Elizabeth Mary McCall Beach, ca 1865-70

Mills/Beach Family Graphics Submitted by: Michael E. Woods Grandson, Arthur & Martha Beach Mills

These pictures were sent by Michael E. Woods, Grandson of Arthur & Martha Gertrude Beach Mills. To run through what we know, Martha Gertrude Beach was one of the Beach sisters. The sisters included Emma Beach Carlyle, Henrietta Beach Anderson, Sarah Ann Beach Duffie, Rachel Alice Beach Bloomfield, Mary Elizabeth Beach Robinson, and Agnes Beach.

Arthur & Martha's oldest daughter, Nova Jane Mills, married Clyde Woods, resulting in a son, Michael, a 2nd. cousin to my generation of the Beach/Duffie family.

Some pictures were identified adequately, others with some names, some with none. I will post them with whatever information I have gathered about the people involved. If I have guessed wrong, hopefully Michael or some of his siblings/cousins will correct me.

I am building this as an on-going project for the next few days. I have several pictures to include. Check back for progress.

Send corrections to: Tim Duffie

Dr. William & Elizabeth Wolfe Beach w/William Hugh & Richard Potter Beach

William Hugh was born in 1911, and he looks to be 9 or 10 years old in this picture. According to Marcia Beach Ditter in her story of her grandfather Dr. Will:

They stayed in Nan (Siam) until August of 1918. At this time they came home on furlough. Grandfather then enlisted in the Army and was commissioned as Captain and assigned to the United States General Hospital #3 in Colonial, New Jersey. He served there until June of 1919.

After his release from the service, a doctor friend persuaded him to join his practice in Coupeville on Whidby Island, state of Washington. He felt there was not enough challenge there and did not really enjoy what he called "the easy life", so he contacted the mission board for reassignment.

In June, 1920, the family was reassigned to Siam and sent to Chiang Rai on the Mekong River, also near the border of Laos in northern Siam.

Timing is critical here, but this picture almost had to have been taken on Coupeville, Whidby Island, Washington, sometime around 1920. (The 1920 census shows William & Elizabeth on what was called Coupeville Island at the time. I'm not sure which it is supposed to be.)

Martha Gertrude Beach Mills w/Nova Jane Mills (Woods).

Nova Jane Mills was born in Nebraska in 1918. Michael stated that she was born in the home of her "Aunt Emma". In our original conversations we wondered if that was Emma Beach Carlyle. However, she also had an "Aunt Emma" on the Mills side of the family.

According to an article from the Western Nebraska Observer newspaper dated 14 February 1907, Emma Beach Carlyle put their household furnishings up for sale because she planned to leave for Oregon to be with Sam who had moved there earlier.

Nova Jane Mills Woods was probably born in the home of her Aunt Emma on the Mills side of the family.

Arthur & Martha were living in Kalama, Cowlitz County, Washington, when their second daughter, Dana Ray Mills, was born in 1923. It would appear this picture was taken there sometime in the early 1920s.

See The U.S.A. In Your Wayne Automobile!
Doesn't Quite Have The Same Ring To It, Does It?!

Much of trying to identify these pictures is a matter of applying a Who - When - Where logic process based on what we do know of the location of the family members at any given time. In essence, if we have the identify of several of the participants, then I try to figure out when and where those individuals might have been at any given time. The time frame for this picture I estimate at 1907 to 1910. That is based on two things: the vehicle strongly resembles a Wayne Automobile, manufactured in Detroit starting in 1907. the woman in the front seat almost has to be a very young Martha Gertrude Beach. We know GGrandmother Beach is in the back seat. Right of her is probably one of her daughters. She looks to be late 20s, early-30s. The daughters most qualified for an estimated time frame of 1907-1910 would be Henrietta Beach Anderson and Rachel Beach. Mary Elizabeth also qualifies, but I rule her out because this lady doesn't look anything like to person I've identified in other pictures as Mary Elizabeth. This picture looks an awful lot like a picture we have identified as Rachel. As mentioned above, the young lady in the front looks like a 16 or 17 year old Martha Gertrude Beach. Born in 1891, the math is right. So where would we have found GGrandmother Beach, Rachel Alice Beach, and Martha Gertrude Beach in 1907-1910? Shelby, Ohio, with Dr. Willis & Henrietta Beach Anderson. It stands to reason that a successful doctor would be able to afford an early automobile. I believe this Dr. Willis Anderson with sisters-in-law Martha Gertrude Beach and Rachel Alice Beach, and his mother-in-law Elizabeth Mary McCall Beach. I really believe the other woman is either GGrandmother Beach's mother, or possibly her mother-in-law, Emerencianna Beach. I have a picture elsewhere I believe was taken about this time, and I surmised that the woman might be Emerencianna Beach. All conjecture, of course, but it's fun to try.

While we're on the subject of automobiles, perhaps someone can identify these families, identified only as "Unknown Beach Family" when I received the picture from Bruce Dillinger.

Left: Elizabeth Mary McCall Beach, ca 1865-70

I've posted this picture with the one of Elizabeth McCall Beach and what originally was an unknown woman to the right to show Elizabeth's approximate age. I believe the woman to the right is her sister-in-law, Elmira Beach. I concluded that when I located Hugh Percy Beach's brother, John, living in Whitman County, WA, in the 1880-90s. Hugh Percy & Elizabeth McCall Beach were in Arnold, NE, during that time frame. I suspect that they visited Hugh's brother sometime in the 1890s, and Elizabeth & Elmira went to Walla Walla, Walla Walla County, WA, just south of Whitman County, for the picture. I came to that conclusion based on the estimated ages of the women.

The more I look at the picture on the left, the more I think it pre-dates her marriage to Hugh Percy in 1867. This portrait may well have been taken in Michigan, probably while she was still living in Grand Rapids, prior to her marriage. She looks awfully young!

Martha Gertrude Beach & Ava Sarah Carlyle

Michael believes this was a highschool picture of his grandmother, Martha Gertrude Beach Mills. Mills family tradition states that Martha attended school in Ohio, and that is possible since she moved to Shelby with her mother, Elizabeth Mary McCall Beach, after Hugh Percy died in 1900. Martha would have been 18 in 1908-1909. She probably graduated at that time.

My only question is the presence of Ava Sarah Carlyle, Martha's cousin. Sam & Emma Beach Carlyle were living in Orenco, Oregon, at the time. I have sent this picture to Tom Clabaugh, an historian in Shelby, Ohio, to see if the "Maximum" banner represented a Shelby High School at the time.

Martha Gertrude Beach & Ava Sarah Carlyle? Looking at Ava & Martha in the picture above, this certainly appears to be them several years later. What we do know about Ava is that apparently she and her husband, George Douglas Garratt, were both Corporals in the United States Army at one time.

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