Little Egypt Heritage Articles Stories of Southern Illinois © Bill Oliver 01 October 2006 Vol 5 Issue: #31 ISBN: pending Osiyo, Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen of Little Egypt "Family's Bonding" You all know the "Mona Lisa" and Nat King Cole's song where he wonders if she was smiling to "tempt a lover" or "to hide a broken heart"? Not to answer those questions, a most close [re]inspection of the painting with modern "high tech" equipment has given up a potentially different picture of her "smile". Beside revealing that Leonardo's brush strokes still hide his genius, it was revealed that she was not wearing a shawl, but rather a fine, gauzy veil which was worn by ladies "expecting". Now scholars speculate that her folded hands over her stomach de-emphasize that fact. The author, Edward P Jones, of All Aunt Hagar's Children, has described his book as a crowded Sunday dinner where the past sits elbow-to-elbow with the present, the God-fearin' pass the gravy to the devil-ridden, and the lyrical spars with the mundane. Do you know an author named Walter Mosley? He wrote Devil in a Blue Dress. I've not read this book, but I know it is a mystery with the main character named "Easy", Ezikeal Rawlings, who accepts an offer to help find a missing woman and becomes embroiled in murder, crooked cops, ruthless politicians, and other brutalizing characters. However, that is not what interested me in this author but rather a statement or two that he made at an Authors! Authors! series sponsored by a local County Public Library. Mr Mosley said that his 'literary life' began as he heard his parents and other relatives spin tales. He further stated that everyone in his family has a story to tell and that they liked to laugh. My Grandma Lester family, the Ames', were like that. There always was a story and there was always much laughter at all family gatherings. Sometimes I think how absolutely marvelous, because my Grandma Lester was faced with many hardships. First, she should have been Grandma Gable, but that was one of the hardships. Grandpa and some of his siblings contracted tuberculosis in the late 1910s and early 1920s. Grandma's and Grandpa's life together must have begun with great excitement, for they traveled across state lines to get married. Grandpa Gable was not practicing his family's religious doctrines by doing this, but then there apparently was a family precedence for not having a church wedding. This might be explained by the fact that his father and mother didn't have their marriage vows in the family church either. Great Grandma Gable was disinherited for that little act of independence. However, it has to be said that neither marriage turned out to be dishonorable. Both couples' marriages did last until "death" did them part. Grandpa and Grandma only had time for four daughters to be born before Grandpa succumbed to the effects of tuberculosis. When Grandpa Gable did pass on, the couple were expecting their fifth child. While Grandpa still lived there must have been a mixed atmosphere in the home. The pictures that I have seen indicate this. Grandma and Grandpa Gable must have enjoyed life. When the family was together there seemed always to be an air of carnival, while when just the children were displayed there was some apparent melancholy. This seemed to prevail whenever the children got together in my presence, for there was then much laughing and telling of stories of "Papa" and "Mama". The house would become alive with the chatter. Backing up for just a moment, it should be noted that all the children were girls - a total of five of them. And, as we all know girls chatter much more then boys. Grandma Lester's siblings were mostly girls also, and she had several more of them. Grandma Lester had only one brother and nine sisters. And, boy, when the aunts got together there was so much chatter it was hard to keep up with it all. Stories going in all directions. All of this reminds me that two of my Mother's sisters still live. They are the oldest and the youngest of the five sisters and one of them is now in an assisted living home. These are the two remaining folks of my parents generation, and of course, their older generation have also passed on to their "rewards". I hope to still glean some stories of our family when I visit with Mom's oldest sister. She has age disabilities - she has hearing and sight problems. She was, like my entire family, an avid reader. I can just imagine her loneliness sitting or lying in her room, maybe listening to a too loud TV. I have on my agenda for this evening to visit with her awhile. e-la-Di-e-das-Di ha-wi nv-wa-do-hi-ya nv-wa-to-hi-ya-da. (May you walk in peace and harmony) and Wado, Bill -=- P.S. To all my cousins: At ninety six years, Aunt Lois is still sharp in memory. Hearing loss yes, but sharp. 769 PostScript: Other sites worth visiting: PostScript: = = = = http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/SOIL http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/ILMASSAC http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ne/state/BillsArticles/LittleEgypt/intro.html

This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/2g.2ADE/1091.1.1 Message Board Post: His name was George Shirk, age 74 yr., 6 mon., 19 dys. died July 10, 1910.

This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/2g.2ADE/1091.1 Message Board Post: If you would provide a name, perhaps someone could help you find his burial location.

This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Hudspeth, Hedspeth, White Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/2g.2ADE/947.1.1.2.1 Message Board Post: I will email you at the address posted at this site: gas5812@yahoo.com.........if that is not current, then please write to me at: mrsstrong1@yahoo.com thanks

This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Hudspeth Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/2g.2ADE/947.1.1.2 Message Board Post: Found your family please email me. I lost your email address. Greg Simmons

This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: kelley, kerley, ford, hinchee, holt, jennings Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/2g.2ADE/202.2 Message Board Post: I am the g-g-g-grandaughter of Miles and Elizabeth. I am currently gathering gobbs of new infromation and have a photo of their daughter Rebecca Tennessee Kerley Kelley for anyone who is interested.

This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/2g.2ADE/1082.1.1 Message Board Post: Patricia - Thank you for looking. I appreciate your effort. Regards, Linda Scott

This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Hudspeth, Hedspeth Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/2g.2ADE/947.1.1.1.1.2.1.2 Message Board Post: So, remind me,,,,,,,,,,,what is the connection to Johnson Co., IL?

This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Smith, Miller Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/2g.2ADE/1013.2 Message Board Post: I think John W.'s father's name was actually Larkin P. Smith (not Marshall). Larkin married Sarah Miller in Johnson County on October 8, 1867. If any info on Sarah's family is available, I would love to see it! Thanks!

This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Hudspeth Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/2g.2ADE/947.1.1.1.1.2.1.1 Message Board Post: So, you think her folks were in Johnson Co., IL before 1895?, but you don't know who her parents were?

This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/2g.2ADE/1082.1 Message Board Post: I've checked all of my Johnson Co. cemetery books and didn't find the name your were requesting. Sorry! Patricia

This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/2g.2ADE/1089.1 Message Board Post: O. P. Brown, 23, teacher. Parents R. W. Brown and Mary A. (Peterson) to Alice Reese, 22, on 6 Feb 1884. Her parents J. G. Reese and Sarah (Harp).

Little Egypt Heritage Articles Stories of Southern Illinois © Bill Oliver 24 September 2006 Vol 5 Issue: #30 ISBN: pending Osiyo, Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen of Little Egypt “Street Cars” There is a picture that was passed down to me by Grandma Oliver. It was of two tall men in uniform standing outside a streetcar in Cincinnati, Ohio. The older brother, who stood taller than Abraham Lincoln, towered over his brother by better than two inches. Grandpa Oliver and his brother, Lando, worked as a team, one ticket taker and the other operator for the Cincinnati Streetcar Company during the year that my Aunt Nellie was born, which was the third of February, 1907. When I was a boy I could not jump high enough to look into the window of a street car, but Grandpa Oliver could just walk over and see the flooring if he looked into the window. So could Great Uncle Lando, except he had to raise his heels up a mite to gain the floor in his sight. Grandpa Oliver was a “gentle” man, in fact, come to think about it, so was Uncle Lando. Big strong Scot-Irishmen who did not seem to get overly excited in any situation. Following his service in the Spanish American War, Uncle Lando become a “security guard” in Panama during the building of the canal. I remember his stories about folks who didn’t want to see the canal built and the explosions from blowing up of the dynamite sheds. I could always imagine him loping across rocky terrain chasing such folks. But this side tracks my topic for this article. I can hear Uncle Lando asking ... “how does one spare horses the excruciating labor of moving folks up and down the steep roadways of San Francisco?” He was speaking of the street passenger cars utilized in that city for transportation. When we couldn’t answer, he would say something like, “Use your head like Andrew Smith Hallidie did.” Andrew Hallidie, just five years earlier than Grandpa Oliver was born [19 April 1876] in Creal Springs, Illinois, developed and patented the “cable car”. A man of vision and ingenuity, Mr. Hallidie patented metal ropes and used them in a mechanism to draw cars by an endless cable which ran between the car rails, propelled by a steam-driven shaft in a powerhouse. The first cable railway ran from Clay and Kearny Streets up to the crest of a hill 307 feet above the starting intersection. There were twenty-eight hundred feet of track. It is interesting to note that the inaugural trip on the morning of 1 August 1873 was from the hilltop to the bottom. A few men, with apprehension, braved the descent to arrive safely at the bottom. Mr. Hallidie, of course, was at the controls. Due to the very steep terrain of San Francisco, Mr. Hallidie’s “cable car” is known world wide and immediately became a tourist item. The success of this venture led to its expansion and introduction of street railways in many cities. In general, by the 1920s, American municipalities had replaced the horse drawn cars with electrically powered cars. At first the “omnibus” began carrying passengers up and down Broadway in New York City in 1827. The omnibus was primarily a stagecoach pulled by horses. Its uniqueness lay in that it was the first mass transportation vehicle in these United States. The man who helped organize the first fire department in New York, Abraham Brower, owned the system. Besides running along a designated route, the system charged a very low fare. Folks would “wave” it down to board and pull on a leather strap when they wanted to get off. You probably imagine that the “pull cord” was attached to some sounding device. Nope; it was attached to the ankle of the driver. While Grandpa and Uncle operated their streetcar in Cincinnati, omnibus’ had been running for eighty years, but there is no evidence that any were still running in large cities much beyond those eighty years. In 1832, the streetcar, though still pulled by horses, ran a more rigid path along steel rails which ran down the middle of streets. The wheels were constructed so that they would not roll off the tracks. This new streetcar was more efficient in that it was larger to carry more passengers while mechanically could be pulled by one horse, thus saving “horse power.” I would imagine that running along steel rails made the ride much more comfortable – no “pot holes.” It didn’t take long for the next large city, New Orleans, to install streetcars in 1835. Typically in America, a streetcar was operated by two crew members. A driver, who rode up front “driving” the horse. To keep the car from rolling into the horse, there was a brake controlled by the driver. The second crew member, the conductor, rode in the back of the streetcar, helping folks get on and off the car, and also collect the fares due. It was also the responsibility of the conductor to signal the driver when all passengers were aboard and it was safe to proceed. This was usually done by pulling on a rope that was attached to a bell located near the driver. As was already mentioned, in 1873 the first machine to replace the horse was the San Francisco Cable Car. And, though San Francisco was the first to run a fleet of cable cars, largest fleet was located in Chicago. Frank Sprague, who worked for Thomas Edison, is credited with establishing the first large scale and successful system to use electricity as the power source for streetcars in Richmond, Virginia. Though the cars still used tracks to run over, electric power was supplied from overhead wires. By the nineteen thirties when I first rode “cars” they resembled the buses which utilized gasoline combustible engines and they, though the electric wires still ran down the middle of the street, could maneuver from the center over to the curb to pick up and let off customers. e-la-Di-e-das-Di ha-wi nv-wa-do-hi-ya nv-wa-to-hi-ya-da. (May you walk in peace and harmony) and Wado, Bill -=- 978 PostScript: Other sites worth visiting: PostScript: = = = = http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/SOIL http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/ILMASSAC http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ne/state/BillsArticles/LittleEgypt/intro.html

This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/2g.2ADE/947.1.1.1.1.2.1 Message Board Post: She was born in little Rock AK, i'm not sure how many brothers and sisters, I only knew Uncle George, Aunt Lily and Aunt Lila.

This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Hudspeth Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/2g.2ADE/947.1.1.1.1.2 Message Board Post: I finally got into my FTM after getting my old computer up and running this week.........sorry-couldn't help you until I could get into the program......let's start with Dessa' birthyear.....1895...........my Hudspeths were in Southern IL by 1860. Was she born in IL? Write to me at: mrsstrong1@yahoo.com

Hi! I'm new to this list. I thought I would post that I'm interested in the George W. Keith family. He was born in 1812, in Jackson County, GA, his family moved from there to Jackson County, AL, before 1830. In the early 1850s, George W. Keith moved to Pope County, IL. He lived there until about 1880 when he moved with his new wife into Johnson County, IL. He died in Johnson County about 1883. First wife was Malinda Griffin, born in AL. Second wife was Eliza Jane Campbell Frizzell. She was born in Franklin County, TN. Also I'm curious if anyone is researching the Warren family. Eli R. Warren spent a good part of his life in Pope County, IL, but I have suspicions that he died in Johnson County. I have searched the Pope and Hardin County death registers, but can't find evidence of his death in either of those places. A search of the Pope County grantee and grantor indexes shows that his last land transaction in Pope occurred in 1896. Thanks for any help! Robert Schneider

I can't get in to any of the So IL sites... problem somewhere.

Just testing the list. Have had no emails lately. Margaret Reynolds Oliver

Evidently, no one is using the list as I have the same problem.

This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: RILEY,JONES,DOUGLAS,SHARP,WHITE, CULBERTSON Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/2g.2ADE/1090 Message Board Post: The Riley, Jones and Douglas Families Reunion June 16, 2007 At Fort Massac State Park in Metropolis, IL. The families of Thomas Harrison Riley would like to invite the descendants of Elder James Jones, Matlaid Watson Jones, Elizabeth White Jones, Elizabeth Douglas, William Clinton Douglas and James Anderson Douglas to a reunion. We will have a potluck meal at 11am on Sat. June 16, 2007 in the Fort Massac State Park Pavillion. Families are encouraged to bring pictures, documents, family history files and items of interest for viewing and copying. The Metropolis Public Library will be open so that documents can be copied and research can be done from 10 am-6 pm on Sat. Visit their website for more details. You can visit the Massac County web page to find lodging. There are at least 2 hotels with indoor pools for those who have children. Most of the hotels are along I-24 and in close proximity to the park. There is a museum at the fort and a great place to view the Ohio River. For those who are interested in Superman there’s a museum and a 15 ft statue in the downtown area. I have been through the museum and recommend it if you are a fan of Superman. If you’re interested in souvenirs then there are several drugstores in town that have a lot to offer. Mermet Lake is a good place to take a driving tour or to fish if you’re interested in natural areas. For those of you who wish to camp at the park you can visit online the Fort Massac State Park web page for details about camping and costs. The following websites should give you a brief idea of what Metropolis has to offer. http://www.stateparks.com/fort_massac.html http://www.metropolischamber.com/attractions.htm I would like for you to RSVP by May 30, 2007 if you plan to be there so that I get an idea as to how many people to plan for. Please contact me at Karen Riley Hall, 4354 Quality Rd., Lewisburg, KY, 42256, phone (270)-755-5404, Email at dkmnlhall@juno.com or dkhall85@netscape.com. Hope to see you there.