More Idaho "Guffeys"

Well after some more research I discovered that I had some more Guffeys in the local area cemeteries so I called my trusty (up for anything, when are we leaving) traveling companion Anita and we headed out to find the elusive pioneer era cemetery and we did find it, the cemetery and the area had interesting history and we were able to enjoy quite a bit of both!

Thomas Henry Guffey (son of Richard Guffey and Phoebe Adams) married Serena Emeline Roberts 1/16/1868 in Unionville MO.  Thomas was born in Clinton county KY on 1/7/1838 and was part of the huge migration from Kentucky to Northern Missouri in the 1840's and 1850's.  It seems that even the wild frontier that was Missouri at the time was too tame and Thomas moved to Idaho in 1891, the year after statehood.  In his local obituary he was hailed as one of the pioneers of the area and farmed in the Payette River valley the rest of his life.  He and his wife came west with the Callie Burt family from Exline Iowa and one of his daughters married a 'Burt'.  They came in a covered wagon and would have followed the Oregon trail to Boise and then swung a little north to get to this valley.  His obituary also describes him as over 6 feet tall and broad shouldered.  He passed away at the age of 90.

I knew that Thomas and Serena were at this cemetery but was surprised to find as well a daughter Anna Guffey Duggan.  Anna is their daughter, Anna Adelle, and Duggan is a 2nd (at least) husbands name, her first husband was I believe David Nickles and he is buried in eastern Idaho.  She is listed in the census records in 1930 as

'married' living in Boise as a lodger.  What fun for me, a bonus grave (is that too awful to say?). 

This is a real pioneer type cemetery western style as there is no grass and all the graves were covered with rocks, bricks or cement.  (to keep the varmints from digging them up - no really!)

There are Stuarts here and the name is actually listed on the sign as the Stuart-Falk Cemetery.  The town of Falk no longer exists but it was on the corner of SR 52 and SR 72 now known as Hamilton Corners.  If you put Falk cemetery, Idaho into google maps it does take you to the correct location. 

This area is what is known as 'high desert'  Elevation about 2500 ft and semi arid, average less than 10 inches of rain or moisture in a year.  All of the farming is and was dependent on irrigation.  In this area they dug a canal, it took from about 1896 to 1905 to make a go of the canal and 2 different companies went bankrupt trying to get it done, but finally the Noble Ditch Company got it done including being lined with canvas as the soil was so sandy!  To get the water out of the ditch and into the fields they used water wheels, some of which are still in use today in the nearby New Plymouth area.  This seemed like a natural progression on our trip and off we went. 

These things are awesome!

We found 3 of the remaining water wheels turning away, easily accessible, one is on a private road and another appears to have been pulled out of the canal and is laying on the side of the banks.  What an interesting thing to see, this is not what I would have considered "water wheel " country, I would think Mississippi river for that!

Leaving the area and stopping for a bathroom/drink break at Fruitland, we decided to take the side roads home and not the freeway, so we meandered through Parma and Notus.  In Notus we stopped to take a picture of the historic marker which gave us information we had never known.  Hard to believe this "reddest state in the country" was once a Southern Democrat stronghold!  What a fun day of history and genealogy we had!

Click on the photo to get a larger view!

Happy 4th of July!

I think that the 4th is more meaningful to me these days since I really got back to the immigrants on most of the branches of the family tree.  I was thinking of this last night and realized that knowing my relatives were there, knowing who they were, made a huge difference in my viewpoint, my feelings about the date!  This is true of all of the history of this great country for me these days but most of all for the 4th. 

I have a list of the Medlins who had land granted to them in Kentucky for their Revolutionary War service, the Hamiltons who were in the Pennsylvania Line and probably met George Washington.  The Guffeys and the Woodsons, the Carders and the Days, the Adams and the Harrisons.  I have yet to find a relative who wished to  go back to England or who fought for the English side, and within 30 years of the Revolutionary War all of my ancestors were part of the great westward migration. 

It is the story of America written in my own DNA!  My ancestors pushed west and settled in the vast open spaces, some made it as far as California, some went to Alaska and Hawaii.  They lived and died in the Gold rushes, they built in areas they had to fight for, they served their country in every branch of the military, the blood that runs through my veins is the same blood that stained the prairies and the mountains of America.  One hundred and thirty years later the other side of my family would come to this country fleeing tyranny and finding freedom.  The newcomers also fought, WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam and the Middle East. 

Yes I definitely think that knowing who your family were at certain periods of time makes history come alive, I am not sure whether my love of history made me more interested in genealogy, or if the genealogy made me love history more but on a day like today when we remember the beginnings of our great nation, it just makes me proud!!

Research....Ok it was fun!

So my friend and I were going to take some photos in outlying cemeteries, you know pioneer type cemeteries, boot hill sorts of cemeteries - fun cemeteries!  If that sounds creepy you may have found this blog by accident!  :)  We were going to fulfill some photo requests from find-a-grave.com and have a fun day in the process.  We went to look up the requests and FAG was not responding, we checked to make sure it wasn't just us and the site is down for some reason.  So this meant we needed a fall back plan, a Plan B, so to speak!  We had to go somewhere, we had a cooler full of food and snacks!

The new plan then was chosen, we would go to Marsing to the new quilt shop "Sleepy Hollow", (had awesome fun looking at all the cool stuff and the quilts hanging on the walls), spent a little money since I found a fabric that is perfect for something for my oldest son.  (Don't know for sure what but it is perfect) Then we went south to Murphy to go through the museum they have there and on the way we went past a sign that said Guffey Ln.  We went to the museum, ate our picnic lunch (feast since Anita packed it!).  Enjoyed the glorious Idaho sky, and stopped on our way back and took pictures of the lane and the beautiful sky, and the snake river.

Guffey Lane looking toward the Snake River

Guffey Bridge taken on our visit to Celebration park over a year ago.

I had forgotten that there was a bridge over the Snake River called the Guffey Bridge, how you ask did I forget this, oh it was a couple of years ago, I wasn't researching Guffeys then and I am aging and could forget most anything at the drop of a hat (that last one is really unnerving I must say).  Our visit to the museum in Murphy reminded me and I had to come home and find out if this was one of my Guffeys that came to Idaho.  The answer is no....thought maybe we had found the rich uncle but no such luck.  Colonel James McClurg Guffey was the owner of Guffey Oil Co. and at one time the largest private oil, gas and coal producer in the country.  He was an investor in the Boise, Nampa, Owyhee rail line and president of the Trade Dollar Consolidated Mining Company in Silver City Idaho.  J.M. Guffey is in the line that I labeled as Line 4 in my May 15 post on the lines of Guffeys in the US.  According to the biography of him written when he was still alive, he was the son of Alexander and the descendant of William who came to this country in 1738 and fought against the French at Fort Duquesne, and settled on  Loyalhanna Creek and helped to start the first English settlement in Westmoreland county PA.  But alas not one of my relatives unless I find the connection in Scotland somewhere that will bring all of these lines together!  (hope springs eternal)

Looking south - awesome skies

Any day that includes this kind of beauty is a success in my book!

If I read the map right this is Guffey Butte

You never know - maybe I will find a connection to this famous Guffey, but until then the search continues for my Idaho Guffeys.  Next stop is Melba Idaho cemetery, I think some of them are there. 








So I will continue on in my search for the elusive...what?...too dramatic?...sigh..onward and upward!

Grandma Jo

I first met Grandma Jo Gates when my husband and I were dating.  She was an interesting person, I was this 'hick' from Wyoming who had just moved to California and was going through a sort of culture shock, she shared with me that she had moved to California with Grandpa Mel from Nebraska and that she had been born in Iowa.  I was born in Iowa and this made us instant 'kin'!  :)

I think she was already working on the genealogy back then in 1980, but I didn't talk to her about it until she started sending out questionnaires and then browbeating each of us till we turned them back in!  Maybe the appearance of great grandchildren spurred her on, whatever it was she was focused on getting as much as possible done before she died.  Born 6/26/1907 she was already pushing 80 when I met her and by the time she had great grands she was talking about getting things done before she died.  She ended up living to be 100 years old and in the last 20 years of her life she learned to use the computer, published a monthly family newsletter, compiled and edited her brothers diary, and researched the family tree back quite a few generations, went to Europe (amongst other trips) and served on the complaint board at the assisted living facility! 

Knowing her - none of the above listed accomplishments are really a surprise.  I will never forget the first time I saw her dance!  We had taken a houseboat trip, David and I, his parents and Grandma Jo, on the river delta near Stockton.  We had a wonderful trip and one night we stopped at a restaurant on the river that had a band that played big band era music and she and her son, my father in law (whom I knew as the very staid Rockwell engineer) 'cut a rug'!  They looked like 'Fred and Ginger', and I heard the story about how she had taught dance lessons to help earn money for her young family, and how her boys learned to dance from her. 

She worked as a telephone operator in North Platte Nebraska when she married Grandpa Mel.  When they moved to California he worked in markets and eventually had his own market.  She gave birth to 3 boys, was widowed at age 62 and left a lasting legacy. 

I wanted to introduce Grandma Jo because so much of the Gates side of the genealogy has been begun or worked on by her and she got most of the DAR paperwork ready for those who follow along behind her.  She and I had many discussions about family histories and I got to hear the stories from her directly.  What a gift!  In the next few weeks I will introduce some of the members of each of these 4 main families who told the family stories that got me interested in the history of these relatives as well as the names and birth dates of the ancestors!

Francis Josephine Kline Gates
1/26/1907 Malvern, Mills IA - 2/5/2008 Scottsdale, Maricopa, AZ

Grandma Jo 1987 with Wm Niel

Full Circle!

Grandma is 101 years old, her next birthday is in September and she may make it that long.  She is however, losing track of things and has become very frail.  I am so lucky to have had a grandma this long.  Every once in awhile she pops out with a memory and I am trying to keep track of them.  There is no telling how long I will have this opportunity. 
This story starts with the old farmhouse which had just gotten more and more dilapidated since Grandma moved to town in 1984.  She had a hard time thinking about tearing it down and in that area with the heat and humidity and the growth that goes with them, the house became scary to even walk through - the floor boards would sag and bounce. (yikes!)  We have so many memories of the farm and the house and all the
reunions and fun and work.  This photo is taken from the hump in the farm lot next to the gate, it was a good sized hump and my mom and her sisters played on it as did my cousins and my brother and I. I don't remember anyone ever even talking about the hump or why it was there.






About 6 years ago during a storm the house was apparently struck by lightning and the fire burned most of what was still standing.  The neighbor that leases the farm said he would fill in the hole. 

This is what it looked like when he was done!  Not a very good job to my way of thinking.  This has bothered me for years (it's the insurance agent thing that makes me think of liability issues all the time!)  Since Mom is out there taking care of Grandma she decided to have this taken care of, and done right.

(This photo is the view to the north from the top of the hump.)  

When mom met the guy who was going to do the bulldozing at the farm, he asked her where she wanted the dirt to come from that he would use to fill in the hole.  She said he could use the dirt on the hump and when she leaned in the car to ask Grandma if that was OK Grandma told her that the house had been built without a basement and the people who had owned it before her and Grandad, had dug out the basement when the house was already there.  The 'hump' was all the dirt that came out of the nearly full basement they dug under the house.  Mom and Grandma went out to look at the job after it was done and said it is really nice.  The 'hump' is back where it started!

Ready to start adding some info

And so it begins....this is the result of my research on the Guffey connection in my family tree. I may not get it all on here in one session but this will begin the history portion of the research. The tree will probably be posted on the website as it is large and static.

There are several lines of Guffey's traceable in the USA

The first is of course our line of the Guffey Surname

We will refer to them as -

Line 1)- Descended from John MaGUFFIE/Maguffee of 1640 who settled in old Rappahannock Co. (now Essex Co.), VA. Many of his descendants moved into Pittsylvania Co., VA. where the name was spelled "McGUFFEY" until the late 1790s when they relocated to KY. then to TN. and later on to MO. When they left VA., the patrynomic designator, "Mc", was dropped and became known as "GUFFEY". One grandson of John Maguffee moved into N.C., and their name was then spelled McGUFFEY and continues to be spelled that way today.

Lines 2 & 3) Descended from John and Henry GUFFEY who settled in Rutherford and Rowan Cos., N.C. The many GUFFEYs who settle in that region descended from these two men. Two of this John's grandsons moved to McMinn Co., TN. and a large number of GUFFEYs live in that area and descended from this line also.

Line 4 & 5) Descended from William GUFFEY b. 1698 in Scotland or Alexander GUFFY b. 1750 in Scotland. They settled in Pennsylvania: Westmoreland and Northumberland Cos. respectively.

Line 6) Descended from James GUFFIE and his wife, Margaret KEARN GUFFEY. This family is well documented because two of the children fought in the Revolutionary War and filed for pensions based upon that service. Those descendants settled in Indiana, Ohio and central KY (Butler & Logan Cos.)

It has been estimated that probably as many as 90% of the people with the last name Guffey in the US come from one of these lines.

And again I give a huge thank you to Mr A Joseph Guffey who did so much research on the Guffey family before he passed away. He left an incredible legacy!

I have tried during this process to not use any information that I could not verify through some kind of official record, such as a census report, will, land grant etc. I believe the information is accurate but if you see an error please let me know, typing is not a true 'talent' it is merely a 'skill' for me and typos abound in my work, if you believe I have someone in the wrong place please let me know and we will discuss it. I have the records in my files on Ancestry and Family Tree Maker on my computer and we can review, I make no claims to perfection.

I will only be posting from now on on "Line 1" as that is the only line I researched. Someone may connect them all at some point and then I will put them all in my records but until then it's just too overwhelming!

Where does the time go?.....

So in the days following Miss Lilly's birth (Miss Lily just has a ring to it!!) I have been so busy, yes, yes, I have had so much to do I just don't know how I fit it all in!

2nd day the swelling and redness goes away

Of course I had to spend Friday recovering from the actual birth and being up late the night before, yet tired as I was I was able to make several phone calls and talk about the baby and post several photos on Facebook, do up the agenda for the quilt club meeting, and send and receive several text messages with photos to download onto the computer and put into the file on my desktop labeled simply 'Miss Lily'.  Just exhausting!

Saturday was our quilt club meeting and I did find time to put together a little photo collage of Miss Lily on my phone in case someone at the meeting would ask to see her.  Of course being my friends they were all kind enough to ask to see the photos and were very interested in every detail I had.  Anita and Teresa and I had carpooled to the meeting and we decided to stop at every garage sale we found on the way home and we just had a great time finding a couple of new (old) teapots and looking at baby clothes and strollers and all sorts of things the kids may need for Miss Lily.  Saturday evening I fried 30 pieces of chicken for our Mothers day picnic at our friends (everyone was bringing picnic food even though we knew the weather was not going to cooperate and we were going to eat inside) and while the chicken was cooking I was able to take a break and send a few photos to my mom who is away from her computer and unable to see Miss Lily, I had to send the photos to my aunt who lives nearby and she copied them for the new great grandma to see.  I managed to get the chicken in the fridge and was off to bed after I made sure I copied all the new photos of Miss Lily off of everyone's Facebook pages and downloaded them onto my computer and tagged any friends or family who may not  have had a chance to see our Miss Lily.

With Auntie Lala

Today we attended church as is our habit and they had a children's choir and  baby dedication for Mothers Day, both of which brought a tear to my eye as I was thinking of how our Miss Lily would probably participate in this sort of thing in a few years wearing those velvet dresses and anklets with lace that I had always longed to buy, but that would have been inappropriate for the boys to wear.  (none of them would have agreed to do it anyway) 

We had a lovely picnic with our friends, much good food and good conversation.  I was pleased that I had emailed pictures of Miss Lily already so we could share with our friends who had not seen her some of our pictures.  We came home this evening and retired to our computers and I have been catching up on my email and Facebook posts, I can't believe there were people who had yet to see our Miss Lily!  So as soon as I finish this blog post I will make a last perusal of email, texts and Facebook to collect every last photo that shows up of Miss Lily and head off to bed. 

The new family Matt, Amber and Miss Lily!

It is a good thing, I believe that Hubby and I are not the type to monopolize a conversation or pull out a photo album of pictures.  We are not obsessive people and we will take this grandparent thing in stride and with aplomb.  Far be it from us to bore our friends with stories of our grandchild.  Her arrival has hardly impacted our lives at all!   ;)