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

Tombstone Tuesday: Decorations and folkways

I was back visiting Mom who will be 95 this month and lives in Western Maryland in a little town called Frostburg. There had been some back and forth emails amongst the cousins about who was decorating Grandma's grave and it all got ironed out, once everyone was safely and well assured that someone was taking care of Grandma. Decorating the graves of ancestors is taken quite seriously in these hills: you can't have too many flowers on a grave but too few or none at all is a big problem!

There have been some mysterious disappearance of decorations and charges of thievery by an unknown assailant. It's not unheard of for grave floral decorations to go missing, especially if they are unusual or quite elaborate and beautiful, and not properly secured. Plus, they can blow away if not tied down. And because of the penchant for the weather to take a turn to ugly with a sudden freeze mid-summer or the like, most everyone uses plastic flowers. Here in SoCal, it's mostly real flowers or nothing at all. In Frostburg it wall-to-wall plastic flowers in cheery colors! Everywhere! So, on occasion, it's actually a treat for the eye to visit the cemetery and a nice drive through can be an afternoon's entertainment!

Decoration of graves has it's official kick-off on Memorial Day, which some of the older folks still call Decoration Day, especially when they are talking about getting graves ready. Frostburg is a place where the ancestors stuck around for a number of generations and then mostly moved on for better work opportunities. That said, a number of cousins live within close driving distance to the two major cemeteries where our people are buried, and Mom still lives in Frostburg, and Aunt Betty too.

My Sis-in-law likes decorating the grave and takes it on for our branch of the family.She is always on the lookout for suitable plastic flowers. Silk is too fragile so only plastic will cut it in this region's rugged weather. Throughout the year she purchases new flowers, keeps her stash, and then assembles them into a decoration using her personal knowledge of the person, to craft an appropriate and resplendent display. She wants the person whose grave she decorates to like it. Grandma Kelly's grave decorations are always pink because that was her favorite color. My Sis-in-law is exceptionally good at making up those decorations!

In the fall the flowers of summer are retired and a more modest fall arrangement in Autumnal colors takes its place, the better to withstand the changing weather. Christmas time sees poinsettias relieving the fall arrangements. Those stay for the winter, making a bright splash of red above the white of snow, and in Frostburg there's a lot of snow. There might be a spring bouquet about Easter time, but the "big guns" of grave decoration come out for Memorial Day and are on display all summer.

Grandpop Kelly got very upset at Mom when she researched and found that his own grandfather's grave, the location of which was once thought to be unknown, was in St Michael's cemetery after all. He insisted that if that was his grave, he and his father would have cut the grass, so it couldn't have been his grandfather's grave! Case closed! No further discussion needed. (Sorry, Grandpop, it is his grave.)

Decorating the graves of ancestors ties our family together. We take pride in knowing that no one is forgotten. We know that we're connected to each other because we share responsibility amongst the cousins and make sure that every grave is covered. It's just one other activity that makes us family.


Photo at top: Mom's brother Camey and his wife Rita's grave.

Dad's grave. Got style.

Grandma and Grandpop Kelly. Since Sis-in-law took over the decorating task the motif is all pink. Sorry Grandpop, but you know Grandma always got her way.

My great grandparents. Not forgotten.

In the way-back dark woods of West Virginia is a little cemetery at Magnolia. (See blog post about a visit to Magnolia here.)  When you find it you expect to see it all over-grown and unkempt. But it's not, and this Civil War vet and family member is still honored. He died in 1861 at the very start of the war. (For a story about him click here.)

 

 

This post uses a GeneaBlogger's blogging prompt called Wisdom Wednesdays . Check them out!

 

 

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/07/tombstone-tuesday-decorations-and.html

Treasure Chest Thursday: Shiloh Welsh Congregational Church, 140th Anniversary Keepsake Book

When I was a kid and after the family moved from the little mountain town of Frostburg in Western Maryland to Ohio, we often returned there for a visit to family. Like many others, after the Second World War, Dad took advantage of the booming economy and lost no time bettering our opportunities and fortunes by moving to a more industrial area where the new technology of plastics promised a better tomorrow, for us personally and the world in general.

Mom and Dad's entire family on both sides resided in and around Frostburg and there were plenty of relatives to see and visit. Come here for lunch, go there for dinner, drop in over there too. One of the ways we covered all the bases was for Mom and I to go to church with Grandmother Williams, Mom's mother, Emma.

So here's the situation: by weekday I was a student at the very Roman Catholic St. Wenceslaus school in Maple Heights, Ohio, (a gigantic monstrous brick building attached to the elementary school) but by occasional weekend Sundays I went with Mom and Grandmother Williams to the little white clapboard church with clean lines and just down the street from Grandmother's house. It's the Shiloh Welsh Congregational Church of Frostburg, Maryland.

Let me contrast these two churches for you. The big brick Catholic church was full of large stained glass, plenty of statues of saints, incense enough to choke a tiny first grader, crowded mass full of kids from the first wave of the Baby Boomer generation packing every pew. On the other hand, the Congregational Church was small, quiet, simple, and a place where every one knew everyone else. Everyone. Grandmother liked to show me off, I could tell, and was outfitted by Mom in my best dresses. Oh, did I mention I was the only girl grandchild?

I have warm memories of that little white wooden church on Bowery Street. But it's not there anymore. As I understand, and Aunt Betty would be the one to give you the whole story, it came to the point where it was all but falling apart. The big question was should it be repaired or should a new one be built that would better suit? They built a new one, a nice brick building.

By the time I put two and two together - hey, where did the church go? - the new brick building had been there quite a while. That ever happen to you? A whole entire building goes missing on you?

Last time I went back east to see family I stopped by to visit Aunt Betty as I always do. We have such fun talking about stuff! She gave me this excellent keepsake from the Shiloh Welsh Congregational Church's 140th Anniversary! So on this Treasure Chest Thursday I want to share this book with you. There are a lot of old photos in it, along with photos of the new families who carry on the traditions.

In these pages I find many of the people on our family tree: the Williamses, the Prichards, the Prices, the Harrises, the McCollouhs are all there. Aunt Betty's family back four generation to the very start of the church, and my grandparents, Mom in the choir and her brother my Uncle Camey too who served well as a Trustee.

Cover of the commemorative book.

Historical document with the original cost of the first church building in 1873.

My Grandfather and Grandmother Williams.

The history of the Prichard family in the church from Enoch Prichard who hosted the first meeting of the church in 1869 in his home on Bowery Street, down to Aunt Betty on the right.

The Ladies Aid Society, a big factor in the church and community.

Mom as a young girl in the choir, front row, third from left.

Treasure Chest Thursday is a blogging prompt from GeneaBloggers.

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Treasure Chest Thursday: A Miner's Christmas

While back east visiting Mom I took some time to go visit Aunt Betty. Aunt Betty is really my Mom's cousin but somehow all who know her have come to call her Aunt Betty. I just love my time with her and we do go on about family and local history in Western Maryland around the little town of Frostburg.

This time I asked her when she thought Welsh stopped being spoken locally in the churches and at home. We have no real data but figure that most likely by 1900 no Welsh families in Western Maryland were speaking Welsh anymore. By then, in the coal mining families around Frostburg who came from Wales, everyone had learned English and was speaking it. Our guess is that the original immigrants from Wales didn't teach it to their kids, as immigrants often didn't in that time. It was all part of the assimilation process.

Aunt Betty chatted about how it was growing up in a coal mining community where just about everyone worked for the mines. Her best friend was from what we might now consider a "poor" family. The daughter, then maybe 9 years old as I remember Aunt Betty saying, had it as her summer chore to pick coal from the slag heaps (waste coal) and bring it back home for storage until it was used for the fires of winter. Aunt Betty went along and helped her friend just for fun.

While in Main Street Books, the Frostburg bookstore and one of my favorite haunts when visiting Mom, I noticed a book by James Rada, Saving Shallmar. Here's the Amazon write up, below.

In fall turned to winter in 1949, the residents of Shallmar, Maryland, were starving. The town's only business, the Wolf Den Coal Corp. had closed down, unemployment benefits had ended and few coal miners had cars to drive to other jobs. When children started fainting in school, Principal J. Paul Andrick realized the dire situation the town was in and set out to help. He worked to get the story of the town's troubles out and get help for the town's residents and succeeded beyond his wildest dreams just in time for Christmas.

As I read the book, based on fact and using real names, on the flight back to San Diego, I picked up a bunch of information about life in a typical coal town in Western Maryland. I found that picking coal for heat in the winter, as Aunt Betty had done with her friend, was entirely common. There are plenty of details of everyday life to keep the casual reader happily turning pages!

The thing that stayed with me and was found throughout the book is how the coal mining companies entrapped the miners and their families. Shallmar, an actual coal town in Garrett County, Maryland, was pretty much typical of what was going on elsewhere. The coal companies, or operators as they are sometimes called, would offer high paying jobs to lure the best miners with their families. Miners with families were hard-working and stable and wouldn't move when they were needed during boom years.

The coal company often provided small houses and a company store close by for convenient shopping. They paid miners in script that could only be used to pay rent or buy goods from the company store. It became a trap when the script was only good to buy high-priced items at the store or exchangeable at a great discount for real currency. Shallmar was too far away from any real town where a miner might shop without driving a car to it, and besides, very few of the miners here had cars.

Shallmar at the start was a bit different in that the homes were quite lovely by comparison to other such homes offered by coal companies. They were wood frame and two story by contrast to the typical and tiny stone one-story miner's homes in Eckhart Mines, Maryland, where I have other ancestors. Shallmar in the beginning was pretty and roses grew over a trellis at many doors, a real model community. The power plant for the mine also supplied free electricity for homes. Sure residents only had power during the day, but at least they had it.

But as the time passed, the mine got played out with the best and easiest coal taken. Then after WWII, the price of coal dropped so miners got laid off and those left were paid less. Some lucky few did move out of Shallmar and on to other opportunities. But about 600 individuals remained at Shallmar even after the mine closed and there was no more work to be had and unemployment benefits and union payments ran out. Without a car to take them elsewhere, they were pretty much stuck in Shallmar.

I've driven all over this territory in Western Maryland, and seen the old coal shacks still in use. It's sad and desolate. I'll confess to naively thinking, "Why don't they just move?" Reading about Shallmar I got an education in the social and economic dynamics of coal country poverty.

But wait! Don't pass up this book because you think you'll be too sad when reading it. Nope, there are good people around and they do make a difference, and it's worth reading about. And yes, it's a Christmas story! So if you have any coal miners on your tree and you want a book that gives a lot in the telling, get this one.


Eckhart Mines coal camp houses.
(Photos below courtesy of coalcampusa.com and Chris DellaMea. Thanks you Chris for the wonderful web site on coal mining communities, especially those in Western Maryland where my peeps worked.)



Shallmar coal miners houses.
(Also from the same source as above... thank you Chris!)

Two story version of the miner's houses.


Smaller one story version at Shallmar.


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Treasure Chest Thursday: Concerning the 1918 Spanish Flu Epidemic

I love books in my library that deal with the history of the little Western Maryland town where my ancestors came from, Frostburg, Allegany County, and the area nearby. Most recently I stumbled onto a writer that I enjoy a lot because he's written extensively about the events that formed the area as well as other historical books. His name is James Rada Jr.

Right now on his web site he's featuring a new work about the 50th reunion of soldiers who fought at Gettysburg. Although it looks pretty cool, I'll not stop now to read it because I'm reading a whole other stack of his books about Cumberland, the Spanish Influenza epidemic of 1918, and the Irish immigrants who worked on the C&O Canal. He has two books of short essays, a form of writing I dearly love, all about Western Maryland, called Looking Back and Looking Back II. I plan to get those next!

Mom is now reading The Rain Man, about the 1936 flood of the Potomac River in Cumberland, also called the St. Patricks Day Flood. She remembers that day because she made a new green dress to wear to a St. Paddy's Day dance which was cancelled. Instead she boarded the bus to Cumberland and took in the awful sights of the flood's destruction.

The focus of our energies today is a book entitled, October Mourning. OK, so maybe you're thinking, what? A book about the flu?! Yikes! But this historical novel had me going from the second page. And I say second page because it takes my brain that long to grab a writer's style such that I can "hear" his words in my head. Does that make sense? (Mom does that too.)

In this book, we follow a doctor through the panic of the flu epidemic as it sweeps through Cumberland, during WWI. People have their concerns and worries about the war, some have lost sons and husbands. But when the German doctor tries to do what he can, and admittedly it's not much in the face of the flu, but he's trying with all his might, some of the citizens turn their anger towards him. There's a crazy street preacher, locals of all stripes, a cop named Cow, and a woman who has just lost her soldier fiance to, not the war, but the flu. She's an interesting character as we follow her journey to real redemption and healing.

It's an easy read but don't get your "literary" meat hooks and red pencil ready. And yes, you'll find some typos but that simply indicates that someone somewhere was rushing. Give a guy a break. What this book does provide is a window for me to look through and observe the world my ancestors inhabited. I'm wondering if my ancestors purposely avoided nearby Cumberland during this time? Did they take shelter in the location of Frostburg that was just far enough away? Now I keep thinking, which of my ancestors died in October 1918?

Rada lets the story unwind and tucks in what you need to know in a gentle way, like the description of what happened physically to flu victims that caused death. A historical synopsis is at the very end under the title "Afterword: Spanish Flu in Allegany County," and that felt like the perfect place. I was surprised to understand that the flu hit remote Cumberland in one disastrous month, from September to October. By the end of that time cases were dwindling. It's unnerving to think that people were dying so fast burials couldn't keep up. And besides, no public gatherings of the population were allowed so funerals, if they could be scheduled, were immediate family only, and outdoors. It's a mind-blower!

So thank you, James Rada! Keep writing, please:)

Treasure Chest Thursday is a blogging prompt from GeneaBloggers.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/05/treasure-chest-thursday-concerning-1918.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

Thoughtful Tuesday: Young and Old, Grandma Kelly

I love the Geneablogger's wonderful Daily Blogging Prompts because they lend structure to my blog posts and keep me moving through the week. They inspired me to make up a couple of themes on my own: DNA Monday, and The Creative Process on occasional Fridays. I had the idea for another theme while at an Eric Burdon concert on Sunday evening. Hey, ideas come at all times and places:)

Here's the concept: contrast what is known about an ancestor in their youth with the way they were in their maturity or old age. You see, there was Eric Burdon giving a knock-out performance and yet I could see in my mind's eye his young face super-imposed over the old rocker before me belting out "We Gotta Get Outta This Place." His age hadn't taken a thing away from his talents but rather added a new and deeper dimension to his performance. So I wondered if that was also true of ancestors? Let's try one and see, shall we?

Here are two photos of my paternal grandmother, Helen Zeller Kelly (1894 - 1985). The first one was taken when she was just a girl and the apple of her father's eye. Her father, Gustav "Gus" Zeller (1858 - 1925) was a very successful barber with a large barber shop with bathtubs and all, right on Main Street in Frostburg, Allegany County, Maryland. The large and prosperous coal mining community insured that there was a constant steady stream of men who needed a bath, hair cut and shave. Gus invested his earnings in property which were mostly rentals. And nothing was too good for his only daughter.

Look at her outfit! And that big grin on her face! Her hat, her stance, and that fur muff all of it tells of a well-off life and its enjoyment. I love this picture of her because she looks so young and carefree. And, I think, lovely and very sweet. Was she a tad spoiled? Oh, perhaps:) She always got her way!

 

 

Below is Grandma Kelly, as I always called her, in the 1940s. She'd raised six kids during the Great Depression and now three of her four boys were going off to war. She's standing in the back yard on a cold winter day, perhaps late fall or before the mercies of spring arrived, with someone else's jacket that doesn't quite fit, on her shoulders. She's wearing her usual house dress and apron and there's a cold wind blowing her skirt. But to my eye she stands solid as a rock in sensible shoes and hands folded across her middle. She stands on her own land, in her own yard on the property her father left her.

 



The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/04/thoughtful-tuesday-young-and-old.html

Sentimental Sunday: Trips "Home"

Throughout the years that my growing-up family lived in northern Ohio, we often made the trip back to little Frostburg, Maryland, to see the rest of the family. All the grandparents, aunts and uncles, and the cousins lived there. We usually went over holidays because there was no work or school keeping us put in Ohio where we'd moved so that Dad could pursue a career in managing a plastics plant. (See a post about us leaving for Ohio here, and another post about the early years in Ohio here.)

These trips were quite the adventure for me! The most fun was when we had a new station wagon with the back deck packed with all manner of stuff - clothes, toys, and food - and a bit of room where a tired kid could curl up with a book and lay down to nap or read.

I remember way back before the Ohio Turnpike was finished. It was built from 1952, the year we moved to Cleveland and completed, mostly, by 1955 and you can read about it here. As the road was built it would go along and then end, and when it did we'd get off, stop for a break, and pick our way over local roads. We saw more on those roads and I really liked them better but it made the trip longer too. The very best part of the toll road was the service plaza where Dad could fill up the tank with "regular" and Mom took us to the rest room or snack bar.

Can't remember how long that trip took and it probably varied by the weather and how much of the turnpike was completed, but four hours sticks in my mind... and maybe that was just my time limit on behaving on a car ride. The Ohio Turnpike eventually turned into the Pennsylvania Turnpike, which we took to Somerset. If timing was good and we were good, we could talk Dad into stopping for an ice cream cone in Somerset.

From there it was all local roads winding through the most beautiful rolling hills I can remember. We might have gone through Berlin or Myersdale and West Salisbury because there were a couple of ways to go. I think we ended up on Finzel Road, but that easily could be wrong. It was, summer or winter, a wonderful drive for me.

Mom and Dad usually got increasingly more excited on the last stretch of road and finally with about ten minutes left before arrival at the grandparents, we'd get a spruce up which consisted of a thorough combing of hair and face-check for stray chocolate ice cream smears. "Don't want you looking like rag-a-muffins," Mom would say. Never knew what a rag-a-muffin was until I just now looked it up, and you know what, it's just what I thought!

Mom and Dad enjoyed these trips home, I could tell. Dad was doing very well and proud of it. Mom looked gorgeous, always, and sported some wonderful outfit she had sewn herself from the latest Vogue pattern. They felt good seeing family and being able to tell of their good fortune in life to those who mattered.

And me, I just loved playing with my cousins!

1952

Front row: Cousin Mike, Me

Back row: Dad Pat Kelly, Grandma Helen Zeller Kelly, Grandpa Lee Kelly,

Uncle Bernie Kelly, Aunt Ruth Kelly.

 

1955

Brother, Mom, Dad, Me, unknown cat.

1957

Family picnic in a Kelly backyard.

1957

Easter in Frostburg:

Dad holding Brother, Me, Aunte Petie Williams and Cousins Mike and JC in front,

Back right: Grandpa Cambria Williams and Mom.

Sentimental Sunday is a lovely topic from Geneabloggers , and I thank them for this blogging prompt!

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/03/sentimental-sunday-trips-home.html

Treasure Chest Thursday: Frostburg in the Movies 1938, Reel 2

Here's the posted for Reel 1 of "Frostburg in the Movies" and it still works as an introduction to Reel 2:
See the previous post a couple of weeks ago here for more screen shots from the first reel.

Mom got a DVD form Aunt Betty containing a movie in four reels about Frostburg, Maryland filmed in 1938 and she sent it on to me. Don't know where Aunt Betty got it, but I suspect her wonderful friend Shirley was the source. Shirley is related too but I can't quite think how at the moment.

In Frostburg, if two people both go back a couple of generations, there's a more than 50-50 chance that you're probably related. After a while, when you sit at the Princess Restaurant on Main Street, and you see a face, you just know if you are related or not. Really!

So here are some screen shots from the 1938 film. Unfortunately I can't find anything about how this film company, why the film was made, or for what purpose. The title page would lead one to thing that this was part of a larger series about various small towns. The only reference I see in the Google search is for an excerpt on Project Muse about itinerant film productions which gives this:

Amateur Services Production: See Yourself and Your Town in the Movies Series (ca. 1930–1950)

 

And now, Ladies and gentlemen, for your amusement and entertainment, Reel 2!

 

Ttile page



 

The good old five and dime!

The Great Depression was coming to an end and the stores were full

and people were buying again.

Miner's Hospital., the place the community went when it was ill or injured.

The absolute center of all the action, as well as the traffic cop: Main Street.

Moms, dads, and kids feature prominently in these movies.

A couple having fun.

Shop keepers. Everyone knew them.

There is still an African-American community in Frostburg

as there has been for well more than 150 years.

Kids at a dance school.

Treasure Chest Thursday is a blogging prompt of GeneaBloggers. I thank them for it:)


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

Treasure Chest Thursday: Frostburg MD in Movies, 1938

Mom got a DVD form Aunt Betty containing a movie in four reels about Frostburg, Maryland filmed in 1938 and she sent it on to me. Don't know where Aunt Betty got it, but I suspect her wonderful friend Shirley was the source. Shirley is related too but I can't quite think how at the moment.

In Frostburg, if two people both go back a couple of generations, there's a more than 50-50 chance that you're probably related. After a while, when you sit at the Princess Restaurant on Main Street, and you see a face, you just know if you are related or not. Really!

So here are some screen shots from the 1938 film. Unfortunately I can't find anything about how this film company, why the film was made, or for what purpose. The title page would lead one to thing that this was part of a larger series about various small towns. The only reference I see in the Google search is for an excerpt on Project Muse about itinerant film productions which gives this:

Amateur Services Production: See Yourself and Your Town in the Movies Series (ca. 1930–1950)

So here are the screen shots from the first reel. Have yet to check out the remaining three reels... what fun!!

Title for all four reels.

Main Street, Frostburg, Maryland, 1938.

Wallpaper store on main Street. Wallpaper was really big then!

Wide view of the wallpaper store. Notice the old and beautiful building fronts.

 Guys handing out in front of a store. Still happens.

Horse drawn wagons still in use in 1938.

Much welcomed WPA money funded road repair and rebuilding.

 

A WPA road crew digs up and repairs the street.

Gunter's gas station.

State police in jodhpurs outside Gunter's.

Abundant food in cans grace the store window.

The Great Depression was almost over and people were going back to work.

 

 

Mom and Dad were married in August of 1939 so I can quit examining every frame for the happy couple out for a stroll. Mom remembers Frostburg as it was, of course, as she remembers just about everything. Mom told me recently about seeing one of those WPA road crews at work. She looked into the deep hole and saw three layers of the old National Road. The first layer was the old dirt road which you can see in the photos in the album on the tab, above, and one below. The next layer was rock and the last was cobble stones. The film shows the crew relaying those stones.  Interestingly for us, Mom's grandfather, Joseph H. Whetstone, helped lay the original cobblestone pavers.

 

 

The old National Road, dirt version, about 1912.

Joseph H. Whetstone (1858 - 1939), stone mason.

 

Mom's high school graduation photo, 1936.

 

 

 

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