Flora G Bancroft (Tilton)
My great grandmother wrote a will the year she died. The will is short and reflects how much (or how little she possessed).
Floras' life was circumscribed by difficulties and some personal tragedies. Born after the end of the Civil War, she lived through the so-called Spanish-American War, World War 1, the "Spanish Flu", the Crash and the Great Depression, and World War 2, dying in 1949. She buried two husbands in her lifetime.
Her father had served in the Civil War. Her mother died when she was young.
I am not sure where she was schooled but I'm sure her father made certain she got it (possibly why they moved from the farm?)
Like many people of the era she lived nearly her entire life with extended family. This post is a time line of her life events-connecting them to those people I believe she was closest to. After all, what affects our loved ones, affects us,
I believe it relevant information when writing a personal history.
Birth and Youth
Birth - 22 June 1867 in Meadville, PA to Isabell (Bella) Sarah Brinker (d of Sarah Anna Graham and Col. Jacob Brinker of Butler PA) and Peter Sanford Bancroft (1830- 1916) disabled Civil War vet, professor, and editor, born in Colebrook, CT.
Age 7- 1874-Death of her mother Isabell Brinker (born in 1846, three children)
Age 13- 1880- Residence - Butler, Butler, PA Her widower father moved the family to the small city of Butler. Living in town meant she and her brothers were now close to her mother's family and their children (her cousins on the Brinker side).
I imagine she would have spent much time with the girls in the Brinker family.
Marriages
On Oct 16 in 1895 Flora married William Henry Tilton (son of Louisa August Copes and Henry A Tilton.)
Flora filed for her marriage license giving her first name as "Flo." He was 22 years old and she was 28 years old when they wed.
William Tilton was born in Brooklyn, NY. His family moved to Butler for a job. As an adult, his parents moved from Butler to Detroit, then to California.
Tiltons: Earlier that month, William's sister, Isabella C Tilton, wed Charles Roe in Butler on Oct 2.
Flora and Isbella (Bella) were friends: Flora's son (my grandfather) was named after Bella's husband Charles. Aunt Bella gave her nephew (Charles Tilton) her engagement ring upon her passing.
Her husband’s brother Clarence A Tilton had married and was divorced, living in Michigan. He subsequently married a divorcee writer Bertha Francis Parker (no children).
Bancroft Siblings: Flora's brothers Earl and Grove were wed already married and living in Butler.
Her 30s
In 1899 her brother Grove Graham Bancroft died at age 30, leaving wife Etta (Bowman) and young daughter Irene Bancroft.
She was 32 when she had her first child Henry Addison Tilton, Butler, PA in 1900. The same year her brother's infant son, Sanford Bancroft died ( son of Earl Bancroft & Clara Ryan) died.
And tragically, her (Flora) and William's infant son Henry died in 1901. She was 33.
* But in 1902 her 2nd son (and only child) Charles Bancroft Tilton was born at 130 E Cunningham St, Butler, PA. She was 35 that year.
In 1906 (she was 39) her brother's son 2-year-old Alfred Bancroft (son of Earl Bancroft & Clara Ryan's son) died.
In 1910 she was 43 and lived with her husband, son and father in Butler, PA.
1916 was a bad year:
Her father Peter S Bancroft died on 17 May 1916 at her home on 318 West Cunningham St, Butler, PA.
Then less than a month later and a week before 48th birthday, her husband William H Tilton died on June 15, 1916. His obituary ran on Jun 16, 1916. The death certificate states the cause of death as throat cancer (with other cancers).
Her son, my grandfather, was 14 years old the year she was made a widow.
Her 50s-60s
She remarried a "Pat" (Alexander) Moore who promised to care for her financially. That didn't work out; as soon as her son Charles was out of college in 1926, he found the couple a small hut on the farm he was managing, they were in desperate straits.
Pat Moore died in 1935. The couple had been living with her son and his wife Elizabeth, and their children in Philadelphia.
She stayed with her daughter-in-law and her three grandchildren while her son was in Europe for World War 2. And when they moved from Philadelphia to north Adams County, PA, she moved with them.
Flora continued to live with the family till the end of her life, dying 6 July 1949 at 82.
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