Back Home Again in Indiana

After a whirlwind trip of 2,190 miles to Georgia and back, it's good to be home again, if only for a little while. The younger niece and her daughters were as happy to see us as we were to see them. Three days spent together, making a little bit of family history, went by much too quickly.

I did learn a couple of things along the way. . .

• A 15-year old boy can put down the chow. However, he doesn't eat food, he inhales it!
• I can survive without my laptop and internet access for a week, but the boy REALLY needs to have his gameboy.
• When traveling with a 15-year old and an 81-year old, ya better just plan on stopping at most rest areas along the Interstates.
• No one says they are hungry until after you've passed the exit with all the good restaurants.
• When you finally decide to stop for the night, the next motel is at least 40 miles down the road.
• The Interstates are great for going from point A to point B. But not much good for anything else. Tree lined highways aren't conducive to 'getting a feel' for the countryside as you fly by at 70 miles per hour (or more).
• It is nearly impossible to maintain a healthy diet regimen while traveling with others who aren't concerned with doing so. Temptation won after the second day.
• My niece, the boy's mother, has amazingly similar tastes in music as I have, except for the country music. No offense intended, but I can only take so much of it.
• Neither my niece nor I can carry a tune, but that didn't stop us from singing. You have to stay awake somehow while driving the Interstates.
• Even after being on the road for 8 hours, when you're only 3 hours from home it doesn't seem all that far. Trust me though, it is much farther than it seems. It makes for a long day though still not worth stopping and spending another night in a motel.
• I've been home 36 hours, slept 20, and am still tired. 650 miles in one day is just too much.
• Geneabloggers are a prolific group. It will take some time to catch up on those 900+ unread blog posts waiting in my feed reader...

Georgia On My Mind...

Among the gems found last week while going through this box was a birthday card that was made by my niece Carrie when she was 9 or 10 years old (about 25 years ago).

Notice that she wouldn't give me all of her gold, just 3/4 of it. LOL.
No, it's not my birthday. So why am I posting this now and what does it have to do with Georgia, you ask?

Well, it just so happens that Carrie has lived in Georgia for nearly 21 years now. And in a few hours I'll be heading south along with my mother, Carrie's sister Tami, and Tami's son Zach for a few days. It's been a little more than five years since we last saw Carrie and her three daughters. The youngest was 2 ½ years old at the time and wouldn't have anything to do with me. The only time I got a decent picture of her smiling was when she was sitting on Mom's lap! Well, it should be a fun and interesting trip, if we survive the traffic, and each other ;-)

The classic Georgia On My Mind as performed by Willie Nelson and Ray Charles. The song was written in 1930 (or 1931) by Native Hoosiers Hoagy Carmichael (music) and Stuart Gorrell (lyrics).

Wordless Wednesday :: Icelandic Church

Near Keflavik, Iceland. Summer of 1973.

Copyright © 1973/2008 by Rebeckah R. Wiseman

Wordless Wednesday :: Another Icelandic Sunset

Near Keflavik, Iceland. Summer of 1973.

Copyright © 1973/2008 by Rebeckah R. Wiseman

Time out for some R & R

I'm back. But then, y'all didn't know I was gone, did ya?

Last Sunday (11/02) I left for a visit with my Joslin cousins in Springfield, Missouri (Ruth said I needed to take a break from scanning!) and arrived there mid-morning on Monday. I had planned on having more posts scheduled for last week but quite simply ran out of time before I left. (That little jaunt to Huntington County didn't help any with time management!) While I was gone I kept up with email but not with blog reading. Over 500 posts (not all of them genealogy) awaited my perusal when I returned home Friday night. Finally got caught up with them on Saturday, in between several loads of laundry.

The weather was beautiful all week, except for a bit of rain on Thursday and clouds on Friday. On the way back, at St. Louis I took I64 south across Illinois stopping just past Evansville, Indiana for the night. Friday morning I followed the "scenic" route along the Ohio River through Indiana to Vevay and Switzerland County. It was really pretty, though the ups-downs and twists-turns of the narrow roads was a bit unnerving at times. There was a little bit of color left in the few remaining trees that still bore leaves.

In Switzerland County, I visited the McKay Cemetery where my Bray and Wiseman ancestors are buried. On previous visits, years ago, I had taken pictures with a film camera but really wanted digital photos - originals, not scanned. Upon my arrival at the cemetery, the clouds had returned to block out the sun. But, just as I was about to leave, the sun broke through the clouds and I got some nicer shots. Four hours later, I was home, safe and sound.

It was a pleasant trip spent in the company of some very nice people!

for Ruth and Lorene...

Springfield, Missouri ~ November 4, 2008

A visit to a cemetery, the name of which I know not, to view the fall foliage. Most of the trees were way past their prime. Except for this one marvelous specimen. A beautiful day!

Wordless Wednesday - Icelandic Sunset

Near Keflavik, Iceland. Summer of 1973.

Copyright © 1973/2008 by Rebeckah R. Wiseman

Road Trip November 2007

This is an index to the articles I wrote about my trip to the Joslin Reunion in Springfield, Missouri and through eastern Kansas.

• On the Road
• Still on the Road... (Joslin Reunion)
• Past its Prime (a Kansas Schoolhouse)
• Baxter Springs (burial site of Parkison relatives)
• Lyndon Cemetery (burial site of Lysander and Lydia Joslin)
• I'm not in Kansas anymore! (Home Sweet Home)

Lyndon Cemetery

Lyndon Cemetery is located on the south side of 245th street, about a mile west of U.S. 75 and a mile north of the town of Lyndon in Valley Brook Township, Osage County, Kansas. The first time I visited the gravesite of my 3rd Great Grandparents, Lysander and Lydia Robison Joslin, was in the summer of 1986. Their marker is the first tall one, left of center in the picture below, which is looking towards the south and a little east, taken at about 9:30 a.m. I didn't know where their marker was located then but when I got out of the car and started walking, I went straight to their stone. That was the first time something like that had happened to me and it was a mystical experience. I had no trouble finding their marker this time either.



The cemetery has grown considerably since 1986. The view below was taken about 11 a.m. and is from the south side of the center road, looking north-northeast and shows about 1/3 of the cemetery. Lysander and Lydia's stone is a bit north of the clump of trees in the center of the picture.



When I was there in 1986, Lydia's inscription on the east side of the gravestone was difficult to read. That hasn't changed. However, it is amazing what a little water, a soft bristle brush, a towel and the right light will do. . .



1. The inscription before cleaning.
2. Using a little water and the soft bristle brush helps brings out the inscription.
3. With a little more water and using a towel. The green color comes from the lichen and moss that was growing on the stone. As I continued to clean the stone with water and a towel and remove the green stuff, the stone actually became more difficult to read again.

The inscription reads "LYDIA R. / Wife of / LYSANDER P. / JOSLIN / Died / Jan. 25, 1899 / AGED 73 YS 3 M / 15 D"



The inscription for Lysander is on the west side of the stone. It reads " LYSANDER P. / JOSLIN / Died / May 14, 1899 / AGED / 74 YS 13 D." I was waiting for the sun to move so the lighting would be better but I had forgotten to charge the camera battery the previous night, so this is the best shot I got of his inscription.

I spent about two hours at the cemetery listening to the wind blowing through the trees and across the hilly plains. And enjoying the sunshine. As time went by, the clouds moved in and the good light was lost. And that is when I decided it was time to come on home.

Photographs © 2007 Rebeckah R. Wiseman (taken November 28th)

Other posts in this series on my trip to Missouri and Kansas:

• On the Road
• Still on the Road...
• Baxter Springs
• I'm not in Kansas anymore!
• Past its Prime (An Old Schoolhouse in Kansas)

Past its Prime

Saw this Old School at the intersection of U.S. 160 and 1300 Road, in western Montgomery County, Kansas as I was zipping by at 70 mph. Just had to turn around and go back to take some pictures. There were large rolled "bales" of straw along the fenceline near the road, fencing all around, and a locked gate so I couldn't get too close. Love that 15x zoom on the new camera for "close up" shots! © 2007 Rebeckah R. Wiseman. Photos taken November 26th.

I'm not in Kansas anymore!

Ah, there's no place like home. An old cliché but oh, so true. As much as I enjoyed the brief sojourn in Springfield and roaming around the countryside in eastern Kansas, and even though I was gone only ten days, it sure feels good to be home.

I decided not to go to Iowa. Mixed results and a bit of frustration in Kansas, combined with realizing that there really just wasn't enough time to do full justice to the search, and the fact that I was just plain tired, lead to the decision to head home yesterday. I got home at about 6 p.m. this evening.

On Monday, from Baxter Springs I drove west on US 160 towards Grenola, in southwestern Elk County. I stopped at the library in Moline, but it was closed. I was hoping they had a diagram of the layout of the cemetery in Grenola. On Sunday (11/18) I had found the transcriptions online for Rachel (Fisher) and John Harvey in Greenlawn Cemetery in Grenola, Greenfield Township, along with several of their children, in section "B". Rachel is the sister of my 2nd Great Grandmother, Louisa Fisher Phend. Rachel died February 18, 1899 and John died in September 1899.

Moline is a small town but Grenola is even smaller. It was about 3 p.m. as I drove down Main Street and I felt as though I was in a ghost town. Not a soul was stirring, not an open store in sight. At the end of Main Street was a sign pointing left that said "cemetery" so I turned. It was a narrow road and seemed like miles, but was probably only about one. The cemetery was on the left, on top of a hill. I turned into the cemetery on the first lane. It was huge. The sections weren't marked. I thought there was no way I'd find them. I drove down each lane, slowly, hoping I'd see their stones.

There have been several times when searching for ancestors that I've gone to a cemetery knowing they were buried there but not knowing where and walking directly to their gravesites. But alas, no such luck this time. I stopped and walked around for a while then gave up and drove on to Winfield, county seat of Cowley County. Rachel and John had moved to Harvey Township in Cowley County sometime between 1870 and 1880. Harvey Township is bordered by Greenfield Township, Elk County on the east, which is probably why they are buried in Elk County.

Tuesday morning I went to the Courthouse in Winfield. Their original marriage record books have been moved to the Cherokee Strip Land Rush Museum in Arkansas City, about 12 miles south of Winfield. The Probate office has the records digitized on CD Rom discs and they charge $12 for a lookup if you don't have the exact date of marriage. Which of course, I didn't have. Just have an approximate year, and several names to lookup. I asked about Guardianship or Probate records since Homer, the youngest son of Rachel and John, was only 16 years old when they died. The index books didn't list them. The clerk didn't seem to know what the transcribed information online for Homer meant.

Next stop was the Winfield Library. They have a nice little local history section but I didn't find anything helpful there. I then went to the Cherokee Strip Land Rush Museum. If you have ancestors or relatives that lived in the Winfield and Arkansas City areas then this place should definitely be on your list of places to visit. In addition to the Original Marriage Record Books, they have cemetery records, obituary notices, miscellaneous newspaper clippings, etc., etc. for COWLEY county, and lots of neat things on exhibit. I didn't find anything helpful in my search for the Harvey family except that it appears that none of their children were married in Cowley County!

Since it was "sort of" in the direction of my next destination (Iola, Allen County) I decided to go back to the cemetery at Grenola thinking maybe I'd get lucky this time. Nope. I walked through each section, up and down the rows, for about two hours. It was a gorgeous day. Sun shining, blue sky, not cold, just a little windy. Maybe John and Rachel and some of their family are buried there, but I sure didn't find them! Did get some exercise though.


One of Rachel and John's children, Lillian, and her husband Orlando Sellers are buried in Moline Cemetery so I stopped by there on the way to Howard, the county seat of Elk County. I found the cemetery but when I saw how big it was, bigger than Greenlawn, I turned into the first drive to turn around and leave. As I glanced to the right to check traffic, there they were, right up front, next to the road. Now, why couldn't that have happened with John and Rachel?

By the time I got to Howard the courthouse was closed so I went on to Iola. My intent was to spend Tuesday night in Iola then go to the cemetery and library, etc. to see what I could find on William and Minerva (Joslin) Knight. Minerva is a sister of my 2nd Great Grandmother, Malissa Joslin Brubaker Bower. William died in 1902. Minerva then married a J.N. Storey and reportedly died May 12, 1905 in a wheelchair on the street in Hot Springs, Arkansas. William and Minerva are buried in the Iola Cemetery.

It was dark when I got to Iola so I went to find a motel room, but there was no room at the inn. Three motels in town and they were all full. Nothing available in the nearby towns, according to the innkeeper. It was 50 miles or more north to I-35 and Ottawa, which was near my next destination of Lyndon. . . to be continued.

Baxter Springs

The first stop in Kansas was the Johnston Public Library in Baxter Springs, Cherokee County. Apparently an index to the cemetery hasn't been published, at least the girl at the reference desk didn't know anything about it. She did give me directions to the cemetery though.



Gravesite of Jacob Henry Parkison and Roxie Arminta Joslin Parkison at Baxter Springs Cemetery, Cherokee County, Kansas. Jacob is a half-brother of my 2nd Great Grandfather William Brubaker and Roxie is a sister of my 2nd Great Grandmother Malissa Joslin Brubaker Bower.



The marker for Jacob and Roxie is in the lower right corner. Several of their children and grandchildren are buried in rows to the north of Jacob and Roxie. It is quite a large cemetery and it took about an hour to find their graves. I'm really glad it turned out to be a nice day!

Still on the Road...

I had a great time at the Joslin Reunion. A nice little group of 26 devoured a catered traditional Thanksgiving dinner the Friday after Thanksgiving. They came from Virginia, Alabama, Indiana, Louisiana, New Mexico and, of course, Missouri. We all stayed at the same motel in Springfield which had a poolside atrium where we gathered most of the time. Kudos to Linda and Kathy for all their time and effort in making the arrangements.

A Joslin Reunion wouldn't be complete without an excursion to some historic family site. One of the places we visited was the area where Virgil Newton Joslin was born on February 21, 1891 “in a tent on the Carry farm in Polk County, Missouri, 12 miles from Bolivar, 4 miles from Dunnegan Springs, 6 miles from Fair Play, while his folks were making a trip by covered wagon.” Virgil is a son of Luther Marion Joslin who is a brother to my 2nd Great Grandmother Malissa Mariah Joslin Brubaker Bower.

George and Jim Joslin, sons of Virgil, were able to determine the approximate location of Virgil's birth from discussions with former and current owners of the property who stated that a small community was established in the area in the late 1800s. Apparently there was a wagon trail through the area. The current owner also told them that the trail was still visible but was not easy to find. Jim said he couldn't find the trail the last time he visited the site. Saturday was a cold, blustery day so we didn't take the time to try to find it then.

George scraped away the moss in an attempt to decipher the name and year engraved on the header stone over what used to be the doorway of the spring house. The name appears to be “C M Racksy” and the year may be 1879. If so, then the spring house may have been built about 12 years prior to Virgil's birth.



Other historic family sites we visited on Saturday were the White Chapel Cemetery, where Virgil and his wife Mary (Hutcheson) are buried, and the house where they lived in Springfield.

The majority of the people left Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning. George and his wife Lorene invited me to their house Saturday, so I stayed with them until this morning. We spent yesterday looking over their Joslin family files. It was a very good day!

It was raining when I left Springfield this morning but by the time I got to Joplin, the rain had stopped and the sky was starting to clear. After a brief stop for gasoline, it was on into Kansas. The sun came out and the clouds disappeared leaving blue skies behind. It even warmed up with the temperature getting up to 50 or so. A nice day for a drive in the country...

On the Road

As I write this post, I'm in a motel in Terre Haute, Indiana that has verrrrry slooow wireless internet access. Actually, I wasn't sure if I could even get connected tonight due to some problems this morning with the laptop. Lets just say this mornings fiasco did not bode well for the rest of the day! I was not in a good mood when I finally gave up trying to get connected this morning. Then when I booted up the laptop an hour or so ago here at the motel, I got a message that "Windows was unable to start" and it then went into "Repair" mode. It scared the bejeebers out of me. It took a while and several times to go through its thing, but it finally booted up. Then it wouldn't recognize the motel's wireless network. Turns out there's a little switch on the front of the computer that needed to be moved to the right. After that it recognized the network. I don't think that had anything to do with the problems this morning since I was trying to connect via the ethernet card. Oh well, seems to be working now. Though slowly. Hmm, just lost my connection... got it back without losing anything. Whew!

The fiasco with the laptop delayed my start time by about two hours. Had to make a side trip in Fort Wayne to DeBrand's to pick up some fancy chocolates for gifts. That took about an hour or so, then onto I69 and south to Indianapolis. The weather was overcast and dreary. Traffic was heavy and fast. I was going a little above the speed limit and being passed like I was standing still. State Police were out in force though and between Fort Wayne and Indy I saw at least half a dozen people that had been stopped by patrol officers.

By the time I got to Indianapolis the weather was starting to clear and the sun even came out for a few minutes. Of course, the traffic got heavier the closer I got to Indy. It was about 4:30 p.m. and there was some road construction that slowed things down, a lot. But I made it round the "speedway" (I465 to I70) and out of Indy without any problems - except for a bad case of nerves and a headache!

I'm on my way to Springfield, Missouri for a Joslin Family Reunion. Internet connectivity for the next week or so could be iffy so I'll take this opportunity to wish you all a safe, happy, and thankful Thanksgiving holiday.

Travel Dreams

Thanks to Gadling, I've added another location to my "dream list" of places to see. . . the World's Largest Ice Caves near Salzburg, Austria. The Eisriesenwelt Ice Caves are located within the Tennengebirge Mountains. Amazing.

And take a look at some incredible pictures of Antarctica from Time and the book "Under Antarctic Ice: The Photographs of Norbert Wu". Wow!

Wisconsin Dells Fifty Years Ago

Postcards. On the left is "Swallows' Nests, Wisconsin Dells. In the summer hundreds of swallows make their homes in holes in the sandstone cliff." And, at right is "Motor Launch on the Wisconsin River."

In a previous post I mentioned that my grandpa Vic and Aunt Shirley Phend had taken my brothers and me on a trip to the Wisconsin Dells. That was fifty years ago this week and it made the "gossip" column of the local newspaper! I'm not sure why they decided to take us along, Mom says they asked us to go simply because they thought we would enjoy the trip. We did, though now the details are a bit fuzzy. I think we were the only ones they ever took on a trip with them. I wonder if we were that ornery that they were put off doing it again? Mom did say that grandpa told her that he had to threaten us a few times to settle us down but that overall 'we were pretty good kids' so maybe they just never took another trip together. I do remember that us kids usually got along well, especially Jack and me, and that Doug was the instigator of many of the things that got us in trouble over the years. Of course, I would never start anything ;-)

In July 1957, Jack was the youngest and would turn 8 years old on the 8th of July. Doug had turned 10 in March, and I was 9 years old.

As with many of my later trips, I kept a record, sort of, of the towns we passed through. I just love the spelling of some of them. . .

The postcard below was written to my aunt Pat, one of Mom's sisters, but was apparently never mailed. That's not my signature, my Mother wrote my name in later. It says: "Dear Pat,We got to wisconson at 6:30. We went threw 31 towns. It took us 9 and a half hours to get there. It took us 350 miles to get there. How are all of you. I am fine. We went sight seeing and we went on a boat ride and we saw some Indinas."

My sister was only three years old at the time, so she didn't get to go along. This card was sent to her: "Dear Terry, I am fine. How are you. We are going to see some Indians tomorrow and we are going to take a boat ride.From Becky and Jacky.

Some Notes on my trip to Iowa

Sticker Shock. The week before I left, I paid $3.16 a gallon for regular unleaded gas. The weekend of the 19th it jumped to $3.38 a gallon. On the Indiana toll road on Monday the price was $3.46 a gallon, in Osceola it was $3.26. On the way back, the farther east I got the higher the price, from $3.48 to $3.65 a gallon. Back home now, the price ranges from $3.46 to $3.56 per gallon. I'm hoping that the price jump is temporary and due to the holiday weekend but I'm afraid these prices will be around for a while. It's going to be expensive traveling this summer.

Love-Hate. I've always had a love-hate relationship with the Interstate Highway system. It's great for getting relatively quickly from point A to point B - but it can be very stressful and extremely boring and you sure don't get a feel for the land you're driving through. The traffic on I-80 from South Bend through the southern end of Chicago to Joliet is horrendous. The trucks and cars competing for a small piece of the highway all going 75 miles an hour. Yuk! I timed my departure to avoid the morning rush but it was still very busy. From Joliet to the Quad Cities is a nice drive as is the drive through Iowa.

The hills of Iowa. Once you get close to the Mississippi River the terrain changes from flat land to rolling hills. Now, I've been to Iowa before but I just didn't realize how hilly it was. Especially when you get off the Interstate. I took a couple drives around the Osceola area, south towards the Missouri line and east towards Ottumwa. Indiana has hills too, but not like those in Iowa. It's pretty too, especially this time of year.

My Boss. Ron is a good guy. I'm not just saying that either, he really is nice. He is so laid back, nothing seems to get to him very much. He has recently had to deal with his house burning. It was a kitchen fire but smoke and water damage made the house unlivable for a few months. The family is back into the house now. A couple weeks ago he contracted to have the roof replaced over his garage. The guy he hired worked on it for a couple days but didn't get it finished before the heavy rains a few weeks ago, the ones that caused all the flooding in Missouri. Lots of water damage but that's pretty much taken care of now. The only thing is, I think Ron is a bit crazy (but aren't we all in our own way?). He goes on the RAGBRAI 'bicycle ride across Iowa' trips, not every year, just those years when it's not in what he called the "flat" lands. He loves riding the hills, especially when it's hot and humid. I can't imagine having the stamina and strength to ride those hills.

John Wayne. If I had been so inclined I could have stayed another day and joined the celebration of John Wayne's 100th birthday in Winterset, Iowa. Looks like it might have been fun. Yesterday, Randy Seaver posted about his 8th cousin, Marion Robert Morrison, aka John Wayne, and has some information on him.

Winterset, birthplace of John Wayne, is in Madison County which was the setting for Robert James Waller's novel "The Bridges of Madison County" and the movie that followed. Looks like a nice place to spend some time, and it's only about 15 miles or so off of Interstate 35.

I just might have to go back to Iowa this summer... my 3rd great grandparents, Lysander and Lydia Robison Joslin, lived in Jefferson County, Iowa between 1867 and 1870. They returned to Whitley County just in time for the 1870 census. One of their daughters, Anna Eliza, had married William Klingaman on October 12, 1865 and shortly thereafter moved to Black Hawk township in Jefferson County, which is in the south east corner of the state.

I did stop at several Tourist Information Centers in Iowa and picked up some brochures. I didn't have a chance to take advantage of the free wireless internet access that Iowa has available at their rest stops along Interstate 80 but it is nice to know it is available. There were several large truck stops that also had wireless access advertised.

I had a good trip, but there's no place like home!

Traveling the World

This doesn't have anything to do with genealogy...

Mark Schatzker has a job I can only dream of, in my wildest dreams... A little over a month ago, on March 5, 2007, he began his trip Around the World in 80 Days - the kicker is, he's being paid to do it!

In his first post on February 27th Mark states: "The conditions of this trip are as follows: I cannot take a plane or helicopter, I cannot travel more than 100 miles per hour, and I must complete the journey-travel west out of New York and arrive from the east-in precisely 80 days. The intention is to rediscover "slow travel," of the way humans moved across vast distances back when Jules Verne wrote his famous book about Phileas Fog and before commercial airliners painted their lines across the skies."

And a bit further down: "The good news is that unlike so many world travelers, I have a sweet budget. I owe my good fortune to the fact that I will be writing about this journey in the pages of Conde Nast Traveler, a magazine with a taste of the good life. They are paying me not only to see the world, but to live well while doing so. As journalistic assignments go, it doesn't get better than this. How I lucked into it, I cannot explain."

Into day 36, Mark has left China and is now on his way through Mongolia on the Trans-Mongolian Railway. You can read all about his travels on his blog "80 Days or Bust" which is very interesting, to say the least.

Also, the Travel Channel has a relatively new series going on now. "Inspired by Patricia Schultz's best-selling travel book, 1,000 Places to See Before You Die chronicles the journey of a young couple who put their lives on hold to travel the world for 14 weeks. Albin and Melanie Ulle, newlyweds from Colorado, experience the vast beauty and diverse cultures of 13 amazing countries and approximately 100 of the 1,000 Places from the book, while unearthing all the local charms and traditions along the way!"