One of the first genealogical mysteries that my mother presented to me and asked me to solve was that of Mary Samantha (Powers) Kidder. She was a ghost in the records until she married my 3rd Great Grandfather, Albert Edward Kidder on September 14th, 1967 in Council Bluffs, IA.. No one seemed to be able to track her back further. 

That is not to say that there were not any trees with Mary's parents. There were, but when you looked more closely, the parents attributed to her could not be correct. I searched Censuses from about 5 different states extremely thoroughly. No Powers family fit the bill.

Newspapers have always been my biggest help in finding the pieces for a puzzle like this. I started with Mary herself and found every instance she was mentioned in digitized newspapers. Sure enough, I found a clue. In 1905, Mrs. Kidder went from her home in Norton, KS to Atchison, KS. The short mention in the paper said that she would be visiting two brothers and a sister who lived there and she hadn't seen them for 28 years.

It's really fun to find an old picture out in the wild and be able to recognize someone in it.

I was in the midst of creating a list of places that my 3rd great grandparents, John Calloway Bales and Ida Belle (Onstott) Bales lived in Northern Colorado. My dad is retired and honestly doesn't really know what to do with himself. I thought if I gave him addresses of houses his 2nd great grandparents lived in, and locations of buildings they spent time in, he might enjoy some sightseeing and learning about his ancestors. Something about seeing places in person with context really helps bring the past alive.

Of course, my quick little list turned out to be a bigger project than I anticipated. Even though I had the basic facts already, when I tried diving into some details, I learned that more newspapers had been digitized, and I couldn't help but read every mention of "John Bales" that I could find. Through this, I learned that John played several key roles in the early days and founding of Wellington, CO. One of the things he did was serve as the chairman for the first Wellington Volunteer Fire Department which started in 1906.

Along with this photo, my dad also has John's pocket watch. 

I'm close to finishing my scavenger hunt list of places and hope my dad might learn more! 

Yesterday was Thanksgiving, so I feel a day late on this, but still wanted to share. 

My Kidder family that read this blog who have Albert Edward Kidder as a x-great grandfather have TEN DIRECT Mayflower ancestors. The line traces through Albert's mother, Jane Stetson (Bonney) Kidder. To be clear, these Mayflower passengers are x-great grandparents, not uncles or cousins. (If you added the latter, there would be at least another 11 Mayflower passengers.) Here they are:

• William Bradford - "Governor of Plymouth Colony, Father of Colonial American History."

• John Alden - "Cooper and Early Settler, One of the Youngest Mayflower Passengers."

• Priscilla (Mullins) Alden - "Pioneer Woman, Celebrated in Myth as a Romantic Heroine."

• John Howland - "The Survivor Who Fell Overboard, Early Plymouth Leader."

• Elizabeth (Tilley) Howland - "Plymouth Matriarch, Young Mayflower Passenger."

• Richard Warren - "Merchant Adventurer, Ancestor of Many American Families."

• William Mullins - "Shoemaker and Mayflower Financier, Early Colonist."

• Alice (Unknown) Mullins - "Early Plymouth Matron, Mother of Priscilla."

• John Tilley - "Elder of the Tilley Family, Early Plymouth Settler."

• Joan (Hurst) Tilley - "Matriarch of the Tilley Line, Early Colonial Pioneer."

About half of these folks were Separatists - those coming to American seeking "religious freedom." The other half were what the Separatists called "Strangers" - those who were on the Mayflower for economic or other reasons. Of those two groups,
John Howland was a bit of a mystery - we're not really sure what his motivations were. He was a servant of Governor John Carter which may have given him a mix of practical and personal reasons for being on the ship. He later married Elizabeth Tilley (a Separatist).

I also wanted to recommend a book for anyone interested in the lives of these early European settlers and also the natives that suddenly found them as neighbors: The Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War, by Nathaniel Philbrick.

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​Today, June 22, 2023, would be the 150th wedding anniversary of my 3rd great-grandfather, John M. Moore and his second wife, Harriet A. “Hattie” (Harrington) Moore. Even though I’m not directly related to her, I’d like to focus a little bit on Hattie today because until very recently, not much was known of her.

To be fair, there is still a lot I have to learn about her, but previously all I had was a name and that she was maybe the mother of one of John’s children.

Hattie Harrington was the oldest of 11 children of Justin Simeon Harrington and Maria (Dorman) Harrington. She was born in New York State in about 1851, but I don’t think the family spent much time there before moving to Iowa. It’s there, as a very small child, that she met her future husband, John M. Moore. He was her uncle, married to her aunt, Lavinia Dorman – the sister of Hattie’s mother.
​

John and Lavinia moved to the Kansas City area sometime between 1865 and 1868. Hattie and her parents followed around 1870.

Hattie was still in school in 1870 and 1871, and while at the Grandstaff School House, she joined the Pioneer Literary Society. Although you may think it was a club to discuss books, it was really a debate club. The group, which had a committee and elected officers – to which positions Hattie was often elected – would decide on a topic ahead of time so members had plenty of time to prepare arguments and essays. Each meeting would have members present their essays, orations, and arguments, and then everyone would vote in the Affirmative or Negative on whether or not they ultimately agreed with the stance.

Here’s Hattie’s positions to debate – whether or not she got to choose or how she actually felt, I cannot say, but it’s a fascinating look into some of the important topics to high schoolers at the time:

Dec. 9, 1870: (appointed to executive committee) – That a teacher is responsible for the conduct of pupils to and from school. – (Ayes had it)
Dec. 16, 1870: That woman should vote. – Negative (vote seemed to be tied)
Feb. 17, 1871: That the use of tobacco should be prohibited by law – (Ayes had it)
Feb. 24, 1871: That a man can gain more information by traveling than by reading - Affirmative
Jan. 13, 1871: (Elected President, appointed to executive committee)
Jan. 20, 1871: That the school law should be compulsory – Affirmative (the Nays had it)
Jan. 27, 1871: That it is the duty of the government to prevent the manufacture of spirituous liquors. -Affirmative (the Nays had it)
Feb. 10, 1871: (Elected Secretary) That the conduct of man should be influenced by public opinion. – Affirmative (the Nays had it)

​Last night I discovered that my 3rd great-grandfather was an ophthalmologist in Des Moines, Iowa. (Turns out I do a LOT of research centered in Iowa, no matter which line I'm looking at, but that's another story.)

Dr. Charles B. Hervey is on my Smith side (see family chart in photos) and his business model was selling $1 eyeglasses.

Before he was at the Loper Drug Co. on 5th & Walnut Street in Des Moines, he worked at the Iowa Pharmacy at 128 W 4th Street and in 1901 applied for a permit "to sell intoxicating liquors" there. I'm not sure if the pharmacy ever received the permit or if that was a common permit for such an established to have at the time, but he had moved on to the next shop by 1905. Loper Drug Co. later moved to 412 East 5th Street which is the only three of these buildings to still exist. It is currently a tattoo shop.

Anyone up for a road trip to Des Moines, IA to get an eye tattoo there?

Updated: Mar 30, 2023
​
The question of the full identity of the father of Elizabeth Ann Lewis (1855-1923) has been a mystery to her descendants since her death 100 years ago. Family notes contained his name, Harry Lewis, and his burial location of Rosita Cemetery, Rosita, Colorado.

Most of the difficulty in tracing Harry has been with the lack of finding him in Census records. Even when he was still alive, he seemed to be away from his family during the time of the census enumeration in his later years, and so far, I’ve been unable to locate any census records where he and his wife appear together.

To complicate matters further, none of Harry’s decedents seemed to know exactly where Harry was born. Most of his children said he was born in Arkansas, but Tennessee, Georgia, Ohio and Illinois also appeared on some records.

Previous generations of family researchers were seemingly unable to locate marriage records for a Harry Lewis and Martha A. and this work was difficult before the Internet and without a clear place to look. There was a last name noted for Martha in some family records, but there didn’t seem to be much documentation for it – Arrington.

When I began the research, I think I had only the census from Pueblo, Colorado in 1870 in which Martha was listed as “married” but Harry was not listed at all, and the 1880 census from the same place and Martha was listed as “widowed.”

To find out more, I started with a timeline utilizing the information from those censuses.
Harry Lewis and Martha Arrington had at least 5 children – perhaps 6, but I have yet to find more than family notes for one child.

1854 ARKANSAS – daughter Elizabeth Ann Lewis born
1859, Dec 25 NEBRASKA – son William T. Lewis born
1862, May NEBRASKA – son James H. Lewis born
1865, April NEBRASKA – son John W. Lewis born
1867, April NEBRASKA – son Frank Lewis born
1870, Jun 30 – Pueblo, Colorado – Lewis family is listed except for Harry. Martha
1880 – Pueblo, Colorado – Martha is listed as “widowed.” Living with sons William, James, John, and Frank.
1885 – Pueblo, Colorado – “Mary” A. Lewis, “widowed,” listed on the Colorado State Census living with sons William, John W., and Frank


Given the above information, the Lewis family must have moved to Colorado sometime between April 1867 and 30 Jun 1870. Also, according to this timeline, Harry must have died between 30 Jun 1870 and 1880. Unfortunately, as I’ll soon share with you, even the timeline isn’t quite a straight line.

According to the family histories, Martha lived with Harry for a time in the mining town of Rosita, Colorado. She cooked meals and took in laundry. But eventually she moved (back?) to Pueblo and rented out rooms, as well as probably continuing to cook and take in laundry.

But I have not yet found any documentation to link Martha or any of the Lewis family to Rosita. Nor have I been able to located Harry’s gravesite. I realized too that I didn’t actually have documentation for Harry’s name. Maybe it was a nickname?

Knowing that William T. Lewis was born in 1859 or 1860 – a census year – somewhere in Nebraska, I started my search there. I scoured the state for the Lewis family, but could not find them in the census records there that year. Nor could I find them anywhere in Arkansas that year.

Next, I looked for newspaper articles. This task would have been nearly impossible with such a broad range when my grandfather had searched before me. But with the internet, it’s been one of my best resources in teasing out stories. But again, I found nothing. I searched in Nebraska for all the known years that the family was there, but there was no mention of Harry or Martha.

Frustrated, I decided to focus on Martha. At least I had a clue to her last name. Her birthplace was just as questionable as her husband’s. Arkansas or Tennessee or Illinois. I found Martha Marzee Arrington who married HENRY Lewis in Washington County, Arkansas in 1851. (Thank you to the few cousins who had this little hint in their tree!)

With that information, I was able to really dig in. But it wasn’t an easy bread crumb trail!

In Washington County, Arkansas circa 1830, there were several Lewis families. The largest of them consisted of two brothers, Bracken and George, and their sister Lydia who married John Van Hoose. These Lewis siblings came originally from Orange County, North Carolina but stopped over in Kentucky and Illinois before settling finally in Arkansas.

The Lewis brothers both had very large families and they seemed to like to name the children the same names at around the same time. They lived just a few houses away from each other with the Arrington household right next to or perhaps even in between them. So, there is a Henry Lewis born in 1830 in one house and another born in 1832. And two girls named Lydia Lewis also born just two years apart. “Twin cousins,” as my daughter likes to call them.

Finding the correct Henry Lewis is a matter of closely examining the marriage record which is admittedly very difficult to read. Near the bottom, Henry’s father also certifies the union – George Lewis. The marriage record also gives Henry’s age as 18 which would make his birth year 1832 or 1833. This also aligns with the 1850 Census of George Lewis’s household.

In regards to Bracken Lewis’s son with the same name, there was an account written in Goodspeed’s History of Northwest Arkansas in 1889 about Brackin [Bracken] Lewis’s life. In it, it is said that of Bracken’s sixteen children, seven were still alive at the time. It lists Henry as well as his sister Lydia as two of the deceased children. So we know that Bracken’s Henry was deceased by the year 1889.

Distinguishing between the two Henry’s throughout their years is mostly difficult due to the lack of documentation for either man. After the 1850 Census in Arkansas, there is almost nothing that I could find until the 1910 Census in Barron, Jackson County, Oregon. Here we find Lydia (Lewis) Powell, widowed, living with her brother, Henry Lewis who is also widowed and said to be 76 (birth year about 1834) and born in Illinois. This Lydia Lewis has a much better paper trail than her brother so I am quite confident in saying that she is the daughter of George Lewis. In fact, in his later years, George moved to Oregon to live with Lydia and her husband, Philander Powell and appears on the 1880 Census with them.

Of course, we now also have DNA evidence to consider. I can confidently confirm that I share a common ancestor on the Martha Arrington’s line – I can link to 6th cousins who also trace their ancestry to her parents. And, I can do the same with the Lewis line. However, since we are looking at various Lewis brothers, it is less clear on which specific Lewis brother, George or Bracken, I can trace my ancestry to using autosomal DNA. However, I think I can safely say that their father, Zachariah Lewis is a DNA link for me. It may be more clear if I examined my mother’s DNA test since she is one generation closer, which I have not yet done.

With the evidence I have found then, I must conclude that my original timeline was incorrect. At some point, perhaps as early as 1867, for reasons yet unknown to me, it seems like Henry “Harry” Lewis and his wife, Martha (Arrington) Lewis split. The children stayed with Martha and Henry went back to Arkansas.

I do not know if Henry actually ever even made it to Colorado. I do not have any records of him in the state. His daughter, Elizabeth (Lewis) Moore’s obituary says that she came to Pueblo, CO on an oxen-led wagon with her parents, but obituaries are not always the most reliable sources of information. Martha’s obituary, for instance, says that her husband died. More likely, it was easier for her to say that she was a widow than to bear the stigma of a divorced woman. She did not ever remarry.

Henry, however, did remarry. In 1870 he married Delila Haddix. Delila was born in Kentucky and lived in an area populated by many of the same families that seemed to moving around with the Lewis and Arrington families. She had been married twice before, but both husbands had died – one of them while serving in the Kentucky cavalry on the Union side in the Civil War. I’m not sure how many children she had with her first two husbands – there are nine or ten listed in the censuses, but some may have been from her husbands’ previous marriages. She did not have any children with Henry.

By 1900, Henry and Delila moved to Shasta County, California. She had purchased a contract to buy some land for $150 early in 1902, but then on September 2, 1902, she died in her sleep. There was some question about whether or not her estate was actually hers as she’d only just purchased the contract. The court decided that she had, in fact, paid enough money toward it. However, by the time her burial expenses and administration fees were accounted for, the estate was left penniless. ​

As far as I know, he never saw his children, but that could just be because I don’t have the documents to show it. After they moved from Nebraska, his children seemed to stay in either Colorado or New Mexico and as far as I can tell, Henry never went to either of those states. I wonder if Martha told them that their father had died, too.


There is still so much more to research in the Lewis and Arrington family. I’ve already uncovered some fun stories I’m excited to share, in fact. I hope that along the way I can learn more about Henry. And more about his wife, Martha who had the difficult job of raising 5 children in a pioneer town as a single woman posing as a widow. ​

I wonder if my great-granduncle Edwin Carr was the sort of person who had trouble with dates his whole life.

I started writing the post to commemorate his death which was January 7, 1970. At least, that’s what his grave marker says. His funeral program has a typo and reads January 17th. ​

He also never really knew his birthday. Or he changed it. When he reported his date of birth – on a census, military records, employment records, or reporting to law enforcement, he said it was February 7th, 1897. But his paternal aunt, Carrie Emma (Carr) Storz – Aunt Emm - wrote to the State of Colorado attesting that she was present at Edwin’s birth as she was there and it was in fact at her house in La Junta, Colorado on February 26th, 1899. I assume this was to attain a delayed birth certificate, but I have not yet tried to order one.

The 1899 date actually makes more sense based on two pieces of evidence. One, is the photograph below. This is baby Edwin, his older half-sister Edith, and his their mother, Bessie May (Moore) Carr. Now, stick with me here because I’m going to throw some numbers at you. ​

Assuming Edith’s birthday is correct, she was born July 31, 1896. If Edwin was born in February 1897, he would be only 7 months older which, while unlikely but perhaps possible, does not match the photograph. It certainly looks like they could be about 2 ½ years apart in the picture, though. Also, the date written on the photo says “Fall of 1899.”

Secondly, Edith almost certainly had a different father than Edwin. Their mother Bessie first married Burrett “Burton” or “Burt” Bigelow (1872-1907) of Pueblo, Colorado. They divorced sometime in 1897 – not long after Edith was born. The next year Bessie married Thomas James Carr (1871-1920).

If we are to believe Aunt Emm’s attestation, Edwin came along about 6 months later. If Edwin was born in 1897 like he told people, Burt Bigelow would be a more likely father. Edith did not spend much of her life with her mother and half-siblings. Instead, she lived mostly with her grandmother and when she was old enough to work she was basically taken in with a doctor and his wife. I believe that if Edwin was not Thomas J. Carr’s son, he would have also been sent to live with someone else. At least until he was old enough to work. ​

My first thought when I hear about young men stretching their age is that they lied to join the military. Well, in fact, Edwin did join the Army. He sent the postcard below to his sister, Bessie (Carr) Coleman. The photo was taken in Denver but then sent from Camp Kearney, California. On the top is written, in what I believe is Bessie’s handwriting, “Edwin Carr age 17 years.” So, he wasn’t yet 18. Why age himself two years instead of one? He probably learned that trick from his brother-in-law, Bessie’s husband. William Oaks Coleman also aged himself two years to join the Army in WWI. He was really 17, but he said that if he told them he was 18 they might question it. If he said he was 19 though, they’d surely believe it. ​

Even if he purposefully fudged the year of his birth, I don’t think Edwin knew which day he was born. More on that in a bit.

Edwin was part of the machine gun troop of the 1st Colorado Cavalry. It joined the 1st Colorado Infantry and became the 157th Infantry. Unfortunately, Edwin’s military files were lost in the National Archives fire in 1973. We do know he was discharged with the rank of Private. ​

I was really hoping for those records, because here is where things get weird. I have a WWI Draft Registration card for Edwin Carr signed Sept. 12, 1918. That’s just two months before the armistice. Had he already been discharged by then, and if so, did he really still have to fill out a registration card? The details fit, including his favored birth year though this card says he did not know the day and month of his birth. The nearest relative is listed as “Tom Carr” of Costilla, New Mexico. I don’t have another point of reference to place him there at the time, but Thomas J. Carr frequently roamed all over New Mexico and I would not be surprised at all to find him just outside of Taos.

According to this card, meanwhile, Edwin would have been working as a janitor at the elite Hotel Virginia in Long Beach, California – less than 40 miles from the location of his final resting place over 50 years later. The physical description matches up to an employment card later in life as well: Medium height and build, light brown eyes (sometimes described as gray or hazel), dark hair. While we’re talking about physical descriptions here, let me drop in one more: I also have a WWII draft registration card for Edwin on which it is noted that he has a scar on his stomach. Remember that.

In May 1918, Edwin started to find some trouble. He was hanging around billiard parlors and bowling alleys schmoozing folks up. He was a big spender, according to the newspapers. He told his new friends, who all knew him by the name “Edward Carr,” that he had struck it rich from a Colorado gold mine. In actuality, he’d been burglarizing some of the same establishments. One stunt even involved an employee by which “Edward” would fake a holdup and the two would split the earnings. He was found out only because he was caught entering a shell factory nearby where he was apparently sleeping at night. Police found stolen goods as well as keys to the bowling alley. He served 51 days for his crimes. ​

Edwin’s father, Thomas James Carr died in 1920. I don’t know where Edwin was that year, but I suspect he stayed in California. He might not have stayed out of trouble, but as far as I can tell, he didn’t get caught. Not until September of 1921, at least.

According to the many, many newspaper articles – it was a huge story in multiple states – on September 11, 1921, Edwin Carr and Ralph Hewitt assaulted a hired driver in order to steal the car worth $3000 (about $50,000 today). It was said that Edwin struck the old man with a full beer bottle to knock him unconscious before they threw him into the road and drove away. They made their escape from the Long Beach/Anaheim, California area to the little town of Tonopah, Nevada.

They knew they needed to get rid of the car and only had 72 cents between them, so Ralph spun up a story about needing to sell the car fast to get money to travel by train to see his dying mother. The mechanic at the first garage they went to accepted their offer and gave them a $10 deposit with the promise to pay the rest the next day. Of course, he immediately notified the police who arrested them.
Getting them back to Los Angeles required an extradition order from the Governor of California. As I said, it was big news.

Once police started looking into their records, of course, they not only found out that Edwin was still on probation from those previous robberies, but they were also pretty sure that both young men were part of the “Bridge Gang.” This group was known for robbing people, but earned their name after lining up seven unsuspecting people all along a bridge and stripping them of any valuables.

Edwin pled guilty to grand larceny and assault with intent to kill. He was sentenced to one year to life imprisonment and was sent to San Quentin State Prison. Ralph faced the same charges, but I have been unable to find any further articles or prison records for him.

Of note, Edwin’s intake paperwork mentions that he has a large scar at his waistline. Told you to remember. ​

On Aug. 27, 1928 – 2,515 days later – Edwin Carr was paroled from San Quentin. According to a newspaper article, he was discharged due to “serious illness.” In a twist of fate or karma, no train ticket could have gotten him to the bedside of his own ailing mother. She died suddenly in Colorado from a previously unknown heart problem the very next day. Edwin probably hadn’t seen her since he’d joined the Army.

I wonder if he wrote his family from prison – no living family members knew he was ever there, so if his family at the time knew, they kept it a secret from later generations.

After his release, Edwin did return to Colorado. He got a job at the State Hospital in Pueblo. At the time of his employment, the mental institution housed around 3,000 patients. He would have been employed there for a year or less before he moved on to the largest employer in town – Colorado Fuel and Iron, or CF&I. In Pueblo, CF&I ran the Steelworks. But they also owned mines for iron, coal, coke, and limestone throughout the state so they could control their own resource supplies for the steel making process.

The company kept employment records on cards which included their date of application (Oct. 7, 1929), physical attributes (which again generally match Edwin’s military and prison records), nearest relative (he listed his brother, George Carr who lived in Rye, Colorado at the time), and their address (740 Veta Ave., Pueblo, CO). If an employee was laid off, changed jobs, or had any issues at the company, everything was saved on this one card. Edwin’s job was listed as “miner” at the Wagon Wheel Gap mine near Creede, Colorado – almost 200 miles away from Pueblo and much colder in October than the California he’d likely become used to.

Edwin worked for the company as a miner for 7 days. His reason for leaving is noted on the card as “Quit, going to Pueblo.” He apparently never went back to CF&I. ​

I haven’t been able to find him in the 1930 Census, so I’m not sure what he was doing the following year, but on July 11, 1931 Edwin married Anna Dick (b. ~1903) in Pueblo, CO. I don’t know much about her, but they were married still in 1935.

By 1942, Edwin was single again and had moved back to California. He was working at a restaurant on Sunset Blvd. called Bit of Sweden owned by Kenneth Hansen and his sister-in-law Teddy Hansen. The restaurant was well known because it was the first or one of the first smorgasbord style restaurants. Being on Sunset in Hollywood likely also attracted some interesting customers – I bet Edwin liked that. ​

The 1950 Census has Edwin still in the Los Angeles area, but with a new job as a finish carpenter in a furniture company and with a new wife – Rose Z. I believe this is Rose Zella Cerra, but I need to do some more research to really be sure. This is also the only time I see Edwin use a middle initial – J. He did not have a middle name and so far as I can tell never tried to use one before. Still, other details on this census do match – born in Colorado on Edwin’s preferred birthday of 1897, WWI veteran, but not WWII, and just about 2 miles from his last known residence. His father’s middle initial was also a J – coincidence?

June 26, 1958, Edwin married again, this time to Elsie. I do not have a marriage certificate for them, and know very little about her including her maiden name, but I do have their wedding photo and some correspondence between Elsie and Edwin’s sister, Bessie. I hope to find out more about her as I go through more records and documents that have been passed down to me. ​

There was also a note somewhere along the way of a marriage when he was younger to a woman named Amanda. I have not been able to locate any documentation of that marriage either, but if true, Edwin would have had 4 marriages throughout his life.

He had no children that I am aware of. In the late 1920’s in California, the Eugenics movement was really starting to ramp up in California. Forced sterilizations were becoming more common and were often a requirement for parole especially in cases of violent crimes. Although minorities, women, and mentally disabled people were much more heavily targeted, with Edwin’s assault charges, he may very well have been one of the nearly 6000 recorded institutional sterilizations that year.

I always think that someone who marries multiple times must be very hopeful. If they were not optimistic, they would not bother trying. But each new marriage holds new hope. I would like to think that this one with Elsie was the real deal. It may have taken him 59 years, but then he found her.

I don’t know yet what happened to Elsie. But on January 7, 1970, Edwin Carr passed away at his home where he lived alone. His obituary lists one surviving relative – his sister Bessie in Colorado – Mrs. W. Coleman. He is buried in Valhalla Memorial Park in North Hollywood, California. Bessie made sure that her brother was laid to rest under a veteran’s marker denoting his service in WWI, and as you’ll see it includes the birthday Edwin always used – Feb. 7, 1897. ​

Updated: Oct 13, 2022

​Sarah Catherine “Cat” Miracle, was born February 15, 1841 in Clay County, Kentucky. She is my 3rd great grandmother, and I am eager to share more about her because she seems like quite the character!

Cat was the 5th child of 11 born to Abraham Miracle (1809-1885) and Fannie Wilder (1813-1865). It was said that she had black eyes, a claim I was dubious of until I saw some of her male relatives listed on draft cards as having black eyes also.

Cat married Joshua Oaks Coleman Jr. (1832-1916) February 28, 1859 when she was 18 years old. They lived in Jackson County, Kentucky at the time. Later they lived in Arkansas and by the time Cat was 37, her and Joshua had 6 children – The youngest, Nancy Jane, was the only girl. ​

Sometime between 1903 and 1907, Cat, Joshua, their youngest son Edward Sylvester “Pat” Coleman, and his son, William “Will” Oaks, moved west. Their youngest son, Benjamin Franklin Coleman (1876-1914) had tuberculosis and moving to a drier climate was said to help with that. Their other sons James Reed “Jim” Coleman (1862-1945), Abraham Joshua Coleman (1866-1947), and Levi Webster “Lee” (1869-1949) came along too. In fact, the only child they left behind was Nancy Jane, as she had married James Jackson Ward and were working on a family of their own by this time.

Their first stop was Paden, Oklahoma, which was very much the wild west. They were living there at the time that Oklahoma became a state. Men wore their guns and outlaws were killed and displayed at the train station as a warning to others.

Abraham and Lee stayed in Paden, but by 1910, most of the family had moved to Rocky Ford, Colorado. Shortly after, they dispersed again. Jim and Lee stayed in Rocky Ford while the others continued west.
Cat, her husband Joshua, their son Pat, and their grandson Will moved to Westcliffe, Colorado in the spring of 1912. Ben decided Canon City, CO was where he would try to get healthy again, and he made it until 1914 where he passed away from the disease at 37 years old.

Just north of Deweese Reservoir, Pat claimed his homestead. Their house had three bedrooms and they all lived there together. Joshua Oaks Coleman passed away January 13, 1916 at the age of 83. His cause of death is listed as “paralysis,” which means he likely died of a stroke. ​

Most of what I know about Cat comes from her granddaughter-in-law, Bessie Martha (Carr) Coleman, who lived with her for quite a long time. She started as hired help shortly after Joshua’s death. Cat was already in her 70s by then and well-set in her ways.

Cat always had two things with her: her corncob pipe, filled with a mixture of mullen and tobacco, and a great big Bible. She knew “The Good Book” by heart and was very passionate about the Word. There was a story Pat shared in which Cat was reading the Bible aloud while their hired help (before Bessie) was there. Cat got up out of her chair and started preaching and clapping her hands and walking back and forth across the floor. The girl thought Cat had gone crazy and it terrified her. She ran out of the house without even grabbing her belongings and never came back. Relations in Arkansas at the time attended the Primitive Baptist Church, and I suspect this is where Cat’s religion came from as well, although there was no such church near her new home.

Cat would often fall asleep in her chair in her advanced age. Often times her corncob pipe would fall out of her mouth and thumb on the Bible that was inevitable in her lap which would then wake her up. There was a time though that the pipe missed the book and burned a big hole in her dress. It was lucky she wasn’t alone at the time and one of her son’s (perhaps Abraham) dumped a bucket of water in her lap and put out the smoldering flames.

Although clocks had been around for quite some time by now, Cat did not want or need one. Instead she had put several tacks and nails in the floor near the south-facing door. With the door open and the sun shining in, she could see where the rays fell on the tacks and know the time. She even had different ones for different seasons.

Will liked cars and motorcycles. He had a motor bike with a sidecar attached. Unfortunately the bolts on the sidecar would wiggle lose and sometimes it would fly off. Probably some time before that became a regular occurrence, they managed to get Cat into the sidecar. The medium format negative from which the photo below was scanned isn’t the best quality, but I think Pat is the one in the driver’s seat. Cat, of course, has ahold of her Bible. I don’t blame her – after hearing stories of the sidecar coming loose, she might have needed it! ​

Cat had her own homestead too. It was just east of Pat’s and they built a little shack and outhouse on the land for her. She had it just long enough to get the patent and then sold it. I had heard somewhere that she wasn’t all that interested in the land herself, but both Will and Pat had already filed for their homesteads, and they really wanted to have that tract as well. Cat was eligible to stake her own claim, so Pat and Will helped her file and prove up the land under Cat’s name.

In the 1920s, Cat had returned to Oklahoma. By this time, her daughter Nancy Jane had brought her family from Arkansas to join the others in Paden. Lee was still there with his large family too. I don’t have any stories from her time there, but maybe some other relatives do and will share with us all.

Sarah Catherine "Cat" Miracle Coleman died in Paden, Oklahoma on April 23, 1930. She is buried there in the Oakdale Cemetery. ​

Updated: Jan 31
Today's story takes us back in time, but not too far. I want to tell you about William "Bill" Leroy Axton and the unsolved(?) burglary at gunpoint in Gilpin County, Colorado that involved a tavern owner who happened to also be the county treasurer.

Bill was born Feb. 27, 1923 in Pueblo, CO to Guy and Edith Electa (Carr) Axton. This makes him my 1st cousin twice removed. He was the second of four children.

Guy built some of the roads in Colorado that are pretty impressive engineering feats. For instance, the road that goes from Gunnison to Crested Butte and Cimarron Pass to Montrose, CO. His dad had built roads before him and he started helping when he was only 9 years old. Their big road building company started in Pueblo then moved/expanded to Denver and up to Cheyenne. 3 generations of Axtons built a lot of the roads in the state. In an effort to not white-wash our history, I want to also point out that they were not building these roads all alone. I have in my notes that Guy had said "200 miles, 200 negroes." Engineer corps and road crews were segregated even though they were working on the same road. It was dangerous work and deaths were not uncommon, especially over those mountain passes.


Bill's mother, Edith Electa (Carr) Axton, was the daughter of Bessie May (Moore) Carr and the oldest of 9 children (though 3 died as babies). She was also the only one with a different father though we don't think her or the other kids knew that growing up. Her birth father was a man from Pueblo with the last name of Bigelow. He and Bessie divorced soon after marrying and Electa was still really young with Besssie married her second husband, Thomas J. Carr. There was no official adoption as no paperwork was really necessary at that time. She just took the Carr last name and that was that.

But let's get back to Bill. He enlisted in the Army in 1943 when he was 20 years old to fight in World War II. He served in the Infantry and about 8 months after enlisting was injured in battle from an artillery shell. (This may have been while he was on a ship that was hit by a torpedo by a German ship. Later Bill hired a chef that he eventually learned had been on the German ship that had his his own.) He damaged his lower leg and had nerve damage and paralysis from what sounds like the knee down. Bill was discharged due to his injury and was awarded a Purple Heart.

He went on to study music and graduated from the University of Denver's Lamont School of Music as a singer. I want you to remember that Bill Axton was a professional trained opera singer as we go through this story because it makes it all the more wild! In addition to singing with the Central City Chorus, he also sang at a couple of the taverns in town including the Glory Hole.

The Glory Hole Tavern was owned and operated by Emmy Wilson who was herself a singer. She has a fascinating story too, but I'll just share this link with you if you want to read more about her and the Glory Hole. When she got sick and had to sell the tavern, she sold it to her friend, our Bill Axton.

In the late 1930s he had a shoe shop where he did repairs at 105 S Fremont Ave. in Los Angeles, CA - which no longer exists now due to lots of new (i.e. since the 1940s!) buildings as well as the construction of the I-110.

He lived about 4 miles away at 1627 W. Adams Blvd. - a road that does still exist although the building does not. It may have been an apartment building as his wife, Grace, was managing one at the time. Perhaps a wise reader knows?

There is more we know about Albert, but one thing we cannot say for sure is what the A. in this middle name stood for. Even his children could not agree!

My great-aunt Lovie (his daughter, Celesta) swore his middle name was ALBERT. My great-grandfather, Aunt Lovie's brother, insisted that it was ADALBERT.

I have not yet been able to find any documented evidence from when he was alive of him using more than just "A." His death certificate says "Albert" but that's a form that a family member would have filed on his behalf once he had departed.

Unless someone can show me some proof, this one may just remain a mystery!

P.S. For fun, I colorized the original photo. Enjoy! ​