Wishful Wednesday: Jane Price Williams, Come On Down!

Here's a new blogging prompt from GeneaBloggers, called Wishful Wednesdays. I am really enjoying being floated along by their blogging prompts and this new one challenges the imagination! The page for Wishful Wednesdays says, "What ancestor do you wish you could have met?"

Well, Mom and I chatted about this recently and we said that we'd really love to have just 5 minutes with her grand father, Daniel Williams (1852 - 1920). But when I read this blogging prompt, I thought, wait, what about his wife?! The wife knows the real stories, doesn't she? Yeah, she does. The Man of the House might put a gloss over the facts and spin that yarn bigger than life, but the wife knows where the bodies are hidden;)

To that end, I'd like to spend my half-hour (and here's hoping I'd get a half-hour because five minutes isn't enough) with Jane Price Williams (1862 - 1939), Daniel's wife.

Nice hat, Granny Jane!

 

Hi, Jane, or should I call you Grand Ma Ma?

All right then I'll call you Granny Jane.

Tell me about the house that sunk when the miners dug under it. Was that scary? Aunt Betty says that the miner's voices could be heard in the house, is that right?

So Aunt Betty had it correct! Sounds scary to me... oh I know, we lead a soft life: indoor plumbing, refrigeration and cars for everyone. But I do find it strange that houses were built on land that the owner of the house didn't have the mineral rights to, so that the mining company could dig a mine right under the house! Oh yes, to be sure, different times.

What I really want to ask you about is that photo taken of Pap Daniel with his mother and siblings in Troy, New York. Here it is.

Daniel Williams is seated on the right and his mother,

Jane James Williams (1815 - ????), is seated to his left.

Would you tell me about how he came to get up to Troy, New York, and where they all lived, please? This has been making me and Mom, and Aunt Betty crazy. Oh, my Mom is your son Cambria's oldest daughter and Aunt Betty is your son Charles' daughter. Oh, they are cute, aren't they?

Mom at about a year old with her parents,

Cambria Williams and Emma Susan Whetstone.

Aunt Betty's high school graduation photo.

She's Charles William's daughter.

 

 

So, Granny Jane, what about that photo with Daniel and his mother and all? We're very curious about that.

 

And can you tell me the full story of how he came to be the person to escort the record setting lump of coal from the George's Creek Mine fields in Ocean, Maryland to the World's Fair in Chicago, 1893? That must have been an exciting time! Tell me all about that, did he bring back souvenirs? Is that when he went to see his mother and siblings? Was he very proud? Was it written up in the Frostburg Mining Journal?

 

What?!! We're out of time?!! Oh, no!!! Don't go now!! Darn, I talked to much and didn't listen enough, as usual. Bummer.



The URL for this crazy post is:  http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/02/wishful-wednesday-jane-price-williams.html