Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Tombstone Tuesday - William Henry Piggott


William Henry Piggott lies in the Bloomington Cemetery in Bloomington, Idaho. He was born July 15, 1841 and died Feb. 9, 1913.  He was my gr-great-grandfather.



Friday, October 22, 2010

John T Barker, Jr Family History - Conclusion

Continued from John T Barker, Jr Family History - page 4



Cornell went to Summer School in Rexburg so he could teach. I was so lonely without him. Blair was born in 1924. When we lived in Fish Haven and Garden City Blanche used to come up and stay with us. Vera Nelson Haddock was usually with her. 
They met new boys and went to dances. Dear mother came and stayed with me when all of our babies were born. She worked so hard and dad didn’t like to be without her or have her go away. Beverly was born at St. Charles and I stayed there that time. The folks had no electricity then and that meant washing on the board for poor mother. We imposed on her then, we were young and didn’t realize it then. If ever anyone deserved a reward in heaven it was she and grandma Henderson and I am sure they are getting it.
Irene Duffin, John’s niece came to St. Charles to visit them. She told how uncle John took her to Laketown to see aunt Alice and the folks and he forgot his dark glasses so she bought him some. He couldn’t get over how thoughtful she was. Irene was that way. The Barkers were a very tender and sentimental people, shed tears easily. When Cornell and I had to move away from the white frame house we had built on the north west corn[er] of their property, it about broke their hearts, they love the children so much. I never will forget when we left our little six room white house and moved to Groveland, Idaho. We had to go where Cornell could make a living. He was a teacher and they paid poor wages in Bear Lake. That morning father opened the gate and as we drove away he wiped the tears from his eyes. It about broke my heart also, to leave them. But by that time Blanche was married to Madsen and she lived in Bloomington and had her children, so they weren’t left entirely alone. It was while we lived in Rigby, Idaho that dear Madsen died with “leukemia” and left his dear wife and five children alone. That was an awful ordeal for all of us and I don’t know how they all lived through that sorrow. Blanche had a big old home, a farm not paid for, small insurance and the Social Security hadn’t been in effect long and they got practically nothing from that. 
We sold our home to my dad & mother and they moved up there out of the old home.  It took a lot of doing to get dad out of there but mother was glad.  As I remember they paid 1,700 for it and that just paid for the material in it, but my dad worked hard to help build it, as dad Cornell’s father & Earl Pugmire.  We took the money and bought a home in Salt Lake City on 754 Windsor St.  We paid over 7,000 for it just after the 2nd World War.

Going back a little when father became active in the church, he taught a Sunday School class and I was the organist before I was married.  We would go to Stake church Union meeting in Paris in the winter he would have a nice white covered old fashioned pioneer type wagon box on the sleigh and would warm bricks to keep our feet warm.  Of course he had a team of horses to pull it.  We had plenty of quilts to keep us warm but we had to go 8 miles to Paris.

I remember father came to Fish Haven with the same outfit to bring Cornell, me and Blair who was a little baby then, to spend the week and Blair cried all the way down and as soon as we arrived and took him out of the sleigh he stopped.  He must have been frightened or didn’t like to be wrapped up.

Later years my father always took his milk to the creamery himself.  It was a co op creamery and only a block away .  Used a little wagon in the summer & a sleigh in winter.  He made good on his cows and they had a nice bit of savings in the bank.  They had happy years then, a little more means to do with.  Cornell said never had he seen such devotion from a person as my mother showed father.  Blanche was there as much as she could be but she had a family to care for and make a living also. They would drive over to Bloomington several times a week to see Blanche and the children.  It was only five miles away.  They would shop at Paris & Montpelier.  Those were happy times for them.  They lived in St. Charles all their married lives and were always together.  In later years, father worked for himself and didn’t have to go away to make a living.

Then in about 1951 the doctor discovered that my father had cancer and evidently it started in his prostate glands and spread into his intestines and then all through his body.  It was so far advanced when they found out, they couldn’t do anything for him.  He was in and out of the hospital and suffered so.  So we as a family talked it over with the High Priest group pres. And we wanted to pray that if possible to ask the Lord to take him so he wouldn’t have to go through that awful suffering, so he suggest the High Priest in the group would come to our home; father was a High Priest then and we would pray to-gether for him.  The President of the Stake Burdette Pugmire lived in our ward and he was the mouth piece.  If it weren’t the Lords will that he call him soon, then to bless him that he wouldn’t have pain and the terrible suffering and our prayers were answered and the pain and suffering left him, he lived on for another year and a half.  He was able to walk about the house and wander around outside in the warm sunshine.  His organs functioned right up till the last.  He was at peace, of course he was miserable, but he ate his meals till the end.  Mother was so devoted to him, night and day.  The doctor taught her how to take care of his problem of a urinal bag and remove it & clean it; she was a good practical nurse anyway.  They gave him a pain pill & a sleeping pill at night.  When it was spring he could look out the window & see the honeysuckle, snow balls and lilacs blooming.  They even had a “Golden Wedding” a beautiful cake and friends came from St. Charles and all over the valley.  I never saw such concern, thoughtfulness and help that came from people.  The church helped some but once when we took him out of the hospital the bill was paid and we never knew for sure who paid, but a good idea that it was Whitney & Hazel Transtrum who were in charge of the cancer funds that did it.  They had offered to help once but they were too proud to take it.  This sickness wiped out all of their savings.  They didn’t apply for a State pension like all of their friends did, who owned property.  They would deed the property to their children and then apply for State checks once a month.  There was  no Social Security for farmers then.  But my folks never did that they used what they had.  After father passed away mother sold her property a little at a time and put in the savings bank and she had what she needed.  She lived with Blanche toward the last it was too lonesome and she couldn’t drive the car.  She broke her hip and finally passed away with a stroke Feb. 1963, ten years after father died in 1953.
John T and Esther E Barker Golden Wedding Anniversary

A little more about things I have left out that now come to my mind.  When we were growing up we always called our parents papa and mama.  What I want to tell about is our Christmases when we were young.  Papa would go up into St. Charles canyon & get us a beautiful well shaped green Christmas tree.  We never put the tree up till Christmas Eve, he would make a stand and put the tree up and then we would trim it.

A little about the tree trimming, it was mostly bought from the store or sent for from Sears or Montgomery catalogues.  Little red velvet stuffed Santa Clauses with white fur trim & whiskers, pretty faces of Santa, angels in dainty pretty colors, with tinsel all around them, or the edges.  There were small pencil thin red fancy candles in holders.  Then we would drape tinsel all around the tree.  We made a few paper chains of red & green paper and made a few strings of popcorn, also some ornamental balls colored, they were small but pretty colors.

In evening we would light the candles, remembering there was no electricity.  We never did have a fire, the candles were placed well out on the tip of the tree and they were carefully watched.

We always had nice presents for Christmas.  The folks were poor and they used to wait until the day before Christmas to buy our presents and they would go up to the stores in St. Charles and buy the things that were left and usually the things that were left were the good expensive things and they would get them at a big discount.  There were pretty dolls with glass eyes, lashes and the faces were so pretty, some would open & close the eyes.  There were dishes (play) cupboard, metal trunk, play irons, rocking chair brown varnished with carving.  Jeanne Berntson has that and is

One year Blanche got a baby doll with pacifyer in its mouth, all dressed, and a pretty white bed with little posts and gold trim & knobs on the bed posts.  Mama had a pretty brown cupboard built by one of her brothers, I think it was James the one that died young, or Uncle Jasper I can’t remember which one.

Next day for dinner we always had sweet plum pudding, mince pies, I don’t remember the meat it was either chicken or ham with all the trimmings.

Our candy was simple, hard tack, gumdrops, jelly beans and creams.  I didn’t like any of them.  We had nuts, peanuts, almonds, brazil nuts and hazel nuts.  There were a few oranges too in the stockings.

On Christmas Day there would be a children’s dance and we would get all dressed up and go up to the amusement hall of the St. Charles Ward.  Evening there would be a dance for the grown ups.

I forgot to write about the candy animals & figures (Santa), etc made of crystal looking red hard candy.  They came around in covered sleighs singing Christmas carols.  These were horse drawn sleighs and there were bells on the horse.  As they would trot along the bell would ring or tinkle.  We used to go coasting down Bunderson’s hill over in the meadows.  I never did have a good sleigh, it was a home made one.  I don’t remember whether Blanche had a new one or not, as I was eight years older than she.

 I am inserting a little history about my great grandfather Joseph Hyrum Pugmire, father of grandma Sarah Jane Pugmire Henderson.  He was a mason and a good one and he did the masonry work on the Fielding Academy built way up on a hill in Paris, Idaho.  It was  a church (LDS) school.  Cornell and I (Adelia) graduated from there in 1922.  It burned down around 1923 or 1924 and burned up all of our records.  Later they built a Fielding High School down town in Paris.  Blanche graduated from the new high school.



Thursday, October 21, 2010

John T Barker, Jr Family History - Page 4

Continued from The History of John T Barker, Jr  and Family, page 3

John T Barker standing, Esther holding Blanche, Adelia


Well Blanche and I went to the Fielding Academy and graduated, I from the academy, it burned and Blanche from Fielding High School. She boarded with Tracy Shepherd.
 
He and Esther were good people, good neighbors had many friends, were always willing to help others. They were good examples to us. Mother was so good and honest. I never heard her stretch the truth. She was always caring for the sick, going into peoples homes, caring for mothers and new babies. She was a kind and loving mother. She knitted stockings and mittens & crocheted corded wool that they sheared from the sheep and made wool batts with which she made quilts. John never had any boys and she worked hard and helped him outside also she milked cows, pulled weeds, fed pigs, picked fruit and canned it. They had a root cellar and it was a place to store potatoes, carrots, cabbage, beets, onions all winter supply. They cured their own pork, salted it and smoked it. Dan stored his wheat in the grainery in large bins and when the hams, shoulders, bacon were smoked and cured they would put them in the grain bins and cover them in with the grain. They raised chickens and we had eggs, mutton from the sheep and beef, plenty of milk and cream so we were well fed because we raised most of our own food. Father loved the farm, loved the soil and loved to till it and plant and make things grow. Mother baked bread and made such good pies and cakes. 
Mother loved flowers and she would carry water from the spring to water them. She was neat & clean in her yard, her home and we were taught personal cleanliness, with sweet clean clothes and bedding, clothes that weren’t washable were hung out in the fresh air and pressed. The rooms especially bedrooms were aired every day windows open wide to let the fresh air in.
John T Barker, Jr

Father was proud of his Guernsey dairy cows. He would come back from the pasture or meadow from taking the cows and would always bring a big handful of “pink Johnny Jump Ups” wild flowers growing in the meadows. Also Lilacs, violets, Lady Slippers, and Blue Bells. My father was a gentle man, quiet and reserved never loud. My folks loved the fine things in life. 
I always remember when we were sick he would make a special trip up town and bring something like oysters, oranges, strawberries, candy, or some surprise, and I used to look forward to it. He was always full of wisdom and saying something special like “Help the sapling the oak can take care of itself.” His favorite was “Know this that every soul is free to choose his life & what he’ll be.” Sunday School hymn. 
He loved his grandchildren dearly he would carry them and show them all the pictures on the wall, or the pretty things, of course mother loved them too, and she took care of Blanche’s fatherless children, and mine when they were young. 
My folks gave me pretty clothes, some I remember were a white lave dress and a beige lacy large brimmed hat with a black velvet ribbon around the crown & a big pink rose in front, also a rose color satin dress with rose color chiffon sleeves, a royal blue satin dress with pink lined collar, a light blue georgette dress with sheered waist. I don’t remember Blanche’s clothes. I was married when she started high school. We were both good dancers and all the boys who were good dancers all wanted to dance with us, we were never wall flowers. Father and mother were also good dancers. We used to have a dance hall where the dances were held in the ward similar to the cultural hall now a days. There were especially good stage shows put on by local talent. We had picture shows and ever so often E. Forest Taylor and Co. would come from Hollywood, Calif. and oh what a stage show live acting, that was.

One other thing very important thing my mother never slapped or spanked me in my life. I probably was spoiled being an only child for 8 years, but other than being determined and strong willed I was a good moral girl. I never spoke disrespectfully to my parents ever. Other than running away and going for a car ride with a nice boy Russell Satterthwaite from Garden City. He gave me my first box of chocolates. My dad used to think I should be put on a pedestal and the boys shouldn’t take me, but he was overly anxious I guess. He didn’t need to worry. Heber Keetch said to him once “How come John, Adelia is such a good girl, never gives you any trouble and is a good church worker, so talented and is always accompanying for someone to sing or play.” Sister Hunt said “Adelia is always in Mutual where she belongs.” Of course they were overdoing things but it made me & my dad feel good anyway. There was never any quarreling in our home just peace & love, but we were very poor. I remember in the summer mother used to let me sleep as long as I wanted to, but I worked hard and always helped both of them. They were mild and kind and full of love. I remember chasing Blanche around the milk house and all around to get her to wipe dishes for me. I never could catch her but she says I locked the screen door and locked her out, so she took my little embroidery scissors pried open the door and broke the tips of my scissors. When I was still going to grade school and Blanche started school, the boys would tease her, they would pretend to hurt me and she would swear at them and fight like a trooper for me. They just kept on teasing when they knew she would do things. I have to laugh now when I think about it. When she was a baby how we loved her, and one time when grandpa Barker was still alive, she had a funny spell just straightened out and went unconscious and about scared us to death. Grandpa John Barker Sr. used to rock her and sing to her when she was a baby. He always turned the washer for mother and there was no electricity then, and he helped mother all he could.
 
I  remember when he died all of a sudden it must have been a heart attack, I was so scarred I never dared go into that bedroom it affected me so with fear.  I was sick.  I used to take the cows a mile & a half to the pasture in the morning, & go get them at night.  The mosquitoes were so bad they  about ate me up.  I used to milk cows too and pick raspberries.  I suppose Blanche did those things also but there was eight years difference in our ages.  I went to Blackfoot, Idaho and lived with Aunt Pearl and uncle Marion, I surely love them they were so good to me.  I was homesick the whole time but they rented a piano & I played for them they were proud of me.  Uncle Mane used to sing when I’d play.  I was on the ‘A’ honor roll up there my first year in High School.  Then I came and finished at the Fielding Academy and that is where I met my dear Cornell.  We were so happy those years.  I was an “A” student used to play in the school orchestra and played for most of the choruses.  I was so happy my junior year we had our nice junior prom in the Paris Pavilion.  All the boys from the surrounding towns, and I knew them all and about danced myself to death.  Of course the nicest thing about that was Cornell was my escort & I loved him then but he didn’t ask me to marry him until spring or February.  He proposed to me on his birthday and gave me a beautiful ruby engagement ring in the spring. I graduated in three years from High School.
To be continued.....



Wednesday, October 20, 2010

The History of John Barker, Jr and Family - Page 3

Continued from John Barker, Jr  and Family - page 2




I never will forget that happy day when father had raised enough Hereford beef cattle to sell them and he got enough for the cattle to pay off Will Clark, who held the mortgage.  He sold every last one of his beef cattle and paid the mortgage in full.  Will Clark wasn’t too happy about that, because dad always paid his interest twice a year right on the dot.  So that day finally came when the home and farm was free and clear and belonged to dad and mother.  That was about 1917, during World War I.  I was in Blackfoot, Idaho staying with aunt Pearl & uncle Marion & going to my first year of high school.  Blanche was still in grade school.


By this time father had built up a good herd of pure bred Guernsey dairy cows, whose butter fat was extremely high in the milk.  They were paid by the butter fat test.  Before this he raised Holstein cows who had to give much more milk to get the butter fat.


John and Esther were good neighbors and had lots of friends.  They were hard workers.  John would haul his firewood from the St. Charles canyon, mahogany which was hard wood, had to break it couldn’t cut it.  The pine and quaking aspen. Later on burned coal along with the wood.


John and Esther didn’t go to church much the early part of their lives but they saw to it that Blanche and me attended Sunday School, Primary and Religion class.  About this time my father & mother bought an organ from William Clark his cousin and they let me take organ lessons from Opal Keetch.  I was about 8 years then and Blanch was a baby or very young.  Grandpa Barker had passed away by then.  Later I taught Blanch how to play the organ and she was bright, quick and learned fast.  I don’t remember what year this was, because I wasn’t keeping records then.  But I progressed fast on the organ.  Opal said “oh, Adelia it is a pleasure to teach you, if everyone were as good as you, I wouldn’t have any problems.”  Louis Booth was the chorister of the ward and Sunday school.  He and Opal took an interest in me and wanted to give me recognition so they made me ass’t organist of the Sunday school my parents were so proud of me and I was happy and proud too.


About this time Bishop and Sister John Hunt and Edgar & Nancy Allred started encouragement to my dad and mother encouraging, working with them and they started going to church.  Everyone was nice.  Ernest Allred, William Henry Michaelson, Heber & Lizzie Keetch all my dad’s cousins.  Swan & Lizzie T. Arnell, Wm A C Keetch and Henry Monson.  At first they put father in as Religion class teacher, then teacher in Sunday School, then when he was ready they ordained him an elder & put him in as Secty of Elder’s quorum.  Then they asked him to become a member of the ward choir, it was a good choir and dad could read music and he sang bass.  Dad used to play the violin a little and also an accordian.  He used to play for dances.  Mother was made a visiting teacher (Relief Society).  She was quite timid, not much for public work.  By this time I was a member of the choir and dad & I would go to practice together.  Soon the time came for us to go to the Temple. Henry Monson had a big paige car, he was a miller and seemed to be quite prosperous then, and he took us down through Logan Canyon and to the Logan Temple 26 of June 1918.  Father & mother were married in the Temple and sealed to each other and we Blanche & I were sealed to them. What a happy day.  After that day they were devoted members of the church, they paid their tithing and were faithful with prayers, full 10 %.  Things went well for them, they worked hard as usual and they became prosperous and had more of the things they needed.  We were in the depths of a depression at the end of World War I and there wasn’t much money things (products) were so cheap people could not buy goods.  But my folks struggled along and finally bought a used Ford then later a Chevrolet.  Dad and mother loved music and they wanted their daughters to have an education, go to high school and they sacrificed and saved to do it.  They were such dear parents, so kind and loving and we had a peaceful home.  Father was very proud always held his head high and his shoulders straight.  He finally bought a pretty navy blue suit and mother cut his hair.  They would drive to church every Sunday.  He was ordained a High Priest and so honored he was and he was a devoted loyal member of the church and so was mother.  They put dad in charge of the sacrament table and he taught the boys what real reverence was by his example.  They let him take care of that, even though the church officials decided to put the Priests in charge, but they didn’t want to break his heart after so many years of service and he stayed on until he was too ill to go any more.

To be continued.....


Tuesday, October 19, 2010

John T Barker, Jr Family History - Page 2

(If you missed page 1, you can find it here: History 101: John T Barker, Jr  Family History)



Father settled down to work for himself now the farm and property was his .  With what cattle he had he started (to) raise Herefords and to build up a herd of beef cattle.  He also started a herd of Guernsey’s. He had purebreds and one of the finest Guernsey herd of cows in Bear Lake.  He was a good dairyman.  He raised pigs, sheep & chickens, turkeys, & geese.  It was a very diversified farm. For his crops they were also diversified , he raised alfalfa, wheat, oats, barley & potatoes.  They tried to raise sugar beets one year but they didn’t do well, the season was too short.  He would feed the barley and wheat to the cows, pigs & chickens, and he used to haul his potatoes to Evanston, Wyo. By team & wagon.  For wild hay and pasture he fed the stock cattle that, and grain & alfalfa and barley to the cows.  He always raised good crops, high yield per acre.


He was very neat and precise, a little slow & quite fussy so it took him longer to accomplish what other men did and he had no boys to help him.  His home and garden were always free of weeds and neat.  Mother worked along with him outside, growing all kinds of vegetables.  They raised a big patch of raspberries (choice) and people wouldn’t pay more than .20 cents a quart for them, also had gooseberries, red & white currants.  There was always plenty of thick cream and I would rather have some plum jam with cream on it and a piece of good bread and butter than all the cake you could give me.  Esther was noted for her good sweet cream butter she would take it to the stores and trade it and eggs for groceries. Everyone wanted mother’s butter, there was never enough to go around.






Copy of ad that was placed in the Paris Post Newspaper




Because he was faithful to stay and take care of the farm and grandpa, and until his sisters and brothers were all married off, the brothers and sisters weren’t too happy about dad getting the property.  But mother & dad were good to those who still lived in Bear Lake. They would stay there after they were married and feed their horses and they would all come there to have their babies and mother would take care of the mother and babe, wash on the board for all of them, cook, wash dishes.  There was no electricity then and it is no wonder that it took years for them to get ahead.  They all came Barkers and Hendersons, Amos, Hyrum, Aunt Pearl and Aunt Alice loved the folks for they did so much for them and they weren’t in on the suit, but Zina, Ephraim, Elias & Mary Sorenson were and Elias’s wife Effie, and Uncle Eph and Henry Sorenson Mary’s husband were the worst ones.  They lived in Smithfield, Utah.  I always loved Uncle Elias and Amos they were so good to  me when I was a little girl.  Aunt Alice & Pearl were my favorite ants on papa’s side.  Josie & Aunt Mary on mother’s side. I never knew aunt Florence very well she moved away. & Of course I liked aunt Hattie too.

To be continued....




Monday, October 18, 2010

History 101 - John T. Barker, Jr Family History

This month's Family History is going to last all week. I just finished transcribing a nine page, legal size history that was handwritten by my great aunt Adelia. I don't want to post it all at once because it is a lot to read and besides; I want to keep you coming back for more (big grin).


 John T. Barker, Jr Family History By, Adelia Barker Scofield


Barker Family - Esther, Blanche, John T., Adelia



John was the oldest son of John T. Barker, Sr & Jane Pickett.  He was born Nov 22, 1872 at St. Charles, Bear Lake, Idaho. He married Esther Eleanor Henderson Sept 18, 1902.  Civil marriage at Laketown, Rich, Utah.  Later the marriage (was) solemnized in the Logan Temple and daughters Adelia & Blanche were sealed to them 26 June 1918.

He lived in St. Charles all of his life except for a short period of time when he went to Canada.  He drove cattle for a big rancher named Pixley in Wyoming.  He worked for him a lot to earn a living for years in fact.  He also worked for Hyrum Nebeker for several years.  Nebeker was a sheep and cattle rancher on the east side of Bear Lake someone had told him he had to milk cows and he said he wasn’t going to milk cows for any d. dutchman and he found out later Nebeker was of Dutch descent.

John was one the church chose to go to Canada and help colonize there, but for some reason the quota was filled and he didn’t go.  I guess he was married then, they wouldn’t send a single man.  He built a house out in the north field.  I was born while they lived there.  I remember mother had strawberry patch and she raised some flowers,  sweet williams,  roses, etc, and she would carry water up a small hill from the creek to water them, she loved flowers and so did I.  I am sure that father’s brothers must have helped him build that house.  Uncle Elias lived there later after he was married, as my grandma  Jane Barker passed away in 1907 and I was four years old then.  My father and mother moved into grandpa’s home to take care of him and the younger girls Alice, Zina, and Amos were still unmarried.  He helped maintain the home farm and kept the family together.  Some of the older girls & boys were married then.  Grandpa Barker was disabled and unable to work much, so he and mother took care of him and the younger girls.

Because he was faithful to stay and help with the family until they all  married, and grandpa until he passed away in 1911, grandpa Barker deeded the farm, property and home to my father.  Some of his brothers and sisters, I say some not all were unhappy about this and wanted their share, but it was all right for them to go away on their own and never share any of the responsibility so they hired a lawyer and were going to take it to court.  
Father didn’t have any money to pay them off, but he had a good friend and cousin Will Clark, who advised him to get an attorney and he did.  Harris from Pocatello, Ida.  It was settled out of court and the family all of them were awarded grandma Barker’s share of the estate which was $1,200.  Will Clark loaned dad the money at 10% interest way back about in 1913.


The Barker family home where Blanche was born.
To be continued.......


Sunday, October 17, 2010

Sepia Saturday - Buck Family Home in England

I was so excited when I got this photo in the mail today.




I was looking through some of my Buck genealogy and remembered that this photo existed and wondered why I didn't have a copy. It was in grandma Smedley's genealogy book that I used to look through every time I was at her house. I figured that aunt Cloree had her book now so I called her and asked if she would send me a copy.


The photo is of my great-great grandpa and grandma  Buck and their family in front of their house in Arnold, Nottinghamshire, England. Unfortunately it isn't dated and there are no names listed.  I estimated it to have been taken in late 1890 or early 1891 because gr-great-grandpa died Mar 1891 and the youngest child was born Jan 1889.


I know for sure which one is the father, but the others I identified from their birth dates and photos of the children when they were grown.


The two boys in front of the white fence Leonard and Ernest Buck. In the right hand corner is Sybil, gr-great-grandma Nancy holding Adela, and Percival. Standing behind the shrubs are Jim, Luther, Flora, Ida (great-grandma Smedley), gr-great-grandpa James, and Gertrude.


I don't know why, but this picture of James Buck always reminded me of a pirate from an old black and white movie. But he wasn't a swash buckler, he was a coal miner.



Monday, October 11, 2010

Amanuensis Monday - Will of John Bidkyn

Thanks to a random act of genealogy kindness by Mary Wooldridge about three months ago, I have copies of two wills from my Bidkin ancestors.  The first is the will of Robert Bidkyn, my 11th great-grandfather and I am still working on transcribing it.  The second one is that of his son John Bidkyn, his son and my 10th great-grand uncle.


John Bidkyn's will was easier to transcribe so I am going to present it here. (There are a couple of words I couldn't make out, which are blank lines.)




In the name of God Amen this seventh day of October
Anno Dm 1631 I John Bidkyn of Elstowe in the 
countie of Bedds Shepherd sick in bodie but of 
sound and perfect memorie thanks be to god - 
therefore doe make this my last will & -
testament in maner & forme followinge 
first I give & bequeth my soule into 
the hands of almighti god my hevenly father 
in Jesus Christ & my bodie to the earth 
from whence it came Item I give unto my - 
godchildren to each of them 12 pence Item I give 
John Kelly varnisher of Elstowe 2 Shilings Item I give 
unto Ann my lovinge wife my house in Elstowe 
where in I live & three halfe acres of arable 
land thereto belonginge during her naturall 
lyfe to her & her heirs forever Item - 
all my goods & chattels whatsoever I give 
& bequeath unto the said Ann my lovinge 
wife & doe make her my Executrix of 
this my last will and I desire my lovinge 
neighbor Mathewe Dymnock to be the overseer 
of this my will and doe give him for his payment 
therein 2 Shillings J_______ whereof I have hearunto 
set my hand & seale the daye & yeare 
above written 


signed sealed delivered by the said John Bidkyn 
as his last will & testament after the
rasing out of this word (halfe) in the fourteenth lyne
& these words (duringe her naturall lyfe) in the
Fiveteenth & sixteenth lynes in the pnce
Of Math. Dymock Signn E Edmond; Signn John X
Bidkyn
Marston _______ Cranfielde                       



Sunday, October 10, 2010

Sunday's Obituary - Blanche Dunn



Surnames: DUNN PIGGOTT HENDERSON BARKER PENDLETON PUGMIRE GREEN GUTHRIE HARRIS SCOFIELD 


Source: Idaho State Journal, Pocatello, Idaho.



Monday, October 4, 2010

Amanuensis Monday - Estate of Dorthea Madsen

I found this envelope among grandma Hazel's stuff.



Inside was a handwritten copy of the Letters Testamentary in the Matter of the Estate of Dorthea Madsen. I am hoping to get copies of the original probate record, but for now I am going to go ahead and transcribe this piece.








In the probate Court
     of the
County of Bear Lake of State of Idaho
          Probate.
-------------------------------
In the matter of the Estate of |
Dortha Madsen                  |
        Deceased.              |
-------------------------------
State of Idaho                 |
        County of Bear Lake    |SS.
                               |
The last Will of Dortha Madsen 
deceased a copy of which is herto annexed having been proved and recorded in the
probate court of the said county of Bear Lake
State of Idaho. Niels Madsen aged 44
years who is named therein as such is here
by appointed Executor.


         Witness James H. Hart
         Clerk of the probate court of the said
         county of Bear Lake with the seal of
         the court affixed the thirtieth day of       
         March 1891.
      By order of the court x
                          x G. C.
                          x
                         By     Deputy Clerk
State of Idaho     }
County of Bear Lake} SS


I do solemnly swear that I will support the
constitution of the United States and of the
State and that I will faithfully perform according to law the duties


of Executor of the last Will and Testament
of Dortha Madsen deceased
                      Niels Madsen




Subscribed and sworn to before me this
30th day of March 1891 |
                       | G. C. Potter
                        ______ clerk
                                  Deputy Clerk
                       By



No.---------
Recorded M.B. page
In the probate Court
County of Bear Lake.
In the matter of the Estate of
Dortha Deceased.
Letters Testamentary
Filed          clerk
By Deputy      clerk
Attorney for petitioner.




Leslie Ann

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Sunday's Obituary - Cornell Scofield


This is another scan from Daniell.  I am not sure what newspaper it came from, but it was probably the Idaho State Journal.


Cornell was my great-uncle.


Surnames: SCOFIELD BOOTH BARKER STEIGER BERNTSON GHEEN PUGMIRE EARLEY



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