Roberts Family (Click for Family Tree)

Tuesday’s Tip: Do you have family treasures stashed in a closet or trunk? Share them- your cousins will enjoy learning more about their family!

Our Roberts cousin is doing just that. And so are we, through this blog.

A great-uncle of Edith (Roberts) [McMurray] Luck, William Roberts, left a big and wonderful family as his legacy. William and his family stayed in Indiana while our ancestor, John Roberts and his wife Elizabeth Ann Murrell, migrated to Iowa.

William’s descendants kept many of the family artifacts from their line, and they are a delight to see. We have already posted pictures of family and friends- see “Friday’s Faces from the Past: The William Roberts Family” for the first of nine posts in the series called the “Lloyd Roberts Family Photo Collection.”

William’s son Isaac Henry Roberts married Clara Shrader, daughter of Mary Ann (Bennett) Shrader. Clara kept her autograph book throughout her life. Completed in her late teens, it obviously was quite an important keepsake to her, and held a lot of memories.

An autograph book was a small, usually hardbound book with blank pages, or sometimes there were lines or images on a page. The book would be passed around to friends to autograph, and they usually wrote a quick little poem. (Those who were born in the 1950s or 60s will remember autograph books as being popular back then too.)

Clara’s autograph book has been lovingly kept by the family and passed down since the 1880s. The current owner has shared the pages of this sweet book for posting, in the hope that not only will descendants enjoy it and it be preserved online, but that descendants of Clara’s friends might see it and get a small glimpse of their ancestor’s personality.

Transcription:

Remember and don’t forget

The Bigest fool you ever met

Command you may

your mind from play

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1. “Friday’s Faces from the Past: The William Roberts Family“as the first in the series ” Lloyd Roberts Family Photo Collection” at http://heritageramblings.net/2016/03/04/fridays-faces-from-the-past-the-william-roberts-family/

2. Thank you to our Roberts cousin who so carefully has preserved, scanned, and transcribed this autograph album.

 

Click to enlarge any image. Please contact us if you would like an image in higher resolution.

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 2013-2017 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 or use of our blog material.

 

Roberts Family (Click for Family Tree)

(Note price of 50¢ on left page.)

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1. 1. Thank you to our Roberts cousin who so carefully has preserved, scanned, and transcribed this autograph album.

 

Click to enlarge any image. Please contact us if you would like an image in higher resolution.

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 2013-2017 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 or use of our blog material.

Roberts Family (Click for Family Tree)

Transcription:

Concordia, Mar. 21st 1884

To Friends

Go, little book, thy destined course pursue,

Collect memorials of the just and true,

And beg of every friend so near,

Some token of remembrance dear.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

From our Roberts cousin:

This is a transcript of a small autograph book of personal notes to my great grandmother, Clara Lillian Shrader, before she married my great grandfather, Isaac Henry Roberts.  It was handed down by my grandfather, Lloyd Roberts. Most of the entries with dates range from 1883 to 1891, where she would have been between the ages of 17 and 25. Most are in 1884 and 1885, when she was 18 and 19.

[Editor: Transcript will be posted in blog with each autograph book page.]

A list of all names, dates, and locations identified in this book are:

·       Arkill, Eliza, 12/25/1884, Concordia, KS ·       B., Matie, 6/2/1886, Wolf Creek, KS ·       Bennett, Eva J., 7/18/1886 ·       Bennett, F. L., 3/3/1886, Concordia, KS ·       Bennett, Ida L., 8/18/1885 ·       Bonebrake, Pearl (brother Frank married a Mary Bonebrake) ·       Bonebrake, Samuel, 3/{illegible}/1884 (brother Frank married a Mary Bonebrake) ·       C H R, 12/24/year not given ·       Caylor, S., 1/22/1885, Concordia, KS ·       Chritton, A. A., 3/28/1884 ·       D__le, Lida, 8/17/1885 ·       D____, Mattie, 7/18/1884, Miltonvale, KS ·       Davis, Bessie, 3/21/1884, Concordia, Cloud, KS ·       F. M. S., 4/6/1884 ·       Healy, Clara E., 7/21 1884, Concordia, KS ·       Hepler, Clara, 3/9/1883, Concordia, KS ·       Johnston, Ella, 9/1884, Concordia, KS ·       Lowther, Malissa A., 8/15/1889, Warwick, KS ·       Lowther, Mollie, 8/14/1885 ·       M., Laura ·       Maddox, N. J., 4/20/year not given (likely Clara’s sister, Nancy J. Shrader) ·       McCrea, Annetta, 10/9/1887, Concordia, KS ·       Noe, Andrew, 3/21/1884, Cloud County, KS ·       Noe, Laura, 3/25/1884, Concordia, KS ·       Noe, Laura M., Concordia, KS

·       Plumly, Ira E., 12/15/1890 ·       Ramba, Ella, 12/2/1884 ·       Ramsey, J. C., 12/3/1884 ·       Reeves, L. S., 3/21/1884 ·       Roberts, Max, 1908, Concordia, KS ·       Root, W. L., 12/4/1890, Cutler, OH ·       S., Leslie ·       Sawhill, T. A., 7/22/1884 ·       Shrader, Daisy, 3/22/1891, Concordia, KS ·       Snell, Angie, 3/27/1884 ·       Snell, Carrie, 3/27/1884, Concordia, KS ·       Shrader, Mary J., 10/26/1885 ·       Varvel, Belle, 7/22/1884, Concordia, KS ·       W___, Ettie, Concordia, KS ·       Wagner, George D, 3/12/1884 ·       Wagner, M C, Concordia, KS ·       Wagner, Madge, 3/12/1884 ·       No last name, Annie, 4/1/1884 ·       No last name, Ella, 9/24/1885 ·       No last name, Frank, 4/12/no year given, Concordia, KS ·       No last name, Mary 6/6/no year given ·       No last name, Myra ·       No last name, Rick ·       ____iley, Etta, 4/25/1884 ·       ____, J. H., Peoria, IL

A few autographs identify her as “Teacher Clara”, suggesting she was a teacher as a young adult.

Some identify the relationship of the writer to Clara:

Cousins: Eva J. Bennett F. L. Bennett Ida L. Bennett Ira E. Plumley

Niece: Daisy Shrader

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1. Fantastic job of documentation, dear Roberts cousin! These scans and your transcription are the very best way to preserve and share such an artifact.

 

Click to enlarge any image. Please contact us if you would like an image in higher resolution.

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 2013-2017 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 or use of our blog material.

 

Roberts Family (Click for Family Tree)

Ummm, this is a blank page…

Yes, and that is the proper way to document an artifact- scan/note even what is blank. Our Roberts cousin has created a virtual autograph book for us, and the blank pages could be important as one sorts through information in the book. In this case, these two pages do not really give us information, but in other cases, what might appear to be blank may actually give clues. There might be a faint bleed-through that could help us to decipher what was on the opposite page or the scanner might pick up faint writing that our eyes have not noticed, such as words that have been erased or just faded over the many years. Plus, how many pages in the album are filled with autographs gives us some additional data about Clara and her circle of friends and family. (It’s the 19th century version of counting your friends on FaceBook, only these ‘posts’ will last much longer than a FB feed.)

The transcription that goes along with the scans is so helpful- it is a MS Word document consisting of background information and a table for the pages of the autograph book. The table has 3 columns: scan number, left page, right page. If a page is blank it is noted in the transcription. For ease in reading, we are posting the transcriptions with the individual pages.

Transcription, left page:

8-14-1885 [down side of page]

To Clara

May your cheeks return the dimples,

And your face be just as gay;

When some nice young man will whisper,

Darling C name the day

 

Mollie Lowther

Transcription, right page:

To Miss Clara

 

As sure as comes your ___ [wed?]ing day

A broom to you I’ll send

In sunshine use the brushy ____ [part?]

In storms the other end.

 

Ever your friend {illegible}

 

March 21st 1884.

[These two pages indicate how marriage was the ultimate goal of a woman. “Darling C name the day” refers to “Darling Clara,” said by her suitor, “name the day” for their marriage. The broom mention is to use the bristle end for sweeping on good days, and to use the stick to smack a wayward husband on the not-so-good days. Rolling pins were common wedding shower gifts with a similar dual purpose even into the 1970s. Yes, good people who probably would have never done it joked about domestic violence…]

Transcription, right page:

Dear Clara

Transcription:

March 12, 1884

Dear Friend Clara

I ask you not as others may. I place

In your memory fair, but only in

True friendship say, forget me if you dare.

I am ever your friend.

George D. Wagner

Concordia Kan

Jan the 22 1885

In what a changing world we live

Friends meeting parting ever

Let friends to friends some token give

That they’ll forget them – never

S Caylor

[The world was changing rapidly in the 1880s, and people moved away, never to be seen again- but that had been going on for many years as our population of the US moved west. Perhaps S Caylor was planning a move about the time Clara gathered the autographs of her friends? In 1880, Clara was in Concordia, Cloud County, Kansas, living with her parents; in 1885, the Kansas State Census shows her in Arion, still in Cloud County. She married in Cloud County in 1894, so Clara herself did not move for some years.]

Transcription:

Command me always as a friend. M.

 

Mar 12, 1884.

 

Dear Friend Clara.

 

Here is one leaf reserved for me,

From all kind words it yet is free.

Oh! Could I now within thy mind

Some little vacant corner find,

How quick would I with greatest ease

Write down my name forever there.

 

Ever yours. Madge Wagner.

 

 

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1. Thank you to our Roberts cousin who so carefully has preserved, scanned, and transcribed this autograph album.

 

Click to enlarge any image. Please contact us if you would like an image in higher resolution.

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 2013-2017 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 or use of our blog material.

Roberts Family (Click for Family Tree)

Tuesday’s Tip: Analyze a process for preserving artifacts and information, then automate repetitive tasks when possible, and group repetitive tasks to increase accuracy and speed.

Clara Shrader’s autograph album has 51 scans plus a word document with transcription. Since the scans were in one pdf, they needed to be converted to an image format, and sized down so that it doesn’t take forever for your blog pages to load. Unfortunately I don’t know how to write a script to automate this process, but that is on my list for one day. In the meantime, in my analysis of how to post these sweet pages, I decided on this process:

1. Use a screen capture for each image. I opened the pdf, sized my window to show just one image at a time, so I did not get confused about where I was in the process.
2. On a Mac Command-Shift-4 allowed me to clip just the section I wanted with the double spread of pages. This also converted the image to a png, perfect for using with WordPress for the blog. These images show up on my desktop- you can change the folder, I believe, but that works for me.
3. I gave the first file a descriptive file name and included the number of the scan:
   Clara Shrader Autograph Book_1_sm.png. I cut and pasted the name, changing the number as appropriate as I clipped each image. I also made sure that the numbers matched the chart with the transcriptions.
4. The ‘sm’ in the file name is for small, as I knew I would need to reduce the file size. After my desktop was full of images, I clicked each and opened in Preview, then used ‘Tools’ to reduce the size. Make sure to save the file after any such changes!
5. After all the images on my desktop were reduced, I highlighted them all and pulled into a file folder for Clara’s album that I created right on my desktop. Now the desktop was clean again, and ready for another batch of these images.
6. Use cut-and-paste for titles, captions, etc. whenever you can. You can always go back and add detail, but it is important to label as you go. I pulled all the images into WordPress, and captioned them each as I went, using cut and paste but changing the number of the image. Now they are all ready for blog posts and writing, or you can keep them in a folder for maybe a report or book- the enjoyable part after the tedious but necessary work and documentation.

OK, now on to the good part: Clara’s sweet album pages for today:

March {illegible} 1884

Dear Friend

When in some future time,

These lines you chance to see;

Think kindly of the writer,

Who Will always think of thee.

Samuel Bonebrake

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

March 21, 1884

Dear friend Clara,

Remember me when this you see

Though many a mile apart we be.

Yours truly,

L. S. Reeves

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

March 25th 1884

Dear teacher Clara.

Other hearts may love you,

Others Worship at your shrine

But no other heart will love you

With a love so pure as mine.

Miss Laura Noe

Concordia Cloud Kan

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

March The 21 1884

The roses are red and the lilies are blue: honey is sweet

and so are you.

Andrew Noe

Jam town Cloud Co Kns

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

March 21st 1884

Concordia, Cloud County Kansas

To my Clara

I’d twine a wreath my friend for you

A wreath of flowers rare:

Would you accept the simple gift

And ever hold it dear?

ever your friend

Bessie Davis

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

March 21 1884

To Clara dear

On this broad world of action, friends of worth are far and few;

But when one has proved his friendship, cling to him who clings to you.

your friend Bessie

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Left:

Miss Clara April the 20th If you fall from grace, You’ll be a reck: If you fall from a ship, You’ll break your neck; You may fall from the realm of Heaven above, But never never fall in love. Mrs. N. J. Maddox

Right:

April the 25 1884

Dear Teacher:

Remember the writing

Of my hand when I am

In a distant land

And if the grave should

Be my lot Remember me

When I am not.

Ever yours,

Etta ___iley

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Concordia Mar 3rd 1886

Clara

I care not much for gold as _____,

Give me a _____ here and there,

Some good _____ stock – some note of hand,

Or _____ _____ _____

I only ask that _____ send

A little more than I can spend.

Your cousin, F. L. Bennett

Remember my favorite song and don’t you forget it

Salem {illegible}

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Concordia Kan. March 27 1884

Lines to my dear friend Clara

Much must be born which it is hard to bear

Much given away which it were sweet to keep

God help us all who need indeed His care

And yet I know the Shepherd loves His sheep.

Truly Your Friend

Carrie Snell

Command me always as a friend.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

April the 6 1884

Clara

May your life though short be pleasant

As a warm and _____ ray

as a flower that bloomes at morning

And at evening dies away.

F. M. S.

 

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1. Thank you to John Roberts for his labors in scanning and transcribing this sweet autograph book to make it accessible to future generations. If you would like to contact Jon, please use our form through the blog and we will pass it on!

 

Click to enlarge any image. Please contact us if you would like an image in higher resolution.

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 2013-2017 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 or use of our blog material.