My Great-Great Aunt, Dr. Sina Stratton-Michener

 The following account was written by my great-great Aunt Sina Stratton-Michener. She was the sister of my great grandmother, Abigail Stratton Llewellyn. She was an eye doctor (M.D. ophthalmologist) who practiced for 57 years until she was 88 years old! She graduated from medical school in 1895. She lived to be 94 years old. When my grandfather, William T. Llewellyn, had a farm accident that tore off some of his fingers when he was a young man, she took care of him and then sent him to Westtown Friends School and later to Penn State University for one year to study geology. She had controlling interest in a gold mine in the west, which my grandfather soon realized was not a sound investment, so she lost money on that, and he only finished one year of university. 

So here is her account, which appears to be truncated for some reason. It overlaps some of Daniel Stratton’s autobiographical writing I posted earlier.

FAMILY BIOGRAPHIES 

written by Sina Stratton-Michener.  

L-r: Nellie, Ellen Stanley Stratton (their mother) and Sina Stratton about 1900. Ellen wore Quaker 'plain dress.'

 I was born on the 17th day of Fifth Month 1864 at Winona, Columbiana County, Ohio. My parents were Benjamin D.and EllenStanley Stratton. My father's parents were Daniel and Abigail Borton Stratton, and my mother's parents were Andrew and Ruth- Coppock; all born in or near Salem, Ohio. Their children were  

Ruthanna who married Joseph H. Branson of Flushing, Ohio  

Abbie  “ “ Elisha T. Llewellyn of Pennsville, Ohio

John F. “ “ Dorothy Hobson of Plymouth, Ohio  

Charles  “ “ Mary French near Salem, Ohio

Abram  “ “ Hanna D. Brantingham, Winona, Ohio 

Many Ellen Graduate of New England Hospital for nursing

Sina            Graduate Woman's Medical College, specialty Refraction. 

The four older children were born in or near Salem, the three younger at Winona where Father had bought a grist mill with about 12 acres of land, on which were an apple and peach orchard, and a maple grove. When Father and Mother and family moved to Winona, Grandfather Daniel and Aunt Esther also came to the house, now standing, a little north east of the corner building, opposite the mill. Aunt Esther was married from there to Joseph Masters of Pennsville, Ohio, and went there to live, and Grandfather Daniel came to the northwest corner room on the second floor of our house. He paid long visits to Aunt Esther to help her care for her growing family. He passed away at our house in 1872. Of course we missed him very much, for he liked to have us with him.  

When I was a baby, Jacob Sides and Hannah, she a niece of Grandfather's, came out to see him, and brought with them their twin girls, Amy and Bessie. They looked so much alike that even their parents could not tell which one it was if they appeared alone. This was a great event in the life of the little community. They were talked about so much, that I did not realize that all I knew was hearsay. (!)  

Grandfather Daniel had three children that I remember: Benjamin Davis, who married Ellen Stanley,; Barclay, who married Hannah Hobson; and Esther, who married Joseph Masters.  

My father was born 6th month 5th 1825, in or near Salem, Ohio, and was the son of Daniel and Abigail (Borton) Stratton. My mother was born in Salem 12th month 24th 1824, the daughter of Andrew and Ruth (Coppock) Stanley. She was married to Benjamin D. Stratton the 31st of 5th month 1848. They had 7 children.  

Barclay Stratton married Hannah Hobson of Flushing, Ohio. He was Superintendant of Barnesville Boarding School. They had three children: Joseph C. who married Elizabeth Brantingham, a teacher; Dillwyn who married Elizabeth Hall; and Elizabeth who died at about age 16 in 1872 in Winona. (Dillwyn was a farmer in. Winona.)  

Esther married Joseph Masters. They lived at Pennesville, Ohio, and later at the mill at Winona.. Their children were  

Daniel, who married Hannah Hall. Lived at Pennesville and Florida  

 Anna M. “ “.Benjamin Whitson Moylan, PA.

Barclay  “ “ Elizabeth Pennell   

Esther M.. Some form of Social work Philadelphia, Pa

 Mary Abbie    married Elisha Brantingham  

Isaac  ???

Aunt Sina Stratton (middle) with my mother Mary Sager to the right of her. I’m standing beside my mother far right. This would be in 1955. The baby she’s holding is my brother Willi Sager. The woman on the far left I am pretty certain is Edith Stratton Platt, a first cousin of Sina’s, daughter of Hannah Stratton. Sina never had any children of her own, but loved babies and little children. She was rather tall and slender, as was my great Aunt Mabel Llewellyn. Those genes must derive from the Stratton side.

Friend of Friend of Friend of Albert Einstein!

 The six degrees of separation theorizes that everybody is within six or less social connections from each other. The connection of people socially is truly remarkable. 

As a boy growing up in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, I met a boy at school who was my age and lived nearby who shared some common interests. Harvey Rubin was a nice boy that enjoyed science and we both had chemistry sets. I had a little science laboratory set up in our basement where we did some experiments. I spent some time in their home and recall a special birthday for one of his two sisters that had a clown come, which was very unusual. 

Harvey came to visit me in Sebring, Florida back in the mid 1960’s after he moved to La Jolla, California. We kept in touch by correspondence back then, but later stopped. We lost track of each other until several years ago I discovered he had an account on LinkedIn. We spoke on the phone and emailed each other and caught up a bit. Which brings me back to the six degrees of separation. 

Harv’s father was a scientist. I always understood he was a psychiatrist. But in actual fact he did scientific research. Harv’s mother was an artist. But Harv sent me some photos of himself and his family several years ago via email. Included was this one.

The following is from an email I received from my childhood friend, Harv Rubin in 2019, and explains the photo.

“The last photo was taken in 1942 of my father, grandfather and family friend Albert Einstein in Princeton, NJ. My grandfather who was a prominent gynecologist in New York City was Einstein’s wife’s OB/GYN doctor. My father and grandfather visited Einstein on a number of weekends in which my father learned German. My grandfather immigrated to the US from Germany and spoke fluent German.

 

My father passed away in 2008 at 89 and my mother passed away in 2017 of dementia at 98. It’s amazing how much information people can obtain online about most people. He and his post-doctorate assistant published 32 scientific papers in respected journals. His goal was to win a Nobel Prize. He was on a “short list” for one but I believe the only reason he didn’t get it was he wasn’t associated a university or major research institute. My mother pursued her art making until her last year even though she too had dementia.”

So now you can see how the six degrees of separation applied to my social connection with Albert Einstein. We lived outside Philadelphia, and Einstein would have been at the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton back during WW2 when Harv’s father met him. Harv’s father was working on cracking the genetic code (DNA), researching protein synthesis, but was beaten to the punch by Watson and Crick. Although the Nobel committee considered one of his academic papers he never got his Nobel prize. But he did know Albert Einstein! And his grandfather was a famous OB/GYN that has a test named after him, the Rubin Test. Pretty cool.