EWGS Presidents: Beatrice Cutler Mitcham

This is the twenty third in the series on the Presidents of EWGS leading up to the 75th anniversary in 2010. See the previous posts on Samuel Pool Weaver, Leora Cookingham Thiel, Susan Marie West Jack, Ruth Churchill Austin, Alfred Denman, Florence Ballou Brown, Harriet Jefferson Pinkham, Mary Elizabeth Dow Maltbie, Achsah Maltbie Rawlings, Lee DeGolyer Patchen, Susie Elliott Faubion, Edith Webb Nelson, Carrie Teats Lartigue, Guy Alfred Clumpner, Grace Ellis Woodward, Mabel Rue Frederick, Nell Hartman Peel, Edwin Allan Poole, Mabel Enid Rice Conrad, Helen Elizabeth Osborne Rowe, Dr. Herbert Hoover Osborne and Jane Merritt Logie Webster.

Beatrice Cutler Mitcham became EWGS President in the middle of 1970 when Jane Webster moved to Montana. Beatrice--known as "Boo" to her friends--continued on through 1971 as EWGS President. Beatrice was born in Spokane in 1914 to Truman Milton Cutler (born in Minnesota) and Beatrice Fairchild (born in Nebraska). Her parents were married in Hillyard March 18, 1908. Beatrice went to school in Spokane and married Clarence R. Gifford in Spokane December 29, 1934. They had two sons, Robert and Ronald Gifford.

On September 2, 1961 Beatrice Gifford married Clarence E. "Mitch" Mitcham. He was born May 1, 1901 in Peoria, Oklahoma Territory, son of John Belve and Mary Orlena (Allen) Mitcham. He moved with his family to Ritzville, Washington at age two, then to Turner Bay, Idaho and finally to Hayden Lake, Idaho in 1915. He worked in the mines in Philisburg, Montana and then moved to Spokane and worked for the Great Northern Railroad for 45 years. In 1922 he married Dorothy Ellen Benson and they had John, Bonnie, Barbara, Beverly and Clarence, Jr. In the 1930s he bought property near Mt. Spokane, established a sawmill and built their home. Nearby Mitch and his son John built the famous Mitcham Dance Hall, opening date July 2, 1938. Western Square Dancing was started in this area at this dance hall.

Both Beatrice and Clarence were enthusiastic genealogists and visited the Middle East and areas in the south to complete the book Meacham-Mitcham-Mitchum Families of the South. Clarence died March 6, 1977 and is buried at Spokane Memorial Gardens. Beatrice survived Clarence until March 26, 1994; she also is buried at Spokane Memorial Gardens.

Comments by Carrie Lartigue: "Mrs. Clarence (Boo) Mitcham served 1-1/2 years. Boo and her husband "Mitch" traveled thousands of miles, collecting data on their families. They also helped copy tombstone inscriptions when that project was going. Boo had several committee meetings at her home at the base of Mt. Spokane and donated 15 years worth of EWGS Bulletins to the society."

EWGS Presidents: Jane Merritt Logie Webster

This is the twenty second in the series on the Presidents of EWGS leading up to the 75th anniversary in 2010. See the previous posts on Samuel Pool Weaver, Leora Cookingham Thiel, Susan Marie West Jack, Ruth Churchill Austin, Alfred Denman, Florence Ballou Brown, Harriet Jefferson Pinkham, Mary Elizabeth Dow Maltbie, Achsah Maltbie Rawlings, Lee DeGolyer Patchen, Susie Elliott Faubion, Edith Webb Nelson, Carrie Teats Lartigue, Guy Alfred Clumpner, Grace Ellis Woodward, Mabel Rue Frederick, Nell Hartman Peel, Edwin Allan Poole, Mabel Enid Rice Conrad, Helen Elizabeth Osborne Rowe and Dr. Herbert Hoover Osborne.

Jane Merritt Loggie Webster was EWGS President for about half of 1970 before moving to Eureka, Montana. Jane was born August 4, 1902 in Menominee, Michigan, daughter of Alfred Ernest (1871-1946) and Isabella Sutherland (Milner) Logie (1872-1902). The Milners were from New York and Vermont and the Logies were from New Brunswick, Canada. Her mother died two months after Jane was born. Jane attended school in Illinois, graduating from nurses training at Waukegan. In 1938 she obtained a Certificate of Public Health Nursing from the University of Washington. Jane was the first county and school nurse in the San Juan Islands.

On May 27, 1939 in Mount Vernon, Washington she married Charles Franklin Webster, son of William Webster of Ontario, Canada and Clara Neussle of New York. This was the second marriage for both. Jane died May 30, 1986 at Opportunity Care Center. She had been a member of the DAR and had traced her Fay, Stanley and McIntire lines back to the Revolution. She was a very prolific author; when I did a Google Book Search for her it brought up three pages of books she authored or co-authored, including Logie Ancestry and Allied Lines by Jane Logie Webster and Jeanne Coe, and Robert Logie of New Brunswick. Both books are in the Spokane Public Library.

EWGS dues were raised this year to $5 for an individual and $7 for a married couple.

EWGS Presidents: Dr. Herbert Hoover Osborne

This is the twenty-first in the series on the Presidents of EWGS leading up to the 75th anniversary in 2010. See the previous posts on Samuel Pool Weaver, Leora Cookingham Thiel, Susan Marie West Jack, Ruth Churchill Austin, Alfred Denman, Florence Ballou Brown, Harriet Jefferson Pinkham, Mary Elizabeth Dow Maltbie, Achsah Maltbie Rawlings, Lee DeGolyer Patchen, Susie Elliott Faubion, Edith Webb Nelson, Carrie Teats Lartigue, Guy Alfred Clumpner, Grace Ellis Woodward, Mabel Rue Frederick, Nell Hartman Peel, Edwin Allan Poole, Mabel Enid Rice Conrad and Helen Elizabeth Osborne Rowe.

Herbert Hoover Osborn was EWGS President in 1968 and 1969. He was born in Utah in 1929 to Warren J. and Ruby (Twitchell) Osborn. Herbert went to school in Escalente, Utah and after graduation studied pre-dentistry at the University of Utah before finishing his studies at the University of Washington. In 1954 at the Temple at Salt Lake City, Utah, Herbert married Melba Gardiner. They had one daughter, Jane, and three sons: Paul, Brent and Bryan. Herbert was a member of the 12th Ward of the LDS Church and a seven-year member of the Central Valley School Board. He was a private in the Army in Seoul Korea as well as a guest lecturer at Seoul University and Yangtse University on gold crown dentistry. He was nominated as "Citizen of the Year" in 1984.

In 1968 when Herbert was EWGS President, EWGS was registered at the Courthouse and got a permanent mailing address. The EWGS newsletter became The Bulletin in September of 1969. In March of 1970 Dr. Osborn of the Genealogical Records Committee filmed the school Records from Cheney, Washington, which began about 1886. The committee also worked on Spokane County records, some dating back to 1865.
Dr. Osborn is still alive and is the earliest EWGS President still alive.

Comments by Carrie Lartigue: "1968: Dr. H.H. Osborn - who engineered good programs and always helps with the annual Workshop. He is especially informative in Migration Trails. (There is a six-page article by Dr. Osborn in the Bulletin archives). It was through Dr. Osborn that we were granted the use of LDS facilities. Also, we are grateful to him for microfilming many rolls of Spokane County records...mainly Deeds."

New Website for EWGS!

Have you heard? Eastern Washington Genealogical Society has a new website...a new address...and a new look! Check it out at http://www.ewgsi.org!

Our 3rd Vice President--and webmaster--Cecily Cone Kelly has done a wonderful job putting our content onto the new site, making it easy to use with a professional look. EWGS is using a customizable website shell built specifically for genealogy societies by EasyNetSites.com which takes a lot of the website building and design work off the webmaster, allowing him or her to concentrate on adding content and data instead.

At our general meeting on March 6th, Cecily demonstrated the great features of the site, including using the member area of the site. If you are a member of EWGS, your user name is the first letter of your first name, followed immediately by your last name. For instance, mine is MMidkiff.  The password is your five-digit ZIP code. After you log in, you can change your password to a secure one known only to yourself.

Cecily has agreed to highlight the website and personally walk you through the login process and membership area in next month's member computer class, on April 17th. You can sign up for this class by e-mailing me.

Our new website has content that is available and pertinent for anyone visiting it, whether or not they are a member of EWGS. Upcoming events, research tips, links, public downloads, a store where our publications can be purchased, library (links to our cataloged items in Spokane Public Library as well as a list of our uncatalogued items), and a surname list are all available now. Eventually, the Obituary Index will be placed on our site, and those who are researching ancestors who died in the Spokane area will be able to locate their names on it. A request for a copy of an obituary will be able to be made, with fees going to EWGS.

I encourage you to visit this site and let us know what you think!

EWGS Members at KSPS

This is a picture of several EWGS members taking pledges at our local PBS Station KSPS.
I did not get the names of three people, but those I did get names are Front Row: Jacque Lane, Charles Hansen, Janine Rowan, Jeanne Coe
Back Row: Dani Lee McGowan, Shirley Penna Oakes, Melody Hall, Dick Oakes, Keith Anderson, John Stuart,Sarah Wasicek, Donna Phillips and Cecily Kelly almost completely hidden in the back right. Sarah is not an EWGS member but sister to Mike Chandler who is an EWGS member.
We made the night a pot luck and got a lot of grazing done between answering phones. Collected about $16,500 for KSPS

The First Edition of the Carnival of Genealogical Societies is Published!

courtesy of the footnoteMaven

The First Edition of the Carnival of Genealogical Societies was published yesterday, March 10th at the California Genealogical Society and Library blog. The subject was Doin' Things Right! and there were 15 submissions, including two from EWGS bloggers Charles Hansen and Miriam Robbins Midkiff.

If you don't know what a blog carnival is, you're in for a treat! A carnival is an electronic publication, much like a magazine, which is all online. The articles (posts) written by different authors (bloggers) are published on the authors' own blogs, usually with a common theme (occasionally, everyone gets to pick their own theme, and this is called a "carousel" edition). The editor (host) then publishes the carnival (table of contents) on his or her blog, with links to each article. Each edition is like an issue of that magazine. There are numerous genealogy carnivals available online now; the lists can be viewed at Geneabloggers or at AnceStories' monthly Calendar of Events.

As mentioned above, the California Genealogical Society and Library blog, authored by Kathryn Doyle, is the first host of this new carnival. Kathryn has long been involved in the genealogy blogging world, but was frustrated that she could not include her society's blog in many of the genealogy carnivals, since they were personalized to writing about individuals' ancestors. The Carnival of Genealogical Societies was Kathryn's brainchild; a solution that allows genealogical societies to participate in their own carnival and publicize their societies to the Internet and the world!

I encourage you to read this first edition to learn about how EWGS and other societies are doin' it right by providing resources and working on projects, programs, and publications to serve the genealogical community.

EWGS Presidents: Helen Elizabeth Osborne Rowe

This is the twentieth in the series on the Presidents of EWGS leading up to the 75th anniversary in 2010. See the previous posts on Samuel Pool Weaver, Leora Cookingham Thiel, Susan Marie West Jack, Ruth Churchill Austin, Alfred Denman, Florence Ballou Brown, Harriet Jefferson Pinkham, Mary Elizabeth Dow Maltbie, Achsah Maltbie Rawlings, Lee DeGolyer Patchen, Susie Elliott Faubion, Edith Webb Nelson, Carrie Teats Lartigue, Guy Alfred Clumpner, Grace Ellis Woodward, Mabel Rue Frederick, Nell Hartman Peel, Edwin Allan Poole and Mabel Enid Rice Conrad.

Helen Elizabeth Osborne was born in Denver, Colorado May 2, 1909, the only child of George Washington Osborne and Nellie Drucilla Hardenbrook. Helen was living in Medford, Oregon when she met Newton Dow Rowe. They were married in Yreka, California July 8, 1939. Dow was a food broker in Medford and Helen served as bookkeeper. They continued their business after moving to Spokane in 1948. They owned and operated Empire Cheese Company, a distributorship for Borden Products. Dow died August 18, 1984 and was cremated.

Helen was EWGS President in 1966 and 1967. She organized the Library Helpers at the library and was vitally concerned that assistance be available to researchers there. She served as a Regent of Spokane Garry Chapter of the Daughters of American Revolution, was a member of the National Society of Colonial Dames XVII Century, the Order of Eastern Star, the Klix Kamera Klub, and the Dean's Guild of the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist. In the Spokesman-Review's December 30, 1979 Today's Living Section is a big article on Helen and her helping out at the library.

Helen died July 31, 1988 at Alderwood Manor and was cremated.

Comments by Carrie Lartigue: "1966 Mrs. Newton (Helen) Rowe. Helen was always vastly interested in Patriotic Organizations and became enthused with genealogy through work on lineage charts. She has helped dozens to join the DAR. It was she who started the HELPERS program...some experienced people to be at the Genie Room at the library each Wednesday (later changed to Thursday). They are to assist beginners in getting started, learn sources, etc. Now this service is still being offered. Carrie was one of the early helpers...and worked for nine years. A beautiful way to meet others of the same hobby and great satisfaction when you hear them exclaim, 'Eureka! I found it!'"

Editor Note: I started as a "Gene Helper" in the library in 1993. The library was in temporary quarters then in the old J.C. Penney's building kitty-corner from the present library while the new library was being built. My sister and I manned the second Thursday evenings each month from 6 to 9 PM when the library closed. In 1994 when the new library building opened, we moved across the street to the third floor of the new library building. I continued as a "Gene Helper" for five years and then got a chance to do research for EWGS.