Memorials › Anna Cranston Thomas

Anna Cranston Thomas

17 Jul 1851 – May 1937

Birth17 Jul 1851
DeathMay 1937
CemeteryLatham Cemetery
Latham , Butler County , Kansas , USA
Added byJudy Mayfield on 29 Jun 2010
FaGhttps://www.findagrave.com/memorial/18118287

Bio

On stone with Perry W. Thomas Profile of Anna Eliza Cranston Busby Thomas Anna was born in New York City on July 17, 1851, several years after her parents William and Rose Ann had immigrated from Ireland. She was too little in 1852 to remember when the family pulled up stakes and journeyed west to settle in the new frontier town of Clayton, Illinois. Here she grew up and seems to have had an excellent education from the schools or taught by her mother. I deduce this after reading her well thought out and literate letters. According to the 1850 census her sisters, Mary and Sarah, had attended school while they were in New York. By 1860 Anna was in school with Sarah but Mary was no longer attending. On the 1870 US Census, Anna is working as a teacher, by 1880 she is needed at home. Sister Sarah married George D. Sullivan in 1870 and Emma married John C. Elder in 1873. Anna remained at home, caring for her parents and managing the finances. Her mother died in 1881 leaving Anna and her father the only ones at home. As the years passed, the town’s newspaper included regular little notices about her sisters when they were visiting Clayton and later mentioned when Anna came home to visit. Only one of the letters to Timothy hints that she might have met a special gentleman. She reports that she is going to the nearby newly opened Health Springs with a “gentleman friend” presumably James Patton Busby (1835/6- 1896). On November 3, 1884, Anna writes to Timothy with news of her future marriage. She mentions that she believed she would be a spinster daughter caring for her parents until their death. She expresses surprise that this doesn’t happen for she has received a proposal to marry in 1885 and this has been wholly encouraged by her brother and sisters to do so! In this letter of 3 November 1884, Anna writes “John says he will relieve me of the care of father this winter...” In her letter of 18 December 1884 she tells Timothy her brother John has left his job as a salesman and has returned to Clayton with his family willing to stay with their father and provide his care, much needed as their father is getting more confused. She wishes her father would move with her and her new husband but realizes he won’t leave his old home in Clayton. She warns Timothy that she will be needing $300 (presumably, to prepare for her wedding.) Anna describes her intended as follows: “Mr. Busby of Montgomery City Missouri he has a hardware Store, also a house and property there but he thinks of makeing his future home at El Dorado Springs Mo. as he has a partnership in a hardware Store there...” In her letters, there is no mention of how they met. Where or how they met is a great curiosity to me for, as when he is with Anna, he is about 125 miles away from his current home in Montgomery City, Missouri and over 300 miles from his future home in El Dorado Springs, Missouri. On December 30, 1884, Anna writes from Carthage Illinois where her younger sister lives with her family expressing a hope that she will be able to come visit Timothy and his family. Her next letter, in February, 1885, recalls the visit she made to see Timothy’s family including the fun she, Carrie (Timothy’s daughter) and Hattie (his wife) had shopping and remembering Hattie’s new dress. Anna writes about purchasing the fabric for her new clothes that she is having made and compares them to Hattie’s dress. She promises Carrie that she will send samples of the material from her wedding dress and the traveling suit. She marries Mr. James Patton Busby 17 March 1885 and moves to El Dorado Springs. On the 1st of May 1885 she, finally, writes to Carrie, from El Dorado Springs and sends the promised fabric samples. Unfortunately, the samples have not been kept with the letter though Anna describes in great detail the color and look of the dresses. El Dorado Springs, Missouri, was a new, rapidly expanding town founded near a natural spring in 1881, with many visitors seeking the springs’ health properties. Throughout history, the purported medicinal value of mineral water has attracted people to natural springs. In the late 1800s, it was quite the fashion to ‘take the waters’ for better health. In the fall of 1885, Anna visits her father and brother in Clayton while Mr. Busby is traveling. It was quite a journey in those days being over 300 miles. When she receives news of her father’s final illness in January, she realizes that she won’t be able to return to Illinois in time to see her father alive. Mr. Busby was married once before; his first wife (Elizabeth Alexander Busby, 1836-1881) died in November 1881, according to her obituary ‘leaving three children, two sons, Lee and Willie, and a daughter, Effie Busby Uptegrove.’ (Montgomery Standard, November 18, 1881) In one of Anna’s letters she refers to both of the two Willies which is very confusing. Anna’s letters only refer to one of her husband’s children, the younger son William who she calls ‘Willie’ (the same as she has called her nephew, William Cranston Miner in all her other letters.) Several times she mentions the stepson traveling with her husband. It seems that the stepson is living with them and when he travels with his father he may well be learning the hardware business. A year later, she writes Timothy for more money. She tells him that she is thinking that by investing her money in property and building a home she could help her husband with the high rent they are paying and have some security beside. Their son James Waldo Busby (called Waldo) is born July 27, 1889. Mr. Busby suddenly died on 16 March in Montgomery City, Missouri on a business trip and later we learn that after paying his debts she has little money left other than the small rent on her home she built in El Dorado Springs. (The boom in El Dorado Springs is fading.) Finally settling the debts left by her husband, she heads back to Illinois and to her sister’s home in Carthage, Illinois where she is living in 1892 and is employed by Emma’s husband John Elder in his drygoods store’s millinery department. She appears not to be happy being dependent upon Emma’s family and is wishing to raise her son by herself but needs more money to be independent. In her last letter that I have, written on 5 May 1892, she’s again writing Timothy with a scheme for raising money to establish her own millinery business in the fall. John Elder would like her to continue working in his store but he is willing to help her with purchasing her supplies through his drygoods store so she can get a better cost basis. Having managed her father’s household with minimal funds must have helped her prepare for her life in business after her husband died leaving her to support herself and her young son. I surmise that Timothy would prefer not to be involved in her millinery business finances because this is the last letter in the collection. But she states in her 1892 letter that she has several other options with time to pursue them. It seems she found backing for she became well-known for her millinery business in Augusta, Illinois. Small notices appearing in the newspaper tell of her attending the spring millinery openings in Quincy with seasonal advertising of the 'special new stock' available in her millinery shop. After about 20 years in the millinery business in Augusta, Anna retired selling the shop to Mrs. Cooper and, with Waldo, moving out West near her sister Sarah Cranston Sullivan (1843-1934) in Augusta, Kansas. She and her son Waldo are among the guests who join Sarah’s family for a Christmas reunion in December 1911. She sets up a millinery business in Augusta, Kansas as an advertisement shows in a 1913 local newspaper. (Latham Mirro (Latham Kansas 17 March 1913) Papers in both Augusta, Kansas and Augusta, Illinois announce the marriage of Mrs. Anna Busby to became Mrs. Thomas on December 23, 1913. The couple will make their home in Latham, Kansas. (Augusta, Butler County Kansas, Augusta Journal Thursday, January 1, 1914) Anna and Perry W Thomas (1843-1934) were married for nearly 20 years when he died in March 1934 at the age of 93. (El Dorado Times March 23, 1934) He had served as the first mayor of Latham after its incorporation. It is not known when she ended her millinery business in Kansas but she continued to live in Latham until her death, May 28, 1937. Waldo came to Latham in December to be with his mother and was with her when she died. Waldo sent news of his mother’s death to Augusta, Illinois which published a notice for her friends in the Augusta Eagle June 10, 1937. OBIT - “ El Dorado Times 28 May 1937 Mrs. P W Thomas died at her home shortly after midnight Friday, following an illness of 6 months she was 85 years old. She was a resident of Latham for the last 25 years, born in New York 17 July 1851. She married James P Busby in Carthage, Illinois in 1884 and he died in 1896 in Montgomery City, Missouri. In 1913 she married P W Thomas who died in 1934. She was a member of the Methodist Church and the Eastern Star. Her son James W Busby survives. She was buried Sunday, 30 May in the Latham Cemetery, Butler Co., Kansas.” NOTE: Bio info provided by Jeannette Maxey [ [email protected] ]

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