Fairy Estelle Lent WHITING

Family 1: Frank Truman HENDRY
  1. James Rowley HENDRY
  2. George Whiting HENDRY 
          __
       __|__
    __|
   |  |   __
   |  |__|__
 __|
|  |      __
|  |   __|__
|  |__|
|     |   __
|     |__|__
|
|--Fairy Estelle Lent WHITING 
|
|         __
|      __|__
|   __|
|  |  |   __
|  |  |__|__
|__|
   |      __
   |   __|__
   |__|
      |   __
      |__|__
INDEX

Notes

Line in Record @I0035@ (RIN 35) from GEDCOM file not recognized: _FA2 James Abbott Hendry my cousin (son of James Rowley Hendry) wrote down some of his memories of Fairy Estelle Lent Whiting Hendry for me and sent them in a letter dated March 25, 1994. James Abbott Hendry (Jim) will be eithty (80) this year. He was born in 1914 and knew Fairy Estelle Lent Whiting better than anyone else who is still living. His notes to me are copied here verbatim. "Fairy Estelle W;hiting was a unique woman born many years ahead of her time. Her mother died not long after her birth and, according to my father, her father was a French fur trader along the upper Mississippi River who had possibly deserted the family and was never heard from again. Fairy Estelle grew up in Michigan City, Indiana after she was adopted by the George B. Whiting family who had been friends of her mother. Not much has been recorded about this period of her life except that she had graduated from Oberlin College in the first class accepting female students. I assume this is where she met Frank Truman Hendry, also a student at Oberlin, who she later married." (Andy Hendry's inserted note. The probate records of the adoption by George B. Whiting are from the Probate Court of Riley County Kansas. In the record of the adoption, it is clear that Fairy Estelle Lent lived in Riley County Kansas. It is not clear if George B. Whiting also lived in Riley County. In short, I am not sure that Fairy Estelle ever attended Oberlin College. Frank Truman attended Oberlin College between 1871 and 1873. At that time, Fairy Estelle was only nine years old. I think Fairy Estelle and Frank Truman Hendry met when he was stationed in Topeka with the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad. Manhatten is the county seat of Riley County Kansas, not far west and a little north of Topeka. I believe the references to Oberlin College relate to Jane Ann Penfield who was her husband's mother. Letters from her adoptive father, George Whiting, suggent Fairy Estelle went to school in Topeka. Home was Manhatten, Riley County Kansas.) My first impressions of Grandmother were formed around Christmas time each year. Mother and Dad had very strict rules on how this day was to be celebrated. My sister Janet and I were sent to bed Christmas Eve with no sign of decorations or gifts in evidence, these we were told, would be brought by Santa Claus sometime during the night if we were good children. In the morning we had to stay in our rooms until Dad returned home from picking up Grandmother and Grandfather at their apartment but our wait was not over. Breakfast came first then the doors to the living room were opened and for the first time we were able to find out if we had been naughty or good. Grandmother was instrumental in breaking up this tradition, it was she who insisted that Janet and I be allowed to open some of the presents before breakfast, at least those she and Grandfather had brought with them. During my younger years, particularly after Janet died when I was 10, Grandmother would take me downtown to see first run movies, plays and concerts followed by dinner at the Statler Hotel cafeteria. One year I was treated to a real special trip. The two of us traveled by train from Detroit to Chicago where we boarded a Great Lakes passenger steamer traveling up Lake Michigan to Green Bay and Mackinaw Island. During a short stopover on the island where cars were not permitted she rented a horse and buggy to ride around the few roads, we then continued down Lake Huron and Lake St Clair to dock at Detroit. "The Hendry and Abbott families both had summer cottages at Lake Wawasee in Northern Indiana. In the spring, Grandmother would leave for her cottage and not returln to Detroit until late fall. Grand father would take the train to join her on most weekends. The cottage was situated on a spacious double lot and was appropriately named Seven Oaks. The grounds were covered with a well maintained lawn and numerous garden areas with flowerws blooming all summer. During my summer stays there Grandmother would work in her gardens every day wearing voluminous ankle length skirts and a large brimmed straw hat. Her second love was the native birds which she fed every day by throwing out bread crumbs and various seeds. During lunch, we looked out of an alcove window to watch the birds bthing in a cement bird bath set into the ground. It was my job every day I was there to scrub out the bird bath with a coarse bristle brush. Our meals, which she prepared, were always nutritious and today would be called "health food". I will always remember the afternoon treat we shared. Grandmother prepared a jar of lemonade concentrate consisting of lemon juice, sugar and water boiled to a syrupy consistency. In mid afternoon several tablespoons of the syrup was added to glasses of ice water and served with four graham crackers. The cottage was furnished with numerous Indian rugs and artifacts which had been collected by Grandmother, Robin and George on their numerous trips to the Southwest. The walls were lined with bookcases containing many of Dad and Georges youthful reading material. One bookcase contained every issue of Natioinal Geographic Magazine from 1904 through the early 1920s. One summer I read every issue containing articles on World War I. Other novels I enjoyed were some of Dads fiction novels especially "She" by Rider Hagard which kept me up late at night. Grandmother encouraged my reading and would often open discussussions on the material I had read. Both my father and George spent their boyhood summers at the lake where they fished, sailed, swam and courted the girls. My father eventually married the oldest Abbott girl, Ruby, who summered at her family's cottage abour a mile down the line. Robin and George slept in a dorm-like upstairs area reached by a very steep stairway with their two Airedales who were reluctant to go down the stairs headfirst. The boys soon solved the problem by opening an upper bedroom window facing onto a porch roof allowing the dogs to jump onto the roof and then down to the ground. The dogs accompanied Grandmother and the boys on summer trips to the Grand Canyon where they stayed at the ranch of Cap Anse (spelling uncertain) near the South Rim Lodge, a property of the Santa Fe Railway. Grandfather was well known in the area. and, George and the dogs spoent many hours exploring Indian and game trails down into the canyon and although pictrues of Dad showed him carrying a rifle I never heard of him killing anything larger than a rabbit. Later in life he would not permit guns in our house and I was not allowed to even own a BB gun to shoot birds. Grandmother was a petite person but of boundless energy, she could walk briskly for hours at a time, as a child I was hard put to keep up with her. She was a tremendously independent person making all decisions contgrolling every aspect of her life. Grandfather apparently had little vacation time from his railroad job and as a result Grandmother took up the task of insuring that her two boys received an excellent education, were well traveled and developed good values. I feel she accomplished all three. She was an inspiration to me as long as I knew her; if I was disciplined I deserved it, if I had a question she could answer it. She always treated me as an equal. To some, Grandmother was thought of as being curt but I think that it was because she lived such an isolated life. Grandfather was not a faithful husband which grandmother knew. This I believe led to a rejection of him and a concentration on the lives of her children. Divorce was not an acceptable solution to marital problems in those days. She had little social contact with other couples and in later life could even have been jealous of the relationship between her sons and their wives. When my father left Indianapolis to attend the University of Michigan Grandmother moved to Ann Arbor, rented an apartment, and set up hosekeeping for him, perhaps she was a bit to possessive or domineering. After grandfather's death, Grandmother continued to live in the apartment she had shared with him in Detroit until ill health made it impossible for her to live alone. Since I had moved away from home by that time Dad thought he and mother would have room to move her in to their house to take care of her. This was of course a terrible mistake placing two very strong willed women under the same roof. It didn't work out. A second move placed Grandmother in a private home several blocks away where she received nursing care. She remained there until her death with Dad visiting her every night. While this description of Fairy Estelle is quite sketchy, I think it shows a person of great intellect, a person who erected defensive barriers to protect her feelings that had been severely injured and yet a person who could express love and devotion for those she cared about. I wish I had learned more of Grandmother's youth but she never talked to me about it and it was not a subject I had discussed with my parents. I do hope this sketch fills in some of the things you wanted to know abour our close relative you never had a chance to know. The foregoing was written by James A. Hendry of Aptos, California in the spring of 1994. THE PROBATE RECORD (From a xerox of the origina handwritten records) "In the Probate Court of Riley County Kansas, October ____ 1872. In the matter of Fairy Estelle Lent, minor child of Melvin Lent and Huldah Lent, deceased. Now this 21st day of November A.D. 1872, personnally appeared in open Court Corilda D. Sparr, guardian of said Fairy Estelle Lent, a minor aged 10 years. January 16th 1872, and offers to relinquish all right, case and custody of her said ward and transfer the same to George B. Whiting who is desirous of adopting her as his child. Also, personally appeared the said Geo. B.Whiting and offeres to adopt said minor as his own child, and the court being satisfied that the consent of said guardian and ... Geo. B. Whiting is free and voluntary, It is therefore ordered and decreed by said Court that ther said Fairy Estelle Lent. be and she is declared the child and heir of said George B. Whiting, and from and after this date said George B. Whiting shall be entitled to and exercise all the rights of a parent to said chile and be subject to all the liabilities incident to that relation. It is further ordered that said minor child shall assume the surname of her adopted father and be known by the name of Fairy Estelle Whiting, and shall be entitled to the same rights of person and property as child and heir at law of said George B. Whiting who thus adopts her. (Signed) R. J. Cantor Probate Judge State of Kansas Riley County J.R. Camper, Probate Judge in and for the County and State ____ said hereby certify that the above is a true and correct transcript of the record made in the matter of the adoption of Fairy Estelle Lent and the same now remains of record in said Court. Witness my hand with the seal of said Court affixed at Manhatten this 21st day of November AD 1872 (Signed) R.J. Cantor Probate Judge It appears form evidence of Fairy Estelle's later life, that the adoption was very satisfactory. She did inherit from George B. Whiting both property and funds. She named her second son, George Whiting Hendry, for her adoptive father. She apparently dropped the name Fairy and signed herself always, after her marriage, Estelle Whiting Hendry or just "EWH". Estelle Whiting married Frank Truman Hendry February 23, 1882 in Topeka, Kansas. He was an employee of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad and posted at that time in Topeka. She had two children, James Rowley Hendry born December 22, 1883 and George Whiting Hendry (my father) born January 22, 1885. She lived variously in Indianapolis, Detroit and Ann Arbor. She inherited from George B. Whiting a property called "Seven Oaks" on Lake Wawasee near Goshen, Indiana. She traveled widely by train. A record of the settlement of her estate is in the possession of her grandsons, George Orr Hendry of Napa, California and Andrew Munn Hendry of Spruce Grove, Alberta, Canada. Estelle seems to have been a very strong personality and although there is no written record of her life with Frank Truman Hendry, several pictures survive as does some correspondence from her son George Whiting Hendry. It should be noted that when pictures of Fairy Estelle as a young child are placed beside pictures of her son, George Whiting Hendry and her grandson, George Orr Hendry, it is very difficult to tell one child from the other so strong is the resembelance between the three. I have in my possession a .32 caliber, five shot, Smith and Wesson revolver she was said to have carried with her on all her travels. It is still in perfect working condition. More detail of Fairy Estelle Whiting Hendry's life may be available from the James A. Hendry family of Aptos, California and from the Thomas Penfield Hendry family of Granville, Ohio. James and Tom are the sons of James Rowley Hendry and my first cousins. Each has sons that may hold records of Fairy Estelle and her husband Frank Truman Hendry. Fairy Estelle Whiting Hendry died in 1943 in Detroit, Michigan aged 81 years. She visited her son and grandsons in California as late as March of 1939. Pictures of that visit survive. While there is no blood involved, the genealogy of the Whitings is interesting to Estelle's descendents. A printed book of the Whiting family which traces the Whiting name from 1805 through 1630 was entered in the office of the Library of Congress in Washington by William Whiting who was a former president of the New England Historic-Geneological Society. Printed by Press of Rand, Avery, & Co., 1873. Only 200 copies were printed.



Documented Family Genealogy Introduction Family Photos Site Search
  Members Only Shandy Hall Family Reunion



This site maintained by Rick Harper
Images copyright 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
All rights reserved
Created by Sparrowhawk 1.0 (4/17/1996) on Thu Mar 6 21:10:11 2008