2 -Flora G Bancroft (wife of William H Tilton) Mother of Charles B Tilton

 “Most people are good-natured as long as nothing is bothering them at the moment.” 

We live in our ancestors’ future, merely read about our ancestors’ lives, but are unshaken by their setbacks or tragedies. Of course, they had to take every day as it came, unaware of the tragedies or the small triumphs ahead. As I read it, Flora Bancroft was thrust into situations beyond her control repeatedly. But she sailed through the storms of life, enjoying the end of her life at her daughter-in-law and son’s (and her three grandchildren) home. 

Flora was the only daughter of Peter Sanford (PS) Bancroft and Bella Brinker. Lucky for me, her son taped his memories in the 1980s, and he included pieces of his childhood memories and her life. From those recordings, it was clear Flora went through a long stretch of rough patches. 

Early Years, the Farm and Loss 

Her father had joined the Union Army and at the first battle, one of his arms was shattered and rendered useless. He remained with the army as a member of the “Invalid Corps” until well after the end of the war. Upon returning to Butler, he married Bella Brinker. 

Flora was born in 1867 to Isabelle S. Brinker (Bella) of an old Butler, PA family. A brother Earl followed in 1868, and Grove in 1869. Flora was only 7 years old when her mother died. Her father (who had married late in life), was now left with a farm and 3 children too young to work it (her brothers were 6 and 5). With a farm, no wife and one arm, he eventually turned from farming to education. This prompted the family to move to Butler, PA. (At this time, post-war, the US economy was in a severe recession.) Although Butler was a city, it was a city in the country. But it had grown, thanks largely its location near Pittsburgh. Several industries started up in Butler (such as the Plate Glass Company). 

Butler - Finding Friends and A Husband 

Story has it that Flora married her husband William H Tilton (a relative newcomer to Butler) “on the rebound” from a would-be boyfriend. 

Flora Bancroft 

Whether that is true, they weren’t particularly compatible. Possibly Flora knew and liked his parents, the respectable Henry A Tilton and Louisa (Copes). His parents, the Tiltons, had moved from New York City. His father had worked in Pittsburgh, then moved to Butler to run the Plate Glass Company. Their son (Flora's husband) William Tilton “clerked” at Plate Glass, but was enamored with hunting and fishing. He was the antithesis of Flora’s own father (who had been a professor, writer, educator). William showed little interest in business as his father had. William seemed content to fish, hunt, smoke his pipe. 

William H Tilton abt 1908

William H Tilton abt 1911

Flora as a young woman 

Her father never remarried. Flora had no sisters. Off the farm and living in Butler, as a young woman, she associated with female relations to her mother's family. She saved a precious photo of the MacNair sisters (who she was related to by marriage). 

A Friend and a Relative 

Her husband's sister was Bella Tilton (one of 3 Tiltons: William and Clarence were the other two). Isabella (or Bella) married Charles Roe, and Flora and her sister-in-law Bella Tilton (Roe) were close, so close that Flora named her son Charles TIlton after Belle's husband. 

Bella Tilton, sister of William

 Her Married Life and Some Losses

Flora had lost her mother, then in 1899, her brother Grove died of Brights disease—leaving a widow and a little girl. He was 29 years old. The following year she and William welcomed a new baby (Henry Addison, 1900), but he died in 1901 at less than a year old—a devastating loss. They went on to have their only child in 1902. Flora named this boy after the husband of her friend and sister-in-law: Charles (after Charles Roe). 

Charles Bancroft Tilton was born in 1902. Although the Tiltons and Bancrofts were educated for that era, they were not wealthy. My grandfather described them as Tiltons were "the genteel poor.” Since her father PS Bancroft was a widower, he lived with his son-in-law and family. At this point, Victorian manners still held sway, an era when adults wished for children to be "seen and not heard." In like pattern, after dinner Flora and William would spend the evening together in one room, while the grandson was banished to a separate room, where apparently is grandfather (PS Bancroft) kept him company. 

Her husband was a smoker of pipes and cigars...and did so often. At some point, when he got quite ill (likely cancer)—an industry magazine ran this announcement: from the: "Tilton Leaves Standard Plate - After 23 years continuous service William H Tilton has resigned his position with the Standard Plate Glass Co at Butler, Pa. Mr. Tilton was at the head of the invoicing department and is regarded as a very efficient office man. He is the son of Henry A Tilton, deceased, who was at one time general manager of the Standard company. " - from the National Glass Budget Weekly Review of the American Glass Industry, July 24, 1915, p. 5 

Loss Upon Loss 

Less than a year after her husband quit working (due to poor health), Flora's father PS Bancroft, got sick and died within 10 days in early May 1916. Her husband’s health was rapidly deteriorating, and a month later, on June 16, 1916, William Tilton died. The summer of 1916, the US had not yet World War I, and Flora lost her mother, a brother, a father, a son, and now her husband. Her son was 13 ½ and in school. She had no real skills nor job training, no means of support. She had no real property to sell. The farm in Meadville, PA, which had belonged to her fathers’ family, had been a casualty of the post-war recession. Flora went to her local dress shop – the same dress shop she used to buy her dresses in— and worked there for a time. 

Remarriage and a Setback 

When she was a widow, a man named Alexander Patrick Moore (Paddy) courted Flora, persisting till she finally agreed to marry him in 1922 (my grandfather was 19 or 20). But the newlyweds didn’t fare well financially (to put it mildly). My understanding is that Flora hoped for some financial security entering into the marriage—and found the opposite. Family lore says Mr. Moore had business setbacks in the early to mid-1920s from which he never recovered, financially. He was also quite traumatized from it, and never fully recovered. Flora insisted her son attend college at some distance from Butler to grow in independence. He attended Penn State (State College) where he had a full scholarship. After Charles graduated in the mid-1920s, he managed a large dairy farm in PA. When he learned his mother and stepfather where in dire straits financially, he convinced the farm owner to allow the Moores to stay for free in the very rudimentary house (little more than a shack) on the farm property. 

"Paddy" Moore and Flora c. 1929

A Loss and A Gain 

In April 1927 Flora's sole remaining sibling, Earl DeHome Bancroft died. In May 1927, her son Charles married the sister of a college friend. He married Elizabeth C Tyson of Adams County, PA. After this point, for the most part wherever Charles and Elizabeth lived, Flora (and "Paddy" Moore) lived with them. They lived together in Westchester, NY and in Philadelphia. During World War 2, when Charles was in the service, Flora moved with the family to Biglerville, PA and other places in Adams County, PA. You might be wondering how the arrangement was? Did the mother-in-law get along with the daughter-in-law? By my mother's reports, yes, there was tranquility in the arrangement. Flora’s final days with the Tiltons were sunny and bright, despite the financial and social upheavals of the mid-20th century with the Depression of the 1930s, and World War II. My grandmother (the daughter-in-law) had nothing but positive memories of her. Flora was absorbed into Elizabeth Tyson's extended family. 

 Flora died in York Springs, Adams County, PA in 1949 in her 82nd year. 

Flora, Adams County with granddaughters