The Story of Lost Lynn: Part 2

This is the second in a series about Lynn Walker Westaby, my children's paternal great-grandmother's uncle. When their great-grandmother was still alive, she told me about her Uncle Lynn, who had a short and tragic life. Although he never married nor had children, he is worth remembering. Come along with me as I tell the story of Lost Lynn.

The Westaby family, c. 1908 with Will Leland, Izma's future husband, and unknown boy. Probably taken on their farm west of Forsyth. All photos in this post scanned by author in 2014 from the collection of Troy W. Midkiff, Vancouver, Washington.

In Part 1, we learned that little six-year-old Lynn lost his right foot and part of his lower leg due to a terrible railroad yard accident in his hometown of Forsyth, Rosebud County, Montana. It couldn't have been easy to navigate the world as a disabled person in 1911, especially in a small rural town or on the family's farm. Somehow, he and his family figured it out. We don't know if he had a prosthesis at such a young age; he was known to wear one later.¹ But for sure, he was using crutches within a few months of his amputation.²

He certainly didn't let his injury slow him down! He was a bright lad and held nothing in back, in school or in activities. By second grade, he was a top-notch speller in class.³ During Forsyth's Fourth of July celebrations in 1914, when he was nine, he won first place in the greased pole contest,⁴ which involves climbing a vertical greased pole the fastest! His upper body strength must have been pretty good due to compensating for his missing lower limb. In third grade, he was lauded for having perfect attendance and never being tardy during the month of February.⁵

By the time he was 15, he could play either the catcher or the pitcher position on his school's sixth grade baseball team (the Panthers) and was scheduled to play a series of seven games against the seventh grade team (the Giants) for the grand prize of five gallons of ice cream. While the Giants ultimately won, a local reporter stated that the game was well played: "...although the Panthers received a bad defeat they put up a good exhibition of the national past-time and took their defeat like veterans of a couple of world series. Both teams pounded the horsehide hard and often, but the superior playing of the Gaints [sic] was too much for the Panthers."^{6, 7}

It's not clear why he was 15 years old in sixth grade, but schooling in those days was different than today. When students were required to help in the family business or on the farm--and his family had both--they could miss months of school and have to pick up where they left off when they returned. Speaking of the farm, Lynn raised pigeons and was declared a winner for his pair of giant runts in the 1920 Eastern Montana Fair held in Glendive, in neighboring Dawson County.⁸ The following year, he won second prize for the best booklet on an agricultural topic. The choices were poultry, cattle, horses, hogs, wheat, corn, dairying, or potatoes.⁹ While the newspaper article doesn't give more details, it would not have been surprising if the topic was dairying, as Lynn's father Rice had started his Jersey Island Dairy in 1905 on their farm on Westaby Island on the Yellowstone River, about a mile west of town.¹⁰

The Westaby siblings pose c. 1910.
Back row, left to right: Izma, Lynn, George
Front row: Reuben, Guy, Charles

But all was not fair fun and ball games in the Westaby family: by the time of the 1921 fair, Rice had married his second wife, Nora Alice Myers.¹¹ We don't yet know when he and Rebecca divorced, but as early as 1914, she had been living separately from him in a home in Forsyth that may have been owned by her family, working in her son Guy's steam laundry.¹² She was listed as the head of the household in the 1920 census in her Forsyth home, with Lynn living with her.¹³ Rice was enumerated on the farm with their son Reuben.¹⁴ By then the older children were adults and no longer living at home. George and Izma had each married; George and his wife Rena Lerfald lived in Forsyth with their four-year-old daughter Helen (my children's great-grandmother) and George's brother Guy.¹⁵ Izma and her husband Will Leland were living in Glendive with their toddler, Velma, and Will's brother Joe.¹⁶ Charles had moved south to Sheridan, Wyoming to work for the railroad.¹⁷

Will Leland holds Helen Westaby while Lynn stands nearby, c. 1917.

Lynn was now a young man. Like his older brothers and sister, he would soon be off on his own.

Sources:

1. Westaby Family Notes, MS (No place: no date); privately held by Helen Mary (Westaby) Midkiff Tucker, Sunnyside, Washington, c. 1980s. A handwritten copy was made by her grandson, Michael J. Midkiff [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE], Spokane, Washington, c. 1980s. Whereabouts of the original manuscript is unknown after 8 November 1997, the date of Helen Tucker’s death.

2. “Is Improving Rapidly,” Forsyth Times-Journal, (Forsyth, Montana) 4 May 1911, p. 1, col. 7, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com : accessed 18 February 2025).

3. "Spelling Report: Marcyes School," Forsyth Times-Journal, 5 February 1914, p. 3, col. 5-7, Newspapers.com (accessed 18 February 2025).

4. "Forsyth Has Big Celebration," Forsyth Times-Journal, 9 July 1914, p. 4, col. 3, Newspapers.com (accessed 18 February 2025.)

5. "Have a Good Record," Forsyth Times-Journal, 11 March 1915, p. 3, col. 6, Newspapers.com (accessed 18 February 2025).

6. "Hammond School Plays 1st Ball Game of Season," Forsyth Times-Journal, 1 April 1920, p. 1, col. 3, Newspapers.com (accessed 18 February 2025).

7. "Giants Take First of Series of Five," Forsyth Democrat (Forsyth, Montana), 22 April 1920, p. 10, col. 2, Newspapers.com (accessed 18 February 2025).

8. "Success Crowns Eastern Montana Fair in All Departments," Yellowstone Monitor, (Glendive, Montana), 23 September 1920, p. 1, col. 23 and p. 4, col. 3, Newspapers.com (accessed 18 February 2025).

9. "List of Winners at Fair Given Below," Yellowstone Monitor, 20 October 1921, p. 2, col. 4, Newspapers.com (accessed 18 February 2025).

10. "Local and Otherwise," The Forsyth Times, (Forsyth, Montana), 16 March 1905, p. 8, col. 2, Newspapers.com (accessed 16 March 2025).

11. Custer County (Montana) Clerk of the District Court, marriage license and certificate no. 3902 (1921), Rice Westaby and Nora Alice Myers; digital image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org : accessed 1 March 2012), "Montana, County Marriages, 1865-1950."

12. Miles City, Glendive, Forsyth and Ekalaka City Directory and Custer, Dawson, Rosebud and Fallon Counties Directory 1914 (R. L. Polk Co. of Montana, 1914), entry for Mrs Rebecca C Westaby, p. 397; Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/2469/ : accessed 25 June 2025), image 213 of 284, "U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995."

13. 1920 U.S. Census, Rosebud County, Montana, population schedule, Forsyth City, p. 19B, dwelling 386, family 459, Rebecca A [sic] Westaby household; Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/6061 : accessed 27 May 2025), image 37 of 38; citing NARA microfilm publication T625, roll 975.

14. 1920 U.S. Census, Rosebud County, Montana, population schedule, School District No. 4, p. 2B, dwelling 42, family 42, George R. Westaby household; Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/6061 : accessed 27 May 2025), image 4 of 9; citing NARA microfilm publication T625, roll 975

15. 1920 U.S. Census, Rosebud County, Montana, population schedule, Forsyth City, p. 11A, dwelling 206, family 251, George R. Westerby [sic] household; Ancestry.com;(https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/6061 : accessed 9 June 2025), image 21 of 38; citing NARA microfilm publication T625, roll 975.

16. 1920 U.S. Census, Dawson County, Montana, population schedule, Glendive City, p. 5A, dwelling 85, family 101, William Leland household; Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/6061 : accessed 4 July 2025), image 9 of 42; citing NARA microfilm publication T625, roll 968.

17. 1920 U.S. Census, Sheridan County, Wyoming, population schedule, Sheridan City, p. 26B [corrected], dwelling 187, family 266, lodger in the James Dawson household; Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/6061 : accessed 4 July 2025), image 49 of 51; citing NARA microfilm publication T625, roll 2029.

Notable July Fourth Events in Our Family History

Free photo image by Kaboompics.com
Found at Pexels.com

Today is Independence Day in the United States, the 249th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence by our founding fathers. On this day, Americans celebrate the birthday of our nation.

I thought it would be interesting to look through my RootsMagic family tree databases and see what significant events happened on July 4th in our family's history. I ran queries in my own database, my children's paternal lines database, and my grandchildren's paternal lines database.

There were many July 4th births, marriages, and deaths of individuals, mostly distant relatives. There were no July 4th burials, which makes sense. A burial is a sad occasion and Independence Day is for celebrations.

I won't list every July 4th birth, marriage, or death below, but I will list ones for direct ancestors or those which may have had an effect on a direct ancestor.

Births

Oddly enough, only one of the three July 4th ancestor births was on American soil.

My paternal great-great-grandfather, James W. Barber, was supposedly born on this date in 1841, somewhere in England. He is a brick wall ancestor, which means I know nothing about his family of origin: parents, siblings, etc. I also don't know where in England he was born or lived. The first record in which I can positively identify him is the 1871 Canada Census, although I did find an 1862 marriage record for a couple with somewhat wrong names in the correct location (that's a blog post for another day!).

Another July 4th birth belongs to John D. Concidine, my adoptive 3rd-great-grandfather, who was born to Dennis Concidine and Honora "Nora" Gilligan in Ennis, County Clare, Ireland. John's granddaughter Nellie May Concidine and her husband Alfred Henry Holst adopted my paternal grandmother, Jane Marie York, who became Jeanne Marie Holst.

Polly Emeline Dennis, my grandchildren's paternal 3rd-great-grandmother, was born on July 4th in 1840 in Tennessee. It probably was in Overton County, where her father James Thaxton Dennis was found in the censuses from 1820 through 1840, before moving on to Dent Co., Missouri. 

Polly's mother was Lucinda Catherine Hunter, which I find interesting because my grandchildren's surname is Hunter; their father's direct paternal line. But Polly and her mother Lucinda are found in their paternal grandmother's line. This means my grandchildren have Hunters on both sides of their dad's family tree. These lines don't seem to be related: on their dad's paternal side, the Hunters can be traced into early New Jersey, while Lucinda's line is found in South Carolina. But Hunter, after all, is a common occupational surname.

Marriages

My children's paternal great-great-grandparents, George Rice Westaby III and Rena Lerfald, were married on this day in 1915 in Glendive, Dawson Co., Montana. I've been spending a lot of time lately researching the Westaby family and am in the middle of a series about George's youngest brother Lynn.

In my own family, the only ancestor who had a July 4th marriage was Filippus Willems Jonker. He married his first wife, Grietje Eisses, on this date in 1812 in Kloosterburen, Groningen, the Netherlands. His second wife, Catharina Klaassens van der Laan, was my ancestor. They married 4 April 1831 after Grietje's death, and were my 4th-great-grandparents.

Deaths

No July 4th ancestral deaths were located in any of the three family trees. However, on this date my great-great-grandparents Tjamme Wiegers "James" Valk and Berber Tjeerds "Barbara" de Jong tragically lost two children, two years apart, in Grand Rapids, Kent Co., Michigan.

In 1895, their youngest daughter Chaterina died at age 5 months, 9 nine days of "summer complaint." This was an old medical term describing severe diarrhea and dehydration, usually in infants, typically caused by spoiled milk. Remember that pasteurization was not common until the 1920s and people in the 1890s relied on ice boxes or cellars to keep their food cool, but it was not reliable. What's especially sad is that Chaterina was the third and last daughter James and Barbara had named for James's mother in an attempt to carry on her name in the family.

In 1897, little Tjamme died from measles at one year old. The family had just celebrated his first birthday four days earlier. His name was recorded as Thomas on the death record; another anglicization variation. Pneumonia and encephalitis complications are the most common causes of death from measles. It would have been horrible for Tjamme's parents to watch him burn up with a fever they couldn't bring down and watch him struggle to breathe. We are so fortunate to have a measle vaccine available for our children today.

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What July 4th significant events have you found in your family tree?

The Story of Lost Lynn: Part 1

This is the first of a series about Lynn Walker Westaby, my children's paternal great-grandmother's uncle. When their great-grandmother was still alive, she told me about her Uncle Lynn, who had a short and tragic life. Although he never married nor had children, he is worth remembering. Come along with me as I tell the story of Lost Lynn.

Lynn Walker Westaby was the youngest child of George "Rice" Westaby, II and Rebecca Catherine Snook's family of seven children, six of whom survived infancy. He was born 27 November 1904 in Montana, probably in or near Forsyth, Rosebud County.¹ He was a handsome boy with a mischievous smile, and surely he was the darling of his four older brothers--George III, Guy, Charles, and Reuben--and his older sister, Izma.^{2, 3} (His parents' first child, a little girl named Clarice Orvilla who was born 22 August 1889, died in infancy.)⁴ Keeping with the tradition of giving their children family names, Rice and Rebecca gave Lynn the middle name Walker in honor of his maternal grandmother's surname.⁵

Lynn Walker Westaby, c. 1906, Forsyth, Rosebud County, Montana
Original photo scanned in by author in 2014 from the collection of Troy W. Midkiff, Vancouver, Washington.

When Lynn was only 6 1/2 years old, a terrible accident left him injured for life. One Saturday around noon on the first day of April, he and a number of friends attempted to jump on the swiftly moving freight train at the elevator crossing and ride to the schoolhouse as it headed east. A work train had just unloaded several piles of cinders beside the tracks. Being little, Lynn could only grasp the bottom rung of the ladder attached to the freight car. As he hung there swinging, he was knocked under the train by one of the piles as they rode by. The train crushed his foot just above the ankle as it rolled over him.

He was taken to the doctor. His foot was so badly crushed there was no repairing it. The only way to save his leg and his life was to have the injured foot amputated.^6,7 This must have been a horrible experience; both the traumatizing accident and the resulting amputation. However, there was a great deal of spunk in the little boy. Only a month later the local paper reported "Lynn Westaby, the little fellow who lost a foot by falling under the cars last month, is able to be out again with the aid of crutches."⁸

And just a few days before Christmas, this intelligent child who celebrated his seventh birthday only a month earlier, would stand in front the congregation of the Methodist Episcopal Church one evening and recite Clement Clarke Moore's poem, "The Night Before Christmas" as part of the Sunday School program!⁹

Sources:

1. Westaby Family Notes, MS (No place: no date); privately held by Helen Mary (Westaby) Midkiff Tucker, Sunnyside, Washington, c. 1980s. A handwritten copy was made by her grandson, Michael J. Midkiff [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE], Spokane, Washington, c. 1980s. Whereabouts of the original manuscript is unknown after 8 November 1997, the date of Helen Tucker’s death.

2. 1910 U.S. Census, Rosebud County, Montana, population schedule, School District No. 4 Forsyth, p. 26B, dwelling 314, family 341, R. Westaby household; Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 27 February 2025), image 47 of 56; citing NARA microfilm publication T624, roll 835.

3. Westaby Family Notes.

4. Ibid.

5. Ibid.

6. “Child Loses Foot Jumping on Trains,” The Billings Gazette (Billings, Montana), 2 April 1911, p. 3 col. 6; Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com : accessed 18 February 2025). Note this article incorrectly states Lynn’s age as seven years old.

7. “Westaby Boy Hurt,” Forsyth Times-Journal, (Forsyth, Montana), 6 April 1911, p. 8, col. 3; Newspapers.com (accessed 18 February 2025).

8. “Is Improving Rapidly,” Forsyth Times-Journal, 4 May 1911, p. 1, col. 7, Newspapers.com (accessed 18 February 2025).

9. “Program of Exercises: Methodist Episcopal Sunday School Will Have Entertainment Dec. 23,” Forsyth Times-Journal, 21 December 1911, p. 6, col. 4, Newspapers.com (accessed 18 February 2025).

Read Part 2

More Newspapers Added: 380,000 Pages Added to Chronicling America, Including Pages from Three New States (LA, MT, SC)

From the Library of Congress:

On Sept 16, 2010, the Library of Congress added more than 380,000 historic newspaper pages to the Chronicling America Web site, including newspapers from 3 new states - Louisiana, Montana, and South Carolina - and expanding the site's time coverage further into the Civil War era. The site now includes almost 2.7 million pages from 348 titles published between 1860 and 1922 in 22 states and the District of Columbia.

Chronicling America is produced by the National Digital Newspaper Program, a partnership between the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress.... Read more about it!

Links to these newspapers will be added to the Online Historical Newspaper Website soon!

52 Weeks of Online American Digital Archives and Databases: Montana

This is the 27th post in a weekly series of Online American Digital Archives and Databases found for free at state, county, municipal, college and university history, library, and archive websites, as well as public and private library and museum sites, and historical and genealogical society sites.

 
3DFlags.com

Museum of the Rockies - http://www.montana.edu/wwwmor/photoarc/ - "a preservation and research collection of historical photography from the Northern Rockies Region of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming. The Archive collects and preserves photographs from the late 1860's to the 1980's that document the people, places, industry, and events of the region."

Montana Historical Society Online Resources - http://montanahistoricalsociety.org/ - in partnership with the State of Montana, this page links to the Montana Memory Project (see below), the Montana History Wiki, the Montana Place Names Companion Website, African-Americans in Montana Heritage Resources, an index to Montana: The Magazine of Western History, and more

Montana Memory Project - Montana's Digital Library and Archives - http://cdm15018.contentdm.oclc.org/ - highlights are historic photographs, documents, and architectural drawings; county histories; yearbooks; livestock brands; veterans lists; state prisons records; newspapers; Native Americans; WWII letters; and interviews

Northwest Digital Archives - http://nwda.wsulibs.wsu.edu/index.shtml - "provides access to descriptions of primary sources in the Northwestern United States, including correspondence, diaries, or photographs. Digital reproductions of primary sources are available in some cases."

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Brigham Young University (Idaho) Special Collections and Family History - http://abish.byui.edu/specialCollections/index.cfm - Includes the Western States Marriage Index which contains many Montana marriages from as early as 1864 to as recently as 2008, depending on the county.

Little Big Horn College Library - http://lib.lbhc.cc.mt.us/ - from this page you can find Tribal Histories Online, a Place Names Database (compiled Crow place names and the narratives associated with them), and the college archives, which include an image archive search.

Montana State University-Billings Library Special Collections - http://www.msubillings.edu/library/Speccoll/Speccoll.htm - samples from the special collections are available online in this simple website. Most information is centered around finding aids, but the Dudley White Collection has a link to Montana in Black and White, with fascinating "then and now" photos comparing black and white historical photos with current color ones of locations in Montana.

Montana State University Libraries Digital Collections - http://www.lib.montana.edu/digital/index.php - highlights are two photograph collections. The Thomas Brook Collection is "photographs of southwest Montana’s people and places during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, in and around the Twin Bridges area of Madison and Beaverhead Counties." The James Willard Schultz Collection "cover(s) Montana’s Native American people and places in and around Browning, Montana and Glacier National Park during the early 20th century." There is also a full-text retrieval of MSU's theses and dissertations.

Montana State University - Northern Vande Bogart Library - Special Collections and Archives - http://www.msun.edu/infotech/library/archives.htm - Indian Peoples of the Northern Great Plains is the only online collection available. Is is a searchable online photograph database of historic images of Native Americans, their way of life, and their art.

University of Montana-Missoula - Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library - Digital Collections - http://www.lib.umt.edu/node/3 - includes American Indian Ledger Art, photo archives, regional and historic maps, plus a link to the Northwest Digital Archives (see link above)

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D'Arcy McNickle Library - Digital CharKoosta News - http://skclibrary.skc.edu/?q=node/8 - digitized issues of a publication of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Indian Reservation, started in November 1956 and continued through five decades; digitization covers the years 1956-1961 and 1971-1988.

Parmly Billings Library - Genealogy - http://ci.billings.mt.us/index.aspx?NID=389 - vital statistics  include "notations on births, deaths, business licenses and other records as reported in the Billings Gazette 1882-1901"; city directories

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Check out my Montana Online Historical Directories and my Montana Online Historical Newspapers pages.

The Great Fire of 1910 Centennial Events and Articles

This month marks the centennial of the Great Fire of 1910 which swept over the Inland Northwest leaving devastation in its wake. To get an idea of the magnitude of this fire, imagine 10,000 new Forest Service workers and 4,000 troops (sent by President Taft) fighting a fire across three states. "Despite their efforts, the fire burned three million acres in two days, killed nearly 100 people, and burned several towns to the ground. It is believed to be the largest fire in recorded U.S. history." [from the Spokane Public Library website]

I wrote about my husband's ancestors' experience last October in my post, The Martin Family and the Great Fire of 1910. My local paper, the Spokesman-Review, has recently been publishing a series of fascinating articles about the fire. If you go to this link, you will see that currently there are 19 articles, three photo galleries, a video, an audio file, and a blog post published at their website that are tagged with the 1910 Fire label.

Additionally, area museums are showcasing exhibits about how the fire affected local communities (see list here) and the Forest Service also has some ceremonies and exhibits as well. Spokane Is Reading is bringing prize-winning author Timothy Egan (known especially for his book on the Depression, The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl) to Spokane on October 7th to speak for free on his newest book, The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America.

Last, and certainly not least, fellow Inland Northwest geneablogger and friend Amy Crooks has been writing about her family's summer adventures on her blog, Untangled Family Roots. The following articles touch on places they visited that commemorate the Big Burn:

• Tombstone Tuesday: A Grave in the Wilderness
• Route of the Hiawatha

The Martin Family and the Great Fire of 1910

In the summer of 1910, nearly all of Northeast Washington, North Idaho, and Western Montana was burning.

After a long hard winter with a heavy snow pack, the citizens were looking forward to warm weather, although a wet summer was predicted. However, April, May, and June were unusually dry. By July, three million acres had been burned by hundreds of wildfires. Newspapers to the east in Spokane, Washington reported a constant haze in the air that hung over the city for weeks, causing eye and lung problems; this despite the prevailing winds tend to blow from the southeast to the northwest, from the Spokane area into North Idaho. In some places, the sun could not be seen at noon and people were lighting lamps by four o'clock in the afternoon. An article from Wikipedia quotes, "Smoke from the fire was said to have been seen as far east as Watertown, New York and as far south as Denver, Colorado. It was reported that at night, 500 miles out into the Pacific Ocean, ships could not navigate by the stars because the sky was cloudy with smoke."

Spokane employment agencies printed ads seeking firefighters for the U.S. Forest Service, but at 25 cents an hour doing filthy, hard, dangerous, and grim work (including recovering burned bodies), many of the unemployed preferred the regular, safer labor jobs offered at the same rate in town. Immigrants were the main recruits, untrained men from Czechoslovakia, Italy, and other Southern European counties, who spoke little English; hard workers who were so inexperienced that they were often of little help to the cause and a danger to themselves. Finally, President Taft ordered thirty companies of Federal troops to the Coeur d'Alene Mountains; troops who had been stationed at Fort Sherman in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, American Lake and Missoula, Montana, and a contingent of African-American soldiers from Fort George Wright in Spokane. Although at one point there were at least 10,000 firefighters on hand, many sections were losing the battle, which had spread into Western Montana.

In many places, farmers, ranchers, and citizens of small communities refused to leave their homes. The wildfires randomly and miraculously spared some of the diehards, while just as randomly and destructively consumed others. Of the stories that remain, irony seems to be the theme: people burying their precious items in locations thought to be safe from fire, sites that ended up being destroyed while their homes remained safe. Some also perished in these attempts, again while their houses sustained little or no damage. Accounts of residents who bravely fought off fires and survived to share their tales paralleled tragedies of homes, fortunes, and lives lost. Those who have read or watched documentaries about wildfires know that they will create their own wind and jump from tree to tree, traveling faster than a man can run, or even a modern automobile can travel. Wind will carry burning branches several miles to land and start further infernos.

When the large mining town of Wallace, Idaho was threatened, relief trains were sent eastward from Spokane and westward from Missoula to rescue women and children. The trains were packed, with men and older boys clinging to the roofs and sides. Families were accidentally separated in the chaos.

Twelve miles to the southeast of Wallace, as the crow flies, is the community of Kyle, accessible through the steep Bitteroot Mountains by a winding 21-mile road. Here 55-year-old John Franklin "Frank" MARTIN, was stationed with the railroad, which quite possibly was the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, a.k.a. the Milwaukee Road. Frank and his wife, Angelia Rebecca LUKE, were the parents of 12 children, the youngest of whom was my ex-husband's maternal grandmother, Leona, who would have been only three years old at the time. One of Leona's older sisters, Maude, gave an account of the family's adventures, which was published posthumously in an article ("Idaho's Red Monster") by Grace Roffey Pratt in the February-March 1978 edition of Frontier Times:

On or about the 19th of August, Frank Martin was working with a crew and a steam shovel on the railroad at Kyles [sic], a small settlement a few miles from Avery. That evening the men could see the black smoke and red flames in the distance but were not greatly worried for they knew the fire to be several miles away. They had worked hard, they were tired, and after supper and a bit of tongue wagging, they went to bed as usual.

But Martin's [20-year-old] daughter Maud [sic] could not sleep. The wind had risen and it had an ominous sound. About 10 p.m. she noticed the fire had come closer and she rightly guessed that it was no more than half a mile from a powder magazine which held thirty tons of dynamite. She ran to waken her father, who rushed a crew to move the dynamite. They got it out of the magazine and into a safe place just in time.

A few minutes later an engine came through Kyles, and Maud flagged it down and held it there until an order from the dispacher [sic] could be obtained to use it for a relief train.

In the next half-hour the wind rose again and the fire could be seen coming nearer. The roar of the wind and flame was terrifying. Men and women were frightened. Children were crying. The relief train from the west was held back because the telegraph and the telephone poles had burned down and there was no way of communication. Finally Maud Martin got word that a relief train was coming from the east. "We waited," she said, "until the fire was within a few yards of the buildings, scorching our flesh, then we ran for the tunnel that was about half a mile away. We almost suffocated from the smoke." The train did not come for another hour and a half and when it did it had to stay in the tunnel five hours before it was safe to leave. But it did come, and they could get into the cars that shut out some of the smoke and gas. It was a great relief.

At Wallace, one man speaking of it afterwards said, "the sky turned a ghastly yellow shade; by four o-clock it was dark ahead of the advancing flames. the air was filled with electricity as if the whole word was about to blow up in spontaneous combustion."

At the end of August, rain finally came to the forests and snow to the mountains. Residents either returned to their homes--if they remained, began to rebuild their houses and lives, or moved away to start over. Eighty-five souls officially lost their lives, but privately many thought the death count was higher. Numerous immigrants were believed to not have registered when they were hired to fight fires, and with no families in the area to report them missing, surely some would have been overlooked, especially since it could not be certain that all bodies were recovered. Three billion board feet of timber went up in smoke; in some places the earth was so deeply scorched that by 1978 no seedlings had yet come up. Countless elk, deer, bear, cougar, and other wildlife perished. Crops and livestock were destroyed. The Great Fire of 1910 is believed to be the largest fire reported in America, and perhaps the world.

It greatly impacted my husband's family and lingers on in their history. At his grandmother's funeral in 1993, one of his cousins, the daughter of his grandmother's twin brother, brought up the story, which was when I first heard it. Recently, another cousin mentioned how fearful their grandmother had always been of fire. It is not impossible to believe that even at three years of age, the incident could have been imprinted on Leona's memory; at the age of two I witnessed the village school burning down in Metlakatla, Alaska and remember the absolute terror I felt even though I was watching from the safety of my mother's arms in our home several blocks away. To have endured such a close encounter with a holocaust as the Martin family did would definitely cause strong emotional reactions in the future to the possibility of the threat of conflagration.

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Biblography:

Google Earth. June 16, 2004 - March 5, 2005. Europa Technologies, http://earth.google.com (accessed October 9, 2009).

Pratt, Grace Roffey, "Idaho's Red Monster." Frontier Times (February-March 1978): 6-9, 50-53.

Wikipedia contributors, "Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chicago,_Milwaukee,_St._Paul_and_Pacific_Railroad&oldid=316074069 (accessed October 9, 2009).

Wikipedia contributors, "Great Fire of 1910," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Great_Fire_of_1910&oldid=318811908 (accessed October 9, 2009).


Recommended:

Idaho Forest Fire Stories - The Great Fire of 1910: http://www.idahoforests.org/fires.htm

Historic Photos - go to Google Images and run the following searches: "great fire of 1910" idaho and "great fire of 1910" wallace

Even More About Sgt. Walter Scott

This afternoon, I had about an hour in the genealogy room of the downtown branch of the Spokane Public Library. I wanted to see what I could find out about Sgt. Walter Scott, even though an hour didn't give me enough time to really do a lot of digging. First, I looked at the microfilm rolls of the Washington State Death Index for 1910 - 1919 and for 1920 - 1929. I was looking not only for Walter, but for his wife Josephine. There were many Walter Scotts listed in the WSDI, and I had to eliminate them by subtracting the age listed at death from the year of death to see if I could come up with a date of (or close to) 1847, the date Craig determined Walter had been born. I found only one Josephine listed in that 20-year-span, and her age was too young to have fit the Josephine found on the 1870 and 1880 Federal Censuses. I finally found Walter listed in the 1920 - 1929 WSDI, age 75, death on 6 January 1923 in the City of Spokane.

From there, I went in search of Spokane newspapers on microfilm for that week. In 1923, the city had three newspapers, The Spokane Press, The Spokane Daily Chronicle (which later became simply The Spokane Chronicle) and The Spokesman-Review, the only one of the three still in existence. Most people in those days did not have obituaries, unless they were prominent citizens or celebrities. Occaisionally, one might find a short "blip" of a paragraph or two tucked away behind the front page, notifying the public of the death of a well-known or beloved person in the community. Births, marriages, deaths, funerals, and cards of thanks were listed with the public notices directly before the advertisements, not unlike today's paper.

In The Spokane Daily Chronicle of Saturday, 6 January 1923, on page 14, column 1, I found Walter's death notice:

Scott - Walter. Age 75 years, passed away a E3604 2d avenue, January 6th. He is survived by his wife, Alice M.; a daughter, Eva M. Petway of Spokane; two sons, Miner [sic] L. of Seattle and Walter of Anaconda, Mont.; also a granddaughter of Portland. He was a member of the K. P. lodge and Reno Post. The body is at Smith & Co.'s funeral parlors.

The Spokane Press had a funeral notice two days later on page 7, column 2:

Walter Scott, Tuesday, 3 o'clock, from Smith & Co.'s. Rev. Johnson, Reno Post of GAR and Knights of Pythias to officiate. Greenwood.

There was nothing found in The Spokesman-Review. I ran out of time to check funeral home records, city directories, Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, and a number of records I could have accessed in the genealogy room, Northwest Room, or microfilmed newspaper section. On my To-Do list is to discover when and where Josephine died.

When I got home, I was curious to see what I could find on the Washington State Digital Archives website. I noticed that Walter's wife was listed as Alice M. in the death notice, so I figured he had married again after Josephine's death. My search for Walter Scott turned up many results, most of which were not the man I was researching. However, three were of interest: the 1910 Federal Census of Spokane County; a 1911 Spokane County (historic) marriage record to Alice M. Harris; and a Walla Walla Penitentiary record. The 1910 census listing is actually an index, and does not list other members of the household. Since Craig had already found this information (likely on Ancestry.com), I didn't feel compelled to dig deeper here. The marriage record was definitely a jackpot, because one can view images of these historic records! It confirmed Walter's birth in Ohio, and gave his mother's maiden name: Sophia Hall, born in Kentucky. His father's name was unknown. Alice had much more detailed information, including the fact that she was an octoroon, divorced, and her parents' names and birthplaces. The record contained the Scotts' signatures as well. I could not make out the last name of one of the witnesses: Belle Sear? The other witness was definitely a relative: W. E. Scott. They were married by F. L. Donohoo, elder of the A.M.E. Church in Spokane.

The penitentiary record was probably not this Walter, but may have been his son. A Walter Scott, Negro, was convicted of Grand Larceny in King County (Seattle) in 1915, and served time in Walla Walla.

There are certainly many more things I could research on this family. Currently, my curiousity has been satisfied. Perhaps having this information online may bring about a result for a descendant Googling Walter Scott's name.

More Obituaries: SNOOK and WESTABY

Joyce Obland, a volunteer for Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness, obtained some obituaries for my husband's family and sent them to me this week. George Rice WESTABY, II was Norm's great-great-grandfather. George, his father-in-law, Reuben Wohlford SNOOK, and Reuben's second wife, Elizabeth NEARHOOD, were all residents of Forsyth, Rosebud Co., Montana. I've posted their obituaries on my website here. I especially like the flowery and sentimental obituary for Elizabeth.

The obituaries have provided me some new information, and as I add the information to Norm's family tree database, analyzing it as I go, I'll probably come up with even more details, as well as questions to add to my research "To Do" lists.

I recently found a very interesting online biography of Reuben in Progressive Men of the State of Montana, which added quite a bit to my understanding of this family.

My Genealogy Gift List: Victoria's Secret? Never!

The other day, my 16-year-old daughter and I were watching television together when a commercial for Victoria's Secret aired during the break. The gist of the message was "every woman wants Victoria's Secret for the holidays." I rolled my eyes and said to Missy, "Not this woman. Give me death certificates or census records any day!"

As I thought it over, I realized that there were actually a few Secrets I'd like, none of them having to do with women named Victoria, however. For instance, there's Mariah Emily DAILEY and her daughter, Emma Alice LYTON, my children's father's 2nd-great- and great-grandmothers, respectively. Just exactly where were they when the 1880 Federal Census was being taken? They should have been in Iowa, specifically in Thurman, Freman County. Mariah's first husband, George TURK, assumed the name Henry LYTON, and immigrated to the U.S. from Ontario to serve in the Union Army during the Civil War. After his death, Mariah married German immigrant John KLINDER in 1875. By 1880, Mariah and John had two children, Nancy Florence and Laura Luella, as well as Emma and Agnes LYTON from her marriage to Henry. Mariah's Secret or Emma's Secret would be great gifts for Christmas!

And in my own ancestry, I have yet to figure out Mary Jane's Secret...Mary Jane FREDENBURG, that is. My 2nd-great-grandmother was 8 years old in 1880, yet she and her six-year-old brother, George Franklin FREDENBURG, are missing from the Greenwood Township, St. Clair County, Michigan home of her widowed mother Cornelia (McCLELLAN) FREDENBURG, younger brother William Anthony FREDENBURG (age 3 1/2), older half-sister Sarah E. FREDENBURG (12) and paternal grandparents Anthony and Hannah (FOX) FREDENBURG. Can't find them anywhere in Michigan, or the U.S., for that matter.

I did get Helen's Secret and Rena's Secret for Christmas last year. My children's father's paternal grandmother, Helen Mary WESTABY, and her mother, Rena (LERFALD) WESTABY, went missing, along with father George Rice WESTABY, III, during the 1920 Federal Census. I thought I had figured it out when I read George's obituary a few years ago. It stated that he had come from Montana to Washington State in 1920. "Aha!" I thought. "That's why I couldn't find them...they were moving, en route across the Northwest." I was right...sort of. I was given some significant missing details by my children's paternal grandfather during our 2005 Christmas visit. He told me that his grandfather George had been employed by the Northern Pacific Railroad in Montana, along with George's father and brothers. Seems George and his brothers made a little extra on the side by selling brass they stole from the railroad. George apparently sold to the wrong person, and managed to discover his mistake shortly before his impending arrest, making a midnight move with Rena and little Helen west to the Yakima Valley, where they likely hid out at the home of George's cousin, Charles WESTABY. If they weren't exactly in transit when the census was taken, it is certain that neither Charles nor his wife would have divulged to a government employee (i.e. census enumerator) that they were harboring a fugitive from the law!

And I did uncover another Mary Jane's Secret this year...I think. Mary Jane BARBER, my great-grandmother and daughter of Mary Jane FREDENBURG mentioned above, was married many times. In fact, she apparently was married so many times, even her family members may not have known the exact count. My records show she first married my great-grandfather, Howard Merkel YORK, when she was only 14 years old, in 1924. That unhappy union ended three years later. Mary Jane later married her step-brother, Archie Louis KELLER, when both were in their thirties. After that divorce, Mary Jane married what we had believed to be her third husband, Jay DUNLAP. It was my searching for Mary Jane in the 1930 Federal Census that led to my theory that there was another husband between Howard and Archie. Since I couldn't seem to find Mary Jane, I looked for her older brother Jim. I found a man with his name, the right age, birthplace and parents' birthplaces in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. Coincidentally, there's also a Mary Jane KUPSH in Manitowoc, age off by only one year, born in Michigan, parents born in Michigan. Ordering Arthur KUPSH's marriage record to Mary Jane should clarify if this is my great-grandmother. Interestingly, I asked Uncle Jim's widow if she had ever heard that her late husband and sister-in-law had lived in Wisconsin. She said no; however, Jim's widow came late into the family, as a second marriage for both Jim and herself. She may not have known Mary Jane's Secret.

So a few Secrets uncovered...yet many more to be found! So put away those laces, satins and silks...give me dusty documents, faded photographs (but not too faded!), or samplers stitched with my ancestress' maiden name instead:

My genealogy gift list for myself (and for you!) is to uncover a few more family secrets in 2007...a few more surprises, a few more times exclaiming "so THAT'S where they were!" and many more genealogy happy dances to jig!

Merry Christmas!

P.S. When I originally published this post at my old blog site, Lee left the following comment on December 18, 2006:

Love your post! Who has a need for Victoria Secret when there are juicier secrets out there just waiting to be uncovered?

~ Lee

Research Log - Obits for Norm's Ancestors, Part 2

Heard from Christine Gray, RAOGK volunteer for Multnomah Co., Oregon. She will be looking for obits for Emma Alice LYTON and John Franklin MARTIN. Requests reimbursement of 25 cents per obit (copying fees) and $1.25 parking fee. She's done a lookup for me before; found Leona Mary MARTIN's obit a month or so ago, and did a great job.

Also heard from Joyce Obland, RAOGK volunteer for Rosebud Co., Montana, willing to look up obits for George Rice WESTABY, II, Reuben Wohlford SNOOK, and Elizabeth NEARHOOD. She requests reimbursement for gas (50 cents per mile is the standard donation...however, she has a 60-mile round trip to do her lookups), plus $1.00 per obit copy. I e-mailed her back and told her I will have to wait until after the holidays, as the $30.00 for gas is a little much right now.

Lastly, I heard from Linda Kolinski, RAOGK volunteer for Los Angeles Co., California. She had done an online search in ProQuest Historical Newspapers in the Los Angeles Times (1881 - 1985), and was unable to obtain an obituary for either Clark Pleasant R. TOLLIVER or Senna COLLINS.

Research Log - Obits for Norm's Ancestors

Requested obituaries though various RAOGK volunteers for Norm's ancestors:

Peder Johnsen LERFALD
Regina LERFALD
Clark Pleasant R. TOLLIVER
Senna COLLINS
Emma Alice LYTON
John Franklin MARTIN
George Rice WESTABY, II
Reuben Wohlford SNOOK
Elizabeth NEARHOOD (step-ancestor, second wife of Reuben Wohlford SNOOK)
Angelia Rebecca LUKE.

Ordering Vital Records

This morning I mailed off applications for vital records for ancestors of my husband. I was prompted by the posting at GenealogyBlog a few days ago that mentioned that there was a bill before the Colorado State legislature that, if passed, will prevent access to Colorado marriage records. Ridiculous! Of course, the reasoning behind this bill is identity theft and terrorism prevention, but once, again, paranoia has driven things too far! I can understand protecting records that are less than 50 or even 60 years old...but tell me how restricting access to marriage records that are 100 years old will prevent identity theft and terrorism? I can see it now...members of Al-Quaida are meeting to figure out a way to get counterfeit ID, and decide they will use Norm's great-grandparents' marriage record of 1907 to show proof of residence and thus citizenship. Oh, wait...that couple married 101 years ago! So I guess that member of Al-Quaida looks a little young to be married in 1907! Nevertheless, we must protect our citizens. Quick, shut down access to public records in the name of Homeland Security!

OK, off my soapbox. I ordered a marriage certificate from Colorado for John Franklin Midkiff, Sr. and Margie Ethel Tolliver; a birth record for Helen Mary Westaby (Norm's paternal grandmother) from Montana; and a death certificate for John Franklin Midkiff, Jr. (Norm's paternal grandfather) from Washington (State). To get applications, I simply went to www.co.gov, www.mt.gov, and www.wa.gov. I looked for "vital records" or "public health" links on the main pages of each website. All three sites were user-friendly, and I was able to find what I needed right away. If I hadn't been able to, I would have looked on the main page for a link to a site map, or done a site search.

I chose mail-in applications which I printed (all were .pdf files which I viewed with Adobe Acrobat) over online applications, which used third party businesses and were rather expensive. The mail-in applications may take some time, but they were reasonably priced. I didn't pay more than $17 apiece for the certificates.