[or-roots] Re: Giving Flesh to Oregon History

[CKlooster at aol.com]

Y'know...I'm new to this list but not to lists in general.  Calling someone a 
"list  hog" implies that there is a finite resource, such as  a defined 
number of emails on a given day, or server abiity to handle such.  I 
seriously doubt that the limited number of postings I've seen so far are 
taxing the capacity of mail servers.  Everyone who has something to say has 
equal access to the list subscribers.  Subscribers are then free to read or 
to delete without reading.  I've always felt that the purpose of a list 
administrator is to keep the system functioning technically, and also to make 
sure that spammers do not sieze the forum to sell us products to enhance our 
sex-lives.  Beyond that, it should be up to the individual subscribers to 
filter specific postings...either through various mail-program filters or by 
deleting emails as they appear.  There is no such thing as a "list hog" and 
people who are seriously annoyed by multiple (or lengthy) postings need to 
take a big step back and consider why their lives are so limited that an 
abundance of email is a reason for consternation.

I've been a student of Oregon and Washington history for most of my life and 
have been doing hands-on genealogy in Oregon and Washington since the early 
1970's.  In that time I've found that there can be almost a mystical quality 
to genealogy...I've come face-to-face with an unknown "cousin" in a dusty 
bookstore.  I've stepped out of my car in a large and unfamiliar cemetery and 
walked directly to a grave of an ancestor.  Anyone who has been doing 
genealogy for awhile can relate similar instances where the laws of 
probability seem strained.  During the years of research and gathering 
information, I've adopted a philosophy that obscure genealogical facts are 
important even if they do not pertain directly to "my" families.   So when I 
find a batch of labelled family photos in an antique store, I often buy them. 
 With the internet forums and lists, it is now possible to reunite photos and 
family Bibles and other documents with the family members who are looking for 
them.  Being able to help someone else is gratifying...but it is also, I 
believe, a critical component of receiving help with those family "dead-ends" 
that we all seem to have.  "...as ye sow...". 

It used to be that we would hear of an old family Bible but never be able to 
learn where it was or who had it.  Many people had individual pieces of 
family puzzles but were never able to connect to solve those puzzles.  The 
internet and forums like this have changed that.  Even though excerpts from 
diaries or listings of vital records may not be related to the families I 
research, I really value this forum as a place to list such data so that it 
is accessbile to those who do relate to it.  Let's let this forum expand 
rather than limit it.

To that end...I have in my possession a little book published in 1914 "for 
the author" by the Clarke-Kundret Printing Company of Portland, Oregon.  The 
book is called "Pioneer Campfire" by G.W. Kennedy "Pioneer of 1853".  The 
book is written in the style of reminiscences,  but it contains snippets of 
family information and references to families that he and his family traveled 
west with (Hubbard, Venable, Zumwalt, Thurman, Applegate, McLaughlin, Wells, 
Kennedy, and Felton).  He also quotes from journals and interviews with other 
Oregon pioneers.  He pictures the early years of "Mary's Ville" which later 
became Corvallis and names families who were neighbors or early merchants of 
that area.  I'm not certain how widely this book was distributed, but I 
suspect that it may have had a limited printing since it was self-published.  
There are no references to my families in this book, but I will, from 
time-to-time post paragraphs that contain family data, and am more than 
willing to scan sections of the book for anyone who has a particular interest 
in this man or related family.

I have a number of publications relating to Oregon/Washington: The 
Descendents of Emmor Jefferson Stephens (Including Jame Bowles, and his 
brother Thomas Fulton Stephens) by Edmund Fisher; The History of Oregon - 
Biographical (Volumes I-III by Carey); Centralia, Washington - First Fifty 
Years; many (most) of the publications of the Oregon Genealogical Forum; some 
of the earlier Canyonville, Oregon Pioneer Days booklets.  Some of the books 
I have are in common circulation, but others are difficult to find.  I am 
thinking that others on this list may have a similar collection of resources. 
 By posting what we have and what we know , we can network and do some of 
that "fleshing out" of local history and of the people who were part of it. 

P.S.  I even enjoy reading/listening to a good "rant" now and again, so I 
say, "Post On!"

Carla


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