FRANCES LUCRETIA HANDSAKER

1895 - 1976

Frances Lucretia Handsaker Age 16

Frances Lucretia Handsaker was the daughter of Edward Baker and Mary Clow Handsaker. She was born Nov. 16, 1895 in Drain, Douglas, Oregon and was Edward Baker’s third child.

Edward Baker and Mary divorced in 1903. As told by Frances’ daughter Dolly Jefferson, Edward Baker took the boy (Edward Clow) to raise but couldn’t take Frances, a girl would be too difficult to raise as he was an evangelist and traveled to four parishes on foot. Frances was put in St. Mary’s Catholic Convent in Portland. About 1908 she moved to Newhouse, Utah to live with her “Aunt” Mary (Clow Handsaker) Lemmon. Mary did not want people to know she had a daughter. Frances also told her daughter that Mary did not like children.

In Newhouse she was acting postmistress and taught school in exchange for her high school education. She helped a Doctor Swanson deliver babies and was a “natural” nurse. Her first husband, Fred Jefferson’s family owned a butcher shop and Frances made sausage and sauerkraut. After her husband Fred died she became a x-ray technician. She was also a member of several professional organizations.

In 1913 she married Fred Jefferson and they had two children Harry Fredrick and Barbara (Dolly) Yvonne. In 1930 they lived in San Pedro, Los Angeles County, California. (According to the 1930 Census brother Edward was living in Los Angeles also, did they know about each other?) Her husband Fred died in 1946. She married John Bert Smithson in 1952. She lived most of her life in Milford, Utah and Nevada City, California.

She stayed in contact with her Mother’s side of the family (Clow), but no mention if she stayed in contact with any of her Handsaker relatives. Her daughter told me she held a life long grudge against the Handsaker’s.

Frances passed away Sept. 11, 1976 in Nevada City, California.

           I had the pleasure of meeting her daughter Dolly in 2001.

 

EDWARD CLOW HANDSAKER

AKA LOUIS EDWARD JOHNSON

1892 – 1973

                                            Edward and Alta (Grace)               Edward with sons Earl and Carl

                                              on their wedding day in 1927                         about 1917

Edward was born 25 May 1892 in Junction City, Lane County, Oregon to Edward Baker and Mary Amanda (Clow) Handsaker. He was their first born and his second son. (First son was Samuel Looney with Annie Smith Handsaker).

Known as Eddie he lived in Junction City with his little sister Frances for the first few years of his life, and later near Anlauf, Oregon on his father’s homestead.

In 1903 his parents divorced. Edward stayed with his father and his sister Frances went to an orphanage because her mother Mary apparently didn’t want her and her Father Edward Baker, a traveling preacher could not afford to keep both children.

Edward married Anna Susannah Pauline Engel in 1913 in Junction City, Oregon. He was 19 years old and Anna was 15 years old. They moved around a lot, mainly in Lane and Douglas Counties, with Edward working in the lumber mills. He joined the Oregon National Guard in 1915 in Cottage Grove, Oregon.

Edward and Anna had two children, Earl Edward in 1914 and Carl in 1916. Anna died October 1918 from the Spanish Influenza in Portland, Oregon. She was nine months pregnant and the baby died also.

One day in about 1920 my father Earl watched Edward crossing the road where they lived on his way to work. He never came home.

Edward re-married in 1923 to Velda Van Tuyle. The marriage only lasted about a year when Velda filed for divorce in Portland on the grounds that Edward was a womanizer and drunkard. He did not respond to the divorce so she won by default. He had disappeared again.

Apparently, Edward moved to southern California and was bootlegging alcohol from Mexico (he also had done that in Oregon). This was during prohibition. He changed his name to Louis Edward Johnson and married Alta (Grace) Grassa Corrales on August 23, 1927. They had seven children: Alta Mae, Edward James, Delores Lillian, Patricia Frances, Virginia Ann, Mary Jean and Richard Louis.

Earl and his brother Carl never heard from their Father again and never knew what happened to him. To my knowledge, no one in his immediate family, including his Mother, Sister Frances or other relatives ever heard from him again. It is possible he stayed in touch with his father Edward Baker. His half-brother Alfred remembers Edward stopping by the home he and Edward Baker lived in Ashland about 1932.

DNA finally solved the mystery in 2019.

 DESCENDANTS OF 

EDWARD BAKER HANDSAKER 

First Marriage:  Annie Smith

                       Married 14 February 1886 (she died January 1888)

        Children:  1) Samuel Looney Handsaker

                           Born 13 May 1887 in Lane County, Oregon 

I do not have any pictures of Annie Smith or Samuel Looney Handsaker.  If any one has a picture(s) please post or send to me.  Thanks

Second Marriage:  Mary Amanda Clow 

                           Married 9 September 1891 (Divorced 1903)

            Children: 2) Edward Clow Handsaker (Louis Edward Johnson)

                               Born 25 May 1892 in Lane County, Oregon

                           3) Frances Lucretia Handsaker

                               Born 16 Nov 1895 in Douglas County, Oregon

                           4) Baby Girl Handsaker

                               Born in 1896 Lane County, died at 2 days old.

Third Marriage:  Hattie May Wood 

                          Married 20 April 1904 (Divorced 1919)

        Children:   5) James Robert Handsaker 

                             Born 4 June 1905 in Oregon

                         6) Abraham Kenneth Handsaker

                             Born 6 February 1907 Lane County, Oregon

                         7) Elsie Irene Handsaker

                             Born 18 January 1909 Lane County, Oregon

                         8) Hobart Handsaker

                             Born 25 Aug 1910 Lane County, Oregon

                         9) Vernon Handsaker

                             Born 7 September 1912 Lane County, Oregon

                        10) Melvin Handsaker

                              Born 31 October 1914 Lane County, Oregon

                        11) Alfred Delmer Handsaker

                              Born 28 September 1916 Lane County, Oregon

I will be posting profiles of each child in order.  Edward Baker and Samuel Looney are already on the blog.  Coming up is Edward Clow and Frances Lucretia Handsaker.