Canada Day.......... Like Our July 4th

Last Wednesday, July 1st, was Canada Day. As we're such close neighbors with Canada here in Washington, we should know about their annual national day of recognition just as we celebrate our independence on the 4th of July. 

Canada Day

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Canada Day
Children watch the Canada Day parade in Montreal, 2004
Also called	Fête du Canada previously named Dominion Day
Observed by	Canada
Type	Historical, cultural, national
Celebrations	Fireworks, parades, barbecues, concerts, carnivals, fairs, picnics
Date	July 1
Frequency	Annual

Canada Day (French: Fête du Canada) is the national day of Canada. A federal statutory holiday, it celebrates the anniversary of July 1, 1867, the effective date of the Constitution Act, 1867 (then called the British North America Act, 1867), which united the three separate colonies of the Province of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick into a single Dominion within the British Empire called Canada.^[1][2] Originally called Dominion Day (French: Le Jour de la Confédération), the holiday was renamed in 1982, the year the Canada Act was passed.^[3] Canada Day celebrations take place throughout the country, as well as in various locations around the world, attended by Canadians living abroad.^[4]

Peone Cemetery.... Bet You've Been By There

Peone Cemetery
Mead, Spokane County, Washington

I spotted this little rural cemetery as I was going up Argonne heading towards Mt. Spokane. So I asked Google for info and next time instead of zooming by, I intend to walk about and visit these dearly departed Spokane citizens. (And huge thanks to Maggie Rail, now deceased, for her work on this cemetery.)

Transcribed by Maggie Rail, © Jan 02, 2000, last edited Aug 06, 2015 [mrail@asisna.com]. Total records = 1,858.

Peone Prairie Cemetery is located adjacent to and W of Bruce Rd., 1/2 mile N. of Bruce and Peone Rds. in Mead WA. From Division Street in Spokane drive north which is Hwy 395, turn right onto the Newport Highway which is Hwy 2 and continue north till you see Mt Spokane Park Dr. Turn east or right onto Mt Spokane Park Dr and continue about a mile then turn south or right onto Bruce Rd. The cemetery will be on your right in about a mile.

Earliest burial date - Aug 18, 1893 Earliest birth date - Apr 06, 1813 Last recorded burial - 2013 Records Index: Surnames A-D Surnames E-J Surnames K-Q Surnames R-Z

Spokane in 1940.

Having this wonderful postcard of Spokane in the 1940s, I got to thinking. What was Spokane like in the 1940s?? These were the war years and Spokane benefited greatly from helping in the war effort:

During World War II, Spokane was home to the Velox Naval Supply Depot, the massive Galena Army Air Corps supply and repair depot (later Fairchild AFB), Geiger Field, Fort George Wright, and the Baxter Army Hospital. In addition, two federally owned aluminum plants at suburban Mead and Trentwood proved crucial to the war effort. Some 15,000 Spokane residents served in the armed forces and many were employed in war-related industries.
(www.historylink.org)

Population of Spokane in 1930 was - 128, 795
Population of Spokane in 1940 was - 141,370
Population of Spokane in 1950 was - 161,721

So you see that our Lilac City had a manageable growth rate during these war years. Did your ancestors live in the area then??

June is the month for weddings, today as in days of yore.

This is a favorite photo of my maternal grandparents in as near-as-I-know their wedding photo. George Louis Gurney was in the U.S. Navy, stationed at the Great Lakes Naval Training Facility (in Michigan), preparing for World War I. Lucky for me, the war ended before his training did; he never served. He married Clara Magdalen Joseph in 1918. The purpose of this post is that sometimes our ancestors just got married; they had no "big deal" with special clothes, parties or ceremonies. 

Do you have a photo of your grandparent's wedding? What were they wearing?

Needing censuses for your Washington research?

If you're wanting and needing census information from the late 1800s until Washington became a state, they are available. The above heading was for a complete, full page, county by county, of what state censuses were taken for which counties and for which years.  Yes, most of these are for counties on the west side of the state. This is because the state was eagerly counting and re-counting its people waiting to reach the "magic number" of citizens that would qualify Washington for statehood. Spokane did have an 1885 and 1887 enumeration.