By George I Found Him!

Some people will go to any lengths to get that one little piece of information that they are looking for.  I am one of them.  My husband drove to Stroudsburg, over 200 miles roundtrip, not once but twice, so I could find George H. Auxer’s headstone! But perhaps I should start at the beginning of this story . . .

It seems like I always knew there was a George H. Auxer, but I just didn’t know much about him except he was a daguerreortypist.  Since you “ain’t gonna find anything unless you keep looking” I kept surfing and voila! several years ago, I found a reference to this man in the Dickinson College Archives.  I contacted them and made an appointment to come view their file on the information.  All of this is on  another blog I wrote several years ago.  I’ve picked up a little information here and there since then, but nothing noteworthy UNTIL!

Just in time for Veteran’s Day, Ancestry.com posted a group of records titled “Pennsylvania Veterans Burial Cards, 1777-1999.”  Thinking I knew just about every veteran in my database, I almost didn’t check it out as I considered it a waste of valuable time.  Boy was I wrong!  Boy am I glad I checked out this database!  Lo and behold, there was George H. Auxer and he was buried in Stroudsburg!  What??  Stroudsburg?  The card in the database listed the cemetery, section and plot number, name, birth and death dates, dates of service . . . DATES OF SERVICE???  HE WAS IN THE SERVICE??? This was the first I heard of him in the service!  Well, I had to get up there to take a picture of this headstone!

Trip number one:  I went armed with the form I had copied from Ancestry.com and was sure I’d go right to the spot where George was buried.  The cemetery, however, is not marked with section numbers so I went to the office and spoke to two men who worked there.  They informed me there were no such numbers in their cemetery, nor was there a “south side” as the card indicated!  Furthermore, they mow the cemetery and have never seen that name!  Crestfallen I decided I needed to stop at the Historical Society and see if they have any information.  As luck would have it, we were there on a Monday, the only day they are closed!!  On to the Library, where I did find reference to his obituary, but the reference was to records in the Historical Society!  We had a so-so meal at a lunch place in town and headed home.

Mulling this experience over several things occured to me and the first one was they couldn’t have read the headstone if it wasn’t there!  The card had the name of the Cemetery and the street it was located on, and that’s exactly where we were!  The second thing was that reference to an obituary.  The obituary surely has some information that may be helpful.  I looked for the Historical Society on the internet and found an e-mail address for them and shot off an inquiry, stating my dilemna and what I had done so far.  The Very Next Day! I got a response that she had a copy of the short obituary, and a map and finding aid for the cemetery, please send a check for $1.32.  Well! I don’t write $1.32 checks so I sent a little more and within two days had my answer!

The cemetery has been renumbered since the day when George Auxer was buried in 1867 and she sent a map for that period and one for today.  She also sent a sheet with burials in that area, along with a one line death notice that gave nothing more than the fact that he’d died after a lingering illness and his age.  
Trip Number Two:  Earlier this month we lost a friend whom I had known for almost 50 years.  Our children grew up together and our sons still remain best friends, even though they’re in their 40′s now.  Her funeral was on the 30th of November in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, right off of the I-80.  Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania is right off of the I-80, 75 miles east of Bloomsburg.  Since it was not a special trip to find George’s resting place, I did not feel bad asking Jim to once again take me to Stroudsburg to find George!  The day before the funeral we did just that.  Armed with the information from the Historical Society and with the above map from Mapquest, we once again headed to Stroudsburg to see if the Historical Society was correct or if the Cemetery caretakers were right.

The straight white line that goes down the center of the cemetery is the road from Dreher Avenue that runs through the cemetery.  Superimposing the map from the Historical Society over the above referenced map we found that the section that George should be buried in the that section that is almost square on the upper middle of the cemetery, under the words “Stroudsburg Cemetery.”  While Jim rested, Linda, armed with a camera started her trek through Section E.  Lo and behold, the names on burial sheet from the Historical Society started popping up and my heart started beating a little faster.  As I got to that pine tree in the center of the cemetery, I found George! I put an orange dot on the map where he is resting for eternity.  I wanted to go find the caretakers next, but thought better of it. . .

Comparing the picture at the top of the page with the map and the orange dot and this picture, do you see George’s headstone at the top of the page?  It’s the little rounded one in front of the flag, and it almost gets the shade of the tree.

The next questions to be answered are, what was he doing in Stroudsburg when he had a studio in Hackettstown, New Jersey?  and If he served in the Civil War between 1861 and 1865, why was he checking into a hotel in Philadelphia in 1862?

I think George has a lot more to tell me!

 

She Left Her Forgiveness

I’ve been reorganizing my files and came across one of my favorite wills and thought I’d share it. I have left off the names since it’s less than 75 years old.

E—- L—-, also known as

E—- L—-, also known as                                                             Died: —, –, 195-

E—- L                                                                                               ******WILL*******

Wed. —- , 30, 195-.

I wish to explain how I want my wordly possessions to be divided.

To my husband J—- —-, Jr my bank account in the Lancaster County Bank. Also the house hold furniture to do as he pleases.

To my sons – J—- I—- and W—- L— – and my daughter P—- H— my bank account in the F— Bank to be divided equally between these 4 children

My daughter F—- who I do not know if she is alive or not I leave her my forgiveness for all the heart ache she has caused me. I think $10 would satisfy her to be taken from my account at the F– Bank.

I would like my daughter P—- to have my big Ring -

Thats all I guess

 

E—- L. L—-

 

It’s a jewel, isn’t it?

 

 

Louise Kleiss, NYC; Louisa Kleiss Zecher, Lancaster, PA ~ 15 years apart

As many of you know, I am a Kleiss researcher.  My ancestor, Philip Kleiss was a Tavern keeper in Lancaster in the late 1700′s.  After his death his sons ran the Tavern located on the corner of Vine and Queen Streets in the heart of Lancaster.  Today the Tavern is incorporated in the Convention Center, but that is on another blog.  This blog is about the two women referenced above.

I periodically put my surnames in search engines and tonight I was playing around with Genealogy Bank, one of my favorite sites.  I’ve got a lot of information from the old newspapers on this site and an a big fan of it! When I found the following article, I thought it sounded familiar ~

New York Herald
26 December 1895

KILLED BY A MOTOR.
—–
Mrs. Louise Kleiss Struck While Walking
On the North Hudson County
Railway’s Tracks.
—–

Mrs. Louise Kleiss, forty-five years old, of No 27 King street, West New York, was struck by a motor of the North Hudson County Railway Company early yesterday morning and instantly killed.
Mrs. Kleiss came to Jersey City Tuesday evening to make some purchases and took the midnight boat back on the Forty-second street ferry. She had a number of bundles and started to walk home up the company’s tracks on the old Fort Lee road. When between Niles avenue and Twenty-third street, motor No. 191 came up behind her at a rapid rate and striking her hurled her to one side of the track. So rapidly was the car going that it ran three hundred feet before the motorman could stop it.
When the trolley men picked her up she was dead. The body, which was not cut, but badly bruised, was brought to Hoboken where it was identified yesterday morning by the woman’s husband. The woman left a daughter, besides her husband.

As I read this it rang a bell.  I knew I had a Louise Kleiss who had died the same way, and thought perhaps the information was wrong and this one really died in Lancaster.  So I went to the books, my Kleiss books that is, and found what I remembered.  Several differences though:

• My Kleiss was born as Louisa Kleiss, but married a Zecher
• My Louisa Kleiss Zecher died exactly 15 years and 10 days after Mrs. Louise Kleiss
• and of course, my Louisa Kleiss Zecher died in Pennsylvania, not New Jersey.

The similiarites are:

• Their names
• The month of the year they were killed
• The way they were killed
• and they both had been shopping!

Lancaster, Pennsylvania
15 December 1920

TRAIN KILLS WOMAN
RETURNING TO HOME
FROM MARKETHOUSE
—–
Mrs. David Zecher Meets Instant
Death When Hit by Express
at Crossing
—–
WALKED UNDER GATE
DIRECTLY INTO TRAIN
—–
Body Severed But Glasses Stay
on Nose When Searchers
Find Upper Portion
—–
IDENTIFICATION IS SLOW
—–
Eight Mistakes Cause Alarm in
Homes — Son Passed Soon
After Accident
—–—–

Killed by a west bound express train at Prince and Walnut streets last night while on her way home from the evening market at the Northern Market House the body of an aged woman cut in half under the wheels of the train at 5:33 o’clock was not identified as Mrs. David Zecher, aged 72, of 239 Elm street, until near 10 o’clock by her son. In the meantime eight false identifications were made and much anxiety was caused among relatives of per (sic) victim.
The train which struck the aged woman was No. 639, bound for Altoona, the accident occurring within a minute of the time the train had left the station.
Mrs. Zecher’s son, Charles J., 328 Pine street, passed the scene of the accident a few minutes after it had happened while on his way home from work, but did not stop to mingle with the curious crowd that had gathered round the crossing. Had he done so identification of the dead woman would have perhaps been immediate. As it happened the body laid for a time in the freight station near the crossing and later at Fisher’s undertaking establishment until 1o o’clock last night where the son finally was brought to identify his mother. In the meantime efforts on the part of the railroad officials to identify the woman resulted in eight false identifcations before the truth was known.
Witnesses to the accident stated that Mrs.

 

Scenes on a snowy day

Our house from across the street ~ want to buy it??

Jim trying to open Linda F’s gate ~ we finally went around to the garage where we had the garage door opener

1 PM in the afternoon ~ impress you??

Outdoor dining anyone?  Not today. . . .

. . . and a final scene from a snowy window ~

 

Mother’s 90th Birthday Celebration, part two

With cards and supplies for Mother’s party shipped to California, it was time for us to follow them!  We left Philly mid-morning on Sunday and arrived around 6PM in Ontario, California to a greeting via the pilot “welcoming Blaine’s father back home!”  Yup, our son was on duty at the Tower and had been the controller guiding our plane to it’s gate.  Perfect start to our two week stay in Southern California!  Blaine came to see us at our hotel when he got off work and we made arrangements to visit the family the next day to go over plans for the following Sunday.  Thanksgiving interferred with doing anything during the week since we were heading to Tehachapi to spend time with Paige and her family.  But that’s already on another blog!

Naturally, we didn’t do too much on Monday, since there was a 4 year old anxious to play with Pa and Grandma, and we felt that was more important.  The most important thing we taught our grandson was how to write his name in dust!  My mother had sent a set of nesting tables and we were going to transport them to Tehachapi.  They had been in the garage for quite a while and we found the dustiest one to teach Ellis how to do this. Being a grandparent is fun!!

Our chores would begin on Saturday, with the filing of cake boxes, and figuring out the logistics of transporting everything from Riverside to Lake Forest.  On Saturday our assembly line was in full swing.  Ellis was, of course, a big help and really enjoyed helping.  He’d count cookies and put cookies, confetti and a package of macadamia nuts in each container, just like Mommy and Grandma did.  We filled 70 of these since it took 10 to make a cake and we had seven tables.

It was decided that Jim and Linda would meet Blaine and Elaine at the home around noon.  They would take the “cake pieces” and drive to El Segundo to pick up the cake.  Since the icing was whipped cream, it would need to be refrigerated immediately and J and L would arrange for that in the cafeteria.

We went to the arranged meeting place made the arrangements and set up the tents that had been made for “Guest Book” and “Cards” to fit over the basket we had purchased for the cards.  Everything was right on schedule.  Their car was unloaded and we started to set up the tables. Freedom Village furnished the tables, chairs and burgundy table cloths. We furnished the personality.

Each table looked the same, with a cake, two balloons and one or two sets of trivia cards.  A special table was set aside for the cake and two vases of flowers flown in from Hawaii for the event.  Mother’s sister, Pat lives in Kona and sent the flowers as a gift for mother and the occasion.  Elaine had arranged the table beautifully, but one guest seemed to think the antheriums and orchids should be switched and walked up to the table and without asking, just switched them!

Guests started arriving and Ellis and Daphne got to meet for the first time!  Ellis and Daphne are 2nd cousins and are 5 months apart in age.  Ellis was born in July, Daphne will be 4 in December.  They were the entertainment for the day, dancing, making “snow angels” on the floor and doing everything 4 year olds love to do!

Since Daphne was wearing her “party dress,” Ellis had on his “party shirt.”  Hallie asked Ellis where he got his “party shirt,” and he matter-of-factly answered “at the Party Shirt store!.”  Well, Duh!

Although we had planned for 7 tables, in reality there were only 6.  I labeled them by who sat at them.  The one shown above is the “Cousins Table.”  Blaine and Elaine with Ellis, Cherrie (Bud’s wife), April (Bud’s daughter) and her husband Matt with Daphne.  Bud  and Cherrie actually sat at the “Head Table.”  Cherrie was “just visiting” in this picture.

The next picture is what I termed “The Family Table.”  Dan, Paige, Hallie and her boyfriend Peter, sat at this table along with my cousin, Jack and his wife Gale.  Jim joined this table.

Moving to the next table is the “Fallbrook Table.”  These were friends of Mother’s and Paul’s from Fallbrook United Methodist Church.  One of the couple had an exchange student from the Philippines and Mother was delighted to meet her since Mother had spent several years in the Philippines.

A few new friends of Mother’s from Freedom Village made up the next table.  They were delightful people and I could see why Mother chose to have them invited.

The last table were all nephews and nieces of Paul’s.  The only exception was Paul’s daughter and her husband who joined this table.

Bud, being the eldest, and whom I used to call, Heir apparent to the Throne, was appointed to be the Master of Ceremonies.  He arose, gave a little speech about Mother and then each of the three of us got up and told a special memory of our Mother.  Mother seemed to enjoy being the center of attention and remembered each one of our tales!

It was finally time to watch the Birthday Gal blow out her candles and more importantly, taste that cake!!  The cake had three layers, guava, strawberry and mango, with fresh fruits on top ~ mango, kiwi and strawberries on a whipped creamed frosting.  It was light and absolutely delicious!!!  This cake topped off the Hawaiian Theme to a T without being tacky hula skirt, coconut shell  Hawaiian!

Ellis and Daphne, well aware of birthdays, were eagerly awaiting the candle lighting ceremony so they could get their piece of the birthday cake.  Blaine could not light them fast enough for them!

The blog would not be complete without a picture of Mother and her three children.  Bud is the oldest and in the middle, Priscilla, the youngest and on the right.

Does it look like I am upset?  Everyone of the family group pictures has the same look on my face.  Reason?  While the pictures were being taken I was watching several people load up all of the unattended centerpieces and walking out with them.  One person had at least FIFTEEN little cake slice boxes, so many that she had to take one of the round disks we had bought to balance them on!  Made me wonder if she would have done that had the party been in my home!!  There were several people loading them for her!  I was appalled!

I guess no party gets by without a glitch, and if this was the only glitch at least it wasn’t by our hand!  Since I’ve received several thank you notes and phone calls since I’ve arrived home, I would term this a success!  The most important thing after all was Mother, and she was teary, happy and appreciative.

Happy 90th Birthday, Mother!  What do the next 90 hold for you??

 

Mother’s 90th Birthday Celebration, part one

As many of you know, I tackled the challenge of planning a 90th Birthday Party for Mother, rather hesitantly.  Mother lives in California; I live in Pennsylvania.  How on earth could I possibly do this?  I procrastinated, I hemmed and hawed around and I had no idea what I was going to do!

I finally called Mother and told her I was going to give her a party and all I needed from her was a list of guests, keep it minimal and don’t include everybody she had ever known or ever wished she had known!  Mother, being Mother, wanted to know all the details.  I told her it was none of her business, all she needed to know was there was going to be a party!!

. . . and the party plans started!

• First of all, I want to emphasize that I could not have done this without my son, Blaine and his wife, Elaine. They are the perfect “Party Planners!”  I asked for a little help, and I ended up helping them!  They picked up the ball and ran with it!

We needed a place to have this party, and Blaine suggested the complex that Mother and Paul had moved to last spring.  Bingo!  and they would even cater it!  Place reserved and Meal plans in place.  Step one complete.

Next step was the invitation.  I looked online for various samples so I could order one and nothing I found quite fit with what I had in mind.  I finally decided I would create my own with my own theme. . . Mother!

This was easy to create on my Mac.  This picture of my mother was taken next to a pond when she was in Junior High School and I thought the picture would be beautiful on the front of the invitation.  Then came the chore of printing them.  The price for having them printed was astronomical, so I decided to print the invitations myself.  Might as well have had them printed!  By the time I bought ink, card stock and more ink the cost was pretty well up there!  I did save since my costs included envelopes and enclosures, too, which a printing company would not have included.

But after a careful review of printing them myself vs having them printed, would I do it again?  Yup, in a New York minute!  I enjoyed every minute of the creation process and the satisfaction of knowing I had done it myself.

• Total invitations sent out = 54
• Total responses received = 31
• Total people attending = 43
• Actual people attending = 36

With the invitations printed, folded, RSVP cards, SASE and sheet of stationary for “Memories of Catherine” enclosed in each envelope, they were ready to mail.  Jim found stamps that said “CELEBRATE” at the post office and  bought them.  Only problem was they needed extra postage due to the size and weight of each one!

Invitations were sent and it was time to start on a Memory Book for Mother.  I put each one I received in a mylar page and those that were e-mailed to me were printed on the same stationary and enclosed in a mylar sleeve.  In some cases, if I had a picture of the sender and the honoree, I printed it and put it on the page.

The Memory Book was a work in progress since I couldn’t do anything until I got something to put into the book and I had decided a good icebreaker would be a set of trivia cards with multiple choice questions about my mother.  On each one I put a picture of Mother in some stage of her life.  I made ten sets of 25 cards so I could set them on each table for an icebreaker.

The last little detail to iron out was a guest book.  The only guest books I could find were for weddings, so I decided to make my own.  I found a litle birthday photo album the size of a guest book and decorated it up  with scrapbooking stickers, etc.  I did end up gluing each invidual letter on since, as you can see, the letters did not stick very well.  This was the cover.

Meanwhile on the other coast, Blaine and Elaine kept coming up with ideas for decorations, the cake, and party favors.  Since Mother was born and raised in Hawaii, we decided the theme of the birthday party would be, naturally, Hawaiian!  Blaine and Elaine had ordered little cardboard cake wedges that fit together to make a cake.  Each one had a lid and in it we would place one little pack of Macadamia Nuts and three chocolate dipped shortbread cookies from  Big Island Candies. They would be nestled in a bed of colorful confetti with 2 balloons coming out of the middle of each “cake.”  In addition, Elaine had a lead on a cake from Kings Hawaiian Bakery, so they went down there to have a piece of it and ultimately ordered it.

The only idea they had that didn’t work out was for the candles. Elaine had found a place to order a musical birthday candle that opens up to reveal 8 lit birthday candles that spin while playing “Happy Birthday!” Only problem was that the candle sometimes exploded and the candle was recalled! That would have added another dimension to the party!  We decided to put 3 candles, one for each 30 years, on the cake instead.  That would work!

Bags packed, books, trivia cards and extra supplies shipped ahead, we were ready to head for  California and start the party!

Follow it on the next blog later on this week ~

Mother’s 90th Birthday Celebration, part two.

 

Family Reunions?

The word “Family” can be either all encompassing as in all your relatives that share the same surname and same set of ancestors, or it can mean the family unit which nurtured you, the people you shared a home with.

I was born and raised overseas.  My father was a Civil Service employee and his employment took him from Hawaii, to Guam and eventually the Philippines.  Because of this, I never met a cousin until I was in my teens.  I had read about them, knew I had them, but had no idea who they really were!  . . . and to think my parents had brothers and sisters?  What a concept!  I did know my grandparents on my mother’s side since they lived in Hawaii and we would visit with them frequently.  This was family in my formulative years; the people who all came together at the end of the day, my parents, brother and sister.  The picture below was taken on Guam about 1955.In 1982 we all got together for Easter at my home in Southern California.  We had all aged, but Dad seemed to be the only one who looked distinguished with the greying hair.
Easter seemed to be when we had the Gathering of the Clan (we never thought of the word Reunion) and this one found us gathering at my parents place in Fallbrook, California.  We have all “matured” but are definitely enjoying the hands that have been dealt us.  

In 1956 we left Guam and settled in California. My parents had decided it was time for the children to get the benefit of all “The States” had to offer, and that included a good education and family!  It was a whirlwind of relatives tour!  I met four aunts, four uncles and seven cousins!!   And one of them was my age!  How overwhelming!  We all had something in common!  We shared grandparents!!

In the years that followed we’d get together for holidays, weekends and on vacations, yet there was never really a family reunion.  The closest thing to a family reunion would have been my grandparents 50th anniversary celebration.  I was married by that time, as were my siblings and many of my cousins.  Aunts and Uncles were there, with the exception of one who lived on the East Coast, but many cousins had lives of their own and did not attend.  The cousins that did attend I could probably count on one hand.  

Our family scattered as we married and started our own families.  We would get together at holidays in my parents home, and cousins would play and interact.  We made sure our children knew their cousins and it was fun watching the next generation getting to know each other.  My brother had four children, I had two, and my sister became the favorite aunt when each niece or nephew was born.  In 1972 the family gathered at my parents’ home and a picture of the cousins recorded the event.  Pictured above, left to right are my brother’s son and daughter, Jeffrey and April, my son, Blaine, my brother’s son and daughter, Brad and Kim and my daughter, Paige.

The closest our family has ever come to a family reunion was in 2008.  As a surprise for Mother on Mother’s Day, we had a mini-family reunion at my brother’s home in California.  She had no idea that I would fly in from Pennsylvania or that my daughter and granddaughter would drive from Central California for the ocassion.  Two cousins were unable to be present, but after many, many years, my daughter and three of her cousins were able to reunite and share laughs and stories of their childhood.  It was a day to remember for years to come.

In the picture above are Paige  is kneeling in the front in the blue dress, April is on the right with her arms around Kim’s son, Kim is standing next to April, and Brad has his hand on his chest next to Kim.  Mother is almost 90 and is in the black, my brother Bud, is on the left with his arm around his wife, and I am kneeling in the front by Paige and her daughter.  Missing are my sister, Priscilla, my son Blaine and Bud’s son, Jeff.

Although we missed Priss, Blaine and Jeff, the one we all probably missed the most is Dad who joined his parents in glory in September of 1990.

 

Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way . . .

The word “WILL,” as defined by Dictionary.com
As a verb:

• to give or dispose of (property) by a will or testament, bequeath or devise.
• to influence by exerting power
• to wish, desire or like

and as a noun:

• the act or process of using or asserting one’s choice; volition
• a legal declaration of a person’s wishes as to the disposition of his or her property or estate after death, usually written and signed by the testator and attested by witnesses and
• the document containing such a declaration.

For centuries our ancestors have written their wills to make sure their families are cared for upon their demise.  Some have had specific instructions as to exactly who and who may not benefit from their personal estate and sometimes listed a reason.  In the following examples, the word WILL is both parts of speech, the verb being used as retaliation in several instances!

My ancestor, Philip Kleiss, for example, stated in his will dated 7 October 1797:

ITEM: I give unto my daughter Philippina the wife of George Brungart one shilling sterling money in full for her share of in to and out of my Estate real and personal, and this I do on account of her disobedience towards me.  BUT nevertheless if my said daughter Philippina should become a widow and not able to support herself, THEN it is my Will that my said first mentioned seven Childlren shall be subject to pay unto her yearly the sum of Eighteen pounds specie money aforesaid that is to say, each of them one equal seventh part  thereof during her Widowhood, out of the money & Estate herein to them given, but if my said daughter Philippina should marry again then the said yearly payent shall cease and no longer paid.

Philippina had married a man of a different faith against her father’s wishes.  This was Philip Kleiss, the tavern keeper who had a nine page inventory, not including the 2 full pages of items left to the family!  Philippina got one shilling from the estate.

In a will dated 21 March 1787 written by Maria Barbara Auxer, my 6th great grandmother, her specific wishes were to exclude all of her children except for one.

. . . I, Maria Barbara Auxer, of the Borough of Lancaster in the County of Lancaster and State of Pennsylvania, Spinster, for and in consideration of the good services and attendance done to me in my lifetime, by my son, Christopher Auxer . . . do by these presents give over and bequeath unto him, my said son, Christopher Auxer all my personal estate, monies, bonds, goods, clothes and bedding whatsover to him, his heirs and assigns forever.  . . . and I do hereby by these presents disinherit my other children, Anna Maria, and Elizabeth and Michael Auxer, from all land singular all rights and herediments to my estate herein forever and my said son, Christopher Auxer, shall receive all monies, bonds, clothese and bedding after my decease, and no sooner, to his own purposes, use and behoof.

Her son, Michael and her daughter, Elizabeth were both my ancestors.  What??  Yup!  Elizabeth was the wife of the aforementioned Philip Kleiss.  Her daughter, Catharine married Michael’s son, Michael, Jr.

In Jacob H. Redsecker’s will, he leaves his entire estate to his aunt, Martha J. Ross and his sister, Sarah A. Greenawalt, with the exception of $200 to the cemetery his father is buried in, and the grandfather clock to his brother, Abraham.  Yet, according to the Lebanon Daily News, Friday, April 23, 1909, page 1, column 1:

. . . Out of respect of the wish of the deceased there was no public viewing of the body and during the service the coffin was closed.  . . . It was the wish of the deceased that there should be no eulogy and that there should be no women at the burial.  Both wishes were respected.

Jacob and I are distantly related.  He died a life-long bachelor at the age of 70 and left everything to women and yet he didn’t want them at the burial??

Every once in awhile, as I look for an obituary I run across an interesting article.  Such was the case recently when I found the following on one of my favorite sites, Genealogy Bank. It was in the Pawtucket Times, 10 February 1921.

John Werner, who died at his home on Lowell st.,  Aug. 20, 1820, left three sons and four daughters.  His will, exectuted July 19, 1920, just filed in this city, is remarkable on account of the specific provisions for distribution of his estate.

One daughter is named “to receive $1 to purchase a rope to hang herself with.” The grievance against her alleged is “that she caused the arrest of her father for the sake of a worthless husband and is not worth any more.”

Another daughter named is to receive $1.  She is alleged to have caused him “lots of trouble by associating with married and single men; also that on the death of her mother, she went on a joy ride with a man; also that she refused to contribute any money toward payment of funeral expenses of her mother.”

A son named is to to receive a specified sum, provided he remain a Protestant.

And the last instance of  a strange request was found in the Lancaster County Intelligencer, 14 November 1903:

The will of Joseph Doutot, who died at New Orleans Thursday was filed Friday.  He leaves his property to the undertaker who is to bury him, and provides for a handsome funeral with an adequate number of carriages, but stipulates that no one shall be allowed to see his face after death or be present at his funderal.  The carriages are to accompany the body to the grave, but must be empty.

Don’t you wonder what frame of mind some of these people were in when they wrote their

LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT?

 

Lancaster’s New Convention Center!

Yes!  After many, many years of hearing about it, reading about it, and finally watching it rise, floor by floor, it is open for business! Lancaster County Convention Center and Lancaster Marriott at Penn Square had it’s open house for the community today and we were there!

The facade of the old Watt and Shand department store was saved and is now part of the Marriott Hotel.  It helps to retain the historical look of Penn Square and is a handsome building.

The Open House was from 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM and we decided to arrive early, hoping to beat the crowds.  We only thought there were a lot of people in the bar when we arrived at 11:30!  When we left 1 1/2 hour later, it was shoulder to shoulder!  We had to wait in line approximately 20 minutes to take the elevator to the 10th floor for a tour of the rooms.

The views from the rooms are spectacular!  Looking to the n/w is  wonderful view of Penn Square with the Griest Building (Lancaster’s first and only skyscraper built in 1925!) Central Market to it’s left and the old 1790′s City Hall (now the Heritage Center) next to Central Market.  You may remember seeing the Griest Building in the movie “Witness” as the Philadelphia Police Station.

The view to the southwest has the old Southern Market in the foreground.  It was built in the late 1800′s and was designed by C. Emlen Urban, Lancaster’s premier architect.  Urban also designed the Griest building, and the Watt and Shand Building where the Marriott now calls home.  Since there were not windows on all four sides of the rooms we looked at, I could not take pictures of every direction ~ duh!  We then went down to the 5th floor where the exercise room and beautiful indoor pool area is.  What a facility.  I was so impressed that I think I will look for the exercise room in the next Marriott I stay in. . . as soon as I get enough points!  I don’t think my 10K worth of points will get me into any facility like this one!!

Leaving the 5th floor by the staircase because the lines for the elevator were horrendous, we got lost!  Thank goodness there was a woman who asked directions!  She ended up in the kitchen only to find out we should go up two more flights instead of down!  We finally made it into the lobby and from that point decided to check out the ballroom and other convention rooms.  Can you say gargantuan??  That is the only term I can think of that would adequately describe the size of the rooms!  The exhibit hall is 45K square feet and the ballroom is 9k!  The brick facade of theWilliam Montgomery Home in the picture above is the rear portion of just one of the historic buildings that was preserved in the building of this facility.

This home was built in 1804 and is on the National Register of Historic Places.  Plans for the interior have not been finalized, but several options have been considered.  The picture shows it next to the entrance of the Convention Center, fronting on Queen Street.

Two of other buildings saved on this block were our next stop and perhaps the most exciting part of the day to me.  The Kleiss Saloon and Thaddeus Stevens home are on the corner of Vine and Queen Streets and this cistern was found between the two buildings.  This piece of history saved the destruction of my ancestor’s Saloon and the plans are to make the area with these two buildings and cistern into an education center.

Philip Kleiss, my 6th great grandfather, was a tavern keeper at the corner of Vine and Queen until his death in 1800.  The Saloon was then willed to his sons, John and George, and in 1843 Thaddeus Stevens bought it from George’s estate for $4000.  What makes this cistern special is the fact that they believe it was part of theUnderground Railroad since a tunnel was found that goes from this cistern east on Vine Street to the home of Mr. Stevens’ friend, Lydia Smith.   Thaddeus Stevens, as you may know, was a Congressman and an Abolitionist.

Some of the artifacts found during excavation of this area are on display on these cement pillars.  It was exciting for me to see something that may have belonged to my ancestors.

My dream used to be just to have a piece of one broken brick from the excavation of his saloon.  It is still my dream, but I’m sure one that will never be realized.  It still is exciting to think one of my ancestors properties played such an integral part in the history of our country!

. . . and you can see it when you come to a Convention in Lancaster, Pennsylvania!  You’ll find we are proud of our fair city and it’s history!

 

One Hundred Years ago on West James Street

Yes, this post card was mailed 100 years ago!  It was sent from Lancaster to Middletown, Pennsylvania, a drive today of perhaps 45 minutes.  We would never dream of sending a postcard to somebody in Middletown today ~ we’d call them, text them, e-mail them or even drive to see them ~ but send a post card?  Not in a blue moon!

West James Street, just two blocks north of West Walnut Street. What’s so special about West Walnut Street? Why I live on West Walnut Street! Just blocks away from Lancaster Theological Seminary, with the Historical Society for the United Church of Christ and a great repository of various Church records and family histories ~ all within walking distance of my home!  The building that appears to be a Church on the right hand side of this post card is in fact still part of the Seminary today.

This is a view of it today.  The street is paved, there is a hedge separating the sidewalk from the lawn and a brick walk in a herringbone pattern that goes from the main entrance on West James Street to the front of the building.  Today it has a needed parking lot, fully mature trees and plantings.  It is a beautiful structure in a city full of beautiful structures.

Lancaster Theological Seminary is directly across the street from Franklin and Marshall College, North Museum of Natural History and Science and Buchanan Park.  We are fortunate, living in Lancaster, to have great facilities for children up thru adults. The North Museum is the destination for many field trips from the schools throughout Lancaster County and in fact interesting for adults as well!  Franklin and Marshall College sponsors many events open to the community year around, from plays, talks and concerts,  and Buchanan Park is enjoyed by the entire community!  The park has a dog park, a rose garden and many events are held there throughout the year, with a community carnival being just one.

Ah, but I digress, all because of a postcard of West James Street with the Seminary on one side, and the College, Museum and Park straight ahead!  This street leads to just a small part of what Lancaster, Pennsylvania has to offer ~

Consider this a post card to you from me and come visit this happenin’ city ~ You’ll enjoy it, I guarantee it!