52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – Week 32: Youngest: Father & Son Both the Youngest

I am working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow. I will write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or at My Trails Into the Past. I’m looking forward to writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways.

My grandfather, William Cyril Hork, was the youngest of ten children born to Johan Anton Hork and Julia Ann Sievert.[1]

His eldest sister, Mary, died before he was born in 1895 of blood poisoning.[2] By 1900, two of his oldest siblings, Ida and Susan, were out of the house. Susan had married Andrew E. Hart on 20 May 1900.[3] Ida was living in Spokane, Washington.[4]

His father was a tailor[5]  He also had a drinking problem and lived at home on and off.  Finally he left the family.[6]  In 1906, he died in Sheridan, Wyoming, destitute.[7]

Cyril was just seven years old and never really had a father. He did have four older brothers, three of whom never married. The oldest, Albert, was twenty years older than Cyril and lived at home most of his life. He may have been the “father” figure for Cyril.

Cyril served in the U.S. Navy during World War I aboard a submarine tender.[8] In 1922, he married Anna Maria Sullivan, a school teacher in Hamilton. They married in Butte, Montana at St. Patrick’s Church.[9] They then moved to Southern California. Cyril probably remembered the mild weather when he served in Long Beach. Or they followed Anna’s sister, Loretta and her husband, Leroy Patterson.

They had four children, three daughters and then the youngest child, William “Billy” Joseph Hork, who was born in 1930.[10] During the depression, Cyril worked odd jobs, some for the WPA.

Cyril also had a drinking problem. By 1940, Anna and the kids were living alone and then moved to Napa to be near her brother-in-law, Vir Quigley. Billy was just ten years old and now he had no father in his life. Perhaps his uncle, Vir, took on the role or maybe being in Boy Scouts helped.[11]

So two generations of the youngest in a family, both losing their fathers at a young age. It must have been difficult not having a father figure in their lives. However, they had sisters and brothers who probably helped fill that role.

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[1] 1900 U.S. census, Ravalli County, Montana, population schedule, ED 81, Sheet 15a, p 33 (stamped), household/family 285, John A Hork, digital image, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 28 Jun 2011), citing NARA microfilm publication T623, roll 914.

[2] Oregon State Board of Health, Certificate of Death, 1895, Mary Hork.

[3] Ravalli County, Montana, marriages, v. 1 1893-1904, p 360, No. 354, 1900, Susan Hork & Andrew Hart, FHL Film 1905836.

[4] Spokane City Directory, R.L. Polk & Co, 1897, p 346, Miss I Marie, digital image, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com).

[5] “A Tailor-Made Man,” ad, Western News, 10 Apr 1901, p. 1.

[6] “Sheriff Watts and Deputy Pursuing Three Men,” Butte Miner, 17 May 1902, p. 13, digital image, Newspaper.com.

[7] “The Carbolic Route,” Sheridan Enterprise, 17 Aug 1906, p. 1.

[8] Military Enlistments (Montana), World War I, Montana Adjutant General's Office Records 1889-1959 (RS 223), Montana Historical Society Research Center, Helena, Montana., World War I (HAUGEN-JACOBSON), Cyril Willis Hork, ser. no. 173-64-55.

[9] St. Patrick's Church, Butte, Montana, Marriage (Church) Record of William C. Hork & Anne M. Sullivan, p 434, Hork-Sullivan.

[10] California, Department of Health Services, Department of Public Health, Vital Statistics, Certificate of Birth, San Bernardino Co, Ontario, 30-026547, William Joseph Hork, issued 2 Apr 1990.

[11] "Boy Scout Bond Sales Rise to $53,750 Total," Napa Journal, 11 Jun 1945, p. 8, col. 5.

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