Thirza Miller Lee

Because of curiosity about my grandmother, Thirza Miller, I began my journey into family history. Thirza died over ten years before I was born. The only bit of information I knew about Thirza was that she had “family” in Ohio. I was amazed at the amount information I found. There is no question that at times I felt her guidance as I combed records for clues.

Thirza was a farm girl. In her twenties she took photos of her friends and family and carefully placed those photos in albums. The pictures give us an idea of the kind woman she was and capture the decade of 1910 to 1920. Shown below are pictures of her as a young woman in Cherry Valley, Ohio.

This page of Thirza's album is one of my favorites. Between the pictures she

wrote, "Remember the good luck this day." What was it she always wanted to

remember?

Top photo left to right: Arthur Brinkman,

half-brother; Myrta Brinkman, half-sister,

Ella Miller, her brother Fred Miller,

and niece Thelma Miller

Thirza with Arthur, Fred and Thelma

Thirza graduated from nursing school and worked as a private duty nurse. She is third from left in this picture.

Playing on the shores of Lake Erie

A beauty!

In 1919, Thirza’s mother Sarah died. At the time, Thirza was engaged to a young man from Cherry Valley. Relatives from Huntington Park, California, the Conants, visited Cherry Valley. They invited Thirza to move to Southern California and live with them. Thirza accepted! She left her fiancé, gathered her belongings, boarded the train, and moved to Los Angeles. She joined the Methodist Church where she found a group of friends including a young man named Walter Lee. Thirza and her friends hiked often in Southern California. Here are photos of Thirza and her friend Walter.

Walter hired Thirza to do private duty nursing for his grandmother. Thirza and Walter fell in love, married, and eventually had five children. One son died as an infant of pneumonia; another son died in his 20’s. The remaining three lived long lives.

Here is a photo of Thirza with her daughter Margaret Elizabeth, my mother.

For several years, Thirza’s life was happy. Walter was able to support his family with his painting business. The family lived in a three story, four bedroom home. There were two water heaters, a large attic and an upstairs porch, where the children slept in the summer. The home was on Southeast Boulevard in Corona which was a former race track used for car racing in 1916. "The Boulevard" was a complete 4 1/2 mile circle surrounded with many large estate homes.

Thirza's son, Albion, wrote of a few family customs. On Christmas morning, Thirza and Walter would put a sheet across the entrance to the living room. The children, standing on the dining room side of the sheet, would hold a fishing pole over the sheet and announce which child was "fishing." When the child felt the "tug" of a present, he would reel it over the sheet.

Sunday was a day for church and family activities. The family attended the Methodist Church each Sunday. After church, Thirza would prepare a large afternoon meal. After eating, the family would go for a Sunday drive in their Chrysler, often to Lake Elsinor. In the evening they would gather around the radio and listen to radio shows such as "The Jack Benny Show", and "The Shadow." The love and affection between Walter and Thirza was something each of her children remembered fondly.

Thirza was a community volunteer. In her capacity as a trained nurse, she freely gave of of her services in the community and to friends and neighbors . She was in charge of a WPA project at the Red Cross headquarters. She was an active and willing worker in the first Methodist church of Corona.

During the 1930’s, the Great Depression caused incredible hardship in the United States. The Lee family suffered financially because people could not afford to paint their homes. Walter’s business failed and he was forced to work dipping tool handles in orange paint for a tool company. Thirza earned money by occasionally cleaning the homes of wealthy families.

A difficult time became a truly tragic one. In 1936, forty-six year old Thirza died suddenly of a septic infection. Her children were young. Albion, her youngest was just eight. Her daughter Margaret, my mother, was twelve. I can only imagine how Walter must have struggled at the death of his wife. Walter moved his children to a smaller home in Corona and began his new life as a single father.

Several years ago while on a genealogy “hunt”, I was able to locate Thirza and Walter’s former home in Corona and also the cemetery where Thirza was buried. While I was at the cemetery, a groundskeeper helped me locate Thirza’s records in an old journal. The entry for Thirza shows her minister signed the burial forms and possibly paid for her funeral. This is not surprising considering the Lee family’s poor financial situation. The groundskeeper then helped me find her grave. The stone on her grave was corroded and the groundskeeper ran to get something, promising he’d soon have it cleaned as good as new . He quickly came back, scrubbed the stone and it was as “good as new.” I knelt on the grass and I could read the inscription clearly: "Thirza M. Miller, Wife and Mother." The emotion I felt at that moment surprised me. After all of my searching, I had come to feel that I knew Thirza and was now seeing how sadly her life had ended. I was as close to her physically as I had ever been. I thought of the tragic day she was buried and imagined her husband and children gathering around this grave. I began to understand what sadness my mother lived through. Thirza’s early death affected my mother in many ways. So, I cried a bit. I cried for Thirza and I cried for my mother.

As I said earlier, I have unquestionably felt Thirza’s presence and guidance as I researched the family. At times this help has seemed quite miraculous. I believe she lives!