Arthur PINNER, son of Wright PINNER, North Carolina

In 2011, I was contacted by a "new" cousin, Mark Martin, about Mary Elizabeth (PINNER) RUSS. We had had contact years ago as he was looking into the Pinner family, but we didn't know if we were related then. It looks like we are.  One circumstantial piece of evidence is that in his grandmother's address book, I think it was, was my Mary's name.

Family:
Arthur PINNER (3rd child and only son, that we know of, of Wright PINNER, who was the son of Arthur PINNER and Rebecca RASPBERRY), wife suspected to be Mary ROURK, is the father of:

    b. about 1795

    d. before 1840

1-Thomas Arthur PINNER 

    b: 9 January 1828 in Brunswick county, North Carolina

    m. to Annie E. 

    d. 28 September 1865.

2-Mary Elizabeth "Elisabeth" PINNER - my great-great grandmother

    b:  6 July 1829 in Brunswick county, North Carolina

    m. Isham Allen RUSS, Sr. 1853 in Richmond county, North Carolina

    d. 15 May 1904 in Lee county, North Carolina

3- Joe PINNER b: in North Carolina

    b. about 1835 in Brunswick county, North Carolina   

    m. Nancy STRYCHAN

4- Benjamin Hilliard PINNER 

    b: 1 April 1836 in Brunswick county, North Carolina

    m. Hannah Mary DUSENBURY

    d. 30 May 1902

Wright PINNER's wife may have been a Mary ROURK. Still working on that one.

About Mary Rourk, my cousin Mark Martin says:

Name: Mary Rourk?
Birth: 1805 in North Carolina
Death: 10 Feb 1884 Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina
Burial: Hardeeville, Jasper, South Carolina
Note: Death certificate in Charleston County Library...not sure this woman belongs as the wife of Arthur PINNER Jr and the mother of Joe & Ben PINNER

Not sure if Mary Elisabeth Pinner Russ belongs with this family...in 1870 Elnora Pinner who would be the right age for Eleanor Pinner Holcum is living with her family...I'm thinking she must have been a niece.

In 1840 Brunswick County, NC census a Mary Pinner has 2 males under age 5; 1 male 5-10; 1 female 10-15; 1 female 30-40-----

Below I will post part of one of Mark's emails, but the basic idea is that through interviewing family members they have come up with the fact that Thomas Arthur PINNER (1829-1865), Benjamin Hilliard PINNER, and Joe PINNER were brothers. The link that my Mary Elizabeth PINNER is their sister in tenuous...Joe's daughter Eleanora appears to have been at Mary's house during the 1870 census.

Now here is some info from one of Mark's emails:

I'm not sure what we discussed before about the Pinner family.  But the Elnora Pinner living with the Russ family is Eleanora "Elnora" Pinner Holcomb who died in Robeson County, NC in 1925. According to an interview with Dora Pinner Edmondson by her nephew Champ Dalton "Joe" Pinner Jr. she said that her father Thomas Arthur Pinner  (1857-1920) had a sister Eleanor Pinner Holcomb.  This seems to be  confirmed by the 1920 census when Dora's youngest sister Chettie Pinner is living in NC with the family of James Evander Holcomb and is listed as cousin.  He was a son of Eleanor Pinner Holcomb. 

Now the confusing part is that Eleanor Pinner Holcomb's death certificate says she was the daughter of Thomas and Mary Pinner.  Dora's father Thomas Arthur Pinner's death certificate says he was the son of Joe Pinner and Strychlan.  Dora said her grandparents were Joe and Nancy Strickland Pinner... and that Nancy later married a Walters.  My grandad's sister Lucille Pinner Rich talked about her grandfather being an orphan but I can't remember the details.  

I don't find Thomas Arthur Pinner in a census until 1900 when he is married and living in Horry County, SC.  I've never been able to find a Joe or Nancy Pinner in any census that fit.  I think Thomas Arthur Pinner (1857-1920) and Eleanor Pinner Holcomb (1856-1924) were brother and sister and that their father's sister was Mary Elizabeth Pinner Russ (b. ca 1829).

According to my grandad's sister Betty Pinner Moore or either Virigina Pinner Hearl her father was a cousin to a V. D. Pinner s/o Benjamin Hilliard Pinner.  Also in the same interview with Dora Pinner Edmondson she said her grandfather had brothers Benjamin Hilliard Pinner (1836-1902) and Thomas Arthur Pinner (1828-1865).

In discussing the older Pinner families from Brunswick County, NC with some Pinners that went to Florida  it seems that Thomas Arthur, Mary Elizabeth, Benjamin Hilliard and Joe Pinner were likely children of Arthur and Mary Rourk Pinner and that this Arthur Pinner was a son of Wright Pinner. Mary Rourk Pinner I think is the Mary Pinner who died in Charleston, SC February 10, 1884 and was buried in Hardeeville, Jasper County, SC--the same place where her son Benjamin Hilliard's son Benjamin H. Pinner was buried.

 

Helen Elvira RIDDLEBAUGH

This is a difficult post to write because there is so much we don't know or understand about my grandmother as she never really was a part of our lives, but I thought I should do a blog post about her anyway. I met her once when I was about 7 years old. All that I remember is that she brought my sister and me matching umbrellas (clear plastic with light blue trim and little white silk flowers in the center ) and she wanted us to call her Aunt Helen.

Helen Elvira RIDDLEBAUGH is the last of the 14 children born to John Henry RIDDLEBAUGH and Almeda Elvira WISELEY

    b. 2 August 1909 Findlay, Hancock, Ohio

    d. 19 May 1989 Meridian, Ingham, Michigan

m. 1st Theodore Gilbert MOMINEE on 18 April 1931 Toledo, Lucas, Ohio, they later divorced.

    They had one daughter, my mom, Barbara Ann MOMINEE. Mom lived with Helen for a little bit after her parents separated, but then took turns living with some of Helen's siblings, winding up staying with Helen's brother Howard RIDLEBAUGH and his wife Mattie Jane WESTCOTT (thus making Helen our great-aunt so calling her Aunt Helen instead of grandma made sense).

m. 2nd Albert R. GOODELL on 27 April 1940 Henry, Ohio; divorced June 1944 San Bernadino, California

m. 3rd Mr. JENKINS, unknown details (her name was Helen Elvira JENKINS when she married Ed and that's the only proof of his existence at this point)

m. 4th  Edwin Hare PENTECOST around January 1952 in Memphis, Shelby, Tennessee

Helen's nickname as a child was "Toots." She would have had a difficult childhood as her mother divorced her father in a very public trial in 1914. Helen was 4 years old and sat on her mother's lap while her mother gave testimony on the cruelty of her father. After the divorce, her father disappeared for many years and no one knew where he was, so there was no child support that we know of. That might be why she divorced her first husband, Ted, as she had told him that she divorced him because he didn't make enough money. Her upbringing might have led to financial insecurities as an adult.

From a newspaper article on her parents' divorce trial, there was this description of Helen as a child:

Mrs. Riddlebaugh held the youngest, four years old, on her lap while she testified. The child is a flaxen-haired little girl with rosy cheeks and she looks the picture of perfect health. 

This article says she was flaxen-haired, but when my daughter, Hannah, was born with red hair, mom said that Helen had auburn hair. I had not known that because the pictures I had seen of Helen were in black and white. My two brothers were red heads, but I had never thought much about where the red-headed genes came from.

We only know about Helen's second husband, Albert R. GOODELL, because of the marriage record and newspaper article that I found online. 

Mom did know that her mom had married a JENKINS and that he worked in some capacity for the Camel Caravan. Mom thinks it was a traveling show, but all that I can find is that the Camel Caravan was a musical variety radio show that was sponsored by Camel cigarettes, so maybe they also traveled around, too? I think the radio program ended in 1939, before Helen would have married Mr. Jenkins.

 

Helen and Ed liked to travel and it seems like they often went to Mexico. 

Ed PENTECOST had been married before and he and his first wife, Viola ELLERMAN, had three children before they divorced. When Helen died in 1989, Ed's children were surprised to find out that she had a daughter. 

There had been no contact between mom and Helen while mom was growing up. Mom saw Helen for the first time since she was little when she was in college. 

I recently made contact with one of Ed's great-grandsons and he told me that his father thought that his step-grandmother Helen was nice.

Ed was 14 years older than Helen and passed away 6 1/2 years before she did. They had been married almost 31 years when he died. Helen had dementia and spent the last few years of her life in an assisted living home in Michigan.

Trying to piece together a timeline has been hard as there are many holes and I can't find her in all the censuses.

1909-Helen is born in Findlay, Hancock, Ohio on August 2nd.

1910 census-she is listed in her parents household Marion, Hancock, Ohio.

1920 census-she is in Findlay, Hancock, Ohio with her mother and 2 siblings.

1930 census-she is a lodger in the household of Alba F. POWELL and is listed as a telephone operator for a hospital.

1931-Helen E. RIDDLEBAUGH marries Theodore MOMINEE on April 18th in Toledo, Lucas, Ohio, we do not have a divorce date.

1940-Helen R. MOMINEE marries Albert R. GOODELL on April 27th in Napoleon, Henry, Ohio. They divorced in June 1944 in San Bernadino, California (but was Helen living there then?).

Helen marries and then divorces Mr. JENKINS.

1952-Helen Elvira JENKINS and Edwin Hare PENTECOST's marriage license application notice appears in January in a Memphis, Tennessee newspaper.

1989-on May 19th, Helen passes away in Meridian, Ingham, Michigan and is buried next to Ed in Bright Cemetery in Marion Township, Hancock, Ohio.

Erma, Helen, and Elvira Riddlebaugh

Helen and Ed Pentecost