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Tag: Coursen

  • The Traveling Baby Grand

    Starr Minum Grand, The Indianapolis Star, 16 Dec 1906 p. 52

    I wrote this post for week 34 of the 52 Ancestors in 52 weeks for 2025. The ad at the beginning of this post shows the Minum grand piano built by the Starr Piano Company. I found this ad in the Indianapolis Star, dated December 16, 1906. I saw and heard this piano at my husband’s grandmother’s beach house in 1968. It, along with the human piano player, produced a lovely mellow clear sound as indicated in the ad.

    Lifting the keyboard cover, I found this on the underside of the keyboard cover.

    Raymond’s Early Life

    Raymond Coursen, the first husband of Frances Cabell Coursen Perritt played this model and played it well. The baby grand didn’t come into Raymond’s and Frances’s lives until they had settled on Maui on the Hawaiian Islands.

    Raymond made piano music and sang long before he married Frances. This wasn’t even the first piano in Raymond’s life. A clipping, saved by Frances described Raymond as 7-year-old boy at a big recital with a black eye. He sang in his young soprano voice a solo- “Sleep, Little Tulip”.

    Edgar Coursen, his father, taught him to play the piano while he was a boy. Soon his legs were long enough to reach the petals. So then his father taught him how to play the organ. His mother Annie Griffin Coursen was the singer in the family. She sang opera on stage.

    Off To College

    Raymond entered Oregon Agricultural College (OAC) in 1912. He was a natural choice for a piano accompanist. He joined the Glee and Mandolin club at OAC. He performed piano solos at this club’s concerts as well as being the accompanist for the group.

    A Year in the Hawaiian Islands

    His expressive playing led to a job in his junior year.  In 1914, the Liberty theater of Honolulu hired Raymond to play the organ at their theater in Honolulu, Hawaii. The photo below shows the theater organ at the bottom middle. The films shown during this era were silent, so Raymond supplied sound by playing the organ. The Liberty theater also held live performances on stage. Raymond is playing on a grand piano in the back on the right.

    After playing for 8 months in the theater in Honolulu, he went on tour. He joined the Bervani Grand Opera Company. During the next month he did a tour of the islands. At the end of the tour, he went back to playing at the Liberty Theater.

    Back To Portland, Oregon

    Returning to Oregon but not to OAC, Raymond found a girl. He married Frances Cabell on September 16, 1916. Then he introduced his bribe to the Hawaiian Islands. They moved to Maui where Kula Sanitarium hired him as superintendent of outside work. After three years at the sanitarium, he was hired by the Hilo Sugar Company to work on their Wainaku farm. This farm was also on Maui. Both daughters were born on Maui Island- Rose in May of 1917 and Betty (Elizabeth) in December of 1918.

    The Baby Grand Piano

    The Coursens purchased their baby grand piano from the Starr Piano Company while they were in the islands. Since the Minum grand model was built in Richmond, Indiana, their piano’s first trip involved a long ocean voyage. But the Starr Piano Company shipped their products. From Richmond, Indiana to Maui it is about 4,300 miles. This trip was not the last ocean voyage the Coursen’s baby grand piano made.

    Return to the Mainland

    In the summer of 1923, the Raymond Coursen family returned the mainland of United States. They arrived aboard the SS Enterprise at the port of San Francisco on August 25, 1923. Among the items shipped for Raymond was his baby grand piano. The American and Foreign Marine Insurance Company insured this piano for 700 dollars. The piano was to travel from Hilo to Seattle, Washington, then on to Portland. I assume the insurance was for damage at sea. From there the piano went to 658 Lovejoy St., Portland, Oregon where Raymond’s Mother and father lived. The young Coursen family visited with the elder Coursen family for a while.

    To Bend Oregon

    Four years later, the family moved to a ranch in the Tumalo project, located near Bend, Oregon.

    Edgar Coursen visited them there sometime in 1927 and writes to Frances in September of 1927.

    “There is one thing sure and that the kiddies (Rose and Betty) are getting a good, rugged, healthy start in life that will stay with them for good. And I want to congratulate you Frances on the beautiful way that the children are being brought up.”

    In another letter Grandfather Coursen asks after the horses, cows, dog, cats and chickens at their Tumalo home. Apparently, Edgar Coursen regarded this venture as wilderness farming. But they did have the baby grand piano to play in Tumalo. Raymond taught both girls to play.

    In July, 1928, Raymond started working for the Brooks-Scanlon Lumber Company of Bend. He worked there until his death in 1933. In Bend, the Coursens lived first at 125 Revene Avenue and then at 316 Delaware Street. Raymond studied small engines on the job and by correspondence. On September 14, 1932 he was proclaimed proficient in these topics. He had studied machines, electricity and refrigeration.He was awarded certification stating this from the International Correspondence Schools in Scranton, Pennsylvania. 

    A Sad Event

    About one year later Raymond died in Portland, Oregon after surgery for bladder tumors. He had a severe reaction to the nupercaine spinal anesthesia used during the surgery. Raymond died 22 June 1933. He was sorely missed by his family and Bend friends. Frances and the girls moved to Portland later that summer.

    The baby grand was moved back to Portland. This time Frances and the girls moved in with her mother, Bessie Goughler, and Bessie Husband Mac. Bessie and Mac’s house at 3415 N.E. 47th Ave. was big enough to house them all, even the piano.

    Frances worked and saved until she became a home owner herself. She bought a house at 6305 Brazee Street in Rose City.They moved in on January 18, 1936. Their piano moved with them. But this wasn’t the piano last home.

    The daughters married in 1940. Rose married Howard Foster on June 30 1940. Betty married Bud Robert “Bud” Miller on August 30, 1940.

    Frances Marries Again

    Frances married Hayes Marion Perritt on April 12 1942. They bought property on the Oregon coast near Lincoln City. This place was so remote that electrical and telephone service was not available.

    It must have been a struggle to move the baby grand piano up the steep gravel and grass road. But it happened. Frances played the piano at night by lantern light. The piano sat in the Perritt’s beach house for more than 40 years.

    When this couple separated, Frances moved to a small apartment in Beaverton, Oregon. It filled half the largest room. Visitors squeezed around it. Frances died on May 20, 1994.

    The piano went to a grandson’s home and is still there. It had been new more than 100 years ago.

    Here is a photo.

  • Lincoln Assassination

    Week 12- historic Event

    Jane Ann “Jeanie” Bulman Coursen Reacts

    San Francisco Chronicle April 15, 1865

    On Friday, April 14, 1865, at 9:30 pm, Abraham Lincoln was shot while seated in a box at the Ford’s Theater in Washington D.C. This was the first assassination of a sitting U. S. president.

    The American people reacted, most with shock and grief. Some were glad.

    The new technology of the telegraph enabled this somber news to be spread across the United States within hours of its happening, The same news took weeks to spread around Europe.

    The news was received in California on Saturday morning, April 15. The memory of Lincoln’s assassination stayed in the minds of many Americans a long time. Among these people were the members of the Coursen family.

    Sixty-five years later an Oregon journalist named Fred Lockley asked Edgar E. Coursen about his first memory. Edgar replied,by telling about his mother’s reaction to the news and the effect her reaction had on him as a child of four.

     His Mother, Jane Ann Bulman Coursen

    “You ask me what is my first recollection?” said the Edgar E. Coursen…” My first recollection takes me back to the time when I was about 4 or 5 years old. We lived on Fulton Street opposite Alamo Square in San Francisco. The Catholic archbishop now owns the property in which I spent my boyhood.”

    “My mother was a rather calm woman. She raised the window and said to someone outside, with great excitement, “The president has been shot.” I was scared, because I thought something dreadful must have happened; so I asked her what was the matter. She said, “Abraham Lincoln, the president, has been killed.” It left a very vivid impression upon my mind.”

    Whitfield’s Letter

    In 1880, Whitfield Hurd wrote a letter to Ellen Douglass Coursen. Ellen, the oldest living child of Gersham Coursen and Jeanie Ann Bulman Coursen. Ellen, intrigued by family history, wanted to know more about her mother and father. She had contacted Whitfield who was from the Hurd line of the Coursen family.

    This letter along with a genealogical chart copied from the Coursen Family Bible by James F. Campbell was one of the papers found in Grandmother Perritt’s scrapbook. James was Catherine Coursen’s husband.

    The Coursens used “Jeanie” as the first name for their mother. Records before this time use Jane Ann.

    About Jane Ann Bulman

    The bible chart page relays information about Jane Ann:

    • Jane Ann Bulman was the widow of a man with the surname, Stout.
    • She was born on September 2, 1830
    • She married Gersham A. Coursen on September 21, 1854
    • She died on March 9, 1877

    I have photocopies of the Coursen Family Bible which added information. Gersham and Jeanie were married by Rev. J.A. Benton in Sacramento. She died in San Francisco at a quarter to 10 o’clock on March 9, 1877.

    The New Jersey marriage record for Jane Bulman and Jacob Stout records their marriage on August 9, 1848. Johann Gardner performed the ceremony. It was in Harlingen, New Jersey. Jane Ann was 18; Jacob was 24. Jane’s mother, S.G. Bulman, was in attendance.

     Here is a snippet of the record from Marriages, Somerset Co., 1846-1867

    Groom Jacob Stout and Bride Jane Ann Bulman from Rockyhill
    Parents of Jacob Chilian and Sarah Stout; Parents of Jane Ann, Mrs. S. G. Bulman

    The 1850 census has Jacob and Jane Ann living in Montgomery, Somerset, New Jersey with Jacob’s family.

    Migration

    On January 23, 1851, Jacob W. Stout obtained passport papers from the state of New York. Written at the top of this paper was “wife name Jane Ann Stout.”

    Soon after they migrated to California by ship. They would have crossed the Isthmus of Panama by mule. Adding to the rigors of this trip was the condition of Jane Ann. She was pregnant.

    Soon after arriving in California Jacob and Jane Ann’s child, William Presley Stout, was born, the year still being 1851.

    By July of 1852 this family of 3 were living in San Francisco County. William was a 1-year-old.  Here is a snippet from the 1862 California State census.

    Jacob died June 30, 1854, and is buried in Sacramento City Cemetery. Jeanie Ann married less than a year later. The new husband was Gersham A. Coursen whom she married on September 21, 1854.

    Family Life with Gersham

    They lived in Sacramento for about ten years. Their first three children born in Sacramento included Evelin Eugenia, Ellen Douglass, and Edgar Eugene. In 1864, they moved to their home at 1060 Fulton Street in San Francisco. Madeline May, Grant Ober, Sherman Adams, Rosamond Alexandria, Geraldine Anabel and Catherine Eleanore were born here.

    Listed as a housewife on the 1870 census record didn’t describe what she did. Jeanie Ann had been a schoolteacher in her early life, so she home schooled her children. Edgar Coursen states in an interview with Ed Lockley this. “I never went to school…my mother taught me at home.” Edgar also said his mother had a beautiful singing voice.

    Edgar was an extremely able student and had a gift for music. When he was only 14 years old his parents enrolled him in the Royal Conservatory in Leipzig, Germany.

    It must have been hard for Jeanie to send Edgar so far from home. She couldn’t have predicted that she would never see him again.

    She had lost other children. Evelin had died on May 16, 1860. Madeline was less than a year when she died on May 27, 1863.

    In the spring of 1877, Edgar at his school in Leipzig received the letter of his mother death. He was 2 years into his studies there. He reacted by studying harder. He said,” the death of my mother was a great sorrow to me, but I threw myself into my work, all the harder studying the violin and piano.”

    Jeanie Ann Coursen Died

    There was a short announcement in the San Francisco Examiner on May 3, 1877.

    Gersham never moved from their home on Fulton Street. He never remarried.

  • Tootie Reynolds

    Tootie Reynolds

    Week 3– Nickname

    Nicknamed “Tootie”

    To carry the nickname “Tootie” seems paradoxical for this Alaskan pioneer who with her former husband founded the Daily Alaska Dispatch, Alaska’s first daily paper.

    Frances Cabell called Margaret Reynolds Russell, a sister of her mother, Aunt Tootie. When Margaret became Tootie to her family is unknown; it probably happened early in her life. She was born on April 5, 1877, to Edwin and Margaret Reynolds in Baker City. Her older sister, Bessie, who was born about 2 and ½ years earlier, would have been curious about the new baby. Maybe Bessie mispronounced Margaret’s name. More likely the delightful little noises the baby made caught Bessie’s attention and Margaret Stewart Reynolds became Tootie. As an adult, Margaret even signed her letters to Bessie as, “your loving sister Tootie.”

    Juneau, Alaska

    On February 15, 1898, Margaret Reynolds married Edward Crawford Russell in Seattle, Washington. As a result, she started going by the name, Mrs. Ed C. Russell.

    In the same year, she and Edward “took a printing press to Alaska… and after issuing a weekly(newspaper) for a time, they bought another weekly in Juneau and published it as a daily. This paper, the Daily Alaska Dispatch, grew and thrived under their care. Edward was the editor, and Margaret took care of business details. In August of 1900 she traveled to Seattle to find a new foreman for the print shop.

    Looking After Frances

    Margaret and Ed did not have children of their own, but they did like children. In March of 1904, Margaret’s sister, Bessie, needed someone to look after her 8-year-old daughter, Frances Cabell. So, on March 3. 1904, this item appeared in the Daily Alaska Dispatch. It read, Mr. and Mrs. Ed. C. Russell returned on the Cottage. Miss Frances Cabell, a niece of Mrs. Russell, accompanied them to spend the summer in Juneau. Frances spent the spring summer and fall with her aunt and uncle in Juneau.

    During the time Frances lived with her Aunt Tootie and her Uncle Ed, she wrote letters. She wrote to her mother in Portland and her uncles and aunts in Baker City. She wrote about her Aunt Tootie’s activities.Tootie washed clothes by hand, prepared meals, read the Dispatch and talked to neighbors and returning ship captains.

    One thing Aunt Tootie particularly enjoyed was buying and wearing hats. She bought large hats with wide brims- hats that would add height to a woman’s frame as well as being decorative. Keeping one of these hats on her head was difficult. Often the hat needed to be secured with hat pins as long as 12 inches.

    In late April, Aunt Tootie even bought Frances a hat which Frances promptly wore to church on Sunday.

    Sometime in October of 1904, Aunt Tootie took Frances home to her mother in Portland. Tootie didn’t return to Juneau until December. An item in the Dispatch, dated December 6, 1904 reads,”Mr. and Mrs. Ed C. returned…Mrs. Russell spent the past two months visiting with relatives in Portland.” 

    Selling the Dispatch and After

    Two years after the Russells returned Frances to Portland, they sold the Daily Alaska Dispatch at a profit. Tootie sent a photo with a “X” marking the the spot where their newspaper office was located in Juneau.

    After selling, they traveled and their marriage fell apart. Exactly when they separated is unknown.

    In 1920, they lived separately. Ed lived in a boarding house in Seattle working as a journalist. On the 1920 census record he said he was married, so he may have remarried.

    At this time, Margaret lived in Portland, Oregon. She was divorced and working for a printing company. Later, she would run a small job printing shop. She died March 13, 1932, at her sister, Addie Reynolds Mack’s house.

    Remembering Margaret Stewart Russell

    Some people remember Margaret as the young woman who went to Alaska near the end of the Juneau Gold Rush. The first daily newspaper in Alaska was successful largely due to her business acumen.

    Frances remembered this woman as her Aunt Tootie who gave her as amazing Alaskan adventure. This Margaret with the ridiculous nickname of Tootie was someone the family put their arms around.

    Frances Perritt labeled all photos of Margaret as “my Aunt Tootie.” She even used Margaret real first name for her first child-Rose Margaret Coursen.