Hi, Lincoln listers! I thought I'd write a few lines about Old Settlers' Day and tell you what I came up with while I was home. Two weeks was a nice, long time and I really hated to leave. The attendance at Old Settlers' Day was decent, but not great. There were a good number of out-of-towners but not a lot of "locals" other than those who work with the Historical Society. Lincoln (the city, not the county) sometimes has what I think is a lack of community spirit. Barnard, Denmark, Sylvan, Beverly, all of these smaller towns get out and support things in their communities more than Lincoln. Even Vesper, which is a grain elevator, a church, a community building and a handful of houses... period! >From our "list" were Lori Graf's cousin, Leigh Kasey, who is very nice and very active, and Wilda Morris and a lot of her relatives, who had a family reunion. I met Lori's mother and aunt as well. Trying to explain how I "knew" Lori without having actually met her was pretty funny. The weekend was organized by Jim Sechrist, who lives in Bonner Springs and is a descendant of Christian Bernhardt, who wrote the "Indian Raids" book. Jim did the bulk of the work, that's for sure. I've encouraged him to check out our web page and join our email group. Friday night (the 26th) it rained hard enough to throw a wrinkle into Saturday's schedule. We were to go out to the site of the 1864 killings of the Moffitt boys and Mr. Houston and Mr. Tyler. Instead, we stayed at the brand new Finch Theater (those of you from Lincoln will know it's named for Bud!) and had some ceremonies and speeches and then people in the audience were encouraged to tell family stories. That went on until a break for lunch, when we had buffalo burgers on the lawn of the Kyne House Museum. Then we headed for the site of the memorial to the four slain men. A new plaque is going in because it has been confirmed that the bodies of Houston and Tyler are still at the site. The Moffitt boys were moved within several months of the killings back home to Illinois. There also is a large pile of bones that is likely the horses they were riding and that were killed, either by the Indians or more likely by the men as cover. Some 136 years ago the rocks in this outcropping would have been more prominent but even so it wasn't much shelter and they must have known they would not make it out of there alive. A plaque indicating where they are buried will be installed, as well as a plaque also indicating the deaths of Native Americans in the same battle. Then it was back to the theater for more stories. That night was a tour of the church in Denmark, but I missed that. The next morning the Danes put on a Danish breakfast in Denmark and that was quite good. The museum was open for tours that afternoon but we didn't go, figuring it would be less crowded another time. We did go Monday afternoon and had the place to ourselves. I got a tantalizing look into their file cabinets and as I told Bill, nearly fainted. Then they told me they are looking for someone to be their "librarian" and catalog all that stuff. Oy! I am trying to convince my mom to do it so we'd have an inside source, but I don't think she's going for it. Nuts! I will get another look at what they've got next time I'm home. They are eager to share anything they have. Anyway, that was pretty much it for Old Settlers' weekend. There is an article about the dedication of the site at the following web address: http://archive.saljournal.com/2000/5/122610.html A descendant of the Moffitts and a descendant of Tyler were there for the ceremonies. Both said they had heard the story of the killings over the years but had no information on where it happened, etc. They were pretty amazed by the whole thing. I am ashamed to say I had never been to the actual site; not sure how Grandma and I missed it on all of our drives. It is in a "working" pasture so you can't just stroll in. A fence has been erected surrounding it to keep cattle -- and vandals, hopefully -- from messing with the monuments. Just over the hill in the same pasture is a small monument to Abram, the original county seat of Lincoln County. It's also hard to get to but you can see if from the road. Well, once that was over I had time to do some lookups and then really start digging for stuff. I just got the final three boxes I'd mailed myself and piled the whole collection up on my desk. It is a foot and a half high! This will keep me busy well into my NEXT trip to Lincoln. Here is a brief list of what I got: * Military "gleanings" * Regular "gleanings" * A county map for 1886 (I'm going to try to copy my copy today and see if I'll be able to scan and post it) * Histories of the Sylvan Presbyterian and Lincoln Catholic churches * Marriages, just a few (a new project I have in mind for the page; more on that later) * 1999 LHS graduates * A 1913 edition of the Sentinel that was devoted entirely to people and institutions in the county. Literally a gold mine of stuff... * A biography of H.C. Bradbury written by his daughter for the Sentinel * History of the Lincoln library and listing of librarians * Gleanings from the Barnard Bee, including births, marriages and deaths, 1902-1907 (I'll need permission to use these but should not be a problem) * Got the rest of the 1986 and 1988 obituaries to complete those lists * Two more "Builders of Lincoln County" articles, Anthony Wayne Lewis and J. Albert Smith * Copy of a letter written by John A. Watts, one of the handful of blacks to settle in Lincoln County * Section-Township-Range locations for ALL county cemeteries * And obituaries, obituaries, obituaries! Here are the years: Lots of miscellaneous years as I was doing lookups for others 1958 1979 (partial) 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 (at least partial) 1988 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 (partial) 1996 1997 (partial) Somehow, I failed to get 1998. Not sure what happened there. Otherwise, this will give the web page 20 years of obits. I also got a line on a listing for the Sylvan Grove cemetery and am hoping to get a copy of that. Several of you asked about homestead records; were they at the courthouse. There are 6 books of patent deeds in the Register of Deeds office, but they don't begin until about 1880 and aren't quite in chronological order, for some reason. So the answer, I guess, is yes, but later homesteaders, and you'd have to dig. I liked Bill's idea of going through newspapers just for the homestead claim "gleanings" but didn't have time to get to that. If there are several people interested in doing that, let Bill or me know and perhaps we could divide up the years and tackle it that way. I'll be posting all this stuff as I get to it, and I'll send messages to the group when I add to the page. One more thing: Those of you who grew up in Lincoln would have gone to Dr. Songer at some point in your life; it was unavoidable! I got all the articles from Dr. Songer Day and will post those; there also was a feature in the Sunday Salina Journal about him. I'd encourage those of you who don't know anything about him to take a look. He was a D-Day and was the most decorated medical man in World War II and he couldn't wait for the war to end to get back to Lincoln and resume practice. He was present for the famous incident in which Gen. Patton slapped the soldier. Anyway, well worth a read. Here is the address for that story: http://archive.saljournal.com/2000/6/2463146.html I should add for those of you who know him that he attended the Memorial Day service at the Lincoln Cemetery. Now I'm really done! Tracee