Day 40:Life and Death in Amish Country...

Today we set out to see the Amish community in and around Lancaster County, PA and to search for evidence of ancestors...



There are so many tourists here on the main roads... so after we went to this General Store in the town of "Bird In Hand" to find my dad a leather belt...







We headed out into the "back country" to see the beautiful Amish homes and farms and visit the family shops and markets...



This method of hanging the laundry, via this pulley system, is prominent throughout the area, allowing the laundry to be hung without leaving the porch...







We passed a very beautiful mill on Newport Street where a large Amish function was taking place... across the street, these young boys were fishing in the mill creek... it was like a scene right out of Tom Sawyer...








This little guy wanted to be down there with them but was too young...

The Amish farms and home are huge and very well cared for...

This is another example... when someone gets married, they just add to the home and the older members move to the smaller area of the home, while the young marrieds add a new section (usually bigger than the last)...

Debra took this great photo of a team of horses pulling a corn stalk bailer...

I spotted this one...

Here is another huge farmhouse...

This was on Scenic Road... a very picturesque view...

We found this covered bridge in "Intercourse"...

Got this photo of Deb sitting next to the bridge...

One more amazing farmhouse and barn...

Then we headed to Akron to find this home where my Great-grandparents Horace and Mary Ann (Price) Daniels lived at 801 Main Street, the childhood home of my grandmothers Maude and later Olive (Daniels) Tradup...

This is the view looking North down Main Street...

And this is the view looking South from in front of their home...

This plaque...

And this clock, are right across the street from the home...

We then searched for cemeteries in Akron in order to connect some dots in my family history on my mother's line...

In the cemetery behind the Mt Zion United Methodist Church just a couple blocks from my great-grandparents home, we found the graves of my great-great-grandparents Price (these are Mary Ann Price's Parents)...

and two of their children who died very young (Mary Ann's brother and sister)... one 14 years and the other 2 years old...

We also found the graves of many Adams and Leids who were cousins to my grandmothers Maude and Olive (Daniels) Tradup... Marian Adams lived in the house on Main Street with her cousin Helen Leid after my great-grandparents moved out until she died in 1987 shortly after my parents visited her.

In the cemetery behind the Zion Lutheran Church a few blocks farther down Main Street, we found the graves of Tobias and Clara Daniel and many of their children... I was not sure how they were related but was sure they were...

When I called mom tonight, she said that Tobias was her grandfather Daniel's brother, which he spoke of often, when he lived with them in Milwaukee, WI, when she was a young girl...

Tonight, because of what we found today, Debra has found records on the internet that reveals the identity of my great-great-great-grandparents William and Maria Price and their children... we will hopefully find definitive documents tomorrow when we visit Genealogical Society in Reading, PA tomorrow! (We are also going to return to Akron and Ephrata to search the cemeteries again before the trip to Reading).

If we find all that we are looking for tomorrow, we will start towards West Point, NY tomorrow evening to visit where Deb was born before heading to "Boston in the fall!"

I never thought I would say this, but I am getting a charge out of this genealogy stuff... I have always liked detective work... and with Deb's skills on the document research stuff, I think we make a pretty good team.

More news at eleven!

Day 39: Fallen Soldiers and Fallen Firefighters...

Greetings from Gordonville, PA... just outside Lancaster and Akron where my Grandma (Daniels) Tradup is from... Amish Country.

(Before todays blog, I want to let you know that I also entered blogs for Day 37 and 38 to get us caught up.)

Today we spent most of the day on a self-guided auto tour through the Gettysburg battlefields.

This as a very moving experience to see the hallowed land where over 52,000 casualties occurred in just three days.

Probably wouldn't even scratch her???

This monument was dedicated on the 75th anniversary of the battle... The government paid for any Civil War veteran to come... many did even though they were in their 90's and some were even over 100 years old. Men who were enemies 75 years earlier, shook hands across the rock breastworks and were united as Americans.

Deb took this photo of the woodlands where the Confederate Army hid prior to "Pickett's Charge" on the third day of the battle...

This is the Confederates view up the hill towards Little Round Top...

This is Deb as she looks down the slope from Little Round Top across The Den towards the Confederate position (see previous photo)... This uphill vantage point in combination with the Union sharpshooters and the added range of the cannon because they were shooting downhill, gave the Union Army the advantage to win this extremely bloody battle...

This rock wall in the foreground is known as the "High Water Mark" as it is the farthest point north that any confederate troops ever advanced. The tree line far in the distance is where Deb took the photo and Picketts Charge began as 15,000 Rebel troops marched shoulder-to shoulder, in a line over a mile and a half wide, toward the Union troops behind the rock "high water mark".

Only 150 troops made it past the wall and they were eventually all killed by the amazed Union troops. The surviving rebels of General Lee's Army (over half of the 15,000 were casualties) began their retreat back to Northern Virginia that night never to return to the North.

After leaving Gettysburg, I drove Debra to Emmitsburg, Maryland to show her the National Fire Academy. They were preparing for the annual Fallen Firefighter Memorial Service held this weekend at the memorial on campus.

I looked for the bricks that I purchased to support the memorial back in 2004 when I attended the academy. The bricks were supposed to be in Section 17 but were placed in Section 18 instead (Both my father and I were #17 on our hiring list when we tested for Portland Fire in 1962 and 1978 respectively)...

These are the bricks...

This is the National Fallen Firefighters Chapel...

This has been a reverent day...

Tomorrow and Sunday we are going to visit Amish Country and do some cemetery research in Akron and the surrounding communities.

Day 38:The Town That Grandpa Beeson Founded...

Today we continued our journey to Pennsylvania...

We drove through Ohio and passed through West Virginia...

Into Pennsylvania...

We are leaving "nothing but corn as far as you can see" country and entering "oak trees as far as you can see" country...

Our first destination was Uniontown, PA... founded on July 4th, 1776 by my great...grandfather Beeson (It was originally known as Beesontown).

We spent a couple of hours in the public library researching family history.

Debra found a newspaper article that mentioned the location of this home that was built by Grandpa Beeson in 1804 and is currently a privately owned residence.

When the sun went down, we headed to Gettysburg, PA, which dropped us down into Maryland for about and hour before bringing us back up into Gettysburg for the evening (around 11:30 p.m.)

Tomorrow we will tour the battlefields.

Day 37: Go East Young Man...

Today we left Frank and Kathy's and started our journey east, which will eventually take us to Portland, Maine before we turn around and head back home...

All we did was travel today...

On the way out of Illinois, we passed these water towers at the Illinois State Penitentiary... Hot and Cold???

The first State we entered on our way to our destination for the day (Columbus, Ohio), was Indiana...

A short while later, we decided to search the GPS for off-beat attractions... We found this giant sneaker... your guess is as good as ours?

We arrived in Ohio and called it day.

Tomorrow, on to Pennsylvania.

Day 36: Horses, Surreys, and Gourds...

Today Frank and Kathy drove us up north to visit Arthur, IL...

This HUGE cross was quite a sight as you came around a bend in the road on the way...

This is Amish and Mennonite country... Where every mailbox either said Yoder or Otto... a very close community!

Watch out for buggies...

The men were gathering corn...

and putting alfalfa into winrows (sp?) for baling...

The woman were doing the laundry...

and some folks were going to the bank... (The parking lot)

We went to The Great Pumpkin Patch!

This place was a photographers dream... too many photos and not enough time to show them all now... yes the girls were in the store shopping!

The Pumpkin King and Queen... I must be out of my gourd to think I am King!

Frank got it correct...

After after Arthur, we went to Arcola and saw Marcella's corner... this is where Raggety Ann and Andy were born...

We had dinner at Wendy and Eddie's new home just outside of Belleville...

We had a good meal and a nice visit...

Jessica would be right at home with Josie and her new PINK room!

Today we are leaving and driving to Akron, Ohio on our way to Akron, Pennsylvania to see where my ancestors are from.