Branching Out – Connections to Cottage Grove – Part 5

One of my connections to Cottage Grove lived here from 1932 to 1972. So he was living here when I moved to Cottage Grove in 1961. But he had moved to Eugene before I started researching my family history in the mid-1980s. He was the son of my grandmother’s oldest sister, so he and my mother were 1st cousins and that makes me his 1st cousin once removed.

This photo is of his parents, George and Margaret (Bond) Pullen and probably their two oldest children, taken about 1903.

According to his obituary from the Eugene Register Guard, Perry LeRoy “Roy” Pullen was born in Halsey in 1909. His grandparents, John and Mary Bond, were enumerated on the 1910 census in the Halsey precinct. Perry was listed with his parents on that census in Halsey, living on 5th Street. Apparently the Pullen family did not stay in the Halsey area because they are listed on the 1920 census in Pleasant Hill precinct and he was listed there as Leroy P Pullen, age 10.

Before the 1930 census was taken, two major events happened in Leroy’s life. In June of 1928 his father died and in September of 1929 he was married to Pearl Johnson. It is evident this marriage did not last as Leroy married Dorothea Cranmer on Christmas Eve in 1932. The 1940 census noted he was living in Cottage Grove in 1935 but had moved out to the Culp Creek area by 1940. Another major event happened in Roy’s life in May of 1948 when his 11 year old son drowned in the Bohemia Lumber Company mill pond at Culp Creek.

He found a new interest in the early 1950s when he joined the Cottage Grove Riding Club. He apparently became quite involved and was a board member during the mid 1960s. One of his daughters was rodeo queen in 1957 and his other daughter was a rodeo princess in 1964. He moved to Eugene in the 1970s and later in the early 1990s to Arlington, Oregon, where one of his daughters lived. He was called back to Cottage Grove in 1994 when he was the grand marshal for the Cottage Grove Rodeo.

It was the next year, February of 1995, when Perry or Roy died. Although he died at Arlington, his memorial service was held at Cottage Grove. As I had done enough family research by that time, I realized he was a cousin when I read his obituary in the newspaper. So I did attend his service and introduced myself to some of the family to let them know that we were related.

It seems a little sad that we can have relatives living in the same town and not realize it at the time. So again I had another connection to Cottage Grove and because of his interests it was a connection to the Cottage Grove Riding Club.

Branching Out – Connections to Cottage Grove – Part 3

In my previous post I mentioned that I discovered a connection from my childhood home at Halsey to my current home in Cottage Grove while reading a family history book at the Cottage Grove Genealogical Society library. Guess what? I read another book and found another connection.

This time I read about the Currin family. Three of this family were Donation Land Claim settlers in the Cottage Grove area: John Currin, his brother William Currin and his sister Christiana (Currin) Cooley’s son, George Cooley. It was the grandson of George that caught my eye, Dale Drinkard. You guessed it, Dale had a connection to me.

He married my 2nd cousin, Delma Falk, 19 Jun 1937 in Linn County, Oregon. Delma said that she and another cousin helped to organize the Falk family reunion which was held each summer when I was growing up. After I began my family history research over 30 years ago I again attended the Falk family reunions and almost always Delma and Dale were there. Again I have always liked this photo I took of them in 1988 at the reunion.

Delma was born in the Halsey area 31 Jan 1915. Delma’s birth certificate has been altered to include her name, since the original certificate calls her Baby Falk. She was about 3 years younger than my mother Wilma and 2 months older than my aunt Lois, although Delma’s grandfather was a much older brother of Wilma and Lois’s father. I have always liked this photo of the three of them.

Lois, Wilma & Delma

While writing this blog post, I realized that I had not been diligent in adding the available sources for them to my family tree on Ancestry (joanne genealogy). So I worked on it. It reminded me that when Dale died 17 Sept 2005, at age 93, he and Delma had been married 68 years. Delma lived for almost 8 more years and died at age 98 on 27 Jul 2013. I have missed seeing them at the reunions and didn’t have the opportunity to explain the Cottage Grove connection that I had with Dale.

Branching Out – Connections to Cottage Grove – Part 2

Last week I wrote about how I was connected to Cottage Grove through the farm where I grew up. After I moved to Cottage Grove I discovered there was a Cottage Grove connection at the church I attended in Halsey. One of the “older” ladies at the Halsey Christian Church was Mrs. Ethel Maxwell. She was among that group of ladies who wore hats to church and were almost always there.

After living in Cottage Grove over 20 years, I joined the Cottage Grove Genealogical Society and became active in researching my family history. In checking the books at the Society library, I found one about the Powell family. [Powell History, written in 1922 by James Madison Powell, then updated in 1977] I was acquainted with several members of a Powell family so I did some reading in that book.

It was on page 285 I found Ethel as the wife of Frank Maxwell, son of Nancy Powell and Antony Maxwell. Nancy and Antony were married in 1860 and about 5 years later had moved to a farm near Halsey where they lived for almost 40 years. So Ethel’s mother-in-law was Nancy Powell. But does that make a connection to Cottage Grove other than a book in the library? Well, Nancy did have brothers.

One of these was Joseph Goble Powell (1841-1924) whose daughter Nancy married John Overholser. John’s son Ross was married to Marguariete, a former president of the Cottage Grove Genealogical Society and also the Cottage Grove Historical Society and the author of some historical books. She was someone I knew in Cottage Grove.

Another of Joseph’s children was Charles. One of his sons was Archie Powell, who served as an elder at the Cottage Grove Church of Christ. This was the church I attended and I did know Archie. Among Joseph’s other children was Edward, whose daughter Geneva had married Frank Richardson. Geneva was a faithful member of the Cottage Grove Church of Christ and I considered her a good friend.

Nancy had a half-brother, Alexander Hamilton Powell (1834-1915). He moved to the Cottage Grove area in 1878. Four of his five children married descendants of Cottage Grove area Donation Land Claim settlers. One of these settlers was Henry Small. As our Genealogical Society is publishing stories about these local settlers, I wrote about Henry Small. I didn’t realize when I noted that a descendant had married a Powell that I had a connection to the Powell family from my Halsey days.

So the Powell family had connections to Cottage Grove through people I knew and someone I wrote about. I believe that as I continue to study the Powell History I will continue to find more connections between the Powell family and Cottage Grove.

Connections – At the Library – Safleys

Next week's theme for 52 Ancestors is At the Library. Yesterday, 25 January 2019, I was working at the local (Cottage Grove Oregon) genealogical society library on my regular Friday shift. During the time when no patrons were there to help, I decided to work on my project for our society's displays coming up this summer and fall.

We are choosing various members of our community to research and create a display about. I had chosen the J. I. Jones family because my husband and I at one time owned the house called the J. I. Jones house and I had already done some research on that family. One of the items I had collected was a manuscript written in 1976 about the Jones family done by Lillian Lewis Coffman, a niece of J. I. Jones. On page 20 Mrs. Coffman stated that the only descendants of C. H. Jones (J. I. Jones' father) who were then living in Cottage Grove were her sister, Lela Ward, Lela's daughter Mildred (Mrs. Cecil Safley) and a grandson.

The Safley name drew my attention. When I first started to work at the local museum, my supervisor was Isabelle (Safley) Gates Woolcott. Do you suppose she was connected to the Jones family? But I also knew that one of my second cousins, Kathleen Albertson, had married a Safley from Cottage Grove and they were said not to be related to Isabelle. So did I have a connection to the Jones family through that cousin​?

Thankfully our society has drawers and drawers of file folders of clippings about our local families filed by surname. So I checked the Safley file folder. After reading a number of obituaries and other clippings I discovered that Kathleen's father-in-law, Rodney Safley, was a brother to Cecil Safley who was married to a Jones' descendant. So one of my relatives on my father's side of the family does have a connection to the Jones' family as her children have cousins who are descendants of C. H. Jones.

But as I continued reading I saw another name I recognized. Rodney and Cecil's father, Joseph Safley, died in March of 1944. The newspaper included names of out-of-town relatives who had come to his funeral. Among this listing was Joseph's sister, Mrs. Margaret Meadows and her three sons and their families, who lived in Florence, Oregon. One of these sons was Williams Meadows. His wife was Beverly Isom, my second cousin once removed on my mother's side of the family, so her children would be my third cousins. But these children also have cousins who are descendants of C. H. Jones, because their father, Wm Meadows would have been a first cousin to Cecil who was married to Mildred, a Jones' descendant.

Thus, although I am not actually related to the Jones family, I have some cousins on both sides of my family who are and I can claim a connection.

Finding An Uncle in Cottage Grove

Here is another copy of an article I wrote a number of years ago, 2006, to be exact. This time I am adding a photo of Melvin, which was graciously shared with me by cousin Robert Bond.

When considering writing about family who died before we were born, often there are no family traditions about that individual. So, it requires research to find information. Beginners are taught to use basic sources, which include vital records, cemeteries, obituaries and census. But sometimes extra information is found that makes that individual more interesting. When, by accident, I found in the newspaper that “Uncle Melvin” once lived in Cottage Grove, he became the subject of this report.

My great-granduncle, Melvin Clarence Bond, was the youngest brother of my great-grandfather, John Howard Bond. Melvin was the son of Solomon Bond and Huldah Hayes. I believe he was born in Linn County, Oregon on August 15, 1869 (although his death certificate says 1868.)

By the time of the 1870 agricultural census Melvin’s father had a farm of 407 acres. The main crops were wheat and oats and they did have farm animals: horses, cows, sheep and swine. Melvin was listed as a one year old on the population schedule of that 1870 census in the Peoria Precinct. Four older brothers and two older sisters were enumerated with him and his parents. Two older sisters and an older brother had already married and left home.

While Melvin was still a toddler, a rather drastic change came to their neighborhood, as the Oregon and California Railroad laid their track in the summer of 1871, along the edge of the Bond farm. I can imagine that Melvin could have heard the train go by every day as that became a major transportation route from Portland to Eugene.

Aunts and uncles lived nearby and Uncles Ebenezer Hayes and Seth Whipple Hayes platted a new town, which was named Halsey. Still as a young boy, Melvin experienced death in the family, when in 1876, two of his older sisters died and his uncle Seth Whipple Hayes was murdered. His deceased married sister’s baby daughter came to live with their family, so now Melvin wasn’t the youngest in the household anymore. On the 1880 census the family consisted of Melvin, shown as age 10, with his parents, the next three older brothers and his 5 year old niece. Since the 1885 census only gives the number, not the names of those in Solomon’s household, we believe that Melvin was one of the two males between age 10 and 21. Others were two brothers, his mother and his niece.

I don’t yet have information about how Melvin met his wife, but it is likely he was working for the Southern Pacific Railroad in Springfield where her family lived. Lane County Marriage Records show that M. C. Bond and Fanny Burton were married June 14, 1893 at the house of Adolphus Burton by Rev. C. C. Sperry. It is probable that C. C. Sperry was Carpus Clark Sperry, a Baptist minister, who was in the North Brownsville Precinct in Linn County by the 1900 census. Melvin’s father, Solomon Bond, was one of the witnesses. Was this in Springfield? Melvin’s obituary states they were married in Coburg, but Fanny’s gives the location as Springfield. Since Adolphus Burton was in Springfield on the 1880 census, that seems to be the correct location.

It was in August of 1894 that we find the next record about Melvin. The Eugene City Guard reported the following for the Cottage Grove area: “Frank Wooley, agent of the Southern Pacific railroad here for the past five and one-half years, was replaced Friday by a Mr. Bond from the Springfield branch.” Melvin had some hard work in that first month as a fire broke out at the Bohemia Hotel, near the depot. The newspaper reported: that some of railroad cars had to be moved and “Agent Bond also moved almost everything from the depot.” Fortunately there was a lack of wind, and a number of willing workers so the fire was prevented from spreading.

Now Melvin and Fanny were a part of Cottage Grove society. Their first child, Lawrence, was born in October. The newspaper reported that in December Fanny’s sister came to visit and then Fanny went back to Springfield with her. By the next summer, Melvin and Fanny and the baby are reported to be taking a vacation at Yaquina Bay. The newspaper described Melvin as “the genial and popular agent of the S.P. Railroad office.” A timetable from January of 1895 shows that Cottage Grove had two passenger trains each way, so Melvin was probably kept busy.

Sometime before the next census was taken in June of 1900, Melvin and family moved south along the railroad line to Merlin in Josephine County. Merlin was located about ten miles north of Grants Pass. Melvin’s occupation was shown as telegraph operator. His family had grown by one as there were now two sons, Lawrence age 4 and Guy age 2. Melvin’s next older brother, Harvey, was also working as a telegraph operator that year at Leland, the next station north of Merlin, about ten miles away. Their father Solomon had died in February of that year and his obituary listed these two sons as living in southern Oregon. The estate record listed them as living in Josephine County, Oregon. So all these records agree.

But Melvin did not stay at Merlin. His mother’s obituary in July, 1903, listed Melvin as living in Coburg. The 1905 Lane County Census showed him in Coburg as a railroad agent. By 1908 Melvin had changed occupations, as he now was a dry goods merchant.

Two major events happened in their family in 1908 while they were living in Coburg. On October 27^th, there was a blessed event when Melvin and Fanny’s third son, Merle, was born. But a tragic incident happened about a month later, on November 28^th, when their oldest son, fourteen year old Lawrence, was killed in a hunting accident.

In April, 1909, Melvin purchased 164.92 acres from the Federal Government, located in Douglas County, a few miles west of Riddle. However, he and his family were enumerated on the 1910 census in Coburg, on Skinner Street, and he was listed as a retail merchant.

It was probably about 1912 when the family moved again. Melvin returned to work for the Southern Pacific Railroad at the depot in Sutherlin. Their son, Guy, married Maydream Mclean in 1919 in Coos County, Oregon. So, Melvin, Fanny and their youngest son, Merle, were left in Sutherlin and they were enumerated there on the 1920 census.

Melvin became a widower in 1924 when Fanny died after an illness of several years. Fanny’s obituary noted that she had attended the University of Oregon and the state Normal School at Monmouth and had taught school for several years before her marriage. She was a member of the Baptist Church and the Sutherlin Lodge of Rebekahs. Seemingly Fanny had a good reputation as the local newspaper, the Sutherlin Sun, published that “she was a woman with a kind and sympathetic nature, friendly with all and a good neighbor and true friend.” After the funeral at Sutherlin, she was buried at the Coburg IOOF Cemetery, next to her son Lawrence.

On the 4^th of July in 1927, Melvin remarried to Edith Stephens. Edith was born in 1890 and had moved to Douglas County as a small child. Merle was still living at home with Melvin and Edith when the 1930 census was taken.

It was Christmas Eve in 1931 when Melvin died. The death certificate stated that he had last worked on the 23^rd, although his obituary implied he had been seriously ill for awhile. Again the Sutherlin Sun newspaper was complimentary, as it stated about Melvin: “Always courteous and obliging and ready to give assistance to any community enterprise, his passing is sincerely regretted by every resident of this community.” They noted the facts that he had served on the city council for ten years and was a member of the Baptist Church, Woodmen of the World and the Odd Fellows. Melvin was also buried at the Coburg IOOF Cemetery. His widow Edith remained in the Roseburg area for over forty years until her death at age 85 on the 15^th of July, 1975.

Writing about a family member helped me to get to “know” them better. It helped me see the “holes” in my research so I could focus my efforts to complete this report. Still, most of this report was based on those basic genealogical materials, so all researchers could do it. Why not find someone who interests you and start writing.

Ancestor Birthday - March 18th - William England 1802 - 1893

Today is the second day for a March 18th birthday. William England is today and yesterday I did John Bond. These two 3rd great-grandfathers of mine had descendants in common, since William's granddaughter, Mary Ann O'Neal, married John's grandson, John Howard Bond. They were my great-grandparents.

The two men had some other similarities. Both were born in Kentucky, although in different areas of the state, about 5 years apart. Both spent some time in Illinois and then went to Iowa to live. John left Iowa in 1853 to go to Oregon and William left Iowa in 1865 to go to California. But William didn't stay in California and moved north to Oregon about 1871, after John had died.

After William and his wife Mary (Walker) England had lived in Oregon for a little over a year, Mary died in February 1873 and William became a widower. He never remarried. He and his oldest son John purchased land in August 1873 east of current day Cottage Grove, Oregon. The deed records that they had 753.5 acres more or less. When the Dorena Dam was constructed in the late 1940s it was on a portion of their land. I really enjoy driving by the Dam and thinking that was land once owned by my ancestor. It was only after I began doing genealogical research in the mid 1980s that I realized that when I moved to Cottage Grove in 1961 it was to a place where an ancestor had been.

William lived a long life, being 91 when he died in 1893. The Eugene newspaper gave a brief account of his death: His demise was sudden, the old gentleman falling from his chair dead. William was buried in the Cogswell-Gay Cemetery northwest of Creswell, next to his wife. You have to go through private property to reach where the cemetery is located. A number of years ago I received permission and was able to visit it. I am thankful I was able to do that.

Great-grandfather Albertson Was Not Perfect

I found the following advertisement published 10 Mar 1905 in The Goodland Republic, from Goodland, Kansas, extolling the healing properties of Dodd's Kidney Pills for rheumatism.

THE NEIGHBORS ALL USE THEM NOW

Quick Cure of Rheumatism by Dodd's Kidney Pills. How They Saved the Shop

of a Kansas Blacksmith -- Cure was Permanent too.

Goodland Kans., Feb. 20th --- (Special) --- So quick and ccomplete was the cure

of N. E. Albertson, a local blacksmith, that it almost seems like a miracle. He had

Rheumatism so bad he feared he would have to give up his shop. One box of Dodd's

Kidney Pills drove away all the pains and they have never returned. Speaking of

his cure Mr. Albertson says:

"I had Rheumatism in my shoulders and arms for years. Part of the time it was so

bad I could not sleep at night. My arm hurt so that it seemed I would have to give

up my blacksmith shop. I went to the drug store and bought one box of Dodd's

Kidney Pills and took them. I have nnot had the Rheumatism since. A great many

of the neighbors are using Dodd's Kidney Pills since they saw how they cured me."

When I checked the Goodland paper from 1902 to 1905 which was on-line at Chronicling America at the Library of Congress, I discovered that at least eight other individuals had given their testimonial about how Dodd's Kidney Pills had cured their rheumatism, living in Missouri, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Pennsylvania and New York. Then I checked one of our local newspapers on the same website, The Bohemia Nugget, Cottage Grove, Oregon,  and in the early 1900's there were 45 ads for Dodd's Kidney Pills for curing various ailments. I relooked at the page where I found Great-grandfather Albertson and discovered other companies also had people telling of their experiences with their products: Someone in Hot Springs, Arkansas, told about digestive wellness from eating Grape Nuts and Cream; a man in Normal, Illinois had used Doan's Kidney Pills to solve his kidney problems and then a woman from Canton, Ohio, had been very satisfied from using Dr Williams' Pink Pills for Pale People. Patent medicine companies apparently used this type of advertising quite heavily. So great-grandfather Albertson was not the only one. I hope he was paid a little to make his statement or at least got some free pills.

The Cottage Grove connection to the Potter Sewing Club

I now live in Cottage Grove Oregon and I discovered that there is a connection between  the 

Potter Sewing Club and Cottage Grove.  

My Grandmother Albertson belonged to the Potter Sewing Club and I posted about that day before yesterday, December 6th. One of the first mentions I found in the newspaper was March 1926 when my aunts assisted the hostess in serving lunch. The hostess that day was Mrs. Jesse Safley. She is the connection to Cottage Grove. How? Her husband, Jesse Safley was a brother of Franklin/Frank Safley. By the 1920 census Frank and family were living in Cottage Grove.

I feel like I have an even closer relationship to the Safley family. One of Frank's daughters was Isabelle. Isabelle Gates Woolcott recruited me to work as a hostess at the Cottage Grove Museum over ten years ago and after her death I continued to work there and am still volunteering. Isabelle's daughter is a member of the Board for the Museum, so see her frequently. I find it so fascinating that her grandaunt was assisted by my aunts back in 1926; so they all could enjoy that "dainty lunch."