Elsie Greenwell Autograph Album - Part 1

Elsie Greenwell Autograph Album

Elsie Greenwell kept a small autograph album from 1897-1901 (age 10-14) while she attended school in Damascus, Oregon.

Schoolmates wrote a sentiment and signed their name.

As did relatives...

The photo below is the closest we have of that young school girl.

Doesn't she have beautiful eyes?

Elsie Margaret Greenwell and Fannie Greenwell - 1904

Again, what's in a name - was she Elsie Margaret, or Margaret Elsie?  I think she might have been Margaret Elsie.  In the 1900 census she is 13 years old and listed as "Maggie E. Greenwell".  She was known as Elsie all her adult life.  In the above photo she is 17 years old, and sadly, had lost her father the preceding year.

Greenwell Family - 1900 Census

Anyway, Elsie was born on the first of February, 1887 in Damascus, Clackamas County, Oregon - the 11th of 12 children of Benjamin Franklin Greenwell and Jerushia Grimm.  Sometime after Benjamin died in 1903, Jerushia and Elsie moved to Lents, OR (now part of Portland) where Jerushia died in 1912.  Elsie married Otto D. Upton October 29, 1913 in Portland.