The Path Ahead: 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Prompt “Looking Ahead”

 

2022 into 2023

 

Before I can really look ahead, I need to take a quick look back at 2022. I finished 56 blog posts—more than one a week! I also completed blog posts for each and every one of Amy Johnson Crow’s 52 prompts—the first time ever that I fulfilled that goal!

So what was the breakdown between the two sets of family trees among those 56 posts?

I completed thirty posts about my Peterson/Macbeth ancestors, on topics ranging from family photos and photos of horse teams to a lawsuit over an estate. I had some exciting “brick wall” breakthroughs. First, I confirmed my third great-grandfather Charles Macbeth’s parentage, and found his siblings. Second, I made huge strides in expanding my great-grandmother Ragnhild Olsdatter Syverson’s family tree, discovering that several Hanska area families descended from her nephews.

I completed twenty-six posts on the Aird/Jandy family tree blog. I made so many fascinating discoveries. I found a cemetery in Kentucky where all 43 graves are people on the family tree. I discovered an ancestor who is reputed to haunt a local Orange County canyon. I also learned how much information could be gleaned from death notices and death certificates, discovering the tragic toll of tuberculosis on one branch of the Smith family, and a mysterious murder on another branch.

I am eager to begin a new year of 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. I have downloaded Amy Johnson Crow’s 2023 prompts, and I have already compiled a list of fascinating stories that I want to write about.

My only problem is that many of the stories I want to tell don’t match up with this year’s prompts. So what should I do?

I think I will use Amy’s prompts when it suits me, and make up my own when necessary. I don’t want to forget significant discoveries and fascinating tales just because they don’t fit Amy’s prompts. When I make a discovery and have all the documentation right in front of me, I’m going to write it up.

I believe I can do 52 blog posts again, although it may be difficult with a lot of other tasks ahead of me this year. However, I’m going to try. I’m having so much fun writing up my discoveries, so why stop?

Onward to new discoveries and new stories in 2023!

Movie Actress June Vincent: 52 Ancestors 2022 Prompt “Characters”

Minister’s Daughter Becomes Movie Actress

Dorothy June Smith, AKA June Vincent: 1920-2008 (Maternal First Cousin 1X Removed)

 

How is this for a 1950s movie plot? Pretty daughter of a Midwestern minister becomes a star on the silver screen and a pin-up girl, marries a handsome US Navy officer during World War II, and combines motherhood and acting before eventually retiring to devote her life to her family. It sounds wholesome enough to be a musical! However, this was no Hollywood script. It is an accurate synopsis of the life of Dorothy June Smith, known to movie fans in the 1940s and 1950s as June Vincent.

Dorothy June Smith was born July 17, 1920 to Rev. Willis Eugene Smith (one of Lorene Smith Jandy’s brothers) and his wife Sybil Aradella Erwin Smith. She was their only child, born in Harrod, Ohio where Rev. Smith was serving as a minister.

Dorothy was already an accomplished performer at age fourteen when she provided the piano accompaniment at her aunt Ruby Erwin’s wedding in July 1934. Her father had moved from Ohio, first to Massachusetts, and by the 1930s to early 1940s, he was serving as minister of a church in Keene, New Hampshire. Dorothy attended high school in Keene, graduating at 16. A bio by an Ohio newspaper after her death stated that she attended Oberlin College for a year before dropping out to pursue acting.

According to a July 7, 1944 article in Havre, Montana’s Havre Daily News, Dorothy started her acting career with a summer theater group in Keene, NH, and was spotted by talent scouts who sent her to Hollywood. (2)  In a later bio in a book about 1950s actresses, Dorothy/June told a slightly different story. “I was a model—someone saw my picture—and I landed a stock contract at Universal. Because of my experience, I received a higher salary than the other girls starting out. And during my first week in Hollywood, I got to meet and have dinner with Greta Garbo!” (1) Presumably the “experience” she refers to was with the Keene summer stock troupe, as well as a brief role in a Broadway musical in 1943.

Modeling and acting—quite the daring career choice for a minister’s daughter! I wonder what Willis and Sybil thought about their daughter’s move to Hollywood.

Her first movie was 1943’s Honeymoon Lodge, where she played the lead female role of Carol Sterling. The movie’s cast also included future TV stars Ozzie and Harriet Nelson.

June went on to appear in nearly thirty movies, including several Westerns. Her most famous role was the heroine in Black Angel, where she played opposite Dan Duryea and Peter Lorre. She starred with other famous actors in the following films:

Here Come the Co-Eds—1945-- with Abbott and Costello

Ladies Courageous—1944-- with Loretta Young and Diana Barrymore

The Climax—1944-- with Boris Karloff

Zamba—1949--with a very young Beau Bridges

In a Lonely Place—1950—with Humphrey Bogart

I wish I could add the movie posters to this post—they are such a delight! So colorful and crazy, but alas still under copyright protection. Google a few and enjoy!

World War II saw thousands of Navy crewmen and officers flood into California, including a young ensign and pilot by the name of William Mueller Sterling. In Ladies of the Western, June recounted their first meeting.

“ Lois [Collier] and I worked together in Ladies Courageous…We were roommates on our location shooting. I had a blind date and when Lois and I were going up the elevator with some servicemen, she pointed to a very handsome guy and said, ‘I’ll bet that’s him.’ And it was!” (1)

June and William fell in love and quickly became engaged. Although June was still a new face in the movie business, her engagement and wedding notices refer to her as “Hollywood actress June Vincent”. The couple married March 10, 1944 in New York City. June’s father, Rev. Willis Smith, performed the ceremony.

June appeared in four movies in 1944. Following the war’s end, the couple settled in Los Angeles and started a family. Their first child, William Thayer Sterling, was born August 3, 1945, shortly after June’s latest movies, Here Come the Co-Eds and That’s the Spirit, opened in theaters. She recalled in Ladies of the Western that, “Universal was like a family. When I was having a terrible time during my pregnancy, they came to my home and built sets right in my bedroom so I could finish the few scenes I had left in “That’s the Spirit”.” (1)

The 1950 census shows William working as an advertising salesman in the television industry, while June was listed as a housewife and movie actress. June continued to act as the family grew with the birth of daughter Tina on April 4, 1949, and daughter Mindy on March 24, 1954.  She had changed studios, leaving Universal to work at Columbia Pictures, doing a series of crime movies and Westerns. She recalled that she played “a meanie, a witch” in most of her Westerns. (1)

The Lima Ohio biography described June’s changing career:

“By “In a Lonely Place,” (1950) Vincent’s film career was in decline. She            made only two movies after 1953. But she became part of a pioneering            generation in the burgeoning medium of television. Making her TV debut in   the late 1940s, she would remain in demand for guest-star parts for 25    years.”(3)

June headed several charity functions in Hollywood later in her career/married life

She appeared in many popular, classic television shows, including Father Knows Best, Ozzie and Harriet, The Andy Griffith Show, Dr. Kildare, Route 66, The Untouchables, Alfred Hitchcock, That Girl, Bewitched, and The Fugitive. She had multiple appearances on some of the old “playhouse” television dramas, including Screen Directors Playhouse, Ford Television Theatre, and Zane Grey Theatre. She also appeared on five episodes of Have Gun, Will Travel, one of my dad’s favorite shows that I referred to as “Gun Travel” as a toddler.

June also acted in five episodes of Perry Mason, including the charmingly named episodes “The Case of the Wintry Wife”, “The Case of the Hesitant Hostess”, and best of all, “The Case of the Bartered Bikini.”

She worked with many of the most famous television actors of the 1950s through the 1970s. The Lima Ohio article noted:

“She played spies, jewel thieves and conniving women of all kinds. She also        played a reporter, a prosecuting attorney, a couple of military officers and at    least one countess. Her enduring image was that of a socialite or                            sophisticate, often of the “ice queen” variety.

"TV Guide described her as the quintessential “other woman” and said she        had made a career of playing home-wreckers.” (3)

June might have had a bigger career if she hadn’t been such an involved mother. She took career breaks after the birth of each child, and there were rumors she turned down the role of Robert Young’s wife in Father Knows Best to stay home with a baby. She seems to have enjoyed her work but wasn’t as ambitious as many of her peers. She admitted to one interviewer that she had turned down a regular role in a series.

“I tried to explain to the producers. I have children,” she said. “But they think     I’m throwing away a golden opportunity to become a big name — which is         exactly what I don’t want.” (3)

June’s final role was a guest part on the sitcom Maude. She retired in 1976, telling author Michael Fitzgerald, “I didn’t like what I was seeing, so I decided that was it. I never thought I was a good actress in pictures—but later I became an actress on TV. I kept every W2 for every show or film I did. I had them in a huge box which I took to SAG (Screen Actors Guild), dropped on their desk and asked for my pension. Thank God for SAG and their insurance.” (1)

When she was interviewed for the Ladies of the Western book in the early 2000s, she was in her eighties and had health issues, including Parkinson’s. However, she noted that she had a good life and had been married over fifty years. “I have three children, grandchildren and a wonderful husband. I like our quiet lifestyle down here in Lake San Marcos, and I do enjoy being remembered by the fans.” (1)

Late in life, June and William moved from San Marcos, California to the Aurora, Colorado area. Her husband William Sterling died July 20, 2002, and June died in Aurora on November 20, 2008 at age 88.

June’s movie and television characters live on. Her Perry Mason episodes are available on Amazon Prime, and a few of her movies, including Black Angel, can be rented on various streaming platforms. I look forward to seeing one of her performances. Although June moved far from her parents and changed her name, trading Dorothy Smith for the more glamorous June Vincent, she seems to have remained a loving, family-oriented woman despite working and living in the decadence and depravity of Hollywood’s Golden Age.  

 

Sources:

1, Fitzgerald, Michael G.; Magers, Boyd (2006). Ladies of the Western: Interviews with Fifty-One More Actresses from the Silent Era to the Television Westerns of the 1950s and 1960s. McFarland. p. 295.

2.  "Actress Never Lacks for Job". The Havre Daily News. Montana, Havre. July 7, 1944. p. 3. Retrieved September 5, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.

3. “From Harrod to Hollywood”  https://www.limaohio.com/archive/2015/06/30/from-harrod-to-hollywood/ Bio of June Vincent following her death.

4. https://m.imdb.com/name/nm0898687/fullcredits  June Vincent’s IMDB movie and television credits.

5. “June Vincent Weds Her Ensign Today” Daily News, New York, New York, 10 Mar 1944, Fri  •  Page 20 https://www.newspapers.com/clip/72598727/marriage-of-vincent-sterling

6. Newspaper photos and accompanying articles from Newspapers.com.

A Family Cemetery Off the Beaten Path: 52 Ancestors 2022 Prompt “Tombstones”

 

Moseley Family Patriarch Founds Family Cemetery on His Farm

Robert Cartwright Moseley: 1816-1896 (Maternal third-great-grandfather)

 

Family cemeteries were often a necessity for pioneers. Church and community cemeteries weren’t always an option. Even if church members could actually raise enough money to buy land and construct a church building, acquiring enough land for a cemetery could take decades. Towns would charge for burials in town-owned cemeteries, and many struggling rural families couldn’t afford the expense. However, families could afford to set aside a small piece of their own property to bury relatives.

Robert Cartwright Moseley, 3rd Great Grandfather

Third-great-grandfather Robert Cartwright Moseley established a family cemetery on his farm in rural Kentucky in the 1800s. Findagrave describes this burial ground as follows:

“The Robert C. Moseley Family cemetery is on top of a hill, with no signs. The cemetery is off of HWY 140. The entrance is from State HWY 2156-- you have to drive across a corn field and up a hill. The cemetery is surrounded by trees on three sides. The nearest community is Cleopatra.”

Most family burial plots were tiny, containing just a handful of graves. These private cemeteries have been shrinking in number with the passage of years. As farmers and developers grew hungry for land, many have been destroyed, the coffins dug up and reburied in other, larger cemeteries.

Robert C Moseley Family Cemetery

Fortunately, the Robert C. Moseley Family Cemetery had a different fate.  The farm remained in family hands for many years, and the current owners obviously respect the memories of the Moseleys buried there. In addition, rather than just a half dozen graves like most family cemeteries, the Moseley cemetery has forty-three people interred there. Most of the grave markers were stone and have survived intact or have been replaced with newer tombstones.

It was probably fortunate that the cemetery is far from a road—it kept vandalism at a minimum. Surrounded by a metal fence and a grove of trees, it has been protected. The property remains beautiful if a bit unkempt. In addition, as the news item below shows, extended family members have helped to maintain the property over the years.

Why does this cemetery matter to our family? Nearly everyone buried there is an ancestor—not something many people can claim about a cemetery of this size. The only burials that are not blood relatives are relatives by marriage, so every one of those graves is a person on the Aird family tree.

The first burial in the cemetery occurred in 1858 following the death of a young daughter of Robert Moseley and his wife, Nancy Archibald Moseley. Ten-year-old Ana Maria Moseley was born July 21, 1847, and died February 17, 1858. The tall, narrow stone still stands 160 years later.

The second burial had me perplexed. According to a new stone placed in front of the eroded original stone, the grave is that of Morgan Prangely, who died at the age of 19 months in 1859. I struggled to find this family in McLean County records. Did Robert permit a non-family burial? Then I found records for the family of C.W.D. Prange—CWD were the first initials of the father visible on the old stone. When I discovered that Prange had married Maria Archibald, the connection became clear. Little Morgan was Nancy Archibald Moseley’s little nephew—the surname had been misspelled.

In addition to Moseleys, the other family names in the cemetery include Leachman, Litle/Lytle, Goode, Hancock, McFarland, Thomasson and Underwood. All have relationships to the Moseley family.

Leachman:

There are five Leachmans buried here, including Susan Elizabeth Moseley Leachman. Susan was Robert and Nancy Moseley’s oldest child. She married William Parker Leachman, and they were the parents of Cora Leachman, who was Lorene Smith Jandy’s mother. The Leachman graves include those of Susan and husband William, and three of their children (Cora’s siblings).  Eldest daughter Eutopia or Utopia, who died in 1860 at age 5, was the third burial in the Moseley cemetery. Little Henry Griffith Leachman died May 2, 1877 at age 5, and Willie Moseley Leachman, the tenth of the eleven Leachman children, died only a week after his birth in September 1879. These three children would have been Lorene’s great-aunt and great-uncles.

Leachman great-great-grandparents

McFarland:

There are four members of the McFarland family buried here, a husband, wife and two children. The wife, Nancy Catherine “Nannie” Leachman McFarland, was another daughter of Susan Moseley and William Parker Leachman. Nannie married farmer William McFarland, and they had three daughters. One died in infancy—I had found no record of her until I examined the Moseley cemetery records, so was able to add little Cora Belle McFarland to the family tree (note: cemetery records mistakenly transcribed the stone as Lora Bell, but it plainly reads Cora Belle, and we know that Cora was a Leachman family name.) The second daughter, Betty Edith McFarland, died in 1888 at age three.

Underwood:

Margaret Moseley Underwood was the married daughter of Robert and Nancy Moseley. She died at age 21, leaving one daughter.

Hancock:

This is an interesting grouping of graves, and goes to show the decency of the Moseley family. The three graves are John Clevius Hancock and his two wives. His first wife was Ara Lavina Moseley, one of Robert and Nancy’s daughters. She died in 1873 at age 22, leaving a two year old son. Her husband remarried, and he and his second wife were buried next to Ara in her father’s family cemetery forty and fifty years after her death. What a testimony to the bonds of family and inlaws!

Goode:

There are two Goode graves, both for young children. The children were not siblings, but first cousins. Two of Robert C. and Nancy Moseley’s daughters married brothers named Goode. Mary Allis Moseley married John Sullivan Goode. Their first child, Willie Boyd Goode, died in 1874 at the age of six months.

Sarah Frances “Fannie” Moseley married James Thornton Goode. The second of their twelve children, Mary Margaret Goode, died in 1874 at the age of six.

Litle/Lytle

Despite the spelling variation, the fifteen Litle/Lytle graves are all from one family. Robert and Nancy’s daughter Minerva Moseley married Julius Franklin Litle in 1858. The couple, both buried in the Moseley Family Cemetery, had an astonishing 16 children! Ten of them are buried in the cemetery with their parents and grandparents. Several died in early childhood:

Jemima, 1861, only 2.

            Robert F., 1865, age 1 ½

            James William, 1875, age 1

            John Cartwright, 1875, almost 3 years old

            Rena Mae, 1880, age 4

            Mathilda, 1882, age six months

            Aaron Estill, 1883, age two months

 Two other sons died as young adults: Remus Emmitt Lytle died in 1918 at age 40, and George Lewis Lytle died in 1887 at only 22.

The final Lytles who lie in the cemetery were another of Minerva and Julius’ sons, Edwin Guy Lytle, his wife Priscilla Howard Lytle, and two of their sons, Paul William, who died at age 21 in 1918, and Archibald Holmes, who died at 21 in 1925.  

Moseley and Thomasson:

Of course there are multiple Moseleys buried in family cemetery as well. In addition to Robert C. Moseley and his wife are several of their children, including Ana Maria, the first interment describe above, and Eleanor Shackleford Moseley, a young daughter who died just two months after her second birthday in 1865.

Robert C. and Nancy’s son, George Washington Moseley, is also buried in the cemetery, along with both his wives and four of his children. George married Mary Elizabeth Bryan in March, 1863. Mary gave birth to their son Robert E. Moseley on February 13, 1866. The baby died immediately after birth, and Mary died the following day.

George remarried months later to Mary Ellen Hancock (note: four years later, Mary Ellen’s brother John would marry George’s sister Ara Lavina). George and Mary Ellen had eight children. Two died in childhood and are buried in the Moseley cemetery: infant Joan and ten-year-old Eldred. In addition, their 22-year-old son Aaron Grant Moseley, who had just earned his medical degree, died of typhus acquired while treating patients.

The forty-third grave in the Robert C. Moseley Family Cemetery is George Washington Moseley’s grandson. His daughter Alice (Mary Alice in some records) married William Stout Thomasson in 1888 at age 18. She gave birth in July 1889 to their first child, Vernon Thomasson. Little Vernon died at four months of age, and is buried with his grandparents, great-grandparents and assorted uncles, aunts and cousins.

The final interment at the family cemetery appears to have occurred in 1944 when Priscilla Howard Lytle was laid to rest with her husband Edwin Guy Lytle. That means the cemetery was in use by the family for an astonishing eighty-six years, a period stretching from before the Civil War to nearly the end of World War II.

At some time in the future, I would love to visit this amazing gem of family history, and introduce my children to 43 members of their family tree. Since the cemetery is on private property and would require trudging uphill through a cornfield to reach, a visit might be difficult. However, it would certainly be worth it to be surrounded by the tombstones of ancestors.

 

Sources:

Tombstone photos from Findagrave.com. https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2533328/robert-c.-moseley-family-cemetery

Newspapers.com. McLean County News, October 10, 1985 news item.

Interesting Side-Bar: James Gregg’s Daughter Marries Her Step-Brother

 

Gladys Louise Gregg: 1890-1968

Maternal Third Cousin 1x Removed

While researching James Gregg, I checked on the fate of his daughter Gladys following his 1899 death, and discovered a fascinating tidbit about her life: she married her stepbrother!

Gladys married her first husband, John Sylvester Armstrong, on July 9, 1910, eleven years after her father was murdered. John Armstrong was a citrus farm employee, working for orange orchards owned by the Union Oil Company. The couple lived in Fullerton, and had three daughters, Mary, Lola and Shirley. Tragically, John died December 17, 1918 at only age 32. I can find no newspaper articles about his death. He could have been a victim of the Spanish flu epidemic. He had just registered for the World War I draft and died in Orange County, so he didn’t die in combat.

Following his death, Gladys and her children were forced to move in with her mother. After James Gregg’s death, his wife, Louise Strong Gregg, remarried. Her new husband, Walter Vernon, had several adult children from a previous marriage. One son, Charles L. Vernon, was living with Walter and Louise when Gladys and her children moved in.

1920 Census showing Gladys living with her mother, stepfather and stepbrother/future husband

While the adage says that familiarity breeds contempt, in this case, it bred romance. Despite being step-siblings, Charles and Gladys decided to marry on May 9, 1922. He worked as a janitor and raised John Armstrong’s three daughters. It must have made holiday plans very easy—only one set of parents to visit!

Charles died in 1950, and Gladys died in 1968.

The Ghost of Black Star Canyon: 52 Ancestors 2022 Prompt “Ghost Story”

Local Ghost Story Turns Out to Have a Family Connection

James Gregg: 1867-1899 (Maternal Second Cousin Twice Removed)

 

Living in south Orange County, we are familiar with Black Star Canyon, which lies fourteen miles northeast into the Santa Ana Mountains from our home in Lake Forest. And we were also familiar with the stories that claimed the canyon was haunted—it’s a popular spot for Ghost Walks and Ghost Tours, especially around Halloween. However, I was stunned to discover that one of the main ghosts reputed to haunt Black Star Canyon was ancestor James Gregg!

Black Star Canyon Road, photo by Justin Johnsen, WikiCommons

So who was James Gregg and why do people believe he haunts the canyon?

James Marion Gregg was born at Fort Concho in Texas to parents John Henry Gregg and Susannah Vaught Hargrave in 1867. His father was working for the U. S. Cavalry at the time. The family eventually moved west by covered wagon to California, settling in Los Angeles County. James had four brothers and one sister; he was the second oldest child.

John Gregg acquired several tracts of land across a wide swathe of territory, including walnut groves in the Whittier area and orange groves near Santa Ana. Among his properties was ranchland near Orange, in what would become Orange County. James Gregg and two brothers, Samuel and Augustus, were basically emancipated by their father in their teens so they could manage the Santa Ana/Orange area properties while he oversaw the Whittier area land. The brothers also attended college at USC in the late 1880s.

James Gregg married Gladys “Louise” Strong during the late 1880s; I have found no record thus far of the marriage, but it was prior to their daughter’s Gladys’ birth in June of 1890. Among James’ responsibilities was running the Gregg family ranch, raising cattle and horses. In February of 1899, he had arranged to pasture some of his stock—seven cattle and four horses--at a property called Hidden Ranch in Black Star Canyon. The ranch was owned by three partners, George Howard, who lived on the ranch, and brothers Thomas “Luther” and Henry Hungerford, who lived farther north in Norwalk.

Hidden Ranch

James had sold a horse to George Howard; the sale price had only been partly paid. James arrived at Hidden Ranch on June 9, 1899 with his brother-in-law Decateur Harris and a teenage employee, Clinton Hunt, to collect his stock and pay for the pasturage. The Hungerfords were at the ranch that day, and James suggested his pasturage bill be offset by the amount still owed from the horse sale. The Hungerfords, who had not been part of the horse sale deal, objected strongly. There was a lot of arguing before the men all went to bed, the Hungerfords and Howard in the ranch house, and the Gregg group camping outside.

The argument resumed in the morning and involved “the use of oaths”. According to witness George Howard’s account in the Anaheim Gazette, when Howard came out of the house after breakfast, he saw James Gregg was holding a shotgun, and when Luther Hungerford threatened to get his own gun, James vowed “You get a gun and I’ll kill you.”

Both Hungerfords got their weapons and a gun battle ensued. Howard said it ended when Henry Hungerford emptied both barrels of a shotgun at Gregg. The reporter wrote,

“Gregg had been down on one hand and one knee while Henry was shooting at him. Evidently he was badly wounded…As Hungerford disappeared into the house, Gregg called to Harris saying ‘Dick, come here, I’m shot’.”

According to Howard, as Harris tended to Gregg he said that Gregg “made a fool of himself; it is all his own fault.” Given Howard’s relationship with the Hungerford brothers, I take that quote with a giant grain of salt.

The Hungerfords saddled their horses and rode to Santa Ana to turn themselves in to the sheriff—they could tell James’ wounds were lethal. Meanwhile, Harris loaded James Gregg into his wagon and started back through the canyon to find a doctor, who met the wagon near the picnic grounds at the bottom of the canyon. The sheriff and district attorney soon arrived to take James’ deathbed testimony.

Meanwhile, someone had ridden ahead to notify James’ wife, and she rode up with her father and her little daughter. The scene was tragic.

“Mrs. Gregg recognized her husband’s wagon from afar. She saw it slowly descending the hill and believed her husband was dead. She leaped from her father’s wagon and ran weeping to her husband’s side.”

I can only imagine Louise Gregg’s fear and the terror of little nine-year-old Gladys as they desperately drove to find James.

The doctor found James riddled with bird and buckshot—32 buckshot and 51 pellets of birdshot. James had a fatal liver wound, and died at 4 p.m. at the home of a neighboring farmer. James was 32 years old.

The Hungerfords were brought to trial that fall, and were found guilty of murder by a jury. 

However, the judge set aside the verdict and demanded that the district attorney bring more evidence. As the D.A. had already presented statements from the dying man and the testimony of several witnesses, this was a ridiculous demand. The District Attorney had no further evidence to supply, so the judge freed the Hungerfords. There were hints in press coverage that gossip suggested the judge had accepted a bribe, but no one produced any evidence of judicial wrongdoing. At least one newspaper columnist defended the judge’s decision, so it must not have been as cut-and-dried as one might have expected. The gunfight’s witnesses agreed that both James and Luther Hungerford fired nearly simultaneously, so there probably was an argument for self-defense. However, the gunfight was still two against one, and the brothers continued firing after Gregg had sunk to his knees, wounded.

There was a considerable public outcry about the judge’s decision, which led to his losing re-election a year later.

Supposedly this injustice is why the ghost of James Gregg haunts Black Star Canyon. His spirit can’t rest until his killers are punished. People claim to have heard him moaning in the canyon’s gloom.

If James Gregg’s ghost really existed, it could take comfort in the fact that his death is still remembered nearly 125 years later. His spirit truly lives on in popular imagination. In addition, he has plenty of ghostly companions—he is just one of several ghosts reputed to haunt the canyon.

James should rest a little easier this week, as I’m sure dozens of people learned about his short and tragic life this past weekend. Tour guides were out in force leading spooky Halloween walks through Black Star Canyon. I’m sure James’ story provided a few chills and thrills. In addition, James could take pride in being the only ghost I’ve discovered in the Aird family tree.

Sources:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Black_Star_Canyon_Road.JPG Photo by Justin Johnsen.

Newspaper articles from Newspapers.com.

Research Library Surprise: 52 Ancestors 2022 Prompt “At the Library”

Google Search on Archie Shields Turns Up Surprise Collection of Papers in Library Archives at University of Michigan

Archibald Shields: 1899-1965

 

Great-Uncle Archie Shields (brother of Grandmother May Shields Aird)  turned out to be a man of many surprises. My initial research unearthed his World War I military records, detailing his service with the Canadian Expeditionary Forces. This would have made perfect sense if Archie had been Canadian, but he was born and raised in the United States. How did he end up enlisting in Canada? While trying to solve this puzzle, I conducted a Google search on his name and military unit. To my surprise, the search pulled up his name as the subject of a collection of letters, papers and photographs held in a research library at the University of Michigan! I had to know more!

Passport photo of Archie as a young man

Apparently Archie's letters to family members from his time in the Canadian military were donated to the Manuscripts Division of the William L. Clements library sometime around 2019.  The materials are open for research, so can be requested for viewing and reading at the library. 

Vintage postcard of the William L Clements Library building

The library's information on the collection includes an excellent summary of Archie’s life, as follows:

“Archibald "Archie" Shields was born September 7, 1899, in Hamilton, Ohio, to Jane Mary Seller Pollok (1868-1954) and John Sutherland Shields (1865-1959). Both of his parents were originally from Scotland and resided in Dutch Suriname for a time before immigrating to the United States. Shields had four sisters: Mary "May" Seller Shields (1893-1988), Margaret Sutherland Shields (1896-1993), Bethia Jane Shields (1901-1978), and Ruth Dorothy Shields (1904-1995). In 1916, seeking independence, Shields ran away to Windsor, Ontario, Canada, and joined the 99th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. Following the war, Shields studied fruit farming at Michigan State University and worked for several years in Barahona, Dominican Republic. After returning to Detroit, he worked as a salesperson for Hudson's, Kern's, and the Foley Company. Archie Shields married Ruth Harvey Patterson (1904-1994) on July 2, 1928. He died on April 2, 1965, and is buried in North Farmington Cemetery in Farmington Hills, Michigan.”

The library also provided a synopsis of the collection’s contents, which sound absolutely fascinating. Here is the library’s description:

‘This collection is made up of 71 items, including 28 letters written by Archibald "Archie" Shields of Detroit, Michigan, to his parents and sisters while serving in the Canadian Expeditionary Force during World War I. Shields served in France on the Western Front and, while on leave, visited friends and family in Scotland. The remaining materials include documents, ephemera, photographs, printed items, and one VHS tape.

“The Correspondence Series is comprised of 28 letters written by Archie to his parents and sisters during his time in the Canadian Infantry during World War I. The correspondence begins when Shields's battalion mobilized in May 1916. He quartered in London, Ontario, Canada, for several weeks before traveling through Toronto, Montreal, and New Brunswick, to board the troop ship Olympic at Halifax, Nova Scotia. After arriving in England in early June, the battalion was stationed at Otterpool Camp in Kent, where Shields applied for a transfer to become a driver and the 99th Battalion dissolved into the 35th. Towards the end of September, Shields went to France as part of the 21st Battalion. Admitted to the hospital in March 1917 for "swollen glands and sore throat," he became a patient in the 16th General Hospital in France, 1st Southern General Hospital in Birmingham, and Hillingdon House Hospital in Uxbridge. Following his recovery, Shields spent time visiting relatives and family friends in Scotland but was punished upon his return for taking longer leave than approved. He took subsequent leaves to Paris and Scotland. The last of the letters is dated November 5, 1918.

RMS Olympic in WWI--troop ship that carried Archie to England

“Shields's letters include descriptions of camp life and military training (marksmanship, stretcher bearing, trench digging), requests for parcels, requests and comments on news from home (include fundraising efforts), notes on letters and packages received, comments on friends' and relatives' military experiences, and remarks on his own experiences (including censorship, shelling, and life in the trenches). Envelopes are included with most letters, many with an "Opened By Censor" label attached. Shields wrote some of his letters on YMCA "With His Majesty's Canadian Forces on Active Service" stationery.

Hat pin for Archie's battalion, the 21st Canadian

“The Documents and Ephemera Series contains a worn black wallet with two colorful military uniform bars, a small black flip notebook, three Canadian Expeditionary Force pay books, and items commemorating the installation of a memorial window at St. Paul's Anglican Church in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, in 2007. Contained in the black wallet are a photograph of Archie Shields in uniform, a 1922 10,000 reichsmark note, and a military pass. The black notebook contains names and addresses of acquaintances, military tactics notes, and brief journal entries respecting Shields's time at the front in France until his admission to the hospital in England; in its pocket is a torn scrap of paper with the header "Plantation Alliance, Suriname, Dutch Guyana." Laid into one of Shields's pay books are assorted papers, including a telegram from his Aunt Effie, railway tickets, calling cards (Clarisse Dalouze and Marie Dalouze of Trazegnies, Belgium, and Armand Loutz of Spy, Namur, Belgium), and a postcard from a watch repair shop.”

There are so many wonderful items in this collection that I want to see, read and copy for family records. The library provided so many tantalizing pieces of information--such as Archie’s agriculture studies in fruit propagation that led to work in the Dominican Republic, and his visits to Shields family members in Scotland--that I had not discovered through traditional research. The collection also includes photos that we have never seen. I checked with other family members, and none were aware that Archie’s papers had been donated to the University of Michigan Libraries. I assume one of his children made the donation, but I have no evidence to support my supposition.

Archie Shields later in life...

I am eager to visit the William L. Clements Library at some point to see the collection in person, as the materials are not available online. I am so grateful that I decided to Google Archie’s name! What a wonderful surprise!

Sources:

Archie Shields papers (1916-1918, 2007, bulk 1916-1918). Collection processed and finding aid created by Sara Quashnie, February 2019. Manuscripts Division, William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan.

https://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/clementsead/umich-wcl-M-7108shi?id=navbarbrowselink;view=text

Shields, Archibald. Personnel Records of the First World War, Library and Archives Canada, http://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.item/?op=pdf&app=CEF&id=B8864-S023. Accessed February 22, 2019

Aird, John Shields. Memoirs of John S. Aird, http://www.steveaird.org/Steve_Airds_Homepage/John_Shields_Aird_files/Memoirs%20of%20John%20S.%20Aird.pdf. Accessed February 20, 2019.

 

Tuberculosis’ Tragic Toll on Goode Family: 52 Ancestors 2022 Prompt “Free Space”

TB's Devastation in the Early 1900s

Charles Holmes Goode: 1870-1921
William Seaton Goode: 1877-1900
Ivy Louise Goode Settle: 1881-1901
Gertrude Goode Davis: 1887-1916
Irene Blanche Goode: 1889-1909

 

The family of Sarah “Fannie” Moseley, second great-grandaunt and sister of Susan Moseley Leachman, was devastated by tuberculosis early in the 20^th century. Between the years of 1900 and 1921, Sarah and her husband, James Thornton Goode, lost five of their adult children to the disease. Four were stricken in their early twenties, just at the point in their lives when they should have been forming families and establishing careers.

The first two decades of the twentieth century saw the first steps toward the treatment of “consumption” or more accurately, tuberculosis. Until 1900, doctors hadn’t really understood that TB was a contagious disease, and even into the 1920s there weren’t effective treatments other than fresh air, which helped to fight contagion and supposedly helped sufferers breathe more easily. Sanitariums were being established nationwide during this period to deal with those with severe infection, and many patients were sent to the desert Southwest in the hopes that the drier climate would help their lungs improve. Before 1900, one out of every seven humans had died of tuberculosis, showing how devastating the disease could be.

Tuberculosis was probably rampant in rural McLean County, Kentucky in the first two decades of the 1900s. According to Wikipedia, there was a severe outbreak in Jefferson County around 1900 that was referred to as the White Plague. The area around Louisville also had high caseloads, which were attributed to the damp, river-bottom air. A sanitarium was established in Jefferson County to handle the large number of seriously ill patients. However, most people still chose to nurse family members at home, as the Goode family did.

Quite probably, the Goode family members infected one another with the disease. They may have all been exposed during childhood, with the disease only becoming apparent as they grew older and sicker. Some TB sufferers were able to recover and lead a fairly normal life after infection, and it appears the Goodes hoped to do so. All of them had attended school as teens, and Charles, Ivy, and Gertrude all chose to marry.

Ivy Goode's marriage and death

Ivy, born in 1881, married in 1898 at age 16, dying just three years later at nineteen. She had no children. Fortunately, her husband, Frederick Settle, did not contract TB, and was able to remarry and have a family.

Marriage and death of Gertrude Goode

Gertrude was six years younger than Ivy, and in 1907 married James Davis, a funeral director and livery owner. By 1910, the young couple had a little daughter, Opal. They went on to have another daughter before Gertrude’s death in 1916 at only 28. According to her death certificate, her pulmonary tuberculosis had been present for eleven months, but I suspect she carried the disease for far longer.

Charles was considerably older than Ivy and Gertrude. He was born in 1870, and was a local farmer. He married an older widow with two children when he was 26. He succumbed to tuberculosis at age 51, on May 30, 1921. It is hard to know how many years he had been sick, or if he contracted it later in life from his much younger siblings.

Willie Goode's death and headstone

The final two deaths were very sad. Willie Seaton Goode, born in 1877, was only 23 when he died at his parents’ home. The youngest child in the family, Irene Blanche Goode, died September 8, 1909; she was barely twenty years old. They probably spent most of their lives as adults aware they faced a death sentence.

Irene Goode death and headstone

Surprisingly, Fannie and James Thornton Goode never seem to have contracted the disease, despite caring for at least two of their ill children. JT died at age 78 in 1923, while Fannie lived until 1940, dying at age 90.

With the introduction of streptomycin in 1943, tuberculosis patients received effective treatment that cut the death rate dramatically. Sadly, the Goode family was unable to take advantage of this new medical breakthrough. Their family had already been devastated.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_tuberculosis

https://www.wave3.com/story/29253927/tuberculosis-in-kentuckiana-history-and-treatment/

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/plague-gallery/