Alice Marguerite Thistle

Alice Marguerite Thistle, first of the three daughters of Marguerite Ellen Branson and LeBaron Guy Thistle, was born 11 November 1907 at Mount Bullion, a mining outpost in Mariposa County, CA. Her middle name obviously came from her mother. Her first name probably was derived from two sources. One inspiration was her father’s sister, Alice Thistle, at that time fourteen years old. The other was Alice Branson, Marguerite’s first cousin. Marguerite and the latter Alice were close in age and had grown up together just north of Hornitos. Further, at the time the baby came along Alice Branson and husband John Williams were living at Mount Bullion -- a tiny, close-knit community composed almost entirely of the miners and their households -- and John Williams was one of Guy’s coworkers.

In a classic example of idiot bureaucracy, Alice was not considered to be a citizen of the United States when she was born, even though she emerged from the womb within the boundaries of California to a mother native to California whose own mother was a native of California. Citizenship laws of that era reflected convoluted logic. Because Guy Thistle had been a citizen of Canada at the time of the wedding, Marguerite’s status became Alien and by extension, any child she bore was Alien as well. Mother and daughter both had to go through an official naturalization procedure in order to obtain citizenship. Fortunately the law was soon changed and her younger sisters did not have to go through the same lunacy.

Alice came into the world while the economy of the Mother Lode region was floundering. Only at such major deep-rock deposits as Mount Bullion was ore still being profitably extracted, and even there it was a marginal proposition. Not long after Alice’s sister Emily was born in 1912, Guy gave up his career. Many of his and Marguerite’s peers and relatives were fleeing or had fled to the Central Valley or other places where jobs were more plentiful. For example, Alice Branson and John Williams and their children settled on a farm near Manteca in San Joaquin County. Guy and Marguerite tried to make a go of it in familiar territory in Mariposa County. Guy was an insurance agent, a real estate broker, a draft registrar, and probably also a notary public. A steady income was hard to come by. Marguerite resumed school-teaching, able to leave the girls in the care of her parents, Joseph and Ella Branson. The children -- which by early 1915 included Imogene -- would later refer to that ranch as having been their real home in childhood. In part because of that sentiment, Alice was firm in wanting to hang on to the twenty percent share of Joseph and Ella’s sprawling cattle ranch that she and her sisters inherited, and did so to the end of her days.

In 1918 the family pulled up stakes and moved to Fresno, Fresno County, CA, where Guy could more readily find customers for the insurance policies he continued to sell. The city and its environs would be the base for the Thistle clan for many decades to come -- and still is.

Guy’s little sister Alice married Marguerite’s little brother Ernest Elton Branson in 1920. That couple also settled in Fresno County. This helped provide a family presence, though the younger couple resided at the southern edge of the county in the town of Kingsburg. Alice’s aunt Grace Mildred Branson Warner and family were even closer -- a short ten miles away in the town of Sanger.

Alice pursued the tradition among her close female kin and became a school teacher, getting her teaching credential from Fresno State College. Though able to live on her own, she stayed with her parents. She did so as much to help them out as to be supported by them. As the Great Depression dragged on, Marguerite’s health became poor. The cause was eventually determined to be leukemia. She succumbed to her illness in May, 1933. Alas, it was only the first of a trio of deaths in the close family to fall within a very short period. Alice’s father died in early 1934, only ten months after her mother, then her grandfather Joseph Branson, who had looked after her so much in childhood, passed away in the summer.

Happier times were around the corner. Alice married Harold Engelbert Peterson 23 August 1936 at the Bethel Temple in Fresno, Reverend William E. Ople officiating. Harold was three years Alice’s senior, having been born 9 June 1904 in Waukegon, Lake County, IL. His parents were John Edward Peterson and Lydia Alma Nelson, who had each immigrated to the U.S. from Sweden, marrying in 1898 in Waukegon and producing four children, of whom Harold was the third. (Their Swedish names were Johan Edvard Peterson and Lydia Alma Nilsson.) The Peterson family had come to the San Joaquin Valley during the 1910s, whereupon J. Edward Peterson had initially been a farmer in the Kingsburg area. In the early 1920s he began pursuing other lines of work, such as mill wright. That development had led to the household shifting to the city of Fresno not long after Harold had graduated from Kingsburg High School.

Thanks to his father’s occupation, Harold possessed expertise in fabrics. At the time of the wedding he was employed by Pacific Tent & Awning Company in Fresno. His occupation, as rendered in the 1936 voter register, was “awning man,” meaning he was not a salesman (or that is, was not limited to being a salesman), and that he presumably manufactured and/or installed awnings. His occupation in subsequent registers (only those through 1944 are available at this time) was “cutter.” This must be a reference to fabric cutting. As far as is known, Harold was employed in similar ways his whole working life. Alice became a housewife and mother. The couple had two children, both born in the first half-dozen years of the marriage.

Alice and Harold spent the whole of their married life in Fresno. As the children became older, Alice resumed work as a teacher in Fresno County schools. Her career lasted three decades. The couple’s offspring remained Fresno-based as well. Alice’s sisters were also nearby, though Alice survived Imogene by decades and Emily by many years.

Alice reached the distinguished age of ninety-four. This was not quite as long a span as Harold, who surpassed ninety-five, but due to the difference in their birth years Alice was a widow for the final few years of her life. Harold died 6 October 1999. Alice passed away 6 April 2002. Both deaths occurred in Fresno. Alice’s remains were placed with Harold’s at Belmont Memorial Park.

Descendants of Alice Marguerite Thistle with Harold Engelbert Peterson

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