Yesterday we happened upon the Laguna Beach Historical Society during our beach walk. It is housed in a quaint little cottage built in 1923 on Ocean Ave in Laguna Beach, CA. If you are in the area be sure and stop by and check it out. The house is beautiful and completely original. They also have an excellent collection of authentic historical photos, antique clothing and household items on display.
I understand that there is a need to raise $15,000 to preserve and make available Laguna Beach's collection of priceless historical documents, newspapers and photos. Some of which can already be seen here.
The property is owned by the bank next door and leased to the historical society for $1 per year. Hopefully, this wonderful little piece of history will be preserved for many more years to come, continuing to allow visitors a glimpse into the past.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Sepia Sunday: Proctor Logging Camp in Washington State, Summer 1947
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| Everett, Aune, Jayne Cook, Janis Proctor, Jean & Johnny Cook |
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| Proctors and Cooks; Joyce and Jayne; Aune, Jayne and Jean |
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| Ray, Johnny (in-laws=yawn), Everett, Aune & Rusty the Dog, Joyce & Jayne |
The Everett Proctor Family at Ray Proctor's logging camp in the woods near Mt. Vernon or Startup, Washington in the Summer of 1947.
I am a little late for my Sepia Saturday posting, so it will be Sepia Sunday this week.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Sepia Saturday: William Emery Travis - a brief sketch
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| William Emery Travis c.1880s |
This photo is one of the oldest in my collection. It was in the possession of my grandmother Aune Proctor. Written on the back it said, "Will Travis, brother of Everett's mom...Millie (Amelia Travis Proctor)." By looking at my family tree, I can see right away that my great grandmother Millie had two brothers who could fit this description - William Emery Travis and Wilbur Reuben Travis. Since I know that Wilbur went by the name "Rube", I am quite sure that this "Will" must be William Emery. He was born November 20, 1859 in Sidney, Iowa to Abraham and Ruth (Stoalabarger) Travis.
Will's life is fairly easy to document. In the 1860 Federal Census he is living with his parents and, at six months old, is still unnamed. Abe and Ruth must have had a difficult time naming their children, since my great grandmother Millie is also recorded as unnamed at five months old in the 1870 Federal Census. Will appears to have continued living with his parents in Sidney until he married Minerva Henrietta McCluskey (known as Ettie) on February 16, 1888. By 1900 he is living in Brock Village, Nemaha, Nebraska working as a peddler and grocer of dry goods. In 1910 he is a landlord at a hotel on Main St in East Muddy, Richardson, Nebraska and in 1920 he is a hotel keeper in Weeping Water, Cass, Nebraska. In 1930 he is in yet another Nebraska town named Gresham in York County where he is working as a restaurant proprietor. He died at 80 years old in that town on April 6, 1940.
Will and Ettie had six children between 1888 and 1899. According to the 1900 Census, five survived. They were Donald, Walter, Thomas, Herschal Abe and Millie (probably Amelia named after her aunt and my great grandmother).
Now I have the basics of his life, but I sure would like to fill it in with some stories. It appears that only the descendants of Herschal Abe have dabbled in genealogy so far and the ones that I have contacted have not returned my messages. So, for now, I will close this brief sketch of the handsome young man pictured above. Hopefully, someone will find this post someday and tell me a little about Will.
(If you liked this post, please check out my friends over at Sepia Saturday and their terrific blogs.)
Friday, January 21, 2011
Remembering Aune on her 99th Birthday
Today my maternal grandmother Aune (Reini) Proctor would have been 99 years old. She passed away Oct 24, 2007. Since it seems that she did not have an obituary published, here is my version of what it should have said:
Aune Maria Reini was born on January 21, 1912 in Hamilton, Washington to Finnish immigrants Matti Wiita and Mathilda (Huhtala) Reini. Her parents had each independently come to the U.S. from South Ostrobothnia, Finland (1900 and 1902) and married on July 6, 1906 in Washington State. Matti often worked as a foreman for the logging industry and Mathilda sometimes ran a boarding house in Seattle for newly arrived Finns.
Aune had a difficult young adulthood, which ultimately resulted in her growing into a very strong, fiery woman. She lost her two sisters, whom she very much loved and adored, and three newborn children all within a span of 11 years in her young life. She was only 13 when her oldest sister Helia died. Soon after, Aune became very ill and spent much of her 14th year in bed. Her illness was most likely due to her intense grief at losing her sister. She and her sisters had all shared a bed growing up, resulting in a special closeness between them. Aune thought so highly of her sister Helia that she spoke of her with deep love and in the most glowing of terms, almost on a daily basis, for the rest of her long life. To make matters worse for the young woman, she lost her close sister Miriam only 11 years later. After Miriam’s death, she cried so much and so often that she feared she would damage her young daughter's psyche. She managed to go on with her life, but she would always suffer the effects of the loss of those closest to her.
Aune married Everett Herman Proctor, whom she met at a dance, on May 5, 1927 in Snohomish County, Washington. She often remarked that it was love at first sight. The young couple moved into a "shack" on Everett's parents Daniel and Millie Proctor's property, where they lived until, at least, 1930.
Aune suffered from various maladies into her thirties. She had difficulty carrying her pregnancies to term and delivered all five of her children prematurely, which resulted in three of them dying before she could take them home from the hospital. (They are buried in Greenwood Memorial Park in Renton, WA.) This caused her and her husband great sadness. Her daughters Jean and Janis were able to overcome their premature starts and grew into relatively healthy children. From that point and on into her nineties, Aune enjoyed excellent health.
She began working at Boeing around 1940. For almost 30 years, she worked full time while raising her family. She enjoyed it so much that when women were urged to quit their jobs after WWII, she continued on and, eventually, managed her department. At the same time, her husband Everett was working his way up in the ranks, and was given the job of Supervisor at the Seattle Water Department. One could say that they were ahead of their time as a "career couple," long before that became the societal norm.
Aune excelled at fashion and drawing. She absolutely loved to go shopping and put together outfits for her children and grandchildren. She also expertly sewed special occasion dresses for her daughters and granddaughters. She spent much of her retirement, joining her daughter Janis at the mall, or taking the bus on her own, for a day of shopping. When she was home, she would sit and sketch female silhouettes for hours. Those who knew her, often remarked that she should have had a career as a designer or buyer for a retail store.
She became a young widow after 47 years of marriage, when Everett passed away in 1974 while they were living in Rancho Bernardo, CA. She soon moved a few blocks to the home of her daughter Janis Moore and her family, spending the summers with her elder daughter Jean Hewitt in Salt Lake City, UT. She lived a very active life and was immersed in her grandchildren’s activities on a daily basis (including doing their paper routes and mowing the lawns when they were supposed to do it themselves). In her day to day life, other than her regular shopping trips, she enjoyed her religion, crossword puzzles (she could spell anything), Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy, dancing, sweets and babies (of which she was provided a never ending supply in the form of grandchildren, great grandchildren and great, great grandchildren). She was a hardy old woman, seemingly immune to common illnesses like cancer and heart problems that plagued others her age. She had been repeatedly exposed in her younger years to handfuls of asbestos, extended x-rays and secondhand smoke, but none of this had an effect on her. She seemed like she would live forever...
In the summer of 2007, her daughter Janis was finally unable to continue to care for her full time, as she had been doing for quite a few years prior, because her husband Tony was suffering from Parkinson’s Disease. So, her elder daughter Jean arranged to have her cared for in a nursing home in Salt Lake City. At first, Aune seemed to enjoy her time there, socializing and taking part in the daily activities. However, she soon deteriorated and passed away after only having been there about four months. There can be no doubt that her legacy continues to live on in her large family. At the time of her death, she had 9 grandchildren, 13 great grandchildren and 2 great, great grandchildren. She was predeceased by her husband, her sisters Helia and Miriam, her half-sister in Finland Hilma (Wiita) Myllykangas, her brothers Louie and George, her half-brother Einar Huhtala, three infant children and one grandchild Kathleen Cook.
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| Everett and Aune Proctor c.1930s |
Aune Maria Reini was born on January 21, 1912 in Hamilton, Washington to Finnish immigrants Matti Wiita and Mathilda (Huhtala) Reini. Her parents had each independently come to the U.S. from South Ostrobothnia, Finland (1900 and 1902) and married on July 6, 1906 in Washington State. Matti often worked as a foreman for the logging industry and Mathilda sometimes ran a boarding house in Seattle for newly arrived Finns.
Aune had a difficult young adulthood, which ultimately resulted in her growing into a very strong, fiery woman. She lost her two sisters, whom she very much loved and adored, and three newborn children all within a span of 11 years in her young life. She was only 13 when her oldest sister Helia died. Soon after, Aune became very ill and spent much of her 14th year in bed. Her illness was most likely due to her intense grief at losing her sister. She and her sisters had all shared a bed growing up, resulting in a special closeness between them. Aune thought so highly of her sister Helia that she spoke of her with deep love and in the most glowing of terms, almost on a daily basis, for the rest of her long life. To make matters worse for the young woman, she lost her close sister Miriam only 11 years later. After Miriam’s death, she cried so much and so often that she feared she would damage her young daughter's psyche. She managed to go on with her life, but she would always suffer the effects of the loss of those closest to her.
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| Aune, Helia and Miriam Reini, c.1925 |
Aune married Everett Herman Proctor, whom she met at a dance, on May 5, 1927 in Snohomish County, Washington. She often remarked that it was love at first sight. The young couple moved into a "shack" on Everett's parents Daniel and Millie Proctor's property, where they lived until, at least, 1930.
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| Aune and Everett c.1930s |
Aune suffered from various maladies into her thirties. She had difficulty carrying her pregnancies to term and delivered all five of her children prematurely, which resulted in three of them dying before she could take them home from the hospital. (They are buried in Greenwood Memorial Park in Renton, WA.) This caused her and her husband great sadness. Her daughters Jean and Janis were able to overcome their premature starts and grew into relatively healthy children. From that point and on into her nineties, Aune enjoyed excellent health.
She began working at Boeing around 1940. For almost 30 years, she worked full time while raising her family. She enjoyed it so much that when women were urged to quit their jobs after WWII, she continued on and, eventually, managed her department. At the same time, her husband Everett was working his way up in the ranks, and was given the job of Supervisor at the Seattle Water Department. One could say that they were ahead of their time as a "career couple," long before that became the societal norm.
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| Everett and Aune 1956 |
Aune excelled at fashion and drawing. She absolutely loved to go shopping and put together outfits for her children and grandchildren. She also expertly sewed special occasion dresses for her daughters and granddaughters. She spent much of her retirement, joining her daughter Janis at the mall, or taking the bus on her own, for a day of shopping. When she was home, she would sit and sketch female silhouettes for hours. Those who knew her, often remarked that she should have had a career as a designer or buyer for a retail store.
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| Aune c.1940s |
She became a young widow after 47 years of marriage, when Everett passed away in 1974 while they were living in Rancho Bernardo, CA. She soon moved a few blocks to the home of her daughter Janis Moore and her family, spending the summers with her elder daughter Jean Hewitt in Salt Lake City, UT. She lived a very active life and was immersed in her grandchildren’s activities on a daily basis (including doing their paper routes and mowing the lawns when they were supposed to do it themselves). In her day to day life, other than her regular shopping trips, she enjoyed her religion, crossword puzzles (she could spell anything), Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy, dancing, sweets and babies (of which she was provided a never ending supply in the form of grandchildren, great grandchildren and great, great grandchildren). She was a hardy old woman, seemingly immune to common illnesses like cancer and heart problems that plagued others her age. She had been repeatedly exposed in her younger years to handfuls of asbestos, extended x-rays and secondhand smoke, but none of this had an effect on her. She seemed like she would live forever...
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| Aune c.1970s |
In the summer of 2007, her daughter Janis was finally unable to continue to care for her full time, as she had been doing for quite a few years prior, because her husband Tony was suffering from Parkinson’s Disease. So, her elder daughter Jean arranged to have her cared for in a nursing home in Salt Lake City. At first, Aune seemed to enjoy her time there, socializing and taking part in the daily activities. However, she soon deteriorated and passed away after only having been there about four months. There can be no doubt that her legacy continues to live on in her large family. At the time of her death, she had 9 grandchildren, 13 great grandchildren and 2 great, great grandchildren. She was predeceased by her husband, her sisters Helia and Miriam, her half-sister in Finland Hilma (Wiita) Myllykangas, her brothers Louie and George, her half-brother Einar Huhtala, three infant children and one grandchild Kathleen Cook.
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| Aune c.1990 |
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