Journey to the Past

• Meeting new friends, Sharlene and Marsha.  I was in the bedroom and heard a noise outside the window, I looked and they mouthed, "Can you come outside and play?"  Sharlene lived across the street from us and we had many good times running back and forth to each others' houses.  We recently reconnected on Facebook (one of the reasons I love facebook).
• My mom and I going up to Harbor Beach on a Friday night, just the two of us, and I helped her set up the kitchen.  (I was ten at the time, so I'm not sure how much help I was)
• Cooking scrambled eggs on an electric stove for the first time.  I was use to gas.  Of course, I burned them when I turned the burner off and left the eggs in the pan on the burner.
• Walking home for lunch because I wasn't comfortable in the lunch room at my new school.
• Wanting to play in the basement, but it was a wet basement.
• Throwing a ball in the living room and knocking over a vase and breaking it.  My sister and I hoped mom wouldn't notice (we were young, what can I say).  She did notice!
• Hearing about my Grandpa Fredricks death, my parents went to the funeral and we had an older women stay with us.

My niece, Cutie Pie, turns 1 today.  I have yet to meet her.  That will be remedied in 45 days!  I can hardly wait.  I hope you are enjoying your first birthday, Cutie Pie.  Here's a little photo tribute for your big day.

         Date                                                   Place of Residence

December 17, 1863                      Adrian, Lenawee, Michigan, United States

September 6, 1873                       Manistee, Manistee, Michigan, United States

April 26, 1878                              Hart, Oceana, Michigan, United States

September 11, 1878                     Hart, Oceana, Michigan, United States

September 11, 1888                     Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States

May 20, 1889                               Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States

July 30, 1889                               Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States

August 24, 1897                          Frankfort, Benzie, Michigan, United States

July 17, 1902                              Pleasanton Township, Manistee, Michigan, United States

April 12, 1904                            Pleasanton Township, Manistee, Michigan, United States

Week 21:  Commercials.  Do you remember any commercial jingles from your childhood?  Share them here.

Can you fill in the rest of my blog title?  "Oh, I'd love to be an Oscar Mayer wiener, that is what I'd truly like to be, for if I was an Oscar Mayer wiener, everyone would be in love with me."

I don't know why this jingle resonates with me, but it was the first one I thought of when I saw the blog prompt.  The commercial I remember is of a line of kids marching along singing the jingle.  I decided to google it and see what I could find and I found the 1965 commercial on you tube.

I remember two other commercial jingles:

• "Hot Dogs, Armour hot dogs, what kinds of kids eat armour hot dogs?  Fat kids, skinny kids, kids who climb on rocks, tall kids, sissy kids, even kids with chicken pox love hot dogs, the dogs kids love to bite."
• "Ai Yi Yi Yi, I am the frito bandito"  If I remember right it was in a commercial with a bouncing frito bag.

I must have had a thing for hot dogs as a kid.  Of course, all three are food related.  Please don't blame me if these jingles stick in your head all day.  What commercial jingles remind you of your childhood?

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History by Amy Coffin, of the We Tree blog, is a series of weekly blogging prompts (one for each week of 2011) that invite genealogists and others to record memories and insights about their own lives for future descendants.

This month's Battle Creek local history post will be about the Kellogg House.  The Kellogg Foundation, located in Battle Creek, Michigan was in the process of building a new headquarters and decided to buy and move W. K. Kellogg's home to a location on the grounds of their new building.

One Saturday morning in March of 1990, the overhead utility lines were taken down and the house was loaded onto a flat bed truck to be moved from 256 W. Van Buren Street, to its' present location, five blocks away.  The Kellogg House can be found across the river from the Kellogg Foundation headquarters.  Division Avenue, E. Van Buren Street and Capital Avenue borders it, with access from Monroe Street off of E. Van Buren Street, in Battle Creek, Michigan.

Today the completely, renovated  Kellogg House sits in a park-like setting with beautiful trees, flowers and lawn.  The memorial to the Underground Railroad can be found near the Kellogg House. The house isn't open to the public, but you can walk around the well-kept grounds.  It is a popular place for pictures to be taken at.  My son, Travis, and his friends had their Senior Prom pictures taken on the grounds of it.

The Kellogg Foundation does let non-profit organizations use the house for special events.  I have been to dinners there.  Plus, I led a church council retreat in the downstairs area once.  It is a beautiful home.

Pictures of the move can be found on the Willard Library's Photographs from Battle Creek History Houses site.  Scroll down and click on W. K. Kellogg House links. 

My daughter is not the only one with acting credits to her name. Although, my daughter's resume is far more extensive than mine. I was in one play, Rip Van Winkle, in the late 1960's. My girl scout troop put the play on for family and friends. We performed upstairs at the Community House in Harbor Beach, Michigan. I don't remember what part I had or any of the lines I had to say. My costume was a dress of my mothers. It was orange floral. I must say, I was stylin' in those glasses though. And I even put an arrow on my head, in case I forgot in the future what I looked like!

Week 20:  Fame.  Tell us about any local brushes with fame.  Were you ever in the newspaper?  Why?  You may also describe any press mentions of your family members.

Pasties (pronounced pass-tees) are Cornish in origin and have found their way to the United States, especially the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  Miners use to take these pockets of goodness for their lunch.  The U.P. was rich in copper and iron ore in the late 1800's and early 1900's.   My dad is a big fan of pasties and can remember visiting his grandparents, David and Katherine Watt, in Marquette, Michigan and having pasties. 

J. August Fredrick is my maternal great grandfather who immigrated to the United States around 1871.  No one knows a lot about his family and he has been a source of frustration for me.  Since I wasn't getting anywhere with him, I decided to research his sisters.  I knew he had three sisters who came to the United States because they were listed in his obituary.  I was hoping to find information that would lead me to what part of Prussia J. August was from.  I found a little more than I thought I would! 



He had three sisters, Mrs. John Zobel, Mrs. August Guske and Mrs. Leo Engelhuber, listed in his obituary.



I hit a genealogical jackpot when I searched the 1880 Manistee, Michigan census for the Guske family.  I found the August Guhse family (August, Ottilie, Otto, Emma and Mary) listed.  In addition, there was a mother-in-law, Susan King, listed.  A mother-in-law, I did a double take!  Had I found my great great grandmother?  I was cautious as I had seen mother-in-law listed before on a Glover census record and it wasn't true, but I was excited anyway. 



I continued my census searching and found the Guhse family in the 1900 Census for Manistee, Michigan.  This time the August Guhse family included August, Otella, Otto, Emma, Mary, Alma, Albert AND Susie Frederick.  Susie Frederick was listed as grandmother this time.  I was excited!

No one in the family is going to believe that J. August Fredrick's mother was living in Manistee, Michigan.  They don't think she came to the United States, let alone immigrated here.  I figured if I was going to convince them I better do a little more digging.





The next document I found was a passenger list for Susanna Fredrich, Amelia Fredrich, and Otelia Fredrich.  They traveled from the port of Liverpool, England; Londenderry, Ireland to Quebec arriving 21 October 1872.  Manistee, Michigan was listed as their destination to which ticketed.

Michigan Deaths and Burials, 1800-1995 at familysearch.org has a record of Susana Fredrick's death.  She died 4 Nov 1906 in Manistee, Michigan.  Her father's name is listed as King.  So, I believe when the 1880 Census was taken she was listed as Susan King for some reason.  She did not read, write or speak English and this may have contributed to the information listed. 




The last piece of information I have discovered, so far, is a short obituary from the Manistee Daily News stating she died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. August Guhse.  The paper lists her survivors as daughters, Mrs. Engelhuber, Mrs. John Zobel, Mrs. Radtke, and one son.  The one son is J. August Fredrick, I wonder why he wasn't listed by name.  He lived about 20 miles from Manistee in Brethren, Michigan.  Mrs. Radtke was actually her oldest granddaughter, Albertina Zobel.
 
I think this shows the importance of researching brothers and sisters of your ancestors.  I never thought I would find my great, great grandmother in a United States census, but I did.  I was just looking for more information in the 'hopes' it would lead me to new records.  I ended up with a new ancestor instead.  I now have more records to search (naturalization records).  Plus, I have news to share with the family.

Week 19 Bedroom:  Describe your childhood bedroom.  What furniture did it contain?  Were there curtains, wallpaper or paint?  Was it messy or clean?  Did you share a room with your siblings?

I had six different bedrooms from birth to age 18.  I have written about three of them in Those Places Thursday posts.  I had my own room at various times for the first nine years of my life.  My younger sister, Nancy, was born and that changed the bedroom configurations a little. 

The first house we moved to in Harbor Beach, Michigan was a four bedroom one and I had my own bedroom then.  I slept in a twin bed in a room next to the bathroom.  The walls were painted and the floors wood.  I remember high windows that looked over the back yard.  There were beige curtains on the windows.  I had a bookcase, a dresser and the dining room table in my room.  Yes, you read that right.  We didn't have a formal dining room in this house.  The dining room table was blond wood and the sides folded down, so it didn't take up as much space as those today do.  I remember doing my homework on it. 

It was clean!  I am a little bit of a neatnik.  (Okay full disclosure here, a lot of a neatnik.)  I like to have my space clean and organized.  My mom would dust and vacuum, but I kept things pretty neat.  I wasn't one to throw clothes on the floor and we weren't allowed food or drinks in our bedrooms.  I always made my bed and still do.  Even when I shared a room with a sister or two, it was neat.  Luckily, my sister is a neatnik, too.  We inherited it from our mother!

Hattie's Bible has been such a treasure to me.  One of the papers stored within the pages of the Bible was E.A. Poor's Verses, dated March 14th 1846.  I believe this is Hattie Fenn Glover's mother, Elizabeth Ann Poor Fenn, my great great grandmother.  She would have been 20 years old in 1846.  At the end of the verses it says it was "Written by Sarah Barnum from Connecticut" and a date that is difficult to read because it is in the crease of the paper.  I do not know who Sarah Barnum was.

After researching the verses, I learned that this is a hymn titled, "Parting Hand".  It was published in 1835 and can be found in "The Southern Harmony" hymnal, hymn number 113, listen here.  I found it in a Baptist hymnal too.  I was thrilled to be able to hear a version of it.  I wonder if my gg grandmother hummed this as she did her work.   

Hattie Fenn's grandfather and grandmother, Daniel Fenn and Huldah Rowley Fenn, were founding members of the First Baptist Church of Sylvan, in Sylvan Township, Washtenaw, Michigan.  The church was founded in July of 1833.

                                                                         Parting hymn
My dearest friends in bond of love,
Whose hearts in sweetest union prove
Your friendship's like a drawing hand
Yet we must take the parting hand.

Your company sweet your union dear
Your words delightful to my ear
But when I see that we must part
You draw like cords about my heart.

How sweet the hours have passed away
When we have met to sing and pray
How loft we have been to leave the place
Where Jesus shows his smiling face.

O! could I stay with friends so kind
How would it cheer my struggling mind
But duty makes me understand
That we must take the parting hand.

Then since it is God's holy will
We should be parted for awhile
In sweet submission all one
We will say our Father's will be done.

O! follow youth in christian ties
Who seek for mansions in the skies
Fight on you'll gain that happy shore
When parting hands will be no more.

How oft I have seen your flowing tears.
And heard you tell your hopes and fears
Your hearts with love have seemed to flame
Which makes me hope we'll meet again.

Ye mourning souls in sad surprise
Jesus remembers all your cries
O! trust his grace, and in that land
We will no more take the parting hand.

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Ye christian friends both old and young
I hope in Christ you'll all be strong
If here on earth we meet no more
O! may we meet on Canaan's shore.

I hope you will all remember me
If here my face no more you see
An interest in your prayers I crave
That we may meet beyond tho grave.

A few more days and we shall go
From all our cares and fears below
In shouts of triumph we shall fly
and dwell with Christ eternally.

O! Glorious day of blessed hope
My heart leaps forward at the thought
When in that happy happy land
We will no more take the parting hand.

                                                     Written by Sarah Barnum, from Connecticut
                                                                                June 29th 18??

E. A. Poors Verses
    Sylvan March 14th 1846

Week 18:  Weather.  Do you have any memorable weather memories from your childhood?  How did your family cope and pass the time with adverse weather?  When faced with bad weather in the present day, what do you do when you're stuck at home?





• August Fredrich (k)
• Louise (Zastrow) Fredrich (k)
• Leonia Fredrich
• Susanna Fredrich
• Leonard Engelhuber
• Amelia Engelhuber
• Clara (Engelhuber) Both
• August Guhse
• Ottilie Guhse