Elizabeth 3
Sometime in July 1916, Nellie told Bill she was expecting. They both were very happy about it but they decided that a third floor apartment was not a good place to raise a child. A man from the church they attended was trying to rent his house because he worked on the State Game Farm with Nellie's brother, Roy Moser and he got free housing which was part of his pay. Nellie & Bill rented Tom Gills house on Gwynbrook Avenue and moved in just before Christmas.
On Sunday, January 7, 1917, Nellie went down the cellar to get some potatoes to peel for dinner. The cellar had a dirt floor and it was uneven. She tripped and fell and within two hours their baby was born premature. In spite of efforts to save the baby, it died the same day. In April of the same year (1917) Nellie, was expecting again and everything went fine until the time of birth. The delivery was a difficult one and as the baby made its entrance into the world, someone in attendance said the sound of a snap inside the baby was heard. The baby was born November 28, 1917 and died September 3, 1918. The baby lived nine months and five days. The baby was never able to sit up and it cried constantly with pain in its back. The baby was named William Thomas Alban, Jr. The happenings of these passed fifteen months was enough to put any woman in a mental hospital. However, Nellie survived all the heartache - she had to as she was five months pregnant with their next child. Ethel Isabelle Alban was born a healthy little girl on January 17, 1919.
Bess and Jim also had another baby - it was a little girl, but it did not live. Working and living at Bonnie Blink, Bess realized that they would have to look for something different or they would never own a house of their own. They heard about a house in Riderwood that seemed to be in their price range. Jim found a new job with the Andrews (house-building) Company, so he accepted the job and they bought and settled in Riderwood, Md. On Friday, September 3, 1920, Bess and Jim had another baby boy and they named him Robert M. Howard.
Remember, I told you Clara Alban married Irwin Isaacs on December 31, 1913 and on September 27, 1914, they had their first born. They named their baby boy Irwin Preston Isaacs. As far as I know, they were both still working at the "Royal-Joyce' a very elegant hotel in Baltimore City. Three years later, another son was born to this happy couple on September 17, 1917. They named the child Edwin Woodrow Isaacs. For a man that did not have much schooling, Irwin, the father, enjoyed the finer things of life and would sit for hours, when time permitted, listening to music by Mozart and Bach.
Irwin had two older sisters that never married and they seemed to hold themselves aloof from lrwins family.. Sometime after Edwin was born, Irwin went to work for a very wealthy man (I believe his name was Murray) in Elkridge, Md. They lived on the estate in a small cottage. Immediately, at the back door of the cottage, there was a building that I might call a pavillion but it could be closed up so that rain and bad weather could not get into the building. The two boys, Preston and Edwin made this their summer-time bed room; and they displayed all different things of the hobbies that they would get into. The room had twin beds in it and model airplanes hung from the ceiling. Mr. Murrays children had a goat cart and the Isaac boys were allowed to use it from time to time. It was the ideal place for bringing up two children.
We use to visit back and forth on Sundays, and one weekend in September 1930, we were suppose to go over for dinner. On Saturday afternoon, we got a telephone call from Aunt Clara stating she would have to postpone on the dinner, stating that Preston did not come home from school the day before and they had no idea what happened to him. We did go over late in the afternoon, showing that we did care and of course, we found Aunt Clara in much grief and sorrow. There is a happy ending to this little (true) story though - Preston sneaked into the house late at night and they found him fast asleep in his bed Monday morning.
The crash of Wall St. come to this great country of ours in 1929 and everyone felt the economic depression during the 1930s. Rich people that lost their money, were jumping out of hotel windows. Mr. Murray lost his fortune in 1932 and Uncle Irwin was forced to find new work.
Left: New York Stock Exchange on October 29, 1929.
The Murrays moved out of their mansion into the cottage where the Isaacs had lived. A Mr. Ness hired Irwin on to look after and take care of the grounds of his estate. This was at Riderwood, so Aunt Clara found a big house to rent and Aunt Bess son, Willard and Helen, his wife rented the upstairs from Aunt Clara. No one had any money these days and the whole house probably rented for $25.00 a month. I might mention that while Clara lived in Elkridge, she did baby sitting for a Mrs. Cheston. Mrs. Cheston was in the process of divorcing her husband so she moved to a new house which was right across from Aunt Clara in Riderwood. Preston is 18 years old now and he cant find work. He joined the Civilian Conservation Corps., and wore a uniform like he was in the military. The CCC was an agency authorized by the government to hire unemployed young men for public conservation work. They planted trees, built dams and sometimes fought forest fires. When World War 11 broke out, the CCC was abolished. Aunt Clara found a bigger house in Towson and this time Bessie's son Russell rented the upstairs.
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