Recounting God's Faithfulness

Chapter I − Joyce’s Family Story
The Armitage Family
Early Years of the Armitage Family
Nestled in the beautiful green rolling hills of Western Pennsylvania is the small town of Corry. This is the town where my story begins. Family legend agrees that William Armitage held the title of High Sheriff of York, England, and along with his two brothers oversaw the bodyguards of King George III (1738-1820). Due to finding themselves out of favor with the king, the three brothers had to flee for their lives and made passage to New York where William married Sylvia Thurston. He was the father of Isaac Armitage, born 1803; Isaac was the father of John, born 1824; John was the father of George Wilber, born 1861; and George Wilber was the father of Owen Burnell Armitage, (OB) born 1894. He was my grandfather.
My grandfather was one of five boys; William, Victor, Lawrence and Harold were his brothers and two sisters, Gladys and Ava. They all lived in the countryside surrounding the small town of Corry. The two sisters and one brother lived in Corry while three of the brothers bought large farms in the outlying areas. Their farms were located on Oil Creek Road, which was the road from Spring Creek to Titusville. Their farms stretched for about eight miles consecutively to Cobbs Corners, which was a four corners road with a small white church on one side and a two-story house behind it. During my father’s growing up years, this church was closed. When my father and his brother, Wilson, became of age, they bought farms on the opposite side of the road close to my grandparents. Beyond the church on the same road there were three more farms that belonged to the Cobb brothers, one of which was my grandmother’s father. There were lots of fun-filled family gatherings on these farms. My grandfather graduated from high school, which in his day was unheard of for farm boys.
My grandmother, Nina Cobb Armitage had one sister, Sarah and one brother, Rowland. Grandma and her sister Sarah married brothers, Owen and Lawrence <Insert Image 02.jpeg> Armitage. Grandma’s brother owned the family farm, a large dairy farm on the same road. I remember visiting the farm and playing in the large front yard. My grandfather was a gentle soft-spoken man who was kind and well liked in the community. My grandmother was a short little woman who was very feisty and not afraid of anyone or anything. They had six children: Wilson, Rolland (Cassius), Elizabeth, Harland, Wilma and Alice. Wilma and Alice were quite a few years younger than the other four. In fact, they were only seven and eight years older than me, so it was like we grew up together. They were so special to me. My father was very sickly as a baby and even though my grandmother never went to church, she prayed to God and promised that if dad lived, she would give him to God to be a preacher.
The McCray Family
<Insert Image 03.jpeg>My mother’s parents were Paul Burt McCray and Nellie Elva Jerome McCray. My grandfather was born in Spartansburg, Pennsylvania on February 21, 1895. My grandmother was born in Ainsworth, Nebraska on Nov. 10, 1899. Her family was part of a group of settlers on the plains known as ‘sodbusters.’, the first settlers to arrive on the plains who began to break up the thick prairie sod. They cut thick blocks of sod to build their homes, so she grew up living in a sod house. My grandmother always claimed that Jenny Jerome (Winston Churchill’s mother) was a distant relative. Because I was always getting in trouble at school for talking so much, she used to tease me about being like him.
In 1913 her family moved to Spartansburg, where she met my grandfather. They were married on Feb. 20, 1918. They settled on a small farm on the outskirts of Spartansburg, which is about 25 miles from Spring Creek. My grandfather had a sugar bush (a grove of sugar maple trees) on this farm where he made pure maple syrup. I loved to go out to the sugar bush with him. It was fascinating to watch him collect the buckets that held the sap from the trees. He would pour it into a large cooking pot that hung above a wood fire in a small shack where he cooked and stirred the sap. It took several hours, and he would have to keep going out to stir it and check it to see when it had cooked down to the right consistency. Once it was cooked, he poured it into metal tins. We had pure maple syrup for our pancakes all my growing up years.
My grandparents had three children, Grace, Margaret Ellen and Walter. They later sold that farm and my grandfather bought a service station and garage in Spartansburg. The garage had two apartments over the top of it and that is where my grandparents lived in one and Uncle Walter and his family lived in the other until they had four children and then it was too small. My grandfather McCray was fun-loving and at holidays he would make a big sawdust pile and bury lots of pennies in it. When he would say “Go,” all the grandchildren would try to find as many pennies as we could. I still have fond memories of that.