It’s been a while since I have written a blog. You all may have noticed and wondered. No I did not die. And I have not really been sick. But things seemed different and it took me awhile to figure it out. I was struggle last sping to keep up with my writing. It seemed to take more and more time for me to write each blog. I was writing my Tombstone Tuesday blog and less frequently my “Needles in a Haystack” blog. I really did not understand why but my labor of love was becoming more of an another chore. And I already had plenty of chores. So I took a pause. My husband planned lots of camping last year which meant time away from internet connections and my data. Can’t write blogs with out internet and data. 

After being away from home for about 6 weeks, life was very busy playing catchup. I had always thought that I could leave home for weeks on end traveling but I am now questioning that. I guess I like “home” pretty well.

I have two very time consuming hobbies, Quilting and Genealogy. When I finally got back on track, I started sewing first. As I was cutting fabric, my tools appeared damaged. Rulers which were previously straight seemed jagged. I would feel them with my finger and they felt straight but when looking at them they looked like they had divets in them. I spent the next month of so trying to figure out whether this was my imagination or not. I kept thinking that maybe it would get better somehow but nothing seemed to change. I also tried to write a couple of blogs and found that my eyes tired very easily and my eye lids would spasm which made it difficult to read. Writing became more and more laborious, I could not concentrate and I became more and more frustrated as the weeks went by. 

In September, we had a very unexpect visit from some really close friends from Wisconsin, Pete and Diane Melman. They called and told us that they would be in our neighborhood and asked if we were up for a visit. Of course we were. So they spent one night with us. While catching up on each others lives, I learned that Pete could no longer drive. Pete has Macular Degeneration. I told Diane that I had early stage AMD also. I told her that I was having some odd visual changes this summer. Diane is a retired Nurse and she implored me to go see my Eye Doctor. ”Dont Wait !” she said, “Go now!”

Sure enough my AMD has changed. While we were camping my schedule changed daily and there were many days that I would forget to take my vitamins including my Areds vitamins. It caught up with me. The years of sitting in front of a computer at work and at home doing genealogy research has taken it’s toll. And not getting my vitamins regularly created the perfect storm. I really think that not sewing for 5 weeks was now a good thing. I may not have noticed the difference so much or so soon.

I got into my Eye Doctor and he sent me to a Specialist and I am taking the vitamins daily! I am not spending hours at a time on my PC as I used to. We will do bi-annual visits going forward. I have noticed that I am not as confident with my night vision so I won’t be driving much (or far) at night. I have had access to an Accuquilt fabric cutter for my quilting projects but I just had not used it much. That has changed. I am learning to use it because I have a lot of sewing I want to do yet.

While I do not have alot of followers of my blog, I know that there are a few out there and they probably wondered what happened. My friend from church told me the other day that she missed my blogs! I have missed them too. So I’ll give it another try. They may not be weekly …we will see..

Best wished in the New year!

Jan Smith

Lucky – is an adjective

1: meaning to have good fortune

2: happening by chance : FORTUITOUS

3: producing or resulting in good by chance

4: seeming to bring good luck (rabbit’s foot, heads up penny)

An interesting topic for week ten of 2023. I have had quite a bit of luck with my Genealogy journey, thru the years, starting with the dusty old box of photo’s that my Grandmother made me help her with when I was 13 years old. It truly was the event which marked the beginning of this journey. Thirty four years would pass by before I saw them again but the sight of my adolescent handwriting on the back of Grandma’s photos sucked me back thru a time machine to a hazy Michigan summer day at the picnic table with my grandparents as she flashcard style presented them to my Grandpa for identification. It was obvious to me that she had been trying to get Grandpa Everett to cooperate with her to get this job done and he really was not very interested. I have written several times about this event.

Stroke of Luck

Another stroke of luck was finding the Nine Mile Indiana Church in the early years of my search. Grandma Lillian and Grandpa Everett’s Bible showed that Everett’s Paternal Grandfather was James W Smith and his Maternal Grandfather was John H. Crites. I found a James Smith buried at the Nine Mile Cemetery in Nine Mile Indiana. His stone was in pieces but there he was. “Was this him?” I thought at first. The Bible distinctly stated James W. Smith.

There were many trips between Chicago, where I lived, and Michigan, where most of my family lived, that I would steal away a bit of time to visit Nine Mile, Indiana. At the time there was a lot to learn but I knew my Grandfather and his family came for this area. It was through James W Smith’s Civil War Pension file I could confirm that this “James Smith” was his father and I would find James W Smith’s gravestone a few miles away in Uniontown Cemetery in Wells County, Indiana.

In early December 2003, my husband and I visited Nine Mile United Methodist Church for their 150^th Anniversary Celebration. I learned about it on one of my frequent visits in those early days. We arrived a few minutes late and the service had already begun. We slipped in the back pew, hoping to go unnoticed. Within minutes I had the overwhelming sense that I belonged here. Tears flowed down my face for no apparent reason throughout most of the service. I just knew my family had been here. I could feel them all around me. After the service finished, we joined the congregation downstairs in the basement where they served coffee and cake. I explained that I was fairly certain that I was a descendant of one of their early church members. I told them that I was a descendant of James Smith who is buried in the old section of the church cemetery. The church members became excited that we were there visiting them on this special day. One church member felt fairly confident that in there historical records, they had information about my ancestor, James Smith.

This church member went in the backroom and returned with a box. This time the box was full dusty old historical church papers. We eagerly started to sort thru the paper eventually finding a small booklet which was written for the 100^th Anniversary in 1953. According to this document, James Smith was one of sixteen founding member of the United Brethren Evangelical Church in Nine Mile, Indiana in 1853.

“THE HISTORY OF THE NINE MILE Evangelical U. B. CHURCH”

“This church was organized at the home of John Miller by Rev. Casey with 16 charter members. Daniel and Lucy Ann Buskirk, sold one acre of ground for $ 10.00 to the trustees of the United Brethren Church, who were Gabriel Miller, Benjamin C. Davis, James Smith, Thomas Overly and Charles Miller, on January 3, 1853. For a period of five years, the meetings were held at the home of the John and Hannah Miller and at the homes of other church members, but in 1859, they erected a log church on the present grounds in section 7, Pleasant Township.”

Rev. P. Landen was then the pastor and dedicated the church. The membership continued to increase but the little log church was still their place of worship until 1868. In that year a frame building was erected. The new place of worship was called “Liberty Chapel”. For a few years the church had been served through the Ossian circuit, but in 1869 it was changed to the Zanesville circuit.

In 1879 the 27th annual session of the Auglaize Conference, of which this church was a member, was held at the Liberty Chapel Church. In 1891 Liberty was again placed in the Ossian Circuit which included Ossian, Bethel, Zanesville, Prairie Grove and Liberty Chapel It remained with Ossian until 1906 when it was changed back to the Zanesville circuit along with Bethel.”

The most interesting paragraph to me was the first paragraph. James Smith and Susanna Overly, Benjamin C. Davis and his first wife, Letishia Robinson, Thomas Overly and Emeline Asher, and John Miller and Hannah Smith all came to the Nine Mile Indiana area together between 1843 and 1847 from Darke County, Ohio. Susanna and Thomas were brother and sister. I believe that Hannah and James are siblings also or at the very least cousins. Benjamin C Davis’s wife, Letishia, died in 1851 and Benjamin married Margaret Smith, the oldest daughter of James Smith and Susanna Overly in 1852. Charles Miller, son of John and Hannah is recorded in the 1850 Federal Census as living between the James Smith Family and the Thomas Overly Family. James Smith was a farmer and Charles Miller a farm laborer. John and Hannah Miller are ten houses or so away. Benjamin Davis is found in Pleasant Township the same township as the church. The other families are in Lafayette Township which is across the road from the church.

The information that I stumbled on by going to a church’s 150^th celebration was a huge stroke of luck!

These Smith’s have been elusive to say the very least. I still can not be certain who the parents of James and Hannah are. I have also found a Kiziah Smith who married Daniel Overly. Daniel is a brother to Susanna and Thomas. James and Susanna had a daughter in a 1842 who they named Kiziah who died when she was 19 years old.

I keep working on these mysteries…and someday I will have another stroke of luck and we will get to the bottom of them.

Happy Hunting,

Jan

#52Ancestors

Andrew Anderson was a quiet man. I never heard him raise his voice. He was gentle and soft spoken. Grandpa Andrew lost his wife, Addie, in April of 1955. I was born a few months later in August. Grandpa spent over 25 years by himself after Addie died. He and Addie had eight children all of whom married and had children. Several of his kids lived very close by so he visited often but he also loved the peace and solitude of his quiet house that he had shared with Addie.

Our family kept him involved with our family events and holidays. He visited regularly and we have very fond memories of his visits. He came with us on all of our vacations. If we went to the Zoo, Grandpa came with us. Every time we visited the beach, Grandpa came too. He would sit in his chair at the edge of the water, with his pant legs rolled up and to watch us swim. I remember more than once a wave came along that caught him off guard and he got very wet but he didn’t care.

He had been around water all his life. He had been a sailor in Norway before he left for America in 1904. Once he arrived in Marine City, he work for Gus Englehart as a deckhand and shipmate on freighters on the Great Lakes.

A young Andrew and the crew as they sailed in the Great Lakes. Andrew is the man in the center of the back row holding the life ring.

After Grandpa died my Mother was going through his things to help settle his estate when she came across a thick stack of letters and post cards that he had saved. They were in his top dresser draw held together with twine. She opened the twine and the memories of them came flooding into her brain. She had remembered retrieving the mail and that her Dad would sometime receive letters which she could not read. The letters had very interesting and unique stamps on them. They were arriving in Michigan after very long journeys from far away places like Norway , China and Japan. She loved the stamps so much that she begged him for the stamps. After Grandpa read his mail, he carefully cut the stamps off and gave them to her before tucking the letter away for safe keeping.

The letters sat for decades in his dresser drawer. Periodically he would get one out, read it and place it back in the drawer with the rest. Mom could not read them. They were written in Norwegian. She wondered how she would ever figure out what they said. She wondered if he wrote letters back to his father and his brother. She thought that he did. She remembered him talking about it but she never really knew for sure. Mom would take the letters home and tuck them away in her dresser. Mom eventually found an address for her Uncle Haakon and Aunt Anna. She wrote a letter informing them that her Dad had died. She hoped that they still lived at the address she had found. She added that she hoped to stay in touch with them even though she had never meet them and had only limited postal contact with them. Several months passed before she finally received a letter from Anna. Anna wrote her a wonderful letter express her sadness about the news of Andrew’s death. And told her that Haakon was waiting in Heaven for Andrew’s arrival because he had died four weeks and four days before his brother. Anna did not know how to contact my Mother or her brother-in-law, Andrew.

In 1972, Mom received a surprise phone call from a man in Minnesota. He called her to say that your cousin (Haakon and Anna’s son and daughter-in-law), Bjarne and his wife, Sigrun, would be visiting him in Minnesota. Sigrun was his cousin. And that they would love to come to Michigan to meet Bjarne’s family also. He was calling on behalf of Bjarne. My Mother was delighted that her Norwegian cousin want to visit.

Bjarne and Sigrun arrived in the middle of summer and stayed with my parents. My mother invited all of her brothers and their families to come and meet them. They had a wonderful visit and soon after Mom and Dad were planning a trip the next summer to Norway to meet the family there.

It really bothered my mother that she did not know what the Norway letters said so when she and Dad visited Norway in the summer of 1973, she took the letters with her. Her cousin read them to her. She was thrilled. Her cousin Aslaug’s husband, Tormod offered to translate them for her if she would leave the letters with him when they came home. He promised that he would send the letters back with each translation. So Mom left the letters in Norway.

Aslaug and Tormod – Summer 1973

She anxiously awaited the arrival of each of the letters and it’s translation. After a few weeks, Mom received the first of what would be regular letters from Tormod. Each time she received a new translation she would be so excited. She would read them over and over again. I was a stay at home mom at the time and she would call me to tell me she had gotten another Norway letter. She would read it to me over the phone with such excitement! She would later tell me how disappointed she was that Grandpa had cut the stamps out for her when she was a child because the words behind the stamps were lost for ever. It took Tormod over a year to translate all the letters. Unknown to us at the time, his wife, Mom’s cousin Aslaug, was being treated for Cancer. She died fairly soon after their visit and before Tormod finished the translations. We were so sad to learn she had died.

These letters have become a family treasure. We cherish them and the translation which Tormod worked so diligently on for so long enabled us to see a side of our family which would have remained hidden had Grandpa not kept his letters and had we not been able to get them translated.

Happy Hunting,

Jan

#52Ancestors

Mae Evelyn Boyer was my Great Grandmother. She was the daughter of Austin and Mary Florence (White) Boyer. She was born in Rose Township, Oakland County, Michigan on October 29, 1883. She married George Stephen Losee on her 19^th Birthday, October 29, 1902.

Mae Evelyn Boyer on her Wedding Day.

George and Mae’s first son, Lester, was born in September of 1903. Two years later, in February of 1905, Lillian was born, then Wallace, two years after that in February of 1907.

This picture is identified as the Austin Boyer house in Clio Michigan.

It was shared with me by my cousin Nancy Redman. It is a picture of the extended Boyer family, Austin, all of his siblings and their families. I have tried to find a reason, an event or celebration, which would have resulted in this gathering but so far I have found none. Standing on the porch holding the toddler in white is Mae. She is holding Wallace and is standing next to her father, Austin. Lillian is on the step below her, standing between her mother, Mae and Austin, with Lester directly in front of Mae on the bottom step. We have estimated the year of this photo to be most likely the fall of 1907 based on the age of Wallace who was born in early 1907 and the fact that Austin Boyer died in May of 1908.

Austin Boyer’s Death Certificate

In the years preceding Austin’s untimely death, Austin and Mary Florence, with the help of George, Mae and other Boyer family members, were building a flourishing floral business in Clio, Michigan. After Austin’s sudden death in May of 1908, George and Mae play a pivotal role in the running of the florist. Three years after Austin died, George and Mae had their second daughter, Mary Florence in 1911 and then Ernest was born two years later in 1913. In the eleven years since George and Mae were married, they had 5 children.

On February 13, 1914, Mae left Lillian in charge of the younger children when she left the house to hang up laundry in the back yard. The temperatures in February had been relatively mild and it was a good day for hanging laundry on the line. Lillian watched the children as instructed. After what seemed like a long time, Lillian realized that her mother had not returned to the house. Lillian went to see what was taking her mother so long and she found Mae slumped over the wet laundry basket under the clothes line. Mae was thirty years old and Lillian was eight. Mae was gone way too soon and Lillian was way too young to be a witness of this event. The death of their mother would turn Lillian, her four siblings and their father’s lives upside down. Everything changed in an instant.

Mae Evaline Boyer Losee’s Death Certificate

George was left with five children whose ages ranged from 1 to 11 years old. I can not imagine how overwhelmed he must have felt. His relationship with his children would change forever. Lillian, Florence and Ernest went to live with Mae’s mother, Mary Florence Boyer, in Flint. She had left the florist business to George and Mae to run and bought a boarding house in Flint a few years after her husband died. She was renting rooms to factory workers as they came to Flint looking for jobs in the new automotive factories.

Mary Florence and Ernest at Grandma Boyers with Rex Boyer – 1915

Florence and Ernest were toddlers when their Mother died. George would never be able to care for his young children and run a farm. For years I wondered why Lillian was with Mary Florence since she really was old enough to help with the household chores at the farm. I assumed that she was needed to help take care of the toddlers at Mary Florence’s Boarding House. George and the older boys, Lester and Wallace, are found together in census records at one or the other of the two farms that George now owns in Clio and Gladwin, Michigan. I found out years later that it was against the law for a father to raise an under age daughter by himself after his wife died. Female daughters were generally sent to live with a Grandmother or an Aunt as well as the younger toddlers siblings.

Eventually George would remarry, but by that time the girls , Lillian and Florence had been raised by their Grandma for so long that they remained in Flint with Mary Florence. Ernest did go live with George and his new wife Alice when he was older and could help on the farm. The children seemed to see each other and their father regularly. There are pictures of all the kids together when they were young. Lester, attended the Doyle School with Lillian. Lester and Lillian are marked on the photo below with an x drawn with a pencil by Lillian. This Photo was taken in 1915 or 1916, a year or two after their Mom’s death.

Doyle Street School – 1915 or 1916

Lillian Losee

My preteen Grandmother making a fashion statement or playing dress up. I am not sure which! I always loved this photo of her. It is one of the few childhood pictures that we have of her. For nine years Lillian lived with Mary Florence in the boarding house. At the tender age of 18, she married Everett Smith on August 28, 1923.

Lillian and Everett Smith on their Wedding day.

On what would have been her Mother’s 41^st birthday, Lillian gave birth to her first child, Lucille Smith. Four years later on August 29, 1928, she gave birth to my father, Harold Smith. On September 08, 1928, Lillian’s Grandmother, Mary Florence, was walking along the interurban train tracks to go visit her granddaughter, Lillian and her new baby, Harold, as she frequently did, when she was struck by a train and killed at Crago Crossing. I can’t help but wonder how she did not hear the train coming. Had she lost her hearing? Did the train not use it horn?

Mary Florence’s Death Certificate

Lillian and Everett’s daughter, Lucille died at the age of six years old, three short years later.

Lucille and Harold Smith 1928 or early 1929

This is the only picture that Everett and Lillian had of both of their children together. Lucille died of Strep which had gone into her blood stream.

Lucille Smith’s Death Certificate

As I write this I am reminded of all of the sad events that shaped my Grandmother’s early life. By the time that Lillian was 26 years old, she had lost a grandfather, her mother, a her grandmother who raised her and her only daughter all within 23 years. I guess I had never really put all these events on a timeline. That is a lot of heartache in 23 short years for one person to bear. She experienced so many people who were gone too soon. Lillian was a strong woman.

Happy Hunting,

Jan

#52Ancestors

Once again I have procrastinated this week. Last year we moved and we are still settling. I thought I knew where all my Genealogy stuff was but…I must have a box somewhere that still has files in it. I had some little notes that I want to use with this blog…but I can’t put my hands on it right now so I will lead in a little bit different direction.

This is a school picture from Wells County, Indiana. Everett is standing in the back row the fifth child from the right. I have sent out several emails trying to identify this school but so far not luck. This is likely 1911 or 1912. In the 1910 Federal Census, Everett and his family were living in rural Jefferson Township, Wells County, Indiana.

The second picture is probably from a Wells County School. It could be the same school but I can not be certain. The windows are a bit different between the two picture. It looks like there are four windows in a row where as the previous picture had windows in sets of two. When I asked my Grandfather where he grew up, he told me Roanoke, Indiana yet I never found them living in Roanoke. In the second picture Everett is seated on the ground in the front row in the center. He identified himself (or Grandma identified him) with the arrow on the picture. The family left Indiana in 1918 or 1919. If they left in 1918, Everett would have been 14 years old and likely have finished 8^th grade. I wish I could ask him a few more questions.

After leaving Indiana, Everett obtained employment in the Automotive Industry. He sold batteries and Electrical automotive parts. When Everett and Lillian married in 1923, He listed his occupation as a “Battery Man” on his marriage certificate. Seven years later at the time of the 1930 Federal Census, he was working for General Motors at the “Body Plant”.

This picture identifies Everett on the left and a friend on the right at the “Body Plant” on Dort Highway in Flint, Michigan. In 1925, Everett’s father, Alvin, died of a heart attack while working on the factory line. Six years later his daughter, Lucille, died in January of 1931 after a short illness of Strep which went to her blood. These were troubling financial times with the stock market crash and a looming depression. Everett made the difficult decision to leave his family and go to college. It was time to make a change and he decided to become a minister. He went to Adrian Seminary for about one year while Lillian and Harold remained in Burton, Michigan near family. Everett wrote Lillian and Harold regularly sweet notes on post cards, which he stuffed in envelopes and mailed. But Everett felt that the security of the ministry was worth all the trouble. Lillian and Harold were being taken care of because they had family close by.

Everett received his license to practice as a Methodist Minister on August 28,1932. There will be a two year period where he practiced with a License before he could be officially Ordained as an Elder of the Methodist Church.

Everett was assigned to the Swartz Creek Unity Church and the Second Methodist in Flint for his first assignment. This brought him back to his family and the Flint area where they lived. By September 1, 1933, he was reassigned to the Genesee Methodist Church.

In September of 1936, the Richfield Church was added to his assignment. After extensive renovation of both the church and the parsonage at Genesee , a re-dedication service was held in 1940. In the Dedication program, Everett and his work were highly praised. Everett was very involved with local civic affairs and chairman of the Civil Defense Council of Genesee.

 “The pastorate of the Rev. and Mrs Smith and son Harold have been a happy one. The Smiths Came in September of 1933. During those seven years, Rev Smith has lead the church in many projects that has not only served as a blessing to the church but to the entire community.” 

In January of 1943, Everett and his family were called to the Marine City Methodist Church. A very reluctant Genesee Church sent a letter to the Marine City Church praising Everett’s abilities. The Genesee Church wanted Marine City to know what kind of a man they were getting and to be sure that Marine City knew that if they did not like him that Genesee wanted him back!!!

On January 24, 1943, Rev Everett Smith presided over the Marine City United Methodist Church for the first time. Almost one year later, on the night of January 22, 1944, a fire broke out in the furnace room. The fire spread through the walls and up to the roof. While Everett and Lillian were eating dinner a passerby knocked on the door to tell them that the church was on fire. The Fire Department, which was directly across the street, promptly arrive and began fighting the fire. The fire was mostly on the interior of the building with dense smoke which made it impossible to fighting from inside. A large amounts of water had to be poured on the church from the outside. When the flames were finally extinguished, the inside of the brick church was badly damaged, especially basement dining room, Community room, the organ and the tracery stained glass window on the Broadway Street side of the church. After surveying the damages, it was decided that the church would be rebuilt. The church did have insurance and most of the cost to rebuild was covered. The remaining funds were raised by fund raising events and donations. Services were held in St Mark’s Episcopal Church until September of 1944 when restoration was complete.

Everett, Lillian and Harold remained in Marine City until 1949 when they were called to move on to the Monroe Street Church in Lapeer, Michigan.

They would remain in Lapeer for the remainder of his career. He was always very active with the youth of the church and understood that they were the future of the church. He took a very active role in Summer Camps for young adult Christian kids. These camps were held at the Lakeport Methodist Camp along the shore of Lake Huron. Everett began going there with young adult groups when he was at the Marine City Church. In the Marine City days, the campers did many projects to help fix the camp and keep it updated. Around 1950, Grandpa and his campers built an amphitheater on the beach which was used for outdoor events for camps and retreats. It is still there today.

Sometime in early 1950, Everett was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis while he was serving in the Monroe Street Lapeer Church. At the time, this disease was new, hard to diagnostic and very misunderstood. There was little that they could do for him. He worked very hard in an effort to continue to use his limbs and be able to walk on his own. He told his wife, Lillian, that when he could no longer stand behind the pulpit, he could no longer be a minister. That day came in way too soon in 1956. He remained an assistant pastor for a time assisting Rev Lamb, who was assigned to the Lapeer Church after Everett stepped down. The Monroe Street Church had outgrown it’s building. The church bought 5 acres of land across the street from the Lapeer General Hospital on M-24 and broke ground. The new church was completed in 1960 and would be called Trinity Methodist Church.

When the Trinity Methodist Church was dedicated and the corner stone laid in September 15, 1960, my Grandfather spoke from behind the new pulpit. It was the only time I remember my Grandfather preaching. I was 5 years old. I could hardly see over the back of the pews, straining to sit up straight so I could see this man whose familiar voice billowed among the rafters of the brand new church. With the aid of a cane, he stood one last time behind a pulpit and delivered a sermon.

Everett and Lillian moved to a small house on Carlson Drive in Davison soon after the completion of the Trinity Church. The Trinity Methodist Church would always be their home church. Everett went to work for the Flint Radio Station WMPR. I spent a week with my them in either 1962 or 1963 during the summer. Everett no longer drove so Lillian took him to work and then returned at the end of his shift to bring him home. I rode along with her the week that I was visiting. The first day we pulled into the parking lot about 15 minutes before his four hour shift ended. She turned off engine but left the ignition. She turned on the radio to hear the end of his radio show. I sat in stunned silence, listening to my Grandfather voice as it drifted from the speaker of the car radio. I looked at Grandma with a wide eyed grin! “That’s Grandpa! ”, I exclaimed. “He must really be famous if he’s on the radio!” I said, which caused Grandma to chuckle.

For the remainder of the week I sat and listened to the daily hog, corn and bean report with renewed interest because the voice coming out of the radio was this famous man that I had known all my life! I learned a lot about farming and local news that week. On Friday, she let me go into the station with her to see Grandpa Everett as he worked. She made me promise that I would be quiet because after all they were “On Air”. I’ll never forget it. There he was in a room encased with glass windows. There was a lot of lights and dials, funny looking things on a table that he was sitting in front of. So many things that a seven year old had never seen before. A large shiny metal box was hanging from the ceiling, that he talked into. He was seated in a special chair and was wearing these funny things that covered his ears. There was a large red “Quiet, On Air” sign lite. I had never seen anything like it. He went on with his show never skipping a beat after we came into the station. He winked at me and gave me a quick smile.

It is quite evident that the trajectory of Everett’s life was radically changed by his choice at age 26 to go to college.

Happy Hunting,

Jan

#52Ancestors

Alvin Oliver Smith – 1892

Alvin Oliver Smith lived near Zanesville, Indiana. Zanesville is located south west of Fort Wayne where the Indiana counties of Allen, Wells and Huntington intersect. Alvin married Cora May Crites on December 24, 1892 in Zanesville. Cora was born and raised in Uniondale, Indiana which is located in Union Township, Wells County. In the 1900 Federal Census, Alvin and Cora live in rural Wells County. Alvin states that he is a general farmer. By the time of the 1910 Federal Census, Alvin and his brother, William, are living next door to each other. Both men are general farmers and it appears they are working together. Alvin’s WWI Draft Registry in September of 1918, states that he is employed as a truck driver by the George L. Hatter Creamery in Roanoke, Indiana. George L Hatter Creamery had three Cream Stations : the Zanesville station was in Wells County, the Roanoke station was in Huntington County and the Laud station was in Whitley County.

Alvin’s WWI Draft Record

Alvin must have become restless. He obviously felt out of place when he left his own farming enterprise and began driving a truck for the G. L. Hatter Creamery. It soon became apparent that even that did not satisfy him for very long. There would have been a lot of talk about the new Automotive Industry which had begun to really take off. General Motors was founded by William C. Durant ten years earlier in 1908 in Flint Michigan. He had been involved in the industry since the early days of motorized vehicles in the late 1880’s. In 1904, he assume control over Buick Motor company and by the time that he formed General Motors four years later in 1908, he had acquired and combined Buick, Cadillac, Oldsmobile and Oakland Auto Companies under the General Motors Corporation. Flint was 200 mile away from Alvin and his family. The thought of being able to go to work for someone and not having the heavy burden of owning and running your own farm must have had a strong lure. Can’t you just imagine how he must have felt. He would have to convince Cora that this was the best move for their family.

Listen in as Alvin talks to Cora….

“They say the work is really stable.”

“I can make more money and would not have to work so hard.”

“It will be better for the boys.”

“ They will be able to work there too when they are done with school.”

“ We will have a bright future to look forward too.”

“It is not that far from Indiana.”

“We’ll be able to get our own car.”

“ We can drive to Indiana to see our family when ever we want.”

Can’t you just hear him trying to convince Cora to leave her family in Indiana and move 200 mile away to the small town of Burton, Michigan, just outside of Flint. There were many new jobs at the new flourishing Buick plant.

Alvin convinced her because sometime between the 1918 WWI Draft registration and the 1920 Federal Census, they had moved. All their household belongings were loaded into a rail car including the Smith Cow and the dairy equipment. As he told Cora, “We’ll take the cow and the Dairy equipment just in case the “Automotive thing” does not work out.” Alvin and James Fredrick rode in the rail car to Burton with all their belongs and the cow while Everett and Cora rode to Burton in a motor car.

The Smith Cow

Not only did the “Automotive thing” work out, it brought about radical changes to our family, our country and society as a whole. It was relatively soon after that when most households could afford to buy a car. In 1920 the average cost of a car was $525.00.

A few months after Alvin and Cora moved, Alvin’s younger brother, Frank, came to Burton too. He is found living with Alvin and Cora on Term street in Burton in the 1920 census. Frank Smith got a job at the Buick plant and brought his family from Indiana to the Burton. In 1925, tragically, Alvin died of a heart attack while working on the factory line at Buick Plant #4 according to his obituary.

Everett and James Frederick standing and Alvin and Cora are seated in front of their home on Trem Street.

Alvin was the beginning of a pretty long tradition of Smiths working for GM /Buick. Frank Smith worked for Buick for over 30 years. Alvin’s son, James Frederick (Fred), worked his whole life at the same plant that his father worked and died at. He retired after more than 40 years. Frank’s son, James W Smith worked at Buick for 35 years and so did his son, Lawrence F. Smith.

Frank’s house under construction on Term Street.

Cora, Everett and James Fredrick (Fred) remained in Burton, Michigan after Alvin died. Alvin and Cora had built a house on Term Street in Burton. When Frank moved to Burton, he built a house right next door to Cora and Alvin’ s. Cora eventually remarried and move to Clio, Michigan. James Frederick (Uncle Fred ) live in the home build by his Mother and Dad on Term street all his life. Frank’s son, James W Smith and Grandson, Lawrence F. Smith eventually transferred to General Motors plants in the Indiana.

Happy Hunting , Jan

Alvin and Cora are my Great Grandparents. Francis Smith (Uncle Frank) is my Great Grand Uncle. Everett Smith is my Grandfather and James Frederick (Uncle Fred) is my Great Uncle.

#52ancestors

I am combining these two weeks for several reasons. First of all, I started the year again not on the ball enough to get week one complete yet and secondly because these two post tie very well together. I struggled through 2022 to keep up with my blogging. (I did not keep up…it fell off the radar.) We moved across town last spring. It doesn’t seem like that should be that big a deal after all you just moved a mile away but you still have to box everything and find a new place for it. It totally consumed our year and will continue for the better part of this winter too as I still have boxes to unpack, to sort and then to decided what to do with the contents.

The photo above is by far ONE of my favorites. It was found in a dusty old box of photos that belonged to my Grandma Smith. It was this box of photos that has inspired my 26 years of research into our family. Meet Emma (McGoogan) and John Crites. This photo gives my chills every time I look at it. They spoke to me the first time I saw this photo and we continue our conversation every time I look at it. They are very special to me.

One of my very first visits to the area of Nine Mile, Indiana, where my Smith’s originated from, was in 1998 or 1999. I had gone to visit my Mother in Harbor Beach, Michigan. I lived in the suburbs of Chicago and at least 2 hours of my trip involved traveling thru parts of Indiana, I decided on a whim to take a slightly different route home by way of Nine Mile, Indiana. I knew it would add time and miles to my trip but it would be great to get a feel for where our family came from. My intention was to locate the cemetery and take some tombstone photos of as many family members graves as I could find.. I knew many family members were buried in Hoverstock Cemetery.

As I entered this small farm town located a short distance off Interstate 69, I found a local meat market. I had such a short window of time to check out the cemetery before I needed to be back on the road toward home so rather than driving around blindly looking for the cemetery, I stopped into the market to ask where it was. I was told that it was just about a half a mile down the road. I chatted with the man behind the counter at the market explaining that I was doing family history research and looking for relatives in the cemetery. He suggested that I go and introduce myself to Melba Edwards. She lived right down the street at the end of the block. She was a well known local historian. He said that she was always home and loves to talk about the local history.

Before going to the cemetery, I decided to go look her up. I drove down the street as he suggested and stopped at the large house on the corner at the end of the block. She was indeed home and thrilled to talk to me about local history. She gave me the opportunity to peek intimately into the lives of my 2 times Great Grandparents, John and Emma Crites.

She lived in the house that was the local doctors office at the turn of the century. The doctor was Dr James McBride who was her Grandfather. She has a library full of old ledgers, Family Bibles, binders and old historical documents that pertained to the Zanesville / Nine Mile Indiana area. This area is located at the intersection of three counties, Allen County, Wells County and Huntington county. She asked me the family names that I was looking for and what I knew about them. I told her the surnames of Crites, Smith, and McGoogan. She had the medical ledger from her Grandfather’s practice. She opened it looking for these names. A treasure chest was opened.

In the ledger, Dr. McBride visited Emma 17 times in the fall of 1893 beginning on September 2nd and ending on October 31^st. Many of the visits were on consecutive days. The ledger showed a charge of 1.50 each for eight of those visits. The total bill for the two months was $20.50. The ledger does not indicate what her diagnosis was. In the ledger, there were many notes about John and how he paid for Emma’s doctor visits.

On an October 4^th entry, it shows that he delivered and stack a cord of wood for $1.25. In late August before Emma got sick he had delivers a cord and one half of wood on two occasions for $1.87 each time. He deliver 2000 pounds of Hay for $ 9.00 on October 16th. And in 1892 on December 26, he delivered a 153 -189 pound Hog for $ 7.56. When you add all these entries together it comes to $21.55. Melba felt that Emma must have been very sick based on the charges in the ledger.

In 1894, Dessie, their eight year old daughter became ill. Dr McBride visited Dessie on eighteen consecutive days and three non consecutive days beginning on September 16 and ending on October 9. On September 26-28, Dr McBride visited her twice daily. The total charges for Dessie came to 36.00. On October 11, John did some road work for Dr McBride for 2.50. On October 19 and 20^th he delivered 12 loads of gravel for a total of $4.80. The remaining bill was pay for in full on January 19, 1895.

Melba also had the ledger for the local Mercantile which also proved to be interesting reading. It seems that John liked tobacco. He often bought plugs of tobacco. Emma sewed, most likely she made clothes because there were several entries that indicted that John bought her bolts of material.

After spending several hours with Melba looking at local documents. I had used up every minute of my extra time so there was no time to visit the cemetery this trip. I had to get back on the road and head for home. I would need to be taking Interstate 80 West toward Chicago because of my little detour and traffic will be a nightmare in the late afternoon.

I have made many trips to the Nine Mile area thru the years now. And many of them were detours when I was journeying to and from visits to Michigan while living near Chicago. The following photo is another favorite of mine. I have learned that this was likely taken on June 10, 1917. Their church, the Uniondale Methodist Church, had a Re-dedication service on that day. They took a large picture of all the church members which I found in an antique store during my 2013 visit to Uniondale. I was able to find Emma in the crowd and she is dress just like she is in this picture.

I have thru the years written several blogs about John and Emma on different platforms. Sometime after 2010, I got an email from a young man named Shane Brown. He lived in Uniondale and the deed for his house had Emma’s name on it. He reached out to me to see if I had any photos of the house. He had been told that Emma was a fabulous gardener and he was hoping to restore the yard and house to its former glory. We exchanged several email about what I knew about John and Emma. I sent him this photo and several others.

During the summer of 2013 my husband and I decided to go visit the Allen County Library. It is located in Fort Wayne, Indiana which is very near Nine Mile and Uniondale. We took out travel trailer and camped in a State Park in Bluffton, Indiana. We love to camp so it is rather a WIN WIN when we combine a camping trip with a Genealogy Research trip.

After spending the most of the day at the library, we visited a couple of cemeteries and headed south toward our campsite in Bluffton, Indiana. The sky was extremely dark and a thunder storm was brewing. It may have been in Bluffton or it could have been further south, it was hard to tell. I was looking at the map and noticed that we were approaching Indiana Highway 224, I suggested that we take a little side trip while we let the weather near the campground die down. I could not see Greg’s eyes because he had them focused on the road and the storm ahead of us, I can imagine that they had the look of “again…another side trip”.

I told him, “You know, Uniondale is right down Highway 224 just a few short miles. That where Emma’s house is…” I dangled that little tidbit out there for him to contemplate.

“Whose Emma? “ Greg asked as if he did not know that she was somehow related to me.

“She my 2 times Great Grandmother” I proudly proclaimed.

“It’s the house that my Grandpa was born in. It’s the house that I could not find the last time I went looking for it…Remember I told you that some guy named Shane Brown emailed me recently after reading my blog about Emma and John Crites. Remember…he told me that he owned Emma’s house and that he was restoring it ..Remember? He found my blog entry, which showed a picture of it with Emma and John standing in front of it…”

“Don’t you remember, I sent him other pictures of it. He was so excited to find me…”

Well, I could tell that he did not remember any of it…

But he said “I think this is Highway 224 so does that mean you want to turn here? “

“YES” I replied.

“Which way? Right ? “He asked

“Yes” I told him….. “ Towards Uniondale! ” I told him. I am sure he rolled his eyes but I was busy looking west down Indiana Highway 224. After a few short miles, I saw the sign for Uniondale.

Uniondale is a small farming community. As we drove north on Main Street, I recognized Emma’s church on the right. Ten years ago when I visited Uniondale, I did not know that was Emma’s church. Since then my cousin, Helen Jane gave me a family keepsake that her family had cherished from Emma. It had been saved and treasured all these years first by her Dad (my Great Uncle Fred)and then her Mom (Aunt Hazel) and then Helen Jane (my second cousin) . She wrote me a note when she sent it to me. She said that, “ this was always in my Mother’s china cabinet.” They always said it was from “Dad’s Grandma Crites” After Mom died, I brought it home and now I am sending it to you” Helen Jane told me she thought I ought to have it since I was the “keeper” of all the family facts and had done so much work on our family history.

I told Greg, “Look there’s Emma’s church.”

“Yes…How do you know that?” He asked.

I explained, “Remember that paper weight that I got from my cousin, it has a picture of that church on it!”

“Oh, Yeah…” He replied

I said, “ Hey, wait…slow down…stop!”

“What? “ Greg said, “Why?” He stopped the truck…

“See that house? We have pictures of family members and that house is in the background!” I told him.

This is a picture taken of during a visit to see John and Emma. It was taken around 1930. Standing in the back row from left to right are Cora Crites Smith (my Great Grandma) and Everett Smith (my Grandfather), Cora’s son. Seated are Emma and John. My Dad is on John’s lap and my Dad’s sister Lucille is standing between them. My Dad, Harold Smith, was born in August 29, 1928. His sister Lucille died at age 6.

“So that means….” as I turned my head to look across the street! “THAT is Emma’s house!”

And sure enough it was! I instantly had goose bumps and have them again now as I write this! And Shane Brown was indeed making this house look like it did when Emma and John owned it. He had opened up the porch which had been closed in and it was obvious that it was a work in progress!

I told Greg, “ I need to get a picture of it!” So I got out of the truck with the camera to take a picture and he sat in the truck…in the middle of the street in this sleepy little farm town, blocking traffic!

As I raised the camera, to take the picture, a lady came out the front door. She had a puzzled look on her face which said, “What are you doing?” I thought to myself…well this is embarrassing…she must think I am nuts taking a picture of her house…

“Oh, I’m So sorry…Can I take a picture of your house? My Great Great Grandmother owned it many years ago. I have old photos of it.” I told her. “Would that be OK ? “ “Oh of course, take as many as you want.” She exclaimed . Then she said, “I have to call Shane and tell him you are here!”

So she lite a cigarette and called someone on her cell phone, “Shane, you have to come home now! It’s really important … Come home now!”

And she hung up. “He’ll be home in a minute,” she said. All the while smoking her cigarette with excitement….(only an former smoker would understand that!)

I protested and said, “Oh I did not mean to interrupt here…I just wanted to see Emma’s house and when I recognized it, I thought I would take a picture of it.”

She said, “Oh no, he has to meet you…he has to! You need to talk to him and he needs to meet you!”

She suggested that Greg parked the truck and we waited on the porch chatting about the house and Emma and John.

After a few minutes, she called Shane again, “Shane, you have to come home now! There is this lady here and you need to talk to her…. Come home!” and once again she hung up the phone. After a few minutes more of chatting, all of a sudden this car came speeding down Main Street, past the house and entered a drive way to the south of the house. It was Shane Brown, the young man who I had shared emails with a few years before.

He looked to be about the age of my oldest son. He looked at his wife, and he looked at me…In the mean time she begins to tell him “ this is the lady, the one you got the email from. The one from the blog about the house, remember. “

You could see a transformation take place in his face. He got the biggest grim and you could see the excitement take over his body. For the next hour, we talked on the porch about Emma and her house which he now proudly owned. He produced the original county abstract for the property. Contained within it are all the legal documents which show the history of all the families who purchased this house. All the legal transactions, the dates and the actual signatures for Emma, John, Cora and Dessie. Emma had purchased the home for she and John with inheritance money that she received from her Mother Hannah after she died. All the while as I reading the abstract I can feel Emma looking over my shoulder proudly.. Her presence was all around us. Shane let me scan in copies of the abstract. It was a day that I could never have dreamed of having all those years ago when I started this journey with the old picture of Emma and John.

Shane talked all about the projects that he has started or will need to do in the future to return his little house to what it looked like when Emma owned it. He had to do foundation work because it had settled badly. He re-opened as much of the porch as he could, he gutted the inside and added drywall walls. When we communicated through email, I sent him a photo of John and Emma taken in the living room of what is now his home.

He had found the wallpaper that was on the walls in that picture when he took the old walls out. I wanted to see the inside of the house in the worst way but I already felt bad that we had just dropped in on them. So I would not ask. Eventually, he offered…but his wife was a bit reluctant…She said, “ It isn’t really ready for company, I was cleaning!”

I told her, “It was OK, really, that is not important to me. What is important to me is to stand in Emma living room!”. So we entered, and I could feel her everywhere. I stood in the very room that this photo was taken in. I had goose bumps and tears. Time stood quietly still and it was a bit overwhelming! I wanted it to last forever. It was a truly unexpected gift!

I never dreamed all those years ago when I looked at those dusty photos of this couple that this journey would become so special to me. Needless to say I would love to meet this couple but there is something deep down in my DNA that tells me every time I see them in these photos that we have already met. Its the tears and the goosebumps….Emma and John’s way of saying “We love you too dear! “

Happy Hunting!

Jan

#52Ancestores52Weeks

Wow, 2022 is a wrap ! I can say that one year ago I never would have guessed that the year would have turned out as it did……

Bought a house….

Trip to Arizona….

Renovated a house…..

Packed up a house….

Moved our belongings….

Unpack our belongings (not complete)….

Prepared the old house to sell…..

Sell it……

Re-landscape the new yard……

Vacation……

Dog Bite…….

Arrival of a new Great Granddaughter……

A two month Illness……

Arrival of another new Great Granddaughter…..

A trip to Central Illinois for a special 50th Birthday…..

A Christmas trip to Southern Ohio…..

and a Christmas trip to Chicago….

It is no wonder that I had a hard time getting any blogs written. I have taken a small amount of time for research ….Mostly verifying DNA matches on Ancestry and My Heritage…I plan to get back at my blogs on a regular basis in 2023. Happy New Year and Happy Hunting! My 2023 goal is to verify James Smith’s parentage!

Jan

Barbara Kinnaman was born on February 3, 1826 in Montomery County, Ohio. She was the daughter of Walter and Barbara (Williard) Kinnaman. Walter and Barbara had nine children; Hiram (1809), Samuel (1810), Susannah (1813), Margaret (1818), Solomon (1818), Henry (1820), Andrew (1822), Hannah (1824), Barbara (1826)..

In the 1850 Federal Census for Green Township, Madison County, Indiana, Barbary is 23 years old and remains with her parents. Also living with them appears to be a widowed relative, Edmund who is with several children , John, Henry, Lucinda and Susan. Edmund, John and Henry were born in Indiana and Lucinda and Susan were born in Missouri. I am guessing that it is a son of Walter and Barbara Kinnaman but I can not be certain. It’s an investigation for another time.

Barbara married Mayberry Whelchel some time after the 1850 census and before the 1855 birth of their daughter. In the 1860 Federal Census, Barbary Whelchel and her husband Mayberry live in Green Township, Madison County, Indiana with their five year old daughter, Martha (1855). In the 1870 Federal Census, Barbary and her husband, Mayberry remain in Indiana and they have two children; Martha and John (1861).

In the 1880 Federal Census, Mayberry and Barbary are listed in Madison County with their nineteen year old son, John.

One hundred thirty six years ago on June 28, 1886, Barbara Whelchel died in Indiana. She is buried in Helms Cemetery, Hamilton County, Indiana.

Rest in peace, Barbara!

Love, Jan

Barbara Kinnaman Whelchel is the aunt of the wife of my third Great Uncle.