Bob Russell's Birthday

Bob Russell just celebrated his 67th birthday. Our daughter-in-law, Alejandra Russell, created a lovely video to commemorate the event. See it here Grandpa's Birthday

Rosie Ellen Farrell and Bud Stratton

We had a delightful visit in June, 2009, from Rosa Ellen Farrell and Bud Stratton. They were on their way back to Idaho after attending a wedding in Las Vegas and then a visit with Bud's family in Denver. Rosa Ellen is the daughter of Rosa Smith Fairchild Crain who was a sister to Bob Russell's grandfather Tom Smith. Rosa Ellen is the only living Smith family member who lived over in Moffat County during the years between 1915-1924 when the family homesteaded there. Rosa was just a tiny baby when the family made the big move from the Youghal community west of Craig to Purcell, Colorado in Weld County. Rosa and her parents traveled by automobile while her cousins, the Tom Smith family, made the trek on horseback and pulling wagons, herding cattle over Rabbit Ears Pass late in the fall. See photos and stories of that trip http://www.viewoftherockies.com/CraigtoPurcell1.html

The photograph I'm including here shows Rosa Ellen and Bud standing next to an oak secretary that Rosa's father, Art Fairchild, brought from Nebraska to Moffat County in the early 1920s for his bride, Rosa Jeanetta Smith Fairchild. Many years later Art gave this lovely piece of furniture to Frances Russell and she in turn gave it to her son Bob Russell. Rosa lovingly touched the secretary while she told us their gold-rimmed oatmeal bowls use to be stored on the second shelf and inside her father kept his stamps and letters.

Rosa is a beautiful and gracious lady and her companion, Bud Stratton, is a fine man who has known Rosa since she was fourteen years old. Bud is a brother to Shirley Stratton who married Ollie Smith, Frances Smith Russell's brother. That makes Bud a shirttail relative.

2009 Smith Clan Calendar online

Click on the cover (above) to go to the full calendar online.

The 2009 Smith Clan Calendar is now available online. It features photographs taken at the 2008 reunion in Oklahoma City and birthdays for most of our Smith relatives. If you want your name and birthday added please drop me a note and I'll gladly add you to the calendar.

We Have a New Son!

***Jen, Zak, Vivian, Lucas, Randy, Bob, Isabella, and Jess***

In mid-January of this year, just about five weeks ago, Bob got a heartfelt email from a seventeen-year-old girl telling him that she is his granddaughter, one of the children born to his son whom he's never known. She explained that her dad is Randy Raasch who was given up for adoption by his birth mother back in 1965 and who is now married with a family of his own, a family who wants to know Dad and Grandpa. Bob was thrilled to learn he has this family - a son, daughter-in-law, and three grandchildren, two girls and a boy, and I was equally happy and excited to welcome these wonderful people into our hearts and home. Over Valentine's Day weekend they drove over five hundred miles to come visit us and what a fun time that was. Our other son, Patrick, and his wife and two children came up to meet and get to know their new family. We are now exchanging emails and phone calls as we learn the details of their lives and they learn about us. Our next gathering is planned for Easter weekend - how exciting!!

Annalee Auwen, my Smith family cousin

William Franklin Smith had just one brother, John Alvin Smith (1868-1953). John Alvin married Minnie May Culwell and they had seven children who lived beyond childhood, Nolen Brinkley, Julie Addeline, Adah Dovie, Annie Veria, Jimmie Nannie May, John Edgar, and Frank. The photo shown on the left is a rare photo of the entire family taken at a family reunion in California in 1939. (Click on the photo to view a larger image.) This photo was recently sent to me by Annalee Auwen, the wife of Alton Auwen, who is a son of Julia Addeline Smith Auwen and John Johnson Auwen. Annalee has generously shared several of her very special family photographs with me and I'll be featuring them on a separate website very soon. I'll post the link when the site is up. Thank you very much, Annalee.

old newspaper articles 1923-1924

The Thomas Alvin Smith family left the Blue Mountain community in Moffat County, Colorado in October of 1924. Their last couple of years there were tough. I recently searched microfilmed articles from the Craig Empire newspaper for the years 1923 and 1924 to learn more about those last two years. Living in Youghal and at times Cross Mountain, in addition to Thomas Alvin Smith was his mother Fannie Smith, his brother Ernest Smith, his sister Rosa Smith Fairchild, his sister Julia Smith Barton and the Robert Morris family You'll find transcribed clips from Youghal and Cross Mountain at this webpage: http://www.viewoftherockies.com/YoughalCrossMountain.html

Smith Clan Reunion 2008 is now history

The much anticipated Smith Clan Reunion in Oklahoma City came together last weekend and was a huge success. Sixty-two people attended the two day event and by the time of this writing they've all made it back home safely with the exception of the Brosman family who are driving back to Washington State by way of southern California with a few stops along the way.

Most of the folks who attended were from Oklahoma but there were two from Washington State, three from California, three from Ohio, two from Texas, one from Massachusetts, three from Colorado, and two from South Carolina. (Thanks to Mary Simms for the statistics.) The activities started with brunch at the Golden Corral Restaurant in Oklahoma City on Saturday followed by a gathering at the American Legion Building in Yukon (thank you Joanne for that indoor facility on a rainy day).

Sunday we met at the Hometown Buffet in Oklahoma City for a few hours of good food and friendly conversation. Around three o'clock some of us accepted Belle Rawson's invitation to continue the fine conversation at her home in Yukon while six carloads of us caravaned to Noble, Oklahoma. We met at the home of Adele and Frank Auwen in Noble. Frank Auwen is the grandson of John Alvin Smith - the only brother of our ancestor William Franklin Smith. The Auwens led us through the countryside to a spot about twelve miles from Noble where the brothers William Franklin Smith and John Alvin Smith supposedly homesteaded. We now know that they didn't really homestead those parcels of land; instead, they bought out homesteaders who relinquished their land. We still believe that somewhere in Oklahoma William Franklin Smith did homestead but just where is still a mystery.

Adele and Frank Auwen also led us to two cemeteries where we searched for the graves of Sarah Frances "Fannie" Buchanan Smith and her daughter Lillian Vernetta Smith Moore. Only after a fruitless search did Mary find a note in her records that Fairview Cemetery is where we will find those graves. That search will have to wait for another day, perhaps a reunion in 2010!

Photos taken at the reunion are trickling in. There are about 136 of them on this Flickr site at http://www.flickr.com/photos/rdpamrussell/2864661282/ Keep in mind the photos appear in reverse order with the last one taken posted first (I don't know why Flickr works that way.)