Individual 10: Bess Crystal McFarren

Individual Record 10

Name} McFarren, Bess Crystal (Bessie)

Family History} Hancock

Title}

Race} White

Sex} Female

Birth: Date} Exa 28 Jan 1900

Place} Golden, Barry, Missouri

Marr1: Date} Exa 7 Sep 1918

Place} El Centro, Imperial, California (Link)

Marr2: Date} Exa 24 Apr 1924

Place} Woodland, Yolo, California ( Link)

Death: Date} Exa 24 Sep 1976

Place} Sherwood Oaks Health Ctr., Fort Bragg, Mendocino, Calif.

Burial: Date} Exa 25 Sep 1976

Place} Rose Memorial Park Cemetery, Fort Bragg, Mendocino, California

Grave Marker} Yes

Source 1}	72 = Birth record
Source 2}	62 = 1900 USA cen
Source 3}	96 = 1910 USA cen
Source 4}	695 = Photograph
Source 5}	1453 = Family notes
Source 6}	152 = School recd
Source 7}	145 = Marriage rec
Source 8}	151 = Newspaper
Source 9}	300 = 1920 USA cen
Source 10}	317 = Marriage rec
Source 11}	732 = 1930 USA cen
Source 12}	1587 = 1940 USA cen
Source 13}	1609 = 1950 USA cen

Parents: } William Henry McFarren & Rebecca Jane Ellison
Relationship No.} 9

1st Household No.} 227 = Golden, Barry, Missouri

Occupation 1} Housewife
Occupation 2} Cook/chef

Religion/Church} Methodist

Spouses: First} Worden, Lionel H.
Second} Williams, Simeon Clyde (Si)
Total Number of} 2

Source 14} 1600 = City directory
Source 15} 1601 = Voter record
Source 16}     9 = Biography
Source 17}     10 = Family notes
Source 18}   164 = Geog history
Source 19}   675 = Photographs

Source 20}   701 = Photographs
Source 21}   703 = Will
Source 22}   704 = Obituary
Source 23}   715 = Land deeds
Source 24}   861 = Death record
Source 25} 1599 = S.S. record

Source 26}   719 = Death certif
Source 27} 1588 = Cemetery rec
Source 28}   767 = Family notes
Source 29}   751 = Photographs
Source 30} 1218 = Photographs

Notes: According to an affidavit of her uncle, Bess Crystal McFarren was born 28 Jan 1900 in Golden, Missouri. Her parents were William Henry McFarren & Rebecca Jane Ellison. Bess moved from Missouri to Arkansas and to Oklahoma during her childhood years, residing with her parents and at times with her grandparents, as her parents followed work opportunities.

In the 1900 US census, Bessie, 4 months, and her mother Becky, were living with her grandparents John and Sarah Ellison in the Cedar Township, Carroll, Arkansas. In the 1910 US census, Bessie, 9, was living with both of her parents, William and Rebecca McFarren in Noble Ward 2, Clevand County, Oklahoma. Her father was a laborer doing odd jobs. She had a sister Ruby and brother Roy. The girls attended school.

By July 1914 Bess had arrived in Holtville California, to stay with her aunt and uncle Exie and Cornelia McFarren. Bess, shown in the photo at the right, was then 14 years old. Her daughter Viola later said that Bess may have worked for and briefly lived with Harold Bell Wright a famous Western writer and his family while there. In about Dec 1915, when her parents separated and her father moved to the California Imperial Valley (Brawley), Bess took her sister Ruby and brother Roy to live with her McFarren grandparents who had by then arrived in Holtville. Bess attended school and worked in a grocery to help pay expenses.

Bessie, 19, and her Holtville high school boyfriend Lionel H. Worden, 24, were married by a Justice of the Peace on 7 Sep 1918 in El Centro, Imperial, California. He was a sailor and she was a bookkeeper. Lionel left four days later to report for duty at Mare Island, near San Francisco. She later told Viola that her first born had died in her arms — presumeably shortly after the child's birth.

In late 1918 or early 1919, Bess travelled from the Imperial Valley to visit her uncle Ed McFarren in Napa — and probably to be near Lionel at Mare Island. The photo at the left below was taken about this time. Bess's daughter Viola believed that Bess never divorced Lionel, and that the gold wedding ring that Bess always wore came from Lionel — not Simeon.

Hard working and ambitious, Bess enrolled in the nurses training program at the hospital of the Yountville Veterans Home. She is listed as a Nurse in the facility in the 1920 U.S. census. It was there that she met Simeon Williams. He took Bess to Calistoga and other places on his Indian motorcycle, using a side car borrowed from Uncle Ed. After Bess was at the Veterans Home for about one year, she became pregnant in Jan 1920.

In late Summer 1920, Bess went back to Coffeyville, Kansas, to visit her mother who had become very ill. Daughter Viola Clide was born there in Sep 1920. To avoid embarrassment, Simeon and Bess said that they were married on 19 Dec 1919, in Woodland, California. However, they weren't legally married until 24 Apr 1924. Their daughter Ruby Lorraine was born in Oct 1922 in Napa.

In the 1930 U.S. census, Bess, 30, and her husband Simeon, 33, and their two daughters Viola, 9, and Lorraine, 7, were living at 1611 F Street, Napa. Simeon, 33, was a bookkeeper for a poultry plant. Members of the household included her brother Roy McFarren, 22, and his wife Nell, 18. The Great Depression began to influence the family and almost everyone in Napa during the hard years that followed. For example, Bess learned to mix and use baking soda and salt instead of buying toothpaste. A few hens in the backyard provided her young family with a continued supply of eggs. Hours spent at her Singer sewing machine reduced the cost of clothing.

In the 1940 U.S. census, Bess, 40, was living with her husband Simeon, 42, on F Street, Napa. Bess was the proprietor of the Green Lantern resturant, and daughter Lorraine, 17, was a waitress.

Bess greatly enjoyed fishing. After World War II, she and Simeon travelled in their cabin cruisers from the Napa River to the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers where they caught numerous striped bass and catfish. After moving to Fort Bragg in 1948, Bess fished off of the rocks at their ocean-front property. There she caught sea trout, cappazoni, and an assortment of other fish. Being close to Noyo and its fishing industry meant that her freezer was always stocked with salmon, albacore, and other ocean fish. Bess went abalone fishing with her crowbar when the tide was extremely low. She would then pound her abalone catch on a large piece of polished black marble until the abalone was tender [The marble block is now at Dan's home in Auburn.]

In the 1950 U.S. census, Bess, 50, and Simeon, 52, were living in Fort Bragg near the ocean, 577 Road to Cara, off Highway 1, in the Ten Mile River area, Mendocino, California. Simeon was doing bookeeping for a Beer Distributing Co. Bess loved animals and birds. Over the years at Fort Bragg she had canaries, parakeets, ducks, cats, red hens and roosters, rabbits, lambs and sheep, pigs, and a cow and calves. The photo at the left shows Bess with Daisy and two of Daisy's calves, circa 1955. She fed her animals, milked the cow, churned butter, and always had fresh chicken eggs. Tears would come to her eyes when it came time to slaughter an animal for its meat.

Bess also loved cooking, baking fresh bread, gardening, canning fruit, and picking boysenberries for her great boysenberry cobblers. Her garden at their Fort Bragg home included strawberries, potatoes, lettuce, carrots, corn, beets, radishes, celery, rhubarb, cucumbers, and squash. To supplement their income, Bess took on a series of cooking jobs in Fort Bragg: first she worked at the Cousin's Inn (a steak house), then a grave-yard shift at the Club Fort Bragg, and finally she cooked at French Hospital. The photo at the right shows her leaving for work in 1968.

Bess developed ovarian cancer, and after a long illness, died 24 Sep 1976, at the Sherwood Oaks Health Center, Fort Bragg. Services were held 26 Sep 1968 at Cain Grove and Haverfield Chapel, Fort Bragg. She is buried in the Rose Memorial Park Cemetery, Fort Bragg, Mendocino, California.