2022 Favorite Photo

In August of 1913, my grandfather, John F. Shaffner, joined his future bride, Della Kurtz, and her family on a horse & buggy trip to Yellowstone Park.  

Della Rae Kurtz and her mother, Mary Etta Kurtz and a sister, Lulu,  came west from Pennsylvania to join Mary Ella’s son, Oliver Kurtz and his wife Bertha, who lived in Dillon, Montana, on a horse & buggy trip to Yellowstone Park in August of 1913.  Our family is lucky to have the original diary (not sure where it is but I have a transcribed version) as well as a photo album of original pictures.

My grandfather labeled the picture “P & O Cow camp on the way to Park”.   This is one of my all time favorite pictures.  I love the Angora chaps and the women wearing the pistols!

Colorizing the picture through MyHeritage made the people more distinct.  I think I love the picture even more!

I have blogged about the Yellowstone Park trip on my blog in August of 2015.

One of the overnight stops to Yellowstone Park was at the P & O Cowcamp, southwest of Dillon.  Although this picture was not labeled, I used Grandpa Shaffner's identification of people from another picture. 

Mabel Phillips, the woman on the left, was 22 years old

Della Kurtz, woman in the middle, was 26 years old, with the pistol tucked in her belt

Lulu Kurtz, her sister in the right, was 29 years old

I am not positive on who the names of the men.

 

2022 Favorite Find. 52 Ancestors in a Year

 2022 Favorite Find. 52 Ancestors in a Year

Writing the theme for this week, “Favorite Find” was actually very difficult.  It was so hard to decide which “Find” in my genealogy research was my favorite.   Because there are several.

One of the more exciting ones was finding information on Leroy’s Gabel family.  There was not much family information available.  And when asking relatives it seemed they did not have much information either.  I am not sure if they refused to tell me or simply didn’t know.  When I asked about another Gabel family in the area, they would reply…”Oh they are a cousin”.  But no one knew how they were related.

I asked one elderly aunt how her father’s family had come into the United States.  Her reply was “by boat”, with a look at me as “how can you be that stupid?”  I asked again as to which port they had come through.  She replied, “Lincoln, Nebraska!”   So you can see that questioning people was not producing answers.

I began collecting obituaries, death certificates, marriage certificates and slowly began creating families.  How they were related was still a mystery until I began working with the American Historical Society of Germans From Russia.  I began researching villages for surnames, history of the Germans from Russia and contacting the village coordinator for the village I thought the Gabel family had lived in.   I even went to the Huntley Cemetery with my dowsing rods and asked Leroy’s grandfather if he was from the same village as his wife, which was Frank.   The dowsing rods did not cross with a “yes” answer, but when I inquired of him if he came from the village of Warenburg, the rods indicated “yes” when they crossed.  A very scientific method!

Because of information collected,  I decided that Warenburg was the most likely village.  The village coordinator was helpful in obtaining census records from Warenburg and with the family information that I had developed, she was able to create additional families & pedigrees.

She was able to determine that the Gabel head of household was Asmus Goebel.  Asmus and family were recruited by Le Roy, arriving from Luebeck by the ship “Die Neue Freshet von Bremen"with the Skipper Steingrawer on 4 of July 1766.  Amuas, a Lutheran, a farmer from Usingen, (Germany),  Document No. 1992, lists Asmus, wife, Maria Dorothea; children:  Johann Heinrich age 19, Johann Conrad age 8, Johann Philip age 1, Maria Elisabeth, age 17, Christina Elisabeth, age 16, Susanna Catharina, age 14, Catharine Christina, age 11.1

Apparently Asmus died enroute to the Volga.  His wife remarried.  I do not have much information on that marriage.

¹ Pleve, Igor.  Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1776  “Reports by Ivan Kulberg: Saratove State Technical University, 2010, p 142.

2022 Foundations

The foundation of my love of history began with my mother’s love of history.  Although I didn’t realize it at the time how much I would grow to love family history;  I did listen to her stories.  I have always liked history & regret that I didn’t major in history in college.  I grew up in Beaverhead county, Montana where we lived among history,  Living close to Bannack, Big Hole Battlefield, Virginia City as well Lewis & Clark’s route through Montana, we were immersed in history.

Our family visited Mom’s hometown of Waitsburg, Washington often on Memorial Day weekend.  While Mom & her mother decorated family graves, my sister & I tagged along as we waked through 2 cemeteries.  Of course Mom told us what she knew about each ancestor.  Another time I should have listened more! And written the information down!

Genealogy was also mother’s other passion.  I knew she was collecting information but had no idea the extent of the collection until I brought it home when her health declined.  It took 12 hours to sort the box of files and pictures into the manila folders that I created.  Her collection was pre-computer age, so I realized I had to learn genealogy software & computers.  I estimate I brought her collection to my house in 1995 about 26 years ago. 

Lois Heath 1787-1878

Lois is my third great aunt, a sister of my third great grandmother.

The handwriting is my mother's.

Mom's collection was started by her great aunt on her paternal side.  Her Aunt Gilla collected information from her father & mother, Albert Gallatin Lloyd and Lois Jasper Lloyd.  Albert crossed the plains to Oregon in 1845 while Lois crossed in 1854.  

Gilla Lloyd

Gilla Lloyd researching in Tennessee at her grandfather's grave on

 17 October 1927

My mom added to the Lloyd Family collection with newspaper articles, funeral cards and pictures.  She even collected quilts made by ancestors.   She was born in 1924 and her first scrapbook was created in the 1930’s.  During Mom’s life she created scrapbooks, one is of her first year of college.  She also created scrapbooks for my sister as well as for me.

I would be the 5th generation to have the collection and add to it.  Although much of the information has not been documented, I attempt to find the source for the facts.  So far, I’ve only found 1 mistake in Aunt Gilla’s collection.  

 My Grandfather (my Dad's father) lived to be 103.  He also had a love of family history and wrote stories of his life, labeled pictures as well as inheriting the Family Bible, which has information pre-1850.  And yes, I inherited more family history pictures and stories.

My dad with the Shaffner Family Bible

I began collecting information on my husband's family when we married nearly 50 years ago.  His paternal line did not have much information since they were Germans from Russia.  Beginning with collecting obituaries, death certificates and marriage certificates, I tried to connect Gabel families.  It was worth it when I was able to connect his family to census records and families in Frank, Russia.   

Will the collection ever be complete?  At this point in life I wonder who will be the 6th generation to continue the family history?

#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?