{"id":12,"date":"2017-03-06T21:38:37","date_gmt":"2017-03-06T21:38:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.marysfolly.com\/?page_id=12"},"modified":"2024-04-04T00:24:22","modified_gmt":"2024-04-04T00:24:22","slug":"ancestor-number-2-garland-francis","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.marysfolly.com\/?page_id=12","title":{"rendered":"Ancestor 2 – Garland Clinton Francis"},"content":{"rendered":"

My Daddy! \u00a0Garland Clinton Francis<\/p>\n

Garland was the first child of Willie Andrew Francis<\/a> and Reka Brandt Lance<\/a> born on September 12, 1910, at Roanoke, Lewis County, West Virginia. \u00a0Garland was raised in the southwest area of Lewis County in an area called Collin’s Settlement. \"\"\u00a0 Garland was soon joined by a sister Juanita on the 28th of December 1911. \u00a0Garland was a healthy little guy who seemed to always be on the go. \"\"\u00a0He almost always looked happy in childhood photos and was playful and kind to other children. \u00a0Clearly he was born an extrovert. \u00a0In the 1920’s census the family lived on Hand Fork Road in Collin’s Settlement and the house in the photo above was where he lived as a child.<\/p>\n

Based on reading old postcards from his mother’s collection, he also spent a lot of time with his maternal grandmother, Dora, and his aunt Cora Marie, Reka’s older sister by a couple of years. \u00a0That explains why he loved his Aunt Marie so very much in his later years. \u00a0\u00a0\"\"<\/p>\n

His maternal grandparents lived in the adjacent county of Upshur, West Virginia and were farmers. \u00a0Garland spent a lot of time with them and, no doubt, helped with the farming. \u00a0While there was certainly hard work involved, he seemed to have been very loved. \u00a0Garland’s parents were operating a small supply store and embalming services in Adrian, Upshur, West Virginia. \u00a0That would seem to explain his parents needing days free from child care. \u00a0However, Garland was likely a little spoiled but only because he was so loved.<\/p>\n

Very little was said about how well Garland did academically. \u00a0Certainly his parents were literate but academic achievements were not a focus. \u00a0Acquiring a trade, means of support and farming were the focus of the area and families. \u00a0\"\"Garland was a teen in the roaring 20’s and clearly behaved\u00a0in a more liberal way then his parents. \u00a0Still a farmer, Garland told his sister-in-law June about having sex in a cow pasture and rolling into a cow pattie.\u00a0 Perhaps I should leave that story out but it seems that all involved are deceased it lends to the story of his personality. \u00a0\u00a0I never knew him to be disrespectful to women but he certainly did love them. \u00a0Based on the personality of his mother and maternal grandmother, they were strong women. \u00a0I don’t believe he ever forced his attentions on a woman. \u00a0Not only did he enjoy women but they seemed to enjoy him in return.<\/p>\n

Garland didn’t finish high school and it was a source of embarrassment for him. \u00a0It wasn’t uncommon in those times but clearly he had expected more of himself. So taking into consideration the liberation\u00a0of the roaring 20’s, Garland had a daughter. \u00a0She was illegitimate and we don’t know for sure that he knew about her. \u00a0\"\"Margaret Mary was born August 11, 1929 at St Joseph’s Rectory at Buckhannon, Upshur, West Virginia. \u00a0Her mother was either Maria Johns or Maria Jones. \u00a0Marge and I discussed at length whether or not Garland knew of her birth. \u00a0I believe he did because the the similarity of our names. \u00a0Clearly the mother was Catholic since Marge was born in a Catholic hospital. \u00a0Garland was raised as a Methodist. \u00a0In the 1920s, it was almost as unlikely for religions to intermarry as it was for racial differences to marry. \u00a0Since marriage was out of the question, I believe he did what any boy was supposed to do, and that was to leave town. \u00a0It was discreet because even his sister who was less than two years younger did not know about Margaret Mary’s birth.<\/p>\n

Garland did show up in the 1930 census with his parents in Collin’s Settlement but based on his grandmother’s diary below he was in Elk Ridge, West Virginia by 1932. \u00a0The ‘Depression’ was hard on everyone. \u00a0My dad would express anger that his own father chewed\u00a0tobacco during that time. \u00a0He commented that he had to have his ‘chaw’ before food. \u00a0He loved his dad but this made him angry. \u00a0The Depression is another explanation for not\u00a0finishing high school.<\/p>\n

\"\"From the diary of Dora Armstrong Lance (Garland’s maternal grandmother):
\n“Garland entered mine as a miner in Kappers mine at Elk Ridge WV in 1932, with Semet Salvoy Company. Studied and got mine foreman papers while there, bought land in Smithers, West Virginia. Built a house and located there on February 13, 1941. In 1940 started in with the Electrs Metalurgical Co. of Smithers West Virginia as Assistant Foreman. Built two more houses which he rents.”<\/p>\n

\"\"My father also told me that he ran moonshine over Gauley Mountain (in Fayette County, West Virginia) during the prohibition and that was how he got the money to buy the land in Smithers. \u00a0He drove in the dark with no head lights at 60 mph – don’t forget what that road would have been like in that 1930’s. \u00a0 The land in Smithers had three little clapboard coal company houses and the railroad was within ‘spitting distance’ of the back doors. \u00a0Not exactly prime property but more that most.<\/p>\n

My dad was in a car accident around 1938. \u00a0I don’t know how the accident happened but he never hinted that he was running ‘shine’. \u00a0The injuries were serious enough that he was admitted to he Montgomery General Hospital where\u00a0he met Elaine Beatrice Riddle, a nursing school student. \u00a0Probably because he\u00a0was eight years older and far more experienced than this sweet 18-year old girl, he married her on the 19th of May 1938 in Clay County, West Virginia. \u00a0Their son Garland Ray Francis was born on February 13, 1939. \u00a0Mom always told me they were married April 19th. \u00a0They made their home in Smithers, Fayette County, West Virginia<\/p>\n

\"\"By now you have figured out\u00a0that Garland was a coal miner. \u00a0I hung out with my dad a lot when I was a child. \u00a0My mother probably thought it would keep the ladies away. \u00a0When we would visit people in Smithers, West Virginia, people would call my dad, Butch. \u00a0I was always puzzled when they called him Butch. \u00a0Then one day I asked my mom why they called him Butch and she said it was because he worked part time in a butcher shop cutting meat. \u00a0No one can say Garland wasn’t motivated.<\/p>\n

While his wife worked as a nurse, Garland and Elaine planned to build a new \"\"home on property he purchased in a small town, Charlton Heights, that was east of Smithers on Route 60. \u00a0Shortly after they moved into the new home in the late 1940s, I was born at home delivered by a doctor. \u00a0Doctor’s don’t come to peoples’ homes anymore! \u00a0It was a lovely block home. \u00a0Garland built a lot of it himself. \u00a0He could do anything from masonry, plumbing, electrical – in the mines he was a blasting expert – “fire in the hole”!<\/p>\n

\"\"
Garland with his daughter Mary<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Garland worked in the mines for Kimberly Mine, Carbondale Mine, and Union Carbide, Alloy Mine. \u00a0I remember going to the Union Carbine Alley plant in Smithers, West Virginia, with my dad when he got a hearing test that was required for his employment.<\/p>\n

Garland didn’t sit still. \u00a0Around 1954, he acquired a Dairy Queen franchise. \u00a0Again, building much of it with his own hands, it opened in 1955. \u00a0Elaine had left nursing and stayed home about five years but she now had the job of managing the Dairy Queen. \u00a0\u00a0By 1958, Garland had added an apartments on top of the Dairy Queen and the family moved in it. \u00a0He added a ‘sit down’ restaurant and by 1960 there was the Cliff View Hotel behind the Dairy Queen. \u00a0The hotel idea didn’t last long – just too much housekeeping and he converted the rooms into four apartments. \u00a0Now don’t forget, through all this, Garland was working in the coal mines too. \u00a0He would work a day shift one week, evening shift the next week, and then the midnight shift – after that back to the day shift.<\/p>\n

\"\"Soon Garland opened\u00a0a laundromat in Charlton Heights. \u00a0It was\u00a0first in the area and was very busy most of the time. \u00a0All shiny new washers and dryers. \u00a0He opened up two more laundromats but that only lasted a couple of years because they were too far away to take care of them. \u00a0Garland was also getting older and in his 50’s by now and mining was taking a physical toll on his health. \u00a0His attraction to other women was taking a toll on his marriage. \u00a0By now, their son, had married and they were grandparents in 1960. \u00a0A transition was coming.<\/p>\n

Coal companies love to get out of pensions. \u00a0When that 20 year employment starts approaching, they like to look for ways to terminate employment for non-union miners. \u00a0Garland was a Foreman so he was considered ‘management’. \u00a0One night on midnight shift, the outgoing inspector didn’t notice a weak timber. \u00a0Garland spotted it on his incoming inspection but it was too late for one man. \u00a0One man died in a slate fall due to that weak timber. \u00a0Garland was less than one year away from his ‘twenty’ so he got the boot. \u00a0He fought it but to keep his job, Garland had to take a position in Pennsylvania. \u00a0Union Carbine didn’t think he would take it but he did. \u00a0It was 1965 and we moved to Butler County, Pennsylvania. \u00a0The distance helped the marriage and once again, Garland couldn’t sit still so he decided on an easier, but not necessarily more financial beneficial, challenge of a franchise with a cosmetic company called Fashion Two-Twenty. \u00a0Really, I think he was trying to come up with a way to put his wife and daughter to work. \u00a0In the end, it\u00a0wasn’t successful.<\/p>\n

More winds of change bringing bad news. \u00a0Garland’s father died in 1968 and he had to make arrangements for his mother who was failing. \u00a0He brought his mother to live with him but the lose of her husband triggered dementia and the change of location only made it worse. \u00a0Garland did arrange for nursing home care but not without visiting, checking and finding a place that would give his mother good and loving care.<\/p>\n

More bad news came in 1970 when his son, Garland Ray Francis died in a motorcycle accident. \u00a0It was too much. \u00a0Garland and Elaine moved into the farm house that had been occupied by his parents at Roanoke, Lewis County, West Virginia. \u00a0Back to his roots on a farm near where he had been born. \u00a0Near his brother and sister and cousins. \u00a0He settled there in his retirement years, running cattle, and refurbishing coal mining equipment. \u00a0He even opened a small productive mine on the farm for about three or four years he had a couple of guys working with him. \u00a0He knew coal and loved mining.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Obituary: Garland Clinton Francis, 69, of Roanoke, formerly of Charlton Heights, died Wednesday Apr. 23, 1980\u00a0at a truck stop near Ansted of an apparent heart attack.<\/p>\n

Born in Lewis County, September 12 1910, he was a son of the late William and Reka Lance Francis.<\/p>\n

Mr. Francis was a retired mine foreman for Union Carbide mines at Mammoth.<\/p>\n

He was Owner of the Charlton Heights Dairy Queen and a member of the Charlton Heights United Methodist Church and the Gauley Bridge Lodge 64, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons.<\/p>\n

Survivors include his wife, Elaine Riddle Francis; a daughter, Mary of Fairfax, Va.; a brother, Dana Francis, and a sister, Mrs. Juanita Berry, both of Weston; three grandchildren and one great-grand-child.<\/p>\n

Services will be Sunday at 3 p.m. in the Floyd Funeral Home chapel in Weston. Buriel will be in Heavner Cemetery in Buckhannon with Masonic graveside rites.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My Daddy! \u00a0Garland Clinton Francis Garland was the first child of Willie Andrew Francis and Reka Brandt Lance born on September 12, 1910, at Roanoke, Lewis County, West Virginia. \u00a0Garland was raised in the southwest area of Lewis County in an area called Collin’s Settlement. \u00a0 Garland was soon joined by a sister Juanita on … Continue reading Ancestor 2 – Garland Clinton Francis<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-12","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marysfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marysfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marysfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marysfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marysfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.marysfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1481,"href":"https:\/\/www.marysfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12\/revisions\/1481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marysfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}