Friday, May 16, 2014

52 Ancestors: #20 - Jesse Harlan Severs (1901-1968)



Jesse Harlan Severs was born on 14 Jul 1901 in Sumner County, Kansas.  This parents were Jacob Henry Severs and Eliza Teague.  Eliza died in 1906 after the birth of Mary Severs, the daughter born after Jesse. 

Jess was married to Katherine Trice in 1925 in Pittsburgh, Kansas.  They had two daughters, born in 1927 and 1930.  About 1933 the entire family drove from Kansas to California.  They had taken out the back seat of their car.  They then stacked household goods in there and the two girls sat on them. They averaged 400 miles each day and made the trip in 6 days.  I even have a page out of my Grandmother's notebook that recorded the daily mileage and all expenses for this trip.  From that time own they lived in Los Angeles County, in Southern California. 

Jess died in 1968 in El Monte, California, after working in many jobs, including farmer, truck driver, plumber, and school custodian. 

If you are interested in researching this family, I would love to collaborate with you.

These weekly stories were inspired by a blog by Amy Johnson Crow.  As she noted in her introduction,


"In January 2014, I issued the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge. The premise: write once a week about a specific ancestor. It could be a story, a biography, a photograph, a research problem — any that focuses on that one ancestor. The next week, write about a different ancestor. In 52 weeks, you’ll have taken a closer look at 52 people in your family tree… and maybe learned a little bit more about them in the process. (Oh, yeah, and hopefully develop a regular writing habit in the process!)" 

Please also note that every Wednesday Amy posts a recap of all of the blogs that posted for the week.  You can search for a surname and see if someone has been writing about one of your ancestors.  Thank you, Amy.