The Value of a Library Card - St. Louis

Post updated from 2015

I conduct a lot of genealogy research from the comfort of my home computer. One of the key resources I use is my St. Louis County Public Library Card. (Other library systems, as well as some genealogy societies, provide similar resources for their users.)

Here's a sampling of databases I can search/browse from the comfort of my home, for free (complete list) I have indicated the subscription price I'd have to pay without the library card

Databases I could subscribe to as an individual

• NewspaperArchive.com ($75/6 mos)
• AccessibleArchives: ($90/year)
• African American Newspapers 19th century
• A Newspaper Perspective
• Newspapers.com ($45/6 mos)
• I am assuming that the ProQuest library edition is similar to the Newspapers.com Basic subscription
• Fold3 ($80/year)

Databases only available to libraries and other institutions - not by individual subscription

• Fire Insurance Maps Online
• HeritageQuest Online
• Newsbank: St. Louis Post Dispatch (1981-Current) 
• Newsbank: Access World News (1978-current) 
• Newsbank: America's Obituaries
• ProQuest: Historical New York Times (1851-2011)
• ProQuest: Historical St. Louis Post Dispatch (1874-1922)
• ProQuest Digital Microfilm - St. Louis Post Dispatch 1989-Present
• Gale Group: Nineteenth Century US Newspapers
• EBSCOhost: Academic Search Elite (1985-current)
• EBSCOhost: AAS Historical Periodicals Collection (1684-1912)
• HistoryGeo (searchable database of 12.3 million names connected to land ownership maps covering the 29 public land states and Texas)

And while I can't access it from home, it is available to me at the library:

• Ancestry Library Edition ($99/6 mos)
• American Ancestors ($95/year)
• FindMyPast ($129/year)
• Archion (baptisms, confirmations, marriages and burials for Protestant churches in Germany. 16th-19th century) $200/year (at current Euro to $ rates)

So calculating only the databases which I could purchase access to as an individual, I am saving $1,127/year with my library card. Then there are the databases I can't purchase access to as an individual.

I know I am lucky to live in St. Louis, as not every library has equivalent resources. However, if you don't check, you won't know what your library has to offer.

Amanuensis Monday: Simon Cruvant breaks his leg - 1889

Amanuensis: A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another.

I continue my project to transcribe family letters, journals, newspaper articles, audiotapes, and other historical artifacts. Not only do the documents contain genealogical information, the words breathe life into kin - some I never met - others I see a time in their life before I knew them.

Today I transcribe a newspaper clipping describing a horse and wagon accident a brother of my second great grandfather was involved in. This clipping was found on Newspapers.com

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At 3 o'clock yesterday afternoon, while Simon Cruvant, a Russian peddler, was driving a horse attached to a wagon on Broadway, near Koeln street, the shaft of the wagon broke, causing the horse to run away. Cruvant was thrown out of the wagon and had his right leg broken and received other injuries. He was sent to the City Hospital. Cruvant is a married man, and lives at 1122 North Seventh street.

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Horse-wagon accident involving Simon Cruvant Fri, Oct 25, 1889 – 5 · St. Louis Globe-Democrat (St. Louis, Missouri) · Newspapers.com
Notes:

1. Samuel "Simon" Cruvand (1841-1895) would have been 48 years old at the time of this incident, with four children. His brother, Moshe Leyb Cruvant, was my second great grandfather. The family came from the town of Kruvandai in Lithuania, and different branches spelled the surname differently. At least five different phonetic spellings have been used by those who settled in the US: Cruvant, Cruvand, Kruvant, Kruvand, and Kroovand. I believe the 'Cruvand' spelling may no longer be in use. This is the second oldest newspaper article mentioning one of my paternal kin I have currently found.

Amanuensis Monday: Play Ball! - Junior Baseball League 1914

Amanuensis: A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another.

I continue my project to transcribe family letters, journals, newspaper articles, audiotapes, and other historical artifacts. Not only do the documents contain genealogical information, the words breathe life into kin - some I never met - others I see a time in their life before I knew them.

Today I transcribe a newspaper clipping listing the teams of a municipal junior baseball league from 1914. While I don't know any of the youth on the teams, one of the teams appears to have been sponsored by my second great grandfather, and/or a combination of his sons. This clipping was found on Newspapers.com

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St. Louis Globe Democrat
19 April 1914 Page 47

Junior League Will Meet Monday Night

The Junior Baseball League umpires, managers and captains of teams will meet in room 304 City Hall Monday evening at 8 o’clock. General instructions will be given in order that a thorough understanding between all will be had. The league is composed of ten teams: Day Ice Cream Company, Welsbach Company, H.N.’s, Lamoth Piano Company, Newmark Tailors, Claxton Juniors, Rock Islands, Majestic, A.C. Empires and American Steel and Foundry Company.

The Schedule Committee will meet Tuesday to arrange schedule and all necessary details for the opening of the season, which will be Sunday afternoon April 26, as follows: Preliminary games on grounds No. 8, Forest Park; grounds 2 and 4 at fair grounds and a double header at O’Fallon Park grounds No. 1. The double-umpire system will be in use at all games. All teams have strong line-ups and the public should witness some of the most interesting games in the Muney League on Sunday afternoon during the season.

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Notes:

1) My second great grandfather, Samuel Newmark and his family immigrated to St Louis 1908-1909. Samuel and his sons Sol, Barney, and Max were all tailors. I can’t imagine they had any experience with baseball as a sport in Poland or England (where they lived for 15 years before immigrating to St. Louis.). However, they were sponsoring a team, not playing. From other articles I know  the players were age 14-16, and there were no Newmarks of that age in 1914.

Amanuensis Monday: The Education of Herman Feinstein

Amanuensis: A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another.

I continue my project to transcribe family letters, journals, newspaper articles, audiotapes, and other historical artifacts. Not only do the documents contain genealogical information, the words breathe life into kin - some I never met - others I see a time in their life before I knew them.

Today I transcribe a newspaper clipping mentioning a great grandfather's schooling. The St. Louis Globe-Democrat has recently been added to the digitized holdings at Newspapers.com. Born in 1886, my great grandfather Herman Feinstein was 15 years old in 1901.

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St. Louis Globe-Democrat, 17 April 1901, page 9. 
JEWISH ALLIANCE SCHOOL
Closing Exercises Held Last Night at Jefferson Building.

The closing exercises of the Jewish Alliance night schools, at the Jefferson school building, at Ninth and Wash streets, were held last night under the direction of Prof. Emil Mayer, the principal. An attractive program was presented. It was opened by a song, “The Flag of the Free,” sung by the school. Recitations were presented by Ida Gellman, Louis Lambrakis, Ralph Goldman, Simon Shipper, Fannie Brenholz, Beckie Herman, Jacob Frelich, Annie Hall, Ike Stern and Mary Fridkin; orations by Sam Shor and Sam Shipper; dialogue by Esther Sherman, Sadie Greenspan, Carrie Dubinsky, Jenny Mason, Herman Feinstein and Jacob Rosenblatt; debate on “Resolved, That education should be compulsory,” by Emil Goldstein on the affirmative and Simon Ludwig on the negative; a song, “The Linden Tree,” by Fannie Brenholz, Rose Alberstein, Jennie Mason and Sam Shor; essay by Harry Singman, and the song, “Good Night,” by the school. A number of prizes were distributed by Rabbi Samuel Sale, and short addresses were made by Rabbis H. J. Messing and Moritz Spitz.

The enrollment for the term, which began in October, was about 350. Six assistant teachers were employed, Misses Sophie Barron, Rose and Minnie Kahn and Fishell, Isaacs and Goldberg. The school is maintained by the Associated Jewish Charities for purpose of affording opportunities for acquiring an education to the younger Jewish element of that locality who are employed in the daytime. It is under the management of a board of directors, the officers of which are Elias Michael, president; Louis Bry, Vice President; Albert Loth, secretary, and Isaac Schwab, treasurer. The next term of the school will begin in the new building that is being erected by the Jewish Charitable and Educational Association at Ninth and Carr streets. The new building is a three-story structure, 150x50 feet in area, and will cost upward of $40,000.

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Notes:

1) Closing exercises doesn't necessarily mean graduation. From the description it appears all students at the night school participated, and there is no indication which students would be returning the following term. From this article I know my great grandfather in 1901 at age 15 had a job during the day and was receiving the equivalent of a secondary education at night. I also have insight into the type of education he was receiving.

2) I wonder if the presentation category of "Dialogue" was similar to the "Dramatic Interpretation" or "Duo Interpretation" categories in modern Speech and Debate competitions.

D-Day Plus 75 Years

Today marks the 75th anniversary of D-Day

The closest relative I have found involved in the D-Day invasion was Arnold Burton Kruvant, a second cousin of my paternal grandfather. The details of his death were, I believe, first described in a book on his battalion published in 2016. While apparently several surviving members of his battalion witnessed his death, they decided not to share the details with his family, due to its gruesome nature.

First Lt. Arnold Kruvant of New Jersey was a Camp Claiborne original. He transferred to the 37th Parachute Artillery Battalion and became the S-3, jumping into Normandy even though he had never had jump training. Kruvant carried in with him the funds for the battalion, $500 in U.S. currency. He is listed as KIA and MIA on June 6. He was twenty-six years old.

Kruvant’s widow was well known and well liked by the men of the 321st. They decided at the time that she would not be told of her husband’s gruesome death. Several 321st officers recalled that Kruvant was bayoneted to death while hung up in his parachute harness, dangling from a tree just off the ground. Why his body was never positively identified remains a mystery to this day. (Source: Screaming Eagle Gliders: The 321st Glider Field Artillery Battalion of the 101st Airborne Division in World War II, G. J. Dettore, Rowman & Littlefield, 2016, pp 83-85. Image: East Orange High School Yearbook, 1936, p. 44. Retrieved from Ancestry.com June 5, 2019.)

***

Note: A week and a half ago I neglected to make my annual Memorial Day post. On future Memorial Days, I believe I will honor Arnold Kruvant's service in addition to that of my great uncle, Mandell Newmark. (Mandell and Arnold were second cousins.)

National Genealogical Society Conference 2019

Four years ago, the National Genealogical Society Family History Conference was in St. Charles, MO, 15-20 minutes from me. So I attended, and blogged about my experiences. It's back in St. Charles this week, so I will be attending again.

I have updated all the links on my 2015 blog post of Dining Recommendations. My personal recommendations are pretty much the same. However, there is a new excellent Kosher restaurant in St. Louis for those with dietary considerations. Cafe Coeur. About a 20 minute drive from the conference center, it offers a blend of Japanese and Italian cuisine. (Yes, sushi and pizza, but more.) The restaurant is about a month old, so reservations are recommended.

I didn't sign up for any of the Pre-Conference events today, so I will be headed there tomorrow for the Opening Ceremonies. I had a lot of educational fun four years ago, and I'm looking forward to the next few days.

Tombstone Tuesday: John Davenport Sr. 1784-1851

John Devenport and his wife Delilah Abernathy Devenport are my wife's fifth great grandparents.

This tombstone is filled with information. (The accuracy of the information depending entirely on the knowledge of whoever provided it.)

1) John's profession: Justice of the Peace
2) Where he was born: Virginia
3) His wife's maiden name: Abernathy
4) Where she was born: North Carolina
5) When they moved to Missouri: 1820
6) And that he was the first to be buried in the cemetery. (Old Union Methodist Church Cemetery; Bessville, Bollinger County, Missouri)

There are North Carolina marriage records for John and Delilah.
There is a likely father for John, William Devenport (1756 VA - 1826 NC).
William's will does mention a son by the name of John, and a witness on several of the documents has the surname Abernathy.

Amanuensis Monday: Melvin Van Every and Cotton in the El Paso Valley - 1917

Amanuensis: A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another.

I continue my project to transcribe family letters, journals, newspaper articles, audiotapes, and other historical artifacts. Not only do the documents contain genealogical information, the words breathe life into kin - some I never met - others I see a time in their life before I knew them.

Today I transcribe two newspaper clippings. One my great grandfather's obituary from 1929, and a letter to the editor one of his daughters, Minnie Van Every Benold, wrote in 1965. Both discuss my great grandfather's role in growing cotton in the El Paso valley.

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El Paso Times, May 28, 1929, page 14 

MELVIN E. VAN EVERY, 60, died at Garfield, N.M., Sunday. Services will be held at 4 o’clock this afternoon at the chapel of Kaster & Maxon the Rev. W. Angie Smith officiating. Burial will be in Evergreen cemetery.

Mr. Van Every was one of the pioneer residents of the lower valley and was engaged in cotton growing and ginning. He was the builder of the first cotton gin in the valley.

He is survived by his widow, Mrs. Josie Van Every, three daughters, Mrs. Minnie Benold and Mrs. I.T. Herrin, both of El Paso, and Miss Myrtle Van Every of Kansas City, Mo., also by one son, Dr. S.O. Van Every of Kansas City, Mo. Pallbearers will be selected from the W.O.W. of which he was a member.

El Paso Times, Feb 12, 1965, p.4. 

Dear Mr. Hooten: I have just read your request for information as to who raised the Valley’s first cotton. I think I know!

My father, M.E. Van Every “scouted” for good cotton land in 1917 from South Texas to California and bought land two miles below Fabens. There he cleared and ditched the land for irrigation in time to plant cotton for the spring of 1918.

Louis J. Ivey was his good friend and may have experimented before, but all had decided the summers were too short. My father contended that some seasons were not and planted 11 acres, from which he harvested 14 bales, taking the cotton somewhere over in Texas for ginning. He then built a cotton gin in Fabens or Tornillo.

This set the Valley “on fire” and the farmers turned their alfalfa and wheat fields and orchards into cotton patches! He sent letters and telegrams to us, begging us to move out, until we did in 1919 to take charge of my uncle’s farm who was to ill to farm.

This is the story of how our family came West. That year we made enough on our cotton to buy a car and put $1,000 in the bank. Cotton was 39 cents a pound, the highest since the Civil War. I believe this to be the true story of cotton here.

---

Notes:

1) My great grandfather and Louis.J. Ivey were both mentioned in a 1919 article on El Paso cotton growing.

2) An obituary I previously transcribed from May 29th states he was 66. 66 is the correct age.

3) Minnie's letter clarifies that my great grandfather scouted out land in El Paso while his family remained in San Marcos, on the opposite side of Texas. Minnie, the eldest child, was 33 in 1917. His youngest child, my grandmother, Myrtle, was only 17 in 1917.

4) Minnie is the same great-aunt who wrote a series of letters to the Houston Post as a child for their Happy Hammers children's section.

Twelve Years of Genealogy Research

I've been blogging about something since May 2002.

• In March of 2007 I wrote about my great grandfather Barney and his claim he was born in Dublin on March 17th.
• A friend read my post, and sent me a census record with my great grandfather on it.
• I had no previous idea what was online.
• On April 16, 2007 I wrote my first two blog posts concerning research

In 2007 I wrote 131 blog posts.
2008: 263
2009: 323 (almost, but not quite, one per day)
2010: 293 (I began dating the woman of my dreams in May)
2011: 165 (We became engaged)
2012: 114 (We were married)
2013: 90 (We bought a home)
2014: 50 (We adopted twin 1 year old boys)
2015: 54
2016: 86
2017: 59
2018: 23

My research continues; I've just been blogging less.

• Six years ago, the last time I looked at database statistics, my database had slightly over 2800 individuals, and my wife's had 340.
• Today: There are over 4700 individuals in my database, and over 1700 in my wife's database.

I'm very pleased with the discoveries I have made, and I'm confident I will continue to make more. I missed my annual St. Patrick's Day post this year, but you can read all my past ones here.

Partnership between St. Louis County Library and Newspapers.com

According to the April edition of PastPorts (the St. Louis County Library's History and Genealogy Newsletter)

St. Louis County Library signed a cooperative agreement with Newspapers.com on March 13 to digitize newspaper microfilm in its History & Genealogy (H&G) collection. The project will for the first time provide online electronic access to the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, 1853–1963; Anzeiger des Westens, 1843–1898; and Westliche Post, 1857–1938. Other newspapers include those that once served St. Louis African American, French-speaking, and Jewish communities. 

Over 2000 microfilm reels will be shipped in Mid-May to Newspapers.com. (They may have been considering the NGS Conference in early May when they scheduled the shipment.)

They don't list all the newspapers being digitized, but below are some of the defunct titles that could be included in the list. (It would be nice if they have worked out deals with some additional newspapers that are still ongoing.)

• Jewish Free Press, 1885 – 1887
• Jewish Tribune, Aug 29, 1879 – 1884
• Jewish Voice, Jan 6, 1888 – Dec 31, 1920
• Modern View-St. Louis (Jewish), Mar 21, 1913 - Aug 27, 1920; Mar 4, 1921 - Feb 10, 1928; Aug 24, 1928 - Jul 28, 1938; Feb 2, 1939 - Jul 25, 1940
• La Revue de l'Ouest (French), Jan 1854 – Dec 1854
• Le Patriote (French), 1878 – 1887
• St. Louis Palladium (African American), Jan 10, 1903 – Oct 5, 1907
• Przewodnik Polski (Polish), Jan. 8, 1903 – July 7, 1910; Feb. 27, 1913 – July 11, 1929; Feb 2, 1945 – Feb 22, 1945 
• St. Louis La Lega Italiana, Oct 9, 1914 – Dec 25, 1920 
• St. Louiske' Listy (Czech), Oct 23, 1902 – Sept 1, 1923

The digitization of the St. Louis Globe Democrat archives will likely be what interests most researchers. The St. Louis Post Dispatch has already been digitized, and made available through Newspapers.com, and for decades the two newspapers were the primary dailies. But the weekly specialized newspapers will be of great interest to many as well.

I've been slowly working my way backwards through the Modern View microfilm looking for ancestral surnames. It will be a pleasure to be able to search the digitized records from home. The quality of the microfilm isn't consistent, so Optical Character Recognition will be poor in spots. This will require browsing the newspapers as I am currently doing. However, I will be able to do it from home. Several of my ancestors came from Poland, though I suspect if they are going to appear in a local community paper, it will be one of the Jewish ones.

Pastports also says:

Researchers will be able to view newspaper images on the Newspapers.com website and search them by name or keyword. Newspapers.com can be used at St. Louis County Library locations and remotely by library cardholders living in the St. Louis metro area.

I wasn't aware Newspapers.com had been added to the library databases. It's the ProQuest Library Edition. The description states 4,000+ newspaper titles. Newspapers.com Basic has 11,400+ newspaper titles. Newspapers.com Premium has even more. If all of the newspapers that the library is digitizing will be available through ProQuest, I *suspect* they will also be available through a Newspapers.com Basic subscription.

Happy Hanuka!

Hanuka isn’t going to be celebrated for a couple weeks. It begins on the evening of December 2nd, this year. However, tomorrow is the day Hanuka would fall on if instead of the Hebrew calendar, we used the Gregorian calendar. The 25th day of the Hebrew month of Kislev in 164 BCE fell on November 21.

Of course, Pope Gregory hadn’t been born yet in 164 BCE. Jesus hadn’t been born yet. Not only was there no such thing as the Gregorian calendar, Julius Caesar hadn’t been born, so there was no Julian Calendar.

Moreover, the Hebrew calendar wasn’t standardized yet. Each Hebrew month began after two people declared they saw the crescent moon. So two different communities could be slightly off from one another, but each month there was a reboot.

So November 21 is an estimate.
The 25th of Kislev is an estimate too.

Happy Hanuka!

Amanuensis Monday: A Protest Against Agitation Against Japanese Farmers - 1919

Amanuensis: A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another.

I continue my project to transcribe family letters, journals, newspaper articles, audiotapes, and other historical artifacts. Not only do the documents contain genealogical information, the words breathe life into kin - some I never met - others I see a time in their life before I knew them.

Today I transcribe a newspaper transcript of a protest my maternal grandmother's father lodged with the agricultural department of the El Paso Chamber of Commerce against any agitation to keep Japanese farmers out of the El Paso valley. It's not clear if the newspaper included the entire text of the protest. Some of the language makes me cringe, but giving some leeway for the year, I am glad my great grandfather didn't fall victim to the xenophobia of his times.

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Tue, Nov 18, 1919 – 8 · El Paso Times (El Paso, El Paso, Texas, United States of America) · Newspapers.com
HERE’S REAL FRIEND OF JAPS!
WANTS ‘EM IN EL PASO VALLEY
CALLS ‘EM GOLDEN EGG GEESE

A protest against any agitation to keep Japanese farmers out of the El Paso Valley has been lodged with the agricultural department of the El Paso Chamber of Commerce by M.E. Van Every, a farmer of the lower valley.

Is For Americans

“I want to say that I am an American and believe in America for Americans, or those who wish to become Americans,” he writes, “and believe in the uplifting of my own race. But when this race degenerates so that it fears that another race will crowd them to the wall as farmers, I say move to town and start an oil company and sell stock to the little yellow fellow while he tills the soil.”

Mr. Van Every declares that there is a great deal of room for improvement in the farming methods in the lower valley. He praises the work done by the Japanese in California, saying:

Likes Japs in California

“Take the Japs out of California and you have killed the goose that lays the golden egg. They have made farming in California what it is, and they have caused land values to go higher than ever before.

“’When the Japanese come the whites go.’ It is about as well to go if we can’t compete with another race. Perhaps if we whites, who depend on Mexican labor and our country merchant for a living, were to leave and give a class of people who will work their own farms a chance, not so many country merchants would go broke, and our valley would have the appearance of the valleys in California, and our own land would sell for what it is worth, and not for what we can get for it.

Hits at Birth Rate.

“It is an appalling fact that the birth rate among Americans is not what it should be, and I am glad to note that the Japanese as a race are not afraid of their birthrate. If we cannot compete with the Japs I for one am willing to throw up the sponge and leave it with them.”

Ahoy Vey! -- Jewish Pirates

Repost with slight changes

Today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day. As well as the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur.

What would be an appropriate topic, albeit perhaps a little afield from the subject of genealogy, for a blog post combining the two?

How about Jean Lafitte, the possibly Jewish Pirate?

[image - late 19th century artist's conception. [source]

The facts of his origins, and those of his demise as well, depend upon whether you believe the "Journal of Jean Lafitte" is a forgery or not. Discovered in the possession of a claimed descendant.

"My grandmother was a Spanish-Israelite. ... Grandmother told me repeatedly of the trials and tribulations her ancestors had endured at the time of the Spanish Inquisition. ... Grandmother's teachings ... inspired in me a hatred of the Spanish Crown and all the persecutions for which it was responsible -- not only against Jews." [source]

According to one account, Jean Lafitte was killed upon the General Santander, an armed private vessel in the service of Columbia, on Feb. 5, 1823, at the age of 41. In the Gulf of Honduras, the General Santander encountered two Spanish privateers or warships, and was mortally wounded in a brief battle with the vessels and buried at sea ...  

According to Lafitte's Journal ( which many believe to be a hoax, claimed to have been found by a great grand son of Lafitte) written by Lafitte himself in 1851, he took the name John Lafflin and died in St. Louis in his 70s. [source]

As a St. Louisan, this last definitely interests me. Though I have been unable to determine where John Lafflin (whether or not in reality Jean Lafitte) is supposed to be buried. Mysteries tend to surround pirates, don't they?

However, while the origins of Jean Lafitte are controversial, in Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean, author Edward Kritzler makes the claim for several others. Some of the earlier ones are said to have gone into the piracy business as revenge against the inquisition.

One such pirate was Moses Cohen Henriques, who helped plan one of history's largest heists against Spain. In 1628, Henriques set sail with Dutch West India Co. Admiral Piet Hein, whose own hatred of Spain was fueled by four years spent as a galley slave aboard a Spanish ship. Henriques and Hein boarded Spanish ships off Cuba and seized shipments of New World gold and silver worth in today's dollars about the same as Disney's total box office for "Dead Man's Chest." [source]

Of course, pirates tend to break a few commandments in their daily routine. Ends rarely justify the means, and revenge isn't generally considered a morally appropriate explanation for deeds. One wonders if the above Jewish pirates recited the Al Chet (confession of sins) yearly on Yom Kippur.

Labor Day Weekend 2018

As you light up your barbecues this weekend and enjoy your day off from work Monday (those who have the day off) - take some part of the day to consider the advancements we have made in workers' rights over the last century - Many of us may have ancestors who worked in the coal mines or sweatshops.

Also, consider in what ways the struggles aren't over.

Here's a playlist of songs which may help.



A Pict Song - Rudyard Kipling (1917)

Rome never looks where she treads,
Always her heavy hooves fall,
On our stomachs, our hearts or our heads;
And Rome never heeds when we bawl.
Her sentries pass on—that is all,
And we gather behind them in hordes,
And plot to reconquer the Wall,
With only our tongues for our swords.

We are the Little Folk—we !
Too little to love or to hate.
Leave us alone and you'll see
How we can drag down the Great!
We are the worm in the wood !
We are the rot at the root!
We are the germ in the blood !
We are the thorn in the foot !

Mistletoe killing an oak—
Rats gnawing cables in two—
Moths making holes in a cloak—
How they must love what they do!
Yes,—and we Little Folk too,
We are as busy as they—
Working our works out of view—
Watch, and you'll see it some day!

No indeed ! We are not strong,
But we know Peoples that are.
Yes, and we'll guide them along,
To smash and destroy you in War!
We shall be slaves just the same ?
Yes, we have always been slaves;
But you—you will die of the shame,
And then we shall dance on your graves.

We are the Little Folk, we ! etc.

Amanuensis Monday: Obituary for Everett Van Every - 1924

Amanuensis: A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another.

I continue my project to transcribe family letters, journals, newspaper articles, audiotapes, and other historical artifacts. Not only do the documents contain genealogical information, the words breathe life into kin - some I never met - others I see a time in their life before I knew them.

Today I transcribe a news article on the death of Everett Clarence VanEvery (1906-1924), the nephew of my maternal grandmother. Clipping found at Newspapers.com

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Wed, Apr 2, 1924 – Page 1 · The Austin American (Austin, Texas) · Newspapers.com

BOY DROWNS IN BARTON CREEK

Everett VanEvery Victim Of Cramps Attack.

Everett VanEvery, 16, senior student in Austin high school, son of Mrs. Charles Haynie, 2108 Swisher street, met death by drowning Tuesday afternoon at 2 o'clock while swimming with comrades in Campbell's hole on Barton creek, about one mile above Barton Springs.

VanEvery was a member of a picnic party composed of senior high school students, which was being conducted at Barton Springs park.

Overcome by Cramps.

VanEvery and several companions went to Campbell's hole shortly after eating dinner and were in swimming when the unfortunate youth was overcome by cramps and sank to the bottom of a 15-foot hole. His companions made an effort to rescue him as he sank, but were unable to help him. They then hurried to Barton Springs for aid and after half an hour, VanEvery's body was brought to the surface by D. Hamilton, special officer at the municipal swimming resort, and M. C. Muckleroy and Abe Parks, high school students.

Lungmotor Fails.

An effort to revive VanEvery by means of a lungmotor rushed to the scene of the drowning by the Rosengren-Cook Undertaking establishment was made, but proved futile. Charles G. Haynie, barber, the youth's stepfather, made the call to the scene of the drowning with the Rosengren-Cook ambulance.

After efforts to revive the youth were abandoned, the body was carried to the home of his parents on Swisher street.

Funeral services will be held this afternoon at 3 o'clock at the home of young Van Every's grandmother, Mrs. A. M. Dahlin. 1703 Sabine street. At 3:30 o'clock services will be held at the Swedish Methodist church. The services will be conducted by Rev. K.G. Norberg.

Charles B. Cook will direct the funeral.

Active pallbearers are: Clifford Palmier, Joseph Rubenson, Louis Lindahl, Ernest Severine. Harold Laveen, Louis Sward.

Honorary pallbearers are: Henry McCallum, Dan Ward, William Deveraux. Albert Haynes. Gustave Watkins and Charles Lewis.

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1) This goes into much greater detail of the incident than I have been able to uncover from his death certificate, previous newspaper articles, and family. There had been some question of whether he had drowned in Barton Creek, or in Deep Eddy Pool, which is in a community named after the creek. This article clarifies it was in the creek, or more specifically, Campbell's Hole.

2) I knew that Everett's mother had married Charles Haynie at some point before her death, since his name appears on her death certificate, but I didn't know it was before Everett's death.

Poetry Friday - 1492 - Emma Lazarus

1492
Emma Lazarus, (1849 - 1887)

Thou two-faced year, Mother of Change and Fate,
Didst weep when Spain cast forth with flaming sword,
The children of the prophets of the Lord,
Prince, priest, and people, spurned by zealot hate.
Hounded from sea to sea, from state to state,
The West refused them, and the East abhorred.
No anchorage the known world could afford,
Close-locked was every port, barred every gate.
Then smiling, thou unveil’dst, O two-faced year,
A virgin world where doors of sunset part,
Saying, “Ho, all who weary, enter here!
There falls each ancient barrier that the art
Of race or creed or rank devised, to rear
Grim bulwarked hatred between heart and heart!”

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The Alhambra Decree was signed March 31, 1492, and Spain's Jews originally had four months to leave. That was extended by 10 days to August 10th.

Columbus set sail on August 3, 1492. In his crew was the interpreter, Luis de Torres. Born Yosef ben HaLevi HaIvri, he had converted to Catholicism on August 2nd.

The Alhambra Decree was officially revoked on December 16, 1968.

Days of Love - Religious and Personal

Tu b'Av is a relatively obscure Jewish holiday that falls on the fifteenth day of the month of Av (sundown Thursday, July 26 to sundown Friday, July 27 this year).

The fifteenth day of each month on the Hebrew calendar falls on a full moon, and the holiday was observed as a sort of fertility festival during the period of the Second Temple. After the destruction of the Second Temple, it was forgotten for the most part in the Diaspora, only to be revived in modern times as a Jewish alternative to St. Valentine's Day.

To some, St. Valentine's Day, or Tu B'Av, may feel manufactured for greeting card companies, florists, and chocolatiers. However, most couples have their own personal "Days of Love." Whether the annual date commemorates a first date, an engagement, a marriage, or another anniversary, it's significant only to the individual couple.The memories connected with these dates are often stronger than the ones associated with the annual religious or societal holidays. Still, any reason for two people to celebrate their love for one another is a good reason.

To A Lady
by Victor Hugo,
From Les Feuilles D'Automne

Child, were I king, I'd yield my royal rule,
     My chariot, sceptre, vassal-service due,
My crown, my porphyry-basined waters cool,
My fleets, whereto the sea is but a pool,
     For a glance from you!

Love, were I God, the earth and its heaving airs,
     Angels, the demons abject under me,
Vast chaos with its teeming womby lairs,
Time, space, all would I give--aye, upper spheres,
     For a kiss from thee!

translation by Thomas Hardy
photogravure by Goupil et Cie, from a drawing by Deveria, appears in a collection of Hugo's poetry published by Estes and Lauriat in the late 1800s.

Amenuensis Monday: Obituary for Julia Wallace (1867-1934)

Amanuensis: A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another.

I continue my project to transcribe family letters, journals, newspaper articles, audiotapes, and other historical artifacts. Not only do the documents contain genealogical information, the words breathe life into kin - some I never met - others I see a time in their life before I knew them.

Today I transcribe the obituary for Julia (Wallis) Wallace (1867-1934), the second wife of my wife's second great grandfather, John T Wallace. Clipping found at Newspapers.com

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Funeral services for Mrs. Julia Wallace, 66 years old, who died Tuesday at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Elmer Kindred, in Crowder, were conducted at the residence at 10 o'clock Wednesday morning by the Rev. A.C. Sullivan, pastor of the Morehouse Baptist church. Burial was in Memorial Park cemetery.

Mrs. Wallace, who had been ill for approximately a year, was born in Florence, Ala. on June 2, 1867. In March 1898 she married John Wallace. She had been a member of the Missionary Baptist church at Vanduser for the last twenty-six years.

Besides Mrs. Kindred, Mrs. Wallace is survived by two daughters, Mrs. Verbal Rodgers, Sikeston, and Mrs. Edna Hamlin, Vanduser; two sons, Alva Wallace, Vanduser and Arthur Wallace, Morehouse; three stepsons, Turner and David Wallace, Vanduser, and Jim Wallace, Morehouse; and thirteen grandchildren. Three children have died. Mr. Wallace has been dead for eighteen years. Welsh service.

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1) My wife's second great grandfather had two wives, Lorrah Wallis and Julia Wallis. All indications are that when his first wife died in 1893, he married her younger sister the following year. Lorrah was the mother of my wife's great grandfather, John Turner Wallace. (I haven't yet verified the parents of Lorrah and Julia that are indicated on some Ancestry.com family trees are accurate.) Wallis and Wallace are alternate spellings of the same surname, so John T Wallace may have been related to his wives in some fashion, perhaps distantly.

2) The obituary doesn't list the names of the children who predeceased Julia. Jesse (1902-1911) is one of them. I'm guessing the other two died as infants between censuses.

3) "Welsh service" is a reference to "Welsh Funeral Home," which is now called "Ponder Funeral Home."

Amanuensis Monday: Obituary of Melvin Van Every (1863-1929)

Amanuensis: A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another.

I continue my project to transcribe family letters, journals, newspaper articles, audiotapes, and other historical artifacts. Not only do the documents contain genealogical information, the words breathe life into kin - some I never met - others I see a time in their life before I knew them.

Today I transcribe the obituary for my great grandfather, Melvin E. Van Every, which appeared in The El Paso Times, May 29, 1929. I found the obituary at Newspapers.com.

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MELVIN E. VAN EVERY, 66, of Garfield, N.M. Funeral services were held from the chapel of Kaster and Maxon at 4 o'clock Tuesday afternoon with the Rev. W. Angie Smith officiating. Burial was in Evergreen cemetery. Pallbears were members of the  W.O.W. Mr. Van Every is survived by his widow, three daughters, Mrs. Minnie Benold and Mrs. I.T. Herrin, both of El Paso, and Miss Myrtle Van Every of Kansas City, Mo., and one son, Dr. S.O. Van Every of Kansas City.

Notes:

1) I believe W.O.W. stands for Woodmen of the World, a fraternal benefit organization that provides life insurance for its members. From other sources I already knew my great grandfather was a Freemason.

2) My grandmother, Myrtle, appears in the St. Louis City directories every year between 1921 and 1930. It is possible, however, that she spent some time in Kansas City with her brother, as well. She appears in the St. Louis census in 1930, but her brother is listed as living with a woman named, Myrtle, in the Kansas City census. The woman is listed as a wife, but no record with her appearance after the census has been uncovered. I think it's possible my grandmother would occasionally visit her brother, and whoever provided the information for the census (a landlord perhaps) wasn't aware they were brother and sister.

Amanuensis Monday: Ebenezer Denyer's Muster Roll Index Cards

Amanuensis: A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another.

I continue my project to transcribe family letters, journals, newspaper articles, audiotapes, and other historical artifacts. Not only do the documents contain genealogical information, the words breathe life into kin - some I never met - others I see a time in their life before I knew them.

The service record of Ebenezer Denyer, my second great grandfather, is described in A Brief History of John and Christian Fretz, Rev. A.J. Fretz, 1890.

"Mr. Denyer served in the Mexican War of 1848, with Captain Henry McCohlogh, and was with the Ohio Rangers for several years. About 1858, he moved to Onion Creek, Hays County, Texas, where he remained until the breaking out of the Civil War, when, after moving his wife to her mother's home in Eastern Texas, he joined the 2nd, Texas Company Volunteers, mustered at Marcos, Hays County, in the summer of 1861, and served throughout the war in the Confederate service. He was taken prisoner at Vicksburgh, Mississippi, was exchanged, and laid in the hospital at Galveston until the close of the war."

My grandmother wrote to the Department of Interior in 1933, providing what she knew from the above family history, and requesting confirmation of her grandfather's war service. She was seeking membership in the Daughters of the Confederacy, and her nephew was seeking a scholarship. She received responses from both the Department of War and the Texas Library and Historical Commission State Library.

Several years ago I found his muster roll records at Fold3.

Recently I found  his name in the Texas Muster Roll Index Cards database at Ancestry. There wasn't any new information, which isn't surprising. They're index cards for the muster rolls I had already found. But in addition to providing a summary of his activities, there was a surprise waiting for me on the last index card below.

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Ancestry Database: Texas, Muster Roll Index Cards, 1838-1900

Source information:Ancestry.com. Texas, Muster Roll Index Cards, 1838-1900 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

Original data: Civil War Muster Rolls index Cards (both Confederate and Union). Also Texas State Rangers. Austin, Texas: Texas State Library and Archives Commission.

Name: Ebenezer U. Denyer

Rank: Private

Com. off: Capt. Henry E. McCulloch

Organ: Texas Vols.

Date enlist: Oct 25, 1848

Date disch: Dec. 8, 1848

Age: 20

Remarks: 1 month. 13 days service. Ranger Muster Rolls.

Name & Rank: Denyer, Ebinezer, Pvt.,
Comm. Off: Collins, Thos. B. 2nd Lieut.,
Organ: Co. "E", 2nd Tex. Vol. Inf., Col. Ashbel Smith, CSA.
Enlist: June 12-62 in Hays Cty. for the war.
Disch: Served 3 months at $11 per month
Remarks: R&F 61; Roll dated Dec. 31-62 to Feb 28-63; En.Off. Randall; Last paid D.1-62; Am't of Pay $33; Bal. Paid $33; Transferred from conscript.camp June 11-63; Detached service as Teamster Ja.17-63; Stationed at Camp Maury, Miss.; Disc. Instr., Arms,
(over)
Accoutr. & Clothing good; Military appearance fine; Co. moved to Yazoo City Feb. 10th; N.L. McGinnis Insp. & Mus. Off.;

Name & Rank: Denyer, Ebenizar, O[phan], Pvt.,

Comm. Off: Holder, Wm., Capt.,

Organ: Co. E, 2nd Regt., TVI, Col. Ashbel Smith Comdg., CSA

Enlist: Je.12-62 in Hays City. for the war

Descrip: R&F 62; En.Off. Randall; Mus.Off. Col.Ashbel Smith; Last Paid Ja.12-'63; Disc.,Instr.Mil.App.&Cloth.good; Arms & Accoutr, in good order; Change of sts.F26-63 from Camp Maury near Yazoo City to Ft. Pemberton; from Ft. Pemberton Ap.11-64 to Camp Timmons near 

(over)

Vicksburg; Sta. in the field in Miss. Ap.30-63. Detached service as teamster Ja.17-63; [Married Sarah Ann Hartly. This information received from his granddaughter, Miss Myrtle Van Every, St. Louis, MO.]

Notes:

1) The information on the last index card above clearly matches the information the Texas Library and Historical Commission State Library gave my grandmother in 1933. I love that they added to their record some of the information she had given them, and cited her as the source. I'm certain that the bracketed part of Ebenezer Denyer's middle name also came from my grandmother.