Does anyone know who started the cecilware company. I am doing reserch for my grandson. His grandfather was Louis Cecil. He had a brother named Richard. His father was William Cecil. If any one knows anything about this family please let me know. Naomi Forney

Dear Naomi,
I found your post due to my compulsive Googling of my family's name :) The Cecilware company was established by my great-grandfather, William Cecil, who was the father of Richard Cecil and Louis too. My father was Bill (born William, but he changed his name on most documents to Bill), one of Richard's sons (the other is my uncle Dan, who lives in Rochester, NY; their sister Elizabeth, my aunt, lives in Ashland, OR). Richard died in 1971. According to my dad (who died in 1998), William, his grandfather, sold the company at some point and made out well financially from it -- I recall that at one point Dad got a substantial inheritance that we used to buy a new car and make a down payment on a house when we moved. How interesting that you're in Kansas, too! Dad was a professor at Washburn University in Topeka until his death. My mom still lives there. I am a grad student at KU, where I teach intro-level French. At one point I got a smallish tattoo of the Cecilware logo on my back to celebrate my family and my heritage. I hope this information is helpful to you, even though it comes 6 years after you first posted your request. You can contact me if you want to, and I can help you get in touch with other family. Best wishes, Thea

Hi. Thanks so much for writing to me. It is good to hear from you. I live in Galena Kansas, where I was born 69 years ago. I lived in Woodland California for years. My son James is married to Ruth Cecil, Louis's daughter. I knew Louis, he use to came up from southern California to see Ruth. We spent a lot of Christmas's with him before he died. Louis Benjamin was born aug 31, 1918 in New York. He died feb 6 1991 in Ventura County, Calif. Our son James and Ruth has 4 boys, Benjamin who is the oldest. He lives here in Galena, Andrew who lives in Osage Beach, Missouri, Jeremy who is still at home in Woodland and Andrew who is still at home. James and Jeremy were out her the last of March for our 50th Wedding Anniversary. Ruth teaches children in her home and couldn't come. She home taught all her children, they are all out of school now. I did the Genealogy on the Cecil Family and Ruth and all her children have a copy of it. My old computer crashed on me so I lost what I had but I do think I may have it on a disk. Would love to hear from you again. My address is naomiforney@embarqmail.com Naomi

Hi. Thanks so much for writing to me. It is good to hear from you. I live in Galena Kansas, where I was born 69 years ago. I lived in Woodland California for years. My son James is married to Ruth Cecil, Louis's daughter. I knew Louis, he use to came up from southern California to see Ruth. We spent a lot of Christmas's with him before he died. Louis Benjamin was born aug 31, 1918 in New York. He died feb 6 1991 in Ventura County, Calif. Our son James and Ruth has 4 boys, Benjamin who is the oldest. He lives here in Galena, Andrew who lives in Osage Beach, Missouri, Jeremy who is still at home in Woodland and Daniel who is still at home. James and Jeremy were out her the last of March for our 50th Wedding Anniversary. Ruth teaches children in her home and couldn't come. She home taught all her children, they are all out of school now. I did the Genealogy on the Cecil Family and Ruth and all her children have a copy of it. My old computer crashed on me so I lost what I had but I do think I may have it on a disk. Would love to hear from you again. My address is naomiforney@embarqmail.com Naomi