A Big Snow.......

It is a weekday in 1957, March 26th and the day before it had started to snow.  Down on the farm in southern Iowa we had good snow storms but this one was a heavy snow with strong winds.  School was cancelled and it was my birthday.  The farm buildings were lined up in a row with an opening for the tractors to drive through between the barn and the grain shed.  When the wind would blow in a certain direction, I am guessing out of the east, the buildings would collect lots of snow and created big drifts.

I had turned seven and it was exciting to look out of the house and see such tall drifts.  It was cold in the morning but I put on two pairs of jeans and my winter boots to go wading in the snow.  I really liked my red coat and the artificial fur was to help keep the person warm that lined the hood.  The strap, that is supposed to help keep you warm as it snapped across you chin would get wet as the breath put out moisture. I had unsnapped it as it was wet and you didn't want to taste it.  I doubt the drawstring to the hood was tied and the sun is shining.

We never took pictures of the snow or people in the snow but my mom ventured out to snap my photo. Later my brother three years older than me, came out and we together made caves and tunnels. I really don't know of any other photo taken of our family in the snow.  The photo brings back so many memories of winter and the two buildings behind me.

In March we would venture into the barn to look for new born kittens and visit dad while he milked the cow. Young twin calves were brought to the barn to help them survive another storm sheltered in the barn  During rainstorms we would run barefoot in the puddles and mud. Both buildings are gone now as the new owners let the barn roof cave in and the building to the left had to be moved as their tractors were too large to go between the buildings.  They moved the building behind the barn where the strong winds rolled it down the hill one windy day leaving it in a heap.  I have many memories of my older brothers and me sledding down our backyard hill and the use of one pair of wooded skis that had a single leather strap to hold your feet to the cheap wooden piece. The hill was steep as it is southern Iowa and the exhaustion one would have trudging up and down the steep incline made everyone very tired. We would never have thought to take a camera out there to capture those memories.

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World War !

From last weeks prompt I was brought to a realization that I only focus on WWII history.  Being born right after that war and having my father serve in that war, it does make sense that I would have a stronger base for covering that time period. The Sepia Saturday blog has inspired me to seek more info about the people who are buried on the top of the hill of the Murray Cemetery of Murray, Iowa.  The last time my wife and I were down there we did take a walk through the oldest part up on the hill. It is the part that has ancient old cedar trees growing and the stones are of an older style. I saw where they were buried and I did have my interest peeked.

The first big thing that I found on the net about the cemetery is that someone has generously created a list of every person's grave and placed the names in the sections easy to find.  I can now preview all the people in the different sections on that hill as well as the whole cemetery. The town of Murray became an official town in 1868 so the graves are from the middle 1800's to the 1920's are mostly on that hill.  Originally there was a small grave yard that was full located east of town and they moved the graves to the new larger Murray Cemetery. A good thing about the list is that if there was information on the stone, they marked that the person as a veteran of the different wars. 

This is a stock picture from the internet that I have borrowed to spruce up my post.   Some of the vets' names listed are shown below.

5-9   James F. Stiffler, Nov 14, 1902-Apr 14, 197_, Iowa Pfc. B try B 16th Fld. Arty.
                                                                                    World War I

22-17 George Christy, Oct 15, 1842-Feb 28, 1918 (Vet) (questionable dates)

33-3  Harry H. Lochrie, Sept 4, 1888-Dec 14, 1959-Iowa Cpl. Marine Corps. WWI

Two of the men who were in WW1 lived until 1959 and also 1970.  The man named George Christy  is a mystery.  He was born in 1842.  The birth date on this stone was not recorded correctly or the death date is wrong.  That would have made him a 76 year old veteran and died in 1918.  The cemetery itself was establish in 1855. If he is marked a vet in that area of the cemetery, he definitely was a WW1 Veteran just not such an old one.

  

I have seen this photo used in local newscasts so I am assuming it is community property as I found it on the internet.

The town of Van Wert is a small town, like Murray, and there is a photo on the net showing these guys who are ready to go. They must have had some basic training as the five of them are already in a common uniform.  I can imagine that the boat ride overseas was an eyeopener for them.  I am sure they are all farmboys headed to war.

An  unknown soldier from the United States stands straight to have his photo taken.  My knowledge of the  history of those who fought in the first war is still pretty weak.  I thank the blog prompter who set it up for bringing into another realm.  I am not done looking for information about those people who served in early times overseas.

The finding of the cemetery log is going to be fun for me.  I have found relatives of my Abernathy roots who have three people buried in the Murray Cemetery.  Why they are there is a mystery as all other Abernathys are buried in a rural cemetery north of town on a gravel road in Union county.  I also found my Aunt Ruby's grave with her husband in the old section of the cemetery.  She is buried up there as her husband's family had many plots for about three generations to use. I knew she was buried there but never way up on the hill with the old stones.

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Family Collections But Not Mine.........

I have posted photos before from another album that had 1880's images.  Most of that album is full of people of the past from the Osceola, Iowa, Graves Photography.  This book is full of photos from the Fort Wayne, Indiana area.  There were two different photography studios that this family used in having themselves photographed.  The album seems to be of a similar time period as the Iowan album.  It has many family members in it that look alike.

I will retell the story of how the two albums that I have were left in an abandoned house.  My dad tore down the house to create a new home.  I am sorry if you have followed me for a while because I do find myself repeating things as the years go by.

The older Victorian had been empty 20 years or more. My dad saved most everything that he could like trunks and small items.  I had never thought about it before but someone must have moved the last family in the house out of it.  No furniture was in the house except for a weathered upright piano and a couple of trunks.  The house had been boarded up for many years because the windows had been broken out of it to require it.

When I sold the newer home that replaced this one in the picture,  I had a realtor that went to school across the street from the old house  He remembered it always being there his elementary school years. He also said kids had nicknamed it the towns haunted mansion.

Being these photos are not of people who lived in the house, the only connection to the story so far is that the album from Fort Wayne, Indiana was in the house and was left behind by relatives.  Maybe it was on an in law side of the family and those who emptied the house just didn't want to bother with the trunks.

Jarrard Photography was the business that took most of the photos. I don't see any identity of a company on any of the smaller shots.

F. Shanz Studio was another business that took some of the photos.  The couple in the left photo above were not to be wed for long as the guy died,  They used a different pose of the man as they made up his funeral card. The photo has the studio identified and even the street number but no name or date was included on the card.

A not so clear photo from the album shows sisters maybe.  At first the top person looked like it could have been a guy but the hair seems to be more like a girls hair with a hat pressed down over it.

Boy or girl I do not know but the young child reminds me of the adults in facial features. It looks like a boy to me but I am sure others could see something differently.

I would like to scan all of the photos someday and put them through a facial recognition program to see what the full grouping would be.  I think their are brothers and sisters in here.  I am assuming some of the smaller ones are cousins to the whole group.  That mystery continues to be until I get my act together.  Right now I am Act 2 and someday will come to Act III when I get some of it figured out.

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Faces of Long Ago..........

 

Standing on the corner, holding his hat, and spending time with his wife while having the photo taken. The photo comes from a big velvet photo album that was rescued from a rundown house in Osceola, Iowa.

I am thinking this is the same guy with the uniform of a Mason. It is a studio shot also.  I don't understand the Christian crosses on the sleeves and hat but the whole outfit is actually a standard suit with all the added accessories, making it look like a fancy coat. Maybe it is a different lodge that he belonged to as I know there were many of them in which whole families would join.

A young man sports a great mustache in a photo taken at the same photographers.

So this is not the same guy and  he is older.  The thing that I find fascinating is that it may be the same kind of tie. The attached earlobe of this guy makes him not related to the guy above him.  The above guy could have married into the family of this family.  I don't know if I will ever know.

I have lost my way from men with facial hair.  I will stop with this guy with his wife.  I do think he is the same guy as the first two photos at the top as his mustache and beard are so similar and this photo too was from the same album.  Judging from the age of the house in which this album was rescued, I think the time could be in the late 1800's. There was one calling card with a woman's name of Jackson.  I know that it is a long shot as the woman could be a sister to the women in the picture or a sister of the guy with the beard. I have yet to get to a web site to find out this family's name and the history of the people who lived there.  I see on other web sites that people like to use findagrave.com in this country and one can find out a lot about people by searching through the records of all those buried in cemeteries. I need to take one of the names from the album and seek out those buried in the Osceola cemetery.

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This Old House.............

The things that I like about a house is the exterior decoration. I know that they come in many shapes and sizes and the older the house in most cases means there is more character to the house.  My 109 year old house sucked me in for the buy because of the bay window.  It is far more decorated than the rest of the house but it does give it a special look to make the old farmhouse a styled house special.  In the background you can see a guys 1970's ranch style kitchen addition on a very old house that doesn't match the beauty of my bay window.

 

A four square styled farm house was built by my grandpa Burgus in the early 1900's.  The house still stands but was moved from it original site north of Murray, Iowa to a small town of Lorimor, Iowa. 

As an addition to the above house, here is the photo of my Grandpa and Grandma who built and lived in the house with their 10 children.  They are mostly grown here and my grandparents moved to a smaller house probably 20 years later after it was built.  They sold the farm and moved to another, in which they lost in the depression.

A diversion  from the theme is this house that must have been a church or a school and now is a personal residence.  It would cost a lot of money to restore it and I bet that they are doing it a little at a time.  This building sits in Maine.  It is on Mt. Dessert island near Bar Harbor, Maine.

An old house that had been abandoned for years.  It sat in the town of Osceola, Iowa. It had the appearance of a common house but the interior showed a lot of loving carpentry work.  The kitchen had many built in cupboards. The parlor had hand made paneling, each piece lovingly fitting together to make a wall full of 1800's paneling. The wrap around porch was probably well used.  The two chimneys tell me that the kitchen stove used the left chimney and the other end of the house was heated by wood burners. The house is gone now but the large tree is still standing.

My grandmother Burgus stands in front of the single story house in Murray, Iowa.   I can date this photo as my oldest brother was born in 1940.  The window is full of flowers and cactus and still was when I came around in the 50's.

The house still stands with the bay window that  held my grandmothers plants. It still has it's fancy porch with decorations. This was the last house that my grandparents lived in while the second house from the top was their first. The moved to two different farm houses before they came to live in town.

My maternal grandmother lived a block away from the house above, yes in Murray, Iowa.  My mom lived here with my Grandmother Brooks after graduating from high school and during her years of teaching country school. I have many family pictures taken from in front of this house. My Uncle Kenny stands in front of the house.  My reposted blog of last weeks Sepia Saturday shows on the first photo my two oldest brothers, when they were very young sitting outside on the ground in front of the porch.

The house still stands today also but one owner decided to tear off the second story and turned it into a 1950's Cape Cod looking house.

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My Family......

The Sepia Saturday bloggers are celebrating the fact that they are still being on board after 199 posted blog weeks. To remember the past as well as to honor it, we have continued to post pictures and words for everyone to enjoy.

This is a reposted blog from the year 2010.  I joined the Sepia Saturday group in February of 2010.  It is entitled "My Family..." which is a posting of everyone before I was born.

My older brothers doing their thing in the front yard.

Ronald James Burgus looks into the camera while his younger brother Rex Thomas Burgus checks out the person taking the photo.  While my dad was in the service in Washington D.C. and then in Europe, these guys and mom lived with Grandma Brown, mom's mother.  This is in Murray, Iowa and I suspect the year is 1945.  Ron would be 16 months older and I think he looks close to being four years old here. The house in which they are sitting still stands today, except some time after they lived there the owner removed the second story and made it look like a ranch house.

Back row: Zella Marie Brown Burgus, Dwight Burgus and Jesse Thomas Burgus

Front row: Rex and Ron Burgus

After dad returned from the war,  Dwight Lee  was born in Feb. 1947.  At first my dad worked as a mechanic, repairing tractors.  He then made his move to become a farmer.  They rented a farm in which dad would give up half of the crop for the rent. This photo is taken out on that farm, south of Murray, near a little town called Hopeville.  Someday I will blog about Hopeville. 

Click on the picture and enjoy the chicken in the background. One also can see the photographer and friend is in the picture by checking out the shadow.

 Dwight, Rex, the border collie, and Ron

This photo was taken out on the rented farm in 1949 or 50. It was south of Murray, Iowa. I was born in 1950 and I think Dwight looks almost three here. I could have been born by then but I really didn't remember living on that farm except for a few times when I was three years old. One story I have heard from the family about the dog was that he was so protective of his family and no one else was welcomed on the property. A border collie is such a loyal dog and he was lost when we moved to a new farm in 1953.

Today Ron owns a printing company in Mesa, Arizona and Rex co-owns with two partners a company that make trailers for recreation vehicles in California.  Dwight started his working life as a construction worker, working as a contractor for building companies in Mesa, Arizona.  As his addictions continued in his life he demoted himself to being a drywall installer and then a part time carpenter. He had to start living with my parents back in Osceola, Iowa in his later years.  My father died in 2000, age 82 and my mom passed away in 2008, age 89 years, three months after her death my brother Dwight died. He was 61 years old.

As I create these blogs I find it difficult to edit and cut them to a reasonable size.  Of course I know so much more about this era and I can't begin to touch it.  And yet it is satisfying to put it down and to share it.  The photos do speak volumes and that is what makes Sepia Saturday so fulfilling. If I am weak in spirit on the day that I write, the photos help me save face.  I do so enjoy being a part of this process and have grown so much in my ability to observe and to express the past world around me. 

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A Quandry.........

The entire facebook group from Murray, Iowa are all in a tizzy.  What they thought that it was, isn't. An older photo of a drugstore on main street of Murray was identified as the Coleman's Drug Store.  It does look a little bit like it but it isn't,  The great nephew of the owner of that store says it is not his uncles place of business.  I actually think it is the store across the street, Power's Drug.  There were actually two drug stores, no pharmacists worked in either store, while I was in high school.  The 60's was the era that they both were in business and one of them could have originally looked like this.  I remember they both had back doors to the store rooms. One of them had built in shelves with sliding glass doors that would hold asprin and other cold medicines.  Laxatives and lotions for bee bites and things like that lined the shelves.

There is a guy sitting there with his suitcase which tells me he is waiting for a train. The woman in the back must be cleaning the tables.  The window at the back would have gone to the alley which makes it the other drugstore.  Both places of business did have swirling seats at the counter when I was young and those could have been added later of course.

All in all it is a fun photo.  It is a piece of history that has been captured in time.  What time we don't know but it looks like all of those kind of business back in the early 1900's.  The fun part will be if the folks my age will eventually have a person speak up and tell us the real identity of the business in Murray, Iowa.

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