EWGS Presidents: Beatrice Cutler Mitcham

This is the twenty third in the series on the Presidents of EWGS leading up to the 75th anniversary in 2010. See the previous posts on Samuel Pool Weaver, Leora Cookingham Thiel, Susan Marie West Jack, Ruth Churchill Austin, Alfred Denman, Florence Ballou Brown, Harriet Jefferson Pinkham, Mary Elizabeth Dow Maltbie, Achsah Maltbie Rawlings, Lee DeGolyer Patchen, Susie Elliott Faubion, Edith Webb Nelson, Carrie Teats Lartigue, Guy Alfred Clumpner, Grace Ellis Woodward, Mabel Rue Frederick, Nell Hartman Peel, Edwin Allan Poole, Mabel Enid Rice Conrad, Helen Elizabeth Osborne Rowe, Dr. Herbert Hoover Osborne and Jane Merritt Logie Webster.

Beatrice Cutler Mitcham became EWGS President in the middle of 1970 when Jane Webster moved to Montana. Beatrice--known as "Boo" to her friends--continued on through 1971 as EWGS President. Beatrice was born in Spokane in 1914 to Truman Milton Cutler (born in Minnesota) and Beatrice Fairchild (born in Nebraska). Her parents were married in Hillyard March 18, 1908. Beatrice went to school in Spokane and married Clarence R. Gifford in Spokane December 29, 1934. They had two sons, Robert and Ronald Gifford.

On September 2, 1961 Beatrice Gifford married Clarence E. "Mitch" Mitcham. He was born May 1, 1901 in Peoria, Oklahoma Territory, son of John Belve and Mary Orlena (Allen) Mitcham. He moved with his family to Ritzville, Washington at age two, then to Turner Bay, Idaho and finally to Hayden Lake, Idaho in 1915. He worked in the mines in Philisburg, Montana and then moved to Spokane and worked for the Great Northern Railroad for 45 years. In 1922 he married Dorothy Ellen Benson and they had John, Bonnie, Barbara, Beverly and Clarence, Jr. In the 1930s he bought property near Mt. Spokane, established a sawmill and built their home. Nearby Mitch and his son John built the famous Mitcham Dance Hall, opening date July 2, 1938. Western Square Dancing was started in this area at this dance hall.

Both Beatrice and Clarence were enthusiastic genealogists and visited the Middle East and areas in the south to complete the book Meacham-Mitcham-Mitchum Families of the South. Clarence died March 6, 1977 and is buried at Spokane Memorial Gardens. Beatrice survived Clarence until March 26, 1994; she also is buried at Spokane Memorial Gardens.

Comments by Carrie Lartigue: "Mrs. Clarence (Boo) Mitcham served 1-1/2 years. Boo and her husband "Mitch" traveled thousands of miles, collecting data on their families. They also helped copy tombstone inscriptions when that project was going. Boo had several committee meetings at her home at the base of Mt. Spokane and donated 15 years worth of EWGS Bulletins to the society."

EWGS Presidents: Jane Merritt Logie Webster

This is the twenty second in the series on the Presidents of EWGS leading up to the 75th anniversary in 2010. See the previous posts on Samuel Pool Weaver, Leora Cookingham Thiel, Susan Marie West Jack, Ruth Churchill Austin, Alfred Denman, Florence Ballou Brown, Harriet Jefferson Pinkham, Mary Elizabeth Dow Maltbie, Achsah Maltbie Rawlings, Lee DeGolyer Patchen, Susie Elliott Faubion, Edith Webb Nelson, Carrie Teats Lartigue, Guy Alfred Clumpner, Grace Ellis Woodward, Mabel Rue Frederick, Nell Hartman Peel, Edwin Allan Poole, Mabel Enid Rice Conrad, Helen Elizabeth Osborne Rowe and Dr. Herbert Hoover Osborne.

Jane Merritt Loggie Webster was EWGS President for about half of 1970 before moving to Eureka, Montana. Jane was born August 4, 1902 in Menominee, Michigan, daughter of Alfred Ernest (1871-1946) and Isabella Sutherland (Milner) Logie (1872-1902). The Milners were from New York and Vermont and the Logies were from New Brunswick, Canada. Her mother died two months after Jane was born. Jane attended school in Illinois, graduating from nurses training at Waukegan. In 1938 she obtained a Certificate of Public Health Nursing from the University of Washington. Jane was the first county and school nurse in the San Juan Islands.

On May 27, 1939 in Mount Vernon, Washington she married Charles Franklin Webster, son of William Webster of Ontario, Canada and Clara Neussle of New York. This was the second marriage for both. Jane died May 30, 1986 at Opportunity Care Center. She had been a member of the DAR and had traced her Fay, Stanley and McIntire lines back to the Revolution. She was a very prolific author; when I did a Google Book Search for her it brought up three pages of books she authored or co-authored, including Logie Ancestry and Allied Lines by Jane Logie Webster and Jeanne Coe, and Robert Logie of New Brunswick. Both books are in the Spokane Public Library.

EWGS dues were raised this year to $5 for an individual and $7 for a married couple.

EWGS Presidents: Dr. Herbert Hoover Osborne

This is the twenty-first in the series on the Presidents of EWGS leading up to the 75th anniversary in 2010. See the previous posts on Samuel Pool Weaver, Leora Cookingham Thiel, Susan Marie West Jack, Ruth Churchill Austin, Alfred Denman, Florence Ballou Brown, Harriet Jefferson Pinkham, Mary Elizabeth Dow Maltbie, Achsah Maltbie Rawlings, Lee DeGolyer Patchen, Susie Elliott Faubion, Edith Webb Nelson, Carrie Teats Lartigue, Guy Alfred Clumpner, Grace Ellis Woodward, Mabel Rue Frederick, Nell Hartman Peel, Edwin Allan Poole, Mabel Enid Rice Conrad and Helen Elizabeth Osborne Rowe.

Herbert Hoover Osborn was EWGS President in 1968 and 1969. He was born in Utah in 1929 to Warren J. and Ruby (Twitchell) Osborn. Herbert went to school in Escalente, Utah and after graduation studied pre-dentistry at the University of Utah before finishing his studies at the University of Washington. In 1954 at the Temple at Salt Lake City, Utah, Herbert married Melba Gardiner. They had one daughter, Jane, and three sons: Paul, Brent and Bryan. Herbert was a member of the 12th Ward of the LDS Church and a seven-year member of the Central Valley School Board. He was a private in the Army in Seoul Korea as well as a guest lecturer at Seoul University and Yangtse University on gold crown dentistry. He was nominated as "Citizen of the Year" in 1984.

In 1968 when Herbert was EWGS President, EWGS was registered at the Courthouse and got a permanent mailing address. The EWGS newsletter became The Bulletin in September of 1969. In March of 1970 Dr. Osborn of the Genealogical Records Committee filmed the school Records from Cheney, Washington, which began about 1886. The committee also worked on Spokane County records, some dating back to 1865.
Dr. Osborn is still alive and is the earliest EWGS President still alive.

Comments by Carrie Lartigue: "1968: Dr. H.H. Osborn - who engineered good programs and always helps with the annual Workshop. He is especially informative in Migration Trails. (There is a six-page article by Dr. Osborn in the Bulletin archives). It was through Dr. Osborn that we were granted the use of LDS facilities. Also, we are grateful to him for microfilming many rolls of Spokane County records...mainly Deeds."

New Website for EWGS!

Have you heard? Eastern Washington Genealogical Society has a new website...a new address...and a new look! Check it out at http://www.ewgsi.org!

Our 3rd Vice President--and webmaster--Cecily Cone Kelly has done a wonderful job putting our content onto the new site, making it easy to use with a professional look. EWGS is using a customizable website shell built specifically for genealogy societies by EasyNetSites.com which takes a lot of the website building and design work off the webmaster, allowing him or her to concentrate on adding content and data instead.

At our general meeting on March 6th, Cecily demonstrated the great features of the site, including using the member area of the site. If you are a member of EWGS, your user name is the first letter of your first name, followed immediately by your last name. For instance, mine is MMidkiff.  The password is your five-digit ZIP code. After you log in, you can change your password to a secure one known only to yourself.

Cecily has agreed to highlight the website and personally walk you through the login process and membership area in next month's member computer class, on April 17th. You can sign up for this class by e-mailing me.

Our new website has content that is available and pertinent for anyone visiting it, whether or not they are a member of EWGS. Upcoming events, research tips, links, public downloads, a store where our publications can be purchased, library (links to our cataloged items in Spokane Public Library as well as a list of our uncatalogued items), and a surname list are all available now. Eventually, the Obituary Index will be placed on our site, and those who are researching ancestors who died in the Spokane area will be able to locate their names on it. A request for a copy of an obituary will be able to be made, with fees going to EWGS.

I encourage you to visit this site and let us know what you think!

EWGS Members at KSPS

This is a picture of several EWGS members taking pledges at our local PBS Station KSPS.
I did not get the names of three people, but those I did get names are Front Row: Jacque Lane, Charles Hansen, Janine Rowan, Jeanne Coe
Back Row: Dani Lee McGowan, Shirley Penna Oakes, Melody Hall, Dick Oakes, Keith Anderson, John Stuart,Sarah Wasicek, Donna Phillips and Cecily Kelly almost completely hidden in the back right. Sarah is not an EWGS member but sister to Mike Chandler who is an EWGS member.
We made the night a pot luck and got a lot of grazing done between answering phones. Collected about $16,500 for KSPS

The First Edition of the Carnival of Genealogical Societies is Published!

courtesy of the footnoteMaven

The First Edition of the Carnival of Genealogical Societies was published yesterday, March 10th at the California Genealogical Society and Library blog. The subject was Doin' Things Right! and there were 15 submissions, including two from EWGS bloggers Charles Hansen and Miriam Robbins Midkiff.

If you don't know what a blog carnival is, you're in for a treat! A carnival is an electronic publication, much like a magazine, which is all online. The articles (posts) written by different authors (bloggers) are published on the authors' own blogs, usually with a common theme (occasionally, everyone gets to pick their own theme, and this is called a "carousel" edition). The editor (host) then publishes the carnival (table of contents) on his or her blog, with links to each article. Each edition is like an issue of that magazine. There are numerous genealogy carnivals available online now; the lists can be viewed at Geneabloggers or at AnceStories' monthly Calendar of Events.

As mentioned above, the California Genealogical Society and Library blog, authored by Kathryn Doyle, is the first host of this new carnival. Kathryn has long been involved in the genealogy blogging world, but was frustrated that she could not include her society's blog in many of the genealogy carnivals, since they were personalized to writing about individuals' ancestors. The Carnival of Genealogical Societies was Kathryn's brainchild; a solution that allows genealogical societies to participate in their own carnival and publicize their societies to the Internet and the world!

I encourage you to read this first edition to learn about how EWGS and other societies are doin' it right by providing resources and working on projects, programs, and publications to serve the genealogical community.

EWGS Presidents: Helen Elizabeth Osborne Rowe

This is the twentieth in the series on the Presidents of EWGS leading up to the 75th anniversary in 2010. See the previous posts on Samuel Pool Weaver, Leora Cookingham Thiel, Susan Marie West Jack, Ruth Churchill Austin, Alfred Denman, Florence Ballou Brown, Harriet Jefferson Pinkham, Mary Elizabeth Dow Maltbie, Achsah Maltbie Rawlings, Lee DeGolyer Patchen, Susie Elliott Faubion, Edith Webb Nelson, Carrie Teats Lartigue, Guy Alfred Clumpner, Grace Ellis Woodward, Mabel Rue Frederick, Nell Hartman Peel, Edwin Allan Poole and Mabel Enid Rice Conrad.

Helen Elizabeth Osborne was born in Denver, Colorado May 2, 1909, the only child of George Washington Osborne and Nellie Drucilla Hardenbrook. Helen was living in Medford, Oregon when she met Newton Dow Rowe. They were married in Yreka, California July 8, 1939. Dow was a food broker in Medford and Helen served as bookkeeper. They continued their business after moving to Spokane in 1948. They owned and operated Empire Cheese Company, a distributorship for Borden Products. Dow died August 18, 1984 and was cremated.

Helen was EWGS President in 1966 and 1967. She organized the Library Helpers at the library and was vitally concerned that assistance be available to researchers there. She served as a Regent of Spokane Garry Chapter of the Daughters of American Revolution, was a member of the National Society of Colonial Dames XVII Century, the Order of Eastern Star, the Klix Kamera Klub, and the Dean's Guild of the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist. In the Spokesman-Review's December 30, 1979 Today's Living Section is a big article on Helen and her helping out at the library.

Helen died July 31, 1988 at Alderwood Manor and was cremated.

Comments by Carrie Lartigue: "1966 Mrs. Newton (Helen) Rowe. Helen was always vastly interested in Patriotic Organizations and became enthused with genealogy through work on lineage charts. She has helped dozens to join the DAR. It was she who started the HELPERS program...some experienced people to be at the Genie Room at the library each Wednesday (later changed to Thursday). They are to assist beginners in getting started, learn sources, etc. Now this service is still being offered. Carrie was one of the early helpers...and worked for nine years. A beautiful way to meet others of the same hobby and great satisfaction when you hear them exclaim, 'Eureka! I found it!'"

Editor Note: I started as a "Gene Helper" in the library in 1993. The library was in temporary quarters then in the old J.C. Penney's building kitty-corner from the present library while the new library was being built. My sister and I manned the second Thursday evenings each month from 6 to 9 PM when the library closed. In 1994 when the new library building opened, we moved across the street to the third floor of the new library building. I continued as a "Gene Helper" for five years and then got a chance to do research for EWGS.

Ancestry magazine....... last issue.

I have subscribed to Ancestry magazine since it began and have all the back issues neatly on my shelves......but they do not just collect dust, I use them for reference! And this week into my mail box comes sad, sad news. The March/April 2010 issue is the final issue of Ancestry Magazine. Cannot speak for you, but I will miss this consistently well-done venerable old publication.

Ancestry is going out with a shout! This issue was jam-packed with more good tips and good articles than ever. One outstanding article, "Project: Census," was a look at the conditions under which the enumerators labored to physically take the census. I learned lots from Mary Penner's article. Did you know that "from the very first federal census in 1790, Congress, anticipating reticent residents, instituted fines for people who failed to fork over information. ...... They were slapped with fines ranging from $5 to $100" if they were tight-lipped or noncompliant.

I guess we shall all now have to get our "Ancestry fix" from their website, their blog and their online newsletter. We will miss you, "paper" Ancestry, but we are confident that you will continue teaching us in the modes of the 22nd century.

Ancestry magazine....... last issue.

"Life During the Civil War" book

"Life During the Civil War" is an almost-brand-new book from the publishers of History Magazine (which also do Family Chronicle, Internet Genealogy, Discovering Family History). This 95-page book contains 27 chapters detailing all aspects of life during those turbulent Civil War times. Topics include: music, Zouaves, life in the army, sutler shops, army laudresses, rail travel, hotels, newspapers, medical treatment and typical food of both armies. For only $9.95, plus p/h, you can order this by calling toll tree 1-888-326-2476.

I've never enjoyed such a readable discussion of the simple every-day aspects of army life....how did they fry hardtack? What was the average pay scale? How did families stay in touch with two countries and two systems of postal stamps? This book was a very good read!

AND, as a plus, there are pictures of clothing which might be useful for those of us participating in the "Dining with the Dead" activity in July. When you call, tell 'em Donna sends you.

The Obituary Index

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Eastern Washington Genealogical Society member Carol West Nettles about the Obituary Project that EWGS volunteers have been working on for the past two years. I asked how the project got started. Carol told me that someone suggested to her when she was 3rd Vice President that our society ought to have an obituary index that could be placed online for people around the globe to access. (Third Vice President of EWGS is in charge of the committees of the library volunteers, extractions, and historian.)

There are numerous collections of obituaries in the downtown branch of the Spokane Public Library. Besides the most well-known--the Patchen File in the Genealogy Room, which fellow EWGS team blogger Charles Hansen wrote about here--there are copies of obituaries that Charles located while doing lookups in his duties as society researcher, and there is a scrapbook of more in the Northwest Room. Carol said that they started indexing with the Patchen File as it was the most obvious beginning place. Currently, there are 112 drawers in the Patchen File card catalog; however, many of the cards do not contain obituaries, but are indexes to local histories, as Charles mentioned in his post. Currently, a little more than half of the obituaries from the Patchen File have been indexed by about 10 volunteers. These range from about 1910 to about 1994.

When completed, the Obituary Index will be placed online on our new website at http://www.ewgsi.org for anyone with Internet access to locate. This will be helpful information for those with Eastern Washington roots. They will be able to access the index and then can contact Charles to photocopy the obituary for a small fee which will benefit the society.

When I asked Carol if she was in need of more volunteers, she said, "Absolutely!"  Besides needing people to index the information (training is quick and painless!), she will need volunteers to do checkups and corrections once the files have been completed. Some people prefer to work in teams: one person reading the pertinent information from the card, while the other person keys it into the database. Indexing must be done in the genealogy room, either from the society computers or on your own laptop. However you choose to help, you can contact Carol here or call her (number is in the member directory).

Written for the 1st Edition of the Carnival of Genealogical Societies.

History of the Patchen File

Most older people will recognize the card file in the picture with Lee Patchen. Lee joined EWGS in 1946 out of curiosity about his ancestors. EWGS formerly met in the magazine storage room in the basement of the old main library--the Carnegie building on Cedar street. They had access to books on genealogy, but unlike other such libraries that Lee had visited, there was no card index of surnames and genealogical information. The public library could not budget funds for organizing of such an index; so Lee decided to do something about it. He started his cataloging work for the library in 1948 and went through many volumes, page by page.

One of the volumes was a bulky History of Spokane County published by the Reverend Jonathan Edwards in 1900. There were about 8,500 names mentioned, and Lee catalogued all of them. Later volumes of this book were printed with Lee's index, and I guess all those cards have been removed from the Patchen file as they are not there today.

A History of the Big Bend Country, published in 1904, yielded more than 18,000 names for his index.
Over a five year period, Lee indexed all the articles pertaining to family names in a 37 volume, Americana, a quarterly historical and genealogical magazine that last published in 1943 by the American Historical Society of New York.

The index cards contain references to articles about people and families. The cards (each 3" x 5") include data like birth date, where person lived, where he died, to whom he was married, and his parents names. I guess he finished indexing all the books in the genealogy section of the library so then he started cutting out obits from the newspaper pasting the obit on a card and typing the name of the person and when it appeared in the newspaper for each obit. He also made a card for each person listed in the obit. By the time he died in 1970, his card index contained over 200,000 index cards and Lee had personally done about 90 percent of them. EWGS then kept cutting out obits and placing them in the card file till the end of 1979. So now there are over 220,000 cards. From 1980 to 1994 the obits were either cut out and placed in a book (each with its own index) or EWGS just indexed all the obits in the newspapers for that year with the page number(s) to find that obit in the newspaper microfilms.

Most of this information was gathered from the "Patchen Memorial Booklet" done by EWGS in 1970 after Lee Patchen had died. I also wrote a post on Lee Patchen who was EWGS President in 1951 and in 1961.

Written for the 1st Edition of the Carnival of Genealogical Societies.

An Important Message From U.S. Census Bureau Director Robert M. Groves

Are you up for the "Take 10" challenge?
On behalf of the U.S. Census Bureau, we are asking our partners to join us in making history by helping to boost the mail back participation rates across the Nation and in your community during the 2010 Census.
During each Decennial Census, the Census Bureau undertakes the count of every person residing in the United States, as mandated by Article 1, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution. To encourage everyone to take 10 minutes to answer the 10 simple questions on the 2010 Census form, we are launching the "Take 10" campaign. Through "Take 10," you can visit http://2010.census.gov/2010census/take10map/ to get updates on the proportion of households that have mailed back the 2010 Census forms. You also will be able to view differences between your community's participation rates and those of neighboring communities or other areas across the country.

The "Take 10" Challenge - Tools to Inspire the Mail Back Participation Rates for the 2010 Census
During the 2000 Census, 72 percent of occupied households mailed back their forms. In 2010, we are challenging communities to do even better. The Census Bureau's "Take 10" campaign gives you a wide range of tools to inspire your community to meet our challenge. These include:

• An interactive, map-based, "Take 10" Web site that allows local areas to track and compare their 2010 Census mail back participation rates, which will be updated on a daily basis at http://2010.census.gov/2010census/take10map/, and to look up their 2000 Census participation rates.
• An electronic toolkit is available which includes talking points, sample speeches, new releases, newsletter copy, event suggestions, flyers, stickers, and doorknob hanger templates, and more.
• Suggestions on how to use friendly competition with other communities to inspire participation in the census.

You can play an important leadership role in encouraging your community to mail back their forms. Most 2010 Census questionnaires are delivered from March 15-17, 2010. From the time the forms are delivered until the closing of the mail campaign at the end of April, you have the opportunity to remind your area residents of the importance of mailing back their census forms. We believe that you can encourage participation through speeches, special events, and challenges.
The stakes are high; an accurate count of the local population helps to ensure that your community receives its fair share of federal funding. This funding includes resources for services, such as health care, education, and roads.


Your constituents must complete and mail back their census forms between March 15, 2010 and April 15, 2010. The good news is that the 2010 Census questionnaire is one of the shortest in history-just 10 questions that only take about 10 minutes to complete. We hope we can count on you to encourage participatation in the 2010 Census. Visit http://2010.census.gov/2010census/take10map/ now to see your area's 2000 Census mail participation rate and check the site daily for updates beginning March 22


The 2010 Census: It's in our Hands.
Sincerely,
Robert M. Groves
Director
U.S. Census Bureau

Hoover Dam Workers & Pioneer Families Database CD

This may seem crazy to post HERE, but hubby and I just returned from hiking in Death Valley and taking a tour of Hoover Dam (avoiding Las Vegas mostly). In the Hoover Dam gift shop, I just had to purchase this: "Hoover Dam Construction Workers & Pioneer Families of Boulder City Nevada."

This CD is a database of 4400+ pages "detailing names and source documents where articles on each person will be found. The information for the Workers & Pioneer families include (where available) the following for each person: Name of construction worker or pioneer family member; wife's maiden name; children's names; relationships between Worker and Pioneer Family members; alias or nicknames; alternate spelling found for names; employers and job performed and quick reference detailing source documents where additional information on each individual will be found. Additional sections include Companies, Businessmen and Government Officials associated with the planning and construction of Hoover Dam and the Boulder Canyon Project." Cost was only $19.95.

Not at all sure what I will do with this wonderful disc.......... maybe YOU have some ideas for me? I'm pretty sure that none of my ancestors worked on Hoover Dam..... maybe yours??

EWGS Presidents: Mabel Enid Rice Conrad

This is the nineteenth in the series on the Presidents of EWGS leading up to the 75th anniversary in 2010. See the previous posts on Samuel Pool Weaver, Leora Cookingham Thiel, Susan Marie West Jack, Ruth Churchill Austin, Alfred Denman, Florence Ballou Brown, Harriet Jefferson Pinkham, Mary Elizabeth Dow Maltbie' Achsah Maltbie Rawlings, Lee DeGolyer Patchen, Susie Elliott Faubion, Edith Webb Nelson, Carrie Teats Lartigue' Guy Alfred Clumpner, Grace Ellis Woodward, Mabel Rue Frederick, Nell Hartman Peel and Edwin Allan Poole.

Mabel Enid Rice was born in Spokane March 14, 1908 to Ernest and Martha (Pursche) Rice. She graduated from North Central High School. She worked as a fashion model and was one of the first women passengers in a biplane that took off from Felts Field. She was skilled in knitting, hat making, lamp shade making, crocheting, dress designing and interior decorating.

Apparently she did not like her given name Mabel so she used her middle name Enid. Enid was EWGS President in 1965 when dues were $3 for an individual or $5 for couples. Enid was a member of Spokane Garry Chapter of the DAR, the Mayflower Society, the San Antonio Company of the Jamestown Society and the Huguenot Society. She died April 23, 2001 after being mishandled by a local nursing home. Enid's official cause of death was pneumonia but it was caused by repeated trauma to her body. Her husband sued the nursing home and received a $4.8 million verdict against them.

In 1933 Enid married Edwone Wafford Conrad, son of Edwone and Rosiana (Unobt) Conrad. I checked the Spokane Chronicle online at Google News for Edwone and came up blank, but when I checked for Wafford Conrad I got hundreds of hits. He was the mining editor for the Spokane Chronicle and as such wrote hundreds of articles on mining in the Coeur d'Alene area. He is still listed in our current phone book, so as far as I can tell is the oldest living spouse of an EWGS President.

E. Wafford Conrad just passed away at age 102 and his service was  November 19, 2012 at Heritage Funeral Home and he was buried in Greenwood Memorial Terrace Cemetery