Mourning Rings: Have One From Your Ancestor?

 

Have you a mourning ring in an ancestor's memorial box? Have you ever heard of mourning rings? Mourning Rings were (and sometimes still are) jewelry worn to remember someone who has died. Such rings ran the gamut from plain bands to diamond studded. 

Mourning rings of yore were engraved with the person's name and death date and might have contained a hand-painted image or lock of hair. Today, they might have a tiny box for ashes. The tradition of mourning rings dates to ancient times although they gained popularity during the Victorian era. 

The article I was reading gave several examples of metal-detector folks have found such treasures buried in the sand or under a house. 

"If you think one of your ancestors may have had a mourning ring, we recommend searching their last name and the keyword "mourning ring" on the Newspapers.com homepage."

(Found this in the official blog of Newspapers.com; bit penned by Jenny Ashcraft, 8 Oct 2024.)

Washington Digital Newspapers

 

Bet you've searched online newspapers at the several websites offering such. But did you know that there is a website devoted to our very own state newspapers?? Here's the fine print in the image: Washington Digital Newspapers brings together over 600,000 pages from Washington's earliest Territorial newspapers to the present day, freely accessible to the public. And this collection continues to expand! Clicking to the website, you can search by title, by date or by subject.

When I first learned of this resource back in February 2025, I did a search for the surname PHILLIPS, 1900-1960, and got 43,186 hits!  For the surname OSWALD, 3996 hits! For Fort George Wright, 12, 690 hits! 

If you have ancestors, direct line or collateral, and they lived and worked in the Evergreen State, do check out this resource. 

Remember I've taught you always: If it's free, take two! :-) 

Vinegar Flats: Why THAT Name?

 

Vinegar Flats - The Keller-Lorenz Vinegar Works

Jesse Tinsley crafts a Then And Now column in The Spokesman-Review daily newspaper in Spokane. This bit comes from one of his insightful columns:

In an area that was once a seasonal village of Spokane Indians along Latah Creek, a neighborhood was platted in 1888. It became known as Vinegar Flats because of the tangy aroma from a vinegar production plant that opened in 1889....... The Keller-Lorenz Vinegar Company made cider and vinegar and sold the product to stores in bottles or to wholesalers in barrels.... the company grew rapidly and in 1912 the company used 15,000 tons of apples from Spokane's orchards to make 225,000 gallons of cider and 5,000 gallons of vinegar.... their two primary products were pickling vinegar, made from barley malt and molasses, and apple vinegar which starts as cider...... eight men worked full time at the plant with up to 14 more added seasonally..... 

"When the factory began operations in 1890, vinegar was especially important for the preservation of a variety of foods. In an era before household refrigeration, pickling in vinegar was a common method of preserving fruits and vegetables. The Vinegar Works operated in the three-story building at 11th Avenue and Spruce Street until 1958 producing cider, malt, and white wine vinegar. It wasn’t until the 1930s that refrigerators became commonplace and the need for pickling foods became less important. This new era of both commercial and domestic refrigeration, coupled with better roads for transportation, meant that factories like the Keller -Lorenz Vinegar Works eventually went out of business."

 Next time you drive south to Pullman from Spokane on Hwy 195, sniff the air. It just might smell a bit tangy still. 

Roxanne Lowe: A Gem Among Us

 

Roxanne Lowe is a world traveler; here she is in Switzerland. I know she's also been to Cuba and several other wonderful places. 

Roxanne lives in McCleary which is west of Olympia a tad bit. She's been active with the WA State Gen Soc for nearly 20 years and continues to inspire, share and teach us. Short while ago she offered a multi-page handout of FREE GENEALOGY-RELATED INTERNET SITES. Now she offers it again to all of us; here's the link:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ReR_ur57ODbfbp0phtGj_ugocSYoX2F-/view?usp=drive_link

If you'd like to refresh your memory or learn more about Roxanne, she offered a snippet-autobiography to the WSGS Blog on 21 June 2023.... complete with her 3-yr-old pix!

Summer suggestion: On a hot day when you're already sunned-out, have this handout handy (with lemonade!) and have some researching fun!

Honoring Memorial Day Part 2

 

  

In a small cemetery in the Dutch city of Roermond, one can visit this most unique set of tombstones. It comprises two almost identical pillars on either side of a wall separating the Catholic part from the Protestant part. Each pillar has a carved arm and hand that clasp the other across the wall. The monument marks the graves of Josephina Van Aefferden, a Catholic, and Jacobus Van Gorkum, a Protestant, who were happily married in life but had to be buried in separate sections of the cemetery. This Dutch listed it as a State Monument in 2002 and the "Grave with the Little Hands" proves that love is stronger than death. (And certainly stronger than mens' rules.)

Did you know that Memorial Day was originally called Decoration Day? In the spring of 1866, Henry C. Welles, a druggist in the village of Waterloo, NY, suggested that the patriots who died in the Civil War should be honored by decorating their graves. A committee was formed and the plan was implemented. Decoration Day was officially proclaimed on May 5, 1868 and was first observed officially on May 30, 1868. The South did not observe Decoration Day, preferring to honor their dead on separate days until after WWI. In 1882 the name was changed to Memorial Day and soldiers who had died in other wars were also honored. In 1971, Memorial Day was declared a national holiday to be held on the last Monday in May. While families may use the day for welcome-to-summer-fun, the original intent was to honor those who died for our freedom. 

Honoring Memorial Day

 

 

   

Available from Amazon.

Who would have guessed? 

Fidalgo Island Pioneer's 1923 Obit

 

This Washington-Pioneer-History-Tidbit comes from the Anacortes American, April 19, 1923. Titled "First Fidalgo Settler Buried," I have excerpted portions from the long (and most interesting) obituary for you.

Charles W. Beale, the first white settler of Fidalgo Island was buried in the Fern Hill Cemetery where he had hunted deer over 65 years ago. Capt. Beale was the oldest living pioneer of the county and six past presidents of the Skagit County Pioneer Assn were pallbearers. 

Mr. Beale is survived by four sons and three daughters; his home was in Anacortes. He was a Virginian and stricken with gold fever crossed the plans by ox team in 1851 landing in Sacramento. He drove a team there for five years and then in 1856 headed out overland to the Fraser River gold diggings. Instead of washing gold, he became a river steamboat captain. While making a trip to Whatcom in a flatboat, he was wrecked and forced some frightened Indians at gunpoint to paddle him to Fidalgo. In 1862 Beale went to the Cariboe (sic) and when he returned in 1866 he found that his claim had been sold. He took up another claim, built his cabin and stayed.

Capt. Beale sometimes told of an experience in the winter of 1859 when the snow was deep and food was scarce and the six settlers on the bay had little to eat save what their rifles brought them. Beale had shot a deep on the slopes of Mt. Erie and packed it on his back out through deep snow and the jungles (sic) to what is now Weaverling's Spit where his fellow settlers were to meet him with a canoe and take him and any possible game across the bay to the cabins. But the canoe was not there. Night came on and wolves, great gaunt grey fellows, followed his trail through the snow by drops of blood. Beale was compelled to wade out into the water to get away from the wolves bearing the deer carcass with him. In deadly cold water he stood until finally a canoe appeared. 

The Beale children were: Capt. Charles, Jr., John R., George C., Frank D., Mrs. A.O. Clem, Mrs. Lacretia Monroe, Mrs. Emma Laborte. I wonder if any descendants of this Fidalgo Island pioneer are still in the area????

Bison or Buffalo?

 

  

Buffalo or Bison? Which do we have in the American West?

I recently taught a lesson to my 11yo and 7yo great-grandkids on this subject. We have BISON in America. Bison have humps, shorter horns, live on the prairies  and are ill-tempered. BUFFALO live in the wetlands of Asia and Africa, have long broad horns and are more mild-mannered, and so in Asia have been domesticated by man. 

Did you know: Male bison an weight up to 2000 pounds and stand 6' tall. (And we see videos posted on YouTube of stupid tourists in Yellowstone trying to pet a bison and getting gored.) Females are slightly smaller. Bison calves weigh 30-70 pounds at birth. 

American bison are a keystone species that provide many benefits to other animals and the land. Their manure and grazing patterns increase the amount of nitrogen to prairie plants which facilitates plant growth giving habitat to nesting birds. Thick bison fur catches and disperses native seeds. Bison wallows, where the animals roll and scuffle, create specialized habitats for plants and capture moisture. Using their big heads as plows, bison push through deep snow creating paths for other animals such as elk and antelope. 

Bison are the official mammal of America and also the states of Wyoming, Kansas and Oklahoma. But the history of the American bison is full of a lack of appreciation. Long ago, the continent held an estimated 40,000,000 bison. Then came hunting and by 1884 the official estimate of remaining wild bison was a mere 325.

There are volumes more to the full story and there are many books written on the subject of the history of the American bison. Want a good read? 

P.S. Did you catch the phrase "keystone species?" Google that phrase for some really interesting knowledge. 

(Thanks to the North Columbia Monthly, Dec 2024, for this story.)

Remembering Mt. St. Helens

 

If you were living in Washington on Sunday, May 18, 1980, do you remember what you were doing? I was walking to church on that sunny day and remember hearing what I thought was a sonic boom. (Fairchild AFB is just west of town.) An hour later, I fled home and was among thousands of Washingtonians wondering WHAT IN THE WORLD IS HAPPENING?

At 8:32 that morning, Mt. St. Helens erupted as the result of an earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale. Here's what happened:

• Eruption lasted 9 hours
• Nearly 230 square miles of forest were destroyed
• The explosion blew a crater 1968.5 feet deep and almost 1 1/2 miles wide from rim to rim on the mountain's face
• The speed of the subsequent landslide was estimated to be between 70 and 150 mph
• As much as 600 feet of debris were deposited in the nearby North Fork Toutle River
• An estimated 7000 big game animals were killed in the blast
• An estimated 12 million chinook and coho fingerlings and 40,000 young salmon were destroyed
• 60 people living near the mountain were killed

I remember gathering my family close, including my future son-in-law. I remember them playing RISK for hours. I remember waking up Monday and Tuesday morning to everything coated with white ash..... and nobody knew how dangerous it might be to breathe or to our cars. Spokane, among many eastern Washington cities, stood in shocked stillness. 

Now, 45 years later, we still see white streaks in the banks along I-90 when we head west. And I wonder how many baby girls born that day were named Helen or Ashley???

Will Mt. St. Helens blow again? She is considered the volcano in the Cascades most likely to erupt again in our lifetimes,  and scientists expect it to erupt again though the timing and magnitude are uncertain. (So says Google.)

Wreck of the Peter Iredale

 

 (note the horse and wagon)   

Strollers along a particular stretch of Oregon beach sometimes are lucky enough to see the fading remnants of a shipwreck. I'd bet that when they do, they wonder "what happened?" 

Ships, and everything about ships, is vital to our collective family history. Our ancestors traveled in ships, fished from small ships, explored in ships, fought battles in ships, migrated in ships .......... and often died in ships. 

The Peter Iredale is rather famous. She was a four-masted steel bark built in Maryport, England, in 1890. In September, 1906, she sailed north from Mexico bound for Portland where she was to pick up a cargo of wheat to return to England. From the Oregon History Project website we learn:

"Despite encountering heavy fog, she managed to safely reach the mouth of the Columbia River in the early morning of October 25. The captain of the ship later recalled that as they waited for a pilot 'a heavy southeast wind blew and a strong current prevailed. Before the vessel could be veered around, she was in the breakers and all efforts to keep her off were unavailing.' She ran aground at Clatsop Beach, hitting so hard that three of her masts snapped from the impact. Fortunately, none of the crew were seriously injured."

Our Washington coast, particularly around the Columbia River mouth, is known as the "Graveyard of the Pacific," and has seen approximately 2000 wrecks since 1792 with about 700 lives lost. The sandbar at Columbia's mouth is three miles wide and reaches seven miles into the open ocean, and being sand, is constantly shifting, making it a navigational nightmare.

Do you have ships mentioned in your family history? If you do, and would enjoy learning more, click to www.ShipIndex.org. This is a fabulous database all about ships.........sailing, steam, fighting or sunken ships. 

•  

Old Postcards

 

     

I confess: I cannot help myself from browsing through the boxes of old postcards that I may encounter at a thrift shop. Case in point, the two above.  Both had writing on the reverse side........... old German. Which of course I could not read. So I took them with me to RootsTech in March and requested help on B-1 in the FamilySearch Library.

The card on the left was addressed to "Fraulein Luise Koller, Frankfurt a Main, Niederrad." It was from "Heinrich." Was Heinrich the handsome suitor of Luise? Or was that a commercial photo? 

The one on the right REALLY intrigued me. Was this a real person in real clothes or a costumed funny? This card, dated 1919, was from Erik Lund to "the family Moller in Vestergade." Erik says he is "sending to you my picture." Wonder what they thought! 

So teaches Wikipedia: "A postcard is a rectangular piece of thick paper, sent without an envelope and for a lower fee. Production of postcards blossomed in the late 19th and each 20th centuries and an easy and quick way for individuals to communicate. The study and collecting of postcards is termed deltiology. (Remember that when you're invited to be on Jeopardy.) 

Do you have any old postcards in your collected personal family history archive?

Dostadning: Swedish Death Cleaning

Disclaimer: This is not my office but it surely could be.  Is this your office? Kitchen? Pantry? Spare room? Closet? Storage drawers? 

While back, I came upon this little book: The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning, by Margareta Magnusson. While the title sounds a tad foreboding, the premise is simple and profound: Rid your world of stuff.... stuff you don't want, don't need, never used and never liked and do it now!

My favorite presentation to give to fellow genealogists is "Leave A Legacy and NOT A Mess." I teach that YOU collected all that stuff, and while it means the world to you, it may well not mean a sniff to your descendants (immediate descendants anyway). It is imperative that YOU do something with all that stuff. No excuses. 

This premise 100% applies to your clothes-shoes-Tshirts, your kitchen gadgets, your shelves of unfinished projects, your unused collection of clipped recipes, your 200 books, your dozens of different baking pans that you never use anymore. You get the idea. 

At my age, and facing a domicile move, this is rather uppermost in my mind. And I assert that it might should be in yours too. Be nice to your descendants. Consider it a Pre-Death House Cleaning For the Benefit of Your Children.

And know what? You'll be FREE! No more looking around and being dismayed at all the stuff that's cluttering your life. Free! 

P.S. Does any library or genealogy society want all your genealogy? Those books, binder and boxes of research notes. NO WAY, JOSE. You collected it; it's up to YOU to dispose of it all. And this is 100% true: If you want your family to value your life's work, leave it to them in an organized fashion.... preferably online. 

Census Taking & Evolution of Names

 

Bet we've all seen this wonderful Norman Rockwell painting, The Census Taker, which he did in 1940 for a Saturday Evening Post cover. Look carefully at the red-headed mom counting on her fingers....

We genealogists both love and hate the censuses. And we each could cite examples of our feelings for both reactions. May I share an example of "scratching our heads" regarding census information?

Way, way back in 1998, Barbara Johnson shared with me her research example of names:

• 1820 - DE-Kent Co - Garrettson Jarrell
• 1830 - IN-Franklin Co - Garrett Fitzgerald
• 1840 - IN-Franklin Co - Garret F. Jarrell
• 1850 - IN-Marshall Co - Garrett Jerrell
• 1860 - IN-Marshall Co  Mortality Schedule - Garrett Fitzgerald
• 1870 - IN-Marshall Co - Permelia Gerrall
• 1880 - IN-Marshall Co - Olphelia Jerrolds
• Then Permelia Jarrell until her death in 1903.

But checking on www.FindAGrave.org, her obituary posted there calls her Parmela Jarrell. 

Think how these surnames morphed over 100 years. Think about your ancestral surnames. Is your mind open to the many possible, potential changes??????

When Barbara shared this story with me so long ago, she added: "There was a common practice among what appear to be related families in these areas to use a middle initial "F" to stand for a dropped "Fitz" and eventually the "Fitz" was just dropped." 

There are surely a million words written explaining and or describing the evolution of surnames but OUR surname is what matters to US, right? 

Salt: A History

 

Salt is one of the most common elements on our planet and is essential for all life. As far back as 6000 B.C., salt has been an integral part the history of the world and a fundamental element in the rise and fall of countless civilizations. 

Throughout history, salt has been highly valued and even used as currency. Did you know the term salary was derived from the word salt? Countless treaties and wartime strategies revolved around the making or denying of salt and it was closely tied to the rise of power and dominance by rulers. 

Salt is the subject of generations of lore, tales and idioms. Terms like "not worth his salt" and "salt of the earth." In many civilizations, salt has been extensively used for the improvement of luck, wellbeing, cleansing and purifying. 

Today we hear that "salt is essential for all life" and the media blasts that we consume too much salt in our daily diet which is detrimental to our health. And is there a "healthy" salt?

Google says: There isn't a single "healthiest" salt, as all types are primarily sodium chloride, and the differences in trace minerals are negligible for most people. However, sea salt and pink Himalayan salt, which are less processed and retain some trace minerals, are often considered slightly healthier than table salt. 

(Thanks to a Salt Lake Visitors' Guide for this info. And Google.)

FamilySearch Library: Updated & Wunnerful

 

The eager researchers still queue up and stampede into the FamilySearch Library when the doors open at 9:00. Some things never change. But there have been a long list up changes to "our favorite library" since you were there last.

For openers, the entire first floor is now a Discovery Center where an army of experienced volunteers guide visitors to discover their ancestry. There is a new and expanded snack room on the first floor. 

On the second floor, ALL the cabinets of microfilm are GONE and the huge now-open area is filled with computer stations... with each station having TWO monitors! All our beloved books remain on the third floor. Down on B-1 and B-2, the International floors, the layout has completely changed too. 

There are more helpers.... from your computer station you sign up for a helper with your particular question and they will come to you! Copies are now free, as are flash drives. (Gee, first no more dimes and now no more copy cards. :-) 

Even the restrooms have been redone (at least the women's rooms). There is new carpeting, new signs and displays and no more rather obnoxious loud speaker announcements. 

The Salt Lake Airport is now almost overwhelmingly HUGE! The main corridor has this "salt waves" (what I call it) art work as a welcome display. 

Makes me eager to go back even as I type this. When shall we go? 

FamilySearch Center Portal

 

Perhaps you're missing out on a research bet? And if something is free, why not consider using it? Well!

The FamilySearch Center Portal is exactly what those words signify. At any designated FamilySearch Center, any researcher can access FOR FREE, a long list of websites that otherwise would be accessibly by personal subscription only.   Did you catch that: FREE?

Think your research might be helped by looking into one of these:

• 19th Century British Library Newspapers
• Alexander Street Press (indexed information of Civil War history: soldiers, battles, photos and maps)
• American Ancestors (formerly New England Historic Genealogical Society)
• Ancestry (Institution version..... databases but not Trees)
• ArkivDigital (Swedish Church Records0
• British Newspaper Archive
• FamNet (New Zealand records)
• Findmypast (UK ancestry)
• Fold3 (U.S. military records)
• GoldieMay (suite of software power tools for genealogists)
• Irish Ancestors
• MyHeritage (library edition.... no trees)
• Paper Trail (records of the Oregon Trail and other westward migration trails)

All of these wonderful opportunities but don't overlook checking out the nearly 2,000,000,000 names in the FamilySearch trees!! This database is compiled by folks like you and me and while it may contain errors and inconsistencies, it also can provide great clues. 

Click to www.EWGSI.org for a list of the area's FamilySearch Centers. Find one near you and GO!

Eggs: Easter & Other

 

The traditional act of painting eggs is called Pysanka. A pysanka is a Ukrainian Easter egg, decorated using a batik method. Egg dyes were once made out of natural items such as onion peels, tree bark, flower petals and juice. Today we buy pellets! 

Bet you didn't know that ostrich eggs with engraved decoration that are 60,000 years old have been found in Africa? That the Easter Egg Museum in Poland has over 1500 eggs on display? That the most popular chocolate egg in the world today is the Cadbury's Creme Egg; if all of these made in a year were piled on top of each other, it would be ten times higher than Mt. Everest! The Annual White House Easter Egg Roll began with President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1878. The term Easter comes from Eastre, the Anglo-Saxon goddess who symbolized the hare and the egg. 

Bet you also didn't know that the color of a chicken egg shell is primarily determined by the hen's genetics and the pigments deposited on the shell during its formation, leading to a variety of colors like white, blue, brown and green. And that there are 200 different breeds of chickens? All eggs are the same inside: white and yellow. The egg carton was invented in 1911. 

Have you had your egg today? There are only 78 calories in a large boiled egg. :-) 

Home Life in Colonial Days

 

This delightful 450-page book by Alice Morse Earle was a warm-fuzzy bookstore find. By the by, it's still available via Amazon.

The entire book was a fascinating read but I'll share this with you from the chapter titled, Meat and Drink.

"Potatoes were known to New Englanders but were rare and when referred to were probably sweet potatoes...but they were not immediately liked. A fashionable way of cooking them was with butter, sugar and grape juice, then mixed with dates, lemons and mace; then seasoned with cinnamon, nutmeg and pepper....and then frosted with sugar."

"Apple Pie is used through the whole year and when fresh apples are no longer to be had, dried ones are used. It is the evening meal of children. House-pie, in country places, is made of apples neither peeled nor freed from their cores, and its crust is not broken if a wagon wheel goes over it." 

"Milk became a very important part of the food of families in the 18th century. The usual breakfast and supper was bread and milk. As the family prospered, milk and hasty pudding, milk and stewed pumpkin, milk and baked apples, milk and berries were variations. It was said that children were usually very fond it this."

"Housewives pickled samphire (asparagus like), fennel, purple cabbage, nasturtium buds, green walnuts, lemons, radish pods, barberries, parsley, mushrooms, asparagus, and many kinds of fish and fruit. They candied fruits and nuts and made many marmalades and a vast number of fruit wines and cordials." 

"They collared and potted many kinds of fish and game. Salted meat was eaten and very little fresh meat for there was no means of keeping meat after it was killed. Every well-to-do family had a "powdering-tub" which was a tub in which meat was salted and pickled. Many families had a smoke house in which beef, ham and bacon were smoked."

Calgary, Alberta, Canada In 1902

 

Rummaging in a basket at a thrift store, I found a small tourist pamphlet dated 1902 touting Calgary. Published by the Board of Trade, City Council of Calgary, the little 30-page brochure was such a fun read!

"The country surrounding Calgary has been especially favored by nature in more ways than one." Then all the wonders of nature were extolled. 

"It may be safely said, for the meterological records amply prove it, that there is no place in the western hemisphere that enjoys more bright sunshine the year around than Central and Southern Alberta."

"Free homesteads may be secured within from 3 to 20 miles of the city, and improved farms and ranches can be purchased at reasonable prices."

"The capitalist will find in Calgary an interesting and profitable field for investment; the existing channels for investment are legion."

"The Calgary district offers high wages to good domestic servants. In the city of Calgary, $10 and $12 per month is the common wage for household work."

"The invalid will find in Calgary a gracing and pleasant climate to recuperate his health. The virtues of its invigorating ozone and almost continual sunshine are becoming universally extolled." 

Prices: "Butter, 18cents per pound; potatoes, 1penny per pound; eggs, 15cents per dozen; poultry, 12cents per pound; pork, 6cents per pound; beef, 2 cents per pound." 

No wonder "936 homesteads were taken up and 41,000 acres of Canadian Pacific Railroad Lands purchased during the year of 1901." (The land was purchased for $3.00 per acre.)

Did your ancestor settle permanently or temporarily in Calgary?? Sounds like a wonderful place, no? 

Union Pacific Railroad BUSES??

 

    

Bet you would never have guessed that the Union Pacific Railroad operated passenger buses! But they did, through Union Pacific Stages, Interstate Transit Lines and Union Pacific Railroad of Sun Valley.

Union Pacific bus stages ran between town where the railroad did not connect them. Locally, UP started in 1927 to run a bus route between Pendleton and Walla Walla. Soon routes to Salt Lake City and Portland were added and as decades passed, more routes were added. The route to connect rail lines to Sun Valley was completed in 1939. 

The UP sold its stages (buses) to Greyhound in 1952. 

With Grandma Google's help (:-)) I located a 21-page article, Buses of the Union Pacific Railroad, published in the Mar-Apr 1991 edition of Utah Rails. This article had a good many black-and-white photos of these old buses.

If you'd like to set aboard one of these buses, visit the Union Pacific Railroad Museum in Omaha, where they boast "150 Years of Rail History."  Here's the link: UP RR Museum

Did you, or your ancestor, ever ride on a Union Pacific BUS??

Washington Place Names

 

This is The Most Delightful book! Written in 1971 by James W. Phillips, its nearly 180 pages give a bit of history for scores of places in the Evergreen State. For instance:

Cashmere:  Originally known as Mission as a result of early Catholic missions established in the area between 1850s and 1870s. Town renamed in 1903 to emulate in name, as well as fertility and valley setting, the beautiful and productive Vale of Kashmir in India. 

Hadlock:  Originally known as Port Hadlock, the town was named for founder Samuel Hadlock, who built the Washington Mill Co. on Port Townsend Bay in 1870. 

Home: In Pierce County; established as a social reform colony in 1896 on Carr Inlet by George H. Allen and named to demonstrate the group's friendship to all.

Maple Valley:  Named Vine Maple Valley by the first settlers in 1879 because of the maple trees growing along that portion of the cedar River, the name was shortened by postal officials in 1888.

Moclips:  A Quinault Indian word describing a place where maidens were sent to undergo puberty rites.

Monse:  In Okanogan County; original name of Swansea was changed in 1916 to honor Mons, Belgium, where the British fought the first battle of WWI on 23 August 1914.

Jovita:  In Pierce County; Townsite developed by the Jovita Land Co. of Seattle. 

Joyce:  In Clallam County; named in 1913 by its first postmaster J.M. Joyce, who operated a store, a shingle mill and a farm nearby.

Otis Orchards:  In Spokane County; originally a railroad flag station called Otis after an early settler; name amended in 1908 with the establishment of a post office to tie into the area's image as a fruit growing center.

Lots more to come! This book is still available if you want a copy. 

Typical Inventory from 1666 in Massachusetts

 

So often in the 17th century, a will was handwritten and was accompanied by an inventory. This inventory was mandated by law and some of the items might be sold to pay off any debts of the deceased. This was the inventory of Aquila Chase, of Ipswich, Massachusetts, dated 15 May 1666. 

I ask you: how many pages would it take to "inventory" every single one of your possessions? And would there be archaic terms then that were well known today...... like "saw and pillion." What is a pillion? What is an "Apple watch?" An "electric hot pot?" 

And take note of what you don't see: any art, music, crafts, hobbies, things we would call comfort things like fuzzy slippers or teddy bears? Could YOU cook a meal using just the utensils mentioned here? 

                                                                    Eleven swine

                                                                    Twenty sheepe

                                                        Two heifers & three calves

                                                                One steer & three calves

                                                            One feather bed/ bolster/pillows

Blanket & curtains

Wearing apparell

One new curtain

Six paire of sheets

Linen yarne

20 lbs of woollen  yarne

One bed furniture/blankett

70 bushels Indian corne

6 bushels barley

Some wheat, rye & pease

Saw & pillion

2 wheels

Muskett/swort/pike

                                                                        1 saddle/bridle

                                                            3 iron potts/hookes/tramells

                                                            Spitt/fire pan/tongues/peele

                                                        1 fryeing pan/greediron/ 2 skilletts

                                                                        Carpenter tooles

                                                                4 axes/ beetle & wedges

                                                        Pewter platters/basons/potts/spones

                                                                    Box of earthenware

                                                                        Books/ 2 chests

                                                                        Hog lard/butter

                                                                        Grinding stone

                                                                    Cart/dung pott/plow

                                                                    Yoakes & Chaines

                                                                            Old lumber

1 hay boate 

 

 

 

 

 

Saloons in the "Wild West"

 Looking back in those wild west days, we might be astonished at the number of saloons in most towns in the far West. Frontier communities and camps in the mountains (mining, lumbering, etc.) were saturated in alcohol. Much of the color and vitality of life on the frontier was associated with the saloon and so was much of its violence and degradation. 

But the shoot-'em-up tradition of Western history usually ignores the ways in which the saloon helped the urban frontiersman cope with his many pressing problems.  Saloons were meeting places, entertainment centers, refuges for the weary and haunt of the mischief-maker. There has been plenty of words written about the societal aspects of these "places of refreshment." I'd like to share something else I learned about "wild west" saloons.

Leafing through old photos or visiting restored towns, today's tourist will find three types of buildings dominating the rest: the church, the fraternal lodge and saloons. These institutions gave the pioneer something he considered important. The church, the lodge and the saloon might seem different but shared certain characteristics and afforded similar sociality. 

Each of these places strove to recreate the structure, trappings and decor of the same sort left behind "back East." The church had its altar and symbols, the lodge its emblems, and the saloon its bar, games and traditional artwork. Each place had its rituals and distinctive vernacular transplanted directly to the frontier.. Each had is figure of authority: minister, grand master and barkeeper, all of whom dressed in special vestments, set the tone, welcomed the newcomer and served as a keeper of tradition. 

This post comes from a wonderful 10-page article titled Men, Whisky & A Place To Sit, by Elliott West, in the July 1981 issue of American History Illustrated.  Minor moral of this story? Never overlook old magazines in thrift stores! 

The Embalmed Meat Scandal in 1898

 

Today, canning is a convenient and safe way to preserve all kinds of food, but in 1898 and the early 1900s, it was a very different story..... the Embalmed Meat Scandal during the Spanish-American War caused soldiers and all American citizens to lose trust in their government for a time. 

Remember that refrigeration was, in those early days, an innovation not yet perfected. Experimentation in the early 1900s led to risky conclusions. No wonder the Embalmed Meat Scandal occurred.

The average soldier in the Spanish-American War had a typical ration containing 12 to 20 ounces of meat. When soldiers began opening cans of meat and discovering something that smelled of "bouquets of cesspools" they began dumping this meat into the water or eating it and feeling sick. Word quickly spread about this "embalmed beef" which was said to smell like an embalmed human body. The government and military officials tried to get the situation under control; this ultimately led to better quality control for preserving food.

The instigator of the Embalmed Meat Scandal was Major-Gen. Nelson Miles who stated on December 1, 1898, that 337 tons of embalmed beef were sent to troops in Puerto Rico the previous summer. This caused public outrage and a full scale investigation as to what was in the food American soldiers and citizens were eating. 

I had read Upton Sinclair's book, The Jungle, which describes in horrific detail how meat packing plants in Chicago operated in the early 1900s. You want a good but awful read? Try this one. 

And think how this situation affected YOUR ancestors, possibly?

Bickleton: Bluebird Capitol of the World

 

 

Did you know that our very own Bickleton in Klickitat County is known as the Bluebird Capitol of the WORLD? It's so called because thousands of bluebirds spend most of the year in the area.  Bickleton has become a bluebird-watchers' paradise.

The area was first settled by Charles Bickle in 1879; he established a trading post and livery stable. Like most early residents, he was also a rancher and wheat farmer. A series of fires in 1937 and 1947 destroyed many of the town's original buildings; the oldest surviving building is the Bluebird Inn which opened in 1882 and still serves guests.

In the 1960s, Jess and Elva Brinkerhoff were picnicking in this small town and put a can in a tree for some birds. This quickly became a local fad and now there are thousands of birdhouses purposely built to house bluebirds. Both Mountain and Western Bluebirds come; the above is a Western Bluebird. 

And "thousands" of bluebird watchers come every year to see these very special birds. Have you been one? Want to be one?