Field Trip: George & Grandpa Elmer

  We weren't necessarily going anywhere today.  A crammed schedule ahead of us was looming and I was happy to stay put.  Then you throw in something we needed to get to Ducky and the opportunity for a free showing of George Washington's inaugural Bible and we were off!
  Thursday I was checking my Facebook newsfeed and found this on one of the local history groups I belong to via the Kansas Grand Lodge:

How often is that going to happen 1/2 hr. from where you live?  Even if we didn't need to get something to Ducky, we just might have made the trip anyway ;)
  We met Ducky at the hotel hosting the event.  When we walked in we saw a room with a sign saying something about Masonic historical items.  We saw Bibles and assumed we were in the right place.  Wrong place, but we took a look around anyway.  We found some wonderful old Bibles, including a Martin Luther Bible from the 1680s.

Reminded me of our trip to see the Passages exhibit in Springfield.  While Ducky ran around with Shorty and Mookie and Bubby explored one way I rotated the other and found this:

A bunch of old Masons on the steps of the Kansas capitol from 1914. Cool pic and wouldn't mean anything unless your great-grandpa was a Kansas Mason.  So I scoured the picture and found him!

The archivist had told me that the guys in the front couple of rows especially were only the top guys.  Grandpa Elmer Gentry was the highest level Mason you can be, so I wasn't too surprised he was among the group.  To tell the truth, him being a high level Mason isn't something I'm particularly proud of. But, it is part of our family and history in general - so it opened another teaching moment for the kiddos.  I've said it before, but there is such an advantage to helping the kids personalize history.
  I almost could have gone home after finding that.  For a genealogist something like that can make your year!  But, in all seriousness we couldn't miss George's Bible.  So on we journeyed.

This gentleman brought the Bible from New York where it is housed with one of the Lodges there.  I have blanked his face because I did not ask to take the picture.  He did a fantastic job of telling the kids the story of how it came to be used by Washington for his inauguration, which Presidents have used it since and misc. other stories (Shorty was giving me a run for my money at this point so I did not have a chance to listen to the whole speech which I was sad about but not unexpected with a lively 4 year old boy).  The gentleman encouraged the kids to come behind the Bible and get their pictures taken.

Pretty darn cool!  It makes me wonder how many things like this are out there and available to visit for the general public, but aren't widely known.  We feel very blessed to have had this opportunity!

A Tale of Two Ladies

Every child has a family member or hero they strive to emulate when they're growing up.  Mine was always two of my great-grandmothers.

Mary Elizabeth Clem Gentry

Mabel "June" Tanner Mauzey

 Both were, to me, very beautiful.  Not that appearance has ever been very important to me, but it would thrill me when my Mom would say "your Grandma June would have loved your long brown hair", or someone would tell me that I had nice blue eyes like my Dad (who got his eyes in part from Grandma Mary, because both his parents had brown). 
  Both were exceptional at handiwork and creating beautiful things.  Grandma Mary quilted, embroidered and created cutwork as well as being a great baker.  She even baked cakes for a living after my great-grandpa died.  Grandma June excelled in those areas too and entered her creations constantly in county fairs.

Grandma June and pictures she made out of postage stamps

Some of my family produces beautiful embroidery, cross-stitch and quilting too.  While I would love to be able to do that, I have neither the patience or desire to except to try my hand at it occasionally.  I do think back on the time my Grandma Murray taught me how to embroider my first tea towel and said that my stitches were small and even like her mom's, and that was good enough for me:)
  Neither of them was just a girly girl either.  Grandma June enjoyed fishing with her father and brothers, something I'm sure she picked up as a result of losing her mother at a young age.  Grandma Mary was a great shot with a gun.  My dad said that she could pick a snake out of a tree with just one shot!
  Both were also kind, gentle, and proper Christian women.  All attributes to strive for. 
Now Grandma Mary died long before I was even thought of and Grandma June died when I was just two years old, but they have both had profound influences on my life just by the tales I was told about them.  I am so thankful for their examples and hope to pass on their good influences to my own children.  So whenever we drive through LeRoy, KS I point out the house where Grandma Mary lived to the kids, or when they ask me where I got my wedding ring, I proudly tell them, "that belonged to your Great-Great-Grandma June, and she would have loved you very much" :).

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures!!

  My Aunt Frances was the family keeper.  Her son (my cousin) and I have been working in tandem on family research to get our Gentry family and branches ironed out.  He recently sent some scantly identified photos which I was thrilled to be able to help out in identification of!

"Aunt Bee"

  Meet Rebecca Amelia Pribble Shields otherwise known as "Aunt Bee".  She is the only full sister to my great-great grandmother Flora Helen Marr Pribble Gentry.  Growing up I had heard fond references to this aunt:) 

"Uncle Herschel, Aunt Clara & Carl?"

   Meet my great-great-Uncle Herschel, Aunt Clara, and I think their son Carl ("Bee" would have been Hersch's aunt).  Uncle Hersch had one other son named Herschel Raymond who died when he was only 6, so I think this was taken after his death when Carl would have been about 10 in 1919/20.  

Hersch and Clara settled in Washington State.

"Uncle Ed"

  Meet "Uncle Ed"  I am pretty sure that this is Ed Pribble, half brother to "Bee" and Flora.  I have not seen a picture of him before, but there aren't any other likely candidates and I can see the resemblance to his father, Samuel Winfield Scott Pribble. *Note* - how wonderful are cousins?!?  This is not Ed Pribble, but most likely Edgar Gentry!  Thanks guys! :)  So much for the "resemblance" ;) (3/28/13)
   I am so excited to see what other treasures might lie in Aunt Frances's collection!

Family Treasures

     One of my favorite things about the antiques in my house is that every one has a story.  The most special ones are those that were owned by my ancestors, whether it be a small trinket, or a piece of furniture, each one has a tie to those that helped form who I am and I love it!

   One of my most unique items is a chair that belonged to my gr-gr-grandpa Milton Hight Gentry.  As far as family stories, I don't have many that flesh him out as a person.  Milton was born in 1843 in Indiana.  He was a farmer by trade and he and his brother and father served in the Civil War.  His brother was badly wounded and lost a limb at the battle of Antietam.  He married Flora Pribble in 1873.  The family moved to Woodson Co., Kansas in the mid-1880s, where they stayed for the remainder of their lives.

     When I was first starting on my research of this side of the family, I found a cousin who had the large research collection of an aunt of hers.  My mother and I spent several long days digging through boxes of unorganized research of this cousin, digging up precious nuggets of info and pictures that I only might be able to locate in my lifetime on my own. When we were there one day in that hot garage sifting through papers, my cousin motioned to a box that held pieces to this chair and told me that if I would do something with it then I could have it.  Of course, I jumped at the chance!  A few years later I had it put back together and have enjoyed it ever since.  I can just imagine Grandpa Milton reclining in it:)