to R top row - Ray Robinson, Lloyd Kinnie, Maxine Kinnie, Ruth Calvin, Nelson Grim, Brown Ritter, Cora Lee Evans, Esther Stein

Second row - Frank Yeakle, John Knight, Elethia Jones, Hazel Grant, Helen McClure, William LaFollette, Tom Ritter, Eliza Pierce

Third row - Bunny Larrick, Claude Anderson, Brodys Whitlock, Holmes Curl, Ruth Cuthbert, Isabel Brown, Sara Sager, Richard Ashwood

Bottom row - Henry Baker Jr, Kenneth Hutchinson, Bessie Calvin, Richard Himelright, Cecil Adams, Martha Bucher, R. Marguerite Dicks

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John Kerr School Winchester, VA 3rd grade Miss Jackson 1930

Left to right top row  - Geraldine Fogle, Mildred Smith, Ralph Brown, Edith Dunn, Anna M Baker, Frank Bailey, Eva Dyke

Second row - Anna B Bell, Dorothy Fauver, George Ritter, Wilbur Oates, Loring Pingley, Alton Hoover, Earl Haun, Chas. Anderson, Stewart Pugh

Third row - Joe Pentz, Henrietta Haines, Colleen Racey, Beatrice Morris, Edwin Snider, Gladys Garber, Louise Wilson, Snydor Miller, Hilda Triplett

Bottom row - Thelma Lee Green, Randolph Ritter, Nina Ramaciotti, John Hughes, Richard Forney, Neil Babb

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John Kerr School Winchester, Va 3rd grade Miss Jackson 1932

Left to right top row - Catherine McCauley, Bobby Williams, Helen Hodgson, Winifred Yost, Pearl Bowen, Mervel McCormac

Second row - Richard Farmer, Glenn Garber, Austin Pentz, Sophia Spanos, Billy Massie, Fern Fogle, Ida Sue Anderson, June Olinger, Violet Funk

Third row - Audrey Caine, Edward Embery, Carlette McCarty, Henry Kern, Walter Robinson, Jimmy Newman, Boyce Claude Belle, Dorothy Armel

Fourth row - Frances Bozel, Jean Everhart, June McIlwee, Audrey Creswell, Richard Brown, Peggy Lee Anderson, Paul Tomney, Charles Zuckerman

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John Kerr School Winchester, VA 3rd grade Miss Jackson 1923

L to R Bottom row - Mary Tinsman, Helen Slifer, Colleen Jackson, Catherine Coontz, Dorothy Rutherford

Second row - Ethel A. Cooper, Robert Reed, Winifred Anderson, Mary Avery Kenney, Earl Robertson, Miller Fletcher, Raymond McMillan, Lee Butler, Richard Rush 

Third row - Nelia Beverly, Retha cooper, Dorothy corner, Reba Nachman, Mary Kramer, Margret Dehaven, Elizabeth Green, Lucille Hicks, Ray Gatewood

Top row - June Martindale, Pauline Howdyshell, Eleanor Antz, Vernon Haines, Virginia Stirker

Absent- Norman Shade and Arabella Russell

Dropped- Ashby Brumback

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Nothing written on the back, but I believe it's from a school that Ridgely taught at because I don't recognize anyone in it as family members AND it was with the photos below.

Student or staff photo back reads: Leora Wells or Nells 

Back of photo reads: Ridgely's school in Winchester after school parade. Principal Miss Dean
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