Working on Wednesday: Rufus Watson Freeman (1862 - 1921) M.D.

Someone radically trimmed this photo of Dr. Rufus Freeman, one of my paternal second cousins, twice removed.*

[RLouiseHazelip46 posted this to Ancestry.com] 

I was able to find his obituary:

[5 Mar 1921, Page 3 - The Chickasha Daily Express at Newspapers.com]

So he graduated from Vanderbilt School of Medicine just like my great uncle Hill Freeman Warren, the oldest son of my great great grandmother Nannie Freeman Warren.

*Here's how we're related:

[Ancestry.com]

© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: The Neals' House at Lake Morena Village - 1948

Besides their motel in Anaheim, Jimmy and Jessie Neal owned a house in near Lake Morena in San Diego's East County. From the sand and cement blocks it's clear that they were about to embark on a building project there. I wonder what it was. (And too bad that the photo didn't include their wonderful woodie!)

[From my personal collection]

I have vague memories of visiting this house, but not from 1948 when this photo was taken.



© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: What's a Horse Shunter?

I've been working on the family tree of an Englishman who lives here in France and the occupation of one of his great great grandfather is listed in several censuses as "horse driver" for what I believe is the Great Eastern Railroad. Here's the 1911 England Census:

[Ancestry.com. 1911 England Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Original data: Census Returns of England and Wales, 1911. Kew, Surrey, England: The National Archives of the UK (TNA), 1911.

Data imaged from the National Archives, London, England.]

It wasn't at all clear to me what that meant. Then I found him in a union membership list (via findmypast) where his job was described as H[or]se Shunter:

[National Union Of Railwaymen; Britain, Trade Union Membership Registers, source: findmypast.com]

Fortunately for me, someone on Google knew what horse shunting was and provided more information. Here's a vintage image of a shunter and his horse:

[Jack Wise, Horse Shunter by kind permission of Mrs Prestidge. Source: Woodford Halse Archive.]

 There's even a video of one in action.

© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: Clinton Samuel Tomlinson (1860 - 1904) & Ann Eversole Tomlinson (1868 - 1949)

Clinton, my first cousin three times removed, attended Northwestern University, Class of 1886 and was undoubtedly the first of his family to graduate from college.*

[Commencement program for Northwestern University. 28th annual commencement, 1886.

Source: Internet Archive]

His first job after graduation was as the editor of the Boone (Iowa) Republican which remembered him respectfully years later:

[Boone News Republican, December 6, 1915, p. 43]

As stated in the above piece, after two years Clinton's next step was the editorship of the Daily Republican in Springfield, Greene County, Missouri, which is where he met and married 23-year-old teacher Ann Eversole in 1891.

By 1900 the couple were living in Chicago and Clinton was the editor of the Chicago Dry Goods Reporter, a trade publication of the garment industry.** No occupation is listed for Ann.

[Dry Goods Reporter. Chicago, January 1900. Source: Hathi Trust Digital Library]

However Ann Eversole Tomlinson's name appears in newspaper stories across America later that year.

[Chicago Daily News Thursday, Apr 19, 1900 Chicago, IL Page: 5.

Source: Genealogy Bank.]

Clinton's view of his wife's possible inheritance appeared on the same day as the above article:

[19 Apr 1900, 2 - Chicago Tribune at Newspapers.com]

The next information I found about the couple is Clinton's 1904 obituary

[30 Oct 1904, 5 - Chicago Tribune at Newspapers.com]

While I haven't found any further newspaper reports confirming the amount Ann received from her ancestor's estate, her lifestyle as a widow seems to indicate that she was a wealthy woman. Next week we'll look at her career after Clinton's death.



*With honors too.
**Many editions of the Dry Goods Reporter are available digitally through the Hathi Trust and Google Books. They offer a fascinating insight into the fashions of the times.



© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on the Railroad: Samuel Louis Martin (1866 - 1943) From Coal Heaver to Locomotive Engineer

Samuel Martin is one of my second cousins, twice removed, through my great grandmother Rufina Tomlinson's lineage. He lived in Iowa his whole life and worked for the Chicago & North Western Railway Company for 51 years, rising from coal heaver to locomotive engineer during his career.

[Ancestry.com. U.S., Chicago and North Western Railroad Employment Records, 1935-1970 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015. This collection was indexed by Ancestry World Archives Project contributors. Original data: Chicago and North Western Railroad Employee Records. Chicago & North Western Historical Society, Berwyn, Illinois. Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railway Employee Records. Chicago & North Western Historical Society, Berwyn, Illinois.]

Here's how we're related:

[Ancestry.com]

© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: Luella May LaJuett (1895 - 1977) Carnival?

I don't know what to make of the comment one of her descendants added to these photos: "luella 32 years old when she was with the carnival." I've not been able to find any information about what Luella's role was.

[Brenda Tabor posted these photos to her public Ancestry.com family tree]

Luella is one of my maternal third cousins, twice removed:

[Ancestry.com]

© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: William Richardson (? - 1697) Planter & Quaker Minister

My most recent research has brought me very far up the family tree to William Richardson, my maternal eighth great grandfather.

[Extract from "Descendants of Richard & Elizabeth (Ewen) Talbott of Popular Knowle, West River, Anne Arundel County, Maryland."

Ida M. Shirk, author; Genealogical Publishing Com, 2009.]

 I wasn't able to find a creditable birth date for William but he has to have been at least 5 years younger than his bride, Elizabeth Ewen Talbott who already had four children by her first husband. She and William had eight children - four sons, William*, Daniel, Joseph (died as a child) another Joseph, & four daughters, Sophia Elizabeth, Sapphira, Elizabeth, and Sarah.

As you can see from the extract above, William was an ardent Quaker and monthly and weekly meeting of the Friends were held in his house in the West River.** He served as a member of the Lower House of the General Assembly of Maryland in 1678. He's described as a friend of William Penn who visited him in 1682.**
\

[Maryland State Roads Commission Marker-photo found on Waymark.com]

 He died in 1697 leaving a substantial estate. I'll cover his will and probate in a future post.



*I descend from William Jr.

[Ancestry.com]

**The West River Quaker Meeting was the most important Meeting in the Chesapeake region and the site of the first gathering of all the Quakers in Maryland.
***The purpose of the conference referred to by the road marker was to set the boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania.

© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: Flagstone for New Room

During the Easter break in 1955 we made a quick trip to Prescott, Arizona, to pick up flagstone for around the new front door. We only spent one night away from home and didn't take the trailer--Mother and I slept in the truck and Dad had a sleeping bag on the ground.* According to Dad's notes we brought back 3800 pounds of stone.

This photo, taken two years later, shows the stone in place.

[All from my personal collection]

*The notes say we spent the night in Blythe--all I remember is that is was cold.


© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: Vera Aretta Thomas (1925 - 2013) Nurse

Vera, another granddaughter of Ashtabula Lyle and Seth P. Thomas,* studied nursing at Holzer Hospital in 1944. According to her obituary on findagrave.com, she worked at Holzer Medical Center for most of her life.

[Vera Holzer Hospital School of Nursing -1944; photo attached to her Ancestry.com family tree by VickieHill56]

[Ancestry.com. U.S., World War II Cadet Nursing Corps Card Files, 1942-1948 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Original data: Cadet Nurse Corps Files, compiled 1943–1948, documenting the period 1942–1948. MLR Number UD-WW 10; ARC ID: 5605027. 350 boxes. Records of the Public Health Service, 1794–1990, Record Group 90. National Archives at Washington, D.C.]

*I've already posted about her sister Mary Elizabeth Thomas and their cousin George Wesley Thomas on this blog--all of them are my fourth cousins, once removed.




© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: CALEWO Workers Plant Trees - 1936

Dad Currey (far right in the top photo) and his co-workers from California Electric Works traveled out to La Mesa to plant street trees along Palm Avenue.* I'm not surprised that he's the one with the biggest hat!

[Both photos from my personal collection]

*If I'm remembering correctly, he identified some eucalyptus trees at Collier Park as being ones they planted.


© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: Fire on Grenfell Ranch - 1949

Dad Currey joined the fire line and shot these two photos of a minor grass fire on his father-in-law's ranch in Lawrence County, South Dakota. He captioned the second one "Getting names for fire checks" so some of these guys must have been volunteers, not members of a regular fire department.

[From my personal collection]

I was two years old so it's not surprising I have no memory of this event--without the captions on the cardboard slide holders I would have been clueless.


© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: William Lofton (? - 1704) Transported Criminal or Indentured Servant?

Lately I've been looking at the upline of my maternal Slater/Wilson ancestors and this hint for William Lofton of Maryland, one of my eighth great grandfathers, caught my attention.

Since very few of the people whose lives are traced were convicts and my ancestor was among the minority who went on to establish families, own land and leave a will it seems unlikely he came as a prisoner.

A quick search on WorldCat informed me that the nearest copy of the source book Colonial Families of Maryland, Bound and Determined to Succeed is in the Los Angeles Public Library (112 miles away). However I was able to purchase an digital copy from Google Books for $15.12.

In his introduction Robert W. Barnes explains that he made a study of 549 transported individuals after their terms of service ended, 17 of whom were convicts.* This book details the lives of  102 of those people including William Lofton.

According to his research my ancestor was transported in 1673; no mention is made of where he departed from, any skill or trade he came with or how old he was when he arrived. However, William must have completed his service by 1690 when he married a woman we know only as Elizabeth and the couple went on to have five children.

William's name appeared as a head of household in Spes Utij Hundred in Baltimore County, Maryland, beginning in 1695 and continuing until 1703. Here's a transcript of the list from 1699 (his name-misspelled-is the last one on the second page):

[Maryland historical magazine by Browne, William Hand, 1828-1912;

Dielman, Louis Henry, 1864-1959; Maryland Historical Society. Source: Archive.org]

No date of death is given but he was buried April 13, 1704, and his estate was inventoried in July of that year. The year of his wife's death is uncertain--October 20, 1703 or 1704.





*Here's my descent from him:

[Ancestry.com]

*In fact very few convicts were sent to Maryland until 1718 when Parliament passed the Transportation Act.



© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: Otis Slater (1866 - 1936) Not Only an Auctioneer

Otis Slater was a grandson of my third great grandfather William T. Slater.* It was this obituary that led to me do some further research.**

[30 Mar 1936, Page 2 - The Decatur Daily Review at Newspapers.com]

In earlier days Otis was well known as a breeder of horses, mules and hunting dogs. I wonder if he's the person posed with the huge Percheron stallion in this 1910 front page newspaper spread?

Here's an excerpt from the above newspaper:

[12 Jun 1910, Page 1 - The Decatur Herald at Newspapers.com]

This notice of a public sale a year later gives a good idea of the size of his enterprise.

[15 Feb 1911, Page 11 - The Daily Review at Newspapers.com]

The caption to this 1913 picture of Mueller Company employees informs us that the coon dogs belonged to Otis Slater who "does a great deal of hunting and keeps the dogs for his own use, seldom loaning them to any one else."

[5 Oct 1913, Page 3 - The Decatur Herald at Newspapers.com]

However by 1917 he and his sons were proudly advertising his dogs in national publications like Country Life, Forest & Stream and Harper's Bazaar:

[The New Country Life: 1917, Volume 32. Google Books]

[Country Life, Volume 37, 1920. Google Books]

*Here's how we're related:

[Ancestry.com]

**While I found numerous newspaper articles that referred to him as Colonel there's no evidence that he ever saw military service.






© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: Delno Fritz (1871 - 1925) Master Sword Swallower

Oh, how I wish this man was one of my relatives!* Mine are so boring by comparison.

Born William Sherman Fritz near Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, he ran away to the circus at the age of eleven and performed all over the United States and Europe under the name Delno Fritz.

[7 Dec 1924, Page 33 - The Los Angeles Times at Newspapers.com]

The paragraph below (originally printed in the British medical journal The Lancet while Delno was appearing in the U.K with Barnum & Bailey and quoted in Gaillard's Medical Journal) gives a doctor's view of how he was able to perform these crowd-pleasing feats.

[Gaillard's Medical Journal,Volumes 68-69; 1898. Source: Google Books.]

His 1925 obituary provides us with a good overview of Delno's career.

[15 July 1925, Page 5 - The Wilkes-Barre Record at Newspapers.com]

Next week I'll post about his niece Edna Price who followed in his footsteps.


*I learned about this man from an acquaintance who is a great nephew of his.

© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.