Milton Delorane Converse

Milton Delorane Converse, third son and third child of Eunice Lucille Harrington and Winfred Delorane Converse, was born 2 August 1905 in or near Snelling, Merced County, CA. His father Winfred Converse and grandfather Frederic Convers all had the middle name Delorane, which may have originated in a still-earlier generation. When Milton was small, his father was still going by Convers rather than Converse, but apparently Milton’s mother objected to this Scots version of the name and insisted that all of her children go by the Irish spelling, in keeping with her own paternal heritage. By the time Milton had reached his adolescence, his father had given in and began using the longer spelling himself. Milton’s uncles and aunts stuck with Convers, though.

When Milton was tiny, his family moved to Manteca, San Joaquin County, CA. There were some temporary relocations after that, but Manteca was the family’s main base for many years and that was where Milton came of age. His older brothers were Eugene and Clyde. His younger sister was Josephine, born in Manteca in 1909. All of the kids attended Manteca schools. During Milton’s time at Manteca High School, he excelled in sports and was a mainstay of the football, basketball, and baseball teams. He remained involved with the school’s athletic events even after graduation as a member of various alumni teams facing off against the various other alumni teams associated with other high schools of the immediate region. He lingered at home well into his twenties, home at that point being a house at 315 W. Locust Avenue in a core neighborhood of Manteca. He probably had a number of jobs as a young man. Two of them are revealed by his listings in old San Joaquin County directories. In the late 1920s, he worked as an operator for Harm & Frasher Trucking Company. “Operator” probably means he drove a truck, but may mean that he was a phone dispatcher working from the company’s Manteca office on West Yosemite Avenue. That job ended with the onset of the Great Depression, whereupon Milton became a service station attendant.

Milton kept up his athletic endeavors even during this era. An article published in the Oakland Tribune 1 April 1930 confirms he was an outstanding hitter for the Manteca Maulers baseball team. The Maulers were part of the Don Pedro League, which though it was not a professional league had an reputation for excellence rivalling the pro minor leagues. Milton’s step-grandfather John James “Babe” Napier had been its manager until the early summer of 1929 -- Milton probably played during Babe’s tenure. Unfortunately Milton had to give up his involvement because 1930 was the final year of the Don Pedro League’s existence.

In the early 1930s Milton’s circumstances changed dramatically and permanently. First, in spite of the continuing hard economic climate, he managed to obtain a secure job. His new employer was Pacific Gas & Electric Company, with whom he would remain for a total of thirty-seven years, serving first as a welder, later as a foreman, and eventually as a general foreman -- i.e. he was one of the bosses that junior foremen reported to. He was not the only Manteca-based member of the clan who worked for PG&E. Another was Theron Hodson, husband of Milton’s first cousin Norma Emily Cowell, who worked as a lineman. It is possible Theron played a role in getting Milton on the payroll.

The other huge change in Milton’s life at this point was his marriage. In 1929, a young woman named Alzoe Agnes Gianelli moved to Manteca. Alzoe, a daughter of Andrew F. Gianelli and Bridget Agnes Byrnes, had been born 5 September 1908 in Stockton, San Joaquin County, CA and had gone on to spend her entire childhood there. Her father, who despite his Italian surname was a native of Liverpool, England, had died when she was only eight. Bridget Byrnes Gianelli, a native of Limerick, Ireland, had chosen to forge on as a single mother, raising not only Alzoe but her older siblings James and Anna. Both James and Anna wed in the first half of the 1920s and established homes of their own, which left Alzoe as the child Bridget cleaved to. The pair were still a tandem when they moved to Manteca. The 1929 relocation was probably driven by a job prospect for Alzoe. As a fatherless child, Alzoe had had understood from a tender age that she would be best equipped for life’s pitfalls if she got a job early and remained capable of supporting herself if necessary. She joined the staff of the City Clerk of Manteca. At some point not long after the move, she and Milton became acquainted and a romance developed.

At the beginning of March, 1931, Alzoe’s boss, Edgar H. Jeffries, passed away at only fifty-eight years of age. Alzoe was appointed as his replacement. This seems to have had some bearing on her wedding to Milton. The nuptials were held in secret 13 June 1931 in Gardnerville, Douglas County, NV. Only Milton’s parents and Alzoe’s mother were let in on the event. The rest of the world did not learn of the union until early September. While family records do not address the reason for the secrecy, it seems apparent that Alzoe was worried that if she was perceived as a woman about to quit and have a family, she would not have been confirmed as the permanent replacement for Edgar Jeffries. Apparently by September that fear had been put to rest. She continued to be City Clerk of Manteca for many years, though in the city special election of April, 1932, she had to beat out three male candidates vying to replace her. Alzoe was committed to her career. That devotion to her profession may explain why she and Milton did not have children.

During the early years of the marriage, Bridget Byrnes Gianelli lived with the couple, an arrangement that probably lasted until Bridget’s death in 1942.

In the spring of 1948, the Manteca city government declined to give a five-dollar-a-month raise to Alzoe’s assistant typist clerk, Mrs. Jorga Saunders, who quit. Alzoe quit the same day in solidarity. The Great Depression and the war were over and Milton had moved up in the echelons of PG&E. Alzoe was in the happy position of being able to stand on principle. At long last she became a housewife. Ironically this development occurred just as she was reaching the end of her potential childbearing years.

Some time after Alzoe’s departure from the city clerkship, the couple moved to Stockton. This was apparently better for his job situation now that he had moved up into the supervisory levels. After a number of years -- perhaps upon his retirement in 1967 -- they returned to Manteca. At one point he worked in Newman, Stanislaus County, CA. It is not known if he and Alzoe spent that period living in Newman or if he commuted to his workplace each day.

Once back in Manteca, Milton and Alzoe remained for good. However, it was at a hospital in Stockton that he passed away Friday, 10 August 1984. Alzoe survived him, dying 30 December 1987, also while hospitalized in Stockton. The remains of both spouses were placed at San Joaquin Cemetery. Given the lack of children to survive them, their heirs were Alzoe’s niece Janice Lee Gianelli and Milton’s sister Josephine’s kids.

This 1933 photograph of some of the Manteca clan comes from the memorabilia of Milton’s aunt Mary Josephine Harrington McDonald Baysinger. Unfortunately no names were written on the print. All individuals have been identified, but only through a process of photo comparison and logic; it remains possible that one or two of the guesses are wrong. Standing in back, from left to right: Eunice Lucille Harrington Converse, Winfred Delorane Converse, Elsie Margaret Harrington Cowell, Milton Delorane Converse, Alzoe Agnes Gianelli Converse, Theron Ormal Hodson, and John James “Babe” Napier. Left to right in the chairs (the middle row of people): Bridget Agnes Byrnes Gianelli, Nancy Anne Branson Harrington Napier, Theresa Branson Moore, Otis Marion Cowell. The three adults squatting on footstools in front are, left to right, Norma Emily Cowell Hodson, Josephine Agnes Converse Bianchi, and Plinio Mark Bianchi. The identity of the baby and toddler are known -- their apparent ages are, in fact, the means of determining the date the picture was taken -- but their names are held back because these two family members are still alive as of early 2014.

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