Wordless Wednesday

John Stanley Cross

My father on the Cross farm

Webb, Iowa

circa 1935-1938

Gifts on Paper

From my personal blog: Gifts on Paper: Cross, Teachout, Freeman

Wordless Wednesday (well, a few words)

Basil Noah Cross Family

This is my great great grandparents, Basil Noah and Mary Jane (Boroff) Cross, their five sons, daughter, daughter-in-law and 2 of their grandchildren.  My great grandfather Henry, is the young boy standing between them.  He was born in 1875.  I am guessing that he might be 7 or 8 in this picture.  Basil died in 1885 so that would mean this was taken a few years before this death.  It is probably the last family picture they had taken (maybe the only one they ever had taken.)  The exact location is unknown, but it most definitely was taken in Iowa as in 1880 there were living in East Waterloo, Iowa.  In 1885 when Basil died they were living in Fredericksburg, Iowa.

This is the only photograph I have of my great great grandfather Cross.  I will share more of his story in another post.

How Much Did a Haircut Cost in 1935?

My father, John Cross getting a haircut, circa 1935
Haircut cost:  40 cents
Webb, Iowa
Picture: priceless

A song from my childhood that I remember hearing my grandfather, George Cross, (and my parents) sing:

Count Your Blessings

When upon life’s billows you are tempest-tossed,
When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

Refrain:
Count your blessings, name them one by one,
Count your blessings, see what God hath done!
Count your blessings, name them one by one,
Count your many blessings, see what God hath done.
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

Are you ever burdened with a load of care?
Does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear?
Count your many blessings, every doubt will fly,
And you will keep singing as the days go by.

When you look at others with their lands and gold,
Think that Christ has promised you His wealth untold;
Count your many blessings money cannot buy
Your reward in heaven, nor your home on high.

So, amid the conflict whether great or small,
Do not be discouraged, God is over all;
Count your many blessings, angels will attend,
Help and comfort give you to your journey’s end.

Count your blessings, name them one by one,
Count your blessings, see what God hath done!
Count your blessings, name them one by one,
Count your many blessings, see what God hath done.
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Veterans in My Life Past and Present

The men pictured below are from my direct lines.  Many more of my ancestors also served our country.

Basil Noah Cross, Union Veteran, Civil War
My 2nd Great Grandfather

James Mortimer Van Riper, Confederate Veteran, Civil War
My 2nd Great Grandfather

Cyrus Augustus Teachout, Union Veteran, Civil War
My 2nd Great Grandfather

John Stanley Cross, Marine, Korean War

My Father

Happy Birthday Marine Corps!

My father, John S. Cross, in his Marine Dress Uniform.

Semper Fi Daddy!

You taught me what it means to love my country.

The Mystery of Henry Freeman

The only memory my father, John Cross, has of his great grandfather, William M. Freeman, is that he used to carry wintergreens in his pocket and would hand them out to his grandchildren.

Elizabeth M. (Fuller) Freeman and William M. Freeman

Grandpa Freeman was born in New York in 1853 and died at the home of his daughter, Alida Cordelia (Freeman) Cross in 1935 in Marathon, Iowa.  My father was 5 years old when he died.  But the mystery is William's father, my 3 g grandfather, Henry Freeman.

Henry Freeman was born in 1832 in Barrow, Rutlandshire (now simply Rutland), England.  In the 1841 English Census he is listed as the son of William and Elizabeth Freeman living in the Parish of Barrow, Cottesmore, Barrow, Rutlandshire.  He has an older brother John, older sister Elizabeth, younger sister Jane, and younger brother Edward.

In the 1851 English Census he is no longer living at home.  His older siblings, Arnold and Mary and younger siblings, Jane, Edward, and Elizabeth are still living at home.  There is a Henry Freeman, same age as our Henry, same birthplace, listed as a servant at the Cottesmore, Parish Church of Oakham, which is 5 miles from Rutland. He is 19 years old.

Just two years later, at the age of 21, in 1853, he is in New York, as that is where his first child, William M. (my 2nd g grandfather) is born.  I have not been able to find his point of entry into the US, nor do I know who is wife was or when he was married.

Two years later, in 1855, he is in Lindon, Iowa Co., Wisconsin, as that is where his next child, James H Freeman is born.

Sometime between the birth of James and Christmas Eve, 1859, his wife dies.  He is a widowed farmer with two young sons. On December 24, 1859 in Dane County, Wisconsin, he marries Clara Ballard.

The next mention of this family is in the 1860 Census in Sauk County, Wisconsin:

The Civil War is raging and on 4 April 1862 his son Edward is born in Sauk County, Wisconsin.  Is it because he has a young family that he is not fighting?

On 1 July, 1863 he completes a Civil War Draft Registration in Spring Green, Sauk County, Wisconsin.  To date, no further documentation of service in the Civil War has been found.

His last child, Joseph H. Freeman is born 24 June 1864 in Lone Rock, Richmond County, Wisconsin.  Was he there for the birth?  Was he even alive?

No probate records have been found.  No death or burial information has been found.  Did Henry fight and die in the Civil War?  No record can be found of Clara petitioning for a Civil War pension.

the trail simply ends...

More to the story...

When I started researching my family tree 30 years ago, we did not have the luxury of online research.  Can I just say how happy I am that we now have all this technology?

Remember how I felt so bad that Eliza and Uncle Ellsworth were alone after losing little Beatrice Fern?  I knew my other great uncles were there for Ellsworth.  But what about Eliza?

I signed into my Ancestry account this morning, as I do every morning and found several alerts for possible connections. One alert was for Bessie (Lobb) Bailey, sister of Eliza (Lobb) Cross from a family history written years ago but one sentence jumped out at me:

How awesome is this???  Just a couple of days after I wrote that, only to find this.  Not only did Bessie help Eliza, she met her future husband and BOTH couples moved to Oklahoma.  All these years I have fretted about Eliza coming from another country, losing her first child, and being so far from family.  

When I first started research I didn't pay much attention to the siblings of my direct line and especially not much attention to their spouses.  I just wanted to get back as far in my line as possible. I don't know whether it's because of age, mellowing, or what, but in the last few years I have started researching the siblings, their spouses, etc.  I have relaxed and started enjoying the process.

I have gained so much more insight into my ancestors by looking at the big picture.  If I had not, I would never have found this fragment of a sentence, that puts just a little more into the family story.

The Sad Story of Beatrice Fern Cross

Beatrice Fern Cross

Born: 13 October 1897

Died: January 1898

Buried:  Garfield Cemetery, Webb, Iowa

Garfield Cemetery is located a little over 2 miles from where I grew up.  Each Memorial Day we would make our annual visit and place flowers on the graves of our relatives.

Little Beatrice Fern's grave always made me so sad, but none more so than when I took this picture last week.  It used to have a little piece of paper with her name and dates on it underneath the glass that is now broken. Here is this little forlorn grave, now without even that piece of paper to tell the world she lived, if only for 3 months.  That this small little grave stone has survived over 100 years is truly miraculous.  Beatrice was the first Cross to be buried in this cemetery.

Beatrice's father was my great grand uncle, Noah Ellsworth Cross (the middle Cross brother in the front row in the little picture up in the right corner of this page).  He was always referred to as Uncle Ellsworth when I was growing up.  Beatrice was the first child of Uncle Ellsworth and his wife Eliza Ann (Lobb) Cross.  Eliza was 31 and Ellsworth 33 when Beatrice was born.

I have often wondered how devastating her death must have been to them.  Eliza  was born and raised in England, both of her parents having died before she arrived in America in 1889. She didn't even have her mother to console her.  Ellsworth's parents were also dead.  Here is this young couple on the cold prairie of Iowa, in January of 1898, burying their little girl.

Uncle Ellsworth and Eliza would leave Iowa, joining 3 of his brothers in Oklahoma, all four Cross brothers having secured land in the land rush. Only my great grandfather, Henry would stay behind in Iowa.

The rest of the story is not sad for Ellsworth and Eliza.  They would have 3 more children all born on their new homestead in Oklahoma:  Lillian Violet (Cross) Goin, Elsie M. (Cross) Hansen, and Henry Ellsworth Cross.

They would make several trips to Iowa to visit my great grandfather until Uncle Ellsworth's death on 7 September 1933.

On those trips, I wonder, did they make their way to little Beatrice Fern's grave?

"Keep some souvenirs of your past, or how will you ever prove it wasn't all a dream?"

I have been researching my family tree for over 30 years. I've always loved history.  In fact, I have a degree in it. I grew up going to family reunions.  My paternal grandfather, George Cross, was one of 9 children and all his siblings but one were within a 20 mile radius, so those family gatherings were rather large. Family and family stories have been a part of me for as long as I can remember.

But it was the birth of my only child, a daughter, in May of 1981, that was the catalyst to really start me on my journey into the past.

The photo up in the right had corner is one I grew up looking at in my grandfather's photo album every time we would visit. They only lived a little over a mile from us, so we visited a lot, and I looked at that picture a lot.  In the back on the left is his father, my great grandfather, Henry A. Cross. He died 2 years before I was born. Oh how I wish I could have known him.

I have that same longing to know all of my ancestors!  Come along with me as I journey back and let me introduce you to some of the most interesting people I have ever "met."

Here's one of the most important of those interesting people, my father, John Stanley Cross.  This picture was taken a year or so  before I was born.

Daddy was born in 1930.  But wait, we'll save more of his story for another post.

Thank you for coming along for the ride.

Valerie