Category Archives: Something to Remember

Why did the pigeon-toed girl cross the board?

Posted on by
6

To avoid wearing orthopedic shoes.

Do you see the problem here?  How about here?     Certainly not here!
           

Yup, those are my little pigeon-toed legs in the first picture. When we lived in Great Bend, Kansas, Mom took my little pigeon-toed legs to an orthopedic doctor to see what he could do about them. He looked me over and had me walk back and forth across the examination room. Then he told my mom to walk across the room. “Um hum,” he said, “She got that from you, Mom.”

As Mom’s puzzled expression changed to realization, you could hear the indignation in her voice as she replied, “Well, I’ve never had a problem with my legs!”

And you can see, as we are pointing out in that last picture, Mom did not have a problem with her legs.

The doctor stuck by his professional opinion and did his best to explain that the problem resided in our knees… the lower leg bone turned in at the joint. (That middle picture is of Mom’s little girl legs.) Mom wasn’t buying her part in this, I could tell, but she didn’t argue. The good doc pulled out the ugliest, clunky, oxford-style brown shoes you would never want to wear and told me these would be mine…. unless I followed his instructions.

I was to practice walking on a board every day until my return visit and if I could walk with my feet pointing straight ahead when I came back to see him, I could avoid those ugly shoes.

Dad (Jim) went to the lumber yard and bought me my own 6-foot piece of lumber. He laid it in an open space in the basement and I walked back and forth on that board every day because there was no way I would be caught dead in those shoes.

 

 

Tombstone Tuesday – Where is Ann Rutledge’s Mother?

Posted on by
2

I wanted to go to Bethel Cemetery because we have people there.

Dad wanted to go to Bethel Cemetery because Ann Rutledge’s mother is there.

Dad at Bethel Cemetery, Lick Creek, Van Buren, Iowa

 

When Teresa gave us directions to Bethel Cemetery, she said that two dogs would come running to greet us. They did. And the back end of one of them made it into this picture.

The dogs live at the house in the picture above. I don’t know if the occupants of the house are responsible for the upkeep of the cemetery, but if they are, they do a nice job.

Displaced markers

We are not related to Ann Rutledge, but she and her mother are the claim to fame for little Bethel Cemetery in Lick Creek Township north of Birmingham, Van Buren County, Iowa.

Dad(Jerry) remembers attending a reunion of former Bethel Church members here when he was about 8 years old (or maybe he could have been as old as 12, he said). He was with his Uncle Clayton Smith in the cemetery and he remembers his uncle tapping his foot on a grave marker and saying “Look here,” drawing his attention to the grave of Mary Ann Rutledge. Dad says he knew the story of Ann Rutledge and Abraham Lincoln as a boy – maybe learning about it in school.

I had never heard of Ann Rutledge, or her connection to the president.

The brief version of the story is that Abraham Lincoln met Ann Rutledge when they both lived in New Salem, Illinois – he possibly lived as a boarder in the Rutledge home. He and Ann became sweethearts and were engaged to be married. Ann fell ill during the summer of 1835 and died before their planned wedding. Her father died of the same illness a couple of months later. Ann’s mother, Mary Ann, moved west to Iowa in 1837 with her six surviving children and settled on a farm on the Van Buren County and Jefferson County line. Ann’s mother, who lived to the age of 91, is buried in Bethel Cemetery.

I did just a little research and found that there is not universal support for this story of first love lost. A contemporary of Lincoln’s made the story public, but he did not like Mary Todd Lincoln, and his telling of the story was insulting to her (as in, Lincoln’s only true love had been Ann Rutledge…). Two internet sources, should you wish to know more, are the Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association and History News Network.

There is a little kiosk-type shelter with information about the Bethel Church and Ann Rutledge at the front of the cemetery. I took pictures of the information posted there and those pictures are at the end of this post. One bit of information I read there that would seem to support Lincoln’s familiarity with the Rutledge family is that Lincoln appointed Ann’s brother, Robert Rutledge, to the position of provost marshal of the First Congressional District of Iowa during the Civil War.

But back to our search for Mary Ann Rutledge…

The cemetery records we looked at in the library recorded Mary Ann Rutledge in Row 9. If I counted correctly, this is Row 9:

Bethel Cemetery, Row 9

There are not many markers on Row 9. We looked everywhere for the tall marker which is supposed to mark the grave of Mary Ann Rutledge. We looked again. We looked at all of the rows and all of the markers. We looked some more. We never found her. I don’t know if we just couldn’t see what was right before our eyes, or if her marker is down, or the inscription faded? But we were getting hot and tired.

And we had family to find.

Sorry, Dad. I know you wanted to find Ann Rutledge’s mother.

The inscription on her marker – although I couldn’t verify it – is reported to be:

Mary Ann Rutledge
Wife of
Jas. Rutledge
Died
Dec. 16, 1878
Aged
91 yrs. 2 mos. 5 ds.
“O mother dear a short farewell that we may meet again above and
rove where angels love to swell where trees of life bear fruits of love.”

 

Reminiscences of Bethel Church 1915

Dedication of Bethel ME Church 1917

 

Bethel Church History 1906

Deed for the church?

Lincoln Called Her "Mom"

Lincoln Called Her Mom 2

 

Mother of Ann Rutledge Buried in Iowa Grave

Mother of Ann Rutledge 2

Addendum: November 12, 2012

Dad made a trip back to Bethel Cemetery last month with cousins Alice and Adele. Guess what! They had no problem finding the headstone for Mary Ann Rutledge. It was right where it was supposed to be. It was tall. It had a GAR marker. I don’t know what our problem was back in July. Maybe it was temporarily abducted by aliens.

Grave of Ann Rutledge, Bethel Cemetery, Van Buren Co., Iowa

 

Motivation Monday – Becoming Real

Posted on by
2

I can’t really call myself a genealogist, or even much of a family historian. Every bit of information I have gathered has been via the internet, family papers and photos, or talking with relatives. I have sent off for a few vital records and once I even requested a couple of microfilms to view at the local Family History Center…. That’s kind of like a real genealogist.

But I had never actually gone to a place where my ancestors lived. No visits to county courthouses. No cemeteries. Nada.

Just like the Velveteen Rabbit needed to be loved to become real, I need to get out of the house and do some research to become real.

Two days after Jo’s funeral, Dad(Jerry) needed to get out of the house, so we took an afternoon drive to Van Buren County, Iowa. I had done a little bit of preparation before leaving Texas – but not much given that funerals and the travel involved are typically unexpected and offer little time for advance preparations. I found “Tips for Genealogy Research Visits” on the Van Buren County Iowa Genweb Project website, and I printed out a genealogy report for the Smith side of my family. That’s all the preparation I had time for.

Our first stop was the Van Buren County Courthouse in Keosauqua. Unfortunately, we arrived at lunch time and no one was there. We looked at the historical pictures on the walls and the visitor brochures and were about to leave when an employee returned. She directed us to the Keosauqua Public Library where she thought we would have better luck finding information. Dad was getting tired and needed a little nap, so a stop at the library would serve his purposes as well as mine. Libraries are quiet and usually have comfy chairs for napping reading.

The librarian pointed me to the genealogy corner maintained by the local genealogical society and said Teresa was back there and she would be able to help me. Teresa makes frequent visits to the cemeteries in the county and contributes to Find a Grave, so she was able to give me specific directions to the cemetery I wanted to visit. I didn’t have much time – just 40 winks worth – but Teresa helped me locate a file on my family and while I was copying the contents, she found an obituary for me. When I left, she gave me her cell phone number and email address so I could contact her if I needed gravestone photos. Genealogical kindness at it’s best!

I didn’t want to leave the library. I hadn’t begun to scratch the surface of what is available. There is so much more! But my 40 winks were up and we wouldn’t make it to the cemetery if we didn’t get on our way.

I thoroughly enjoyed my baby step into “real” genealogy and look forward to another visit to Van Buren County!

Next up – our visit to the cemetery.