AMERICAN CROSSROADS: MY PENNINGTON FAMILY

HOMECOMING MY PENNINGTON FAMILY AND THEIR ALLIED FAMILIES
IN THE WEST: TUCKER, MCDANIEL, TARBERT

Emily Elvira Pennington when she was about 16 years old This picture was probably taken near their home at Wild Rose Prairie, north of Spokane, Washington

EMILY ELVIRA PENNINGTON was born 3 July 1882 in the Black Hills of South Dakota. When I first started trying to find information about my Grandmother Pennington's family, I was delighted to discover that the Black Hills, where she was born, were located in Pennington County. As a novice researcher, I was certain that the county was named for my family, or at the very least, that there was some connection between my Pennington family's presence there and the name. As it turns out, the county was named for John Pennington, who was governor of South Dakota at some time, and who had no descendants. Pennington Pedigrees did an article on him many years ago, as I recall.

My grandmother is shown above in this wonderful picture, a 16 year-old wildflower dancing on the prairie north of Spokane. This picture was probably taken near where she is buried at Wild Rose Prairie Cemetery. The first time I visited Wild Rose Prairie, which is about l5 miles north of Spokane, I thought it was one of the loveliest places on the face of the earth. Of course, in a hundred years Spokane has grown outward from its center. To my great sorrow, the Wild Rose Cemetery is one of thousands of rural cemeteries which have been vandalized in the last several years.

On 4 December 1898 at Hazard, in Spokane County, Washington Emma was married to Edward McDaniel, the son of James Harrison (Hadd) and Rachel (Riley) McDaniel. She died 23 January l9l2 in Idaho and is buried at Wild Rose Prairie in Spokane County,. She died before her time, which is a terrible sadness in any family. That she died because of someone else's callousness, stupidity, laziness, neglect, is worse: an almost unbearable cruelty. Edward and Abigail Riley are also buried at Wild Rose Prairie, as is Abigail (Tucker) Pennington and many of the Tarberts, all of whom lived nearby.

A few months before my Dad's death, when lack of oxygen often clouded his view of things, he quietly remarked while we sat together, "Today is my mother's birthday. July the third." I was quite astonished, and could only reply, "Yes. It is."

I could never get Dad to talk much about his mother. He was only ten years old when she died, and I think the grief and loss he suffered over the terrible unfairness of it remained with him throughout his long life. There is a picture taken of Edward McDaniel and the children after Emma died. My Dad looks as if he'd been crushed by a boulder. Now, after my Dad's death, having had the rock roll over me, and affected as I am by my helplessness in the circumstances of his passing, I understand how he felt.

Emma was the mother of four children who lived to maturity. Another child was born prematurely, died the same day -- only two days before her own death, and was reburied with her. Grandpa Mac married secondly to Vena Sweek who already had a child, Herbert. She and Edward McDaniel also had a child, Jessie. Emma Pennington and Edward McDaniel's children were:

      1. Dorothy, born 3 March 1900 in Spokane County, Washington. Died 8 January 1969.
      2. My father, Carl, born in Burton Valley, Morrow County, Oregon on 7 August 1901. Died 18 October 1996.
      3. Elsa May, 23 September 1904. Aunt Elsie had a stroke shortly before my dad died, and hasn't known me since.
      4. Opal Grace was born 3 September 1908 at Burton Valley. My Dad named her, and loved to tell the story of coming home from school and being told a baby had been brought. They asked if he thought they should keep her, and after examining her at length, and finding her acceptable, he said, "Yes, that would be alright." Then they asked what he thought they should name her, and he said, "Opal Grace." And so that was the name she was given.

THE WILLIAM MARION PENNINGTON FAMILY THE QUAKER PENNINGTONS Fanny Saltar's Reminiscences of Philadelphia Cecil County Maryland: Where Our Mothers and Fathers Lie Buried Early Cecil County Penningtons THE PENNINGTONS IN THE MID-WEST MY MCDANIEL FAMILY PAGE RETURN TO HOMEPAGE

PENNINGTON ADDRESSES

My New-Found Pennington Cousin, Jim Tarbert, who is editing a Tarbert Newsletter: [email protected]