(Left to Right: Lawcie Idella Chipman, Beecher Edgar Chipman, Jewell Vester Chipman; ca. 1909.)
Revised Mar. 23, 2016
Fine, Sidney. (1969). Sit-Down The General Motors Strike of 1936–1937. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.
Sidney Fine was Professor of History at the University of Michigan. He was also the author of a book about the Detroit riots of 1967.
While going through my files, I found something of which I was unaware: a copy of a letter from Lawcie Idella (Chipman) Mason to Beverly Ann Page, written ca. 1983. It gives information on branches of the family on which I have nothing, so I transcribed part of it, with notes and corrections:
“Allie Oxley—James Edward Chipman
5 children were born
3 boys and two girls
Jewel [sic] Vester Chipman married Ruby Bohannon — 2 daughters (a) were born. Ruby died and he married again.
(Jewell Vester Chipman, 2 Jul 1988, Paragould, AR.)
Beecher Edgar Chipman married Winfred Bailey — one son, Ralph (b). Then he married Essie Hyde (c) and I don’t know much about how many children were born to them (d) — Beecher is deceased.
(Beecher Edgar Chipman, 1931.)
(Essie Lee Hyatt, ca. 1931.)
(Joyce Elaine Chipman, ca. 1948.)
(Dixie Lee Chipman, 1942.)
Winford Chipman (e) married Ada Hill and had to [sic] sons, Carl & David. Ada is deceased too.
[Here’s a rare photo. Left to Right: Jewell Vester Chipman, Lawcie Idella (Chipman) Mason, Pauline Aquilla (Chipman) Page Moffitt, Winford William Chipman. Pauline died in 1983, so this must date to the late 1970s or early 1980s. Beecher was unavoidably detained elsewhere in the Cosmos.]
Lawcie Chipman married Arvil Mason and had seven children, one girl who died at age 16 months.
1. James Lee Mason [&] Ester Boyd } 2 sons and 3 grandchildren
2. Harold Mason [&] Jo Metheny } 3 children
3. Paul Mason [&] Berneita Neely } 3 children and 3 grandchildren
4. Don Mason — never married
5. Virginia Nell Mason [&] Joe Mabry } 2 sons and 2 grandchildren
6. Shirley Mason [&] Jake Manley — divorced about 17 or 18 years go — has 3 children and four grandchildren.
and then your Mother.” (f)
NOTES:
(a) Jean and June.
(b) Another son named Donald died in infancy.
(c) Essie’s maiden name was actually Hyatt.
(d) Two daughters: Joyce and Dixie.
(e) This is one of the few photos I have of Winford William “Winnie” Chipman (1910–1999). He m. Ada Hill on 1 Jan 1933 in Greene Co., AR.
(f) Pauline Aquilla Chipman (1916–1983), m. (1) 20 Mar 1936 Carl Davis Page, b. 13 Apr 1905, d. 8 Aug 1963, two children: Carl Victor Page, Beverly Ann Page; m. (2) 24 May 1968 James Moffitt, no issue. (See article next.)
___________________________________
Charts Illustrating The Relationship Between Lawrence Edward Page And Bettie Mae Page
I.
(1) Reputed father of Henry Horace Page. Larry Page and I share a common ancestor in James Edward Chipman.
II.
(2) Reputed father of Walter Roy Page.
Larry Page and Bettie Page are 2nd cousins once-removed because they are of unequal generations from their common ancestors Jefferson Davis Pardue and Mary Elizabeth McCaig. I haven’t examined the ancestry of Gloria Weinstein and Edna Mae Pirtle.
[Mary Elizabeth McCaig (1849–1926), wife of Jefferson Davis Pardue and common ancestor of Larry Page and Bettie Page, holding grandson Carl Davis Page. Notes made by Beverly Ann Page. Software effected little improvement. Photo sourced from the Ancestry.com website.]
Above: This photo, of the Page Family reunion held at Union City, Obion Co., TN ca. 1909, and the accompanying notes, were also sourced from Ancestry.com. In the 3rd row R, the boy standing up is Carl Davis Page. To the L in the dark suit and light tie is his father, Henry Horace Page. The woman holding a baby next to Henry Horace Page is Emily Corilla (Pardue) Page, mother of Walter Roy Page. Walter Roy Page, father of Bettie Page, is at the other end of the 3rd row, standing to the L of the man in the dark suit and dark tie. In the 2nd row in front of Henry Horace Page is his wife, the mother of Carl Davis Page, Ann Drucilla (Pardue) Page, who’s holding Mary Emma Page. Toward the center, in a dark skirt and black choker, with her hand resting on a child, is Mary Elizabeth (McCaig) (Pardue) Winston.
Identifications of subjects made from the above notes. Notes were referenced from perspective of subjects. What the notes indicate as L–R is actually R–L from the perspective of the viewer of the photo. So from the corrected perspective of one looking at the photo, L to R, the notes should read:
1st Row: Raymond Coates, J.D. (held by his mother Pearl Coates), Leona Coates, Harold (Corilla’s son accidentally killed by Vernon Page), Marian (held by her mother, Idella), Mary Emma Page (on her mother’s lap), Luther Page, Norman Page
2nd Row: Cecil Coates, Pearl Coates, Mary Coates (Pearl’s oldest), Mary Elizabeth McCaig Pardue Winston, Inez Coates, Idella –, Drucilla Page, Henry Ellis Page, Vernon Page
3rd Row: Roy Page, Ed Coates, Artie Pardue, Mary Pardue (holding Albert Buster Pardue), Corilla Page (holding ?), Henry Horace Page, and Carl Davis Page.
(Whew! Click on images to enlarge.)
________________________
THE TENNESSEE ANCESTRY OF GOOGLE FOUNDER LARRY PAGE
We begin this column with the marriage license of Carl Davis Page and Pauline Aquilla Chipman, of Flint, MI, solemnized on 21 Mar 1936—the grandparents of Google Founder Larry Page (Lawrence Edward Page). The clerk who typed the license had a problem with the name of Carl’s mother, calling her “Drucilla Prucilo.” The clerk may have thought Carl’s mother was Italian. My grandfather Beecher Chipman was a witness. The marriage was also witnessed by Mrs. C.K. (Jessie) Williams, in whose home Beecher Edgar Chipman and Carl Davis Page had been boarders. At the time of her marriage, Pauline was living with Beecher on E. Foss Ave. As the nuptials approached, the void her departure would create must have weighed upon Beecher. Nonetheless, having (carefully) pointed out her many good qualities to Carl, when love bloomed, as a gentleman Beecher stepped aside and welcomed Carl into the family.
(Click on image to enlarge.)
(Resistance is futile: Pauline Aquilla Chipman with creepy doll, ca. 1918.)
(Pauline Aquilla Chipman, ca. 1920.)
(Pauline Aquilla Chipman, ca. 1931.)
(Senath High School record, Pauline Aquilla Chipman. Click on image to enlarge.)
(Detail of 1930 Genesee Co., MI Federal Census, Flint City, ED 25-39, SD 10, Sheet 22B. 3rd from top is Aileen Page, sister of Carl Davis Page. Carl Davis Page is 5th from top. 6th from top is Carl’s brother Luther Page, who’s followed by Beecher Edgar Chipman. This is the first record I have for Carl Davis Page in Flint. The residence was a boarding house on Glenwood Ave. Click on image to enlarge.)
[Detail from 1940 Flint, MI Federal Census, Ward 8, p. 7B, Carl Davis Page family. Carl V. Page (Carl Victor Page) age 1 is the father of Larry Page. Click on image to enlarge.]
The following series of R.L. Polk Flint city directory entries for Carl Davis Page give some insight into factory jobs in the auto industry. The entries carry different job titles which appear to be lateral positions.
(1937: 611 Atwood. Inspector, Chevrolet.)
(1941: 719 Bryan Place. Machine operator, Chevrolet.)
(1942: 1024 W. Parkwood Ave. Factory worker, Buick.)
Note that in 1937, 1941, and 1942 Carl Davis Page resided at different addresses. Workers living in GM owned housing were shuffled from building to building. Individuals known to be working for GM can be absent from city directories as sometimes families didn’t reside within Flint city limits. Clio, a suburb of Flint, also attracted autoworkers.
“Flint grew like a mining camp, without design, without planning…. The incoming thousands overtaxed Flint’s limited housing supply, and some workers were compelled to live for a time in tar-paper shacks, tents, and even railroad cars. The same lodging rooms were rented to night-shift workers for the day and to day-shift workers for the night. GM felt constrained to enter the home construction business in 1919, and through the Modern Housing Corporation it had built thirty-two hundred homes for its Flint workers by 1933.
“[The] city ‘never provided’ enough personnel, funds, or services to meet its health problems. Among twenty-two cities of from 100,000 to 250,000 population in 1934 Flint ranked nineteenth in the infant death rate and the death of children from diarrhea and enteritis, seventeenth in maternal deaths, in a tie for thirteenth and fourteenth place in typhoid-fever death rate, thirteenth in the diptheria death rate, and tenth in the tuberculosis death rate.
“A large proportion of the workers who were lured to the city by automobile jobs and the high wages that GM paid were from rural backgrounds, and many of them reacted unfavorably to the industrial discipline imposed by the factory.
“Of Flint’s 128,617 native-born whites in 1930, 64.8 percent (83,290) had been born in Michigan and only about 30 percent in Flint itself…. The overwhelming proportion of Flint’s Southerners were drawn from the Central South, from Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, and Tennessee: about 10 percent (12,818) of Flint’s native-born white population derived from these four states, and sections of the city had come to be known as ‘Little Missouri.'”
[Fine (1969), pp. 102–103.]
My grandmother Jewel Winifred (Bailey) Chipman and her first son Donald both died in Flint in 1929. The close proximity of families to one another facilitated the spread of disease. The Baileys must have harbored some bitterness against my grandfather Beecher Edgar Chipman for taking her to such an inhospitable place.
(Delayed Birth Certificate of Carl Davis Page, listing his parents as Henry Horace Page and Drucilla Pardue. Her name is also spelled “Perdue.” I’ll use the spelling “Pardue” throughout. Delayed Birth Certificates were filed so that those who were born prior to the legal requirement for Birth Certificates could register for Social Security. Like many people in the South, Carl’s mother was known by her middle name, in this instance “Drucilla.” Her first name was “Annie.” Click on image to enlarge.)
[Parents of Henry Horace Page and his brothers John Benton Page and James H. Page: detail above is from the 1880 Hickman Co., KY Federal Census, Moscow, District 5, p. 3, SD 1, ED 114. J.D. (John) Page and wife Emily C. have been confused with their son John Benton Page and wife Emily Corilla Pardue. John D. Page was a shoemaker whose parents were born in VA. This is as far back as I’ll document this pedigree.]
(Marriage record dated 8 Jul 1872 in Obion Co., TN for John D. Page and Emily C. Sullivan. Click on image to enlarge.)
(Henry Horace Page and wife Annie Drucilla Pardue are buried at Cotton Grove Baptist church cemetery in Madison Co., TN.)
[Death Certificate filed in TN for Henry Horace Page. Informant was Emily Corilla (Pardue) Page, sister-in-law of Henry Horace Page. The 1920 and 1930 Federal Census for Madison Co., TN shows Henry Horace Page was renting a farm. Here we have an odd situation, and it’s not the only one for this Page family: according to his tombstone and Death Certificate, Henry Horace Page was b. in 1871, yet his parents wed on 8 Jul 1872. On his Death Certificate his mother is listed as Emily Sullivan. She was. b. May 1834. Emily’s last child was James H. Page, b. Mar 1878, when Emily was aged 44. Biologically there’s no problem with Emily as the mother of Henry Horace Page, John Benton Page, and James H. Page. John D. Page and Emily C. Sullivan had married after the birth of Henry Horace Page, but any explanation is speculation. In this case, and in the case of John Benton Page and Emily Corilla Pardue (below), the men accepted these children as their own. Click on image to enlarge.]
[Death Certificate filed in TN for Annie Drucilla (Pardue) Page. Informant was Luther J. Page, brother of Carl Davis Page. She was b. 5 Dec 1876 at Madison Co., TN, d. 17 Feb 1948 at Jackson, Madison Co., TN. Spouse listed as Henry Horace Page. Parents are Jeff Pardue and Bettie Mccaig. Henry Horace Page m. Annie Drucilla Pardue on 10 Apr 1898 in Obion Co., TN. Click on image to enlarge.]
[Tombstone of Emily Corilla (Pardue) Page, twin sister of Annie Drucilla (Pardue) Page. Emily is also buried at Cotton Grove Baptist church cemetery. She m. John Benton Page, brother of Henry Horace Page, on 10 Dec 1898 in Obion Co., TN. According to her death certificate filed in TN, Emily C. (Pardue) Page was b. 5 Dec 1876 at Madison Co., TN, d. 23 Dec 1948 at Nashville, Davidson Co. TN. Parents are listed as J.F. Pardue and Elizabeth. The family of J.D. (Jefferson Davis) Pardue (age 31) is found in the 1880 Madison Co., TN Federal Census on pp. 2–3, SD5, ED 98 with wife Mary E. (age 31), and children Otis R. (age 6), Bessie P. (age 5), Emily C. (age 4), Ann D. (age 4), and George (age 7 months). Wife “Mary .E.” stands for “Mary Elizabeth.” Entry is found on bottom of one page and top of next. Carl Davis Page inherited his middle name from his maternal grandfather Jefferson Davis Pardue.]
(Marriage record dated 19 Dec 1872 in Madison Co., TN for Jefferson Davis Pardue and Mary Elizabeth “Bettie” McCaig. Click on image to enlarge.)
[Death certificate of Mary Elizabeth (McCaig) (Pardue) Winston, daughter of Daniel McCaig and Eliza Raid. Her second husband was James M. Winston. Click on image to enlarge.]
Larry Page and pin-up icon Bettie Page share common ancestors in Jefferson Davis Pardue and wife Betty McCaig, who were Larry Page’s 2nd great-grandparents and Bettie Page’s great-grandparents, making Larry Page and Bettie Page 2nd Cousins-Once Removed.
[Detail of 1900 Obion Co., TN, Union City Federal Census, District 13, SD 9, ED 109, Sheet 10. Family of John Benton Page with wife Emily Corilla Pardue and sons Walter and Aubon. Living next door is Emily C. (Sullivan) Page, John’s mother, and his brother James.]
(WWI Draft Registration Card for John Benton Page. On 12 Sep 1918 the Registrar reported that Page had blue eyes, light hair, and his right eye was out. The birth date of 20 Sep is the same on the Registration Card and the death certificate, but the birth year is 1874 on the Registration Card and 1875 on the death certificate.)
[According to his death certificate filed in TN, “Jno. Page” (John Benton Page) was b. 20 Sep 1875 in TN, and d. 23 Oct 1918 at Union City, Obion Co., TN. Parents listed as Jno. D. Page and Emily Sullivan. John Benton Page’s occupation was “Painter & Paper Hanger.” Informant was Henry Horace Page, then residing at Union City, TN, brother of John Benton Page. John Benton Page survived a little over 5 weeks after he registered for the draft and was buried at East View cemetery in Union City, TN. Cemetery is still in existence. Click on image to enlarge.]
[Death Certificate filed in TN for Emily Corilla (Pardue) Page. Informant was Walter Roy Page. Click on image to enlarge.]
(Tombstone of Walter Roy Page, 19 Apr 1896—20 Jan 1964, WWI veteran, located at Nashville National Cemetery in Nashville, Davidson Co., TN.)
My goal here is to situate Bettie Mae Page, known professionally as Bettie Page, within her family context. Her father Walter Roy Page was b. on 19 Apr 1896, more than two years prior to the marriage of his alleged father John Benton Page and his biological mother Emily Corilla Pardue, who, as noted above, were m. on 10 Dec 1898 in Obion Co., TN. In that era being born out of wedlock carried stigma, and his instability as an adult may be partly attributed to the circumstances of his birth. In the complete 1900 census record I viewed, John and Emily claimed to have been married for 5 years, Emily said she was the mother of 2 children, both living, and John said both Walter and Aubon were his sons.
Walter Roy Page enlisted in the Army on 22 Jan 1917. On 22 Jan 1920 he was a Private stationed at Camp Travis, Bexar Co., TX, and was released on 5 Jul 1920. On 17 Oct 1920 in Madison Co., TN he m. Edna Pirtle. Walter Roy Page’s stormy marriage to Edna Mae Pirtle was exacerbated by poverty which led to his incarceration in Georgia for the theft of a police car. In the 1938 Nashville, TN city directory, Edna Page was living at 436 6th Ave N, and reported herself as the widow of Roy, who actually died in 1964. The Social Security Death Index indicates at some point he was assigned SSN # 410-22-9956.
(Photo of Walter Roy Page, father of Bettie Page. His service in WWI was the high point of his troubled life.)
(Obituary of Walter Roy Page from “The Tennessean,” Nashville, TN, of Tuesday, 21 Jan 1964, p. 19, which confirms his birth date as prior to the marriage of John Benton Page and Emily Corilla Pardue.)
(To solve the mystery of Walter Roy Page, I consulted the 1910 Obion Co., TN Federal Census, Union City, 13th District, SD 9, ED 125, Sheet 9B. The two brothers Henry Horace Page and John Benton Page are living next door to one another. Carl Davis Page is Henry and Drucilla’s third child. Henry was working in a stable, taking care of horses parked there when their owners visited Union City. John Benton Page and wife Corilla have changed their story: they now say they’ve been married 11 years, so the marriage date of 10 Dec 1898 is correct. John and Corilla lied about having wed in 1895 to make it appear they were married when Walter Roy Page was born. “Aubon” the son has become “Mary” the daughter. Corilla stated she was the mother of 4 children, all of whom were living. John said all of them are his. As noted above, the explanation for this discrepancy is unclear. But even if Walter Roy Page was not the son of John Benton Page, but only the son of Emily Corilla Pardue, Larry Page would still be a 2nd Cousin-Once Removed with Bettie Page, and he does share a common descent with the other children of John Benton Page through Emily C. Sullivan.)
[Snapshot of a celebrity: detail above from the 1940 Nashville, Davidson Co., TN Federal Census, SD 5, ED 99–186, Sheet 10B. “Betty Mai Page” is third from top, shown here with her mother Edna Mae (Pirtle) Page. Click on image to enlarge.]
(Pin-Ups like this one made Bettie Page a household name. Bettie Page posed for “Playboy” in the January 1955 issue. And she could have taught Christian Grey a thing or two. She remained soft-core, preferring to work clothed in her more “out there” films and photos.)
(Although her personal life had its ups and downs, Bettie Page was very intelligent and earned a B.A. from George Peabody College (now part of Vanderbilt University) in 1944. Her style remains influential today. Bettie Page is tied with Steve McQueen at Number 9 on the Forbes 2014 Top Earning Dead Celebrities list. She’s buried at Westwood Village Memorial Park cemetery in Los Angeles, CA. The pennies on her grave marker are left by visitors as tokens of remembrance and respect.)
Beverly Ann (Page) Budzynski sent me the following newspaper clipping. Carl Victor Page [cot] and Beverly Ann Page [inset] were stricken with polio during a visit to Tennessee. The children and their mother, Pauline Aquilla (Chipman) Page [R], were flown back to Flint, Michigan where they were met by their father, Carl Davis Page [L]. Carl Victor Page went on to be professor of Computer Science at Michigan State University, and by his (then) wife Gloria Weinstein was the father of Larry Page.
(“The Flint Journal,” Flint, MI.)
(Obituary of Carl Davis Page, apparently from “The Jackson Sun” newspaper of Jackson, Madison Co., TN. Since he died on Thursday 8 Aug 1963, the funeral was held on Monday 12 Aug 1963. The obituary states he was an inspector at Chevrolet, probably a non-management Quality Control position.)
(Hollywood Cemetery, Jackson, TN.)
(Obituary of Carl Victor Page, “The State News,” Michigan State University newspaper. The article notes that Carl Victor Page “was the first in his family to graduate from high school and college.” This remark applies to the Page family, as Pauline did attend all four years of high school. In the 1940 Federal Census for Carl D. Page cited above, under the column “Highest grade of school completed,” Carl Davis Page indicated the 8th grade. Material was composed by the family of Carl Victor Page. At this point Google didn’t exist.)
[Note from Jean (Chipman) Crom, daughter of Jewel Vester Chipman, re: funeral of Carl Victor Page.]
Larry Page established the Carl Victor Page Memorial Foundation of Palo Alto, CA in honor of his father. The foundation doesn’t have a website. According to “Inside Philanthropy”:
“Page sits on the boards of several nonprofits, but his personal philanthropy seems to be channeled through Google. Most of his giving is directed toward technological advancement, particularly in the clean energy sector. His own foundation, the Carl Victor Page Memorial Fund, had assets of over a billion dollars at the end of 2013, though most of its giving goes through donor advised funds such as the Vanguard Charitable Endowment, making it virtually impossible to see where Page’s money is actually going, if it’s going anywhere at all.”
In this set of Emails beginning on 23 Oct 2006, I was contacted by an individual claiming to be Donald Gudehus, husband of Larry Page’s mother Gloria. I found it odd because I had exchanged a number of letters with Larry Page’s aunt Beverly, and ordinarily she would have been the person to contact me, rather than a stranger. Beverly must have a large photo collection. The phrase: “I have been handling the genealogy of our various families for some time” sounds like: “You have to go through me.” I don’t have to go through anyone. Perhaps it was merely inappropriate wording. I did Email whoever it was a copy of a letter I had received from Carl Victor Page and one of Beverly’s letters. I then let the exchange fizzle. That proved to be a wise decision.
The following set of Emails I received in 2014 are from my first cousin David Alton Dodd, who lives in Tijuana, Mexico (Click on images to enlarge).
I didn’t know Jesus had returned.
I don’t quite know what to say about this. Thanks to Larry Page, every author on the planet wants to sue Google.
Finally, there’s this item, which will leave all but a very few readers nonplussed. How can you be in two places at once when you’re not anywhere at all? And I think that about covers it.
Pauline Aquilla (Chipman) Page Moffitt was a farmer’s daughter. She was also a descendant of one of the most important monarchs in English history, as revered in the UK as Washington and Lincoln are in the United States. Some people are timeless—and Alfred the Great is one of those very few. And among her ancestors were Mayflower passengers and soldiers and patriots of the Revolutionary War.
Of Carl Davis Page we can say his ethnic composition was primarily Scots-Irish. The Scots-Irish were a very important genetic stream in the United States well into the Civil War era. Carl didn’t pursue an education beyond the 8th grade because he was expected to work and help support his family. But in that era having an 8th grade education was common—many managed with just a 6th grade education. Carl left Jackson, TN lured by reports of the good wages paid by GM in Flint, MI. There he became friends with my grandfather Beecher Chipman, who introduced him to his eventual wife Pauline. Carl was an unsung hero among unsung heroes, who endured the grime and squalor of Flint to build a better life for his family—and he succeeded. The story of Carl Davis Page and others like him faded when GM left Flint, but they shouldn’t be forgotten. The struggle to unionize GM was a pivotal episode in American labor history.
The building blocks of this line are already on the Internet:
http://www.geni.com/people/Carl-Page/6000000028998162758
I had nothing to do with this website, but obviously someone familiar with the family supplied the information. You can find an extended pedigree on Ancestry.com. I haven’t documented this family beyond what’s in this column.
Regardless of the biological paternity of Henry Horace Page and Walter Roy Page, uterine relationships exist between Google Founder Larry Page and Bettie Page, who share common ancestors in Jefferson Davis Pardue and his wife Mary Elizabeth McCaig, making Larry Page and Bettie Page 2nd Cousins-Once Removed.
It’s confusing: if Henry Horace Page was not the biological son of John D. Page, but only of Emily C. Sullivan, and Walter Roy Page was not the biological son of John Benton Page, but only of Emily Corilla Pardue, then Henry Horace Page and Walter Roy Page weren’t related through the Page family and didn’t share Emily C. Sullivan as a common ancestor. DNA tests should resolve the biological paternity of Henry Horace Page and Walter Roy Page as these are male line descents.
Call it a True Hollywood Story.
