Individual 10: Bessie Crystal McFarren

Individual Record 10

Name} McFarren, Bessie Crystal (Bess)

Family History} Hancock

Title}

Race} White

Sex} Female

Birth: Date} Exa 28 Jan 1900

Place} Golden, Barry, Missouri

Marr.: Date} Exa 7 Sep 1918

Place} El Centro, Imperial, California (Link)

Marr.: Date} Exa 24 Apr 1924

Place} Woodland, Yolo, California (Link)

Death: Date} Exa 24 Sep 1976

Place} Sherwood Oaks Health Ctr., Fort Bragg, Mendocino, Calif.

Burial: Date} Exa 25 Sep 1976

Place} Rose Memorial Cem., Fort Bragg, Mendocino, California

Grave Marker} Yes

Source 1}	72 = Birth record
Source 2}	62 = 1900 USA cem
Source 3}	96 = 1910 USA cem
Source 4}	695 = Photograph
Source 5}	145 = Marriage rec
Source 6}	151 = Newspaper
Source 7}	152 = School recd
Source 8}	300 = 1920 USA cem
Source 9}	317 = Marriage rec
Source 10}	9 = Biography
Source 11}	10 = Family notes
Source 12}	164 = Geog history
Source 13}	675 = Photographs
Source 14}	701 = Photographs
Source 15}	703 = Will
Source 16}	704 = Obituary
Source 17}	715 = Land deeds
Source 18}	719 = Death certif
Source 19}	767 = Family notes
Source 20}	751 = Photographs
Source 21}	1218=Photographs

Parents: } William Henry McFarren & Rebecca Jane Ellison
Relationship No.} 9

1st Household No.} 227 = Golden, Barry, Missouri

Occupation 1} Housewife
Occupation 2} Cook/chef

Religion/Church} Methodist

Spouses: First} Worden, Lionel H.
Second} Williams, Simeon Clyde (Si)
Total Number of} 2

Notes: When her parents split up and her father moved to the Imperial Valley (Brawley), Bess took her brother Roy and sister Ruby and went to live with her grandparents in Holtville, California. This was about December 1915; however, the photo at the right shows that Bess first arrived in Holtville before July 1914. Bess was a young teenager and may have lived with a famous Western writer while there (according to her daughter Viola). She attended school and worked in a grocery store to help pay expenses. Bess married her Holtville high school boyfriend Lionel in September 1918. She told Viola that her first born had died in her arms — presumeably shortly after the child's birth.

In late 1918 or early 1919, Bess travelled from the Imperial Valley to visit her uncle Ed McFarren in Napa — and probably to be near Lionel at Mare Island. The photo at the right was taken about this time. Bess's daughter Viola believed that Bess never divorced Lionel, and that the gold wedding ring that Bess always wore came from Lionel — not Simeon.

Being a hard worker and ambitious, she enrolled in the nurses training program at the hospital of the Yountville Veterans Home. It was there that she met Simeon Williams. He took Bess to Calistoga and other places on his Indian motorcycle, using a side car borrowed from Uncle Ed. After Bess was at the Veterans Home for about one year, she became pregnant in Jan 1920. To avoid embarrassment, Simeon and Bess said that they were married on 19 Dec 1919, in Woodland, California. (However, they weren't legally married until 24 Apr 1924.)

In late Summer 1920, Bess went back to Coffeyville, Kansas, to visit her mother who had become very ill. Daughter Viola was born there on 12 Sep 1920.

Bess greatly enjoyed fishing. After World War II, she and Simeon travelled in their cabin cruisers from the Napa River to the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers where they caught numerous striped bass and catfish. After moving to Fort Bragg in 1948, Bess fished off of the rocks at their ocean-front property. There she caught sea trout, cappazoni, and an assortment of other fish. Being close to Noyo and its fishing industry meant that her freezer was always stocked with salmon, albacore, and other ocean fish. Bess went abalone fishing with her crowbar when the tide was extremely low. She would then pound her abalone catch on a large piece of polished black marble until the abalone was tender (the margle block is now in Dan's possession in Auburn).

Bess loved animals and birds. Over the years at Fort Bragg she had canaries, parakeets, ducks, cats, red hens and roosters, rabbits, lambs and sheep, pigs, and a cow and calves. The photo at the left shows Bess with Daisy and two of Daisy's calves, circa 1955. She fed her animals, milked the cow, churned butter, and always had fresh chicken eggs. Tears would come to her eyes when it came time to slaughter an animal for its meat.

Bess also loved cooking, baking fresh bread, gardening, canning fruit, and picking bosenberries for her great bosenberry cobblers. Her garden at their Fort Bragg home included strawberries, potatoes, lettuce, carrots, corn, beets, radishes, celery, rhubarb, cucumbers, and squash. To supplement their income, Bess took on a series of cooking jobs in Fort Bragg: first she worked at the Cousin's Inn (a steak house), then a grave-yard shift at the Club Fort Bragg, and finally she cooked at French Hospital. The photo at the right shows her leaving for work in 1968.