Rocket PoweR, InteRstellaR tRavel and eteRnal lIfe

Chapter Three
FAMILY
On August 7, 1918 Daniel Hungerford married Jessie
May Hopkins (1892–1981), a former music teacher who
since 1916 had served as a recording clerk at the County
Clerk’s office. 54 Her late father, Isaac N. Hopkins, had
worked variously as a watch repairer, a manager of a
second-hand store, and an operator of a storage facility.
Jessie’s brother, Robert N. Hopkins, was a sign painter
who resided with his mother.
The newlyweds first made their home at the
Hopkins’ residence at 106 Guinnip Avenue before moving
to 361 Hoffman Street. On August 18, 1918 the
Telegram reported that Mr. and Mrs. Daniel D.
Hungerford had returned from their wedding trip to
live at 362 [sic] Hoffman Street “until their new home
on upper West Water street [sic] is completed.” The
newspaper on October 5, 1919 said the Hungerford couple
visited with her mother in Tarrytown, Maryland,
but would “reside at No. 825 West Second street [sic].” 55
According to directory listings, in 1928 Daniel and Jessie
resided at 501 Edgewood Drive and in 1929 at 122
Cleveland Avenue.
A surviving photograph from the 1920s shows a pregnant
Jessie Hungerford. A caption attached to the image
says she was “pregnant with a baby she ultimately
lost.” 56 However, Jessie and Daniel later became the
parents of Shirley Lois Hungerford, born May 21, 1923
at the Wilhelmina Hospital in Rochester. 57
The Hungerford marriage did not last. The 1930 census
indicated that Jessie Hopkins Hungerford was
divorced. She resided with her widowed mother, Jennie
Hopkins, and her daughter, Shirley, in a South Avenue
apartment for which the monthly rent was $30. City
directories by 1930 showed Jesse M. Hungerford as a
stenographer in 1930 and as a naturalization clerk in the
County Clerk’s office in 1932. In both directories she
was listed as residing at 103 Underwood Avenue.
Figure 9. Jessie Hopkins Hungerford and Daniel D. Hungerford,
ca. 1918.
Photograph courtesy of Mrs. John Schatz. Figure 10. Shirley Lois Hungerford and a doll, ca. 1927.
Daniel and Floyd Hungerford: Rocket Power, Interstellar Travel and Eternal Life, by Geofrey N. Stein. New York State Museum Record 4, © 2013 by The
University of the State of New York, The State Education Department, Albany, New York. All rights reserved.
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