My husband’s favorite Christmas movie is A Christmas Story in which Ralphie wants a BB gun but the adults all tell him, “You’ll shoot your eye out!” It’s taken me years to appreciate this movie, but now I look forward to seeing it every year. A few months ago, I found a newspaper clipping at newspapers.com which was a “Dear Santa” letter from my husband’s grand uncle (his grandmother’s brother). I was amused to see that this 7-year-old was also asking for a BB gun. But, he was also asking for things my husband’s other grandparents talked about getting at...
I’ve written posts about Ephraim Bennett (my great, great grandmother’s brother) killing his abusive brother-in-law, Nathan Buchanan. A few days ago, I uncovered another murder in my family tree. This time some in-laws allegedly killed my 3rd great grandfather’s granddaughter (so she’s my first cousin, three times removed) to prevent her from testifying against her husband! Ollie Werther’s father, Guenther “Kenny” Werther, immigrated from Germany with his family when he was 15 years old. Her mother, Lucy Jones, had a Cherokee father and a “white” mother. Lucy received her allotment from the Cherokees and brought her land and a house...
My daughter is taking a year-long geography course this year. Last week she was learning about the “pushes” and “pulls” that cause people to migrate or move. Sometimes people move because something disagreeable or unacceptable occurs and they are trying to get away from it. While other times the pull of something desirable in another place causes them to migrate. Although I have yet to find any evidence that they won any land, I believe some of my family members moved to Oklahoma for the 1901 Land Lottery. (I know they were in Lawton by early 1903.) Free land? That’s...
I found the following newspaper advertisement twenty-two times in the Arkansas City Daily Traveler. I guess Eckert (Eckard) Peters (1845- 1915) was sold on this miracle drug! Eckert was a brother of my great, great grandfather, Charles Peters (1847 in Germany – 1910 in Comanche County, Oklahoma). In 1894 they both lived in Sumner County, Kansas which was near the county line of Cowley County, Kansas where Arkansas City (“Ark City”) is located. Two years ago I bought a 25-cent bottle of Lagrippe Remedy for coughs and colds and it cured when all others failed. I buy it by the...
I have been having a lot of success lately with newspapers.com, my favorite site for newspaper research. Their search engine seems to work better than than the other sites, or at least I’ve figured it out better! Or maybe they just have more newspapers that are relevant to my family! This weekend, I decided to research some of my husband’s family members and I came across the above article about one of his ancestors, Ben Payton. It looks like the family was attacked by a mad dog and they were taking a serum to combat against rabies. After a little...
I’ve done a few of Randy Seaver’s “Saturday Night Genealogy Fun” challenges over at Genea-Musings. This week’s challenge is about your father’s mother’s paternal lines. 1) What was your father’s mother’s name? My grandmother’s maiden name was Hazel Lucille Peters. At the end of her life, she lived with my aunt & uncle who lived in the same town as I. She had almost white hair and, as a young child, I thought that was just her hair color. So, when I received a doll with white hair, I named her Hazel. She died when I was only 5 and...