Old Yearbooks on Ancestry

It looks like Ancestry has had old yearbooks on their site for awhile, but I think they recently added some new ones including one that is useful to me: Arkansas City High School in Kansas. My grandmother, Hazel Peters, graduated from there in 1928.

Hazel Peters (1910-1975) (married to James Edward Stewart)
Senior Photo - original in possession of family

I don't know what is legal to post from Ancestry, so I'm thankful that Hazel's senior photo is on the possession of my family. (Note: the hair looks odd because it was digitally colored & I changed it back to black & white.) So, I'm not going to post other photos from the book, but I encourage you to look! Here are some interesting things I found in Hazel's yearbook:

• Hazel's senior photo
• A page entitled "Interpretive Reading" that says Hazel tied for 4th place
• A page entitled "The Play: Barry Corners" about the senior class play where "Hazel Peters, as Grace, Pat's (the main character) older sister, haughty and disdainful, lent a decided contrast to the merry Patsy. Hazel was 'in' her part from start to finish and her acting was outstanding." I was thrilled to find out that my grandmother acted as I was in plays in high school and I didn't know my grandmother was, too!
• A photo of the school play, though I'm not sure which one is Hazel. I'm going to take this photo to Kansas next month and see if I can find out!
• The photo of the cheerleaders... they were all guys!
• The photo of the band... they were all guys! (But, the orchestra had females, too!)

I absolutely loved 'reading' through this old yearbook. I've also found them for a few of her cousins and aunts and uncles so I'm going to keep digging!

Have you found your ancestors in these old yearbooks? Did you find anything surprising?

Do we share common ancestors? I'd love to talk! Please leave a comment or write me at drleeds@sbcglobal.net

Praise for Miracle Drug!

I found the following newspaper advertisement twenty-two times in the Arkansas City Daily Traveler. I guess Eckert (Eckard) Peters (1845- 1915) was sold on this miracle drug! Eckert was a brother of my great, great grandfather, Charles Peters (1847 in Germany - 1910 in Comanche County, Oklahoma). In 1894 they both lived in Sumner County, Kansas which was near the county line of Cowley County, Kansas where Arkansas City ("Ark City") is located.

Lagrippe Remedy, Arkansas City Daily Traveler, Arkansas City, Kansas, 08 Nov 1894, page 3, column 2;
digital image newspapers.com, (http://www.newspapers.com: accessed 20 Sep 2014)

Two years ago I bought a 25-cent bottle of Lagrippe Remedy for coughs and colds and it cured when all others failed. I buy it by the pint now and am never without it. - Eckert Peters, Ashton, Kan." For sale at Simmons' drug store.

Do we share common ancestors? I'd love to talk! Please leave a comment or write me at drleeds@sbcglobal.net

"One Lovely Blog" Award!

I was pleasantly surprised to receive two nominations today for the "One Lovely Blog" Award! A big thank you to both Carla Lee at Sassygenealogist and Elise Ann Wormuth at Living in the Past for these nominations! My genealogy blog is still quite new and this award means a lot!

Here are the 'rules' for this award:

1. Thank the person who nominated you and link to that blog
2. Share seven things about yourself
3. Nominate 15 bloggers you admire (or as many as you can think of!)
4. Contact your bloggers to let them know that you've tagged them for the One Lovely Blog Award

So, again, thanks again to Carla Lee and Elise Ann Wormuth! (See links above.)

7 things about me:

1. I have a degree in Biology Education and worked in a research laboratory as an undergraduate student.
2. I have played the piano since I was very young and was an accompanist both at school and at church.
3. I love to travel and have (so far) visited 9 countries: Ireland, Scotland, Japan, France, Estonia, Sweden, Finland, Mexico, & the Bahamas.
4. I started doing genealogy in 1998 when you still had to use a microfilm reader to view the censuses.
5. I just moved from the house we lived in for over 17 years! I've also lived in two other houses for about 10 years each. I don't move around much!
6. I've been married for over 20 years to my high school sweetheart.
7. I'm an avid reader and just finished reading my 60th book of the year.

Nominate 15 bloggers.... So, in no particular order...

1.  Midge Frazel of Granite in My Blood
2.  Michael Lacopo of Hoosier Daddy?
3.  Diane Hall of Michigan Family Trails
4.  Harold Henderson of Midwestern Microhistory
5.  Lorine McGinnis Schulze of The Olive Tree Genealogy
6.  Kenneth R. Marks of The Ancestor Hunt
7.  Elizabeth Handler of From Maine to Kentucky
8.  Jill at Genealogy Certification: My Personal Journey
9.  Karen Blackmore at Karen's Genealogy Oasis
10. Kris Stewart at My Link to the Past
11. Sheri Fenley at The Educated Genealogist
12. Lynn Palermo at The Armchair Genealogist
13. Judy G. Russell at The Legal Genealogist
14. Miriam J. Robbins of Ancestories: The Stories of My Ancestors
15. Debi Austen at Who Knew?

Contact the Bloggers you nominated... I'm heading off to do that now!

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Do/Did Your Children Know Their Great-Grandparents?

Randy posted his Saturday Night Genealogy Fun Challenge... and it's based on one of my posts! Neat! So, here are the rules:

1) Dana Leeds on the Enthusiastic Genealogist blog asks "Did/Do Your Children Know Any of Their Great-Grandparents?"

2) I thought that would be a great Saturday Night Genealogy Fun question - so please share your response with us in a blog post of your own, in a comment on this blog post, or in a Facebook or Google+ post.

3) For extra credit, or in case the answer is "No," then please answer the question for yourself, or your parents

Randy, I'm so glad you used my post as a SNGF challenge! Since I already did the challenge for my daughter (& myself), I thought I'd use my husband instead. So, here goes!

"Papa Booger" in middle & "Big Granny" on far right with 3 of their daughters

My husband, like my daughter, knew four of his great-grandparents! And, all of them lived nearby!

1. Thomas Harrison Leeds (1887-1975)
2. Benjamin Harrison Payton (1887-1985)
3. James Vernon Miller, aka "Papa Booger" (1890-1978) & his wife...
4. Leatha Ellen (Moore) Miller, aka "Big Granny" (1896-1981)

We aren't sure where either of the nicknames came from!

Do we share common ancestors? I'd love to talk! Please leave a comment or write me at drleeds@sbcglobal.net

Do Your Children Know Any of Their Great-Grandparents?

Paula Stuart-Warren posted about the birth of her first great grandchild. Then, she talked about how many great-grandparents her children knew, and how many great-grandparents she knew. That got me thinking about the relationship my daughter has had with four of her great-grandparents. (I only had one great-grandparent living when I was born, but she lived across the country and died when I was less than 2 months old.)

One of my husband's grandmother's died when my daughter was about 14 months old. Sadly, she had an advanced case of Alzheimer's. She kept thinking my baby girl was a baby boy! We only have a few photos of them together. I love this photo!

This is Grandpa H holding my daughter. He turned 80 years old two days after she was born. They first met when she was about 1 month old and I surprised him with this homemade shirt that says "I [heart] my Great Grandpa." He passed away last May in his mid-90's.

And this is my baby girl with Grandpa H's wife, Grandma H. She is still living and we get to see her quite a few times each year. If Grandpa H would have lived until August last year, they would have celebrated 70 years of marriage!

We recently moved and I can't find a photo of my daughter with her other great grandmother - my Grandmother K. We lived far apart, but they got to see each other three times before my grandmother passed away when my daughter was about 3 1/2. I have a lovely 4 generation professional photo taken of the two of them with my mom and myself.

What about you... did you know any of your great grandparents? Or did your children know theirs?

Do we share common ancestors? I'd love to talk! Please leave a comment or write me at drleeds@sbcglobal.net

My 4x Great Grandfather Had a Pet Bear!!!

As a child, I loved to watch Grizzly Adams on television along with his pet bear, Ben. I had no idea that my own ancestor, Robert Stewart, also had a pet bear! His bear's name was "Bruin" (which means "bear") and they lived in Pennsylvania in the mid-1800's. While doing research, I uncovered an article titled "Mike Swartz and the Black Bear" in "History of Centre and Clinton Counties, Pennsylvania" which was published in 1883. The "black bear" in this story was Bruin, and I'm assuming things turned out alright. Robert died about 30 years before this book was published, but I can imagine the stories of him & Bruin being told at gatherings throughout the county. I'm thankful this story was preserved in print.

Grizzly Adams & his pet bear, from Wikipedia

Mike Swartz and the Black Bear

A tame bear belonging to the family of Robert Stewart was missing one morning, whereupon a man by the name of Mike Swartz and Mr. Stewart went in pursuit of him. After a while he was discovered in a tree a short distance from the house. One of the men, who had a gun, fired at the bear, and succeeded in bringing him to the ground, but slightly wounded. In order to prevent Bruin from escaping Mike ran up and caught hold of the bear, which in turn Bruin caught Mike by the hand with his mouth, at the same time giving him a hug such only as bears can give; at which Mike called out to his companion, who was at a safe distance, to come to his assistance, but Stewart, who no doubt thought "self-preservation the first law of nature," coolly replied, "Mike, if you were my own born dear brother I could do nothing for you under the circumstances."

For Sale, Public Ledger, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 10 Sep 1845, page 2, column 5;
digital image, newspapers.com (http://www.newspapers.com: accessed 18 Sep 2014)

As I looked for any newspaper article about my ancestor and his bear, I came across a lot of pet bear stories even into the 1900's. As could be expected, many of them did not have happy endings. Above is one clipping from Pennsylvania in 1845 offering a pet bear for sale. I wonder if Robert bought his bear or found an orphaned cub and raised it.

Do we share common ancestors? I'd love to talk! Please leave a comment or email me at drleeds@sbcglobal.net

Following a Confederate Soldier Through the Civil War: Battle #4 The Battle of Perryville

William Porter Dickson enlisted in September of 1861 to fight as a Confederate soldier in the Civil War. In the supplement to his 1911 Civil War Questionnaire he listed eight battles in which his company, Company D of the 12th Tennessee Infantry Regiment, took place. I am going to learn more about his company's role in the Civil War by researching these eight battles.

from William Porter Dickson's 1911 Questionnaire

The fourth battle on his list is The Battle of Perryville in Kentucky. Along with battle #3 in Richmond, Kentucky, this was a part of the Kentucky Invasion.

Kentucky, as a border state, had an unusual role in the Civil War. Kentuckians owned slaves, but they also wanted to preserve the Union. In 1861, they declared themselves a neutral state. But, both Union and Confederate armies were raised there. The capital in Frankfurt then declared itself loyal to the Union, but others in the town of Russell voted to secede.

On this map, you can see William's 3rd battle, Richmond, on Aug 30th, 1862
You can also see the 4th battle, Perryville, Oct 8th, 1862 (images from Wikipedia, public domain)

I've already discussed one of the battles that took place during the Kentucky Invasion: the Confederate win at the Battle of Richmond. But, the next battle William fought in was at Perryville, the bloodiest and largest battle fought in Kentucky.

Battle of Perryville - the extreme left - Stwarkweather's bridage
Associated name on shelfist card: Middleton, Strobridge & Co.
Source: Library of Congress (image from Wikipedia)

Led by General Braxton Bragg, about 16,000 Confederates met approximately 20,000 Union soldiers. Partly because many of the Union troops had never fought before, the Confederates had a tactical victory at Perryville. However, the Confederates had thousands of casualties: 532 killed, 2,651 wounded, & 228 missing or captured. With this huge loss, General Bragg retreated to Tennessee and the Union would control Kentucky for the rest of the war.

Abraham Lincoln had said, "'I think to lose Kentucky is to lose the whole game." The war might have ended a lot different if the Union had lost Kentucky.

One last note of interest: the Emancipation Proclamation, which took affect January 1st, 1863, did not apply to the slaves of Kentucky as they were a part of the Union! The slaves of Kentucky were freed with the 13th amendment which was adopted almost 3 years later on December 6, 1865.

Resources:

• video "The Civil War in Kentucky" at the Perryville Battlefield site
• video "Perryville Maney's Attack Tour Part 1 150th Anniversary" 
• The Civil War Trust site on Perryville
• wikipedia (for images) 

Do we share common ancestors? I'd love to talk! Please leave a comment or write me at drleeds@sbcglobal.net