Those Places Thursday: Your Last Chance

Those Places is a daily prompt at Geneabloggers that invites family historians to post photos and stories about places their ancestors lived. 

This is the final installment of a series based on my great-aunt Velma Davis Woodring’s scrapbook that she kept during her freshman year at Harrisonburg Teachers College (now James Madison University). 

This gas station on Route 11 between Harrisonburg and Staunton, Virginia advertises itself as Your Last Chance.

Velma captioned it:  Scene near HTC 1925. Gas was about 20-23 cents a gallon. That equates to about $2.63-$3.02 per gallon today. Not too much different from today's rate.  

©2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Workday Wednesday: Brakemen and Firemen

Workday Wednesday is a daily prompt at Geneabloggers that encourages family historians to document their ancestors’ occupations (they weren’t all farmers) through photos and stories of ancestors at work.

The Norfolk & Western railway in Page County, Virginia had many of my ancestors on its payroll.  Besides the storekeeper, conductors and engineers, my family provided five brakemen and two firemen.

Left: Clyde Strole, brakeman
Right: Millard Davis, storekeeper

My great-granduncle Walter Newman Rucker, his son Franklin, and two sons-in-law Willie Strole and Russell Bumgardner along with Willie’s brother Clyde, who was the husband of one of my distant cousins, were all brakemen for the steam railroad in the first part of the twentieth century. 

The main responsibility of the brakemen is obvious:  operate the brakes.  But they also assisted in switching the train to a new track, and releasing hand brakes when cars were added to or subtracted from the train.

When the train was moving, they assisted the conductor by keeping a lookout for potential hazards on the train itself such as shifting loads.  They protected the train by “flagging” behind and ahead if there was a possibility of collision.

When a caboose was used, the senior brakeman rode in it.  My great-granduncle Walter Rucker must have ridden the caboose because he is listed in the 1920 US Census as a “flagman” which was historically the term for the rear brakeman.

Two very distant cousins (whose names were so unfamiliar I had to look them up in my database) were firemen.  Jessie Roach and Ira Caldwell did just what the job title suggests:  stoked the fire and maintained the boiler’s steam pressure.  Most firemen were also apprentice engineers who could run the train while the engineer supervised. 

Norfolk & Western Railroad apprentices 1923
scanned from Shenandoah: A History of Our Town and Its People

After diesel engines entered the scene and were perfected, the fireman’s job was phased out.  Jessie must have seen that day coming because he left the railroad and went to work for the textile mill.

©2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Census Sunday: Cat Barany

Aunt Cat

I remember very little about my Granny Slade’s sister Catherine Walsh Barany except she was divorced, died her hair red, and smoked and drank too much. 

But the 1940 census tells quite a bit more.

Click to enlarge

Catherine, age 30, and her husband Stephen Barany, age 32, were living at 1920 D Street NE in Washington D.C. when they were enumerated on April 26, 1940.  They owned their house valued at $6000.

captured from Google Maps
Stephen and Cat Barany owned the red house.

Stephen, born in New Jersey, had completed only four years of school.  However, he had a steady job as a machinist in the navy yard earning $2000 in 1939.  He worked 40 hours the last week of March prior to the start of the census. 

Catherine was from Portsmouth, Virginia.  She completed three years of high school and was working as a clerk for a plumbing company.  She worked 40 hours the last week of March and all of 1939 earning $1450. 

Since they claim to have lived in the Same Place in 1935, I wonder if they were married or if they just happened to be living and working in D.C. at the same time and perhaps met there. A marriage record is the obvious source for a possible answer. However, filling in the blanks on Cat's tree is just a low priority right now.

©2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Sepia Saturday: What's in your trunk?

Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers to share family history through old photographs.

This week’s Sepia Saturday photo prompt features an elephant.  At first I thought I’d have to go off-theme, but then ta-da! I remembered seeing this picture:

Velma in India 1959

That is my great-aunt Velma Davis Woodring (wearing dark socks) sitting in the middle of the howdah on the second elephant.  She had traveled to India with fellow teachers in 1959.  As a teacher and principal in the American military base school in Korea, she was allowed quite a bit of free travel, and she took advantage of that privilege with trips throughout Korea, Japan, Thailand, India, and maybe other places I don’t know about.

As a child, I looked forward to Velma’s visits with her stories of exotic places.  The fact that she always brought gifts was a bonus.  

Velma's trunk now belongs to my younger daughter.

Did you know an elephant trunk can lift 660 pounds and carry as much as 1100 pounds? Velma could have used an elephant to help carry all those souvenirs from her travels.  However, she did have her limitations and so selected a steamer trunk instead.

Velma brought us some beautiful art work.  Some of it was on silk and some on paper.  She brought several gorgeous screens that were decorated on both sides.

We have rice dishes, enamel dessert sets and Saki sets, decorative plates and bowls.

When you hold the rice dish up to the light, you can see right through it.

Velma brought us kimonos, dolls, brass hibachi, brassware, and jewelry. 

A visit from Velma promised to be more fantastic than a subscription to National Geographic.  She brought us the world. 

Besides having such beautiful gifts to admire, my sister and I for YEARS had unique Halloween costumes and something to wear for any international theme day during Spirit Week at school; we had objects for geography displays (ensuring good grades, don’tchaknow).  

Never for a minute did we doubt we were the luckiest people on earth.

So it came as bit of a shock upon dividing up my parents’ THINGS that my daughters and my sister’s sons announced they didn’t want “any of that Asian crap.” 

Asian Crap!?!?

How can they say that?  Who else has kimonos and dolls and artwork from the other side of the world?

It’s taken awhile to get over their lack of appreciation.  But I’ve given it a lot of thought and I’ve come to these conclusions:

1.    Asian is not their taste.  Come to think of it, it’s not particularly my taste either.  These things are more than house décor – they’re memories. But they're not their memories.

2.   They didn’t know Velma.  I myself was just a teenager when she died. 

To my sister’s and my children, Velma is merely a name in the family tree, not a real person who showered her family with souvenirs of her adventures and rode an elephant.

More tales of elephant proportions await you at Sepia Saturday.

©2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Those Places Thursday: Hockey Field

Those Places is a daily prompt at Geneabloggers that invites family historians to post photos and stories about places their ancestors lived. 

This is the sixth in a series based on my great-aunt Velma Davis Woodring’s scrapbook that she kept during her freshman year at Harrisonburg Teachers College (now James Madison University). 

When I was in college, women’s field hockey reigned supreme as the main sport on campus.  So I’m surprised to learn from Velma’s scrapbook and yearbook that the sport had such shaky beginnings.

Prior to 1924, field hockey struggled to find a place in the hearts of the HTC students.  From 1912-1915, teams were formed and competed during Field Day which was always part of the commencement activities at that time.  But then field hockey was dropped as an organized sport until 1919 when the sport was revived with Junior and Senior teams. 

The sport became especially popular in 1923.  Harrison Hall was the setting of a pre-breakfast song and yell contest followed by a snake dance out to the hockey field located next to Rockingham Memorial Hospital.

1924 - Hockey field was located where Burruss Hall
and the library are today.

Finally in 1924 the first varsity field hockey team was organized.  The girls played only one game and lost miserably to Westhampton 4-1. In the years following they played 3 games a year.  The second year produced a winning season defeating Shepherd’s College 13-0 and Fredericksburg (now Mary Washington University) 15-1, losing only to Westhampton once again 1-4.  In 1928 HTC added an alumnae game to end the season. 

The team of Velma’s day wouldn’t know what to make of today’s new field hockey complex.

from JMU Sports 

©2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Workday Wednesday: Conductors and Engineers

Workday Wednesday is a daily prompt at Geneabloggers that encourages family historians to document their ancestors’ occupations (they weren’t all farmers) through photos and stories of ancestors at work.

Of my 30 ancestors who worked for the railroad, 3 were conductors but only 1 was an engineer.  These are probably the most well-known and prestigious positions in the food chain of railroad jobs.  But what’s the difference?

My great-grandfather Joseph Calhoun Rucker and two distant cousins Decatur Breeden and John Wesley Breeden were conductors for the Norfolk & Western railway in the first half of the 20th century.  They would probably claim to have the most important job because they were in charge of everything and every member of the train crew, including the engineer. 

Joseph Calhoun Rucker, 4th from left - conductor on #685
scanned from Shenandoah: A History of Our Town and Its People

As conductors, Joe, Decatur, and Wesley had to coordinate with the engineer, dispatcher, and any other parties including the yardmasters and trainmasters who were involved in the operation of the train. They needed to be alert to wayside signals and the position of switches affecting the movement of the train as well as its safety. They assisted the engineer in testing the brakes and gave the signal when to start moving and when and where to stop.  Since they were the conductors, Joe, Decatur, and Wesley also kept records of the journey whether on a passenger train or freight train.

Seated: Johnny Coleman

However, my distant cousin John Coleman probably thought his job as an engineer was the most important.  After all, the train didn’t move without him.  He was in charge of driving the train, not just controlling the speed and braking but also all mechanical operation of the train. He was responsible for preparing the equipment and checking the train’s condition.  Johnny needed to understand the incline and decline of the right-of-way, and how to adjust speed so as not to arrive too early or too late.  Knowledge of track geometry and signal placement helped to prevent derailment and train separation which together helped ensure everyone’s safety. 

In simple terms, a train can move without a conductor, but it can’t move without an engineer. 

©2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Making Indexing History

FamilySearch.org threw down the challenge to the volunteer indexers and arbitrators:  index 5 million 1940 census records in 24 hours on Monday, July 2. 

We didn’t index 5 million records in 24 hours.

We indexed 5 million records in less than 16 hours.  Yeah!  At the end of 24 hours the official count was this:

• 7,256,151 indexed
• 3,082,728 arbitrated
• 10,340,879 total

It’s not too late to join the 1940 US Census Community Project.  Simply click HERE to get started.

There's a video to help you with the set-up.

©2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.