Jesse's Civil War Pension Claim

Family lore has it that after the Civil War, Jesse Clark Osgood was never the same physically. He was described by family members as being frail afterwards.

Jesse volunteered for service in Company A of the 26th Massachusetts volunteer infantry and was enrolled in the unit on September 30, 1861. He served throughout the war and was discharged in Savannah, Georgia on August 26, 1865. One of my research interests is what happened to my great-great grandfather in between.

I recently received from the National Archives Jesse's pension file. It is a treasure trove of facts and information about his service, as well as his wife's widow's pension. There is too much to put into one post. So I will start with a transcription of his original declaration for an invalid pension, signed in 1883 and filed on September 8, 1883:

State of Kansas, County of Marion. On this ___ day of ___, A.D. one thousand eight hundred and eighty-three, [For some reason the exact dates are left blank in the document.], personally appeared before me, the clerk of the District Court, a court of record within and for the county and State aforesaid, Jesse C. Osgood, aged 46 years, a resident of the City of Florence, county of Marion, State of Kansas, who, being duly sworn according to law, declares that he is the identical Jesse C. Osgood who was ENROLLED on the 30 day of September, 1861, in Company A of the 26 regiment of Mass, Inft. Vol. commanded by Col. Edward F. Jones, and was honorably DISCHARGED at Savannah GA on the 26 day of August, 1865; that his personal description is as follows: Age, 46 years; height, 5 feet 6 inches; complexion, Light; hair, light brown; eyes, hazel.

That while a member of the organization aforesaid, in the service and in the line of his duty at Forts Jackson & St. Philip in the State of Louisiana on or about the 19 day of April 1862, he took cold from wading in the swamps at the Quarantine station near Fort Jackson which brought on an attack of asthma of a severe and malignant character. That he was treated as follows: in camp; and at the regimental hospital at New Orleans by the Surgeon of the regiment Dr. JG. Bradt between the 25 of July and through the 30 of September 1862. That he has not been employed in the military or naval service otherwise than as stated above.

That since leaving the service this applicant has resided in the town of Greenville in the State of Illinois, and at Florence, Marion County, Kansas, and his occupation has been that of a Dentist. That prior to his entry into the service above named he was a man of good, sound, physical health, except slight asthmatical affection from youth, being when enrolled as a farmer. That he is now three fourths disabled from obtaining his subsistence by manual labor by reason of his injuries, above described, received in the service of the United States; and he therefore makes this declaration for the purpose of being placed on the invalid pension roll of the United States.

He hereby appoints, will full power of of substitution and revocation, W.F. File of Florence, Marion County, State of Kansas, his true and lawful attorney to prosecute his claim. That he has not received nor applied for a pension. That his Post Office address is Florence, County of Marion, State of Kansas.

The document is signed by Jesse C. Osgood with two witnesses.

This first claim for a pension was rejected because he admitted to having some slight asthma from his youth. This is great for those of us who are interested in Jesse's service, because he then had to go get multiple declarations from individuals who would attest to his health problems being related to his service. The file contains declarations from fellow soldiers, doctors, and friends who knew him before and after the War. There is also a more detailed declaration from Jesse about the experience he had wading in the swamps that led to his physical disability. Stay tuned, readers!!

In the meantime, you can read up on the battle he was involved with. The battle of Fort Jackson & Fort St. Philip was fought officially from April 25 through May 1, 1862 in New Orleans. This link will take you to a description of the battle, along with a map of the Mississippi River where it was fought.

Family History Blog Success!

One reason I started this blog was to connect with distant relatives who may also be researching our common family lines.

I'm happy to report that my first connection was made recently, thanks to this blog! I received a letter in the mail from my Grandmother last week. She forwarded me a letter written to her by her cousin. (I need to double check the relationships to be exactly sure). This lady's grandmother was the sister of my great-grandfather, Ira Shelton. She also is a granddaughter of the mysterious Nathaniel Shelton! She was doing some searches online and ran across one of my blog posts about Nathaniel Shelton. Like we are so apt to do while online, she navigated away from my blog and couldn't find it again. But she figured I belonged to my Grandmother, so she wrote her a letter asking to find me. Viola!

Like me, she is an amateur family history researcher. We've exchanged some of the information that we each have on Nathaniel. Some of it conflicts, and like my information much of it needs to be verified and sourced. So there is some work ahead of us. But I would like to share with you something she e-mailed me today--a photograph of Nathaniel and Sarah Deen grave site in Memphis, Missouri. I'm excited to get to know this new cousin and work together with her in discovering more about our common ancestor.

A History of "Pioneer Sarah" - Part Two

The article continues:

"Shortly after the end of the Civil War, Henry Fordyce and Rachel/Sarah, along with the Thomas J. Sampson family, joined a wagon train going west for about two years. It is thought they had relatives there. (Note: Thomas J. Sampson was Henry and Rachel/Sarah's son in law. He married their daughter, Mahala Fordyce. TJ was the one who sacrificed his own health and life for his team of horses).

In Iowa, another tragedy struck the hearts of the two families - and that of Rachel/Sarah in particular. Her little namesake Rachel, daughter of Thomas and Mahala Sampson, came too close to the fire where trash was burning. She burned to death.

The lure of free homestead land drew them to Kansas, and the families once more packed their belongings. Two sons had been born to the Sampsons while in Iowa, and when they arrived in Marion County in October of 1869, John Wesley Sampson was only a few weeks old.

The two families chose adjoining land on section 14-18-5 in Clear Creek township. Eight months after their arrival, a federal census was taken on June 21, 1870. It listed Henry Fordyce as age 69, white, a farmer born in New Jersey, a citizen, with property of $1,717.00 in value. His wife is listed as Rachel, 71, female, white, b. West Virginia. They lived in Clear Creek township about five miles east of Lincolnville. Living with the Fordyces was an 18 year old youth named Frank Vanmeter.

In the months that followed, the aging couple met yet another young adventure, building a home, setting up their farming operations, coping with weather and soil vastly different than the lush green land of Indiana. But they were survivors who could meet a challenge. Stone houses were built, orchards planted, fences built, three new grandchildren arrived to be cuddled, and older children needed to be told tales of adventures. Their twilight years could not have been lonely nor empty. In the year of 1878, Rachel/Sarah died. In the months that followed, neighbors by the name of Howell were making a trip to Indiana and offered to take Henry with them. In his luggage Henry packed the Fordyce family Bible and went to Indiana to see his son and relatives. The Howells did not bring him back. According to information in the Marion County (Kansas) Court House, (Book P.P. 176, Register of Deeds), the Howells induced Henry to sign on March 4, 1879, a paper agreeing to give John Howell and wife 80 acres of land in Marion County, Kansas, in exchange for "clothes and board and necessary medical treatment during his life, and, at his death, the said John Howell to furnish the said Henry Fordyce with a respectable burial outfit." Henry, according to the date of death on his tombstone died the same day the agreement was signed, March 4, 1879. The Howells waited seven weeks and filed their claim on April 21, 1879, then waited until February of 1892 to file in Marion County an affidavit or claim to the land, SW quarter-section of 14-18-5 "containing 160 acres, more or less."

Henry died the same month as his son-in-law, Thomas Sampson, husband of the Fordyce's daughter Mahala. Thomas died 29 March 1879 of dust pneumonia, leaving his wife with 10

children, one an infant. Thomas must have been something of a powerhouse of a man to have accomplished all that he had in his less than 10 years on the prairie; he had bought expensive machinery, including a threshing machine and well pump. There were notes on the machinery and livestock. He had not expected to die at age 47. Mahala simply could not go to Indiana to see about her father's affairs. So the Howells were able to "absorb" the Fordyce land Mahala and her children sorely needed.

As to the real name of Rachel/Sarah, we would like to suggest that both Biblical names eminently suited her. She was strong, patient, loving, fruitful, faithful, courageous, and though uneducated because of frontier conditions, she was a splendid teacher by precept and example. She was proud of her heritage and the heritage of her children. She taught her daughter that her ancestry went back to the Mayflower and also the ancestors who arrived with William Penn. Lee Sampson has suggested that Sarah was probably Rachel/Sarah's middle name and that she may have become known as Sarah because she preferred that name. There was both a Sarah and a Rachel among the Thomas Sampson family children. Thomas' mother was named Sarah Grear.

Though there are more records to be searched, and more to be written, it seemed appropriate to write as much of the story of this ancestress as is now available for the reunion of the Sampson family on June 12, 1983, so that it can be distributed and hopefully preserved by someone who may be able to someday find all the remaining story of a gallant lady."

A History of "Pioneer Sarah" - Part One

For some time, I have wanted to share about Pioneer Sarah. She is an ancestor who has inspired me, even though I know very little about her. Over the next couple of blog posts, I'm going to transcribe an article written by my grandmother, Lucile Fox Osgood's, third cousin, Vida Soyez Vinduska. I hope other descendants of this great lady find the story interesting. This photo of Sarah's final resting place actually was something that inspired me while in labor with my daughter, Isabelle. Knowing I came from such strong stock helped me through the difficult times!

The beautiful tribute to "Pioneer Sarah" in the Marion County Record of May 25 is greatly appreciated by her family, and, though it is wished that her grave could have been surrounded by kinfolk, she has always been in their hearts as is exemplified by the stone erected to her memory by her great-grandchildren, among whom are the children of Miles Elsworth Sampson and John Wesley Sampson. The stone was especially the project of William Thomas Sampson who supervised its production and installation.

For more than twenty years I, Vida Soyez Vinduska, have periodically worked at learning the history of Rachel/Sarah, and about five years ago two cousins joined in the search. Beulah Fisher Boyer and retired Lt. Col. Edward E. Sampson, an excellent researcher, have helped to gather some interesting lore.

Over the years, we have puzzled over how she became known as "Sarah." Col. Sampson found her in an Indiana (1850) census as Rachel, 53, born in West Virginia. her husband, Henry Fordyce, was listed as aged 49, born in New Jersey. her children at that time were listed as Jane, 20; Mary, 18; Mahala, 14; and William H., 12; all born in Ohio. Also living in the household were a daughter, Ann, and grandchildren, Elvira Allen, 4; and Emore (Elmore?) Allen, 3.

A Kansas death record for her daugher, Mahala Fordyce Sampson, who died in 1931, gave her mother's maiden name as Clark. In the Kansas census of 1870, she is listed as Rachel, 71, born in West Virginia. On a recent (April 1983) visit to the Mormon Archives in Salt Lake City an 18 Jan. 1838 birth record for William Henry Fordyce gave his parents' names as Henry Fordyce/Rachel Stackhouse.

Family tradition has it that Rachel was married twice, but we have not been able to find her marriage records which would help sort out which name, Clark or Stackhouse, was her

maiden name. Mrs. Grace Soyez of Marion remembers her grandmother, Mahala Fordyce Sampson, telling her that her mother was married twice, having had 15 daughters during her first marriage, and that Mahala and William Henry were born to the second, or Fordyce, marriage.

A descendant of Rachel/Sarah Clark Stackhouse Fordyce, whose name was Rebecca Fordyce Deardorff of Ellendale, North Dakota, and who was a granddaughter of Rachel/Sarah wrote a Fordyce family history which gave the information that Henry Fordyce married Rachel Clark, of Dutch descent. She had no information on the possibility that Rachel/Sarah was married twice, but did relate that she had 17 children, 16 daughters and one son, William Henry Fordyce, born 1 Jan 1838 in Clinton Co., Ohio. The daughters she named were: Betsey, b. 15 March 1821; Jane, b. 5 Oct. 1829; Mary b. 1 June 1833; Mahala b. 18 Feb. 1836,and she gave Sarah, Ann, and Annie, whose birth dates she did not know. Rebecca related that the other nine girls died in childhood.

In 1847, Henry Fordyce and his brother James decided to move their families from Ohio to Indiana, and in oct. of that year the two families arrived in Wabash County, Indiana. The trip, made in oxen-drawn covered wagons, had been slow. There were no roads. Often they had to cut down trees to make a road so they could get through. At their destination in Wabash County, they had to cut down trees to build a small log cabin where both families lived until they could build a second cabin...

Life could not have been easy for Rachel/Sarah. Born on the frontier of West Virginia in 1799, she was to make homes in Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, possibly Illinois, and Kansas before she died. She had buried nine little daughters by the time she was 32. In all she bore 17 children. The last was her only son, William Henry, born Jan 1. 1838, when she was 40. When she was 62, she saw both her handsome young son and her husband, aged 60, march off to fight in the Civil War. Henry was enrolled as a private in Company C, 40th Regiment of Indiana Volunteers at Peoria, Ill., on the 13th of Nov. 1861, by Capt. Leaming and was mustered into the military forces of the United States at Lafayette, Indiana in December 1861 for a period of three years. His physical description: eyes, grey; hair, grey; height, 5 foot 8 1/2 inches; complexion, light. His nativity, New Jersey, Essex County, occupation, farmer. He was discharged at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, March 17, 1863. Reason: disability.

The son, William Henry, told of a severe eye infection he himself contracted during the

war. The best the medics could do was to tie him hand and foot to railroad rails so they could pour a solution of lye into his eyes to fight the infection. There was some damage to his eyes. But, still sighted, he wrote a letter to his sister, Mahala Fordyce Sampson, in 1915.

The photo here is of Rachel/Sarah's son, William Henry in his military uniform. Much thanks to Loretta Klose (another descendant) for this picture.

Stay tuned to my next post for the continuation of the story!

Going back on the Shelton/Dean side and finding a cousin

I've got a google alert set for anything that pops up in the internet having the words "Nathaniel Shelton" and "Memphis, Missouri." As regular readers will recall, Nathaniel is a brick wall of mine and I'm always on the lookout for anything that will help me find his parents or even give me an idea of what his life was like.

Yesterday, a hit came for Nathaniel's death certificate on someone's website. I have had the document for some time, but it was exciting to see that there was someone else out there who had been researching Nathaniel. First off, the website is AMAZING and very well documented. I'm sure it took years of work to compile and document everything. There are over 49,000 individuals in this person's tree, and over 1,300 photos. It is searchable and is really a treasure.

Who is the website owner, exactly? The website is called "The Families of Dennis W. Brumm." Perhaps he is a distant cousin? I do believe we are some sort of

cousin, since I found the following picture on the website. It is the cabin of John Dean and Mary Nicely. John and Mary were ancestors of Nathaniel's wife Sarah Dean. They are my 5th great grandparents, they are Dennis' 4th great grandparents. This is what the site shared about this cabin in West Virginia:

"This is the house in which my fourth great grandparents, John Dean and Mary Knicely, lived. They were married January 12, 1787 in Rockingham County, Virginia. These were kindly provided by Jim Shelton, another descendant of John and Mary. Jim kindly provided the photographs and the following information, (November 2008):

"...Attached are a couple of pictures of the John Dean cabin that I had taken while we were there. The log cabin is in very good shape for its age. It had been sided and a tin roof put on it. The cabin was lived in by the Dean family for many years after old John had died [1813]. John Dean built the cabin in the 1790's. And at the time we were there, Dean Gap was owned by a Mr. Teeter...

John Dean was buired on the hillside over looking his cabin in Dean's Gap, along side his father-in-law, Anthony Knicely. There are two stones there marking their grave site. A distant cousin of mine was there 5-6 years ago and saw them. When we were there 3-4 years ago with him, it was so overgrown that we could not find them."

My research at this point does not go beyond John and Mary on the Dean family line. But I'm hopeful that with the new connection with this cousin and his connections that I may learn more about the Shelton/Dean lines.

My Family History wish list

As I consider the past year of research and look ahead to 2010, here are some of my family history wishes. Some are areas where I would like to break through brick walls. Others are just things I would like to get my hands on. Here goes:

• I wish that some kind Osgood relative lets me see Jesse Clark Osgood's diary. Jesse is my 2nd great-grandfather. Regular followers of this blog will remember I had a sample of his handwriting analyzed in October. I know the diary exists. It has been at Osgood family reunions that I was not at. It is probably in the hands of one of my second cousins. I'd even be happy with a photocopy. If I were to get it, I would transcribe it and give copies of that to all Osgood's who wanted it. It is a treasure! This blog would benefit too!
• June is going to be a good month for family history. One of my Osgood first cousins is getting married in June. I'm excited to go to the wedding, of course, but I'm also excited that this will be an opportunity to have a family reunion. I hope to do some oral history interviews with my aunts, uncles, and cousins. I also hope to be able to walk through Grandma and Grandpa Osgood's house one last time, if it hasn't been sold by then. I also want to spend some time at the Payette courthouse and look up some probate records of my Graham ancestors. I've also had some contact with a branch of the Graham family that we never knew (my Grandpa Graham's brothers and sisters and their kids). I'd like to be able to meet some of them during this trip.
• I'd like to be able to get my hands on some farm schedules from the censuses. From other census records I have of my ancestors, I know which number the family is on the schedule. It would be so neat to be able to see the details on Robert Barnett Graham's farm, say in 1870 and 1880! It's just a matter of getting to a place where I can look them up, since they are not online. Hmmm....I probably need to get to know my local family history library.
• The Kline family is still a mystery to me. I would like to be able to find Karl Kline's death certificate. He died before the state of Kansas started collecting birth and death certificates, but perhaps there is a record in Marion county. I also would like to find more census records of the Kline's. I'd like to find them before 1880 to document their migration from Ohio to Kansas. I'd also like to find a record of Karl's military service during the Civil War.
• Pioneer Sarah. I haven't done much research on her yet. She is an enigma, and someone who's story needs to be told. I'll share what I do know of her soon.
• I'd love to have new cousins make contact with me. It doesn't matter from which branch of the tree they come from. It is so amazing to make connections with others who have been doing research and happen to be related. I've got my "tentacles" out on bulletin boards, Ancestry.com, and this blog. Any day could be the day to meet new cousins!
• I also hope to be able to keep up with this blog. I'll admit, it has been hard this fall. We moved and are getting settled into our new house. I haven't had the time to think much about family history, much less organize my thoughts to be able to post. I'm hoping that in 2010 I will be able to pick up at a better pace.

This isn't an exclusive list! I'm thrilled at every new lead, every new tidbit of information. Anyone out there with a family connection have any information that they would like to have me find out? (Not that I'm taking orders or anything!) Leave a comment!

40 years old

On this day forty years ago, I was born. The year I turn forty is 2009. The President is Barack Obama, and the country is at war with terrorists around the world. (Or at least we used to be). We also are in a global economic recession, some commentators say its the worst it has been since the great depression. I'm married to a chemist by training, executive by life's happenstance. He works for a French company as the Vice President of U.S. Operations out of our home. We have 3 kids aged 10, 8 and 15 months. We are getting ready to move into a bigger house. Overall, I feel blessed.

Turning 40 can be traumatic for some. On this day, it has put me into a contemplative mood and made me think about my female ancestors. What were their lives like when they turned the big 4-0? I decided to look at my four great-grandmothers and see what life looked like for them at my age.

Florence Martha Partridge Osgood

Florence turned 40 in the year 1915. The President was Woodrow Wilson. The world was at war, but the United States was not yet engaged. The Lusitania had been sunk in May of that year by Germany. Model T Fords were popular...the 1,000,000th was manufactured that year.

In Marion County, Kansas, Florence Osgood was busy. She was the wife of a hard working farmer Clark Osgood. This is a photo of the Osgood's, although I am not sure of the year.

At the age of 40, Florence was the mother of nine children. Her kids ranged in ages from 19 to 2. She was not done having babies--a year later she would give birth to my grandfather, Everett Harlan Osgood. She would go on to have an eleventh baby, a daughter, who would die at the age of five months. But at the age of 40, she would not know of this heartache. She was probably too busy!

Jennie Olivia Shipp Graham

Jennie turned 40 in 1921. Warren Harding began his short Presidency that year. Charlie Chaplin's famous silent move, "The Kid" opened in theatres. Babe Ruth was wowing crowds with home runs in baseball parks nationwide-he would set a record of 137 career home runs shortly after Jennie celebrated her 40th birthday.

Jennie was the wife of Guy Graham, a fruit farmer who had become an expert in horticultural affairs in the state of Idaho. During his career, he was the state horticultural inspector, the

commissioner of agriculture for the state, as well as a legislator in the state house in Boise. In 1921, Guy was also on the Board of the Idaho State Fair Association.

When Jennie turned 40, she had borne 8 children. One, a daughter, Dorothy, had died as a five year old. Like me, she had a one year old baby. This was Jennie's youngest child. Her oldest

surviving child was nearly 14. The family lived in Fruitland, Idaho.

The Idaho Statesman reported that at the end of July, 1921 (which was just a couple weeks after her 40th birthday), the family went on a short vacation to Payette Lakes with the Bossen and Bishop families.

It seems that life was full for the Graham family when Jennie was my age.

Alice Nerissa Dutton Shelton

My great grandmother Alice turned 40 in the year 1935. Bob Hope made his radio debut that year. Amelia Earhart was making records in aviation. The board game Monopoly hit the market for the first time. The country was in the midst of the Great Depression. Franklin D. Roosevelt was early into his first of three terms as

President. Life was hard, especially for farmers.

Alice was the wife of farmer Ira Shelton. Ira was employed as a farm manager. He managed a 200 acre farm for $1 a day and a place for his family to live.

Alice had her children when she was young. By the time she turned 40, her two children were nearly adults. Her son Richard had married the year before, and her daughter June was 15.

Alice was an extremely hard working woman. According to her daughter, she would pick apples in local orchards each morning. She could pick more apples than anyone, and then come back home at 11 a.m. to cook lunch for all the hired help.

The family's income did not allow for any extras--just money for basic needs, which the one dollar a day hardly covered. Her daughter June writes, "Mother never felt we were poor and did everything so we wouldn't feel it."

One entry in a journal that my Grandma June wrote is interesting to me, given my background: "If Dr. Reynolds came by and ask if she'd go to help deliver a baby, she'd grab a clean apron and go. Dr. wanted her to start a maternity home in Emmett but she didn't do it." It seems that my great-grandmother had some natural talent for midwifery, even if she did not have the formal training. (Actually, family lore says that Alice's own grandmother was known to be a midwife in the 1800's) Given June's perception of the midwife as someone who did not have any formal training and would just go with nothing but a clean apron, its no wonder she was a little concerned at my decision to have two of my three babies at home with a midwife!

I never knew Alice, but I think I would have liked her a lot. She died in 1959.

Lillie Pearl Sampson Fox

Like Alice, Lillie Pearl turned 40 in 1935. While Alice was in Idaho, the Fox family lived in Kansas. This photo of her was from her teenage years--I only have pictures of her at this age, or much older in group shots.

Lillie was the wife of farmer William Harrison Fox. The family raised hogs, chickens and sold graded eggs. She loved to bake angel food cakes, tend garden, and raise houseplants. She braided her waist length hair and wound it on the back of her head every morning. She baked bread and had wonderful Christmas celebrations at her house.

The year Lillie turned 40 was a year of heartbreak for her. She had to bury her youngest child, a son. William Wesley Fox died at the age of 10 months on March 17, 1935. She had buried her two other boys as well: John Delbert in 1915 (3 months old) and James Walter in 1929 (1 week old). I have a heart rendering note written by Lillie's daughter, Lucile, about William Wesley. Space does not permit in this post, but I'll share it soon. All in all, Lillie Pearl birthed 10 babies and raised 7 daughters to adulthood.

In thinking about the lives my great-grandmother's led, I cannot help but feel that I have it easy. While the world was different for each of them in 1915, 1921 and 1935, I can still identify with life's struggles, heartaches and joys. They all had to work physically so much harder than I do--they had to be extremely strong an resilient women. Knowing this, I feel fortunate to know that I hold a piece of each of them in me. On days when I think I have it rough, I can reflect on that and draw strength from it.

Amelia, his wife

In the never ending battle for paper organization of my genealogy "stuff," I ran across a death certificate that I received last summer from Topkea, Kansas. I was so thrilled when I got it, but had trouble reading it at first. I put it on my table and it sank into the paperwork and got lost. Until the other day.

I've blogged a few times about my great-great-great grandfather on my mom's maternal line, Karl Kline. This is about his wife, Amelia. What I can gather about her life from what little family lore I have, the sparse census records, as well as some reading on life for women as Kansas pioneers, she had a tough life. I'm not ready to blog about some of those details, as I'm still working on some of the research.

Amelia survived her husband by about 17 years, passing away on July 28, 1923. They are buried together at Highland Cemetery in Marion, Kansas. I put the death certificate up on my Facebook page and solicited some help in reading the document from my friends.

One of my new Facebook friends is also a descendant of Karl and Amelia. I had seen her posts on family history bulletin boards and websites, but didn't know who she was. I did a little digging and realized we were related...her mother was my great-grandmother's little sister. So my new friend and I are first cousins, 2 times removed. She still lives in the area that Karl and Amelia lived in. I'm hoping we can collaborate more in the future on our mutual family lines. She gave me some interesting insight into Amelia as part of the death certificate deciphering.

Some of what was reported on the death certificate confirms information I had before. Here is what I learned about Amelia from her death certificate, with much thanks to my friends and family on Facebook for some additional insight:

• She was born in Germany. Some earlier census records report it as "Prussia," which by 1923 had become part of Germany.
• At the time of her death, Amelia lived with her youngest daughter, Daisy, and her husband George Powell. In fact, George is the informant for the death certificate.
• Her maiden name was Windel. It asks for her father's name it says "Don't know, Windel" I've seen the name spelled elsewhere as Wendel, as well. Where it asks for the mother's maiden name, it also says "Don't know." My new-found cousin tells me that Amelia did not speak much English, so it was difficult to get information from her on her ancestry. (Did Daisy not speak German?) Perhaps this wasn't considered important by them at the time. I know many people who don't seem to think their stories are important. (How wrong they are!)
• She died a week after her 81st birthday.
• Her cause of death was central stenosis, a heart valve disorder that involves a narrowing or blockage of the opening of the mitral valve, which separates the upper and lower chambers of the left side of the heart. She suffered from this disease for 2 years, 3 months and 10 days.

Karl and Amelia have captured my interest for some reason. I have a lot more to share about them, but its too soon yet. I am still in the process of learning and gathering information. I was thrilled to connect with my new cousin who also is a granddaughter of the Kline's. Are there any more of you out there?

Here's the actual death certificate:

Monday Memory - funny times in Idaho

This post isn't going to be free flowing narrative. Just a collection of memory snapshots of funny things that happened to me as a kid while on vacation in Idaho.

• One afternoon I was at Grandma & Grandpa Osgood's house. I remember being inside the dining room with my mom, my aunt, grandma, and maybe even my little sister. If she was there, she was pretty young. The men were outside doing....I don't know. Man stuff. Anyway, my brother came walking in with a dead mouse in his hands. The women freaked out! Apparently, Grandpa Osgood told my brother to bring it in and show it to us, knowing the kind of reaction it would get. Grandpa was a real jokester, I'm told.

• Grandpa and Grandma Osgood both wore dentures. Grandpa had this ability to "pop" his teeth out while still in his mouth. I remember him joking around with my brother, chasing him around with his teeth popped out. It was real funny to me. Of course, I wasn't being chased! I probably would have been scared to death if it had been me!
• Grandma & Grandpa Graham had a 3 wheeler that they would let us kids ride. I didn't do it a whole lot, but my brother did. Characteristically, he would drive fast and nutty. I remember Grandma telling afterwards (well, maybe hollering at him), that he was driving like a "bat out of hell!" He just laughed it off.
• I also had a cousin who lived up in Idaho. She was a year older than me. Her sister was a couple years younger than me. When I got older, I would go and spend a couple days up at their place. That was a lot of fun. My cousin lived on a big farm that her dad, my uncle, ran. One summer it was thick with grasshoppers. I was not used to big bugs like that, much less in biblical proportions! My brother was up there as well that time. Typical boy, the bugs didn't bother him. My cousins were unaffected as well. I was the only one who had an issue with the beasts. Well, they saw the chink in the armor and decided to taunt me with the bugs. We were in the house, and they brought one in and put it out towards me. I ran into the bathroom, thinking...aha! I'm safe! Not so. My brother put the bug underneath the door (there was an unusually large space) and that dang bug literally came flying right at me. Well...maybe not as bad as that. But it sure seemed like it then.
• Listening to Bill Cosby's "Chicken Heart" album with my cousin and getting freaked OUT. I can still hear the rhythm of the chicken heart...
• Taking a walk outside in the evening with Grandma Graham one time. She started singing, "I'm in love with the man on the moon...." It was nice. But I thought it was strange that there would be a man on the moon...didn't they come back home?
• "Washing" my hair with fresh chickens' eggs. I thought that it made my hair really nice and shiny. How nice of Grandma Osgood to let me use 4-5 eggs to do this.

For my Graham and Osgood relatives---what funny memories do YOU have? I've invited you all before to comment and few have taken me up on it. But seriously--please leave your comments here. It's a great way to get all the memories documented in one place. I'm starting to feel like the tree that fell in the forest but didn't make a sound because no one was around to hear it. Or maybe they heard it, but didn't mention it to anyone.....

John N. Osgood....who are you?

Ebay struck again. Now I have another Osgood mystery on my hands.

I bid and won a photo of a "John N. Osgood." I don't think he is a direct ancestor of mine. The last John Osgood in my direct line died in 1725. But I went ahead and bid on the item, thinking that if I did win it, perhaps I could find out who he was. At the very least, I could upload the photo to DeadFred.com and hopefully help another family researcher out there.

I have a book on CD-Rom entitled, "A Genealogy of the Descendants of John, Christopher, and William Osgood." It was compiled by Ira Osgood and tracks the descendants through 1890's. It's a pretty good resource, but I find it a little difficult to navigate as a PDF document. Being over 500 pages, its hard to quickly browse for specific information.

Be that as it may, I looked "John N. Osgood" up in the index. There is one listed, born on 26 March 1843 in Bradford, Maine. He was a soldier in the Union army and died in a hospital in Hampton, Virginia on 15 Sept 1864. (Interesting side note--this John's brother in law died of starvation at Andersonville prison).

Could this be that John? I don't know much about dating photographs. (Perhaps I need to contact the Photo Detective, Maureen Taylor.) It may be that this photo was taken prior to 1864.

There were three original Osgood immigrants to the New World in the 1630's: John, Christopher, and William. All Osgood's in this country can trace their ancestry back to one of these three men. John's family and William's family both came to America aboard the same ship, "Confidence" in 1638. They were probably related, although there are various explanations as to exactly how. The John N. Osgood in the book was a descendant of William Osgood. I am a descendant of John Osgood. Even if we assume this John and the John in the book are the same...the exact relationship is still unknown since the relationship between the immigrant John and William are not known.

Of course, I am very open to other identifications of the man in this photo. Do you know who he is?

Monday Memory - the new Graham place

When Grandpa retired, he and Grandma Graham bought a smaller place in Fruitland. I'm not sure of the exact date, but I think it was the early 1980's. It still had a small orchard, although I don't know if Grandpa actively farmed it. It also had an oval dirt path that went around the buildings. There was a nice yard on one side of the house. I remember having some really fun badminton games there.

I was told that the house itself was a mobile home. It seemed pretty permanent to me! Parking was behind the house, and you would enter through a sliding door in the back. Coming from Southern California, my brother and I marveled at the fact that Grandma & Grandpa left the keys to their car in the ignition. We would never consider that where we were from. (People in our neighborhood would even steal an inflatable easter bunny from a little girl if it wasn't nailed down. But that's a story for another Monday!)

There was nice decking that went up to the back door, and led down to a game room. When you walked inside, the living room was on the right and the kitchen on the left. In between, was a small counter that a few people could sit at for quicker meals or less formal times. Like the old house, Grandma was in the kitchen a lot. Many of my memories of her are of her in the kitchen. If you went to the left through the kitchen, there was a utility room on the next left. That was another place Grandma spent a lot of time in. She often would spend a lot of time doing everyone's laundry while they were visiting.

Heading straight, however, was the dining room. When we all were visiting, this is where we would have meals together. Grandma and Grandpa used to have a big dalmatian dog named Pepper. At mealtimes, Pepper would sneak up next to you and try to get scraps. It kind of freaked me out to have a big dog be so demanding. Our family just had a little white mutt of a dog named Penny. She stayed outside and did her thing. (You can see Penny in the picture at the top of this post).

Going down a small hallway was a bathroom and two bedrooms. This is where we would stay. Mom and dad would get one room, and us kids another. There were two beds in there that wold accommodate us all. I remember these clown pictures on the wall in our room. In the closet were stacks and stacks of paperback books.

On the other side of the living room was Grandma and Grandpa's room. I don't think I ever went in there. I do remember hearing the radio on in there at really late hours. I vaguely remember someone telling me that Grandma listened to the radio all night.

The coolest part about Grandma & Grandpa Graham's place was the GAME ROOM. A whole room dedicated to fun and recreation! It had a big pool table that the men would play on. I would give it a try from time to time, but never was any good. I was always kind of embarrassed to try in front of the older relatives there. There were times when Grandma's brother, Uncle Dick Shelton, would come. He, Grandpa and Dad would play together and drink beer. When my brother got a bit older, he joined in. There was a refridgerator out there and I remember seeing cases of "Pabst" or "Hamm's" in there. I also remember them talking about "Billy Beer." This was referencing President Carter's brother, Billy Carter, who had his own beer label. I don't think I actually saw the beer, but I think maybe Grandpa had a sign our something. Or maybe they were just talking about it. They never got drunk or anything, they just enjoyed the time together playing and enjoying a few cold ones. Funny what things stick in a kids' memory.

The game room also had its own pinball machine. That was my favorite part. I don't remember what it was called, but it had clowns on it. You didn't need to put quarters in the machine for it to work. They also had a shooting game, but I never played that. There was a small bed out there, and a 1/2 bathroom. You could literally spend the day out there. If you got bored, there was an 8 track stereo with dozens of 8 track tapes. Now, it was a bit "out" of style then, but not too bad. At that time, cassette tapes and vinyl were the most popular formats for music. But the 8 tracks worked, so we could listen to music and play pinball. That was fun.

That was pretty much the limits of my experience in that place. I never really explored the land. I'm pretty sure there was a barn, but it wasn't a place I ever went. The last time I was there was when Grandpa died in 2001. I brought my second baby, Isabelle, with me. She was still too little to leave home.

I'd love to hear some recollections of my Graham relatives of the place.

Let's reminisce! Leave a comment with some memories of your own.

Karl Kline...the mystery continues

I blogged earlier this month about my 3rd great grandfather on my mom's side, Karl Gottlieb Kline. Specifically, I am on a hunt to track down his military record.

If readers recall, Karl had a G.A.R. emblem next to his headstone. This would indicate Karl's membership in the "Grand Army of the Republic," a fraternal organization of union veterans of the Civil War.

I learned of a book that could help me in my quest: "Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska Civil War Veterans: Compilation of the Death Rolls of the Departments of Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska, Grand Army of the Republic, 1883-1948" by Dennis Northcott. I looked for it in vain to be available in full text online. With a 2007 publication date, I shouldn't have been suprised not to find it. I also checked the library catalog of the Carlsbad library, but they did not have the book. According to World Cat, the closest library that held the book was in Los Angeles.

That led me to my first attempt at an interlibrary loan. I've never done this before, but the reference librarian at my local San Diego County branch library was very helpful. I went through the steps to make the request, but it came back in the negative. Apparently, the book is in the reference collection and not loaned out. Was I going to have to drive up to Los Angeles??

My genealogy angel friend, (I'll call her my geneangel from now on, because she is!), googled it for me and found that the Southern Orange County Genealogical Society had the book in their collection, held at the Mission Viejo library. Last Sunday, I convinced my hubby to hang out with the kids for the afternoon and I was off! This was my first trip to a library for family history research. Up until now, I've been able to do it all online. I'm not against library research, quite the contrary. It's just hard for me to get to a library with a 14 month old who thinks he is the center of the universe.

I found the book and copied the "Kline" page. Here is what I found.

Drumroll please.....

When I saw the name "Carl Kline" my heart leapt. This Carl was with a Wisconsin regiment, but his death date was listed as 1891. That couldn't be MY Carl, because we believe he died in 1907. Plus, I have a photo of the Kline family and the youngest daughter, Daisy, appears to be at least five. Daisy was born in 1887. When In looked in the death date column, there was a Kline who died on July 9, 1907. The headstone photo I have says my Karl died on July 7, 1907. That's pretty close. But the name of this Kline is PETER KLINE. He served with Company E, 40th Iowa. Peter Kline's death was reported in the Journal of the 34th Encampment of the Department of Iowa, published in 1908.

Could this be my Kline?

First the name issue. I've seen records with him listed as Gottlob, Gottolob, and Karl. But Peter is a new one. I'm not an expert in German, but I don't think "Peter" translates into Karl/Carl or Gottlieb. Any German experts out there, please feel free to educate me on this point.

Secondly is location. Iowa is not a state I would associate my Karl with. If it had said Pennsylvania, Ohio or Kansas, I would feel better about it. But I have no records, evidence or even family lore that would put Karl in Iowa. But who knows? I definitely have had trouble tracking down any records for this family. I do know Karl lived at least since 1880 in Kansas, and is buried in Marion County. Family lore says the family lived in Wellsville, Ohio prior to that. So Iowa is out of the blue.

I'll keep this nugget in my Kline file. But I don't think this Kline is my ancestor. So, for now, the search goes on.

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:

View Larger Map

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.

On the Homefront-Sarah's Memories of the War of the Rebellion

Sarah Warriner Hamilton, my great-great grandmother, was born in March 1843 in Greenville, Illinois. Her mother died three weeks after giving birth to twins when Sarah was no more than 5 years old.

Sarah attended Montbello College at Alton, Illinois and taught school for a number of years. According to a family history, Sarah could have been an author if time had permitted. She wrote a number of short stories and also wrote the lyrics to a hymn after hearing a sermon on John 3:1-2. It's called "My Advocate" and I'm pleased to have a copy if it. I look forward to having my son learn it.

It is my understanding that Sarah kept a journal. I have yet to locate it in its entirety, but have a copy of a few pages that capture her reminiscences of the Civil War. Enjoy

Part of a writing by Sarah Warriner Hamilton Osgood

To go back to the time, when our boys marched away. I am surprised now, when I remember the erroneous ideas, we entertained (that as we young people), of war. We supposed they would be taken right to the seat of war, in a very few days, and lined up in battle, and that all was needed, to make soldiers out of them was a “suit of blue” a sword and gun; little dreaming of the days of drill and dull routine of camp life, they must go thro(ugh) ere they are ready to meet the foe.

So when it came to pass our soldier boys found themselves settled in camp, not far from home, our hearts began to settle back into their normal condition; and life to move on in something of the old routine, only we missed them so. Buying, and selling. Sowing, and reaping, must still go on, tho hearts are breaking.

Now our boys are sent to the front, their furloughs become fewer, life takes on more, and serious phases, varied with letters from the front, and now and then a visit, of a few days from someone of them.

One, what a happy go-lucky fellow he was—and such extravagant stories he told of life on the Gun Boat Fleet on the Mississippi river. While he was at home he conceived the happy idea of taking all his girl friends to the artists-for their pictures to take back with him. There must have been near a dozen, who, sat for a picture. Between two of the prettiest, he managed to seat himself. They had on those ugly shaker bonnets, the fashion of that time. I could not see the roguish face, trying to peer into the demure face of the girl on his left. It made a very comical picture indeed. After he returned to duty he wrote what fine parties they had, with the girls’ pictures in places of honor. He was another of the heroes that died.

I was in the long, long funeral train, that bore him to his last resting place. I heard the ministers voice as in a dream say, his sun has set while it is yet day.

As the stress of those days grew upon us my father, (than whom a greater Patriot never lived), grew haggard, and old, fast. His great anxieties, for his country, caused him sleepless nights. One incident will take to illustrate his tender heart, for the soldiers. It was during the early days of the war, that the papers chronicled the event, of a young soldier found asleep, while on duty and sentenced to be shot. We all felt greatly exercised over it, but, particularly so, was my father. I never shall forget how earnestly he prayed for the life of that young soldier; as tho he were his own boy. And when news came of the reprieve, there was at least, one heart, full of gratitude.

With what intense anxiety we all awaited news, from the front; and especially if a battle were imminent. In order to facilitate the spreading of the news, a tall flagstaff was raised in my uncle’s yard, in sight of all the county about. Whenever there was news received of a battle the flag was run up. If won by Union forces, it proudly floated from the top of the staff; but if the Union suffered a defeat, then it was run up at half mast. How the whole region watched, for the sign of that flag, and could hardly wait the return of the swiftest messenger, to learn the particulars. Were any of our boys in the engagement? Were they killed or wounded? Were questions we tremblingly asked ourselves. And when our brothers were finally engaged with the enemy, and received severe wounds, and came home to us, we began to feel somewhat relieved from the pressure borne so long.

And so the weary months rolled on, the sky growing darker. And then, the clouds began to lift a little, and then to roll away, and Peace has come again. Our old friend, the flag, that has been a sign, to us all thro(ugh) these trying days---now floats from the summit, we fondly said, never to be raised at half mast again, and we are wild, wild with joy.

But how soon, as our joy turned into mourning. Only a few days, and our flag is floating, at half mast again for our beloved Lincoln lies dead. Dead, did they say? We cannot will not believe it, and that was the way we felt in those dreadful days.

Well my butter has come.

Monday Memory - the old Graham house

On our annual vacations to Idaho, we generally stayed at Grandma & Grandpa Graham's home. This is the house my dad grew up in. We would spend a good part of the days over at Grandma & Grandpa Osgood's, but always came back to the Graham place. It had more bedrooms

to put us all in. Plus, over at the Osgoods, at least when I was still little, I still had an aunt and uncle living there.

The "old" Graham place sat in between an apple orchard and a cherry orchard. Grandma & Grandpa bought the place in 1947. Grandpa was a farmer, like his father Guy Graham was. As you can imagine from the orchards, he grew cherries and apples. I remember them shipping our family in California a big box of apples in the fall.

It was great to be able to go and help pick cherries in the summertime. Grandma would give us a bucket and let us go on our way. We ate way more than we gathered! Fresh cherries right off the tree-delicious! I can still see my little brother red-faced with cherry juice and goo all over him! There was an oval "track" that went around the house and Grandpa's barn and garage. In between the two and around the house was a nice lawn. One winter we drove up for Christmas. I was probably around the age of 10. Dad hooked up a sled to a tractor and dragged my brother and I around that oval. It was so much fun....until I kind of fell off the sled and was dragged on the ground for awhile before Dad noticed!

On the edge of the apple orchard was Great-Grandpa Ira Shelton's trailer. He had lived there since 1961. His wife, Alice, had died a couple years earlier. (Great-Grandpa is the son of the mysterious Nathaniel Shelton that I blogged about a few days ago). I would often go and visit him in his trailer. He had stacks and stacks of paperback books out there. When I was around seven, I remember him asking me to guess how old he was. I had no idea, but knew it was pretty old. (At least from a kid's perspective...I realize as I approach 40 that the concept of "old" is relative). He held up 8 fingers and flashed them at me twice--eighty eight. He would give me bananas and we would hang out. Great-Grandpa rarely came into the house, but he did one winter when we were visiting for Christmas. It seemed to be a big deal that he was in the big house instead of his trailer. Great-Grandpa died a couple years later at the age of 90.

Great-grandpa's trailer is on the left of the barn.

Great grandpa shows us his garden in 1972

We would enter the house through the kitchen. Grandma always was able to cook enough for everyone. I found out later that when she was growing up, her mother would cook for all the farm hands in the area. She grew up learning how to feed an army!

In the living room was GRANDPA'S CHAIR. It was his and his alone. Nearby would be a TV Guide, an ashtray and some snacks. I discovered "Whoppers" there one summer. Those chocolate covered malted milk candies will always remind me of then. Grandma and Grandpa liked to watch TV. I remember them watching "The Price is Right" and a soap opera every day. I'm not sure which soap it was....I knew it wasn't the one my mom watched.

I usually slept in a bathroom. That may sound weird, but this was a big bathroom. As I recall, it was on a landing, with stairs going up on the other side of a ceiling, which was slanted. It was pink. There were two single sized beds in the room. On a table was a big shiny conch shell that we were supposed to be able to hear the ocean in. I remember trying to pretend to be asleep on the morning we would be leaving Idaho to go home. Maybe if I never woke up, we wouldn't have to leave! It didn't work. I hated those mornings.

I don't remember ever going up to the next story in that house. I'm sure I did, though.

TV was a big deal at Grandma and Grandpa's house. It was on a lot. I was there eating a slice of watermelon on August 16, 1977 and hearing that Elvis Presley had died. I also remember watching the Donahue show with mom and grandma while the show topic was the Jonestown Massacre.

Grandma & Grandpa sold the place when I got a little older and Grandpa retired-it was in the late 70's, early 80's. They moved onto a smaller place in Fruitland and lived in a mobile home with less acreage to take care of. That will be the subject of another memory post in the future. It was a sad time for my dad when they sold the place. I suspect it was for others as well. A few years after that, there was a fire and the house burned down.

All you Graham relatives out there, I'd love to hear some of your memories of the old place. Leave a comment!