THOMAS ALWOOD TRAVIS, SR.
1894 - 1971
My imaginary genealogy village is my ultimate time travel. It conveniently blends people and eras. Whenever I have trouble falling asleep at night, I imagine one of my favorite ancestors going through their daily lives. Sometimes they are young and their siblings are in the same house. They are playing or squabbling or doing chores or whatever my crazy brain dreams up. (My imagination, no judging!} Or, sometimes they are older dealing with their own kids or their businesses or farms. I never get too far into these stories because inevitably I drift off to sleep.
One of my favorite residents is my paternal grandfather, Thomas Alwood Travis, Sr. His children and grandchildren knew him as "Pop".
Pop always walks tall in my Genealogy Village. Later in life, my grandfather had a slight stoop and a bit of a shuffle in his step, probably slight scoliosis, but I rarely remember him that way. He strides through my memory as lively and energetic, ready to scoop me up, play a game of cards, find a cat to pet, or go for a Wiley's Ice Cream shop treat. And he lived in Washington, DC!! This is still a wonderful, historical, family-filled place in my Village.
We only visited a couple of times a year for maybe a week at a time. It was a major effort to travel from Atlanta to D.C. with three children in the 50's. and early 60s. My most vivid memories of these trips had to do with various unreliable automobiles. It was always a straight through drive as there was no money for motels. Sometimes, we had to stop frequently to add quarts of recycled oil which was carried in jars in the trunk. More than once there was a trip in winter with limited heat and we bundled under blankets on the rear seat. This was before auto air conditioning so summer trips were brutal and mostly done at night. Mother always had our food packed at her feet in the front seat, to be handed out as needed. Mostly sandwiches but I also remember cold fried chicken, fruit, and peanut butter Ritz crackers. There was never a question of stopping at a restaurant to eat. No money and limited offerings in the era before fast food.
Because our visits were infrequent, I realize I only saw the special occasion version of my grandfather. He was generous with hugs, jokes, and laughter and I always thought of him simply as my grandfather, frozen in place until the next visit. It has been wonderful, and a little sad, that I have been able to learn more about his complex life through my genealogy research. I was a young, married adult expecting my first child when he died. I grieved then and I grieve now when I think of the missed conversations and stories.
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Thomas Alwood Travis Sr. was born in Tullahoma, Tennessee, the son of Thomas Jefferson and Lodema Alwood Travis. His parents had married in January 1892. He had two older half-sisters, Minnie (b.1879) and Delilah (b.1882) Parker, from his mother's first marriage in Michigan. Delilah came with Lodema to Tennessee when she moved, after her divorce, to join her parents in Coffee County. Minnie stayed in Michigan with her father, Adam Parker.
Thomas Sr.'s grandparents, Levi Salsbury and Delilah McQuilling Alwood, had moved to Manchester, TN from Michigan in about 1890. They returned to their original hometown in Ohio in 1897 due to Delilah's poor health.
Thomas joined a household that included Delilah, age 10 and another sister, Alice Travis, age 1, born in 1893.
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Lodema, Thomas, Stanley, and Alice
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Thomas always identified as being from Tennessee but he was only one year old when his parents moved to the District of Columbia. They are recorded as living at 812 6th Street NW in March 1896. This was the Swampoodle area of DC. His father was employed at the U. S. Government Printing Office at 55 4th Street.
In 1897, his half-sister Delilah married Charles Beaver in Coffee county, TN. Charlie, like Delilah, was born in MI. It is unknown where the couple met, but they remained in Tennessee and raised a large family there.
In 1904, when he was ten, Thomas' brother Stanley was born. His parents must have enjoyed the local community life as there are a few society page articles in the local newspapers. A November 19, 1905 Washington Post society item lists "Thomas Travis and Allie Travis as attending a Saturday evening party with vocal and piano entertainment. The party was for Mary Martin's 12th birthday party."
By 1906, the family had moved to 621 K Street. The Washington City Directory shows Thomas working as a helper starting in 1906 and continuing until 1911 when he is listed as a photographer. Although he is listed in the directory as employed, he continued his schooling through four years of high school.
He joined the Catholic church in 1909 along with his mother and brother. His mother had visited several churches at age 50 before deciding on Catholicism.
November 1, 1910, his sister Alice married Frederick Ernest Manning in Washington, D.C. at the parsonage of Gorsuch Methodist Episcopal Church "in the presence of a few relatives and intimate friends."
In March 1912, Thomas' father died after a brief illness, leaving my grandfather at age 18 to support the family.
Thomas continued to work as a photographer. Between 1916 and 1929, he worked for Harris and Ewing. It was one of the largest photographic studios in the country. The Harris & Ewing photo studio was at 1311-1313 F St. NW. Mrs. George Ewing attended his wedding so he must have been a valued employee.
In 1917, he registered for the WWI draft. He was now living at 819 3rd Street and described as medium build with dark brown hair and grey eyes. He was sole support for his mother and brother.
In January 1920, Thomas was living at NW 3rd Street along with his mother, brother, Stanley, sister, Alice, her husband, Fred, and their three children, 5 year old twins, Dede and Belle, and 3 year old Margaret.
His living situation happily changed later that year. Thomas married Marie Genevieve Buckley on October 20th and they moved into their own home.
According to their daughter, Jean Travis Roche, they were married at 5:45 PM in the Gonzaga Chapel at St. Aloysius. This time of evening was considered fashionable. Marie wore a wedding dress described as Palais Royale. Reverend William J. Brooks, S.J. officiated.
Following the reception at the home of Mrs. Mary J. Buckley, mother of the bride, they went on a "fortnight trip to Niagara Falls." When they returned, they moved into their new home at 1319 Longfellow Street.
Thomas and his friend, Dalton Galimore, met Marie and her sister, Bernadette, at the same time. Their story is that Thomas laid immediate claim to Marie and later told everyone it was because she was the prettiest one. Dalton and Bernadette married in 1924.
Early in their marriage, Marie's mother, Mary Julia Fitzgerald Buckley, widowed since 1894, moved in with them and remained there throughout her life.
Thomas' brother, Stanley, married Marian Tubman in 1922. They had known each other since elementary school. Stanley worked as a transportation rate auditor and Marian was a bookkeeper. He also served in the Quartermaster Corp Reserve as a 2nd Lt. from 1931 to the start of the war. He was recommended to the Special Officers Course in 1941. By the time he returned to DC, in October 1945 from service in the Pacific, he was a Lt. Col.
Between 1929 and 1933, Thomas Sr. worked at Cliendinst Studios. He opened their first branch office on Connecticut Avenue. Clinedinst was the White House photographer for three administrations. Thomas photographed Presidents and other important Washington residents and visitors, both while he was with Clinedinst and previously when he was employed by Harris and Ewing. Some of his subjects were Presidents Harding and Coolidge, the Duke of Windsor, and baseball great Walter Johnson.
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| His son, Thomas, sometimes helped him set up lighting for a photo session. |
He had a photo colorist who worked with him, Virginia Clark. She and her husband, Frank M. Clark, a photographer in Bethesda, became close friends of Thomas and his wife. Thomas told the story that one of his photography subjects was an older woman with a great many wrinkles. Virginia did a beautiful job of touching up the photo. However, when Thomas showed the finished product to his customer, she firmly objected. She said she had earned every one of her wrinkles and didn't want to hide them. Thomas said he learned a valuable lesson that day!
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| Thomas Sr. at his desk at the Navy Yard |
In 1933, in the midst of the Great Depression, Thomas Sr. began work at the Naval Gun Factory as a Naval Ordnance photographer for the U. S. Government. Treaty restrictions from the Five-Powers Treaty in 1922, an effort to prevent an arms race, had held back Navy growth. But, in 1933, the Roosevelt Administration ordered the expansion of the U.S. Navy, both for defense and for economic relief. The Navy Yard's work force grew to almost 8000. In 1961, ordnance work was cancelled there and Thomas Sr. retired after holding the position of Chief Photographer. The Navy Yard was converted to an administration facility, the Washington Navy Yard, and is now home to the National Museum of the U.S. Navy
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Picture of Navy Yard taken in 1936 during Potomac River flooding
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Their son, Thomas Jr., joined the Navy's V-12 program in July 1942 serving first at Charlottesville, VA. He was transferred to Georgia Institute of Technology in February 1944. Here he met and then married Irma Louise Hathcock in May 1945. They went on to have three daughters and remained in the Atlanta area.
In May 1956, their daughter, Jean Marie, married William Peter Roche. Bill and Jean were parents of three sons and a daughter.
In later years, Thomas and wife Marie moved in with their daughter, Jean, and her family in Bethesda, MD. I remember theirs as a busy, happy household where I continued to visit through my teen years.
Thomas died April 27, 1971 and was buried in Mt. Olivet cemetery in Washington, D.C. Marie continued to live with her daughter and died in October 1981. She was buried in Mt. Olivet along side of Thomas.
