Ethel
May Dennis was born in 1898, the first of three children. At nine years old, she emigrated with her family from Sarnia, Lambton, Ontario, Canada. Her family were Baptists. In 1910 they lived in Duplain, Clinton, Michigan, not far from Elsie Baptist Church.
Harold Brainerd Allen was born in Detroit in 1896. In 1900 they lived at 217 East High Street, Jackson, Michigan. I lived in Eaton County. Eaton, Jackson, Clinton, and Ingham Counties are bordering counties, some of which include Lansing, the capital. Michigan State University (Go Green!) is in Ingham.
Harold was an only child. In 1910 he and his family lived in Three Rivers, St. Joseph County, bordering Indiana. According to my uncle, the late, great Richard Lawrence Means, Harold's eighth grade sweetheart was Mabelle Fay Cowgill. In 1963 Uncle Dick was attending Rochester Colgate Divinity while we lived in Burma. He became a reverend and then a professor at Kalamazoo College. His son and author David Richard Means is following in his footsteps as a Professor of English at Vassar College in New York.
Ethel and her parents left Duplain to live in Lansing at 612 East Main Street in 1920. In her early 20s, she was still in school. Our family had been led to believe she graduated from Kalamazoo College. That was the family lore about how they met. Kalamazoo College Registrar has no record of her attendance.
Harold's mum, Jennie E. Brainard, (spellings vary) was the daughter of Lyman Brainerd (b. 1817 Ohio), who was the son of Warren Brainerd (b. 25 Sep 1781 Chatham, Middlesex, Connecticut). I'm drafting this in Willimantic, Connecticut. Harold's dad was William E. Allen, born in Elsie, Clinton, Michigan in 1867. William's father was Ira Allen, the founding pastor of Elsie Baptist Church about 1863. The Elsie Baptist Church was initially called the Duplain Baptist Church. My guess is, Harold knew Ethel from Elsie Baptist church.
Ethel married Harold in 1922. She was 24. Fifty-three years of marriage can do things that are difficult to imagine. Ethel died at 77. Harold was 80 years old. He'd never kept a home. He didn't own a microwave, much less a 炊飯器。Harold married Grace Smith Mason (b. 1886). We were all pleased that grandpa had someone. Sadly, she died in 1980.
In 1982, Harold married Mabelle. She was 82. Harold died the next year. Mabelle passed in 1992 in Green Valley Arizona.
Why do I think Miss Cowgill squirted out Mr. Jobs? Good question.
Mabelle divorced Joseph M. Chamberlain in 1979. Instead of Miss Mason,
could have been Harold's rebound spouse. Why not? I don't know. We never met Miss Cowgill. Do her descendants know? Perhaps.
