Archive for the ‘Amanuensis Monday’ Category

by Sherry Stocking Kline
28 April 2011

It’s a bit past Monday, but I didn’ t find this little tidbit until Tuesday, while volunteering to hunt for an obit for the Sumner County Historical & Genealogical Society’s requests. 

Unfortunately, after looking through the requested time period’s “The Monitor Press” (no longer being published) I didn’t locate the obit, but did find a cool little bit of news that tells me that my Grandfather and Grandmother, Warner and Carrie Jones and family, hosted a family gathering, when my mom was just a bit more than 15 years old.

The Monitor Press
Marshall Crawford Publlisher
Published Every Wednesday at
117 East Harvey Avenue
Wellington, Kansas
Bell Phone ………….143

Milan – Mr. and Mrs. John Roe and sons, Edwin and John from north of Argonia; Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Roe and daughters; Mr. and Mrs. H. H. Breneman and children, Hershel and Ilda Fern, of Wichita; Mr. and Mrs. O. C. Breneman, of Mayfield; Victor Breneman and Kenneth Jones, of Kingman; Mrs. S. E. Breneman; Miss Mildred Swain; Mr. and Mrs. Floyd Jones, of Milan, were dinner guests of Warner L. Jones and family Sunday.

It was neat to read this, and even neater to tell my mom, “I know what you were doing on a Sunday in September, 1937!” 

When I read it to her, she said “I know what I was doing, too!  If all of those people were there, I was cooking to help feed everyone!”

And if you notice, the article gave all of the out-of-town people’s home towns, and in one case, for a rural resident, even told what area they lived in.  What a help!  Now I know where these people lived (most likely) in September of 1927!

More Links:

Warner and Carrie Jones Photograph

The Victor Breneman Family

The Otto Breneman Blacksmith Shop – Mayfield, Kansas

Bernice Breneman – child of Mr. & Mrs. Otto Breneman

Constantine Breneman & daughter-in-law Carrie Breneman Jones & children

by Sherry Stocking Kline
5 April 2011

The past year has been full of neat genealogy happenings!  I asked several family members if I might borrow their older photographs so that I might scan them, or I’ve asked if they might scan and send me digital copies, and so it has been ‘raining’ photographs and memorabilia!

My expectations were that I might be loaned 3, 4, maybe even as many as ten photographs at a time.

I certainly didn’t expect one cousin to bring a six inch thick folder of photos that took hours to scan, nor a California cousin I’ve never met who sent pages of photocopied photos, and last week, my cousin and her son came by to visit, and he brought a large box, too heavy for me to lift, chock full of pictures and albums!

Excerpted from a 70+ year old newspaper clipping:

Alone

Before I heard the doctors tell,
The dangers of a kiss
I had considered kissing you –
The nearest thing to bliss.
But now I know biology
And sit and sigh and Moan,
Six million mad bacteria –
And I thought we were alone.
 – Exhange

Isn’t that a hoot!

by Sherry Kline
15 Mar 2011

A copy of the following letter was e-mailed to me by cousin Valerie, whose grandfather was Herbert Deffenbaugh, and I have to confess to not knowing a great deal about this, my husband’s mother’s family.

I very much appreciate Valerie sharing not only this letter, but also several family photographs with me so that I can send them to the branches of the family who would most cherish them!  What an awesome, kind, genealogy-friendly thing to do!

Milan, Kansas
May 17, 1908
My Dear Brother,

I will write you a few lines today as it is rainy and not many coming in to bother me, I would of written sooner byt we have been very busy trying to get straightened up.  Lou has been staying with us and has helped a great deal.  We are just getting things now so we can live.  The girls are so tired at night they can hardly sleep.  I will be glad when they get things fixed up to suit them so they can rest a little.  I wish you could have been out here and seen the way (they) did us when we got home of course Pa can tell you all about it but that isn’t like as it you could see it your self.

I was very mutch disappointed  that there wasn’t more of you folks come I rather expected you to come if none of the rest did.  You know you always seemed a little nearer to me than the rest of my brothers did any way and for that reason I was more disappointed than I would have been. We had a very quiet Wedding there was only about 35 there but they made up for it when we got home.  The people certainly gave us a warm welcome and we appreciated it very mutch.

I don’t remember whether I thanked Mr. and Mrs. Sandy for their Picture or not but I intended to and you tell them if I didn’t that we thank them many times for it I think it just fine it looks as tho it had ought to talk it is so natural.

Well Hurbert I suppose you will come out to see us this summer won’t you?  We want you to be sure and come and bring Ma with you I don’t expect she would like to come by her self but there is no use of that you can come and bring her with you. 

We were so glad to have Pa come out to the Wedding and I think it did him good to get away from home a little while to.  It was so good of Harvey to let Pa have the money to come out here on.  I am so glad Harvey is good to the folks and hope he always is. 

I tell you we can never do to mutch for our folks the more we do to please them the better we will feel when they are taken from us we know they have worked hard to raise us and it has cost them lots of money and that isn’t all it has cost them lots of worry and hard work so we had ought to do all we can to make life a pleasure to them now when they are old and lifes pleasures are most over for them.

About all the satisfaction they get now it to see us children do what is right and get along well.  I do hope that none of us ever do anything to disgrace them in their old age.  Pa seemed to be so well pleased the way you boys all do.  He thinks you and Harvey are sutch good boys and how nice it is that you are it is sutch a pleasure to him to feel that you boys are thought so mutch of and to know that you are always ready to do what is right by everyone.

Now Hurbert I hope you won’t think I am saying to mutch but it does me so mutch good to know you are so good to the folks I can’t help but tell you about it.

My wheat is looking some better than it was when Pa was out here we have got lots of good rain and that has helped the wheat wonderful we will have to start the binder about the 10th of next month.  I will be glad when that time comes then I can tell about how my wheat is going to turn out.

Well I will close for this time as it is just about dinner time come and see us as soon as you can and give my best regards to all of my friends.

Good bye write soon.
Your loving Brother and sister,
T.A. and Lynne Deffenbaugh

Deffenbaugh Link:

Herbert Deffenbaugh Graduates from the Eighth Grade

“On Sunday afternoon, 19 Feb 1969, I had the misfortune of hearing Early, SFC Robert Wimp, and Captain Edwin Ackerman voluntarily charge into the rice paddies with a small SVN popular force team to repel a VC patrol.  I listened to them courageously engage in a fierce fire fight, and request helicopter gun ship support.  Then all at once I heard them caught up in an ambush with no way to escape.”

Sherry Stocking Kline
August 30, 2010

Lindsay, (Lindsey) John

Born – June 11, 1800 in Enniskillan, Ireland.
Died – October 14, 1885 in Sumner County, Kansas, buried Anson Cemetery (Tombstone Record and his direct communication to George Clarence Lindsay).  See 1880 Census Record.

Marriages

John Lindsay Married – 1st – Mary Rutledge – July 9, 1833 in Carroll County, Ohio. She was a daughter of Jane Crozier and William Rutledge and was born in Fermanaugh, Ireland about 1813.  Came to America with mother and siblings 1827. Died March 1856, six weeks after the birth of her last child. (Marriage Records Bk 1, p. 1, Carroll County, Ohio)

John Lindsay Married – 2nd – Harriet Barnes – about 1867 in Iowa.  She was born in New York in 1826. (Census Record 1870 Iowa Monroe County, Wautua Twnshp)

How the Lindsay Family came to Live in America…

John Lindsay quarreled with his father about religion and came to Canada in 1818, then to Carroll County, Ohio where he owned 76 acres of land more or less.  This was conveyed by patent deed bearing date at Washington City, D. C., November 18, 1833.

John and Mary sold 6 acres in 1837.  March 15, 1856 he sold the remaining land for $800. (Carroll County, Ohio Deed Bk Volume 15, p. 299)

Moved to Iowa where he is listed in the 1860 Monroe County, Union Township p. 342 with 3 sons and daughter Mary.

The other children remained in Ohio. Listed again in Mantua Township, Monroe County, Iowa, p. 367, year 1870, with wife and children and son Edward 24 by first marriage. Real estate $2800.

Came to Sumner County, Kansas in 70’s (as handwritten on the paper) 80’s and died there. He was a farmer, a reader, interested in books.  6 ft tall, light, looked like Thoreau. Read the Saturday Evening Post to his children by the light of pine knots.  Took great pains and trouble with teaching of youngest daughter, Callie.

A sister, perhaps named Margaret, came later to America, went south to nurse in a yellow fever epidemic and was never heard of again.

Naturalized in Ohio – spelling changed to Lindsey (with an e) by mistake at that time.

Children of John Lindsay

1.    James – b. 1834. Killed at Vicksburg

2.    Ann – b. 1835 or 36 married Ferdinand Wood (born July 11, 1841 d. January 20, 192? (the photocopy cut off last digit))

3.    William Rutledge b. December 28, 1837, married Julia Ann Miller, daughter of Henry Miller and Isabelle Warner, died May 27, 1907, daughter of (?) Ebenezer and Mary Smith. (some of the dates, and people in this part of the account it was difficult to decipher which belonged to who. Please see original on Pioneer Settler File Page 5.)

4.    Sarah – born 1839, married Henry Bracken (left-handed) October 18, 1860

5.    George – born 1842 – Company A 36 Regiment, Iowa Infantry, born Carroll County, Ohio. Enlisted February 1, 1863 at Ottumwa, Iowa. Taken prisoner at Marks Mill, Arkansas, died August 20, 1864 of disease at Camp Ford, TE (again, last letters cut off on photocopy.)

6.    Edward – born 1845 – married in Iowa, went to Woodford County, Illinois, Spring Bay Post Office after 1870.

7.    Mary Elizabeth – born May 7, 1846, Died: July 22, 1929. Married William H. Meuser, Born December 13, 1841, died November 17, 1911, son of George and Katherine Meuser.

8.    John – died in infancy.

9.    Margaret – died in infancy

10.    Eliza A. – born October 19th (or 17th, difficult to decipher), 1853, died May 1929. Married September 3, 1873, John Henry Brooks, born January 12, 1854, died November 4, 1913, son of Thomas and Elizabeth Crozier Brooks.

11.    Martha Malissa, born February 8, 1856, Married 1879, Robert McCort (1850 – 1909) Died September 21, 1909.  He was son of Henry and Margarite Johnson McCort.

12.    Calista – born 1868, married Don Camp. Died February 7, 1943, Long Lane, Wisconsin.

13.    James – died infancy. Born May 1870.

Transcriber’s Notes: The John Lindsay Family Information was transcribed on August 30, 2010 (by Sherry Kline)  from a hand written paper found in the Pioneer Settler/Family Files (originals numbered 4 and 5) at the Sumner County Historical & Genealogical Center in Wellington, Kansas.

I have transcribed this paper as best as possible, though in a couple of  places it is a little unclear which death dates belong to whom, and in a couple of places the photocopy cuts off the edge of the words.

According to notes in this file, Mary Rutledge Lindsay died in 1856, six weeks after birth of last child, which would be Martha Malissa. So, Calista and James would (most likely) be John and Harriet’s children.

This file is part of the Pioneer Settler files that I have been working on transcribing. But John Lindsay’s daughter is also part of  my husband’s cousin’s family.  So, they are almost related!  There is quite a lot of family information and several family group sheets in this family file folder, and I will add more info here,  or create a new post with a little more info about the extended family as time permits.

When I am done transcribing and indexing this large file, it will go back ‘home’ to the Sumner County History and Genealogy Center in Wellington, Box 402, Wellington, KS 67152 for researchers to use.

For those I index and transcribe who are not family (or as in this case, almost family) you can read the transcriptions at the SCHGS blog at http://www.ks-schgs.blogspot.com.

by Sherry Stocking Kline
19 July 2010

Many thanks to my cousin Lynne Bajuk, California, for our great-grandmother Maggie McGinnis’ obituary!

This past week, Lynne sent me a wonderful ‘genealogy care package’ with photographs and this obituary.  Happy Dance!

Fortunately, I was able to find Maggie’s husband, Thomas Jefferson McGinnis’ obituary and send it to her recently.  It has been sooo wonderful to ‘meet’ and visit with Lynne and to be able to share information and work together.  Lynne has many wonderful stories that her mother told her that I’d not heard.  Marvelous!

Maggie McGinnis, 101, Succumbed Sunday

Funeral services for Mrs. Margaret (Maggie) McGinnis, 101, were conducted at the Cedar Vale Methodist church Wednesday afternoon at 1:30 o’clock with Rev. W. E. Burdette officiating.

Mrs. McGinnis passed away at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Maud Stocking, Sunday morning at 6:15 o’clock from arterial thrombosis. Although bedfast since the first of February, Mrs. McGinnis had only been seriously ill since 11 o’clock Saturday morning.

Mrs. McGinnis had made her home in Cedar Vale with her daughter for the past nine and one-half years. She was loved and admired by all who knew her. Despite her age, Mrs. McGinnis possessed a keen and alert mind and enjoyed conversing on current topics. She frequently spoke of her childhood and enjoyed telling of her experiences when she with other girls of her community sang for Abraham Lincoln.

A trio composed of Bill House, James E. Humble and Maurice Smith sang “Abide With Me” and “City Four Square.” As a solo, Maurice Smith sang “Crossing the Bar.”  Mrs. R. D. Oltjen was pianist.

Pallbearers were Marshall Hill of Arkansas City, Herbert Stocking of Elk City, Harold and Fred Stocking of Mayfield, Bob and Jack Yearout of Wellington.

Burial was made in the cemetery at Mayfield, Kansas.

Obituary

Margaret (Maggie) E. Corson McGinnis was born January 19, 1849, in Saugamon County, Illinois (Sangamon?) and died March 26, 1950-, in Cedar Vale, Kansas at the age of 101 years, two months, and seven days.

Maggie Corson was educated in a rural school near her home and in Springfield, Illinois. In 1860 she was one of a group of children trained to sing campaign songs in support of Abraham Lincoln’s candidacy for president. The group on one occasion sang for Lincoln and received his thanks.

At the age of fifteen she united with the Methodist church of which she remained a loyal member throughout her life.

After teaching for three years in Illinois rural and village schools, she was married in 1872 to Thomas J. McGinnis, who was teaching and farming in eastern Illinois.

In 1886 they moved to Kansas, eventually living in several communities in this state.

After the death of her husband at Emporia in 1911, Mrs. McGinnis lived in Missouri, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Maryland, and California, eventually returning to Kansas, where the has been residing with her daughter, Mrs. Maud Stocking, in Cedar Vale.

Mrs. McGinnis is survived by three sons – Charles E. of Los Angeles; Eugene E. of Wichita; and Virgil H. of Denver; two daughters – Mrs. Maud Stocking of Cedar Vale and Myrta E. (Ethel) McGinnis of New Wilmington, Pennsylvania; twelve grandchildren and twenty-one great-grandchildren.

More info:

Margaret “Maggie” Corson McGinnis, daughter of Richard S. and Mary (Corson) Corson, is buried in the Osborne Cemetery, Sumner County, Kansas, near the small town of Mayfield, Kansas, with four generations of descendants.

Maggie McGinnis Sang For Abraham Lincoln

A Photo of Maggie Corson McGinnis (and me) on her 100th Birthday

Thomas J. McGinnis Obituary

Three Hundred Years With the Corson Family in America

transcribed by Sherry Stocking Kline
Monday, May 31, 2010

Some time ago at a yard sale (it’s that time of year again!) I picked up a box of photographs and other memorabilia, and I spent quite a bit of time then and a few times since, figuring out the family names, finding out what names were on the photos and also learning what cities and towns the photographs were taken in. Tucked in with the photos was the following clipping.

This tiny news article contains heartbreaking news…

Death Notice of Sgt. Robert Wimp

On the Paper:

Deaths and Services

Sgt. Robert Wimp

Mrs. Fred Newland received news of the death of her brother, Sgt. Robert Wimp, in the Mekong Delta of South Vietnam, on Thursday, Feb 20.

Sgt. Wimp had just returned last week after an emergencey leave when he was called home by the death of his father.

Sgt. Wimp would have completed his second tour of duty this year.

What a heartbreaking news is contained in this tiny little note. Mrs. Fred Newland and her brother had just buried their father, and then Sgt. Wimp had returned to South Vietnam to finish his tour of duty when he was killed, leaving Mrs. Newland to mourn the loss of her father and her brother.

Is the “69” Part of the Newspaper’s Date?

This piece of the paper does not have a date on it, for sure, but I think perhaps the little “69” shown in the upper left hand corner next to the “Deaths and Services” Title might be part of the newspaper’s date.

This short article doesn’t say, but it certainly leads you to wonder if Sgt. Wimp’s loss played a role in his death in some way.

Hopefully, after our KCGS Conference date is past, I will have time to research this box of “orphan treasures” and get them to a good home.

And if someone reading this is part of Sgt. Wimp’s family, please leave me a note!

Additional info: Ah, I love genealogy friends!  What you don’t know, or know how to do, they kindly step in and provide!  Carol Yates Wilkerson, of http://ipentimento.com, family history and genealogy, looked it up on the Vietnam Wall site and said that he did die in 1969. http://thewall-usa.com/info.asp?recid=56872 Now, to find some living family members!

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.

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!