In 1924, Maxine moved with the family from Arkansas to California. She was 8 years old. The John Miller and Robert Miller families all went to California together, leaving from Southwest City, Missouri and traveling through Oklahoma, Kansas and eventually Oregon. They finally arrived nearby to Crescent City, Del Norte County, California and shortly thereafter moved to Ojai in Southern California.
After the death of Dick's father in 1933, Mimi and some of the children, Dick, Don, Maxine, Ruth and Jesse moved back to Benton County, Arkansas. Robert had told Mimi that if anything should happened to him, he wanted her to go back to Arkansas - and she did. Maxine had started high school in Ojai but graduated in Arkansas, having attended her Senior year there.
She and the family are shown in the 1940 census to be living again in Ojai.
Maxine married Ernest (Pete) Henry Mason on 24 July 1938 in Ojai, Ventura County, California. The Mason's had lived in the same area in Arkansas as the Millers and had mutual friends, but Pete did not know the Millers until coming to Ojai.
They were the parents of three children, David Miller Mason, Stephen Timothy Mason and Margaret Joyce Mason.
Maxine died at the age of 91 on 1 May 2008 in Ojai, Ventura County, California and is buried in the Ivy Lawn Memorial Park in Ventura, Ventura County, California.
From the 1980 Miller Family Reunion booklet: Maxine's nickname if Jack or Jack Bean. She says to put that she is a talker. Pete is a retired State Highway Assistant Superintendent.
Memories of Maxine by her brother Robert William Miller Jr.: "Maxine's nickname of Jack came as a result of Maxine calling herself Jack-bean when she was little. As she got older, the bean was dropped and it was just Jack. She was married to Pete Mason, living in Ojai in a place that was for retired school teachers. Pete died first, then Maxine."
OBITUARY - Maxine M. Mason
Maxine Mason died on May 1, 2008 in the Continuing Care Center of the Ojai Community Hospital. Maxine was born in Centerton, Arkansas in 1916. In 1926 she came to Ojai Valley with her family including two sisters and six brothers, so that her mother and father, Robert and Dora Miller, could open a gasoline filling station and produce stand at the foot of Dennison grade (now Boccali's Restaurant).
Maxine acquired her early education as a public school pupil at San Antonio School in Ojai. The school building at that time was an impressive, but small Victorian building with a tall bell tower. By Maxine's second year at the school, a new building was built in the English Tudor style and completed in April of 1927. The first day that classes were to move into the new building, the students were lined up in front and a foot race was held to see who would be the first student to enter the new building. Maxine won that race. Since there were only two students in her class, she and her classmate stayed at San Antonio School through the eighth grade.
At Nordhoff High School, she took an active part in the Nordhoff Orchestra, playing the violin. She enjoyed going to Nordhoff and taking part in all of the activities. After graduation, she attended Ventura College. For many years, Maxine managed the Orange Juice Pavilion for the Ojai Tennis Tournament, and in later years, she looked forward to volunteering at Help of Ojai's Second Helping Thrift Store.
In 1938, Maxine married E.H. "Pete" Mason in the First Baptist Church of Ojai. They were the proud parents of three children, David Mason of Ojai, Margot Stockstill of Irvine, Calif., and son and daughter-in-law Steve and Linda Mason of Lowell, Ark. She was so happy to have and enjoy grandsons and their wives, Timothy and Lauri Mason and Matthew and Becky Mason; grandsons, Mason and Patrick Stockstill; and great-grandchildren, Wren, Erin, Pete and Gracie Mason. She is survived by one remaining brother, Bill Miller of Hemet, Calif. Her husband of 68 years died in 2006, and one of her brothers, J. K. Miller, was killed in the "Battle of the Bulge" during World War II and is honored on the memorial rock at the entrance to Libbey Park in Ojai.
The graveside service was held on May 5, and was handled by Joseph P. Reardon Funeral Home in Ventura, the same funeral home that handled her father's funeral in 1933. Pastor Chad Zaucha of the Ojai First Baptist Church officiated. Interment was at Ivy Lawn Memorial Park in Ventura.
Ojai Valley News 7 May 2008
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RECORDS
Census records for Violet Maxine Miller
1920 - Garland, Benton,AR
1930 - Ojai, Ventura, CA
1935 - Benton, AR
1940 - Ojai, Ventura, CA
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23 Jan 1920 census of Garland, Benton County, AR, found the Miller family living in dwelling #50 on Fourth Street:
R. W. Miller 40 IL IL IN Salesman - H.W.D.
Dora 36 AR AR TN
Hurbert 14 AR IL AR Twin
Herschell 14 AR IL AR Twin
Maggie 12 AR IL AR
Dick 9 AR IL AR
Donald 7 AR IL AR
Maxine 3 AR IL AR
Ruth 1 6/12 AR IL AR
Blanche Pitts 13 IL IL AR Niece
J. D. Miller 80 IL OH IL Father, Widowed
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Mildred Miller said that the John Miller and Robert Miller families all went to California together, leaving from Southwest City, MO, and traveling through Oklahoma, Kansas and eventually Oregon. They finally arrived in California in August of 1924. She said that Louoma's mother was a Callis, as was Robert Miller's wife.
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26 April 1930 census of District 19, Ojai, Ventura County, CA, found the Miller family living in dwelling #344. Robert and Dora said that they were first married at ages 23 and 19 respectively. Living nearby were Dora's father, John H. Callis (76) and brothers Claude (40) and George (45) and their families:
Robert W. Miller 50 IL IL IN Operator - Service station
Dora 46 AR AR TN
Herbert 26 AR IL AR Rancher - Fruit ranch
Dick 20 AR IL AR Rancher - Fruit ranch
Donald 18 AR Il AR Gardener - Private home
Maxine 14 AR Il AR
Ruth 12 AR IL AR
R. W. 9 AR IL AR
J. K. 5 AR IL AR
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1 April 1940 census of Ojai, Ventura County, CA (Dist 56-23), found the Mason and Miller families living in dwelling #204 on Ojai Avenue. Ernest said that he was living in Ojai on 1 April 1935, Maxine and her Miller relatives said that they were in Benton County, AR:
Ernest Mason 25 SD - Truck Driver - Trucking company, Completed 4 years of high school, $900 in annual wages
Maxine Mason 23 AR - Completed 1 year of college
David Miller 8/12 CA - Son
Dora Miller 56 AR - Mother-in-law, Widow, 8 years of education
J. K. Miller 15 AR - Brother-in-law, 8 years of education
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THE TRIP TO CALIFORNIA (as remembered by Maxine Miller Mason and written by Margot Mason Stockstill)
On August 1, 1924, the family left Benton County, Arkansas, and headed for a ranch near Crescent City in Northern California that Robert's uncle and namesake, Robert William Miller, had given him. Mimi had only been out of Benton County once and then only a few miles into Oklahoma.
There were 24 people and a collie named Socrates in the moving party packed into a new Maxwell, a Ford, a Buick and a Ford Truck. They were: Mimi and Robert, Herbert and Hershel, Blanche, Margaret, Don, Dick, Maxine, Ruth, Bill, JK (just 7 weeks old), Uncle John Miller (Robert's brother) and his wife Aunt Dove and their 5 girls, Mimi's brother Uncle Claude Callis, Aunt Arthula and their son Louis, Mimi's father John Hamilton Callis, who was 64 years old, and Cora Nichols, Mimi's twin.
The first stop was Grove, Oklahoma, at Mimi's brother Uncle Clark's home. Aunt Cora only went that far. Uncle Clark had a big going away party for the family. Each night while traveling they stayed in campgrounds. The women would wash clothes and the men would work on the cars and truck.
In Colorado there was an inspection stop for boll weevils so the family had to empty all their boxes. the Rocky Mountains were too big for Robert so his sons Herbert and Hershel drove. The family drove down through Oregon and reached Crescent City on Don's birthday, August 30th. The trip had taken 30 days. When they first saw the Pacific Ocean Mimi said,"I think we've come too far."
On their new ranch they lived in tents. The children had fun playing in the river but Socrates, the collie, got ahold of a dead salmon and died. They wouldn't let Grandad (John Hamilton) Callis play his fiddle for fear it would attract bears and Indians.
In September it was time for school so the family moved into town. Uncle John Miller took his family to Smith River. That winter Uncle John's youngest girl died, their house and car burned, but they stayed on in Smith River. There was a hurricane which ruined part of Crescent City. Mimi was sick all winter because the damp weather caused her to have rheumatism. Uncle Claude and Aunt Arthula left Crescent City and moved to Ojai, writing back about the warm and beautiful valley.
As soon as school was out in 1925 the Millers headed south, stopped in Suisun and leased a ranch with apricots and peaches. Mimi always said that that was one of the happiest years of her life. Robert took Hershel and Margaret to Ojai and liked it so well they decided to move down in the Fall of 1926.
www.millerinfo.net/genealogy, Memories of Robert William Miller Jr. and Margot Clarke, family records and research.
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