Pattillo Thornally Ancestors: Elizabeth "Lizzie" Vetter Wallace 1890

Friday, April 2, 2021

Elizabeth "Lizzie" Vetter Wallace 1890 - 1965 My Grandaunt on my Father's Side

Elizabeth Vetter as a young woman

Elizabeth “Lizzie” Vetter was the fourth daughter born to George and Katherine Vetter. Lizzie
also known as Rosie was born on February 22, 1890 when her family was living at 1328 W. 20^th Street in Chicago, Illinois. She had two older sisters Kate and Mary, one having died at 5 months, and two younger sisters Emma and Anna, my grandmother.

When Lizzie was ten, she appeared on the 1900 census with her family. At that time, they were living at 409 21^st Street in Chicago and Lizzie was attending school. About four years later they left Chicago and moved all the way across the county to settle in Los Angeles. Shortly after arriving in California Lizzie’s mother Katherine died at the age of 57 leaving Lizzie, age 14, and her sisters alone with their father George. Apparently, George struggled as a single parent because, as my grandmother told it, she was mostly raised by her older sister Kate. Each of the girls left school early and went to work or got married and their father remarried in 1910.

L-R Anna, Elizabeth, Emma and Mary Vetter

Lizzie attended elementary and two years of high school – leaving school when she was sixteen. At nineteen she married Paul Clifford Wallace in Los Angeles on June 5, of 1909. Her sister Emma was a witness at their wedding. Paul was the son of George W. Wallace and Mary Adella McGuire. He was born on July 20, 1884 in Cincinnati, Ohio and was a machinist working in Los Angeles at the time they were married. The following December their first child was born – a son named Robert Leroy Wallace, followed by Helen Pauline Wallace born in 1911, and Paul Wilbur Wallace in 1917. All three children were born in Los Angeles.

Paul Clifford Wallace

Lizzie’s son Robert married Helen McCollum and they had six children. In 1940 they were living in Oakland on Melrose Avenue. Robert died in Tracy which may be why his mother is buried there. Helen married George Wellman, had at least two sons and died in Calaveras County, California. I don’t know much about their youngest son Paul Jr.

When the 1910 census was taken the Wallace family was living at 3851 N. Broadway in Los Angeles. Paul was employed as a machinist at an ironworks plant – the same type of work that my grandfather John Roger Thornally did.

In 1920 the family was still in Los Angles living at the corner of Arthur and Orchard Streets. Lizzie registered to vote as a Republican in 1922 at which time she was living at 3032 Tom Street and identified herself at a housewife.

By 1930 they were living at 3816 High Street in Oakland in a rented home. Paul was identified as being employed as a Chief but it did not say in what industry. The census showed that Lizzie’s daughter Helen was 18 and employed as a saleslady and Paul Jr. was 15. In 1938, Lizzie’s voter registration showed that she was living at 2916 Courtland Avenue in Oakland.

Birth record for Rosie Elizabeth Vetter

When the census was taken in 1940 Lizzie and Paul were living with their son Paul in Castro Valley, California at 19185 Center Street which is very close to where my parents lived starting in 1949. Paul senior was working on a goat farm and their son was employed as a mechanic. In the mid1960s Lizzie was living in Oakland again at 3844 14^th Street. She died at Stockton State Hospital – a psychiatric facility on July 21, 1965 at the age of 75, and is buried at Tracy Memorial Cemetery in San Joaquin County, California.