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.

Photo Effects

Another fun challenge from Genea-Musings - to use Anymaking.com to create fun pictures!

This was a bit like what we did for Learning 2.0 and some of the effects are like the ones on Photobooth. My contributions are above since I don't think I can move them around to different spots on the blog posting.

Shared birthdays

Another Genea-Musings challenge since I haven't done one in a while! So this one is to find someone in your genealogy file that has the same birthday as yourself. I use iFamily so I went to Events and then Events Dates to find someone with the same birthday, June 4.

There actually were a number of people. The oldest is John Kidder born in 1707, next is Lammert Kool born in 1877, then Geziena Lubbers born in 1879, Maria Schrotenboer in 1884, Aagje Groenhof in 1888, and Priscilla Houg in 1909. There are more but I don't know much specific information about any of these people. None are direct ancestors. Yep, that's all!

Halloween past

So the other day I was trying to name all the costumes my kids have worn for Halloween. It actually was kind of hard! It was almost easier to remember what they worn when they were really little because I had more say. Now they do what ever they want! The picture is from 2003. This was a big year. I put a lot of time into the cat & bat costumes and we visited my niece at school (in the picture), my cousin with her new baby in the hospital and my work! Long, long day! I think the kids picked what they wanted for costumes but they still kind of matched. So these are some of my favorite costumes despite staying up late to add the boa trim to Claire's :)