The Standish Burying Ground

From The Standard, Holley, N. Y., October 23, 1930: "Standish Record Proved By Writing On Quilt
"From its organization, the members of Orleans Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, have been keenly interested in the marking of the graves of the Revolutionary soldiers buried in Orleans County. Sunday afternoon the grave of one of the most interesting of these old heroes, Asa Standish, great-grandson of Miles Standish of Colonial fame, was marked with simple and appropriate ceremonies and the resting places of four 'real' daughters received similar honor. A real daughter is the daughter of one who fought in the War of the Revolution.
"The graves of Asa Standish and his daughter, Electa, both lie in the old 'Standish Burying Ground,' near the Transit Church at Gaines. The marker that was placed on Asa's grave Sunday is the first it has worn. Had there been one there before, one of the most interesting searches yet known to genealogists, would never have taken place.
"The story of the effort to find the 'missing link' in the Standish chain of descent is now a matter of history. Again and again one has heard of how the descendants of Asa Standish, though they knew they were descended from Miles Standish, were unable to furnish concrete proof of that descent, and became known as 'the unplaced descendants of Miles Standish,' until Mrs. George Shourds of Albion, Asa's great-great-granddaughter, by chance came upon an old family quilt, into which was sewed a block giving Asa's birth. This block of cloth is the only written record concerning Asa Standish and it is interesting to note the lack of evidence concerning him is due to the fact that this very Electa, whose grave was marked Sunday, in a spell of New England 'ridding up' the house, burned all the records as so much trash.
"The ceremonies at the grave of Asa Standish were impressive. Following the Assembly Call by Sheret Post, American Legion, the invocation was given by the Rev. A. L. Pollock of Gaines, a World War veteran. America was sung by the assembled crowd, and Troop 92 of the Boy Scouts then gave the Salute to the Flag and the American's Creed. The bronze marker was then presented by Mrs. Avery V. Andrews, Regent of Orleans Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution and Cleon Standish of Medina accepted in the name of Asa's descendants. The marker was unveiled by two small great-great-grandsons of Asa Standish, Eugene W. Standish, son of Mr. and Mrs. Cleon Standish of Medina, and Hubert Standish, Jr., son of Mr. and Mrs. Hubert Standish of Utica.
"Following the unveiling, a history of the Standish family was given by Mrs. Ida Standish Shourds (Mrs. George Shourds) of Albion.
"The services at the graves of the daughters were brief. At each the Regent of Orleans Chapter, Mrs. Avery V. Andrews, led the chapter in the salute to the flag, the Lord's Prayer and the benediction, after which the markers were unveiled. Elizabeth Shourds Green (Mrs. William C. Green of Belmont) wearing Electa's own dress, unveiled the marker of her ancestress. Mrs. Green is a great-great-niece of Electa. The flag was placed in the marker by Elizabeth Waldo, Daughter of Homer Waldo of barre Center, a great-great-niece of Electa."

Fooling Around With Clocks

It's 2:27 Mountain Standard Time, or Pacific Daylight Time, whichever you prefer. The good citizens of Arizona have the good sense not to fool around with changing our clocks twice each year. I've often wondered why it wouldn't be so much easier to just change working hours, starting work at, say, seven instead of eight.

Bruno

Here's Bruno, Westminster Village's African Spurred Tortoise, in case you missed him at wmvaz.com.

Latest Drawings

These are my latest ink drawings.

An Anniversary

Today, January 16th, is the anniversary of the day in 1919 when the 18th amendment to the Constitution was enacted in which Congress, in their infinite wisdom, decided that their fellow Americans shouldn’t be allowed alcoholic beverages. Of course, the natural progression was for the American public to begin buying the prohibited joy juice form the gangsters. That, in turn, gave rise to an increased size of law enforcement to overcome the profiteers who reacted to the prohibition. Finally, believe it or not, Congress became aware of what had been happening (they were too sober to notice right away) and in 1933 repealed the amendment. 1933! Fifteen years! So how long do you think it will take before they notice the drug wars?

"A Queer Case"

From The Holley Standard, Holley, N. Y., Thursday, November 20, 1879:
"'A Queer Case
'Our usually quiet community is much excited over a new development in a case which has caused much speculation during the summer. The facts are something like these: Mrs. Jesse Mann and her daughter Hannah, living alone on a farm west of Martin's Corners, have been annoyed and at times greatly alarmed by some parties coming to their house and throwing stones in the windows, destroying house plants, cutting doors, and even carrying fence posts into neighbors' yards, and in harvest time pulling down shocks of wheat and scattering them in the highway. These demonstrations have been so persistent as to injure the health of Mrs. Mann through fear of personal injury. Her son Gad and others have repeatedly staid (sic) in the house all night, but never on these occasions have the parties been heard or seen, until Saturday, the 3rd, about midnight, when Gad Mann and Geo. Odell, his brother-in-law, once more secreted themselves about the house and succeeded in capturing a lady, who has admitted participation in the whole series of attacks on the peace of the family but refuses to reveal any accomplice. She was detained until Sunday morning, when a warrant was procured for her arrest. Upon being taken before Justice Fowler at Two Bridges, she plead not guilty, and examination being waived she was bailed in the sum of $550 to appear in court. We withhold the name of the guilty party, thinking it well from the nature of the case to ask a suspension of public opinion.' - East Carlton Correspondence Orleans Republican."

I found this article while conducting research, but have not yet found anything further about the case - yet. Mrs. Jesse Mann is the former Nancy Standish, my second great grandmother, who was a direct descendant of Myles Standish, who we all know as the Captain of the Pilgrims' militia.

The Miller Challenge

The challenge is to find when George Miller (Müller) immigrated to the United States.
This is information about George:
He was born 5 July 1815 in Lembach, Bas-Rhin, France to George Müller and Sophie Catharina Guthöhrel. He was naturalized on 22 October 1851 in Lyons, Wayne County, New York. He belonged to the First Lutheran Church, where the records of his children’s births are recorded. His wife was Magdalena Rössel, born 15 December 1820, in Lembach. He first appears in the US census in 1850 as George Mills in Lyons. His oldest child, Magdalena was born 22 June 1843 in Lyons, so he must have immigrated before that. In the 1900 census, the first year the question was asked, Magdalena said she had immigrated in 1855, which is obviously incorrect.

Early Morning Plan

I woke up this morning with a plan for legalizing marijuana, don't ask me why, I don't know. So here's the essence of the plan:
First, pass federal legislation to treat marijuana the same as any and all tobacco products. That would allow tobacco companies to start producing marijuana cigarettes, and would include collecting import taxes for all marijuana coming across our borders.
Second, include a 30 to 90 day amnesty program, to be managed by the tobacco companies, during which people could turn in their supply of marijuana for coupons to be used in exchange for marijuana cigarettes. That would include credit for all living plants, which could be used to start legalized farms. After the amnesty program expires, the same protections and penalties that currently exist for tobacco products would be applied to marijuana products.
Comments?

Quakin'

If you go on Google Earth and search around Prague, Oklahoma, to the west, you can find quite a few earthquake records. Look between Prague and Meeker, both sides of highway US 62. The largest I found is 5.7, stronger than I'd like to feel. About 6 or 8 years ago, there was a quake in California that rolled through Arizona. Our house felt as though it was on a small roller coaster, and our dining room light was swaying. Fortunately, there was no damage. But it sure was a strange sensation.

Just In Case

Just in case you were wondering, Grandma and I did not partake of the Black Friday activities. We need our rest.

Didya Hear?

Didya hear about the young fella who sold his business because he heard that Congress was going to give him "some help" and he decided to get out before they could?

The Holiday Season

We made it past Halloween, so all the ghosts and goblins are back in the attic or under the bed for another year. Next up is Thanksgiving, which some think began with the Pilgrims back in the 1620's. The fourth Thursday in November, after a series of changes, was officially set as THE date by federal legislation in December 1941. I don't know what kind of celebration was held in the early years, but it probably didn't involve one day of over-indulgence followed by three days of bicarbonate of soda and ice bags. Or was that New Years Eve?

Once we get past Thanksgiving, we look toward Christmas, even though the merchants have been reminding us since Labor Day.

Joe and Petey

We lived in Rochester, New York, and I was in high school at the time. The family next door were from Ireland and had two sons, Joe and Jim, Joe being the oldest, three years younger than me. Joe introduced me to Petey. But first, a little background.

Joe was curious by nature. As an example, his mother came home from shopping one day with an archery set for Joe, who promptly took it out in the backyard where Jim was playing. Trying to find out what might happen, Joe took aim at the sky and let an arrow fly. He learned that what goes up must come down, and come down it did - right onto his brother’s head. Fortunately, the arrow had a blunt point so no physical damage was done to Jim, but Joe couldn’t sit down for a while. There are other examples, like the time he sneaked his father’s pistol out of the house, went into the woods and accidentally shot himself in the hand, requiring the fire department to bring him home. And there was that other time… Well, I did say a little background.

Our neighbor across the street was raising a Cooper’s hawk and a Peregrine Falcon. The falcon’s name was Petey, but I don’t remember the name of the hawk (probably Cooper). The owner was going on vacation and asked Joe to feed and water his birds. Everything went well for a day or two until Joe decided to find out if he could let Petey out and call him back to the cage. Well, Petey didn’t come back to Joe, instead flying around a bit before alighting onto a chimney down the street. Joe was frantic that the bird was going to disappear. He called to me and explained the situation, so I took a piece of raw beef and the leather glove that Joe had and walked down the street to where Petey could see me. I waved the meat back and forth and whistled to call him down, and, lo and behold, he did. He landed on my gloved hand and went for the meat. I took hold of the straps on his legs (there’s a name for them which you probably all know) and made sure he couldn’t fly away, then walked up the street and put him back in his cage. Joe swore me to secrecy. As far as I can tell, the owner never did find out about Petey‘s freedom flight. And Joe went on to other days of infamy.

Hmm, just wonderin'

I don't know what it's like in your area, but we seem to be in the midst of the monarch butterfly migration. The air is filled with them. We have a bog garden and they love one of the plants that is now in bloom. Do you think that the word "butterfly" might be a Spoonerism for their original word - flutter-by - that is more descriptive? Just askin'.

Found Wood

There is an exhibit at the Desert Botanical Garden of big bugs created out of found wood. The artist uses different types of wood that he picks up here and there to make sculptures such as this giant Praying Mantis.

Essays

A book of essays can try the patience of a saint. Whenever I pick one up, I set as a goal to read one each day. That gives me the opportunity to mull over the author's moral point, if there is one, or to enjoy the humorous incident related, or just to revel in the choices of words. However - and you knew there'd be a "however" - sometimes it just isn't possible to wait the twenty-four hours for the next experience. So I've been almost racing through this new book from the local library, because my patience took a hike. The book is "I'm a Stranger Here Myself" by Bill Bryson, who spent twenty years in England before moving back to America, specifically, Hanover, New Hampshire. Yesterday, I zipped through three - THREE - before I even realized that my goal had been much surpassed. Now the dilemma is, should I not read any more for the next two days, or just press on while attempting to maintain my daily ration? Sometimes life is just a series of hard decisions.

New Drawing

The latest ink drawing.

Goodbye Facebook

I had said a few months ago that I was cancelling my Facebook account, but found out that it was not that easy. Every photo had to be individually deleted and it was so bothersome that I stopped and decided I was too lazy to finish. Then, this week when I logged on, I was confronted with a screen that was alien to me. Facebook changed! And so did I. So I checked out the process for cancelling my account once again and found it only takes one click. So one click I did. The next message said I would be given 14 days to change my mind after which my account would be permanently erased. By now, I've forgotten when the 14 days started, so I'll just let it go.

The MIM

Yesterday, Grandma and I ran a few errands then went to the Musical Instruments Museum in Phoenix. We spent about 2 hours walking through the exhibits, which are amazing. There are instruments from almost every country in the world, with accompanying audio of them. Among the missing countries is North Korea. There is a space reserved, so if anyone knows how or where to find any, please contact them at www.themim.com. We had a sandwich in the Cafe before we left. A nice place to spend time. There is one area where the instruments can be played - a great place for children. Gongs, drums, xylophones, mandolins, etc. A great display of player pianos, player woodwinds, including an exhibit that tells how the piano rolls are created. They have one of the machines that converts the pianist's music into holes in paper, quite an amazing invention. Two of Elvis's jump suits are on display, along with some Hank Snow items, among others. One area displayed bagpipes from the many countries where they are played; some are as primitive as a calf skin, others as elaborate as the Scottish instrument. And they have a schedule of concerts in their auditorium which is said to have perfect acoustics (would you expect anything less?). So next time you find yourself in the Valley of the Sun with some time on your hands, drop in at the MIM.

Drawings

Here are my latest ink drawings.