My great grandmother, Fannie Belle Westlake was 26 years old when she married the much older Simeon Hughes. He was 14 years her senior. I remember finding a letter that she had sent to Sim, tucked away in the bottom drawer of my father's dresser. As a teenager, I loved to take this lovely Victorian letter out and read it. Pictured here is the leap year letter that was her marriage proposal to Sim! The letter contains a number of verses, to which a colored bow of thread is tied. The last verse said, "If you want me for your wife, send me back my bow of white." The white bow is missing; he must have sent it back!
Simeon Hughes, son of Frederick and Harriet Van Wey Hughes of Tioga,
Pennsylvania married Fannie Belle Westlake, daughter of George and Jane
Hayton Westlake on January 11, 1898.
Fannie and Sim soon became the parents of three boys. Jeptha was born
April 27, 1899, Richard, born June 23, 1900 and Roy born July 13,
1901. Yes they are all boys... curly hair, ruffled shirt collars, dresses and all!
Fannie had her hands full raising these three boys born so close together. They were kept busy
on the tobacco farm their father Sim operated, one of Tioga's most prominent farms. Here is the Hughes family all dressed in their Sunday best! The boys look happy about that, don't you think!
After Simeon died in 1929 Fannie became a business woman. Way to go Fannie Belle! She opened a bed and breakfast type tourist establishment in the farm house to provide herself with an income. Fannie called her business The Maples.
She was a good cook, who taught her culinary skills to her son Richard who later established the Hughes Dairy Bar and milk processing plant on the property. Dad told me that for a number of years when he was in his teens he lived upstairs at the farmhouse with his parents, Richard and Zilpha. He remembered that his Grandmother Fannie provided a nurturing home for her grandchildren during these years.
Fannie and Simeon were married 31 years before he died on June 3, 1929. Fannie survived him another 17 years. She was 74 years old when she passed away on May 14, 1946. They are buried in Evergreen Cemetery Tioga, Pennsylvania.
This page © 2013, Cynthia H. Smith
Send email to chsmith47@yahoo.com
Send email to chsmith47@yahoo.com
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Email address--- chsmith47@yahoo.com
I love your great grandmother Fannie Belle. She sounds like such a romantic, such a family woman, and so resourceful, being a businesswoman too.
ReplyDeleteThank you. I appreciate you taking the time to read through my Grammy Stories.
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