Using Newspapers to Check a Family Story

     A number of years ago my Dad, Lester Albertson, told me that his Smalley grandparents had come from Kansas to Halsey, Oregon, for a visit in about 1917 because his grandmother was going to a national DAR convention in Portland. I doubted that it was completely correct because I had no record that she had belonged to the DAR. However, her obituary did say that she was a member of the WRC, Women's Relief Corp, which is a women's group of the GAR, Civil War Veterans. Also my father was born in October 1907, so would have been only 9 or 10 in 1917 and maybe would not remember the date correctly. The Smalleys were my great-grandparents, so I wanted to know if my father's memory was accurate. I believed that newspaper research could help me answer this question.

    First I checked to find if there was any type of national convention in Portland for the Civil War Veterans organizations since I knew she had belonged to one of these. Using the University of Oregon website, Historic Oregon Newspapers, I did find some articles in The Oregon Daily Journal from Portland in 1918. On May 10th it reported that the GAR (Grand Army of the Republic) was planning for a national encampment in Portland that summer. There were women on the committee from the WRC, Ladies of the GAR and Daughters of Union Veterans. By August 9th the paper reported that there was entertainment planned for the delegates at the encampment to be held August 19th - 24th. Then on August 15th they wrote that 15,000 were expected to attend. There were large articles about the event on the front page on August 19th. One featured the WRC, stating their membership was 165,000 and they expected 500 or more of their members to attend the convention.

    Recently a newspaper from the town of Halsey, The Halsey Enterprise, came online at the U of O website, Historic Oregon Newspapers. It included papers from 1917 to 1920. So I could check for 1918. I searched for the name Albertson for a Halsey paper and found an article on August 29, 1918 which stated: "J. N. Elliott and family, who expected to start for Kansas Tuesday of last week, were delayed a day the arrival of relatives from the east - Mrs. E's parents, who are guests in the Albertson home." Mrs. Elliott was my grandmother's sister.

     Then I decided to check the subscription site, Newspapers.com, which has some newspapers for Goodland, Kansas. It was there I found the following article on August 15, 1918 in the Goodland Republic: "Mr. and Mrs. L. F. Smalley and Mr. and Mrs. H. M. Errington, of our county, departed Wednesday, for Portland, Oregon, to attend the National Encampment of the G.A.R.  Mr. and Mrs. Smalley will visit their two daughters, Mrs. O. J. Albertson and Mrs. J. N. Elliott, of Halsey, Oregon, before returning. They will be gone about two weeks."

     So by using three different newspapers, I can conclude that my father's grandparents did come to Oregon in 1918 to a national convention in Portland and visit family. Even if the convention was for the GAR, not DAR, and if was in 1918 rather than 1917, my father's story gave me the clues to discover an interesting
family event. 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – 28 – Travel

When I thought about this theme, I realized that I know little about how most of my ancestors traveled. But then I remembered that I have used at least three different sources to learn about their travels: by train, sailing ship and covered wagon.

1. I interviewed my father, Lester Albertson, before he passed away in 2004. He told me that when he and his parents and two sisters came to Oregon from Kansas in 1911, they rode the train. His father, Oran Jesse Albertson, had worked for the railroad back in Kansas, so they had a pass. Apparently they traveled from Goodland, Kansas to Portland, Oregon and then continued south to Halsey, Oregon where Oran's brother Arthur lived.

2. When my immigrant Falk gt-grandparents came from Prussia to the United States in 1858 the passenger list gives the name of the sailing ship they came on. It was a bark named Wieland. I have a picture of a bark named Wieland, but it was built in 1862 and was larger as Lloyd's Register found on the Mystic Seaport website, show the earlier Wieland tonnage to be 512 and the later one was 632. But I believe as they were both barks, they probably had a very similar appearance.

2. In 1938, before I was born, the Bond family reunion printed a booklet with the journal entries of my 2^nd gt-granduncle George Bond on the trip from Iowa to Oregon in 1853. Since this was over the Oregon Trail, it is logical to believe they traveled by covered wagon. It makes it more believable when the entry for April 9 stated that they “loded the wagons.” But they apparently did use tents while camping along the way because on May 14 George recorded that a storm prevented them from pitching their tents. I have always felt so fortunate to be able to read the daily travels for that group which included my 2^nd gt-grandparents and 2 sets of 3^rd gt-grandparents as well as over 30 other relatives.

Places From the Past – Goodland, Kansas

Goodland Kansas was the county seat for Sherman County where some of my Smalley and Albertson families settled in the 1880s. I had at least one ancestor living there until the mid 1950s. These are photos from some old postcards.

This one was probably about 1890.

This one is several years later.

Monday Mystery Photo - #2

Here is today's mystery photo. Again this is an unidentified photo from my father's, (Lester Albertson) collection. It is small, about 2.5 inches by 1.75 inches. It is pasted onto cardboard. This time the photographer's name is easier to read, it is Dunham, and the location is also readable, Goodland Kansas. This makes a lot of sense, since my father's parents, grandparents and gt-grandparents all lived in Goodland around 1900. With this additional information about the location I was able to use newspaper research and discovered that C. E. Dunham was a professional photographer who worked in Goodland from October 1898 until October of 1902. Now do these clues help anyone identify who this family might be?

Some Things I Did Not Know About My Grandfather Albertson

That is I didn't know these until I read them in the old local newspaper of Goodland Kansas.

Before he was married to my grandmother--

1898 Sept: Ora Albertson (my grandfather) along with his brother Artie (Arthur) used their saddle horses to help a neighbor pull his wagon after his horses had run away. It's good to know an ancestor was helpful.

1900 Apr: He got a new bicycle when he was almost 18 years old. I wonder how many others in the area had bikes.

1902 Mar: He bought a horse from the section foreman. Maybe he got tired of riding his bicycle.

1903 Oct: He returned to Kansas after a visit to his brother Arthur in Oregon. Then he started to work in the railroad shops at Goodland. I hadn't really understood that he had been to Oregon before the family came in 1911.

1901-3: He received bounty payments from the county three different times for coyote scalps at $1.00 each.

After he was married in April 1906

1906 Oct: He and his wife purchased a strip of land for $37.00, then sold it for $50.00. It looks like he made a profit of $13.00.

1906 Oct: He received bounty payment from the county for coyote scalps for $10.00. As a married man he needed to make a little more money.

1906 Oct: He was an employee in the shops, [probably railroad] and was recovering from an attack of typhoid fever. I'm so glad he was recovering.

Again I'll state that I truly enjoy reading in old newspapers and founding out those "little" things about my family.

Owning a Piece of History

Carrie Nation

It was 25 Jan 1901 when The Goodland Republic newspaper in Goodland, Kansas reported that my grandfather, Ora Albertson, along with Ivan Higbee were "keeping bach" while Ora's parents, Nathan E. and Mary M. (Hockett) Albertson were in Wichita, having her face doctored. Two weeks later the paper said that they had returned from Wichita after three weeks getting treatment, but she was not any better.

Then a few days later the paper noted that Nathan along with two other Goodland area residents were possessors of pieces of glass from the saloon wrecked at Wichita by Carrie Nation. Was this really true? Was it logical to have happened?

I searched using Google to try to find out more about Carrie Nation. I discovered that it was 27 Dec 1900, when prohibitionist Carrie Nation smashed a saloon in Wichita, Kansas. Since that was just a few weeks before the Albertsons went to Wichita, I can believe that great-grandfather really could have a piece of glass from the saloon smashed by Carrie Nation.

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.

Good Words About Great-grandfather Albertson

While reading about Nathan Elias Albertson in The Goodland Republic, from Goodland, Kansas, I was delighted to find complimentary words describing him.

In January 1902, when he married his second wife, Mary (Smalley) Morey, the paper reported: "Mr and Mrs Albertson live near Edson where they are well and favorably known."

When the county commissioners met near the beginning of January 1905, the comments in the paper said: "the retiring members,....and N. E. Albertson, who holds over, have been honored and respected by their constituency. The new board.....is composed of ....and N. E. Albertson. These gentlemen are from our most substantial citizens, and enjoy the respect and confidence off all the people of Sherman County."

Then when Nathan lost the election in November 1906 with the flip of the coin, the paper wrote: "Mr. Albertson.....has been a faithful and conscientious officer..." Then when he gave up his office in January 1907, "Mr. Albertson, the retiring member of the board, has just closed his term and retires with honor."

After his death in July 1917, I was glad to see the published thank yous from the family for "kindness and sympathy during the illness and death of our dear father, N. E. Albertson" was from all five children and their families and all five step-children and their families.

Of course it might be expected that his obituary would have good words, but I did like how it was expressed: "He united with the Friends church when a boy and has since lived a devoted Christian life, and was prepared to meet his Savior in the Better world.....He was loved and trusted by all who knew him, and will be sadly missed by all."