Gutenburg--Forefather of Facebook?

Facebook?  Huh!  Johannes Gutenburg—he’s the man.  You probably didn’t realize he was one of the premier social networking geniuses of his day.  This is how I think it went down.  A bunch of Sunday school kids approached Brother Gutenburg and said, “You know, we would really like to take our scriptures to church, but these handwritten bibles are too heavy, too big, and they don’t fit in our cowhide scripture totes.  Can you help?” 

And so he did.   By 1450 the printing press was up and running. Boy, did that start a social networking buzz in a lot of circles—the possibility of reading the “good word” and other books yourself!   Next thing you know Martin Luther was tacking his 95 Theses on a German church door, and down the road those pesky American colonists were delivering a Declaration of Independence!  Since that day, the printed word has been used to shape man’s opinions, share his ideas and inventions, and rally the people to causes, noble or otherwise.

Then along came newspapers, a wonderful medium to keep in you in touch with the goings on of the world.  Some of it true and some of it, well….

Before the pony express, the telegraph, the telephone , first class mail, overnight shipping, email, and yes, tweets.  Before the fact checkers were around, tales of the “wild” west crept into eastern newspapers, maybe not for truth’s sake, but to sell papers!  The people in the West didn’t even know they were the subject of,“Oh my heaven’s, did you hear about …?”-type conversations in the social circles of the East. Little did the East know that the West had its own communication system.    Custer might have saved himself if he knew about this article in the Sioux Times:

Strategic POW-WOW  Tonight!

“Smoke -in-the-Face  fairly certain despite rain wiping out end of signals this morning that white man, ”C. U.S. T…,” traveling to Little Bighorn.  Meet in Chief Sitting Bull’s teepee tonight at full moon.  All braves needed.  Learn how teach white man lesson. Peace pipes for all who attend. Squaw duty for  cowards.  We’re going to win, I tell you! I’ve seen soldiers falling into camp like grasshoppers.”—Sitting Bull

And then there was that whole North and South thing!

Do you remember the episode of Little House on the Prairie when Mrs. Olesen tried her hand at a Walnut Grove publication?  It was called "Harriet’s Happenings". She really got herself in a pickle with her gossip-style writing in her very own column. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

One truth that did make it from West to East was that there was “gold in them there hills.”  Easterners dropped everything, hitched up their brand spanking new Conestogas and headed west.  I think the good Lord smiles from above watching all the antics of men.  Surely, he put the gold in the west just to see if the Easterners would go there.  And go there they did. 

But aside from reporting about the bigger problems of the world, my guess is that folks in big and little towns all across America went straight to the Society Pages of their local newspaper to see what the “Joneses” were up to.  I can see them scouring the newspaper for tidbits about the well being or current news of their family and neighbors. That was the Facebook of 19^th and 20^th century America. 

If you made the society pages, WOW!  My husband and I made the Society Pages  once—our engagement announcement. It came out just a few weeks before our wedding.  None of this “countdown” till the wedding stuff with repeat notices.  We're probably part of the very last generation to be featured in a newspaper this way.  According to my reading, I haven’t seen a marriage announcement in years.  

Maybe you don’t miss the intricate details of so and so’s wedding… Here's a cut and paste sample from the Lima News (Lima, Ohio), 1944.

And here’s something akin to putting your social security number online…or bragging?  Lima (Ohio) News, 7 Nov 1901, p. 8

Mr. & Mrs. _______celebrated their fifth anniversary of their marriage Monday.  About 100 guests were invited and MANY  VALUABLE [caps added] presents were received.

Oh, and identity theft?  That’s nothing new…
Lima (Ohio) News, 3 Aug 1932, p. 2

It’s always good to have your family on the right side of the law…Arnold F. Bessire (1858-1941)
Lima (Ohio) News, 24 April 1914, p. 15.

My great-grandfather, Chester Allen Arthur Bessire (1883-1953) on the move...
Cando (North Dakota) Herald Record, 19 September 1912

Emma Bessire Allgier (1881-1945), daughter of Arnold F. Bessire...Lima (Ohio) News, 27 August 1945, p. 2

 Frederick Donovan Bessire (1905-1918), grandson of Arnold F. Bessire...Lima (Ohio) News, 14 July 1918, p.9

My great grandmother, Ida Mae Bessire (1889-1960), must have had need for this. She saved it in her telephone book. 

In this day and age we all have need for a little prayer. I'm going to say a little prayer of thanks for newspapers.  Here's to all the wonderful people who are digitizing and indexing them so we can find our ancestors on the Facebook of the past.  Thanks Mr. Gutenburg, you started it all.

Decoration Day Memories

I walked by some lilac bushes today.  The fragrance reminded me of the lilac and snowball bush stems we used to decorate family graves during my youth.  I'm sorry to say that tradition has not carried on so much in my immediate family. 

Durfees & Cahoons in Sunny Cedar Rest Cemetery, Almo, Idaho

My mother grew up in Almo, Idaho.  She was raised by her grandparents, Eugene & Keturah Bronson Durfee. Her grandfather, Eugene Durfee (1882-1960) took care of the Almo cemetery known as Sunny Cedar Rest, during his lifetime.  She has told me that he always made sure the family gravesites were clean and taken care of.   It sits on the slant of a hill facing east amidst cedars and sagebrush.  Due to lack of water, the cemetery remains in a primitive state, mostly weeds and rocks, no lush green grass.   You might stumble on a lizard or snake and take your chances in the outhouse.  My mother always worried about snakes, yet she roamed the hillsides of this mountain community as a young girl.  The cemetery is still in use and boasts some interesting headstones of the past and present.

The tradition I observed, was families getting together to clean the weeds off the plots of departed family members and sprucing them up for Memorial Day. It was a grand reunion for families that had not seen each other since “last year” whenever that might have been. Mounds of dirt might be piled high to indicate the position of the actual grave with rocks gathered to outline the mounds.  Some groups of graves were surrounded by an actual fence.  Was the fence to keep someone or something in or out?   Fresh flowers didn’t last long in a cemetery such as this but they were a stark contrast to the landscape and provided great beauty.  Plastic, colorful flowers or wreaths worked well here.  I remember going a lot as a young girl, even having an occasional picnic as the day of visiting stretched longer.   I actually was at this cemetery taking pictures of headstones the Memorial Day weekend just before our first son was born, the one that “loves” (tongue in cheek) to visit cemeteries. 

My mother started to build a record of all those buried in the Almo Cemetery.  She spent years on it, chasing down living connections and researching records.  I helped by taking pictures of every headstone.  Towards that cause many trips have been taken to the Almo Cemetery.  Her health has not allowed her to finish this project as she would like. It’s still a lingering goal to get this published in one way or another.

We are related to practically everyone in that cemetery.  But that's a whole other blog!



The father my mother never knew.
Sunny Cedar Rest Cemetery, Almo, Idaho



The grandparents that raised my mother.
Sunny Cedar Rest Cemetery, Almo, Idaho.

Bessires in Sunset Memorial Park, Twin Falls, Idaho

Chester Allen Arthur Bessire (1883-1953), my great-grandfather was the care taker of the Sunset Memorial Park cemetery on Kimberly Road in Twin Falls, Idaho. He is now buried there along with his wife, Ida Mae Menser Bessire (1889-1960).

Chester Allen Arthur Bessire, 1947
Caretaker Sunset Memorial Park

Sunset Memorial Park Cemetery
Twin Falls, Idaho

Grandpa Glenn Bessire (1912-1981) and his two wives, first Phyllis Boley Bessire (1916-2002) and second, Thora Bates Bessire (1916-1994) are both buried in the Sunset Memorial Park cemetery.  Both women were affectionately called “Grandma” by all our family.

Sunset Memorial Park
Twin Falls, Idaho

My uncle, M.B. (Maylon Boley) Bessire (1943-2008) is also buried in Sunset Memorial Park.  His passing was such a surprise and we miss his infectious personality and incredible talents so much.

Boleys in Twin Falls Cemetery, Twin Falls, Idaho

Just recently I was surprised to learn that my great-grandmother, Orilla Woodhouse Boley , mother of Phyllis Boley Bessire, loved yellow flowers.  My dad makes sure she has some on her grave every Memorial Day.  She is buried in the Twin Falls Cemetery, along with her husband M.B. Boley and his father Cyrus Maylon Boley. Two infant daughters of M.B. and Orilla are buried with Cyrus:  Josephine Boley (1915-1916) and Jean Boley (Nov 1922).

Twin Falls Cemetery, Twin Falls, Idaho

Twin Falls Cemetery, Twin Falls, Idaho