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Sepia Saturday 253: Miners, Angling, Fishy Tales, Three Men

By Sheetar 8 November 2014 7 November 2014

Well, no anglers, but we have miners in every section of the family tree for this week’s Sepia Saturday. The majority of my family lived in or around, at one point or another, central Pennsylvania, well known for its coal mining industry. There are SO many photos I can add in here, so I’ve picked out a few of the best, including a link and update to an old post. This is going to be a huge post, so bear with me.

This photo was originally posted here a few years ago. The label on the back reads, “Herb and D. Alexander on the way home,” and was written partly in great grandma Olga’s younger handwriting, then clarified below with, “on the way home,” in the handwriting more characteristic of her older years. Herb is definitely Alfred Herbert Powis, Olga’s brother, sitting on the left. D. Alexander is likely to be Dempster William Alexander (1898-1978) since he’s the only one from the local censuses who fit the age and name. Both boys grew up in Clearfield County in Pennsylvania and while I still can’t tell which mine this is, it’s just a fantastic picture of the equipment, the soot on their faces, the lunch pails, and everything. They’re not clean and posed – it’s more a relaxed sort of photo and one of my favorites from the collection. For a date, I’d estimate it around 1916 or so, prior to Herb going off to war.

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Fairly recently, I was going back through the scans of great grandma’s photo album when a pretty faded photo caught my eye. I’ve done a little bit of photo magic to increase the contrast, but it’s a really fantastic photo. The boy on the mining cart is Earl Powis Jr, son of Earl William Powis. You can see rails in the background and even what looks like a donkey about dead center above the cart. It’s neat to see the other side of what appears to be a similar car to the one at the top of this post with all the controls and whatnot. This one probably dates to 1927-1930.

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My grandfather, Leon Kitko (Olga’s son), ever the joker, wrote a few notes in his mining log book for the Ebensburg Coal Company. If you can’t read that, after the last printed line, it says, “and all the other ways in which you could kill yourself without even trying.” It was undoubtedly not the safest of work environments even if you followed all the safety precautions in the booklet. He grew up fascinated with coal mining and the machinery that went along with it, leaving behind a scrapbook full of photos of the machinery including photos of him as a child playing with replica toy coal shovels he built himself.

Two images Grandpa Leon took of coal miners and their families. Fred Frye on the left with a D-8 Bulldozer, and John Ruffin and family with a shovel in the background. One has the date of 1948, and I’m assuming the other is about the same date.

A Bay City Shovel at work in the coal mines. Most of these operations were strip mining, cutting away or stripping the side of a mountain to get at the veins of coal. Hardly glamorous work, and you can see a man’s rear sticking out of the door of the machine there, checking something or another.

Finally, the Bituminous Miner’s Certificate for my other grandpa, John Rachocki dated 31 October 1939. This is just a great document because it shows his birth date and place as well as the position he held (Mine Foreman). Grandpa John died when I was four, so I don’t remember him that well, so having paperwork like this is really precious to show who he was and what he did throughout life.

And that’s it! Just a few pieces of history for the mining industry in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania.

Sepia Saturday

Sepia Saturday 244: Itinerant Entertainers, Hurdy Gurdy Man, Unusual Pets, Monkeying Around

By Sheetar 6 September 2014 7 September 2014

Two photos to fit the theme, even if a rabbit isn’t really that unusual of a pet. I didn’t have any photos of itinerant entertainers, so these two will have to suffice for this week!

On The Left: My grandpa, Leon Kitko (b. 20 Mar 1933, PA, died 18 Jun 2011, Clearfield, PA), holding a rabbit. It’s a rare photo of him with a beard – he kept his face clean shaven nearly all of his life except for a brief period around 1954 where he shows up in a few photos with a beard. A rabbit really isn’t an unusual pet, but among the many photos of their pets, this is the only one that isn’t a cat or dog! I never heard stories about a rabbit from grandpa, but it’s clear he had one at some point!

On The Right: My grandma (step-grandma.. Leon’s second wife, not my biological grandmother, but I always knew her as grandma), Romayne (Greenaway) Kitko (b. 30 May 1936, PA, d. 7 Jan 2013, Clearfield, PA). She was quite the musician her whole life from piano to organ and even the accordion! This is a scan from a negative, so I don’t know when exactly this was taken, but I’d assume sometime in the 1950s. She’s sitting at the back of her childhood home at the well, perfectly posed and coiffed, playing on the accordian.

Short and sweet this week! It was nice to be able to include different photos from this set of grandparents who have both passed away. Having memories like this and photos from their younger years really helps keep the memory alive and I’m so glad I have a chance to share them with Sepia Saturday as well!

Genealogy

Great Grandma’s Photo Album

By Sheetar 15 May 2014 15 May 2014

This was another find from grandpa’s house, and times like these are when I’m SO SO SO glad he kept everything. This is the photo album of Olga (Powis) Kitko (b. 27 Aug 1900, d. 29 July 1987) who lived in Clearfield County, PA. She’s my great grandmother, and I know I’ve blogged about her before on here, but just in case you’re new, that’s her. My grandpa was her son, born to Olga and Joseph Kitko (b. 9 Dec 1905 in Madera, PA and d. 11 Oct 1978 in Xenia Ohio) in 1933. Joseph skipped town shortly after and went to Ohio, leaving my great grandma with a young child and a lot of anger. I’m not here to get into the drama and personal background, but it helps to support the rest of the story. As a genealogist, my main focus is on the facts, trying to stay as far away from the personal drama that surrounds them – what happened, happened, and I can’t change it now, so getting upset and dwelling on it does no one any good. The facts are that Joseph left, moved to Ohio, remarried twice. My great grandma was reportedly very angry, and I’m told she tore up every photo of him that she ever had (there are a few spots in the album were photos were obviously torn from the pages). I think I *may* have a few existing photos of him in this album, but no way to confirm that since none of the photos are labelled. The album itself has a paperboard cover and is tied together with a string. The pages feel basically like black, heavyish construction paper, and the photos are all glued to the pages, 33 sides filled with a bunch of blanks at the back. This drives me absolutely crazy and brings me to a conundrum. Salvage the pictures from the album or leave the album intact as a unit? Which is best for preservation of this neat little album? Thoughts? Anyway, on to the photos! On this page, top left, looks to be a photo of the Creber family, perhaps on a visit to their home. Olga’s aunt Mary Jane Battin married John Samuel Creber and moved from England to Canada. Top right is what looks to be Olga’s Aunt Kate Battin and George Thomas Rowe who stayed in England. Bottom right is Olga Powis. Bottom Left is a really neat photo since it lifted out of the album fairly easily and had something written on the back. Written on the back is, “Left to right, Anna Shranko, Goldie Powis, Helen Somerville, Kathleen Troland, and Mary Shranko. The Shranko sisters are from Osceola Mills, PA. Four Budds and one bloom from Williamsport, PA. Taken May 15, 1932” Goldie (Patchin) Powis was Olga’s oldest brother’s wife. Alfred Herbert Powis died relatively young, allegedly of an illness he brought back with him from WWI. They had one child together who died in infancy. After “Herb” died, Goldie never remarried, but apparently remained close friends with Olga and the family. Three of the ladies, Mary, Helen, and Kathleen, show up on the 1930 census living in Williamsport, PA together with Bertha Johnson. All the ladies were employed in various jobs from Machine Operator at a Rubber Factory to Sales Lady at a Five & Ten, and Stenographer, and in their early twenties. Pretty neat to see industrious gals striking out on their own! Yet another page – I picked out two of my favorites just to show you what kind of stuff is in here. Top L to R: Olga Powis on the left and a friend, Olga Powis on the left and a friend, unknown woman in a car, Olga Powis on the right and a man who I believe to be Joseph Kitko. That same car appears in other photos that are labelled as, “Me and Joe’s Car,” so I have to believe that at some point, “Me and Joe,” were standing in front of that car, the me here being Olga. On the bottom row L to R, unknown woman and Olga (in front of Joe’s car, this photo is duplicated and appears in the collection of loose photos as well), unknown woman in front of a car, and a photo that I believe is of Joseph Kitko and his son Leon (my grandpa). This is the same man as the above far right photo, but there’s no label to prove my hunch.

Finally, we have just this single photo which was the only one on its page, and the glue had pretty well loosened so that it was falling out of the album. In the back standing up is Olga Powis who was a teacher briefly at a local school in Rosebud, PA. The date on the chalkboard up front is 1919 which means she would’ve been 19 when this was taken. Check out the boy in the front right with the hole in his stockings! I really REALLY love these old school photos and need to put together a separate post on them some day.

The lesson I’m taking away from all this work with old photos? LABEL YOUR PHOTOS. Label them, all of them, use acid-free/lignin-free storage methods and use a pencil to label. You just never know who might be looking at them 100 years later wondering who’s in that photo.

Genealogy

Nellie Eimer

By Sheetar 9 May 2012 9 May 2012

This one has been the big mystery running around in the back of my mind for the last few weeks. In the big trunk of photos that we found at Grandpa’s house, there are three photos with mention of Nellie Eimer who doesn’t appear to be related in any way to any branch of the family. I’m holding out hope that perhaps her mother is the link, but I haven’t yet been able to find her maiden name to confirm that. Do you have any of these names in your family tree? Please get in contact by leaving a comment!

The details:

“Nellie” Ellen Malden Howell was born 23 July 1868 in Dawley Bank, Shropshire, England and died 10 July 1930 in Carbondale, Lackawanna, Pennsylvania, USA. Nellie applied for a passport 1 April 1920 and listed the purpose of her passport as, “to visit relatives,” for the duration of four months. On this same document, she lists her arrival year as 1883. She married Frank Eimer 17 Jan 1891. She lived the rest of her life in Carbondale, Pennsylvania and never had children.
Frank Eimer was born in 1867 and died 3 Januray 1938. He was a baker in Carbondale. After Nellie died, he married Isabell Turnbull. His parents are Harry (1839) and Mary (1844-1875) Eimer.
William Howell, Nellie’s father, was born in England in 1843. He died 2 December 1920 in Carbondale, Pennsylvania. He lived with Nellie and Frank in Carbondale, PA until his death. I haven’t been able to find him on any English census, and there doesn’t appear to be record of his family living in England prior to the first time they show up on a census, the 1910 US census. Per the information he gave the census taker, he married Lizzie in 1864. His will lists his living relatives as, “Mrs. Ellen Malden Eimer daughter, Mrs. Sarah McCoy daughter, and Mrs. Elizabeth Stephens grand daughter.” Frank Eimer was named the executor of the will.
“Lizzie” Elizabeth ?, Nellie’s mother, was born 1843 and died 18 November 1913. I’m not 100% sure on the death date, but it seems to match up from the PA death record indicies. Lizzie appears on the 1910 US census and not on the 1920 census. I don’t know much about her other than this little bit of information.

The first photo is a photo postcard. The stamp area in the top right corner of the second photo gives me a date range of 1904-1918 (AZO with four triangles up). The back reads, “Mr & Mrs Wm Howell later on their 50th anniversary on our front porch,” and was likely written by Olga (Powis) Kitko, the front porch being in Beccaria, Clearfield, Pennsylvania. Below that, written later, is, “Nellie Eimers Mother & Father,” again, probably written by Olga. If the Howells married in 1864, that would give us 1914 for their 50th anniversary which isn’t possible if Lizzie died in 1913. I’m pretty comfortable saying this photo was taken in 1913. Olga would’ve been 13 at the time.

Another photo postcard, dating again between 1904-1918. Written on the back in Olga’s older handwriting is, “Aunt Nellie Eimer, Carbondale,” and printed is a Photographer’s Studio, “F. E. Allen Studio, 3d and Pine Sts., Williamsport, PA.” I haven’t been able to find the photographer’s name in any local directory, so I’ve got no lead on a date for this one. I’d definitely put it closer to the 1918 mark. This is where I get the “Aunt” title from though and why this has me so confused. I suppose it’s possible that Aunt was used to describe a close family friend – I know I grew up with a number of “Aunts” that I wasn’t related to, and the term was used symbolically for a person of importance to our family.

And the last photo – not a photo postcard. There are a few other photos of the same size (only about three inches high) that are marked with ’17 on the back – I’m taking this to mean that they were taken in 1917. This photo is labelled in Olga’s older handrwriting, “Nellie Eimers Father Carbondale Mom & Me.” If this was taken in 1917, Olga would’ve been 17 in this photo (she graduated high school, something rare for girls at that time). From Left to right, we have William Howell, Jessie (Battin) Powis, and Olga (Powis) Kitko. Lizzie is missing here which makes sense, because she passed away years before the photo was taken.
Sources:
L ackawanna Public Records – The search for Marriage licenses and Register of Wills was used to find Frank Eimer’s will, William Howell’s will and the marriage license for Frank and Nellie Eimer.
Playle’s Photo Postcard Dating – I go back to this resource often since it seems to be one of the most comprehensive databases for dating photo postcards
Pennsylvania Birth and Death indices – The indices are a great place to start for information. Records can be ordered for a fee, but sometimes just the index is enough to collect an exact date.