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Washington Women’s Heritage Project records, 1900-2000 
University of Washington Libraries Special Collections 
Helen Green Ansley 
April 19, 1985 
Cassette 1, Side 1 
 
 
Debra Ryan  00:02 
In her home. This is Debra Ryan and I'm here in Helen Ansley's home in Issaquah, Washington 
on April 19, 1985. Okay, we're set. Okay. Well, last week, we were talking a little bit about your 
family history and some of your genealogy, and I thought that was really interesting, especially 
that story about-- is it, was it your great-grandmother, Elizabeth Mix, is that her name-- that, that 
wound up marrying two men? 
 
Helen Ansley  00:39 
I think it was more than a great-grandmother, I think it was farther back, yeah. But yes, because 
she was married to a sea captain named Frisbie, and he went off to sea and wasn't heard from for 
seven years. So she married John Mix, and they had a baby, Elizabeth Mix, and then suddenly, 
Captain Frisbie returned, and they-- somehow it was put up-- [bell rings] I don't know whether 
she decided, or the town council decided, oh, somewhere it's written down.  
 
Debra Ryan  01:21 
Let's wait until the-- [bell rings]. Okay, okay, so?  
 
Helen Ansley  01:42 
So, yes, she had to go back to Captain Frisbie, but I think the baby went with her. 
 
Debra Ryan  01:55 
Well, who-- Who decided that she was gonna go? 
 
Helen Ansley  01:58 
No, she could-- I think-- I'll have to go look at it, if you want to turn that off-- I'll look at it. 
 
Debra Ryan  02:05 
Well, we can just go into it another time, but, but she did go back to her original husband? Okay, 
now tell me what that is [inaudible] look up? 
 
Helen Ansley  02:16 
This is something written by my grandmother, Kate Reed Hall, and it was written while I was a 
young girl. I'm not sure when, says, "A daughter of Ezekiel Hayes, New Haven, Connecticut, 
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married the captain Abel Frisbie. In the course of his duties as sea captain and in government 
service, he went to sea from New Haven and was absent seven years. The report was that his ship 
and self were lost during his-- oh. During this absence, his wife married John Mix, the proprietor 
of Mix's House of New Haven-- Mix's Museum of New Haven. By this connection, Elizabeth 
Mix was born, after which Captain Frisbie returned. The question: whose wife was she-- was 
referred to proper authority, the result of which was that she returned to Captain Frisbie, who left 
the seas and settled in the west side of Cayuga Lake. In 1802, Elizabeth Mix became the wife of 
William Reed. 
 
Debra Ryan  04:04 
So that was--  
 
Helen Ansley  04:04 
-- By which union-- 
 
Debra Ryan  04:05 
--That was the one [inaudible]-- 
 
Helen Ansley  04:07 
--By which union, Dr. Reed was born, September 4, 1803, and Dr. Reed was the father of my 
grandmother. 
 
Debra Ryan  04:28 
That's quite a story. 
 
Helen Ansley  04:29 
And, you know, that's really clear than what I've typed out, but to have it in this really 
[?cramped?] writing of my grandmother as an old lady. 
 
Debra Ryan  04:41 
So, let's figure out who-- now, what relation Elizabeth Mix was to you. She-- since she was your 
[laughs]. Trying to figure this out. 
 
Helen Ansley  04:55 
Yeah, she was my grandmother's grandmother. Elizabeth Mix became the wife of William Reed, 
of which union Dr. Daniel Reed was born, I think. Yes, Dr. Daniel Reed was born in 1803. 
Elizabeth Mix married William Reed. They had a son, Daniel, who was the father of my 
grandfather. 
 
Debra Ryan  05:58 
That's really exciting. So you know, that branch of the family was from Connecticut and they 
wound up in Canada. Is that right?  
 
Helen Ansley  06:07 
No.  
 
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Debra Ryan  06:08 
Oh, no, this was-- that--  
 
Helen Ansley  06:09 
--No, this is my mother's side of the family. And it was my father's side of the family. 
 
Debra Ryan  06:16 
Do you remember the circumstances under which they left the United States and went to 
Canada? 
 
Helen Ansley  06:24 
No, this was not connected with Canada. This is only in the United States. 
 
Debra Ryan  06:33 
Right.  
 
Helen Ansley  06:34 
My father came from Canada. And I don't know much about that, at least, he was in Canada-- 
well, he was born in Canada, and his ancestry was Scotch and English, and his name was 
Frederick Green. But the old form of that name, probably the one his grandfather went by, was 
Greney, G-R-E-N-E-Y, and that is the Scotch name, I believe, for English. So, on that side. But 
this other is the American side from my mother. 
 
Debra Ryan  07:42 
Well, you had mentioned something about one of your ancestors being a loyalist who fled the 
United States to go to Canada. Do you remember anything about that?  
 
Helen Ansley  07:54 
It did say somewhere that, yes, that John Cameron-- John Cameron Green, my father's father, 
had been a loyalist, and evidently left to go to to Canada, because that was something that my 
father wrote, yes. "John Cameron Green, Father of Frederick Green, was the son of an English 
army officer. His mother was the daughter of Edward Miller". But somewhere it says John-- of 
course, John Cameron Green, if he was a son of an English army officer, then he would have 
been in Canada. After the-- I don't know about that. Anyway, John Cameron Green was living in 
Adolphustown, Ontario in 1858, when my father was born. So that was before the Civil War, and 
evidently he somehow stayed over in the United States, where his father had after the 
Revolutionary War. It sounds that way. 
 
Debra Ryan  09:39 
Kind of a puzzle. But maybe-- I don't know, you might think about it or look through your books 
and maybe we could talk about it later. It's another time. Sounds like right now [inaudible]--. 
 
Helen Ansley  09:54 
The thing is to put it all together. My grandson has put things together, but you get it in different 
bits, because then I have that-- that I believe that that table belonged to, at least, Cinda Mix. 
Come down from Elizabeth Mix. Yes, because Elizabeth Mix, then, was living in Connecticut, 
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and married Dr Daniel Reed. And I know that that and a chest of drawers both came-- both went 
west, because they came from Oswego, New York. And it said on the back of the chest of doors, 
Oswego, New York. So that seems to have moved out and Dr Daniel Reed, it was who married 
Cinda Mix, and their children were my grandmother. My grandmother was the daughter of this, 
Cinda Mix and Daniel Reed. And it was Dr.-- Cinda Mix who then also married-- She was 
married to Daniel Reed, and she practiced medicine in 1883. I know I have that story written 
down in another place. She was the daughter of Elizabeth Mix. So it all comes down-- almost a 
bastard--  someone, but I gathered it, because what I have is only what was happened. William, 
William Reed and it was Mix. 
 
Debra Ryan  09:55 
So Cinda Mix was a practicing physician in the late 1800s. 
 
Helen Ansley  10:28 
Yes, in 1883. I think she died in '84 and was a practicing physician.  
 
Debra Ryan  12:58 
Do you think she went to any kind of a medical school, or did she just learn from folkways at 
home? 
 
Helen Ansley  13:30 
Don't you want to turn that off for a minute?  
 
Debra Ryan  13:32 
Sure. 
 
Helen Ansley  13:32 
Makes me nervous. 
 
Debra Ryan  13:36 
So what is that you've just found? 
 
Helen Ansley  13:37 
This was a record of Whiteside County. 
 
Debra Ryan  13:43 
Which is in what state? 
 
Helen Ansley  13:44 
Whiteside County is in-- Cinda [?Bates?] was a native of Bethlehem, Litchfield County, 
Massachusetts, so that must have been where-- I don't know. I'm confused, because one place 
seems to be [inaudible]. Anyway, Cinda Mix married Dr. Daniel Reed, and then "Dr. Cinda T. 
Reed of Fulton and the widow of Dr. Daniel Reed is deserving of appropriate mention in the 
biographical department of this work. She was born in the town of Bethlehem, Litchfield 
County, Connecticut" Here-- in one place, it says Massachusetts, here it says Connecticut. No 
wonder it's confusing. And "she, while a child, accompanied her father on his professional visits, 
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and soon evinced a marked interest in the nature of medicine and the method of treatment of the 
cases under his care, so much so that her father, in answer to her numerous questions, 
incidentally, imparted to her much valuable information. She married a physician, Dr. Daniel 
Reed at Sandy Creek, Oswego".  Please turn it off. 
 
Debra Ryan  15:27 
Tell me again. We started out with Elizabeth Mix. 
 
Helen Ansley  15:33 
If we hadn't started out with Elizabeth Mix, I might not be so confused. 
 
Debra Ryan  15:42 
So the man in between, when-- she married the sea captain, then she married who? 
 
Helen Ansley  15:51 
Elizabeth Mix was the the daughter of somebody. Elizabeth Mix was the daughter of John Mix, 
not the daughter of Captain Frisbie. It's Elizabeth Mix's mother, Rebecca Hayes, who married 
Captain Frisbie and then married John Mix. So it's farther back. 
 
Debra Ryan  16:18 
So then-- and then William Reed and Elizabeth Mix's son was? 
 
Helen Ansley  16:26 
Daniel Reed. And Daniel Reed married Cinda Mix. 
 
Speaker 1  16:31 
And she was the one who was the doctor-- they both were doctors. 
 
Helen Ansley  16:39 
She was my grandmother's-- Cinda Mix was my grandmother's mother. Elizabeth Mix must have 
been mine. If you go around-- where she'd have two grandmothers, of course, because Elizabeth 
Mix was the mother of my grandmother's father, but the table came from somewhere. It says 
New York, married in New York and-- 
 
Debra Ryan  17:24 
Yeah, you did say Oswego. 
 
Helen Ansley  17:26 
I don't know whether this that I wrote down-- yeah, here. This-- I was writing to what age they 
live. See, if that helps. 
 
Debra Ryan  17:38 
[Laughs.] What do you think? Do you want to read some of this or? 
 
Helen Ansley  17:42 
No, I'm-- I'm just asking you, that's turned off now. 
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Debra Ryan  17:46 
No, it's on. 
 
Helen Ansley  17:47 
Is it?  
 
Debra Ryan  17:47 
Yeah, that's why it probably [inaudible]. Okay, the table belonged to Elizabeth Mix. 
 
Helen Ansley  17:54 
Yes.  
 
Debra Ryan  17:54 
Now, how did you wind up with it?  
 
Helen Ansley  17:56 
Because it was handed down to her daughter after she married Daniel Reed. It came to-- it came 
down through Cinda Mix and through my-- I know it went to my aunt first, and then it came to 
me, came down-- over to my mother and to me.  
 
Debra Ryan  18:41 
It's had quite a history, and then you've taken it with you wherever you've lived. 
 
Helen Ansley  18:47 
Well, it came to me, yes, after I was married and my grandmother's death, that came to me. It 
came to me after this-- after my grandmother's sister died. 
 
Debra Ryan  19:11 
And when was that? 
 
Helen Ansley  19:12 
It was-- now, I have to think where it was, where I was living when it arrived. My grandmother's 
sister died about 1928. Yes. No, 1930, because I know where I was living when I got it [laughs].  
 
Debra Ryan  19:25 
Where was that? 
 
Helen Ansley  19:55 
Certain address on Hampshire Road, but I moved from another address on Hampshire Road. So, 
it came to me sometime between 30 and 34. My grandmother had died in 1923, but her younger 
sister died [inaudible]. But evidently about that. 
 
Debra Ryan  20:32 
So you mentioned-- 
 
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Helen Ansley  20:34 
-- mymother's cousin-- it came to me when my mother's cousin died. My mother's cousin was a 
daughter of Jenny Reed. A niece of my grandmother's. 
 
Debra Ryan  20:45 
Well, you were mentioning a chest of drawers, also. What happened to that? 
 
Helen Ansley  20:48 
A chest of drawers that is now in my son's home. And that has, on the back of it, 1803. And it 
has-- no, it has on the back of it Oswego, New York. And William Reed and Elizabeth Mix were 
married in Oswego, New York. That's how we know it was a wedding present to Elizabeth Mix, 
to Elizabeth Mix Reed, because they were married in Oswego. The chest of drawers says 
Oswego. It doesn't have a date, but evidently it was a wedding present and went west with her. 
We should have figured all this out before we tried-- 
 
Debra Ryan  21:31 
-- No, that's okay. That was an interesting process. Well, should we move up a couple of 
generations?  
 
Helen Ansley  21:41 
Okay.  
 
Debra Ryan  21:42 
Into your childhood.?You were born where? 
 
Helen Ansley  21:46 
I was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1900 and born on Appleside Drive, which was a little short 
street that ran between a parkway and a street that went up to Cleveland Heights, which had the 
streetcars on it. But across from our home, there was a hillside covered with woods, and I used to 
climb that hill and gather-- I remember picking violets up there. A certain violet patch, and there 
was sort of a ravine in there and a creek. And then when I was, must have been six or eight years 
old, I can remember going down to the end of the street where the streetcars were, and there was 
a bluff. And I would be at the top of the bluff waiting, and come down on this stick thing-- I 
could-- you know, sort of sliding halfway down. When my father got off the street car, I'd go 
down there to wait for my father to come home. 
 
Debra Ryan  23:08 
So, Cleveland was still pretty-- not rural, but-- 
 
Helen Ansley  23:12 
--No, but we were, we were on the edge of the suburbs, and we were near Ambler in Ambler 
Park, there was an Ambler Pond, and every winter that was frozen over, and we would go 
skating there. And I can remember there was a shed where they had a nice wood stove, where 
you-- it would be so cold, and you'd go in there, and I can remember the-- sort of the smell of the 
wet clothing as you'd come in, and a lot of kids standing around this wood fire stove, an iron-
bellied stove, that was skating at night. I can-- I was skating during the day. And during the 
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daytime, there was the Boulevard. SS East Boulevard was-- probably they cut it off, I don't 
know, but I know we used to go coasting, on it and my brother had a big bobsled. We coasted 
down, down the Boulevard hill.  
 
Debra Ryan  24:25 
Was he older or younger?  
 
Helen Ansley  24:26 
My brother was four years older, and I had no sisters, and there were-- seemed to be no girls in 
the neighborhood, so I played with my brother and his friends, and I was little sister tagging 
along, and occasionally I was tied up as a Indian princess or something. You know, they always 
had to do something special to get rid of me or something. But it was a good childhood thing. 
And one of the interesting things was, I can remember being waked up at night and taken out a 
ways behind our house to where it looked over the railroad tracks and we had a clear view of the 
sky. They took me out there to see Halley's Comet.  
 
Debra Ryan  25:14 
And what year was that? 
 
Helen Ansley  25:17 
They were talking about Halley's Comet recently. I think it was 1910. May have been eight, but 
about 1910. 
 
Debra Ryan  25:27 
So you were a little girl? 
 
Helen Ansley  25:29 
I was a little girl. 
 
Debra Ryan  25:30 
And did your whole family go out there? 
 
Helen Ansley  25:32 
Yes, waked up. Because here was Halley's Comet, which comes every 80 years? You see it's-- 
we're talking about it because we may see it again. All I remember was how sleepy I was, but I 
can remember the excitement. 
 
Debra Ryan  25:53 
What else did you and your brother do for fun? What kind of games did you play?  
 
Helen Ansley  25:58 
[?One time?] we did things in the woods. I don't remember then-- I know when-- he went to 
Shaw High School, and played football, and was on the track team. And I went to-- oh, my 
brother and I, my parents took us to a school called the Froevel School, F-R-O-E-V-E-L. He was 
the German who came up with the idea of a kindergarten, a place where children should grow. 
And I think this was the first kindergarten as such. It was a private school that there were-- it was 
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a small school, but I went there from kindergarten through the sixth grade, not through the fifth 
grade, and then I transferred to Laurel School, a school for girls. But I can remember, at Froevel, 
we played games in German to learn the German language, which was fun, playing 20 questions.  
 
Debra Ryan  27:21 
So you must have been really young when you were learning your second language. Because you 
only went there until you were [inaudible]. 
 
Helen Ansley  27:27 
Yes. We were introduced when we were in kindergarten. Then I got over to Laurel and had some 
French. But I had more German-- I've had both some French and some German. But I-- not very 
much, I never used it very much. And we always played something called Prisoners' Base. Was a 
game, you were saying, what games did we play? And over-- I can remember over it at Laurel 
there was a great big yard with school, which we played in. And then I began to play basketball. 
 
Debra Ryan  28:10 
Did you have a team, or did you just play solo? 
 
Helen Ansley  28:13 
No, it was part of going to high school and going to this girls school. We just, I think, probably, 
the freshmen played the sophomores. I don't remember. It was some of the exercise we-- oh. And 
one of the very interesting things, I think now, looking back on it, we were taught articulation, 
Mr. King's articulation. We were taught to speak, to practice making the sounds, I think it's-- and 
then that was part--  as part of that, then, we put on, each senior class, put on a senior play, and 
ours was the Merchant of Venice. So I graduated from Laurel in 1917. It was in nine-- by that 
time, my brother was down at Kenyon College. But I do have my diary from the years at Laurel 
School, and it was while I was at Laurel that the United States went into the First World War, 
and my brother left college to go into the Navy. And I don't know whether it was before-- of 
course, I went to college in the fall of 1917. My father was the Chairman of the Draft Board in 
Cleveland, which was-- he had been in the city hall, but had been before that when he was in the 
city hall, it was very much of a political job. But he developed the first loose leaf ledger before 
that. I guess things were just all written down. But I have, in his record, that he developed-- 
Cleveland was the first city to have a municipal budget. When you think of the budgets and how 
we struggle over them now and realize that cities didn't used to have budgets. They'd get money 
in and spend it without really sort of planning to, which I think is very fascinating. My father was 
really very much-- something. Let's see. Doesn't say what time the first budget was. 
 