Dan, I really do feel blessed to be this old. Liane's grandmother knew her great grandmother who was born in 1775 and died the year my great grandmother was born. Liane's family settled in the Bronx in 1657 and my family settled in Westchester county 45 years later in 1702. Our family farms were 10 miles apart back then.Bob, I haven't been to you thread in awhile. I've missed a lot especially about the prescriptions, etc.
But what has caught my attention in catching up is the story about your great grandmother. It's an illustration that we tend to think of 1864 as an eon ago. SO far removed from us today. But she was a woman that you; a living breathing man here in 2023, knew as a boy and you're still alive to talk about her. Time in some ways seems too far to span but in other ways is really not all that long ago.
My ex wife's grandmother (Marion, I knew her well) died in the early 1990's but she was 96 years old. She probably would have lived a lot longer but she fell and broke her shoulder. We all know what tends to happen then. Her younger sister lived to 107.
She used to relate that she remembered well when the Rural Electrification Program came through her home town Des Moines, IA and when she was terribly excited because, "Mr. so & so (the mayor) was going to get an AUTOMOBILE!". She had a teacher that had stood in line all day to see Mr. Lincoln's funeral train. Her mother was the valedictorian of her high school class but the school wouldn't award it to a female. They made her accept the salutatorian award instead! She was accepted into medical school but the janitor, "a colored man" - as she called him - wouldn't let her walk into the front of the school on her first day. She had to go around back. She was maybe the first woman M.D. in Iowa. Got paid in chicken or eggs. A butchered hog if a major injury. These things being told to me when I was in my 20's so my "connection" was by word of mouth to things seemingly only seen/told about in history books. I find these stories fascinating. Thanks for the story.
PS: One night I went down a rabbit hole looking at pictures of Lincoln's funeral and found a shot of Lincoln's funeral procession going through New York City, passing the Roosevelt mansion and it has been determined Teddy Roosevelt as a child and his brother are caught in the photo looking out a window at the goings on! Again, the connections in history are fascinating!
Teddy Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln in the same photo
Today’s post comes from National Archives Office of Strategy and Communications staff writer Rob Crotty. Lincoln’s funeral procession passing the Roosevelt Mansion in New York City (Cou…prologue.blogs.archives.gov
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I enjoy our Grandson but a Great Grandson would be even more exponentially greater. Enjoy but take rest breaks when required. Our little guy can run us ragged.
