DEAN and GRETHEL PETTY

    Born in Elliott in 1920, I, Grethel Arlene Reynolds Petty, was married to Dean Arthur Petty in 1939. Between us we are descended from eight lines of families who have been in this community for more than 100 years and are covered in other stories in this book.

    My mother, Winifred, was the daughter of John L. Moores, and her mother, Clara, was the daughter of John Thomas. My dad, Dene, was the son of D. C. and Ida Reynolds and his maternal grandparents were J. C. and Hattie Perley, daughter of Levi A. Persons, last postmaster of Waveland which superseded Elliott and it's post office. Curt's parents were the R. H. Reynolds's.

    The Reynolds's arrived in 1867; Moores, 1868; Perleys, 1869.  Sarah Silloway Perley (Corliss' mother) was the first owner of this farm--making me the fifth generation on this "Century Farm."

    Dean (1912) is the son of the late Ollie Givan and William Harrison Petty. His grandfather, W. J. (Jack) Petty came here in 1864, had the first hotel in Elliott and was an extensive land owner in Pilot Grove Township. Harrison's maternal grandparents were the Thomas Rawlingses.

    Our children are William Dene (1940) and Judy Elaine (1942),. Both are Elliott High School graduates and Bill was A1C when he completed US Air Force duty in 1964, mostly in Bermuda. He and his wife, Avis, live east of Elliott on the Mrs. Hal Woodward farm, with her children, Angela, Shelly, Curtis and Dan DeWitt. Their father is Jim DeWitt, Bill's second cousin. Bill has one daughter, Arlene, by his first marriage. She was born in 1966.

    Judy married Clifford Bush in 1962. They have two children, Michael Dean (1967) and Lora Jean (1971) and live at Steamboat Springs, Colorado, where Judy is office manager and bookkeeper for a real estate and property management firm. Clifford is an electrician for a mining firm.

    Fifteen of our 40 years were spent on Petty land in Pilot Grove, the remainder on Yankee Street -- so -called for the group of Vermonters who came here together--Perleys, Wilsons, Collinses, Barneses and others.