{"id":606,"date":"2023-06-08T13:33:51","date_gmt":"2023-06-08T19:33:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/francoamericangravy.com\/wills\/?page_id=606"},"modified":"2023-06-10T11:15:57","modified_gmt":"2023-06-10T17:15:57","slug":"john-albert-wills-1873-1937","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/francoamericangravy.com\/wills\/john-albert-wills-1873-1937\/","title":{"rendered":"John Albert Wills (1873-1937)"},"content":{"rendered":"

John A. Wills,<\/strong> born in Port Henry, Moriah, Essex County, New York is at the center of this story.\u00a0 When he was born, his father J.A.B. Wills, was 30 years old and an iron ore miner in his prime.\u00a0In the 1880 Unites States Federal Census, John A. is six years old, living in Westport, Essex County, New York, USA with his parents and 4 siblings ranging in age from 12 to 5 years old.<\/p>\n

\"Family
Family of John Albert Berryman and Annie Reed in 1880 US Federal Census<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The children, including 12 year old Elystra are noted to be “at home”, meaning they were not going to school.\u00a0 Did John and Annie, the two youngest of five children, get a basic education when they lived in Westport? We do not know.\u00a0 There is little information about the family for the next 20 years.<\/p>\n

On January 9th\u00a0 1893, John A. Wills, 19 years old,\u00a0 enlisted in the United States Army in North Adams, Massachusetts.\u00a0 He appears to have only served for one month due to a undisclosed disability.<\/p>\n

The next census record is the 1900 United States Federal Census where J.A.B. and Annie Reed Wills along with their son John A. Wills, now 26 years old, are found in Petersburg, Rensselaer County, New York.<\/p>\n

\"John
John Albert Berryman Wills, Annie Reed, and John Albert Wills in 1900 US Census
Petersburgh, Rensselaer County, New York
Lines 29-31<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

J.A.B. Wills is recorded as a gardener and his son, John Jr., as a peddler of farm produce.\u00a0 There is no evidence that John A. Wills ventured out on his own from the time of his army discharge until August 26th, 1903 when he married.\u00a0 During those ten\u00a0 years, John A. remained attached to his parents and their home in Petersburg, New York.\u00a0 In 1896 his youngest sister, Annie, left to marry and John A. remained the last child of J.A.B. Wills and Elystra Reed at the Wills home.\u00a0 It is difficult to determine if John A. lacked the money and\/or the\u00a0 education to launch himself on his own in the 1890s.\u00a0 What is known is that the United States was mired in a severe economic depression in the 1890s that stymied many young workers from progressing to a\u00a0 degree of economic stability. It was a turbulent time sparked by the panic of 1893, labor unrest in manufacturing cities and the end of good times for the super wealthy industrialists of the Gilded Age.\u00a0 It was also unfortunate timing for John A. Wills who was unable to launch himself independently.\u00a0 He appears to have continued farming his father’s cash crop and peddling the produce in nearby cities and towns using local train transit such as the Troy-Boston Railroad and other lines that transversed\u00a0 the growing industrial corner of the Berkshires. Indeed, John A. Wills traveled the urban rail\u00a0 frequently to sell his parent’s produce to workers in the urban cities – Troy, Cohoes, Lansingburg and Hoosick Falls, and North Adams.<\/p>\n

According to family legend, John A. became acquainted with the beautiful brown haired woman, Elizabeth “Libby” Bissonnette, while peddling produce in Cohoes.\u00a0 It was there he met and married “Libby” without the blessing of his parents, steadfast Methodists, who saw his marriage to a Roman Catholic as intolerable.\u00a0 Although John A. did not convert to Catholicism, his Methodist parents could never accept their son’s actions and his Roman Catholic wife.\u00a0 The struggle between John A. Wills and his parents, J.A.B. Wills and Annie Reed, began with his marriage and lasted until the death of his father, J.A.B. Wills, in 1919.\u00a0 However, the emotional cost of estrangement and the final disinheritance haunted John A. Wills to his grave.\u00a0 Initially, John A. appears to have negotiated his break with his parents without a struggle and provided well for his first 3 or 4 children as an itinerant photographer.\u00a0 Their first child, Celena Elizabeth was born in 1904 in Cohoes. By September 1906, when their second child, Anna, was born, the small family is living in Greenwich.<\/p>\n

\"John
John A. Wills and children<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In July 1908, when Julia is born, they are living in Schuylerville, Saratoga County, where they would remain and have three more children, John Albert III, Elizabeth Frances, and Dorothy Mae.<\/p>\n

\"John
John Wills, local photographer, in The Daily Saratogian September 1909<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the New York State Census of 1915, the Wills family is in Schuylerville, Saratoga County, New York:<\/p>\n

\"Wills
Wills Family in 1915 New York State Census<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Some time between 1915 and September 1917, the family returned to Cohoes, where the last three children were born: Etta Muriel, Earl Larry and William Robert.\u00a0 Now, there were nine children: Celena, Julia, Anna, Johnny, Elizabeth, Dorothy, Etta, Larry and Bobby.\u00a0 For the remainder of his life, John A. Wills and his family would live in Cohoes, Albany County, where his wife, Elizabeth, had extended family and her mother, Celena, for support.\u00a0 It was also when John A. Wills’ alcoholism\u00a0 began destroying his family.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John A. Wills, born in Port Henry, Moriah, Essex County, New York is at the center of this story.\u00a0 When he was born, his father J.A.B. Wills, was 30 years old and an iron ore miner in his prime.\u00a0In the 1880 Unites States Federal Census, John A. is six years old, living in Westport, Essex … <\/p>\n

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