Ada L. Boruff - White Gloves at the Hardware Store (52 Ancestors #18)

This is another article for the series in which I'm participating, "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks", a challenge by Amy Johnson Crow on No Story Too Small.

My great-grandmother Ada L. Boruff Hutson Bosman is a recent ancestor for whom I could really use some help.  I met her when I was a child, maybe was even in inside her house in Baldwin Park, California.  That’s it.  Not even a photo.  Sigh.

Personal Knowledge

• She was the mother of Herbert C. Hutson, my grandfather.
• She was married to Alva Leo Hutson and they had many children.
• Her second husband was Mr. Bosman.
• She lived next door to her youngest son, Melvin, for many years in Baldwin Park.

Source: Baldwin Park, California City Directory 1950
 Ancestry.com [click image to enlarge]

What I think I know

• Ada’s parents may have been James M. Boruff and Florence Stone. They married in 1875 in Greene County, Indiana.[1]
• Ada may have been born in Des Moines, Iowa on 14 Sep 1881.[2]  Or, 1883.[3]
• She married Alva Hutson on 19 Jan 1901 in McIntire, Mitchell, Iowa.[3]
• Her first child was born on 23 Sep 1901.  Her last child was born about 1925.[4]
• She died on 15 Jun 1973. [5]



Source: Ancestry.com

• James M. and Florence Boruff lived in Rochester, Minnesota in 1923[6].  Coincidentally, this was near Alva L. and Ada Hutson who lived at 311 6^th NW, Rochester in 1925.  The city directory doesn't identify whether the addresses were streets or avenues.  Either way, on the current day Google map, the addresses are as close as a mile or less.

Cute Story

In his youth, my Uncle B worked at Heth Hardware Store in Baldwin Park.  He remembered “Mrs. Bosman”, as she was known, coming into the store.  Once, in the 1940s, in she came all dressed up with hat and gloves.  She probably needed a tool or a bag of nails.  But it was the setting of a hardware store and her manner of dress that stuck in Uncle B’s memory.  I can visualize her now, all gussied up and young Uncle B behind the counter, taking her payment from her gloved hand.

Future Research

• Locate Ada's descendants.
• Confirm identity of her parents.
• Confirm her actual or most probable birth year and location.
• Determine whether she had siblings.
• Determine her religion.
• Obtain death certificate for cause of death.

Help Wanted 

Cousin connection needed!  Inquire within.

Sources

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[1] IGI Individual Record.  Batch 8229907. Sheet 59.  Source Call No. 0884905.  Type: Film. Accessed on FamilySearch.org 2007. 

[2] Californa Death Index

[3] Ancestry.com. Iowa, Select Marriages, 1809-1992 [database on-line].

Original data: Iowa, Marriages, 1809-1992. Salt Lake City, Utah: FamilySearch, 2013.

[4] Based on 1901 Iowa Birth Index and 1930 U.S. federal census.

[5] U.S. Social Security Death Index

[6] Title : Rochester, Minnesota, City Directory, 1923. [Page 72.  Image 39. No Boruffs on image 40.]  Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989 [database on-line].