In My Life: October 2009

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Treasure Thursday, 29 Oct 2009

Among the many treasures in my life, I count time spent traveling to England and Scotland with my Mother as some of my most cherished memories.

Over the years my Mom has gifted me with paintings she has created chronicling some of our favorite holidays. The Abbey Hotel in Cornwall and St. Catherine's Lighthouse on the southern tip of the Isle of Wight.

Shells gathered on walks on the beach fill the Ball jar that once belonged to my grandmother Mildred Little Bergeron. The shells, mixed together in the jar, represent visits from Lands End to John O'Groats, Dover and St. Ives to the Orkney Islands.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Wordless Wednesday

A tribute to one of the many rural schools, no longer in existence. My featured photo today is the Brown Bear School, formerly located in Vilas Township in Langlade county, Wisconsin.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Tombstone Tuesday - John Crump Hogarty 1825-1904

Grave marker of John Crump Hogarty and his family located in the Riverside Cemetery in Hogarty, Marathon County, Wisconsin. John Hogarty, Willard Ackley, Benjamin Gilham and my great-great grandfather, Isaac Stone, were among the early settlers in what is now Marathon, Lincoln and Langlade counties.

John Hogarty, born in Virginia, came to the area known as Marathon county around 1844 and along with Ackley and Isaac Stone settled aong the banks of the Eau Claire River. When Marathon County was created in 1850, the area was occupied by the Ojibwe. The Eau Claire, navigable by canoe, was important to the area due to the presence of large tracts of virgin timber, known simply as "The Pinery."

Hogarty set up a trading post halfway up the Eau Claire; records show the principal trade was pork, flour, salt, a few 'groceries', dry goods, hardware and crockery. Isaac Stone also set up a post with similiar goods; both Hogarty and Stone bartered for furs, maple syrup and timber. Hogarty and Stone engaged in cutting and floating pine logs down the Eau Claire River with Willard Ackley, who operated a post at the forks of the east and west branches of the Eau Claire, ten miles upstream of Hogarty.

All of these men married into the Ojibwe, marrage records show the men served as witnesses at these ceremonies. Unfortunatley, no record has been found to document Isaac's marriage. However, documents do show that in 1855, following the birth of their third known child, Isaac Stone's wife died and was buried at Hogarty's Trading Post. Eventually this site became the Riverview cemetery.

The back of the marker reads:

"An Irish-Chippewa Family of Wisconsin"

John C. Hogarty of Irish ancestry, born in Virginia in 1825, came to Marathon County about 1844 and died in 1904. He was a farmer, lumberman and Civil War Veteran. He married Set-Os-Na-Qua, daughter of Swa-Juan-A-Qua and Nit-Wen-Osk and grand-daughter of Chief Great Eagle, after her death he married Moke-Gesick-Co-Qua, daugther of Sak-a-See-Do-Qua and ay-May-Way-Con

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Wordless Wednesday

Family of Charles Finley and Agnes Josephine Jones Polar:

Leona, Archie, Agnes, Charles, Esther, Ralph, Alma

Monday, October 19, 2009

Victory at Yorktown - October 19, 1781

During 1781 and 1782, Washington had been working toward a decisive conclusion of the war. As a result of reports from an intelligence service led by Benjamin Franklin in Paris, Washington was convinced that British public opinion definitely was turning against continuing the American war. Washington knew if the British army could be trapped between American land forces and the superior French fleet for a sufficient period of time the British could be compelled to surrender.

In September 1779 the fleets and armies of France and Spain attacked the British fortress of Gibraltar. Great Britain could not afford to lose its precious gateway to the Mediterranean. Because Gibraltar could be reinforced and supplied only by sea, its support became the most important responsibility of the British fleet.

In 1781, when Gibraltar was especially hard pressed, 29 French ships of the line under Adm. François Joseph Paul, comte de Grasse, were able to sail from Brest on March 22, bound initially for the West Indies but with orders to be off the American coast in July and August. Washington learned of the French fleet's departure on May 22 and with Rochambeau planned to attack Clinton in New York City. In June, French troops were recalled from Newport, R.I., to join Washington's forces. The New York offensive never materialized, however, because Clinton's forces, reinforced by an additional 3000 German troops, were too strong, and the New England militia failed to come forward in sufficient numbers.

On August 14, Washington received word that de Grasse was bringing the French fleet to Chesapeake Bay. He immediately decided to attack Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia. The troops of Washington and Rochambeau marched south, leaving a containing force to watch Clinton in New York. De Grasse's fleet arrived at the Chesapeake capes on August 30, drove off a British fleet under Adm. Thomas Graves and established a tight blockade of Cornwallis's army. Some 16,000 American and French troops and Virginia militia, under Washington's command, laid siege to Yorktown. Cornwallis made several vain attempts to break through allied lines, but on Oct. 19, 1781, he was obliged to surrender.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Genea-Musings - Saturday Night Genealogy Fun

Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings has posted his Saturday Night Genealogy Fun with the title "Family Increase."

1) Pick one of your four great-grandparents - if possible, the one with the most descendants.

2) Create a descendants list for those great-grandparents either by hand or in your software program.

3) Tell us how many descendants, living or dead, are in each generation from those great-grandparents.

4) How many are still living? Of those, how many have you met and exchanged family information with? Are there any that you should make contact with ASAP? Please don't use last names of living people for this - respect their privacy.

5) Write about it in your own blog post, in comments to this post, or in comments or a Note on Facebook.

Since I am usually 'up north' on a Saturday night with limited cell (broadband) service, I miss out on most of the Saturday night Genea-Musing fun. But not tonight!

1.) I have chosen my paternal great-grandparents Francis Xavier Bergeron (1863-1953) and Mary Elizabeth Reinwand (1865-1951)

2.) I created a chart using Family Tree Maker

3.) The descendants of this family are as follows:
Children: 8 (all deceased)
Grandchildren: 19 (14 are deceased)
Great-Grandchildren: 24 (2 are deceased)
Great-Great-Grandchildren: 39 (2 are deceased)
Great-Great-Great-Grandchildren: 7

4.) There are several branches of this family line that have not been updated in a couple of years but then, securing accurate information from them has always been difficult. My grandfather divorced his first wife while living in Minnesota, where he was born and spent the early part of his childhood. He moved to northeastern Wisconsin where he met my grandmother and where they lived the remainder of their lives. There has always been a sense of being on the outside looking in with the family that remained in Minnesota, something my dad and aunt mentioned many times. I do exchange Christmas cards with several of these cousins - a good reminder that the 2009 Christmas card should include a printout of their family information and ask for an update.

My family was hit very hard by the Flu Pandemic of 1918: Four of Francis and Mary Reinwand Bergeron children died during the epidemic. Two daughters died leaving no children while the two sons both left behind a wife with young children. One son, Henry, lost his 3 week old daughter to the flu less than a month before his death.

Over the years, Francis and Mary raised a number of their grandchildren during different times of their lives. I often think about how difficult it must have been to never have experienced 'empty nest' or at least only for a short period of time.

This is a great exercise in confirming my belief that all family historians researching their family should expand their research horizons to include "cluster genealogy" or what others call "whole family research." Several of my grandfather's siblings married siblings: the two sisters who died during the flu epidemic married brothers while another brother married the sister of my grandfather's first wife. Had I not expanded my research to include the spouses and their families, I would not have discovered a second Bergeron-Reinwand connection.

Mary Reinwand's sister-in-law was Catherine Wilmoth. Catherine's sister, Johanna Wilmoth, married Adolphus D. Bergeron, the brother of Francis X. Bergeron.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Wordless Wednesday

Autumn's Wordless Wednesday - A tribute to those special moments when you round a corner and discover the beauty of the season.

Monday, October 12, 2009

Happy Birthday Dad

It's the annual October occurrence, known simply as Birthday Week. Birthday's in rapid succession: my birthday, Dad's and my maternal grandmother which also is - was - their wedding anniversary. Also sharing the October birthday month was my Dad's sister Marian and my paternal grandmother. For years it was just the three of us until the addition of spouses and their families: two brother-in-law and a great-niece sharing my Dad's birthday and a host of other family members adding to Hallmark's bottom line on my behalf.

2009 marked a milestone anniversary, Dad's 80th birthday. For the first time in fifteen years, our family gathered together to mark the occasion and rediscover the bonds that hold us together.

Laughter, food, hugs, smiles - shared by other family gatherings throughout history in small towns and large cities. Inside jokes, those special stories that end in gales of laughter no matter how many times the stories are told make each family unique and ours is no exception.

Dad - Happy Birthday and thank you. For your love and support, both given unconditionally and in generous amounts, "pressed down and running over." Thank you for providing your daughters with a firm foundation as well as sharing your love of Big Band music, Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett - football, cribbage and holiday traditions - memories of camp fires and tiki lights - Christmas carols and baptisms - all of which are now part of the fabric of who we are. Individually, we each share our own special memory of walking down the aisle on your arm.

As parents we have discovered yet another gift you have given our family - memories of time spent with Grandpa John.

In childhood, we press our nose to the pane, looking out. In memories of childhood, we press our nose to the pane, looking in. ~ Robert Brault

To the outside world we all grow old. But not to brothers and sisters. We know each other as we always were. We know each other's hearts. We share private family jokes. We remember family feuds and secrets, family griefs and joys. We live outside the touch of time. ~ Clara Ortega

Dad, your guiding hand on my shoulder will remain with me forever. ~ Author Unknown

My mom is a never ending song in my heart of comfort, happiness, and being. I may sometimes forget the words but I always remember the tune. ~ Graycie Harmon

We are inclined to think that if we watch a football game ...

we have taken part in it. ~ John Fitzgerald Kennedy

I love my father as the stars - he's a bright shining example and a happy twinkling in my heart. ~ Adabella Radici

Cows are amongst the gentlest of breathing creatures; none show more passionate tenderness to their young when deprived of them; and, in short, I am not ashamed to profess a deep love for these quiet creatures. ~ Thomas de Quincey

Chains do not hold a marriage together. It is threads, hundreds of tiny threads which sew people together through the years. ~ Simone Signoret

A man knows he is growing old because he begins to look like his father.

~ Gabriel Barcia Marquez

There's something like a line of gold thread running through a man's wordswhen he talk to his daughter, and gradually over the years it gets to be long enough for you to pick up in your hands and weave into a cloth that feels like love itself.

~ John Gregory Brown, Decorations in a Ruined Cemetery, 1994