One of the Hardest Things for a Little Girl to Do
(ONE OF THE FEW MEMORIES TOLD TO ME BY MY
PATERNAL GRANDMOTHER)
Grandma Gates wasn't one for telling stories. She liked to live in the present. Yet this was an early memory she shared.
Mamie Tripp Gates remembered vividly saying good-bye to her father Rufus Tripp who was dying on October 25, 1900. She was only five years old. Her twin sisters, Cora Dell and Nora Bell, were two years old. What a difficult loss for three little girls!
Mamie Tripp Gates remembered vividly saying good-bye to her father Rufus Tripp who was dying on October 25, 1900. She was only five years old. Her twin sisters, Cora Dell and Nora Bell, were two years old. What a difficult loss for three little girls!
A loss of this magnitude would have made it so easy for this
impressionable five-year-old to start down a road of painful resentment and self-pity creating an unlovable, bitter woman incapable of genuinely loving and caring for others. Instead this heartbreaking
experience enabled Grandma Mamie Irene Tripp Gates to develop a heart of
compassion and empathy visibly evident to her family, neighbors, and friends.
Below is the link to a photo of the tombstone of Rufus “Dive” Tripp in the
Ozro Falls Cemetery at Hewins, Kansas, in Chautauqua County. (This link states he was born in
Newry, Maine, on April 6, 1858, but The United States Census of 1860 cites his birthplace as Illinois.) Mamie’s father was only 42 years of age when he
died.
A Side Note: Mamie’s parents were married on March 2, 1892. Rufus was 34 years old and from Chautauqua County in Kansas. Nettie Venator listed Osage Nation as her residence with her age recorded as 20 years old. The marriage license application was filed in Chautauqua County in Kansas.
Rufus and Nettie Venator Tripp
Hi - wondering if you have any other information on Rufus's mother.
ReplyDeleteElizabeth was married to Horace (James & Rufus's father), but then remarried after his death in the war. I'm having the hardest time tracking down her birth parents.
Based on findagrave.com, Rufus's mother was born in Newry, Maine, on December 11, 1839 and named Elizabeth H. Wood. I do not know the name of her birth parents. I hope this helps a bit.
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