Genealogy Stuff

Mom said it was OK to post these images, in the hope that they'll be of help to other families looking for information on their ancestors.

1909, Christmas Dinner at Fort Assinniboine, Montana
"L" Company, 2nd U.S. Infantry


1910 Thanksgiving dinner


This menu was very fragile so we didn't try to get it entirely flat on the scanner. It is also too large for the borders to show.





Names:
1909 Christmas
Captain Chas. (probably Charles) S. Lincoln
1st Lt Geo. E. Kumpe
2nd Lt F. A. Barker
1st Sgt Orin H. Rigley
Q.M. Sgt Harry J. Burns
Sargents
Rother McCoy
Michael Andes
Wallis Brumby
Corporals
William J. Smith
John W. Rock
Tilden Ingle
Jack J. Evans
John W. Grey
Patrick Hassen
Cooks
Edward LaTaine
Henry H. Barnes
Musicians
Herbert Hammaker
Anthony J. Lukomsk (Lukomski)
Artificer
William T. Whitteker
Privates
Achenbach
Anglin
Antek, Stefan
Bush, Frederick
Capps, Lester R.
Carson, Ray (Corson, Ray)
Collins
Conner, Fred L.
Cooper, G. L.
Cooper, J. F.
Coyle, Edward
Duffy, Thomas J.
Fletcher, James
Goneau, John A.

Hall, Scott

Hammer, Clarence A.
Hilliard, Harry W.

Hillman, John G.
Himanka, Sam
Hoover

Hudson, Jesse J.
Jones, Ellis M.
Kastner, Reinhold
Kemp, Earl E.
Lantinen, Otto
Mailhoit
Manry, Eugene A.
Matloho
McCauley
McHugh, Patrick J.
Miles, Delmus
Moulton, Charles E.
Parsons, Charles A.
Pate. Marcelles
Polk, Willie
Sanford, Otis E.
Schulze
Schwarz, Edward H.
Vincent
Wilks
Wolfeil
Wells, Estell

Added names at Thankgiving 1910
Sgt Martin L. McGaha
Sgt Martin Brogan
Sgt Eli J. Wells
Corporal James Wilkins
L. Corporal O'Brien
Musician Paul Matloha
Privates
Cooper, Charles S.
Cooper, Giles L.
Corson, Ray
Cummins, Alva T.
Evans, Jack J.
Gillman, William
???, Harry (in the fold, can't read it)
Milligan, James J.
Stewart, Alfred E.

108 In February!

Wow, he'll be 108 in February!

Who?

Frank Buckles, the last known World War I veteran in the US. He'll be 108 in February. I wish I could meet him, he sounds like a tough old guy. First he served in WWI and then was captured in 1941 and spent WWII in a Japanese prison camp. Dude is a tough man.

Whew... You should read the article, I can't do it justice.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/12/30/MN8G14MFAO.DTL

He makes me think of my grandfather. Grandpa was in World War I. My mother has his hand-written diary, written in pencil at night. He served in France.

That was the second time he was in the Army. The first time he was with the party that surveyed Glacier National Park. I'll have to ask my mom for another copy of the Thanksgiving Dinner menu from his service days. It had the menu, and on the other side it had all the men's names that were in his company.

I'd like to gather copies of all those things, put them into a book about my family.

Grandpa went on Ahead many years ago.

I miss him. It's been a long time, I still miss him.

Honestly, we didn't talk much. He was old and kinda deaf and mumbled. He was a gentle and generous man, but you know, he was tough as nails too. He and my grandma were the last homesteaders in Oregon. They came all the way across the United States from North Carolina to settle in the "Wild West".

I wish I had known him better.

There are a lot of things I wish for.

In the New Year, I really need to make a point of documenting more of what my mom tells me. We've already lost so much of our family history, of our heritage.

The students who are preparing the documentary about World War I are providing a valuable look at our past.

I think I'm jealous.

And dang, I can't get over it. Frank Buckles will be 108 in February.

Wow....

I Read A LOT!!

I read a lot. In fact, I have a lot of books.

It's amazing to me, how people read a book and then get rid of it. Huh? I don't get it. You're not going to go back and revisit old friends, old stories? You're not going to reread to delve for deeper nuances?

My books are my friends. They tell me things I never thought of, never dreamed of. They open a world that's out there, but I'll never be able to visit. Sometimes the door they open is to the imagination. I dream the author's dream. There is more out there than I can imagine by myself...

Yes, the Internet is great, I use it all the time. But the Internet doesn't open to the page where I left off. It doesn't smell like a new book smells, I can't feel the pages turn under my hands.

It's not the same. I love the Internet (in fact, that's the only reason I keep a house phone, so I can hook up to the Net), but it's just not the same as a book.

And old books. Mmmm, faintly musty smelling at times, I open the book and there's information that just isn't available out there any more. There are fascinating differences between my 1934 Encyclopedias and the modern versions. It's not just informational, there are vast cultural differences that can be mined from old books.

I understand my own family history a little better when I read history or fiction of the era they grew up in. I understand the context of their world and can draw comparisons to the world I live in today. I can see the difference and, sometimes unfortunately, the parallels in the train of thought that people had and still have today.

My books are my friends.

Not the same as my human and animal friends, of course, but still my friends. My refuge when life is just getting too stressful. I can retreat, revisit Pern, or Hobbiton, or Rivendell, or Narnia, or the Little House in the Big Woods. I can relax into a space opera or a murder mystery. Or I can choose to learn about great women, or the San Francisco earthquake, or World War I (yes, I have the 1919 set about the Great War), or urban survival, or black holes, or space-time continuums. It's all there on the bookshelves, waiting for me to come home and open the book.

Books are a comforting constant in my life.