Ruth Black and her sod house

Posted on September 7, 2012 by Michael

This will be another quick post, just to present another couple of gems I found in my family history archives.

Ruth Jane (Tucker) Black is my step great, great grandmother, the wife of Lewis J. Black, a civil war veteran. She and Lewis were born in Fairfield County, Ohio, and when he returned from the war, they settled there and had their first two children in Bremen, Ohio: Ida May (born November 22, 1865) and Perry Commodore Black (born August 4, 1867). In either late 1867 or early 1868, they started heading west. On May 23, 1878, their son Frank Walter Black was born in Norwalk, Iowa. By June 1, 1880, they had taken a homestead in Jewell County, Kansas. It was on this homestead that they built their sod house. Continue reading →

Bill Prettyman and his dog-powered cart

Posted on September 3, 2012 by Michael

Today’s post is about an artifact that tells a charming story about another artifact—one made by my great-grandfather, C. A. Prettyman, for his son (my grandfather), William Prettyman.

This will be a story about a business card. Rather, it’ll be about the stories that the business card tells. The business card is that of my great grandfather Charles Austin Prettyman (who went by the initials “C. A.”). The first story is about the life my great grandfather was leading during the time he was actively using this kind of business card. The second story is about a magical moment that happened about 15–20 years earlier. Continue reading →

Death by honeymoon

Posted on September 2, 2012 by Michael

Towards the end of her life, my father’s mother, Dorothy Ruth McMurry Black, dropped a bombshell on me. She told me she had accidentally killed her first husband on their honeymoon. A first husband? Accidentally killed on their honeymoon? I was eager to learn more about both of these revelations, but she was clearly very emotional about the incident, and I didn’t want to push her too hard.

Over the years, I managed to get her to tell me a few additional details about her first husband, but both he and the circumstances of his death were topics she did not like to talk about, and so the details remained largely unknown to me. Continue reading →

Two deaths at Deer Creek

Posted on September 2, 2012 by Michael

For this post, I want to relay a newspaper article from 1910, and give it what context I can from other sources. I have several second-, third-, and even fourth-generation photocopies of the article, but I have not yet found a physical or digital copy of the original article.

In the span of about a week, the lives of Frank Scott and his four daughters were turned upside down. Frank’s wife Margaret got sick and died suddenly and unexpectedly. Her funeral was immediately arranged, and when her funeral procession passed Frank’s house, where his infirm step-father Nathaniel was staying, Nathaniel died. His step-father’s funeral was arranged and held two days later, and then Frank was left alone with his four young girls, aged 3–12. Continue reading →

Clyde Askew, teamster for the lumberjacks

Posted on August 31, 2012 by Michael

Among the photos I got from my grandmother earlier this month were two images of Clyde Askew and his uncle Samuel Askew at work in the lumber industry. Both images were taken in the winter of 1921, and both images were taken in Cass Lake, Minnesota, a thriving logging town in northern central Minnesota. A century ago, logging in Minnesota—especially in the wintertime—was an undertaking that was strikingly different from logging in more temperate climes. Continue reading →

A postcard to Frank Scott from his sister Mate

Posted on August 31, 2012 by Michael

Another quick post while I’m scanning photos. This one is an Easter-themed postcard written to Frank Scott by his sister Mary “Mate” Scott on Saturday, April 11, 1914—the day before Easter. She’s not a big fan of punctuation, and he’s apparently not the greatest correspondent.

The postcard was mailed from Deer Creek, MN, to Menahga, MN, a distance of about 30 miles.

Continue reading →

Hattie Eddy Askew and her well-hatted friends, part 2

Posted on August 30, 2012 by Michael

This post continues part 1, in which I investigated a photo I found in early August. I hadn’t originally intended this post to be a two-parter, but then I found a matching photo on my last trip down to my grandmother’s house in late August. This latest photo was clearly taken on the same day in the same studio, and this one has a date on the back. Continue reading →

Mystery photo #2: Boy and girl with doll (part 1)

Posted on August 29, 2012 by Michael

Another as-yet-unidentified photo I got from my grandmother’s house while helping my family get her old home ready for sale. This one is of two children and a doll. I’m not good with estimating ages, but I’d guess that the boy is somewhere around 3–5 years old, and the girl is 8–12 years old. Let’s see if we can figure out who they are. Continue reading →

Mary E. “Mate” Scott’s obituary (1943)

Posted on August 27, 2012 by Michael

Mate Scott (aka Mrs. A. D. Peck) was the older sister of my great grandfather Frank Scott. I’m posting her obituary here because when I found it inside a ca. 1895 bible, it added information to the story of Frank and Mate’s father, Horace L. Scott. In an earlier post on Horace Scott, I stated that he died in Alden, Illinois (where he’s buried), at some point between the 1870 census and the 1875 Minnesota census. That was about all I knew about his last years. Facts presented in his daughter’s obituary help fill in some of the blanks. Continue reading →

Gertrude Scott and her little sister Eva