EWGS Tours Our Washington Digital Archives

 

Last October, a group of EWGS members made their way to Cheney to visit and have a tour of our Eastern Washington Branch of the Washington State Archives. This facility on the EWU campus is also the home to the entire Washington State Digital Archives.  We were there to meet with Lee Pierce for a tour of the "downstairs," the "paper" archives.” The photo below shows most of the group there that day.

 

Lee took us back into the area where these paper records are shelved. It was cold in there and lucky were the ones who thought to bring a sweater.  “Cold and dry  storage is what preserves records,” Lee quipped.  Here he shows us a great example of what can be found at the Cheney Archives (the nickname).  He’s holding a handwritten ledger listing the inmates of the Spokane city jail in the early 1900s. The record gives so much information! Name, age, where living, crime, etc.  (I looked for your surname but, lucky for you, didn’t find it. :-)

 If you have ancestors in the Eastern Washington area, there is most likely information on that ancestor at the Cheney Archives.  Yes, we’ve all happily used the online Washington Digital Archives, but as the ledger Lee is holding proves, not nearly everything in their holdings has been digitized.

 

Please remember that you don’t  do research in an archives by the name of the ancestor. You look for a group record where he might be listed. These sources include: birth, marriage, divorce, death, census records, frontier Justice, land Records, map records, plat books…. You get the idea. You don’t just walk into an archives. First you make an appointment. When you arrive you put your belongings in a locker and take with you only paper and pencil. Laptops or tablet are okay.

 

We were very grateful to Lee Pierce for taking time to educate our EWGS group. As we left, he encouraged us to look at the enlarged document hanging just outside the archives’ entrance. It is the death certificate for Chief Garry.

Wilson Creek, Washington,.......Ever Been There?

 

Twice a year, Nancy Curry drives from her home in Cheney down to Wilson Creek, Washington, to put flowers on her parents’ graves. It’s a beautiful drive through flat Palouse wheat country. She explained that the little towns were purposely built every twenty miles or so along the railroad for hauling both people and produce. I was delighted to be included in her October 2022 jaunt.

We drove south from Davenport, through Harrington, roughly paralleling Crab Creek, past Krupp-Marlin (originally was Krupp but that was too German sounding during World War II so it was renamed Marlin). We slowed through Odessa (remembering the October German Fests we’d attended there in the past), and on to Wilson Creek and nearby Stratford.

Nancy recalled fond memories: at about age 7, and with her brother and cousins, walking the 3.6 miles one way from the farm to the little store in Wilson Creek, with a dime tightly clutched, to buy a popscicle. The dime was earned by digging dandelions: 100 for 10 cents. Her parents had grown up together in nearby Stratford (big old 1902 brick school house) and had retired in Wilson Creek. The house where they lived was built in 1909 and once was white with green trim but still has the green metal roof over now a blue-with-white-trim façade. Nearby lived Nancy’s grandparents. Memories of her visits there are still vivid in her mind.

Her father grew up in Stratford and told her how he played, fished and sailed boats on Stratford Lake. (The family had an apple orchard and her father told how he carved his and her mother’s initials in all of the trees.) Other cousins walked down from the top of the coulee down into the Crab Creek drainage to where Stratford was to attend school. A 2-3 mile walk one way to school, outdoors in all weather, never fazed students in those days.

The Wilson Creek cemetery rests on a bluff above town and appears well mowed and cared for. A recent fire had blacked the area around the cemetery but was mercifully stopped at the perimeter. A few scattered pines frosted the grass with needles; Nancy wished she had brought a whisk to clean off her family’s grave sites but happily used her hands. She brought and placed stems of yellow-and-orange fake flowers to replace the pink ones from last spring. She pointed out that her plot is next to her mother for when her turn comes.

Just a mile down the road from Stratford, and in the middle of a corn field, is a square plot of cemetery where two of Nancy’s uncles (who died as babies) rest. She always remembers them too. The cemetery is just plain dirt, not a green blade of anything growing. Nancy thinks the ground was poisoned for some reason. We agreed; it was a sad, sad sight.

Happy to leave that sad cemetery, we drown past Ephrata to Lakeview and Soap Lake (so close together as to seem one town). We lunched with her cousin, Sharon, at the Lakeview Golf Course café where the Chicken Taquitos were delicious. Was fun listening to them swap and share memories.

Thank you, Nancy, for sharing your family trip with me.

Sears Catalogs From Days Of Yore: 1897

 

Bust cream or food for only $1.46? " unrivaled for developing the bust, arms and neck, making a plump, full, founded bosom, perfect neck and arms, a smooth skin which before was scrawny, flat and flabby." 

You could have your very own sewing machine for only $22.50! Note that it was a foot-powered model but it did come with a 10-year guarantee!

Only $39.90 for a Michigan A Grade Family Wagon.... "we must sell 1000 of these vehicles before the close of the season." And a 3% discount was offered if you pay in full with your order. Horses not included. 

"The Most Stylish Suit Ever Sold!" The dresser has a fancy pattern shaped mirror, 30x36 inches in size. All drawers are fitted with fancy brass handles. The bed stands 

6-feet high and 4'6" wide (full size today width is same), and is made from the choicest quarter-sawed oak. The footboard is one solid piece......  all three of these pieces, plus a washstand (not pictured) would set you back $59.00. Imagine! 

Remember The Sears Christmas Wish Book?

 

How many of us remember drooling over the pages of the Sears catalog Christmas Wish book? I do!

The first Sears Christmas Book debuted in 1933 and came in the mail for 60 years, until 1993 (when Sears went totally out of the catalog business). 

Through the decades, the items offered varied. In 1937, tractor sets and Shirley Temple dolls were offered. By 1949, Western TV shows and movies exploded and the book offered a wide variety of Roy Rogers inspired gifts and even school supplies. As America entered the space race in 1968, children everywhere dreamed of becoming an astronaut. Marking America's Bicentennial in 1975, nostalgic theme toys appeared: fife and drum sets, Colonial dolls and models of the USS Constitution.  Transformers exploded on the scene in 1984. 

What likely did your grandparents or parents or YOU order from the Sears Christmas Wish Book???

Want A Picture Of The Ship Your Ancestor Came On?

 

Then www.shipindex.org is the website for you to find that image!!  I know the copied image above is fuzzy but the first paragraph says it all:

"ShipIndex.org simplifies vessel research. Whether you're a genealogist, a maritime historian, a researcher, or just curious, we can help you learn more about the ships that interest you. We tell you which maritime resources, such as books, journals, magazines, newspapers, CD-ROMS, websites and online databases mention the ships that interest you. We enhance these references by noting which ones include illustrations or crew and passenger lists and where you can find or purchase the resource."

You can barely see that "our full database had 3,151,517 citations to ships in 1004 resources."

You can do a quick first index search for free but you'll need to subscribe to view the citation............. a whopping $6.00 for two full weeks. 

From the Mayflower to the Titanic to the Queen Mary this website will delight you and enhance your family history stories, I guarantee.

A Dangerous Eggnog

"The hens only lay egg-nog at Christmas-tidek but egg-nog will lay a man any time he tackles it," reported the Idaho Avalanche on January 3, 1880. In 1881, The Herald, in Omaha, Nebraska, also found eggnog a subject for humor:  "Hens favor sobriety. They generally quit laying when the egg-nog season approaches."

Big thanks to a decades-old issue of True West magazine for this December-timely article, penned by Sherry Monahan. 

Out on the frontier, eggnog was not just a holiday beverage, but also a saloon drink year-round. In 1881, eggnog was ranked as the eighth most popular saloon beverage and it was served hot or cold. 

Here is the recipe for Victorian eggnog, adapted from the Idaho Daily Statesman, 

12 Dec 1892:

                    3 eggs, separated

                    1 cup powdered sugar

                    1 1/2 cups cream

                    1/4 tsp nutmeg

                    1 TB powdered sugar for egg whites

                    1/4 cup brandy and rum

                    1 cinnamon stick for grating

                    Beat the egg yolks and sugar; set aside. Beat egg whites with 1 TB sugar until stiff and refrigerate. Heat cream and nutmeg to just a boil, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and gradually add hot cream mixture into the egg and sugar mixture. Return everything to the pan and cook until the mixture reaches 160oF. Remove from heat, place in bowl, set in 'fridge to chill. Fold the egg whites into the mixture when serving and served with grated cinnamon and nutmeg.  Serves 2

Too much work for me! I'll just go to Safeway or Rosauer's thank you very much. Bet you will too. 

 

Washington, World War I Veteran's Compensation Fund Applications

 

Bet you've never heard of the World War I Veteran's Compensation Fund for Washington state veterans of the "war to end all wars."

These are now to be accessed in FamilySearch.org and are a Department of Veterans Affairs bonus record set. World War I veterans could apply for compensation from the state of Washington between 1921-1925. 

The World War Adjusted Compensation Act, or Bonus Act, was a U.S. federal law passed on 19 May 1924, that granted a benefit to veterans of American military service in World War I.  The value of each veteran's "credit" was based on each recipient's service between 5 Apr 1917 and 1 Jul 1919, with $1.00 awarded for each day served in the U.S. and $1.25 for each day served abroad. The maximum payment was set at $500.00. 

To search this collection (on FamilySearch), it is helpful to know the name of the soldier and the state where he enlisted.

I, too, have questions. Was this a U.S.-wide program? Which paid, the federal government or the state government? 

If you wish to know more, click to the FamilySearch WIKI and then Washington (state).  Also click to Wikipedia for the World War Adjusted Compensation Act.