Aunt Ginger Cosgrave-Wolfe Family Stories

Clara Virginia “Ginger” Wolfe-Cosgrave:



Stories told to her nephew Walter Wolfe – from about 1994 until about six month before her death.

20-Something Aunt Ginger

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

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.