Dave Skipper's Daughters


Rosie Elmer Skipper - (page is inwork)
Rosie Elmer was the fifth daughter of David and Mary Kate Skipper. She was born August 21, 1887. There were two sons in the family. The oldest sister was Florence and she was 18 and she was getting ready to be married. My grandfather, James Arthur Skipper, was four years old. Harriet was 15, "Lou" was 13, John Quincy was 10, and "Betty" was 8. Rosie must have used her middle name, because I always heard her referred to as 'Aunt Elmer.' She was one of my father's sixs paternal aunts. He had three maternal aunts - the Noland Sisters.

Elmel must have been born on the family farm between Solgohacia as all the others seem to have been. Dave and Kate were 38 years old when Elmer was born and had lived in Conway County most of their lives. Dave had farmland where his father, Joseph, had settled in 1856. Dave was born in North Carolina and Mary Katherine in Tennessee.

It is the lot of the youngest family members to experience the aging and death of the older generations while still young. Ethel's oldest sister, Florence, died in childbirth when Elmer 16. Elmer was 24 when her father died the day before Christmas 1909.

By 1910 the family consisted of - These had gotten married and had produced these nieces and nephews These had died.

Guys and Dolls The young people in this photo are some of the Skipper children and their relatives in about 1910. Dave and Kate's daughter Elmer, 23, is standing at the right (viewers left) and her little sister, Ethel Pauline, 16, is beside her. Next to Ethel is Fanny Krisell, 20, the daughter of Dave and Kate's oldest daughter Florence. Florence had died seven years earlier during childbirth. Next is Aveline Lloyd, 21, Lou Skipper Loyd's oldest daughter. These were Dave and Kate's two youngest daughters and their two oldest granddaughters. Apparently the two young sisters and their two nieces were good friends at that time. The men are Jim Dillon, Bud Lloyd, an unidentified man, and Carl Toby Skipper. Carl was 21. He and his two young sisters remained close friends all their lives. Several other photos show them together on various family visits. Bud was William D. Llyod, a brother of Aveline and 18 years old. Jim Dillon was probably Kate's nephew, the son of her brother Levi Dillon.

Carl Toby was the first of the three younger children to get married. He married Ida Octavia Treadwell on August 8, 1910, close to the time this photo was made. He and Ida had twin daughters, Ritta and Reba on January 26, 1912.

Elmer's little sister, Ethel, married James Phillip Turner on January 22, 1911, when she was only 16½ and he was not quite 21. Their first child was a little girl who died soon after birth.

John Edwards was born on January 18, 1890. John married Elmer sometime in 1911. He was 21 and she was 24. Their first child, Millard Ishmael Edwards was born May 14, 1912, in Lanty. Millard married Agnes Pittman and they had John Paul, Linda, and Larry. He then married Velma Hart and they had Pamela, Curtis, and Twyla. Millard died February 2, 1976, and was buried in Gore, Oklahoma, across the river from Webbers Falls.

Elmer's mother, Kate, died February 9, 1914. Elmer and John's second child, Mildred Ethel, was born later that year on October 13, 1914. Mildred married George Billue and had Sandra and Arbra. Mildred is still living in August 2004. She is one of the five or six of my father's cousins who are still living. Othel Lee Edwards was born December 14, 1916. They were still living in Conway County when he was born. After Kate died there was a dispute over the inheritance that pitted the younger two sister and their three brothers against the four older sisters and their husbands. The four younger children, James Arthur, Rosie Elmer, Carl Toby, and Ethel Pauline soon left Conway County.

Paul Turner, Ethel's oldest son, told that when he was still very young his mother took him to a family gathering. Ethel introduced Paul to several aunts and others who were sitting on the porch, but she very obviously passed by one woman without speaking. After they had left the gathering, Paul asked his mother who the woman was. She replied, "That was one of my sisters." Paul's feeling was that the younger sisters didn't speak to the older sisters, because the brothers-in-law would have fussed about it. Ione, Ethel's daughter, remembers that many years later around 1945, Nett Cowan, Elizabeth's widowed husband, and their daughter, Arbra, stopped in Gore while traveling to Oklahoma City. Arbra went into the house to visit her Aunt Ethel, but Nett stayed out in the car. James went out and talked to Nett and Ione thinks that the hurt feelings were relieved after that.

In 1917, brother James Arthur, soon followed by younger brother, Carl Toby, moved east to England in Lonoke County. James served as postmaster for many years and Carl worked in the office. James ( or Jim) had two children when they moved and had three in England. Carl and his wife, Ida Octavia Treadwell, had twins Ritta and Riba, Ruby, Roy Cline Skipper, and Ruth Carlena before they moved to England. Carlena was born September 8, 1918, and the next child, Raymond Columbus Skipper, was born in England on August 6, 1921, so the move most have been about 1919 or 1920. Raymond was one of Dave and Kate's grandsons killed in WWII. Carl Toby, Jr. was born August 24, 1926. It seems that Elmer, Carl Toby, and Ethel got married about the same time because they all had children in late 1911 or early 1912. Carl and Ida's first child, Dolly, born April 16, 1911, only lived a day. Elmer and John had a daughter, Mary Opal, after Othel Lee, but I have no further information. They had a son they named James around 1920 or 1921 but he didn't survive.

Their next child was Leonard Bradley born August 31, 1922. They were still living in Conway County. Leonard married Ruby and they had Bradley, Phyllis, and Donna. He then married Margie and had Susan. He died near Bakersfield, California, on May 21, 1973. Apparently he had moved there.

The Edwards family moved to Webbers Falls, Oklahoma, after Leonard was born, but before Syble Irene was born on March 12, 1925 They probably were in Oklahoma by late 1924, but it isn't clear whether they moved there before or after younger sister Ethel and her family.

Even though roads were still pretty primitive in the 1920s, the family members made visits back and forth. It is about 150 miles from Morrilton in Conway County to Gore, Oklahoma. John Quincy, the oldest brother, stayed in Conway County. Two of the Skipper brothers lived about 80 miles east in England, Arkansas. Apparently Conway County was a meeting place or stopover because the oldest brother lived there. The two oldest sisters had died, but their families still lived in Conway County. One sister had moved to Jonesboro. Betty Cowan was the only Skipper sister that still lived in Conway County.

In the summer of 1925, John Quincy and James Arthur Skipper and their families went to Gore to visit Ethel and Elmer and their families. This photograph shows the family members that were not old enough to be off doing their own thing. John and James were cut out of the photo because of an error in using the viewfinder it seems. John Edwards and James Turner (in the light colored hat) are in the photo. Elmer was about 38 when this photo was made. She is the second woman from the left. She is carry what must be Syble Irene who was born in March 1925. Elmer's sister Ethel is standing between the two men with both hands on her husband's right shoulder. She was only 31. The other two women are the sisters-in-law. Elmer's son, Millard, is standing in front of John, who has the dark hat. John may be holding Leonard. John Quincy Skipper's second wife, Martha, is holding one month old baby John Quincy, Jr. Mildred, Othel Lee, and Mary Opal Edwards are not identified in this photo. Genevieve, Ione, and Adeline Turner are in the group of girls.

Syble Irene married Kenneth Williams and they had Sharon, Nancy, and Shirley.

Elmer had Carl G. Edwards, her last child, on April 22, 1929. She was almost 42. Her oldest child Millard was 17. Her sister Ethel had her last child that year also. He is Fredis Eustis who was born July 22, 1929. Carl married Billy Jo Ward and they had Steven and Gary.

John Edwards died April 4, 1935, at the age of 45 and was buried in Gore, Oklahoma. Elmer lived nearly 40 more years. She died in Webbers Falls on March 12, 1974, at the age of 86. She was buried in Gore.

This photo was taken during a visit Carl Toby Skipper made to visit his sisters Ethel and Rosie Elmer. Elmer was two years older than Carl and Ethel was five years younger than Carl. This was probably in the early forties after John Edwards had died and that would be James Turner, Ethel's husband, standing behind the sisters.

Granny courtesy of her granddaughter, Linda Edwards Webster

The final two photos were taken in the late forties or in early 1950 before Carl died on September 21, 1950. Color photos from that time are rare and they are usually faded Kodacolor prints. Kodachrome slides were even more rare. Elmer, Carl, and Ethel pose together in the final photo.

Florence 1869-1903	Harriet 1872-1918	Lou 1874-1954	Betty 1879-1931	Elmer 1887-1974	Ethel 1894-1957
Descendants of Dave and His Daughters

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2/20/02
Rev. 8/30/04 Searchable File of Names of Many of the Descendents of Joseph and Louisa Skipper