Wordless Wednesday

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: An Unusual Newspaper Article about Your Ancestors

I love newspaper research, so I knew I would be able to find something suitable for tonight's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge from Randy Seaver.

Here is your assignment, if you choose to play along (cue the Mission:  Impossible! music, please!):

1.  Have you found an unusual, chilling, amazing, or fascinating newspaper article about your ancestors?

2.  If so, please share the article and what you learned about your ancestor(s) from the article.  Provide a source citation, too!

3.  Share your information about your newspaper article in your own blog post, write a comment on this blog post, or put it in a Substack post, Facebook Note, or some other social media system.  Please leave a comment on this post so others can find it.

Thank you to Lisa S. Gorrell for this SNGF idea.

I guess this qualifies as chilling.  Two newspaper articles from 1916 detailed the accident that caused my paternal grandfather to have a leg amputated at the age of 12.  The event was reported in a New Jersey newspaper ("Two Boys Killed When Their Scout Cave Collapses", unknown newspaper name, Wrightstown, New Jersey, January 23, 1916, unknown page number; photocopy of original newspaper article).

-- >< -- >< -- >< -- >< --

TWO BOYS KILLED WHEN THEIR SCOUT CAVE COLLAPSES

January 23, 1916

Two others probably fatally hurt in Mount Holly catastrophe.  Lads disregarded elders warning against playing in dangerous excavation.

FROM A STAFF CORRESPONDENT:

Mount Holly N.J. January 22 - Caught beneath a mass of rocks and sand when the walls and roof of the cave in which they were playing fell in today.  Howard Powell,jr. 12 years old, a son of Howard Powell of 112 Cherry Street, and Earnest Street, 12 years old, of 135 Risdon Street, were killed , and Russell Street, 10 years old, and Bertram Sellers, 11 years old of Broad Street and Risdon Street  were probably fatally injured.

The accident occurred on the side of the mount from which Mount Holly gets its name,at Rossell and Main Street.  The cave in which the children were playing was made by them several weeks ago.  Sellers who had visited the spot and noticed that a large rock standing on the roof of the cave was making the excavation a dangerous place, had warned the boys to keep out, but their warnings had no effect.

Just before the accident the four boys who were caught in the earth slide and Norman Woodington, 14 years old, of 302 Ridgeway Street, were playing in the vicinity of the cave.  Howard Powell then went into the cave and called the others in.  All entered but the Woodington boy, who started to walk away from the spot.  Hearing a noise he turned and was horrified to see that the whole side of the mount had fallen on the boys.

Running, screaming out into the street, he summoned aid and before many minutes had passed about a dozen men were busy with shovels digging towards the boys who were buried.  The men were spurred on in their work by the moans which from time to time they heard coming from the earth at their feet.  In about fifteen minutes the bodies of the buried boys were in view.

A hasty examination by physicians who had been called to the scene showed that Howard Powell and Earnest Street were beyond help.  After trying the
The physicians placed the other two boys in the automobile of Under Sheriff Joseph Fleetwood and made a hurried trip to the Burlington County Hospital.  After an exhaustive examination the physicians at the institution declared that there   nall possibility of either of the lads recovery.  The Sellers boy is suffering from a broken shoulder, a broken arm and compression of the lungs.  The Street boy, a brother of Earnest Street, is suffering several internal injuries.

MEMBERS OF SCOUT BAND

The four boys all attended the same school.  They had formed a small scout organization of their own and the cave was their headquarters.  Norman Woodington, who gave the alarm and Grace Budd and Eleanor Warwick who saw the accident, were ill, from the shock, last night.

Another member of the band, who probably owes his life to the fact that his duty in the organization is the placing of muskrat traps around the banks of the surrounding streams, is 15 year old Lawrence Powell, a brother of Howard Jr.  He left his brother and his friends this morning to place the traps and had not returned to join in their fun when the accident occurred.

The hill in which the boys had the cave was composed of sand and large stones, with practically nothing to hold the earth together except the small wooden supports erected by the youngsters on the inside of the dugout.  These proved to be entirely inadequate to withstand  the shock when the weight of the large boulder broke in the roof, the excavation was about twenty feet deep and about fifteen feet wide.

-- >< -- >< -- >< -- >< --

A week later, on Friday, January 29, the Mount Holly Herald covered the story with some updates ("Mount Holly Boys Victims of Distressing Accident", Mount Holly [New Jersey] Herald, January 29, 1916, unknown page number; photocopy of original newspaper article).

-- >< -- >< -- >< -- >< --

MOUNT HOLLY BOYS VICTIMS OF DISTRESSING ACCIDENT

The hand of fate dealt a cruel blow in Mount Holly on Saturday afternoon when Ernest Street, twelve years of age, son of Ella Street, of Risdon St., and Howard Powell, twelve years of age, son of Mr. and Mrs.Howard W. Powell, of Cherry St., were killed by the collapsing of the upper part of a cave in which they were playing on the Rossell St. side of the mount, and Russell Street, brother of Ernest, and Bertram Sellers, son of Mr. and Mrs. C. Elmer Sellers, of Clover St., boys about the same age as the others, narrowly escaped a similar horrible death.  It was a most distressing accident from which the people of the town, especially those on hand to assist in rescuing the little fellows have not yet recovered.

The boys had gone to the dug-out after dinner to have some real fun and in their innocent play they had no thought of the danger that confronted them.  The cave was a large and deep one, extending into the embankment about ten feet, and in the mass of earth over their heads was a rock that must have weighed close to two tons.  The four mentioned were inside the hole enjoying all there was in that kind of play and William Woodington, a member of the party, was on the outside.  Without warning to any of them, the tons of earth and stone came down upon them and all but Woodington were buried within an instant beneath the great load.  They were prisoners beyond the aid of Woodington, who became almost frantic but not so badly excited that he could no give an alarm.  Grace Budd and Eleanor Warrick were playing nearby and they and Woodington ran as fast as possible to summon assistance.  Men in the vicinity were quickly on the scene digging with all their might with shovels and hands in their efforts to get the imprisoned lads to the surface.  A general alarm sent out by those first informed of the sad affair brought many rescuers to the scene and in a remarkably short time everything possible was being done.  The rock materially interfered with the rescue work.  It was so heavy that planks and jacks had to be used to remove it.  Physicians had been sent for and Drs. Parsons, Barrington, and Whitehead rushed to the mount with all possible speed.  They were on hand before any of the boys had been uncovered.

The removal of the rock and earth presented a sight that those on the scene will never forget--four little boys huddled together, helpless prisoners under the great weight that had crushed them down and two of them companions in death as they had been in play.  Men among the rescuers who had rendered service in numerous emergency cases were noticeably affected by this heart-rending condition and some became almost white with fear that their efforts to save the lads would be in vain.  But they kept on working

The first to be uncovered were the two boys who are alive.  Fortunately they were nearer the entrance to the cave and their heads were nearer the surface.  After the earth and rock had been removed it was possible for them to breathe.  They were unconscious when taken out but the physicians quickly had them restored to a condition that enabled them to say the boys were alive.  Then there was hope that death had not overtaken the other two, but the later developments proved too sadly that all of this hope and the silent prayers that went with it were in vain.  The dead boys had been crushed by the rock and it is thought that death must have come to them almost instantly.  The physicians applied every means known to them to restore life, but their combined efforts failed to produce the desired results.

Russell Street and Bertram Sellers were carried to the residence of Norman W. Barker and there given the attention needed before it was ordered that they be removed to the hospital.  Both were suffering from being crushed and the Sellers boy had a double fracture of one leg near the ankle.  The Street boy gained strength steadily after he was over the shock of his harrowing experience and he was removed to the home of his mother on Tuesday but the Sellers boy has not been so fortunate.  On Sunday it was feared that amputation of his badly injured leg would be necessary, but an operation was performed, the bones were set and held in position with a silver plate and he now appears to be getting along nicely.  The Surgeons were particularly well pleased with the success of the operation.  The lad developed quite a high temperature on Monday and he had sinking spells on that day and Tuesday.  This caused some fear that undiscovered complications were overtaking him, but since then there has been a satisfactory change for the better.  It is to be hoped that there will be nothing more to add to this horrible affair.

The funeral of the Powell boy took place on Tuesday afternoon and that of the Street boy on Wednesday afternoon.

Even though the second article indicated that "the Sellers boy" (my grandfather) wouldn't need to have his leg amputated, something must have changed the prognosis, because Grandpa did lose his leg.  When my siblings and I were little, he used to take off his prosthesis and let us play with it.  But he never talked about how he lost the leg.  We didn't find out until after he died.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Extreme Weather or Natural Disaster Experiences

Yes, I'm late, but at least I finally have some time to write a post!  I'm trying to catch up on my Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenges from Randy Seaver and decided to start with weather and natural disasters, from less than a week ago.

Here is your assignment, if you choose to play along (cue the Mission:  Impossible! music, please!):

1.  Did extreme weather or a natural disaster ever affect you or your ancestor(s)?  In what way(s)?  How did you find this out?  Describe one or more of the extreme weather experiences in your own life or in your ancestors' lives.

2.  Share your information about your or your ancestor's extreme weather or natural disaster experiences in your own blog post, write a comment on this blog post, or put it in a Substack post, Facebook Note, or some other social media system.  Please leave a comment on this post so others can find it.

Thank you to Marian B. Wood for this SNGF idea.

I have previously posted about my family's experience with a hurricane, specifically Hurricane Eloise on September 23, 1975.  Eloise convinced me I much preferred earthquakes to hurricanes.

I had already been through one major earthquake at that point.  My family was living in Pomona, California during the 1971 Sylmar earthquake, which I blogged about for the 50th anniversary of the event.

I returned to California to live after graduating high school.  The third major quake I have experienced was Loma Prieta in 1989 (also known as the World Series earthquake), when I lived in Berkeley.  I wrote about that experiene, which I remembered much better than Sylmar, for the quake's 35th anniversary.

Between those two I was in another big earthquake:  the Whittier Narrows earthquake of October 1, 1987.  While it was "only" a 5.9 earthquake on the Richter scale, because it happened in the heavily built environment of the Los Angeles basin, damage costs were fairly high.  Fatalities were low in number.

I was actually at work already when the quake hit.  I used to go to work early so I could leave early for band practice (for The Greatest Marching Band in the History of the Universe, otherwise known as the USC Marching Band).  I remember that I felt the earthquake in the office (of the French and Italian Department) and had no question about what was happening.  I could tell that it was pretty strong from what I felt, so I figured it wasn't too far away.  I remember learning that the earthquake occurred on a previously unknown fault, so it came as a complete surprise at the time.

I don't recall any damage at the office or on campus, and we didn't have any damage at the house I was living in at the time.  So I wasn't affected much by it, but I have always remembered that a wall collapsed on the California State University at Los Angeles campus and killed someone.

So that's two natural disasters for my family as a whole and two for me as an individual.  I have not learned of such events for any of my ancestors prior to my parents.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Your Farthest-flung Ancestor

I guessed the correct person in my family for Randy Seaver's question this week for Saturday Night Genealogy Fun!

Here is your assignment, if you choose to play along (cue the Mission:  Impossible! music, please!):

1.  Our family trees contain historical persons who came from places all over the world.  Each of our ancestral lines came from somewhere.

2.  Can you identify your Farthest-flung Ancestor (FFA)?  Who in your ancestral tree came from the most geographically distant place from where you live now?  What brought that person (or his descendants) to where your family ended up?

3.  Share your information about your Farthest-flung Ancestor in your own blog post, write a comment on this blog post, or put it in a Substack post, Facebook Note, or some other social media system.  Please leave a comment on this post so others can find it.

Thank you to Linda Stufflebean for this idea.

Based on what I currently know about my ancestry, ancestors on my father's side came from the British Isles and on my mother's side from eastern Europe, in the former Russian Empire, so I focused on my mother's side.

I believe my great-grandfather Joyne Gorodetsky (who changed his name to Joe Gordon after he immigrated to the United States) was born in what is now known as Kamianets-Podilskyi, Ukraine.  It is 5,667.56 miles in a straight line from Gresham, Oregon, USA, where I currently live.

I also checked the distance to Krustpils, Latvia, where my great-grandmother Sore Leibe Brainin (known as Sarah Libby here) is supposed to have been born.  It is 5,152.8 miles from Gresham.

My great-great-grandfather Gershon Nowicki (who changed only the spelling of his last name, which became Novitsky, when he came here) was from Porazava, Belarus, which is 5,357.92 miles from Gresham.

And my great-grandfather Moshe Meckler (Morris Mackler here) was from Kamyanyets, Belarus, which is 5,382.88 from Gresham.

So the winner appears to be Joe Gordon.  He was the first person in that branch of my family to leave Europe for the Goldene Medine for better opportunities than were available to Jews in the Russian Empire.  He arrived at New York City in 1909, going to his uncle Sam Schneiderman.  The family's decision to leave appears to coincide with the death of my great-great-grandmother in November 1908, but I don't know if that was the deciding factor.

Joe's departure started the chain migration of his immediate family, most of whom came to the United States:  brother David in 1910; sister Sarah in 1911; father Victor and brothers Hyman and Morris in 1914; and sisters Anna and Rose in 1921.  The oldest sister, Etta, who was already married and had children, went with her family to Ottawa, Canada, where her husband's family (he had eleven siblings!) had immigrated.

I don't know if my great-great-grandfather Victor (or his father Gersh Wolf) was born in Kamianets-Podilskyi or in nearby Orynyn, but it is only 5,658.4 miles from Gresham.  So Kamianets-Podilskyi is the clear winner for distance.

I used Distance Calculator US to determine the straight-line distances between locations.

Wordless Wednesday

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: A Name That Runs in the Family

I didn't realize I had missed so many Saturday Night Genealogy Fun posts of late.  I'm happy to be able to post for this week's challenge from Randy Seaver!

Here is your assignment, if you choose to play along (cue the Mission:  Impossible! music, please!):

1.  We all have many names (given, middle, surname, nickname) in our ancestry, whether we know all of them or not.

2.  Do you have a name that runs in your family?  Is there a first name — or nickname — that keeps repeating generation after generation in your tree?  Share the name, the pattern, and your best guess as to why it stuck.

3.  Share your information about your repeating name in your >own blog post, in a a comment on this blog post, or in a Substack post, Facebook Note, or some other social media system.  Please leave a comment on this post so others can find it.

Thank you to Linda Stufflebean for this idea.

I have not found any major patterns of repeating names in my family on either side.  My fifth(?)-great-grandfather Hananiah Gaunt had a son named Hananiah Selah Gaunt, and if I remember correctly he had a son named Hananiah, for three generations of that name.  My fifth-great-great-grandfather's grandfather was also a Hananiah.  That makes four generations with one skipped.

My adoptive great-great-grandfather, Cornelius Godschalk Sellers, named his son Cornelius Elmer (who went by Elmer).  Elmer named his first son Cornelius Howard; the child died at the age of 2, and no one else has been named Cornelius since that I know of.  Cornelius Godschalk had an uncle named Cornelius, but that man didn't name any of his sons Cornelius.  So one collateral plus three generations.

My mother's family was Ashkenazi Jewish, and they have a tradition of not naming after a living relative, so while family members were still practicing Jews I have found no consecutive generations with the same name.  What you will often find, however, is that a name skips a generation.  So my great-great-grandmother was Esther Leah (Schneiderman) Gorodetsky, and four of her children named their first daughter Esther Leah.  There would have been a fifth Esther Leah, but when it came down to finalizing the name, Morris' wife said she didn't want her daughter to be yet another Esther Leah, so she was Esther Malka, with the Malke being for a deceased ancestor on the wife's side of the family.  But I don't know of any Esther Leahs in succeeding generations.

An interesting lack of a continued name is that of my 3rd-great-grandfather Gersh Wolf Gorodetsky.  I know of no descendants named after him.  I don't know if that was because he was still alive when grandchildren were being born, so they wouldn't have used his name because of the tradition, or if he maybe wasn't such a nice person and not well loved by family members.

On the other hand, in my ex's Irish family, I have found the multigenerational name of Edmund.  I have documented four of five generations where the first son was named Edmund (and in one generation, when that first son died as an infant, the next son was also named Edmund).  (I consider it likely that the generation where I haven't found an Edmund is simply that I haven't found him yet.)  My ex was the second son, and his older brother was indeed named Edmund.  No one in my ex's generation named a son Edmund, though.  I have heard rumors as to why that didn't occur, but as all of the relevant parties are still alive, it is not for me to say why that situation exists.