William and Nana Bragg in 1940 Nana Estelle and William Robert Bragg - Later Years
William and Nana Bragg in 1940
As remembered by Shirley DeWitte William Bragg was carefree, fun to be around (especially with young people), and devoted to his wife Nana. This picture was most likely taken in their backward on Parsells Ave. William built the house for Nana at 660 Parsells Ave. Extension between Culver Rd. and Merchants Rd. in Rochester, NY. The house was on the left hand side heading toward Merchants Rd. At some point after 1944 and after they moved to Sidney Street in Rochester the ex-neighbors on both sides of the house built apartment buildings, which then dwarfed the older Bragg residence.
Parsells Ave. runs from Webster Ave. to Culver Rd. with an extension from Culvar Rd. to Merchants Rd. Sidney St. is north off Main Street.
The Sidney Street residence was where Shirley DeWitte would go to make brownies and assemble puzzles with Nana and play cards with William who was sick most of the time while living at that address. After his death Nana moved to 336 Melville Street to live with her daughter Mae, John DeWitte and family where she lived to age 94. Nana loved her puzzles and was visited in her upstairs bedroom by the other family members who help her with them.
When Nana was a little girl she had a chest with maple sugar in it in the attic. With a little hatchet she would cut off chunks of maple sugar and when she needed a drink of water she knew it was time to stop eating the sugar.
Before Nana was married she worked as a schoolteacher in a one-room schoolhouse. She lived with a family where money was paid the family to house and feed her as part payment for teaching. The family parents fed her little, usually a cup of coffee and a roll for breakfast. If she didn't eat the roll she got it in her lunch. The reason they did this was to keep the money for themselves instead of truly providing for her. She never complained about it, but she knew it was wrong.
In her later years Nana knitted and crocheted and made oven holders for all her grandchildren and most of the great-grandchildren. She made 250 pairs of them, some of which some were given to Mimi Eisenhower, wife of President Eisenhower.
William and Nana
Bragg at the cottage
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