This week for the #52Ancestors challenge I am writing about someone I knew: my Granny. I only knew her for a short while but her daughters (Anne, Mary and Louise) kept her alive in my mind with their stories. I have some of my own memories as well, although they have the haze of childhood about them.
Katharine (with an A, thank you) VanSyckel Tennant was the first child born to Anne Vansyckel and George Grant Tennant. She was born 15 February 1899 in Jersey City where her father and mother lead a fairly high profile life. George Tennant was a lawyer, judge and member of the school board. Their social life is tracked in the Jersey Journal quite regularly.
One of the first news articles about Katharine appeared shortly after her birth but was not a birth announcement. “Miss Tennant’s Musicale” was her first according to the article in the Jersey Journal on 31 May 1899, and although it is remarked that she did attend, the evening was a pleasant one with violin, cello, piano and singing.
Katharine was soon joined by a brother George Grant Jr. (1900-1982) and a sister Jean Cardiff Tennant (1905-1990). She and her siblings attended Lincoln High School, which their father was instrumental in establishing. Katharine went on to attend Vassar College, graduating with the class of 1920. After college she met and married Harold Doremus Tompkins (1888-1951). Their engagement and wedding were closely tracked by the Jersey Journal, and there seems to be disappointment in the tone of the articles reporting on the parties and ceremony attended only by family and close friends. They stopped in Bermuda on their wedding trip but I’m not sure where else they traveled to, as they were gone three weeks.
Harold and Katharine brought three little girls into the world: my mother Anne Van Syckel Tompkins (1923-1994), Mary Vreeland Tompkins (1925-) and Louise Tompkins (1928-). They lived at 132 Bentley Avenue in Jersey City. There were family vacations in Dorset, Vermont, and Central Valley, New York and work with various organizations to fill her time. In 1940 the family moved from Jersey City to Summit, New Jersey to a big house on Oak Ridge Avenue. Here Katharine joined the Central Presbyterian Church, the Summit College Club AAUW, the Fortnightly Club, the Vassar College Club and the YWCA.
After Harold’s death in 1951, Katharine moved into smaller quarters at 35 Valley View Ave. This is the house I remember. There was a large front yard with several big trees and after drawing a picture on a big white sheet of paper, we would go out to the front yard to collect fallen twigs with which we made a picture frame. We also ironed pretty fall leaves between pieces of wax paper and other crafty activities. I think my brother was off playing with some neighborhood boys and these were my consolation prizes. I also remember tasting Fluffernutter spread here for the first time but my mother insisted that Granny would never have fed me such garbage, so I guess we’ll just have to disagree on that.
Katherine Tompkins died at home on 1 February 1972. Her heart had never been strong and one night it just gave out. The funeral on the 5th was at Central Presbyterian and she is buried next to her husband in Arlington Cemetery, Kearny. I don’t remember the funeral but I do remember the trip to the cemetery which I thought very disturbing. For over a decade after, every spring vacation was spent in Princeton with Louise Tompkins and we would trek up to the cemetery on the way to spring shopping at the Short Hills Mall. The ivy growing on their grave was tenacious and we would trim and thin it (by we I mean my brother and I would watch my mother and aunt do this) and haul the cuttings to the trash. It is my understanding that the ivy has been removed in the name of landscaping, and I can’t say I’m sorry.
Happy Birthday, Katharine Van Syckel Tennant Tompkins!
Telling My Story 