Family Bios

I made an outline of sorts hoping to keep track of various relatives that I'm researching from time to time.  Still have a lot of digging to do but decided to post this today so I can share with whatever relatives might find it of interest.  I may end up starting a new blog dedicated to family history only.  I know this isn't going to cut & paste in the same format I typed it but hopefully, it's easy enough to follow.

Grandpa  Lew Gene’s aunts & uncles on his paternal side of the family:

Emma                   married Weir                               these nine were children of Zadock Blankenship

Hezekiah              married Pettit                               and Sarah Jones

Martha                 married Bolt    

Henry                   married Hinton

Joseph                  married Hinton, then Boaz

Elisha                    married Burris

Bolin                     married Gant, then Harris

Zachariah            married Davidson, then Poland, then Danforth

Benjamin             married Owens, then Yauein_________________________________________

 

George                 married James (Geo. W. Bolt-half brother--he was Eliz's son)

Lewis Marion    married Jane M. Downs of DE (parents of Lew Gene, my grandpa)

Mariah                 married Goodson

James                                                                              these were the children of Zadock Blankenship

John                      died in Civil War battle                                and Elizabeth M. Bolt

Harriett                married James

Charles                 married Whittington

 

Grandpa's girl cousins: Harriet, Isabel, Mary, Priscilla, Sarah, Martha, Mary, Cora, Addie, Dora, Belle, Minnie, Lucinda, Jane, Emma, Edith, Lydia, Margaret, Harriet, Sarah, Lutie, Ellen, Gertrude, Elta, Ethel, Evadna, Mary, Beryl, Annie

Grandpa's boy cousins:  James, Benjamin, Henry, Zadock, Jacob, Charles, Walter, Joseph, Truman, Charles, George, James, Lewis, Charles, George, Floyd, Benjamin, Louie, Marion, Charles

Grandpa's siblings:  infant boy, Jennie, Minnie Mae (all died young),Thomas (died at age 12), Charles ? and the following:

Georgianna         married Jacob  Stark (4 kids:Lola,John,Inez,Ailene)

or

Georgie:             1861-1935 (died in Eugene, OR age 74)

Elizabeth              married  William Thomason (3 kids: Chester,Ora, Ray)

or

 Lizzie:                 1863-1927 (died in Eugene, OR age 64)     

 

John                      married Lillie Thomason (5 kids: Juanita, Feral, Hallie, Ivan, John)

                              1865-1948 (died in Shedd, OR age 83)

 

James:                1867-1949  (died in Eureka, CA age 82)

 

Henrietta             married William Patton(2 kids: Waible, James)

or

Ettie                   1871-1957 (died in Pendleton, OR age age 86)

 

Martha                 married Arthur  Steele (3 kids: Grethel, Thelma, Arthur)

or

Mattie:               1873-1961 (died in Suver, OR age 88)

 

Zadock:              1875-1932  (died in Polk Co, OR age 57)

or

Zed

 

Lew Gene          married Viola Mae Holt (6 kids: Velna, Arthur, Elva, George, John, Jim)

or

Gene,L.G.          1877-1960  (died in Port Townsend, WA age 82

 

Short bios:

Georgianna & Jake Stark ran hotels in Independence, Baker City, Cottage Grove, & Eugene. He was a successful businessman and born in KY. He was also a veteran of the Civil War.  Their daughter, Inez, taught school in Oregon and Seattle. She is mentioned in stories about Alan Hart, doctor and author.

 

Lizzie’s husband was a farmer and I have several copies of poems she wrote. Some were published in the newspaper. Her husband (whose 1^st wife died) had a daughter named Lilly. This Lilly married John Blankenship, Lizzie’s younger brother.

 

John & Lilly came to PT at least a couple times or more to visit his brother, Lew Gene. Thanks to Facebook, I was able to connect with one of their grandsons who lives in Olympia. He told me that Ivan Blankenship(son of John & Lilly) changed his name to Ivan Arison because he couldn’t stand his mother.

From the Willamette Co. Archives:

Of the successful and highly respected farmers of the vicinity of Creswell, Lane County, none is more highly regarded than J. A. Blankenship, who is operating one hundred and seventy-six acres of well improved and highly productive land. He follows twentieth century methods and keeps in close touch

with advanced ideas in relation to his vocation, so that he has well deserved the prosperity which is now his.

 Mr. Blankenship was born in Illinois on the 30th of November, 1865 and is a son of L. M. and Jane (Downs) Blankenship. His father came to Oregon in an early day and located near Independence, where he rented a farm, and there he and his wife spent their remaining years, her death occurring in 1898 and he passing away in 1911. He was a successful farmer and stock raiser and was held in high esteem throughout the community. He was a veteran of the Civil war and while living in Illinois served several years an assessor and sheriff.

 

 J. A. Blankenship attended the public schools of his native state and in young manhood went to Tennessee, and later located in Kansas, where, at the age of twenty-one years, he took up a

 homestead. He proved up on this land, which he operated for seven years, when he sold it and, in

1888, went to Colorado, where he was employed in the cattle business two years. He then returned to Illinois and later came to Oregon, where he has since lived.

While living in Kansas, he was for a time employed as a driver of street cars in Kansas City, the motive power being a team of mules. He is now the owner of a good farm of one hundred and seventy-six acres near Creswell, to the operation of which he has closely devoted himself. He has ten acres in prunes, five acres in cherries and one and a half acres in pears, all of which are in full bearing. He also keeps twelve head of milk cows and three head of horses.

 

Henrietta’s husband was a barber in Pendleton.  Their son, Waible, was a barber for a while and also worked as an advertising salesman for the newspaper. He was noted for his photography and I have a postcard picture he did at the Pendleton round up.

 

Mattie Steele’s husband was a farmer and was born in Canada. They lived in Suver, OR and had two girls and a boy. The boy was a fraternal twin but his sister didn’t live.

 

James worked as a farm hand, as a fireman in a power plant and in sawmills. He died in Eureka where he had gone to mine for gold. He never married and his middle name is Summer (or Sumner?)

 

Zadock worked as a farmhand and died in Oregon at the age of 57. He never married.

Lew Gene & Viola Mae married on Xmas eve in Winlock in 1903. Mae was born in Nebraska and died at age 55 of pneumonia at St. John’s Hospital in Port Townsend. Gene’s WWI draft card registration lists his occupation as sawmill fireman. Most of his life was spent farming and he started work at the PT paper mill in 1928.  He came to PT because his son-in-law, Darrell Walker, told him there was work to be had.

Darrell ended up dying the same year that Mae died (1938) when he fell into the hold of a ship docked at the mill.  Gene and Mae “followed the crops” as all their kids were born in different towns: Velna in Salem in 1905; Arthur in Oak Harbor in 1908; Elva in Eugene in 1910; George in Albany in 1914; and the twins in Galvin (near Centralia, WA) in 1923. They were 45 and 39 years old when the twins arrived and moved to Port Townsend about 1928.  All of their grandchildren were born in Port Townsend except the two oldest-- Bob Walker, born in Suver, OR  and Joan Dubberly, born in Camas, WA.