Genealogy, history & kids

Several years ago (when our oldest was in 5th grade) we were living in Alabama and we started to study a year in the Civil War (that's what our boys interest was at the time.....yes we do homeschool :) I wanted them to have a tangible way to develop memories, yet get involved in Genealogy, bring in the history and learn!  So we started a Civil War Scrapbook for the kids.

Now we started this in the 5th grade (our oldest son just graduated HS) but it was an ongoing project as we visited places.  You know as a homeschooling family, we couldn't resist planning out trips & vacations around historical sites :)  That's the beauty of it all!  Anyways we helped to build their scrapbook.  One section was their field trips that were centered on the Civil War. At first I had them hand write out their narration of their trip but then there were errors and it was hard with a pen.  So then we taught them to type on the computer and we printed off their narration.  That not only help with "neatness" but also if we had to raise the font number on the print we could or if we had to make it smaller, we could.

The next section is labeled "My family in the Civil War".  We went through our genealogy and found photos and info on their family members that fought throughout the Civil War and on both sides too.  That was fun especially when you find out one grandfather fought in the same battle as another but one was on the Union side and the other was on the Confederate side.

This is Elisha Riley Williams.  My husband's GGG Grandfather who fought in the Civil War on the Union Side. He fought at Vicksburg, MS.

Then there's James Ambers Washington Cook (top left) who fought on the Confederate side for the Confederates.  He was my GGG grandfather.  

This is George Herzog.  He was my GGG grandfather.  We have his photo here with his enlistment and discharge papers. (if you follow his link, you will also see him in his uniform from the Civil War with his medals.  We were unable to fit it into the Scrapbook as the photo came later).

The last section was their favorite men in the Civil War.  They gathered photos (their favorites).  We also had a homeschool group in AL where we did a living history day.  The kids would dress up in character and give a report on their favorite person.  You can see that year our son did Stonewall Jackson.  I shrunk the report down to fit onto the page.  Below is a photo of him dressed up :)

I hope this helps you guys understand how to use homeschooling, scrapbooking, history, Genealogy and FUN all rolled into one.  Let me know if you have any comments or questions!

Wordless Wednesdays: The Spoons

These old spoons belong to the Hand family.  George R. Hand was my great-great-great grandfather.

Talented Tuesdays: Our Poet

It's Talented Tuesdays over at Geneabloggers.

Alfred Tennyson Vaughn was my paternal grandfather.  He was so talented.  Not only was he a terrific hunter, provider for the family, 23 year career Army Soldier, Godly man, full of wonderful wisdom, but also a poet, a writer, a HAM radio operator and could fix anything.  We have books, folders and filing shelves FULL of his writings and poetry.

6 months after his death from cancer, July 25, 1999, I stirred back up my genealogy search and was "back at it" again.  During the time before his death, he had written a series of 6 stories.  These stories were of he & his family growing up in Entiat, WA (outside of Wenatchee).  They were of how they were pioneers for the state of Washington and how his father helped to make Washington into statehood.  He was an AMAZING writer, but here's the deal.  NO ONE knew of these stories until I told them about them.  No one knew that Grandpa had done this until I googled his name.  What an incredibly AMAZING gift.  All this to say, I beg of you, PLEASE interview your family members.   Get those stories.  Preserve those stories for the future and the future generations.  When your family members are gone, the stories go along with them!  I am posting these stories weekly.  You can read part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4 so far.  I will post the latter two in the next couple of weeks.

Reminicing the Vaughn Heritage 4

Looking Towards Heaven (Pictured above is a well-loved man, named Dad and Grandpa.)


**Note** This is the fourth of 10 articles that were written by my maternal Grandfather, Alfred Tennyson Vaughn before his death July 25, 1999. I didn't know they existed, until I did some family searching on the net and they came up. They were published in 2000 after his death. Needless to say, since I didn't know these were out there, I was in tears when I saw them. They are a cherished gift from Grandpa, who was a wonderful writer and poet! We love and miss you Grandpa!

You can find the first parts of these series here:
Entiat #1
Entiat #2
Entiat #3
Entiat #4
Entiat #5
Entiat #6 
That Old House 
Entiat Pioneers 
The Newcomer 
Neighbors of the Valley

REMINISCING
The Vaughn Heritage
by
Alfred Tennyson Vaughn

Editor's note: This week, in the fourth installment of The Vaughn Heritage, we read about winter fun, family activities and making do with what the family had.

Fun, Frolic and Making Do

After the harvesting was done, and the work load lightened, we spent many long winter evenings in the main room to study, read, or play games by the light of the kerosene lamp.

Often Father would gather us around him and read from his favorite magazines-- Collier's, Saturday Evening Post, and American Magazine.

"Scattergood Baines" was a favorite serial story. Dad also read book novels to us like "The Shepherd of Kingdom Come," "Shepherd of the Hills," and Zane Grey stories.

On weekends, the family would gather around the organ in the living room. Dad would play his violin, and some of us played ukulele or guitar, and sing favorite folk songs.

Our family provided musical programs for church and the school at times and entertained them with jokes about human nature.

Old southern living and customs provided a very interesting evening of entertainment.
Although Father had chosen a Scottish lassie for his bride, some of his familiar folk songs were, "My Wild Irish Rose," and "I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen." No doubt, he still remembered Kitty, the Irish colleen that he gave up to marry Mother.

The only communication system in the valley was a telephone line that ran about 15 miles from the Central Office in Entiat to Brief.

The system had three or four multiple party lines with up to ten subscribers on each line. Each subscriber had a ringing code of short and long rings.

However, regardless of whose number was rung, you could almost count how many others were listening by the number of clicks after you picked up your receiver. It was almost impossible to keep a secret in those days.

Above is My grandfather and his Boy Scout Troup in Entiat, Washington

Most social events took place at churches, school houses, picnics and private clubs.
Each school had programs planned for most of the holidays. Christmas was the biggest event of all, complete with a "real" Santa Claus.

                                          Apple Blossom Festival in Entiat, Washington
                                                                           1927

Weddings and funerals drew many families out from their daily routines. Later, a dance hall near us provided the valley with entertainment and gossip. And, nearly every Sunday dawned with one or more cars off the road between there and town. The dance hall was also used as a roller rink and for other activities in the valley.

Each school year was ended with an outdoor picnic that few people missed attending.
Although our family, like many others in the valley, never had much money, the younger children never knew it. I suppose today we would be regarded as living in the poverty level.

Mother and Dad never talked about those problems around us. But, we were taught to appreciate and take care of what we had, and not to worry about what we did not have.

The few toys that were given us were well made, and we learned how to invent games and to make some toys from what was on hand.

Sling shots were made from the fork of a willow. The rubber bands for them came from worn out inner tubes, and the leather pocket from worn out shoes.

Our fishing poles grew along the river bank. All we needed to do was select a green slender willow about six or seven feet long, tie 15 feet of stout string to the end, and make a hook out of a pin or fine wire.

Later on, when we got fishing line and hooks from the store, we knew how to take care of them. The steel pole had to wait a while longer.

Of course, we never had to buy bait as angleworms and grasshoppers were plentiful around the farm and penny winkles and other marine life were found on rocks in the river.
The mountain brook trout and Dolly Vardens and cutthroat were welcome treats for supper and breakfast.

What energy we had left over after our chores was used up in hiking and swimming in summer and sledding and skating in winter.

When we got big enough to make our own skis, then we could enjoy that sport as well.

On the Bonar ranch, just down river from us, was a pond built at the head of the irrigation canal. It was the Bonar's donation to our community to use for swimming and skating.

And if the ice got thick enough, we joined with our neighbors to cut ice to store in our sawdust icehouses for the coming year. When the river ice was thick enough, then the pond was spared.
Other winter activities were bobsledding, skating parties, dog sledding with Rover, house to house sleigh rides and candy pulls.

The pond was almost a mile from our house. When the water was not too high in the river, we waded across as a shortcut to the pond. Otherwise, we walked around to the bridge and through the Bonar orchard.

During the hot weather we had to watch out for rattlesnakes that came down to the irrigation ditch for water. The snakes came in all sizes, and it was not unusual to see at least one each week.

As far as I know, none of our family was ever bitten by them. There were also bull snakes and garter snakes which we used to tease the girls.

Sometimes one got put into the school teacher's desk or waste basket, or a small frog.

Next week: School time and the Christmas holidays.

Happy Birthday Mammaw

                                              My Mammaw, Ida Elizabeth Martin Culberson
                                                                          1914-1994

Happy Birthday to one of the most influential people in my life. Mammaw would have been 98 today.  She was known as ElizAbeth, Liz, Lizzie or whatever.  She was so so sweet.  She was a fantastic cook, although not a healthy cook per se.  She was a GREAT listener.  I am blessed to be named after her (and my other grandmother).  She put up with a BUNCH of stuff she shouldn't have but did it with grace.  LOTS of grace and love.  Her boys (and family) rose up and called her blessed.  We had a terrific surprise 80th birthday for her,  18 years ago.  She was CLUELESS.  She was SO surprised and all she could stay was "ya'll are all stankers.......you all stink!"  It was adorable!  All her boys was there but one.  So many memories made.  We also did a surprise birthday for sweet Aunt Reva Culberson.  She was like a grandmother to us and my dad looked up to Uncle Joe like a father figure.  My heart is happy that she was in my life, but grieved that she's not with us here on earth anymore.  I miss so much about her.  I miss her seeing the boys growing up and seeing what Godly young men they are.  I miss that she gets to see my middle son, who was named after her daddy (a promise I made her before she died).  There are many things I don't miss that she would see and many things that have hit the fan since her death, but what a Godly woman.  I hope that one day my children will look upon me like her.  I only wish and hope to be an ounce of a mother, mentor and wife like she was........man I miss you like crazy.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAMMAW!  ENJOY YOUR CELEBRATION IN HEAVEN!

Reminicing the Vaughn Heritage 3

Looking Towards Heaven (Pictured above is a well-loved man, named Dad and Grandpa.)


**Note** This is the third of 10 articles that were written by my maternal Grandfather, Alfred Tennyson Vaughn before his death July 25, 1999. I didn't know they existed, until I did some family searching on the net and they came up. They were published in 2000 after his death. Needless to say, since I didn't know these were out there, I was in tears when I saw them. They are a cherished gift from Grandpa, who was a wonderful writer and poet! We love and miss you Grandpa!


You can find the first parts of these series here:
Entiat #1
Entiat #2
Entiat #3
Entiat #4
Entiat #5
Entiat #6 
That Old House 
Entiat Pioneers 
The Newcomer 

Neighbors of the Valley

REMINISCING: The Vaughn Heritage
by
Alfred Tennyson Vaughn


Editor's note: This week, in the third installment of The Vaughn Heritage, we read about the coming to the Entiat area by the Vaughn family.


The Move to Entiat

Stanley and Flora were born at Medical Lake, and were small children when the folks moved westward to Knapps Landing, on the Columbia River near Wenatchee, about 1899.

Dad took charge of a station at the foot of Chelan Falls where wagon trains stopped for water and food. Bands of Indians also stopped there to rest up and eat their fill between hunting trips.

Silico Saska, a Wenatchee who lived at the confluence of the Columbia and the Entiat River. Part of Saska’s claim was sold to the founders of the town of Entiat in 1896; the rest was sold to orchardists after his death in 1903.   He was one of the Indians that my great grandparents fed and took care of.

Dad fed hay to their horses, while Mother cooked food for the Indians. They usually stayed and ate until all the food supplies were almost gone, then went on their way. Father learned to talk Indian jargon and got to know many of the Indians of the Nespelem and Chelan tribes.

Uncle Bill Vaughn

William "Bill" Joseph Vaughn was born to the family in July 1900 while at Knapps Landing.

Uncle Daniel Jefferson Vaughn

Son of Cornelius Vaughn, Jr.

It was around this time that Dad's Uncle Dan Vaughn, son of Cornelius Vaughn, bought some land up the Entiat Valley from the Bonar homestead.

In 1901, Dad bought about 35 acres next to Uncle Dan. There was a two-room house and a cabin on the property when they moved in.

As the family grew through the years, so did the house. It was there that six other children were born and grew up.

Father was called upon to help build homes for many of the settlers in the valley. He also helped to build the Christian Church that stood by the graveyard on the hill above the valley.

As the children reached school age, Father helped to build what became known as the Vaughn School (Chelan County School District #37).

  Classmates from the Vaughn School

It was there that all of our family went through grade school. It was there also where two of the older boys, Stanley and David, found young school marms who became their wives.

                                                     David & Dorothy (Harmon) Vaughn

Stanley & Florence Lillian (Rice) Vaughn

Florence Rice was one of the first school teachers there. She married Stanley after he returned from France where he served in the Army in World War I.

                                                   Uncle Stanley George Vaughn, WWI. 
                                                                    Taken in France

Being the youngest of the nine children, and 18 years younger than Stanley, I have to depend on my brothers for events before my time.

One of the stories that Bill enjoyed telling was about when I was born.
Since we lived 10 miles up the valley and often 30 miles from the nearest doctor, the families in the valley often called on "Grandma Moe" as a nurse and midwife. She lived with her son-in-law and daughter, Tony and Rachel Johnson, about three miles away.

Grandma Moe had helped most of my brothers and sisters on their arrival in our home.
Now, it was my turn.

Eveleen Vaughn age 15

Dad called for Grandma Moe and sent Evaleen to get her in our horse and buggy. Then, all the younger children were sent out of the house to await my arrival.

When the loud cry and wailing began, the children looked all around for the blue jay they thought they heard. (Apparently sex education began at a later age then.)

Bill Vaughn

David Vaughn

Since Father was busy helping the nurse, Bill and David were sent to the upper field to take care of the farming. Uncle Dan happened to be in shouting distance, so they called him over to tell him about the new arrival.

                                                         Uncle Daniel Jefferson Vaughn

Uncle Dan thoughtfully listened, spit out some tobacco juice, then said, "You-uns tell yore Paw he should call it 'quits.'" Bill and Dave thought that really funny, so, as soon as they got back to the house, they told Dad what Uncle Dan had said.

Dad stared, said nothing, but turned red in the face. The next day, when Bill and Dave saw Uncle Dan next to the fence, he called them over to him and asked, "Did you-all tell yore Paw what ah said?" Of course they said they had. Uncle Dan spit again, then said, "Hmmmph. Ah thought you-all had bettah sense."

Of the 35 acres on the ranch, only about 18 was used for crops. Eight acres were in orchard, and the rest was used for garden and for hay.

Besides butchering our own beef and pork, our larder was supplemented by hunting and fishing.
Deer and bear as well as game birds were adequate for the sharpshooters that grew up there.

Our land was irrigated from a three-mile ditch that brought water from the Entiat River and shared with the neighbors. We were at the end of the line.

Each spring, Dad took some of us boys along to clean up and fix up the irrigation ditch for the summers. Neighbors also helped to maintain it.

For the house, we had running water. The boys took turns running to the river (about 100 feet away) with a pail or milk can in each hand. We needed three or four times as much water for  wash days, although the folks had a place next to the river to do laundry on warm summer days.

The nearest electric power line came six miles short of our place. Our house was lighted by kerosene lamps and lanterns until gasoline lamps became available. One big room served as kitchen and dining room.

An old Monarch kitchen range fueled by wood provided our cooking year round, and helped heat the house during cold seasons.

Above photos are Joe & Eva J Vaughn

at their homestead in Entiat

                                                                       Joe Vaughn

We also had pot bellied heaters in the other end and in the living room. The bedrooms were unheated.
If it was real cold, we warmed up bricks in the oven then wrapped them in newspapers and bags to warm our feet in bed. The kitchen was also our bathroom on Saturday nights, where we heated the water on the range and put enough in a round wash tub for each one to take their turn.


Next week: family activities and valley social events.