Things about my family that my grandchildren should know.” Series …. Part 1…

Starting out with the great grand parents.

These will be short, as I don’t have a lot of information on them..  Especially my mother’s family… Even though I lived with one of them a short time.

The next one is my father’s family…. Which a great deal of information came from my aunt.. but still. 

Pardon.S. was native of Newport, R.I.  His family was a long time Newport family going way back.. not to

Mayflower of Mass.  But pretty close. He married a little tiny woman.. who was about 4 foot 8  She, too, was from a long time family of Newport.. the Tennent/Easton family…. He was a health inspector and went on to become a marshal for the town.. his trip to get a criminal took him to Japan.. bring the criminal back.. only to have the courts let him loose.

Also some where there is in my possession a letter written by him as a marshal..  to my other side grandfather, dealing with asking him to come to court to testify about another criminal, of a crime my Richardson side saw.

Later in life, he went to work for a paving company becoming the CEO for the company.

While being a CEO,  he hired an upstart, as a time clerk. Whose job was to make sure every worker was on time, and then make sure they didn’t leave early… and then taking care of the time cards… He wanted his upstart to learn the business from the bottom.. and work up.. All of which he did.  That upstart was A.Leroy. who went on to be a CEO  at that same company years later.  I spent almost a year with A. Leroy… But sadly he didn’t talk much about his life as a youngest.. and as an 18 year old, never thought to ask.. We did get along pretty well, especially when you consider the generation gap.. of 18 to 72. 

Next up is my father’s side…  Not a lot of information there..but more than the Kaull side.  

I got to read a diary of sorts from my grandmother Harriet.. it started just as she was going to the main land to go to Normal School.. which in those days it was where students went to school to become teachers. That was in Providence.

See her family lived on Prudence Island.  A small island in the middle of Narragansett Bay… across from Bristol, R.I.

And north of Jamestown, R.I.   She talks about going to school and a boyfriend who was in the Navy… but then she got a job teaching in Jamestown.  She had a room at a boarding house that she stayed in for the week while teaching. Which she walked to each day from the school.. which is where she met this young man who had a horse and buggy. He asked if he could give her a ride, but it took several days before she would let him..  On weekends.. she would take the Jamestown ferry to Newport… then go to Bristol, and then the ferry that went to Prudence Island.  In a matter of time.. when school broke for summer vacation… she was home on the farm… that Aaron started going to the north end of Jamestown and row a boat to Prudence Island to see Harriet.   After a while they went to New York to a church called… Little Church on the Corner… and got married.

They moved to Jamestown, and lived with Aaron’s family for a short time..  later moving into the boarding house, that was own by Aaron’s relatives.  There their first son was born.

Aaron’s family was from Little Compton over by Fall River, Mass.  He was one of about 6 kids… the family moved to Jamestown on a farm that they worked on. Not their own.. Aron, Aaron’s father was from Sweden, as well as his wife.. (I have a copy of his citizenship somewhere)

Aron (he was with one a…. and the rest after him, has two Aa’s) would take sheep and pigs and take them to Newport on the ferry.. and sell them..  Then head home at night with what was left of his money…. And sometimes bring friends from the main land… especially if it was Friday night.. Then he and the men would push the furniture to the side of the room, roll up the rug.. and then play music on the piano and what ever other instruments they had.. and dance all night long.. while the kids were piled like logs across the beds.  Then in the morning, the women would make breakfast for everyone and then the guest would head for the ferry…  Aron was hard man …. And I guess it went to dead as well, as life, as he is buried in the far side of the family cemetery plot.

Aaron and Harriet, went on to run a livery stable (before cars) first a small one, and then a bigger one called John Carr Watson Farm.. (which is still there and open for tours). They were join by two sons and daughter… Harriet ran the stable with a hired hand many of times as Aaron was sickly at that time.   The two older boys, job at the age of 10 and 12, was to fill in the ruts made by the wagons in the driveway from the highway to farm. So customers could get there.   They also ran a taxi service from one side of the island to the other, so people could go from one ferry on the East side..  to the one on the West side.. going to the main land on both sides.. (those were large sail boats in the beginning).

Later the family moved to the center of Jamestown, owning a store with living quarters above and then a gas station and garages cars came. Running a car taxi then, and also delivering groceries to the summer people homes.  Later on adding a Ford dealership to it..  He also was  with two other men, and started the theater in town.. which is still there, but is many little shops in it now.

After the war, they added a Dodge dealer ship in Newport, on west Broadway.  With the youngest son running the Jamestown garage.. Harriet and Aaron moved to Newport.  Also they built a Ford Garage in Middletown.  Harriet passing away from cancer, Aaron moved into a house with cabins on Beacon Street next to the Ford dealership he had.   My parents built a house just down the street from there on Beacon Street. My memory is of the grape arbor in the back yard, that Grandpa use to lift me up and be able to grab grapes to eat.   Also under that arbor he showed me how to kill chickens.. he drew a line on the cement, put the chicken’s beak on it.. and then chopped the head off..   Of which I used when helping Mom and Dad kill their chickens.  Also remember he was tall.. he died when I was 7.