14A.  Jesse VanRanselar Youngblood was born in Berrien County, Michigan, on Friday, January 16, 1874, and died in Grand Rapids, Kent County, Michigan, on January 25, 1952. Minnie Scrivener was born on Sunday, April 4, 1880, and died on March 6, 1970. They were married in Grand Rapids on Monday, December 26, 1910. She took the name Minnie Youngblood. He is the son of Benjamin Franklin and Margaret Lydia (Tenbroeck) Youngblood. They had one child:

Jesse Youngblood

Jesse, the oldest child, was the first to leave the farm. He moved to Grand Rapids and became a barber. His stepson, Donald Clapp, taught history after graduating from the University of Michigan, but soon also took up the barber trade and worked in Jesse's shop. Jesse also made and repaired violins. It is not known why his name was spelled VanRanselar instead of Van Rensselaer.

The following was written by his niece, Dorothy (Galbreath) Gilbert.

About Uncle Jesse who has no living descendants, I might be able to contribute something. Uncle Jesse was the eldest—the quiet, sober one—essentially the head of the clan if he had cared to take that position. He lived on Fitzhugh Avenue in Grand Rapids all the time in my memory. I used to be sent to spend a week or two with Uncle Jesse and Aunt Minnie when we lived in the South Haven area. I really enjoyed those visits. Life was so different from being on the farm. I'm sure I learned a great deal. I asked Uncle Jesse to give me away at my wedding. I said it was because he was my favorite uncle. This was not strictly true, it was because he was my oldest uncle, seemed like the proper one on my mother's side to do this. Actually Harry was my favorite uncle and I should have asked Fred Snook to take the traditional father's role. It was unkind of me to pass him over. My Uncle Jesse married Minnie Clapp, a widow with a son, Donald.

Aunt Minnie was one daughter-in-law who was never criticized by my grandmother. Everything that Aunt Minnie and Uncle Jesse did was admired, taken as a model for the rest. She made bread, brought her bread to family gatherings, it was white and light and looked like bakery bread. I liked my grandmother's bread better, it tasted yeasty and was more chewy.

Jesse, Minnie and Harold

The family gatherings were not reunions or funerals or weddings, they were on Memorial Day, May 30, when we all went to the Union Church cemetery in Berrien Center where so many family members are buried. People would bring flowers and plant them, watering them with the water they carried in pails from the hand pump in the graveyard. Everyone brought trowels, maybe a shovel, a grass cutter to trim around the family graves. After we had finished with the graves (some of us would walk around the cemetery and look at other graves), we would go down by the road, under the big trees, and spread our lunch. We usually passed around what we'd brought although there was no planned "potluck". Aunt Minnie was always glad to share whatever she had prepared, but it was noticed and remarked upon (as an aside, later) that she never ate anything brought by others.

The house on Fitzhugh was always spotless, neat, and orderly. Aunt Minnie never broke a dish. Uncle Jesse had a workshop in his basement, made small things out of wood, had a violin. I am not sure if he made the violin, I never knew if he played it, don't know what became of it. Uncle Jesse's basement workbench was as orderly as Aunt Minnie's kitchen. He was always avidly interested in photography, may have done his own developing and printing. He took pictures of the family gatherings. His big old camera came to me through Aunt Emma after he died. I don't have it any more. Uncle Jesse was active in the Oddfellows lodge. That must have been a great source of enjoyment to him. There were ceremonies, rituals. It was part of what Uncle Jesse was. He smoked cigars. I never knew him to take a drink of an alcoholic beverage. In fact, I never knew any of my mother's family to take a drink of alcohol, except Uncle Harry once got drunk at a family party.

My Uncle Jesse died of some circulatory disorder. I went to see him when he was in a Grand Rapids hospital. His abdomen was grossly distended. Eventually a leg was amputated. He made some cheery remarks about the "one shoe club" where men with amputations could swap shoes. After a while the other leg had to be amputated. We went to visit him in Grand Rapids when he was confined to a chair. We took things we thought he would like some playing cards and a kaleidoscope.

Minnie Scrivener's first husband was Pearley Clapp. He was born on August 29, 1869, and died on March 25, 1906. They were married on December 19, 1900, and had one son, Donald Clapp. Donald was born August 14, 1903, and married Thelma Jones who was born on May 30, 1906.

• Janette (Duffy) Benson and Dorothy (Galbreath) Gilbert.