Reunion

52 Weeks 52 Ancestors Week 32

Prompt: Reunion

Family Gathering Aug 2023

2023

BACK: Jerry Yates, Rickey Fueston,  BJ Perry, Lorna Padia-Marcus, Edwina, George Krukov, Mike Yates
MID row: Tony Padia, Jenny Yates-Roybal, Becky Yates, Jessica Perry, Deana Fueston Krokov, Barbara Fueston Grandon
FRONT: Jerry "Skeeter" Schuman, Jerry Grandon

Family Reunions are for sharing stories, for laughter, fun and connection, oh and eating. To me family reunions are important because all to soon we lose someone and with them the stories they had not had the  opportunity to share are lost.  When we lose someone we are left with faded memories, handed down lore, a whole lot of fun telling the stories as we remember or were told.

As a self-appointed family story teller/historian, facts are important and most are backed up with data to support story.  Many multitudes of hours are spent trying to retrace our families settlement in the USA from across the pond.  Those stories starting from about the 1700's can only be told through what is found in print from census records, births and death records, obituaries, in bibles and diaries, wills and probates, land records, newspapers, court records,  military and church records, as well as recorded baptisms to name a few.  

It's the other stories, the stories told from generation to generation and the ones from each of our memories that make family reunions so exciting and interesting.  We had many such stories being told this past week.  When I spoke with cousin Lorna the following day she mentioned how much she enjoyed "table talk" (I love that term and will use it). This was indeed a very enjoyable time for me too.  We sat around the kitchen table and told stories, just as the name implies.   

I will share my favorite Table Talk conversations and hope you all do the same.  Then I'll follow up with photos from past family reunions.  

TABLE TAlK

My favorites

Triplets- Judy and Jerry had a third baby in the womb with them.  One was lost prior to  Judy and Jerry's birth.  So question: are they listed on birth certificate as triplets?  When I did some research, I found that once a triplet always a triplet.  So we have triplets in the family!  I do know this story has been shared before, I'm really hearing it for the first time.  

Godparents: The Yates sibs have Godparents and my dad was the Godfather of Becky....what!  I never knew that.  Brother Bobby had Godparents, I know Ron Kentzel was his Godfather, will have to look up Godmother.   I don't have Godparents that I know of......

Cousins sent to Judy's when in trouble.  It seems a common theme was that when in trouble you went to aunt Judy's house to repent!  Probably more like to give our parents a break. 

Bob and Jackie and Jerry and Jenny's homes were safe places to go as kids per Lorna. That is a sweet story. Thank you for sharing that.  I always felt safe at my parents home too.

Connect cemetery photo with presidential pardon: There was some convo about Ezekiel Fueston's Presidential Pardon which was for not being able to pay the fine he received from being jailed for making moonshine.  To make a connection visually, the photo of the cemetery at the fence line with the people standing there....Ezekiel's burial plot is the one on the left.  And is one of the photos that came to me from the garbage in San Francisco.  This photo has created an enormous amount of tug to put together our family story on the Fueston side. 

Robert Smith's second marriage... the rest of story. To connect visually to this story, the one where our 3 x great grandfather  Robert, married his son's wife's sister and had 10 more kids....well the cemetery photo connection to that story is the man Robert is Ursley's father.  She was the wife of Ezekiel.  So many stories have come back to that one photo.  

One day I'll find where that burial plot is.  I believe it is on the land that many of the Fueston's held in Nebraska. Nebraska is also where the tragic train accident occurred.  I've found a lot of the land grants. Just not one that confirms a family burial site.  

                   

The hunt continues!

2015
 Judy, Barbara and Mary with a portrait of Judy and Mary's brother Bob

2015 -lots of Jerry's!
Jerry Grandon, Jerry Schuman, Rickey Fueston, BJ Perry, Patrick Quick and Jerry Yates

2015
Ron, Judy, Becky, Mary, Lorna

Love this 2015
Judy, Becky, Mary, Lorna

2015
Becky, Lorna, Tammy, Barbara
Judy, Mary, Jayce, DeeDee

2015
Judy Yates, Jerry Grandon

2016 

2022

2022

2022
This right here....the convo, the connection is why I love family time

2022

I know there are more photos such as from Aunt Mary and Judy's celebration of life, 

as well as BJ and Jessica's wedding reception.  I'll post when I come across them.

We missed those that couldn't make it.  Hope to see you next time.

Much love to you all.

  

Newest Discovery

52 Ancestors 52 Weeks Week #34

Prompt: Newest Discovery

__________________________________

The Clemmons and Sloan girls both die of consumption in 1859. They are not our only family members who had died from “consumption” over the years.

 

 

It was not an uncommon occurrence to lose multiple family members to consumption. With the onset of tuberculosis (TB) throughout the 1600-1800’s many families lost multiple members.  According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) it was first named in 1834 by Johann Schonlien, although it had been around for as long as “3 million years”.  Tuberculosis had other names attached to it depending on where in the world you lived. TB was one, it also went by such names as phthists, tabes, schachepheth, consumption and the captain of all these men of death. 

 

Our family had, over the years, lost several members from consumption.  So what makes the Nancy (Sloan) Smith and Malinda (Clemmons) Fueston girls interesting?

 

Well, glad you asked!  A little history ....I’d been searching high and low for anyone who may have a picture of my 2x great grandmother Ursley (Smith) Fueston (1838-1915). Every single chance I had to ask if someone had a picture of the Smith Family, or Ezekiel and Ursley Fueston family I'd ask.  Generally these requests are through hits on Ancestry.  And generally someone will have a picture or a tree with Ursley on it and so I will send a message to that person and try to find out if they have photos, specifically photos of Ursley or Ezekiel Fueston.  

 

Last week I spotted this photo that listed Nancy Sloan (Ursley’s mother's name) on it so I reached out to the the person who had placed the photo on a Find A Grave memorial site and would perhaps know details about it.  Here was my message:

 

      “HI there.  I’m inquiring about a photo you have posted for Reuben Sloan on Find a Grave.  It is mentioned 

      that Nancy Sloan (my 3x great grandmother) is" left of father"  Can you tell me who “father” is and who 

      else is in this photo please.  I have been searching high and low for a photo of Ursley Smith, Nancy 

      Sloan’s daughter, my 2x great grandmother.  Is she in this photo?” 

-1-

(second row first lady is Nancy Sloan next to her "Father" Reuben Sloan) 

I then waited for a response.  It turns out the person I had reached out to is one of our many cousins.  Here is her response:

     

  

Strength

 52 Ancestors in 52 weeks

Prompt this week #33

STRENGTH

 

This week I will write about my great-granduncle 

 

James Wallace Fueston 

1868-1960 

 

Photo courtesy Barbara Fueston Grandon personal collection 2023

City View Spokane, WA 2023

 

STRENGTH

I chose James for various reasons but mainly because he had to have lived a very difficult life steeped in heartache.  His challenges included the tragic deaths of his brother and family by the “cars”,  the horrific accidental death of his son at an early age,  multiple events captured in news articles surrounding his sons arrests, as well as the birth and death of his 16 y/o daughter’s illegitimate son for which his brother, her uncle, was the father.  Through all of the hard times within his immediate family he and his wife endured,  stayed strong and supported each other to the end.  

James Wallace Fueston is the 6^th child born to Ezekiel Fueston (1835-1890) and Ursley Smith Fueston (1838-1915).  James  was born in Kentucky as were most of his siblings.  Prior to 1890 the family had moved to Nebraska. Tragedy struck in 1890 . James, then 22 years old and his siblings all experienced the horrific  death of their brother John William Fueston (1857-1890).  John,  his wife Alice and baby all died in an accident where they were killed by “the cars” (train) in Big Springs, Nebraska.   A few weeks later James and his family are faced with another death, the death of their father Ezekiel.  

 

Newspapers.org. The Current North Platte, Nebraska. Sat, June 21, 1890 Pg 1

 

James’s mother Ursley, now a widow moves her family to Missouri. James is not listed on the  1900 census with her however, in July of 1895 James marries his Elizabeth Ann Hyden (1877-1959) in Missouri.   She will be his one and only wife through-out their lives together. 

         The Fueston boys (men) get into trouble in Missouri and are not welcomed there.  Perhaps this is why Ursley, moves to Spokane, Washington.  She is first listed in Spokane in 1909, James is first found there in 1910.  James and his wife remain in Spokane the rest of the days of their lives, but not without continued tragic events for he and his wife.  Their strength and fortitude to stay together through it all is commendable.   

         James and Elizabeth are blessed with 11 children.  Anna Bell, Ernest Sr, Mary Clemantine, Bertha Harrettia, Hazel, Charles LeRoi and twin brother William James, Oscar, Edward, Clifford and Richard Ray. 

         Their first known shared tragedy is the death of their daughter Hazel at age 9. She died from consumption in 1914.  This is followed by the death of their son William James (twin to Charles LeRoi) in 1916.     

         The next domino to fall for them is their 16 y/o “school girl” daughter Mary Clemantine Fueston has an illegitimate birth.  The father of her child is her uncle Charles Lafayette, brother to James and he is a 50 y/o while she is 16 y/o.   James and Elizabeth’s grandchild dies a few weeks later.  

         A rough timetable below captures some of the events that took place in the lives of James and Elizabeth.  As parents it must have pulled at their heart strings to be witness to the deaths of family including children, multiple arrests of their children, and to be witness to the divorces that took place and on top of it all to have your 16 y/o daughter have a child with her 50 y/o uncle and yet they still remain married.  This is the ultimate of strength in and to each other.  What a life, most could not have endured that which James and Elizabeth did until their 90’s. 

 

 

Table of Events

Year	Child	Event	Notes
1914	Hazel Fueston	Death 9/yo Comsumption
1916	William (Twin to Charles LeRoi)	Death 7 y/o	Accidental head crushing.  Fell from a wagon he was stealing and it ran over his head.
1917	Mary Clemantine Fueston	Illigimate birth  (and 3 week later death)of son Elmer father is 50 y/o uncle Charles Lafayette	Charles is the brother of James.
1932	Charles LeRoi Fueston	3rd degree Assault Criminal assault of minor	Sentenced to life in prison where he died in 1980.  His crime so heinous his ashes are kept at the mausoleum and are not viewable by the public.
1933	Edward Fueston	Stolen watch from sister
1936	Edward Fueston	Forgery	3 year sentence
1943	Ernest and wife Jaunita Fueston	Assault and resisting arrest/wife investigation
1946	Oscar Fueston	Arrested for non-support
1948	Edward Fueston		Moved to State Pen  sentenced 7.5 years grand larceny
1950	Edward Fueston		Walla Walla State pen census
1952	Richard R Fueston	1 degree forgery	Sentence: Min. 6 years
1953	Edward Fueston	Vagrancy
1954	Edward Fueston	Larceny
1959	Edward Fueston	Took a car for a test drive, didn’t return it
1959	Death of wife Elizabeth
1960	Death of James Wallace at the age of 91.	3 of James sons were in Walla Walla Penitentiary during the time of obit writing. Charles Leroi (rape) Richard Ray (forgery) and Edward Franklin forgery, parol violation and many more arrests).

James followed his wife Elizabeth in death a year after her.  They are buried together at Riverside Memorial Park.  The memorial park is peaceful, orderly and quiet. 

 

James and Elizabeth Fueston, photo courtesy Barbara Fueston Grandon’s collection

 

[1] https://www.newspapers.com/clip/109163391/obit-james-w-fueston-1960/?xid=637