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Tombstone Tuesday: Henry Clay Christie

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Henry C. Christie, military headstone, in Evans Cemetery, Monroe County, Iowa. Posted from Find A Grave with kind permission of photographer.
Henry C. Christy, military headstone, in Evans Cemetery, Monroe County, Iowa. Posted from Find A Grave with kind permission of photographer.

Roberts Family (Click for Family Tree)

Henry C. Christie, headstone, in Evans Cemetery, Monroe County, Iowa. Posted from Find A Grave with kind permission of photographer.
Henry C. Christy, headstone, in Evans Cemetery, Monroe County, Iowa. Posted from Find A Grave with kind permission of photographer.
Evans Cemetery, Monroe County, Iowa. Posted from Find A Grave with kind permission of photographer.
Evans Cemetery, Monroe County, Iowa. Posted from Find A Grave with kind permission of photographer.
Henry C. Christie, military monument, in Evans Cemetery, Monroe County, Iowa. Posted from Find A Grave with kind permission of photographer.
Henry C. Christie, military monument, in Evans Cemetery, Monroe County, Iowa. Posted from Find A Grave with kind permission of photographer.
Henry C. Christie, military monument, closeup, in Evans Cemetery, Monroe County, Iowa. Posted from Find A Grave with kind permission of photographer.
Henry C. Christie, military monument, closeup, in Evans Cemetery, Monroe County, Iowa. Posted from Find A Grave with kind permission of photographer.

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. All images posted from Find A Grave with kind permission of photographer.
  2. Note that surname is spelled “Christy” on military headstone, but family monument and large military monument spell it, “Christie.”

 

Please contact us if you would like higher resolution images. Click to enlarge images.

We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post (see form below), and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.
 

Original content copyright 2013-2016 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted.
 
Descendants and researchers MAY download images and posts to share with their families, and use the information on their family trees or in family history books with a small number of reprints. Please make sure to credit and cite the information properly.
 
Please contact us if you have any questions about copyright of our blog material.

Military Monday: Henry Clay Christie and the 34th Iowa Infantry Volunteers

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Enlistment of Henry Clay Christie, August 12, 1862. Civil War Enlistments, 34th Iowa Infantry, Co. D-1, JK 6360.6, A.3, C5, Reel 16, State Historical Society of Iowa.
Enlistment of Henry Clay Christie, August 12, 1862. Civil War Enlistments, 34th Iowa Infantry, Co. D-1, JK 6360.6, A.3, C5, Reel 16, State Historical Society of Iowa.

Roberts Family (Click for Family Tree)

Today’s Guest Post is by our cousin Jon Roberts, written 24 August 2015. John has provided all the recent Roberts pictures we have posted from the Lloyd Roberts Family Photo Collection, and we are so happy to have found another cousin and line of the family!

Jon’s line is from John S. Roberts (1805-1875) and Jane (Salyers) Roberts (1806-1880) through their son William Roberts (1827-1891); ‘our’ line is through William’s brother, John S. Roberts (1832-1922).

♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦

“Henry Clay Christie is my 3rd great uncle, the brother of my 2nd great grandmother, Sarah (Christie) Roberts, who is the grandmother of my paternal grandfather, Lloyd William Roberts.”

The seeds for formation of the 34th Regiment of the Iowa Infantry Volunteers were sown on June 28, 1862 with a message to President Lincoln from the Governors of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Michigan, Tennessee, Missouri, Indiana, Ohio, Minnesota, Illinois, and Wisconsin, and the President of the Military Board of Kentucky.

The undersigned, Governors of States of the Union, impressed with the belief that the citizens of the States which they respectively represent are of one accord in the hearty desire that the recent successes of the Federal arms may be followed up by measures which must insure the speedy restoration of the Union; and believing that in view of the present state of the important military movements now in progress and the reduced condition of our effective forces in the field, resulting from the usual and unavoidable casualties of the service, that the time has arrived for prompt and vigorous measures to be adopted by the people in support of the great interests committed to your charge, we respectfully request, if it meets with your entire approval, that you at once call upon the several States for such number of men as may be required to fill up all military organizations now in the field, and add to the armies heretofore organized such additional number of men as may in your judgment be necessary to garrison and hold all of the numerous cities and military positions that have been captured by our armies, and to speedily crush the rebellion that still exists in several of the Southern States, thus practically restoring to the civilized world our great and good Government. All believe that the decisive moment is near at hand, and to that end the people of the United States are desirous to aid promptly in furnishing all re-enforcements that you may deem needful to sustain our Government.

On July 1, 1862, President Lincoln responded by issuing an Executive Order to call an additional 300,000 troops into service.

To the Governors of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Michigan, Tennessee, Missouri, Indiana, Ohio, Minnesota, Illinois, and Wisconsin, and the President of the Military Board of Kentucky:

 GENTLEMEN: Fully concurring in the wisdom of the views expressed to me in so patriotic a manner by you in the communication of the 28th day of June, I have decided to call into the service an additional force of 300,000 men. I suggest and recommend that the troops should be chiefly of infantry. The quota of your State would be ___________. I trust that they may be enrolled without delay, so as to bring this unnecessary and injurious civil war to a speedy and satisfactory conclusion. An order fixing the quotas of the respective States will be issued by the War Department to-morrow.

General George Washington Clark, appointed colonel of the 34th Iowa Volunteers. Illustration in History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century, 1903; via Wikipedia, public domain.
General George Washington Clark, appointed colonel of the 34th Iowa Volunteers. Illustration in History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century, 1903; via Wikipedia, public domain.

The 34th Iowa, primarily composed of men from the counties of Decatur, Lucas, Warren, and Wayne, began gathering at Camp Lauman in Burlington, Iowa in August 1862. Henry Clay Christie volunteered for service on August 12, 1862 and was assigned to Company G, which was mostly composed of men from Lucas County. When mustered into service on October 15, 1862, the 34th was composed of 941 men. Its commander was Colonel George W. Clark. During the two months between August and October 1862 when the troops were gathering at Camp Lauman, no less than 600 men were struck with measles and later, pneumonia was prevalent. As a result, many deaths occurred while numerous other men were unfit for duty during their entire time at Camp Lauman.

On November 22, 1862, the 34th was ordered to Helena, Arkansas where General William Tecumseh Sherman was gathering troops in preparation for the engagement against Vicksburg, Mississippi. They arrived December 5th and were assigned to the Third Brigade of the Fourth Division of the Sixteenth Army Corps, commanded by Brigadier General John M. Thayer. Soon after arrival, smallpox broke out among the Regiment. This, coupled with exposure from living in dog tents and weather conditions of heavy rain, numbing cold, and snow, caused many more deaths or rendered many men unfit for duty due to sickness.

Battle of Chickasaw Bayou. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license. Map by Hal Jespersen www.posix_.comCW
Battle of Chickasaw Bayou. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license. Map by Hal Jespersen www.posix_.comCW

Sometime between the 34th’s arrival at Helena, Arkansas on December 5th and the order to proceed toward Chickasaw Bayou on December 21st, Henry C. Christie was hospitalized. The muster roll for Company G of the 34th Iowa shows that Henry was hospitalized at Helena, Arkansas on December 21st; therefore, he was one of those unfit for duty and unable to participate in the upcoming battle.

The Battle of Chickasaw Bayou was the opening campaign to capture Vicksburg, the last Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River. On December 26th, three Union divisions under General Sherman disembarked at Johnson’s Plantation on the Yazoo River to approach the Vicksburg defenses from the northeast while a fourth landed farther upstream on the 27th. On the 27th, Sherman’s troops pushed their lines forward through the swamps toward Walnut Hills, which were strongly defended. On the 28th, several futile attempts were made to get around these defenses and on December 29th, Sherman ordered a frontal assault which was repulsed with heavy casualties. Sherman then withdrew. To make matters worse, the weather during this period was terrible. One morning, the troops awoke “drenched and almost overwhelmed with a terrific rainstorm, leaving us . . . lying midside deep in pools of cold water.” The Battle was a resounding Union defeat.

Colonel Clark described this defeat and the subsequent movement of the men of the 34th in this way:

The hardships and disasters of Sherman’s repulses at Chickasaw Bluffs can never be comprehended by any except the brave and hardy men who were there and survived them. The humiliation and misery, consequent upon a useless and senseless slaughter, were greatly aggravated by the inclemency of the weather. When these unfortunate operations on the Yazoo were ended, we moved out of this loathsome and poisonous stream . . .

Battle of Fort Hindman/ Arkansas Port. Currier & Ives print from Library of Congress via Wikimedia, public domain.
Battle of Fort Hindman/ Arkansas Port. Currier & Ives print from Library of Congress via Wikimedia, public domain.

After Chickasaw Bayou, the Arkansas River Expedition was organized and the 34th was ordered upriver to Arkansas Post, also known as Fort Hindman. This expedition was organized by Major General John Alexander McClernand because Confederate ships used the Fort as a base to launch raids on Union shipping, culminating in the capture of the Blue Wing, a supply ship of munitions meant for General Sherman. The 34th Iowa arrived in the vicinity of Arkansas Post on January 9, 1863. As previously noted, smallpox had broken out in the Regiment and that, along with other diseases that had broken out during the trip up the Mississippi River, had greatly reduced the effective force available for battle.

Naval forces commanded by Rear Admiral David D. Porter opened the battle at approximately 5:30 pm on January 10th by ordering three of his ironclads, Baron DeKalb, Louisville, and Cincinnati, to engage Fort Hindman’s guns. The bombardment did not cease until well after dark. The men of the 34th Iowa marched all night through the woods and swamps to reach their positions about 150 yards from the Fort the next morning, January 11th, where the guns of the Fort were unleashed on them. This artillery exchange continued until approximately noon when orders were issued to begin advancing on the Fort. As the infantry, which included the 34th Iowa, was moving toward the Fort, white flags of surrender appeared around 4:30 pm. After the surrender, nearly 4,800 Confederate soldiers were taken prisoner. The 34th Iowa, along with five companies of the 113th Illinois Regiment, were ordered to transport all prisoners, except commissioned officers, to Camp Douglas in Chicago, Illinois. The officers were transported to Johnson’s Island in Sandusky Bay, Ohio. One of the Confederate prisoners captured that day was my 2nd great grandfather, Private James Henry Owens who was with the 15th Regiment, Texas Cavalry. James was the grandfather of my maternal grandfather, James Roston Pollard.

The "Lookout," a transport steamer similar to that used to carry Henry Clay Christie and his comrades upriver. This image is the Lookout on the Tennessee River, ca. 1860 - ca. 1865. Matthew Brady, NARA, restored, via Wikimedia; public domain.
The “Lookout,” a transport steamer similar to that used to carry Henry Clay Christie and his comrades-and enemies- upriver. This image is the “Lookout” on the Tennessee River, ca. 1860 – ca. 1865. Image by Civil War photographer Matthew Brady, NARA, restored, via Wikimedia; public domain.

The three weeks following the surrender of Fort Hindman were among the worst the 34th Iowa had endured up to that point. The first leg of the trip on the Mississippi River, from Arkansas Post to Benton Barracks in St. Louis, was a horrible ordeal as about 5,500 men (Union soldiers from the 34th Iowa and the 113th Illinois Regiments and their Confederate prisoners) were crammed onto the Sam Gaty, the John J. Row, and the Nebraska – “three of the poorest steamboats in the fleet” according to Colonel Clark. It took two weeks to get to St. Louis, where they were transferred to trains for the reminder of the trip. During that two week period, “the weather [was] colder than it had ever been known” and the men were crowded together “worse than a humane man would crowd cattle on a voyage to the shambles.” Union and Confederate soldiers lay side by side on the floors, sick with fevers, pneumonia, measles, smallpox, and chronic diarrhea. Excretion pails were overflowing and ran along the floors of the cabins. The stench was horrific. Sick men were left at stops in Memphis, Tennessee, Cairo, Illinois, and Arsenal Island, just south of St. Louis. According to Colonel Clark, “the human suffering during the trip exceeded anything I have ever witnessed in the same length of time.” This from a man who has seen plenty of suffering on many battlefields.

Based on muster rolls for the 34th, it appears Henry was picked up at Helena, Arkansas while the 34th was on the way to Benton Barracks with the POWs and was one of those left at Arsenal Island. One muster roll states he was “left sick at Small Pox Hospital, Arsenal Island, St Louis, MO, Jany 27, 63.” A hospital record notes that Henry was admitted to Small Pox U.S.A. General Hospital, St. Louis, MO on January 24, 1863 with complaints of varioloid and chronic diarrhea. Thus, for the portion of the trip described in the preceding paragraph, it appears both my 3rd great Uncle Henry and 2nd great grandfather James were together, though it cannot be established whether or not they were on the same steamboat.

Muster rolls then indicate Henry was discharged from the hospital on March 26, 1863 and discharged from military service in Saint Louis on March 30, 1863. He died in Jackson Township, Monroe County, Iowa less than a month later on April 25, 1863 and is buried at Evans Cemetery, Monroe County, Iowa, plot EVA019.

GAR Index for Henry Clay Christie, CAR-C00, Pol-H-1216, Microfilm #1570123 State Historical Society of Iowa Library.
GAR Index for Henry Clay Christie, CAR-C00, Pol-H-1216, Microfilm #1570123
State Historical Society of Iowa Library.

 

An additional note: Any soldier would much prefer to pass to the next world surrounded by his loving family, rather than in a horrible military hospital with strangers. Henry C. Christie was granted this, and his family was most likely very happy to have him for even that short month he survived his enlistment. He was buried where others in the family were later laid to rest. Had Henry been one of the 470 soldiers who died at the smallpox hospital on Arsenal Island, he would have been buried there. The wooden headboards used to mark the graves of those soldiers were washed away by floods over the years as the Mississippi River rose in its annual cycles. The bodies were reinterred later at the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri. Sadly they could not be individually identified since their markers had washed away; they were buried as “Unknown Soldiers.”

It must have been a comfort to the Christie family to know that that their soldier, their boy, was instead ‘resting quietly’ in the cemetery near them in Iowa.

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, The Abraham Lincoln Association http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idxc=lincoln;rgn=div1;view=text;idno=lincoln5;node=lincoln5%3A657.
  2. “The American Presidency Project,” University of California – Santa Barbara http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=69811.
  3. Iowa and the Rebellion: History of the Troops Furnished by the State of Iowa to the Volunteer Armies of the Union, Which Conquered the Great Southern Rebellion of 1861-5, Lurton Dunham Ingersoll, author, 1867. (p624-639, available on GoogleBooks via https://books.google.com/books?id=oVs7AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA624&lpg=PA624&dq=camp+lauman+burlington&source=bl&ots=-N5MU0zmBs&sig=meRh5pcFZa-wJJ-DE12JcUfs2Ik&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiV4MuuyPrKAhUHgj4KHdzZCfIQ6AEIKzAC#v=onepage&q&f=false
  4. Roster and Record of Iowa Soldiers in the War of the Rebellion, 1861-1866, Vol V, 32-48, Regiments, E 507.3, I64, Guy E. Logan, author, State Historical Society of Iowa.
  5. “Chickasaw Bayou,” National Park Service, American Battlefield Protection Program via http://www.nps.gov/abpp/battles/ms003.htm.
  6. The Thirty-Fourth Iowa Regiment: Brief History, 1892, J. S. Clark, Historian of the Regiment.
  7. Iowa Colonels and Regiments: Being a History of Iowa Regiments in the War of the Rebellion; and Containing a Description of the Battles in Which They Have Fought, 1865, Captain A. A. Stuart, Seventeenth Iowa Infantry.
  8. “Chickasaw Bayou” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Chickasaw_Bayou).
  1. “American Civil War: Major General John McClernand” via http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/UnionLeaders/p/American-Civil-War-Major-General-John-Mcclernand.htm
  1. “American Civil War: Battle of Arkansas Post” via http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/civilwar/p/arkansaspost.htm
  1. “The Battle of Arkansas Post: Stepping Stone to Vicksburg,” Civil War Trust via http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/navy-hub/navy-history/the-battle-of-arkansas-post.html
  1. GAR Index, CAR-C00, Pol-H-1216, Microfilm #1570123, State Historical Society of Iowa.

 

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We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post (see form below), and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.
 

Original content copyright 2013-2015 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted.
 
Descendants and researchers MAY download images and posts to share with their families, and use the information on their family trees or in family history books with a small number of reprints. Please make sure to credit and cite the information properly.
 
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Friday Funny: Bicycles and Bloomers

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Bicycles & Bloomers, likely from the Berkeley Gazette, 1895.
Bicycles & Bloomers, likely from the Berkeley Gazette, 1895.

Granted, the word, “bloomers” itself is sort of a funny word, maybe especially for Baby Boomers who think of them as long baggy underwear worn by our grandmas and great-grandmas. At age 7 we giggled about them when mentioned or when they were seen hanging out on the laundry line, filling with air as they blew in the breeze.

When “bloomers” were used as an article of women’s outer clothing back in the 1800s, however, it was revolutionary.

Women on bicycles- possibly c1900. Unknown source.
Women on bicycles- possibly c1900. Unknown source.

As discussed in our earlier post this week, Madness Monday: Clothes Make the Man- er, Woman!, modest, fashionable styles of dress back in the 1800s were really harmful to the health of women. In fact, one physician cautioned his students to NOT use female cadavers to study ‘normal’ anatomy, since corsets to elongate the torso, minimize the waist, and accentuate the bust moved women’s internal organs to places that nature had not intended!

1850s bloomer dress, via Wikipedia, public domain.
1850s bloomer dress, via Wikipedia, public domain.

Many of the health movements of the 1840s suggested that women should wear less restrictive dress, and some women adopted a variation of the “Turkish dress” that had a shorter skirt over baggy trousers. As the outfit became more popular, in 1851, there was a “Bloomer Craze.” Amelia Bloomer published a temperance (no alcohol) journal and lived in Seneca Falls, New York. (That place will be familiar to those who know their women’s history.) Amelia adopted the dress and it was so popular that her name started being used for it, and she included how to make it in one of her journals. The craze was on, and even included a special banquet for only the textile workers in Lowell Massachusetts who wore bloomers to work, as it increased job safety to not have long skirts among the complex machinery of a mill. There were “Bloomer picnics,” balls where women wore bloomers, and even dress reform societies and institutes were founded.

Of course, wearing bloomers became tied with the Women’s Rights movement of the mid-to late-1800s, especially when Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton wore bloomers. Some of those in the crowds at their speeches came to see the women’s dress more than hear their words. A few years later, because they were worried about distracting from their primary message, the movement’s leaders uncomfortably returned to ‘conventional’ dress.

Others, however, felt the new style was a moral choice, as this poem illustrates:

“And now I’m dressed like a little girl, in a dress both loose and short,
Oh with what freedom I can sing, and walk all ‘round about!
And when I get a little strength, some work I think I can do,
‘Twill give me health and comfort, and make me useful too.”

— The Sibyl magazine, April 15, 1859 

Of course, there were critics who felt the costume usurped male authority- and privilege.

1890s- Satirical cigar box lid that was supposed to be somewhat titilating to men as well. Sex sells, but they would never have wanted their good and modest wife to wear such things... Via Wikipedia, public domain.
1890s- Satirical cigar box lid that was supposed to be somewhat titillating (ankles! calves!) to men as well. Sex and ‘bad’ girls sell, but they would never have wanted their good and modest wife to wear such things… Via Wikipedia, public domain.

But the bloomer dress continued to be worn, and was very useful to women in the west- even on the Iowa prairie. Wonder if some of our ancestors wore them? And, could our own Lynette Payne and her good friend Charmian Kittredge (who later married Jack London, the author) have been among the ‘natty’ ladies in bloomers that the 1895 Berkeley newspaper mentions? They both were living in Berkeley that year, and Lynette was just 16.

During the Civil War, some of the nurses wore bloomers as well- it was very useful for working in the field as well as hospitals. We do have a Civil War nurse in the family, Helen (Merrill) [Burkett] Burnell, who married Kingsley Abner Burnell after his first wife- our ancestor- passed away. Perhaps Helen wore the new dress to avoid long skirts dragging through pools of blood and other bodily fluids while working in a hospital or in the field. (Of course, they did not understand the germ theory of disease back then, so the long conventional dresses were not seen as a bad thing.)

Overall though, the bloomer dress went out of fashion after the Civil War, but was revived in the late 1880s and during the 1890s when it was realized that women needed healthy exercise, plus the bicycle came into fashion.

Bicycling ca1887- big wheels and a ladiy with a long skirt. Library of Congress via Wikipedia, public domain.
Bicycling ca1887- big wheels and a lady with a long skirt. Library of Congress via Wikipedia, public domain.

There were probably many accidents with long skirts caught up in spokes and chains and gears… so the bloomer dress became useful and more acceptable again.

German image from 1886 of tandem bicycle with women wearing bloomers. Wikipedia, public domain.
German image from 1886 of tandem bicycle with women wearing bloomers. Wikipedia, public domain.

Of course, bloomers were still scandalous…

1897- the advance of bloomer styles made riding a bit safer for women. It was still scandalous, so maybe not so safe for me who saw them! via Wikipedia, public domain.
1897- English ad for a liniment. The advance of bloomer styles made riding a bit safer for women. It was still scandalous, thus maybe not so safe for men who were busy watching them instead of the road! Image via Wikipedia, public domain.

Of course, some women could not bring themselves to adopt the new fashion. It must have been very challenging to ride a bicycle in a long dress.

There were versions of bloomers for athletics and different versions for cycling, and another to wear out in public for comfort. By about 1900, some versions of bloomers eliminated the overskirt, and bloomer pants became shorter in the late 1920s. In the 1930s, women were allowed to wear shorter and tighter pants, more like men’s styles.

Those of us ‘of an age’ will remember the baggy bloomer-type gym shorts/jumpsuits required for PE in the 50s, 60s, and even into the 70s. Also,  girls/women were not allowed to wear pants to school, work, or church until the 1970s or 80s. (In the winter girls could wear pants under their dresses to get to school, but had to remove them for the rest of the day until returning home.) Even in the mid-1970s, women in the military did not have a dress uniform that included pants, and the short skirts of the day had to be worn on watch even in the coldest of duty stations. Frost-bite, anyone?

We’ve come a long way, baby!

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. Illustrations from Wikipedia Commons, all public domain. See links for interesting commentary:
    https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ausfahrt_im_Sociable_um_1886_-_Verkehrszentrum.JPG
    https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ellimans-Universal-Embrocation-Slough-1897-Ad.png
    https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bicycling-ca1887-bigwheelers.jpg
    https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bloomer-Club-cigars-satire-p-adv054.JPG
  2. Bloomers (clothing entry- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomers_(clothing)
  3. Madness Monday: Clothes Make the Man- er, Woman!- heritageramblings.net/…/madness-monday-clothes-make-the-man-er-woman
  4. “You’ve come a long way, baby!” was a promotional campaign for Virginia Slims cigarettes, marketed to women in the 1970s. One ad’s copy went on to say, “Virginia Slims – Slimmer than the fat cigarettes men smoke.”

 

Please contact us if you would like higher resolution images. Click to enlarge images.

We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post (see form below), and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.
 

Original content copyright 2013-2016 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted.
 
Descendants and researchers MAY download images and posts to share with their families, and use the information on their family trees or in family history books with a small number of reprints. Please make sure to credit and cite the information properly.
 
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Those Places Thursday: Isaac H. Roberts and a Move to Kansas

This entry is part 7 of 9 in the series Lloyd Roberts Family Photo Collection
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Issac H Roberts, c1893, from the William Roberts Family Photo Album.
Issac H Roberts, c1893, from the Lloyd Roberts Family Photo Album.

Roberts Family (Click for Family Tree)

Places today are easy- we have so many modes of fast modern transportation to choose from, and if we can’t be there in person, we can Skype, email, or make a free cell phone call- even look at places on a webcam! Not so in the 1800s though. Train travel did make it easier than we may realize, but folks did not travel back and forth for each holiday or special event once they had moved to a new part of the country. Letters had to suffice for most or all of the time, and often the lines of communication broke down over many years. It must have been very sad for parents such as William and Sarah Roberts to watch their son Isaac drive off to head west to Kansas sometime between 1880 and 1900. They probably worried that they might never see him again.

Isaac Henry Roberts had been born to William Roberts (1827-1891) and Sarah (Christie) Roberts (1829-1912) in March of 1863, likely in Adams, Decatur County, Indiana. He was the youngest surviving son of three, and had a sister who did not survive infancy.

Isaac would have grown up on the family farm, and was listed in the US Federal Census as age 7 in 1870. In 1880, he was 17 and listed as “at home” with the family, rather than a farm laborer.

Isaac’s father died in 1891 in Indiana- did Isaac decide to move west after that?

Isaac married Clara Lillian Shrader (b. 1866) about 1894, and they were living in Arion, Cloud County, Kansas at the 1900 US Federal Census. Isaac farmed and raised stock on their land. He owned the farm which was mortgaged, and he was listed on the Agriculture Schedule.

Clara Shrader, eventually wife of Isaac H. Roberts. From the Lloyd Roberts Family Photo Collection, cropped from picture with Eva Bennett.
Clara Lillian Shrader, eventually wife of Isaac H. Roberts. From the Lloyd Roberts Family Photo Collection, cropped from picture with Eva Bennett (a cousin since her mother was a Bennett?).

Isaac and Clara had two sons, Lloyd William Roberts (1897-1981), who owned all the photos in the collection we have been posting, and Max Duane Roberts (1898-1980).

The family was still living in Arion in 1905, but in 1910 they were listed in Pomona, Franklin, Kansas, again owning a farm with a mortgage. They were found in the same place through the 1940 US Federal Census, the most recent available. They were still noted as farming in 1940 when Isaac was 77 years old.

Clara died just six years after that 1940 census, on 5 June 1946. Isaac survived her by four years and then was laid to rest quietly beside her after his death on 3 May 1950 (in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma). They share a headstone in  Highland Cemetery, Ottawa, Franklin County, Kansas.

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. Find A Grave Memorial #158908260 for Isaac Henry Roberts – http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=158908260
  2. Find A Grave Memorial #158908315 for Clara Lillian (Shrader) Roberts- http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=158908315
  3. Mentioned in biography of his brother George Lucas Roberts in A genealogical and biographical record of Decatur County, Indiana; compendium of national biography, Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, page 253- https://archive.org/stream/genealogicalbiog02lewi#page/252/mode/2up

 

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Madness Monday: Clothes Make the Man- er, Woman!

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Bicycle Dress Reform. The Pacific Unitarian, Vol. 6, No. 5, Page 129. March, 1898, San Francisco, California, via GoogleBooks.
Bicycle Dress Reform. The Pacific Unitarian, Vol. 6, No. 5, Page 129. March, 1898, San Francisco, California, via GoogleBooks.

Payne Family (Click for Family Tree)

For generations reformers tried to get women to trade in their restrictive Victorian clothing for looser garb. The madness of tight corsets that moved bones and internal organs, long dresses that carried the filth of streets filled with excrement of horses and chamber pot contents thrown out a window, big heavy hats that compressed women’s neck bones from the weight, multiple layers that overheated women in the days before air conditioning, etc., made movement for women challenging. No manner of  logic, cajoling, or even science was enough for the ‘modern’ woman to not follow the whims of fashion and the required-by-polite-society need for modesty.

Bicycles changed all that! Women would not ride very far if they could not breathe deeply due to a corset, or if their long skirt got caught in the spokes of the wheels. Those huge, heavy, unsymmetrical hats would definitely put them off balance too.

Bicycles were a great form of exercise, and a way for women to have a bit of freedom. The author of this piece suggests that the bicycle was the biggest influence on women deciding to wear clothes that offered more comfort and “larger freedom of action.” Her conclusion was that this change would bring to women a “life of higher opportunity and realization.” (Love that.)

There was most probably a wealth of causes for these changes, including the women’s suffrage movement. The bicycle surely did play a part, though there was one article in an old newspaper that stated women who rode bicycles were actually prostitutes going off to visit their customers! Casting aspersions on a woman’s reputation was definitely a way to keep most from taking advantage of newfound freedoms.

At least one of our ancestors, Lynette Payne, had the courage to ride a bicycle and she even wore bloomers! She is said to have been the first woman in Newton, Iowa, to ride the new contraption, and Lynette was a suffragist as well.

Lynette Payne, December 1909, wearing a purple and lavender silk dress.
Lynette Payne, December 1909, wearing a purple and lavender silk dress.

Lynette had grown up in liberal Berkeley, California, and many commented on her sophistication after she moved to small Newton, Iowa. Sure wish that we had more photos of Lynette in those early years- would really love to see her on her bicycle! Pure madness, indeed.

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. Bicycle Dress Reform. The Pacific Unitarian, Vol. 6, No. 5, Page 129. March, 1898, San Francisco, California, via GoogleBooks.
  2. Victorian clothing and its dangers are discussed in the BBC’s “Hidden Killers of the Victorian Home.” Thankful that corsets are no longer required…
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sy7iUoWi_-U
    The BBC also made “Hidden Killers” episodes for the Tudor (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zSyjyLAWWM) and Edwardian (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7kxUyvkXjw) eras. The Tudor episode discusses death by drowning (40% of Tudor deaths), including the weight of women’s clothing once wet that often led to drowning.
  3. Maureen Taylor, “The Photo Detective” has a number of books that show clothing from various eras to aid in photo identification, including two coloring books: Victorian Hats: A Coloring Book, and Coloring the Past: the 1860s. Her books are available on her website, MaureenTaylor.com, or on Amazon. She also has a blog at http://photodetective.blogspot.com. Maureen’s classes and webinars are wonderful as well if you are interested in old photos or vintage clothing.
  4. Family photo of Lynette (Payne) McMurray.

 

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Original content copyright 2013-2016 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted.
 
Descendants and researchers MAY download images and posts to share with their families, and use the information on their family trees or in family history books with a small number of reprints. Please make sure to credit and cite the information properly.
 
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