Ruth Honor Lasette van Hovenberg
1885-1955
5th Generation
Ruth Honor (or Honour) Lasette was born January 20, 1885 in San Francisco. We can gain a snapshot of her family situation from the 1900 census, which provides the following data:
Her father was Martin Andrew Lasette (or La Sette) who was born in November, 1849 (the same month as Martin Henry Radcliffe van Hovenberg). He was born in New York, his father was from France and his mother from New York. In 1900, he had been married for 17 years. He was a carpenter by profession.
Ruth's mother was named Ida Borden, she was born in July, 1852. She was born in Massachusetts, her father being born in Fall River, and her mother hailing from Maine. (The association of Fall River and the name Borden, of course, conjures memories of the notorious accused axe murderess, Lizzie Borden.)
In 1900, the following siblings are listed for Ruth:
Ida Treadwell, a daughter, born November, 1875,
Samuel Treadwell, a son, born May, 1878,
Bella Lasette, a daughter, born 1883
Samuel Treadwell is listed as a carpet layer, and Ruth and her sister Bella are both listed as "at school."
Annabelle and Ruth, around 1900
Memories from the Radke family allow us to fill in some details. We know that Ida Francisco Borden lived in San Francisco because her mother owned a boarding house in the city. She first married (probably around 1870) James Treadwell who was a controller for H. S. Crocker, who owned silver mines in Nevada. They had three children: Ida Eliza, who eventually married Lewis Shiffer, who owned a candy store in San Francisco; Samuel and William. (William had apparently disappeared by this time; he later claimed to have been shanghaied and was gone for 30 years.) After some years of marriage, Ida divorced James Treadwell.
Ruth's mother Ida then married Martin Andrew Lasette in 1883, and had two children, Ruth, and Annabelle, born October 2, 1889. We have no death date for Ida or her other children, although Ida herself is supposed to have died in 1935, and Annabelle, who never married, died in Alameda County September 28, 1980. In a touch worthy of The Twilight Zone, Martin Lasette was killed when he was struck in the head by a piece of wood that flew from a saw while he was working in his carpentry shop making caskets.
Ruth Honor had played with the Ghirardelli Family as a child growing up in San Francisco, and at some point was active in the San Francisco Opera. However, she married Alfred Andrew van Hovenberg on Easter Monday 1905. Alfred was 30 years older than Ruth who worked as his secretary in his law office in San Francisco. They had three daughters:
Ruth Honor (Ruthie), born October 24, 1907, died February 11, 1919
Juliette Marie, born February 13, 1916, died January 31, 1951,
Jane Elizabeth, born October 24, 1920.
Ruth Honor and Juliette Marie both died from complications of diabetes, and the loss of Ruthie was particularly heartbreaking for her parents: since Jane was born on the same birthday it was always felt that she was meant to take Ruthie's place. Losing Ruthie was devastating to Alfred, he could never bring himself to visit her grave. She is interned at the Evergreen Mausoleum in Oakland CA.
Perhaps the most salient memory of Ruth Honor's life was the devastating earthquake and fire of April 18, 1906, shortly after her first anniversary an two days before her husband's 51st birthday.
Great Grandmother Ida piled all she could on top of her trundle sewing machine and pushed it to the top of Nob Hill to escape the fire. Ruth spoke to her daughters of the people jumping out of buildings landing in front of her; of the bodies piled up in Union Square with lye around them to keep the rats away; how there was no water from the hydrants because the contractor never hooked them up to the water lines -- a scandal involving the mayor was later exposed. The charge for a ride on the ferry to get out of the city was $100.00 in gold. Alfred's newspapers that he rolled in the fireplace to light a fire in his office in the morning were untouched while the rest of the building was in ruins. Ruth's hair turned pure white within a year. She was 21 years old.
