Miscellaneous

 

Q: If your house was on fire, or if a wildfire was heading your way, and you only had time to save 5 things, what would they be??? Think about it. It could happen to YOU.

** Parmesan Ice Cream? An unusual flavor of ice cream graced spoons in the 1700s: parmesean. The first-ever recipe for Parmesean cheese ice cream was published in 1789. Would you like it?

**In Japan, various flavors of Kit-Kat candy bars are available. These include cough drop, rum raisin, melon with mascarpone, sake wasabi, matcha, strawberry and melty caramel. Which one would you try?

** In Thailand, folks can buy Oreo-flavored Coco-Cola and Coca-Cola flavored Oreos. Really!

** Petrichor is the word for the smell of rain. How would YOU describe the smell of rain?

** Brontology is not the study of brontosauers but is the study of thunder. File that in your "when-I-go-on-Jeopardy" file. 

** Spokane Daily Chronicle, Monday, April 4, 1949: Documents Indicate Woman Died at 117.  Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. "Sarah E. Moore of Rathdrum died there Saturday and her age was determined to have been 117. Mrs. A.A. Berges (Donna's note: her stepmother), with whom the widow of a Civil War veteran had lived, said today that papers among her effects showed conclusively that she was born in South Carolina on April 4, 1832. She had lived with Mrs. Berges for 20 years." Sarah rests in Forest Cemetery in Coeur d'Alene.

Keuterville, Idaho, anybody?

Yes, long time EWGS member (and past president), Jeanne Polumsky Coe, has an ancestral line going back to this bitty place in Idaho County, Idaho.  We were doing our volunteer indexing stint down at the MAC when we came upon an obit that stated that the fellow was from Keuterville. That sparked a lovely memory from Jeanne and she wrote up the story for us.

How Keuterville, Idaho, Got Its Name

By Jeanne Polumsky Coe, 2021

“The small town of Keuterville, in Idaho County, Idaho, was named after my great-grandfather,” wrote Jeanne Coe. “His surname was spelled KUTHER but the request for the town’s name change was garbled and the government spelled it Keuterville. It’s now a ghost town and I’ve not visited there in years.” 

This small town in Idaho County, Idaho, began as St. Peter.  The 1903 HISTORY OF NORTH IDAHO states “July,1884, the town site of Keuterville was preempted by Anton Hendricks, and the patent secured in 1889.  The first store was erected by Mr. Henry Kuether in 1888...The post office was established in 1888…(in the early 1880s) a considerable immigration of German farmers flowed in.” 

Like Mr. Kuther many of those farmers came to central Idaho from Illinois to take up farm land when the Nez Perce Indians were removed to the reservation.  The post office apparently was located in Mr. Kuther’s store as he was appointed the post master in 1888.  Another man by the name of Henry Fisher may have been the first postmaster but Henry Kuther was the first mail carrier (sources disagree).

A petition was sent by Henry to Washington, D.C., in 1888 requesting the town’s name change from St. Peter to Kutherville, but it apparently was misread as the Post Office Department granted the change to KEUTERVILLE and not Kutherville. 

At any rate, the town survives to this day with only a couple of businesses, a Catholic Church, a cemetery, and a few residents.  It is listed now as a ”ghost town” but is very popular during hunting season.  It is off the main highway from Lewiston to Boise but worth the side trip (St. Gertrude’s museum is on the way too).  

In 1985, the descendants of Henry Kuther, and his wife Katherine Herboth, gathered at Keuterville for a large family reunion which was organized by Shelley Kuther.   Many of Henry and Katherine’s descendants still reside in the area.  In researching my Kuther family, I must check all spellings:  KUTHER, KEUTHER, and KUETHER. 

 

Idaho Genealogical Society's Annual Meeting and Seminar

The Idaho Genealogical Society announces its Annual Meeting/Seminar on 29 September 2012 in Hayden, Idaho. It is sponsored by the IGS and the Kootenai County Genealogical Society and will be held at the Holiday Inn Express, 151 West Orchard, Hayden.

The itinerary for the day is as follows:

8:30 AM - Registration
9:00 AM - Welcome by Jean Timmermeister (KCGS)
9:10 AM - Welcome and Introductions by Juvanne Martin (IGS)
9:30 AM - IGS Business and Reports
10:40 AM - Break
11:00 AM - Speaker John Schalk: "Life in Nazi-Occupied Germany"
12:00 PM - Lunch (provided by KCGS)
1:00 PM - IGS Business and Elections
1:30 PM - Speaker Miriam Robbins: "Frugal Genealogy"
2:30 PM - Break
2:45 PM - Speaker Connie Godak: "Finding Family with FamilySearch.org"
4:00 PM - Wrap-up and Adjournment
4:00 - 5:00 PM - Networking and Socializing

Registration for KCGS and IGS members is $25; all others, $30. Fee includes lunch. Lunch cannot be guaranteed for late registrants and at-the-door, so register now. For more information or to register, call Waneva Maymon at (208) 772-6618 or email wmaymon@icehouse.net. This event is open to the public--bring a guest. Deadline for registration is September 15, 2012, so send it in soon!

The registration form, directions and overnight accomodations can be downloaded here.

Images of America: New Book, Harrison, Idaho

Some of my favorite books come from Arcadia Publishing, and are the Images of America series. These books follow a standard format...... same number of pages, same number of photos, sepia cover, etc. I just read in our paper that there is a new one out for our area, one on Harrison, Idaho. This book joins others on "our area" of Idaho:  Moscow, Pullman, the Silver Valley, Latah County, and one for Farragut Naval Training Station. If northern Idaho is not your ancestral area of interest, click to www.arcadiapublishing.com and do a search for your state..... or place..... or county of interest. And they have singular titles, like for Castle Garden and Ellis Island. The cost for these books is a consistent $20 to $22. Try one...... you'll be hooked.

   Couldn't find the cover/photo for Harrison (too new?) but here are three of the others. 

Kootenai County (Idaho) Genealogical Society to Meet June 18th

The Kootenai County Genealogical Society will have its next monthly meeting on Thursday, June 18th at 7:00 PM at the Hayden Library, 8385 Government Way, in Hayden, Idaho. This meeting is free and open to the public. The topic will be Group Sharing. What are your summer genealogy plans? Have you found something interesting or have a brick wall to conquer? Did you receive a family heirloom recently?

In addition, the KCGS would like to remind the public that genealogists are available to assist you with your research each Wednesday from 1:00 to 4:00 PM at the Hayden Public Library.

Civil War Veterans in Idaho

This website was just added to Cyndi's List:

http://www.idahohistory.net/civilwar.html

"The staff of the Idaho State Historical Society, a number of intrepid volunteers, and members of the public from around the state have identified over one thousand Civil War veterans who lived or died in Idaho. These records are indexed alphabetically by surname, and whenever possible include dates of births and deaths, the states from which they served, and the Idaho counties where they resided. For many veterans, more than one record has been uncovered."

If you have ancestors from Eastern Washington, it may be that they lived at one time in Idaho. This is certainly a site worth checking.

Oral History Project in Spirit Lake, Idaho

Spirit Lake Youth Equipped For Success has received a grant to complete an oral history project as part of the Spirit Lake Centennial Celebration. Part of the training will be conducted by Kathy Hodges, Idaho's Oral Historian, on February 20th. She will be speaking later that evening to the Spirit Lake Historical Society at their regular monthly meeting. It is open to the public and will be at 7:00 PM at the Spirit Lake Elementary School, 309 North 5th Avenue, Spirit Lake, Idaho. The SLHS welcomes anyone interested in hearing more about capturing oral histories and the importance of this medium as a record of historical content to plan on joining them. The elementary school is adjacent to Highway 41, just past the library (you can't miss it).

On February 21st, the historical society has made arrangements to seat 20 at Templin's, 414 East 1st Avenue, Post Falls, Idaho at a no-host luncheon so that Kathy can share information on oral history and answer any specific questions that any of the area historical societies might have. The Spirit Lake Historical Society is inviting Kootenai County, Westwood, and Post Falls Historical Societies' members to this meeting. While it isn't necessary to make reservations, it would be nice to have an estimated attendance from your group prior to the event.

The contact person for this is:

Shelley Tschida
Quality Services
P. O. Box 1162
Spirit Lake, ID 83869
(208)623-2539 phone
(208)623-6618 fax
(208)691-9150 cell
qsist@verizon.net

North Idaho's German Heritage - Lecture

I apologize for getting this information out so late. It was announced at the meeting on Saturday, and comes from Dr. Steve Barrett, Archivist of the Idaho Public Archives and Research Library, Boise, Idaho:

Twin Rivers Genealogical Society presents Arthur Hart, "North Idaho's German Heritage," September 13, 2007 at 7 p.m., Student Union Building, Room 143, Lewis-Clark State College, Lewiston, Idaho. For more information, please contact Hellenmerie Walker, 208-798-1864.

Arthur A. Hart, director emeritus of the Idaho State Historical Society, is the author of many books and articles on Idaho and Northwest history. His talk will feature such notable citizens as John P. Vollmer of Lewiston, who was born in Germany in 1847 and became North Idaho's richest man. Vollmer is credited with providing ideas for some of this friend Mark Twain's stories.

This program is funded in part by the Idaho Humanities Council, a nonprofit organization that serves as the state-based affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Admission is free, and this presentation is open to the public.