Wallingford/Jarlov Family Trees

Conversation with Corinne Wallingford, Summer 1989, by Joan Wallingford Mickler:

Virgil Wallingford moved to Houston at age 15 and married Itasca at age 17 or 18. His first job was in a service station. He was named after a country doctor. His father (John Pinckney) was a rural mail carrier - Virgil and Roland helped heat water on the stove to thaw the radiator on cold mornings. One morning the crank kicked back and broke Virgil's hand.

Written by Joan Wallingford Mickler 1995:

John Pinckney was a farmer and had a contract for the rural mail delivery in Hegar and Hockley. John Roland remembered how cold it was on winter mornings. Edna would heat water on the wood stove to pour over the radiator of the Model T Ford, and John P. would crank it. In the winter of 1922, John P. got pneumonia and died on January 18. John Roland, age 8 at the time, remembered how bitterly cold it was. He walked across to the cemetery and watched the family friends digging the grave for his father. They had a terrible time because of the cold and the frozen ground. There was no funeral. Virgil was 11 and Edna Ruth was 6. Edna and the children finished out the mail contract - not an easy job for them. Once cousin Arthur Moore loaned Edna $50 to pay back John Bruner when he paid their rent ($50 a year for 149 acres.) After John Pinckney died, Alfred Hegar paid off the property.

I asked my father and Uncle Virgil once why they left the farm. They told me they were starving on the farm - that they couldn't raise enough to survive. Edna and the children went to live with her father and mother, Alfred and Helen Hegar. Aunt Maye passed her teachers test at age sixteen, and was teaching school in Magnolia. The children attended there for a few years.

About 1925 Uncle John Page came to take the family to live with his family in Houston. The children went to West End School with the Page's six boys and four girls. Later the family got an apartment in the Heights - they moved every time they could find a cheaper place. Edna worked at a twine factory on Washington, at an overall factory, and at a blanket factory on Airline. After Virgil married Itaska, the family lived with them along with Itaska's dad and brother.

Notes from Nick Wallingford, December 2008:

In the back of my mind, but not written down with any of my genealogy notes, I had it that "Virgil was named after a local doctor". Joan says she got that, having asked about the origins of the names Virgil and Roland, neither of which she thought would have been 'common' in Texas at that time...

Virgil H. McMillin was a physician, married to Maud R. Both had been born in Mississippi. In 1910, the year of Virgil's birth, Dr. McMillin was 39, his wife 29. They did not have any children of their own.

By 1920, Dr. McMillin and his wife were living in San Patricio County, near Aransas Pass. They had a 2 1/2 year old son by then...

Virgil's (our Virgil's) birth record in Waller County was reported by Z.H. McMillan, M.D. Joan wrote down those details when we were at the courthouse a year ago - whether it was wrong in the records, or (more likely) bad handwriting, I'd be confident this was the "Virgil" he was named after.

We don't know whether Virgil as a doctor was present at the birth, or whether (as was probably the norm) the birth was just at home, maybe with mother-in-law Annie or some of Edna's own Hegar family assisting.

Old Thomas Ginn Wallingford never got to see his first grandchild from his family with Annie (he had other grandchildren from children with Evaline). He died in May 1909, and Virgil wasn't born until March 1910. John and Edna had married only about 6 weeks after T.G.'s death - Virgil was born 9 months and 2 days after that!

Virgil's middle name is 'Edwin'.

John Pinkney's first cousin Edwin Day was about six years older than him. That would be my first guess for where the "Edwin" came from - John would have been raised all his life around Edwin in the Fields Store community...

And John had another first cousin, Thomas Edwin Boulware, who was a bit younger than him, and also in that same community for all of John's growing up.

My guess? The Edwin came from Edwin Lee Day...

U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946 about Virgil E Wallingford
Name: Virgil E Wallingford
Birth Year: 1910
Race: White, citizen (White)
Nativity State or Country: Texas
State of Residence: Texas
County or City: Harris
Enlistment Date: 13 Feb 1942
Enlistment State: Texas
Enlistment City: Ellington Field Houston
Branch: Air Corps
Branch Code: Air Corps
Grade: Private
Grade Code: Private
Term of Enlistment: Enlistment for the duration of the War or other emergency, plus six months, subject to the discretion of the President or otherwise according to law
Component: Army of the United States - includes the following: Voluntary enlistments effective December 8, 1941 and thereafter; One year enlistments of National Guardsman whose State enlistment expires while in the Federal Service; Officers appointed in the Army of
Source: Civil Life

In 1929, Virgil was living at 112 East 4th Street, Houston, with his mother Edna and siblings Roland and Edna Ruth.

On 14 April 1930, for the Harris County census, Virgil was living at 112 East 4th Street, Houston, with his mother Edna and siblings Roland and Edna Ruth.

IN 1932, Virgil was living with his wife Itaska at 542 West 27th Avenue, Houston, Texas. Virgil was a clerk at the United Gas Public Service Company. Itaskta was an assistant to Dr. Clarence G. Evans, a dentist who had his offices at 2708 Crawford, Houston, in the years prior to this directory entry, so it would probably have still been at that location.

In 1935, Virgil was living with wife Marjorie at 4787 Pease, Houston, Texas. He was still a clerk at the United Gas Public Service Company.

Notes from Nick Wallingford
5 June 2018

When Virgil registered for military service (required of all men) on 16 October 1940, he was 30 years old and gave his address as 404 Quitman (not very far north of downtown Houston). He was employed by Commerce Oil Company. That address on Quitman is the same one that was used for Virgil and Edna in the 1940 census, with the house shown as being a rental, and that it was their residence 5 years earlier in 1935. Virgil made $1,680 in wages as a clerk in the previous year...

In the 1935 Houston directory, Virgil was living with his second wife, Marjorie (nee Lewis), at 4787 Pease Avenue, Houston (they had been married the previous November, and the marriage did not last long at all).

Virgil joined the Air Force (in fact, the Air Corps) on 13 February 1942, signing up at Ellington Air Force base outside of Houston.

He was living with his mother Edna at 5934 Grace Lane - Roland and Corinne's house - in the 1942 city directory. When Roland and Corinne went to Lake Charles, they left their house with Edna - but I had never heard that Virgil was living there, too.

Edna is recorded as a 'resident' at the address. Virgil shows as 'householder', but I don't know that either of those are accurate or significant.

One of Alvin Wallingford's sons, George Ghen Wallingford, lived with Edna (at least) with his wife JeNell, but for the directory for 1942, they are living on Clay and not (yet?) on Grace Lane.

So just before he turned 32, Virgil signed up for the Air Force. By this stage, he had been married twice. The 1942 directory doesn't have an occupation for him. I'm leaning to the belief that he had 5934 as his address but may not have been living there, having started his training soon after signing up.

And it appears he did that in Sherman. Perrin Air Force Base was built in Sherman in 1941, specifically to do the training related to the newly formed US Army Air Forces (which took over from the US Army Air Corps and preceded the US Air Force as know it now in 1947). I have no evidence, but it is almost certain this is where Virgil was sent to train, arriving there probably soon after he signed up in February 1942.

In Nov 1943, Edna and Lt. Virgil Wallingford , Austin College, Sherman spent an evening with Robert and Ruth Lange. This appears 25 years later in Bellville Times Newspaper Archives, Nov 21, 1968, p. 22.

JANUARY 29, 1966, BILLBOARD

Lear Names
3 New Reps

DETROIT — Stereo division of the Lear Jet Corp. has named three new distributors and three new district sales representatives.

Main Line, Cleveland, will distribute Lear (8-track) stereo tape cartridge products in Northern and Central Ohio. Associated Distributors, Inc., Indian-apolis, will supply dealers in
Central Indiana, and Interstate Distributing Co.. Billings. Mont., will serve dealers in Montana and Northern Wyoming.

George H. Fass has been named to represent Lear's stereo interests in New York and New England; J. H. Baine Jr., Memphis, will be the representative in Alabama, Kentucky, Southern
Illinois and Southern Missouri, and V. E. Wallingford, Dallas, will cover an area including Texas, Oklahoma and Northern Louisiana.

In 1942 Virgil was living with his mother Edna at 5934 Grace Lane, Houston, while Roland and Corinne were in Lake Charles, LA.