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Mary Vetter right with her
sister Anna |
Note: This is the last of my 16 grandaunts and granduncles that I've written a biography for on this blog.
Mary was
born November 2, 1888 in Chicago, Illinois when her family was living at 1328
20th Street. She was the third daughter born to George and Katherine
Vetter. Mary’s middle name Augusta is the same as their first-born daughter who was named Augusta Elizabeth. Clearly, the name Augusta had significance
for George and Katherine but I have yet to figure out why – I don’t find the
name among their siblings or parents or grandparents. Augusta died before Mary
was born but Mary did have one older sister Kate. She was one when her sister
Lizzie was born, three when Emma was born, and four when my grandmother Anna was
born.
Mary
was twelve when the 1900 census was taken and was attending school. That is
when they were living at 409 21st Street in Ward 10 of Chicago. She
was fifteen when her mother died in 1904 shortly after the family had moved
from Chicago to Los Angeles. Two of her sisters, Anna and Emma, were married
when Mary was twenty. A year later when the 1910 census was taken Mary was living
at 1449 Valencia Street in Los Angeles and she was working as a maid in the
household of Jacob and Frieda Joseph with their two children Lillian age nine
and Paul, seven.
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| 1910 Census when Mary was living with the Joseph family |
Mary
was the last of the five Vetter daughters to marry on May 25, 1912. At the time
she was living at 221 W. 51st Street when she married Fred Mason Low.
Fred was the son of James M. Low and Josie Lathrop of Los Angeles. He was born
in Kingman, Kansas but grew up in Los Angeles. Fred’s WWI draft registration
dated June 5, 1917 shows a residence at 128 Oak Street in Porterville which is
in Tulare County, California. Mary and Fred had a daughter Doris in 1917 who
appeared on the 1920 census when the three of them were living at 3244 Alta
Avenue in Fresno, California and Fred was working as a plaster installer. They
were living at the same location in 1930 and their son Leonard had joined the
family. Doris was fourteen and Leonard was nine according to the census. Mary
was twenty-four in 1913 when her father died. |
| L-R Lewis and Anna Pattillo with Mary and Fred Low |
In
July of 1930 Lottie and Ed Pattillo went to Fresno to visit with Mary and Fred
and their children Doris and Leonard. Doris took them to Roeding Park and led a
tour of the sights in Fresno while her mother and aunt Anna gossiped about
their eldest sister Kate whom they did not get along with. In 1939 Lottie wrote
that the Low family had plans to leave Fresno and move to Oakland. |
| The same foursome - Lewis, Anna, Mary and Fred |
Fred
died on March 12, 1964 when he was living in Alameda County, California. Three
years later on August 24, 1967 Mary married for a second time to, Ernest Alvin
Lock. Ernest was born in Chariton, Iowa and worked as a barber. Previously
Ernest was married to Isabel Williams with whom he had three children. Mary was
78 when she married Ernest. Sadly, this marriage did not last long because Mary
suffered a heart attack and died on January 13, 1970 at the age of 81. Mary is
buried in Clovis Cemetery in Fresno. Ernest died in 1977 and is buried in Arbor
Vitae Cemetery in Madera County with his first wife. |
| Anna and Mary on a picnic or camping trip |
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Mary and Anna ca. 1940
|
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| Anna and Mary ca. 1939 |
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| Mary and Lewis Pattillo ca. 1940 |
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Mary's son Leonard with his wife Betty and their
son Jim |
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| Mary's birth record 1888 |
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Doris Low's Roosevelt High School
photo, Fresno, age 16 |
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| Ernest A Lock headstone |
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| Mary Vetter Low Lock headstone, Clovis, California |
Sources
for this Post: Birth
and marriage records, 1900 – 1930 censuses, FindAGrave record, BillionGraves,
Anna Vetter Pattillo’s bible notes, Lottie Pattillo’s journal notes,
FamilySearch and Ancestry websites.
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| Ed Pattillo with his cousin Doris at Roeding Park, 1938 |
