Henry's Store ~ Wordless Wednesday

Once again I am digging into the photographs from Grandma Bonnel's photo album. This photo is captioned "Henry Whitaker's store at Lancaster, __".  Whitaker was Eva Bonnel's father-in-law. He purchased the store in 1882. The photo was damaged and faded, making it a challenge to date. Whitaker died in1902 so I believe the photograph is late 19th century. 

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun with the Nolichucky River

Randy Seaver is one of the few geneafolks who can get me back to blogging, if only briefly. His SNGF posts are always entertaining, but this one, using the extraordinary interactive Streamer map from the U.S. Department of the Interior, is irresistible for Nolichucky Roots.

Nolichucky River in East Tennessee

My mother's family lived along the Nolichucky River in East Tennessee for more than 200 years so  they did not follow the river downstream to live other spots. But they certainly traveled on it. My great-grandmother ran the Conway Ferry (near the west edge of this map) as a girl. My Hampton and Mulkey ancestors settled along the river or up Limestone Creek in the 1780s and certainly used the river to travel through the area.

I used the "trace downstream" feature to see where the Nolichucky flows. The map shows it flowing into the French Broad River, the Tennessee River and then to the Mississippi.

Nolichucky River traced downstream to mouth of the Mississippi River.

Many Conway and Killian cousins migrated from Greene and Cocke Counties to Arkansas and Missouri in the early 19th century. It is easy to see a water migration path for those who moved to Arkansas. A little less easy to see a path for the Missouri settlers though they may have landed at the boot heel and moved inland from there. However...

The establishment of the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1933 and the subsequent dam building changed the waterways of Tennessee to such a degree that this map does not fairly represent the waterways my ancestors or cousins would have traveled. The Tennessee River was notoriously challenging to navigate due to the rapids, shoals and hostile Chickamaugans controlling its banks. Many of the family members leaving East Tennessee for points west went by land through the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky. From there some may have used the Cumberland River to travel west. More research needed, but in the meantime I am having a wonderful time exploring the Nolichucky and Tennessee watersheds.

Stanley & Mary in Wyoming

I love this photograph of my husband's grandparents. It was new to both of us when we saw it in Grandma Bonnel's album. Mary Whitaker moved to Wyoming after high school and taught school on the Wind River Indian Reservation outside Lander. She met Stanley Clark there. This photo from the early 1920s was most likely taken in Fremont County, either at the school or at one of the Clark family homes. There were lots of them. Stanley's mother called her children The Wild Bunch. 

That grin of Stanley's was perpetual. If you see a bit of mischief there, that was perpetual, as well.

Blackwell, Oklahoma ~ Wordless Wednesday

Another photo from Grandma Bonnel's album. It appears near the front of the album opposite photos of her children (who as far as I know never lived in Oklahoma). One of her brothers did move to Oklahoma, so perhaps he sent this home or they went visiting. 

The Whitaker Boys ~ Sibling Saturday

(Top row) Frank, John, Artie (Front row) Joe, Harry, Lyman

I have heard my husband speak of a photograph of his Whitaker great-grandfather and brothers that he saw as a child; one that reminded him of the James Gang. Definitely a child's perspective. Not a whiff of a rumor of outlaw behavior in this crew of merchants, farmers and bankers. Still, his eyes lit up when he saw this photo again in Grandma Bonnel's photo album, some 50 years after first seeing it. 

The boys are the sons (there were daughters, too) of Henry L. Whitaker and Harriet Merriam. The cardboard frame is stamped "M. W. Rudolph, ATCHISON, KANSAS" and the names are handwritten on the frame. Artie (Arthur S. Whitaker or Stephen A. Whitaker), standing at the right, was the youngest brother, born in 1876. Lyman, seated in front on the right, was the eldest brother, born in 1858. I estimate the date of the photograph to be in the very late 19th or first decade of the 20th century.