I did hands on in Pennsylvania meeting cousins, that my Grandfather told me were there.
Alas the one lady whom remembered Grandfather going to Greene Co PA to visit Aleppo and other areas to see kin called me the day I got home. They had played marbles together on the floor so very long ago. I met many whom knew that my Grandad had come as a boy with his father to Pennsylvania to see family. Great Grandpa Frank was about 12 years old when they left Greene Co and went to Iowa to live. This was after the Civil War and his Dad was home to stay.
His Father Sanford had been in WYO in service and seen much of Nebraska, IOWA and other places west of Pennsylvania. His brother Hague had gone west to Californian and Alaska at the same time and then coming back to Iowa where he purchased land he started to learn medicine. His mentor sent him to OHIO to school and then he went back to Moravia, IA and opened practice. Sanford and his Sister Phebe and her husband went to IOWA.
Grandpa Frank was in charge of the cattle and animals on the drive west.
He walked behind the wagon with the dog,( name I do not have at hand) once in a while he was able to ride the wagon and his siblings would work the animals but that was seldom.
The dust that blew up at times was horrid and very hard for him to breathe.
Great Grandpa Frank wanted to go back to Pennsylvania so he could see some of his old acquaintance and cousins, Aunts and Uncles. Grandad was about 5 years old but he told me
and Rich and Hartley (cousins) stories of the trip while we sat on the old hay baler in the back forty of his land out behind the barn and silo.
When I was 17 and saw him last he asked if I ever got a chance for me to go to Pennsylvania and meet the family that was left behind. It took many years for me to finally be able to visit that beautiful section of Pennsylvania. I hope to go back again some day.
I walked cemeteries, visited churches, City Hall, the Court House, many distant cousins homes and the Historical Society in it's building and the Genealogy Library in the Waynesburg Library.
Some of the cousins I had talked and shared letters with for many years. It was a real treat to see them. One family was almost duplicate in family resemblance. Jacob looked like my Uncle Dick, Violet looked like my Aunt Mae, Jacob's sister looked just like my Aunt Ruth.
Amazing genes and yes we had the funky fingers and the different toes. It was a really fun time.
HUFFMAN, HOFFMAN, HIGGINS, HENDERSON, PLANTS, DUVALL, DURBIN, PATTERSON, RITCHIE, and so many more
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