Before I Forget

This from the National Archives' "Prologue Magazine" -- Gold Star Mothers' Pilgrimage

During the 1920s, the Gold Star Mothers' Association lobbied for a federally sponsored pilgrimage to Europe for mothers with sons buried overseas. Although many of the women who belonged to the organization had visited their sons' graves, they realized that women often could not afford the trip to Europe. In their testimony, these women placed great emphasis on the bond between a mother and son. The bond between wife and husband seemed almost secondary in the congressional debates. The bond between fathers and sons was barely considered--the association maintained that the maternal bond surpassed that of the paternal bond.

In 1929 Congress enacted legislation that authorized the secretary of war to arrange for pilgrimages to the European cemeteries "by mothers and widows of members of military and naval forces of the United States who died in the service at any time between April 5, 1917, and July 1, 1921, and whose remains are now interred in such cemeteries." Congress later extended eligibility for pilgrimages to mothers and widows of men who died and were buried at sea or who died at sea or overseas and whose places of burial were unknown. The Office of the Quartermaster General determined that 17,389 women were eligible. By October 31, 1933, when the project ended, 6,693 women had made the pilgrimage.  

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Kenny was my Mom's cousin. We hadn't seen him in years because we lived several states away. Was sorry to hear he had passed far too soon. A researcher sent me a photo of his grave in the Clovis Cemetery in Clovis, California. The inscription is sweet. I don't know how he died, but I imagine it was heartbreaking for his family. His obit in the Fresno Bee newspaper on January 12, 2001 reads:

 RUMINSON, KENNETH WAYNE -- Services for Kenneth Wayne Ruminson, 53, of Fresno  will be at 1 p.m. Monday at Clovis Pentecostal Church of God.  Mr. Ruminson, an X-ray  technician for University Medical Center, died Tuesday. Visitation will be from noon to 5 p.m.  Sunday at Whitehurst Funeral Chapel. 

He was born in Alameda County, California on September 3, 1947 and was adopted by Walter & Elisabeth Ruminson--their fourth child. Elisabeth, a/k/a Aunt Betty, was the second daughter of Elta Dorothy (McCormick) and John Willis Coffee. I hope to find a photo of my cousin to add here. My Dad took video long ago and I think he appears in a few clips from the early 1960s. 

My 2nd Great (paternal) Grandmother from Germany had eight (possibly nine) children. Among them, two sets of twins. They all survived childhood. 

But not so for her granddaughter, Alice Clayton, who had ten children with husband, William Horton, in southeast Texas. That is a hot HOT part of the state. In reviewing their history, I realized something awful. 

Only four of their children lived past age 27. Two of them died at age 26, and the other four died as infants.

On one memorial page was written:

Daughter of William Horton & Alice Clayton. Died of cholera infantum - Sometimes called "Summer Complaint" because it appears during hot, wet months. It was often a fatal form of gastroenteritis occurring in children, which is not true cholera but appears as such. 

In memory of the Horton babies: Lillie Edna, Perry Edward, Clara Alice, Osborne Douglas, Will Milton, Daisy Louise.

While looking for my COFFEE and JAMES families in southern Oklahoma, I read this discouraging word from The Caddo Herald newspaper - October 2, 1914:

It took a Bryan county jury but a short time Saturday afternoon to give Red Scott, the white man charged with living in adultery with a negro woman near Bokchito the extreme limit and returned a verdict in the district court at Durant sending him to the penitentiary for five years.

This case attracted a great deal of notoriety by reason of the fact that the good citizens of Bokchito had become very much incensed over the matter, and had threatened summary punishment to Scott if he did not leave the adultery. According to the testimony of witnesses Scott had been living there off and on for the past 8 years.

------

I wonder if the punishment would have been the same had she been Caucasian, and he African-American? Oh wait. A lynching would have occurred long before the couple reached the jailhouse. This area of Oklahoma is known as "Little Dixie" after all. 

NOTE TO SELF: Read Oklahoma statutes to determine when "race-mixing" was no longer considered a heinous crime. Considering that "women and children are as chattel" was only just voted out by the Oklahoma Legislature in the late 1980s, it may not have been that long ago. 

Our Wiser family alive in 1906 and living in Liberty or Chambers County Texas might have read this in the local newspaper. 

An acquaintance with whom I spent many evenings via television has died. Perhaps you knew him, too? 

I was sorry to read this notice in the Tulsa paper for October 13, 2013. A cousin, Doris (Weiser) Jarvis, genealogist and descendant of Hannah Leeper, has lost her husband, Ike. He apparently died in the small town of Cleveland, in nearby Pawnee County. Doris is active in the church and volunteers her time with the LDS genealogy library there. 

Attached is a "snipping" of Ike's death notice, and I will look for an obit from the Creek and/or Pawnee County newspapers later this week. (Those papers are not "dailies.") Also attached from prior research is a brief mention of Ike and Doris' marriage from the El Paso Herald-Post newspaper published on December 19, 1947. They had 65 years together, amazing!

Doris Weiser's father was Urban--the 8th of nine children to A.W. and Sylvina Wiser. He was my grandpa's older brother. These two brothers joined the U.S. Army during World War I and served in Europe. But first, I want to attach Uncle Urban's obit as it shows Doris and surviving family. I apologize for the poor copy and my feeble attempt to make it readable. It was published in the El Paso Herald newspaper (El Paso, Texas) on October 3, 1966, Section “B.”

You will note it mentions that Urban was survived by two brothers and two sisters: “E.L” or Emuel Lem (we knew him as Uncle Amie) Wiser and Elton Wiser (then living in Sacramento, Calif.), Nina Bond of Sand Springs, Oklahoma and Nora Purdy of Norman, Oklahoma. Purdy? I was told “Priddy” was her 2nd husband’s name. Must research further!

When you search for someone and can't find them, it feels like you're running up against a brick wall. Genealogists frequently speak of their "brick wall ancestors." Hannah Wosta is one of mine. And the man with whom she had her four boys. The elusive Herr Wiser. Many a fine researcher before me has looked high and low for proof of this father to the four Wiser sons who left Sachsen (now called Germany) for Galveston, Texas in the early 1850s. But more on the boys later.

I'd like to introduce the FIRST proof found of Hannah's existence. Do you read something other than WOSTA as her last name? See on the left-hand side where it is written again: "Wosta?" Try googling "wosta" and see all that pops up. This is NOT a common surname.

See this certified copy of an actual marriage certificate obtained from Galveston County Clerk on January 12,1990 by researcher Doris Weiser Jarvis, showing the Leeper/Wosta marriage on April 19, 1853. Partial transcription:

“The State of Texas, County of Galveston. To any regular ordained Minister of the Gospel, Judge of the District Court, Judge of the County Court, or Justice of the Peace. I hereby authorize any one of you to celebrate the rites of matrimony between Samuel Leeper and Hannah Wosta and due return of your proceedings hereon to me, at my Office, make within Sixty Days, as the law directs.” Signed by county clerk, and certified by F.B Whiting, Justice of the Peace. Marriage celebrated on 19th day of April A.D. 1853. Record Book No. B, pg. 87, numbered 214."

Thank you for popping by to read this blog.

My Aunt Gwen died recently just short of her 84th birthday. Besides her husband, she leaves a sister, two daughters, four grandchildren, and several great-grand kids. The world is somehow dimmer without Aunt Gwen.

Think your name is fairly unique? Think again. 

http://howmanyofme.com/search/