Charlotte George
Charlotte George, daughter of Goodwin George and S. Izetta (Isettia) Davis , was born on 20 Apr 1887 in Colorado, died on 8 Jul 1964 in Bakersfield (?) at age 77, and was buried in Colma, California.
Her Name
Charlotte George: so attested in the 1900 federal census.
C. R. George: so attested in her daughter’s birth certificate, 1909.
Charlotte Rogers George: a version of her name given by Charlotte Quinlan in the mid-1980s and appearing on her 1906 marriage certificate.
Charlotte Rogers George Neer: presumptive expansion of the abbreviation of her initials engraved on family silverware (c. 1906-1914).
When helping me compile my earliest notes, Charlotte gave her grandmother’s name as "Charlotte Rogers George," but fifteen or more years later, no longer had any recollection of the Rogers name, or what it signified. Its existence receives some support from the family silverware, some pieces of which are engraved "CRGN", which I take to be for Charlotte Rogers George Neer, which would provide a fairly narrow date range for the engravings. The name receives further confirmation from Leona Jane’s birth certificate, which gives her mother’s name as "C.R. George", and from her marriage records.
Early Years
Her birth: Her birth and death dates derive from a funeral pamphlet in our possession. Her daughter’s birth certificate gives her place of birth as Colorado.
1890: The letter to Izetta from Izetta’s mother-in-law indicates that Charlotte spent some time with her grandmother in Chicago in 1890. They called her Lottie. If I read this letter correctly, Charlotte’s father Goodwin brought her to Chicago while Izetta stayed behind.
1897: Charlotte's father dies when she is ten years old. He had been in California for at least a year, and Colbert was with him.
1900: Charlotte and her mother appear as lodgers in the Bulter (sic) household in Denver in the federal census of that year.
Marriage to Lee
1900s: Charlotte recalls that Izetta sent Charlotte to a finishing school with connections to the Colorado School of Mines, and that she became quite good on the piano. It is while there that she met Lee Neer, whom she married, at some point presumably prior to 1909, when their only child, Leona Jane Neer, is born.
1909: The Bisbee Daily Review (August 24, 1909) reports that "Mrs. Lee Neer went to Courtland this morning to join her husband."
c. 1914: One of Charlotte’s pictures from Douglas, Arizona is labeled "your daughter", which presumably means she was in touch with her mother, Izetta, in this period. Izetta also comes to Arizona in this period, as shown by her picture with Jane. Charlotte and Leona Jane Neer leave Douglas, Arizona.
We have pictures in our possession, not yet scanned, of Charlotte George "on camping trip out of Tuscon 1915".
1915: A series of photographs labeled "Kelton Ariz" and dated to 1915 show Leona, Charlotte, the Levys, and various others, on and around a swing in a yard near a rail line. Respondents from the Cochise County listserv provide a picture and map of Kelton, which show it to be nothing more than a rail stop, not a mile north to south. This is presumably the "whistle stop railroad crossroads" Charlotte Quinlan remembers being mentioned.
The train in the background in the photographs is labeled "El Paso and Southwest". That line ran towards Douglas. This permits us to determine the orientation of the pictures, and from there guess our place on the map, between the Joint Station and the Agent’s Dwelling. I believe the Joint Station visible in one respondent’s picture is also visible in one of ours.
Kelton was situated in Sulphur Springs Valley, which heads north-northwest from Douglas. It was halfway to Cochise, near Gleeson. Another respondent from the Cochise listserv notes that when one of the lines stopped running, the buildings were sold and moved around Sulphur Springs. If my reading of online material from the 1933 Railway Age is correct, authorization of the abandonment of the branch line from Douglas to Cochise took place before that year.
Marriage to Floyd Manning
1915: Charlotte married Floyd Manning in El Paso, Texas, on September 2, 1915. Pictures from that same year show her camping in Tucson. The marriage certificate is in our possession, and her name is given therein as Mrs. Charlotte George Neer. We have a number of Floyd Manning’s baby pictures from Marshalltown, Iowa in our possession, and two pictures of his early adulthood labeled "I.M. Stoops - Perry, Iowa."
If I have interpreted Floyd Manning's draft card correctly, he, Charlotte and Leona Jane must have gone back to Cochise County and lived there for a time, as he registers for the draft there in 1917.
1915-1920? We have a photograph in our possession labeled "Grandma and mother Seattle" which I take to refer to the period after Charlotte went to Washington, but before Izetta died. We also have a picture labeled "Janey in Tacoma" which is probably from this period as well.
c. 1920: Charlotte appears in a postcard picture with her brother Colbert. We have two copies in our possession; Lee may have a third. On one, she wrote a letter to Belle, which she requests Belle send back to her. (She presumably did so, or it was never sent.) Charlotte’s statement in the letter that Colbert is "almost forty" dates the picture and the letter to circa 1920. She says that it was taken in Columbus. Columbus, New Mexico was, I think, a site for the First Aero Squadron.
1920: Charlotte appears in the 1920 census as Charlotte Manning in Washington State, Pierce, Fairfax, ED #198. This entry confirms her birth place, indicates that she did not know her father’s birth state ("United States"), and confirms her mother’s birth state. Floyd was a master mechanic in a coal mine. "Jane L" is listed as the daughter, her own birth state Arizona, her father’s Iowa, her mother’s Colorado.
Life in San Francisco
At some point in the 1920s Charlotte George moves to San Francisco, where Michael Levy and his wife Mildred were already living.
Pictures - including the earliest ones dating to 1930 (see above at right) - show Charlotte George with Harry Mattern, but I have been unable to determine their location. Some appear to be in San Francisco, and others are labeled as camping trips.
Charlotte next married Michael Levy in or after 1934. Charlotte Ann Quinlan reports that Charlotte had to travel to Nevada to get a divorce from Floyd Manning in order to marry Michael.
Her death: Charlotte died July 8, 1964, in Bakersfield. She was buried in Colma, California. Her birth and death dates were established via the funeral pamphlet in our possession. Her California Death Index record lists Kern County as her place of death, and her mother’s maiden name as Rogers.
Research Notes: Birth Certificate: The state of Colorado does not keep birth certificates before 1910, although may have them for "some" counties. Arapahoe County birth records go back to 1876.
Death Certificate: I am unable to find any official record of her death online.
