School has let out for the summer. Graduation ceremonies have ended and summer has begun. I am so looking forward to taking a break and getting some rest. While I’m on the topic of graduations, I do want to say congratulations to my nephew Patrick DOWDY, and to my cousin’s son, Michael LARKIN, on their graduations this weekend. Best wishes, Patrick and Michael!
2018 graduate Patrick DOWDY. I wish we’d been closer so we could have gotten a better photo.
2018 graduate Michael LARKIN. I was in a much better spot for Michael’s photo.
This week I’m going to re-post the blogs about John BATES so that next week I can continue the story of his final years and let you know what actually happened to him and where he is buried. I’ve been wanting to finish John’s story for a while now.
I hope your week is restful.
Welcome to week 19 of 2018 and week 2 of my short hiatus from blogging about my own personal family (and my husband’s). Just this week and one more and I’ll get back to blogging about our families. During my hiatus, I’m posting information that is not easily found elsewhere. In case you’re just joining me I’ll let you know that I’m posting records of children who passed through the Jasper County Alms House (the “poor farm”) near Carthage, Jasper County, Missouri. Today I’ll be posting about one family and I’ll also be recommending one blog I just found and a couple of podcasts I’m enjoying.
Let’s start with the blog. I just finished watching the most recent season of Relative Race on BYUTV. (If you don’t get BYUTV, contact your satellite or cable company. It’s a family-oriented channel with lots of genealogy and family-friendly programming available.) On episode 8 of Relative Race (Season 3, original air date 22 April 2018), there was a brief mention that Team Black (Johnathon and Rebecca HOYT) had met a relative who podcasts her family history and this relative (Dru MATTIMOE) interviewed Team Black for her podcast. For a long time now, I’ve been thinking about creating a podcast that goes along with my blog so this bit of information caught my attention. I did a little internet sleuthing and found Dru! Before finding Dru though, I found her blog- Coffee and Headphones. The first post I read was entitled, Relevé, Plié. The link above will take you right to that post. Before I could read even a word of her post I was immediately taken back to my childhood ballet and tap days. Some of my friends and I were in dance classes when I was little. Here is a photo of my friend, Genita (on the right), and I in our dance costumes for the tap portion of our dance classes. This was right before a performance. We were standing in her grandma’s yard right next door to my house on the “old highway” in Jay, Delaware County, Oklahoma. Her grandma was my babysitter for several years when I was young. I was probably about 8 or 9 years old in this photograph.
I happen to work at the same high school where Genita’s daughter attends now and I saw her within a day or so of reading Dru’s post and thinking about Genita and our dance days. Maybe I’ll take a copy of this photo to her daughter one day before school’s out.
Yesterday I got to talk with Dru. (I was trying to fix the lawnmower yesterday so I hope I didn’t look too wild and crazy for our video chat!) I enjoyed our conversation and I’m looking forward to following her blog as well as her podcasting adventures. So GO READ DRU’S BLOG! I’m enjoying it and I think you will too, especially if you like a little ‘Hollywood’ to go with your history! Speaking of podcasts, I’m in the car often so I listen to a lot of podcasts. I was recently listening to an episode of Always Listening and the host, Joel SHARPTON, recommended Tyler Mahan COE’s podcast Cocaine and Rhinestones (which is both a podcast and a blog that follows along with the podcast). Tyler podcasts the history of country music. Now, I’m not the world’s biggest country music fan but something Joel said caught my interest so I flipped over to Cocaine and Rhinestones and I was hooked on the first episode (which for me, by the way, was Season 1, Episode 3, The Murder Ballad of Spade Cooley). I’m about halfway through Season 1 right now. Go take a listen. Season 1 is all about the old names in country music- the ones my dad played in the cassette player of that dinky little Datsun pickup that my parents somehow managed to fit two adults and three children into back in the days when seatbelts were optional (and rarely used). Sure wish I had a photo of that pickup truck. Here’s a similar one found at CFI America:
Don’t make the mistake of looking at this pickup as anything close to a full-size pickup truck. These things were TINY!!
Now for the orphans. If you aren’t interested, you can cut out now. It won’t hurt my feelings. If you are interested, read on.
Above is the cover and description of the records for anyone interested. Below is the first page of the transcription. I’ll be skipping the second child (#2- Elija ROBINSON). Just yesterday I made a breakthrough on Elija so I’m saving that for next week so I can research it a little more. This week I’ll be discussing children Rhoda and Eva MALONE and their mom, Mary MALONE (#5-#7 on the list).
Here’s what I know about the MALONE sisters. Mary MALONE came to the alms house with her two daughters- Rhoda and Eva- in February of 1883. Mary was born in 1842 in Illinois. She died (presumably at the alms house since it’s in their records) in August of 1886. She came in with her daughter Rhoda who was born in 1863 in Illinois and her daughter Eva who was born in 1874 in Illinois. I want to be clear here, I am presuming relationships based on the same last name and that they were all admitted to the alms house in February of 1883. There is no disability listed with Mary’s name or the girls’ names. Perhaps Mary was too sick to continue caring for herself or the girls anymore or perhaps she was too poor to do so and couldn’t find enough work. I don’t know. The above is literally all the information I had to go on.
So Mary would have been about 41 years old when she was admitted and 44 years old when she passed away. Rhoda would have been about 20 years old and Eva about 9 years old upon admission to the alms house. There is no discharge date for Rhoda or Eva. Looking at all the MALONE families in the area at that time, I think the most likely family for these people was the family of John and Mary “Polly” (HENDRICKS) MALONE. This family (at least the mother and children- I’m not sure about the father) moved from Adams County, Illinois sometime between 4 July 1870 and 15 June 1880 to Jasper County, Missouri. In 1880, Mary (sometimes listed as Polly) had the following children: Rhoda (born about 1863 in Illinois), Adam (born about 1866 in Illinois), Hiram (born about about August of 1869 in Illinois), and Eva (born about 1874 in Illinois). With this information, the gap in age from Rhoda to Eva makes a little more sense! Mary was a widow in 1880. She and her children were living in Preston, Jasper County, Missouri. I can’t find Rhoda in 1900. Eva is a servant in the Arnold household in Golden City, Barton County, Missouri. Adam is living with Hiram and Hiram’s family in Richland, Barton County, Missouri. Hiram, Adam, and Eva all married and had children. Adam passed away in 1921 (of Paresis), Eva in 1943 (of Myocarditis), and Hiram in 1950 (of Pneumonia and infirmities of age). I have contacted a member of this family and am exchanging information with her in an effort to figure out if this is the correct family and, if so, to link the family’s alms house years back into their historical record. In case you’re wondering why I didn’t bring up the death record of Mary, there isn’t one that I can find.
If you’ve made it this far- thanks for reading. Don’t forget to check out Dru’s blog, Coffee and Headphones. Also check out Tyler’s podcast, Cocaine and Rhinestones (or, if you just aren’t interested in country, maybe check out Joel’s podcast, Always Listening, which introduces you to new podcasts). You can also check out my sister-in-law’s blog at Down in the Root Cellar.
Take care of YOU this week!
Until next time,
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog
Last week was so busy! The last two or three months of each school year are always insanely busy. I think I’ve finally hit that point where I won’t be blogging for a few weeks until all this craziness is over. I’m proud of the fact that this year I’ve been able to hold off the “no blogging” streak for a month to month and a half longer than normal. I’m going to cut myself some slack and not have a schedule for the next three weeks or so. I will blog when I can and I will try to tell a very short story and/or photograph on Sunday rather than provide a schedule. Hopefully in a month or so I’ll be able to tell some of the stories that were put on hold (like John BATES’ final years). For now, I’m going to back off because I think any schedule at this point would be too much.
Today’s short story is about one of the earliest tenants at Jasper County Alms House (the “poor farm”) in Carthage, Jasper County, Missouri. While I was at Joplin researching a couple of weeks ago I spent most of my time looking through a book containing a list of people who stayed there. One of my strongest thoughts when going through this book was how many of the children who came there ever made it back to their families? How did they get separated? What happened when they left there? I had so many questions. I’ve found that there isn’t much information online about a lot of the children that came to the home. For many of them I can’t even find out who their original families were.
The first person on the list was Clarissa YOAS. Clarissa was born 157 years ago. She was 14 years old when she was admitted to the alms house in 1875. She (or whomever brought her there) gave her birth year as 1861 and her birth state as Pennsylvania. She was single. Later in the book there is another entry for Clarissa. It said she was the daughter of Henry YOAS. She died on 30 December 1942 and was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Galena, Cherokee County, Kansas. No other family members were admitted with Clarissa. If she was born in Pennsylvania, how did she get to Missouri? She had to come with someone. Why did they leave her at the Alms House? Did she have any family left? Do her descendants know about what happened to her? Does she even have any direct descendants? So many questions! So I did a quick search on Ancestry.com, Google, and Newspapers.com for Clarissa.
The majority of records that Clarissa appeared on were census records. Other than those records, I found her in the alms house record and I found her death certificate. There were no newspaper articles about her that I could find. Clarissa’s surname was spelled a variety of ways (YOAS, YOES, YOSE, and YOOS). Her first name was written as Clarissa, Clarisa, and Clara. Although the alms house record, death certificate, and some of the census records gave her birth year as 1861, at least one census gave her birth year as 1857 and another as 1851. Her birth state never varied- it was always Pennsylvania. Clarissa never married. She remained at the alms house from age 14 to the end of her life at age 81. If she ever had a child, it was not recorded in the alms house record and is not in any record I could locate on Ancestry.com.
In the 1880 census, Clarissa was marked as being “idiotic” which would explain her presence at the alms house and would also explain why she never left. In 1880, the definition of “idiotic” for purposes of the federal census was, “a person the development of whose mental faculties were arrested in infancy or childhood before coming to maturity”. Additional information found on Genealogy.com about this subject says, “a number of known disabilities would have fallen under this category, including Downs Syndrome”. Clarissa was also marked as a pauper on this census. It is interesting to note that in 1880 just across the state line in Lowell, Garden Township, Cherokee County, Kansas (only 5 miles from where Clarissa was buried) is another YOAS family with a son, Francis YOAS, who is listed as “insane”. He was born in Ohio in 1863.
The alms house went through a number of superintendents in the 67 years that Clarissa lived there. The earliest superintendent was Benjamin HAMMER along with his wife, Tennie. In 1900, it was James NALL and his wife, Laura. In 1910, I couldn’t find Clarissa (nor could I find anyone else I expected to find living at the alms house). In 1920 George W. MAXWELL was superintendent. Jud HOWELL and his wife Eva managed the alms house in 1930. The final available census is 1940. It was unclear who was managing the alms house in 1940. In the 1940 census, Clarissa declared she worked 4 hours a week. At the poor farms, every individual worked at a certain job and the job was tailored to what the individual was able to do. One additional thing I noticed in these census records is that people living at the poor farm were called “inmates”.
On 30 December 1942, Clarissa died. Her cause of death was listed as Senility. Her body was held for 13 months- possibly so family could claim her body if there were any family. Her death certificate listed her dad as Henry YOAS but did not list her mother. Clarissa was buried on 31 January 1943 at Oak Hill Cemetery in Galena, Cherokee County, Kansas.
I’ve been unable to figure out who Clarissa’s parents and other family members were. There are several families that I suspect are either parents or are closely related to Clarissa. The family whose son was “insane” is one of the families I feel is closely related to Clarissa. They are buried in a cemetery a few miles away from Clarissa (except for the “insane” son who ended up in an insane asylum and is buried in that asylum’s burial ground in Osawatomie, Kansas). That family is Ernst and Lucy YOAS’ family. They could be Clarissa’s parents but I don’t think so. I think Clarissa’s parents may be Henry and Elizabeth YOAS. Another possibility for her parents are Georg Heinrich and Elizabeth YOAS. I have messaged a person on Ancestry.com who I think may be able to answer some of my questions about Clarissa. If I hear back from her I’ll let you know.
Until then,
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog
This week I’m trying to ease back into blogging after a couple of busy weeks. I’ve had a couple of stories sitting on the back burner waiting on their turn so I’m telling those this week. (Actually, I have a BUNCH on the back burner! I’m hoping the summer is less busy so I can get those written and pushed out to you all!) Today I want to tell you about a sweet person I “met” via email last month. This guy’s kindness really moved me.
Around the middle of March, I received an email from a man named Koen BOLCKMANS. Koen lives in Belgium. This guy is awesome! Here’s his pic:
So, that’s Koen. He’s pretty amazing. That gravestone he’s kneeling next to? That’s our family. Let me tell you the story.
I’ve heard that many Europeans adopt the graves of American servicemen (sometimes for that person’s lifetime and then they leave care of the grave to a relative to care for when they’re gone). I didn’t know anyone who did this but I’d heard stories. I couldn’t have told you if the stories were true or not but it was a nice “feel good” story. Then Koen emailed me. For the last 23 years (plus a little) he’s been taking care of this grave. The man buried in the grave is Henry CONN- the son of Daniel and Myrtle (BAKER) CONN. Myrtle was the sister of Mary Anne BAKER. Mary Anne was married to Ervin Alonzo (“Poppy”) DRAKE and the two of them were my paternal 2nd great grandparents. Henry CONN is buried at the American War Cemetery in Henri-Chapelle, Belgium. Henry was a Private in 78th Lightning Infantry Division, 311th Regiment, Company G.
BEFORE I FORGET: IF YOU HAVE A PHOTO OF HENRY CONN OR YOU KNOW SOMEONE WHO DOES AND WOULD SCAN AND EMAIL ME A COPY, I WOULD LOVE TO PROVIDE KOEN WITH A PHOTOGRAPH OF HENRY!
Koen told me that he’s tried to research Henry. (Just a note: he’s done more than try! He knew a lot about Henry before he ever contacted me!) Koen said Henry was killed in action on the second day of the assault on Kesternich, Germany inside the village clearing houses on 31 January 1945- the same day Henry’s brother, Ernest, turned 26. Koen sent me a link to Henry’s online memorial. I encourage you to go visit it at the Fields of Honor database. Like I said, I have always heard that Europeans adopted the graves of American service men who died overseas. I just never thought about them caring for one of our family members. I think Koen is doing a fabulous job, don’t you? I do need to mention that his friend, Astrid van Erp, helps him with this endeavor. Astrid had asked a question on a public forum that I answered prior to Koen’s email so I actually “met” Astrid first.
Henry Aubrey CONN was born 23 July 1914 in Reeds, Jasper County, Missouri. His parents were Daniel and Myrtle (BAKER) CONN. Henry was the fourth of six children born to Daniel and Myrtle.
In 1922, when Henry was 7 years old, he wrote a letter to Santa that was published in the Galena, Kansas newspaper:
I have had a lot of trouble following the family through the census records but I do know that in 1925, the family was living in Lafayette, Chautauqua County, Kansas. In 1925, Henry was 10 years old. He was not attending school and he couldn’t read or write.
On 19 April 1940 when the census enumerator (Benjamin RYBURN) came to the CONN home, the family was living in Beaty, Delaware County, Oklahoma. Henry was single, still living with his parents, and was working as a mechanic’s helper at a local garage. In October of that same year he completed his draft card. He listed his residence at that time as San Leandro, Alameda County, California. There are several issues with the draft card. Henry originally listed an Oakland, California address. That was crossed out in 1941 and the San Leandro address was typed in. He listed his mom as living in South West City, McDonald County, Missouri. This is only a small discrepancy because the Beaty area of Delaware County, Oklahoma connects to South West City, McDonald County, Missouri. Apparently the discrepancy between San Leandro, California and Oakland, California is also minor. Henry did state that he worked in Oakland for a man named Billy Rose.
Just over a year later, in November of 1941, Henry enlisted in the Army and eventually went to war in the European theatre in World War II.
He went missing on his brother Ernest’s birthday – 31 January 1945. Henry was 31 years old when he went missing. According to Koen, Henry was “killed in action on the second day of the assault on Kesternich, Germany, inside the village clearing houses on 31 January 1945.” Henry was awarded the Purple Heart. He was buried in American War Cemetery in Henri-Chapelle, Belgium. Koen provided me with this news article giving Henry’s MIA status.
You can read a detailed account of the battle at Kesternich, Germany in this PDF document: kesternich germany battle henry conn week 16
The day before and day of Henry’s death is detailed beginning on the report page numbered 14 (on the PDF it is page 15 of 50).
If you’d like the Wikipedia version, go here. You can also read the historynet.com version at this link. For some great photos, try the Facebook group. You can read about the 78th Lightning Infantry Division at Wikipedia here. A booklet was published about the 78th and you can read that online here. You can find a photo of GI’s with the 78th here. There is a lot of information on the internet about the 78th and about Company G. I encourage you to Google it and take a look at the links.
Before closing, I want to provide this article from The Sarcoxie Record about Koen. He emailed it to me so I thought I would provide it here so you can learn a little more about Koen. sarcoxie record page 1 henry conn week 16 sarcoxie record page 2 henry conn week 16
To Koen, I’d like to say thank you for taking care of Henry’s grave and for contacting me to let me know where Henry is buried. I hope someone returns the favor to you one day.
Until next week,
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog
Sources for this post include:
Koen Bolckmans & Astrid Van Erp; Newspapers.com; Ancestry.com; Fold3
So much has happened in the last few weeks! After spring break, school was back in session for one week. The two weeks following that one, the teachers were on a walkout and I (along with about 40,000-50,000 fellow teachers from across the state) spent almost all of that week in Oklahoma City at the capitol building talking to legislators about funding for education. The next week I spent one day at the capital but had to take the rest of the week at home trying to get taxes together, prescriptions filled, bills paid, and all the things that hadn’t gotten done while I was busy in Oklahoma City (and my fellow teachers continued on at the capitol). This week we’re set to return to school. I’ll go back to the capital once about every 2 weeks with a delegate committee to continue our business there. Meanwhile, Bart was in Baytown, Texas from about the end of February through the end of March. He then went from Baytown, Texas to New Orleans, Louisiana for a week. I sure wish I could have gone there! He flew in yesterday evening. He’ll have about 8 more weeks on his work season and then we can begin summer vacation! I’m looking forward to finishing the last 5 weeks of school and then taking a break.
I’m going to attempt a couple of short blog posts this week. Our school days have been extended so that we don’t have to add days to the end of the year which means I won’t have as much time to research or write for the next 5 weeks. This week’s schedule looks like this:
Tuesday: A short surprise blog post that I’m not ready to announce yet.
Friday: Friday I will blog but again, I’m not ready to announce the topic. Sorry!
Any extra blog posts I do will be posts that further the series’ I’ve already started about John BATES or Quincy BELL, or about contact I had recently with a genealogy researcher in Belgium, or about my recent teacher walkout experience. I can’t wait to write all of these posts for you!
Until then, enjoy your week!
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives
Dear friends (and boys- because I do hope you read these stories when you get older),
I have never been more proud of my profession, my coworkers, my administrators, or my school board. But I am also tired. I am also sad. I am also angry. I am so many emotions I can hardly contain them. Sun up to sun down every day for over a week now. But real life is like that, isn’t it? You hit a brick wall (or maybe just a roadblock, but today feels like a brick wall) and you feel as if you will never get past this moment. I will get past it. I know I will but I’m talking about raw emotion right now. I haven’t written a post since…well, I couldn’t even tell you without looking. It’s been a crazy couple of weeks. My life has been turned upside down and I’ve had one singular focus with no extra time for anything else. But I’m bowing out. Just for today. I’m taking a “me day”. I feel guilty. I should be sitting in church right now and Lord knows I need to be there but I just couldn’t. There’s a lot of bitterness and hatred in the world and I’ve felt it was aimed at me (and my friends) this past couple of weeks. I need a break.
This day’s been a long time coming. You see, I am a teacher- a librarian, yes, but surprise- librarians teach, too! I had to get a Masters degree to be a school librarian. I’ve worked in several different schools and have finally found the right school, the right grade levels, and the right community for me. For far too long, professionals in teaching positions all across this nation have been paid far too little for all that they do. We are degreed, certified, professionals. I could make more money at a QT convenience store than I make to help educate your children. How sad is that!
In late February, the teachers of West Virginia had had enough. They weren’t taking it anymore. They walked out. Their strike lasted 8 or 9 days. They got a raised but the funding is questionable. They are committed to striking again if lawmakers can’t do their jobs. Their brave actions set off a chain reaction across the nation amongst teachers who were underpaid, overworked, understaffed, and ill-equipped to do their jobs. My state, Oklahoma, was next in line and Kentucky is right on our heels. Arizona is fast approaching this point as well.
Good Friday, my first day holding a sign. Jay, OK, 2018. I was taking the photo. Left, Matt Nowlin Oklahoma/Arkansas Carpenters/Millwrights Local 216 #UnionStrong. To the right of Matt are my fellow teachers. #StrongerTogether
Oklahoma teachers walked out April 2nd. It is April 8th and we will not be going to school next week unless the legislators do their job and provide funding. We aren’t even asking for all that we should. We are only asking to be funded at the levels we had 10- TEN- years ago. We want textbooks that at least include the Obama presidency. That’s how old our textbooks are- they don’t even include the 8 years of the Obama presidency. There are so few textbooks left that students can’t even take them home to study. Teachers are using textbooks that are falling apart- some duct-taped together so they can be used. Teachers have 200 students and 50 textbooks. Is this what we want for our children?? Our future?? Chairs are broken. Our high school library- my little library- has a collection of books with an average copyright date of 1996. I have books older than me and I’m not talking classics or fairy tales. Actual novels and NONFICTION books older than me! Books that were here when I was in high school here 30 years ago. Books that were here when my children were going to school here in the early 2000’s. Yet teachers go into this environment every day and we still do our jobs the best we can. We still educate and care for the students entrusted to us.
I’m not telling you all this so you pity me. Don’t pity me. What I want is for you to get angry. Get angry that legislators have gotten away with telling you that this is how little your children mean to them! It’s intimidating to call a legislator, much less go visit them. And they are rude- I get that. But sometimes we have to do hard things for the people we love. Teachers have their raises. We could have stayed in school and forgotten about the fact that your kids still need textbooks and chairs and supplies but we didn’t. We care too much for our students. So here we are. We completed Day 5 of the walkout on Friday. Day 6 of the walkout is tomorrow. I’ll be there. Wouldn’t miss it. Will you join me? Yes. Yes. I know. You have jobs. You have lives. You had bad teachers so you’ll never support us. I get it. I do. But this isn’t for “us”. We already have our money (provided they will actually FUND the bill they passed). This is for your children. You have to make your own decisions and care for your own lives. I’ll still be going. Spending my own money on your children (again) and my own time (still) but it would be so much better if you would meet me there. Those legislators need to see YOUR face. They need to see YOUR children that they are shafting. The news is reporting that it’s chaotic and dangerous. That’s a lie. The place is crawling with State Troopers (who were also included in our funding request, I might add). They have been so good at what they do and so good to us. They have said this is one of the most peaceful (and even enjoyable) rallies they’ve ever seen. Teachers are polite, courteous, and pick up after themselves. No big surprise to me. We’ve been cleaning up after ourselves and your children (and legislators) for years.
I’m tired of being called greedy (and much worse). I’m tired of the DHS workers (whom we also included in our request for more funding) saying bad things about us. Saying that we aren’t doing enough when they don’t even show up at a rally designed to get more funding for them too. We didn’t have to include state workers but we did. That’s what teachers do- they care. I’m tired of defending myself, my profession, and my friends. I’m sick at the thought of how little a few of the community members think of us and how vocal they are compared to our supporters. My friends have left Facebook. They can’t take the teacher-bashing any more. They are staying home, trying to rejuvenate going into next week. You can see I’m sitting here (alone) on my couch writing to you because I’m an introvert and writing makes me feel better. I won’t quit though. My students aren’t second class citizens and neither am I. Even with this raise I won’t be earning a lot of money for a degreed, certified professional. I don’t do it for the money though so I’ll take what I can get. It’s been over a decade since teachers got raises. What degreed professional never gets a raise? I could drive 20 minutes further into Arkansas and earn $20,000 more and get a lot more respect but I love my little community. I don’t want to leave. I love our school board and our administrators who have so graciously backed us up and supported us. I will not stop defending them because they did not have to support us like this. I am beginning to wonder whether it’s worth it but I’m going to finish this fight. That way, if my grandsons should ever move to Oklahoma it will be a better place for them to get an education.
I’m not going to edit this post a lot. This is raw. This is how I feel. I’m going to have a good cry then I’m going to pick myself up, go visit my family and then get a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow, the Women in Black show up at the capitol building. I wouldn’t miss it for the world. See you in Oklahoma City tomorrow.
Peace,
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives
I’m going to take a week off from the blog this week as far as scheduled posts. If I have time, I will try to write a post or two but nothing scheduled. It’s going to be a busy week with a job evaluation, trying to gather up tax papers, and some other things going on. Rather than try to push things this week I’m just going to back off for a week and give myself a break. I hope you all have a good week. Feel free to volunteer to write a guest blog post for me. (Hint, hint!)
I’ll leave you with a few photos for the week. The first photo is Bart and Ginger on the beach in Galveston, Texas a week ago today. It was so overcast that day that a helicopter flew right over us very low to the ground and the only time we saw it was when it passed in front of the sun and even then we only saw the black shadow of it. The other photos are inside The Black Pearl restaurant where they had marked the water line after Hurricane Ike went through. The water line was about 8 feet up the wall. I would imagine there was a ton of clean up after Hurricane Ike. On the first restaurant photo I drew a red circle around the water line mark. We had a great day. If you get down to Galveston, I highly recommend The Black Pearl Oyster Bar and Grille. They make a fantastic Po’ Boy Shrimp Sandwich.
Go out there and have a great week. Your attitude makes all the difference and it’s the only thing you can control anyway.
Smiles,
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog
This blog post is about my paternal great grandfather, Ralph LARKIN. If you’d like to read past blog posts about him to refresh your memory before moving on, you can find information about him in these blog posts: Week 4- Weekend Wrap-Up (has a couple of newspaper articles) Weekend Wrap-Up for Week 2 (includes a document) Ralph Larkin and the Mystery of His Missing Sibling (includes photographs of Ralph and Bessie) Savory Saturday- The Kitchen is the Heart of the Home (includes a section about Bessie and Ralph plus a photograph) Medical Monday- Know Your Health History! (includes a document) Black Blizzards- The Second Dust Bowl, Abilene, Texas, 1954-1957 (includes photographs) Close to Home, Close to the Heart- Part 2
This past week I traveled down to Texas to spend some time. Bart and I enjoyed the beach in Galveston and I researched in a couple of different places. If you are ever in the Houston, Texas area I highly recommend the Clayton Library Center for Genealogical Research at 5300 Caroline Street. I barely scratched the surface of all they have there. I didn’t come away with anything I feel like I can share here on the blog yet but it was worth the trip. I had hoped to make it to the Sterling Municipal Library in Baytown, Texas but didn’t quite get there. On Thursday and Friday, in addition to visiting family, I got to go to the National Archives in Fort Worth, Texas. I had called ahead and let them know what I wanted to look at and to make an appointment so they were ready for me when I got there. I definitely recommend doing that if you get to go to the Archives. It will make your trip go much more smoothly. When you get there, you can expect to spend a few minutes getting a researcher card. You’ll have to provide state or federal photo identification and go through a short tutorial before getting your card and being allowed to research so plan your trip accordingly. Also, their last document pull is at 2:00 p.m. Anything you request after that time will have to wait for the following day. You should call ahead to confirm they will be open. While I was there they were talking about a potential shutdown as of midnight tonight due to the federal government not being able (or willing??) to finalize a budget for this country. So those types of things do affect the National Archives and you need to be aware of that. One last thing to be aware of- they do have restricted documents. Most times these documents will be removed before you get to see the files. From what I understand though, sometimes the documents are simply placed in an envelope and marked restricted but left inside the file and you are not allowed to photograph those documents. If the envelope is sealed you cannot unseal it to take a look.
Researching in the National Archives requires a different strategy than researching in a genealogical library. In the National Archives, you’re looking for records created by a government agency so you have to think in terms of how your family interacted with that agency. It takes a bit to become accustomed to the different way of thinking but it’s worth it. In this case, I went in knowing that I was looking for records created by the Bureau of Mines. Both mine and Bart’s families, as well as our daughter-in-law’s family, had miners who worked in the tri-state mining district of Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri. Specifically, I had seen photo identification/health records that another researcher had obtained and I believed these records were held by the National Archives. The Bureau of Mines operated a health clinic in Picher, Ottawa County, Oklahoma. The clinic had two sides. The side where they did examinations of miners for employment in the mines and for other issues (especially Tuberculosis and mining-related lung diseases) called the Picher Clinic as well as a second side of the clinic that treated venereal diseases. Apparently in the heyday of mining, Picher had a massive outbreak of syphilis and gonorrhea and the government felt it needed to bring the situation under control so they set up both a health clinic and a sexually transmitted disease (STD) clinic. The STD clinic was called the Picher Cooperative Clinic. It was called this because it was a cooperative effort between the Tri-State Zinc and Lead Ore Producers Association, the U. S. Public Health Service (office of the Surgeon General), and the U. S. Bureau of Mines, along with the help of various medical researchers. So, you’ve got medical researchers, the U. S. government, and an association that was led and governed by mine owners. What could go wrong?? Seriously though, they did a lot of good but they were also doing some experimental work on the miners. Having said that, we didn’t get where we are today in the medical field without experimental drug trials and studies, etc. Overall, I think there was a lot of good done by the Clinic and the head doctor, Frank V. MERIWETHER, whose official title was Acting Assistant Surgeon and who was appointed by the then-U. S. Surgeon General, Hugh S. CUMMING. Both Dr. MERIWETHER and Surgeon General Hugh CUMMING served under President Woodrow WILSON.
It really was so interesting to read all the letters and reports and studies talking about the work that Dr. MERIWETHER did. (I’ll admit I reminisced a little about my time as a paralegal at Hawley, Troxell, Ennis & Hawley law firm in Boise, Idaho where I worked on Superfund cases with reports similar to these.) Dr. MERIWETHER was constantly conducting medical research studies and trials on various health issues, traveling around the country to conferences, observing other doctors and allowing other doctors to come in and observe his work. He was even involved in a First Aid and Mine Rescue Contest. He was one of the lead researchers on Psuedo-Military Tuberculosis which you can read about on Wikipedia. The exact photo that’s on Wikipedia is in his files at the National Archives. I held it in my hands just yesterday! He led an interesting life. But I’m not here to talk about Dr. MERIWETHER today. I’m here to tell you what I found about my family!
It was more than 3/4 of the way through the second day and I was a little discouraged. Then I opened up a hand-tabulated chart for one of the studies that Dr. MERIWETHER was working on and there it was- ‘LARKIN, RALPH’!! I was so glad to find something!
(I apologize for the photos. When I pulled out my camera to take pictures it wasn’t working so I had to resort to cell phone photos. Also, names of other persons have been marked over in case any of them are still living.) There is no title to this chart nor any letter that I could find to explain it’s existence. So, going off the general work that Dr. MERIWETHER did and including the column titles on this chart, it looks like my great grandfather (Ralph LARKIN) went to see Dr. MERIWETHER about his teeth. Or at least, on the day Ralph went that’s what Dr. MERIWETHER was concerned about. The chart tracks the following information for the patients listed: Name, Occupation (at the mines), Eye health, Ear health, whether the miner had artificial teeth, whether the teeth were dirty, whether the miner had pyorrhea (another term for periodontitis, or an inflammation of the tissue around the teeth – Dorland’s Illustrated Medical Dictionary, 25th Edition), whether the miner had any teeth missing, whether the miner needed or wanted his teeth clean (I’m guessing on this one based on the fact that he already covered whether the teeth were clean and this column basically is yes or blank; the actual column title is ‘Clean’), whether the miner’s teeth are decayed, and a column each for Silicosis and Tuberculosis diagnoses both of which were a major reason for the Picher Clinic in the first place (and both were major areas of clinical research performed by Dr. MERIWETHER). Silicosis (also called Pneumoconiosis or Miner’s Lung or Black Lung Disease for coal miners) is a lung fibrosis caused by the inhalation of dust from stone, sand, or flint which contains silicon dioxide. (Dorland’s Illustrated Medical Dictionary, 25th Edition). The study of silicosis was a major, and apparently career-long, undertaking of Dr. MERIWETHER so I would not be surprised at all if the whole reason for checking patients’ teeth was because he had learned or suspected that silicosis caused certain dental conditions.
Miners with silicosis would eventually develop a cough that would progress into difficulty breathing and sometimes sharp chest pain when breathing. It could cause death if contact was continual and long term and the condition wasn’t treated. The disease would present very much like Bronchitis and when the doctor listened to your lungs he would hear them wheezing and crackling when you breathed. Miners with silicosis had an increased risk of other problems such as Tuberculosis, lung cancer, and chronic bronchitis. (Lung.org) Chronic silicosis might eventually lead to your legs swelling, an increased breathing rate, and a bluish discoloration of your lips. Chronic silicosis created an angel wing pattern on x-rays that was called “Angel of Death”. The disease ultimately led to respiratory failure and death if left untreated and/or with continued, prolonged exposure. Remember, in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s there was no OSHA to force your employer to provide you with health protections like breathing masks. They were also still trying to make advances on controlling and healing Tuberculosis and other diseases. (Also, just a little side note that surprised me: I say “him” when referring to miners but there were female miners as well. I was surprised by this. When you see photographs it’s always men but I did see at least one woman identified as a miner in Dr. MERIWETHER’s records.)
Photo is an example of the wing formation called “Angel of Death” that is caused by silicosis. Photo was found at Learning Radiology.
But, back to Ralph LARKIN. Ralph’s exam gave the following information about his health. He was a machinist. Ralph’s eyes and ears were “ok”. Ralph didn’t have any artificial teeth. His teeth were dirty (as were the majority of miners’ teeth according to this chart). He had pyorrhea. According to how I’m interpreting the chart, he was missing one upper tooth and 3 lower teeth. His teeth were not marked to be cleaned. There is no notation why they weren’t cleaned. He had several decayed teeth including 2 upper and 2 lower teeth. He had Late Stage 1 Silicosis. He was Class C for Tuberculosis. I’m not sure what Class C means. In regard to the silicosis diagnosis though, this is what I learned. Silicosis.com is a lawyer’s website for both Silicosis and Mesothelioma. Even though this is a legal and not medical website and their goal is to make money, it really put it into perspective for me when a site coupled Silicosis with Mesothelioma. I hadn’t realized that Silicosis was in the same class of disease as Mesothelioma. Although I haven’t been able to find stages of Silicosis, the Silicosis/Mesothelioma site did list stages of Mesothelioma and that website makes it seem as though the two diseases are extremely similar- enough so to be able to compare stages of the two diseases. Stage 1 of Mesothelioma means the disease is still “localized” or confined to the area of origin. Ralph was late stage 1. I’m guessing it was still localized to one small area of his lungs but he was on the verge of the first advanced stage of the disease. He would have experienced shortness of breath with physical activity. Possibly a fever and possibly some chest pain when breathing. Ralph had to have already had large amounts of silica dust in his lungs just for the disease to even be detectable. If Ralph smoked, the effects of the disease would have been worse. My dad always told me that Ralph had a lung disease. I really didn’t realize the extent of the lung disease until I found him on this chart this week and started researching silicosis.
The work that Dr. MERIWETHER did was so important to miners. He not only was expert enough to be appointed by the U. S. Surgeon General to a clinic specializing in diagnosing and treating miners, he was educating his peers all across the country and doing specialized trips to other mines across the country to help diagnose other miners. Even so, it wasn’t until the 1960’s that miners started demanding protections for their health. In 1973 (some 55 or so years after Ralph was diagnosed and 10 years after his death), coal miners received their protections via the Black Lung Benefits Act of 1973. Those who mined something other than coal were apparently not covered under these protections. (Black Lung Benefits Act of 1973)
Here are a few short YouTube videos on the subject.
If you’d like to learn more, I’ve read that you can look for a 2006 documentary by Shane Roberts that features interviews with miners suffering from silicosis as well as footage shot in the mines. I haven’t been able to find that documentary myself. NPR did an episode on this topic. If you prefer lighter entertainment, you might try watching the 1939 movie Four Wives in which actor Eddie Albert plays a doctor studying pneumoconiosis- much like Dr. MERIWETHER. I’ve tried to locate some of Dr. MERIWETHER’s studies and journal articles that were published but I’ve been unsuccessful. Quite a few recent researchers cite his work in their papers but I haven’t been able to find any of his actual published studies for you to look at.
Ralph’s family always believed it was the lung disease that killed him even though his death certificate does not bear that out. I’m sure the lung disease was never treated and did give him trouble since he was on the verge of the disease moving from Stage 1 to the initial advanced stages of the disease. Ralph was diagnosed with late stage 1 silicosis around October of 1927 as best I can tell. He had been working in the lead and zinc mines of Ottawa County, Oklahoma since at least 1918. My guess is he was probably already working there earlier than 1917. In 1918 he was working for Black Hawk Mining Company in Picher, Ottawa County, Oklahoma.
The screenshots below were found at Schehrer at homestead.com. This is a great website for learning about old Picher mining history. You could spend hours here just looking at photos.
On the same website I took a screenshot of the photo below of Quapaw, Oklahoma. The photo was taken about 1920 when Ralph and Bessie LARKIN would have been living there.
I believe the section of a Superfund government report below gives a better description of where Black Hawk Mine was located based on a more recent geographical description of Picher. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to find the business ‘Picher Express’ without the help of someone who knew what the town looked like before it was demolished. The last time I was there, there was practically nothing left of Picher Express except the shell of a building and an old pay phone. However, for those who remember Picher, it’s a good description of the location of Black Hawk Mine.
You can get your own copy of this report at the DEQ Superfund website.
Ralph left mining work sometime around late 1929 to early 1930. I’m sure 10-15 years in the mines without any kind of health precautions or proper medical care took a toll on his health. I’m going to leave you with a couple of photographs of some minerals found at Black Hawk Mine.
These photos were found on Minerals.net. Enjoy your weekend.
Peace and health,
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog
This past Sunday (18 March) was Ervin Alonzo DRAKE’s birthday. He was better known as Poppy, or Lon.
Above is a photo of Poppy and Annie with three of their children.
It seems Poppy was named after his grandfather, Ervin Alonzo DRAKE. I used to think Poppy’s name was Alonzo Ervin since he was sometimes called Poppy Lon but I’ve since come to think his name really is Ervin Alonzo and he was, perhaps, called Poppy or Lon to distinguish him from his grandfather. Poppy Lon was born in 1875 in McDonald County, Missouri, to William and Hester Ann Eglentine (MITCHELL) DRAKE. He was the first of 10 siblings. It was a known fact that back in the day the DRAKE’s liked to drink and fight. If you want to know just how rough some of them were, take a look at my series about his brother, “Red”, starting with part one. It’s quite a story!
I’ve written about Ervin, or Poppy Lon, here: Poppy Makes a Comebackand mentioned him here Live by the Sword, Die by the Sword, Part 4- The Finale. Today I’m going to highlight the most recent released census that includes Poppy.
Screenshot from Ancestry.
The year was 1940. Poppy was living in Beaty Township in Delaware County, Oklahoma. Beaty Township includes the area of Delaware County East of Jay, Southeast of Grove, West of South West City, McDonald County, Missouri, and Northwest of Maysville, Benton County, Arkansas – exactly the area I would expect him to live at. It’s a rural area with no present-day towns. You can find it on this map.
The original of the above map was found at OKGenWeb.
I’ve circled the name Beaty in red to make it easier to find. Also notice in the upper left corner of the map I’ve circled (in green) the town of Echo in Bernice Township. This is where Poppy Lon’s grandfather, Ervin Alonzo, lived before that area was flooded to make Grand Lake. I’ve written a little about that in this blog post. (This was one of my earliest blog posts about my family so it will be a little different than what you might read from me currently.)
In 1940, Poppy Lon was listed as the head of household. He is listed as Ervin L. Drake. Living with him were his wife, Annie (Mary Anne BAKER), his married son Roscoe, and Poppy’s grandchildren (Roscoe’s children) – Lulla Bell (age 14) and James E. (age 12). (Note: Even though he is listed as “married son”, the same entry says he is a widower.) I’m not sure where Roscoe’s wife was at the time. Just a quick glance at records looks like possibly the wife left Roscoe and the children and moved to California and remarried but I’m not certain and I haven’t asked. Interestingly, Nancy wasn’t living with Roscoe in the 1930 census either.
I did find this photo (sorry for the quality) of Nancy and hers and Roscoe’s children. Lulla Bell and James Ervin William are both in the photo. James is on the back row and Lulla Bell is the girl with the darker hair and white blouse on the far right next to her mother. The other girl in the photo is identified as Jolene Lavinia DRAKE (her middle name probably being given in honor of Poppy Lon’s grandmother, Lavina (PILGRIM) DRAKE) and the young boy is James Woodrow LANG and he looks to be from mom Nancy’s second marriage (after Roscoe). Additionally, Lulla Bell’s name is spelled “Lulu Belle”, contrary to the 1940 census.
This photo was shared publicly on Ancestry by Tori Hobbs. I have tried over the years to get in touch with Tori without success.
This is what the 1940 census tells us about Poppy Lon. He was the 79th (and last) family to be censused on 15 April 1940 by enumerator Ben F. Ryburn. Poppy Lon owned his home. When asked the value of the home, the response recorded was “3.50”. I don’t think that meant $3.50- possibly $3500 instead? I’m not sure. Poppy Lon’s place was a farm. His race was listed as “White” and he was 65 years old at the time of this census. He was born in Missouri. He completed 4th grade in school. He was farming that year as his employment and was working 40 hours a week on the farm. He worked 45 weeks out of the year. He earned more than $50 but an amount was not specified. He is person #68 on the farm schedule. Unfortunately, I have not located the farm schedule and it may not exist anymore. In 1940, Roscoe was a laborer with WPA. About this time last year I wrote for WPA records for my grandpa, Troy BATES, and their response was that there was no employment record for Troy even though I know he was hired by WPA. I may decide to write for Roscoe’s employment records to see what type of work he did but I haven’t done that yet. Roscoe was unemployed 20 weeks in the year preceding the census before he gained employment with WPA. That’s almost half the year so I’m sure he was very happy to get a job with WPA given he had a couple of children to support and was living with his parents.
A final note about the 1940 census. Living near Poppy Lon was Raymond Hubbard. Raymond was the brother of Edith (HUBBARD) DRAKE. Edith was married to Mark DRAKE- Poppy Lon’s son and my great-grandfather. So while Raymond wasn’t technically a relative, I’m sure Poppy and Raymond knew each other and had visited each other at Edith’s and Mark’s home. Living next door to Poppy Lon was Poppy’s brother, Henry Arthur (who went by “Ned”) and Henry’s family. You can find a photo of Ned in one of my blog posts here.
I’m going to leave Poppy Lon right here in 1940, farming and taking care of his family. He has another 24 years of life ahead of him. I think that’s a good spot to leave him in.
Until next time,
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog
Well, I was one for three last week but at least I blogged. This week will be busy but nothing like last week when I had Freshman pre-enrollment and book fair all in one week. I’m so glad my mom came and helped me out with book fair!
Make a note that Alonzo Ervin DRAKE’s birthday is actually today (Sunday, 18 March) but I try not to do anything on Sunday other than the schedule so I’ll be blogging about Alonzo tomorrow. Here’s this week’s schedule:
Monday – Alonzo Ervin DRAKE’s birthday was 18 March 1875. Monday I’ll honor that birthday with a blog post.
Tuesday – William WOLF died on this date (20 March) in 1980. I’ll celebrate his life with a blog post on Tuesday.
That’s it for the scheduled blog posts this week. I am hoping to do some research this week so there may be an extra blog post or two if I find out anything exciting. Additionally, I still need to catch up on John BATES’ blog posts and I need to finish the story about Quincy BELL. This may be a good week to do those posts since things will only get busier at work until the school year ends. Not to mention, this is the last big break I’ll get until then.
Until tomorrow,
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog
