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Note: Mabel didn't talk very much about her childhood to her family except to say that it was an unhappy one. Her mother died when she was very young and Mabel was raised largely by her older sister, Lulu. According to Virginia Dokken (2/5/2005) at age 6 Mabel was boarding in a several story house but she had to enter their room by way of a stair on the outside of the house. Even though she was only 6 Mabel had the job of carrying heavy buckets of coal up these stairs to keep their coal burning stove going. In the 1900 census she is listed, at age 8, of being a day laborer and had worked 10 of the 12 previous months. The neighborhood was a rough one and Mabel was scared of spending much time outside. Her sister, Lulu, worked in a box factory and was the primary means of support for the family though census records show the father, James, working in a grocery store. Virginia says there was an Aunt in St. Louis with whom Mabel spent a lot of time during her teens - that would have been 1900-1910 or thereabouts. The Alton Evening Telegraph mentions Mabel's comings and going several times: On August 8, 1910 there is an announcement that Mabel, who has been working in the Old Ladies Home is departing for a several month visit to her Aunt Martha in Milwaukee; Apparently she remained in Milwaukee because in July of 1912 she was mentioned as returning to Milwaukee after visiting Lulu for two weeks. Finally, in June of 1914 she is in Alton for several days visiting Lulu from Chicago. At some point Mabel contracted malaria and was beset by recurring rigors of fever and chills and dosed with quinine - she was quite disabled when these came on. Around 1912 Mabel moved to Chicago and was a servant for a wealthy family that was heir to the Johnson's Wax fortune - Mabel was personal maid to the wife there and learned about quality merchandise and it's care and developed a conviction that buying quality was the way to have possessions that would last. She was taught to shine silver and iron the linens and the lady of the household was so taken with Mabel's hard work and earnest demeanor that she was promoted to her personal maid. From that point onward she took care of Mrs. Johnson's beautiful clothes and jewelry. She saw that her bed was turned down, her nightgown laid out and the clothes properly put away and cleaned. Prior to and after working as a maid she had worked in a telephone exchange - first as an operator and then as a supervisor.
She and Henry actually met in Alton/St. Louis through the Aunt mentioned above and not in Chicago though another source (Vera Nygren Ashcraft) said it was at a YMCA dance in 1912.. This Aunt who had helped raise Mabel and Lulu held a family reunion and one of Henry's friends was a member of that family and brought Henry with him to the reunion. They "hit it off right away" and continued their correspondence once Henry went back to Chicago.
Social Security # 516-82-5676. According to Margaret Rosa, Lulu Garner O'Leary's daughter, Mabel's Dad was said to be French Canadian. Mabel's mother died when Mabel very young- her maiden name was Johnston. Raised by Aunt - Martha Garner. They had an Aunt named Lisa Cass with whom they would stay in SW Missouri Barton County as well.
In 1900 is living with her father, J.M. Garner is Alton, Illinois. There, she is 8 years old and listed as having been born in Louisiana with her sister Lulu born in Florida. In the 1910 census she is living in Wood river Twp. in the city of Upper Alton as a housekeeper for John C. B. Clark a 77 year old clergyman and John's wife, Cera J. The listing is on page 346, sheet 13A, enumeration district 68. Also living in the household at that time Grafton P. Clark, John's son and a manufacturer and Grace Cole, John's daughter . A cook with the name of Tanni Titchenal, aged 22, is also in the household as a servant. Mabel is listed as having been born in Illinois as were both parents. She can read and write, which she was not listed as doing so in the 1900 census.
Grandma Negal, a local midwife, brought Vera and Virginia into the world because the doctor couldn't come from Monroe, MT. The midwife gave the twins who weighed 3 # (Virginia) and 2.5# (Vera) mouth to mouth resuscitation. There were no incubators and no antibiotics and the midwife tucked the twin small babies in a box in the oven to keep them warm. Mabel was very ill and was taken along with the twins to Lewistown in a boxcar where the doctor met them and took them to the hospital. It was months after that Mabel was able to care for the twins. She had lost a great deal of blood and was very weak. The twins were given goats milk and Similac formula. Mr. and Mrs. Koch helped take care of Vera and Virginia while Mabel was recovering and Henry rented a room at the Judith Hotel in Hobson until Mabel was strong enough to cook and keep house. The prostitutes who lived at the hotel treated the twins well.
In the 1920 census Mabel lists both her parents as being born in Missouri. School District 20, Fergus County, Montana - ED 89, Sheet 16B.
Daughters tell that Mabel was very interested in education. She was on the Hobson School Board for several years in the mid 1930's and during that time virtually the entire staff of the school was let go including the principal with great public uproar to the point that Henry lost business in the barber shop. She also helped oversee the construction of a new school during that time. She went back to school in her 40's to learn to become a beautician when her twin daughters went back to Indiana to International College of Beauty in Indianapolis. Carolyn Smith says her mother was smart and scored the highest on the exams in Indianaopolis of anyone in the state of Indiana. Vera Nygren wrote that her mother taught her to value "the home and love she gave - also the finer things in life and that Mabel was a "very caring person who loved her home and family and was always very ambitious".
After Henry's death in 1970, Mabel applies for social security benefits. Lacking a social security # of her own, she initially applies under Henry's number and then has to apply for her own number, which is 516-82-5676; Henry's # was 517-36-6573; In her social security application her birthplace is the city of "Marseilles", the county of "Cook" and the State of "Illinois". Her father's name is correctly given as James Madison Garner. Her mother's name is given as Anna Johnston. Marseilles is close to the border between La Salle and Grundy Counties. Marseilles is in three townships: Rutland, Manlius and Fall River. A fourth township, Brookfield, intersects close to Marseilles as well. Birth and death records in La Salle and Grundy counties show no sign of the Garners. Other counties to search would include Cook and those between Grundy and Cook, namely Will and Kendall and possibly, DuPage. Checking Cook for marriage and death records would be my first priority. Mabel went to live with Virginia for 5 and 1/2 years after Henry's death and then Virginia couldn't care for her so they moved her to a nursing home in St. Joseph, MT. While there Virginia and Vera became very concerned about the care she was receiving and they were constantly critiquing the nurses and care and Virginia went on to become politically active and to lobby for the passage of legislation in Montana to fund state inspectors for nursing homes and allow for unannounced visits and inspections which had previously been allowed only with a month's notice to the home. After her death Mabel was interred in Great Falls adjacent to her husband and near the graves for Ken and Virginia Dokken.
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Note: H1295
Note: No record in the birth registries for Madison County, Illinois for either Mabel or her older sister, Lulu. Ditto for Champaign County, Illinois; Grundy County, Illinois, Livingston County, Illinois, Pike County, Illinois and LaSalle County, Illinois. Next step is look at Shelby and Barton counties in Missouri.
Similarly there is no record of the sought after Garner deaths between 1892 and 1900 in Madison County, Livingston County, LaSalle County,Pike County, Grundy County and Champaign County (All in Illinois). Cemetery records for LaSalle, Livingston didn't yield the sought after graves either.
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