Favorite Find: Elvie in Newspapers

Last year, while writing the stories of my paternal grandmother’s family, I discovered that newspapers held the story of her brother Albert Elvie Hankins. When I got started with genealogy nearly twenty years ago, I asked four of my aunts what they knew about Uncle Elvie. It wasn’t much, and it wasn’t all that accurate.

They said Elvie lived in Idaho, worked as an insurance salesman, and married seven time but had no children. They knew the first name of one wife—Harriett. They said he had a heart attack on a plane while returning home to Idaho from a trip. They said the plane landed in Arizona and he died there.

Before I started mining newspapers, I had added to and corrected some of the information provided by my aunts. I knew about four of Elvie’s wives and that he worked for the railroad before becoming an insurance salesman. I also knew he lived in Missouri, Illinois, Idaho, Montana, and Washington after leaving Kentucky. I knew he died in El Paso, Texas, rather than Arizona, and he lived in Spokane, Washington, not Idaho when he died. I thought I knew quite a bit about Uncle Elvie.

And then I found over sixty mentions of Elvie and/or his wives and children in fourteen newspapers across seven states. I already had several items from Hopkins County, Kentucky, newspapers—The Bee and The Hustler. But when I dug deeper, I found I had missed some things in those papers.

So what kind of information did all these newspapers give me? How about two more wives, two previously unknown children, and three more states (Kansas, Minnesota, and Colorado) where he lived for starters. Some mentions were short blurbs about visiting relatives (usually of the wives) but even those help fill in the timeline of where Elvie lived when. And there were some big finds, some of which have been confirmed by records. A few of my favorites are detailed below.

“Albert Hankins came in last week to visit a short time with his wife’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. J. L. McDavitt.”¹“Spivey Department,” Leader-Courier (Kingman, KS), 11 Apr 1912, p. 7, col. 1; digital image, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com : accessed 1 Feb 2021).

This blurb led to identifying a previously unknown wife named Frances McDavitt.

“Albert Hankins is here visiting his daughter, Eloise, and Mr. And Mrs. J. L. McDavitt.”²“Spivey,” Kingman (KS) Journal, 26 May 1916, p. 4, col. 1; digital image, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com : accessed 1 Feb 2021).

A daughter! Her Minnesota birth certificate has her name as Ella Louise Hankins, daughter of Albert Hankins (a railroad yardmaster, born in Kentucky) and Frances McDavitt (born in Kansas) of Thief River Falls, Minnesota.³MN Division of Vital Statistics, birth certificate no. 22007 (1913), Ella Louise Hankins; digital copy, Minnesota Historical Society (https://www.mnhs.org). Other newspaper items mention Elvie and Frances living in Thief River Falls.

“Albert E. Hankins, Thief River Falls, Minn, 33. Catherine Harmon, Wichita, 24, (Married by Probate Judge Guy.)”⁴No title (Albert E. Hankins, Thief River Falls, Minn), Evening Free Press (Winfield, KS), 1 Jun 1916, p. 6, col. 5; digital image, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com : accessed 1 Feb 2021).

Another wife! Further research revealed her maiden name was Kathryne Wilcox, she had been married twice before, and had two children.

“Mr. And Mrs. Albert Hankins left last week for Denver where they will make their home.”⁵“Spivey,” Kingman (KS) Journal, 1 Aug 1919, p. 11, col. 1; digital image, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com : accessed 1 Feb 2021).

This is the only reference found to date of Elvie living in Colorado.

““I don’t mind losing my guns and hunting equipment and thinking like that,” he said, “but I hate to lose thinks I can’t replace, old newspaper clippings about my football days in the 1890s, old photographs and things like that.””

“A. E. Hankins, insurance agent, said he walked out of the hotel with just his clothes.”⁶“Reactions of Hotel ‘Refugees’ Vary” Spokane (WA) Daily Chronicle, 1 Mar 1950, p. 1, col. 4 and p. 13, col. 2; digital image, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com : accessed 1 Feb 2021).

Elvie lived in the Ridpath Hotel in Spokane when it suffered a major fire. He was one of several hotel residents interviewed by the newspaper.

“Mr. and Mrs. A. E. Hankins (Bernice Gamble) have returned from their wedding trip and are making their home at E3408 Seventeenth. They visited in San Antonio, Texas, and New Orleans. In Birmingham, Ala., and Louisville, Ky., they were with brother of Mr. Hankins, and in Cleveland, Ohio, where the guests of Jack Gamble, Mrs. Hankin’s son. They returned via Jackson Hole country in Wyoming and Yellowstone park.”⁷”No title (Mr. and Mrs. A. E. Hankins), Spokesman-Review (Spokane, WA), 26 Jul 1951, p. 4, col. 1; digital image, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com : accessed 1 Feb 2021).

A lengthy honeymoon. Visiting a brother in Louisville is suspect since Elvie’s two brothers lived in Birmingham and Los Angeles. He did have family in Kentucky but mostly in the Hopkins County area, rather than Louisville.

“Fellow employees in a Paulsen building insurance agency office this week gave a surprise party for a man who, in the six years he has been with the firm, has been one of its top producers.”

“The occasion was A. E. Hankins’ birthday—his 76th.”⁸Tom Ambrose, “Insurance Agent Just Won’t Stop,” Spokane (WA) Daily Chronicle, 17 Oct 1958, p. 10, col. 3; digital image, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com : 10 Jan 2021).

This article goes on to explain that Elvie had been selling insurance for 30 years. He’d won 15 expense-paid convention trips and numerous awards for his sales records. It also mentions his 26 year railroad career and tells about his start in the insurance business.

“Mrs. A. E. Hankins (Bernice Gamble) flew from New York to Paris yesterday and will spend the summer in Europe. She will visit Greece and Turkey and part of Italy before settling down to the university summer session in Nice.”
“She and Mr. Hankins spent several days in Cleveland with her son, Jack Gamble, and his family. Mr. Hankins is visiting relatives in Birmingham, Ala.⁹”No title (Mrs. A. E. Hankins), Spokesman-Review, (Spokane, WA), 30 May 1959, p. 3, col. 1; digital image, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com : accessed 1 Feb 2021).

“Al Hankins, 76, brother of T. R. Hankins of Norwood, died of a heart attack Saturday, at El Paso, Tex., en route to Hollywood, Calif. Mr. Hankins, a native of Spokane, Wash., left Birmingham Friday, after spending a with with his brother and a newphew and cousin.”¹⁰“Al Hankins, brother of local resident,” Birmingham (AL) News, 8 Jun 1959, p. 7, col. 6; digital image, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com : accessed 1 Feb 2021).

These two items tell about Elvie’s travels over the last few days of his life.

You can read Elvie’s full story here and see from the footnotes how much of it came from newspapers. Keep in mind that everything printed in a newspaper is not accurate, but they can provide a window to people’s lives not found in other records.

Written for 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks from Amy Johnson Crow. Week 2 Prompt—Favorite Find.