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.