Dear Faye,
I apologize for not mentioning this sooner. I thought I had.
My Great-Grandpa Press (in a nutshell) basically thought it looked cool (more distinguished) to add it when he married his first wife Ellen Cochran. He dropped it when he married my/our Great-Grandma Nancy Taylor. He told the grand kids that he just thought it looked nicer. No real reason at all according to my Aunt Jackie. She shared a lot of stories about him.
Others have speculated that he added it knowing that he was going to leave her the entire time and dropped it to hide out. I seriously doubt that was the case since they had 8 kids together. [That's a long time to be with someone - just biding your time until you leave them.] She never did say why they actually split up. Doubt if they told her or anyone as to why, outside of themselves.
Its just as simple as that. He wanted to add it.
My favorite story that Aunt Jackie tells about him is that when he was very ill (he had cancer before it was called cancer). He paid the grand kids $0.25 to scratch his back. She said that he had a hole in his back the size of a dinner plate and it itched all the time, she made a lot of coins scratching his back and he loved it.
I hope this clears the “H” mystery up for you.
Thanks as always and Welcome to the family,
Sheila Jean Adkins Metcalf
