Obituary For Common Sense

 *An Obituary printed in the London* *Times.....Absolutely Dead Brilliant!!*  (Especially appropriate for end of year.) 

Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as:

- Knowing when to come in out of the rain;
- Why the early bird gets the worm;
- Life isn't always fair;
- And maybe it was my fault.

Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not children, are in charge).

His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.

Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children.

It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an aspirin to a student; but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.

Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims.

Common Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault.

Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.

Common Sense was preceded in death,
-by his parents, Truth and Trust,
-by his wife, Discretion,
-by his daughter, Responsibility,
-and by his son, Reason.

He is survived by his 5 stepbrothers;
- I Know My Rights
- I Want It Now
- Someone Else Is To Blame
- I'm A Victim
- Pay me for Doing Nothing

Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone.

If you still remember him, pass this on. If not, join the majority and do nothing.

A Very "Fudgey" Tombstone

 

 

Fudge tombstone:  Every has a favorite fudge recipe, I’d bet. There is a tombstone  in Utah reflecting that “she took her fudge recipe with her.” It’s engraved upon her tombstone!! (A video story about this most unusual marker can be viewed on YouTube.) 

What do you want engraved upon your tombstone???

Christmas Tree Images..... Just For Fun

 

Christmas In Spokane In The 1880s

 Christmas in Spokane in the 1880s.

According to a column by Dorothy Powers in The Spokesman back in December 1983, “not many marks of Christmas seen around Spokane today were present (during) those first years Spokane celebrated Christmas.” There were no shimmering recycled aluminum trees, no ho-ho-hoing Santas in downtown stores and no carols pealing from downtown carillons and no bustling crowds, she added.

Spokane had one its first Christmas celebrations in 1874. “Notwithstanding the drawbacks of securing anything but the barest necessaries of life, it was resolved that winter to celebrate the holidays in the most elaborate manner at the command of the little community.”  And a good time was had by all despite “being in one of the most isolated regions in the West.”

“Spokane was but a frontier village way back in 1883. There were only a few excuses for stores with stocks limited to bare necessities. Buying gifts for youngsters in 1883 proved almost impossible. The very few stores had made no provision for Christmas and there was no trinket of any kind that would appeal to children.”

By 1878, there was a celebration drawing 25 guests in the Glover mansion “which was a five-room place, half logs and half boards. The weather was mild….we sang Christmas carols. Mrs. Glover played the organ and afterwards she served refreshments of cake, coffee and apples (which came from Oregon).”

In another Spokesman article, dated 27 Dec 1964, an article by Edith Boyd appeared. She had come to Spokane in 1884 and was the 1964 “Pioneer Woman of the Year.”  She remembered and wrote “in all our churches this Christmas observance was typical, a time of mystery and joyous excitement. At All Saints Church on First & Jefferson Streets, where I belonged, we followed the general pattern. The rector brought a not-too-big fir tree and branches of fir and cedar from his ranch away out on the Little Spokane River to help decorate the chapel. We gathered in the cold little room and made wreaths and garlands to hang on the bare walls until they looked festive.

All Saints was then only a mission church and had no money for spending, so all gifts and trimmings were donated by the parents. We girls of the Sunday School went to the home of our teacher and strung popcorn and cranberries and made little boot-shaped bags of colored tarleton to be filled with candy and hung on the tree. The little candles that lighted that tree glowed and flickered with a beauty no electric bulbs can equal now-a-days. Lest a candle fall or lean over and start a blaze, a young man stood guard with snuffers and a bowl of water but never was there a bit of trouble.”

What was Christmas like for you as a child? What do you think it was like for YOUR parents and/or grandparents? 

 

Our Spokesman In 1921 & Our Davenport Hotel

 

Having the need to look at the Spokesman for an article published back in 1921, I signed into www.Newspapers.com.......... And used up a whole hour just browsing! The paper was, I'd guess, a good 50% advertisements. No surprise; there was no TV for stores to get the word out. Sure was fun to browse those old ads. 

First thing I noted was the header: “The Twice-A-Week Farmer’s Family Newspaper.” Doesn’t that imply that Spokane was a community primarily of farmers?? And do look carefully at the logo………… it’s all about farming.

And yet, it was just seven years previously, in 1914, that our fabulous Davenport Hotel opened its doors!  We know how luxurious that Old Lady was (and still is). Thinking about those two seemingly contrasting things really fired up my interest even more in Spokane's history. 

** I have an 11x8 folder containing 14 pages of the history of the Davenport. It's not dated but I think it was a promotional handout of some sort published by the Friends of the Davenport. I did check with Anna Harbine at the MAC and they already have several copies of this. If any of you would like to have this, just let me know. Tiz up for grabs.                        

Elderberries: Fruit Of Our Ancestors

 

Elderberries.  They grow in the wild and are not usually cultivated. Maybe you’ve had elderberry wine?  According to an older issue of True West magazine, “elderberries were popular on the frontier and were used in multiple ways. Both the snowy white flowers and deep dark berries were made into medicine, syrup, tea, jam and jelly, pie, wine, brandy and even ink!” But not everybody like elderberries. An editorial in a an old California paper stated,” If nature has created anything we heartily dislike, it’s that obtrusive, intruding elderberry (bush). And then such fruit it bears! We would as soon eat wild ground cherries. Adding to the annoyance was the fact that the leaves and roots are toxic as are the berries unless they’re cooked.”  The article carried a recipe for Elderberry Cough Syrup:

“1 cup elderberries, 1 ¼ cups water, 1 cup molasses, 4 TB brandy; wash and clean the berries; place everything into a saucepan and gently boil for 20 minutes. Cool and place into a glass container and use as needed; store in the refrigerator to extend life and keep fresh.” Do you think it would work??

Do remember: Our ancestors made do with what they had, what was around them and learned to live with less. 

Charlotte Sullivan's Military Presentation Handout

 On this day, December 7th, a somber day in U.S. history, we genealogists pause to think on "military history." We want to learn the stories of our ancestors' military service so to remember and honor them.  EWGS member, Charlotte Sullivan, provided this handout to accompany her presentation some months ago. In case you missed it, here it is:

Various Sources for World War II and Korean War Military Records

Charlotte McCoy Sullivan

 

General:

·         National Archives – archives.gov/veteran (to request veteran records)

·         Air Force Historical Research Agency - https://www.afhra.af.mil/

·         Air Force Historical Research site - http://airforcehistoryindex.org/search.php (order docs from here)

·         Historical Atlas of World War II – there are several and useful - as are maps in general

·         Google everything!

 

World War II General:

·         Carter, Kit and Robert Mueller, U.S. Air Forces in World War II – Combat Chronology 1941-1945 (daily recap of all Air Force activity worldwide)

·         Miller, Donald, Masters of the Air

·         Overy, Richard, The Bombers and the Bombed (Allied air war over Europe)

·         Steinbeck, John, Bombs Away (WW II promotional about a B-17 Crew)

 

World War II Squadron/Unit Specific:

·         _____, http://www/303rdbg.com (303rd Bomb Group website)

·         _____, http://reddog1944.com (487^th Bomb Squadron and others)

·         Atkinson, Rick, The Day of the Battle (Sicily, but his other 2 books are also excellent)

·         Bowman, Martin, The Mighty Eighth at War (8^th Air Force)

·         Deerfield, Eddie, Hell’s Angel’s Newsletters, V I-III. (303^rd Bomb Group).

·         Johnson, Richard, Twenty-five Milk Runs (and a Few Others), (303^rd Bomb Group)

·         Wilson, Kevin, Blood and Fears (8^th Air Force)

 

Korean War General:

·         _____, Steadfast and Courageous: FEAF Bomber Command and the Air War in Korea, 1950-1953.

·         Endicott, Judy, The USAF in Korea: Campaigns, Units and Stations, 1950 – 1953.

·         Fehrenbach, T. R., This Kind of War (a lot about the Army)

 

Korean War Squadron/Unit Specific:

·         Costelllo, Ron, Diary of a Tail Gunner (343^rd Bomb Squadron, Yokota Air Force Base)

·         Hudder, Vernon, R., The Brush of Angel Wings (98^th Bomb Wing, Yokota Air Force Base)

 

EWGS December Program---Another Winner

 

Are you ready to learn why we kiss under the mistletoe at Christmas time? And does mistletoe have white or red berries..... 0r both? And won't it be fun to learn about Santa's sleigh? Thanks to all who planned and executed that wonderful meeting.

I really truly hate to burst your bubble but despite what the can states, Libby's pumpkin is NOT technically pumpkin?? It's a strain of Dickenson squash which is thicker and creamier; the FDA did say it's okay to call it pumpkin. What do you think? Do you care? (And, by the by, canned pumpkin is yummy and safe for dogs.)

EWGS December Meeting Is Always a Gift To Members

 

  

So sad that we won't be meeting in person again for our fabulous December meeting. We wanted to have an in-person Ugly Sweater Contest.......but guess that will wait until 2022.  But for some EWGS Christmas cheer, don't miss our December meeting.

Spokane Valley Heritage Museum........ Visited There Yet?

 A field trip to the Spokane Valley Heritage Museum will be a treat for your genealogy minds, I guarantee.  This is especially so if you live in the Spokane Valley. Note that they are opened "year round, Wednesday through Saturday." Good cold-day get-a-way for sure.  Maybe a post-Thanksgiving outing?????

     

    

Scotch, Scottish and Scots-Irish.... Know the Difference?

 

This wonderful bit comes from the Family Tree Magazine blog for 

10 September 2021. This blog always contains “good stuff.”

A question posted to the above blog: "A 1755 Virginia militia Muster roll has "Scotch," "Scottish," "Irish," and "English" as places of origin. Is "Scotch" always short for Scotch-Irish or might Scotch and Scottish be used interchangeably?"

Answer: Although the Oxford English Dictionary states that "Scotch-Irish" was first used in 1744, nearly the time of your militia roll, earlier examples abound. The first known colonial reference appears in Maryland in 1689. From 1717 until the American Revolution, more than a quarter-million "Scotch-Irish" immigrated to North America...but keep in mind they came from Ireland, not Scotland.

They descended from about 200,000 Scottish Lowland Presbyterians who relocated to Ulster, in northern Ireland, with the encouragement of the Protestant British government. Britain hopes the Scottish "plantations" would tighten its grip on mostly Catholic Ireland.

When they migrated again across the Atlantic, these ethnic Scots from Ulster were typically referred to as Irish, given their most recent home for as much as a century. It was only after large-scale Irish migration began that these Protestants widely adopted the "Scotch" (or "Scots") qualifier, to distinguish themselves from the new Catholic arrivals. Eventually, nearly two million "Scotch-Irish" left Ulster for North America.

The term Scotch-Irish, though common in the U.S., is all but unknown in England, Scotland and Ireland. Today, the people of Scotland prefer the terms Scottish and Scots, using Scotch exclusively to refer to whiskey. We can only guess what the recorders of your 1755 muster roll might have been thinking, but it's certainly possibly that both Scotch and Irish referred to what we not call "Scotch-Irish." Indeed, given the era and these immigrants' recent history, Irish was probably the preferred term; only a few Irish from outside Ulster had arrived by 1755.

 

History of the Railroad Caboose

 

Last September I visited EWGS past president and long-time friend, Dale Hastin, who now lives in Denver, Colorado. We spent a delightful day at the Colorado Railroad Museum........... I was in this very caboose!

Dale drove us south to visit the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden, CO. This museum has over 100 railroad cars of various types, mostly donated by a collector in Arizona who began collected narrow-gage cars when the railroads switched to wider gage.  I took a tour of several cabooses and learned the fascinating history of the caboose from Phil Smith, a long-time volunteer. And he’d worked on the railroad in his past so he was very knowledgeable. First thing he taught us was never to step ON the rails but always between the rails. Also, who is in charge of the trail, the engineer or conductor? The latter.

Why are there no cabooses on trains now? Technology. The rear-end car to watch the rails behind and the cars in front where men perched in the cupola of the caboose was replaced in the 1970s by FRED. This was a rear-end device that computer monitors everything and is a better safety device. This replaced two brakeman and even the conductor, who used to ride in the caboose, now rides up with the engineer.

Cabooses in days of yore were twenty or less cars so the caboose fellows had a good view of all the cars. (Nowadays they can be up to 200 cars!)

The earliest cabooses were empty box cars at the end of the train. This car contained a desk (for the conductor) and the many and various tools for the brakemen. There might be bunks (for resting between runs), a stove for heat and cooking. Initially a hole in the caboose roof was cut and the brakeman stood on boxes to see the train. In 1860 a cupola was introduced to better be able to watch the train. Each car carried two workers: a flagman and a brakeman.

Before air brakes, it was the job of the brakeman and flagman to run back and forth on the top of the train, hopping from car to car, hand setting the brake on each car, day or night, rain or shine. This was a dangerous job indeed. A federal law was passed by 1900 that all trains would have air brakes. Of course they squawked because it was expensive and cheaper to hire new men to replace those killed or maimed. Why would any man want to be a brakeman? It was the beginning career step to be a conductor. And remember that the only means of communication between the engine and caboose was voice, hand signals or lanterns.

The age of a particular caboose can be best guessed by the placement of the cupola….. front, end or middle. If you wish to know more about cabooses and their history, just do a Google search.

Phil Smith ended our tour with these words:  “As in everything, technology and computers have replaced men over time and a better and safer job is done. Steam engines and cabooses are now history,” he added nostalgically.

Would you guess that Washington has 70 Native American-origin place names?

Would you ever have guessed that there are over 70 town names in Washington that come from Native American words??  

Recently I enjoyed a browse through The Atlas of the North American Indian, by Carl Waldman, first published in 1985 and updated in 2009. I found the pages explaining the Northwest Indians and their culture to be so interesting.

One unexpected thing I gleaned from this book was a list of place names in Washington that are of native origins. Could you have come up with this list of 73 places?? (The list does include two names of French derivation.)

“TN” denotes a tribal-origin name. Places were tribal names, chief’s names, or of Indian derivation. For some names, the tribe was designated and for others it was not. Sometimes the meaning was given and sometimes not.

Anatone – TN

Asotin – Nez Perce “elk creek”

Cathlamet – TN

Chehalis – TN “sand”

Chewelah – TN

Chimacum – TN

Chinook – TN

Clallam – TN “big brave nation”

Conconully – TN “cloudy”

Copalis – TN

Cowlitz – TN “power”

Ilwaco – Chief El-Wah-ko-Jim

Entiat – TN “rapid water”

Kalotus – TN “hole in the ground”

Kittitas – TN “shoal people”

Klickitat – TN “beyond”

Latah – Nez Perce “place of pines”

Methow – TN

Moclips – Quinault “place where girls were sent during puberty rites”

Napavine – TN “small prairie”

Naselle – TN

Nespelem – TN

Nisqually – TN

Okanogan – TN “meeting place”

Omak – TN

Palouse – TN “grassy expanse”

Pend Oreille – French; “ear pendants”

Potlach – TN “give”

Puyallup – TN “generous people”

Queets – TN

Quilcene – TN

Quillayute – TN

Quinault – TN

Sanpoil – TN

Seattle – Chief Sealth

Selah – TN “still water”

Sequim – TN “quiet water”

Simcoe – TN “waist spine”

Similk – TN

Skagit – TN

Skamania – TN “swift water”

Skamokawa – Chief name

Skykomish – TN “inland people”

Snohomish – TN

Snoqualmie – TN “moon”

Spokane – TN “people of the sun”

Stehekin – TN “pass”

Steilacoom – Chief name

Sultan – Chief name

Suquamish – TN

Tacoma – TN “mountain god”

Tenino – TN

Tieton – TN “roaring water”

Toppenish – TN

Touchet – French; “fire cured salmon”

Toutle – TN

Tucannon – TN “bread root”

Tukwila – TN “land of hazelnuts”

Tulalip – TN “by with small mouth”

Tumwater – TN “heart”

Twisp – TN

Wahkiakum – Chief name

Walla Walla – TN “little river”

Washtucna – Chief name

Waukon – Chief name

Wauna – TN “spout creature”

Wenatchee – TN “river from canyon”

Whatcom – Chief name

Willapa – TN

Yacolt – TN “haunted place”

Yakima – TN “growing families" 

 

 

Thomas MacEntee Teaches EWGS Again

Thomas MacEntee ZOOMed to EWGS from Chicago for our Fall Workshop on November 2, 2021. He quipped, about his hometown: "Chicago, where many are cold but few are frozen." 

He shared four presentations with us:

• Smarter Search Strategies for Genealogy
• Brick Wall Breakthroughs
• Turning Genealogy Clues into Genealogy To Dos
• Did I Get Everything? A Checklist for Online Research

Thomas provided a 3 or 4 page handout to accompany each presentation. If you have a copy, grab it from the pile and read it, take notes and DO IT........meaning follow some of Thomas' suggestions. 

Isn't that why we attend these meetings????? To learn and then do and then rejoice??

If you don't have a copy of those handouts, we'll get them to you. Contact me: Donna243@gmail.com

 

Obituary Indexing Crew at the MAC.......... finding "goodie" names too.

 

Most Friday mornings, you'll find Jeanne Coe, Lynda Keenan, Duane Beck, Lynn Krogh, Patricia Flint and Donna Phillips (behind the camera) at the MAC archives. We're on the home stretch of indexing the obituaries found in 25 big file drawers of Pacific Northwest biographies. As we have good times with this project, we often find SUCH interesting names and other stuff:

• Elvetta Lewis
• Nicholas Likarish
• Ozias Lewis
• Halaha Lewis (wife)
• Sonji Rutan's mother's obituary!
• Many lengthy 1920s newspaper stories of pioneer history

We've also opened biography envelopes for Abraham Lincoln and some others that we wonder why they're included at our MAC. 

Thought you'd like to know that a sub-project of EWGS is coming along splendidly. 

Was your ancestor a cooper or a cobbler? Join EWGS on Nov 6th to learn about the occupations of YOUR ancestors.

 

Was your ancestor a cooper or a cobbler? Both were important occupations in Colonial America.

  

During the EWGS program on November 6^th, we will learn about the occupations of our ancestors, thanks to Ann Lawthers coming to us via ZOOM.  Hope you’ll click in to join us………. Link will be posted on our website. Virtually see you there!

Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge........... first there were homesteaders!

 

Have you ever taken a scenic drive five miles south of Cheney to Turnbull NWR? While it's a delightful place to drive, walk, bike ride or jog.......... and a fantastic place to photograph wildlife, there is much genealogy history there.

Turnbull NWR is named for Cyrus Turnbull who squatted on what is now the Refuge for six years before giving up........ as many of the original settlers did. Turnbull then was a marshy, swampy area, great for growing grass........... about 1900 there were 200 dairies in the area and WWP built a special electric railway to haul the milk to Spokane for processing.  Despite the settlers valiant efforts to dig drainage ditches (6-feet deep and wide through basalt!!) the area was just not suitable for wheat or corn farming. So many of the settlers went elsewhere. 

Now the homestead sites might be spotted by looking for old lilac bushes and apple trees. Only a few scattered rock foundations remain. 

There were several dozen families that attempted to settle the Turnbull area and descendants are now scattered far and wide. If you have local ancestry, perhaps your ancestor was an original Turnbull homesteader???

Who was Whist-alks? Why did they rename Ft. George Wright drive?

 

We've referenced "forever" that Spokane Falls Community College was west of town on Ft. Wright Dr. So how come they changed the name of this thoroughfare??

Col. George Wright was not a hero to everybody and one heinous thing he did stands out. In September 1858, he called for a "peace meeting" and invited all the local chiefs, 7 in all. Once assembled, and at gunpoint, the chiefs were all hanged. This was Wright's idea of enforcing the peace. Chief Qualchan was among those seven. His wife, Whist-alks, escaped. 

Qualchan is "memoralized" by a nearby golf course named for him.  His wife was Whist-alks and the name of the road going through old Fort George Wright, past SFCC, was changed to honor her.

Now you know.   How do you feel about it knowing the full story? 

Cathloic Presence in Spokane County

 The cornerstone for Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Cathedral in Spokane was laid on 28 Jun 1903 and was competed and dedicated in 1908. While it was not the first Catholic church or presence in the area, it became "the light shining forth" and the twin 164-foot steeples "soared to the glory of God."  (Children of the Sun: Catholic Diocese of Spokane 1913-2013)

 Browsing through this wonderful history book, with many color photographs, I noted especially the history and number of churches/parishes in Spokane. What a wonderful legacy of faith!

                    1890 - St. Joseph

                    1892 -  St. Aloysius/Gonzaga

                    1904 - St. Ann

                    1909 - St. Patrick

                    1909 - St. Francis Xavier

                    1910 - St. Anthony/Holy Ghost

                    1912 - St. Mary

                    1913 - Sacred Heart

                    1916 - St. Paschal

                    1916 - St. Francis of Assisi

                    1949 - St. John Vianney

                    1950 - St. Augustine

                    1956 - St. Peter

                    1956 - Our Lady of Fatima

                    1958 - Mary Queen

                    1958 - St. Thomas More

                    1959 - Assumption of Blessed Virgin

                    1961 - St. Charles Bohromeo

                    1980 - Sts. Cyril and Methodius, Byzantine (Spokane Valley)

Northeast Washington Genealogy Society marks 40 years!

 

September 2021 – I met with the NeWGS (Northeast WA Gen Soc) this month as they marked their 40^th anniversary. The group of 20 met in the city park for cupcakes and ice cream and for President Susan Dechant to share the history of NeWGS.  (Susan has been president for 23 of the 40 years the group has been in existence; that’s dedication. Treasurer Sue Witham has been treasurer for 25 years!!)

The group was organized in 1981 when Susan placed an ad in the Colville paper; ten budding genealogists came. NeWGS was formally organized in Sept 1981. In 1985 they began publishing Pioneer Branches which finally ceased publication in 2016. The years 1981 through 2016 saw the group hosting several national speakers (Heritage Quest Roadshow, Evertons, Dollarhide, Schweitzer, Bremer) and publishing many volumes of local records. They were an active and eager group!

As Susan sat on a picnic table and told the NeWGS story, many of those named in the narrative were present…. So many in that group became active and have stayed so.

NeWGS is the legal custodian of Evergreen Cemetery there in Colville. The group has spent hours sprucing the grounds and making headstones where ones are missing. (Member Lora Rose is a cement expert J ) 

The group’s website was launched in Dec 1999; they began a page on Facebook in 2015. Their last in-person meeting was Mar 2020 (thank you COVID) but meetings have continued via ZOOM. Susan reported that by Oct 2020 the group had 491,000 entries in various local databases and the group intends to keep finding and adding more.

Susan ended the anniversary party by saying, “We’ve been a busy bunch for 40 years. We accomplished lots of good stuff. And we’re still having fun! But hasn’t our way of researching changed in these past 40 years,” a truism we all applauded along with a standing ovation for Susan’s nearly three decades of leadership of the Northeast Washington Genealogical  Society.

 

Washington State History: Want to know more?

 

Spokane, in Washington State, might not be your ancestral home but it is your NOW-home. Would you like to learn more of Spokane's most interesting history? Here are links for learning:

** www.historylink.org - "the free online encyclopedia of Washington state history" with nearly 8000 articles now available.

** www.spokanehistorical.org - maintained by EWU professor, Larry Cebula, this is "a web and mobile platform for telling stories of Spokane and Eastern Washington."

** YouTube has a good dozen or more videos concerning Spokane history. One particularly good one, dating back to 1969, was "Spokane: First 100 Years," by Robert Pryor. 

** I also enjoyed these: 

     * Remembering Spokane, a KSPS Documentary

     * Chief Spokane Garry

     *  Kiss of Death: Remembering Liberty Park

NOW with that idea in your head, wouldn't you guess that there were history-explaining-exploring websites on your ancestral place???

Old Farmer's Almanac: Part 2

 

Besides tidbits of "Jeopardy trivia," the Old Famer's Almanac always contains Words of Wisdom; here are a few:

** Do good if you expect to receive it.

** Gratitude preserves old friendships and procures new ones.

** He who prizes little things is worth of great ones.

** Action is the proper fruit of knowledge.
** Every light is not the sun.

** Luck comes to those who look for it.

** The morning is wiser than the evening.

** Kindness, like grain, increases by sowing.

** Patience is a flower that grows not in every garden.

** Deliver your words not by number but by weight.

** Mirth and motion prolong life.

** Better untaught than ill-taught.

AND best of all:  Definition of a mosquito: A syringe with wings.

Just thought you'd enjoy some "warm fuzzies" once in a while.

Old Farmer's Almanac: An Oldie But Goodie, Part 1

Just for fun while grocery shopping, I picked up a copy of the Old Famer's Almanac. SUCH a delightful read! Here are some trivia facts I learned:

** The computer mouse was patented in Nov 1970

** NORAD began to track Santa Claus in 1955

** The last old-style VW Beetle left the plant in 1978

** The Yankees bought 10acres in Bronx for a stadium in 1921

** The Tootsie Roll was introduced in 1896

** The first U.S. weather report broadcast was in 1921

**  Coca-Cola goes on sale in Atlanta in 1886

** An alligator fell from the sky during a hurricane in Charleston, SC, in 1843

** The U.S. Federal Income Tax was imposed in 1861

** Walt Disney World opened in Orlando in 1971

** Love Me Tender, Elvis' first movie, debuted in 1956

** A 5.6 pound avocado set a new world record, Kahului, HI, 2018

Remember these when you decide to audition for Jeopardy!

 

Whitman County Genealogical Society's Library Is OPEN!

 

Well, we don't have an EWGS library to use, and the Family History Library in Utah is a long way away, but it's only 75 miles south to Pullman and the Whitman County Genealogical Society library.

AND the really good news is that thanks to member, Janet Damm, their holdings list is available on their website!  I downloaded that list, went through it highlighting what I wanted to see, and am planning a research trip to Pullman in the darn near future. 

Shall we arrange a carpool trip before the snow flies? 

Auschwitz Sculpture: Remembering

 

Last June I flew to Kansas City, Missouri, to visit family. While there, Sharon took me to Union Station's Auschwitz Exhibit. We spent nearly 3 hours walking through this sobering and educational exhibit. Then we went to the nearby Jewish Community Center where in the 1950s many surviving Jews relocated to Kansas City (home of Harry Truman who they revered). An large aluminum sculpture graces the grounds. 

My photo shows only a small portion of this sculpture. It was meant to show the dead Jews reaching out to be remembered. That it does. 

I mean no sacrilege but I also see any dead ancestor reaching out to be remembered. 

Genetic Genealogy Class at the Community College

 

Thomas MacEntee Is Zooming To Town!

 

Thomas MacEntee returns to share time with EWGS coming up this Saturday, October 2nd. Our Fall Workshop will be a ZOOM meeting. (If you need help, click to our website for instructions: www.EWGSI.org) 

Thomas will teach us four really good lessons in a 9:00 to 3:00 day. 

If you haven't already, do click to our website to register!! And get your pencil sharpened and your note-taking-tablet ready. 

Hypotheek Bank In Spokane: Did your ancestor benefit from this bank?

 

This lovely old image is of the Bank of Spokane Falls; couldn't find an image of the Hypotheek Bank......... this bank was a Dutch mortgage bank established in Spokane Falls in June 1889 to lend money on the security of real estate. "From it's beginning the Hypotheek Bank did a brisk business." When 32 blocks of the city's business district burned in August of 1889, the bank, which had insured with British Insurance companies, received payments on its destroyed properties within two weeks. As the town rebuilt, the Hypotheek Bank was a willing lender and by the end of 1891 it had made loans totaling $4.5 million on urban property..........

One might quip that this quaintly-named bank was a savior of Spokane? Did your ancestor's nascent business benefit from a Hypotheek Bank loan?