Emma Jane Porter

  General Notes:

We called her Ma Small. She was a nice lady. I always remember the filled raisin cookies she made - a flat cookie on the bottom, filled with a spoonful of raisins, and then topped off with another layer of cookie dough with a hole in the center. Yummy!
When I was growing up, she lived at 527 Brandon Street, which was right around the corner from where I lived on Welty Street. In fact, her home sat at the back of her property and only 40 feet from my home.
She had a very hard life growing up in the area of Wellersburg, Pennsylvania, near the Maryland border as her family was very poor. When she left Wellersburg, she vowed never to return. However, when her family knew of her new location, they would write and ask if she would be willing to take in an extra child or two to raise. This, of course, was in addition to raising her own two children.
In the last seven years of her life, she lived with her daughter, my grandparents, Helen and Levi Rosensteel, Jr. As the years aged her, her mind deteriorated to the point where she did not know her family. She died in 1958 at their home.
Emma Jane's two favorite hymns were "Beautiful Isle of Somewhere" and "Whispering Hope."

Emma married John Henry Casper Small, son of Christian Small (Schmall) and Catherine Engle, on 29 Jan 1896 in McKeesport, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. (John Henry Casper Small was born on 4 Jul 1867 in Cumberland, Allegheny County, Maryland, died on 26 May 1949 in Greensburg, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania and was buried in Hillview Cemetery, Greensburg, Westmoreland Co., PA.)