Archive for the ‘Milan Cemetery – Sumner County Kansas’ Category

I love this photograph of my Grandma and Grandpa Jones.  Although this was taken before I was born (as my grandfather was in it) this is how I remember my grandmother looking.  Round-faced and smiling, and just a bit plump. Comfortable to snuggle up against. (Grandma’s are supposed to be plump, right?  I hope so, because I’m working on being a good Gramma.)

I wish that my grandfather had lived long enough for me to meet (and remember him), but this Carnival of Genealogy post is about my Grandma Carrie Breneman Jones, who died when I was eight years old.

Warner LaRue and Carrie Esther (Breneman) Jones

When I was just a little bitty girl, my mama told me that her mama was really unhappy that they had named me “Sherry”.  She said that Sherry is also the name of an alcoholic beverage, and her mama just wasn’t happy with her for giving me that name.

So I guess it’s no wonder when I went to grade school and I really didn’t know what my Grandma’s last name was, that when the teacher began talking about Kansas’ Carrie Nation going into bars with an axe to fight for temperance I kind of wondered for a short time if that was my Grandma Carrie that did that.  I don’t know why I didn’t run home and ask my mom about it, but I didn’t, but I did figure out, after awhile, that my Grandma Carrie wasn’t the infamous axe wielding Carrie in my history book.  (The above doesn’t look like the picture of an axe-wielding Grandma, does it?)

My Grandma Carrie was a very crafty lady.  Her hands were always busy making something.  She loved to crochet, from the very tiny delicate flower shaped earrings to the beautiful heirloom bedspread that she made for my mother, and that my mother later gave to me.

She crocheted doll clothes for my dolls and when my new favorite plastic horse needed a rider and there were none to be bought in the correct size, she created one.  My Grandma Carrie created an Indian, excuse me, a Native American brave complete with tiny leather fringed breeches and shirt, and bendable legs so he could sit a horse.  I still have him, tucked away (somewhere) and when I find him, I’ll try to add the picture here.

And as I write this, I just realized that she may have fashioned the brave after the Native Americans that came to their cabin in Nebraska asking for food when she was just a very small girl, and they lived on the Nebraska prairie where my Grandma herded cattle on horseback by herself on the prairie during the day.

When she was older, Grandma Carrie taught herself to paint and she loved the National Geographic magazine for its beautiful photographs that often inspired her painting.  She also painted a picture of my brother’s 4-H Dairy Cow “Jenny,” too, for him, and “Jenny” hung on our kitchen wall while I was growing up.

I wish my Grandma had lived long enough for me to get to know her as an adult, because I think I inherited many of my interests and talents from her.  Like my Grandma, I’m crafty, though I’ve not had much time to do it lately, and if I can see something, particularly a fabric something, I can often make a pattern for it or create it from one I find.  Also like my Grandma and my mom, I painted for several years till I learned I was sensitive to the oil and turpentine smells, and like my Grandma and my mother I love a good book!

And, I wish she had lived long enough to ask her all those many genealogy questions that I now wish I had the answers to!

Other Links:

 Wordless Wednesday: Stocking & Jones Family
http://www.familytreewriter.com/2010/10/wordless-wednesday-stocking-jones-family/

Wordless Wednesday: Constantine Breneman & Carrie Breneman Jones & family
http://www.familytreewriter.com/2010/04/wordless-wednesday-constantine-breneman-carrie-breneman-jones-families/

by Sherry Stocking Kline
27 April 2010

Here is a tombstone for a family member on my husband’s side, and I’ve been having a great deal of  fun lately trying to put the puzzle pieces together, and honestly, trying very hard to just shove some of those pieces in place and make them fit!  I knew they had to, I just didn’t know how.

Guy Wood Tombstone - Milan Cemetery, Milan, Sumner County, Kansas

On the Stone:

Guy L. Wood
Apr 16, 1891
Oct 11, 1947

Located in the Milan Cemetery,  just about 15 miles west of Wellington, Kansas (and a couple of miles west of Milan) on Highway 160.

But the pieces just wouldn’t fit, no matter how hard I tried.  And then one day, someone said “a Wood married a Wood” and it all fell into place.

Now what are the odds that a Wood family would live a mile away from another Wood family, that they would NOT be related (for at least two generations back), they would originate from totally different Eastern states, and that they had several children with the same name?

Thanks to helpful family hints from a cousin, research I’ve done, and the records that I’ve found at the Sumner County History & Genealogy Center in Wellington, I’ve added some good branches to this tree, and firmed up some of the other connections.  More to come!

by Sherry Stocking Kline
30 March 2010

This week’s Tombstone Tuesday is my husband’s great-uncle.

Walter C. Kline

The stone reads:

Walter C.
KLINE
1885 – 1959

I have to confess that besides being three days late to finish posting my Tombstone Tuesday, this is a family member that I’ve done little research on.

I know that he is buried near family in the Milan Cemetery, Milan, Kansas.  This nice little well-kept cemetery is located  about one mile west of Milan on the North side of the road, about 15 miles west of Wellington, Kansas on Highway 160.  (You can’t miss it unless you’re driving too fast, or looking for a much bigger cemetery.)

When I first began researching, my only focus was on our direct lines.  If they weren’t ancestors, I documented their names, and passed right on by them.

I know better now.  I know that researching our ancestors’ siblings may do all kinds of wonderful things.  In particular, it may help us connect the dots between our ancestors.  But we’ve also been fortunate enough to find photographs of our direct ancestors among their siblings’ lines, a treasure well worth searching for indeed!

I do know that Walter, or “Uncle Walt” as I heard him referred to (he had passed on before I was part of the family) was the son of James and Elizabeth Kline.  If I remember right I believe that he did not marry.

But there are many other things I don’t know about Uncle Walt.  Will he be on all the census in Kansas?  What did he do for a living?  Did he leave a will?  What does his obituary say about him?

So maybe it’s time I took a new look at our ancestor’s siblings, and maybe they can help shed some light on the direct line of our own family tree.

(And please, if you stumble across this site and you are ‘family’, stop, take a minute, and say ‘hello’.  We’d love to meet you, and I have much more info that just isn’t posted yet!)

by Sherry Stocking Kline
March 16th, 2010

Today’s Tombstone Tuesday is my great-uncle and great-aunt, Otto C. and Nancy V. Breneman’s tombstone.

Otto C. and Nancy V. Breneman

Otto and Nancy are buried in the Milan Cemetery, Milan, Sumner County, Kansas, about 15 miles west of Wellington on highway 160. For a complete listing of burials and maps of the Milan Cemetery, click here to go to the Milan Cemetery website maintained by the Sumner County Historical and Genealogical Society.

On the stone:

BRENEMAN

Nancy V.
1886 – 1975

Otto C.
1880 – 1930

When I sat down to write this I realized that I did not have Nancy Breneman’s parents’ name written down.  Goodness!  I will certainly need to ‘fix’ this soon!

And how is it that Nancy V. died after I was married and I don’t believe that I ever met her?  That’s another good question to ask my mom and perhaps her grandson by e-mail.

I believe that Nancy V. must have spent her remaining years in the state that her daughter Berniece Breneman Thomas, resided, and near Berniece’s family.

Otto, or Ott as he was known by friends and family, was the son of Constantine “Tom” Breneman and Salinda Breneman. Ott and his father Constantine were blacksmiths in Mayfield, Kansas, and Nancy taught piano lessons to the area’s children.  I have copies of photographs of this blacksmith shop, and I look forward to sharing those photographs in future posts.

Other Related Family Posts:

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.

Photograph of Kenneth Jones – Nephew of Ott and Nancy Breneman.

by Sherry Stocking Kline
February 9, 2010

I ‘stumbled across’ this tombstone when I was taking photographs of stones at the Milan Cemetery, Sumner County, Milan, Kansas, on Highway 160, about 15 miles (give or take a bit) west of Wellington.

Willshier S. Hawley, buried at Milan Cemetery, Milan, Kansas

On the Stone:

HAWLEY
Willshier S. Hawley
Oct 3, 1826
June 7, 1922
Co. A. 52nd Ind.  Vol. Inf.

I just knew he had to be ‘family.’

Never mind the fact that it said that he was in the Indiana Volunteer Infantry, I was so excited, I just knew he had to be some of my Kentucky family.

After all, my Jones great-grandmother had been a Smith, and her mother had been a Hawley.  Families often migrate together, and I just knew this man was going to be some of my Kentucky born and bred kinfolk.  All I had to do was prove it.

So, I hopped on-line to do census research, and found that ‘my’ Willshier/Willshire had moved around some.  And also that most likely, some of the Willshier’s that I found weren’t ‘mine.’

Before heading off to the census, I checked out the National Park Websites Civil War Soldier’s info.  No surprise there, what was on the tombstone was the same as the National Park info.

Next I went to Ancestry.com to find Willshier on the census. Ancestry turned up a family tree, and after doing some checking, this is ‘my’ Willshier Hawley, and it checks out fairly good with the Census record.

Family Tree:

Willshier Sanford Hawley

married Catherine Thornburg on 19 Apr 1849 in Wabash County, Indiana
Children:
Melissa C Hawley
Rebecca Hawley
Seraphina Mabel Hawley
Francis Marion Hawley
Mary L Hawley
Annie L Hawley

Censuses:

1860 Census
1860 Census, Place: Pleasant, Wabash, Indiana; Roll M653_304; Page 36; Image 36
W. S. Hawley  age 33
Catharine Hawley  age 26
Malisa C Hawley  age 10
Rebecca Hawley  age 4
Francis M Hawley  age 1

1900 Census
1900 Census, Place: Clay, Hendricks, Indiana; Roll T623_376; Page: 17A
Willshier Hawley  age 73
Mary L Hawley  age 32
Bessie Hinkle  age 8

1910 Census
1900 Census, Place: Parsons, Alfalfa, Oklahoma; Roll T624_1242; Page: 9B
Silas J. Rerick  age 59
Mallisa C. Rarick  age 60
Martha E. Rarick  age 19
Willshier Hawley  age 83
Mary L Hawley  age 43

(When I wondered why Willshier was living with the Rericks, I referred back to the family tree, which said that Melissa/Mallisa had married Silas J. Rarick/Rerick.   Aha moment.)

1915 Kansas State Census

E.V. Rerick  age 38
Precilla Rerick  age 34
Marie Rerick  age 8
Sherman Rerick  age 6
Ruth Terick  age 2
M C Rerick  age 64
Vergil Dumieg  age 33

Now we’re getting to names that I recognize. Sherman Rerick, just a child in 1915, was a good friend and went horse-back riding with my Uncle Daryl Jones, Sr.

To do just a little more checking on Willshier’s family, I went to the online Milan Cemetery list of burials/tombstones, and found the following:

Silas J. Rerick died         8 Nov 1912
Malissie C Rerick died  20 Mar 1927
Ernest Vernon Rerick    Died in 1949

And according to the website, Willshier Hawley’s lot owner is a Rerick.

There are several other Rericks, and most likely, they are related to Silas and Mallisa, perhaps even their children and grandchildren.  ( A little before this point, I knew that Willshier wasn’t my family, so I’ve not pursued more census to learn what Silas and Malissa’s children’s names were.)

Is Willshier Sanford Hawley one of “my” Hawley’s?

No.   I won’t be doing a “happy dance” today, because going back through my own Hawley tree info, and comparing it with the on-line tree, there aren’t any links to tie them together for well past my own great-grandmother.

Perhaps, several generations past my great-grandmother, there is a link, but at this point, I’m switching my focus elsewhere and concluding that Willshier didn’t follow my family members here, but rather his own children, particulary his daughter Mallisa and her husband.

Another ‘dead end’ but an interesting one.  I’m going to put together the information that I’ve found the past couple of days, and donate it to the Sumner County Genealogy and History Center for the Hawley’s and the Rericks should they come searching!

Related Posts:

Daryl Jones, Sr (friend of Sherman Rerick) Tombstone

Daryl Jones – Photograph with his Parents & some siblings

Daryl Jones – Fishing photo & story