This blog post is about Margaret Mary MITCHELL WINTON, sister/sister-in-law to my paternal 5th great grandparents, John MITCHELL and Winnie SULLINS MITCHELL. For reference, the line of ascent goes from my dad’s dad to his dad (Mark DRAKE) to Mark’s dad (Ervin DRAKE, also known as Poppy) to Ervin’s mom (Hester MITCHELL DRAKE) to Hester’s dad (Mordica MITCHELL) to Mordica’s dad and also my 5th great grandfather John and John’s sister Margaret Mary MITCHELL. I’ve talked about the MITCHELL and SULLINS families in the following blog posts: Oh Children Let Us Think On Eternity! (This post talks about Winnie SULLINS MITCHELL’S brother and John MITCHELL’S sister who were married- Nathan SULLINS and Rebecca MITCHELL SULLINS. In this post we begin to get a view of just how spiritual the MITCHELL family was. We’ll be looking into that a little more today.) Live by the Sword, Die by the Sword, Part 4- The Finale (In this blog post I mention that John MITCHELL is Scottish.)
A Little Drive Up to Sugar Creek
As I mentioned yesterday, my dad needed to get out of the house yesterday so I planned a little road trip that included family history. Up to this point in the trip, we’d only been to a location connected to my mom’s family. Now, it was time to continue on our journey. We traveled about 15 or 20 miles away to a location bordering the Pea Ridge National Military Park. What brought me to this place was an incredible cache of stories about the MITCHELL family that I found on Ancestry. The stories were contributed by Katherine Joyce Matlock. (By the way, you should really check out Katherine’s blog, Matlock Wigley Genealogy Online.) Through the stories Katherine contributed, I learned that Mitchell’s Camp Ground in Polk County, Missouri (our MITCHELL family members were early and influential settlers in that area) was named after our family. The MITCHELL family was a deeply devout Methodist family with several of the men becoming preachers. One of my favorite stories, and the one that inspired me to go to Sugar Creek, was about John and Margaret Mary’s mother, Elizabeth HOOSANG MITCHELL. I will quote it:
“Elizabeth Mitchell, consort of Morris Mitchell, died at age of 93, buried at Mitchell’s Camp Ground, September 4, 1858. There were 700 relatives at the funeral. Her body was carried by grandchildren and great grandchildren from the home to the churcb. As they crossed the creek, they began singing, ‘We are traveling to the grave, to lay this body down, etc.”. [The Arkansas Family Historian, Vol. 16, No. 1, Jan/Feb/Mar 1978.]
It is said that at the time of her death, Elizabeth HOOSANG MITCHELL had 720 living descendants. Elizabeth and husband, Morris, lived long enough to see 18 of their descendants become preachers. Adding to the story above, The Arkansas Family Historian article states:
“Our maternal grandmother, Rebecca Mitchell Anderson, told us of having attended this funeral in 1858 were hundreds of her relatives formed the funeral march here at this Mitchell Camp Ground. Can’t we see and hear the 700 and more relatives marching with the coffin of this Matriarch as they sung, ”We Are Going to the Grave to Lay This Body Down”?
So after reading this article, you can imagine I had high hopes for this song. I was up until almost midnight last night searching for this song. The closest thing I found last night exceeded all my hopes and expectations. Hear it below: Long Time Traveller by The Wailin’ Jennys
I did a little more research today and learned that, sadly, this isn’t the song. I have yet to find an audio recording or tune to go with the actual song but here is what I did find (starting at the bottom of the page at song 295 and continuing through the top of the next page): The two preceding images were found at Hymnary.org.
The rest is up to your imagination!
So this was what drew me to the Sugar Creek/Pea Ridge, Arkansas area. I have not found any information that would lead me to a homesite so we just drove around the area and looked. It’s a beautiful area and I hope to get back there soon to tour the battlefield.
Margaret Mary MITCHELL WINTON
Margaret was the Mitchell family member living in the Sugar Creek area. She moved there sometime between 1860 and 1869. Her husband, William WINTON, died at Pea Ridge, Arkansas in 1869. All of their 10 children were born prior to their move to the Sugar Creek area so at this point, there is no way for me to know whether they were there during the Civil War or moved there after.
There is one Civil War era story that I wanted to share with you that relates to William and Mary MITCHELL WINTON. This is how it was related in The Arkansas Family Historian article:
“A decade after the death of Elizabeth Mitchell found mambers of their family embroiled in the bitternesses of the Civil War. As one writer said, “some of the sons went North and some South”. At least three of the family men were killed in Mississippi on the side of the Confederacy.
The most vivid Civil War incident involving the Mitchells was that of Reverend Anthony Bewley, son-in-law of William and Mary Mitchell Winton, and husband of their daughter, Jane. The Reverend Bewley took an abolishionist stand in an inflammed pro-slavery area of Texas. He was charged with inciting slaves to riot. Pursued from Texas to Missouri by bounty hunters, he was taken from his wife and returned to Ft. Worth where a lynch mob broke into the jail and hanged him. The evidence of his guilt was a letter he was alleged to have written. It was later proved to have been forged.”
Margaret died in 1881 and is buried in the Sugar Creek/Pea Ridge area. She outlived William by over a decade and she never remarried. Her daughter Jane did remarry about 3 years after the death of her husband, Anthony BEWLEY.
Finishing Thoughts
It was a nice relaxing drive in Northwest Arkansas on Friday. It’s always so interesting to see the places where past generations lived out their daily lives.
I hope you have a great week next week. Take some time for a relaxing drive for yourself. You deserve it! I’ll leave you with a couple of photographs I took in the Pea Ridge/Sugar Creek area. Three cannons on the Pea Ridge battlefield. Signage on the back side of Pea Ridge National Military Park. Signage on the back side of Pea Ridge National Military Park. A storm was blowing in by the time we got to Twelve Corners Road but the sky was beautiful.
Wishing you much more justice than Anthony Bewley received,
Until next time,
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog
This blog post is about Matilda WALLS DUNHAM LATTY, sister/sister-in-law to my maternal 3rd great grandparents, Irena WALLS LATTY and Jefferson LATTY (and his brother Ellis LATTY). For reference, the line of ascent goes from my mom’s mom to her mom (Laura BULLOCK RITER) to Laura’s mom (Druziller LATTY BULLOCK) to Druziller’s mom (Irena WALLS LATTY) AND Irena’s sister, Matilda WALLS DUNHAM LATTY. I’ve talked about Irena and Jefferson in these blog posts over on the old section of the blog at Livejournal: You Got a Document for That? Speling- Hoo Neds It??
Matilda Latty of Cross Hollows
My Dad needed to get out of the house today so my husband and I planned a little road trip and picked up my parents after lunch. We took an hour drive over into Northeast Arkansas. Our first stop: Cross Hollows, Arkansas. This is a very interesting place and has so many layers of history to it. See the historical marker below: Cross Hollows, Arkansas historical sign #1- Cherokee Trail of Tears, Civil War (Confederate & Union), Butterfield Stage Coach Route. It was also the Butterfield mail route although it isn’t listed on the sign here.
Here is another Cross Hollows sign sitting right next to the sign above: Second Cross Hollows sign.
For a more detailed history about Cross Hollows, I recommend going to The Civil War Muse. Although I love the history of Cross Hollows, I had a more personal reason for bringing my parents here. My maternal 4th great aunt, Matilda J. WALLS (DUNHAM)(LATTY), lived in Cross Hollows in 1870 when she filed a claim with the US Southern Claims Commission. Matilda Latty’s claim filed with the US Southern Claims Commission via Ancestry.
Matilda was the sister to my maternal 4th great grandmother, Irena WALLS (and sister-in-law to my 4th great grandfather and Irena’s husband, Jefferson LATTY). Not only that, but Matilda’s second husband was Jefferson’s brother, Ellis LATTY. Matilda appears at the Cross Hollows location in only two records that I’ve found. One is the 1870 census (Cross Hollows, White River Township, Benton County, Arkansas on 5 September 1870) where she appears with the LATTY name, LATTY children, and her mother (Delilah WALLS), but her husband (Ellis LATTY) is not listed in the household. She likely moved to Cross Hollows around 1862 as best I can tell based on dates from various records that also list locations.
The second document is her claim filed with the US Southern Claims Commission where she filed for $156 for corn and fodder taken by “Colonel Phillips Cherokee Regiment Indian Troops”, better known as the 3rd Regiment Indian Home Guards. Colonel Phillips, 3rd Regiment Indian Home Guards. Photo found at Northeaster State University.
In compliance with the government procedure for filing claims, Matilda named witnesses. Her witnesses regarding the truthfulness of her claim included Charles T. DUNHAM (probably her son who would have been old enough to remember the incident), and Delily WOOLS (my best guess is this is actually Delilah WALLS- Matilda’s mother). Matilda also had to provide witnesses as to her loyalty to the US Government and those witnesses were Samuel RAMSEY (Matilda’s niece’s husband), Charles WALLS (most likely Matilda’s brother and the father of Martha who was the wife of Samuel RAMSEY), and John GORDON (most likely Matilda’s brother-in-law who was married to Matilda’s sister, Elizabeth). Matilda’s claim was ultimately denied, but I never found any explanation as to whether it was ‘barred’ or ‘disallowed’ nor the reason why. I’m guessing Matilda’s claim was barred rather than disallowed. I’m basing that on information I found at North Carolina GenWeb’s site which explains why claims might be barred versus disallowed. My best guess is they considered her a Confederate sympathizer since her brother-in-law, Jefferson LATTY, fought for the Confederacy. But again, that’s just a guess.
All of this information put together tells me that Matilda was in the bustling Cross Hollows area when Union troops were quartered there (and possibly early enough to have seen the end of Confederate troops quartered there as well). If she was present to witness the Butterfield Overland Mail service in Cross Hollows, she only witnessed the very end of it as the Butterfield Overland Mail service ended in 1861 (which is also when the Confederate troops moved out of Cross Hollows). Wikipedia has an image of the Butterfield Overland Mail service schedule: By Overland Mail Company – California Department of Parks and Recreation. This time schedule, No. 1, Sep. 16th, 1858, can be downloaded by the public on the California Parks and Recreation internet site in the “Stagecoach History: Stage Lines to California,” by choosing at the bottom of their page “View and download Overland Mail Company timetable.” The link for this site is here.. Or you can do like I did and go to Wikipedia.
She would have witnessed the Butterfield Stage Line, though. It discontinued service during the war (1861-1865) but resumed service in 1865 and it followed the newly-created Old Wire Road. (Information from White River Valley Historical Quarterly). Wordpress blogger Myra H. Mcilvain has two photos worth looking at. One is of a beautifully restored Butterfield Stagecoach and the other (at the same link) is a map of the Butterfield Stage Line route. Crossing the Hollows of History
It’s so hard to stand in 2019 Cross Hollows (a very peaceful, rural area) and envision 12,000+ Civil War soldiers quartered there for the winter or envision the Overland Mail or Butterfield Stagecoach barreling through the middle of it. It doesn’t seem to take long for nature to reclaim land once trampled barren by humans. I’m glad for that. It was a lovely drive today and this is only part one of the drive. Stay tuned for part two in which I discuss my dad’s MITCHELL line.
Until then,
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog
I’ve been working on my family history tonight and I think I’ve made a discovery about my maternal 2nd great grandfather, Nicholas Wilhelm REITER. I want to share it with you and get your thoughts. It concerns the draft during the Civil War.
Civil War draft poster found at the National Archives. This is an example of what one of the draft posters looked like so you can get an idea of what he may have seen posted around town.
I’ve written about Nicholas before and you can find those posts here:
Lost and Found, Part 1 and Part 2 (They’re long. Sorry.)
Reiter and Davis Marriage (This is very much my OLD style of writing- more oriented toward research than telling the stories of my ancestors. Still, it’s worth a look I think.)
Nicholas has been hard to research. He immigrated from Germany with his parents when he was very young according to my granny BATES, but I have not been able to locate immigration records that I’m certain are his. I don’t know who his parents or brothers were and have been unable to locate him in records prior to his marriage to my maternal second great grandmother, Sarah DAVIS REITER. In addition, there are so many ways to spell his last name (and even multiple ways to spell his first name!) that it becomes overwhelming very quickly. (And let me tell you, I get tired of OCR programs hitting on the word ‘typewriter’ and passing that off as a search result for ‘Nicholas Reiter’!) So, I was pretty excited when I found the following article as I’m fairly certain this is him. The first article I found was in German and I’ll post a shortened version of it below. After I’d gone to the trouble of translating it, I found an article in English that was basically the same information. I wish I could say I translated it using my own skills but alas, I used Google translate. I used to be fluent in German after taking 4 years of it in high school but that’s been a very long time ago. German was, however, my favorite foreign language to learn. But I digress…
First, the article in German from the Minnesota Staats-Zeitung out of St. Paul, Minnesota dated 4 June 1864, found at newspapers.com:
Newspaper article written in German indicating Nicholas Reiter’s draft notice into the Civil War.
Here is an article out of the St. Cloud Democrat with basically the same information. I included the whole article here because it only lists Stearns and Morrison Counties as opposed to numerous counties like the article in German. The print is tiny. Sorry about that! If you’re looking for Nicholas’ name, go to the town of Wakefield (right before Morrison County). He’s in the second column right above the glitch or paper crease mark.
Article indicating the draft of Nicholas Reiter into the Civil War.
I know this doesn’t seem like much, but it’s the first new information about Nicholas that I’ve found in a very long time so I was really excited to find these. Hopefully this new information will lead me to more information about him. I would love to get one more generation back on this family line. Feel free to beat me to that research if you want. Just don’t be surprised if I ask you to write a blog post about it!!
This blog post is about my maternal great grandfather, William Sherman RITER. William was married to Laura Ann BULLOCK. I’ve written about William in the following blog posts, in case you’re interested in catching up before you read this post:
For one week every summer I have all my grandsons over to my house for Cousin Camp. One of the activities I was planning for this coming summer was a family history related activity so they can begin to learn about their ancestors and the stories that belong to those ancestors. The activity involves some cute little magnets I created on Shutterfly. Here’s William RITER’s:
I tried to get a better picture of it, but you get the general idea. So if this magnet were chosen, I would tell the boys the story about my maternal great-grandfather, William Sherman RITER, and how he was one of Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders. In the process of planning this I thought it would be fun to get a picture book about Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders to read to the boys so they could learn more. I was unable to find a picture book that I felt was appropriate for my grandsons so the thought entered my mind that I could write one and self-publish. I began doing some research in preparation to write a short picture book story. In the process of gathering information I have begun to doubt whether William RITER was really a Rough Rider. But let’s back up to the beginning so I can show you how the whole Rough Rider story came to be.
Rough Rider in Town!
The above article was taken from Newspapers.com. It’s a copy of a news item from The Sedalia Democrat, Page 1, 30 March 1899. William had just been mustered out at Augusta, Georgia on 27 March 1899. He had served in the Spanish-American War with Company E, 15th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry out of St. Paul, Minnesota. The 15th Minnesota had an outstanding reputation and, at least according to newspaper articles of the time, the people of Georgia were sad to see them leave. What I found interesting when looking through newspapers was that you could follow his train trip home by watching newspapers along the route he took. Every time a group of the 15th Minnesota arrived in town, the newspapers were covering it. So, between March 27th and March 30th I could follow his progress from Georgia to Oklahoma. (By the way, when he enlisted for this war he lived in Wheaton, Illinois but at some point he acquired land in Oklahoma and that’s where he went after the war.) As I continued researching, I learned that the Spanish-American War was a war that Americans very much supported (thanks to false and misleading stories pushed by the media- sound familiar???) and the servicemen were loved and welcomed back home (unlike the shameful situation with Vietnam and the servicemen returning from that war).
In researching William’s service online, I found such conflict in the records that I don’t know what to believe anymore. In addition to the question of whether or not he’s a Rough Rider, there is the issue of whether he went abroad during his service. According to newspapers, the 15th Minnesota was going to go to Camp Allyn Capron in Puerto Principe, Cuba on 27 November 1898. The plan was for them to serve a short stint and come back home in 1899. Wikipedia supports the statement that on 27 November 1898 the 15th Minnesota sailed from Savannah, Georgia to Nuevitas, Cuba for “occupation duty”. However, Theodore Roosevelt’s own book about the Rough Riders says nothing about William RITER or the 15th Minnesota. (You can find his book online at https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Index:Theodore_Roosevelt_Rough_Riders.djvu.) Then there is this website that shows the 15th was in Cuba between December, 1898 and December, 1899 as well as the above article referencing William as a “Rough Rider”. In any case, by late November 1898 the war was over. According to newspaper articles, the 15th Minnesota was mustered out and sent home from Augusta, Georgia on 27 March 1899 without having gone abroad to serve.
But what about the Rough Rider claim? Well…if William was a Rough Rider, I haven’t been able to prove it through records. The only positive indications I have are the story that Granny BATES always told and the newspaper article at the top of this blog post that referenced him as a Rough Rider.
Below are William’s pension cards:
I have been unable to obtain his service records from the National Archives although I know someone in the family does have them because once I saw one paper out of his service file. The National Archives told me the records were “lost”. I have a hunch they were being filmed and if I requested them again I might actually get them- as long as I paid them another fee, of course!
So, once again I’m leaving you with a mystery. My quest to write a little story for my grandsons hasn’t gone so well this week. I have no idea what story I will tell them in place of the Rough Rider story but I’m sure I’ll come up with something that will interest them. In the meantime, I want to leave you with a few more photographs that I found interesting.
This is Company H of the 15th Minnesota Infantry. I include it because I would imagine an image of Company E would look much the same. This photo was found at the US Genweb website.The 15th Minnesota Spanish American war drum. This photo was found at the Minnesota Historical Society’s website.The 15th Minnesota Regimental battle flag. This photo was found at the Minnesota Historical Society’s website.
This past weekend I was doing some research on various lines of my dad’s family. Monday we got a day off from school due to weather so I continued my search and focused on my SULLINS line. Specifically, I was looking at my paternal 6th great grandparents, Nathan and Winefred MAYS SULLINS. In order to give you some idea of how we fit into the SULLINS family, the line of ascent goes from my great grandpa Mark DRAKE to his dad Ervin to Ervin’s mom Hester MITCHELL to Hester’s dad Mordica to Mordica’s parents (John and Winnie SULLINS MITCHELL and Mordica’s grandparents Nathan and Winefred MAYS SULLINS.
During my search, I came across a website I want to share with you. The Cole Family website includes a page with a handwritten letter from Nathan and Rebecca MITCHELL SULLINS (Nathan was the son of Nathan and Winefred). I loved the letter and would like to share it with you here but I also encourage you to go look at the Cole Family website and see what you can find for yourself.
This particular photo is a screenshot of a portion of the Nathan and Rebecca MITCHELL SULLINS letter that I found on Ancestry. However, the entire original, handwritten letter is on The Cole Family website at the link above.
Here’s the transcription below. You can find more details about the letter and view the original handwritten letter at the link above.
Athens Tenn Apr. 19 1848
Dear Son & Daughter I now send you a letter to let you know we are all alive. According to our age we enjoy as good health as could be expected. Morris got home yesterday about 12 o’clock. We was glad to hear you was all well, but sorry to hear you expected to go so far off. I once was young but now I am old, by the help of providence we have raised 12 children, there is 11 yet alive so far as we know, they are now scattered in 4 states. My children are near to me. When I was young and able to labor with and for my children I then had pleasure. I now am not able to labor much nor to travel and when I think of a child leaving me so far that I never expect to see its face again in the flesh its as much as I want to bear. Mary has always been a good obedient child.
[page 2] Oh children let us think on eternity that there is a God to serve and a heaven to obtain that is more sacred to us than all this world’s goods. We want you to write to us when you locate and tell us where you are and where to direct our letters. Annis lives in Green Co. Mo. direct your letters to Springfield to John Murray.
[page 3] Family Record (NOTE FROM LISA: On page 3 there is a list of names and dates, as if it were copied from a family Bible to pass on to the receiver of the letter. I won’t transcribe that here. You can find that information at the link above.)
No more at present but remain your affectionate parents Nathan and Rebecca Sullins
I love this letter so much. I can feel every pain of this momma’s heart as she worries about her children moving far away and never being able to see them again. I can imagine that she’s thinking about grandbabies she will never meet as well. If she’s anything like me, she’s thinking about all the bad that could happen and how much she would like to spare her children from experiencing the bad things. More than that, she’s worrying about their spiritual well-being. Oh how I can relate to this momma as she pours out her heart in a letter to her daughter!
I Once Was Young But Now I Am Old
Like Rebecca, I can remember being young once, too. I can remember when Bart and I decided to move to Idaho and I remember receiving a letter from my mom. A letter where she poured out her heart to me and wished me not to move so far away. Things sure do cycle back around, don’t they? And when we saw my son off to his eternal home, nothing was more important in that moment than his spiritual well-being and whether I would see him again in eternity or be separated from him forever. Yes, I sure can relate to my 6th great aunt Rebecca as she poured out her heart to her daughter in a farewell letter.
So Fades the Summer Cloud Away
So fades the Summer cloud away;
So sinks the gale when storms are o’er;
So gently shuts the eye of day;
So dies the wave along the shore.
I want to leave you with one last thing about Rebecca – her obituary.
Obituary of Rebecca MITCHELL SULLINS. Found on Ancestry.
Sweet Rebecca. I hope you are spending eternity with your children whom you loved so much and so well.
I recently binge-listened to season 1 of a podcast called Unobscured. I highly recommend it. The host, Aaron Mahnke, spent a whole season researching the Salem witch trials. It was very interesting. In 2011, I traveled to Massachusetts and visited the towns of Salem and Danvers. When I was in Salem I attempted to locate the place where the accused witches were hung. I wasn’t able to find anyone who knew for sure so I visited Gallows Hill Park and there on top of the hill I left a small bouquet of flowers by a tree to honor and remember our ancestors who were accused during the trials.
Gallows Hill Park, Salem, Massachusetts.
When I listened to the Unobscured podcast I learned that they have finally located the spot where the witches were hung. (Where is the Real Gallows Hill) It’s on the same block as a Walgreen’s between Proctor and Pope Streets. I’m pretty sure it was the Walgreen’s I stopped at to ask if anyone knew where the hanging location was! I was right there and no one knew! I was disappointed, but figured Gallows Hill Park was probably the closest I would ever get in my lifetime. I hope one day I can return to the exact spot and pay my respects again.
BostonGlobe.com photo of Proctor’s Ledge- the location where the accused Salem witches were hung during the 1692 Salem witch trials.
In the meantime, I am going to rerun one of my posts from the old blog at LiveJournal about the Salem witch trials as they pertain to our family. Another website you can take a look at that pertains to one of our witchy ancestors is Lee Wiegand’s website. Our ancestor was Sarah (BURT) BASSETT (my 11th great grandmother). Her daughter, Elizabeth, married John PROCTOR. John was hung as a witch. Elizabeth’s death sentence was put on hold because she was pregnant. By the time she had her baby, the witch hunt craze was over and her life was spared.
I wonder what Sarah (BURT) BASSETT’S life would have been like without the witchcraft craze. Out of Sarah’s family alone, the following were accused witches in 1692: her eldest daughter Elizabeth (plus this daughter’s husband, stepson, son and daughter; out of these, the young men were tortured in an effort to get them to confess), Sarah’s daughter-in-law Sarah (HOOD) BASSETT (wife of her son William), and her daughter Mary (BASSETT) DeRICH (Mary suffered additional tragedies within her family while imprisoned for the witch allegations). Her grandmother, Ann (HOLLAND) BASSETT BURT, had also been accused of witchcraft in an earlier case in 1669. So you can see, the various trials and accusations affected Sarah’s life in a big way. It must have seemed to Sarah that it was never going to end.
Sarah (BURT) BASSETT’s daughter, Sarah, was my 10th great grandmother. This second Sarah married Thomas ELWELL. Thomas and Sarah’s sister-in-law, Esther (DUTCH) ELWELL (married to Thomas’ brother Samuel), was also one of the accused in 1692. The women of the DUTCH family were no strangers to witchcraft trials either. The stories go on and on like that – like a chain – one family connected to the next and to the next and to the next. If you’d like to go deeper into the story of this family, you can read about Elizabeth’s trial here. You can learn about John PROCTOR’s trial here.
Until next time, I leave you with the words of this old English blessing:
~ May your joys be as bright as the morning, your years of happiness as numerous as the stars in the heavens, and your troubles but shadows that fade in the sunlight of love. ~
You can read my 2017 report card here. Other report cards in other years are usually posted around December 31st of each year. The 2018 report card, much like the 2018 year, has gotten completely derailed. This year my daughter and her two sons moved in with us. While I really love having them around, my research and writing time doesn’t exist anymore. And that’s okay. Life should be spent on those we have with us – in building relationships with the people God has given us. I do miss writing very much but I’m sure I’ll get back to it at some point in the future. In the meantime, I’m searching for cousins to do guest posts about once a month. This is your big chance, guys! Contact me. I have a newly found cousin who is currently writing a guest post about her family that married into our family. I hope I’ll be able to post that for you soon.
In the meantime, let’s talk about 2018 for a bit.
2018 Goals were:
Learn more about my 3rd great-grandmother, Sarah DAVIS REITER. (Research goal)
Take a writing course to improve my storytelling. (Self-improvement goals)
Be more consistent with my blogging. (Sharing goal)
Frankly, I didn’t meet any goals. I am meeting a multi-year goal in that I am finally getting my genealogy records unpacked and organized and I have a designated space for them. It’s taking a while but I’ll get there. 2019
In 2019, I’m just going to focus on unpacking and organizing all my records so that I can go into 2020 in a better place with my genealogy. I’ll be looking for cousins who are willing to write guest posts this year – if that’s you PLEASE let me know! Hopefully, I’ll have time to post some of the records I unpack from time to time and share them with you.
So this year (as I sometimes told my elementary students), “you get what you get and you don’t throw a fit”! As a small consolation prize, I give you this cousin photo.
Above: Christmas at the Bates home. Left to right back row: me (Lisa), Clayton, Terry. Front row left to right: Doyle, Tracy, Cortney. If I mis-identified someone let me know asap!
Until next time,
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.
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
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
