Archive for the ‘Sherry’s Family Tree’ Category

by Sherry Stocking Kline
Nov 15, 2009

In 1959 The Clutter Murders Shattered Our Peaceful Life

There are times in your life when some event occurs and it changes your life in profound ways.

Fifty years ago, on November 15, 1959, when four members of the Clutter family were murdered in Holcomb, Kansas, it sent shock waves through our small community and especially in our farm home. And it changed the way our family lived and viewed the world.

We didn’t know them. In fact, we lived hours away from Holcomb. But that murder changed the way our family lived.

The Family Was Murdered for About $40.00…

What we heard on television and read in the newspaper, was that the farm family of four had been murdered for about $40.00.

I remember my parents, my dad and mom sitting at the kitchen table, faces somber, frightened looking even, and my father, saying “If people will murder a family for so little, they will do anything.”

(Later, we read that the murderers had heard in jail that the family kept a large amount of money at their home; but all we knew then was that an entire family had been brutally murdered for such a small sum.)

Murder was something that happened in far-away cities…

Murders like that were something you rarely heard of, they were something that happened in far-away large cities, not something that happened to Kansas farm families.

Up until then, our doors were never, and I mean NEVER locked, not in the daytime when we were gone, not at night when we were asleep.

Up until then, there was no need.

They were always locked at night after the Clutter murders.

Up until then, because the air conditioning we had wasn’t really that great, my folks would put beds and old Army cots out into the back yard on the hottest summer nights, and we slept under the stars.

And before the Clutter murder the only thing we worried about while sleeping outside was getting bitten by mosquitoes, and the only thing I worried about was whether the coyotes we could hear yodeling at each other in the distance would come closer.

We never felt completely safe again…

After the Clutter murders, a new fear, a new possibility had entered our lives and our minds, and that changed our lives.

The peace and safety that had been ours was gone. We never felt completely safe on the farm and we never slept in the yard under the stars again.

You can read more about the Clutter Family at the Wichita Eagle website here.

by Sherry Stocking Kline
November 14, 2009

Here, thanks to Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings, is your Saturday Night Genealogy Fun writing mission, if you decide to accept it (cue the Mission: Impossible music…):

1. What is the Nicest Thing another genealogist did for you, or to you, in the last week or so? (If you have no examples for this past week, go back in time – surely someone has done a nice thing for you in recent years!).

2. Tell us about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, in a comment on Facebook, or in a tweet on Twitter.

In the past few weeks, two Twitter friends helped me navigate the rocky-for-me road of how to ‘do stuff’ on my WordPress blog!

I tweeted for help…

In late September, I tweeted for help in finding a Blog Roll so I could add other folks blog addresses to my blog!

And GeneaBloggers (@geneabloggers on Twitter) tweeted me the instructions for how to do it, then tweeted me a “why don’t you blog about it message later.” (I still plan to!)

It took @geneabloggers about six tweets at 140 characters to send me the info, but the instructions were perfect.

I found the Blog Roll I wanted, and next thing you know, I had a blog roll on my blog! Woo Hoo!  Thanks, GeneaBloggers!  Now, I just need to find the time to add everyone’s blog on there.

Yesterday, I followed a link…

Just yesterday, I followed a link on Twitter from @Bonnie67 that led me to her  post at Bonnie67′s. (Bonnie isn’t a genealogist, yet, but I’m ‘recruiting’ her.)

Bonnie had a link to a music video, the very same song by Sam the Sham and the Pharoah’s that I wished I could have added to my first Saturday Night Genealogy Fun post.

When I mentioned that I wished I knew how to post music video’s on my site, Bonnie got busy and wrote a blog post to show me how!

Awesome!     Thanks, Bonnie!

And though this was a long time ago and I’d have to dig through a lot of old genealogy to find her name, there was a wonderfully kind woman who was the first woman I wrote to to try to find information about my husband’s Kline family.

This wonderful woman looked up some information in the newspaper, located a description about the farm animals owned, crops grown, and the orchard on the farm, and found information about the two children of James and Elizabeth Kline that had passed away while they lived there.

I was able to locate some information at the library in Wichita that helped her out some, too, information that told her that some of her family had been founding members in the small cattle town that was Wichita in its early days.

It was the help from this woman, and others like her that helped me have those early successes in piecing together the family histories that weave together and make up the fabric of who our family is, and fueled my desire to learn more, and more.

Thank you!

by Sherry Stocking Kline
November, 10, 2009

This stone belongs to my husband’s grandparents, John Conver and Jessie (Wood) Kline.

John & Jessie (Wood) Kline, Ryan Township Cemetery, Sumner County, Kansas

The Ryan Township Cemetery is located in Sumner County, one mile west of Milan, Kansas on Highway 160, or about 16 miles west of Wellington, Kansas.

John is the fourth son of James and Elizabeth (Conver) Kline.  John had three older brothers who passed away before the family moved to Kansas.  You can read more about James and Elizabeth Kline’s family here.

Jessie is the daughter of Nathaniel and Mary (McMulin) Wood. Nathaniel and Mary homesteaded a quarter section of land in Sumner County, Kansas, near Milan, and are also buried in the Ryan Township Cemetery, Milan, Kansas.

John and Jessie had three children:

Lawrence Conver Kline b. May 15, 1911 – d. Feb 16, 1989
Dorothy L. Born & Died in 1915 at 4 mos of age
Melvin Ray Kline b. Mar 20, 1918 – d. Aug 18, 1988

Lawrence, Dorothy, and Melvin are all buried in the Ryan Township Cemetery, Milan, Sumner County, Kansas.

If you are researching the Kline family, I hope you will leave a comment with your contact information so we can share and compare research!

Thank you & Happy Researching!

by Sherry Stocking Kline
November 7th, 2009

It’s Saturday Night and time for the Saturday Night Genealogy Fun Challenge!  The following comes from Randy Seaver, http://www.geneamusings.com/.  Once again, Thanks, Randy!

Hey, genealogy fans – it’s Saturday Night, and time for some Genealogy Fun!

Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible music…), is:

1) Find out the geographical distribution of your surname – in the world, in your state or province, in your county or parish. I suggest that you use the Public Profiler site at http://www.publicprofiler.org/worldnames/, which seems to work quickly and easily. However, you cannot capture the image as a photo file – you have to capture the screen shot, save it and edit it.

2) Tell us about your surname distribution in a blog post of your own (with a screen shot if possible), in comments to this post, or in comments on a social networking site like Facebook and Twitter.

It was interesting to see where the Stocking surname was scattered, and also where it is predominant.  It still appears to be more dominant in the United Kingdom, where it originated.

My Stocking immigrant ancestor, George Stocking, came to America in the 1630’s on the ship Griffith from Suffolk, England. It appears there are still many family members in England today.

It was interesting to see the break down for the FPM or Frequency of Family Members Per Million by Countries of the Stocking Name:

Country

United Kingdom   9.72
United States         8.53
Canada                      5.73
New Zealand           1.41
France                       0.05

The following is what the map looks like by Regions:

Idaho, United States  76.85
Utah, United States 62.83
West Midlans, United Kingdom  30.65
East Anglia, United Kingdome   24.78
Wyoming, United States  24.36

And then the Stocking surname in my State!  And if you look to the county just south of Wichita, which is Sumner County, you will see there are several of the Stocking family represented in this area!

The Stocking Surname in Kansas!

by Sherry Stocking Kline
November 6th, 2009

James & Elizabeth (Conver) Kline buried in Ryan Township Cemetery, Milan, Sumner County, Kansas

On the Stone:

James Kline

Jan. 25, 1945  –  June 21, 1908

Elizabeth His Wife

May 4, 1846  –  Dec 8, 1918

James and Elizabeth (Conver) Kline are buried in Ryan Township Cemetery, near Milan, Sumner County, Kansas. The cemetery is located one mile west of Milan, Kansas on Highway 160.

James and Elizabeth (Conver) Kline came to Caldwell, Kansas shortly before the 1893 Cherokee Strip Run, where as family story has it, James ran in the Cherokee Strip Run, and when he was not fortunate enough to win free land, he later came to the Milan, Kansas area, where he purchased land along the Chickaskia River south of Milan.

James was born in Clarion County, PA.

Some of the following information includes information that I personally have found, but also includes information that I received from cousin Liz Williams:

Elizabeth Conver was born  4 May 1846 in Richland, Lebanon Co., PA, and was the daughter of  of John A. Conver & Marry Huff.

James and Elizabeth were married in Knox, County, Illinois on 31 Oct 1867.  They had three sons that died before they came to Kansas, Charles William Kline, born in 1868 but died before 1870, and two more sons, Levi born in 1870 in Illinois and Samuel born in 1872 in Iowa also died young.

After coming to Kansas, they had seven more children. The oldest surviving son, John Conver Kline, was my husband’s grandfather.

James and Elizabeth’s other children were: Newton Oliver Kline, Susan Alica Adilia Kline, James Monroe Kline, Walter Cleveland Kline, Orie Ray Kline, Mae Violet Kline

I would love to connect with other members of my husband’s Kline, Conver, and Huff family to share information, so please leave a comment with  your contact info and I will respond asap.

by Sherry Stocking Kline
October 31, 2009

The following is the Saturday Night Genealogy Fun Challenge by Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings!  Thanks, Randy!

Hey boys and girls, it’s Hallowe’en, and time for some Saturday Night Genealogy Fun! Play either before or after your trick or treating experiences, or even on Sunday morning after your extra hour of sleep (you did remember to set your clocks back, didn’t you?).

Here is your assignment, should you decide to accept it (you ARE reading this, so I assume that you really want to play along – cue the Mission Impossible music!):

1) Think about your most memorable Hallowe’en – was it when you were a child (candy, games, carnivals), a teenager (tricks and treats), or an adult (perhaps a party)?

2) Tell us about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post of mine, or in a comment on Twitter or Facebook in response to this post.

3) Have fun!

Looking back at my own memories I realize how lucky we were. We lived in, or in my case near, a wonderful small town where the residents were patient and the bank roof was sturdy.

What was so important about the bank roof being sturdy?

The goal each Halloween, for at least two generations, was to block off the three-block Main Street so no traffic could get through, (at all) soap car and business’ windows, (there were five in my time prior to that six or seven) and to …

Pile as Much Stuff on the Bank Roof as Possible!

In our defense, it didn’t start with my generation.

In my father’s time, horse drawn buggies were pushed, pulled, and hauled up on the bank’s roof.

In my time, for whatever reason, it became the preacher’s kid’s swing sets that made their way onto the bank roof each Halloween.

Just in case one of the p.k.’s (preacher’s kids) read this someday it didn’t mean we didn’t like you or your folks, i.e. it was not a negative reflection on the preacher’s popularity, it was probably because the family was well liked.

And, it was also because the swing sets were handy to the bank and very easily moved.

In Mayfield, in the 1950’s, it was safe…

In Mayfield, in the 1950’s, it was safe for children to go around by themselves. Maybe it wouldn’t be now, maybe not even in Mayfield which is still has about 100 residents, and isn’t that a sad commentary on our times.

My very first Halloween memory is when I was about three or four years old and not much taller than the paper grocery sack my mom sent me off to trick or treat with.

One of the ‘big girls’, Anita Biles or Ginny Barry, took me by the hand, and walked me around the town along with a crowd made up of all ages and sizes.  I felt very short, very small, and kind of scared.

My next memory is being big enough not to hold anyone’s hand and going around with friends in home-made costumes. I remember being a hobo often, because the bandannas and ratty clothes were easy to come by.

By the Time We Were Old Enough, the Privy’s were gone…

By the time my generation was big enough to join in with creating havoc, some of the buggies and horse drawn wagons still sat in yards and town fields, but the outhouses (privy’s) were gone. My dad’s generation was known to push over outhouses.(Occasionally some resourceful person moved the outhouse, and the prankster’s fell IN the outhouse hole) and one Hallowwen someone was actually IN an outhouse when it was pushed over.

Looking back, I marvel at the patience of the men who got up the next day, and took everything back to its proper home, because if it was movable, if it could be drug, rolled, pushed or pulled, it made its way to Main Street on Halloween night amidst joyous laughter and much camaraderie. (And for those who cleaned up the next day, please know that I’m grateful.)

We Were ‘Too Old’ to Go Trick or Treating…

As teen-agers, though we considered ourselves too old to go trick-or-treating, we were still expected to make an appearance in each of our town “Grandma’s” homes to receive our treats.

We started out at Grandma Mabel Stayton’s, where my mom, Dorothy Stocking, and my best friend’s mom, Wanda Stayton, both farm wives, sat with Mabel to hand out candy along with Mabel. From there, we traveled to visit at Grandma Eva Downing’s, Grandma Jenny McCreary’s, Valley Heasty’s, Mrs. Washburn’s, Dode and Bonnie Anderson, and Nancy and Rosa Weber’s home.

At each home, we were welcomed with candy and choruses of “My how you’ve grown!”, “What grade are you in now?” and “Be sure and come back next year!”

We had no idea then, how lucky we were to grow up in a small town with such a family friendly atmosphere.

But Traditions Change…

It wasn’t too many years after we Tricked and Treated that the traditions were changed to ones that were safer and were less work for all involved, but looking back, well, memories just don’t get any better than the ones we were lucky enough to create.

Daryl M Jones, Sr. & wife Laura May Bastien Jones Ryan Township Cemetery, Milan, Sumner County, Kansas

On Daryl and Laura May Jones’ Stone:

Jones

Daryl M. Sr
May 30, 1908 to June 32, 1999

Laura May
Jan 28, 1913 to Oct 25, 1980

Married Aug 20, 1932

Daryl and May were my Aunt and Uncle.

I did not know that May was not her first name until I read her obituary.

May died from leukemia, though she lived many years after she was diagnosed.

Gaylon Jones, buried in Ryan Township Cemetery, Milan, Sumner County, Kansas

Daryl and May had three sons, Daryl Jr, Dale, and Gaylon. Dale and Gaylon are deceased and Gaylon is buried next to Daryl and May.

On Gaylan Jones’ Stone

Gaylan R. Jones

August 26, 1943

July 2, 1979

Dale was cremated and his ashes spread over the ocean where he loved to fish with his wife, Bonnie, who is also deceased.

My Uncle Daryl was an engineer without a degree. If he needed a piece of farm equipment, or needed something fixed or added to, he could most generally make it or fix it, and other farmers came often to have him fix or weld their equipment.  After he retired from farming at age 70, he spent more time doing what he loved, which was ocean fishing near Aransas Pass, Texas.

Grew up on a Farm near Milan, Kansas…

Growing up on the farm near Milan, Kansas, Daryl was an excellent horseman, and trapped for furs to help the family income. He attended one year of college at Wichita State University, but there was no money to further his education, so he traveled to California, worked in the aircraft industry, and came back to the family and farm where he married May.

He could have done well in college and afterward, but I can’t imagine that he would have been any happier than he was farming, living on the farm, and growing crops and building and welding things for himself and others.

Warner LaRue and Carrie Esther (Breneman) Jones Ryan Township Cemetery, Milan, Sumner County, Kansas

By Sherry Stocking Kline
October 20, 2009

Warner LaRue and Carrie Breneman Jones, my grandparents…

Warner LaRue Jones was born in Kentucky. Probably Barren County, to Willis Washington and Martha Ellen Smith Jones on March 13, 1880, and died in Sumner County, Kansas on November 1, 1947.

Carrie Esther Breneman Jones was born (I believe in Nebraska. I do not have all of my info here where I can double check), to Constantine “Tom” Breneman and Salinda (Rose) Breneman on Aug 15, 1876, and died Sept 13, 1956.

They are both buried in Ryan Township Cemetery, Milan, Sumner County, Kansas.

My grandmother, Carrie Breneman Jones, was gifted at painting & hand crafting things…

I never got to meet my grandfather, and I was young when my grandmother died. But I remember that she was extremely gifted at hand crafting things, crocheting beautiful doilies, and pretty doll clothes.  She  taught herself to paint when she was already a senior citizen, and painted very life-like pictures of animals, particularly our families’ registered Ayrshire cattle.

We visited her often, and how I wish I had been old enough to ask the many questions that I now have!

Here is a photograph of their young family. My mother is the youngest child in this photograph, and there was one more child, Fern, born later. Fern died from pneumonia when she was sixteen, and is buried next to her parents.

Warner & Carrie Breneman Jones & children, Floyd, Rose, Daryl M, and Dorothy

My grandfather, Warner Jones, loved his favorite team of mules!

I can’t resist adding one more photograph that I just love!  Wish I knew the name of the mules, but my mother told me that my grandfather loved those mules very much!

Warner Jones and his favorite team of mules

by Sherry Stocking Kline
October 19, 2009

It may sound crazy, but the best fishing trip I ever went on was nowhere near the water and we didn’t catch any fish.

It All Started With a Garage Sale…

It all started with a garage sale. (I do love garage sales.)

Driving by a garage sale late one Saturday afternoon I begged my son to stop so I could feed my garage sale fix.  (no, I have no pride and  he was driving so I begged, maybe even offered a bribe.)

I knew we were too late in the day to get first choice on the good stuff, but we were prime time for getting bargains on the I-don’t-want-to-box-it-up-and-keep-it  leftovers.

Sitting there amidst a lot of stuff we didn’t want was what looked like a really nice fishing reel.  I picked it up, checked it out, and laid it back down.

Which immediately prompted an offer from the owner of the garage.

So I snapped up the fishing reel. When we got back home, my son and I immediately went to my mom’s home to show off our ‘treasures.’

“Looks like a nice reel,” she said, “but it needs new line.” And she, being the veteran of years of pond, river, lake, and ocean fishing, knew what she was talking about.

Take it To Your Uncle Daryl…

“Take it to your Uncle Daryl,” she said, “he can put new line on it and get it ready to go for you.”

Daryl Jones, Sr., fishing at Aransas Pass, Texas 1908 - 1999

So I did.  My Uncle Daryl Jones, Sr. was pretty much a ‘pro’ at fishing.  Whether it was pond, river, creek, lake, or ocean, he’d fished them all, and he usually brought home the fish that the rest of us call “the one that got away.”

He looked the reel over, allowed that it was an “o.k.” reel, and that I had gotten a pretty “o.k.” deal, kept it, and promised to put new line on it and get it back to me soon.

A couple of weeks later he called me up and asked me if I  had a little time.   He had an hour to kill while my Aunt Elsie, got her hair done.

“Sure,” I said, and when he knocked on my door an hour later my fishing reel was now attached to a pole.

And Not Just Any Pole…

Not just any pole, but the one that his first wife, my Aunt May, who had passed away, had used to catch a shark in the Ocean near Aransas Pass, Texas, where they and my mom and her husband used to spend their winters fishing and being winter Texans.

Awesome!   I was thrilled, and moved to tears, and I tried to talk him into keeping it. But he wouldn’t have it.

“At my age, it won’t be too long before someone will have to put my things in an auction,” he said, “I’d like for you to have it.” (Fortunately, it was some time yet before he passed on.)

Nothing would have it but that he  give me an on-the-spot fishing lesson. So out the door we went to his little Toyota pickup, put down the tail gate, sat down, and he began to show me the right way to cast and reel in, cast and reel in.

That day is a Golden Moment in my memories…

It was fall, and the air was fresh and clean and  just crisp and cool enough to need a light jacket.  The trees were turning gold and red and even the dust motes in the breeze were golden with reflected sunlight.

We sat there, uncle and niece, on a pick-up tail gate in my driveway, dangling our feet, talking about fishing and memories, and casting out up and down the street as if we were actually on a lake, and bonding.

Casting out and reeling in, and hurrying like mad when a car turned down my dead-end street and threatened to run over our ‘catch.’

And enjoying being family on a beautiful fall day.

My Neighbors Thought We Were a Brick Shy of a Full Load…

There’s not a lot of traffic on my street, but I’m sure the neighbors and the occasional ‘foreigner’  (car that didn’t live there) that drove by that day had to be certain we were ‘a brick shy of a full load’, but I didn’t care.

I learned a lot that day, not all of it about how to fish, and the most important thing I learned was to tuck golden memories like this one into my heart to keep forever.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun – A Family’s Increase
By Randy Seaver
Click here for Randy’s original post.

Hey, genealogy fans, it’s Saturday Night! Time for some Genealogy Fun!

Your task, if you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible music), is to:

1) Pick one of your four great-grandparents – if possible, the one with the most descendants.

2) Create a descendants list for those great-grandparents either by hand or in your software program.

3) Tell us how many descendants, living or dead, are in each generation from those great-grandparents.

4) How many are still living? Of those, how many have you met and exchanged family information with? Are there any that you should make contact with ASAP? Please don’t use last names of living people for this – respect their privacy.

5) Write about it in your own blog post, in comments to this post, or in comments or a Note on Facebook.

How Many Descendants Do My Great-Grandparents Roderick and Frances “Fanny” Stocking Have Now?

by Sherry Stocking Kline
October 18, 2009

My Great-Grandparents were Roderick and Frances “Fanny” Stocking. Roderick was born in Butler, Michigan on Dec 25, 1853, and his wife, Frances Hitchcock, was born November 9, 1858 in Crescent City, Illinois.

They had four children, all sons,  Elmer, Ralph, Roderick Porter, and John.

Elmer had nine children, one of which died at birth.

Ralph adopted three children, one died young.

Roderick had three children, one  son and twins, a boy and girl.   He  died young. He was electrocuted while working on high lines. Electricity was fairly new to the area then, and people often did their own wiring, and so accidents happened.

John and his wife did not have any children.

Generation 1  –  4  children – all dead (Roderick Remine’s Children)

Generation 2 –   15 children – 12 dead      3 alive

Generation 3 –   33 children –   4 dead   29 alive

Generation 4 –   39 children –    3 dead   36 alive

When I printed this report out and looked at it, I was shocked that I had so many new entries that needed to be made in my Family Tree Program.

91 members to generation 4, and I think there are at least 30 more individuals that could be added. It has been quite some time since I’ve sent out questionnaires to the families and asked them to fill them out.

We plan to have a family reunion next summer, so it looks like I certainly  have my work cut out for me!  Now I’ve got to get busy and get those questionnaires sent out so that I can learn just how many descendants Great-grandma and Great-grandpa Stocking really do have!