A Special Necklace

This necklace is designed with three strands each braided a little different.  In the center is a seabean that was found washed up on the Florida beach that had made its' way from the Bahama's.  It was polished and attached to the strands with a decorative 18K gold clasp. 

Her hair was the color of chestnuts.  She kept it long and wore it braided and wrapped over her head. It belonged to my great grandmother, Elsie Lovina Eldrige Sterling and this necklace was made from her hair.  I called her gram and I loved her dearly.  She passed away when I was a senior in high school.

In 2022 I passed this special necklace on to my daughter, Kimberly.

Gram

Friend to King Philip

Cole's River in Swansea, MA is named after my 8th great grandfather, Hugh Cole. Hugh was a friend of King Philip. During the King Philip's War, two of his sons were captured. King Philip released his friends sons. However, the chief warned his friend that he could no longer control his warriors and told Hugh to leave his home and set sail for Rhode Island. He did as he was told and as he was sailing away watched his house burn to the ground. 

http://youtu.be/seVE1zM60m8  Link to Cole's River.

Hugh and his wife, Mary Foxwell are buried in Tyler Point Cemetery Barrington, Bristol, Rhode Island.

I descend as follows:

Hugh Cole (1627 - 1699)

is my 8th great grandfather

John Cole (1660 - 1724)

Son of Hugh

Mary Cole (1697 - 1759)

Daughter of John

Mary Wright (1726 - 1804)

Daughter of Mary

Mary Tomson (1757 - 1846)

Daughter of Mary

Erastus Hayward (1790 - 1844)

Son of Mary

Eunice Soule Hayward (1829 - 1911)

Daughter of Erastus

Laura Eunice Jones (1864 - 1943)

Daughter of Eunice Soule

Malcolm LeRoy Smith (1898 - 1953)

Son of Laura Eunice

Robert Franklin Smith (1923 - 2008)

Son of Malcolm LeRoy

Kathryn Marie Smith

The Funeral That Wasn't for Baby Cindy

It's Memorial Day and we made the rounds to place flowers upon our family members graves. Pink flowers, always pink, for a special little girl.  It's hard to believe that it will be 44 years this August 14th.  This is the story of my personal loss.

I was told to admit myself into the hospital, my baby would not survive, chromosome defect, and my 

life was in danger.

We lost our little girl when I was 8 months pregnant. During this sad time you listen to what you are told and I was told not to have a funeral, not to name her. This is why she has no name on her stone. But I wanted people to know whose child she was so we put our names upon her stone.

The fact of the matter was we had already chosen a name for her, Lucinda. I wish we had scribed her name upon the stone. We were going to call her Cindy. She is buried with her grandparents, Cecil and Shirley Lockhard, in Pine hill Cemetery, West Bridgewater, Ma, so she is not alone. 

I watched out the window of my hospital room and saw the black car arrive to take my baby away.  I felt some comfort knowing that a friend from my high school class working in the family business would gently care for her.  Cindy was laid to rest in her father's white christening gown while I was still in the hospital.  There was no service for my little Cindy, and I was afraid to have more children.

I went home to my other two children, but this did not ease my pain, I felt empty.  A cousin stopped by to visit.  She was from out-of-state and she had a newborn baby that I asked to hold.  I broke down and cried for the first time as I cuddled her baby.

A few days later I told my husband I was ready to go to the cemetery.  Not able to afford to buy flowers at that time, I picked flowers from my garden and we headed out to the cemetery.  My husband told me her casket was white, as I looked upon the outline of where she was laid to rest.  I presented my small bouquet and then told my husband I wanted another baby as I cried in his arms.

About To Take Flight

Thanks to Find a grave, I have a picture of my 2nd great grandparents, Philip and Helen Roesch's, gravestone.  I don't know what I expected, if anything.  I don't think it ever occurred to me to look for it because they were laid to rest in British Hollow Cemetery located in Rockville, Grant County, Wisconsin.   

 I was thrilled to see this beautiful stone with such amazing detail.  What excited me most were the feathered wings. How special that they would choose to carry their German heritage to their grave. 

These are the wings of an eagle and prominently displayed at the top of the stone.  The wings are elevated and the wing tips are facing up indicating that they are about to take flight into heaven.

Westward Passage

Mathias Roesch sailed from Baden, Germany with his family, arriving at Castle Garden in New York on May 26, 1857 after 46 days days at sea..  This was the journey they took by train to reach Potosi, Wisconsin where they lived and farmed.  (Ellis Island should read Castle Garden on the map)

Quadruple Tragedy - So Sorry Lulu

Earl and Lulu

Lulu Mary Beebe was born December 6, 1898.  She was the daughter of Alfred Royal Beebe, brother to my 3rd great grandmother.  On August 8, 1917 she married Earl Marshall Taylor and began their family.  I have nine children listed but they might have had as many as 12 children.

The youngest children were Alfred Ernest, born January 11, 1934 and Oliver Royal, known as Ollie, born on March 20, 1935.  The family lived in Muskegon, Michigan.

Lulu's husband died on April 4, 1935 at the age of 39 when Alfred was 15 months old, and Lulu was eight months pregnant with Ollie. 

Fourteen years later, 1935, triple tragedy strikes Lulu and her family.  Ollie dies on August 11, 1949 of polio.  Her mother-in-law Jennie dies on November 10, 1949, and then her son, Albert died of polio on November 30, 1949.

Alfred



Oliver



Abbie & Joseph To Meet Again

My 3rd great grandparents,  Joseph Wilber (1832-1895) and Abbie A Borden 1832-1910) .  They are buried in Freetown, Massachusetts in the Chase Cemetery.  Joseph's stone reads:  Only Waiting For Our Meeting.  Abbie's stone reads:  In Heaven We Will Meet Again.

Nature's Electrocutions

Floyd Clapp was struck by lightning and instantly killed, Saturday evening at the home of Charles Weston, September 7, 1895, Cuba, New York  The young man was 26.  

The particulars of the sad affair is as follows; Mr. Clap was in the barn milking, filled his pail and had gone outside the building to a shed under which the milk wagon stood with the cans on it, and emptied the the pail.  He had just stepped back into the door that was in the corner of the barn when the bolt struck him.  Mr. Weston picked him up and took him to the horse barn a short distance off, while his wife was engaged in releasing the cows and getting them out of the barn that was already burning briskly.

It was about half past six when the bolt struck with such fatal effects.  About 1000 bushels of oats and a quantity of hay was consumed by fire.  As the barn burned so quickly it is of course impossible to tell just where the lightning struck it, but the probabilities are it struck it entered the roof directly over the door where Mr. Clapp stood when killed, as that was where the fire started. 

The bolt struck him on the right side of his head burning his hair, eyelashes, eyebrows and mustache, and leaving slight marks on his temple, neck and chin, the latter of which bled slightly until the next day.  I then glanced to his shoulder and passed down the breast to thigh, leaving a ragged edged mark about three inches wide.  From the thigh it jumped across his body to his left leg below the knee, tearing the skin up crosswise of the leg in streaks about an inch wide and the same distance apart, to the anklebone, where it left the body and tore off his shoe.  His shirt and pants along the course taken by the bolt were torn away.

Floyd was my 2nd cousin 3X removed.

 

Mother's Day

Written by my mother, Elsie Louise Roesch Smith.    

To My Daughters On Mother's Day

Dedicated to Kathy, Sharon, Janine & Robin

Mother's Day 1989 

What better time than Mother's Day 

To express some thoughts I seldom say.

Four precious little girls, like peas in a pod,

Sent straight from heaven a gift from God

Rearing children is a lifetime process

But so rewarding is each small success.

Sometimes the end never seems in sight,

Then suddenly there you were, grown overnight.

Years of time and money spent, more than worth every cent.

"I wonder where that fanny-whacker went?"

Curls bouncing on little heads, secrets shared at night,

Nicknames given in love, Gram and Nannie's delight. 

A picnic, a trip to Cape Cod to see the ships,

A walk in the woods brought smiles to your lips.

I'd like to keep you forever but know that I can't,

Because for such a short time you were only lent.
The men that you married are wonderful as well,

I love them all dearly, Jeff, Tony, Victor and Mel.

How proud I am of you

In everything you say and do.

When your children are grown and you can see,

That they are everything you wanted them to be.

Good mates and parents loving and caring,

With wonderful memories for sharing,

The cycle us complete.

My grandchildren are surely blessed,

But I might as well confess,

That the luckiest person in the world is me,

Because I am your mother.

Love you Mom

Celestin Kaltenbach - Elected Official

Celestine Kaltenbach was born in Baden, Germany in 1813 and then coming to Potosi, Wisconsin.  In 1853 he was made Town Treasurer, the first town office to be held by a German. 

He  became the Dean of Postmasters in the United States holding that office from 1837 to the time of his death, March 18, 1891, at the age of 78. 

Before coming to Potosi he had mined iron for three years about Dubuque.  On coming to the "Hollow" he started a store (in the location then known as Van Buren) which he carried on for more than fifty years.  He held several town offices and was so much esteemed in the community that to hundreds his advice or admonition was law.

His grandson, Celestine David, named for him married into the Roesch family when he wed Gwendolyn September 26, 1934. 

He graduated from Potosi High School in 1918 and went to Duluth, MN to study electricity.  He was a mailclerk at St. Paul in 1919.  He worked for years in Potosi State Bank starting in April 1923, and was postmaster for 34 years prior to his 1968 retirement. On September 26, 1934 he married Gwendolyn A. Roesch.   A member of Grant County and State Historical Societies; National Legion of Postmasters and American Legion WWI veteran.  They lived at Whitewater after 1987. 

Gwen passed away in an assisted  living facility.  Her obituary read as follows:

POTOSI/WHITEWATER—

Gwendolyn Alice (Roesch) Kaltenbach, 86, formerly of Potosi, died Wednesday, Aug. 2, 1995 at the Fairhaven Residential Facility in Whitewater, where she had resided since 1987.

She was born Feb. 26, 1909 in Boise-Lancaster, the daughter of Lake and Edna (Thomas) Roesch.  She married Celestine Kaltenbach on Sept. 26, 1934 in Dubuque, Iowa.

She was a member of St. Thomas Catholic Church and the Altar Society in Potosi.  She was a member of the Grant County Historical Society and the DAR.  She attended Lawrence University, the UW-Madison and was a graduate of the UW-Platteville.  She taught high school at Lancaster and Cornucopia for five years.  She authored a historical booklet entitled “Old Potosi” and other magazine articles.  She was also employed at the post office in Potosi for many years.

Surviving are a son, David (Shirley) Kaltenbach, Seattle; a daughter Diane (Jack) Trojan of Whitewater; two grandchildren, Andrew (Trecia) Kaltenbach and Lisa (Doug) Bush; one great-grandson, Jacob Kaltenbach; a brother, Keith Roesch, Lancaster; a sister Anita Schaefer, Potosi; a sister-in-law, Nellie Schenk, Whittier, Calif.; and other relatives and friends.

Interment services were held on Tuesday at St. Thomas Cemetery in Potosi with a Memorial Mass of Christian Burial at a later date to be announced.  Memorials may be given to the church, the DAR or the Grant County Historical Society.

The Skindingsrude Funeral Home in Whitewater served the family.

 

Coquina Art

I just returned from a month long vacation in Florida.  Had a wonderful time dining in my favorite restaurants, enjoyed a three hour kayaking tour in and around the Thousand Islands of the Banana River where we saw dolphins and manatees so close we felt we could touch them.

Went to the Florida Historical Society and donated 14 newspapers of the Eau Gallie Record dating as far back as 1910 that my great grandfather William Russell Roesch founded.  His son, William Phillip, my grandfather, and he were both writers and editors.  When I approached my uncle Clyde, William Phillip's son who lives in Bunnell, Florida about donating the Eau Gallie Record newspapers, he gladly offered them to me to present to the Historical Society, which was most grateful.  Once they are digitized, the society will give both of us copies on a disk.

The town's name of Eau Gallie means rocky water.  It was given this name because the area has rocky ledges of coquina rock which gives the land a firm base.   I never really questioned how coquina was made except to assume that little crushed shells fused to together at the water's edge until I read an article in one of the newspapers before turning them over to the Historical Society.  Coquina rock is used everywhere as treasured art pieces.  Here is what my great-grandfather wrote in the newspaper to tell the story of the coquina rock.

"To the stranger here one of the things that particularly attracts his attention is the unusual rock formation along the river shore.  Coquina rock is the result of ages of work by millions of minute insects collectively.  This insect is closely related to the coral insect and works in the water in the same manner.  A peculiarity of their work is the fact that in many places as along our shores, they work in a circle making about one foot of rock around a sand core about twelve inches in diameter, thereby when the sand is dislodged leaving long straight perpendicular holes in the rock about every foot, these holes here are often quite deep penetrating the earth for many feet. 

"In the Atlantic about one-fourth  mile from the beach another line of the rock is being built and in time to come will retain enough of the drifting sands to make that the shore line."

These are obviously too heavy and large for me to carry home.  So I have a piece about a foot long that I have displayed in my greenhouse window with other shells.