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George William Christy was born in southwestern (probably North Alton)
Illinois in 1841. He fought in the Civil War for four years in the 27th
Illinois Infantry Regiment, which was recruited from Madison and Macoupin
counties.
His name in military records is spelled "Cristy". He is listed as, "Cristy,
George W Pvt F 27 IL US INF [from] ALTON." Mustered Aug. 17, 1861, discharged
"Jan 1, 1864; disabil."
The 27th Illinois Infantry Regiment was engaged in the following Civil
War Battles or Campaigns from 1861 late 1863: Belmont, New Madrid/Island
No. 10, Siege of Corinth, Stone's River (Murfreesboro), Tullahoma Campaign,
Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge (Chattanooga). The  regimental
history is
found on Rootsweb.
According to the 1880 Census, George
was 'deaf and dumb' and employed as a 'Lightening Rod Agnt'. Given that
he left the 27th Regiment with a "disabil", it appears that he lost his
speech and hearing in the Civil War.
George married Sarah Elizabeth "Lizzy" Stephens from Paducah, Kentucky.
Their son Guy Herbert was born 11 Oct 1871 in Upper Alton, Illinois,
just north of St. Louis. Guy became a blacksmith.
In 1897, at age 26, he married Bessie Roberts Diuguid who was from Guy's
mother's birthplace, Paducah, Kentucky. Given that Alton and Paducah are
about 190 miles apart, it is easy to suppose that Guy met Bessie on one
of the family visits to Paducah. George and Lizzy's daughter Carrie married
a fellow by the last name of Nipper.
The Family Moves West
In late 1897 or early 1898, Guy Herbert and Bessie Roberts Christy moved
from North Alton to Paducah, Kentucky. Their children Herbert Estelle
and Anne Elizabeth were born in Paducah, Kentucky in 1898 and 1899, respectively.
It appears likely that her grandparents, now in their 50s, moved with
them.
We are fortunate to have handwritten notes (matching the handwriting
found in the family bible and probably that of Bessie), found on a 1907
calendar, that provide the dates for Bessie Christy's family's journey
from Kentucky to California.
On January 15, 1907, Guy, Bessie, and the two children, along with his
parents George and Lizzy Christy, left via train for Durango, Colorado.
They arrived five days later on January 20, 1907. They stayed the summer.
On September 8, 1907, the family left for the mining town of Silverton,
47 miles to the north. But Guy apparently found that the mining industry
in Colorado was waning by that time, and there was not enough work for
blacksmiths. Either that or they got tired of the snow.
The family stayed in Silverton less than two months, and on Oct. 31,
1907, they departed for Santa Cruz, California. My grandmother, Anne
Elizabeth Christy, was eight years old when the family took a stagecoach,
apparently from Silverton to Durango. She recalled that it was so cold
that her father gave her a shot of whisky to warm her up. They took a
train the rest of the way to California and arrived in Santa Cruz, California,
on November 1, 1907.
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| Herbert and Anne in the yard of their home
in Santa Cruz, circa 1908. |
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| Guy Christy in his blacksmith shop in Santa Cruz,
circa 1909. He went on to become an instructor in welding and blacksmithing
at Heald School in San Francisco. |
They stayed in Santa Cruz only one week before leaving for San Francisco.
The emergency rebuilding of San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake was
largely at an end, and the inflated wages of that period were shrinking
due to an oversupply of labor. A major strike of streetcar men had just
ended with the complete collapse of the labor unions in San Francisco,
and all the supervisors and the mayor had been found guilty of bribery.
From Farrier to Welder
Apparently Guy did not immediately find work in Santa Cruz, and he
then went to Nevada to the silver mines, to see if he could find work
there. We have a picture of him fixing a wagon, labeled "1908 Elko, Nev."
Guy returned to Santa Cruz within the year and opened
his own blacksmithing shop, as shown in the picture below. It appears, however, as automobiles
multiplied, that the days of blacksmithing were numbered.
In 1915, Guy's father George William Christy died at age 73. George's headstone, in the
International Order of Odd Fellows cemetery in Santa Cruz, California,
is inscribed, "July 15, 1915 Geo. W. Christy CO F 27 ILL INF". Guy, Bessie,
the children and grandmother Lizzy Stephens Christy remained in Santa Cruz until November
9, 1916, when the family, excepting Anne, moved to San Francisco.
At age 17, Anne showed an early streak of independence and remained in Santa
Cruz to complete her studies at Heald Business College in bookkeeping and
shorthand. Two months later, in January, 1917, she followed her parents to San Francisco and sought work there (as shown
by reference letters written by her instructor).
In San Francisco, Guy paid to attend the Heald School and learn welding. He then worked for Heald from the middle of 1916 to
the middle of 1917. In October 1918, the family lived in the Glasgow Apartments
at 525 Turk, near Larkin, in San Francisco.
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| An Willys-Overland Car Company model in 1916. Only
$615. In 1914, the Willys-Overland car company was second only to
Ford in car production. |
In early 1919, Anne Elizabeth "Betty" Christy—she grew to dislike
the name Anne—went to work for one of the companies that had put
her father out of the farrier business, the Willys-Overland Car Company,
as an accountant. In January 1920, according to the Census, her father
Guy was also working for the former competition as a welder in an autoshop;
Bessie worked as a sales clerk in a store, and Anne (or Betty) was listed
as a "stenographer" in the auto business. Betty, my grandmother,
told me with great satisfaction that she "made good money on that
job." She the only woman in the accounting department and she had
men working under her, an unusual situation for a woman her age and for
the time period.
Earlier in 1919, Betty met a Navy radioman named Harold Bartle "Bart"
Phelps on a blind double date
with another girl. Their courtship was rapid. Bart was transferred to
Honolulu in August 1919. Betty left her job and sailed on the Matson ship S. S. Manoa from
San Francisco on 30 March 1920. Betty and Bart were married in Honolulu one week after she arrived,
on April 6. No invitations were sent, only an announcement
afterwards. No family members could make the expensive trip to Hawaii,
and only a few friends of short duration were able to attend the wedding.
They were eventually married over 64 years.
Guy Becomes a Welding Instructor at Heald
By 1920, Guy was an instructor in welding at Heald, and in 1921 he became
the welding and blacksmith department head.
During the 1920s, grandmother Lizzy Stephens Christy, who had accompanied
the family all the way from Kentucky to Santa Cruz and then San Francisco,
moved home to Paducah, Kentucky to live among her brothers and sisters.
She died on May 31, 1932, at age 61, while visiting her daughter Carrie
Christy Nipper and her sister Nita Diuguid Houck in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Her body was transported home by train and Lizzy was buried in the Stephens
plot in the Oak Grove Cemetery in Paducah.
Guy and Bessie's son Herbert "Bert" Estelle Christy, first served in
the Army during World War I in the 320th Signal Corp. After he was discharged,
he went to work for the Union Pacific railroad. According to his sister
Betty, "He got off the train one day and dropped dead."
Bert died on April 22, 1927, apparently of a heart attack or stroke,
just after his 29th birthday, in San Bernardino, California. He never
married. A telegram from E. E. Cunningham in San Bernardino to Guy H.
Christy in San Francisco, dated Apr. 22, 1927, states, "HERBERT E. CHRISTY
DIED SUDDENLY PRESUME HEART FAILURE SAN BERNARDINO TODAY. E. E. CUNNINGHAM".
Herbert's mom's sister, Ruth Kate Diuguid, was married to a Cunningham in
Paducah, KY. Perhaps E. E. Cunningham also worked for the railroad or
was located in the San Bernardino area. Herb was buried in Colma, California.
(A deed from the Mountain View Cemetery Association, dated April 25, 1927,
grants Guy H. Christy a lot "numbered 483, block Cedar".) A notarized
document, signed by Herbert's grandmother, attests to his birth at 714
South Fourth Street, between Ohio and Tennessee Streets, in Paducah.
According to the 1930 Census, Guy and Bessie continued to live in the
Glasgow Apartments. Guy's birthplace is mistakenly given as Scotland,
but then the entry appears to be crossed out and possibly "IL"
is added. His parents' birthplaces are Illinois, and Bessies' are Kentucky.
The monthly rent was $35 and they did not own a radio.
It's during this period that we believe they met May Forrgeaud Haskell,
widow of Brig. General Harry L. Haskell. She lived only a few blocks away at 1482
Sutter Street, and we found among my grandmother Anne Christy Phelps' possessions a Civil War medal belonging to May's husband.
At some point during the 1930s, Guy apparently opened a welding shop
in Sacramento, attested to by a business card for "Christy's Welding
Works" at 1205 Eye Street.
In June, 1941, Bessie visited with her sister Anita "Nita" May Houck
in Little Rock, Arkansas. In the 1940s, Guy and Bessie moved to 1574 78th
Ave. in Oakland, California. They managed an apartment house in Oakland
near Lake Merrit.
Their daughter Betty worked outside the home for a few months during
the war, otherwise she was a full-time mother and homemaker. Betty and
Bart built a house in 1936 in San Mateo, California for $7500.
Guy and Bessie died only a few months apart: Bessie on March 12, 1947
and Guy on November 10, 1947. They are buried together in Cypress Lawn
Cemetery in Colma, California.
When Guy passed away, Betty and Bart expected to find some money hidden
in the house, and they looked throughout the house several times, but
only found several small envelopes with a few dollars in them. Shortly
afterwards, Betty had a dream and she told Bart to look in the heater
compartment over the top of the door. There they found $1500 in an envelope.
Anne and Bart lived at 303 Seville Way for 48 years, when Bart died in
March 1984 at age 91. In 1987, Betty sold the home for $291,000 and moved
to Santa Maria, California, to be near their only son, Harold "Hal" Bartle
Phelps, Jr. and his wife Maxine. Betty passed away from natural causes
on December 12, 1997 at the age of 97.
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