In this undated photo, Frank feeds the chickens at his farm near Plainfield, Indiana.

Mildred and Tirzah pose in a picture taken at an unknown location. Tirzah struggled with weight for many years and seems to have known the secret of successful dieting. You can see here that she is slimming and in some photos she appears so thin that I wasn’t sure who she was.

Frank stands in front of a house on Sunrise Dr., part of the new development on the property that used to be part of their farm.

Tirzah and Mildred stand in the front yard of Mildred’s home on Scenic Drive.

The whole family (except for photographer Harold) sits together on the steps of Tirzah’s home on Sunrise Drive. This photo was taken in June, 1958. Sue was a baby, not yet a year old, and Doree is watching her to make sure she’s going to stay in that rocker.

Back in the 1950s, one of the biggest controversies in our family was the question of where Aunt & Unc (Tirzah & Frank Jessup) should live. They’d farmed their land near Plainfield, Indiana, since they were married in 1913. Our grandmother Mildred was Tirzah’s younger sister, and Aunt had no other close family besides Unc. Mildred, Harold, and Dick considered Aunt & Unc to be close family and they were always included in any event.

So when the Votaws moved to Whittier, California in 1944, it put a big hole in the family. A lot of tears were shed. The Jessups could not leave the farm. But they established a tradition of coming west to visit every year, usually in February when the farm didn’t require much attention. It was a long drive, and they’d stay as long as they could, sometimes several weeks.

The conversation about moving the Jessups to California began back in the 1940s. Parts of it can be read in letters from Dick and Harold. We have no record of any reply from the Jessups! But I have no doubt that there was much discussion of the topic, especially during their February visits. In 1953 their California family finally talked Aunt & Unc into buying a house in Whittier, on Sunrise Drive.

They bought it, and visited it, but they didn’t move in. Eventually the farm property (or part of it) was sold, and a housing development went in. Unc named one of the new streets Sunrise Dr. in honor of their new home in Whittier. You can see him standing on the property in one of the pictures on this page.

Frank was a smoker, and developed lung cancer. Since the farm had sold, I’m sure that they were making plans to move when he died in 1957. Tirzah immediately came to California and moved into the house on Sunrise Dr. She lived there for the rest of her life (22 more years).

Tirzah, Mildred, and Frank pose in the back yard of the house on Scenic Drive in February 1955.

Tirzah takes David and Peggy out for a walk in December, 1957.

This photo was taken in January 1959. It looks like Harold, Mildred and Tirzah were on travel together.