The circle of life - 2025 holiday newsletter

This year began with the birth of our youngest granddaughter - Zelda Therese Anuenue in February:

and sadly ended with the death of my brother-in-law, Lynn, in mid-December. Along the way, Arian and Danielle officially announced their engagement:

We didn't often venture far from home this year, a wonderful trip out west in June, where we visited those who remained of my dad's family in Idaho and Montana, and went to Yellowstone.

We took a short trip to beautiful French Lick, Indiana for our anniversary.

Our time at home was spent gardening (great garlic and lavender crops), working on genealogy (Kim), and John's new hobbies of talking to Grok and keeping aquariums. And hosting family - my niece and her spouse, our offspring and their spouses, and grandchildren and their intendeds.

Many blessings from our house to yours for the coming year.

A Genealogical Goldmine

In 1944, my aunt (Gladys) made this scrapbook for her only sister, who was soon to be married. While most of the pages were cut out from magazines, like this one

some held the answers for which I've searched high and low.The first question was about a cousin named Tore, who my mother wrote about in several letters to my father. All I had was a first name, the fact that his parents were Norwegian, and they escaped from Norway in World War II. Hunting through newspapers with such limited information, hadn't yielded an results. But lo and behold, here were four articles about him!

It turns out the little boy was named Tore (Thore) Kvammen, and he was born in the last quarter of 1942 in the Hammersmith District of London, during an air raid. His mother was the daughter of Karoline Antoinette Larsen and Bernhardt Johannesen, who was born in 1918 and married to Mathias Kvammen, a Norwegian army captain. The mother and son left from Swansea, Wales on 11 Mar 1944 on the Grey County, a Norwegian merchant vessel that could carry up to 12 pass. It was involved in various convoys, often sailing between North America, Halifax, St John, New Brunswick and the UK. An article published in the Chicago Tribune - 26 Oct 1944 - p.15 reported the following story. When they arrived in Canada, the mother stayed in Toronto, serving as a member of the Norwegian Women's Army, based at Camp Little Norway. Her 2 year old son, traveled by train in the care of a 20 year old Royal Norwegian Air Force flier, Just Ebesen, and then left with my grandparents, and my mother, who was living at home. My grandmother is quoted as saying "She will keep the child until her niece is able to come for him - in a month or a year." I'm not sure exactly how long he did stay, although I do know that in March 1945, he left from St John, New Brunswick, Canada to return to Liverpool, England. Much more of the story remains to be uncovered.
The other mystery solved by the scrapbook had to do with who was in my parents wedding. I share the sharpened image here:

Before finding the newspaper article in the scrapbook, I could only identify my parents, her siblings, Roy and Gladys, and the flower girl, her niece Virginia. That left the two bridesmaids, two groomsmen, and the ring bearer, who I now know to be Katherine Golden and Edith Streat, mom's schoolmates, and Stewart Grove and William Morgan, who I believe to be dad's friends from the navy. The little ring bearer was a 5 year old named Lee Brink. All those people with stories to tell. Whose stories can I find and share?

The journey of Frank Harris and Minnie Agee to couplehood

 The other day I received a document from the National Archives for my grandfather, Frank Allen Harris (1889-1957) that was all they had on his military service in World War I. From his 1917 WWI Draft Registration card we find out that he was born 9 Jun 1889, in Great Valley, NY. In 1917, he was single, living in Baker, Lemhi county, Idaho, working on a farm owned by Peter Kinney. From various census records, we know that he was in New York in 1905 and in 1910 working as a farm hand for Walter Brown, who was also from New York. (He must be the Walt referred to in the postcard below, which shows Frank (in the sidecar) and his just younger brother Duane in 1917).

On the back: Dear Father, How are you all? Us boys are getting along fine. We've has a pretty snug winter here so far. Has been 24 below. How is Grandma & Grandpa. I suppose Velma is in Franklinville and is Walt still in York. Didn't have any idea he could ever give up the west. I am going to write in a day or two. Will close with best wishes to all. D.H.

From the NARA document, we see he enlisted out of Salmon, Idaho on 27 May 1918 and in August 1918, he was on the Briton, an Army transport as part of the 40th Division, "F" Company 115th Ammunition Train, on his way to France. I was hoping to find more details from NARA about this part, but no luck. More research is required there. What I did find out is that he was part of the Fort D.A. Russell Casual Detachment, in Laramie, WY, mustered out on 30 Apr 1919, given $128.42 in pay, which included travel funds of $41.40. From there he caught the train back to Salmon.

Minnie, Walter, and John Calvin Agee c. 1917

Minnie Agee (1903-2000), came to Idaho from Missouri with her parents James Alexander Stark (Allie) and John Calvin Agee sometime between the birth of her sister Lizzie in 1907, and Virginia Velma  in 1910. I have a letter, written by my Uncle Frank in 1995, that tells the story of her early life. From what I can piece together, the last of October or first of November, 1918 she started back to Missouri with her father but only got as far as Denver and everyone there was sick with Influenza (the Pollard family). Mother stayed there and took care of the family - Jack, Ada, Louie, Freddy and their mother, Mrs. Pollard. She stayed there until Easter [April 20, 1919] and came back to Salmon. Her siblings, Walter, Mettie, and Lizzie were in Salmon by then, and Mettie was married to Richard Evans. Walter sent mother the money to come back. 

It was on the train trip from Denver to Salmon (via Laramie?) that my grandparents met. She was still 15, she would turn 16 in June. He was 29, turning 30 in June. They went to Dillon, Montana four months later, in September, 1919 and were married for 38 years until my grandfather's death in 1957.

This crudely done map represents their journeys. Grandpa Harris is the blue paper/red dots. He started in New York in 1889, came to Idaho around 1910, was released from the Army in Wyoming in 1919. Grandma (yellow paper/green dots) was born in Missouri in 1903, moved with her family to Idaho around 1907, and was coming back from Denver, Colorado in 1919. The pink paper in Dillon, MT where they got married.

You can read more about Allie's story here: https://xbmill.blogspot.com/2025/08/james-alexander-stark-extraordinary.html

James Alexander Stark, an extraordinary woman.

5 Sep 1878 - 19 Aug 1917

My great-grandmother was an extraordinary woman. She was the second daughter of James Alexander Stark and his (second) wife, Nancy Elizabeth Owsley. She had an older sister, Susan Emma, three older Stark half siblings, three older Brown step-siblings, and six younger half siblings from her mother's second marriage. 

Growing up, I had always been told her name was James Alabama Stark, but that she was called Allie. It was only a few years ago, when I started seriously researching her, that I found her actual name was James Alexander Stark, after her father who died five months before she was born. I knew she was born in Missouri, in Hickory County in 1878, so the only pre-marriage census that is extant is the 1880 one.  But I couldn't find her in any 1880 Missouri census. 

I had 2 clues to her parents. Her father's name was James Alexander Stark, and her mother signed permission for her to marry with the name Nancy E Brown. So I starting looking for Nancy Stark in the 1880 census, and found her, now a widow living on Main St in Cross Timbers, Hickory County, Missouri. She was the head of household that included the 2 Stark children, and her brother and sister with the last name of Owsley. I hadn't known her mother's maiden name, so this was a breakthrough.

The only catch was that the children were Emma, age 2, a daughter and  a son, James A., age 1. But wait, what if the enumerator just asked the ages and names of the children, and unbeknownst to Nancy, recorded her baby girl as a son? This was confirmed in her grandfather's will, written just months after she was born - as granddaughter James Alexander Stark. 

I will that at marriage or when they become of legal age that my executor pay to Susan E. Stark and James Alexander Stark, daughters of James A Stark and my grandchildren, the sum of Ten Dollars each.

From the Will and Testament of Pleasant Stark, dated 9 December 1878

Little is known of Allie's childhood. Her mother married a widower, William Samuel Brown, when Allie was about three years old, and from this marriage, six children were born. And so it was, that just after her 17th birthday, Allie married John C. Agee, age 21. For the next 12 years they remained in Hickory County, Missouri, where Allie gave birth to at least six children, two sons dying in infancy. 

In 1907 or possibly 1908, the family packed up and moved out west. We know that they took a trip in May 1907: "John Agee and son Guss and family started last Wednesday overland in a covered wagon for a trip through the Ozark country for the benefit of Guss's health." 

AI tells me a trip by covered wagon from Hickory Co, Missouri to Lemhi Co, Idaho would take between 4 and 6 months, would require meticulous preparation of up to a year in advance, and often was preceded by the family selling off their goods and property. This occurred in Oct 1907 (30 acres of land) and Nov 1907 (joint sale of goods between John and his brother-in-law Tilden Johnson). This leads me to believe that the fall and winter were spent getting ready and the two families probably left in the spring of 1908. Tilden and Ida Belle Johnson would only stay a short while out there, long enough for their son Harry Giles to be born, but they were back in Hickory County for the 1910 census and every one thereafter.

John and Allie lived on Sandy Creek and would have one more child together, Virginia Velma, who was born in October 1910, but died the same year. This is what a cabin on Sandy Creek looked like in 1934, theirs was probably less elaborate.

They separated soon after. Allie and her remaining children (Walter, Mettie, Minnie - my grandmother, and Elizabeth) moved out into Salmon, where Allie worked to provide for them as a cook, either on ranches or at the Yellow Jacket mine, according to a 1995 letter from my uncle. 

Allie, Minnie and Elizabeth Clarissa c. 1908

In 1913, a life changing event occurred. Allie was working on the Brown ranch as a housekeeper for a 60 year old man. She was by now divorced from John and keeping company with a young man named Guy Buster. One night while Allie, Guy and her 15 year old son, Walter, were out walking they met Mr. Brown, coming from the other direction.

All Idaho, U.S., Old Penitentiary Prison Records, 1882-1961

Guy Buster, 1913

Mr. Brown told Guy to leave, and started hitting him with his walking stick. Guy then proceeded to shoot him 3-4 times. He claimed self-defense. Both Allie and Walter supported and testified to that claim. Guy was first convicted and sentenced to 10-30 years in the penitentiary, but the conviction was later overturned, a new trial took place in 1915, and it was overturned a final time in 1917. 

It was about this time that Allie left Idaho and went to Dillon, Montana, where she worked in the Acaia cleaning establishment. In 1917, she contracted erysipelas, a Streptococcus A bacterial skin infection, and died a month later in August, 1917, leaving four minor children Walter, 19, Mattie, 17, Mattie, 14 and Lizzie, 10, and a $94.00 funeral bill. 

The funeral home still exists today, and sent me a copy of this bill, and was very helpful in trying to obtain for me the actual location of where she is buried. 

We went west this summer, and that was one of my main objectives, but all I could find out was that she was likely buried in the churchyard of the First Baptist Church, where the funeral was held. However, when the church moved into town, the marked graves were disinterred and the remains taken to Mountain View Cemetery. There is no record of her in the cemetery, so her final resting place remains a mystery. Wherever she is, may she rest in peace.

Holiday Greetings from Crossville

It's hard to believe that 2024 is almost in the books, and that we have lived in Tennessee for more than 5 years now. We may live in Tennessee, but our hearts are with our loved ones, wherever you may be. We did some traveling this year, our first trip to Florida - Pensacola, in January; Hawai'i again in February to see our newest granddaughter; Indy/NY for the eclipse, Missouri in May to see Alden graduate and do another section of Route 66, and back to NY in July for John's sister, Jean's Celebration of Life. We finished our travels with a trip to Virginia for our anniversary and a short trip to do the Illinois section of Route 66 in September. We were blessed with several visits from family, including all four grandsons and Corey and Jess at Thanksgiving. Here are a few of our favorite memories.

The Ride of Her Life by Elizabeth Letts

The Ride of Her Life: The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse, and Their Last-Chance Journey Across America by Elizabeth Letts
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

4.0/5.0 - My first thought about this book is that I wish my father-in-law was still alive because I think he (and my dad) would both have enjoyed this very much. I wish I could ask them whether they remember hearing about the journey that Annie Wilkins took across America, from Maine to California, in the mid-1950s. They both grew up around horses, and were young men at the time. I think they would have been fascinated by this, as many of the people of America were, at the time.
Annie is 63, when she is given just a few years to live, after being hospitalized for what might have been thought to be TB. She remembers a dream of her mother's, to see the Pacific Ocean, and decides that she has nothing to lose (she knows she can no longer hold on to the farm in Maine, by herself), and manages to save enough money to buy a horse and sets out in November, 1954 to ride across the country with her dog, trusting that strangers will let her sleep in their barns, etc. along the way.
A newspaper gets word of the story and she becomes something of a celebrity, people in the towns she travels through often put her up for a night, or longer, and her horse(s) are always given a place in a stable. The police act as escorts through towns and offer her a place to sleep in the jail, when needed. Overall, people are very kind to her and her animals. In Tennessee, a town gives her a second horse, a Tennessee Walker, to help her along the way.
This was an interesting book, in a simpler time, and I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys animals, travel or history.

View all my reviews

2023 Holiday letter

Happy holiday, friends!
2023 was a wonderful year at our house. We joined the East Tennesee Gleaners Co-op where we taught a few classes, took a few more and enjoyed the company of like-minded people. Of course we planted a garden, focusing on tomatoes, peppers, okra, and garlic, as well as some squash and gourds, with great results. This was the first year we were able to break even on the garlic, selling about 10 pounds for seed. We also planted (with the help of a few grandsons!) 50 or so lavender for the bees.
We hosted family and friends a bunch, including friends from Texas, and most of the children and grandchildren, as well as my sister and brother-in-law. In addition to that, we did a bunch of traveling, Texas in January; Charleston in March; a quick trip to NY in April; Missouri in May, where we got to visit Alden, see where my grandmother was born and some ancestral graves, and start our Route 66 journey; Arizona in September, where I met my cousin Carl and his wife Patty for the first time, saw the Grand Canyon, and enjoyed more of Route 66!; and finally a trip to Colorado last week to see Cirque du Soleil in Denver. This was the reason I retired!
Now we are home, enjoying our Christmas decorations and the quiet until we sojourn to Hawai'i next February to see our new granddaughter, November, and her older sister, August, as well as Matt and Niah.
I'll close this letter with a few photos, and wishes for all the blessings of this holiday season for you and your loved ones.