Raleigh Leroy Ames 1894-1969
Headstone GPS Coordinates:
Birth: 29 December 1894, Ogden, Weber County, Utah
Death: 08 March 1969, Tacoma, Pierce County, Washington
Relatives in Seabeck Cemetery: Ellen Shaw Ames née Greenwell
American Revolutionary War Patriots*: Elijah Alvord (Massachusetts) A002101, Isaac Phelps (Vermont or
Massachusetts)
Disclaimer: These lines have not been officially proven by NSDAR standards.
Raleigh Leroy Ames was born on December 29, 1894 in Ogden, Weber County, Utah to Eldridge B. Ames and Adelia Ashley. Raleigh was the fifth of six children. His father, Eldridge, worked as a machinist to support his family. They were all members of the Latter Day Saints (LDS) church.
When Raleigh was twenty-two years old, he married Ellen Shaw Greenwell in Weber, Utah. Ellen was born on August 10, 1898 in West Weber, Utah to Thomas Greenwell and Isabelle Moore. She was the eldest of their four children. Ellen’s grandparents on both sides were early pioneers to the Utah Territory, and practiced polygamy before it was outlawed in the LDS church.
Ellen was eighteen years old when she married Raleigh Ames in the LDS church. The couple resided in Weber, Utah through 1921 where Raleigh worked as a tentmaker. They had three children while living in Utah: Raleigh in 1918, Mary in 1921, and an unnamed baby who lived for only one day. By 1926, the couple had moved to Pocatello, Idaho where they had three more children: Theon (1928), Rulon (1930), and Mona (1930/1931).
In the book Seabeck and the surrounding area, late historian Fred Just wrote that Raleigh had been married before Ellen, and had his first two children, Raleigh and Mary, from that union. However, Raleigh and Ellen married in 1917 over a year before Raleigh was born, and Ellen is always recorded as Raleigh and Mary’s mother in their records. Fred may have mixed up his information with Julius Hintz who is buried close to Raleigh Ames. Julius was married twice and had his first two children with his first wife. No records
have been located to suggest Raleigh was married to anyone besides Ellen.
In 1930, Raleigh worked in an auto shop as an “auto trimmer.”
By 1935, the family was renting a home in Alameda, Bannock County, Idaho. The 1940 census does not list
his occupation, but Raleigh L. was employed and working thirty hours per week possibly as a welder. His wife Ellen was also listed as employed working forty hours per week as was his son Raleigh who worked thirty hours per week, and his daughter Mary who worked forty-eight hours per week.
In June 1940, Raleigh and Ellen, Calvin, Theon, Mona and Rulon (Bud) moved to Crosby because Raleigh got a job in the sail loft in the Navy Yard in Bremerton. The roads in Crosby were still gravel at that time, and the family lived in a log house in a field near the Crosby school. A few years later, they purchased a house near Seabeck highway.
By 1950, only Calvin was living in his parents’ household.
While living in Crosby, Ellen was a homemaker and also a cook for the school. She and Raleigh were active in the community and loved to play cards with neighbors. Raleigh was known around town as “Pop Ames” and he drove the school bus from Holly to Seabeck Elementary. Ellen would ride with him and knit along the
way.
On June 20, 1954, Ellen died at the age of fifty-six in the family home at Camp Union from unspecified natural causes. Fred Just wrote in his book Seabeck and the surrounding area:
“Before she died she had been ill for some time. The eve of the night she died she felt like she wasn’t sick anymore and attended the Crosby dance. It was a Saturday evening. She danced and enjoyed herself like nothing was wrong. That night she died in her sleep. Her husband didn’t even know she had died until he got up in the morning.”
Her obituary was published in the Kitsap Sun:
Mrs. Ellen G. Ames
Death yesterday at her Camp Union home, Star Rte. 1, Box 366, claimed Mrs. Ellen G. Ames, 56. Mrs.
Ames was born at West Weber, Utah, Aug. 10, 1898,and was a member of Latter-day Saints church.
Surviving are her husband, Raleigh L., of the family home; three sons, Calvin L. of Bremerton, Raleigh T. of
Lewiston, Idaho, and Rulon E., U.S. army; three daughters, Mrs. Mary Stinger of Pocatello, Idaho, and Mrs.
Theon Smith and Mrs. Melvin Chipman, both of Bremerton; 11 grandchildren; a brother, Rulon Greenwell of
Ogden, Utah, and two sisters, Mrs. Edna Bealer of Ogden and Mrs. William Allison of Washington D.C.
Funeral services, directed by Miller-Reynolds chapel, will be held at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday at Church of
Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints, with Bishop Robert H. Dewey officiating. Burial will follow in Seabeck
cemetery.
Raleigh stayed in Crosby until 1961 when he moved to Tacoma to live with his daughter Theon and her family. He eventually moved into the Tacoma Nursing Home. When he was seventy-four years old, Raleigh L. passed away in Tacoma. His obituary was published in the Kitsap Sun:
Raleigh L. Ames
Raleigh L. Ames, 74, formerly a resident of Bremerton and recently of Tacoma, died Saturday in a Tacoma
Nursing Home. Mr. Ames was born in Ogden, Utah. He worked as a sailmaker at the Puget Sound Naval
Ship yard and moved to Tacoma about six years ago. Survivors include three sons, Raleigh T. Ames of
Lewiston, Idaho, Calvin L. Ames of the Philippines and Rulon (Bud) Ames of Puyallup; three daughters, Mrs.
Mary Stinger of Idaho, Mrs Theon Miller and Mrs. Mona Chipman, both of Tacoma; two sisters, Mrs. Mary
Wright of Salt Lake City, Utah and Mrs. Mabel Davis of Mountain View, Calif.; 25 grandchildren, and five
great-grandchildren.
Funeral services will be held Wednesday at 11 a.m. in the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints,
Fourth Ward Stake House at 11th St. and N. Pearl St., Tacoma, under the direction of the Morley-Melinger
Funeral Home. Burial will be in Seabeck Cemetery.
Raleigh and Ellen Ames are buried near the southwestern corner of the Seabeck Cemetery. Their graves are adorned with painted rocks placed there by their descendants.
The Elizabeth Ellington Chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution would like to acknowledge Raleigh L. Ames’ American Revolutionary War Patriots:
Elijah Alvord (Massachusetts) A002101
Isaac Phelps (Vermont or Massachusetts)