"You are a person of keen perception and swiftness of thought, an ability to put things together in unusual combinations. You have a marked sense of humor and see the humorous and the pathetic in your fellow creatures. And in yourself.
Basically a serious person you have a habit of philosophic laughter. Even when you appear to be clowning, there is a serious undercurrent to your ludicrousness. You brood a good deal and are capable of falling into profound periods of dejection and depression. You lead a private life of your own that is not always a happy one, for when you aren't thinking of the woes of the world you are thinking of your own private troubles. You have a lively imagination and can believe in things that aren't true. You are superstitious and likely to believe in dreams and fancy yourself able to dream interpretation. You have a morbid interest in death and your own fate. You believe in the survival of the personality, and may think you have reason to believe it proved.
You are a fair businessman, but you have a need for self expression of a personal sort.
In romance, you are impressionable and impressive, having a substantial effect on the opposite sex, meriting their love by giving love in return. There is some tendency for you to suffer from nervousness.
You started out in life all energy and native intelligence, with a quick mind able to absorb knowledge quickly. In many ways you were precocious throughout youth. Your mind was analytic rather than artistic. However, after the first glow and flush of youth passed, this energy for self improvement was lost and a sort of inertia settled in, a tendency to level off. A nervous tension accompanied this inertia, and spirits were particularly distressing to your digestion.
However, you have a certain poise, charm and ability, and a determination to get ahead in the world that rarely fails.
You have a superstitious belief in many things, including yourself, and something of the magician hovers about you as good things work in your favor, almost like a guardian angel. There is a tendency toward selfishness and self-centeredness.
In conventionality, sobriety and character, you incline to be serious, sober, a trifle proud and reserved, maybe even a little forbidding. To you, life is real and earnest, and you take yourself seriously.
You inherit your mental traits directly from your mother, resembling her and her side of the family in your internal makeup if not in your appearance. Duty is important to you and you never shirk a job. You are capable of considerable self sacrifice if you feel it is required. You take certain obligations for granted as your lot in life, approaching them with sobriety and philosophy. You are also a builder, and there is nothing flimsy about the structure you build. Your great asset is a sense of balance and proportion." (Heaven Knows What by Grant Lewi)
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Elmer J. Ramsey was the second and much undiscussed sibling of Philip and Sarah's seven children. Of this brother of my maternal grandmother I know nothing more than that he apparently took over the family farm at Philip's death and farmed it.
In the only family photo of him, he appears of slightly taller than average stature, and did indeed favor his mother in resemblance, having her eyes. His ears sat away from his head, which was reasonably full of brunette hair, neatly trimmed. He had a dimpled small chin beneath slightly florid cheeks which gave him something of a chinless look. In this same photo, his son, presumably Dallie Ramsey, has a handsome, almost cherubic countenance, and does indeed favor his father. Both are reasonably dressed, reclining on a smart-looking wicker settee.
The previous family treatise on Elmer said simply that he married a woman named Grace, had no children, and farmed the family homestead until his death in 1942 at age 64.
On 10 November 1897 at age 20 years old, he was married to Myrtle V. Mary Perry by John H. Dills, Minister of the Gospel at Methodist Episcopal Church South, in Academy, West Virginia. She was born in Pocahantas County and was three years his junior. According to the U.S. census for 1900 and 1910, she is given as Mary V. Myrtle Perry, daughter of Mary O. Perry. Mary was born in 1879, and bore (or otherwise gave) Elmer daughters Rose O. - b 1900; Mary E. - b 1903; and son Dallie, named after his brother-in-law Dallie Davis. Dallie Ramsey was born in 1909.
According to Elmer's sister Rose, he was born 22 February 1878. According to the 1900 census, his birth date was in May. His marriage license application indicates Elmer was born in Doddridge County, even though he is recorded in the U.S. census as residing with his parents and family in Barbour County at age two years. At his marriage he is given as residing in Randolph County. His horoscope herein set at the beginning of this chapter was based on the February birth date.
Elmer died on his brother-in-law Dallie's birthday, 12 March 1942 (see ERRATA). He is shown in the census as having lived at his mother-in-law's home in the Little Levels District of Pocahontas County with his wife in 1900, and back in Barbour County with his wife and three children in 1910. Elmer died in Randolph County. He is interred in Maplewood Cemetery in Elkins, where he shares a lot with niece Rosalee Pennell (grave #1), sister Cora Pennell (grave #4), and mother Sarah Melissa Ramsey (grave #6). His grave is #5 in Lot #519.
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