Merry Christmas from 1953

Sally, Steve and Susie

Photographs used for the 1953 Christmas Card.

Happy Birthday, Cindy!

A couple of images of Cindy from past Christmas cards, way past cards.

My memory from Cindy's birth is the sugar cubes Dad brought us from the hospital. I know Grandma and Grandpa Morgan came to Shawnee to babysit us, we three older ones, but I don't remember if we treated them well or not. I also don't remember when Thanksgiving was that year, but through the magic of the Internet, I can report it was on the 25th so Cindy was born on Saturday, the 27th.

Through the years her birthday became entwined with Thanksgiving. One memorable year there were candles on the turkey. Which by my measure was over the top, but as the older sister I tried not to be too upset about it.

So here's to you, Cindy. May you have a great day and many more.

The infamous picture. You can understand my jealousy.

Happy Birthday Steve!

Here a couple of pictures of Steve in his early years.

Steve on our first Christmas in Shawnee in 1951. He got this very cool train set that came with a board.

This picture is also from 1951 in Topeka before we moved. Pictured are our two grandfathers, on the left is E A Burkhardt and on the right is Ray Morgan, Sr. Sitting on EA's lap is Chris and on Ray's is Steve. Chris was born in March of 1947 and Steve in October 1947 so Chris is clearly the older gent.

1950s Styling

Sally and I in January 1953 showing off the latest in Russian headscarves. Not really, but vegetation hadn't really taken root yet.

This one is dated January 1953. I think it's self-explanatory. It's hard to know why these styles of sofas didn't stay chic. But as I remember it hid the dirt well. As you can tell Steve was serious about his cowboy gear. I'm sure he'll know who he was - Roy Rogers? Gene Autry?

Happy Birthday, Mary and Helen!

Happy Birthday to both Helen and Mary Grace. The following are just a few pictures through the early years.

This photo is of Allan, Edna, Helen and Ethel when Helen was very young. From looking at the trees I'm guessing it was probably warm day in November 1920.

Helen and Mary in a professional photograph circa 1924.

And last, but not least, is a picture of the three sisters from the early 1940s taken in from of the house on Jewell.

Ray in Dibble's Update

As you may recall I was confused as to the age of Grandad in the photo in Dibbles. The date on the picture was 1919 which would have made Ray 23, but he looks older than that. Some of the confusion has cleared up through the diligence of Debbie. She, as have others, looked at the various items in the picture and noticed boxes of Wheaties. But through her research and then through my own, we've discovered Wheaties were not sold until 1924.

The following is a quote from the official Wheaties site:

The popular cereal flake in the orange box was born
when a Minneapolis health clinician accidentally spilled
some wheat bran mixture on a hot stove, creating tasty
wheat flakes. The idea for whole-grain cereal flakes was
brought to the attention of the head miller at the
Washburn Crosby Company (General Mills’ predecessor),
George Cormack, who perfected the process for
producing the flakes. In November 1924, the ready-to-eat
cereal known as Washburn’s Gold Medal Whole Wheat
Flakes during its development was ready for the market.
The cumbersome name was shortened to “Wheaties” as
the result of an employee contest won by Jane
Bausman, the wife of a company executive.

So there you have it; Ray is at least 28 in this picture. My understanding is that Vala identified the people and event and Mary Grace recorded the information. They probably did this at least 40 years after the fact and probably a lot more years.

This incident illustrates one of the hazards of researching, falling too much in love with one fact and not taking into account the other clues.

Baseball

Baseball, on many levels, has always been a part of our lives. Dad's father, Ray Morgan, Sr., played on a semi-pro team until he broke his leg sliding into home plate. He never played with us, but his bat from his playing days was too heavy for us to lift. This picture of him and his in-laws was taken in 1928. It's as close as I've found to him and a bat.

The other picture is from 1951 as you can tell it was taken a long time ago. The fence hasn't been built and neither have the neighboring homes. As you can tell it was before I knew what to do with a baseball. There is probably some discussion as to whether I ever did learn.







This is a home movie that Mom and Dad took in June 1947 when they visited St. Louis. It's hard to see, but somewhere in the video is Jackie Robinson. They had traveled first to the Ozarks and then onto St. Louis in a car borrowed from Roy. In St. Louis they went to the Cardinals-Dodgers game, a golf tournament and the zoo. If this game's the one played on June 15, about two months after Robinson's debut, the Cardinals won 11-3. Robinson, who at that point played first, got two hits and scored a run. There is clearly a lot of scoring.

Now for the corrections of the above post. The golf tournament was the 1947 US open which was won by Lew Worsham in a playoff with Sam Snead. Also the baseball game was the Saturday afternoon game which the Cards won 5-3, but Robinson did score. I thought Saturday was a double-header and I knew Mom didn't like double-headers, but it was actually an afternoon game and an evening game. Now I've seen the tickets and the letter from the Cards telling them about their choices for the game - an afternoon game at 1:30 or a night game at 8:30. There's a second letter that says their tickets for the game will be available at the press gate under Dad's name anytime after 12:30. Mom didn't keep score so the scorecard is not filled out except for some writing by Dad which is hard to read. I remember her always keeping score, but that may not have happened until Steve started Little League.

Ray & Mary Get Married - July 21, 1946

To honor Mom and Dad's 65th Wedding anniversary I've taken a few scenes from the DVD that Sally made from the early home movies. Somehow I've not included the sound.

To my four siblings and me this was a fortuitous day and also for their grandchildren and great grandchildren.

I won't attempt to describe them because to know them or have known them one knows that they are indescribable.

So copy the following link and you can enjoy a short version of the wedding. In the video she starts to toss her bouquet, but Ray has a direction. But they work it out and the flowers are tossed. It seems to have been a system they perfected over the years.

Here's to Mom and Dad. Thanks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HBTr7OcBqg

The Sharpes Come to Kansas - Continued

This photograph has always confused me because the people in the picture are identified as Rebekah and William Sharpe and their children, Betsy, William, George and another name I can't make out. The only problem with that is that Betsy who is identified as the little girl is older than George. She and William are almost 10 years older than George. How does this relate to their immigration to America?

My thought is that it's a photograph taken right before they left England for America. That would make it a picture taken circa 1869. The children then would be George who would have been 9 in 1869 and James who would have been 8 in that year. I would guess the other children are Ada born in 1868 and Maude born in 1869. Why the five older children are not in the picture, I can't answer.

To be continued. . . .

The Sharpes Come to Kansas

Among the family papers collected by Laura and provided to me by Cindy is the following narrative of the Sharpes' journey to Parkerville in Morris County Kansas. I've tried to verify that they lived in this pub at Mareham-le-Fen, but I haven't been able to do that through census records in England. But there are other pieces of information that do support it. Laura and Dorothy Leib traveled to this pub as their grandmother's home place. Since Laura had kept all the family memorabilia and is the daughter of Lily, Edward and Betsy's oldest child, I'm assuming she's right. More evidence comes from James Homer Sharpe and his wife, Avis who wrote about their trip to Mareham-le-fen in 1964. James is the son of Betsy's brother James who was 9 when the family immigrated. The photo of the pub is from James Homer's trip in 1964. The following is the link to the pub's current web page. http://www.diningpubs.co.uk/pub_details.asp?id=495

A Methodist minister, Rev. Wake form England, came to Kansas and sent back to his friends, the William Sharpes.in New Bolingbrook, England, a can full of Kansas rich black soil. He told them of an ideal opportunity of getting land to homestead, for men with large families and not much of an opportunity to advance there.
We know they had friends who wished them “God Speed.” We have a bible from one “To Mr. and Mrs. Sharpe on their leaving England with best wishes of their sincere friend, John Tattersall, New Bolingbrook, April 11, 1870. He was an ancestor who lived in the Tattersall Palace place, where the Sharpe children played around the moat.
In April 1870 they were packed and ready to start on the long journey via ship to New York City in the USA with their children.

We traveled to Marehem-le-fen in 2009 and took the two color photographs in this article. The one is the Tattersall castle and the other is the moat. The moat seemed to have seen better days in that there was not much indication of water in it at present. We were unable to get into the castle because it was closed for an event, but the servers setting up waved to us across the moat.

The Sharpes, William and Rebekah and their ten children, would have set off from Mareham-le-fen to cross from the east side of England to the west to sail from Liverpool. It's not a great number of miles from east to west England, at least compared to their journey from New York to Kansas, but it couldn't have been simple. In 1870 the children would have ranged in age from 19 or so down to perhaps twins who were less than a year old. I'm trying to determine the ship they would have sailed on to America, but haven't pinned it down yet.

To be continued.

Ray and Dibble's

Ray Morgan, Grandad, worked in groceries for a good part of his life. In this photo from 1919 he's shown in the Dibbles Store at 6th and Quincy in Topeka. Ray grew up in Valley Falls, the youngest of four children of Elias Morgan and Emma Ellingwood. In 1918 he moved to Topeka to marry Vala McClenny who had recently moved from Valley Falls to Topeka. In Valley Falls he had worked in the local grocery and upon his move to Topeka started work in Dibbles.

According to this article in the Capital Journal from 2008, Dibbles ran a grocery store at this spot from 1917 until 1951. http://cjonline.com/stories/071708/loc_305084958.shtml The store is currently in use by Senior Care Pharmacy.






To me it was exciting to see Grandad in a grocery store because as kids we always heard he was a grocer, but I don't remember seeing this picture from 1919 or any other for that matter. It took me some time to figure out if it truly was Ray in the picture because in 1919 he would have been only 23, but he looks twice that age here. Part of my problem was that the photo had been reversed when it was printed, but after solving that and consulting with Scott I'm pretty sure he's the man on the left.

It's fun to read the signs in the store. Two dozen oranges for 25 cents, etc. Not being able to read the signs was when I realized it was reversed. There were three other similar pictures, but only one with Ray in it. The other one I posted here has patriotic buntings. One would guess it's probably around the Fourth of July, but it's also right after the end of the First World War.

More 1925 Colorado Trip

Now that Father's Day is over, I can get back to the 1925 trip to Colorado by the Morgans, Harfords and Edith McClenny. In my experiences with Dad he never seemed that comfortable around animals, but that could have been because he was allergic to most of them. But here at the age of three he looks very comfortable and in control on what I think is a mule. At first I thought it was a horse, but upon closer examination it appears to be a mule.

Edith and Helen look good in their knickers while protecting Ray, Jr. from falling from his mule.

Vala, Ray and Edith look slightly bewildered in the photograph of them standing next to the tent. In another photograph Vala had on a hat so it must be in her hand now. I also would venture to guess that everyone is dressed in khaki, very monochromatic.

The fourth picture is intriguing in the details. Kit Carson is about 200 miles from Rocky Mountain National Park. My guess is that this is the first overnight stay after leaving Estes Park. A 1923 Model T had a top speed of 45 miles an hour, but I would think their speed would have been at best 30 miles an hour. That would make this a 8-hour day. Also from the body language of no one sitting that close I'd say they were on the way home. It would seem a trip from Topeka to Colorado would have taken at least a week, maybe more.

But I like the details of this picture as it appears they are using cots for benches to sit at a long narrow railing. It doesn't seem wide enough to have been a true table. Even Ray Sr is sitting on folded quilts to be tall enough to be comfortable at the table. One of the Model T's has sneaked into the picture. In the background is a picnic basket, coffee pot, etc.

A good time for all.

Father's Day

Here are a few pictures to celebrate Father's Day. As all who knew him know Dad loved a holiday and a reason to don a clown costume. I'm sure Mom will know, but it looks like we're sorting treats on the coffee table in our Topeka apartment.

The photograph of Mom and Dad holding Steve and me is of my Christening in July 1950 in Topeka. The last one is of us in front of the apartment in October 1950.

Happy Father's Day.

Ray Sr's Birthday

Today I was looking for pictures of Dad and his dad for their birthdays, yesterday and today, and found these of a trip the Morgans took in 1925.

Apparently Ray and Vala took a trip with Vala's sister, Helen and her husband, Wert, to Rocky Mountain National Park. Adding to the group were Dad and his grandmother, Edith McClenny. From a brief bit of Googling the distance between Topeka and Rocky Mountain National Park is in excess of 600 miles. Unfortunately I don't know my cars from the 1920s but from looking at the pictures, the cars don't have a lot of amenities - like windows or air-conditioning. Dad turned 3 in 1925 and as you can tell from one of the pictures he's already wearing glasses. That summer Vala would have turned 28 and Ray Sr 29. Edith was 59. Wert and Helen had married in 1923 and would have been 26 in 1925.

Having known a few of these people it would have been an interesting trip. All five of his traveling companions doted on Dad, sometimes a bit to his detriment. (Mary Grace would probably say, even at 3 Dad would have been in charge.) If I were to guess, Ray Sr and Wert would have spent a lot of time trying to keep peace between the two sisters. We do know that all survived the trip. The people did anyway.

I'm sure a good time was had by all.

Dad's Birthday

Today Dad would have been 89 years old which he would have enjoyed. Cindy and I found this slide while looking for pictures for Sally's birthday. This was taken in 1969 and you can hear him telling Mary Grace to make sure she got both the plaque of Roy Roberts and The Star in the picture.

Dad and The Star were one in my mind. I can still hear, "Hi, Ray Morgan, Kansas City Star." Mom said he did that so no one would have questions about his identity. At some stages of growing up this was embarrassing, but we all survived. He worked hard at being a reporter and a father. Saturday mornings were piano lessons for Steve, Sally and me. He drove us to the lessons and then while one of us had lessons the others spent the time with him. We discussed how the Star should really be run, how much fun it would be for him to be governor of the state of Kansas and why did the A's send all their decent players to the New York Yankees. After the lessons we often had to go to the Star for something. Occasionally we'd meet Roy Roberts, the giant of a man who ran the paper. I'm sure these interactions with Mr. Roberts made Dad nervous. Mr. Roberts usually gave us a dollar bill which was great. Although apparently one time he gave one of us(probably Steve) a ten dollar bill. After that occasion Dad made us present our bills to him so he could make sure that nothing like that happened again.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Graduation

Of the seven children of Betsy and Edward Walker who survived to adulthood, all but the oldest Lily graduated from Washburn University. After nearly two decades of living in rural Morris county, Edward and Betsy moved to Topeka so their children, all their children, could receive as much education as possible. Thus set in motion the belief and tradition that women as well as men deserved the chance to attain a college education. In all it's a tradition that has continued for more than 100 years. Eula, the second oldest daughter, was born in 1884. I'm assuming she graduated from Washburn in 1906. Pictured here are the four Walker sisters at the time of Ada's graduation from Washburn. From the top it's Eula, Grace, Edna and Ada at the time of Ada's graduation in 1916.







The tradition continued into the next generation. Pictured here are Ethel, Helen and Mary Grace in 1942.



And yesterday two more joined the ranks of college graduates with the graduations of Kelly and Frances from the University of Kansas. To honor the tradition we gathered all of the Walker female descendants we could find and with the help of Scott took their picture. Those of us here on the steps have degrees from KU, Kansas State University and Colorado State University. Now more than 100 years since the first female Walker graduated we have four generations of college graduates. The men have also continued the tradition, but today we're highlighting the women.

Mother's Day

Rebekah Sharpe nee Hutton circa 1855. She looks glum but as Steve pointed out to me recently people were not told to say, "Cheese." Because the eye of the camera had to be open for several seconds to allow enough light, people were told to hold still. [I've decided that she spelled her Rebekah this way because that's the inscription on her grave marker. Her son years after her death spelled it Rebecca, but I'm going with Rebekah.] She gave birth to 12 children with at least four not making it to adulthood. It was the death of her youngest child that brought the family to homestead in Parkerville Kansas.



This is Betsy Walker nee Sharpe with Edna Jessie in 1895. Gussie remembered that this portrait which includes the whole family was taken on Thanksgiving Day because the pharmacy was closed for the holiday. Betsy gave birth to nine children and only seven lived to maturity. One child that died was Gussie's twin, but the other appears to have been hers and Edward's first born, a boy who possibly was named Thomas.


The third photograph is of Edna, Allan and Ethel taken circa 1917. Edna and EA were married in 1913 and they became parents with Allan's birth in November 1914. Ethel was born in January 1917. Helen followed in 1920 and Mary Grace in 1923.


Finally, the fourth photograph is of Mary Grace Morgan nee Burkhardt and Susan in May of 1950.

A century of mothers.

CORRECTIONS FOR FRIDAY'S POST

For some reason I messed up a few names. I'm guessing I was in too much of a hurry. But anyway it's Eula and Frank Faust, not Epps. And I errored in Allan's name. I always can remember it's two a's, but I should also remember it's two ll's. In honor of Gussie's picnics, Lee and I and the boys tried one this weekend at Potter Lake in Lawrence. Dominic had a better time than Cameron because Cameron didn't care for the clock aka the Campanile.

GUSSIE & PICNICS

These pictures of a picnic are from 1919. There's no place identified as to where they were taken, but my thought is it could be the cabin that Percy and Jen owned. (Somewhere near the Menninger campus. Maybe Mary or Helen could tell me if that's anywhere close to correct.) Apparently Gussie loved picnics much to the joy or at least amusement of most of her close relatives. One niece who was raised on a farm wasn't that impressed with her desire to commune with nature.

Erma Burk Wilson wrote: In the summer they liked to have their evening meal in the park. My aunt would fix bologna sandwiches and bring canned beans. I was never very thrilled with these picnics. My aunt called it “Communing with nature.” Living on a farm I knew all about nature. Also I liked my beans hot. My uncle would have met us with ice cream and that made it all worthwhile. Erma is the daughter of Myrtle Burkhardt, EA's older sister.

Mary has another take on the picnic:

She loved picnics and if my dad didn’t come home for supper she was a great one to load the supper up in the car and we went off for a picnic. I remember eating a lot of macaroni that was kept hot in the double boiler. On holidays we generally had breakfast at the park. Generally fried bacon and eggs.

The standout memory I have from those picnics were the shoestring potatoes in a can. I also remember the beans. But back to these pictures. It looks like a jolly group although I wonder what exactly was Alan trying to shoot. Bruce in England helped me with these pictures and he liked the dog begging from Jenny Walker.


The top picture from the left back row: Frank Epps (Eula Walker's husband),Edna, Jenny Walker, Bill Smith, EA and Ethel. The front row from the left: Marguerite and Mildred Epps, Bud Walker, Alan and Margaret Walker.

The middle picture in the background; Frank Epps, EA, Ada Walker Smith, Edna, Betsy Sharpe Walker and Jenny Thayer Walker. In the foreground is Eula Walker Epps.

The bottom photo is Frank Epps, Percy Walker, Jenny Thayer Walker, Bill Smith, EA and Ethel. The front row is Marguerite and Mildred Epps, Bud Walker, Alan and Margaret Walker.

One last comment from me - I think EA pulls off the jaunty beret better than Percy.

Happy Easter from the Morgans 1969

I always knew Steve was taller than the rest of us, but . . . . . At least Scott got to grow some more in the years after this.

But my point - Happy Easter 2011!

Rehearsal Picnic - 1913

EA and Edna celebrated their coming marriage with a picnic near Garfield Park the night before they wed. Unlike current day, it included only a few family members. Attending were Gussie's sister Ada, her brother Percy and her mother Betsy. Rounding out the celebration were Percy's wife Jenny and their son, Ernest, "Bud," and Jenny's brother Thayer. His given name was William so I don't know if Gussie forgot his name or he went by Thayer. There's also another person who is unidentified.

Gussie clearly took the first picture because she's the only one not in it. People look like they're having a good time. The second picture shows Jenny, EA and Thayer heating dinner. It's hard to figure out what's cooking because it looks like they're heating a paint can. I like the guys' formal wear and Jenny's white dress which she seems to have no fear of getting dirty.

For dinner the group moved to a different area. I used this picture for Chris and Stephanie's rehearsal dinner. I liked the casualness of it, the horse in the background and everyone having a good time. For those who love minutia, the picnic basket and dinnerware are resting on a small carpet.

The final photo is a cropped image that I included because I like the way Gussie looks. It's hard to call her Gussie because here she looks like Miss Edna Jessie Walker about to become Mrs. Edgar Burkhardt.