Thinking of Dad

Photo by Patrick Jones. K.D. Jones and S. Jones, Disneyland. 16 Jul 2011.

Today would have been our Dad's birthday. On this day I'm thinking of him, and I know my Mom and Sister are as well. Last year he was taken away too soon by cancer. For photos from happier times, see my post from August 2015 or August 2014.

Esther's Sons

Arizona Sentinel, 22 Aug 1906.

I have spent much of the month recapping the family of Esther Suastegui Graham, half-sister of my 4th-great-grandfather Pedro Suastegui. After several extensive posts on Esther's daughter, Anita Calneh Post, it is only fitting to provide some background on Esther's sons, Asa Frank Post and John Peter Monson (also spelled Munson).

Asa Frank Post

Asa Frank Post was the son of Esther's first husband, Albert G. Post. He was born in Yuma, Arizona on 4 October 1881. Asa Frank married Maria Giron in Imuris, Sonora on 14 August 1906. Maria was originally from Hermosillo, Sonora. She died in the tragic auto accident with Anita on 10 September 1938. Asa Frank and Maria had at least the following children:
- Albert Ernesto Post (1907-1990)
- Asa Frank Post Jr (1909-1976)
- William Louis Post (1912-1987)
- Henry Arthur Post (1913-1998)
- Maria Laura Post (1915-1993)
- adopted daughter Mercedes M. Velasquez (1918-1996)

Asa was close to Anita and his family regularly visited her in Tucson, and often hosted her in Yuma.

Asa Frank died on 30 April 1966 in Yuma, Arizona.

Peter John Monson (also spelled Munson)

Peter John was the son of Esther's second husband, Swedish immigrant Peter Monson (also spelled Munson). He was born on 5 September 1892 while the family was in Los Angeles, California. Peter John appears in the 1900 US Census in Yuma as 7 years old. In the 1910 US Census, he was a 16 year old boarder in the household of Variela Barney in Yuma.

Like his globe trotting half-sister, Peter John applied for a US Passport and regularly traveled from at least 1917. He applied for a passport at the American Embassy in Santiago, Chile on 12 March 1919 in order to travel from Chile through Panama back to the US. According to the document, he left the United States on 24 March 1917 (another document says he departed on 17 March 1917), arriving in Chile in October 1917 (another document says he arrived in Antofagasta, Chile in April 1917) as chief timekeeper for the Braden Copper Company of New York. The passport application includes a high quality photo of him, and his baptism record. The second document provides more connections to the Suastegui family.

John Peter Munson, US Passport application, 12 Mar 1919.

Certificate of Baptism for John Peter Munson. Issued 12 Mar 1917.

The baptism record was sponsored by Maria Jesus Suastegui Ballesteros, Esther Suastegui's older half-sister. I will have more on her in another post.

By August 1919, Monson had traveled from Sanitago de Cuba to San Juan, Puerto Rico. His second passport was issued in June 1919, showing he would be in Cuba and Puerto Rico to supervise construction for the Texas Company (this would later become Texaco).

US Passport application, 26 Jun 1919.

Monson applied for another passport in August 1920, showing he was planning to travel to Tampico, Mexico to supervise construction of oil tanks and other equipment for the Texas Company.

Peter John later settled in Beaumont, Texas. He married Maggie Williams, and they had at least two children. He died on 6 February 1961.

Flying Coastal

Photo by Patrick Jones. Boarding Coastal Airlines at Dar. 28 Jul 2017.

Two weeks ago I took a short flight from Dar es Salaam airport to tiny Mafia Island, off the coast of Tanzania, for 24 hours before beginning the flights back to DC. I took Coastal Aviation, which operates flights throughout Tanzania to many of the most popular national parks and promotes itself as "the flying safari company."

Source: Google Maps. 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Mafia Island Airport. 28 Jul 2017.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Approaching the island. 28 Jul 2017.

Coastal was great. The plane seats 12 but on my flight there were only 6 people including the pilot. It is about 40 minutes from Dar to Mafia.

Mafia Island has about 50,000 inhabitants, compared to bustling Zanzibar to the north, which has about 1.3 million people. I chose Mafia Island to do something a little different with my 24 hours, perhaps I might see whale sharks or humpback whales. On this occasion there were no whale sharks (it's the wrong time of year), but my 24 hours were incredibly relaxing. I will have a separate post of photos from the island.

Leaving a legacy

Anita's will provided $6000 for the establishment of two scholarships in the name of her parents, Albert G. Post and Esther Suastegui Graham. The will was read into probate on 19 September 1938.

Arizona Daily Star, 20 Sep 1938.

The article above contains some errors. Anita's niece, Maria Laura Post, did not die in the car accident, it was her sister-in-law Maria Giron Post. Maria Laura Post was attending the University of Arizona. Albert G. Post, son of Anita's aunt Mariana Suastegui Post, was not found, and the funds were used to create a monument for Mariana in Oregon (although the information inscribed on the monument has the wrong year of death for Mariana).

Anita willed the entire title to a 156 acre farm in the Mohawk Valley, a farm that was purchased by their mother Esther Suastegui as a homestead claim in 1890. Two additional lots were split among her brother Asa Frank Post and half-brother John Peter Munson. The Mohawk Valley property was later sold at auction in 1946.

In September 1939, the University of Arizona Library took possession of 900 volumes from Anita's personal library.

Arizona Daily Star, 17 Sep 1939.

The University also named an annual award to the Spanish major with the highest scholarship average over four years. The Anita C. Post Memorial Award was offered for the first time in May 1939.

Anita's book on Southern Arizona Spanish is still available through Stanford University.

A Tragic Loss

Not all family histories have happy stories. My research into the life of Anita Calneh Post revealed a tragic loss for her and two others in the family in 1938. In September 1938, Anita was driving her sister-in-law, Maria Giron Post, and her four-year-old grandson Garland Post, back to her son Albert Post's home in Hemet, California, near Palm Springs. The car Anita was driving lost control on the Pines-to-Palms highway.

Arizona Daily Star, 12 Sep 1938.

The news hit hard at the University of Arizona. From the 13 September 1938 Arizona Daily Star:

Arizona Daily Star, 13 Sep 1938.

Her colleague Helen Nicholson wrote a tribute to Anita, appearing in the Tucson newspaper on 21 September 1938.

Arizona Daily Star, 21 Sep 1938.

The 1939 University of Arizona yearbook also included a recognition for Anita and four others.

Source: U. of Arizona Special Collections. 1939 yearbook, p.10.