Three hundred years with the Corson families in America

Richard S. Corson, born Jan. 9, 1815, was the eldest son of Elias and his second wife, Abigail (Steelman) Corson. He married Mary Corson, born May 25, 1821, the daughter of John M. and Eliza (Ingersoll) Corson, on Oct. 15, 1836. They were married at the home of her parents by Rev. Mathias Jerman.

Richard S. and his family lived in Petersburg, Cape May County, N. J., for ten years, the husband and father farming part of the time and going to sea the rest of the time.

In the spring of 1845 he went to Illinois and worked on a farm north of Pleasant Plains, Illinois, to see how he liked the country.  The Illinois prairies appealed to him so well that he rented a farm and sowed fall wheat, then bought a horse and went back to New Jersey on horseback.

In the spring he returned to Illinois with his wife and five children.  The trip from New Jersey was made by water except from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh.  From thence by the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to St. Louis, then up to Illinois River to Beardstown, and from there to Pleasant Plains.

They lived for five years near Richland, Sangamon County, Illinois, then in the fall of 1850 he bought some land about five miles southeast of Pleasant Plains, Illinois, and built a home on it.  The family moved into the new home on February 26, 1851, and here the parents lived the remainder of their lives.  They lived to celebrate their 65th wedding anniversary on October 16, 1901. (From information from Fannie E. Corson of New Berlin, Illinois, and Nellie R. (Corson) Soderburg of Dwight, Kansas.)

Richard S. and Mary Corson had thirteen children, two of whom died young, one was killed in the Civil War, nine married, eight of these leaving descendants.  At this time the descendants of this remarkable family are scattered over the western part of the United States from Illinois to the Pacific Coast.  The following are the children:

122461    Asail Corson, born Feb 26, 1838

122462    Abigail Corson, born Oct 24, 1839

122463    Sarah Elizabeth Corson, born Aug 7, 1841

122464    Townsend Corson, born Aug 17, 1843

122465    Richard Corson, born Mar 9, 1845

122466    Mary Ann Corson, born Feb 9, 1847

122467    Margaret Corson, born Jan 19, 1849

122468    John Foster Corson, born May 1, 1851

122469    Elias Corson, born Apr. 27, 1855, died Sept 5, 1856

12246:10  Emily Frances (Fannie E.) Corson, born May 20, 1857

12246:11  Elias Corson, born July 30, 1859, died Mar 24, 1862

12246:12  Winfield Scott Corson, born Jan 3, 1862

12246:13  Ida May Corson, born Oct 25, 1866

Richard S. Corson died Dec 7, 1901, and Mary Corson died Aug 23, 1909.  They are buried in Bethel Cemetery, Pleasant Plains, Illinois.

Description

BookPageNO: Vol II. XII. The sixth generation. The descendants of John and Mary Corson

Source Information

Ancestry.com. Three hundred years with the Corson families in America : including the Staten Island-Pennsylvania Corsons, the Sussex County,[database on-line]. Provo, UT: The Generations Network, Inc., 2005.
Original data: Corson, Orville,. Three hundred years with the Corson families in America : including the Staten Island-Pennsylvania Corsons, the Sussex County, New Jersey Corsons, the Cape May or South Jersey Corsons, the Corsons of Dumfriesshire, Scotland, the Corsons of Amwell Township, Hunterdon County, New Jersey, the New England Corson families, the Canadian Corson family. Burlington, Vt.: Printed by Free Press Interstate Print. Corp., 1939.

Related Links:

Margaret “Maggie” (Corson) McGinnis Dies at Age 101

Margaret “Maggie” (Corson) McGinnis Sang for Abraham Lincoln

Gr-Grandmother Maggie (Corson) McGinnis & Maud McGinnis Stocking Scrapbook page

Thomas J. McGinnis Obituary

The Corson Family Association

Book: “Three Hundred Years with the Corson Family” by Orville Corson

SAMPSON WHITLEY – DEATH CERTIFICATE

TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH
BUREAU OF VITAL STATISTICS
CERTIFICATE OF DEATH

Place of Death – County – Hill

1. Usual Residence:    State – Texas  County – Hill  City – Itasca, Texas
2. Name of Deceased:    Sampson Whitley
3. Date of Death:   5/8/54
4. Sex:   Male
5.  Color or Race:  Colored
6. Marital Status:  Married
7. Date of Birth:   Nov 8, 1890

Age:  64

1. 10a. Occupation:  Labor

10b. Kind of business:  None

1. Birthplace:  Texas
2. Father’s Name:  John Whitley        Birthplace:  Texas
3. Mother’s Maiden Name:  Unknown          Birthplace:  Unknown
4. Not filled in
5. Not filled in
6. Not filled in
7. Social Security No:  Not filled in
8. Informant:  Ida Whitley
9. Cause of Death:  Malignancy (Lung) type unknown       Interval between onset and death:  1 – 2 years
10. Not filled in
11. I hereby certify that I attended the deceased from Jan 1, 1954 to May 7, 1954, that I last saw the deceased on May 7, 1954, and that death occurred at 11 a.m. from the causes and on the date stated above.
12. Signature – Charles C Allen          Address:  Box 67, Itasca, Texas                  Date signed:  May 10, 1954
13. Burial, Cremation, Removal:  Burial    23b.  Date:  5/11/54    Name of Cemetery or Crematory:  Itasca Cemetery
14. Location:  Itasca, Texas  
15. Funeral  Directors Signature: Kentard Funeral Home – Richard Hemphill
16. Registrar’s File No.  226
17. Date Rec’d by Local Registrar:  May 10, 1954
18. Physician’s Signature:  G. Warnour (? – this was difficult to read.)

A three-day bout with a virus sent me to Ancestry.com to see what I could find to fill in the blanks in my family’s tree, and suddenly I was ‘on a roll’ finding my son-in-law’s and granddaughter’s ancestors!

Lucky me!  My oldest granddaughter likes genealogy!

Finding information about my ancestor, John Hurlbut, in fact even finding out that I had an ancestor named John Hurlbut, was all part of a “Snow Day Happy Dance” that I did last week when I stumbled across a Hurlbut family history with my ancestor, Deborah Hurlbut Stocking in it.  Her info will come soon.  (I should have added her info first!)

John Hurlbut

John Hurlbut (Ref #3) (father – Thomas (Ref #1)) was b. (prob. in Wethersfeld, CT), 8 Mar 1642.

He learned the trade of blacksmith of his father, and after becoming of age, he worked at Wethersfield and also at Killingworth.

At the age of 27, he received a proposition from settlers then planting the town of Middletown, to locate among them with his business, “and do the Town’s work of smithing for seven years.” He joined in such a contract, bearing date 25 Oct. 1669, and which he faithfully kept.

He m. 15 Dec 1670, Mary Deming, daughter of John and Honor (Treat) Deming of Wethersfield. She was b. 1655; joined church in Middletown 5 Sept 1675.

Mr. Hurlbut (p.20) was industrious and successful in his occupation, and he became a large landholder, and one of the prominent men of the place.

He was made freeman in 1671, and held the office and title of Sargent among the citizen soldiers.

Sargent John Hurlbut d. at middle age; according to the Town Records 30 April, 1690, but by the Probte Court Records (prob. more reliable) his death occurred 30 August, of that year, aged 48.

He made no will, but the inventory of his property was presented 9 September 1690. Mary his widow with Capt. Nathaniel White, were appointed to administer; but as one child yet unborn, the court ordered that “There shall be no distribution now made.”

The estate appears as follows; L373, s. 15, d 6; his house, shop and home lot L100, other lots L160, cattle & c., L46, smith’s tools and iron L10. “June 19, 1696, the Court being desired,” the estate was distributed.

The widow Mary was to have half the personal property, and one-third of the real estate during life; eldest son John to have a double portion, the other children a single one.

The time of death of the widow is not learned; but few gravestones had inscriptions as early, and no deaths appear to have been recorded on the church books, until after that period.

12. John, Jr. b. in Middletown, CT, 8 Dec 1671 +
13 Mary, b. in Middletown, bap 7 April, 1673, d. in infancy.
14. Thomas, b. in Middltown, 20 Oct 1674 +
15. Sarah, b. in Middletown, Ct. 5 Nov 1676. (Hinman gives it “Laura, b. Dec. 6, 1676.”) + App
16. Mary, 2d, b. in Middletown, 17 Nov., 1678 + App.
17. Mercy, b. in Middletown, 17 Feb., 1680/1681 + App
18. Ebenezer, b. in Middletown, 17 Jan 1682/1683. +
19. Margaret, b. in Middletown, 11 Aug., 1684/1685 +
20. David, b. in Middletown, 11 Aug, 1685
21. Mehitabel, b. in Middletown, 23 Nov 1690

John Hurlbut’s father – Thomas Hurlbut

“The Hurlbut Genealogy: Record of the Descendants of Thomas Hurlbut”
by Henry H. Hurlbut; Joel, Munsell’s Sons, Publishers, 1888; p. 19 & 20.

On Thursday, February 21st, 2013, South Central Kansas had a blizzard! Wichita, Kansas had in excess of 14″. My little town, just south of Wichita, received somewhere around 6″ plus.

But it was just enough to declare a “snow day” holiday!  The school kids were all out building snowmen, so I dumped the income tax I’d been working on and hit the Internet beginning with FindaGrave.com looking for ancestors.

I hit pay dirt!

I located one Stocking ancestor’s Memorial after another, (thank you, Find A Grave  and Find a Grave volunteers!!) and then lo and behold, someone had posted some information on my ancestress Deborah Hurlbut Stocking’s Find a Grave memorial, (her info to come on a later post!) along with the source, which led me to a Google search, and a Google book, “The Hurlbut Genealogy,” and that book detailed Deborah’s ancestry, along with her immigrant ancestor, Thomas, who was wounded with a Pequot arrow (see below!).

Do I know that every name and date is correct in Deborah’s ancestry?

No, I don’t. But now I have a new road map of names to hunt up/hunt down and verify! And new family stories to enjoy!

Below is Thomas Hurlbut’s info, Deborah’s ancestor!

“The Hurlbut Genealogy:
Record of the Descendants of Thomas Hurlbut
by Henry H. Hurlbut
Joel, Munsell’s Sons, Publishers, 1888
p. 15 – 18

Thomas Hurlbut (ref # 001) came across the Atlantic, it is supposed, in the year 1635, for he was a soldier under Lion Gardiner, who built and had command of the fort at Saybrook, Connecticut.

Lion Gardiner, it is said, was an Englishman, and by profession an engineer, and had been in Holland in the service of the Prince of Orange, but was engaged by the proprietors of the Connecticut Patent, issued by Charles II to Lord Say and Seal, Lord Brooks and others, granting a large tract of territory on the banks of the Connecticut river, to erect a fortification at its mouth.

Gardiner, said Judge Savage, embarked at London in the Bachilor, of only 25 tons, 11 August, 1635, with his wife and female servant, and eleven male passengers, and after a long and tempestuous voyage, arrived at Boston 28 of following November. It is believed, however, that Gov. Winthrop told that Gardiner sailed in a Norsey barque (a fishing vessel of the coast of Norway), 10 July 1635.

It is supposed that Thomas Hurlbut was one of the 11 passengers above referred to; but who his parents were or when or where he was born, we have not been able to learn. We may yet pretty confidently believe that his birth occurred as early as the year 1610, and I am more inclined to believe that he was a native of Scotland than I am able, perhaps, to show satisfactory evidence for such belief.

Mr. Hurlbut while at Saybrook, in an encounter with the Pequot Indians in 1637, was wounded by an arrow. This appears in a letter of Lion Gardiner, written in June, 1660, some 23 years after the skirmish with the Indians, addressed to Robert Chapman and Thomas Hurlbut, detailing incidents regarding the Pequot war, as far as came within his personal knowledge.

Captain Gardiner, as the communication named, says that Mr. Robert Chapman, Thomas Hurlbut and Major Mason urged him to do it, “and (P. 16) having rumaged and found some old papers then written, it was a great help to my memory.”

The document laid in manuscript until 1833 (173 years) when it was printed in Volume 3, 3rd Ser. of Mass. Historical Soc colls.

The following is an extract (from the manuscript):

“In the 22nd of February, I went out with ten men and three dogs, half a mile from the house (fort) to burn the Weeds, Leaves and Reeds upon the Neck of Land, because we had felled twenty timber trees which we were to roll to the Waterside to bring home, every Man carrying a length of Match with some Brimstone-matches with him to kindle the Fire withal.

But when we came to the small of the Neck, the Weeds burning, I having before this set two Sentinels on the small of the Neck, I called to the Men that were burning the Reeds to come away, but they would not until they had burnt up the rest of their Matches.

Presently there starts up four Indians out of the fiery Reeds, but they ran away, I calling to the rest of our Men to come away out of the Marsh. Then Robert Chapman and Thomas Hurlbut, being Sentinels, called to me saying there came a Number of Indians out of the other side of the Marsh.

Then I went to stop them, that they should not get the Woodland; but Thomas Hurlbut cried out to me that some of the Men did not follow me, for Thomas Rumble and Arthur Branch threw down their two Guns and ran away; then the Indians shot two of them that were in the Reeds, and sought to get between us and Home, but durst not come before us, but kept us in a Half moon, we retreating and exchanging many a Shot, so that Thomas Hurlbut was shot almost through the Thigh, John Spencer in the back into his Kidneys, myself into the Thigh, two more shot dead.

But in our Retreat, I kept Hurlbut and Spencer still before us, we defending ourselves with our naked Swords, or else they had taken us all alive, so that the two sore wounded Men, by our slow Retreat, (p. 17) got home with their Guns, when our two sound Men ran away and left their Guns behind them.”

Gardiner does not mention his estimate of the number of the assailants, but Underwood, in his History, says there were “a hundred or more.”

Mr. Hurlbut was by Trade a Blacksmith…

Mr. Hurlbut was by trade a blacksmith, and after the war with the Pequots, he located and established himself in business at Wethersfield, Ct., and was one of the early settlers of that place, as well as first blacksmith. A single extract from the Colonial Records would seem to indicate that he was a good workman and charged a good price for his work: “March 2, 1642. Thomas Hallibut was fined 40 shillings for encouraging others in taking excessive rates for work and ware.”

But this fine appears to have been “respited” Feb 5, 1643, upon Peter Bassaker’s tryal to make “nayles” with less loss and cheaper rates.He seems to have been a man of good standing in the place; he was Clerk of the “Train Band” in 1640, Deputy to the General court, Grand Juror and also constable in 1644.

It appears on the records that he received various tracts of land in the several divisions of the town, which were recorded together in 1647. In 1660 the Town of Wethersfield granted Thomas Hurlbut Lot 39, one of the “four score acre lots” (in Naubec, east side of the river), which he afterward sold to Thomas Hollister. For his services in the Indian wars, the Assembly voted him a grant of 120 acres of land Oct. 12, 1671.

It is supposed that Mr. Hurlbut died soon after the last named date, as no evidence appears that the land was set off to him during his life. In that early day of the Colony, land was plenty and cheap, and no attempt appears to have been made to avail himself of the bounty, nor even by his sons; it was not until 1694, on the petition of John Hurlbut, Jr. of Middletown, a grandson of the settler and soldier, that it was set off.(p. 18) It is told, and the tradition is not an unreasonable one to credit, that the house in Wethersfield, CT, where Miss Harriet Mitchell resides in 1888, stands upon the site of the dwelling of the first Hurlbut who lived in the settlement. (Miss M. is said to be of the 6th generation from her ancestor Thomas Hurlbut.)

That house of the early settler, as tradition gives, had peculiar attractions for the Indians, whether with the purpose to inspect the architecture of the edifice, or else to get a view of the proprietor of the mansion, for he had been an Indian fighter formerly, I cannot say; but often, when in the village, they were to be seen looking curiously in at the windows.

The Christian name of the wife of Mr. Hurlbut was Sarah, but nothing further is known; no date of birth, marriage, nor death. The dates of birth of five of their six sons are missing; whether there were any daughters or not, is not known.

During the contention that existed in the Church of Wethersfield, the early records of both the Town and Church, it is understood, disappeared.

Thomas and Sarah’s Children:

2. Thomas, Jr. +
3. John, b. 8 Mar 1642
4. Samuel. +
5. Joseph +
6. Stephen +
7. Cornelius

Thomas’ son, John Hurlbut:  http://www.familytreewriter.com/2013/03/amanuensis-monday-john-hurlbut/

The Hurlbut Genealogy: The Descendants of Thomas Hurlbut

Obituary – Charlena Faye Isgrigg
Book “Obituaries – Argonia Kansas and Vicinity”
Volume IV
Freda Deen Earles

Charlena Faye Isgrigg, daughter of Frank and Susan Kline Holt was born October 19, 1915 in Bluejacket, Oklahoma.

She moved to Milan, Kansas with her parents at the age of 10 and lived in the Milan and Argonia communities until the time of her passing

On October 29, 1937 she married Earl Isgrigg and to that union was born one daughter, Connie Hodson.

She was preceded in death by both her mother and father, one brother, Olin Holt and one sister, Bessie Edwards.

She leaves to mourn her passing, her husband, Earl; her daughter, Connie Hodson and grandson, Brad Hodson of West Allis, Wisconsin; two sisters, Mrs. Mildred Carrico, Commerce, Oklahoma, and Mrs. Lola Blackett, Wichita, and one brother, Virgil Holt, Milan.

( Sherry’s Note:  The obituary did not state the date of death, but according to www.findagrave.com, Find A Grave Memorial# 38953421 Charlena passed away on 26 Jul 1971.)

Norwalk Daily Register
Norwalk, Ohio
20 Oct 1894
Pg 4 Col 6

After visiting friends and relatives a couple of weeks in Clarksfield and New London, Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Stocking left on last Wednesday for their home in El Dorado, Kansas, via St. Charles, Illinois, where they halted to spend a few days with relatives, whence they would start direct for their home; but on Sunday evening, on retiring for the night, Mr. Stocking fell down a flight of stairs, rupturing a blood vessel, the blood flowing from his nose and ears; no bones broken, he never spoke, but lived one hour, when his spirit took its flight across the dark river to that “undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveler returns.”  Mr. Stocking was one of nature’s nobility, a true and good man.  To Mrs. Stocking and their son, in their bereavement, we extend our sympathies.

John Hurlburt Stocking’s son, Roderick Remine Stocking, was my great-grandfather, and you can find a photograph of him here, as well as more information about him.

Roderick’s mother, Betsey Jane Ames, died in Oct 1856 shortly after Roderick’s little brother Bishop was born.  After Betsey’s death, John Hurlburt married Caroline Gates in April 1860.

In 1894, my great-grandfather, Roderick was living on the farm that he homesteaded in Sumner County, Kansas with his wife, Frances “Fannie” Hitchcock.

More Links:

Roderick Remine Stocking Photograph 
http://www.familytreewriter.com/2011/05/wordless-wednesday-roderick-remine-stocking-photo/

The J. H. Stocking Bible
Carnival of Genealogy – the J. H. Stocking Bible

Several years ago, my mom lost a large box full of photographs to water damage.  If I’d known then what I know now, we might have been able to save some of them, but they were damp quite awhile before the damage was discovered.

The lesson that we learned?

Never store photographs in a cardboard box next to a bathroom, where a small, undiscovered water leak may damage or destroy your photographs.

With that knowledge still fresh in mind, plus watching the destruction of homes and loss of family photographs each year from flood, fire, and yes here in Kansas, tornadoes, I’m scanning every photograph that I can, as fast as I can, and adding it to my genealogy programs as if it was maybe the most important thing genealogically speaking that I can do for my family.

And – maybe it is.

Good Advice from the Library of Congress…

I’m also watching for information that can help me do a better job scanning, organizing, preserving, and backing up my rapidly growing digital collection, so what started this whole blog post was following a link to the “Preserving Digital Memories” information at the Library of Congress website.

You can check out the many pages of advice there by clicking on this link: http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/personalarchiving/.

Back up by Sharing…

And because lugging a flat bed scanner to family reunions or your Great Aunt Ethel’s home isn’t always handy, (or even do-able), I recently added a Flip-Pal scanner  to my scanning arsenal.

My, how I wish I had had one of these last fall when I scanned photos that were glued down in a cousin’s photograph albums!  There were several photos I simply could not scan using a flat bed scanner, but with the Flip-Pal I certainly could have.

And because one of the best ways to back up these digital photograph collections is to share it with other family members, (besides just being a really cool thing to do) I’m doing that, too.

My first thought when I read the  Carnival of Genealogy Challenge for August was “we didn’t have a family business, we had a farm…”

And then I re-thought, realizing that a farm always was (and still is, no matter the size) a business also, though some might say that  farming is more of a calling than a career, and for those of us who grew up on a farm, it’s more a part of our hearts than most brick or mortar businesses could ever be.

One of the sayings that I grew up hearing was “You can take the boy off the farm but you can’t take the farm out of the boy.” (Same goes for many of us farm girls, too!)

When my oldest brother was just a toddler, our folks bought the farm where dad grew up with his seven (living) brothers and sisters, and dad’s parent’s, Elmer and Maud (McGinnis) Stocking.  My grandparents moved to the nearby town of Mayfield, Kansas with their youngest children and my grandfather Elmer continued his work as a mail carrier until his untimely early death from a heart attack.

Mom, Dad, and my brother Fred moved back to the Mayfield area from Arkansas City (“Ark City”) after they purchased the farm.  All of this happened before I was born, or as my brother Harold, Jr. “Fred” would say “before you were even a twinkle in Dad’s eye.”

Farmers then, and farmers now, wear many hats.  They must be amateur weathermen/women, watching the weather with an eye to scheduling their work.  Their planning, planting, fertilizing, field work, harvesting, and even praying for rain circles around what the farm land needs and when it needs it.

Farmers also need to be bookkeepers, grain marketers, have the ability to supervise their family as workers, as well hired hands if they have some, and during the summer, they often have to put in 60 to 80 hour weeks as well.  It wasn’t just sun up till sun down at our farm, it was before the sun came up till the job got done, especially during harvest.

I have always felt that I was one of the luckiest kids in the world, growing up on my folk’s wheat and dairy farm, with 160 acres running room for a back yard!  I grew up collecting tadpoles from the buffalo wallows in the pasture (yes, I said buffalo wallows!), chasing crawdads along the creek, roping calves I wasn’t supposed to, and dodging cow pies in the pasture while playing cowboys and Indians, or Yankees and Confederate soldiers with my nephews, who were not much younger than I was.

I also learned to drive a tractor, an old blue Chevy farm truck with a stick shift that my mom nicknamed “WobbleKnees,” and milk a cow by hand as well as with a milking machine.

I was responsible for watering the chickens, gathering the eggs, spoiling our purebred collie puppies and making sure the cats and dogs had food and water.

I loved helping feed the baby calves, and always, always fell in love with one or two each year, wishing they could be my very own pet.  I learned to back up straight (after I learned to drive a stick) by backing several hundred feet along a lane, and dumping a half-full milk can of water (about 70 pounds if they were full!) into the calves’ water tank to make sure they had enough water.

I helped hoe the garden, and helped preserve its bounty, enjoying the fresh tasting frozen sweet corn and the better than store-bought canned green beans all winter.

And, lucky me, with my work-at-home folks, I usually either had both my parents home with me, or I was in the field where they were working!

I loved growing up on the farm!

Just this week I clicked on a Facebook link that took me to Tami Koenig’s  “Your Story Coach” blog and the “7 Photo Memories to Capture Now” and I had an “Aha, I should be doing this moment!”

Actually, to be honest, I had an “Aha, I should have already been doing this moment.”

Quite some time back, I attended a scrapbooking workshop, and the instructor advised us to take photos of the inside of our home.

Take photos, she suggested, of each part of each room, including the wall hangings, the way the furniture is arranged, and, well, just everything, including one thing I never would have dreamed of doing, the views out each window, because as Tami Koenig reminds us in her blog post above, things change.

And sometimes, things change unexpectedly, such as when an earthquake occurs, a tornado hits, a flood damages, or a fire destroys.

So, the best time, as Tami says, to take those photos, is now, today.

And many years ago, when I first heard that instructor’s advice to take a photo of the view out each window, it was already too late.  A house fire had destroyed the home that I grew up in, and that window of opportunity was already gone!

For more ideas on other photos you might want to capture now, tuck a camera in your purse, read Tami’s  “7 Photo Memories to Capture Now” blog post, and head out the door.

I love this photograph of my Grandma and Grandpa Jones.  Although this was taken before I was born (as my grandfather was in it) this is how I remember my grandmother looking.  Round-faced and smiling, and just a bit plump. Comfortable to snuggle up against. (Grandma’s are supposed to be plump, right?  I hope so, because I’m working on being a good Gramma.)

I wish that my grandfather had lived long enough for me to meet (and remember him), but this Carnival of Genealogy post is about my Grandma Carrie Breneman Jones, who died when I was eight years old.

Warner LaRue and Carrie Esther (Breneman) Jones

When I was just a little bitty girl, my mama told me that her mama was really unhappy that they had named me “Sherry”.  She said that Sherry is also the name of an alcoholic beverage, and her mama just wasn’t happy with her for giving me that name.

So I guess it’s no wonder when I went to grade school and I really didn’t know what my Grandma’s last name was, that when the teacher began talking about Kansas’ Carrie Nation going into bars with an axe to fight for temperance I kind of wondered for a short time if that was my Grandma Carrie that did that.  I don’t know why I didn’t run home and ask my mom about it, but I didn’t, but I did figure out, after awhile, that my Grandma Carrie wasn’t the infamous axe wielding Carrie in my history book.  (The above doesn’t look like the picture of an axe-wielding Grandma, does it?)

My Grandma Carrie was a very crafty lady.  Her hands were always busy making something.  She loved to crochet, from the very tiny delicate flower shaped earrings to the beautiful heirloom bedspread that she made for my mother, and that my mother later gave to me.

She crocheted doll clothes for my dolls and when my new favorite plastic horse needed a rider and there were none to be bought in the correct size, she created one.  My Grandma Carrie created an Indian, excuse me, a Native American brave complete with tiny leather fringed breeches and shirt, and bendable legs so he could sit a horse.  I still have him, tucked away (somewhere) and when I find him, I’ll try to add the picture here.

And as I write this, I just realized that she may have fashioned the brave after the Native Americans that came to their cabin in Nebraska asking for food when she was just a very small girl, and they lived on the Nebraska prairie where my Grandma herded cattle on horseback by herself on the prairie during the day.

When she was older, Grandma Carrie taught herself to paint and she loved the National Geographic magazine for its beautiful photographs that often inspired her painting.  She also painted a picture of my brother’s 4-H Dairy Cow “Jenny,” too, for him, and “Jenny” hung on our kitchen wall while I was growing up.

I wish my Grandma had lived long enough for me to get to know her as an adult, because I think I inherited many of my interests and talents from her.  Like my Grandma, I’m crafty, though I’ve not had much time to do it lately, and if I can see something, particularly a fabric something, I can often make a pattern for it or create it from one I find.  Also like my Grandma and my mom, I painted for several years till I learned I was sensitive to the oil and turpentine smells, and like my Grandma and my mother I love a good book!

And, I wish she had lived long enough to ask her all those many genealogy questions that I now wish I had the answers to!

Other Links:

 Wordless Wednesday: Stocking & Jones Family
http://www.familytreewriter.com/2010/10/wordless-wednesday-stocking-jones-family/

Wordless Wednesday: Constantine Breneman & Carrie Breneman Jones & family
http://www.familytreewriter.com/2010/04/wordless-wednesday-constantine-breneman-carrie-breneman-jones-families/