Edith Pearl Riddle ^{1 3 4 5 6}

  Noted events in her life were:

• She appeared on the 1920 US Census in Waseca, MN on January 1920. ³

1920 US Census
Sheet 3A, District 177, Household 47
Waseca, Waseca County, Minnesota
Home Owned
Edath P. Cruse..Wife..35..IA

(Living with husband and 2 children.)
.

• She appeared on the 1940 US Census in Hemet Township, Riverside, CA on 29 April 1940. ⁴

1940 US Census
Sheet 4B, District 33-14, Family 91, Roll 276
Hemet Township, Riverside County, California
Last Place of Residence: Same Place
Home owned, $1000
Edith Crees..Wife..55..IA..1 year college

(Living with husband.)
.

Edith married Frank Cleveland Crees, son of Joseph W. Crees and Lucette Jane Linn, on 10 April 1912 in Muscatine, IA.^{1 3 4 5} (Frank Cleveland Crees was born on 5 June 1884 in , Muscatine County, IA ^{3 4 5 7 8 9} and died on 6 June 1959 ⁵.)

  Noted events in their marriage were:

• They appeared on the 1920 US Census in Waseca, MN on January 1920. ³

1920 US Census
Sheet 3A, District 177, Household 47
Waseca, Waseca County, Minnesota
Home owned
Frank C. Cruse..Head..35..IA
Edath P. Cruse..Wife..35..IA
Vera E. Cruse..Daughter..5..IA
Virgil S. Cruse.Son..2..IA
.

• They appeared on the 1940 US Census in Hemet Township, Riverside, CA on 29 April 1940. ⁴

1940 US Census
Sheet 4B, District 33-14, Family 91, Roll 276
Hemet Township, Riverside County, California
Last Place of Residence: Same Place
Home owned, $1000
Frank Crees..Head..55..IA..10th grade..Farmer
Edith Crees..Wife..55..IA..1 year college
.

  Marriage Notes:

Researching Frank and Edith Crees has proven to be a little difficult. Their three children were all born in Iowa, but by 1918 they were living in Waseca, Waseca County, Minnesota and Frank was working as a Freight Clerk for the C&NW Railroad. The 1920 Census shows them still living in Waseca, Minnesota.

But this is where the first contradiction shows up. That 1920 census shows only two children with the parents. Absent was Patsy Crees who was born about 1915 and would have been about 5 years old at the time of the census.

There are two birth documents found in Iowa for their first daughter, Vera, and their oldest son, Virgil, but they apparently also had a middle daughter named Patsy that was born in Iowa in about 1915. She shows up on a marriage license in 1934 in Los Angles in which her brother, Virgil, was a witness to her ceremony. No other information about Patsy has yet been found. Because this supposed daughter was not with the family on the 1920 census, one has to ask why her name was absent. Perhaps her age on the marriage license was understated and she was not born until 1921 but that would have made her only 13 years old at the time of her wedding. So that understatement of her age obviously is not the answer. Another possibility is that she was adopted by Frank and Edith sometime after the 1920 census. That could make her age a legitimate value, explain why she did not appear on the 1920 census, and the fact that her true birth name may never be known. It would be nice to find the family in the 1930 census to see if the mysterious daughter named Patsy shows up but so far no records have emerged for that time period and the whereabouts of the parents between 1920 and 1940 is unknown.

Five years following the marriage of Patsy, the youngest daughter, Vera, was married in 1939 in Reno, Nevada. The Social Security Death Index shows her dying in San Mateo County in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1997. Very little is known about Vera other than the Linn Family records show her giving birth to a son and the names of several of his descendants.

Meanwhile, the oldest son, Virgil, was also married in Southern California in 1940 shortly after being enumerated in the 1940 Census in Los Angeles. There is a record of an enlistment in the US Army in 1945 at Fort McArthur in southern California near San Pedro for a Virgil S. Crees with a birth year of 1917. However, this enlistment record indicates a birth location of Alaska and a marital status of single so I am not sure if this is the same person in spite of the somewhat unique name. Virgil and his wife are both buried in the far northern California city of Fort Jones just south of the Oregon border.

No burial locations for Frank and Edith have yet been discovered although the Linn Family records do provide a date of death but no location. The California Death Index record shows that Edith died in Riverside County. I suspect that both Frank and Edith remained in the southern California area for the rest of their lives and are probably buried somewhere in rural Riverside county.
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