Relationship 119: Franklin George McFarren & Nellie Catherine Morgan

Relationship Record 119

Male/Husband} McFarren, Franklin George (Frank)

Family History} Hancock

Female/Wife} Morgan, Nellie Catherine (Twiee)

Relationship Type} Marriage

Marriage: Date} Fam 5 Feb 1907

Place} Chandler, Lincoln, Oklahoma

Ended: On Date} Exa 14 Feb 1925
By} Death of husband

Source 1}	9 = Biography
Source 2}	86 = Biography
Source 3}	473 = 1910 USA cen
Source 4}	150 = Birth record
Source 5}	465 = Death record
Source 6}	843 = Obituary
Source 7}	917 = Letter
Source 8}	1383=Letter
Source 9}	675 = Photograph
Source 10}	1387=Family history

1st Household No.} 167 = Coweta City, Oklahoma

Photo} See below

Last Updated
by} Dan Hancock

Date Updated} 18 Jan 2015
Date Created} 17 Jun 1994

Notes: Frank and Nellie met in 1905 when he was a traveling salesman for the Singer Sewing Machine Company. He came to her parents' house when Nellie was doing the wash and everybody else was gone to town.

She fixed lunch for him, as this was one of his regular stops around the country for room and board. In those days that was how many women paid for their sewing machines. The salesmen would exchange room and board for a sewing machine, and that is how Nellie paid for hers.

Frank and Nellie were married in Chandler, Oklahoma, two years later. They then moved to the Sapulpa Oil Fields where Frank acquired a cleaning and pressing shop that had a pawn shop on the side. This was a very busy place, what with all the men working the oil fields and the quick money needed for their gambling, etc. They stayed there one year, and then moved on to Coweta and went into the same business there until 1910.

In 1911, Frank and Nellie lived near Porter, Oklahoma, in Wagoner County. Frank there became a Watkins Products salesman and their first child, Eugene Carl, was born in September. The photo at the right shows Frank and Nellie with son Eugene in 1913. Their second child, Jess Lorraine, was born in 1914 in Ponotauk County, and their third child, Elva Jewel, arrived in Muskogee County, Oklahoma, in September 1916.

In 1919, the family ventured out West to California for the first time. They traveled by train to Holtville, where their fourth child, Francis Earl, was born in 1920 and died four months later. Their fifth was born there in 1922.

After a couple of quick trips back to Oklahoma, they headed West again in 1923 to stay — in an open Model T touring car with Frank, Nellie, and their four kids. Two other cars of relatives also came with them. On their way while in a prairie, a cyclone struck with rain so hard it was impossible to travel as the road was mostly just dirt. The three car loads of relatives found shelter in a one-room school house — with no heat or lights. Finally, after three weeks of traveling, they arrived in Garden Grove, California.

Frank and his family then headed North to Napa — as they had relatives there: Uncle Ed and Bess McFarren. Daughter Fern Elvira was born there in July 1924.

The Winter of 1924 and 1925 was a bad one! Frank caught pneumonia and passed away in February 1925.

Children:

Total # of Children} 6

Seq. # of Primary} 1

1st Child}	McFarren, Eugene Carl (Gene)
2nd Child}	McFarren, Jess Lorraine (Jessie or Mac)
3rd Child}	McFarren, Elva Jewel (Little Jewel)
4th Child}	McFarren, Francis Earl
5th Child}	McFarren, Joyce Lucille
6th Child}	McFarren, Fern Elvira

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