1. Elsie, born 1899
2. Murriel, born 1901, died 1901
   The younger, Murriel, died in her first year and is buried at Union cemetery in Laconia, along side her uncle Harlow and grandfather Philo Rickert.

   All of their married life Bert and Grace lived in the same house at 14 Oak Street, Laconia. The house was heated by a huge cast-iron wood burning stove in the kitchen, with vents in the ceiling to heat the upper floor, augmented by a kerosine by a kerkosine heater in the front of the house. The combination of the wood smoke and the kerosine gave the house a characteristic odor. The wood stove burned culls from a wood-turning factory; spindles and wheels and marvellous shapes, a treasure trove for an imaginative child.

   
   
   Their daughter Elsie was the first in the family to go off to college, to the University of New Hampshire, on a Bishop's scholarship. She studied art and education, cut her hair in a bob and wore her galoshes open. She was a thoroughly modern Elsie! After graduation, she accepted a position of art teacher in Glocester, MA. Summer vacations she returned to Lake Dunmore where she worked in Aunt Jennie's Tea House. One summer she met a brash young man, counsellor at a nearby summer camp. His name was Lester Rounds. The following summer they married.
   He was a Columbia graduate, a reporter for the Brooklyn Eagle. Later he went into PR work and then advertising. They lived at first in New York City, and their babies - Priscilla and 2 years later, Nancy - were born there.

   In 1940 they moved to Westport Connecticut. Elsie had all she had ever imagined as a girl: a big house, a successful husband, 2 beautiful children, a station wagon and an Irish Setter. How could she have been discontented?

Bessie was red haired, full of spunk and ginger. She was only 16 when she ran away with the circus and married the star of the show, the man on the flying trapeze, Hayes Werntz. He trained her, and she became part of the act. They were billed as "The Flying Werntzes"
Elsie occasionally visited her aunt and uncle when the circus came through Laconia. As aerialists, the Werntzes ate at the head table, but the child Elsie prefered sitting with the clowns.
Bessie and Hayes travelled with the circus for years, later settling in Akron Ohio, where Hayes had a house-painting business.
Hayes and Bessie had two children:

1. Norma - married Ward Carlyn, 2 children.
2. Meade - married Marguerite, 1 child.

They built a summer cabin on Lake Dunmore in Vermont. Three rooms with a porch across the front with a kitchen lean-to, and an out-house out back. It had electricity but water was hauled from the creek at the bottom of the hill.

This cabin, called "Troublesover" became a mecca for her family, her daughter and grand daughters, her niece and grand nieces.

Her son Meade was unlucky in love and in life. His first wife, Marguerite, died soon after their daughter, Dolores, was born, and his second wife, Fern, was not interested in raising the girl. Thus, from the time Dolores was 2, Bessie raised her grand daughter.

Earl lost his wife, his child, his chance for a good life to alcohol. He lived the life of a wandering alcoholic, working sometimes in the merchant marine, sometimes as a cook, sometimes as a factory hand. His family would see him briefly and then he'd be gone again.
Earl married, briefly, but was divorced due to his drinking and inability to hold a steady job. He staggered in front of a car in New York city, and was hit; came home to his mother's where he died on Jan. 4, 1930.

Etta Howe was a beautiful woman, and independent. She left home when she was 16 years old, went to Rutland to work as a wiatress. She always worked, and worked hard, and did the best she could with what she had.
Etta and Earl knew each other only a short time before the marriage which took place in 1911. Later that spring Etta had a chance to become one of the "Harvey Girls" - an elite group of waitresses who worked in a chain of restaurants, one of which was being established in Arizona to celebrate the entry of Arizona into the Union in 1911. Earl was unemployed at the time, and so Etta took the job and went to Arizona.
Etta didn't like the weather in Arizona and after a few months returned to Akron where Earl was working in the rubber factory. She was employed in Akron as a waitress and their daughter Lois was born there.
Earl had started to drink heavily and soon after Lois was born Etta left Earl and returned to Brandon by train. Earl followed her to Brandon and they lived together for about 6 months and then Etta left Earl because of his drinking. She moved to Montpelier and lived for a short time with a family by the name of Gallagher.
When she was offered a job at the Old Barre Hotel, in Barre -- where she continued to work until she retired in 1950 -- she left Lois with the Gallaghers, who cared for the child for a year or so and then placed her with a family by the name of Gebo.
However, when Lois was 12 the Gebos had her baptized into the Catholic faith under the name of Margaret Eloise Gebo. Etta had no objections to the baptism but was furious with the Gebos for giving Lois the wrong name. She made her identity known to Lois and brought her daughter into the Rickert family. Thus Louis came to know her grandmother, her cousins, aunts and uncles from her father's side.
Etta was 78 years old when she died in 1962.

Lois was a beauty like her mother. She won several beauty contests but didn't consider a career. She married young, to a promising attorney, Reginald Abare, and settled in Barre. Their son, Tom, was born in 1936. When Tom was in school, Lois took a job in the Vermont Motor Vehicle Dept.
Some years later, Lois and Reggie separated. Louis went to New York City, where she worked for Lord & Taylor and had an apartment in Brooklyn. Lois joined AA in New York and remained sober for over 8 years. She died of heart failure at the age of 52.