Stories from Mom: Part 8, Walking and strawberries

By Virginia Williams Kelly

I always loved to walk not for my health but just because I enjoy it so much. Walking is a good time to contemplate on life, mine, yours, ours or someone else’s. It is also a time to plan and dream.

I'm 95 years old now and don't walk as much I did. I always loved to walk thru the Catholic Cemetery and I have one particular grave that I visited often and that is Father Montgomery, our late pastor of St. Michael’s Church and a dear friend. I always stopped to say “hello, and how are you?” telling him what a wonderful day it is and to "take care". That’s all. I don’t know whether that message ever gets to him but it certainly makes me feel better. I continued down to McDonald’s where I met a friend and have coffee with her and then leave to walk home, all together about 3 miles every day and I really enjoyed that time.

Many memories came back to me as I walk. I remember being 7 years old and "skinny" as the relatives all said. It was an extremely beautiful summer day, not a cloud in the sky and the birds and flowers abounded. I decided to take a walk thru the fields in back of my grandfather’s house to the stream, but I didn’t get very far. The field called to me and I plopped right down in the middle of it and lay on my back for what seemed a long time. I can even today feel that sun warming my bones and what a delicious feeling that was. A few clouds finally wended their way across the sky and once in a while a bird flew overhead but I heard not a sound from anywhere else. It was as if I were suspended in time in some nether land. Often now when I get chilled I put myself back to another time and place when that little girl was at peace with the world and ‘oh so warm and happy.’ I can then become as that little girl and once again be ‘oh so warm and happy’.

Small things like seeing the first ripe strawberry in the market in late spring can set off a nice memory. We lived near the old Braddock Trail in Western Maryland, now long gone, but at the end of my Grandfather’s property someone had erected a stone commemorating Braddock’s March. At the time I first found it, the wildflowers and meadow grass were abundant.

One day as I was inspecting it I found the most delicious strawberries at the base of that stone. To my young eyes they were every bit as large as the ones we see in the market today. Of course I know that I like to savor that dream of yesteryear. 

For many years after, I looked forward to a fine feast of strawberries every spring. But as time has a habit of doing, things change, the house my grandfather built and lived in for many years is now occupied by Pullen School at Frostburg State University, and Braddock’s Stone occupies a prominent place at the Frostburg Museum. But I know that no one else has such a good memory of that stone and the land surrounding it.

St. Michael's Cemetery in Frostburg Maryland.

This is my husband's great grandfather's stone.

John Patrick Kelly was born in 1829 in Shannonbridge Ireland and died in 1891 in Eckhart, Maryland.


The photos below are of the old Braddock Stone, now residing at the Frostburg Museum.

 

 

 

You can read previous post of Mom's stories here:

Part 1: Those were the days my friend, we though they'd never end

Part 2: Center Street

Part 3: Summertime on Center Street

Part 4: Mushrooms!

Part 5: Fall and Winter on Center Street



Part 6: Growing up
Part 7: Friends and neighbors, life and death on Center Street

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/11/stories-from-mom-part-8-walking-and.html

DNA Monday: Mom's results from 23and Me are starting to come in!

It went like this: I gave myself the 23andMe DNA test as a holiday present this past holiday season. I give myself a present every year, and that might sound self-centered or childish but after all the holiday fuss and buying a boat-load of presents for others, somehow the thought of having one for myself (and if it's from me I know it will be perfect) keeps me going. You do what you gotta do to keep it all moving along. I'm not above self-bribery. So when Mom's birthday came along this past July 29th, and it was her special 95th birthday, and I asked her what she wanted and she said "A DNA test", I was right on board!

There are two types of DNA results that can be had from 23andMe. The first is medical in which they estimate your chances of reacting to a number of common drugs, they likelihood of you having a genetically-based inherited condition, and some fun stuff like your eye color or if you have wet or dry ear wax. They send these results out first. Mine came about three days before the genealogy stuff. That gives you some time to delve into the medical information and focus on it before you start chasing down cousins... because, if you're like me, once you start chasing the cousins, the medical stuff is left in the proverbial dust.

When your medical results are ready and you sign in, there's a notice that says:
We need a few more days to finish calculating all of your ancestry results. Each ancestry feature will be made available as soon as it's done being calculated. Check back soon!

Mom's medical results have just come in and we will be checking back real soon for the ancestry results. What's the news on the medical results? Not much new news, really, because at 95 you kinda know what's up with your body... or should. She has some glaucoma and macular degeneration going on but it's under control, and that was there on the results. Only to be expected. And then she did have trouble with gall stones a while back, so it was no surprise to see that it might be a problem for her, or rather was! Arthritis also showed up and we knew that too. As I say, no big surprises.

There were no variants present for any unusual inherited conditions that are genetically based... wacky genes, if you will. None. Not a one. Maybe that's why she's 95 and pretty much just fine:) We should all be so lucky! My ACADM variant isn't there on Mom's DNA so I'd be looking to Dad if he were still with us and able to donate a sample. But he's not, more the pity all around.

I'm so glad Mom decided to jump in and have her DNA done! Now we can go looking for DNA cousins together:)

Mom, on the right, with her parents in the middle, and her sister on the left.

Front row, left to right: Dorothy Williams Conrad (1920 - 2007), Emma Susan (Whetstone) Williams (1897 - 1956), Virginia Williams Kelly (living),

back row: Cambria Williams (1897 - 1960).

Hill Street School in the background, now the Frostburg Museum, Frostburg, Allegany, Maryland.

 

Mom's eye color: blue, ear wax is wet;)

 

 

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/08/dna-monday-moms-results-from-23and-me.html

Treasure Chest Thursday: Our Brick Walls, A Coal Miner's Prayer

You know how it is: when something comes up on your radar as a pleasant surprise and a little while later a similar thing pops up again? Well it was like that for me recently when someone who is helpful and a genea-pal to all posted "The Coal Miner's Prayer" to the Allegany County, Maryland RootsWeb mailing list. Then in a couple of days Genie Regan who is "editor by default" of the wonderful web site of all things Allegany County, Our Brick Walls, posted another Coal Miner's Prayer!

I can't decide which I like most, and why should I, because each has its charms. If you have coal mining ancestors, especially those who were coal miners over The Pond and came here seeking a better life for their families only to find hard work and difficulties here, then your heart will melt just a bit (or maybe a lot) reading the following.


From Our Brick Walls:

Allegany County ~ 1845
A COAL MINER'S PRAYER

Take a look at these hands, Lord.
They’re worn and rough.
My face scarred with coal marks. My language is tough.
But you know in the heart lies the soul of a man.
Who toils at a living that few men can stand.
There’s sulphur and coal-dust and sweat on my brow.
To live like a rich man — I’d never learn how.

But if you’ve got a corner when my work is through,
I’d be mighty proud to live neighbors with you.
Each dawn as I rise, Lord, I know all too well
I face only one thing — a pit filled with Hell.

To scratch out a living the best that I can.
But deep in this heart lies the soul of a man.
With black-covered faces and hard calloused hands,
We ride the dark tunnels, our work to begin.
To labor and toil as we harvest the coal.
We silently pray, "Lord, please harvest our souls!"

Just a corner in Heaven when I’ve grown too old.
And my back it won’t bend, Lord to shovel the coal.
Lift me out of the pit where the sun never shines,
‘Cause it gets mighty weary down here in the mine.

But I’d rather be me, Lord, Tho’no riches I show,
Though tired and wary, I’m just glad to know
When the Great Seal is broken the pages will tell
That I’ve already spent my time in Hell.
 ~Author Unknown
(Courtesy of Marion Chappel)

From Shawn McGreevy posted to the MDALLEGA RootsWeb email list.

The Coal Miner's Prayer

Each dawn as we rise, Lord we all know too well,
We face only one thing - a pit filled with hell.
To scratch out a living the best we can,
But deep in the heart, lies the soul of a man.
With black covered faces, and hard calloused hands,
We work the dark tunnels, unable to stand
To labor and toil as we harvest the coals,
We silently pray "Lord please harvest our souls".

The Coal Miner's Prayer, By: W. Calvert

 

 

Some of the coal miners on our tree, and some other photos:



 

My great grandfather Daniel Williams (1852 - 1920), second from left and a mine supervisor.

Standing, my Grandpop Kelly, a coal miner who contracted black lung disease.

John Lee Kelly (1892 - 1969)

 

Above, the interior of a typical coal mine interior in the George's Creek mine fields,

at the Frostburg Museum, Frostburg Maryland.

Treasure Chest Thursday is a blogging prompt from GeneaBloggers.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/07/treasure-chest-thursday-our-brick-walls.html

175 Years Ago: The start of the Thomas family in America

Wait, I thought as I looked at that ship's register transcription on USGenWeb by Pat Thomas, that's 175 years ago! This week! My Thomas ancestors sailed on the Barque Tiberius from Newport (or New Port) Harbor in Wales headed for Baltimore exactly 175 years ago this Sunday. At 109 feet long, it carried 76 passengers and took 46 days to reach Baltimore, Maryland, which they did on 11 Sept 1838.

When I visited Mom last fall we went to the Frostburg Museum in lovely little Frostburg, Allegany, Maryland, and I took a photo of their replica of the ship's passenger list. When I got back home and looked very carefully at it, it jumped to life. Imagine what their journey was like!

Benjamin Thomas, my 3rd great grandfather, head of the family and 45 years old at the sailing, had been recruited out of the coal mines of South Wales by the George's Creek Coal company, which is referenced on the manifest, as you can see below. He came with wife Hannah (Evans), and eight children ranging from an infant, Jane, to four boys who were colliers (William, Benjamin, James, and John) as well as my 2nd great grandmother, Diane (or Diana) age six. Joseph, age three, and Phillip, age two, were also listed. That's a family of 10 people.

George's Creek Coal Company had its headquarters in London and Baltimore and was the owner and operator of their mine in Western Maryland, near Frostburg. They recruited skilled miners from Wales and then paid for their passage with the proviso that the cost was to be deducted from wages. There were 29 "colliers" on that ship and that would mean 29 good and strong men who were immediately available, well trained and experienced, who could go to work in the coal mines. And that strong work force would be tied to the company for however long it took to pay off the cost of the passage.

There were two Thomas families on that ship who came and worked in the mines and prospered. Lewis, Watkins, Reese, two Williams families, two Davis families and a Treasure family were there as well. I'd love to find out more about them all, especially that other Thomas family. Were they related?

The legacy of our Benjamin Thomas is broad and deep, and there are many avid genealogists amongst their descendants. And all of my Thomas cousins are the nicest folks! Benjamin and Hannah would be proud, I think, to know that here we are 175 years later, scattered from coast to coast, all communicating and sharing what we know of them... and wishing we knew much more!

I recently was enticed to find out more about the South Wales coal mines, especially those of the Rhondda Valley, when I came across a web page by one of the descendants of the Lewis family, also on the Barque Tiberius sailing, Debbie Lewis Allen. You can see her blog here. Debbie's posts about the Lewis surname, the preponderance of Welsh surnames amongst African-Americas, and especially the coal region of South Wales got me thinking and googling around. Debbie has some nice information about where her Lewis people lived and maybe worked and I got to thinking that all of the coal mining families who were on the Barque Tiberius were likely recruited out of close-by mines. And, that I should probably know more about where exactly that was if I ever hoped to make any progress in finding locations for my Thomas ancestors. More on that in a later post:)

Here's what Debbie posted about her ancestor on the Tiberius, and note that she has a birthplace for him:
John F. Lewis, Born October 31, 1802 - Died November 7, 1885, He was born in Merthyr-Tidwil Wales.

Hey, what's a "barque" anyway? Off to Google. It's a three masted sailing ship. Interestingly, the barque was also used as a collier or coal ship. Now I'm wondering if the Georges Creek Coal company owned it? The barque was faster and required a smaller crew than other vessels of the day. There were even four-masted barques and they were faster still. San Diego's own Star of India was a full-rigged ship converted into a barque.

Typical three-masted barque.

 

Star of India, the oldest active sailing vessel in the world.

(Both images above, Wikimedia Commons.)

 

So today I'm imagining my Thomas ancestors of 175 years ago, saying their goodbyes to family and friends knowing that they would never see them again. Leaving loved ones behind, that would be the hardest part. Then packing up what they could in trunks, gathering the children, little Diane and baby Jane, too. The older boys hoisting the trunks to start the journey. Did they take a rest in Newport before the journey? I do not know. There is too much that we do not know. But we do know that on the last day of June 1838 the Thomas family sailed out of Newport Harbor set for Baltimore and a brand new life in the coal mines of Western Maryland. And Mom still lives there, and Aunt Betty and Cousin Daniel, and all the rest! Ahhh-mazing!


Here are two other posts about the Thomas Family. This first is mostly about the Barque Tiberius and the second is a Surname Saturday post tracing back from me to this Thomas family.
http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/02/treasure-chest-thursday-barque-tiberius.html
http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/04/surname-saturday-thomas-family-from.html
UPDATE: Next blog post about the Thomas family in America here:
http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/06/more-about-thomas-familys-new-home-in.html

In the Frostburg Museum, The ship's register of the Barque Tiberius!

(Here's a link to the transcribed version of the manifest on the Imigrant Ships Transcribers Guild.)

 

The heading for the ship's register mentioning the George's Creek Coal company.

 

My Thomas ancestors on the ship's list.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/06/175-years-ago-start-of-thomas-family-in.html

Wisdom Wednesday: Let's Go!

Here we are and it's time to use the GeneaBlogger's blogging prompt called Wisdom Wednesdays. Doing this post keeps me moving through the work while taking a moment to take stock and evaluate. This week I do need to get my stuff in a bag because I'm going to see Mom back east real soon. We'll have some time to compare notes and dig deep into her files and copy everything except the two cats! Our kinda' fun, and I bet yours too:)

Frostburg, Allegany County, Maryland... where Mom lives.

Visit Mom: organization!! Oh, gosh. I do need to be organized and have a list ready when I go visit Mom or I just know Mom and I can gobble up time enamored with one little doo-dad or other. We're like that. It's an advantage when we slow down and stop to analyze records or objects and photos, but it can stand in the way of getting her files copied, which I must do on this visit. And we want to go see a library and a museum and a historical site plus of course, cemeteries! So I've got a list, and here it is.

1. Copy as many files as possible. I could use Mom's pocket scanner but it moves too slowly for me. I'll photograph the files with my trusty camera, transfer the images as a group to a file folder on Mom's computer and copy that file over to my external hard drive that I'm taking with. I'll also be testing out DropBox capabilities as I send each folder into the cloud for safety. Feeling good about this plan... even though I'll probably be working day and night!

2. See Mom's paper doll collection from the 1920s. Why would you not want to see that!?

3. Find the House Heirs Association papers from that meeting in 190? in Hamilton, Ohio. I'll photograph those papers and maybe bring them back to San Diego. (If you don't remember recent posts about the HHA, use the search box to the right. It's complicated.)

4. See the love letters my 2nd GGF wrote to my 2nd GGM while he was traveling away from the family and working over in West Virginia as a stone mason. Can not believe that I haven't copied these before!

5. Go to Allegany College's Appalachian Collection and Genealogy Resources at the Library for a visit. Mom used to practically live here but now they just give out her name and phone number to anyone working on our family surnames. That's how we found Cousin Karen.

6. Go to the Frostburg Museum to pick up a couple of books and say Hi.

7. Go to the Evergreen Heritage Center to see what resources they hold and meet Janice who has been a wonderful help. Here's what their web site has to say about it:
The Evergreen Heritage Center (EHC), located on approximately 130 acres of “Federal Hill” in the heart of Allegany County, is an historic Maryland estate that pre-dates the Revolutionary War. The EHC includes the Evergreen mansion (now a museum), beautifully landscaped grounds and gardens, trails, streams, and forest, all in a picturesque setting adjacent to the Great Allegheny Passage and Western Maryland Scenic Railroad.
And the Center isn't just about history, no, it's all about the environment and education too. See a recent article here in Allegany Magazine. Hope it doesn't rain too much because we want to explore!

8. Visit Percy Cemetery in Frostburg. It sits right behind Grandma Kelly's house so we sure know where it is. Mom wants to show me all of the graves of the ancestors who are buried there.

Oh, there's more but you're probably tired of reading this mess. It's not your trip and if you're still reading, I thank you for your attention:) I'm thrilled to be able to think about the upcoming trip and plan it out! Watch out Mom, here I come!

 

Late breaking weather report: rain, rain, and mo' rain. Good for brother's tomatoes but not for slogging around in cemeteries!

The Percy Cemetery behind Mom and Dad.

Photo taken about 1942.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/05/wisdom-wednesday-lets-go.html

Treasure Chest Thursday: Thank you, Betty VanNewkirk

Not much makes me happier than getting my hands on some real homey writing about the little mountain town of Frostburg, Allegany, Maryland. I love the stories of its history and people, some of whom I can count as my ancestors. To my mind, there's no one who is a better historian and story teller about Frostburg than Betty VanNewkirk. In a previous post from last fall I wrote this about Betty:

I picked up two books by Betty VanNewkirk about Frostburg: Windows to the Past, and Kalidascope. They are both collections of essays written for the Cumberland Times-News newspaper. Here's a link: http://times-news.com/bettyvannewkirk . Betty taught at Frostburg State University for many years as did her husband, whom I think I had as a professor. I believe Mom told me that Betty just celebrated her 97th birthday!

Those two books have a special place in my Treasure Chest! Windows to the Past is falling apart at the binding, but never mind, and I love it and use it all the same! Click here to read about the Moonshining Miners and here to read a post entitled, He Died in the Outhouse. I can't even tell you which are my favorite stories because almost every one gives me a chuckle or brings a tear to the eye. Betty sure knows her history!

I got my copies of these two book at the Frostburg Museum and here's the link to their new spiffy web site.

 



I was thrilled to find my great great grandfather,  Charles William Zeller (1829 - 1901) mentioned on page 50 of Kaleidoscope,  in an article titled, "37 West Main Street," in which it says, "In the 1860s the tennant was a Mr. Zeller, who was a baker and confectioner."

On page 103 an article, "The Body in the Privy," contains reference to Charles William's son and my great grandfather, Gustav William Zeller and his barbershop that offered, "showers and tubs for the convenience of his customers."

 

 

 

Treasure Chest Thursday is a blogging prompt of GeneaBloggers.

 

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/05/treasure-chest-thursday-thank-you-betty.html

Tombstone Tuesday: Really Old Stones

I sometimes find these really old looking tombstones when I go to cemeteries back in Western Maryland or look at Mom's tombstone photo file. They are a puzzlement to me and while I have no good explanation for them and the way they look, I just noticed another one in Mom's tombstone file and now I have a collection so here they are. If you have any idea about them please let Mom and I know!

As you can see, the dates on them range from the late 1700s to the late 1800s. Now I'm starting to think that this might be a style of home-made country tombstone that was made by an unskilled hand whenever a professional wasn't available. They were all located in the "back woods".

Searching I find this link to Old Gravestone Styles.  It does mention the use of slate in the 1700s and slate was a material readily available locally in the West Virginia and Western Maryland area where these stone were found. I was disappointed in that all of these from Old Gravestone Styles look more professional and artistic to my eye.

On another site, Gravestone Styles, I'm starting to see a rough form of lettering used in the 1600s on slab stones on some of these stones from Cape Cod. The closest match is a slab stone from the 1500s which you can see here.

Is this image backwards and upside down?! Truly, I can't tell.

The Braddock Stone in front of the Frostburg Museum.

Tombstone Tuesday is a weekly blogging prompt from GeneaBloggers. You can find the whole week's list of prompts here.

The URL for this post is: http://www.capecodgravestones.com/blothpixweb/rawson83blo.html

Treasure Chest Thursday: The Barque Tiberius Brought Them

Last fall when on a trip back east to see Mom and the family, we went to the Frostburg Museum over in the old Hill Street School. Frostburg is the tiny Western Maryland town where Mom and Dad grew up, met, got married and where almost the entirety of the first few generations of my tree come from. So I was excited to see what the museum had and how it might relate to the family.

The first floor was super fascinating and we all roamed around looking at an amazing variety of stuff that we had some familiarity with. There's a small room with a lot of personal family history items relating to some of the families of the town that go way back. The Porters, The Workmen, and the Troutmen families all had genealogies there.

In that small room a couple of document facsimile were presented in glass cases. I took a close look and then with the permission of the docent, photographed them. I noticed the ship's list from the Barque Tiberius and knew it fit into our family's history but just as I was puzzling out where and who, one of our group drew my attention away to some other item, equally fascinating. It was like that all day! A wealth of relevant items to look at and consider in the ongoing process of understanding the world my ancestors inhabited. It was hard to take it all in and we plan to go back when I visit next time.

Back home and months later I'm sitting thinking, hey what about that Barque Tiberius? So I googled it and found a link to a transcription of the manifest and some very interesting notes which you can see here. Seems that it sailed from New Port, Wales to Baltimore, Maryland, and arrived in Baltimore 11 September 1838. Then I read the top of the manifest:

A List of Passengers on board of the American Barque Tiberias of Boston U.S., whereof George Sears, is Master, bound from New Port to Baltimore, U.S., burthen 299 tons Reg.

Columns represent: Name, age and occupation. The intention of all is George's Creek Co.* except Mary Bannista who is for Baltimore.
 

On board are three people who interest me to the max! They are:
Diana Thomas (1832 - 1871), my 2nd great grandmother, who was only 6 years old.
Benjamin Thomas (1793 - 1846), age 45, a collier (miner), and his wife,
Hannah (Evans) Thomas (1798 - 1968) age 40. Together, they are my 3rd great grandparents.

Holy-moley!! Seeing that just stops me in my tracks. Imagine! Benjamin with his entire family, all ten of them, confined to a small ship of just 299 tons, making their way for 46 days to cross, to the George's Creek Coal fields in a place they have never been to or seen. And with an infant child, Jane.

There's another Thomas family on board and in some way, I do hope they were connected, these two Thomas families, so as to be able to share the great adventure of their lives.

I feel for this family and don't have many details of their existence at hand which I can share with you. I do know that mine work was hard and dangerous. But I also know that the George's Creek Coal fields were the richest in the state, or adjoining states too at that time, and the miners who worked it prospered.  They raised large well-fed families and eventually purchased their own homes. Their children had good educations and they prospered as well.

Mom found one mention of Benjamin and Hannah in a small publication, The Lonaconing Mining Journal, 1837 - 1840, which is the recording journal of the mine manager. It was transcribed by Katherine Harvey about 1976. In it is recorded that Benjamin and Hannah were making merry and drinking on a Sunday evening at someone else's home, and arrested for being drunk! Here's the story. On Sundays, and after a long hard week of work, someone in the community opened their home to serve as a public house, a pub. Bars were outlawed by the mining company who kept an iron hold on the morals of their workers. It did not serve their best interests to have hungover miners working on Monday morning. So it seems that off went Benjamin and Hannah to have some downtime with neighbors. And they got caught by the mining company!

Also on the link, and written by Patricia Thomas, whose husband is also a direct descendant of Benjamin and Hannah is the following:

The Barque Tiberias appears to have left Wales on 31 June 1838 and is 109 feet long. The voyage took 46 days to cross from Newport, Wales to Baltimore, Maryland. The names of 76 passengers appear on the manifest. A cargo of 3,689 pieces of railroad iron was also on board. Most were men (and their families) hired as colliers (miners) due to mass recruiting by the George's Creek Coal and Iron Company in Allegany County, Maryland.

I thank Patricia Thomas for this paragraph, above.

In the Frostburg Museum, The ships register of the Barque Tiberius!

My 3rd GGF Benjamin Thomas and 3rd GGM Hannah Thomas on the Barque Tiberius roster along with my 2nd GGM Diane Thomas.

The Frostburg Museum now residing in its permanent home at the Hills Street School in Frostburg Maryland. There is much local history within its walls!

Mom and Brother look at her high school graduating class photo on display at the Frostburg Museum while our docent, Ralph, looks on.

Treasure Chest Thursday is a blogging prompt of GeneaBloggers. Find out more here.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/02/treasure-chest-thursday-barque-tiberius.html

Treasure Chest Thursday: A Book About Frostburg, Maryland

The last time I was back East to visit Mom and the rest of the crew, Mom gave me this treasure of a book from her archive of stuff. Mom has the very best stuff, if you're me and researching the ancestors! She saves everything!

I've been working on a chapter for a book project and it's about the little Western Maryland town of Frostburg, Allegany, Maryland. I was sort of stuck because there isn't a lot in print about little Frostburg, except a couple of history books that focus in a more general way about the area and Wikipedia, and you can see that here. So I was moaning the blues about not having enough enriching source material. This treasure of a book I got from Mom, published about 1912 in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the town which was founded in 1812, is the very best source for information about Frostburg I've ever had the absolute delight to see! I'm thrilled to have it!! So thanks, Mom:)

This is a replica copy of the original 1912 edition, we believe. Mom and I both think that it was printed in 1962 to celebrate the 150th anniversary. This presumed replica contains no publishers information, not even a printers stamp. Unusual, as printers I've known are proud to show their civic participation and hide a mark somewhere ususally in the back binding area. So it bears more research to dig up its actual origins. Luckily, it also contains no copyright renewal or appropriation so I think I'm safe quoting and perhaps, as here, using images of pages, but I'm not a copyright attorney. Think I'll check over at the Frostburg Museum and see if they know anything about it. They know a lot over there. (The original 1912 book makes note of the publisher who was one and the same as the publisher of the Frostburg Mining Journal.)

The information that this book offers is amazing. It starts with a thorough history of Frostburg and some stuff I've seen elsewhere but also much more detailed information that goes well beyond the basics. At the close of the book is a list, quite extensive, of "home commers" who made the journey back for the festivities. The names include the place where the returnee lived in 1912, and get this, even in some cases a street address. Whoop! I found the street addresses in Chicago of two of the Zeller brothers, siblings of my great grandfather Gustav Zeller, the subject of recent posts here.

Below are just a few of the rich pages in the treasured book, Frostburg Maryland, 1812 - 1912.

Cover, displayed over family photos in my possession.

Street scenes, left, and the day the street car came to town on the left side of the right page.

If you look super close you can see GGF Gus Zeller in his white barber's coat

just below the front entrance to the car! How cool is that?

The right hand page touts the Frostburg volunteer Fire Department and

members in 1912.

Noted citizenry have their photos and a biography.

Programme for the Week opposite local photos.

This is a great treasure, right? And now... drum roll, please... just looked at a 1938 film (converted to video) all about Frostburg! Maybe next week on Thursday I'll share:) I'm stoked!! Here I was two weeks ago without enough source material and now, oh the bounty!!

Treasure Chest Thursday is a blogging prompt of GeneaBloggers. Find out more here.


The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/01/treasure-chest-thursday-book-about.html

The Braddock Stone

Housing for the Braddock Stone
at the Frostburg Museum,
Frostburg, Maryland

Front

Didactic panel

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The Bradock Stone, now ensconced in its new pavilion in front of the Frostburg Museum and recently dedicated on September 13, 2012 just preceding the town's bicentennial, is not only a historical object but a family object. Oh yes, we too join the long line of people of the town who claim a history moment attached to this large rather strange item!

If you can't easily read what it says in the rather poor photos I took on my most recent trip, here's what's carved into the Braddock Rock, text below. As you might be able to tell, it's been infilled with paint so as to make the reading easier.

Front: "11 miles to Ft. Cumberland, 29 MS to Capt Smyths Inn and Bridge Big, Crossing The Best Road to Redstone, Old Fort, 64 M"

Back: "Our Country's Rights We Will Defend"

It's a strange and fascinating object. Reads like an early road advertisement for Captain Smyth's Inn. Because of where it was placed long ago, it was thought that the stone marked the actual path General Braddock took in 1755 trying to oust the French from Fort Duquesne at present day Pittsburgh. However there is nothing substantive to substantiate that theory, except the proximity of where it was found in relationship to Braddock's presumed road.

The DAR, ever patriotic, looked to enshrine the stone in a pavilion similar to the one you see in the pictures above. I think I remember that their efforts took place about 100 years ago or more. They lost interest, it is said, when the inscription seemed to indicate that the stone wasn't likely to have been marking Braddock's route at all.

Local legend says that the stone was split and then was going to be used as steps to an outhouse... or... that a local stonemason grabbed it but when discovered was persuaded by the authorities to make the repair you see so evident in the photos.

Our family's connection with the stone is on the Whetstone side, that's Mom's mother's parents. They had a farm, or actually a parcel of a few acres, and the stone resided just outside of the fence defining the back yard. It was already split but not repaired when Mom played there in the 1920s. She still remembers the very sweet wild strawberries that grew at the base of the stone.

Mom likes to say that her cousin George broke the stone. George was an awful tease and one of his favorite targets was Mom, a dangerous number of years his junior. Devilish George was the most likely candidate to have been making mischief enough to break that stone. If anyone did it, it was probably George! Or so Mom liked to say;)

Mom and her cousins.
(Hey Mom, is that George on the right..
although any of these three look like they'd enjoy making
trouble for the sweet little girl in the hair bow!)

Mom's Whetstone Grandparents:

Joseph Hampton Whetstone (1858 - 1939) and
Catherine Elizabeth House Whetstone (1865 - 1947).
Mom sports a hair bow!

 

 

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-braddock-stone.html

A Little Museum Packs A Big Wallop

Recently back east visiting Mom in the little Western Maryland town of Frostburg, and we thought we'd make time to go visit the Frostburg Museum. Glad we did! A visit to a local museum can really shed light on the lives of the ancestors, and possibly render even more direct information from the files.

Here's a link to the Frostburg Museum: http://frostmuseum.allconet.org/index.html
And here's a link to their genealogy page: http://frostmuseum.allconet.org/genealogy.html
Here's the text about the holdings that might be pertinent to family history researchers:

Without following the usual procedures of those tracing family roots, the Museum has a great deal of information about families who have lived in the Frostburg area. Voting registration prior to World War I; tax assessments from 1910; a tailor's measurements from the first part of the century... items not found on the Internet.
Card files, vertical files (mostly newspaper clippings), and correspondence with family members are cross-indexed, and City maps of various vintage help to locate the houses where people lived.

This lovely small town museum is housed in an old historic school building once the home of Hill Street School. Mom attended Hill Street School because it was the closest elementary school situated just at the other end of her block. Here's waht the museum's web site says about the building:

Built in 1899, the Hill Street School was the last school in the area of a design that was fairly common at that time. Originally six rooms, a two-room and auditorium addition dates from ca. 1914. Several areas of the basement were at one time used for cafeteria, kindergarten, and meeting rooms. When it was no longer needed as a school, the building reverted to the County Commissioners, who gave it to the City; the Museum Association now holds title to it.

Looking towards Mom's childhood home,
just beyond the house with the striped awning.

 

Hill Street School,
now the Frostburg Museum
(Photo courtesy Frostburg Museum)

I can attest to what the museum has, and if your ancestors come from the area, it's a must do on your itinerary. Inside you'll find shelves with numerous genealogies of local families including the Trimbles and Porters, and those are ours. A long time ago Mom gave them a copy of her Whetstone family file but we forgot to check and see if they still have it. The old city maps are invaluable. And you might even find ancestors in the sales books of a grocery store! On our next visit Mom and I want to go play in these records and see what we find!

Interpretive display of a coal mine.
So many of the area's residents worked in coal mines that
this display must be popular!

Besides direct information about the genealogy of ancestors, there are so many artifacts and objects that frame the time and place in which the ancestors lived! Room after room full of the memorabilia of daily lives in small town Western Maryland are found here as well as specific objects that give history to named families. 
 
Ralph, our docent, asked me if the family still had the big barber chair that was in my GGF's barber shop behind the old house at 89 West Main Street. No, sad to say we don't. It was sold off years ago by I don't know who. I remember that you could probably talk one of the cousins into giving you a good spin ride in it;) It would have been great if the old barber chair had been donated. Too bad.

Mom had fun in the classroom on the second floor and found her 1936 high school class photo, and Dad's too. Aunt Betty looked for hers and found it while I found Aunt Dot's and Uncle Harolds... they were in the same class! High school sweethearts:) It was shocking to see how very small the desks were then: did we ever fit into one? Guess so.

Mom and Brother, left, look for classmates in

her high school class photo, while our docent, Ralph looks on.

 

 

 

Aunt Betty in her class photo.

 

Small museums like the Frostburg Museum must dot the county! There's one we want to visit just west of here in Garret County. That's next on our list. Imagine all the history waiting to be discovered by family historians in these local gems.

Aunt Betty donated a trunk that came over with her GGM form Wales! It's quite the story and I think that I'll save it until next time. There's a beautiful crazy quilt that goes with it too... and I have photos.

Yeah, this post is going to come in parts:)

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2012/10/a-little-museum-packs-big-wallop.html

Moonshining Miners

Just back from a visit back East to see Mom and the family. It was fun in both the planning and execution of it all. Met Cousin Steve and his wife and their grand-baby at the mall after Mom got her hair done on Friday morning. You can't tell me Steve and Kitty don't love that little one! Always great to see the love of family passed from one generation to the next:)

There were wonderful other happenings that I'll blog about in the coming days: a fascinating author of local history came for coffee after her last class on Friday, and a trip to the Frostburg Museum with Aunt Betty and her good friend, Shirley. Plus, Mom and I had a blast digging around her archive! The dust was flying off the files on the "back shelf"!

Here's a photo of little Frostburg, all nestled into the fall foliage of scenic Western Maryland... then I'll tell you a story:)

Frostburg, Maryland, Fall 2012

 

 

I picked up two books by Betty VanNewkirk about Frostburg: Windows to the Past, and Kalidascope. They are both collections of essays written for the Cumberland Times-News newspaper. Here's a link: http://times-news.com/bettyvannewkirk . Betty taught at Frostburg State University for many years as did her husband, whom I think I had as a professor. I believe Mom told me that Betty just celebrated her 97th birthday!

 

One of the articles in her first compilation, Windows to the Past - simply titled "Prohibition", on page 61 - illuminates the difficulties and amusement surrounding the enforcement of the Volstead Act along the George's Creek coal mining area. My GGF, Daniel Williams, was a miner there. He died before all the turmoil over prohibition but never mind because he was a non-drinker anyway. His boys, however, were drinking men:) 

 

Windows give a clear analysis of the situation: the miners went out on strike, and times were hard but not impossible because the miners had savings accounts, owned their homes, had chickens for eggs and meat, perhaps a cow, and of course gardens. The United Mine Workers sent care packages that included corn to be used as chicken feed. The miners, ever resourceful, saw the possibility of turning the corn into mash and that mash into moonshine. And moonshine was a hot commodity during prohibition!

 

The town officials knew what was going on but didn't want to get between the revenuers and their miner neighbors. As Mrs. VanNewkirk writes:

They worried about the situation - but their real concern was for the town's precious water supply. They estimated that there were 100 stills operating within the city limits, each one requiring a half-inch stream of water running over the coils for 24 hours at a time; the Frostburg reservoir wasn't up to that demand!

 

She goes on to explain the percent of alcohol in beer and how it was tweaked over time. Interestingly, when the revenue agents finally caught up with the moonshiners and confiscated the wares, they "followed up with the pronouncement that local moonshine was the best to be had anywhere in the State." That had to be the best advertising that a moonshiner could get!

 

Copies of Betty VanNewkirk's excellent and entertaining book can be had from the Frostburg Museum. Call for information on ordering. Here's the link: http://frostmuseum.allconet.org/

 

 

Photo of the Day from Aunt Betty's Archive:

 

GGF Daniel William's home in Ocean Maryland,
center of the George's Creek mining activity...
and Prohibitoin Era moonshining.

 

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2012/10/moonshining-miners.html