Those Damned Smiths!

On the surface there doesn't seem to be much similarity between my husband and me and our backgrounds. He's a Colorado boy, son of a farmer with roots firmly anchored in one place, eastern Colorado. I, on the other hand, grew up in Illinois and moved from place to place throughout my childhood, rarely attending the same school two years in a row. But we do have one interesting thing in common - both of us had mothers whose maiden name was Smith.

We have never found that we have a common ancestor in the Smith lines, so it's not like we're cousins. His Smiths are from Oklahoma and Texas whereas mine are from Illinois and Kentucky. But we have discovered that both of our Smith families were the objects of scorn and put-down by their spouses.

Bob grew up hearing his father cast aspersions on his wife's family, criticizing their lifestyle of coffee drinking, card playing, and cigarette smoking. Despite his dad's attitude, Bob says his experiences with the Smith clan were always happy times and that they were fun people to be with, loved to tell jokes and laughed a lot.

My dad was also critical of his Smith in-laws, finding fault with each and every one of them. I really think Dad's hostility stemmed from his jealousy of my mother's love for her Smith family. Dad made fun of the Smiths and made them the butt of his jokes, trying to elevate his own status in the process, but I know he loved them dearly, as did each of us four kids.

So we have a little private joke between us, Bob and I, a way of acknowledging the similarity in what we heard around the dinner table as we were growing up - "those damned Smiths!" says it all.

2011 SMITH CLAN REUNION

Everyone is invited to join with the friends and descendants of William Franklin Smith and John Alvin Smith on June 17, 18, 19 for the 2011 Smith Clan Reunion. We will headquarter in Vernal, Utah. This promises to be the best reunion yet.

Join us at 6 pm on Friday, June 17 for supper at the Golden Corral in Vernal, Utah.

Join us on Saturday morning, June 18 for a pilgrimage to the old Moffat County homesteads where we will erect historical marker signs.

Join us at 6 pm on Saturday evening, June 18 for supper at the Golden Corral back in Vernal, Utah.

Join us on Sunday morning, June 19 for a visit to the ancestral graves in Craig, CO and Steamboat Springs, CO.

If you need further information, please contact Mary Simms:

By phone at 803-996-3567

By email at mrsimms@peoplepc.com

By snail mail at 431 Beechwoods Dr., Lexington SC 29072


Please RSVP and let us know when to expect you. We will leave the light on for you! (To enlarge Wanted poster below click on the image.)

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GENERAL INFORMATION

SMITH CLAN REUNION - VERNAL, UTAH

-JUNE 17, 18, & 19, 2011-

The friends and descendants of William Franklin Smith and John Alvin Smith will gather on June 17, 18, and 19 for the 2011 Smith Clan Reunion. We will headquarter in Vernal, Utah.

DEDICATION - This reunion is dedicated to the memory of our most common ancestors: William Franklin Smith [1865-1921], his brother, John Alvin Smith [1868-1953], and their father, Alvin Smith [1827-1868]. Without Alvin, Frank, and John, none of us would be here today. Alvin was a Texas Ranger and died when on duty. Frank participated in the great OK Land Race in 1893. He and his brother, John, homesteaded near Noble, OK in the late 1800s. Frank later homesteaded near Weatherford, OK, Sentinel, OK, and in Moffat County, CO.

AGENDA-

• Friday evening, June 17, 6 pm - supper at the Golden Corral in Vernal, Utah
• Saturyday morning, June 18 - pilgramage to the old Moffat County homesteads where we will erect historical maker signs.
• June 18, Sunday morning - trip to Steamboat Springs to visit ancestral graves in Craig and Steamboat Springs, CO
• June 19, Sunday, about noon - lunch at Wendy's in Steamboat Springs
• June 19, Sunday afternoon - The Smith Clan Reunion will come to a close in Steamboat Springs, CO

NITTY GRITTY

Vernal Airport is recognized by most online travel agencies.

Transportation - fly into Vernal Airport and rent a car, or fly into Denver Airport and rent a car and drive to Vernal, UT; or, drive your own car.

Rental Cars are available at the Vernal Airport - best to reserve a vehicle in advance. There is an Enterprise franchise along with several other non-chain car rental companies.

Lodging - The most reasonable lodging found thus far was located online through Kayak.com at Travelodge. Motel 6 also has good rates and a good location. There are numerous other chain motels: Day's Inn, EconoLodge, Best Western, Roadway Inn, Super 8, and Holiday Inn plus many private motels.

Food - All meals are Dutch Treat.

Friday, June 17 at 6 PM - Supper at Golden Corral in Vernal, UT - located at 1096 West Highway 40.

Saturday, June 18 at 9 AM - Pack a bag lunch plus bottled water as we will be eating our noon meal at the old Moffat County homestead site. Meet in Golden Corral parking lot at 9 AM.

Saturday, June 18 at 7 PM - Supper at the Golden Corral in Vernal

Sunday, June 19 about noon - Lunch at Wendy's in Steamboat Springs - located at 225 Angler's Drive

There are numerous fast food franchises in Vernal: Taco Bell, McDonald's, Pizza Hut, Wendy's, Burger King, Arby's, KFC, Blimpie, and Subway.

Homestead Pilgramage - Saturday, June 18, we will convoy approximately 43 miles from Vernal to the Moffat County homestead sites. Leave Vernal at 9 AM and spend the day erecting historical markers and locating various homesteads. Return to Vernal for supper.

Tour Guides - On Saturday, we have two excellent tour guides to help us locate the homesteads - Doris Burton and Eldon White. Both grew up in this area and are familiar with the location and history of the homesteads.

Cemetery Guides - On Saturday, Wes & Jana Brosman will serve as tour guides at the Craig Cemetery, and Bill and Beth Reynolds will serve as tour guides at Steamboat Springs Cemetery.

Weather can be a bit fickle in this region in June. It may be cool and rainy or it may be hot and dry. Be prepared for about anything.

Clothing should be cool, casual, and comfortable. Blue jeans, slacks, shorts, T-shirts, polo shirts, sports shirts, etc. - whatever you prefer. There will be no need for fancy or formal clothing. Long trousers, a hat, and hiking shoes are suggested for the homestead pilgramage.

Clan History & Photos - There will be many opportunities to look at old family photos and hear tales of what life was like over 100 years ago. Those interested in the Smith Clan history will find a treasure trove of information available at the Reunion. If you have old family photos or know any old family legends, please bring them to the Clan Reunion and share them with others. Bring your cameras, tape recorders, old photos, and your memories - or just come and look, listen, learn, and enjoy yourself.

Arrival in Vernal: When you reach your motel or other overnight facilities in or near Vernal, please phone Nancy Miller at 513-702-2692 [cell] and let her know that you have arrived. We do not want anyone to get lost and fall through a crack in the floor during the Vernal Clan Reunion!

For Further Information, please feel free to contact Nancy or Mary. We would love to hear from you. Hope to see all of you in Vernal, UT on June 17, 18 & 19, 2011.

Please RSVP to Nancy or Mary so that we will be expecting you and have the red carpet rolled out! We will leave the light on for you!

YOU ALL COME!

Phone Mary at 803-996-3567 [home in SC] or

Email Mary at mrsimms@peoplepc.com

Phone Nancy Miller at 513-7002-2692[cell phone]

PS - If you have difficulty printing this out, please let us know and we will be happy to send a paper copy to you!

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Click here to see photos of the old Bear Valley homesteads from years past, and here for recent photos taken by Bill Reynolds.

Does Anybody Still Whittle?

Several of the Russell boys were excellent whittlers, maybe all of them. This story is about two of them, Doyle and Harold, and the wooden dancing girls they whittled during the cold Colorado winters, holed up in a small frame house on the prairie awaiting spring. I know about this because my husband Bob, Doyle's son and Harold's nephew, was a young boy in that house who witnessed the creation of these little wooden dolls and watched them dance on the handsaws held between the knees of the whittlers.

Doyle and Harold were competitive when they were whittling, each with his favorite knife kept sharp as a razor blade and as pointed as a needle. They selected their raw wood carefully, probably from a supply they brought to Colorado from the old home place in Arkansas. The dancing dolls are folk toys similar to jig dolls or limberjacks, whittled into separate pieces, arms and legs jointed with tiny metal pins, and a string attached to the top of the head. Positioned over a hand saw and held by the string, the dolls dance when the saw is thumped or vibrated.

The two dolls shown above were found in an old sewing box forty years or more after they were made, the only two still in our family. Doyle and Harold whittled more than a few of these dolls during the winters of 1945 and 1946 but that wasn't all they whittled. They made sets of tiny wooden scissors, all connected to one another, long chains, balls in baskets, and puzzles, many types of puzzles. They also made arrows inside bottles, like the ships made inside bottles, and arrows stuck through small holes in a different kind of wood, leaving one to wonder how it could possibly have been done. The photograph below is a cabin Doyle made with his son, Bob, and in front of that a team of oxen pulling a sled made of corn stalks.

There was a time when all farm boys had pocket knives and knew how to use them well. The same knife that a boy used to skin a rabbit would cut strings on hay bales and slice an apple. Whittling was a way to hone his skill with a knife and express his creative nature. Nowadays boys don't carry pocket knives, at least not to school. Whittling is another lost art.

Bertie Lee Russell 1902 - 1981

Bertie Lee Russell was the first of twelve children born to Elias L. Russell and his wife Addie Jane Mahaffey Russell. Born at home in Cass, Arkansas on April 22, 1902, Bertie lived a long life, did some traveling, and had interesting jobs, but never married. By the time I came into the Russell family Bertie was a stern, seventy-year-old woman with a reputation for being eccentric, mean-spirited, and old-fashioned. I know the woman was a much more interesting and intelligent person than the caricature I have in my mind based on a few family tales.

Recently I came across a small, brown notebook that once was Bertie's. It was in my father-in-law's possession until he died, tucked away with his own diaries. Most of the entries in this little notebook, recorded by Bertie between the years 1919 and 1925, were the kind of ditties young people wrote in autograph books, like this one,

"Spell as you wish
Write as you will
Send me your photo
By the next mail
B. L. R."
and
"A rock of salt
A rick of wood
A kiss from you would
Do me good.
H.E.M."

And there are a few gems in this little notebook too, glimpses into the private life of Bertie as a young woman. The photo I've included in the post is a scan of the last page in the notebook and tells a little of Bertie's love life. "4, 5, 6th of Aug, 1920. First time to go with Virgil Morgan of Mulberry, Ark.
___________________________________
Nov 11, 1923. first time to go with Rev John L. Isaacs lasted to Nov 20th 1925"

There are other entries about men she dated and a few about memorable events in and around Cass and Ozark, Arkansas such at this one:

"December 7, 1919 The school house at Cass burned Sunday morning at 4 o'clock, having had only one week of school. Much was the loss of books and lodge tools or emblems - had plenty of black boards and everything to promise a good school."

Bertie also recorded birthdates and marriage dates for her parents, siblings, and nieces and nephews. I know from reading some of her early entries that she was pals with her cousin Minnie Marie Mahaffey who was just two years older than she, which makes this entry especially poignant:

"Minnie Marie Mahaffey
Apr 30, 1900 - Dec 31, 1920
age 20 yrs & 8mo."

Elias and Addie Russell had daughters too

Elias Russell and his wife, Addie Jane Mahaffey Russell, had four daughters along with the eight sons shown in the stair-step photo in my last posting. The girls were Bertie Lee, born in 1902, Bonnie Sue in 1905, Nannie Elizabeth in 1908, and Nellie Mae, born in 1911. Recently I received an email from one of Bonnie Sue's great-granddaughters - what a wonderful surprise! I know so little of Bonnie Sue's life after she left home and married Robert Butner. I believe they moved to Tennessee where the Butner family was from to raise their two children. This granddaughter is hoping to find a relative who has a better copy of the family photograph I've posted here so that it can be reproduced and enlarged, suitable for framing and displaying on her wall. She has provided me with a little more information on her family than I previously had and has promised family photographs as soon as she gets her scanner fixed.
Amazingly all twelve of the children born to Elias and Addie Jane lived to adulthood and most had long, healthy lives. They were all delivered into this world by Elias' mother, Mariah Tennessee Turner Russell, or "Aunt Tenn" as she was known by many, a skilled mid-wife who was wise to the uses of herbal medicines and home remedies. She also chose the names for each of the twelve Russell children. My father-in-law, Doyle J. Russell (pictured above as the boy on the far right side in the photo), greatly admired and loved his Grandma Russell, especially the spunk and courage she showed in divorcing her husband of twenty-seven years for selling some of the land left to her by her own father, and doing so without her permission, even though this left her to bring up their twelve children without a father. At the time of her divorce the oldest child was twenty-six and the youngest was an infant, so the older children pitched in and helped their mother. Doyle felt as strongly about the love of land and the pride of land ownership as his grandmother did.

Russell Family of Cass, Arkansas

I've been using this blog site to talk about our Smith Family and have neglected the other half of my husband's relatives - the Russells. They are a big family centered in northwestern Arkansas, in the towns of Cass, Ozark, and surrounding areas but, like most families they've dispersed widely and younger Russells now live in far flung places. We live in eastern Colorado which is where Doyle J. Russell, my husband's father, came to live in the early 1930s, and stayed to raise his family. Doyle was one of twelve children born to Addie Jane Mahaffey Russell and Elias Russell, eight of whom were boys (see photo above - Doyle is second from the left). They were a healthy family and all those children reached adulthood and thrived. I know more about the boys than I do the girls simply because Doyle told me more stories about his brothers than his sisters. I plan to post additional information about this interesting branch of the family tree in the upcoming weeks - stay tuned.

Rosie the Riveter - Smith Family Version

(photo - Betty Jo Barton and her mother Julia Ellen Smith Barton, circa 1944)

Cheryl Moore, genealogy line....{FRANK....JULIA....BETTY....CHERYL} has a wonderful family photograph of her mother, Betty, and Betty's mother, Julia, taken in 1944 when both worked as riveters on airplanes at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City, OK. Cheryl has offered the photograph and letter written by her mother for publication here for the Smith clan to enjoy. By the way, this subject came up just the week before Halloween because Cheryl's granddaughter, Liza, has chosen a Rosie the Riveter costume for Halloween this year.

Here is Betty Jo Barton Gaston's letter of approx. 2005:

In May of 1943 I, Betty Jo Barton, graduated from Wilson Consolidated School #2. This was a country school 12-1/2 miles SW of Frederick, Okla. My father, TJ Barton, managed the country gin called Red River. That summer he accepted a job with the Coop Cotton Oil Mill at Okla. City and we moved there. We lived on 23rd St. which is a segment of old Highway 66. Traffic zoomed past our house 24 hrs. a day, but I don't remember it bothering anyone because you can and do get used to almost anything.

Now I had to decide what to do. My mother, Julia, and I went to work at Tinker AF Base. I was a clerk-typist and she drove for the civilian motor pool. After a year she became unhappy with her job there and wanted us to apply as riveters. I said, "Mother, are you crazy? We don't know how to rivet?" She said they'd teach us and we entered their 10 day training program. When we finished, they put us on the production line at the Douglas plant there at Okla. City. I think they said the bldg. was a mile long and there wasn't one window in it. That was so we could have worked during a black-out. We were put on the 2nd shift which was from 3:00 p.m. to 11:00 but they wouldn't allow kin to work in the same dept. I worked on the tail section and she on the dorsal fin. All our work was with flush rivets. We were only allowed like maybe 40 min. for our noon time. That had to include eating--going to the restroom and smoking. I developed a terrible habit of eating too fast which has stayed with me through the years, and that was 60 yrs. ago!

The pay? My base rate was .75 an hour--but we felt liberated in that we were getting jobs that up to then had only been for men. My future husband, Gwen Gaston, was helping fight the war in France and his monthly pay was $20.00. It was very hard work and very noisy, but so what? WE WERE HELPING WIN A WAR! We worked 6 days a week until our boys hit the Battle of the Bulge and then it was 7 days a week until that crisis eased up.

Life was very hectic at our house. My aunt lived with us and she worked the "grave yard shift" which was from 11:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. Juanda, my sister, rode a bus to the downtown highschool. Rose, the younger sister, took a bus to the nearest Jr High school. My little brother walked two blocks to his grade school. He had this huge German Shepard dog that made the trip with him each morning and then returned to school at 3:00 to walk home with him. Part of the time my Dad was in the OKC office but through the week he was mostly on the road as the field representative, visiting the state gins to buy cotton seed.

I do not think the lights nor the stove were ever turned off! We also had to deal with the ration books that were issued to each family member. Certain stamps were designated for canned goods--coffee--sugar--shoes and gas. I don't remember meat or vegs being rationed but you had to go to the ration board and get down on your knees and beg for a permit to buy a tire. Mother and I drove an old 1930 something Ford that had serious fuel pump problems. As we struggled with it one night I told her I felt sure I had nearly pushed it as far as I had ever ridden in it!!

But in some ways the times were good--that people did have jobs. We weren't afraid to shop the stores at all hours of the night..and I hardly remember that we locked our doors. It's a different world today. We've lost so much that we had then. We did have some crime but it was not the "front page" "big time" issue that it is today. How I wish God would grant us some easier times in the coming years.

Betty Gaston