Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Postal Letter Sorter



My maternal grandfather, William Lee "Johnny Bill" Wright (1919-1973) worked for the post office.  My mom took these pictures at the Pony Express Museum because they reminded her of a story about her dad:

I took these pictures at the Pony Express Museum because they reminded me of the clerk letter sorter that my dad had to use.  It was about half this size.  He had a long box of cards and he would practice sorting the cards into the pigeon holes.  He had to take a test yearly to see how fast he could sort the mail and not make a mistake.  I think he was given about 100 letters and could only miss less than 5? in about a minute.  I thought you would like this information.
Mom

Monday, October 26, 2015

Young Family Reunion, 1911

Steuben Republican
Angola, Indiana
August 16, 1911, page 6
Found this mention of the Young family reunion at Newspapers.com from 1911. This was the 10th annual reunion of the family.  I recognize many of the names, but there are quite a few that I need to research to see how they fit into the family.

YOUNG REUNION

The tenth annual meeting of the Young families was held at the pleasant home of George Straw at Clearlake, Indiana, August 10, 1911.  All nature seemed to aid in the pleasure of the visits, bathing, boating and other sports for the young, and the cheerful greetings of the older ones filled up the forenoon, and in the afternoon business, speeches, etc.  There were six deaths and eight births during last year.  The next reunion will be held at Carey, Ohio, about the 15th of August, 1912.

The following persons gave interesting talks: L.I.C. Young, Rev. Phillip Lemasters, Miles Mulholand, Rev. G.W. Staley, Chauncey Young, Mary J. Young, S.D. Young, L.W. Lemasters, Sarah Staley and J.W. Young.  There were fifty-one who came from a distance: Mrs. Jennie Brown, of Chattanooga, Tenn.; Mrs. Blanche Foster and daughter, of Unity, Maine; S.D. Young and wife, Rev. G.W. Staley and wife, J.W. Young, wife and son. Grant Shaley, wife and daughter, Mrs. Dill and daughter and Bessie Murphy of Anna, Ohio; Mr. and Mrs. Jas. G. Young and daughter, of Belle Center, Ohio; Mr. and Mrs. Miles Mulholland and daughter, Mrs. E. Brashears and Mrs. Essie Rangers, of Carey, Ohio; W.F. Huber and wife, V.D. Huber, wife and daughter and son, of Green Springs, Ohio; Mrs. Delilah Young, Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Cole and daughter, Mr. and Mrs. James Smith and Mr. and Mrs. W.L. Hutchins, of Fremont, Ohio; Rev. Phillip Lemasters of Spencerville, Ohio; Mrs. Edith Meinholtz and daughter, of Oklahoma; L.W. Lemasters of Jay county, Indiana; Geo. Ralston and family, (by auto) from Sherwood, Michigan.  There were 103 enjoyed a very satisfying dinner of all good things to tickle the pallet, also ice cream and cake at time of dispersing.

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Of those listed in this announcement, the L.W. Lemasters listed is my paternal 2nd-great grandfather, Luman Walker Lemasters Jr. (1842-1931), son of Rev. Luman Walker and Nancy (Young) Lemasters.  The Rev. Phillip Lemasters (1836-1915)  listed is his brother.  The Edith Meinholtz of Oklahoma is Edith Mabel (LeMasters) Meinholtz (1879-1949), daughter of Luman Walker and Mary Keziah (Chew) LeMasters.  The daughter mentioned would be Mary Wilhelmina Meinholtz (1911-1935), who had just been born in February of 1911, one of the births mentioned during the year.

The L.I.C. Young who gave a talk was Lewis I. Charles Young (1837-   ) who later wrote a genealogy of the Young family.  He was the son of Charles and Nancy (Scothorn) Young.

The Miles Mulholland who gave a talk was the son of Hugh and Mary (Young) Mulholland.  This Mary Young was the daughter of Phillip and Nancy Ann (McLane) Young.

The members of the Staley family are not yet in my database, but may be descendants of Catherine Young and John Staley.  Catherine (1813-1898) was the daughter of Phillip and Nancy Ann (McLane) Young.

I have a lot more research to do on this rather extensive family, but it was nice to find mention of the attendees at this family reunion.


Sunday, October 25, 2015

Goofing with the Grandkids

Time sure does have a way of getting away from you when you least expect it, and all my good intentions of keeping up with blog posts on family history have been for naught.  But life is more than just genealogy, so today I want to share a couple of pictures of the grandkids.

If only they lived closer we could see each other more, but I'm grateful for the time I do have.  Last weekend, Eileen and I went down and spent some time with Corinne and the kids and had a good time.  Of course, grandpa spoiled them all with some ice cream after a long shopping trip.


Miss Piper enjoyed taking advantage of my phone and tried to make her own selfies while we were waiting on mom to pick out some shoes at Shoe Carnival.













Baby Brayden was happy as could be and cute as a button.  At only 3 months, he's really growing - he'll be a big boy!







Miss Piper found a way to keep herself entertained while we are the thrift store. She has a very good imagination!













Love these two and hope that someday they will pick up the family history research bug!  In the meantime, will just let them be adorable kids.