Monday Memory - Spending the night at the Osgoods

As I've described in previous posts. on our family vacations we would usually stay at Grandma & Grandpa Graham's. As I got older, once in awhile I got the opportunity to go by myself and spend the night with Grandma & Grandpa Osgood. The picture to the right is of Grandma Osgood on Christmas Day in 1976. She's in the living room of their home in Fruitland. The walls were turquoise. How neat was that?

If it was just me alone with Grandma & Grandpa, we would have the evening meal on a little table in the kitchen. The table had fold out sides that would make it big enough for us. I was fascinated with a bug zapper Grandma & Grandpa had that was right outside the window. Mosquitoes were an issue with me...I always seemed to get eaten alive on vacation. That juicy California skin, I guess. In the evening, Grandpa would watch the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. It seemed like we were staying up really late, because at home in California, Johnny Carson came on at 11:30 p.m. In Idaho's mountain time zone, it was 10:30 p.m. Grandpa would sit in his easy chair and have a cigarette while he watched. The room always had a faint smell of cigarette smoke. It's strange now--that smell is such a turn off, but as a kid, I barely noticed. It was there, sure. But it wasn't as off-putting as it is now.

Where would I sleep? I remember a few times sleeping in the upstairs bedroom that used to be my Aunt's. (My mom's too when she was younger). I remember once when I was a little older, maybe 12 or so, when my cousin came that night too. She was just a year older than me and we always had a great time together. We slept in sleeping bags on Grandma's dining room floor and talked about all kinds of things pre-teen girls talk about. It was great. When I was older, I remember sleeping on the sofa hide a bed. By then, Grandma had a thing about protecting pillows and mattresses. So they all would be covered with plastic. Every time you rolled over, the crinkly sound would wake you up. Plus, it would get kind of hot in the summer. But it was worth it.

The mornings bring special memories of a very special breakfast. Grandma always had Froot Loops on hand just for me. I don't know when I told her I liked them--I was too young to remember. But Grandma always remembered. There was never a time when I was there that she did not have this yummy breakfast treat for me. It was extra special because mom never bought the sugary cereals. It was all business, healthy stuff. Mom stuff. But Grandmas are different. They remember what you like, and don't mind indulging your sweet tooth.

Grandpa died in September 1996. Grandma followed him in January 2004. Since then, the house has been vacant. It looks like my aunts and uncles are going to finally sell the place and finalize the estate issues. A part of me hopes that the place does not sell until late next summer. I expect to be in Boise in June, and would love to be able to go back inside the house one last time. Here is how it looks on Google maps street view:

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Robert B. Graham and the 7th Cavalry, Missouri State Militia

I have a few "saved" searches set up on Ebay that alert me when an item of interest may be available. This morning, one of my saved searches pinged me. The search was "7th Cavalry, Missouri State Militia." The item is a really neat collection here. (I don't know how long that link will work) For me, the best part of the offering is this photograph:


This picture is a 1/2 plate partially hand colored ambrotype image of six soldiers from the 7th Cavalry, Missouri State Militia during the Civil War. In their hands are playing cards and they have cigars in their mouths.

My great-great grandfather, Robert Barnett Graham, served with Company A of the 7th Cavalry in Missouri during the Civil War. Prior to that, he had served in the

Enrolled Missouri Militia under Captain Cunningham.

Could one of these six men be Robert?

I have a muster and descriptive roll card for Robert Barnett Graham. He mustered in on November 7, 1863 to the 7th Cavalry. He is described as 6 feet tall, light complexion with dark hair. His horse was valued at $120 and his horse equipment valued at $25. Admittedly, it is a pretty vague description and not enough to verify or identify him as one of the men in the photo.

Even if Robert is not among them, (and chances are he is not), it gives me a glimpse into how he may have looked, the uniform he wore, and the guys he served with.

I've started reading about the Civil War in Missouri with a book called "Inside War: The Guerrilla Conflict in Missouri." One of my research goals is to someday dig into the unit history for Company A and try to retrace some of Robert Barnett's actions during the war. His obituary says that he did indeed see a lot of action, and had some narrow escapes.

In the meantime, I can gaze at this photograph and imagine what it must have been like for these men. Fighting a war where you didn't know exactly who or where your enemy was. Chasing guerrillas into Kansas and defending the homesteads. Fascinating!

Anyone wanna give me $2,500 to buy it on Ebay??

My Cousin, America's First Postmaster

September 22, 1789

On this day, the first postmaster general of the United States was appointed. His name was Samuel Osgood. I know this may sound strained, but he is my 3rd cousin 6 times removed. We're kin!

Samuel and I descend from the same grandfather, John Osgood. Of course, to Samuel, John was his second great-grandfather. To me, John is my eighth great grandfather.

Here's the line:

John Osgood, the immigrant (1595-1651). His son was also John Osgood (1631-1693).

This is where the family line splits. John Jr. had six children. Samuel descends from his son, Timothy (1659-1748). I descend from Timothy's older brother, John. I would have never figured out the relationship, but my genealogy software, Family Tree Maker, did for me.

In honor of this anniversary, I would like to share some information I've found about my cousin Samuel.

Samuel was born in February 1748 in the town our mutual grandfather helped to found, Andover, Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard in 1770, intending to pursue a career in theology. Like so many young men of his day, he was caught up in the tumult of the American Revolution.

In 1774, Samuel represented Andover in congress. Keep in mind--at the time, this was treason to the crown. He participated in the battle at Lexington on April 19, 1775. In that fight, he was a commander of a company of minute men and joined in chasing the British back to Cambridge. He rose through the ranks of the Army for the next year but refused the command of a regiment of men in 1776. He turned to politics. He took a seat in the provincial congress of Massachusetts and was appointed a member of the board of war. He was also on the committee that framed the first state constitution. He was elected the first senator from Essex County in 1780. He was repeatedly re-elected to congress throughout this time of revolution and framing our nation's political system. He was one of the commissioners to manage the Treasury of the United States until 1789 when the Treasury department was organized and put under the stewardship of Alexander Hamilton.

On a personal side, he married Martha Brandon on January 4, 1775. Martha was described as a, "woman of rare accomplishments and great beauty." Sadly, she died in September 1778 before the couple could have any children. Samuel remarried in May 1786, to widow named Maria Brown (Franklin). Together they had six children. Their youngest, Caroline, was born in 1799 and died within a year. Another daughter, Eliza, died the same year as her little sister at the age of about seven.

Samuel was respected for his "talents and usefulness, for his urbanity and moral and religious worth." He loved literature. He was an original member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences. He had extensive correspondence with his friends, our Founding Fathers. Among them, George Washington, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson. He also enjoyed reading and writing on theological subjects. His principal publications include: "Remarks on Daniel and Revelations," "A Letter of Episcopacy," and a volume on "Theology and Metaphysics."

Samuel Osgood died in New York on August 12, 1813 and was buried in the church where he was a member on the corner of Nassau and Beekman streets in New York City. I wonder if a church still stands there? Here is a street view, courtesy of Google:

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There is a movement among Osgoods in this country to have a stamp commemorate Samuel Osgood's contributions to this country. If you would like to participate in this effort, you can read all about it here.

Next time you go to the post office, or lick a stamp, or drop something in the mail, you can thank Samuel Osgood for helping make it happen.

Sources:

1. Holgate, Jerome Bonaparte. "A History of Some of the Early Settlers of North America and Their Descendants, from Their First Emigration to the Present Time With Their Intermarriages and Collateral Branches. Including Notices of Prominent Families and Distinguished Individuals, with Anecdotes, Reminiscences, Traditions, Sketches of the Founding Of Cities, Villages, Manors, and Progressive Improvements of the Country From Its Wilderness State to the Present Era." 1851

2. Osgood, Ira, Putnam, Eben, Ed. "A Genealogy of the Descendants of John, William, and Christopher Osgood Who Came from England and Settled in New England Early in the Seventeenth Century." 1894

Did Great-Grandma run around with outlaws?

When I first became interested in family history, my mom brought over every bit of old family stuff she and my dad had collected or been given over the years. Among the pile was compiled family history entitled, "Family History of Dwight and Rosella Dutton" written in the 1980's. It looks like it was a project of Arthur Nelson Dutton, who is a distant cousin on my dad's side of the family. (He's my first cousin, 2 times removed).

Arthur collected old family photos, memories, and put it all together in a 140 page coil bound book. It really is a treasure.

Among the photos was one that jumped out at me. The caption identifies the following individuals, from left to right: "Butch Cassidy, ???, Clarence, Lottie, Sundance Kid, Alice.

Alice is Alice Dutton, my great-grandmother. Lottie is her sister. Clarence married Lottie. That accounts for those names. What are they doing in a picture with BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID?? Is this true? I don't know where that photo came from. I think I'll try and track down this distant cousin of mine to see where he got that photo.

Alice was born in 1895 in Lidgerwood, North Dakota. Lottie was born the year before. Their parents, Dwight and Rosella Dutton moved to Idaho in March 1902. According to another Dutton sibling, Clarence Moler and Lottie became an item in about 1905 or 1906. Thus, this photo can't be any earlier than that since Clarence and Lottie did not know each other before then.

Could this really be the infamous "Butch and Sundance?"

On the right is a photo of Butch, aka Robert Leroy Parker, in 1896. I can see a resemblance to the man on the left of the group photo, even through the

thin beard. Was he ever in Idaho in the early 1900's? Sundance Kid, aka Harry Longbough is a little harder to identify through the moustache. What do you think?

According to some quick internet research, Butch and Sundance connected in 1900 when Sundance moved to Utah to join Butch's "Wild Bunch." They held up trains, stages, and banks all around the West. In 1900 they robbed the Winnemucca National Bank in Nevada and then headed to South America, along with Sundance's girlfriend, Etta Place. (Could she be the unidentified woman in the photo??)

If you've seen the Redford/Newman movie "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" you'll remember the climactic end scene with the massive shootout with the Bolivian police that ended their lives in 1908 (or 1911 by some accounts). However, some believe they came back to the United States under assumed names and identities. I found this on a website Legends of America:

"Evidence exists, however, that Butch Cassidy reloacted to Spokane, Washington, where he lived under the alias William T. Phillips until he died of cancer in the county poorhouse on July 20, 1937. Persistent reports also claimed that the Sundance Kid returned to the United States where he allegedly lived under the name of Hiram Bebee until his death in Wyoming in 1955."

The question remains. If this is the real Butch and Sundance, why is great-grandma Alice Dutton (Shelton), her sister and brother in law in a picture with them? Did they run around with outlaws? Or just take advantage of an opportunity to sit for a photo with such an infamous duo? It looks like it was taken at a photographer's studio. It is a mystery. Are there any Dutton descendants out there have any more information? Perhaps there are some Butch & Sundance scholars who can add some insight. I would love to hear everyone's speculations and opinions.

Growing up without a Mama

Mother. Mama. It's one of the first words a baby learns to say. On the battlefield, it is often one of the last words uttered by the mortally wounded soldier. A mother is central to a family and especially to a young child. She is their world. She feeds, loves, protects, teaches, binds wounds, inspires, and passes on the values and traditions that she grew up with.

I go to a Tuesday morning bible study at my church, Calvary Chapel of Escondido. We are currently doing a bible study on the book of Esther. Beth Moore, the author of the study, made a point about how young Esther grew up without a mama. She pointed out how devastating that would be for any child and how formative that would be for them. It would shape their character and follow them for the rest of their lives.

Sitting in the study, I couldn't help but thinking about a few of my ancestors that I knew off the top of my head that grew up without a mama. I wonder how the loss of such a key person in their lives shaped who they grew up to be?

Jesse Clark Osgood (1837-1918)

His mama, Abigail Clark, died when he was 19 months old. His father, Thaddeus Osgood, remarried three more times. (I don't know...if I was wife #4, I'd think twice!) Jesse was raised by his mother's family, the Clark's. The 1860 census shows him living with his Uncle Jesse Clark and Aunt Lydia rather than his father. We also have several letters he wrote to his Clark relatives during the Civil War. I don't know if there was any bad blood between Jesse and his father, or step-mothers. There isn't any kind of family lore to say that there was. I can't help but wonder though, why he wouldn't be living with his father.

Jesse and his mama shared the same birthday, March 4th. I wonder if this made his birthdays bittersweet?

Sarah Warriner Hamilton (1843-1937)

Sarah's mother, Mary Stebbins, died when Sarah was 3 years old. Her mother died shortly after giving birth to twin siblings on Christmas Day, 1846. She died a few weeks later. This was 8 days after one of the newborn twins, Alfred, died. In Sarah's case, her father also remarried. His second wife, Katherine Dewey Collins, died in 1850. His third wife, Julia Blake Beach, was a widow and came to the family with four children of her own. She was a schoolteacher in the town where Sarah went to school. The Hamilton children loved Julia before she became their stepmother. The ten children of the blended family grew up in the love and affection of both Mr. Hamilton and Julia and were very close as brothers and sisters all their lives. In fact, after Mr. Hamilton died, Julia came to live in Florence, Kansas, near Sarah and her family. Julia died there in 1899. It's nice to see a blended family that grew up in affection rather than distrust and bad feelings.

I find it interesting that these first two ancestors that came to mind, Jesse Osgood and Sarah Hamilton, married each other. Losing their mother at a young age was something they had in common.

Robert Craig Graham (1780-1856)

Robert was named for his father, Robert Graham, who emigrated from County Down, Ireland. When Robert Jr. was six, his mama, Mary Craig, died. Robert had three brothers and three sisters at the time. When he was nine, his father remarried another woman by the name of Mary....Mary Cowan. This second Mary and Robert had seven children of their own. From all accounts, the children from the first Mary (Cowan) did not get along with their stepmother as adults. I have yet to document this, but apparently there were legal issues with the estate of his father. Robert married Catherine Crockett and the family moved to Johnson County, Missouri, in about 1834.

The descendants of Robert Graham Sr. with his second wife, Mary, stayed in Wythe County, Virginia. During the Civil War, this line of Graham's fought for the Confederacy, while Robert Craig Graham's grandson, Robert Barnett Graham, fought for the Union. If anyone is interested, there is a great website on the Robert Graham/Mary Cowan descendants in Virginia called Major Graham's Mansion and is worth a look at to learn about the impact Graham's had in that part of Virginia.

Nancy Jane King (1846-1929)

Hannah Magee was 27 when she gave birth to her daughter, Nancy, in March 1946. Baby Nancy was 5 months old when her mama, Hannah, died. This is one family line that I know very little about. I don't know if her 31 year old husband, Ambrose King, remarried. This is one family line that I certainly need to explore further.

Josiah Osgood (1739-1788)

Josiah's mama was named Abigail Day. She married Josiah Osgood Sr., at the age of 18. She gave birth four times before she died. Her last baby was Josiah in 1739. When Josiah was three, his mama died. His father married Hannah Kitteredge when Josiah was 10. But between the age of three and ten, Josiah was without any mother figure.

How did this impact their lives? It's impossible to know for sure. It probably made them have to fend for themselves more and grow up a bit faster. One thing is for sure....it makes me realize how fortunate I am to have grown up with a mama, who still is one of the most important people in my life.

If your mama is still alive, go give her a call and let her know how important she is to you.

Monday Memory-The Osgood house

A word of disclaimer: The facts and assumptions that follow may not be 100% accurate. They are the memories of a little girl and there are most likely innocent or misunderstood things in this post. Please excuse any of these, and I bet your indulgence for a short while....

On our trips to Idaho, we would sleep at the Graham's, but we would spend days at Grandma & Grandpa Osgood's house. I loved the look of the outside of the house with its turquoise accents. They had land that went far back as well. At one point when I was small, I remember Grandpa having cows! I also remember chickens and geese. Grandma also had a lot of farm cats. They stayed outside and did their thing, but it was always fun to see kitties running around.

As a young girl, I called Grandma Osgood my "pink" Grandma. I don't remember why-perhaps she wore a pair of pink slacks that impressed me once when I was young. But pink being a rosy and cheerful kind of color, it fit with my Grandma Osgood perfectly.

We would have to go down a long driveway to get to their house. There was a ditch that ran along the road that the driveway went over. My mom told me of times as a kid when asparagus grew wild along the ditch bank. I was always afraid we would fall in it! The driveway bordered a huge front yard. When I was small, there were huge apricot trees in the front yard. I remember eating my first apricots at Grandma Osgood's. The driveway ended at a garage. I was always kind of wary of this area, because they had two boxes with BEES in them hooked onto the building. I was told they weren't the stinging kind, but I still didn't want to be near them.

In between the driveway and the house was a contraption with a big stone wheel and a seat on it. It was kind of like a bike without wheels. I'm pretty sure now that it was a sharpening stone. If I'm wrong, I hope one of my Osgood relatives will comment here and correct me. Here is a picture of me when I was about 2 on it with my Grandpa holding me on the seat.

Grandma had a large kitchen garden in the back. There was also a good sized yard with trees. Grandma was a great gardener. Mom told me recently that there were times when she was young that Grandma's garden fed the family. I remember her making big "dinners" for the noon time meal. It was strange for us to have "dinner" at lunch time. I particularly remember some delicious rasberries that were partially frozen and sprinkled with sugar. I've never had raspberries like that since!

I remember summer days out on the back porch visiting. There were these funny chairs made out of tractor seats for everyone to sit on. Grandma & Grandpa had an old-fashioned Coke machine that took dimes. Grandma was a Pepsi drinker. No Coke for her. There was a difference, and you couldn't fool her. (Or was it the other way around?) The sodas (or "pops") came in glass bottles. We would drink them right out of the bottle, or pour them into one of Grandma's "Loony Tunes" glasses. She had a collection of glasses with all the Loony Tunes characters on them: Bugs Bunny; Elmer Fudd; Daffy Duck; Speedy Gonzales; Pepe le Pew; the Tasmanian Devil; etc. Mom let us kids have one soda per day. It was always kind of hard to decide when to take it. If you took it too early, you were done for the day.

I don't remember much of the house before they added some rooms onto the back. We would enter the house through the back, up a ramp built for my uncle who uses a wheelchair to have access to the house. The first room you would enter was the kitchen. There was a small room off to the side that had an old hospital bed and other stuff in it. The kitchen had a blue and white short carpet. Grandma's kitchen was a busy place. Her refrigerator was an old one...I think it said "Coldspot" on it. It had these complicated ice cube trays that I never did figure out how to use. This picture is from our trip during the summer of 1976.

The next room was the dining room. There was a huge table that we all would sit around and chat or play Uno on. It had claw feet on it. My mom now has this table at her house. The bathroom was off to the left and it would be freaky sometimes at night or in the morning to go in and see a pair of teeth or two in a glass by the sink! Both Grandma & Grandpa wore dentures and that took some getting used to. Grandpa used to play around with my brother by popping his teeth out of place, yet keeping them in his mouth and chasing him around. It was funny to watch...I was just glad he wasn't chasing me!!

Past the dining room and through some accordion doors was the original part of the house. There was an old living room that smelled of old cigarette smoke. Grandpa was a long time smoker. It didn't bother me as a kid. It was before the days where there was any stigma attached to it. I remember a big velvet painting on one wall of a matador fighting a bull. There was a window air conditioning unit on the opposite wall. There was a downstairs bedroom that my uncle used. Like my Grandpa Graham, Grandpa Osgood had his chair. There were two couches for the rest of us.

I was always fascinated with the doorknobs in this room. They were so pretty to me--like jewels-chiseled diamonds. One door led to the upstairs. When you would start up the creaky stairs, it would feel like an older house. At the top was my aunt's room. I'm told that at one time my mom and 2 of her sisters all shared this room. When I was a kid, my aunt still lived there. She was a high school cheerleader and her pom poms would be tossed to the side of the room. She would go out on dates and was just so stylish to me. She had these pretty shoes in a size 5. She was only 10 years my senior, so I looked up to her a lot. Kind of like a living Barbie doll!

There was a very short and narrow hall way with a bookshelf packed with books and old Archie comics. I remember the high school senior portraits of my mom and her brothers and sisters in 8x10 frames on top. I was so impressed by these pictures! The girls all got to wear these pink or blue boas--they all looked like movie stars. The boys were in suits and looked so handsome!

At the end of the hall was Grandma & Grandpa's room. I rarely went in there. It just didn't seem right. All I can remember of it was their being a lot of "stuff" in there.

Sometimes, we would spend a night with my mom's parents too. But this post is getting pretty long, so I think I'll save that for another Monday.

An Osgood Family History Mystery

I've come into possession of some old photographs of some Osgood children. I found them on Ebay and bought them in the off -chance that they may be relatives. I figured that even if they weren't "my people," old photos are neat. Besides, I could always upload them to a website that has done me a great service in the past, DeadFred.com and perhaps help someone else in their family history search.

There are 3 photos altogether, but 2 are very similar.

This one says on the back: "1925. Robert Osgood. Ed & Lizzie's babe." There also is an address written: "2672 Poplar St."

There is another similar one taken with a wider lens, but at the same time and the same subject. It says "1925. Robert Osgood. Ed & Lizzie's babe."

I've looked in my database and the only Edward Osgood I have was my grandfather's older brother, born in 1900. I have two Robert Osgoods. One is another brother of my grandfather, born in 1898. The other is his son born in 1922.

I'm fascinated by the address on the back of one. I can't begin to imagine how many Poplar streets there are in the United States! This baby, Robert Osgood, may very well still be alive today, albeit an elderly man about 84 years old.

This photo says on the back: Ed and Lizzie Osgood Children. I don't know if these are additional siblings to the baby in the first two photos, or if the baby is the youngest boy in this photo. It looks like the same porch and house, though.

I'd welcome any clues anyone may have. It doesn't seem like these kids are my direct ancestors, though. I'd be happy to share the originals with their descendants.

For now, I'm off to upload them to DeadFred.