Beginning in 1899, Maida attended school at the Days Creek School. She exceled during her time at school as was evident by a newspaper article from 1905 that reported Maida and her brother had made the Roll of Honor for the first through third months of the year.
Education remained central to Maida’s life. She first attended the State Normal School in Monmouth, Oregon from 1906 to 1908 and then enrolled at the Oregon Agriculture College (O.A.C.) in Corvallis, Oregon in 1909. While at the O.A.C., she studied pharmacy and was a member of the Pharmacy Association. In 1911, Maida traveled to Portland to attend the Oregon Board of Pharmacy meeting; where she took and passed an examination to become a pharmacy assistant.
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| Image Credit: Ancestry User Lloyd (lsafley168) |
Maida left the comforts of her Corvallis home and moved to Seattle around 1912 to again further her education by entering the nursing training program at Seattle General Hospital. She graduated from the program on June 2, 1915. A week later, the Washington State Board of Examiners of Nurses approved Maida’s application to become a Registered Nurse.
Maida stayed in Seattle and found work as an assistant to Don H. Palmer, physician and Vice President of the Washington State Medical Association. On May 15, 1918 Maida enlisted in the Army Nurse Corps and was sent to Fort Riley, Kansas. In September of that year, she made the journey to begin her foreign service at Base Hospital Unit 50 in France during World War I.
The July 19, 1919 Daily Gazette Times in Corvallis, Oregon announced on the front page that “Miss Beals Returns”. It reported that Maida had arrived safely in New York and that her parents were excited for the reunion with their daughter. Six days later, the Seattle Star announced that that Maida and five of her fellow nurses arrived in Seattle by train, welcomed by many of their family and friends. Following her return, she found work in Seattle as an assistant to Howard J Knott, physician and secretary of the King County Medical Society.
Maida would find herself back in New York City to marry William Walton, a soldier she had met while on duty in France. They married on May 31, 1921 in St. Paul’s Church, the same church “where the flag of Base Hospital Unit No. 50…was dedicated and the last service held before the Unit departed for service overseas” . On March 25, 1922, William and Maida welcomed a son, William P., their only child, in New Jersey.
Tragedy struck Maida on November 30, 1924 when her sister Ora Fern passed away from complications of a sinus infection at the young age of 26. Like her sister, Ora became a nurse and had spent time at Seattle General Hospital. She had spent time living with her Maida during her time in New York.
Maida lost another family member when her mother, Alice Patrick, passed away in Corvallis on May 15, 1926 at the age of 59.
By the 1930, Maida returned to the Pacific Northwest. She found work as a nurse at the Veteran’s Administration Hospital in Walla Walla, Washington which was dedicated to treating veterans with tuberculosis. Her husband William joined her out West but by 1930 the couple was living in separate households.
William and Maida divorced in the early 1930s and by 1933 William had remarried to Gladys Reynolds. Just four years later on January 15, 1937, William passed away at the age of 44.
On Easter Sunday 1944, Maida’s father Oliver Templeton Beals passed away in Corvallis, Oregon after coming down with hypostatic pneumonia.
Maida remained in Walla Walla for the remainder of her life. She passed away one day before her 70th birthday on March 17, 1962. She is buried at Mountain View Cemetery in Walla Walla.
Her son William attended Whitman College in Walla Walla and then went on to have his own career in the Army rising to the rank of Major in the Korean War. He passed away on December 5, 1987 in Alameda, California and is buried in Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Francisco.
Sources:
1. Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004. Place: Canyonville, Douglas, Oregon; Roll: 1346; Page: 1A; Enumeration District: 0056; FHL microfilm: 1241346.
2. Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006. Census Place: Corvallis, Benton, Oregon; Roll: T624_1278; Page: 7B; Enumeration District: 0001; FHL microfilm: 1375291. Ancestry.com
3. Washington State Department of Licensing, Business and Professions Division, Registered Nurses Licensing Files. Box 18. App No. 872. Online 2009. Washington State Archives, Office of the Secretary of State.
4. Oregon Agricultural College. The Orange (Yearbook). Vol 5 (1910/1911 academic year). 1912. Page 112. Accessed: http://oregondigital.org/sets/osu-yearbooks/oregondigital:qj72p7495#page/114/mode/1up
5. Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Seattle, Washington, City Directory, 1913-1916, 1918-1921
6. Nursing News and Announcements. July 1918. Page 912-913 URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3405811
7. Nursing News and Announcements. September 1918. Page 1195 URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3405811
8. Nurses Welcome Home to Seattle. The Seattle Star. Friday, July 25, 1919 Page 3 URL: http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn87093407/1919-07-25/ed-1/seq-3.pdf
9. Seattle, Washington, City Directory, 1919. Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.
10. Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.Census Place: Seattle, King, Washington; Roll: T625_1925; Page: 15A; Enumeration District: 67; Image: 588.
11. NYC Brides Record Index. Maide Beals. May 31, 1921. Certificate No. 12982. URL:http://italiangen.org/records-search/brides.php
12. Certificate of Death. Oregon State Board of Health. Ora Fern Beals. State Registered No. 135 Local Register No. 124. Accessed at: http://image2.findagrave.com/photos/2012/336/18814895_135451525407.jpg
13. Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002. Census Place: Walla Walla, Walla Walla, Washington; Roll: 2523; Page: 3B; Enumeration District: 0016; Image: 200.0; FHL microfilm: 2342257.
14. Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Census Place: Walla Walla, Walla Walla, Washington; Roll: T627_4367; Page: 1B; Enumeration District: 36-48.
15. Ancestry.com. Walla Walla, Washington, City Directory, 1933-1935. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.
16. Ancestry.com. U.S., Headstone Applications for Military Veterans, 1925-1963 [database on-line]. Maida Beals Walton. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.
17. Certificate of Death. Oregon State Board of Health. Alice Bell Beals. State Registered No. 55 Local Register No. 39. Accessed at: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=18814847&PIpi=71927372
18. Ancestry.com. U.S., Headstone Applications for Military Veterans, 1925-1963 [database on-line]. William P. Walton. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.
19. Washington State Death Certificate Index 1907-1960. William P. Walton. URL: http://digitalarchives.wa.gov/Record/View/C8BE37C269FF51C6A04C79F6CB31CCB4
20. “Oliver T. Beals Dies on Easter Sunday”. Corvallis Gazette Times Monday, April 10, 1944 Page Six
21. Standard Certificate of Death. Oregon State Board of Health. Oliver Templeton Beals. State File No. 58 Local Register No. 62. Accessed at: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=18814794&PIpi=71928860
22. "Nurse weds War Veteran" Corvallis Gazette-Times (Corvallis, Oregon) · Sat, Jun 11, 1921 · Page 6
23. Photos. Ancestry.com Family Trees. User: lsafley168
