#43 Transportion. Prairie Schooner was a hard way to travel

#43 Transportation. 52 Ancestors In a Year

Prairie Schooner was a hard way to travel.

My mother’s family traveled west on the Oregon Trail.  My great great great grandfather, John Lloyd, headed west in 1845 with 2 wagons and 10 family members.  My mother was able to obtain the letters he wrote back to his brother in Tennessee so we have a glimpse of the trip. 

I marvel at John Lloyd who left a farm in Missouri wonder what made him want to endure the months of hardship traveling to Oregon?  I often wonder what his wife said when he told her of his plans.  In order to make the trip, there was wagons and oxen to obtain, food to stock the wagons and decisions to be made of what to take west in limited wagon space.  In the research it seems that many from the same area were going.  There were meetings of planning, organization and developing rules to follow.  Deadlines for the wagons to meet before leaving, inspections of supplies, firearms and riders to organize to move the cattle.  Before they  left, John wrote to his brother telling him to be sure and write them in Oregon and have the letters in St. Joe by March of each year.  They left Missouri knowing that they might never see family again.  They left a daughter and her family assuming that they would come west the next year.  But she never did.

Dad examines a diorama at The Archway in Kearney, Nebraska

I had passed under this museum, The Archway, numerous times but never took the time to stop.  One day on a trip home from Kansas in 2002, Dad & I stoped.  It was so worth the time and money.  Dad was always curious how they hooked up the oxen; he was able to learn!

If you ever under The Arch, on I-80; take a few minutes & enjoy the tour.

My great great grandmother, Lois Jasper, was 13 when she left Missouri for Oregon.  Her father had died in 1845 and her older brothers and a sister had gone west.  One brother returned for his widowed mother, 5 siblings and an old maid aunt and took them to Oregon.  It was always said that Lois walked most of the way.  How did they finance the trip?  It wasn’t cheap to buy wagons, oxen and supplies.

Lois's mother, Polly Heath Jasper, carried this tin in her pocket.

I have traveled much of the trail and am constantly amazed at trip undertaken in the prairie schooner.  

How did they pull those wagons through the rocks around Scottsbluff?  

As you traverse the trail, especially through Wyoming, I wonder, how did they do it???  There are place on the trail that I am sure you can see where you will be camping at night, from the morning when you broke camp!   And in the horizon were huge mountains.  Did they wonder & worry how they would cross?

Of course the pioneers walked.  The wagons were rough riding as well as it was necessary to lighten the load.  I wonder how many walked barefoot?  There were not many shoe stores along the trail!  

Food and water on the trail were also an issue.  There are miles and miles where water wasn’t readily available.  And bad water was the cause of many deaths.  It was most important to water & feed the livestock first.  

And after you have been on the trail for months, when someone tells you they know a shorter and better way, what do you do?  Taking that advice led to a lot of problems for John Lloyd as he traveled the Meek Cutoff Trail in Oregon.  

The hard daily work of the people in the wagon train simply amazes me.  The wagons rolled out by 8 AM (information from a journal), so that meant breakfast must be prepared and served and dishes cleaned up.  Perhaps they had food from the night before, but otherwise a fire would have had to be built.  The process was repeated in the evening.  In the evening horses, mules and oxen also had to be fed.  How did they pack enough water?  How did they do laundry?  Or did they?  Women gave birth along the trail, maybe the wagon train held up for a day; maybe not.  If someone was sick; they often were left behind. 

Women wore Sunbonnets to protect their face.

The sun, the dirt.  Imagine trailing about 100 head of cattle along with the wagon train, plus horses and oxen.  I can see the dust!  

There was constant worry about Indians too.  One of my great great grandmother’s sister’s wrote of the Indian bothering them; but luckily nothing happened to either wagon train.  

Can you imagine rationing out your supplies of food so that you can survive to the end?  One letter John wrote to his brother said that they didn’t run out of flour or bacon but many in the train had.  Were there stores along the way to supply the wagons.  There were occasional forts and supply houses; but not many.  

Can you imagine the hard work that everyone did?  I can't.

The dairies tell of the hardship the women faced daily.  

There are numerous stories of how they roped wagons down steep hills, broke down the wagons to float across a river, the brut strength of women pushing the wagons up the hill, the brut strength of the men handling the oxen, repairing the wagons and helping each other.  I know all those stories, but I still wonder--how did they do it???  Day after day for 6 months...could you do it??

When we think we have it tough, I think of my ancestors on the Oregon Trail and realize life is pretty good.  Even waiting at the airport for a few hours isn't that hard!  

#42 Adventure in a Cemetery 52 Ancestors

#42 Adventure  A genealogy research trip to Pennsylvania

Since I have numerous ancestors in Pennsylvania, I decided to attend a genealogy conference in Lancaster.  And why not spend a few days researching!  Although it was over Mother’s Day, I missed my family; but it was a Mother’s Day to remember!  Lancaster county is where the Shaffner ancestors lived and died.  Attending the conference was a help to learn more, but the adventures began when I embarked on searching out burial locations.

I had rented a car and I had Google maps!  This was nearly 10 years ago so technology & GPS were not as good as now.  And I was driving, alone.  That didn’t bother me but it did hamper my ability to look at the gorgeous farming county!

I knew that my great great grandfather’s sister was buried in a church graveyard in Manheim.  I was terribly worried that I wouldn’t be able to find the church or the graveyard.  It was so easy it was unbelievable!  The church was easy to find in the small town and the graveyard was next to it.  I walked to the first row of tombstones, and there was her headstone!  And her husband, and her daughter and her son!  I was excited to know my research work was correct!

Zion Lutheran Church

Manheim, Pennsylvania

Catherine Shaffner White, Sister of Gabriel Shaffner who is my great great grandfather.

I knew that other Shaffner’s were buried in Manheim but at the Manheim Fairview Cemetery.  I had contacted the Manheim Cemetery before going and they provided a map of where the Shaffner tombstones were located.  And this where the adventure began!  

I found the headstone! 

Or a vault!

The Steeple had the names of the family members, supposedly in the vault.  

It would be easy to climb on the roof see the names on the steeple!

Henry Shaffner is my great great grandfather’s brother.  

The names on all 4 sides of the steeple are his family.

The door of the vault with a gate in front of it

Door frame with inscription 

Gate with Henry Shaffner's name

The door was locked!  Since I did not bring lock picking tools or a bolt cutter, I was unable to look inside!  Who has the key?  Later I contacted the Cemetery Association and they were considering cutting the lock.  The information from the cemetery indicates that the vault was moved there.  Death dates indicate that some died before the vault was moved.  There are several stories with the vault!  

Who has the key???

Using a telephoto lens I was able to take photos of all 4 sides of the steeple.   It was hard to get a good photo of the side of the steeple over the roof.  Yes, for a moment I considered climbing on the roof to get a better view and a better photo.  But since it was Mother’s Day, I decided the potential of a headline in the local newspaper of a Montana girl falling into the tomb vault wasn’t something I wanted!  The fear of falling into the vault kept me safe that day!

So the mystery of the vault lives on.

What an adventure and discovery!

#41 Context. Friend of the Indians. 52 Ancestors

#41 Context.  Friend of the Indians.  52 Ancestors

My third great grandfather ( Albert Gallatin Lloyd) came west on the Oregon Trail in 1845, settling in Benton County, Oregon with his parents and siblings.  Traveling through Indian country and then living with the threat of Indian activity was a fact of life.  

Albert or A. G. as he was known, joined the Oregon Volunteers at the age of 19 to fight in the Indian Wars of Oregon and Washington Territory.  He served in the Oregon-Washington Indian War as a corporal in Munson’s Co. "I" 1, Oregon Mtd Volunteers

It was the time of Indian conflicts in Washington and Oregon Territory.  There were many reasons for the conflict, but as settlers in a new territory; the call to protect the citizens  activated many.  A. G.’s brother, Abner,  and his father, John also joined the Oregon Volunteers.  The Oregon Volunteers saw action in the Walla Walla area of the Washington Territory.  In a newspaper clipping (Spokeman-Review 24 May 1908) of his 50th wedding anniversary celebration. the details of his service in the Indian War were given.  He was involved in a 4 days battle on the Walla Walla River, December 7-10 of 1855.  

Index to Indian Wars Application Pension Files, 1817-1926, digital images, Fold3

(https://www.fold3.com/image/624161137?terms=Albert%20g%20Lloyd : viewed 9 October 2019) Citing the pension application for Albert G. Lloyd, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Microfilm publication T318,  Record Group 5, roll 7; 

Albert G. Lloyd Indian War Veterans Certificate, Lloyd Family collection; privately  held by Sydney Gabel [address for private use] Huntley, Montana 2019

Returning from the Indian Wars to the Williamette Valley and Benton County, Oregon, he married Lois Jasper on 20 May 1858.  Lois was 16 and A. G. was 21.  Their first son, John Calvin, was born in May of 1859.  That summer Lois and A. G. moved to the Walla Walla Valley, near Waitsburg, and took up a homestead.  In the area that he had seen during the Indian Wars.  He brought with him about 180 head of cattle, trailing them from the WilliametteValley and over the Cascade mountains.  

His story is not unusual for the times.  But what is unusual is how he lived among the Indians after settling on his homestead.  A. G. had made a pact with Big Thunder, a leader of the Palouse Indians, that they could continue to use their traditional campsite on the Touchet River near Waitsburg.  Friendship was totally out of context for an Indian War veteran.

In a native American culture, gifting is a way of respect.  The Indians and the Lloyd’s often exchanged gifts; the Lloyd’s offered food (mostly meat and produce) and the Indians gave the Lloyd’s cultural items such as purses, headdresses, moccasins, baskets and clothing.

Wesley Lloyd, his son, collected the items and maintained the collection.  The collection was gifted to the Fort Walla Walla Museum.  There is a permanent display of items from the collection.  The majority of the items were on a 2 year display.  I went to the grand opening of the exhibit in 2007 and it was quite wonderful to see the items.  But the biggest suprirse I received was when the Indians from the area, came and thanked me for the generosity of the Lloyd family.  Stories about the generosity of the Lloyd family has been passed down in the Indian culture for over 100 years.

Purses created by Indians and given to the Lloyd family, Lloyd Family collection; privately  held by Sydney Gabel [address for private use] Huntley, Montana 2019

I am honored to be a part of that legacy.

Lois & Albert Gallatin Lloyd

 

If you are ever near Walla Walla, Washington be sure and stop and tour the Lloyd exhibit.

The Lloyd Exhibit is at Fort Walla Walla Museum:  https://www.fwwm.org/lloyd-family

Fort Walla Walla Museum

755 Myra Road

Walla Walla, Washington 99362

#40 Harvest. Sugar Beet. Family Tradition

#40 Harvest. 52 Ancestors

Agriculture roots are extensive in my family; maternal, paternal, husband, and in-laws.  My life as well as my ancestor’s life has revolved around harvest.  Harvest is where a family in agriculture is paid for the year’s worth of work as well as the money invested in a crop.  And if the crop is poor, the money generated doesn’t pay the bills.

And what crops have the ancestors grown?  I include livestock as a crop as the product of the factory are gathered and sold once a year.   The factory might be cows or ewes or sows or does (goats).   Families depend on that harvest for income.  My ancestors (and my husband’s) have harvested cattle, sheep, wheat, corn, hay, pinto beans, sugarbeets, malting barley, canola, peas.  

My current involvement this year in harvest is sugarbeets.  Sugarbeets have been a crop for 4 generations of Gabel’s in Montana.  It is a unique crop, high labor and high management crop.  But a crop that a Germans from Russia excelled in growing.  

We had the opportunity to attend a fall festival at the Legacy of the Plains museum in Scottsbluff, Nebraska in September.  We were able to watch the digging (lifting) of the beets with mules, and the hand work involved in harvesting the crop.  You had to want to grow sugar beets in that era but it was a cash crop and the Germans from Russia were used to hard work.  We were able to see restored one row diggers in the field and Leroy was given the opportunity to dig with the international tractor and the one row International beet digger.  It was a digger like his parents had when he grew up.  In fact, the last year it was used was in 1972, 47 years ago!  He was excited, but thankful that he could return to his 6 row digger!

Leroy's grandfather, Henry Gabel on a beet digger (lifter)

The digger lifted the sugar beets up out of the ground, one row at a time.

The men then pulled the beets from the row as they were "lifted" and put them in row 

with the tops all pointing the same direction.

picture from  the 1930's.

After the beets were laid in the windrow, they came back and topped the beets and laid them in a pile on a fresh dirt path that had been cleared by a team pulling a sled 

After the beets were topped, the men used a "beet fork" and pitched them on the truck.

Henry Gabel with a loaded beet truck.

Notice the piles of beets

 They were forked onto a truck

Leroy's Dad, Roy, on an International tractor with the one-row beet digger

1972

The last year the one row digger was used.

Leroy in Scottsbluff on an Farmall International Tractor with the International one row digger

September 2019

Today, digging with a 6 row digger

#39 Map It Out. Dad's map. 52 Ancestors in a Year

 #39 Map It Out

The ranch on Grasshopper Creek, Beaverhead County, Montana

I was 14 & my sister was 10 when my dad bought the ranch on Grasshopper Creek.  

Dad was a veterinarian and we lived in town.   His brother was buying a ranch and needed to sell one.  Since Dad’s goal was always to ranch, Dad’s opportunity was created.  With the ranch purchase came 4 horses.  The horses for my sister and I were old gentle Morgan horses. 

I am not sure if dad’s purchase was his retirement plan or a plan to make sure my sister and I knew how to work.  Or maybe it was a place we where we could all work together!  Regardless, it was the place we learned lots of life’s lessons plus learned to work, usually together.  Sometimes together met just my sister and I; sometimes with Grandpa, sometimes with Dad, sometimes with the neighbor girl and sometimes with someone Dad hired to help us. 

Since the ranch has a creek running through it, it was normal for the cows to want to “hang around” the creek area on hot summer days.  There were no fences to keep them off the creek.  There was plenty of grass on the hills, but the creek is where they liked to water and stay.  Cattle can do lots of damage to the riparian area so it was necessary to always gather the cattle along the creek and move them (cowboy slang: push them) to the higher hills where there was plenty of grass.  And push them, we did as cows don’t like to leave the creek area and climb hills!

Since Dad was working at his veterinary clinic, and didn’t want to keep a hired man during the summer; who best to ride daily and push the cows off the creek bottom.  Well…his daughters and their trusty horses.  At first Grandpa rode with us to show us the country.  Weekends were working with Dad and he taught us the “methods”.  Mom did not like horses, didn’t like to even hold the halter rope but she had to be the driver to take us to the ranch so we could ride.  Since I was the oldest, I usually had the task of getting the horses gathered if they were not in the corral.  I also had the task of saddling the horses or my sister often stood on a box to saddle her horse.  Sometimes the neighbor girl, Kathy, rode with us.  Once saddled, and lunches in our saddle bags, Mom waved to us as we took off.  I often wonder at her bravery and what she thought.  The ranch was 10,000 acres, rocky, lots of rattlesnakes and we were on horses.  If a problem developed, we had to solve it.  (long before cell phones!). There was a cabin at the ranch and a phone.  When we got back from our ride/work/adventure, the rule was that we had to call the veterinary hospital and tell Dad we were back.  

When Dad didn’t ride with us, he drew a map the night before and explained to us where we would probably find cows and calves and where we were to  take them.  Each summer was different as the practice was to rotate pastures.  I wish I had saved those maps, drawn on the back of envelope or any other piece of paper that was handy.  Of course after a few trips, my sister and I knew the where to go without a map.  When dad was able to hire a hired man, he created the map that hangs in the porch at the ranch.

Lots of country!

Our work area or playground when we grew up!

#38 Cousins Learned to work 52 Ancestors in a Year

#38 Cousins   A common ancestors,  52 Ancestors in a Year

If you are lucky to grow up with cousins, you are lucky as well as fortunate to have friends too.

Shaffner Cousins

1987

Gradpa's 100th Birthday celebration

Back row:  Bob, Geoffrey and John 

Front row:  Sydney, Gail, Grandpa & Donnee

I grew up in a small town of Dillon, Montana with family & cousins.  Holidays and birthdays and work were shared with family.  It helped that the patriarch of our family, my grandfather, John F. Shaffner lived until he was 103.  He was a central figure in my life for 41 years.  

Grandpa was a central figure in the lives of his grandchildren, my cousins.  We all got to experience Grandpa in many different ways.  One of the ways he influenced us was his work ethic.  He came west, working with the railroad and homesteading.  He worked 2 jobs to keep “afloat”.  Work was normal for the family and we learned to work until the job was finished.  We learned long days were the norm; work was not just eight hours a day.  There were a few others things he taught us such as reading a recipe is important, putting all the parts back together when working on machinery and living life, looking forward to tomorrow as yesterday is history.

The oldest, Donnee, worked with Grandpa for years with getting his pictures labeled and working with the genealogy.  She may have been his favorite.  I ruined her thunder when I arrived on the scene, (her words) but regardless we shared many interests.  My first horse was her hand me down!

Sydney, next in line, had many experiences with Grandpa!  I should write a book and have others contribute too!  I share his love of family history and genealogy.  He was maybe the 1st babysitter I remember.  At least horseback!  When Dad bought the ranch, Grandpa was our babysitter!  Or maybe my sister & I took care of Grandpa! 

Bob, a rancher, horse trainer and saddle maker & equipment operator, is very talented.  He probably had more experiences with Grandpa.  Since we are the same age, I have a few memories of "family time" while skiing or haying or horseback!  Another hard worker!

John might be the most talented of the cousins.  We all admire his work on many TV show sitcoms.  Another hard worker who learned from Grandpa to work until the job is done.  Grandpa often stayed with John's family in Missoula, helping!  Helping is a used very loosely....but it always involved work.

Gail, also very talented with sewing, crafts, works hard on the ranch.  Too hard. Her experiences with Grandpa even involve looking for him and his black horse at night!  She & her husband lived with him for a few months.  She may have a few stories!

Geoff, a logger and bookbinder, learned about hard work through family work at the ranch, at the bindery and working in the forest.  Geoff grew up working along side Grandpa at the bindery and at a ranch in Bannack.  

Cousins are the legacy from a common ancestor.  Learning life from an ancestor is priceless.  We were the lucky ones!  And yet, I think Grandpa felt he was the lucky one sharing his life, lessons, principles and history with his grandchildren.

#37 Mistake I should have paid attention 52 Ancestors in a Year

#37 Mistake  52 Ancestors in a Year

A mistake not to listen, write down or pay attention.

My mother, Helen Lloyd Shaffner, was interested in her family history for as long as I can remember.  There was a trip to a cemetery in Oregon in an effort to find a headstone.  I vaguely remember, as I was young, but I do remember a hill, trees, grass and probably rolling my eyes at the thought of this stop.  I think my Dad probably led the way of “wasting time doing this" attitude.  

Helen Lloyd
She graduated from high school in 1942

1938

What I would give to know where and what she found in that cemetery.  If only she had taken pictures or written a story down.  So far I have not discovered those 2 pieces of information in her genealogy collection. 

It was normal that we went to Mom's hometown of Waitsburg, Washington for Memorial Day festivities, which included a class reunion.   We took flowers and toured the cemeteries and decorated graves including my great great grandparents.

Mom never called herself a genealogist. Nor did anyone else.  But she was.  I have files, pictures and scraps of paper written on them.  Mom created family group sheets.  I have duplicates of many of them.  She shared her information with others too.  My mother, Helen Lloyd Shaffner, inherited a collection from her great aunt, so those letters and scraps of paper are also included.  

One of the many Family Group Sheets in her collection.

Many of her family group sheets have notes written on the back

Mom also created scrapbooks.  I think the earliest one I have is 1930.  Many include newspaper clippings of obituaries or other family information.

Mom had paid attention to her grandparents and knew many stories.  She did write a few down, but I want more!  But I wish I had written her recollections down or recorded them.

What a mistake I made by not spending more time learning the family history!

Mom was most proud of her heritage, especially the ancestors who came across on the Oregon Trail.