52 Ancestors Week 4: Witness to History

Question

From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 4

The theme for Week 4 is "Witness to History." What historical events did your ancestor witness or live through? Don't forget that local history is just as important as world history!

We didn't start the fire. It was always burning as the world was turning....

Comments

Where were you when we landed on the moon? https://allroadhaverhill.blogspot.com/2024/01/52-ancestors-week-4-witness-to-history.html

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When the Eagle landed in the Sea of Tranquillity and Neil Armstrong took one giant leap for mankind, I was cautiously taking small steps in the mountains of Vietnam’s Central Highlands searching for an elusive enemy regimental headquarters while suffering from the head of a tick buried deep in my armpit.  Then it got worse and another tick which I choose to believe was female buried herself into the fleshy part of my circumcised, well, you get the drift.  

As company commander, my well-meaning troops were full of helpful suggestions like climb a tree, tie a string around tick and tree, and do a PLF (parachute landing fall).  Someone suggested a judicious placement of C4, noting that the usual warning cry "fire in the hole" might have to be modified. Perhaps the chemicals in heat tablets would be so unpleasant that the tick would back out, and if it didn't the tabs could always be set alight to provide a little more motivation.

The William Tell solution was more straightforward, and involved substituting one type of head for another, the tick for the apple, and an M16 for the bow. Alternative suggestions of using an M60, M79 or even a call for 8" artillery fire weren't helpful, nor was amputation.  In the end (pun intended), I tried using Army insect repellent to encourage disengagement and, when that failed, ripped her fat body off leaving the head behind. Fortunately it was nearly out and soon joined the body. I kept the wound liberally doused with disinfectant, and, you guessed it, kept walking with my knees together until we emerged from the mountains a few days later. 

Did a man really walk on the moon?

 

Answer 1

Ah. What comes to mind here is the landing on the moon in 1969! That would include my siblings and my parents, Wilma Doris Shelton and Edwin T. King. My mother used to tell me that when she was younger, landing on the moon was considered "Science Fiction"!!!! SO TRUE!!!!!

Answer 2

The 'Hook". The first real 'no way' genealogical discovery no one ever mention while I was growing up. My 6th great grandpa and his brother-in-law, my 1c6r, signed the Bush Declaration on 22 Mar 1775.

Answer 3

My great grandparents Joseph Prichard and Elizabeth Bartlett Prichard had a farm on Loch Lomond Road, just outside the city of Saint John, New Brunswick, when on June 20 1877 the city suffered one of the worst fires in North America.  Most of the city south of King Street was destroyed with 1,600 buildings lost and 15,000 people left homeless.  Our family members that lived in the city took refuge in the Prichard house according to a letter written by my great granduncle Arthur Bartlett to Elizabeth some 30 years later.  "I can remember the morning when we all found ourselves out at your home on Loch Lomond Road, and how hopeless the whole thing seemed; it was such a desperate experience."  The history we witness lives on in our minds but we must record it or it will be lost to history.

Answer 4

Since dates weren't specified, I'll start with my father who was a B-17 bomber pilot in WWII stationed in England. He and his crew flew 25 (almost) missions before being shot down over Germany. They all managed to parachute out, they were all German POWS, his was in Stalag Luft I, Barth Germany.  My father was a member of the 379th bomb grp.,the most honored bomb group of WWII.

My 4th grt. grandfather's eldest son, Elijah Bettis jr., was a representative to the General Assembly for the state constitution when Missouri became a state. He served from 1822-1826. His little brother Overton,about 1818, was appointed to the commission to decide on the location for the Wayne county public buildings,along with Bro-in-law Ezeikial Rubottom.

And lastly my 2nd grt. grandfather, A.H. Puckett was county judge for Perry county MO, from 1832-34. Although not historically important.

The Bettis family was living  in the New Madrid area during the New Madrid earthquakes of 1812. One wonders how much it affected their lives, since it was a major geologic "disaster". in that part of the country.

Answer 5

Family stories say that my 4th great-grandfather Henry Trenner was one of the Hessian soldiers captured at Trenton when Washington crossed the Delaware.

Answer 6

My husband's 5 x GGF was living in Prestonpans, Scotland at the time of the Battle of Prestonpans on September 21st 1745.

This battle was the first significant battle in the 1745 Jacobite Rising. The Scots led by Bonnie Prince Charlie defeated the British army in what has been described as stunning victory over the redcoat army loyal to George II. It lasted less than 30 minutes.

The end result of the 1745 Rising was the battle of Culloden on 16th April 1746 on Drummossie Moor, overlooking Inverness, where the Scots army was defeated by the British army.

For those of you who are Outlander fans, these battles and their aftermath will be familiar.

Answer 7

A couple immediately come to mind:

I lived in Washington DC at the time of 9/11 and witnessed the burning of the Pentagon in Washington, DC after a plane crashed into it by terrorists.

My parents lived in Milton-Freewater, Umatilla, Oregon at the time of the Mt. St. Helens volcano eruption. I and my husband received the ash in Boise, Idaho.

Answer 8

My maternal Pilcher ancestors in East Kent were witnesses to the Swing Riots (named after the fictitious leader "Captain Swing") in 1830.  They were living at Wingmore Court Farm where, in August 1830, the first (horse-drawn threshing) machine breaking happened. For instance, Thomas Pilcher (1786 - 1862) https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Pilcher-72 and his family were living in Wingmore in 1841, 1851, 1861.

The Swing riots were uprisings, by labourers, artisans, and small farmers,  against the newly introduced threshing machines, which they believed were depriving them of employment.  It was part of an overall resistance to industrialization, and led, in combination with other events, to the 1832 Reform Bill.

On my father's side, a brother in law of my great aunt,  Geoffrey Barnish ( https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Barnish-60 ) was second officer on  RMS Carpathia, when it rescued the survivors from the Titanic.

Answer 9

You asked about historical events that an ancestor witnessed or lived through, so this probably doesn't count but a "probable" ancestor (through the Boone's of Daniel fame, the nephew of my GGG...GGM) Sir Henry De Bohun was famously killed on the first day of the Battle of Bannockburn (23 June 1314) by the Scottish king Robert the Bruce.  It's said that his death so demoralized the English that (together with terrain and English tactical errors) the English lost a battle that was there for the taking.

Speaking of losing battles, my 4th great grandfather John Leyde (Lyde-45) "suffered depredation" in the Revolutionary War in 1781 as a Private in the 5th Company, 5th Battalion, Washington Co, (PA) Militia under Capt Robert Ramsey,  Yet the next year, aged 50, he and son-in-law Isaac Rose served in CPT Hoagland's (KIA) / LT Newkirk's Company of the Washington County (PA) Militia in Colonel Crawford's Expedition on Sandusky River, Ohio Country. The militia were thoroughly routed by the Indians and British troops. Expedition records show that most survivors were discharged from service on 14 June 1782, but John was not discharged until 21 June, indicating that he may have been one of those thought lost who later straggled in from the wilds.  This was the final battle of the Revolutionary War, another loss.'

John and his sons James (Jacobus), Benjamin, and John Frederick (my 3rd GGF) were involved with other Washington County farmers in the Whiskey Rebellion (Insurrection) of 1791-1794 which protested the whiskey tax set by the government.  After George Washington sent troops to quell the rebellion (pictured below), the four complied with requirements to swear oaths of allegiance (dated 11 September 1794) to the United States, yet, one could say, another loss.

Comments

Whiskey Rebellion=Protest=(Insurrection)  Once it was deemed an insurrection it allowed federal government to use military force, within state boundaries, to suppress those opposing taxes.

Answer 10

My great aunt's husband William Cleburn "Choc" Phillips was only 19 years old when he and a couple of his friends were in downtown Tulsa when they saw the beginnings of the Tulsa Race Massacre.  That evening after glee club practice, like teenage boys often would do, they followed the crowds and witnessed the tragic night of 31 May and 1 Jun 1921. 

This is a photo I took of part of the Choc Phillips collection on display in the Greenwood Rising Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma. This shows his typewriter that he used to write the manuscripts about the massacre and a quote from William "Choc" Phillips that he wrote telling how he felt about this part of history.

Comments

Alexis:

         What an amazing connection to that event.

                             Roger

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Roger, thank you for your nice comment.

Answer 11

My fourth great, grandmother Elise Grafin von Bernstorff was in Vienna, with her husband Christian Gunther Graf von Bernstorff, who represented Denmark at the Congress of Vienna.  Her memoirs are still used as a source on the Congress of Vienna.

Answer 12

My grandfather, [[Lancaster-5311|John Franklin Lancaster Sr (1889-1972)]], rode in the last covered wagon that went to Texas from Mississippi when he was a young sprout, so the story goes.

His son, my dad, [[Lancaster-5310|Thomas Ogden Lancaster (1920-2004)]], was a rescue diver in the US Army Air Force stationed at Eglin Field, Florida on the Gulf coast during WWII. He got to see the secret testing of bouncing, dam busting bombs dropped from planes. He was out on the boat when one hit the water wonky and bounced up hitting the plane it was dropped from, causing it to crash. He had to retrieve the body of the pilot.

He and my mom also got to see some of the filming of the movie, 30 Seconds Over Tokyo which was filmed around Pensacola close to Eglin Field.

Answer 13

My great grandfather, John Elsworth Nevils (Nevels-71), was a member of the Missouri State legislature. In July 1919, the Missouri House voted on whether to support women’s suffrage; each state had to vote on whether to pass an amendment to the Constitution.  He voted in favor of women’s suffrage; the bill passed 118 to 21. The amendment was passed the following year.

Answer 14

My father Attilio Aka Art went to work with his father who owned A Fiordalisi Furniture Company in Glenview area on the east side of Cleveland. He became the owner after Attilio Sr died in 1966. July 23-24 1968 the Glenview Shootout started to change my father's life for ever. This is where Art's store was located was looted and burned according to the National Guard whom came later. From then on my father dislike Cleveland MAYOR Carl B Stokes for not asking for the National Guard to come in earlier as he said in the July 28, 1968 Cleveland Plain Dealer's article. 

https://case.edu/ech/articles/glenville-shootout

hrtps://www.cleveland memories/gville/index

Answer 15

I think of my parents who were both born in the 1920s and lived through the depression the flood of 1937, Pearl Harbor, World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam, and every war sense as well as the modernization of  automobiles, manufacturing, hospitals, and medical care and treatment,  the moon landing,,etc.

To elaborate a little, my dad was born into a poor farming, community in rural West Tennessee where they farmed and helped raise coon dogs. His dad died when he was 10 years old, 1933, in the midst of the depression. They did not own a home. My grandmother washed clothes for the CCC camp and my dad did what he could to help the family. They had to move to Arkansas where some of his mother‘s family had moved working in the timber and big farming industry. While living there the flood of 1937 happened and if you lived anywhere along the Mississippi river, that was a big event.  Again, my dad was really poor, so they became refugees to Memphis ; a bus picked his family up and took them to Memphis Tennessee, where I think some of their relatives from West Tennessee came and retrieved them, but they did have to stay in a camp in Memphis for a few days.  My mother on the other hand lived in the same community in Arkansas as my dad, but her family was a little better off when the flood of 1937 happened.  They  were able to liveon the top floor of the local hotel and her dad had a boat that he went every day to another town and picked up their mail and brought that back to everyone at the hotel.  He also brought back groceries  and they caught fish in the nasty water. They caught rabbits that they prepared for food. They actually had it OK during the flood; it was a hardship but they were safe.

Then Pearl Harbor came along and my dad enlisted in the United States Army for World War II. He was an engineering unit  where he saw action in seven of the eight major European battles, including he was on D-Day at Normandy at about 10 o’clock in the morning Omaha Yellow, battle of the bulge, liberation of Paris, and so much more.  One of the things that he did at the end of the war was touring through several concentration camps, where he took pictures, which he brought back  home We always took those to school, and he preached to us that this could happen again. This was one of  the atrocities of the war that impacted his heart and mind for the rest of his life.

The family at home basically had newspapers and radio to try to keep up with what was going on in Europe and the and the rest of the world. There wasn’t much news.

My mother‘s brother had joined the United States Air Force, right before the Korean war was declared. This impacted her family tremendously. My grandfather went completely white-headed in a period of two weeks because my uncle was training in radio communications to be sent to Korea. The next big event was the Vietnam war, which was an unpopular war at home. My brother enlisted as a private in the United States Marine Corps right out of high school. For three long years, my parents did not allow the rest of us to watch any news. They  tried to shield us from was going on in Vietnam, the best they could at the time. Thankfully, my brother did not get sent to Vietnam, but he could have had any moment.

The next big war that impacted my dad at least was the war that started on January 16, 1991. My dad had been upset and agitated about this impending action for quite some time. He continually said I will go. I will go; let me go; I want to go over there and help take care of this. Never mind he was on his death bed. He died on January 6, 1991 and I will never forget when that war actually started. All I wanted to do was pick up the phone and call him and talk to him about it because he had been so adamant, in his opinion, this was the right thing for America.

My mom lived another 24 years and watched the terroirst attack on the USA in 2001. She compared it to Pearl Harbor and she watched 24 hour news coverage  

Mother’s favorite historical achievements were plastic and disposal medical equipment. She  detested washing syringes, needles, and other equipment, and the constant autoclaving. She loved the advances in medical science and kept  up with medical advances the remainder of her life  

My parents witnessed a lot of history and now it is time to start journalling the historical events I have witnessed.

Answer 16

The most relevant events would be the Peninsular Wars, that culminated in the defeat of Napoleonic forces in Spain and France. Three of my 4th great grandparents fought with the Spanish Army and Navy: 2 from Chile, 1 from Ireland.

After that, they came to Chile and fought against Spain for the Chilean Independence.

Answer 17

This week was a bit hard, also because I didn't have that much time to work on connections, because I wanted to improve the CC7 of a German theologian for the Example Profile of the Week. But, while I translated the biography for Abraham Calov, I first realized (again) that he lived through the Thirty-Years-War. Then I remembered that I connected in my effort to improve Abraham's CC7 also the professor and diplomat Augustin Strauch, who was unlinked before. And he really was a witness to history, he was present at the election of Leopold I., the Holy Roman Emperor.