Harlan Joseph Shanower, 1916-2013

Harlan Joseph Shanower (1916-2013).

My second cousin twice removed, Harlan Joseph Shanower, passed away last Saturday, January 26, 2013, in Aultman Hospital in Canton, Stark County, Ohio. He was born on November 8, 1916, in Welshfield, Troy Township, Geauga County, Ohio, to Olen Earl Shanower and Cora Edith Mathias Shanower. Our common ancestors were Harlan's great-grandparents John and Polly Roush Shanower, my great-great-great-grandparents.

I never met Harlan Shanower, but I know that he was a long-time firefighter and fathered a line of Shanower firefighters in Stark County, Ohio. He was also a World War II veteran and worked for Republic Steel for more than forty years, retiring in 1980. You can read his full obituary here.

The funeral service will be Wednesday, January 30, at 1 pm at Kreighbaum-Sanders Funeral Home, 4041 Cleveland Avenue South, Canton, Ohio  44707. Interment will be Sunset Hills Burial Park. Memorial donations may be made to the Stark County Fire Fighters Association, 306 Wooster NE, Navarre, Ohio  44662.

I'm saddened by the loss of another member of the family, and I extend my condolences to all who knew Harlan Shanower.

The Hirvi Homes of Finn Hollow, Fairport

Up until a couple years ago I’d never heard the term Finn Hollow. As associated with the little blue-collar town of Fairport Harbor, Lake County, Ohio, Finn Hollow seems to have been a name recently resurrected from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. My mother had never heard it either, and she spent much of her childhood growing up in Fairport, the town where her parents, aunts, and uncles had all grown up, too.

My great-great-grandfather, Wilhelm Heikkinpoika Hirvi (1866-1949), didn't grow up in Fairport, but he was one of the men who built Finn Hollow there. He was born in Ylistaro, Heippolan Kyla, Finland, and immigrated to the USA, arriving on March 18, 1884, at the age of seventeen. It’s probable that he went to Ashtabula, Ashtabula County, Ohio, for a while, which had a large population of Finnish immigrants. But my cousin Kenneth J. Quiggle* (born 1944) reports that Wilhelm first went to Burton, Geauga County, Ohio. (I have Shanower relatives still living in Burton.) As many Finnish immigrants did, Wilhelm may have been working on the New Central Railroad that went to nearby Chardon, Ohio. But that’s speculation on my part.

Somewhere along the way Wilhelm Hirvi's name was Americanized to William "Bill" Hervey. On September 11, 1885, he and twenty-two other Finnish immigrants—many from Ashtabula—moved to Fairport Harbor on the east bank of the Grand River where it meets Lake Erie. There they established the area of Fairport known as Finn Hollow or “alanko.”

Finn Hollow included ten houses built by those Finnish immigrants next to the Grand River on land above the docks where many of them worked. The land belonged to the Pennsylvania and Lake Erie Dock Company. The PLE allowed the men and their families to live there with the understanding that the land could be reclaimed by the company. So the houses were built with the knowledge that one day it might be necessary to move them.

In the early twentieth century, that day came. Nine of the houses were moved to locations elsewhere in Fairport. But for some reason Wilhelm Hirvi’s house was not moved. I suspect it was either not on the portion of land that the PLE intended to use or else it was not actually on PLE land. In any case, it’s still there at 116 Fourth Street in Fairport. The other houses still survive, too, although not in their original Finn Hollow locations.

[Update, August 2013: A family member reports that Wilhelm Hirvi's house wasn't moved because it was the only one of the Finn Hollow houses that had a basement.]

Wilhelm Hirvi and Wilhelmina Oberg Hirvi's Finn Hollow home in recent days, still in its original position at 116 Fourth Street, Fairport Harbor, Ohio. This photo is courtesy of my second cousin once removed Lee Silvi (born 1952), great-grandson of Wilhelm and Wilhelmina through their daughter Lillian Justina Hirvi Silvi (1901-1964), and is used with his permission. Photo copyright © 2012 Lee Silvi. All rights reserved.

Wilhelm Hirvi was naturalized on March 26, 1895, in Fairport Harbor. Wilhelm worked on the PLE docks. He would enter the holds of ships carrying iron ore and shovel the ore into buckets, which were hoisted out and the ore loaded into railway cars. He worked his way up to gang foreman, driving the men on the docks so hard that they called him “Wild Bill” and hated him. Brutal work and unforgiving attitudes of his fellow workers may have been contributing factors to why he drank.

On March 15, 1888, he married Wilhelmina Oberg (1865-1945), another Finnish immigrant to Fairport by way of Ashtabula. She, like Wilhelm, had been born in Ylistaro, Finland. I have no idea whether they knew each other as kids in Finland, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they did.

Wilhelm and Wilhelmina had seven children, six who survived to adulthood. Their eldest, John (1888-1918), was born October 31, only seven and a half months after his parents’ marriage, so it looks as though he was conceived out of wedlock. That would have been scandalous at the time, though hardly uncommon. I suspect it was a primary reason for his parents’ marriage, probably just after Wilhelmina realized she was pregnant. Great-great-uncle John died at age thirty during 1918’s worldwide flu epidemic. Wilhelm and Wilhelmina's second child was my great-grandmother Wilhelmina Elizabeth “Minnie” Hirvi Stuuri (1890-1946).

One of Wilhelm’s older brothers, Johan Heikki Hirvi (1860-1935), also emigrated from Finland and ended up in Finn Hollow in Fairport Harbor. I don't know whether he arrived in the USA before Wilhelm, afterward, or whether they traveled together. Johan Heikki's name was Americanized to John Henry Hervey and he was called Henry. In 1891 when the Fairport Fire Department was established, Henry Hervey was among the first group of firemen. This great-great-great-uncle of mine also lived in Finn Hollow in one of the nine Finn Hollow homes that were moved. Its current address is 221 Fourth Street in Fairport.

Wilhelm retired from the docks in 1933. He served several terms on the Fairport village council. On July 10, 1949, he died at the Painesville, Lake County, Ohio, home of his daughter Sigrid Maria Hirvi Ollila Youppi (1897-1989) and her second husband Frank Youppi. Wilhelm's funeral took place at Suomi Zion Lutheran Church in Fairport where he was a charter member. That’s the church that all my mother’s Fairport family have attended since they helped to establish it. You can see an old photo of the church in one of my earlier blog posts here.

Sometime about the mid-1940s Wilhelm Hirvi recorded a song on a home-made record. You can listen to it right here. I’m afraid the sound isn’t very good, especially for the first six or seven seconds. The whole thing isn’t very long—only 48 seconds. Wilhelm sang in Finnish, but even if you can speak the language, I doubt you’ll be able to distinguish the words. If you recognize the song, please let me know the title in the comments section at the end of this post. Whether anyone finds it listenable or not, I’m just glad this recording of my great-great-grandfather, a Finnish immigrant, survives.

Click Here to Listen to Wilhelm Hirvi sing.

Depending on your audio player you may need to click the little PLAY arrow.

* Kenneth J. Quiggle is my second cousin once removed through my maternal grandfather’s family, the Hietanens. Ken’s grandfather Forrest Quiggle (died 1961) married my great-great-aunt Aliisa Elviira “Ella” Hietanen (1894-1950). Ken could also be considered my second cousin twice removed along my maternal grandmother’s Hirvi/Hervey line, too, if you take two marriages of one woman into account. June Megley (1924-2007) married my first cousin three times removed Richard Henry Hervey (1917-1962). June Megley Hervey’s second husband was my first cousin twice removed Kenneth Grant Quiggle (1920-1986), uncle of Kenneth J. Quiggle.

An Abundance of Crisco

Edna Marietta McNaughton Shanower as a young woman, circa 1910.

I met my great-grandmother Edna Marietta McNaughton Shanower (1891-1964) when I was a baby, but I don't remember her. She died in a car accident about six months after I was born.

In 1923 she entered a newspaper contest for the best menu. She won the contest and the newspaper printed her prize-winning menu, as follows:

Cleveland Plain Dealer, November 27, 1923

Contest First Prize Wins the Writer $5

Our family consists of father, a superintendent of service stations, who is driving every day; four boys, 11, 8, 6 and 2, and myself.

It is lovely to have girls, but mothers with boys just give them a chance to help while young and find they love to help fix things they like and often at the table they say, I helped make that dish.

We use lots of fruit, fresh and canned.

BREAKFAST.
Grapefruit
(Ralston’s) Cereal with Top Milk
Toast, Butter
Broiled Bacon
Cereal Cookies
Coffee
Milk for Children

LUNCH
Cream of Tomato Soup
(Mueller’s) Spaghetti with Cheese Top
With Grape Nuts
Brown Bread and Butter
Apple Sauce With Cranberries
Milk for Children.

DINNER
Chicken en Casserole
Mashed Potatoes
Cabbage and Celery Salad
Bread and Butter
Quince Jelly
Cinnamon Cake
Coffee
Milk for Boys

Cereal Cookies.
Cream together 1 ½ cups sugar, 2-3 cup crisco, add 1 teaspoon vanilla, 1 beaten egg, 1 cup milk. Mix together 1 cup rolled oats, ½ cup grape nuts, add to creamed mixture and add flour of consistency to drop from a spoon.

Apple Sauce With Cranberries.
Make apple sauce as usual. Cook and sweeten the cranberries. To 4 cups of apple sauce use 1 cup of cranberries. It is a lovely color.

Chicken en Casserole.
When ready to cook chicken put frying pan on stove with 2 tablespoons of butter and 2 of lard. Roll the pieces of chicken in flour, which is salted, and fry a nice brown. Put into casserole with 1 onion, a little more salt, a little pepper and cover 2-3 with water. Let cook in hot oven for two hours. Other vegetables may be added if liked.

Cinnamon Cake.
Take 1 egg, 1 cup granulated sugar, 3-4 cup crisco, beat well together, add 1 tablespoon of cinnamon, 1 cup raisins, 1 cup cold coffee, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 2 ½ cups flour sifted last.

Beat well and bake in a shallow pan. Before putting to bake sprinkle liberally with sugar and cinnamon mixed which forms an icing baked.

Bake in a slow oven thirty minutes.

It is better the day after baked.

MRS. D. E. SHANOWER.
Mentor.

The “father” Edna refers to in her first sentence was her husband, David Elmer Shanower (1885-1967), my great-grandfather. Their four boys are Malcolm David (1913-1997), Robert Benjamin (1915-1969), my grandfather Stanley Raymond (1917-1987), and Rowland Glen (1921-1973). Still to be born when this menu was published was their fifth boy, Maynard Austin (1925-1944).

Shanower Family, circa 1935. Back: Stanley, Malcolm, Robert, Rowland. Front: Edna, Maynard, David.

There are some curiosities in Edna’s menu. Look at the list of lunch dishes. Does she really mean she served spaghetti with Grape Nuts? That must be an error on someone’s part—either Edna’s error when writing out her contest submission or the newspaper’s typographical error when printing the menu. Right? Or is Grape Nuts sprinkled over spaghetti a delicacy of which I’ve been heretofore unaware?

When I mentioned this menu and its recipes to my father, he was surprised. He never knew his grandmother Edna to use a recipe when cooking or baking. She was basically a stranger to measuring tools, he claims. Yet here are recipes written by her that call for specific amounts of ingredients.

Note in particular the recipes that use Crisco. Her recipe for Cereal Cookies calls for two to three cups of it. The rest of the measured ingredients altogether are only just over a cup more than the amount of Crisco. Now, she doesn’t specify an amount of flour, just “add flour of consistency to drop from a spoon.” That would have to be a lot of flour to balance all that Crisco. I guess “father” and those four boys ate a lot of cookies.

Then the recipe for Cinnamon Cake calls for even more Crisco—three to four cups—but only two and a half cups of flour. How much Crisco were people using in the 1920s?

Maybe because Edna never used measuring tools, she misjudged the measurements when submitting these recipes. But would anyone have misjudged so radically? That’s a lot of Crisco!

I’d think the newspaper would’ve had someone prepare the dishes they were considering for prizes.  Maybe they did, but even I—who am no cook—have to wonder whether this recipe would result in something edible, much less prize-winning.

Was Crisco a big investor in the Cleveland Plain Dealer at the time? Or maybe the Plain Dealer wanted Crisco’s advertising? Who knows? But if anyone tries out these recipes involving an abundance of Crisco—or Grape Nuts on spaghetti—let me know the results in the comments section.

[Addendum, January 23, 2013 - As David has pointed out in the comments section and a friend pointed out on Facebook, the 2-3 and 3-4 in Edna's recipes ought to read instead 2/3 and 3/4. For some reason, whoever set the type for the newspaper page used hyphens rather than slashes. Mystery solved. However, why there's a "with" before Grape Nuts is still open to possible solutions.]

Like the Cheese

Swiss cheese. It has holes. Like my Shanower ancestral line. Or should I spell it Schonauer? That’s how they spelled it back in Grosshochstetten, Canton Bern, Switzerland, where my possible ancestor Andreas Schonauer was born about 1560.

There’s a huge hole in the line of descent from Andreas Schonauer and his wife Elsbeth Krahenbuhl Schonauer (1558-?). Here, in a previous blog post about my five times great-grandfather Henry Shanower, I pointed out that hole between the Schonauers and their purported Shanower descendants. There’s no definite connection between them, no proof that my oldest direct Shanower ancestor, my five times great-grandfather Henry, descended from the Schonauers of Switzerland.

Two factors support the idea that he didn’t. The first is a discontinuity of names—the lack of earlier Henrys. I’ve found no Henrys among earlier Schonauers, a family that tended to reuse names through the generations.

I’ve come across several Henry Shoners and Heinrich Schoners while researching alternate spellings, but so far I haven’t found any family connections among Shoners or Schoners to my five times great-grandfather Henry Shanower.

There is, however, a Henry Schannauer (1859-1860) descended from the Swiss Schonauers in another line. But this Henry, who died before he was a year old, was born several decades after my five times great-grandfather Henry Shanower probably died. So the existence of this infant Henry probably doesn’t signal a continuity of names.

There are Jacobs and Johns, Abrahams and Magdalenas on both sides of the hole, though, so maybe those names show continuity. And Henry’s son Jacob Shanower (1785-1829) had his last name spelled variously as Shoenauer and Schöenhauer. Those spellings might indicate a link to the Swiss Schonauers, too.

The second factor indicating that Henry Shanower might not be descended from the Swiss Schonauers is the possible German origin of Henry’s ancestors. My father has long believed the received information that the Shanowers came from Germany, not Switzerland. An early twentieth century report of a Shanower family reunion mentions the German origin of the family. So maybe my Shanower line wasn’t Swiss, but German.

However, I can explain how a Swiss family line might come to be considered German. The Swiss Hans Schonauer (1644-aft. 1711) and his wife Elisabeth Aebersold Schonauer (abt. 1647-aft. 1711), of Grosshochstetten, Canton Bern, Switzerland, were persecuted for their religious beliefs. In 1710 they were imprisoned at the Upper Hospital in Bern because they were Anabaptists. They managed to buy their way out of jail, but in 1711 they were exiled from Switzerland and put onto a ship bound for Holland. They escaped at Mannheim, Germany, the main city of the Palatinate.

Karl Ludwig I von der Pfalz by Gerrit van Honthorst.

Germany’s Palatinate in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries was a province in southern Germany between the Swiss and French borders along the headwaters of the Rhine. It was known for being an area of religious tolerance by direction of Karl Ludwig I von der Pfalz, Elector Palatinate (1617-1680), known at the English court as Charles Louis I. He wanted people to move into the area, which had been depopulated by the Thirty Years’ War. (Incidentally, Karl Ludwig I is related to David by being the fifteen times great-nephew of Euphemia Bruce of the Scottish royal family, David’s many times great-grandmother.) Many Anabaptist Swiss emigres spent years in the Palatinate before renewed religious persecution from France caused them to emigrate again. This time they settled in North America, primarily in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, where William Penn’s Quaker views were a good fit with the beliefs of such Anabaptist sects as the Mennonites and the Amish.

In 1729 one of Hans and Elizabeth Schonauer’s sons, also named Hans (1688-1749), was living in the town of Perry in the Palatinate. Hans Jr. left Germany about 1744 and settled in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where his name Hans was Americanized to John. It’s possible—maybe even probable—that one of the younger Hans’s grandsons is my five times great-grandfather Henry Shanower. If that’s true, then the Swiss Schonauers’ sojourn in the German Palatinate could explain the story of a German origin for the Shanowers.

My research on other family lines has many holes, too, but I suspect that some of these lines may have come from Switzerland. My suspicions find support in the seventeenth and eighteenth century pattern of migration from Switzerland to the Palatinate to North America, most often Pennsylvania.

Frederick Roush grave, Massillon, Ohio.

My five times great-grandfather Philip Roush is said to be from Bavaria in Germany. The border between Bavaria and the neighboring Palatinate fluctuated in the seventeenth century, so although I have no proof, this could suggest that Philip Roush was, like the Schonauers, a Palatinate settler originally from Switzerland. While I don’t have any direct confirmation that Philip immigrated to Pennsylvania, his son Frederick Roush (1789-1844) is reported to have been born there before moving to Stark County, Ohio.

My six times great-grandfather Johann Michael Haflich (abt. 1720-abt. 1770) seems to have a similar story. He was born in the Palatinate region—in Mutterstadt, Pfalz, Bavaria, as were his American immigrant parents Johann Karl Hoefflich (abt. 1699-aft. 1760) and Eva Kern Hoefflich (abt. 1700-abt. 1760). So was his grandfather Franz Hoefflich (1677-abt. 1730), as well as his great-grandparents Franz Hoefflich (abt. 1644-abt. 1694) and Elizabetha Hoefflich (abt. 1650-abt. 1690). Could this line have been from Switzerland originally? The Haflichs followed the pattern of moving from the Palatinate area to Pennsylvania, specifically Richmond in Berks County, before 1756. But since they’d been in Pfalz as early as 1644—before the end of the Thirty Years' War—maybe they’re simply German after all.

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the French region of Alsace bordered the Palatinate. Between 1671 and 1711 immigrants flooded into Alsace, too, many of them Anabaptist refugees from Canton Bern in Switzerland, where the Schonauers had lived. My six times great-grandmother Eva Catharina Startzmann Haflich (1722-1770), wife of Johann Michael Haflich, was born in Rexingen, Alsace, France. Both of Eva Haflich’s grandfathers were born there, too: her paternal grandfather Hans Martin Startzmann about 1660 and her maternal grandfather Heinrich Arneth about 1670. Like the Haflichs, the Startzmanns also ended up in Richmond, Berks County, Pennsylvania, in the mid-1700s. And none of their names sound French.

If any of my older Roush, Haflich, Startzmann, or Arneth ancestors were Swiss, my genealogical research, like the cheese, is too full of holes to show it. But the Reitenauers, who I’ll discuss next, are a different case. They must be the part between the holes.

My eleven times great-grandfather Antony “Anton” Reitenauer (abt. 1586-?) was definitely Swiss. He came from the area of Gondiswil in the Canton of Bern, Switzerland, possibly from the small municipality of Reitnau in Canton Aargau about ten miles from Gondiswil.

His grandson Nicolaus “Claus” Reitenauer (1650-1717) ended up in Alsace, France, following the migration pattern. Continuing that pattern, several of Claus’s grandsons, including Nicholas Reutenauer (1711-1795) and Henry Reutenauer (1713-1781), emigrated with their father Johann "Hans" Nicholas Reitenauer from Alsace, France, to Maryland in the USA.

Immigrant passenger list of the ship Robert and Alice, September 3, 1739. The third name, marked with the dot, supposedly reads Hans Nicholas Reitenauer, who was son of Claus and father of Nicholas and Henry. I can't make out the writing, but other records show that this Hans Nicholas Reitenauer immigrated to the USA, so I'll accept this reading.

The eldest of those grandsons, Nicholas Reutenauer, had a granddaughter, Anna Elizabeth Ridenour Hawk (1774-abt. 1840), my five times great-grandmother. Anna Ridenour Hawk was born in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. About 1824-25 she was, with her husband Conrad and their crowd of children, one of the earliest settlers of Green Creek Township in Sandusky County, Ohio.

And—what do you know?—my Hawk line, originally spelled Haag, came from Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany, which used to be part of—you guessed it—the Palatinate. Baden-Wurttemberg is right next to—quelle surprise!—Alsace, France. And after the Hawks left Germany they settled in—wait for it—Pennsylvania.

Noah Jacob Huss grave, Clyde, Ohio.

Mary Burkholder Huss grave, Clyde, Ohio.

Conrad and Anna Hawk’s son David Hawk (1805-1855), my great-great-great-great grandfather, married Eleanor “Ellen” Huss Hawk (1812-1889), who was born in York, York County, Pennsylvania. The family of Ellen’s father, Noah Jacob Huss (1790-1843), came from Germany, but I don’t know the region or whether they reached Germany from Switzerland. So far I’ve failed to find the ancestors of Ellen’s mother, Mary Burkholder (1789-1849), my six times great-grandmother, but I know that some Burkholders came to Pennsylvania from Germany. It's probable that Mary’s forebears did, too. And if they did, there’s a chance they came from Switzerland before that.

But enough speculation—back to the Reitenauers. The second immigrant grandson of Claus Reitenauer, Henry Reutenauer, married, as his second wife, a woman I mentioned a few paragraphs ago, my six times great-grandmother Eva Catharina Startzmann Haflich, widow of Johann Michael Haflich. Through Eva’s second marriage to Henry Reutenauer, she became my eight times great-aunt as well as being my six times great-grandmother already. To complicate the connections even further, Eva’s mother, Christina Arneth Startzmann was the sister of Henry’s mother, Anna Margaretha Arneth Reutenauer. So Eva’s second husband, Henry, was also her first cousin.

These multi-generational connections to the Reitenauers suggest to me that the Startzmanns and the Arneths were also Swiss at an earlier point, especially when considering their aforementioned pattern of migration from Alsace to Pennsylvania. But there are too many holes to be certain.

Catherine Easley Leifer, circa 1880s.

Finally, there are the Leifers. Frederick Leifer (1813-1865) and Catherine Easley Leifer (1818-1892), my great-great-great-grandparents, were born in Switzerland. They immigrated to Ohio in the early 1850s, probably in 1854, with no lengthy stops in Germany or Pennsylvania on the way. Their daughter, my great-great-grandmother, Louisa “Lucy” Leifer Shanower (1856-1916), was their first child born in the USA.

Louisa "Lucy" Leifer Shanower, circa 1900.

Lucy’s older brothers and sisters were all born in Switzerland. Her brother Jacob Leifer (1842-1922) was born in Sougenreed, Canton Bern, Switzerland. Jacob was living in Massillon, Ohio, in April 1907 when he made a month-long trip to Switzerland for a visit to the old Swiss hometown, taking along his son Daniel Webster Leifer (1869-1947), my first cousin three times removed. This 1907 return to Switzerland wasn’t the first; there seems to have been an earlier trip in the late 1860s.

Later, cousin Daniel Webster made at least one more trip to Switzerland, this time in 1937, taking his wife, Iva May “Ivy” Donant Leifer (1869-1956). A few years afterward, Ivy was pained to learn of the destruction World War II was causing to many of the European countries they’d visited on their trip.

The Leifer family, circa 1875. The only person I can positively identify is Lucy Leifer Shanower (1856-1917), my great-great-grandmother, the woman standing to the right of center. Compare her to the later photo of her above. The woman on the left could be Catherine Easley Leifer (1818-1892), Lucy's mother. Compare her to the later photo of her above. If that's Catherine, then the man her hand is resting on is likely her husband, Frederick Leifer (1813-1865). As usual, you can click on any photo to have it open larger in another window.

Those are all my Swiss ancestors, both certain and speculative—at least for now. I hadn’t been aware of my Swiss ancestry before my genealogical research revealed it. I was surprised—and happy—to find it. But I’d still like to fill in some of those holes.

My Famous Relatives: Richard Gere

Richard Tiffany Gere, born 1949.

A few years ago David and I found that he was related to many crowned heads of Europe. It was exciting. And it was one of the factors that spurred me to delve into the genealogy of my own family. For months I searched for a celebrated blood relative of my own, but without luck. At last, however, I began to turn up relatives who had made some wider mark on the world. One thing rewarding about famous relatives is that there’s usually a lot more information available than just dates and names. Perhaps the best known of the famous relatives that I’ve discovered so far is the actor Richard Tiffany Gere (born 1949).

How are Richard Gere and I related? We’re tenth cousins. Our common ancestors are our mutual great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparents Samuel Rider (1601-1679) and Anne Gamlett Rider (abt. 1605-1695). They immigrated to the USA from Northampton, England, between 1636 and 1638, and I’ve mentioned them in previous posts to this blog.

With Debra Winger in An Officer and a Gentleman.

The Rider branch of the family provides the blood relationship between Richard Gere and me, but we also have a family connection through two marriages. My second cousin twice removed Charles Elwood Grant (1900-1945) married Helene Thelma Stafford (1902-1985), Richard Gere’s tenth cousin once removed. And Helene’s sister Hilda Lucille Stafford (1898-1973) married Roy Robert Grant (1897-1988), another of my second cousins twice removed. As I’ve written on this blog before, the Staffords descend from Mayflower passenger Richard Warren (1580-1628) and his wife Elizabeth Walker Warren (1583-1673). And so does Richard Gere.

Richard Gere has never been an actor whose career I particularly followed. I recall first being aware of him when the movie An Officer and a Gentleman was released in 1982. I saw the movie during its original theatrical run and enjoyed it. But I was far more interested in one of the movie’s locations than I was in Richard Gere’s leading role.

Fort Worden State Park, near Port Townsend, Washington.

An Officer and a Gentleman was partly filmed at former US Army base, now State Park, Fort Worden near Port Townsend, Washington. I spent a week at Fort Worden in 1974 when I was one of the two kids selected from Clallam County to attend a retreat for fifth and sixth graders with a talent for writing and drawing. In addition to working on the book the students all collaborated on—my contribution was a linoleum block print of Herby the Medicine Man from Ruth Plumly Thompson’s The Giant Horse of Oz—I explored, with adult supervision, Fort Worden’s spooky old, partially flooded military bunkers. And in the boys dorm I learned definitions of terms for sexual prophylactics that had previously been opaque to me. So when I saw An Officer and a Gentleman I was more interested in the shots of Fort Worden than in Richard Gere.

The poster in Judi's room.

But I continued to be aware of Richard Gere, as ubiquitous a presence as most any movie star in US culture. When I was in art school one of my female apartment-mates had a poster of Richard Gere hanging in her bedroom. His white tank top-clad torso and tight jeans so blatantly screamed sex symbol that I scoffed at the poster. Maybe I wouldn’t have been so derisive if I’d known back then that he was my cousin.

I remember hearing jokes in the 1990s about Richard Gere’s conversion to Buddhism and trips to Tibet. Why were people who didn’t even know him so concerned by Richard Gere’s religious life?

I went with a group of friends to see The Cotton Club in 1984. We went opening day because one of the friends was a big Francis Ford Coppola fan. I remember kind of liking the movie, contrary to the general reaction, but beyond Diane Lane, the Hines brothers' dancing, and a scene of someone shaving with an old-fashioned razor which I think I admired for the historical research and the ability of anyone to shave with such an instrument, I don't really remember the movie. I certainly didn't remember Richard Gere was in it until reviewing his career for this blog post. Well, it's been a while.

In And the Band Played On.

I've seen a few of his other films that I actually recall him being in. Days of Heaven from 1978. Something called Power from 1986, which I saw on an airplane.  Sommersby, a 1993 movie he did with Jodie Foster, I barely remember except for the scene where Gere quotes from Homer’s Iliad. I was impressed to see him in 1993’s And the Band Played On, a tv adaptation of Randy Shilts’s book of investigative journalism into the early years of the AIDS crisis. In that Gere played a thinly disguised version of Broadway choreographer Michael Bennett.

More recently I’ve seen him in Shall We Dance, a solid, middle-of-the-road Strictly Ballroom-wannabe, notable for Stanley Tucci’s comedic performance. I thought Gere made a perfectly respectable Billy Flynn in the movie version of the play Chicago. I have friends—many of them dancers—who thought the movie of Chicago was terrific. I'm afraid it seemed mostly like lukewarm Cabaret leftovers to me. But I don’t fault Richard Gere for problems with the material and direction. Or for the fact that Catherine Zeta-Jones—one thing in the movie I would call terrific—overshadowed everyone and everything else simply by appearing onscreen.

Richard Gere in recent days

Richard Gere married model Cindy Crawford in 1991, but they divorced in 1995. In 2000 Richard Gere and Carey Lowell had a son, my tenth cousin once removed, Homer James Jigme Gere. Homer is also the first name of Richard Gere's father, my ninth cousin once removed, Homer George Gere (born 1923). In 2002 Richard Gere and Carey Lowell married.

Richard Gere’s been in popular and critically praised movies that I haven’t seen—Pretty Woman, American Gigolo, the recent Arbitrage—so I can’t claim to be a big Richard Gere fan. But I’m certainly happy for his success and wish him the best in his continuing acting career. I also like being able to say I’m related to a movie star.

Preserving the Forest

In 1956 a few interested citizens of Mentor Headlands became aware that the obliteration of natural areas was progressing parallel with the growth of the community.

So begins an essay by my maternal grandmother, Arlene Wilhelmina Stuuri Hietanen (1917-1971), on the development of a school forest—a sort of outdoor classroom—at Headlands Elementary School in Mentor, Lake County, Ohio.

What the essay fails to mention is how vital my grandmother was to the project. Although many people were involved in making the school forest a reality, it was Arlene’s initial idea and her work at the forefront of every step that turned a leftover area of real estate into a community asset.

Diagram of Headlands Elementary School property, showing the area of the proposed school forest. This diagram may have been drawn by Martha Keltto. Click to enlarge.

In the early 1950s a twenty-seven acre plot was purchased for the site of Mentor Headlands Elementary School, but when the school opened in 1955 at what is now 5028 Forest Road in Mentor, only three acres had actually been built on. The rest of the property, a wooded area, was left untouched and was evidently regarded as useless.

Early examination of the forest behind the school.

Arlene realized that the woods behind Headlands Elementary School could serve both educational and conservationist purposes if it were designated as a permanent school forest where students could observe nature firsthand and learn about plants and animals, their growth and seasonal changes.

On September 18, 1956, Arlene wrote a letter to Warren H. Corning of the Holden Arboretum in Kirtland, Ohio, asking for advice on starting a school forest on the unused land. Corning forwarded her letter to Benjamin Patterson Bole, Jr., an assistant professor and naturalist at Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Patterson Bole was on the executive board of Mentor’s Holden Arboretum and lived in nearby Kirtland Hills. Bole’s reply to Arlene’s letter gave specific advice on preparing a school forest—“There must be at least 75% of the actual ground surface that is free from the danger of running, romping children”—and he offered to visit the forest area to judge its potential.

Progress was slow for many months, but occasional signs of encouragement popped up. At one point Arlene communicated her tentative plans for a school forest to Mr. Coupland and Mr. Shadle of the Mentor School Board. The reply was, “Go ahead.” In spring of 1958, Carol Sweet of the Horticultural Committee of Mentor’s Garden Club encouraged Arlene to proceed with her plans.

Flowers in the school forest, photo probably by Alice Sinko.

Finally Arlene took Patterson Bole up on his offer to examine the forest area behind Headlands Elementary School. On March 24, 1959, Bole walked over the land with Arlene and a group of interested people that included Carol Sweet and Mrs. Coupland. Bole determined that the land had been cut only once before, in the 1880s. He pointed out its wealth of features—high ground facing every direction, low marsh areas unique to northeastern Ohio, evidence of forty Erie Indian fire pits and a possible Indian burial ground, the only wooded ravine preserved on Lake Erie’s shores between Cleveland and Painesville, and nearly every variety of tree, wildflower, and animal that was native to northeastern Ohio. Bole judged the site an excellent choice for a school forest.

On May 15, 1959, at the invitation of the Mentor School Board, Arlene and her partners presented a short proposal for a school forest at a school board meeting. The board reacted positively to the forest’s clear educational potential. Additional advantages were that the land was unused, it was adjacent to the school, and best of all, the school already owned it. The board authorized Arlene and her committee to proceed with their plans, requesting a more detailed presentation at the July 15th school board meeting.

Arlene wrote to Robert R. Paton, Forester with the Ohio Forestry Association, Inc., requesting copies of the association’s booklet “Planning School Forests.” Using this booklet as a guide, Arlene, Carol Sweet, Harriet Forbes, Martha Keltto and others formed a committee within the Mentor Headlands Garden Club to spearhead the school forest project.

At the July 15 Mentor School Board meeting the board listened to a full presentation from Arlene and her group on the proposed school forest. The school board enthusiastically approved the plan.

Arlene and Harriet Forbes invited Arlene’s Ohio Forestry Association correspondent, Robert Paton, to tour the forest area on October 22, 1959. Also in attendance were Superintendent of Schools W. W. Zinser, Headlands Elementary School Principal Wayne L. Kihorany, teachers from Headlands Elementary School, members of the Garden Club, and other interested parties. Arlene served luncheon at her home to Robert Paton and the Garden Club committee, then they met the rest of the group for the forest tour. Afterward Paton declared that the forest had the potential to become one of the finest school forests in the state.

A meeting of some of the movers and shakers behind the Headlands School Forest. Robert Paton at upper left, Headlands Elementary School Principal Wayne Kihorany at upper right, B. Patterson Bole at lower left, and Arlene Hietanen at lower right. From an unidentified news clipping.

Planning sped onward. In January 1960, Robert Paton mentioned several experts from Columbus who were interested in the Mentor Headlands school forest project. After viewing the forest on February 2, 1960, one of the experts, Robert Finley, Supervisor of Conservation Education of the State Department of Education, said he’d seen nothing in Ohio to compare with it. Carl Johnson, professor of Conservation at Ohio State University and Chairman of the Ohio Forestry Association’s School Forest Committee, observed that the proposed school forest was “the cheapest classroom you have.” The experts proclaimed it an excellent teaching tool for not only Headlands Elementary but for all the schools in the area, as well as for scouting organizations and other groups interested in conservation. Arlene and her co-workers made sure that local reporters attended this meeting.

Press coverage increased as a School Forest Board was appointed by the Garden Club Committee and school officials. The board included all the interested parties, plus representatives from the town and school. Maps were drawn, trails marked, identification markers both permanent and seasonal were prepared, and class projects were planned. A school essay contest on the theme “Our School Forest” and a drawing contest pertaining to “a trip to the woods” were announced.

An early student tour of the Headlands School Forest. Arlene Hietanen stands at right, face partly obscured by leaves.

On February 25, 1960, the wooded area behind Headlands Elementary became a true school forest. That day Arlene led Mrs. Speece’s fifth grade class on the first Headlands School Forest walk. Over the next few months more than four hundred fourth, fifth, and sixth graders followed in their footsteps. Arlene’s speech for the class walks began: “This is our outdoor classroom; it is also something else—it’s a home, of wild flowers, birds, trees, animals, and we will enter it as guests—with respect for what we see.” She pointed out varieties of wildflowers—trillium, trout lily, may apple, to name just a few from her lists. She had the students listen to birdsong and taught them about the importance of conservation. One of the features both she and the kids seemed most delighted by was fungus.

Unidentified newspaper clipping. Click to enlarge.

Her notes on Bracket Fungus read in part: “The spore develops by protruding one or more tiny threads or ‘mycelia’ that finally penetrate into the cells of a tree and steal nutrients manufactured for the tree’s own growth. In time the tree will starve.” And, “It has its good points though: it makes a fine absorbent dressing for cuts and other wounds.” And more charmingly, “It has been called the ‘dryad’s saddle’ because long ago when people believed fairies and nymphs peopled the woods they thought these tiny ones used the growth as seats or stools.”

One letter of appreciation from Mrs. Speece’s student John Ryerson reads, “We found out about . . . wooden mushrooms . . . puffballs, fungus . . . We liked the old Indian village and the dried up Grand River. The Indian pits were very interesting.”

Class representative Douglas Pohto of Mrs. Speece's class wrote a thank you letter to Arlene Hietanen after the first day of school visits to the Headlands School Forest. Douglas Pohto is Arlene's (and my) relative by marriage. Douglas's great-uncle's daughter Hilja Pohto married Jacob Kauno Hietanen, an uncle of Arlene's husband Everett Hietanen. Used with the permission of Douglas Pohto. Click picture to enlarge.

Formal dedication of the school forest took place on April 29, 1960, proclaimed by Ohio Governor Michael DiSalle as Arbor Day. Invitations had been sent to all the Mentor Elementary Schools, asking that each send representatives to the ceremony. Arlene’s partner in the project, Harriet Forbes, was guest speaker. She recounted the steps taken in planning the school forest and stressed the importance of conservation. Among other features the winning student essays were read aloud and the school chorus sang.

Planting the tree at the school to honor Arlene Hietanen.

The final announcement of the ceremony was a surprise. It had been decided to honor the person who had led the way and contributed so much time and effort into making the school forest a reality. Headlands Elementary School Principal Wayne Kihorany announced that a tree would be planted in front of the school—a tree in honor of Arlene Hietanen. And so it was.

The plan had never been to limit the Headlands School Forest only to school groups, so Boy Scout groups and special science classes also toured it. The Mentor Garden Club led forest tours for any interested parties. Arlene enlisted her sister Alice Lillian Stuuri Sinko (1915– 2002), my great-aunt, to photograph wildflowers in the school forest for use in talks to schools, scouts, and others. Arlene spoke to various organizations about the school forest, how it came to be and the importance of teaching conservation. The October 1967 issue of American Home magazine published an article by Dorothy B. Warnick on the Headlands School Forest. Arlene continued to take an active interest in the preservation of natural features of her community, especially in the fate of Mentor Marsh, which was finally declared a Living Museum under the custodianship of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History in 1971.

The Mentor Marsh portion of the Headlands School Forest. This photo was probably taken by Arlene's sister, my great-aunt Alice Stuuri Sinko.

Arlene Hietanen and Martha Keltto were involved with the Headlands School Forest until their deaths, but after they were gone, the school forest languished. In the 1970s Headlands Elementary School teacher Gwen Stephens Meissner was assigned the job of reviving the school forest and was instrumental in bringing it back for a while. But when Meissner moved on, the Headlands School Forest languished once more.

I never toured the Headlands School Forest with my grandmother Arlene. She died young while I was still a child. But I remember her interest in nature and conservation. One summer she had my sister and me catch caterpillars and keep them in old cigar boxes where they built cocoons. It was quite a surprise one morning to open one of the boxes and find a large moth inside, seemingly from nowhere. On another visit she took us walking through Mentor Marsh where I remember her pointing out Queen Anne’s Lace and the sassafras tree’s three distinct leaves, which we picked and chewed.

My grandmother was proud of her accomplishments. But nothing lasts forever—not Headlands Elementary School (it closed in 2011 due to declining enrollment, it’s now the Dr. Jacqueline A. Hoynes School housing the Cardinal Autism Resource Education School), not the school forest (it languished after Meissner’s revival), not the pine tree planted in my grandmother’s honor on Arbor Day 1960 (it was gone in the 1990s), and not my grandmother. She died in 1971.

Arlene knew that change was part of life and believed in the importance of understanding life’s cycle. As she said to the children she led through the Headlands School Forest, “As we talk here now, it is changing—there are things being born out of the ground, there are things dying and returning to the ground. . . . You can see it happening. Some are weak, some are strong, some help others, some hurt others. We can learn all this if we look, listen, and think. . . . This is the way we are citizens of our country. This is a little piece of this great country.”

House Hunting

Both my great-grandfather, Louis Dillard Kirkpatrick, and great-great-grandfather, William Henry Kirkpatrick, were mayors of Bridgeport, Texas - and sadly over the years we have lost track of the location of William Henry Kirkpatrick's home. I do have a fine photo of the house showing William and his wife Macarinah sitting on the front porch. Please note you may click on any of the photos to make them bigger.

Home of William Henry Kirkpatrick in Bridgeport, Texas  (taken before 1908).

William Henry Kirkpatrick died in1908 and this photo predates his death, as he is sitting on the porch with his wife, Macarinah. Mac lived in the house until her death in 1921. Here she is late in life, standing in the front yard, showing the view toward the street.

Macarinah Bridges Hunt Kirkpatrick in Bridgeport, Texas.

My memory is that my mom showed me this house a couple times when I was little and finally in 1993 on her last trip to Bridgeport. As I recall, it was on Stevens Street somewhat west of my great-grandparents' home.

A couple years ago Royce Raven, a historian in Bridgeport, sent me a photo of what he thought might be the house which stands at 1400 Stevens Street.

House at 1400 Stevens Street, Bridgeport, Texas.

Now, clearly the photos have some differences - mainly that the newer one shows a house nearly twice the size of the Kirkpatrick house in the 1908 photo. However, I was struck by how similar the right-hand side of the house was to the 1908 home - the narrow window (ignore the shutters on the newer photo) and the unusual rounded porch design. Given that the two images were taken from a very similar angle and position, I couldn't resist doing an overlay in Photoshop.

Composite image of the 1908 house and the 1400 Stevens St. house.

Below is a more transparent version that better shows how the two houses align. The pointed roof and the rounded porch seem virtually identical and the window lines up exactly, as well.

Transparent view of the two houses.

The house is approximately where I remember my mom showing it to me in 1993. And given the architectural matches, I strongly suspect this is the old Kirkpatrick home. A couple of my cousins are not convinced. I look forward to examining the house at 1400 Stevens if it is still standing when I next get to Bridgeport. I heard a couple years ago it was being eyed as a future parking lot.

ADDENDUM

One of my cousins who has not previously agreed with me about the identification of this house suggested that just possibly the original photo was printed backward and that I might try flipping it. I have now done so and (if that's the case) I am more sold than ever! Here's the same overlay, but with the pre-1908 image flipped.