Monday Is for Mothers: Princess Niobrara McLain (1884 - 1975)

The woman with this splendid name is related to me through her 1908 marriage to Roscoe Conklin McCulley, one of my maternal second cousins, three times removed.* Her descendants have shared quite a few pictures of Princess taken throughout her life, and yes, that really was her name.

[Picture attached to an Ancestry.com family tree by nancyphipps180]

When I first started writing this post I thought that her romantic name was taken from a contemporary novel or poem but a search turned up the fact that the local river of her Oklahoma birth county, Keya Paha, is called Niobrara.**

[Princess McLain, School Teacher taught in a one room sod schoolhouse, about 1904.

Photo attached to Ancestry.com family tree by bower1939.]

Princess married Roscoe McCulley in 1908 and the couple had three children: a son Darwin and daughters Margery and Orrien Jane.

[Princess McCulley & children; Darwin, Margery & Jane about 1917.

Photo attached to Ancestry.com family tree by bower1939. ]

[Princess & Daughters, Margery & Jane--August 1956.

Photo attached to Ancestry.com family tree by bower1939.]

[Princess McLain McCulley--1950's, Ainsworth, NE.

Photo attached to Ancestry.com family tree by bower1939.]

After a long life together Roscoe and Princess N. died within a year of each other and are buried in Ainsworth Cemetery in Brown County, Nebraska.

[Findagrave 18242877, Photo by Harv 47030477]

*Roscoe was the son of Celina Worden and our common ancestors are Lyman Worden and Elizabeth Brown.
**Seventy-six miles of the Niobrara have been designated a National Scenic River.


© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Sunday Drive: Sapelo Island, Georgia - 2008

While we were staying at The Open Gates B&B in Darien, Georgia, our hosts informed us that there was an extra pair of tickets to an upcoming tour of Sapelo Island available if we were interested. Of course we said yes!

No roads lead to the island so we parked our rental car at the Visitor Center and took our place on the ferry, prepared for the 20 minute trip.

On the island our tour bus awaited us.

With a population of fewer than 70 persons, there's only one store on the island. (I bought an ice cream there.)

 

There's a post office too.

Among the other sights on Sapelo is this 1820 lighthouse. We climbed up its spiral staircase for the view.

The Reynolds Mansion is amazing and definitely worth visiting. The house remains furnished as if it was still the private playground of the wealthy tobacco family who bought the island in 1934.

[All photos from my personal collection]

Visiting the island was one of the high points of our trip that year.



© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Related on Both Sides

Harry Tibbetts (born in Wyoming in 1915) and his siblings are apparently related to me through both my Hartley and Slater sides.

© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

School Days: Kindergarten - 1952/53

Here I am at the start of my educational career at St. Rita's School--and I also have class pictures of my schoolmates.

I spent the next nine years (through 8th grade) with most of these children.*

[From my personal collection]

 Kindergarteners were the only kids who didn't have to wear the school uniform.


It turns out I have a number of these class pictures. Check back later!



*And almost all of them are in the picture of my First Communion I shared here recently.



© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Limited Time Free Webinar: "Overcoming Brick Walls Caused by Record Loss" by Mary Hill

I've learned quite a bit from Mary Hill's past webinars, and have adopted her color-coded filing system.  Yesterday she presented "Overcoming Brick Walls Caused by Record Loss," a problem I've encountered many times in my research (I'm looking at you, Chesterfield County, South Carolina):

Many records have been lost due to climate, poor storage, and war. Often it is possible to find alternative records if you know where to look. Federal records such as the census, and cemetery records both local and national are just two of the many record types to check to find ancestors who lived in areas where records were destroyed or lost.

1 hour 31 minutes

Free for non-subscribers through March 13, 2018.


© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

A Few Local Newspaper Items Regarding Lewis Logan Slater (1855 - 1905)

Let's begin with a portrait of this maternal great grandfather, looking all steely-eyed and lawyer-like:*

[Courtesy of Olive Slater-Kennedy]

I don't recall any personal stories about him shared with me by our Slater kin so I took particular notice when I found references to him in Greenwood County (Kansas) newspapers while searching for his mother's death date. I'm including some of them here.

This 1883 note in the Severy Section column of The Eureka Herald and Greenwood County Republican provides the most accurate date of the Slaters' move to that town.

[26 Jul 1883, Page 4 - The Eureka Herald and Greenwood County Republican at Newspapers.com]

Two years later Logan*** was named Severy's postmaster which seems to have put his legal career on hold. However when his postal job ended in 1889 he returned to the law.

[31 May 1889, Page 4 - The Severyite at Newspapers.com]

Soon the papers were filled with references to the Logan's partnership with B.F. Blankenship, the editor of a local newspaper The Kansas Clipper. The pair had grandiose plans.

[21 Jun 1889, Page 1 - The Severyite at Newspapers.com]

Although that partnership (and its $40,000.00 farm loan fund) garnered mentions in the local newspapers during June and into July of 1889, by the end of that month Logan' made no reference to it on his published business card.

[19 Jul 1889, 1 - The Severyite at Newspapers.com]

From the next bit, we learn something about several recreational opportunities available in Severy.

[16 Aug 1889, 4 - The Severyite at Newspapers.com]

That's right--my great grandfather raised fighting cocks and made a name for himself in that world apparently. As this piece published in The Severyite 30 years after its original publication demonstrated, Logan appears to have been nationally known, at least in certain circles.****

[18 Dec 1919, Page 4 - The Severyite at Newspapers.com]

Until my foray into Severy news I never realized that the town had a history of horse racing (and that my ancestor obviously followed the sport).

[5 Jun 1891, 4 - The Severyite at Newspapers.com]

[29 May 1891, 4 - The Severyite at Newspapers.com]

I wonder what his wife Rufina thought of that?

*Here's a link to a previous post about him.
**The Mr. Slater referred to here is his father George W. Slater.
***He was continually referred to either as Logan or L.L., never Lewis.
****Here's a sample of a cover from that year. The local paper seems to have gotten the publication name wrong, but Richard K. Fox was the editor of the National Police Gazette.

© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Some Notes on Ephraim Engle's estate records

Ephraim W. Engle, who died in 1863, circled in red, was my 4th great-granduncle by marriage.  His sister-in-law, my 3rd great grandmother Mercy Ann Darling, was married first to Abner Webb (my ancestor) and then Joshua Walsh (in 1864).  It has been assumed that Abner Webb had died by the time she married Walsh, but the April 1865 probate journal entry below mentions Abner Webb.  Jesse Sill Webb was a brother of Abner Webb, and had married Mercy's sister Nancy Adelia. At this point I'm not sure how Eli Gilbert fits in, except that he was a local attorney at law.  Diagram made with LucidChart.

I came across an interesting mention of Abner Webb when while transcribing probate journal entries on the annual settlement in Ephraim W. Engle's estate in Allen County, Kansas.  Was Abner Webb still alive?  It has been assumed that he died sometime during the Civil War, and almost certainly before September 1864 when his wife married her second husband, but now I'm not sure:

Allen County, Kansas, Probate Journals, Vol A, 1858-1871: page 108, "Eli Gilbert Administrator for Ephraim W. Engle deceased", 5 April 1865; FHL microfilm 1412213; digital image, Ancestry.com database "Kansas, Wills and Probate Records, 1803-1987" (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=9065 : 6 March 2018).

page 108 [NOTE: I've bolded the names]
Probate Court
County of Allen

Regular Term 3rd day
April 5th 1865 at o'clock A.M.

Eli Gilbert Administrator for Ephraim W. Engle de-
ceased appeared for annual settlement in said Estate,
The following accounts were presented, widened as requi-
red by law, and allowed by the court, J.S. Webb account
for the sum of Eighty two 20/100 Dollars, J. S. Webb, note against
E.W. Engle dec'd, for the sum of Twenty three Dollars, Tax Receipts
in the year 1861, for the sum of Six Dollars, Redemption
certificate for the sum of Four 85/100 Dollars, John Secrist pre-
sented a Transcript from the District Court of Jones County
Iowa, in the cause entitled John Secrist against Eli Gil
bert administrator for E.W. Engle deceased, Emily Weed, Abner Webb
and J.S. Webb, for the sum of Eighty Seven 40/ Dollars, J.S. Webb
sworn and examined, Whereupon the Court ordered that said
Transcript be filed with the papers of said Estate, for further
consideration.


I'm going to have to mull over what this entry means, in particular to Abner Webb.  There is mention of Jones County, Iowa, which is where I knew the Webbs/Darling/Engle people to be before some of them moved on to Allen County, Kansas Territory (by 1860).  I'll look into what is available on the District Court in Jones County, Iowa.


© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.