Bragg -- 8th Generation

WILLIAM ROBERT BRAGG was born in Fill Brook, Pa., on October 25, 1868. He was a machinist by trade and the grandson of a Rochester (N.Y.) Pioneer. Much of his youth was spent in Corning, N.Y., where he married the girl he courted for a year when he was 24. They both belonged to the Good Templers League, a young peoples’ temperance organization. As Secretary, he appointed her to a committee in order to see her more often.

He married on April 20, 1892, NANA GOODRIDGE (also see genealogy 8th Generation of Descendants of William Goodridge). 

NANA ESTELLE GOODRIDGE (Samuel White-7, Asash-6, Asaph-5, David-4, Philip-3, Joseph-2, William-1) was born in Whitesville, Alleghany County, N.Y. January 12, 1865 (+). To her is due nearly all that is here presented concerning the family of Samuel White Goodridge. She has been intelligent and painstaking in collecting data and has gathered practically a complete record. To her also this history is indebted largely for vital records of Laniel-6 and Jonathan-6, who came from Fitchburg, Mass., shortly after their cousin Asaph, her grandfather, came from Fitchburg, Mass., all settling in Cayuga County, N.Y.

(+) Nana Bragg later confessed to her family it was 1863 but felt it unladylike to be more than three years older than her husband. Therefore, when the headstone had been carved following her husband's death, she admitted the deception. She lived to be 94 and there is much more to be told about the life of Nana Goodridge Bragg.

Their first two children were born in Corning. By 1900 they had moved to Auburn, N.Y., where the other two were born. A few years later they moved to Rochester and lived on Copeland street. In the year 1922 William had a home built at 660 Parsells Ave. lt was constructed to Nana's desires_, such as a gumwood trim inside, pantry and a den for Wil1. She also wished a back porch high enough to shake her tablecloths. They planted dwarf fruit trees and flowers and thoroughly enjoyed their home for about 15 years. The depression and Will's heart trouble forced them to move.

William was a strict man with his children - to a point. When the boys began to play cards away from home, he said they would not do it on the sly but would also play at home. He was a handsome and loving man of good character. In later years, he and Nana would scrap over rummy or pinnochle "to break the monotony."

He and his wife were active members of the Methodist Church and he was elected to the board of deacons and elders. Nana taught a Bib1e Class for women.

They celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary and also the 53rd before Will died in Rochester May 12, 1946, and was buried in Webster Rural Cemetery. Nana lived to the age of 94.

Children - 9th Generation:

Grandma "B", as she was called by her great-grandchildren, was adored by them and her grandchildren. She frequently told them stories, recited poetry she had learned as a child and played games. She also related events of her life and dictated some of them to granddaughter Evelyn DeWitte Marriott.

As a child in Whitesville, she related the story of Maple Sugar. There were many maple trees on the farm from which they made sugar and kept it in the attic. Gram would take a large knife from the kitchen upstairs and hack off chunks of maple sugar to eat. She was permitted to eat all she wished - until she needed a glass of water. Anyone wishing to treat her in her latest years brought this particular confection.

At the age of twelve Nana picked and sold wild red raspberries. With the money she purchased her first Bible in the year 1885.

"Our farm of 14 acres went down to Crider Creek. Knoxville was quite a way (from Whitesville) and sometimes I went in with cousins who lived in our town. When Grandma Seelye drove the horse "Old Bird" to visit Aunt Mary, she often took me along for company. Grandma had a loom and she would sit by the hearth weaving. She made her own dyes of butternut shells for brown, indigo, etc. to color the wool from sheep on the farm. At one time she made dresses of her weaving for her four daughters." Gram gave me a swatch of the one made for her mother, Mary Seelye Goodridge.

"In our one-room school there were 18 or 20 pupils. I always carried my lunch. One particular day I was eating lunch with my particular friend Hattie Bardo. Canfield, son of a Methodist minister, had a cousin Asher Remington who ran a cheese factory right up over the hill from the school. Well, Canfield was in a corner whispering with some boys when we heard him say 'I wonder what's become of Asher. I haven't seen him in a long time.' 'Let's go find out,' said Hattie. The boys said we would have to prove we had been there and bring back a handful of cheese curd. Brother Lou and his chum decided to follow us and they went along the woods and we didn't know they were following, but they did clear up to the cheese factory. We told them that we wanted them to go in and bring us back some cheese curd. ^"What do you want to do with cheese curd?' 'Some girls wanted it, but we don't know what for,' I replied. They got some and put it in our hands. It was after recess when we got back and our geography class was reciting. Canfield was reciting on the platform and the teacher was in his chair listening to their lessons. We marched right along in front and dropped the cheese in Canfield's hand and then took our seats. Everybody laughed, even the teacher. Somebody got wise and told my mother what I had been doing before I got home, and then I caught it."

"Cousin Cora White, whose grandfather named the town, had a horse of her own and about age sixteen we would go for a ride 10 or 12 miles in the country and we would just ride and chat."

"A friend Florence said that her uncle was a trustee in the country school and that he wanted her to ask me if I would take the school for a year. I wasn't engaged to any place at the time and accepted it and went near Troopsburg for a year. I boarded with her uncle's brother, the Clarks, who insisted that I live at his home and he gave me my board without charge. I had one scholar who was a great big overgrown pig. Nuttley didn't know anything, couldn't get anything into his noodle at all. After I had resigned and was going back home, his mother came and said 'I wish you would take the school for another year. He never had a teacher who would take such pains.' 'No, that's impossible, I'm already signed up for a year somewhere else way back up in the country.'

"I was a teacher in the country school for four years. When I was teaching I had to board around a week in a place, stay until morning and go to school. I got sick and tired of it. One place I was, the old man would take the milk pails for milking, skimmed cream off, pour out the sour and then remilk in the same pail. His wife made bread, and for my lunch she would pack 3 or 4 10" slices. I would break off pieces and eat what I could and send the rest back. I heard her say to her husband, 'There, you can see how she eats up her leavings.' It was the nastiest place I was ever in. I wasn't used to anything like that. After all remarks and treatment I got, didn't she ask me to help her and stay and be paid for my work."

"At one time I sold in Greggs Dept. Store - notions and jewelry. A counter opened up with 2 doors with cake baskets, sugar bowls, etc. and they had to be cleaned every week. Drawers contained the knives and forks, teaspoons, etc. These had to be cleaned, even though closed up tight. That's the store where I threw a proprietor (Mitchell), silent partner. Even though he was a married man, every time he passed a girl he'd stick out his thumb or pinch her. I grabbed him by the shoulder and threw him over the counter. He never tried that trick again. Three young men were standing opposite the counter and they laughed. he was a head or a little more taller than I but stout. I don't know how I ever did it and he didn't either."

"Grandpa and I met in a Good Templers League, young people's temperance organization. Grandpa was elected Secretary and he asked me to be his assistant. So, I got specially well acquainted with him being an assistant. The girl he had been going with was there, and when he asked me to be on the General Hospitality Committee, he came over after work. The other girl was so mean she never was friends again. We went together for a whole year and then set the date. I wanted to be a June bride. 'I was planning on making it earlier than that so that I can plant the garden.' Then I asked if he would like April."

They were married April 20, 1892.

In addition to their residences listed in Bragg (8th generation), they lived for a time with their son Clayton and family in Lima and in Honeoye Falls in 1941. Later, they lived in an apartment on Sidney Street, Rochester. Soon after Will's death, Nana lived with her daughter Mae DeWitte, her husband John and granddaughter Martha in 336 Melville Street, Rochester. Within a few years she suffered a fractured hip, which kept her confined most of the time to the second floor.

A remarkable person, in the Goodridge tradition, she dressed as for church each Sunday morning, and with her bible attended, via radio, the morning services. That day she kept' as an holy day and did her letter-writing. Other days were spent working jigsaw puzzles, playing cards, crocheting and a little house-keeping of her room.

During this period she crocheted over 500 pairs of "oven" holders, which she sent to friends and relatives all over the country. She finished crocheting her last bedspread at the age of 90.

"The Girls" (elderly women with whom she had been friends in Spencer Ripley Methodist Church) often held parties up in her room. Much humor evolved around the secret name of the group, O.N.S. They referred to them as "Old Nasty Snips", but some of us figured it stood for their Old Number Seven Sunday School Class.

Nana was crushed by the deaths of her two daughters and sister Bess (Elizabeth Bragg Clark), whom she dearly loved. Doris died suddenly in May 1953, Bess in June 1956, and Mae in July 1956. These two were so close that when Mae was frequently hospitalized, they kept in touch with cards and notes. Seven months after Mae died, Nana was laid to rest beside her husband and Mae and a short distance from the grave of her daughter Doris in Webster Rural Cemetery.

Grama B was always a pleasure to visit Gram and try to do little things to please her and take care of her needs. Sometimes, after adding to her supply of crochet cotton and the like, she would try to force a dollar into our hands saying: "Go buy candy and oranges." This we found uncomfortable but realized her need to give. She would say, 'Oh, I wish I had a million dollars." When asked what she would do with it, she would say that she wanted to give it to those she loved.

Among the treasures left was an autograph album. In it Nana's mother, who wrote poetry, inscribed the following words: