Mike's Playground

July 2008

Today we went to Louisburg, Kansas, to have work done on our Ford. My sister Kathleen and her husband came up from La Cygne to spend the morning with us. We decided to visit the cemetery in Louisburg to see tombstones of my Grandmother Elizabeth's family. The morning expanded into a review of my paternal lineage back to the mid-1700s.

This first photo is my Great Grandfather Reuben Abney. He was Elizabeth's father. I noticed the date of his death is also my birthday, a 1 in 365 coincidence. Kathleen believes Reuben died at 28 of tuberculosis. His wife, my great grandmother Sarah, married again into the Courtney family and had several more children. This is Sarah's tombstone, also located in Louisburg cemetery.

Louisburg cemetery has a memorial to Northern Civil War soldiers. Given the history of the area, it isn't really surprising to find such a tribute in "Bleeding Kansas".

We drove south to New Lancaster cemetery where my grandparents, great grandparents, and great great grandparents are buried along with a number of their brothers and sisters.

This view of the cemetery is looking north. The Jackson's occupy most of the Northeast corner. The entrance states the cemetery was founded in 1893, but there are headstones older than that inside. Maybe this was a family burial area before, or simply an informal burial plot.

This is a view of the Northeast corner of New Lancaster cemetery. My family has commandeered most of the real estate here. Given they were farmers and soldiers, the location seems fitting.

Among those at New Lancaster is Clarissa Serrott, my great great grandmother. Her father was Pierre Francois Serrott, and the Peter Francis name was passed to three generations which follow. My middle name, Francis, was derived from this gentleman whom tradition has it arrived from France in 1790. This coincidently dovetails with the start of the French Revolution. Was Pierre running from the revolutionaries or just looking for a new life and adventure? Today, I do not know. The French Grant referenced on her tombstone was a scheme luring French settlers to Ohio for what turned out to be fraudulent land claims. Was her father one of the many cheated out of promised land in the New World? Perhaps sometime in the future I will be able to chase down some of these questions.

Clarissa and Jesse are my great, great grandparents.

These are my great grandparents.

These are my grandparents.

It seems worthwhile to complete my father's family line with a picture of his own tombstone. Dad is buried in Fort Scott National Cemetery in Southern Kansas. Mom's name and that of my brother Wayne are on the back side of this tombstone. I took this picture a couple of years ago while learning about digital cameras and image processing software, so the picture is a bit stylized.

Long before I had Boston Terriers, my parents had a Siberian Husky kennel in Fort Scott. Krupskaya was a Husky, German Shepard mix with one blue eye and one brown eye. She was among the last mixed breed dogs my parents raised. I got Sky while I was still in college. In fact, I picked her out the day she was born. She even went to Butler, Missouri with me when I taught for a year.

Sky was my great companion and often travelled around with me. This picture was taken near Fort Scott Community Junior College, where I used to take Sky to run. She was very smart and a quick learner. In winter, Sky used to like to sleep on a block of ice frozen in a galvanized steel tub I got for that reason. She loved snow and would throw it up in the air and catch it while she ran around in circles. She used to go fishing with me once in a while, and would stick her head under the water trying to catch small fish. Sky spent a fair amount of time in the house, despite shedding like a sheep. Part of the reason I moved to small dogs was because I wanted them around all the time, which is much more difficult with bigger dogs. Sky was a good friend.

This is an old photograph of Kevin, Don Wolliver, and I at Pomona Lake. I would have been a junior in high school at the time, give or take a year. Note that dapper fedora. I wore this hat from the time I was in junior high school until perhaps my senior year, when it was stolen at a party. It serves me right for drinking so much. I can't imagine how I allowed anyone to ever take it. I really thought I was cool. I know, I was misled.

The trips to Pomona are now family legends. One trip it rained so much we all nearly drowned in the tent. I remember my niece floating around on an inflatable raft just before I gave up and ran for the car. The lightning, thunder, and trees falling were a nice touch. At least they drowned out my sister Kathleen yelling at me to shut up and go back to sleep. Easy for the folks on a floating raft to say!

Yesterday we were out about town and stopped by the Mahaffie House in Olathe. This location was used by stagecoaches in the time before automobiles. Given the price of gas, maybe their time will come again. Olathe has historical reinactments from time to time, but also has a staff that dresses up in period clothes. This site is not very far from our home. The park is evolving, but Olathe has done a nice job investing in the land and gardens. In time, this will be a great place to picnic.

Charlotte has been scanning some old slides of her family. Our scanner does a pretty good job with a special attachment to hold the slides. I found this old picture of Nancy and Charlie. It was kind of dark, but I lightened it and adjusted the color a bit. I am always interested in these older photographs by what people are wearing, and any of the small clues about the time hiding in the background. What do you see?

I liked this image, also scanned from a slide. This is wee CJ with her Carolina Cousins. I considered sharpening the image, but ultimately liked it better the way it was. I love the expression on the face of the kids and their outfits. Could they possibly have been having a better time? You have to think home made ice cream was just around the corner. The car in the background must have been cool for it's time. Can you spot CJ?

On Independence Day we went to Charlie's house for a cookout with Miss Kitty, Kim, and Dwayne. They brought all the stuff, we just had to show up and chow down. Dwayne and Charlie had been clearing brush along a fence line in the back yard. The "burn pile" has gotten really big. We nearly set a coule pf trees on fire a couple of years ago, and Charlie is now gun shy about burning. Although it has been wet this spring, he elected to hire someone to haul off the burn pile this year...despite Dwayne's willingness to blaze up!

We stepped outside the garage early one morning before work to inspect damage from the latest thunderstorm. It has been an unusually cool, wet start to Summer for Kansas. We saw a pair of foxes lying together on the neighbor's driveway. We have had several sightings this year, but we were pretty close on this occason.

The foxes seemed like a couple on vacation stretched out enjoying themselves. CJ went for the camera after it dawned on us we might be able to get a photo. By then, of course, the moment was gone but we were able to sneak a quick shot of one of the foxes. The image is a little soft, but I had to post it anyway. They are beautiful. By the way, the neighbor hosting the foxes has been trying to get rid of them with firecrackers. He is nervous about his little rat terrier alone in the yard. Yes, we thought of that but our dogs are never outside alone.

We think the foxes, complete with pups, may have moved to another, more cordial neighbor nearby. We hope they stay around. By the way, we haven't seen nearly as many rabbits this year as in the past....