Letters regarding the mystery of the death of my grandmother Ruby Harrington Colburn
\nBy Joan Colburn Robertson<\/p>\n
Mon, 13 Jul 2015<\/p>\n
Joan \u2013 Thank you for the note. I am working on cataloguing the music your family has donated to the museum. There is a lot of items in the collection, so it will keep me busy for a while. I enjoyed researching your grandfather\u2019s history, but was left with one unanswered\u00a0question, what happened to your grandmother, Ruby? I assumed she died in Wisconsin as I found no record of her on any death indexes for Illinois, and Minnesota, Wisconsin does not have one available for the time period she would have died, and\u00a0she is not at Graceland Cemetery. \u2013 Walt Bennuick, Archivist<\/p>\n
October 24, 2015<\/p>\n
Dear Walt,\u00a0 I have not forgotten your inquiry about Ruby’s death.\u00a0 According to our family Bible, Ruby was born in Riverside, IL, on 4\/28\/80 and died in Winona on 1\/1\/38.<\/b>\u00a0 This was in my Dad’s handwriting.\u00a0 It also says that she and George were both cremated.\u00a0 My sister\u00a0suggests that maybe her ashes went to Winona although George’s ashes are at Graceland in Chicago.\u00a0 However, my cousin Stephanie says:\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n According to my mother\u2019s memoirs, \u201cIn April of 1937 we moved to 1410 Gregory in Wilmette. John and Mrs. Colburn rented the second floor from us\u2026.On December 31, 1937, Mrs. Colburn died and John moved out shortly thereafter<\/b>.\u201d Which would mean Ruby died on New Year\u2019s Eve in 1937 in Wilmette IL.<\/p>\n So you see, the mystery continues as to both the location and date of her death.\u00a0 She is not listed in any Illinois or Minnesota death lists\u00a0that I have been able to find so far.\u00a0 Is it possible that there is any mention of her death in\u00a0a January 1938 issue of the Winona newspaper?<\/p>\n Do you have an extra\u00a0copy of “The Homestead up in Maine”?\u00a0 I would enjoy seeing that one.\u00a0 I have no idea what his connection with Maine was.\u00a0 It’s fun to speculate about the lives of our ancestors.\u00a0 I’m sure there are many untold\u00a0stories here!<\/p>\n Thank you for your for your interest in our family.\u00a0 Joan<\/p>\n 26 Oct 2015<\/p>\n Joan \u2013 I will find a copy of the \u201cHomestead in Maine\u201d and send it to you. As to Ruby, according to the 1937 Winona City Directory, she had moved to Madison, Wisconsin and on the 1940 US Census, John was living at 1621 West Columbia Avenue in Chicago. I have checked available death record indexes and can\u2019t find Ruby having died in Minnesota or Illinois around 1938-9. A death index for Wisconsin is unavailable on line, but I suspect that she died in Madison, Wisconsin around the time she was supposed to have died and her cremains were placed in Graceland Cemetery without reporting it. One would have to check with the Wisconsin Vital Stats to see if I am correct. The last mention of Ruby Colburn in the Winona Newspaper was on January 21, 1935 when she and her son Robert were at a lecture at Central Lutheran Church and Robert sang a song for the group. \u2013 Walt Bennick, Archivist<\/p>\n October 26, 2015\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Actually, the years would have been 1937-38, because it was either December 31, 1937, or January 1, 1938.\u00a0\u00a0I had originally thought maybe she was visiting friends in Winona\u00a0for the holidays in 1937, and\u00a0that would explain the confusion, but\u00a0she and John\u00a0had definitely moved back to the Chicago area where George was working before the time of Ruby’s death.<\/p>\n You may be interested to know that\u00a0her son George\u00a0was an artist and designed theater posters in Chicago.\u00a0 His main employment following that was inventing the machinery that\u00a0enabled motion picture\u00a0film to be printed in various sizes.\u00a0 He founded the George W. Colburn Laboratory, Inc., in Chicago.\u00a0 I’m not sure what year that was, but my father Robert and brothers Francis and John also worked with\u00a0him.\u00a0 I have seen an early handwritten account book in which my father’s salary was increased to $25 a week, which he had once told me he had determined what was needed to marry my mother.\u00a0 Evidently, that was true, because they married on May 22, 1937, the same year as that book entry!<\/p>\n My father continued to sing all his life, was a soloist in his church choirs, singing there until about a year before his death at age 88.\u00a0 George played the viola in a community orchestra.\u00a0 As you know, Stephanie now composes music and continues to sing, and I play violin and mountain dulcimer and sing in both a barbershop chorus and a senior center chorus (at age 74).\u00a0 One of my (deceased) twin brother’s sons is an artist and\u00a0his grandchild plays violin and other instruments, so the music lingers on.\u00a0 I look forward to seeing\u00a0“Homestead in Main” and again thank you for your interest.\u00a0 Joan<\/p>\n Mon, 26 Oct 2015 14:22:13 -0500<\/p>\n Joan \u2013 A renewed search puts Ruby Colburn\u2019s cremains being scattered in a pond at Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis on January 3, 1938, apparently passing away on January 1, 1938 at the age of 57 years. This would have her born around 1881, which I think she was. The internet report does not list the place of death \u2013 Walt Bennick, Archivist<\/p>\n (Attached)<\/p>\n October 26, 2015<\/p>\n To whom it may concern \u2013 I am looking for a bit of information regarding one, Ruby Colburn, who apparently had her cremains scattered in \u201cJO Pond\u201d on January 3, 1938. She apparently died at the age of 57 years on January 1, 1938. Would you have any additional information regarding this woman?\u00a0 Thank you. \u2013 Walt Bennick, Archivist Winona County Historical Society<\/p>\n 26 Oct 2015\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Well done, Walt!\u00a0 Wherever did you find this information?\u00a0 Many thanks for solving our family mystery!\u00a0 Joan<\/p>\n 10\/26\/15<\/p>\n Joan \u2013 A reply from Lakewood Cemetery regarding Ruby<\/b><\/p>\n From:<\/b> Info Lakewood [mailto:info@lakewoodcemetery.com]\nSent:<\/b> Monday, October 26, 2015 3:07 PM Mr. Bennick,<\/p>\n We don\u2019t have a lot of additional information that is not on our website.<\/p>\n She is from Illinois, she died in Winona MN.<\/p>\n She was survived by a son George Colburn from Wilmette IL.<\/p>\n Sharon<\/p>\n Lakewood Cemetery<\/p>\n 27 Oct 2015<\/p>\n Joan \u2013 I found your grandmother\u2019s death record and obituary. It never showed up on the search I did earlier. I checked at the Winona County Vial Stats office I found it after checking with Lakewood Cemetery whose records were limited. The obituary is seen below. As seen in the obituary, she was cremated at the Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis and according to the cemetery her cremains were scatted in a pond in the cemetery. I think the issue of what happened to your grandmother is solved \u2013 Walt Bennick, Archivist<\/p>\n (The following is copied from the original obituary, which would not copy onto this manuscript.)<\/b><\/p>\n Winona Republican-Herald; Date: Jan 3, 1938; Page 3<\/i><\/p>\n Obituary<\/b><\/p>\n Death of Mrs. Ruby Colburn.<\/b><\/p>\n Mrs. Ruby Colburn, 57, Wilmette, Ill., former Winona resident, died suddenly Saturday at 10:40 a.m. at the Winona General hospital following a stroke suffered Friday.\u00a0 <\/span>Mrs. Colburn had come to Winona Wednesday to visit at the home of Mr. and Mrs. H. G. Seaton, 168 East Broadway.\u00a0 <\/span>She was born November 28, 1860, and was the widow of the late George A. Colburn.\u00a0 <\/span>Survivors are four sons, George W. and John E., Wilmette; Francis W., Excelsior, and Robert, Chicago; one daughter, Mrs. Thomas Reilly, Green Bay, Wis.; one brother, Van Tuyl Harrington, Chicago; one half sister, Mrs. Athalie Unger, Fairhope Okla., and one half brother, Stephen H. Harrington, Chicago.\u00a0 <\/span>Funeral services were conducted at 2 p.m. Sunday at St. Paul\u2019s Episcopal church, the Rev. C. B. Whitehead officiating.\u00a0 <\/span>The body was taken to the Lakewood crematory in Minneapolis this morning.<\/p>\n 27 Oct 2015\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Dear Walt,\u00a0Thank you so much for pursuing Ruby’s final days.\u00a0 As Paul Harvey used to say, now we finally have “The\u00a0Rest of the Story<\/i>“!\u00a0 We are very grateful for your persistence in following up on this question.<\/p>\n Joan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Letters regarding the mystery of the death of my grandmother Ruby Harrington Colburn By Joan Colburn Robertson Mon, 13 Jul 2015 Joan \u2013 Thank you for the note. I am working on cataloguing the music… More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family-history"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drabek.com\/bobandfran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drabek.com\/bobandfran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drabek.com\/bobandfran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drabek.com\/bobandfran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drabek.com\/bobandfran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1028"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.drabek.com\/bobandfran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1028\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1053,"href":"https:\/\/www.drabek.com\/bobandfran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1028\/revisions\/1053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drabek.com\/bobandfran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drabek.com\/bobandfran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drabek.com\/bobandfran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nTo:<\/b> ‘Walt Bennick’
\nSubject:<\/b> RE: Ruby Colburn<\/p>\n