Clara Virginia
“Ginger” Wolfe-Cosgrave:
Stories told to her
nephew Walter Wolfe – from about 1994 until about six month
before her death.
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| 20-Something Aunt Ginger |
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| Aunt Ginger; @ 1997 |
My Mother, Rose Clagett-Wolfe, and Aunt Clara Virginia Wolfe-Cosgrave or “Aunt Ginger” often kept in touch via
telephone after my father, Harry H.
Wolfe Jr., died 04 December 1979. So after my mother, died 14 June 1993, I
began to visit Aunt Ginger two to three times a year plus we talked occasionally
on the telephone. Her husband my Uncle Less
Cosgrave had passed away in 1980. Over the course of many such visits I
took notes as Aunt Ginger told stories about her parents and the many places
they lived. On some of my visits, I bought some of my family along such as my
older siblings Harry, Tony, my niece Sherry Johnson-Wolfe, and my son Zachary.
Also, I want to
acknowledge my Cousin Judy-Cosgrave
Shrader for her review, edits and the addition of more stories from her
mother, my Aunt Ginger.
Remembering
her Parents
 |
| Clara Virginia Getzendanner-Wolfe & Harry Howard Wolfe, Sr. |
Aunt’s Ginger recalled that her father, Harry Howard Wolfe Sr. worked as a
truck mechanic in Georgetown
when he suddenly died on the job from a massive stroke in 1931; he was just at
49 years old. According to Bubbles, (Judy’s older sister) Aunt Ginger told her
that they conjectured if her father, in reality, was killed in a work related
accident rather than a stroke because of his injuries to his head which were
explained by the company management as having occurred as a result of his
falling when he “dropped dead” – the term for sudden death back then.
As
a consequent of her father’s sudden death, her mother, Clara Virginia Getzendanner-Wolfe or “Granny” to her grandchildren,
was left with raising the younger children, although others like my father and
mother helped her out financially until her passing at the age of 97. Bear in mind that my grandfather Wolfe died
before the safety-net enactment of Social Security.
One
of my fondest memories visiting granny Wolfe was talking to Andrea Svenson “Andy” who was very kind
to me. My cousin Judy said Andy came to America as a very young child and, at
one time, worked at Carderock Naval Surface Warfare Test Center as a janitor. She told everyone
she was granny’s caregiver, but in reality was a renter. Andy was only a few
years younger than granny and she was considered family by everyone.
Another
job Grandfather Wolfe had according to what cousin Judy’s mom told her was in a
mill with his brother Newton in Frederick, Maryland.
On
one of my later visits, Aunt Ginger confided that her father liked his liquor, and accordingly she added, “he was not kind when
drinking” In fact, Judy Shrader added that her mother told her that Grandfather
Wolfe would chase my dad and the boys with an ax, something my father never
mentioned this to his children. However, Grandfather Wolfe quit drinking after
he turned his life over to Jesus, she added. Her mother, had previously been
“born again” some years earlier. Related to this, she confirmed a story that my
brother Harry told me a while ago about her father and his drinking friends had
made a hole in an inconspicuous place in the Ijamsville general store wood floor to discard the empty
liquor bottles.
ADDENDUM: In February, 2013, May Wolfe related to me a story told to her by her late husband, Reverend Gene Wolfe, about his grandfather driving while
drinking. He recalled about how when the lights went out in the old car, Grandfather
Wolfe handed flashlights to two of his children - one of which usually was Aunt
Ginger. Grandfather ordered two children to sit one on each fender with a
flashlight to guide their inebriated father home during the nighttime travel.
Different
Places the Family Lived
 |
| Georgiana Clay-Wolfe |
 |
| George Washington Wolfe |
Before he worked as a truck mechanic, her father managed general
stores in Ijamsville, Maryland, on two different time periods,
one building of which has
been torn down and the other building remains standing, but vacant beside the
RR tracks. Harry H. Wolfe Sr. and his growing family lived
in a number of different locations over the years including Baltimore City. One
Ijamsville home was a small farm which was about
a 1/4 mile from the RR crossing. On another occasion, they lived in house in Ijamsville and for a short while they even lived
at his mother’s home (Georgiana Clay-Wolfe) which was 2 houses above the Pleasant Grove
United Methodist Church. The Church remains there today – our Great-grandparents,
George Washington Wolfe and his wife
Georgiana Clay-Wolfe are buried
there. The final time they lived in Ijamsville their living quarters was over
the anther general-goods store her father managed. Grandfather Wolfe also
served at one time as the town postmaster. Judy added that Frederick City gave
Grandfather Wolfe special recognition for his job as the Ijamsville Postmaster.
 |
| Remains of Wolfe General Store Building, Ijamsville |
When
they lived above the Ijamsville general
goods store operated by her father, her mother took rolls of muslin, which was
a cheap fabric in those days, and created somewhat private living spaces for
everyone. Another interesting tidbit I learned from Aunt Ginger was that her
father. cut a small, round hole in the upper
floor to look for thieves intent on robbing the general store below; his
notion was to shoot any robber that came to
the store.
Aunt Ginger’s father was right to be concerned about
possible burglaries at the general store as evidenced by the following
Frederick Post Newspaper article:
“OCTOBER
28, 1919
EVIDENTLY
EXPECTING A hard winter, the robber who entered the store of
Harry Wolfe, at Ijamsville, was preparing for the worst. After
gaining entrance by breaking open the front door, the man completely
outfitted him self against the winter blast. He took underclothes,
suits and socks, and then what food he could find.”
Aunt
Gin also recollected a large upstairs room in one of the places where the
family lived which was used to hold dances. Harry Wolfe Sr. hired musicians to
come in and play for the dances. However, this
proved not to be as profitable as expected, so it was eventually discontinued.
He was an entrepreneur in spirit but never seemed to make a go of it commented
Aunt Gin.
My Great Grandparents Wolfe
Aunt
Gin told me her Wolfe paternal aunts and uncles (George Washington and Georgiana
“Jo” Clay- Wolfe’s Children were:
1. J. Earl
 |
| G. W. Wlfe & G Clay-Wolfe & Family; Harry H. Wofe, Sr. far left; @ 1884 |
2. T Lester
3. William Newton
4. Maude Arabelle
5. Lulu May
6. Harry Howard
7. Olive
8. Violet
 |
| Emma Wolfe-Parks |
Aunt
Ginger also vividly recalled her cousin, Lucket Wolfe. Incidentally, like
Granny’s family my parents also had eight children of which I am the last.
Speaking of family, Cousin Judy wrote me this, Aunt Emma, her mother’s older
sister, was the little devil according to her mom, always into some mischievous
deed and receiving a lot of spankings. On one occasion, Judy’s mom and Aunt
Emma sneaked down to the stream that ran under an old metal bridge - which has
been torn down by now – and Aunt Emma got all wet and was spanked the full
distance to their home.” Judy also added, “Mom loved sports and was a real
tom-boy, preferring ball playing to amusing herself with doll babies.” “She
said she always wished she could be a boy when she was younger. However, she
said also said she prayed that I would be a “midget” which today we say little
person, but you can believe that! Why, because she thought they were so cute.”
The Bull and the
Hero
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| My Parents: Rose Clagett & Harry H. Wolfe, Jr,; 1952 |
 |
| Less Cosgrave |
Another family story from Aunt Gin occurred around 1940/41.
She said she was pregnant with her second child, Judy, when she and her husband
Uncle Les, my parents, Harry
H. Wolfe Jr. and Rose Clagett- Wolfe and the various children went to Ijamsville for a picnic - which was a common thing to do after Sunday
services in those days.
As they were trudging across the meadow near the Pony grounds, a large bull
started to run towards the group and all she
remembered was the women with their long dresses flowing behind them as they skedaddled
ahead of her across that field with the bull rapidly gaining ground. Aunt Ginger
added that my father, Harry H. Wolfe, Jr., picked up a stick and chased
the bull away. What a hero he was she added.
Addendum: My older brother, Rick, told me
after seeing my blog story that he was there at the picnic and remembers very
well the chaos including Dad chasing the bull away with a stick.
My sister, Rosemary, added that mother told her that she didn’t leave the
picnic site because she, "wasn’t going to leave her fried chicken, potato salad
and other items behind because of some dammed bull.” These recollections
resonate for me from mother telling about this event on more than one occasion.
On another visit, Aunt Gin reminisced when they were
living on Broad Street in
Baltimore City during World War I. She recalled that due to the influenza that killed millions of people, Granny made everyone
wear a bag of camphor around their necks to ward off the disease. She
added that was about the time when Harry Sr. and Harry Jr. worked at the Edgewood Arsenal making ammo during
the war. After the war they returned to Ijamsville and opened the second
store. Aunt Gin also said that the shots for
the flu were given with enormous needles and to this day she dreads shots.
As for the time the Wolfe family lived in West Virginia, Aunt
Ginger said she had no memories since she was an infant during this period
of her life. Relevant to this, I told her that on a country drive back in the
mid-1960’s my dad stopped at an old stone quarry located near where the Wolfe
family lived in West Virginia. Dad related to me that, at the age of seven
years old, he rode the mules in the summer carrying quarried stones on a narrow
rim-trail up to the top. He proudly said he never lost a load!
Frugal Granny
Before
Harry Sr. left Ijamsville Aunt Ginger recollected that
her father invested in six phono machines (To sell at the store but never
did) which he later carried to his Kensington home
with him. Apparently he never paid for the machines and Granny had to scrape up
the money to pay off the debt. Granny Wolfe, who was very frugal,
recalled Aunt Gin, also saved the money for the down payment for the two story
house on Capital View Avenue in Kensington.
 |
| Marrion "Dick" Wolfe |
Another
piece Aunt Ginger told me about her father I didn’t know was that he played the
Jews harp as well as the harmonica for entertainment. Cousin Judy said that
Uncle Marion AKA Dick Wolfe – my father’s younger brother - also played the
mouth organ. So that’s where I might have
gotten my harmonica talent. OK, so my mother played the harmonica too!
Financial
Difficulties
 |
| Milton Eugene Getzendanner |
 |
| Clara V. Smith-Getzendanner |
On
one occasion, Aunt Ginger told me that Granny’s mother, Clara Virginia Smith Getzendanner, died when she was only 12-years
old and thereafter was raised by her older sisters. In some ways, Granny disliked
the strictness of her older sisters’ control over her. In any event, during the
early years of Granny’s marriage, her father, Milton Eugene Getzendanner, had lost his sizeable wealth in a stock
scam. She also remembered that after her grandfather died, Aunt Ginger’s mother
used to visit two of her older sisters, one in Philadelphia, and the other
sister, Katy Grove, in Lime Kiln,
Frederick. By the way, Great Aunt Katie was married to Ed Grove, the wealthy
owner of Grove Concrete in Frederick, Maryland; the Frederick Keys AAA Minor League baseball team stadium is named
after him. Judy added this about Aunt Katie “she once sent a horse and
sleigh on Christmas day since the driving was impossible to get the family from
Ijamsville home. She gave each of the kids an orange for Christmas. Mom that
was so special to them.” Also, when I was about eight years old I have a fuzzy
memory of Aunt Katie coming to our house on Longwood Drive – “she was dressed to the nines” and her
giving me a Morgan silver dollar. I was very impressed.
During another visit, Aunt Gin related how her father
would cook any type of game
he could get his hands on. Rabbits, squirrels, etc., were cooked with the heads
on and brains were picked out of the skulls and even flesh from the heads was eaten. Even in later years when he spotted a
still warm road kill he would stop and take it home, skin it, cook and
eat it. By the way, my father kept the wild game eating tradition going
including his unnatural taste for calf’s brains which I would eat with dad to
please him. Aunt Gin added that keeping food for the family was a constant
chore.
Aunt Ginger;s daughter,
Judy, remembers that her, “Mom continued to eat as they ate as children,
squirrel (heads and brains included), chicken feet, calf brains, venison,
etc…pig’s feet, tails and ears were still pickled when she got the craving. As
a child Judy was quoted as saying if my Mom eats it then I will too.”
Granny Wolfe canned everything she could find in the
summer; vegetables, fruits, root items such
as potatoes, onions, nuts in the fall, and
of course they always had pigs and a couple of cows for milk products. Despite all the work of putting
away food items in the summer, occasionally rations would run short and Grandmother Georgiana Clay-Wolfe would somehow find out about
the food scarcity and arrive in the nick of time with enough food to tide
the family over. Very little was purchased
at retail food stores in those days, except flour, salt, sugar, cornmeal.
Incidentally my mother also canned tons of fruits
and vegetables until her
mid-eighties. As I recall canning
was a tough task. NOTE photo of Granny t @ age 18 on the right.
Aunt
Gin said her family were poor but did not think they were at the time, however
rather considered themselves as she quoted, “blue blood.”
Uncle Les
Les
Cosgrave was a motorcycle patrolman for the Montgomery County Police
Department. He passed away in 1985 at the age of 76, the same age s my own dad.
Over the Eembankment
On
one visit with my oldest brother, Harry
Wolfe, III, he told the story to Aunt Ginger about the time when my mother
backed the roadster over the embankment at
her mother’s house in Capital View, but she didn’t recall that incident. My
brother said that he was a child at the time and was in the car for the thrill ride.
Lunch
Aunt
Ginger always served a nice lunch following our conversation. On one of my
visits, she forgot to put sliced ham on my sandwich which she realized just after
I had left. She called me at home that night to apologize. I replied it still
was a wonderful lunch, to which we both chuckled. Judy told me that her mother
said that when mayonnaise was first sold in the stores, they would bring the
small jars home and enjoyed many a mayo sandwich because it was a special treat.
So perhaps her familiarity with mayonnaise only sandwiches played a part with
the very thin sandwich I got that day.
So
these are just some the family stories that I remembered from the many visits
to my dear Aunt ginger. I know there were more she told me, but have forgotten
them. I
also feel it important to say that we talked much about God on each visit. Like
her mother and her siblings, Aunt Ginger deeply loved the Lord and was a vital
spiritual inspiration to me.
A Very Short History of Veteran's Day
World War I, also known as the "Great War" was officially concluded on the 11th hour of the 11th Day of November, at 11 A.M. in 1918. On November 11th of the following year, President Woodrow Wilson declared that day as "Armistice Day" in honor of the peace. This day was marked with public celebrations and a two minute halt to business at 11 AM. In 1921, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was dedicated in Arlington Cemetery with a ceremony in November 11th. After this dedication, Armistice Day was adopted in many states and at the federal level as a day to honor veterans. This was made official in 1938 when an act of Congress made Armistice Day a national holiday.
In 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower changed the name of Armistice Day to Veterans Day. For several years in the 1970s, Veterans Day was observed in October by many states but in 1978 it was returned to November 11th. Today, Veterans Day is still observed on November 11th as a national holiday to honor all veterans of the United States Armed Forces. (If November 11th falls on a weekend day, the holiday is observed the following Monday.) Throughout the nation, Americans participate in parades, ceremonies, and observances to pay their respects to our servicemen and women, both past and present. From History.Com
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Hospital Corpsman (E-7) , James "Jim" Mancil, was a Naval Career Non- Commissioned Officer who for many years served at the Solomon's Island Naval Ordinance Lab He was the husband of Clara V. "Bubbles" Cosgrave-Mancil who was the granddaughter of my father's mother Clara Virginia Getzendanner-Wolfe who married Harry Howard Wolfe, Sr.; we affectionately called her Granny. Jim passed away early this year and Bubble's Mother Aunt Clara V. "Ginger" Wolfe-Cosgrave, and Father, Uncle Less Cosgrave, also are both deceased.
Nephew, Anthony Wolfe, MD, served in the U.S. Army Medical Corps – Captain; now works for the VA. He is the oldest child of my late brother Tony Wolfe.
Mason Johnson, Sherry Wolfe-Johnson’s son is now serving with the US Army, 16th Aviation Brigade as a helicopter aviation electronics specialist. He is the grandson of my oldest, late brother Harry Howard Wolfe, III and his wife Mary.
