Franklin Aldridge family, 1889
Aldridge Family Letters
Franklin A. Aldridge, known as Frank, was the sixth child of Elijah Aldridge and Jane White. In 1853 he left Boone County, Iowa, and went by wagon train to California where he eventually settled in the Watsonville area. He had three wives and seventeen children. He later went back to Iowa and brought his elderly parents out to California where they lived with Frank and his family until their deaths.
The family by this time was scattered all over the county, as were Elijah’s brothers and sisters. The family appeared to stay in touch, at least some of them did. In the book “Aldridge Records,” by Franklin Rudolph Aldridge, there are copies of three letters, two written by Franklin and one, after his death, by his wife Anna. Information on many of the family members and their whereabouts are included in these letters. The letters were transcribed, with a few dashes to indicate illegible words, and a few misspellings, but they are full of family information, the death and funeral of Elijah Aldridge and burial places of some of the siblings.
