Cousin Boies Penrose

picture from my own family album.


A lot of people get confused about who is who in my family and even who we are related to. We are not related to the Penrose's in Utah that are Mormans but we are related to Stephen B.L. Penrose, long time president of Whitman College in Washington State.




Now, the above picture is my cousin Boies, he was named after his & my uncle Boies who was a senator. My cousin was the son of my uncle Charles. Uncle Charles had 2 kids that lived, Boies & Sarah. Uncle Charles had a marriage that was arranged but was a good marriage, she was very, very, very rich. Her father was an Austrian banker.





I met my cousin Boies, only once. He came to our house and had a meeting with my father. He was much older then the picture above. My father who was dying of cancer, had a favor to ask of Boies. The favor was: will you take and raise my little girl. My cousin, Boies refused!!! I was standing right there, looking at his face when he told my father that he should kill me. My cousin said a few other choice words about my mother.



My father replied that Boies would never be welcomed in our home again. Boies had a chance to help me and my father but he refused. And to this day, I curse him and his family. I do not consider any of them my relatives. They are all cruel and mean hearted people.




And that is all I have to say about my cousin Boies.

The Francis Boies Penrose Story

I would like to introduce you to my Uncle Francis, he was born in Philadelphia, PA in the year 1867 the 5th son of my grandparents. My Uncle had a beautiful talent, he loved to draw. When my grandparents would go on trips without the kids, their nanny would have them write letters to my grandparents. Francis' letter and envelope would have drawings on them. His nickname was Friday.

My Uncle attended Harvard, two things happened to him there. The first was a fellow student with the nickname "piggy" fell in love with him and constantly sent him letters. My grandfather's advice was to burn every letter and discourage "piggy". My grandfather had plans for his brother Boies to become President of the United States and a scandal like this could hurt him. Uncle Francis did as his father said.

The second thing that happened was Francis became very sick, they called it a brain fever(this is what we call meningitis today and a blow to the head can also cause brain fever). He had to leave Harvard in his second year and went back home to Philly, he was eighteen. My grandfather, who was a doctor, had a cure for everything. A change in climate and hard work were his remedies, so when my Uncle Francis was strong enough he was sent to England. My grandmother, who had died in 1881, had family there.

By 1912 my Uncle was 45 years old. He had married and had children, the last one was a newborn. My Uncle got a job on a ship, its name was "Titanic". There were many people on this ship who knew my family well. The only person who did not take this trip was Rockefeller, he was booked to take it but didn't. The richest men in America had a meeting on the fateful night of the Titanic, even the head of the U.S. Treasury was there. They were going to take their money out of America because the government was going to start taxing individuals. A bomb went off in that room killing every person there.

My Uncle knew of the meeting and went to check on everyone. He saw water and dead bodies.

Everyone knows the rest of what happened except what Washington was doing. The bomb was to go off at a certain time, the President had arranged a meeting with my Uncle Boies (who was head of Naval Affairs) during this time. Uncle Boies gets the message the Titanic is in trouble and the President is not going to do anything. Uncle Boies leaves Washington (the President is pissed) and gets his yacht the "Betty". He is able to save my Uncle Francis and a few others.

Fast forward to Washington, my Uncle Francis and the other surviving employees are taken away where they are questioned. My Uncle is tortured, he keeps telling them what he knows and he keeps saying all he wants to do, is go home to his family. I do not know how long they kept him, he had to sign a paper to never talk about what he knew. At one time they were going to blame my Uncle for planting the bomb then they changed their minds. Note: a messenger was sent to Mrs. Astor to make sure that she never mention the meeting.

They released my Uncle Francis, who was tired, in shock and was mentally plus physically drained. He went home to England, when he arrived he discovered his whole family had been murdered even the baby. My Uncle had a complete nervous breakdown.

My family brought him home to Philly where they put him in a mental hospital. There were parts of the Penrose family that would tell people my Uncle was adopted and he was born in New Mexico, that is not true. They did this because people thought it was bad when a member of a family had to be in a mental hospital.

My father brought my Uncle to Colorado Springs in the late 1930's, my uncle's nurse (who had been on the Titanic and rescued also) took care of him till he died in 1947. Mary Marvin stayed on with my family and my mother appointed her to help Fairbanks and Berkey with the book about my Uncle Richard. This book never mentions the Titanic or the letters my Uncle Richard wrote concerning this incident. My dad had wanted them in the book, my mother did not.

My father made my Uncle Francis' life as pleasant as he could and if you look at the picture of him you can see a gentleness about him. So, that's the story about my Uncle from my father and what happened on the Titanic.

Uncle Boies

My Uncle was the most famous of all the Penrose's. He was a senator, all he really wanted to be was a mayor of his beloved Philadelphia but that was not to be.

In the 1930's a book was written about him, it was a favorite in women's
book clubs because it gave an inside look on Washington. I liked the book, in fact I have a copy of it. Another man wanted to do a book about my Uncle in the 1950's, he was a broadway producer, writer, pretty famous for the time. He came and talked to my father who was excited about the book. But, something happened and the book was never done, in fact I tried to find the guy. The last thing I found was around the late 1950's, someone tried to kill him. I think they succeeded because thats all I could discover. So much for the book.

So, I thought I would share about my Uncle, this is what he did the last year of his life in the senate. That year was 1921:
April - He wanted equality for blacks. he said that they should be equal to whites in hotels, cafes, restaurants, educational institutions and amusements. They fought him hard on this one.

June - He had gotten Mr Mellon in as head of Treasury and he was doing a bang up job, nineteen countries owed us money and Mr. Mellon had worked out a plan for them to pay it back.

My Uncle left Washington to go back to Philly, President Hoover had left my Uncle with no offices in Washington (I find this very odd because Hoover was a geologist like my Uncle Richard and a friend of my Uncle Richard's).

My Uncle helped with the election of the next Governor of Penn. (I think this was the reason he left Washington)

July - He called for disarmament of the U.S. (World War One had ended). My Uncle didn't believe in war. They fought him hard on this one too.

Sept - He installs a movie theatre in his Washington apartments

Oct - He is trying to get tax bills passed, the Soldiers Bonus bill thru and a corporation tax thru.

On Dec. 30, 1921 Uncle Richard stops by to see my Uncle in Washington. My Uncle is in perfect health, great mood and nothing is wrong. At one minute before midnite on Dec. 31st, 1921 my Uncle is dead.

The papers are full that he was sick, poor health blah, blah, blah. Lies, lies, lies. My Uncles Richard and Charles along with my father get together, they hire people to find out who killed my Uncle and who put the contract out on him.

My Uncle had many enemies, there was a senator who was going to be brought up on treason charges, my Uncle stood up for him and with him (he became his friend after that) but that is the way the Penrose's are, even if our enemies are falsely accused we will stand up and state the truth. But, there were two enemies my Uncle had, they were the Vare brothers (one of them was a senator). The Vare brothers were heavily connected with the mafia, Lucky Luciano was a close friend, the Vare boys owned one of the Philly newspapers and they were involved in what was called "the bloody fifth ward". You didn't have to go far to find out that they were the ones that put out the contract.

Why, my family didn't go to the government I'll never know. Maybe it's because of what they did to my Uncle Francis or maybe they felt there was someone higher up involved because the newspapers weren't printing the truth. No matter, they put out a contract on the hired gun and the man that hired him. For them justice was done.

My Uncle was a loving caring person, he had a great sense of humor. In his younger years he wrote plays and poetry, he even wrote a pamphlet for Barnum on elephants (Barnum passed out this pamphlet at his circus). He never married but he had a lot of mistresses. He loved America and he really loved the city of his birth, Philly. He was never involved with the mafia and he never took a bribe. He had a photogenic mind, he would read something and it stayed there, word for word. All the Penroses had this except me, I remember conversations word for word, I guess the gene said "lets skip the reading material and go for conversations instead" :)

So, there you have it my Uncle and the last year of his life. He was a very good man.

Cattle Wars of Wyoming

I do not know much about my Uncle Charles, as a man. I know he followed in my grandfather's footsteps and became a brilliant doctor, he wrote books, did a lot of government medical research especially in fertility, married the daughter of a Austrian banker, had five children of which only two lived past infancy, his best friend was his older brother Boies, who saved his life after a bear attack. He also had a tiff with my father that he regretted and it had nothing to do with not allowing my mother into his house. And I know that he was on trial for murder for the Johnson County Invasion, also called the Cattle Wars Of Wyoming.


In 1890, Charles Bingham Penrose developed tuberculosis, he left his medical practice in Phil., PA and traveled to Florida, Colorado Springs and Wyoming. The Acting Governor of Wyoming, Dr. A.W. Barber, was a friend of his and he suggested that my Uncle stay in Cheyenne for his health. The Governor secured rooms for him at the Cheyenne Club.


Wyoming at this time was in a pickle, beef prices had gone down and a new law had gone into effect, it was called the maverick law. Before the new law, a person could take a stray and make it his own. A LOT of people started cattle ranches this way but when the new law went into effect it put a damper on things. Most of the people were against the new law and they ignored it, if a person was arrested the jury said they did no wrong and they walked free. The Cattle Association was in an uproar, they needed a solution. Montana had the same problem, they handled their problem in one night. Montana hired a group of men, they were given names of cattle rustlers with locations and in one night they went to every cattle rustler (ranches and campsites) and murdered every man. There were some in the gangs who escaped (their names were not on the list),they left the state for good. Montana never had a problem again. Owen Wister (a friend of the Penrose family) wrote an article about it.


This is what the Cattle Association wanted Wyoming to do, 19 men were on the list (only 2 were killed). The hired men were 24 cattlemen, 24 Texans, 2 reporters, teamsters for 3 wagons and my Uncle Charles as surgeon.

They took a train with horses to a destination, from there it would be horseback. The first problem was two men wanted to be the leader, Major Frank Wolcott who was a cattleman, Civil War hero and U.S. marshal and Frank M. Canton who was a cattleman. Wolcott took a step back and let Canton take control until the crap hit the fan, that's when Wolcott had to step in and take command.


The next problem was after getting the horses off the train everyone was to meet 6 miles away. A lot of men got off the horses when they reached the meeting place, something spooked the horses and they stampeded, after 6 hours only 4 horses were left unfound, my uncle's was one of them. On his horse was a lot of his medical supplies but not all of them. The 4 men without horses rode in the wagons till the party ran across Senator Carey's property and found 3 horses. This left only my Uncle riding in the wagon.


The next problem was it snowed the fourth day out and kept snowing with blizzard conditions, they ran across a weak white horse which they took and gave to my Uncle to ride, it didn't last very long. The first destination was to be the Tisdale ranch, the Tisdales were in the party and their place was for everyone to regroup, once again the lack of harmony was in the air. From this ranch they were to go to the final destination, the K C ranch. This is where all 19 men on the list was suppose to be.

At 1 in the morning, they left for the K C ranch leaving behind my uncle and cattleman H.W. Davis. Needless to say, it was a cluster. Only 2 rustlers were at the ranch, Nick Ray and Nate Champion, they were the ones who were killed. The cattlemen had confronted a couple of rustlers on the way but they had escaped unharmed. The cattlemen returned to the Tisdales ranch, before anymore could happen the sheriff and the U.S. Army arrived. Every man surrendered to the Army.

My Uncle had left before the cattlemen returned, he was traveling by buckboard. He threw away all identification, letters from the governor etc. He was trying to get to Cheyenne then take a train back to PA. In Brown Springs he stopped, a road ranch was all that was there, it's also where the mail was delivered, a rancher that my Uncle knew stopped for his mail and totally ignored my Uncle. My Uncle learned that all the cattlemen had been arrested and the surgeon that was with them. My Uncle relaxed, there was also a rumor that poison tablets had been found (a rustler had found my Uncles horse) and that the cattlemen were going to poison the water and food of the settlers and rustlers. This story was carried in the newspapers there.

The pills were bi chloride tablets. The story untrue, my Uncle WAS NOT going to poison anyone. These people were very stupid. So, anyway my Uncle stops at another town, at this town he was arrested. People were wanted all of these guys hung including my Uncle, who had nothing to do with any of it. To make a long story short, my Uncle went to trial, was found not guilty (duh). But, the brother of Nate Champion swore vengeance on my family. Idiots are born every minute. When my Uncle got back to PA after this, he got married. I don't think he ever went back to Wyoming.

But, what he did do was write down what had happened to him, A.W. Barber also wrote down his memories of what happened and they sent it to the Cattlemen's Association in 1914. This was never suppose to be printed, so the Association put it in a file and in 1949 it was made into a book called "The Rustler Business" by Charles Bingham Penrose (my Uncle died in 1925). I have a copy of it and you have to read and re-read parts because they don't keep telling you what is my Uncle's words and what is Barber's words. If you just read it and think it's my Uncle, you think he was there when these people were killed. I had to back up to find where it said it was Barber's words (which most of the book is Barber's words)

So, I'm not to happy about this book because my Uncle had very little to do with the cluster that happened and makes him look like he had more to do with it then he really did but I guess that's a lesson to be learned, if you write down something don't include other peoples writing with it, make it two separate things.

What It Means To Be A Penrose

I had the chance to meet a really nice couple a week ago. They had
purchased a teddy bear that came from my father's estate 10 years ago.
As I talked with them, the gentlemen made a statement about being a
Penrose. I just smiled, thinking to myself they have no idea what it means
to be a Penrose, the pain and suffering.

I do not fault people for their thinking, they see all the postives while I have had to live and remember the negatives along with the postives. Isn't that the way it is in every family.

The Penrose family roots start at a Welsh tribe in Wales, we are also related to King John of England from there we came to Philly (before it was Philly) and were shipbuilders. My ggrandfather became a senator and held many poltically offices.My grandfather was a doctor as was my Uncle Charles, Uncle Boies a senator, Uncle Richard a geoloist, my father and Uncle Spence did great things, my Uncle Francis had a nervous breakdown and was unable to do things.

I, however came at a time when things were not so good. Like my father, I was subjected to tests done on me (it was like electric shock). I witnessed my father and a police officer being murdered by another man. I was beaten almost to death, later on I heard the screams of my next door neighbor and her daughter being murdered because "they" got the wrong house. "they" were looking for me. I was given mass amounts of drugs to make my memory go away. At the age of 11 "they" came dressed as a priest and nun (its the only time "they" had a face but I learned "they" were many people). My parents were always talking about "they". So, at age 11 "they" took a large sickle to my insides (when I was 22 I had surgery, the doctor said it looked like someone had craved me up like a Christmas turkey, I cannot have children because of this).

"They" put me in a foster family and stole my inheritance, name and life but "they" could not steal my memories. "They" tried but did not succeed. So, if you think being a Penrose is easy, its
not but I have the memory of a loving, caring father and deep inside me I have the Welsh blood that only those from Wales can understand. I am proud of my roots but it has cost me a lot.