#7-2021. Unusual Source. cemetery card

 

#7-2021 Unusual Source.  The Cemetery card

The first unusual source in my search for ancestors was a cemetery card from the East Harrisburg Cemetery, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

This was my “first” genealogy research trip!  I attended a genealogy conference in Harrisburg, the home of many of my ancestors.  I was a bit apprenshive about this trip as I had never been to Pennsylvania and tackling research in a “foreign” area.  I was very lucky to have friends in Reading, Jay & Gracie Wolfe, who met me at the plane and toured me around Harrisburg. I had a list of addresses where the Shaffner family had lived and Jay graciously drove me!

One of the sites I wanted to see was where my great great grandparents, Gabriel Shaffner & his wife Margaret were buried in the East Harrisburg Cemetery.  My cousin Donnee Shaffner Stibal has listed where he was buried but never a picture of his headstone.  Jay stopped at the cemetery office so I could get directions,  Luckily the office was open, whether I knew that at the time or not, I don’t remember.   The clerk was very helpful and copied every cemetery card with the name Shaffner!  And Shaffner is a very common surname in Pennsylvania.   She handed me a map of the cemetery & gave me to directions to Shaffner plots.

Gabriel and his wife Margaret's headstone.

It was leaning that day in 2005, probably fallen over by now.

A cemetery card was a new genealogy resource for me.  As I was going through them, one name caught my attention.  The name of my grandfather’s mother, Elizabeth Deborah Fletcher!  Why was that exciting to me?  Because I never knew where she was buried!  Grandpa Shaffner never had mentioned that and Donnee had never recorded that information.   I find it unusual that Grandpa Shaffner had never written about where his mother was buried.  Grandpa Shaffner, John F. Shaffner, had written so much about his family, but never a word about his mother’s burial.  

Elizabeth Deborah Fletcher Shaffner

(1858-1899)

There was the information on the cemetery card!  Elizabeth Deborah Fletcher Shaffner was buried in her father in law’s plot.  No headstone!

Elizabeth Deborah Fletcher died in 17 November 1899.  My grandfather was 12 years old when his mother died. There were 3 other siblings, one a new born baby.  And then his father, John Martin Shaffner, remarried in 1900.  And he is buried with his second wife.  But why not a headstone?  Perhaps money was an issue.

Not only did I learn where Elizabeth was buried, but also John Martin Shaffner. 

I wonder why my grandfather never wrote about the funerals or burials.  And then I realized that his mother was buried on 18 November 1899 and his son, Don,  my father was born on 18 November 1919.  

#6-2021. Valentine. Sweetheart Swirl 1946

#6-2021.  Valentine

Sweetheart Swirl 1946

More dancing-Sweetheart Swirl

Washington State College

Pullman, Washington

Since my mother made scrapbooks beginning in the 1930’s, I thought it would be fun to find old valentines for this week's challenge.   She kept every card ever given to her, I am quite sure.  But as I began looking through her scrapbook of her college years I found this gem; Sweetheart Swirl of 1946.

Apparently Mom & Dad were dating!  She saved the dance program and her corsage.  Along with their marriage license!  

The page of her scrapbook!

The dance program

My Mom's dance card!

The best artifact

They were illegally hitched!

 

#5-2021. In the Kitchen with Helen Shaffner

#5-2021. In the Kitchen  with Helen Shaffner

The challenge each week is to write a story for the assigned topic.  “In the Kitchen” was easy!  My mother, Helen Shaffner!

Don & Helen Shaffner

25th Wedding Anniversary Party-July 1971

At the ranch on Grasshopper Creek

I don't remember if Mom made the cake.  But I am sure she provided the food for the party!

Many people will remember Helen’s cooking. No one went without food if they visited our house.  She was even known to invite friends walking down the street to return for dinner, When asked by another friend what she intended to feed them; her reply was “Not a problem as there is a frozen pie in the freezer as well as a casserole dish”.  Typical Helen!

Helen was always prepared.  Pies, cakes or desserts in the freezer where common, maybe even a loaf of banana bread.  She had a freezer full of meat and could whip up dinner fast in the days before microwaves!  The oven was her friend!  The Cookie Jar was always full.

If there was a death in a family of friends,  she was probably the first to arrive with food. It was common knowledge in our house when the green pistachio salad (Watergate salad) appeared in the refrigerator or on the counter that someone had died. 

Helen was also the bookkeeper and sometimes receptionist at the Veterinary Hospital.  Dad’s work as a veterinarian was hard with various hours.  Somehow with her schedule, volunteer projects as well as teaching piano lessons, Mom had dinner ready every night.

Dad was also a rancher.   We lived in town; the first ranch purchased, Grasshopper Creek, was 10 miles away with a “cabin”.  The cabin had a barrel stove for heat, wood stove and a pitcher pump.  Mom never cooked there but served many a “meal” after branding or pregnancy testing cows.  That meant she hauled the food, precooked from the house in town.  She began her collection of coolers, plastic containers and boxes to haul the food in.  

Cows were always trailed to summer pasture, which meant Mom provided breakfast (often at 3 AM) and sack lunches for the crew as we walked out the door in the dark.  And of course dinner that night for the family which often included the crew.  Summer work often involved a week’s worth of work gathering cattle as well as the trail to summer pasture.  Each day Mom had breakfast and sack lunches prepared.

The sack lunches are remembered by many!  A few giggles (never in front of Mom) about the contents of the sack lunch.  We all learned to eat everything or we might find in the next day’s lunch. (Because we had to return the plastic sacks & paper sacks daily).  Her lunch was sandwiches (only butter on bread in case of spoilage), cookies, maybe potato chips, a candy bar (usually Salted Nut roll), often a small can of fruit, including a plastic spoon and a hard boiled egg which she had peeled.  The egg was in a baggie, complete with salt and pepper!  Sometimes extra salt packets were included, but it was in the era before water bottles were packed by everyone.  Sometimes we got a can of soda pop.  And sometimes the water was from a stock tank and sometimes lunch was eaten while in the saddle while trailing.  (Cows don’t stop for meals).  We considered ourselves lucky if we got to eat near a water tank filled with spring water.  Not all of the crew knew to go easy on the extra salt when eating their hard boiled egg!  As they looked around for more water, we laughed!

If we were trailing along a road, Helen arrived in her car with food.  The trunk opened and she spread out the fare; usually a hot casserole dish.  That was a treat as we then got to stop and let the cows drift while we ate.  Since breakfast was a 3 AM, the sack lunch might have been eaten by 9.  

The upper ranch was also a “cabin”, again no cooking facilities. Thus Mom hauled food 50 miles (give or take few) to feed the crew.  Or maybe a party was hosted there.  Her trunk opened and the containers came out.  She always had coolers of water or iced team and a thermos of coffee.

Once dad & I were moving cows across the creek on a very hot June day.  I was 4 months pregnant but still had to flank a calf or two to get the rope off as some were dragged across the creek to reunite them with their mothers.  It was a miserable day, hotter than expected and full of issues.  The hired man claimed he was having a heart attack (he wasn’t but a good way to get out of work) as Mom rolled up in her car.  Now to get her drive up this road took a lot of courage for her as she was not brave on the “ranch roads” and this may have been the only time she drove it by herself.    She was very pleased with herself that she had brought “hot coffee”!  She was immediately ordered to take the hired man back to the cabin  and return with ICED TEA and COLD WATER.  I think the only mistake she ever made while hauling food to the crew!

Her legacy may have been the meal she provided after the Parade on Labor Day.   It was a big 4 event over Labor Day weekend in Dillon, Montana, with the parade and rodeo ending the weekend.  During the weekend festivities Helen provided meals as payback for Dad’s clients (which were more friends than clients) who had provided him a noon meal when he worked cattle on their ranch.  Because Dillon is small and few restaurants, our friends & relatives had no place to eat between the parade and rodeo.  So Helen fed them!  It was common knowledge about Helen’s & often people brought their friends!  I think it was normal to feed 50 people after the parade!  Somehow Mom made the food stretch for the “extra’s” that showed up, but no one ever felt they were an “extra”!   They were a friend of a friend, so thus a friend! 

A true legacy of her kitchen and caring spirit was the others invited to her table.  A couple older  friends were widowers, Helen often included them at her dinner table.  My grandfather, Dad’s father, was also a recipient of Helen’s kitchen.  He always had dinner with our family but when could no longer venture out of his house, Mom took him food.  He lived to be 103, living in his own house!  

Whenever we host a gathering, set a nice table, feed a crew; a remark might be heard:  Helen would be proud of us!

Her kitchen legacy remains in many of her friends and families memories.

 

#4 Favorite Photo. Grandma on the horse, Jerry

 #4-2021. Favorite Photo

With the genealogy collections that I have inherited, there are MANY pictures.  Choosing a “Favorite Photo” is a challenge.  And difficult because there are too many excellent, interesting pictures that brought up memories and stories.  

This picture of my grandmother, Della Rae Kurtz Shaffner, bring up questions, research and memories.  And I have always looked at wishing for more...

Della Rae Kurtz Shaffner, and Jerry

Donnee Shaffner Stibal wrote on the album page, "Jerry and Grandma.  She rode him from Custer, Mont to Dillon”.  Donnee was the granddaughter of Della & John, and worked with Grandpa to label pictures as well as write some of the family history.  I am sure there is more to the story that Grandpa told her.  I wish I had that information!

Della & John married in 1913 in Dillon, Montana; returning to Sims, North Dakota were he was the telegrapher.  The first son was born in 1914 in North Dakota.  The second son, Walter, was born in Dillon, Montana in 1917.  

What I do know, is that Jerry is the horse purchased by Grandpa, John F. Shaffner in North Dakota.  I have the original bill of sale. He final payment of $10.00  was made on 18 January 1915.  Jerry was a Hamiltonian gelding that gave the family many memories.

He applied for a homestead in Beaverhead County, Montana on 21 October 1915 and filing for additional acreage on 9 Feb 1916, meanwhile still living in North Dakota.  Della spent the summer while proving it up.  The first summer, Della & George lived in a tent.  I am not sure when the first cabin was built.     

I do know that Grandpa served as a telegrapher in Custer, Montana.  He left the employ of Great Northern Railway in June of 1917.  He went to work for the Oregon Short Line Railroad in November of 1917.  

What year did Della ride the horse from Custer to Dillon?  Maybe 1917.  The mileage would have been about 320 miles.  How many days?   Where was George?  Where did she stay at night?

And where was the picture taken?

#3-2021. Namesake. Middle Names in the Shaffner Family

 #3-2021.  Namesake  Middle Names

Donald Kurtz, Walter Fanoit, George Blanchard and Dean Fletcher Shaffner

estimated in the 1930's

My grandfather and grandmother, John Shaffner and Della Rae Kurtz had 4 sons.   The middle names of their sons was a family surname, except for one.

The oldest George, born in 1914, was given the surname Blanchard.  No one knows where that name came from.  I am not even sure George knew and certainly his children didn’t.  Nor did anyone ask before he died.

The second son, Walter, born in 1917, was given the middle name of Fanoit (Fainot).  This was also John’s middle name but it was the surname of his great great grandfather, George Fredric Fanoit who immigrated from France in 1752.  (Information from Family Bible)

The third son, Donald, born in 1919, was given the middle, Kurtz.  Kurtz was the his mother, Della Rae’s maiden name.

The fourth son, Dean, born in 1924, was given the middle name of Fletcher.  Fletcher was the maiden name of his mother, Elizabeth Deborah Fletcher.  

But where did Blanchard come from?  Since I have began researching the family genealogy and history, I have always been on the lookout for the name Blanchard.  Was it a neighbor?  (None in neighborhood in census reports).  Was it a co-worker?  A family friend?

I did find the name Blanchard as the captain of the ship that brought Della Rae’s grandfather to the United States in 1842.  Peter Paul Deewall immigrated from Ludweiler, Germany leaving behind his mother, step-father and step-sisters.  The family story indicates he left in the middle of the night, posing as the driver of the wagon carrying his friends. (Which I have discovered were related to him).  I have yet to find paperwork indicating that he left Germany legally.  Do you suppose he left illegally and the ship captain covered for him?  Peter Paul died in 1890, Della Rae was born in 1886, her mother, Mary Etta Deewall was born in 1849 and died in 1940.  I can’t help but wonder if there is a family story involving the ship captain.  I will continue to research my theory.

#2-2021. Legend. Albert Gallatin Lloyd

 #2 Family Legend.  52 Ancestors in a Year

Albert Gallatin Lloyd or A. G. Lloyd

Albert Gallatin Lloyd was born in 1836 in St. Joseph, Missouri.  His family emigrated to Oregon when he was 9 years old.  Growing up in Oregon he joined the Munson’s  Co. “I”, “1st” Oregon Mounted Volunteers, First Regiment under General Nesmith in 1855 to fight in the Yakima Indian Wars.  Serving as Corporal, A. G. traveled in southeast Washington discovering Walla Walla County.  In 1858 he married Lois H. Jasper who was 16 years old at the time of their marriage.  A. G. was 21 years old.  They took up a homestead near Waitsburg, Washington on 9 August 1859, Albert and his brother Calvin trailed 180 head cattle from the Williamette Valley in 1859 to claim the land, quickly building a crude hut, with a door but no windows.  He went back to Oregon to fetch his wife and baby boy, John Calvin.  

Albert Gallatin and Lois Jasper Lloyd

Albert G. Lloyd trailed the cattle from the Williamette Valley, driving them over the Cascade mountains by the Barlow route, south of Mount Hood.  Of this band of cattle, 34 were full-blooded Durham cows.  The hard winter of ’61 and ’62 and froze the ground to a depth of a foot and three to four feet of snow fell.  Feed became scare and only 11 head of his cattle were saved.  

His legend began when he allowed the Palouse Indians to camp on his ground as they traveled back and forth to the mountains.  The friendship with the Indians developed throughout the years.  In return for being allowed to camp and well as being a friend of the Indians; they gifted Albert and his family with many items.  Gifts of baskets, purses, bags, and clothing.  The Lloyd”s often gave them food.  They lived peacefully among the Indians as their farm and family grew.  The Indians respected the Lloyd family for their generosity.  

The collection of artifacts can be seen at the Fort Walla Walla Museum in Walla Walla, Washington. Or online at https://www.fwwm.org

Albert G. Lloyd was elected to the Washington Territory Legislature in 1874.

President Cleveland appointed him as Register of the Walla Walla Land Office.  He was appointed in February of 1894 and confirmed by the Senate.  He took office in April of 1894.

RETIREMENT OF REGISTER LLOYD - Hundreds of citizens of Columbia County will be sorry to learn of the contemplated retirement of Albert G. Lloyd as register of the U. S. land office for this district.  Mr. Lloyd probably has fewer personal enemies in Eastern Washington than any other man in public life, and how the charges against him came about is not known.  The dispatches from Washington only state that the charges have been sustained to the satisfaction of the commissioner of the general land office, and that they are based principally upon the statement that Mr. Lloyd is not actively engaged in the performance of his duties, having left it to his clerks, one of whom, - Mr. E. C. Ross-is a republican.  It is understood, how truthfully we do not know, that a land office inspector visited Walla Walla recently and reported unfavorably.  The office pays $1778.65 per year.  Mr. Lloyd is one of our oldest pioneer citizens, having arrived on the Pacific coast fifty years ago and a resident of Walla Walla county for thirty-six years.  He fought in the Indian wars of 1855-56, and has always been noted for bravery, liberality and enterprise. (Original newspaper clipping). I have no idea which newspaper this article came from but I have found similar stories in The Seattle Post Intelligence on 20 January 1896 as well as the Spokesman Review.

All pictures and documents are from the Lloyd genealogy collection, Sydney Gabel

2021-#1. Beginning. 52 Ancestors in a Year

I am not sure where genealogy passion began in my family, but definitely my mother, Helen Lloyd Shaffner, had an interest & passion for her family history.  It was my mother who collected and inherited information.  I grew up hearing stories about her ancestors and placing flowers on graves.  So it was natural that I listened and eventually discovered I had a passion for genealogy.  Although I wish I had listened, written down what was told and asked more questions.  

The one who told the stories, and collected the memorabilia, thus creating my interest.

Helen Lloyd Shaffner

I believe her collection began with my 3rd great grandparents, Nancy Walker Lloyd and her husband John Lloyd.  This couple married in 1823 in Caswell County, North Carolina, moved to Clay County, Missouri in 1824 and went to Oregon in 1845.  But along the way, memorabilia and family history was kept and shared with their family & descendants.  

I enjoy the treasure of letters that they wrote back to their family in North Carolina & Tennessee telling of their life, in Missouri, their trip on the Oregon Trail to Oregon and after arriving in Oregon.  They kept letters written to them by those family members too.  The letters are filled with information of births, marriages & deaths that occurred since they last wrote.  They included prices of things they bought and sold.  My mother’s collection included pictures, many that have the names on them and she created family group sheets from information she searched for.  Her inherited collection contained information from her great aunts, Gillian Ann and Angeline.  There were newspaper articles, funeral cards, obituaries and paper with hand written information.  Although there were never any mention of where they obtained that information, such as the name of the newspaper, when it was printed or where they got the birth/date/marriage dates.  When I did ask Mom a question about it, she would reply; “Well Aunt Gilla said…”.  In other words, don’t question Aunt Gilla’s information!  I inherited the collection when she passed away 20 years ago.  

I am now the 5th generation (maybe the 6th generation) to maintain and keep the family history.

During those generations a lot of memorabilia has been collected.  I have file cabinets and boxes of pictures.  What do I do with it all?  I am slowly trying to digitize information.  But I can’t throw out the original papers.  I have had the letters digitized and donated to the Fort Walla Walla Museum in Walla Walla, Washington.  I have donated items to the Waitsburg Historical Society.  I will continue to donate where applicable.  

But how did I begin?  I began with no knowledge, a box full of files & pictures. I was also collecting snip-its of information on Leroy’s ( my husband) family.  By collecting death and marriage certificates we were able to connect his family to records in Warenburg, Russia.  His family has Germans from Russia heritage, no stories and limited memorabilia. Finding more ancestors & information in Russia was amazing.

Approximately 48 years of collecting, and research, I am still learning!  I have taken classes, joined genealogy groups, traveled for research and discovered a passion.  Helping others find their ancestors and heritage is fun and also helps me learn more about research.  

And a hobby that keeps me busy, off the streets and busy while “shelter in place” during a pandemic!