Great Grandfather Charles Orvil “CO” Jennings was born May 16, 1884 and grew up in South Dakota, Missouri, and Oklahoma; pictured here at age 19 in Kansas City. He became a Methodist minister like his father, so may have been there for training or just passing through as a circuit rider preacher. CO encountered another Methodist preacher in the region, Charles McIntosh, who introduced his daughter Retta Ira McIntosh, who was born on November 27, 1885 in a Methodist parsonage (preacher's home) near Topeka, Kansas. They married on February 22, 1903 in Jennings, Oklahoma when he was 19 and Retta just 17 years old.
The young couple settled in the new Oklahoma state capitol of
three children:
Charles Harold was born in 1904 and was known by
both names, and also Chuck. Joseph Howard was born in 1906 and preferred Howard.
(baby picture)
Lois Lucille was born in 1909 and preferred Lucille. The 1910
census shows them living in Guthrie with CO
working as a salesman in a music store.
Family tales are that CO (pictured in 1909) was unfaithful and had girlfriends and even other wives as he travelled as a circuit rider preacher. This resulted in divorce. CO’s preacher work ended and he moved to Vancouver, Washington where his Uncle Orvil and Aunt Mary lived. The three young Jennings children had few encounters with CO later in life.
In
his book
about his colorful Great Uncle Eppenetus McIntosh, Retta’s grandson Bill Tharp
wrote that Retta and her three children lived near Joplin, Missouri from 1911 to
1936. The 1910
Census shows Retta’s parents and her three
younger siblings living in Esculapia, Arkansas, just across the Oklahoma border,
near Joplin (nearer Neosho in the bottom right corner of the map). After she left CO, Retta probably moved in with her parents for a
few years with children ages two, five, and seven. Her father Charles knew that four-state (Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri,
Arkansas) border area well, having
worked in Parsons, Kansas as a young man and son Bertie “Roy” was born in
Galena, Kansas in 1889. This was a booming lead and zinc mining area with new rail lines
reaching down into Texas.
The Don & Retta Caldwell Family
In 1916 Retta married Warren McDonald “Don” Caldwell in Neosho, Missouri (both pictured) and moved just across the state line to
Quapaw, Oklahoma. (see map above) Don was born in Grand Summit, Kansas in 1873 and had married Lizzie Goodwin in 1900, but had no known children. The 1920 Census shows Don, Retta, Charles, Howard, and Lucille living in the ramshackle mining town of Quapaw. (pictured below) It notes Don working as an agent and Retta a cashier for a railroad company. Bill Tharp mentioned that his grandparents worked for the Santa Fe Railroad, which had a big depot in Joplin.
The three Jennings children loved Dad Caldwell. Howard and Lucille changed their last names to Caldwell. At some point, the family moved north across the border to Columbus, Kansas where the three children attended the big Cherokee County Community High School (pictured above in 1907) where Charles and Howard (pictured) played a new game called football. The 1930 Census shows them living at 323 N. Kansas Street (pictured below) in Columbus with Don Caldwell owning a home valued at $2800. A current real estate listing shows that home was built in 1900 with five bedrooms, 2.5 baths, and totaling 2524 sq.ft., which was impressive for a small Kansas town. More photos here.
The 1930 Census shows that Retta was not working while Don worked for the Northeast Oklahoma Railroad. The "NEO" was a local railroad serving Cherokee County, Kansas and Ottawa County, Oklahoma with local passenger service using electric trolleys and railcars for ore shipments from local mines to local smelters. The three children received an excellent education while living in a stable home.
Charles Jennings married Golda “Goldie” Hayward in 1925 and had one daughter, Barbara June, born in Columbus, Kansas in 1927. The
1930 Census shows Charles, Goldie, and two-year old Barbara living in Rolla, in central Missouri where Charles graduated from the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy, and where son John Andrew was born in 1933. (family pictured below) Charles began a career with the federal government and lived in Chevy Chase, Maryland for many years. At some point, he divorced Goldie and in 1952 married Pauline Whitlock. Daughter Barbara married William Courtney of Denver and had two children, Karen and William. Son John had one son David Bradford Jennings, worked for the CIA, and later had a property management business in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Charles died in 1980 and wife Pauline died many years later.
Howard Caldwell attended the University of Kansas as a pre-med student (above), but lacked the funds to graduate. He moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma where the 1930 Census shows him living as a “lodger” i.e. someone who pays rent to live in a home with others, and working as a bookkeeper for a truck company. Family tales are that he worked for a diary and Rogers bakery. (above) In 1931 he met and quickly married Dwight Thompson from nearby Drumright where his McIntosh grandparents lived. They had three children: Angela “Angie” born in 1932, Carmen born in 1936, and Diana “Jill” born in 1941. Howard worked in sales for Armour Meatpacking in Tulsa for several years, transferred to Amarillo, Texas for two years, then to Houston where he eventually retired.
Lucille Caldwell (pictured below) married Oklahoma Highway patrolman Bernard William Tharp in 1933. They had one son, William “Bill” Tharp in 1934, and divorced shortly after. Lucille and her son moved back with Retta. Bill Tharp made a career in the Marine Corps as a Chief Warrant Officer and later worked in California. He married three times and had four children: Edward Allen, Deborah Jo, Bernard William, and Lorrainne Elizabeth. (pictured below with his first wife Donna and children Edward and Deborah.) Bill provided details of his family in this 1997 letter to his first cousin Carmen (Caldwell) Meyer. He never met his father and had no photo, but later learned that his Dad had married eight times and produced 12 children!
The three Jennings children had first cousins from both sides of the family because CO’s brother Milton Jennings married Retta’s sister Gertie McIntosh, who had three children: Nelson, Merle, and Dorothy. Pictured are cousins L-R Charles, Merle, Nelson, and Howard in front of the Drumright Pumping Station. The Howard Caldwell family moved to Texas but stayed in touch with their “double cousins” living in Oklahoma City and their offspring: Mary, Lois, Wylda, Joy, and Betty. (pictured)
Retta Moves West
Don was 12 years older than Retta and died in 1935. He is buried at the Elmwood Cemetery in Chanute, Kansas, near his parents Almanzo and Lydia Caldwell, who were born in Kentucky, moved to Kansas, and lived with Don late in life in the 1920s. That's a Freemason symbol on his tombstone.
Retta
(pictured) left the four-state area and moved back to central
Oklahoma. The Great Depression hit that mining area even harder than most of the nation and people struggled to survive. Most of
Retta’s siblings lived near Pawnee while her parents lived near Drumright, so she probably lived with them for a while. In Bill Tharp’s
book, he wrote that Retta was married to Sam May for three years. Family tales are they were only married three months.
The
1940 Census shows Retta as a household head living in Yale with daughter Lucille Tharp and grandson Billy. It shows 29-year old divorced Lucille working as a public school teacher with four years of college, and their previous residence as Columbus, Kansas. Family tales are that teenage son Howard suffered from a serious illness at this time (typhoid fever or tuberculosis?) and stayed with Retta's sister Gertie for a few months and was isolated in a foster home until he recovered. 
Lucille soon married Robert L. Simpson and moved to California where she
worked as a public school music teacher. Retta and her young grandson Bill Tharp
followed a couple years later. A few years later, Lucille divorced Robert and married Floyd
Whitaker in California, who also grew up in Cherokee County,
Kansas. (pictured in 1960) Retta died in January 1968 and is buried
at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, Los Angeles County, California. Lucille lived with Floyd in
Hemet, California for many years, about an hour east of Los Angeles. Floyd died
in 1984 and Lucille in 1991. They are also buried
at Forest Lawn Memorial Park.
CO Jennings in Oregon
Little is known about COs life in Oregon, but family tales are that he married often. He first lived in Vancouver, Washington, across the river from Portland, Oregon. The
1920 Census shows CO married to Olive L. Jennings, who was born in Missouri, and living in the small town of South Myrtle Point, Oregon, near his parents and brother in Coos County. The census shows they had a 9-month old baby born in Wyoming named Dortha G. Jennings, and CO as owning a “garage” business; probably auto repair. The 1930 Census shows 46-year old CO living in that same area working as a car salesman with Olive and two daughters: 11-year old Dorothy J and 7-year old Beatrice M born in Oregon. 
The 1940 Census shows
45-year old
married Olive Jennings living up north near Portland, Oregon, but no husband.
An old family picture shows "COJ APT. Bldg, Vancouver, Washington 1939." CO’s 1942 draft registration card shows him living in Forest Grove, Oregon in
the Portland area. He was 58-years old and required to register for wartime
conscription! His closest contact listed is Dortha Clark, his daughter at
249 S.E. 80th in Portland; a three bedroom, one bath home built in 1930 that
still exists. Since CO is missing from the 1940 Census and fails to list his wife as a
point of contact in 1942, it seems CO and Olive separated.
The family photo (above) shows CO visiting his grown sons and Retta, and family tales are that he owned a health spa in Arkansas at one time. Northwestern Arkansas has natural hot springs that were popular with tourists. The photo below is from 1942 and shows CO with son Charles, the women are unknown. A similar photo shows CO and Charles with his wife Pauline many years later. There is no further information about CO's later life, other wives, or other children.
CO Jennings died in June 1969 and is buried at the Sunset Memorial Park in Coos Bay, Oregon. (Note the Freemason symbol.) Although they lived far apart, the three Jennings/Caldwell siblings gathered late in life. (pictured L-R Charles, Lucille, their Aunt Beulah McIntosh, and Howard).
