The Rat Hesitated

   Paul B Hendrickson was born this date, 8 October 1896, in Crawford County, Illinois. He enlisted 12 April 1917 in the 5th Infantry, Illinois National Guard, which later became part of the 33rd Division. His service was divided between being a bugler, trumpeter in military bands and in signal work.

   This is a paragraph from a letter Paul wrote to his mother dated 10 September 1918.

   "Well mom - I had a rather novel little experience last nite. While writing last evening I stated that the bread was hung where a rat or mouse could not climb to it. Well that is so - But - here is how it happened. Mr. rat comes bounding down stairs - and of course by experience knew the bread was where he could not climb and get it, so pounced on to my body, shoves in his toe nails and in one streneous leap reaches his goal - the loaf of bread. Of course when I felt him push I knew what was taking place. Well you may lay it on to me, but beware trying to rub it in like that. I was peeved at the nerve of the big brute - I sliped my hand over to the Colt .45 cal, cocked it, and with my other hand used the flash light. Well the bright light made him hesitate a second (they get so careless too, they take their time at whatever they do) and that was a bit too long for him, for I let him have one lead pill. was comical how it knocked him sprawling onto the floor. it went thru his back. He scrambled on the floor a bit so I pinned him down with my bayonet and went to sleep. So did he. This noon when I woke up he was cold. I tossed him outside. Strong [perhaps Pvt. Edwin J. Strong] asked me this morning what was going on last nite. I showed him the rat with the big hole in his back and he understood quite well what made the noise."

   When Paul passed away on 4 September 1990 in Danville, Illinois, we found neatly packed away in the family home 125 letters he wrote home to his mother and to the neighbor girl who after the war became his wife. We also found a diary kept during the year he was in France and almost 300 postcards which were sent home either individually or in envelopes. In addition, we have letters sent to him, negatives and prints taken at Camp Parker in Quincy, Illinois, and at Camp Logan in Houston, Texas, and maps he drew of both camps.

   You can read the letters and look at the pictures at Paul's website -- http://www.jimgill.net/wwipages/index.html.

NGS 2012 Day 2b

   I made it to the "A Night at the (Cincinnati) Public library", although the 10-minute walk turned into 20 since I started out going west and north instead of east and south. Two kind Cincinnatians pointed me in the right direction.
   What a crowd!
   Every desk and chair was filled. The librarians were wonderful and strove valiantly to keep up with the lines of people looking for help. Two tables of snacks and punch had been set out.

   The one book I wanted to see, a history called "The Headwaters of Cheesequake Creek" by Alvia Disbrow Martin was not on the open shelves so I handed my printout to a librarian who had it paged from the stacks one floor below.
   Cheesequake is a community in Old Bridge Township, formerly Madison Township, in Middlesex County, New Jersey. It's just north of Monmouth County where my wife's Hendrickson ancestors came from.
   One of her great aunts, Joanna Hendrickson, was married in Cheesequake to Erick Matchett in 1821 and I was hoping the book might shed some light on the community and some of the families there.
 
   It did give some background on the minister, a Methodist circuit rider who settled in Cheesequake after being injured in a wagon accident. There was no index so I paged through hoping to spot a name I recognized. No luck there. A closer reading may be in order if I can ever find a copy to buy.
   The walk home was much shorter.
 
   Tomorrow morning includes

• Elizabeth Shown Mills, "Okay, I 'Got the Neighbors' Now What Do I Do with Them?!"
• Kay Haviland Freilich, "Tracking Pennsylvania Ancestors: Keys to Successful Research"
• Suzanne Hahn, "Navigating the Maze: Finding Indiana Records Online"

   My afternoon is open, but I suspect I'll find something.

Quincy, Illinois, newspaper archives

   Wouldn't you like to know what your ancestor had for supper on June 19, 1917?
   My wife knows.
   On that date her father had beef stew, sliced beets, baked corn pudding and ice tea.
   He didn't record it, but The Quincy (Illinois) Daily Journal did in an article headlined "Notes of Camp Parker" published June 20, 1917.

   Camp Parker was the training camp for the Fifth Regiment of the Illinois National Guard and Paul Hendrickson was a cornet player in the regimental band. The band was "working hard, practicing twice a day," the article reports.
   This insight is thanks to the Quincy Public Library's Quincy Historical Newspaper Archive which I discovered not too long ago. Newspapers published in Quincy from 1835 to 1919 have been digitized and indexed. It's a wonderful source and easily searched. If you happen to have ancestors in Quincy (western Illinois or eastern Missouri) check it out.
   I don't have ancestors there that I know of, but I do have an interest in my father-in-law's time in Quincy in 1917 with the Illinois National Guard.

   I've printed several articles from the Daily Journal and transcribed three of them so far and added them to my website. More will follow as time permits.
   I've also started adding some images from postcards I recently scanned relating to Paul's service in Quincy and at Camp Logan in Houston, Texas. More will follow.

Have you been surveyed?

   Myles Proudfoot is conducting a survey of genealogists/family historians. You can join the statistics by clicking here.
   It will take 15 to 20 minutes, depending on how much you ponder each question. Or how long you laugh.
   The question that gave me my morning guffaw was, "Do you believe in life after death?"


   As my dad used to say (I think it was him), "What has that got to do with the price of tea in China?"
   Does someone believe genealogists collect names of dead ancestors so they'll have an address book for when they cross the River Styx?
   My grandmother was a member of a spiritualist church. I'm not sure what the official title was. I used to sit and watch her make that pointer fly across the Ouija board, spelling out answers to our questions. I always hoped I might get a clue to help track down an elusive ancestor. Never happened, unfortunately.


   One of my jobs, many years before I retired, was as a travel writer and editor. I made some very interesting friends on some of the trips I took. At an evening dinner on one of the trips it was suggested that we each name three people living or dead with whom we would like to have dinner. Jesus usually topped the list followed, as I recall, by Julius Caesar, Napoleon, Henry VIII etc.
   My list was entirely different:


   First: William Gill -- My paternal line brick wall from New Brunswick. "Is that your real name," would be my first question. (I don't match any Gill DNA families.) "Where did you come from?" 


   Next: I would have similar questions for a multitude of other end-of-line brick walls like Mark Carrigan, William Hendrickson, Allen Rogers, John James, etc. endlessly!


   Could I have more than three to dinner?

Josephus Perry Martin autobiography

     "My Wife and I have on our bed an old fashioned patch-work spread, she calls it a quilt. It is made up of hundreds of different sized, shaped and kinds of pieces of calicoes, ginghams and muslins pieced and joined together in artistic fashion and conforming to some major design or pattern. This quilt is a picture of life, and reminds me of its variegated patch work of time, circumstance and deed."


Josephus Perry Martin was "well past my seventy-sixth mile stone" when he wrote those words, comparing the many and varied events in his life to a patchwork quilt.


He was born September 29, 1853 in Montgomery County, Ohio, the son of John Henry Martin and Sarah Cassandria Bright. He lived in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois before his marriage to Mary B. (Molly) Bright on August 1, 1875. He died June 6, 1932 in Montgomery County, Ohio.


Two years before his death, he completed an autobiography.  A copy was found in Paul B Hendrickson's home after Paul passed away. Josephus was Paul's uncle (his mother's brother) and my wife's great uncle. It is handwritten on lined notepaper measuring 4.25 by 7.25 inches and consists of 33 sheets written on both sides, a total of 66 pages. The pages were found in a black, three-ring binder marked on the inside cover as being sold by Everybody's Book Shop, Dayton, Ohio. Josephus lived in West Carrollton, south of Dayton, in 1930.


In addition to personal history and genealogical information about his parents' family and his own family, Josephus writes about his religious odyssey. He was first a minister in the Progressive branch of the Dunkard church. In June 1887,  "because of radical changes in my religious views of which I will later write, I was asked to resign as a Dunkard minister, I did so and also severed my membership. This act branded me as an arch heretic and dangerous." Josephus found new belief through The Watch Tower, the publication of the Jehovah's Witnesses. He apparently continued as a minister in that faith.


I have added an introduction to the autobiography and a brief epilogue. More information and pictures will be added as time permits. Two Martin cousins have offered to help and I hope direct descendants of Josephus will be located and agree to assist. My website is at http://www.jimgill.net and a direct link to the Josephus Perry Martin autobiography would be http://www.jimgill.net/words/jmartin_intro.html.

One of the mysteries I hope to unravel about this autobiography is the relationship between Josephus and his wife, Mary Bright. Josephus says "Mollie's father and my mother were first cousins." If I understand it correctly, that means they had a common grandparent. My guess is that the common grandparent might have been in the Bowman family. Time and future research may tell.