| Sources |
- [S394] Ancestry.com, Public Member Trees, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2006;), Tasch Family Tree???ratsnewg by Sally Shipman (SallyShipman46), Skinner/Schinzel-Ahlemeyer/Haines Tree J_Ahlemeyer.
Record for Frances Lillian Clawson (18) facts
A bit about John Martin Shipman
Posted 05 Jun 2012 by ratsnewg
The beginning of this story can be found under Martha Margaret Schwartz in the family tree. I continue this here, under my father's name, because it begins to involve more of his life.
About 1952, Daddy had had enough of running a general store in a tiny village in PA and took a job with the Ball Band Shoe company as a salesman. He went to Mishawaka, IN for training.
A bit about Martha Margaret Schwartz Shipman
1930s to 1950s
All over the place!
The early married years of my parents and the very early years of me and my brother.
SallyShipman46 originally shared this on 03 Apr 2012
Linked To Martha Margaret Schwartz ?
A bit about Martha Margaret Schwartz Shipman
Posted 05 Jun 2012 by ratsnewg
Notes made by my brother, John William Shipman, while "interviewing" our mother for Shipman/Schwartz family history on July 3, 1986. I'm transcribing them here for safekeeping, reference and posterity. These are random subjects noted by John.
Mother was born in Warren (PA) General Hospital on 7 May 1918. For her first 17-18 years, she lived at home with her parents at 624 Henry Street, Warren, PA, then at 402 4th Street, across from the courthouse. Mother began as a student at Westminster College in New Wilmington, PA in the fall of 1936 (after graduating from Warren High School) but because the College would not let her take her finals until she paid, she was required to leave (Spring of 1937). Female students could not work and she had no way to pay her tuition. In August of 1938, mother met Jack (John Martin) Shipman on a blind date - actually when she first laid eyes on him, he was asleep on the sofa at her parents' house (he was a world-class napper) and she didn't like what she saw. Daddy's version? "One look and I knew we'd be married." Mother was working as a telephone operator at this time. They dated for over five years, the first date being a trip to Celeron, an amusement park near Jamestown, NY. This was the only time mother was EVER convinced to ride a ferris wheel (she had acrophobia something fierce!). Mother and Daddy married on January 4, 1942 at mother's parents' home at 404 Liberty Street. (My grandparents never owned a home - they always rented.) Daddy was drafted in June of 1942 and left for basic training in Biloxi, MS - and he lost 25 lbs during basic! In May of 1943, Mother, Daddy, and their two friends (Clayton and Lena Smith) took a Southern Pacific train to El Paso on their way to train (the men, that is) at Deming, NM. Due to a foul-up in his orders, Daddy was accidentally sent to the Hobbs Army Air Field in Hobbs, NM and he thought at the time that this would be a good place to raise a family (having been raised in Hobbs, I have YET to figure out how they could have had the remotest thought of that being a good place to raise a family but I think both of them were sick of snow and cold and it looked a lot more interesting in that way; I'm sure something caught their eye, but it totally escapes me and my favorite view is Hobbs in my rear view mirror!). Meanwhile, Daddy was sent from Hobbs to Lowery AFB in Colorado and trained on maintenance of the Norden Bombsight.
In June of 1943, the Shipmans and the Smiths rejoined at Deming Army Airfield and, because there was no base housing during that time, Lena and Mother roomed for 2-3 weeks at Mrs. Brown's Boarding House (big red brick house on the SW corner of the main drag in Deming). Shortly after that, the couples moved into government housing, "Florida Vista" with a view of Tres Hermanos (mountains). They had no car until the fall of 1943, relying on buses for transportation. There was no such thing as air conditioning in the houses and Deming is about as hot as a place can get - even if it IS arid! The two couples lived in Deming for about 2.5 years in half a duplex with two bedrooms. The other half of the duplex was occupied by Master Sargeant Harter, Daddy's commanding officer. Walls were thin and Sgt. Harter loved to sing at full volume in the shower every day - "Oh, What a Beautiful Morning" and when he'd had a few beers, he talked in poetry.
The next transfer was to Langley in VA. The four of them went in a two-car caravan because the headlights in Daddy's car were "intermittent". (I'm not sure what this next part means but here it is...). "Mother and Lena stayed in their old homes until they found some duplexes shared with shipyard workers, whom Mother described as "hillbillies". Mother worked in Signal Supply with a "Q" Clearance and Lena worked in general supply. The two couples were at Langley for about six months and remember some of the first jet aircraft and wind tunnels. (I have no idea...).
Mother and Lena were both pregnant at that time.
On 14 August 1945 (V-J Day), Daddy was on a ship sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge en route to the Philippines, where he staged for about two weeks, then transferred to Japan. He spoke of going through a typhoon in an LST. He was posted to Sapporo, Hokkaido. He ran the carpenter shop manned by Japanese carpenters. Among his projects was designing pews for the base chapel, for which he was given a letter of commendation (Daddy's father was a cabinet maker, thus a genetic connection.) Daddy told John that he tried to get his Japanese colleagues interested in model railroading. He even built a model railroad to fit into a specific room after carefully measuring, only to find that it would not fit - he measured correctly but forgot to take into account that the room was not square!
Daddy returned to the States and mustered out of the Army Air Corps a week before I (Sara Ann) was born (14 Feb 1946). At the time she was born, Mother and Daddy were living with her parents at 404 Liberty Street.
Meanwhile... Daddy's father (Lynn Walker Shipman) who at that time owned a General Store in Kinzua, PA, rented Mother and Daddy a house a block behind the store. Daddy worked at Penn Furnace and Iron in Warren, PA both before and after the war, in the same job.
Around 1950, Grandfather Shipman decided he wanted to move to Florida, so he turned the store over to Daddy. Both my brother and I remember the freezer case just inside the store because it was filled with Popsicles and Fudgsicles and as soon as we were tall enough, we were hanging over the edge of the case every chance we got. Daddy told John how they aged beef back in the day - the side of beef was hung in the back of the store until it was covered with maggots, then scraped down and cleaned and resulted in the best beef ever. Distasteful as that story is, John says it was corroborated by others of that era. I know my father knew how to cut meat and it was always wonderful.
This story, now more involving Daddy's "career" will be posted under his name in the family tree.
A bit about John Martin Shipman
Posted 05 Jun 2012 by ratsnewg
The beginning of this story can be found under Martha Margaret Schwartz in the family tree. I continue this here, under my father's name, because it begins to involve more of his life.
About 1952, Daddy had had enough of running a general store in a tiny village in PA and took a job with the Ball Band Shoe company as a salesman. He went to Mishawaka, IN for training. Wikipedia notes that Ball Band was originally the Mishawaka Wollen and Rubber Co., and later became part of Uniroyal.
From 1952 until 1955, our family lived in Albuquerque, NM at 1717 Cagua Dr. NE (and I still remember the telephone number - 265-0268!). The house is at the southwest corner of Cagua and Constitution, one block west of San Pedro. Sally prides herself on learning to spell that long street name before she started school! When we moved into that new house, there was exactly one house between us and the Sandia Mountains - by the time we moved, the neighborhood was very built.
After Ball Band, addy worked for another shoe company. In early 1955, Daddy took a job with Pioneer Wear (formerly located on Yale Blvd just north of Gibson Blvd). Pioneer Wear wanted to sell western wear in Florida (THAT logic escapes me...) so they hired Daddy to open up the territory, then dumped him after a short time. He may have gone to Florida as early as late 1954, but the family did not move to Florida until 1955. We moved to Inverness, FL to stay with our grandparents (Lynn and Frances Shipman) who had a tiny cinderblock house. It was entirely too close so friends of my grandparents (Roscow) rented us a house in the middle of an orange grove, complete with two horses and a persimmon tree. Sally was ecstatic to be around a horse until she was brushed through the middle of a tree and until she ate a not-ripe-yet persimmon. My brother and I both remember an electric fence around the property and how we were warned to stay away from it. John (brother) started first grade in Inverness but after one week, was skipped ahead to the 2nd grade because Sally had already taught him numbers and how to read. (Bless an older sister, eh?).
In March of 1955, Daddy called the C.R. Anthony clothing store in Carlsbad, NM looking for a job. He was told to try Hobbs, NM where the store was managed by one Lahoma Crouch. Daddy was hired for $275/month plus commission. In late 1955, Daddy borrowed $150 from the bank in Florida to relocate the family from Florida to Hobbs; we moved in a black Chrysler New Yorker (I don't know if there was any furniture to move or if it was in a trailer. Our first house in Hobbs was a miserable, uninsulated 2-bedroom house at 421 N. Coleman and in the Spring of 1956, we moved to another rental at 1316 Alston, near the City park and four blocks south of the high school. Our next door neighbors were the Burchams; Mrs. B. also worked for Anthony's. Our house was furnished (thus answering the question about if we had furniture to move from Florida, I suppose) and rented for $80/month.
Over Labor Day of 1958, we moved to a brand new house at 1107 Gold Ave., Hobbs, where the family (and finally, mother) lived until 1999 when mother was moved to assisted living. It was purchased for $14,000 and sold in 1999 for $20,000 - the housing market was awful and it was almost a sin to sell for that little amount but it had to be done.
Mother worked for Don Clark (tires) for quite a long time as his bookkeeper. Her salary at the beginning was $0.90/hour but after a year, she was given a $0.10/hour raise.
Daddy's next job was with Pryor Western Wear, manufacturing from Wazee Street in Denver. His boss was Reith Strachan and it was a good steady job for over 11 years. Mr. Strachan wanted us to move to Denver so, at one point (around 1962), we spent a week at his cabin in Idaho Springs, CO - probably during the job negotiations - who knows? At some point after that, the company was sold to a man named Glick - who wanted Daddy to pad his orders. This infuriated Daddy - he refused and was fired, likely because Glick had someone in mind for the new Phoenix territory and it was as good an excuse as any to get rid of an uncooperative (but totally honest) person.
At that time, Daddy being a ham radio operator with many friends on the air, was offered a position as a salesman for Earl Shepherd, who designed and sold upscale women's wear. Daddy sold a couple of his lines for a while.
In 1964, Daddy had a heart attack while on the road in Bartlesville, OK. I remember mother flying there in a Cessna (or the like) to be with Daddy - the trip having been arranged by Earl Shepherd (bless the man). On the day that men landed on the moon - or quite near that time - Daddy was undergoing double bypass surgery in Dallas, one of the first of this type of operation performed by a Dr. Wilson at St. Paul's Hospital. After two months (only two months??), Daddy returned to work with Earl Shepherd until Earl went out of business. Daddy worked next at Tidwell Motor Company in Hobbs for a couple years and his last job was working for Pete Anderson at Electronic Module in Hobbs. Daddy loved that job and it paid well and he was there until he could no longer work due to his deteriorating heart condition (congestive failure). Daddy died on Sept. 19, 1976 - mother had made a trip to Lovington, NM (just 20 miles north of Hobbs) to visit her mother in a nursing home - only to return home to find that Daddy had died while she was gone. She never really got over losing him - she was angry at him for leaving her, then grieved for years until she developed the dementia that required her move to assisted living. In the end, even having been shown photos of Daddy, she did not know who he was.
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1858 - 1934 (76 years)
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