The farm I grew up on

Me - 1976

It is hard sometimes to explain the farm I grew up on.  It was more of a hobby farm in some ways, except we did eat them.  My father liked animals so we had animals: goats, chickens, cows (for a bit), sheep, geese, ducks, and pigs.  Not all the animals at the same time, but this and that for a while.  I saw piglets being born and the start of the butchering of sheep.  (I freaked out and couldn't watch.)  I collected eggs and "helped" butcher chickens by pulling the feathers.  (My mother had this awful knife that she used to cut heads of chickens that was all nicked and dented.)  But most of this happened before I turned 10 years old.  (I was the youngest of five kids.)  Around that age my father got a more steady job, my brothers started working for the farm next door (bye-bye pigs) and we all grew up!

The Nabers of Holland (Michigan)

Johannes & Anna

So today is the first time I helped someone at work (10 years!) who shared the same name as my mother's side of the family, Naber.  So I am going to share what I know or learned about the Naber's who immigrated to the USA.

It starts with two brothers (sorry - only 2 of them), Pieter & Johannes Naber.  They were the youngest two children of Jan Naber & Korneliske Vander Scheer who lived in Groningen.  On May 17, 1848 the two brothers and their families exited the Katherine Jackson in New York.

Pieter had 2 children with his first wife Trientje, who died in 1839.  Pieter married Katerijna and they had two more children before immigrating to America and additional 5 more children in Michigan.  The eldest child Korneliske and her younger siblings Johann, Jacobina, Pieter, and Meiske all had families of their own.  Jan and two unnamed siblings died in infancy.

Johannes & Anna (my ancestor's) are a little more complicated.  They actually were first cousins, which does seem strange but probably wasn't that uncommon at the time.  I THINK they might have lost a child on the voyage over and possible another child while still living in the Netherlands.  Five more children were born in Michigan.  The oldest one, Klaaske, I haven't been able to located a death date but she disappears young off the census records.  Cornelia died at age 11.  Alberdina died sometime around age 7.  Another Alberdina died at age 3.  They only had 1 child to survive to adult hood, Johannes who had six children before he died at the age of 49.

Tulip Time Picture

This is a picture that was in my dad's photos.  It is a picture of my Aunt Barb and my older sister Deb.  This would have been May 1964.  My sister is probably wearing the same dress that our mother wore when she was about the same age.  Then our grandmother gave this dress to Deb and she had her daughters wear it for pictures.  My daughter did also but she was a little big for it.


I love that we found this picture, to close that one generation gap!

Brandt family

This is my grandmother's family during the 1970's.  (My grandmother is the female standing in the middle back.)  Otto & Jeanette Brandt are sitting right in front surrounded by their kids.  There were two more children who died in infancy.  The oldest child was born in 1919 and the youngest in 1938.  I am posting this today since another spouse from this group passed away this week.  (I didn't have a picture with spouses.)  It is kind of strange to look at all these faces and know that only 3 are living plus 1 in-law.

The Kidder Newsletter, part 2

Another profile as printed in the December 1965 Vol. 1, No. 3 issue of the Family Tie.   (This is also the very first issue I have.)

    "Clarance M. Kidder was born June the twenty-fifth, eighteen hundred seventy-five, Town of Day, Mt. Calm County.  This record from the family Bible.
    When Clarence was eight years old his father moved the family to the Dakota Territory.  These were exciting days and Dakota Prairies presented many problems not experience in the pine woods of Michigan.
    The alkali water was not fit for man or beast.  It was necessary to haul drinking water by wagon for a distance of twenty miles.  When tornadoes were sighted the family sough refuge in a storm cellar.  This was homesteading land which had never been plowed or sown with crops.  The Dakota Territory was frontier country with no conveniences except those provided by the homesteaders.
    Intermingled with the hard work of cultivating new ground was the excitement of hunting game on the open prairie.  Bill Long, the hired hand, would hitch up a buckboard, grab a couple of muzzle loaders and with Clarence on the seat beside him go hunting for prairie chickens.  Driving the horses into a flock of prairie chickens and shooting from the buckboard put meat on the table in time for supper.
    When Clarence was eleven years old his mother died from prairie fever.  The family moved back to Michigan where his father could get help to raise the children.
    Clarence attended school and after school worked in the mill packing shingles.  His half-brother, Will Kidder taught him to box and he became very adept with his hands.  On Saturday night the young men from nearby towns came to Stanton to box the local talent.  Clarence frequently was on the card and usually won his match.
    In spring of 1900 Clarence boarded a train to seek his fortune in Chicago.  He worked for two years on "The Line" where horses were sold at auction in the Drexel Park Pavillion, Union Stock Yards.  He was the barn boss for Eli Pfaelzer Meat Packers for two years.  After three more years working for horse drawn liveries Clarence decided there was a future in automobiles.
    In 1907 he married Emma Kallberg.  There were five children born of this marriage.  Stanley, Mildred, Lillian and Dorothy were born in Chicago and Ruth was born in Whitehall, Michigan.
    Clarence learned quickly about automobiles.  He drove for the Emery Motor Livery in the Hyde Park District.  he was a yellow cab driver for several years.  He was a night foreman for Keeley's garage.  While working for the Yellow Cab Company he was also a private chauffeur for Mr. Van Winkle who lived at 44th and Forestville Avenue.  Clarence moved his family into Mr. Van Winkle's tenant house.  He was able to raise a few chickens which Emma had bought as a Easter gift for the children in 1916.  Two of the chickens, Dick and Biddy, became members of the family.  Dick would perch on Clarence's shoulder and carry on a conversation.  Biddy on one occasion was brought into the house and promptly laid an egg on the scarf covering the piano.
    Clarence longed for a place in the country where he could raise a garden and some chickens.  In 1917 he moved the family to Whitehall, Mich.  Emma who was born in Sweden found several Swedish women who were friendly and liked to drink coffee and talk.  In the summer the children picked berries on shares.  If they picked three crates of strawberries they received one for their labor.  It was always great fun getting ready for winter.  Clarence would buy 10 to 12 bushels of potatoes, several bags of flour, a 200 lb. sack of navy beans which were stored in the cellar along with 300 or more jars of home canned fruit and vegetables.  With the shed full of cord wood Clarence woudl say "Let it snow, they can't freeze us out now."
    In the evenings after supper the family would father around the hot blast stove.  Mildred, his oldest daughter, would play the organ and the family would sing hymns and folk songs.  Occasionally Clarence would play a violin accompaniment.
    Five acres of ground in the Fruitvale area was purchased as the future site of a chicken farm before he moved from Chicago to Whitehall.  The weekend trips to Fruitvale to improve the five acres were also occasions for hunting and fishing excursions.  The small game, rabbits, partridge and squirrels were plentiful in the area.  Lake Michigan, inland lakes and five trout streams known throughout Michigan provided excellent fishing.  Clarence and his son, Stanley, enjoyed the outdoors hunting and fishing together.
    Clarence worked in the local garage as a mechanic.  He had several books on auto repair and was a good mechanic.  The local mechanics were able to repair the Model "T" Fords but were a bit lost on the other models. When a Chandler sheared off an idling shaft in the transmission on the sandy road to Fruitvale local mechanics were unable to help.  With no parts available Clarence fashioned a shaft from a piece of hard wood and drove the car into town.
    Clarence joined the Odd Fellows Lodge and was active in community affairs.  He rented a building and opened a garage and auto repair shop.  Business was real good in the summer months.  In the winter the deep snow and cold weather stopped most auto traffic.  During the first World War he operated a gear machine in the Continental Motor Works in Muskegon, Michigan.
    On August 30, 1923 members of the Kidder family who were living in Michigan, came to Whitehall for a family reunion.  Twenty-six members including the families of Clarence, Dan, Fred and Grace Shea spent two happy days together in the beautiful wooded area around White Lake.
    In 1925 he moved the family back to Chicago.  He rented a large two story building with an English Basement.  After some remodeling the upstairs rooms were rented as light housekeeping rooms.  He was employed by Armour & Co. as a pipefitter.  The children finished school and were married.
    Clarence was gainfully employed all of his life.  In his later years he worked as an overseer for a wealthy property owner on the West side of Chicago.  Mr. Knox, the property owner, was in his eighties and unable to look after his property.  Mr. Know had implicit faith in Clarence's judgement and integrity.  In addition to being employer and employee they were very good friends.
    His family hold cherished memories of him as one who brought encouragement in the time  of trouble, help in the time of need and a loyalty to family and friends that was at times fierce in its dedication.  He believed that people and animals had to be loved as well as doctored to restore their mental and physical health.
    Clarence M. Kidder died on June 2, 1951 from injuries received in an automobile accident near Madison, Wis."

Kidder Confusion

So the whole Jennie Kidder situation just got worse.  I'll have to start over and look at everything very carefully!

Since Clark & Jennie supposedly got married in 1887 when they were 26, and I cannot located that record on FamilySearch, I thought maybe Jennie had been married before.  So I looked around and found a marriage to Thadeus Doud in 1878.  

The age of Jennie is correct as well as the area where she was living but I don't know what M.D. means for place born.  So this is good!  I have another name to use for the 1887 marriage.  But nope, I didn't find what I expected.  I found a Jennie Doud getting married on July 4, 1887 (the exact date expected) but to the wrong guy & the wrong place!  (I looked in the 1880 census and found Thaddeus with his wife Jane...plus their 6 month old child.)

And I still cannot find any marriage for Clark V. Green.

Wall Photo Collage

I got the chance to rearrange the living room this year after we pulled up the carpet and finished the floors.  (Looks great!)  I always wanted to do a photo collage so I took this opportunity to do it myself.  So first I collected all the assorted picture frames I had.  Then I traced them on white paper and laid them up on the wall with tape.  It took a few tries to get something I liked but this was what it turned out to be in the end.  I had also marked where the nail needed to be placed so that wasn't to hard either.

So this is what it ended up looking like with the frames all up.  Of coarse I needed to find the right pictures as well and that took time!  (The large item in the center is a mirror and it is reflecting the window on the opposite wall.)  I was really pleased with this setup!  I only purchased a couple items so it wasn't very expensive either.

This is not how it looks now.  I will do another post soon with why things had to be changed and how it looks now.  Plus I still don't have all the pictures in frames!  This could be a year long project.

The Kidder Newsletter, part 1

So my in-laws had some copies of this Kidder Newsletter that was mailed out in the mid-60's.  The copies I have don't have a family tree listing so I don't know how most of the people mentioned are related.  But one great thing is they have these profiles.  And one of the profiles is for Clark V. Green.  So here is the profile as printed in the August 1966 Vol. 2, No. 8 issue of the Family Tie.

    "Clark V. Green was born in Kalamo Township, Eaton County on March 19, 1859.  The place of his birth is just a few miles east of Lansing, Michigan.
    He is one of the in-laws.  He married Elizabeth "Jennie" Kidder, daughter of Daniel and Rosa Kidder.  He was a brother-in-law to Clarence, Dan, Ben, Frank, Fred and Grace.
    Clark came from a long line of pioneers and defenders of the country.  His great-grandfather, Joseph Green, fought  in the Revolutionary War under General Starke, this from records in the War Department, in Washington, D.C.  His grandfather, Weaver Green, fought in the War of 1812 under General Alexander Macomb at Platsburg, N.Y. for the duration of the war.  His father, Ira Green, enlisted in the Union Army in 1861 and served for the duration of the Civil War.  Members of the Green family have served in every major war fought in the United States.
    In 1866 Clark's parents, Ira and Phebe Green, moved to Sheridan, Michigan the land of virgin pine and shingle mills.
    Six years later was a time of great sorrow for Clark Green.   His parents became ill with the fever.  His mother died on April 27, 1872.  His father died one week later on May 4, 1872.
    Clark's two brothers had married and were living in Kalamo so he was all alone now to make his own way at the tender age of thirteen.
    Clark knew a mill-owner, Mr. Stone, who had employed his father.  He walked out to the mill and asked for a job.  Mr. Stone, feeling sorry for the orphan boy gave him a job.
    Clark learned to saw shingles, file saws and do mill-wright work.  At 18 years of age he was the best shingle sawyer in the area.  He was also an expert saw-filer and mill-wright.  The head sawyer was the pace-setter for the entire mill.  Clark held two records for a Perkins hand machine.  He averaged 50,000 shingles per day for 20 straight days of 10 hours and 87,000 shingles for one 12 hour day from picked timber.
    There was a lot of competition between the shingle mills.  The mill that sawed the most shingles for the week nailed a new broom, handle down, to the top-most peak on the roof of the mill.
    A mill-owner was known not by name as much as by the toughness of the crew who worked for him.  Some mill-owners hired men not so much for work but rather because they were hard fighters.  On weekends it was the custom to go to some camp and take on the best man just to see who was top dog.
    Clark was not a big man he only weighed 165 pounds.  He was very quick and light on his feet.  Sawing shingles 10 hours a day produced arm and shoulder muscles that rippled under the skin like huge ropes.  He took pride in being the best sawyer and top dog of the mill country.  He often said, "If I hit a man and he don't fall I am going to run around him and see what is holding him up."
    Clark followed his trade in Montcalm count, Michigan and went to work for one of the pioneer lumberman, Daniel D. Kidder, at his mill and four miles east of Stanton.  There he became acquainted with his wife to be, Jennie Kidder.
    The mill burned and Dan Kidder moved his family to Dakota Territory except Jennie, who remained in Stanton. Clark and Jennie were married on July 4, 1887 and moved three miles west of Stanton to B.Z. Knopp's mill where their first son, Claude, was born on January 29, 1889.  The Knopp mill also burned and the family lost everything but the clothes on their backs.  During their stay at the mill another son was born, Emmett A., named after both of his uncles.
    Clark moved his family back to Stanton where he continued to work in the mills.  Here a third son, Fillmore, was born on February 28, 1893.
    In the summer of 1896 the family went to Crystal lake for a week where Clark's brother-in-law, Clarence Kidder, was managing some resort property.  During the stay Fillmore who was 3 years old was sent to buy some bananas from a stand.  He returned with a sack of rotting bananas not knowing the difference.
    Clark took the boy and the bananas back.  The owner of the stand said, "You hayseeds come to town spend your money and then want it back again, well here is one time you don't get it."  With this Clark reached across the counter, jerked the owner forward and hit him.  The stand was just a small shed covered with limbs that folded up and collapsed.
    The owner of the concession sent to Carson City for a tough character to give Clark a beating.  The tough, six feet and over 200 pounds was pointed out to Clark.  Clark, with four silver dollars clenched in his right fist walked up to him and said, "I am Clark Green," and let him have it on the jaw.  This blow, although it did not end the fight broke the character's jaw and the end was never in doubt.  Asked if he wanted to prefer charges he said, "When a banty rooster whips a game cock should he cry about it."
    The family lived in Stanton until October 31, 1900 when they moved to Boyne City, Michigan a thriving lumber and industrial town.
    Jennie Green was a good nurse and mid-wife and very much in demand.
    The family continued to live in Boyne City. When more money was needed, Claude, now in 10th grade quit school and went to work in the mils.  Emmett & Fillmore soon followed Claude to work in the mills.
    Clark cut off three fingers and a thumb from his left hand.  This ended his career as a sawyer.  He became a mill-wright and maintenance man in the mill.
    His iron will carried him on saying nothing about his health although it was apparent he was ailing.
    On June 8, 1930 while watching a card game he collapsed and died with a heart attack.  His final resting place along-side his wife, Jennie is a cemetery in Boyne City, Michigan."

It doesn't say who put this profile together.  It could have been his son Claude.

Death Record, Rose Kidder

This might be the death record for my husband's ancestor, Rosa (Gainer) Kidder.  (There is some confusion with this line which I need to research.)  This record shows Rose Kidder dying at age 34 in child birth.  I think the other part says Premature Confinement.  So the baby came early.  I don't have a record of a child born this year so I am pretty sure the child didn't survive IF this is the right person for the line I am researching.

Finding a grave

This past year I again spent sometime looking in cemeteries and finding grave stones.  My father-in-law even took me around to different places.  There was one stone we found that I actually had seen before, years ago.  Sophia Devilla Ward (I always liked her name) was not buried near her husband since he had died many years before her and in a different part of the state.  Looking at her stone reminded me that I needed to find his stone as well.

So I went on to the Find-a-Grave website and did some searching for the name Tillotson buried in Michigan.  I found their baby first.  Ruby had died in 1843, and there was another Tillotson listed but the first name was weird, Abrarel.  So I contacted the person who had added the memorial and she went and took a picture of the stone.  Now the stone is really hard to read but she thought it could be Asahel.  Plus the death information matched what I already had.  Yeah!

I still need to make the trip down to see the graveyard for myself and take a high resolution photograph.  I want to see if I can make out the writing on the bottom of the stone.  But it would have taking me a long time to find the right cemetery without Find-a-Grave.  Plus this husband and wife are now linked electronically on the site.  It makes me feel better :)

Hidden treasures!

Scanning pictures has turned up a real treasure!  Within my father's stuff, I found this picture of my 2-great grandmother, Maria (Kool) Groenhof.  The name of the child was not given.  Maria died in 1932 (Apr 8th) in Blendon Township, Michigan at age 79.  She was born Apr 28, 1852 in Friesland.

Somewhere I think I have a brief description of her life narrated before she died.  I will have to look and post!

Additionally, there were a number of pictures of my grandparents (Martin & Agnes) when they were younger.  I have actually not seen any of those before either.  The one to the right is labeled Grand Rapids (MI) but no date.