WINGERTER GENEALOGY

ADA MAY AND OSCAR MILLER JENKINS

David and Malissa Wingerter's youngest child, and only daughter, Ada May (my great grandmother) was born May 7, 1883 in Winchester. Ada May "attended Valley Female College as a day pupil for 9 yrs. [She] left school at [her] brother's death to help [her] [f]ather with the store. [She] studied physics, literature, geography, latin and music." Ada May married her childhood sweetheart, Oscar Miller Jenkins (born the youngest of five children November 24, 1880 in Winchester to James Marion Jenkins and Martha Elizabeth Carper) . Ada May recounts,

"We both lived in the same block. All of us in the neighborhood went to the Common for 'Drop the Handkerchief'. We grew up together. His father studied violin and organized the Citizen's Band. After we were married, we played for the silent movies. We also played for banquets at the Taylor Hotel and for dances in public and private homes. One of these was given for Admiral Byrd's bride-to-be by her mother."

Ada May married Miller on April 26, 1905 at her father's home at 514 N. Loudoun Street (she had lived there from the age of 3). She and her husband "rented a house on N. Braddock Street" before they were married, and spent their honeymoon there. They continued to live there until her father had finished building a home for them next to his own. Miller also was in the grocery business with David. After David died in 1916, Miller continued the business and then worked as a clerk for a friend during World War I.

When Ada May and Miller moved from Loudoun Street they first rented out and then sold the home that David had built for them. Next they bought some property on Cameron Street (formerly Market Street) and built a new home where they could finish raising their family. This new home was 3 stories with 26 rooms. It served to house tourists and roomers and, according to Ada May, there was never an empty room. Ada May's mother also lived here after her husband's death. Besides renting rooms and caring for her invalid mother, Ada May ran a beauty parlor in two of the rooms, though her mother died one year after the beauty business began. There were "three operators working 11 dryers, 3 permanent wave machines, manicures and facials."

In 1947 they sold the home on Cameron Street and bought a house at 219 Fairmont Avenue, where they boarded elderly people. After a few years, they rented their home on Fairmont Avenue and moved into a duplex on South Braddock Street.

Ada May's youngest daughter remembers that a family heirloom, a wooden chest, was stored in the closet. Ada May's oldest daughter Dellitt had this chest for many years and stored blankets in it. She then gave it to her eldest daughter who in turn gave it to her eldest daughter (my cousin). There are two stories about this chest. According to my aunt, this is the David Wingerter chest and he built it. There is a date carved on the chest and it is finished in red paint. However, my sister, who lived with Dellitt for several months, recalls that the Wingerter chest was brought over from Bavaria.

Miller died December 11, 1956 in Winchester. He was buried December 14, 1956 in Mount Hebron Cemetery in Winchester. Ada May died ten years later on June 5, 1966, in Winchester. She was buried June 8, 1966 in Mt. Hebron Cemetery in Winchester. Miller and Ada had 6 children, 3 girls and 3 boys. Two children are still living. Those who have passed on are my grandmother, Dellitt Elizabeth, her brothers Wilbur Harold and Herman Douglas, and sister Frances Anita.

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