Copyright 1999- All Rights Reserved.
All Dalton pictures provided by Alvie Dalton.
This picture when studied closely, reveals much about Aunt Rhoda Jane and her caring, loving nature. At first glance, one would think this was just a picture of a husband and wife, taken during World War I.
All my life, I have had a very special interest in my Aunt Rhoda Jane, even though she died before I was born. More will be said later in this story, about this very special lady and the influence she had on my family and on my life..
Aunt Rhoda Jane was born 1903- 1904. She was ten or eleven years old when World War I began. in 1914. She was fourteen or fifteen when the war ended in 1918. Obviously, she was in her twenties when the above picture was taken. The young man seemingly seated next to her is wearing a World War I uniform. After studying the picture closely, I realized this was from two entirely different pictures, taken at two different times!
Rhoda Jane Smith married Pete Dalton when she was about twenty one or twenty two
years old, based on the ages of her children. Neither her birth, death nor marriage was
recorded in public records. Obviously two pictures were combined after her marriage and
presented by Aunt Rhoda Jane as a Christmas gift to her husband. (Note the writing on
the picture, that states:
"Rhoda to Pete
Merry Xmas.")
I had never seen this picture until October 8, 1999. It t had been my quest since my grandmother's house burned, when I was about four years old, to find a picture of my Aunt Rhoda Jane. The only picture I had ever seen of her was a very large hand painted picture that hung in my grandmother's bedroom. The house burned one Sunday night when we were at church, with the family coming home to find nothing but smoldering ashes where the house had stood when we had left for church a few hours earlier.
We just lived across the field from Grandma. Her house was the grand children's second home. I was allowed to sort through the ashes the next morning, looking for any treasure that might be salvaged. I remember finding some charred remnants of what I know now was "Depression Glass" and some odds and ends of silver ware and a charred set of silver salt and pepper shakers. There was not a trace left of the family Bible nor any of the pictures of relatives. What I was really looking for, was the picture of Aunt Rhoda Jane that had hung in Grandma's bedroom. There was not a remnant of the picture to be found. It had been a very large picture as I remember, in a beautiful oval frame. I remembered all my life, that she had beautiful "long blonde hair and was wearing a blue dress." How our memories can play tricks on us!!
The reason the picture was so special to me was because I was told from my earliest memories that I was "Just like Rhoda Jane." Even though she died nine years before I was born, I used to look at her picture every day and wonder about her. When Mother spanked me, or when people asked where I got my blonde hair, I would fantasize that my real mother had died when I was born and that Mother was not my real mother. I wanted to be just like Aunt Rhoda Jane, because everyone had loved her and missed her so much.
I can still remember the sadness that I felt, losing that picture in the fire and how hard I cried. Once I obtained a copy of the real picture, I realized that it was not the way I remembered Aunt Rhoda Jane at all. I realize now, that it was not Rhoda Jane that I "saw" in my mind, but myself as a little girl.
Fifty eight years later, I obtained the original of the picture shown above. When I finally studied dates and ages of Pete and Rhoda Jane, I determined that it was two pictures that Aunt Rhoda Jane, loving, had a professional merge two pictures into one. I also realized this was the same picture of her that I "remembered" from my childhood. Perhaps her dress was dark blue, but I had remembered it as being light blue. I had remembered her with long blonde hair. Apparently that memory was from what I had heard as a child, that she had beautiful long blonde hair. Her son, Alvie, told me that she did have long hair but had it cut. Short "flapper" style hair cuts were considered very fashionable in the 1920s.
When I was a graduate student at the University of Michigan, for one of my family therapy classes, my final class project was on my family history and how family patterns (both genetic and behavioral) are passed from generation to generation. I had learned in my classes that, often when we are told growing up that we are just like someone in the family (or others), that we subconsciously become like that person. Also quite often, when a loved one dies, other family members find a "replacement" for the lost loved one. In my family, there had been two major losses, and both had blonde hair. I was not only the "replacement" for Aunt Rhoda Jane, but also the "replacement" for my sister Dorothy "Dotty" who died at age three, also before I was born.
I was always told that I was like my Aunt Jane, but all that I really knew about her was that she was dead, that the family loved her deeply, that she died young after having several children, and that the family said she "worked herself to death."
When I was twenty six years old, my blood pressure dropped to 60 over 40 and I went into a coma. (The date was 11 January, 1963.) I was perfectly healthy, going to school part time, working a full time job, being a wife and mother and was in the middle of wall papering and decorating our first home. The only diagnosis my doctor could come up with was "exhaustion." They found no medical reason for my "near death experience."
The day that my blood pressure had dropped to 60 over 40 was on the anniversary of her death, when I was twenty six years old. Coincidence? Maybe - but then maybe not?
When I was working on the family history in graduate school (of which this website is an extension) I told my Dad what I had learned about myself and family PATTERNS and asked him to tell me more about Aunt Rhoda Jane. I said, "How am I like her?" He said that I looked like her when I was little, but that we were nothing alike. She was very quiet and very docile and took care of everybody.
Aha, so we were both the "family care giver." That was the PATTERN. It was also the pattern of fourth daughters on each side of my family for as far back as I can trace, and find personal information. The family "sayings" of each fourth daughter was: "She worked herself to death." I am a fourth daughter.
"Designated " family care givers usually find someone to "take care of." Many become nurses, teachers, doctors, psychologists, physical therapists and social workers - the so called "helping professions.". I suspect that many of the ones assigned this role in their formative years become genealogists!! My Dad and I both had a good laugh when we were making the comparison of me to Aunt Rhoda Jane and I said, "I have never been docile." Now that I see an actual picture of her, I really do not think we looked alike at all! The "memory" that I had of the picture of her, was that I was putting myself in my "memory" of how I thought Aunt Rhoda Jane looked, because I was supposed to be like her.
I do know from my professional training, as well as the profound personal experience when I came very close to death, that psychological messages that we receive as children, both positive and negative, can have a profound and lasting affect on us for our entire lives.
Child # 4 of Harve and Synthia Ann (Workman)
Smith
4. Rhoda Jane Smith, born 1903-1904, married Peter Dalton. Peter Dalton was
born 27 March 1896, the son of Reece "Wid" Dalton and Molly (Conley.) Rhoda Jane
died 11 January, 1929 as a result of complications from childbirth, when she was twenty
six. She is buried in the Dalton Cemetery on a mountain top at Harts, West Virginia.
The children of Rhoda Jane (Smith) and "Pete" Dalton: (Shown in bold
print)
4(1) Frankie Dalton, born circa 1925, died of tuberculosis in the 1950s, married Ursal
Bryant
The children of Frankie (Dalton) and Ursal Bryant:
4(1-a) Leon Bryant
4(1-b) Nellie Bryant
4(1-c) Paris Bryant (named for his mother's Uncle, Paris Smith, my father)
4(1-d) Freeland Bryant
4(1-e) Sarah Bryant
4(1-f) "Bojack" (Jack?) Bryant
(4-2) Alvin "Alvie" Dalton
born 1 March, 1926, married Dolly Bryant, d/o Pricy (Hensley)
and John Bryant.
The children of Alvie and Dolly (Bryant) Dalton
4(2-a) Burgess Dalton
4(2-b) Homer Dalton
4(2-c) Brenda Dalton
4(2-d) Joann Dalton, born 3 August 1955, died in a house fire, January 1981
4(2-e) Dorothy Dalton
4(2-f) Bruce Dalton
4 (3) Ray Dalton , born September 1828, died in a coal mine accident in the
Taplin Mine in the 1950s, married Pauline (Adams
The child of Ray and Pauline Adams) Dalton
4 (3-a) Naman Dalton
4 (4) Georgia Dalton,
died in the 1980s of cancer, married Dave Bryant, s/o Noah Bryant. The names of
Georgia's children are not known to me.
4 (5) John Paul Dalton, born January, 1929, died at age two or three weeks, shortly after Aunt Rhoda Jane died.
After the death of Rhoda Jane, Pete Dalton married Bertha Bryant, d/o David Bryant and grand daughter of "Uncle Zan" Bryant.
The children of Pete and Bertha (Bryant) Dalton:
Dorothy Dalton,
married Robert Dempsey. Dorothy died of cancer- no children. Robert Dempsey married
(2) Mary (Bryant) Bryant, widow of Nelson Bryant. Robert Dempsey died in Ohio,
September 1999, no children.
Hillard Dalton
Seated- Bertha (Bryant) Dalton and Alvie Dalton (Stepson)
Standing- Hillard Dalton
Rhoda Jane Smith Dalton was the grand daughter of Moses and Polly (Mullins) Workman, and grand daughter of Thomas and Ann Eliza (Steele) Smith.
Aunt Rhoda Jane was also the great great grand daughter of Rosannah (Fannin) and George Steele.
