Wisdom Wendesday: Just a couple of random thoughts, probably not worth mentioning

Well it's been a crazy week, what with losing our dearly loved old dog. A vet told us when we lost the last dog that the first 24 hours are the worst, and the next milestone is three days, and then at a week you are remembering the good more than the bad. That's been true for us. It probably true when we experience any loss: after time begins to heal, we remember the good stuff most.

But now at exactly a week, and because I feel like it and not because I'm on any schedule, I'm feeling the urge to write again. So let's do another GeneaBlogger's blogging prompt called Wisdom Wednesdays.

Mom is writing! Mom loves to read and always was a good reader. Anywhere she went she had a paperback book in her purse. She never minded waiting anywhere for anything at all because it gave her more time to read. It runs in our matrilineal line because her mother loved to read too and was always reading. That's three generations of avid readers right there.
But now instead of just telling me her stories she's writing them down. She's got quite a document going too and it's such fun to read as she writes it! Keep going, Mom!
I once worked for a guy who was a really good writer and that task was a big part of his job. He encouraged me to write but I demurred, believing that I was not a writer. He said that if you can think, you can write and that the more logical your mind is the easier it is to write. Sounded good to me so I gave writing a try. I think he was correct in that analysis, and have enjoyed writing ever since. I'm super glad that Mom enjoys writing too!

Internet connection. This is so wild and it was all news to me, but I mention it in case someone else needs the info. Did you know that if you have a wireless network in your home all sorts of things can interfere and make your signal weak? Did not know this, until this week. My desktop on the east side of the house has an internet connection from the wireless modem on the west side of the house. It's not that far, really, but when I checked for how good the connection was it always showed two or three bars out of five. Good enough to get me online but not warp speed.
But over the last couple of months internet service would disappear now and again. After trying the usual unplug and restart a bunch of times, I called Time-Warner about our cable internet service. Very long story short, our new heater and air-conditioning system was interfering with the wireless modem signal. Yeah, I know: what!?
Solution: signal repeater or booster. Super easy to install: plug it in a wall outlet between the modem and the desktop, and follow the step-by-step instructions you see on your computer monitor.
I kid you not, now I have five glorious bars!! Who knew that a heater/ AC could interfere with a wireless internet connection? Wireless phones, microwave ovens, and garage door openers will degrade your signal too.
Here's a link to a cached page from Microsoft with a pretty clear article on improving your wireless internet signal.
And here's a link to an article about making a signal extender with a can.  And click here to see how to make a parabolic dish antenna out of aluminum foil. I tried the aluminum foil project and did get a boost of one bar. It was at that point that I went and bought the wireless signal booster.

That's all for now:) Happy Wednesday!

Coal miners in Eckhart, Maryland at Eckhart Mines.

I'm told that the old Eckhart Mansion is there in the upper right hand corner.

(Thanks to one of the Eckhart cousins for this gem!)

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/07/wisdom-wendesday-just-couple-of-random.html

Cousin Rich, the Sleuth

Have been reading facebook post by cousins in the Descendants of George Adam Eckhart of Eckhart MD group with great interest. As time goes by the flurry of posts has fallen off but there was Easter and all too. (See posts below to catch-up.)

Where we are now is that Mary Ann's husband, John Eckhart (1768 - 1822?), son of George Adams (1729 - 1806) died and The Consolidated Coal Company's man finessed the sale from the Eckharts. What actually went down is left to CSI investigators.

The operative for the Consolidated Coal Company was a man with the improbably theatrical name of Mathew St. Clair Clarke... perfect with which to paint him the villain in this narrative!

Cousin Rich posted the following to the group's facebook page. Can you read anything into it? We sure could... bet then maybe that's just family lore of the Consol. "stealing" the Eckhart land coming forward;)

Again, so sorry for any strangeness with the fonts as I'm cutting and pasting from sketchy sources.

It's interesting to note that Mary's two sons tried to have her declared "crazy" after the death of her husband. I don't know the laws back in 1835, but nowadays, the sons could have challenged the sale of the property, based on the fact that Mary could have been under mental duress. If the laws were similar back then, that might have been their only hope of getting the land back - having her declared insane at the time of the sale, thus voiding the sale.

Here's the Wikipedia history of Matthew St. Clair Clarke (the person who represented Consolidated Coal Co. during the purchase of the Eckhart land. He is also the "author" of a book about "Our New Land Purchase in Eckhart Maryland").

Matthew St. Clair Clarke was admitted to the bar in 1811, and practiced in Greencastle, PA. Later he removed to Washington, D.C.

On December 3, 1822, he was elected on the 11th ballot Clerk of the House of Representatives in the 17th United States Congress, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Clerk Thomas Dougherty. He was re-elected five times, serving throughout the 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st and 22nd United States Congresses, and opened the proceedings in the House of the 23rd United States Congress on December 2, 1833, when he was succeeded by Walter S. Franklin.

On May 31, 1841, Clarke was again elected Clerk of the House of Representatives in the 27th United States Congress. Clarke opened the proceedings of the 28th United States Congress on December 4, 1843, but was defeated for re-election by Caleb J. McNulty two days later.

In 1843, he was appointed Sixth Auditor of the United States Treasury and remained in office until 1845.

In 1852, his daughter Anna L. Clarke married Gen. William B. Franklin, the son of Clerk of the House Walter S. Franklin who had succeeded Clarke in 1833.

*** My observation: Clarke was out of elected office between the years 1833 and 1841. From 1834 to 1836: he had the land in Eckhart surveyed; he had the underlying mineral composition determined; he wrote a book extolling the land's great mineral value (primarily COAL); he represented the Consolidated Coal Co. during the purchase of the land; and who knows what else he was involved in.

Maybe he was the one who applied pressure on Mary Eckhart to sell her land (within 5 days of her husband [and maybe her son] dying). Maybe he was responsible for her having a mental break down and her sons trying to have her committed to a mental institution. We can only speculate as to what really happened and why the Eckharts sold their land.

Well! The plot thickens. And maybe, as Rich wisely points out, we never will know what really happened. The Eckhart people aren't talking from their graves above the little place called Eckhart Mines.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2012/04/cousin-rich-sleuth.html

Murder? Theft? Bribery?

Yesterday I posted that it finally struck me like a bolt of lightning how facebook can be used for genealogy when I joined the group, "Descendants of George Adam Eckhart of Eckhart, MD". Rich, bless him, created the group March 22, just eight days ago and already the group has almost 20 cousins.

But the most extraordinary thing is that we're sharing family history. And photos too... you know me, I love the photos... but this story takes the cake!!!

There's always been an oral history story in my Eckhart line about how the Consolidation Coal Company, the Consol, "stole" the Eckhart land from the family. Their man, "Jenkins", supposedly went to the county court house and paid a clerk to make one (or more) of the parcel deeds "disappear". It's hard, I would imagine, to get evidence to substantiate that claim now. I think at one point Mom did try to go and look to no avail. So I doubted the story or at least just chalked it up to family legend and lore. But here's a twist!

Here's what Rich posted to the Eckhart facebook group and it's very interesting indeed! And sorry about the font size craziness... I just copied and pasted and it went berserk:)

I was just reading some of the "history" of the Eckharts on the Genealogy web site. Here is an excerpt: "The original Eckhart farm was 600+ acres extending into what is now Frostburg. The Eckhart mansion stood close to where the McDonald's and Food Lion are in Frostburg now. There is actually a saw mill there now.

Nearby there are some small cottages built on rock foundations; those were the slave quarters. Everything was left to John, & he became quite a wealthy man. Harry said Matthew St. Claire Clark bought the Eckhart land. John Edwin Eckhart said a man by the name of Jenkins ended up with Consolidation Coal Co., and they bought out the Eckhart Farm".

Interesting reading, but I think a few facts were left out.

From research that I did, the Eckhart farm was indeed sold to Matthew St. Claire Clark, in 1835. The land was purchased from Mary Eckhart. The excerpt does not include the fact that her "wealthy" husband and her oldest son, had both died within 5 days of the sale.

It seems Mr St. Claire Clark, who was the Washington D.C. based attorney for The Consolidated Coal Co. of New York, was also privy to the fact that the land contained the largest vein of coal ever found in Maryland. Mr St. Claire Clark had authorized the production and publication of a book which described in detail the minerals located within "our new land purchase in Eckhart, Maryland". The book was published shortly after the purchase of the land. So shortly after, that it seems Mr. St Claire Clark had to have his geologists working on the land before they even owned it.

Finding the mother lode of coal in 1835 was like finding the mother lode of gold in 1849. Who knows how many people lost their lives in the name of greed? I believe John and his son did.

 

 

Today's photo from my archive, the town of Eckhart Maryland taken about 1909:

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2012/03/murder-theft-bribery.html

New To Me Cousins!

Got an email the other day from Jo Ann who was  googling around and found my post about the Kelly Pump in Eckhart Maryland. I had been back to Western Maryland to see Mom this past spring and we took a drive to Eckhart to look for the site of the old Eckhart Mansion and the old Kelly homeplace. And there was the Kelly Pump too.

Guy getting water from the Kelly Pump.

Kelly Pump

Old Kelly Home Place down the hill and

across the road from the pump.

I posted to this blog about the trip (remembering to put tags on entries... see those things at the bottom, well they are searchable.) And Jo Ann emailed about her interest in the pump, its history, and possibly getting it a historical designation. The old pump has been on this stretch of road for a really long time since this was part of the Old Pike and the first National Road west. Yup, it's historic. Here's the Wikipedia entry for it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Road

So I emailed Jo Ann that I'm on board and willing to do whatever to move this nice project along. Then I realized that we might be related!

Emails back and forth and we find that she's the granddaughter of my grandad Kelly's sister's husband's brother. Hey, Jo Ann, did I get that right? Mom, is that right? Remember guys, I'm a newbie here and by definition prone to error! Using the Steve Morse Relationship calculator, Jo Ann is my second cousin and a blood relative. Here's a link to Steve Morse's calculator: http://stevemorse.org/relation/calculator.html

Then Jo Ann told me about grandad Kelly's sister's son's daughter who lives in Florida, Eileen! I just love finding new cousins!!

See, this is just one of the reason why it's nice to have a blog:)

First Shot at Using Google Earth to Find the Eckhart Mansion

Last Tuesday went to a North San Diego County Genealogical Society presentation on using Google Earth for genealogy. I had fiddled with GE but hadn't a clue as to how to put this awesome tool to work for me.

As the presentation came to a close it popped into my newbie head that since I already knew where my ancestor, John Eckhart (1768 - 1835), son of George Adam Eckhart (1729 - 1806), had his home and land called the Eckhart Mansion I could fly over using GE. So off I went to fly over the south side of Frostburg, Maryland, down the hill from the Foodline, and high above the village of Eckhart and Eckhart Mines!

Here's the screen capture, saved and punched up in PhotoShop. See for yourself.

Here's a screen shot of the left hand section of the above image.

Is it just me or does that look like the footprint of a house and two out buildings in the upper left quadrant? The two out buildings would be to the left of the house and smaller. The Eckharts owned slaves, sad to say, and the reports of the time mention slave quarters. Wish I was an archaeologist and knew what I was looking at!

I emailed my brother and asked him to check it out and he did. He says that next time I'm in to visit Mom we'll take his Tahoe 4-wheel drive vehicle and ride down there.  What I'm really curious about is the center of the green mound on the right of the second image above. Is it a target for archery or shooting (folks do own guns there and enjoy target practice) or some other stone structure?

There was also on old family cemetery there and subsequent owners dozed it all over demolishing the old stones. (Don't ask me if I'm bitter... the answer is yes. People, you know who you are!) I'd really like to take that Tahoe and go looking for it.

Last time I was visiting Mom I tried climbing down from Foodline, but alas, I have a bad knee so felt like at least two of the Three Stooges sliding on down and crawling back up;) Tahoe, here I come!