Archive for May, 2010

by Sherry Stocking Kline
19 May 2010

Some time back I posted a Tombstone Tuesday photograph of Cora Pauline Walter’s tombstone.

Always curious, I did a little preliminary research at the Sumner County History and Genealogy Center, and when I didn’t find something easily, stopped, because she isn’t family.

But recently I was at the Osborne Cemetery, near Mayfield, Kansas in Sumner County, and another Walter’s tombstone caught my eye and my imagination.  I wonder if they are related?  Married?  Siblings?

Donovan L Walters - Osborne Cemetery

On the Stone:

Donovan L. Walters, Sr.
Oklahoma
S Sgt Army Air Forces
World War II
March 16, 1910   (cross)    Sept 24, 1972

This tombstone is located just a few feet from Cora Pauline’s stone.  There is just one stone in between the two, which leads me to believe that research will show that there is some relationship between the two.

by Sherry Stocking Kline – 17 May 2010

It’s another Genealogy Happy Dance Monday!  While visiting the nearby town of Kingman, Kansas while my son had some dental work done, I kept busy stopping at several stores to distribute ad fliers for the upcoming Kansas Council of Genealogical Societies Meeting on June 19th, featuring the Photo Detective, Maureen Taylor. (See program info here.)

When I stopped at the Kingman Carnegie Library, the librarian agreed to post our KCGS flyer, and showed me the Kingman County History book where I located some information submitted by my mom’s cousin, Victor A. Breneman.  The book was a great source, and I learned some information that I didn’t already know.

I already knew the who-begat-who info, but I still find myself guilty of not asking enough questions, and thereby missing a lot of information.  I need to turn over a new leaf!

The following is transcribed from the Kingman County History book,  “Kingman County, Kansas and its People”.

Victor A. Breneman Family – submitted by Victor A. Breneman

The Breneman family came to Kingman in 1917.  The family name is Swiss in origin and the first members arrived in this country in 1709.  They were part of a group which later became known as the “Pennsylvania Dutch.”  They settled in Conestoga and Lancaster Counties.  The family came west by way of Ohio, Iowa, Nebraska, and later to Wellington, Kansas.

The local family consisted of Ira J. Breneman, Adelia (Allen) Breneman, his wife, two sons, Paul A. and Victor A. Breneman.  Mrs. Adelia Breneman was of Scottish-English extraction.  Her maiden name was Allen and the family settled in New England prior to the Revolutionary War.  They were related to the family of Ethan Allen, the famous general in the War for Independence.

Ira J. Breneman was born in Muscatine County, Iowa, May 18, 1874.  He died January 11, 1963, and is buried in the Belle Plaine Cemetery.  During most of his working life he was a railroader.  He was a locomotive fireman, a maintenance employee, and in railroad bridge construction.

Mrs. Adelia (Allen) Breneman was born June 20, 1885, and died September 14, 1938.  She was a Registered Nurse and spent most of her working life at this profession and in raising her sons.

Paul Breneman was born in Conway Springs, Kansas, July 9, 1907.  He grew up in Kingman.  He was married to Laurilla White. Paul served on the police force in Kingman for several years and later became Chief of Police.  He later was employed by the Boeing Company as a member of its security force.  He is retired and now lives in Derby, Kansas.

Victor Breneman was born in Conway Springs, Kansas, September 16, 1911.  He grew up in Kingman, attended the Kingman Schools, The Infantry School at Fort Benning, Ga, The Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.  He was married to Rachael A. Hoover, March 19, 1933.

Victor served many years in the Army National Guard, the Army Reserve, and on active duty with the Army during World War II.  He served in the 137th Infantry, 35th division during the entire war.  He took part in the Invasion of Normandy, the Battle of the Bulge, and three other campaigns.  He retired from the military as a Colonel.

His military awards included the Purple Heart for wounds received as a result of enemy action.  After his military service he entered the Postal Service, later becoming Postmaster.  He served a number of years in this capacity.

Transcriber’s Note: Victor and Rachel Breneman are now deceased, and like a very bad genealogist, I realized that I don’t think I have their dates of death in my family tree program, even though we attended their funerals.  Vic and Rachel are buried in the Kingman Cemetery, Kingman County, Kansas.  Both Paul and Laurilla Breneman and Victor and Rachel Breneman have children and grandchildren who are living, and I’ve taken their names out of this public transcription.

by Sherry Stocking Kline
11 May 2010

This tombstone for George T. Hill is located between my father’s tombstone, and my mother’s great uncle’s tombstone, Evan Jones,  in the Osborne Cemetery, Sumner County, Mayfield, Kansas.

George T. Hill - buried in Osborne Cemetery, Sumner County, Kansas

On the Stone:

George T
Son of
C. E. & M. S. Hill
Died Sept  6, 1884
Aged 10 Ms, 29 Ds
(following inscription too faint to read)

If we had the name of the person who purchased the plot…

If we had the name of the person who purchased the plot, we might have many clues to our possible relationship, but the sexton who took care of the cemetery records (many years ago) had a house fire, and all the old records were destroyed, and though they were recreated as best possible, the older records aren’t 100% accurate.

My mother believes that this young person is related to our family but she does not know how.  So far, I’ve found no Hill’s in our family tree, outside of my dad’s sister’s husband, and that is a much later era.

I have to wonder if the young person that she was told was related was the young person just to the side of George, last week’s post, Myrtle Jones.  That seems much more likely.

I found this wonderful You Tube Video a couple of weeks ago, and just had to share it with everyone!  This adorable tiny little girl sure does have the words down pat, and the right emphasis, too!

Enjoy!

Recently I began to index the Pioneer Settler files at the Sumner County Historical and Genealogical Society.  I have to confess that I expected most files to contain at the most forty names, and that it would be a piece of cake to get them indexed in short order.

Oh, my goodness, was I ever wrong!  There are as few as 33 names in some files, and as many as a thousand in others,and those require a lot of typing and sorting.

Whew!  I still feel pretty ‘lazy’ for not getting through very many files in a week’s time.

But I’ve found some very interesting things hidden in those files, and will share some of that here and some on the SCHGS blog, too.

And today I posted Part Three of the copies of the John Arnspiger Gold Rush letters that were located in the Arnspiger Files in the Pioneer Settler files!  Very interesting.

You can find that blog post here.  And my apologies for not knowing how to make the blogger blog a little fancier just yet!

Abraham Lincoln's 1860 Campaign Rally

Great-Grandma McGinnis Sang for Abraham Lincoln…

This photograph has been in the family for some time and my Great-Grandma Margaret “Maggie” (Corson) McGinnis, (my grandma Maud Stocking’s mother) told her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren that she was a child in this photograph in the wagon on the lower right hand side of the photograph with the sign that reads “Let Me In – Kansas.”

Great-Grandma McGinnis said that she and other children sang for then candidate Abraham Lincoln on this day.

According to my Uncle Herb, and my brother Harold (a.k.a Fred), (both of whom were old enough to remember the story well) Great-Grandma Maggie said that Mr. Lincoln stopped, bent down, and spoke to her about “letting Kansas in” to the Union as a state.

There she was, just a little girl, at a Turning Point in History…

Wow!  There she was, just a little girl, being spoken to by a man who was then a candidate for president.  Can you just imagine?  Did they have any idea that they were at a point in history that would lead to such historically memorable events as the Civil War, the ending of slavery, the assassination of a President, and other major turning points in our country’s history?

In light of what was to come just a few years later, it is no wonder that Great-Grandma shared this story with her children and grandchildren.

I’ve seen this photograph on-line in several places, so I know it must have been a popular photograph in that time and era and I’m glad that Great-grandma Maggie had a copy of this photograph and shared this story with her family.

Other Related Posts:

Corson Family Info:

Wordless Wednesday – Margaret Corson McGinnis’ 100th Birthday

You can learn more about the Corson Family, Book and Association Website Here.

My Corson Family Website and Happy Dance Post is Here.

Three Hundred Years With the Corson Family in America.

McGinnis Family Info:

My Maggie Corson/McGinnis Happy Dance!

Carnival of Genealogy – My Poem to My Ancestors

Maggie’s Husband:
Amanuensis Monday – Thomas J. McGinnis Obituary

by Sherry Stocking Kline
7 May 2010

Mayfield, Kansas Blacksmith Shop - Otto Breneman Blacksmith

The Mayfield Blacksmith Shop…

This is a photograph of Otto Breneman and his father, Constantine Breneman, standing in front of Otto’s blacksmith shop.  The blacksmith shop was located  in Mayfield, Kansas (about 10 miles west of Wellington, Kansas) till at least sometime in the 1930’s when Otto passed away.

Otto’s mother was Salinda Breneman, and he was married to Nancy Virginia Hoyt, daughter of Joseph and Wilhemina (Dewein) Hoyt, and they had a daughter, Bernice Breneman.

According to information in the book “Mayfield: Then & Now”, Otto  served as mayor of Mayfield from 1927 to 1929.

Otto was my great uncle, and he passed away before I was born, (his Tombstone photo can be found here).  If the shop or the home was there when I was small I don’t recall it.  I wish I had taken an “after” photograph so you could see what it looks like today, but there is a nice white ranch style home there, with a large grassy area in front of it.

This photograph comes from Otto’s daughter, Bernice Breneman Thomas’ collection of photographs, now in her son’s, Orlan Thomas’ collection, and can also be found on Page 71 of the “Mayfield: Then & Now” book.  Orlan and his wife recently came to visit and loaned me his genealogy and photograph collection to scan, and nearly 200 scans later, I have many more photographs that he is allowing me to share digitally with other family members.

Ask a Lot of Different Questions…

Looking at this photograph reminds me that until I began working with a friend on the book “Mayfield: Then & Now” and began asking questions of everyone, including my mom and other family members I had no idea that some of our Breneman family lived in the Mayfield area, let alone owned a blacksmith shop.

According to a cousin that I visited with recently, her father told her that Constantine served as a blacksmith in the Union Army when he was a soldier in the Civil War.  So, if there is a moral to this story, ask your older generation (as many as possible) and even your siblings and your cousins, a lot of different questions a lot of different ways…

Other Related Posts:

Tombstone Tuesday: Otto and Nancy Breneman

Constantine Breneman and His Buggy Horse Photograph of Ott’s father, Constantine driving a buggy with his beautiful buggy horse.

Constantine Breneman’s Buggy Horse – Photograph of Constantine’s Buggy Horse

My Poem to My Ancestors

Salinda E. (Rose) Breneman – Photograph of Ott’s mother,  Salinda, and her tombstone. Ott’s parent’s, Salinda and Constantine, divorced in later life.

Too Young to Die – Photo of  Ott Breneman and his siblings, and a photograph of Albert’s tombstone. Albert was killed in a Motorcycle Accident.

Photograph of May Breneman Jones Willey – Sister of Ott Breneman.

by Sherry Stocking Kline
4 May 2010

This eight and 1/2 month old child’s stone, located in the Osborne Cemetery, Sumner County, Kansas, about 10 miles west of Wellington, Kansas, and about 1/2 mile East of Mayfield on West 20th Street  is another mystery that I would very much like to solve.

Myrtle B. Jones - Osborne Cemetery

Kinfolk?  Or Just a Lot of Coincidences?

On the Stone:

Myrtle B. Jones
Dau of W.  & M. E. Jones
Died July 5, 1890
Aged 8 Mos 18 Days
(I was not able to read the inscription below the name and date, and as I had my granddaughters with me, and no safe way to clean the stone with me, I didn’t try to clean and read it while there and am not able to in the photograph.)

Is Myrtle part of my family?   I think so, actually.  Myrtle’s parents are W. and M. E. Jones, and just two stones over is a stone for Evan Jones, and Evan’s parents were Willis and Martha Ellen (Smith) Jones, originally from the Hart & Barren County, Kentucky area.

So Who was Ten-Year-Old George T. Hill?

In between Myrtle and Evan is a ten-year-old boy named George T. Hill (photo coming soon) and while so far the Hill name is not one that has shown up in our family tree, my mother feels that he is related, but she does not know how, and both Myrtle and George died thirty-some years before my mother was born.  My family lived next door to a Hill family for (at least) two generations in both families, but the Hill child next to Myrtle does not appear (according to census, etc) to belong to any of those Hills.

Is Myrtle my great-great aunt?  I think so.  In this small cemetery, buried so closely together, and within a few stones of my father that would be a lot of coincidences for there not to be a kinship.  But before I add Myrtle to our family tree as a lost child of Willis and Martha, I’m going to be looking in area newspapers for obituaries and making sure there weren’t any other W. & M. E. Jones in this area.  And then I may just use a pencil when I add her in…