Monday, December 28, 2015

A good look at the State Hospital where my Aunt Lena Margheim died

In the beautiful photo at left is Elsa "Lena" Margheim, an older sister of my paternal grandfather John Ludwig Margheim. Lena was born 1883 in Russell, Russell, Kansas and died 3 Jan 1928 at the Topeka State Hospital, Topeka, Kansas from Pulmonary Tuberculosis. 
I've written about Aunt Lena previously in my blog. You can read the post here. I won't repeat the information provided in that post, but I will again share a copy of her death certificate.
The death certificate indicates that she was attended by the doctor from 19 Sep 1926 until her death. Today as a result of a post on Facebook I found this resource online. 

This is quite an interesting report and will tell us more than we ever wanted to know about the business at the State Hospital from July 1, 1926 to June 30, 1928. Lena's death certificate was signed by Dr. Florence Chapman, who, as we can see from this clip below, had been on staff since 1 Oct 1925. 
If you've had ancestors who resided here, you'll find this resource very interesting. It gives quite a detailed look at the conditions and operations of the hospital from 1900-1958, excepting the period of 1946-1948. 

Sunday, December 27, 2015

My Grandma's Connection to Larry's Grandma

My previous post here illustrated my husband's descendancy from Richard Tennant as shown in the chart above and how that related to my cousin Nancy's Aunt Barbara. As I was researching other descendants of Richard Tennant, I noticed the Dietz name. 

I recalled posting a chart just two weeks ago that included the same George D. Dietz and wife Maria E. Meier (seen above) on my blog here.

I developed the chart above that shows that my 2nd cousin once removed Rachel Dietz was married to my husband Larry Jamison's 5th cousin twice removed. How cool! 

My Husband's Connections to my Cousin's Aunt

I was asked recently to help my cousin Nancy do some research for her Aunt Barbara, the wife of her mother's brother. Nancy is my first cousin, as her father and my mother are siblings. 

By the time I got to the 4th generation in Barbara's mother's paternal line, I suspected that I was going to find a connection to my husband's lineage, as I saw the location of Monongalia County, West Virginia. 

I drew up the chart below to show all the connections that I discovered. Barbara has connections to my husband Larry Jamison's mother's ancestry, as well as my husband's father's ancestry. I suspect I could add many other connections, but this will suffice for now. 
























You can see Larry Jamison at the bottom left. His 6th great grandparents were Richard Tennant and Janet Wark. Besides Larry's ancestor Mahala Tennant, Richard and Janet had a son Richard, husband of Elizabeth Haught. Richard and Elizabeth's granddaughter Anna was the wife of Henry Darrah, son of "Robin" Darrah and Anne Campbell. Robin and Anna also had son Joseph, who had son Robert, who had son Albert, who had a daughter Lucille, who is the mother of Nancy's Aunt Barbara. Now Henry and Joseph Darrah also had a sister Ruth, who married Benjamin Shuman. Benjamin's parents were John Shuman and Elizabeth Smith, who also had a daughter Mary, who married Samuel Kendall. Samuel and Mary had a daughter Ellenor who had a daughter Catherine Campbell. Catherine was the wife of John Haught who had a son Lafayette Haught. I have not proven if Catherine Campbell was his mother, or if a woman named Pleasant Horner was Lafayette's mother. I've spent considerable time researching this family, but have made no firm determination yet as to the identity of Lafayette Haught's mother. The chart above shows that Lafayette Haught had a daughter Rhea, who was the mother of Paul Jamison, my husband Larry's grandfather. 

The Darrahs and Tennants feature prominently in this entertaining Genealogy Report that follows.

Rick Tennant has published this report that gives us greater insight into the personality of Robin Darrah:
The following narrative was published in The Monongalia Story, A Bicentennial History, Volume III. Discord, pages 75-79, written by Earl L Core.Notes in parentheses are my own. 
The Road to Morgantown.One of the earliest examples of Monongalia County folk literature is the famous "Road to Morgantown," the author of which is unknown but believed to be Joseph Park and the date likewise unknown but apparently about 1832. 
The story concerns Robin Darrah, a resident of Miracle Run, in western Monongalia County, who is directing a stranger to the county seat (Robert D. Darrah was the father of Henry Darrah, who married Anna Tennant. Anna was the daughter of John Tennant and Rosanna Moore).Along with illustrating the garrulous nature of some backwoodsmen, the account gives sidelights on living conditions of the day and the people mentioned were real men and women living in the area at the time. 
The text follows: 
STRANGER: My friend, can you tell me the road to Morgantown? 
ROBIN DARRAH: (Throwing down an armful of chips which he was carrying from the yard). By the grace of God I can tell you as well as any man in the county, for I've been there myself.You come past old Joe Tuttle's, didn't you?With his lip stickin' out like your foot, and the amber running off his lip sufficient to swim ducks.He chaws tobaccy, sir! 
STRANGER: I care nothing for him.I've come past there.I wish to get to Morgantown. 
ROBIN DARRAH: Well you'll take up the hill past old Blink-eyed Balwin's, all the blacksmiths we have in the county; the cussedest iron roaster you ever saw in the born days of your life.He will burn up forty plowshares a year, if you'll take 'em to him.A few days ago, Jake (dang his name) and Bets (dang her too!For I can't think of either of their names), was running off to get married over in Pennsylvania, and stopped at Blink-eyed Baldwin's to get their hosses shod.He blowed and blowed and the devil a shoe he made and whether they got married or not I'm unable to tell.He's got a little stewed up old woman for a wife about as big as your fist, about so high! and she keeps the whole country in an uproar with her lies, running so that it's Mattie Baldwin here and Mattie Baldwin there and Mattie Baldwin in everybody's mouth.And there's not a lawsuit in the county in which she is not summoned as a witness for somebody, and whether she swears or not I'm unable to tell you, but I believe she swears lies. 
You'll take down the hill from there to old Dave Chew's that married old Aaron Foster's widder.You'll turn around his farm to the right - that road will lead you down to Dan Cokes, the dog shooter; he has killed all the dogs in this county, so if you're afraid of dogs you needn't be alarmed, for there's not a dog left to bark at you, and it's Dan Cokes here and Dan Cokes there and Dan Cokes in everybody's mouth.He ought to be made pay for the dogs, and I think he will before he gets through with it.The other day me and my son, Joe, was going through a field and up jumps a fox and the dog took after it, and we've never heard of the dog or fox since till this day, and then the fox was about 350 yards ahead of the dog till he hasn't got back yet, and I expect Dan Cokes killed him. 
You just keep down the run from there and you'll come in among the fattest, lustiest set of Negroes you ever seen in all the days of your life.Their name is Dowd and its Dowd here and Dowd there and its Dowd in everybody's mouth.I've one of the cussedest lawsuits with them you ever heard of in your life, and it's all about slander and there's Tom P. Ray, Clerk of the county court at Morgantown and Edgar C. Wilson the best lawyer in the Virginny, both say I'll beat 'em as slick as a bone and it's all about slander, though I've never slandered anybody myself. 
You'll come across a pint there and fall over to another run. By turnin' to the right you'll come down to old Bill Messers.He married a Metz and her name is Peg, and she's the cussedest woman to swear you ever heard in all your life, sir.Her hair sticks out like a scrub broom.She don't comb it from one week's end to another and it's Peg Messer here and Peg Messer there and Peg Messer in everybody's mouth and she can outswear Mattie Baldwin! 
You'll turn there to the left and that will take you to a pint and you will fall over into Jake's Run, named after old Jake Straddlers in Indian times, and it's settled with Tennant's from head to mouth!And they are the cussedest set of men to fight you ever saw in all your born days.Whenever they have a log-rollin' or any comin' together of the people, their jackets are off, and the blood a flyin' and all hollerin' fair play.The father will fight the son and son will fight the father.The brothers will fight one another.There's old Enock Tennant, a steppin' around with his head a stickin' to one side; I believe he is the foulest Tennant among 'em (Enoch Tennant was the son of Joseph Tennant and Catherine Haught).But there's Black Ben, Pete Tennant's slave, I'd like to forget him (Pete Tennant refers to Peter, Richard Tennant's first son.Black Ben is Ben Ponzoo).He's the only white man among the Tennants. 
You'll turn up that run by turnin' to the right, no road to turn you off, till you fall on the head of the Little Paw Paw, to my son-in-law's Ben Shuman's, one of the ugliest men you ever saw in your lifetime and it's Ben Shuman here, and it's Ben Shuman there and it's Ben Shuman in everybody's mouth; he keeps the whole neighborhood in an uproar with his lies.But I must say that Ben Shuman has the best breed of dogs in the county, and he's going to have a lot of pups soon.My Joe spoke a pup and I 'low to go over day after tomorrow myself and buy the mother and sell her to my brother-in-law, Joe Koon, for a gallon of whiskey, or a bushel of corn. 
John Hood's got the best store in Blacksville. There's going to be a famine on the creek for Shep Lemaster and Joe Park are selling their corn out at 25 cents a bushel and they'll have to give 50 cents for the same corn back again between this and harvest.And Bill Lantz and Bill Thomas have got a barrell of whiskey apiece and are retailing it out at a bushel of wheat to the gallon and they'll get all the wheat in this neighborhood and that wheat will go from there to Pittsburgh and I'm a drawin' a pension at this time, and devil a bit more right have I to it than they have, but there's old Andy Cobley and Jake Brookover got me before the squire and didn't care what I swore so they got part of the money.All the exploit I ever done in my life was to kill my mother and then the gun went off by accident (He accidently shot his mother while cleaning his gun). 
STRANGER: Goodday, sir! 
MRS DARRAH: Robin, the gentleman don't know no more about the road now than if you hadn't said a word. 
ROBIN DARRAH: Hold your tongue, old woman.By the grace of God, he can't miss the way, and I know he recollects it, for he said good morning and we parted. 

Saturday, December 26, 2015

The Schwartz family again connects my birth family to my step family

Ernest and my
step-mother
Phyllis (Jones)
Margheim
Last month I wrote a post showing how my mother Ruby Flanders and my step-mother Phyllis Jones were connected through marriage involving a Schwartz family. You can read it here. The chart below illustrates the content of that blog post. 
 As we celebrated Christmas this week I posted this photo on Facebook as a flashback to a Christmas of my childhood.
L to R: Becky Margheim, Cora Sova,
Diana Sova, Dennis Margheim
In my Facebook post, I tagged my cousins (through my step-mother's family) Cora (Sova) Gregg and Diana (Sova) Crawford. A second cousin through my mother's family, Barbara (Smith) Schwartz, made a comment on Facebook asking if that Cora Gregg was Mrs. Ron Gregg. She explained that Ron Gregg was a cousin of her husband Robert Schwartz, as Ron's mother was a sister of Robert's dad. I told her that indeed this was the same Cora Gregg. 
I've created this chart to show the connections I discovered as a result of this new information from Barbara.

I'm shown at the bottom left with my ancestry to my "step" grandparents Jim and Helen Jones. Jim and Helen had daughters Phyllis and Maxine. Cora is the daughter of Maxine and is the wife of Ron Gregg. Ron is a cousin of Robert Schwartz, husband of Barbara Smith. And Barbara is a second cousin to me, as her father Wilmer Smith was a first cousin of my mother Ruby Flanders. Barbara's grandmother Edna Becker and my grandmother Nannie Becker were sisters, both daughters of Joe and Emma (Strait) Becker. 

What a maze, but it shows that once again this Schwartz family connects me to both my step-family and my birth ancestors. You probably wouldn't find this significant if you've never been part of a step-family, especially one who had no intention of being connected to a birth family!
Ernest, Dennis, Becky and Ruby (Flanders) Margheim 1948

Sunday, December 20, 2015

Those Koleber daughters were outnumbered


In the photo above, my grandmother, Amalia 'Mollie' Koleber is the little girl in the center, pictured with her father George Koleber, oldest brother George Jr. and brother Daniel standing behind her. A year before this photo was taken, this family emigrated from Kratzke, Russia. Grandma Mollie's mother, at right in the photo, was Catherine Elisabeth Dietz.  "Katie" was the daughter of George Daniel Dietz and Maria Elisabeth Meier, pictured below.  
The photo below shows Daniel and Mary (Meier) Dietz with daughter Katie at left and son Ludwig at right.
As I was again adding "Titles" to the photos I've uploaded to the Family Tree at FamilySearch.org, I reviewed the obituary of Mary (Meier) Dietz, shown below.
The obituary explains that Mary Dietz gave birth to nine children, EIGHT sons and one daughter. So my great grandmother Katie was their only daughter. 

As it happens, my great grandmother also had only ONE daughter and had SEVEN sons. 
Mollie (Koleber) Margheim with left to right
Alfred, Ernest, LaVerna and Leonard
Katie's daughter Mollie (Koleber) Margheim, my grandmother, gave birth to THREE sons and ONE daughter, shown above.
John and Mollie (Koleber) Margheim with LaVerna,
Ernest and Leonard. Son Alfred had died in 1933.
I hadn't realized daughters were in such short supply in those three generations of my Grandma's Koleber ancestry! 

PS: After I posted this story on Facebook, I learned from the wife of George Koleber's grandson (Sandra Skold Koleber) that they also have had 6 sons and one daughter! George is the oldest son in the photo at the top of this blog post. 

Saturday, December 19, 2015

By Digging Deeper I Learned of Triplet Cousins' Deaths

I recently got access to the new "Memories Gallery" feature on the Family Tree at Family Search. As I viewed the Gallery of photos I've submitted, I noticed many of them needed to be labeled. You can see in this example that some photos have titles, and some still need a title added. 
I came upon this photo that is actually a photocopy of a photo I received from a cousin many years ago. 
Pictured are some of the members of the John Mayers, Sr. family. John Mayers was married to Anna Maria Becker, the sister of my great-grandfather "Joe" Becker. I dutifully added the title to this photo in the Gallery and moved on, as I've been trying to get this project done quickly. As I advanced to the next picture, something grabbed my thoughts and I clicked back to this photo. I zoomed in so I could more easily read the captions at the bottom. And I took a few minutes to really study the individuals and the setting. For the first time I read the fine print! The second (tall) lady from the right in the black dress is identified in the caption as Dora Mayers. This is the writing under her picture: 
"Dora Mayers, wife of John Mayers, Jr. had triplets all died incl. Dora."

How had I missed that? This little girl at the far right is identified as Dora Mayers and would be the oldest daughter of this mother Dora. This chart shows my relationship to this family.  

Young Dora Mayer(s) is my second cousin
once removed.
 
This is the family group of John and Dora Mayer
I found this note on Find-A-Grave, submitted by Gerald Crotinger: 
It's hard to read, so this is what it says: Andrew Morril Mayer, John Cole Mayer, and Fred Long Mayer were born 19 Oct 1894 to parents John Matthias and Elizabeth (Henning) Mayer, and died age 4 days on 23 October 1894. John Matthias Mayer was born in Allegheny Co, Pennsylvania on 11 Jun 1868 and died in Barton Co, Kansas. Elizabeth Henning was born 1869 in Ellinwood, Barton Co, Kansas and died 11 Nov 1894 shortly after the triplets were born. She was the dau of August and Augusta Christina Henning. John Matthias and Elizabeth were married 28 Mar 1890 in Winfield, Cowley Co, Kansas. They were blessed with one other living child, Dora Marie Mayer, b. 25 Feb 1892, Ellinwood, Barton Co, Kansas and died 17 Jul 1973 in Bend, Oregon. She married Victor Lassere. John Matthias Mayer's parents were Johann Mayer, b. 5 Jan 1832 in Austria and died 25 Feb 1902 in Great Bend, Barton Co, Kansas, and Anna Marie (Becker) Mayer, b. 9 Nov 1844 in Trier, Germany, and died 14 Jul 1913 in Great Bend, Barton Co, Kansas. 
Andrew Morril, John Cole, and Fred Long Mayer are all buried in Section R, Row 4, Lot 61 of the Great Bend Cemetery, Great Bend, Barton Co, Kansas, along with their Parents, John Matthias and (Dora) Elizabeth (Henning) Mayer. There are no grave markers on the lot.

I love the Library of Congress' "Chronicling America" site. I found this article about the triplets there.
This story was printed in the Barton County Democrat, Oct. 24, 1894. I'm surprised that the story says the triplets were all healthy children, and ends saying "one died Tuesday". And I was surprised to see the birth weights of the three boys: 6 lbs + 6 lbs + 4 lbs = 16 lbs! We see from the story on Find-A-Grave that the mother Dora died 11 Nov 1894, just about 3 weeks after giving birth and losing her little triplet sons Andrew Morril, Fred Long, and John Cole Mayer(s). How sad. The 26 year-old father John, who'd been married only 4-1/2 years to Dora, was left a single parent to his little daughter Dora, age 2. 

I haven't known much about the Mayer(s) family except how they're related to me. But by "doing my duty" to identify photos in the new Family Tree Memories Gallery I stumbled upon a family photo that had a new story to tell me. A story that touches me and adds so much "heart" to what I know of my ancestors. Blessings come when we're doing the right thing! 

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Ernie Margheim: On Barn Dances, Wedding Dances, and Musician Cousins

This is an email Ernie wrote to relatives as he shared an obituary of his cousin Helen Morgenstern in 2008. How many people would love to get details such as these simply when someone shares an obituary with them!
Jake and Hannah (Templing) Margheim family group
Jake Margheim was the brother of John Margheim as shown in the chart below. Jake's daughter Helen was the subject of the obituary Dad was sharing.
You can see that Mollie Koleber and John Margheim had son Ernest Margheim, who is my father. So the children of Jake and Hannah Margheim were first cousins of my dad.

Listed as the second child in this family group is
Hannah Templing, who married my granduncle
 Jake Margheim. She and her siblings are the
children of Henry and Eva Elisabeth (Maier) Templing.
 
Ernie writes: "This obituary on Helen Morgenstern is of my cousin. She was the daughter of my "Dad's brother Jake and wife Hannah (Templing) that lived up near Susank, KS. I worked on their farm a couple of summers in the wheat harvest. Our folks used to go visit them many Sunday afternoons. I have many memories of walking their pastures with their son Marvin, checking for horny toads, rattle snakes, and lots of small lizards. (The horny toad is like a toad, dry hide, and when you approach them, on their backs they raised their spikes. You did not want to step on them, the whole back is covered with spikes that raise up as their defense when scared.) The pasture was sort of rocky so those little lizards were hiding on the shady side of the rocks, panting from the heat.

The Templing's neighbors were the large Nuss family. They would come down to Uncle Jake's place on Sunday afternoon and their son Gerhardt would join us as we'd wander the pastures and countryside, often carrying .22 rifles to shoot rabbits. 

When I was a little older, a Senior in high school in 1939, while I was out at their place on Sunday, a car load of young folks (usually five or six to a car) came out to attend the Sunday Night Hejny Barn Dance and I got to go along. Of course we always had to first stop off at the bootlegger Bartonek and get a couple of bottles of wine. 

Those were memorable days. My stays at their farm, I got paid $3.75 a week, plus room and board and laundry. I helped through wheat harvest and I had the job of plowing the wheat stubble fields with their McCormick-Deering Tractor, pulling a three or four sheared plow. It was a great experience at my age of 16, 17, and 18. 

In those days they had no electricity on their farm. So evenings were spent with coal oil (kerosene) lamps. They also had a hand crank Victrola phonograph. We played Jimmie Rodgers and Gene Autry cowboy singing records and Bohemian Polka Band records. 

Uncle Jake's kids at that time were Viola (Warner), Rudy Margheim, Helen (Morgenstern), and Marvin Margheim. Cousins Viola, Elsie Michaelis and Alvina Koleber were real close buddies through those years (like the Three Musketeers - ha). Rudy later married Martha Brack. Helen and her husband Luther Morgenstern never had any kids. I went to visit Helen and Luther on one of my early trips from Canon City to Great Bend and I always stopped in at the rest home to visit Viola who was a resident there. I also visited Rudy's widow Martha one year when she was there. The next year she was released, so I visited her at her home.

During my high school years (1936-1940) there were several of us Margheims who had birthdays in August so we always had a birthday dance at the Susank Hall, with music by the Templing Brothers fiddle hochzeit bands. Henry, Jake, and Emanuel were real wedding dance musicians. In those days of German weddings, at the end of the wedding ceremony at church, musicians would (ouz blowza) stand outside the church steps as the people exited the ceremony and play hymns on their horns, (trumpet, baritone, trombone, etc.) It was a "Goose bumps on your back" experience for me. 
The Templing Band, compliments of
Judy Bender McGreevy, daughter of
Ernie and Helen (Templing) Bender.
David Templing made hammered dulcimers
A Hammered Dulcimer
(SchlochBret) for other people and also made fiddles. Those Templing men were brothers to the wife of Uncle Jake, Hannah Templing. Henry Templing's son David had a daughter Helen, who married Ernie Bender. She was a proficient accordian (Hochzeit and Polka) musician. Phyllis and I were friends of Ernie and Helen Bender. We visited with them when we took my mom to the Hays (KS) Dietz/Deines family reunions. Today Ernie and Helen (Templing) Bender are residents of Great Bend Health and Rehab, where Helen (Margheim) Morgenstern was a resident before her death. Great Bend Health and Rehab is west of the Great Bend Cemetery, near the intersection of K-96 and Broadway. Have I got you all confused? Some names and/or places might register with some of you, my family and friends. Stay in touch! Ernie" 

Sunday, December 13, 2015

New discoveries from my post of Uncle Alex's fatal accident

I recently wrote a post about my Granduncle Alex Margheim's fatal auto accident in 1927. A Facebook Friend Terry Batt, a fellow Volga German descendant, read the post and confirmed the identity of the driver of the car that wrecked into Uncle Alex that Sunday morning.
George Daniel and Maria Elisabeth (Maier) Dietz
They are shown at the top left of the diagram below.
George Daniel and Maria Elisabeth (Maier) Dietz
The connections that surfaced as a result of those identities are shown in this diagram that I composed. 
At the bottom right in the shaded box are William Karst and his wife Lydia Templing. It was William '"Willie" or "Bill" Karst who drove the Hudson automobile that was identified in the newspaper article as the driver of the vehicle that collided with Alex Margheim, who appears in the shaded box at left. 

In drawing up this diagram, I was able to show the connection of William "Bill" Karst and Alex Margheim. As you can see since Bill was married to Lydia Templing, his brother-in-law was Jacob Margheim husband of Lydia's sister Hannah. And it was Jacob's brother Alex who was driving the car that Bill collided with. I can't imagine the agony and heartache so many families felt as a result of this accident. 

I've shown the Margheim brothers, Jacob, Alex, and John. John is my paternal grandfather---Ernie's father. 

Just last night as I developed this chart, I discovered  a connection between my grandmother Mollie (Koleber), wife of John Margheim, and the Templing family also! Hannah and Lydia Templing's mother is Eva Elisabeth Maier. I knew that Mollie's maternal grandmother was also a Maier--Maria Elisabeth Maier, wife of George Daniel Dietz. (The spellings of Maier and Meier seem to be interchangeable in those families.) The chart, with the red arrows, shows that Maria Elisabeth Meier's brother was George Jacob Maier, husband of Maria Elisabeth Koleber.

Well, lo and behold, my grandmother's maiden name was KOLEBER! So here are the discoveries: my Grandma Mollie (Koleber) Margheim's Grandaunt (through her mother's line) Maria Elisabeth Koleber was the grandmother of both Lydia and Hannah Templing. And her Granduncle (through her father's line) George Jacob Maier was the grandfather of both Hannah and Lydia Templing. And Grandma Mollie's brother-in-law Jake Margheim was married to her second cousin Hannah Templing.

Terry Batt supplied these photographs of Bill and Lydia Karst, for which I'm very grateful.
Bill and Lydia Templing Karst at their
wedding 1916
Bill and Lydia Karst 1966
My grandmother's photo collection, that I found as I was cleaning out my father's house, included the photos below, of the Margheim brothers and their wives.
Alex and Bertha (Schneider) Margheim
at their wedding in 1916
Jacob "Jake" and Hannah (Templing)
Margheim at their wedding 1912
John and Amalia "Mollie" (Koleber)
Margheim at their wedding 1920 
A comment I wrote in a previous post was "Dig a little deeper". We never know what we're going to discover. By digging deeper last night when I saw that Hannah and Lydia Templing's grandma was a Koleber, I found the relationships in the diagram above. 

When I noticed all these family connections last night, I first wanted to go tell my Dad (can't do that anymore!), and then I wished I could ask Grandma Mollie about her connection to the Templing family. The opportunities I missed during those years that I spent so much time with my Grandma! She'd have so gladly shared with me her family connections. I just never thought to ask.   

Saturday, December 12, 2015

Ernie Margheim: On watches and radio signals

An extract from an email Dad wrote to Ethel Lock May 2008.


Fred and Ethel Lock
You know this electronic age still baffles me. My wrist watch quit so I bought a new one for $29. It has a feature that a radio signal in Fort Collins (CO) keeps the right time on my wrist watch with a radio signal. Now that is something! All those miles and me being inside my house, that radio signal can still SET MY WATCH to the second. I also bought a table clock that projects the time on the ceiling or wall and it is the same with that radio signal. And it shows AM or PM on the wall. I have it plugged in but it is equipped with two AA batteries. 

I remember when a good watch (they called them Swiss, jeweled escapement (little red Rubies) movements would cost over a hundred dollars. 

When I was in the Army in an Ordnance company, I fixed binoculars. We also had a watchmaker in our section. I would get to watch him and saw those little red dots. (Jewels they called them). His name was Hank Duce and he always wore one of those eye pieces that magnified his work. You don't find many watchmakers anymore. When my Seiko wrist watch quit, I looked in the yellow pages and found a watchmaker working out of his house living here in Canon City I went to see him and he said he still works on grandfather clocks, but he is in a wheel chair and quite old and said his hands are not steady enough anymore to work on my watch. I found this one for $29 so I bought it. Can't go wrong with that price. The labor to fix mine would probably cost more than that. 

Getting back to setting my watch by radio. I remember when I was in Hoisington High School, the clocks on the wall were hooked up to Western Union, and ever so often you could see that second hand or minute hand jump. They were probably hooked up to Western Union with a telephone wire at that time (1936-1940). 

Years ago when radios still had shortwave, I learned from a fella in the Navy that was on the ship that brought us from France back to New York. He worked in the radio shack and I played guitar, so we were buddies for the trip. He told me the Washington Bureau of Standards had a short wave frequency that every hour would give the Greenwich Mean Time. And in between it sounded the frequency sound of 440 (Musical A note) that we used to tune our guitars or fiddle with. So that was by radio, mind you from Washington DC, clear out in the ocean to France. That was pretty marvelous for the times (1945). I forgot what frequency it was. I think it was around 80 on the dial. It seems the call letters were WWVA. No, that does not sound right, more like WWVA might be the AM West Virginia radio station. They used to have a Saturday night barn dance music program from Wheeling West Virginia, something like the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. The wires get crossed up in my brain I think. It is probably still on the air. 


Ernie's Philco table radio
I had a table radio that I bought while in the CCC Camp (1941) that still had shortwave on and I used to click on it and it had changed the frequency pitch every 15 minutes. I think it was E-Flat part of the time, as I recall, so you had to wait for the quarter hour to get 440-A. 

Did I indicate I was going to click my SEND button? Oh well, bye for now. Ernie

Ernie Margheim: Recalling My Home Communities and Civic Activities

Excerpts from an email Dad wrote to Eldena Allen, a friend of his sister in their school days in Hoisington, KS, mid 1940s. Written in May 2008 when he was 86 years old. It wasn't until I looked online that I learned of her death from the memorial on Find-A-Grave for Eldena, who died one year after this letter was written to her. I'm sure Dad told me of her death, but I don't remember that. 


Eldena Hamilton Allen
1934-2009
Everyday I thank my Lord for my good health and enjoying life. It took me awhile to get over feeling like a "fifth wheel" after Phyllis died, (2/24/97). I still have my up and down days. I keep telling myself I need to get out more. When I first moved out here, I got INVOLVED. I joined a civic club (University Club) similar to the Kiwanis I was a member of in Great Bend for probably 45 years. I attended the Seniors Mini-College offered at the local Community College and traveled often to Colorado Springs for the Symphony concerts. 

Looking back, while I worked for Thies, I was heavily involved with civic duties as part of my PR position with Thies Packing Co. Chamber of Commerce, GBID (Great Bend Industrial Development), with establishing the airport into an Industrial Park; bringing in the Marlette Mfg. plant, bringing the Railroad spur, Natural Gas Line, Expanded Sewer and Water facilities; fundraising period of Central Kansas Medical Center and Barton County Community College, County Red Cross Chairman, promoting Republican party Precinct. I conducted the Safety meetings for Thies Packing, collected for the United Way, and served for one year as Chairman of the congregation at Trinity Lutheran Church, as well as singing in the Church Choir and teaching Sunday School. 


JC Penney occupied the
former Wiley's building
All that just does not seem that long ago to me now. One year I was Kiwanis Chairman to furnish concession facilities at the Rodeo at the Airport grounds. The plant was heavily involved with community projects and activities, as Hody (Thies) was Mayor for a spell and it carried over the following years. Your boss at Litwins, Ralph Raffelock, was also involved with most of the activities I was part of. He
Ralph Raffelock
was a great "Giterdone" type of person. He didn't seem to have to be too vocal, but somehow, he knew the right buttons to push to finalize a project. He was sort of a King Pin on the CKMC project. Then they tore down the old Great Bend Hotel at Broadway and Kansas, and Wiley's built that new store.


It was not hard to get drafted to be part of community improvement. Then the Lions Cub planted all those Redbud trees on Broadway.  

Then the FIRES! Parrish Hotel, the Woodman Hall at Broadway and Main...WOW! Hasn't Great Bend come a long ways in fifty years? We used to have the Strand and Plaza Theater. Of course speaking of fires. The Royal Theater in Hoisington as well as Hunts Pool Hall near where Star Grocery used to be at 2nd and Main. Then the Alexander Cafe fire. Remember the old Moanon (sic) Hotel south of Howell Grocery. On the Hunts Pool Hall, it was winter and my dad was one of the volunteers helping to fight the fire. Their overalls froze still while they worked that night.

Well, I may be boring you. Many of these things probably occurred before you were old enough to remember. I think Charlie Hulme giving that Sportsman Club ground to form the Historical Society was a Great Boost for the town. 

I could go on and on. I have a one track mind and when it meanders on and on, I am unable to find a stopping place. But you still fit into my pleasant memories. Your family was wonderful, especially your mom helped my mom a great deal. My mom always fixed a big dinner on Labor Day to feed many of the Argonne Rebels members. Seems your mom also helped with that. Your dad was such a "straight shooter", quiet, sincere, friendly, dependable. It was a treat to be his friend. Well, that was all back in the 1950-60s and here we are forty and fifty years later. Still talking about it. 

Thanks for listening!

Friday, December 11, 2015

Ernie Margheim: An Interesting Twist to Uncle Alex's Fatal Accident

 An excerpt from an email Dad wrote to me in Oct 2008, with expanded information that I've added.
Alexander and Bertha (Schneider) Margheim,
married 2 Sep 1916, Milberger, Kansas
In 1927 my dad's brother, Alex Margheim, living up near Galatia or Milberger, KS, was killed on a Sunday morning while driving to church. His wife, Bertha survived. 

I was age 5 at the time, but I vividly remember looking at their wrecked Apperson Roadster that was sitting in their yard, when we came from WaKeeney to Milberger to attend the funeral. What impressed me was the colored enameled nameplate on the front of the hood of the car. It was multicolored, green, black or something along that line. I thought to myself, "What a shame for such a pretty car to be wrecked". Uncle Alex liked fast cars. He also drove a race car in car races in those days. 

As I related to you before, later in Great Bend, Kansas, Leo Steinert had a furniture store and on occasion I told him about Uncle Alex's wreck. He said "You know we were on our way to church that morning and we were the first on the scene at that collision at the intersection of north/south road near Milberger, coming in north of Milberger." 

I never did ask who the people were in the other car for that collision.
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Notes from Ernie's daughter Becky:

As I reviewed the obituary for Alex, I saw that the driver of the car that hit Uncle Alex was a Willie Karst. Here's the obituary from Find-A-Grave.
Margheim Killed in Wreck Near Milberger
Death Almost Instantaneous From Triple Fracture 
at Back of Brain
Wife and Five Children Not Injured
Alex Margheim, of the Milberger community was instantly killed Sunday morning about 10 o'clock from a triple fracture at the base of his brain, when his car crashed into the Hudson sedan of Willie Karst just as the latter was driving away from the filing station in front of the Milberger store. Margheim, his wife and five children, were on their way to Great Bend, going south on the highway and did not see the Karst car which was pulling away from the filling station headed west. The Margheim car, which was an Apperson roadster, was completely wrecked and the front of the Karst car was damaged considerably. Except for a few bruises sustained by the Margheim children no one else was injured. Karst was traveling alone. Margheim is a brother of Fred Margheim of this city. He also has another brother living in Galatia. Funeral services will be held in Milberger Wednesday morning. January 3, 1927 issue of the Russell Record

This is a map of that area:
From Google Images I found these photos of the Apperson Roadster.

This may be the hood ornament that Dad retained in his memory for 81 years. It fits his description. 
In the 1920s in the Milberger, Russell, Galatia, Hoisington, and Great Bend areas of Kansas, the residents were largely acquainted with each other as they were descendants of the Volga Germans who settled there at the turn of the century. Most were also members of the Lutheran Church. So I wondered if the Willie Karst who was driving the car that hit Uncle Alex might have been acquainted with him.

As I searched on Family Tree for Willie Karst, I found information on William Frederick Karst, who was verified by one of my Volga German friends to be the driver of the other car. The chart below shows how that William Karst is related to the Margheim family! 
This chart shows "Willie Karst" at the bottom left, with his wife Lydia Templing. Lydia and her sister Hannah are the daughters of Henry Templing and Elisabeth Maier. Hannah is married to Jacob Margheim, brother of Alex Margheim, the victim in the car accident. Alex and Jacob have another brother John, whose son is Ernest, my father, shown at bottom right.

In determining the correct identity of the driver of the car that hit Alex, the tale of Alex's death includes another element that adds to its great tragedy and sorrow. In this case, Willie was the driver of the car that hit the Apperson Roadster that was driven by his brother-in-law's brother. Such a tragedy for so many families who were "related" to each other. Perhaps this is why my dad was not told who the driver of the other car was. But then Dad was just a 5 year old boy.

Ernie Margheim: My First Job with the Ochs family and my Truck Driving Lessons

Left to right: Lydia (Ochs), Lefa, Alfred, Lavern,
Ernest and Mollie Margheim
Mollie's sons are Alfred and Ernest.
Lydia's children are Lefa and Lavern. 
Excerpt from an email Ernie Margheim wrote to me in March, 2008, when he was 86 years old. He was forwarding an obituary to me of Florence Ochs, wife of Paul Ochs. Her memorial at Find-a-Grave can be found here.

I wanted to add some comments on this obituary. Working for the Paul Ochs family was probably my first job other than helping Uncle Jake (Margheim) for harvest. 

The Ochs family owned one of the grain elevators in Hoisington. I worked four places with that family. I washed the train smoke off their office windows. The office was by the elevator right next to the Missouri Pacific Railroad tracks, so that smoke film was something to deal with! The Ochs family also had a produce warehouse with fresh vegetables, potatoes, lettuce, the whole gamut. I worked in the warehouse trimming vegetables from the crates, then I rode with Paul Ochs on the delivery truck, making deliveries to the grocery stores, including stores in Russell (KS). Then they also had a hardware store on Main Street in Hoisington. I worked in the store dusting stuff, counting stuff during inventory time, etc. Paul paid me $3.50 each week. He was really nice to me and helped me known "how to" on jobs that I'd never done before. He gave me good "job learning experience".

One time they had purchased a used truck in Ellinwood (KS). I had NEVER driven a truck. I could drive the folks' car, however. When I was a sophomore in high school, Paul took me to Ellinwood and had me drive their purchased used OLD truck to Hoisington, via north of Ellinwood to Claflin and then to Hoisington. (See map below). It was a new experience for me. I was VERY, VERY CAREFUL. I think that was my first DOUBLE CLUTCHING experience. 
I was NEVER a truck driver. But I had to LEARN in the Army. Those GMC (Jimmy) 6x6 were a hunk to handle. Six wheel drive. We had stream crossing exercises and I was also towing a trailer and the back of he truck was full of other GIs. I had it in six-wheel drive to go down a steep hill, and cross the river about three feet deep, and getting out of the water it was a steep hill again going up. Being in six-wheel drive it was just creeping, but somehow, maybe with thedouble clutching, I stalled getting out of the water. Hmmmmm! I was in a hot seat. I finally got it started again and made it through the exercise. I probably tried to shift gears, but probably should just have it creep until I got on the top of that hill. But the training included learning to shift gears with that double clutching.     
George and Lydia (Ochs) Margheim, married 9 Nov 1919 
Lefa (1920-1990) and Lavern (1922-1947) Margheim
 Note from Becky:
As I read of Dad's work experience with Paul Ochs, I wondered if Paul might be related to Lydia Ochs, who married George Margheim, my dad's uncle. A picture of Lydia with my dad and his mother and brother is shown at the top of this story. By researching on Family Tree I discovered that Paul was a cousin of Lydia. And since Lydia was married to my dad's uncle, her children were cousins of my dad. I've create a couple of charts to illustrate this. 

I could easily have read Dad's email and learned of his first work experience with the Ochs family, as well as his experience learning to drive the Army trucks, but discovering the relationships between those mentioned in his email has made it more relevant and meaningful. I encourage my readers to "dig a little deeper" when learning the stories of our ancestors. I know Dad would agree!