Family Matters

1959 Moorehead Family's First Trailer Trip

955-57  Moorehead Family Council Minutes   For a short period of time Lee & Betty tried to instill discipline into their family                       

We called her Mama, or, Tutu, if you were the Barnwell family who used the Hawaiian name for Mama. She was widowed at age 30, and raised four children during the depression, eeking out a living being a grade school teacher in Decatur, Illinois. A true matriarch of what became a large extended family. When "Winnie" was just two years old, she moved with her parents to the Colorado River Indian Agency in Parker, Arizona. Her father, Charles E. Davis, had been appointed Indian Agent by President Grover Cleveland. They arrived December 30, 1893 and her sister, Effie Haldeen, was born three months later. Charles served in this role until 1897, when they returned to Mt. Auburn, Illinois, and later to Decatur.  

Her (not so secret) dream was to be a published writer. She wrote dozens of stories and received rejection letters from all the big publications. When she was in her late seventies to early nineties, her alma mater down the street, Millikin University, started a program for local alumni and friends to audit classes for free or a small fee. Winnie drank in the literature and writing classes she was able to attend. For Mama's 90th birthday in 1981, she hosted a grand, week-long family reunion in Michigan. Her local paper, the Decatur Herald & Review, included this article about the celebration:  What A Party!

Mama's Honeymoon Diary 1912                      A month-long trip from Illinois to California and back

Mama's Memoir of her late husband, Lee Coddington Moorehead, 1890 to 1922
 This is the text from an album she put together after Lee's death. Then she put it away and never wanted to
 speak of this loss or his life again. Family members discovered the album around 1970, and she let us look at it.  
 
Wind and Rain- a poem to her late husband

 Millikin Writing Class stories:    Winnie took advantage of the chance to audit, for free, classes from her alma mater,
     Millikin University, a few blocks from her home. She was in her 70s.
 Let the Wind Blow  1968  - she was 77
 My Favorite Shade Tree, and Why
 My Garden in the Shade
 Why I Like My Family

Stories she wrote and submitted to magazines in the 50s:
 Before Winter Comes
 Cat Lovers (we didn't know her to be one!)
 Communion
 Cross Country Bus
 Daydream
 Fulfillment
 Inspiration Spinster  1957                                 

Bruce Birmingham grew up on a farm in Abrams, Wisconsin (born on Valentine's Day in 1878), the youngest of seven children. But he ventured to the big city of Chicago around age 20 and spent all but 2 years of the rest of his life there. He passed away at the age of 85 in 1963. A very gentle and quiet man, the family jokes that he and our grandmother, Carrie Edna Plummer Birmingham, rarely are caught smiling in any of the photos we have. We did find one! (posted above.)

Grandfather Birmingham was nearly deaf, and had to leave his studies at Northwestern University because he couldn't hear the lectures. He went on to work as a railway postal clerk, sorting mail as the train traveled up and down the Midwest. Betty learned from a young age all the towns along the route because Grandfather had to practice memorizing the list for work.

A special talent of Grandfather's was as a poet. He wrote countless poems and had two small books published. His pen name was B. L. Bruce. Part of his poet life was as a regular contributor to the "In the Wake of the News" column in the Chicago Tribune, edited by their sports editor, Arch Ward. Annual "Homecoming" banquets were held where all the contributors would gather, most of them from surrounding areas and even other states, and were usually just known by their pen names, some of which were quite humorous. Arch would include their jokes, observations and poems in his weekly columns, and many of the contributors became quite well known for their style and personality.

B. L. Bruce's poetry was also published in Ideal's Magazine, The Columbus Citizen, and the Illinois State Register.

His grandchildren thought he looked a lot like Abraham Lincoln, and there was a portrait of Lincoln in his home. He also wrote some poems about Lincoln.

Poetry books:
 From Day To Day with B. L. Bruce  printed 1945
 Beckoning Trails by B. L. Bruce  printed 1948

In The Wake of the News Homecoming Program -- Saturday, May 21st, 1949, Hotel Sherman - 8th Annual

News Article & Photos from 1943 In the Wake of the New Homecoming   

Sample of Poems by BLBruce: