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!