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  St. Joseph Catholic Church, Wright, Ottawa County, Michigan I have been researching the lives of the siblings of Benjamin Kaufman in an effort to view Benjamin's life in relationship to what was happening with his family.  Benjamin had three full siblings, Elisabeth, Lewis and John and six half siblings from his mother, Catherine Omlor's, second marriage to Anthony Armock: Nicholas, Theobald, Mary, Anthony, Christian and Catherine.  This post will deal with attempting to find the death date of Elisabeth.   Elisabeth was born to Lewis and Catherine Omlor Kaufman in Ohio in 1836. Unable to find a birth record I am relying on the baptismal record from the St. Alphonsus Ligouri Catholic Church in Peru, Ohio for an approximate birth date.  She was baptized in that church on August 9, 1836, the sponsors being her grandparents, Theobald and Elisabeth Stutzman Omlor.  Elisabeth's father died when she was four years old and her mother remarried Anthony Armock.  The family farmed i

On April 6, 1917 the United States went to war. During the Great War Americans would be called on to give their sons and daughters to the cause, to conserve food and to donate money among other things.  Total war would demand a total commitment to fight that war. (Pifer, 2017) Food conservation was necessary for several reasons.  In the US there had been a problem with poor grain harvests in the years leading up to the war.  The fighting forces would need food as they were mustered and trained in the US and sent overseas to fight.  The Allies were starving after suffering through years of war and food needed to be sent to them.  In order to meet these demands food conservation became the responsibility of every American.  In order to meet this responsibility every woman was asked to sign a Food Pledge.   Pifer (2017) explains the elements of the Food Pledge.  Americans were to eat one wheatless meal per day, eat beef, mutton and pork only once a day and in smaller portions.  The homema

 While indexing the 1918 Janesville Daily Gazette I ran across this article: April 10, 1918, page 6 The Village of Avalon, Wisconsin lies 10 miles east of the city of Janesville.  Although we all know that electricity was a very recent discovery it is really hard to believe that it came to these smaller communities just some 100 years ago.   What would change if we did not have electricity?           How would you take a bath, read a book or perform chores in the   dark?          How would you cook or boil water without electricity?          How would you heat your home without electricity?          How would you clean your clothes?           How would you store food? Candles, kerosene lamps and fireplaces provided light in homes prior to electricity.  A person had to carry a candle or lamp with them at night to move around the house or outside of the house.   To cook or boil water, a fire had to be started or wood added to the stove.  Sometimes women (or children) threw kerosene onto

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I ran across this picture while I was working on the biography of George Herbert Anderson.  George was born in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1897 but came to live with his grandmother, Christina Olson Long, in Stockholm township, Pepin county, Wisconsin after the death of his mother in 1901.  He lived most of his life in the Stockholm area until later in life when he moved to Minneapolis.  He is pictured here holding a dead wolf.   The wolf population of Wisconsin prior to European settlement was estimated to be from 3,000 to 8,000.  No one really knows for sure.  What we do know is that as fur trappers and farmers began to move in to the area in the 1830's, the animals that the wolves preyed on began to disappear. Typically the wolves prey included bison, elk, and white-tailed deer in the south and moose, deer, caribou, and beaver in the north. Hungry wolves began to feed on easy-to-capture livestock.  This was unpopular with farmers as one would expect.  The Wisconsin Legislature, under

 Luan Goodman, 2nd cousin once removed of mine, daughter of Aloysius and Irene Kuhl Goodman, married a man by the name of R. Wiley Brownlee during a time that he was employed in France.  I have not been able to find a marriage record for this couple but their marriage information has been passed down through family interviews.  This blog post is concerned with Wiley Brownlee. Richard Wiley Brownlee was born August 5, 1928 in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  He was a well educated man, receiving a bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan in 1951.  After completing a master's degree from Michigan State University he accepted a teaching position in Newfoundland with Pepperrill Air Force Base, later transferring to administration in Spain and France.  While in France he married Luan. He returned to the US to pursue a Ph.D. at MSU.   In 1970 he accepted a high school principalship in Willow Run Community Schools.  Willow Run is located 35 miles west of Detroit.  There is a long histor