Elizabeth Eugenia (Wolf) Kerr (abt. 1853 - 1924)

Born on the family farm, upon the early deaths of her parents Lizzie was apparently taken into the hsehold. of her uncle Chambers Wolf. When the RR line from their home region was extended northward to Venango City, Pa., south of Oil City, the family lived there while the uncle worked in the oil industry. Eventually the RR was extended to Oil City, Venango City was incorporated into Oil City as S. Oil City, & the family continued to live at the same location.

Lizzie was married at a young age, & said to have been divorced from David Smith. Later on, her widowed grandfather Wolf returned to Penna. from Tennessee, & spent his final yrs. in his son Chambers's hsehold. Lizzie's brother James entered into show business in Oil City. After leaving David Smith, she moved with her daughter to Allegheny, Pa., twin city to Pgh. on the N.W. Side of the Allegheny & Ohio Rivers. She lived as a hsekeeper. in the McClure Ave. hsehold. of Prof. James Sloane of the local Presbyterian theological seminary.

When her sister Adda returned to Penna. from Tenn., where she had been living near her grandparents at the farm of another uncle & aunt outside Nashville, she married Harry Naylor, a machinist whose father was toll-taker for the toll bridges spanning the waterways in Oil City. The wedding ceremony was performed by Rev. Sloane.

Lizzie herself married a Roman Catholic whose father had prospered as an Ironmaster in Clarion County, Pa., before falling victim to changing technology after retiring to East Liberty, later incorporated into Pgh.. A 2nd daughter may have been named for Lillian Russell, a popular juvenile comic actress of the era whose given name happened to be the same as that of the daughter's older half-sister.

Near Lizzie lived a family of Roman Catholic tailors; her brother James married into this family, & resided with them as long as his wife was living. They refined the Irish spelling of their name, & James also took as a stage name the name of the Orr family who had taken him in following his parents' deaths.

Following the early death of her 2nd husband, Lizzie lived some of the time as a cook in her sister Adda's prosperous hsehold. Their aunt who had been Adda's surrogate mother also lived there some of the time, as did Adda's foster brother. Lizzie also lived in a boarding hse. kept by her sister Alice. While she lived there, her elder daughter found it necessary to marry hurriedly. One of their fellow boarders obliged, & the marriage ceremony was performed by the minister of the Naylors' church. Alice was none too chaste herself.

Another of Lizzie's brothers, Curt Wolf, was a professional musician & inventor. He married successively 2 sisters who had been consigned to the same orphanage where he had grown up. The 2nd wife in particular was musically inclined. Between the 2 marriages, he lived at a boarding hse. in Allegheny which Lizzie operated; this experience may have thoroughly soured her daughter Lillian on hsework.

Later on, the Naylors moved to the Bloomfield District of Pgh. Lizzie moved nearby to the neighboring Garfield District, & Alice lived with her along with her youngest granddaughter, who had the same name as Lizzie's younger daughter, also living there. When Lizzie's older daughter moved to the N. Homewood District near the estates of Henry Frick & Thomas Carnegie, Lizzie moved there, too, with her younger daughter. She later moved to Winnipeg. Manitoba, to take care of hsework., & closed out her life looking after the Bankson hsehold. in Pgh. while the other adults were both employed.

Following a funeral at the residence, she was buried in the cemetery lot jtly. owned by her 2 sons-in-law.