Finally! Greetings from Morehead, Kentucky...
It is midnight and I am going to try to catch up the blog for the last two days... I did not feel like blogging last night because I really did not feel well... I am suffering some of the most excrutiating pain in my left foot that I think I have ever endured... and I have had some pretty bad pain in my life, at times, with all the broken bones that I have experienced. I had to do a fair amount of walking yesterday and that really made things worse... today, we drove all day and it got a bit of a rest of sorts, though it was tough to shift the car at times... tonight the pain is a little less and I am hoping I can get some sleep... please keep me in your prayers if you feel so inclined.
Before I start, I want to add a couple photos from our activities on Sunday:
This is an atlas of Rothsville, PA in 1899... Look closely for the Frederick Niedemyer house and barn at the southern tip of the map (End of what is now called Disston View Lane) down by the Conestoga Creek (now called Cocalico Creek)... This is the homestead of my great-great-great-grandparents Niedemyer!
This is the homestead now... It is owned by Ephraim and Isaac Zook, an Amish family that has been in possession of it for the last 40 years... and it is beautiful!
We took photos of all of the other homes on the map that were at the other end of the same street that belonged to both Niedemyers and Adams families (and they are all still there).
Then we went to the Jerusalem Luthern Cemetery and found many graves of all of the people that lived in these homes...
The story is that the Niedemyers' were quite well-to-do by the standard of the day... if the monument in the cemetery is any indication, I think the rumors are true...
This is a covered bridge spanning Cocalico Creek just southeast of Fredericks property on the Old Log Cabin Road...
Sunday evening, we located the home of Tobias Daniels (my great-grandfather Daniels brother), (grandma Tradups uncle), which would make him my great-great-uncle... it is located at 728 Fulton Street in Akron, PA right behind and kitty-corner to great-grandpa Horace Daniels' home at 801 Main street around the corner...
This historical marker is next to the door... Tobias was a house painter and his shop used to be across the street but it is now gone and church parking lot is there instead.
Day 49: Yesterday, we started towards the Lancaster County, PA courthouse to research microfilm records of naturalization records and to look at huge books containing land deed records.
On the way, we were side-tracked by a tour of an OLD roller mill in Mascot, PA.
This mill was built in the 1700's and was run for over 100 years (until 1997) by a guy named Ressler and his sister... they ran the mill and lived in the home next door until he was 94 years old...
When they died, they had ever penny they ever made and it was all donated to a trust foundation to turn the mill into a perpetual working museum... and it works perfectly every day at the hands of volunteers...
Outside, Deb saw some Amish school kids walking to lunch in the park next to the mill creek... they were all holding on to a rope...
When we finally got to Lancaster, this Lutheran church was right across the street...
It is very old and Ex-Gov. Mifflin is buried in the yard, a signer of the US Constitution!
After we left the courthouse (we found many good things, one of which stated that the Frederick Niedemyer property was deeded to a person named Zook in the early 1900's)... I remembered the name of Zook on the mailbox from the day before so we drove to the homestead and arrived just before dark...
I was able to talk to Ephraim Zook who was given the property by his father as a wedding gift 40 years ago... He does not recall anything about Niedemyers but there is a connection somehow... he was a very pleasant man to talk to and very much Amish... he gave me a copy of a photo of the way the home loked 40 years ago before he added to it multiple times (in the Amish traditional way) every time one of his children got married... it is huge now.
Most of all, it was awesome to stand there and think about my ancestors building and working this farm... and is is still in fantastic condition and looks like it will stay that way for many more years!
Day 50: Today we left Pennsylvania and drove over 11 hours through the back-country of PA...
Maryland...
And West Virginia...
And saw some beautiful scenery...
The leaves are late changing this year due to the unusually warm weather...
But...
They are...
still very beautiful!
We also saw the smallest church in the 48 States...
that is what they say... it is pretty durn small!
Tonight, we finally made it to Kentucky! (Yeah, Joy!)
Tomorrow we plan to drive through Lexington and then on to "Loovul" to see Churchill Downs and then go to the Louisville Slugger factory...
We miss you all... Goodnight.
Later we visited "The Old Kentucky Home"...
Then we went to The Proto Cathedral in Bardstown, which is almost 200 years old...
This is the interior...
Main Street looking towards the round-about...
and the Town Clock...
Then we went to see where Joy lived while she served here...
Here is the town water tower...
and some gnarly sky in the west (we found out that Louisville was getting hammered with a major storm cell 36 miles away when I took this photo)...
and finally, this is the chapel serving this area.
