30 June-6 July 1992: Milan, Missouri

We spent seven days and eight nights in Milan, Sullivan County, Missouri with our cousin Lanny and his wife Karen. We met even more cousins. Our stay was an extended family reunion.

My cousin Lanny and his wife Karen

My maternal great-grandparents Henry Elwood and Polly Ann (née Hayes) Crawford came west from Sullivan County to Yakima, Washington in 1907. Polly's parents, my 2nd great-grandparents James Hamilton and Rachel Jane (née Vaughn) Hayes, had moved to Naches, Washington (12 miles/19.3 km northwest of Yakima) in 1901, along with most of Polly's siblings.

Growing up, my mother heard rumors about family in Missouri, but this was the first time the Washington and Missouri Crawfords had met in person since the lines split geographically in 1907.

We met an elderly cousin named Evelyn who was able to provide quite a bit of information about the family history, including new clues to be followed up on later. We met another cousin, Virgil, who owned a general store in the village of Pollock, 13 miles (21 km) north of Milan. Virgil gave us some free soda pop to drink when we visited his store.

Virgil's General Store, Pollock, Missouri

My mother, Lanny, Virgil's wife Bernadean, Virgil, Karen, and my grandmother,

taken inside the general store

Lanny took us to the local cemeteries where Crawford ancestors were buried. He also took us to see the small house near the village of Boynton where my 2nd-great-grandfather Elihu Millikan Crawford M.D. lived his final years before his death in 1924.

Grave of my 2nd-great-grandfather Elihu Millikan Crawford M.D.

(1834-1924)

Grave of my 2nd-great-grandmother Adalade Crawford (née Woodruff)

(1840-1887)

Grave of Dr. Crawford's 2nd wife, Laura Olive Crawford (née Price)

(1860-1908)

The two-room house where Dr. Crawford spent his final years

There was an old Grindstaff family cemetery in the woods on Lanny's property. It had been there when he bought the property and they were no relation to him. He only mentioned it as an interesting fact, but when I heard the name Grindstaff my eyes lit up.

My 3rd-great-grandparents were James Michael and Mary Susan (née Grindstaff) Hayes, and the people buried in that little cemetery turned out to be related to her and thus to me in an amazing coincidence.

I later traced my Grindstaff line back to my 8th-great-grandfather Dietrich Crantzdorf (1650-1714) from the village of Rimschweiler in the Duchy of Pfalz-Zweibrucken, what's now the German state of Rheinland-Pfalz.  His grandson, my 6th-great-grandfather Johann Michael Crantzdorf, changed the family name to Grindstaff after he immigrated to the Pennsylvania Colony in the 1740s.

Lanny and Karen lived on a cattle ranch 7 miles (11.2 km) north of Milan, reached by a bumpy ride down a dirt road. I found it to be a peaceful and relaxing environment. Being a life long resident of the city, it was pleasant to be woken up each morning by the gentle mooing of cattle instead of by the sounds of traffic and jets.

Lanny and Karen's home

Lanny's cattle

Lanny's cattle

A pond in Lanny's backyard

There was such an absence of traffic noise that when we did hear it, it was from the rare large truck 2 miles (3.2 km) west on Missouri Route 5. According to Lanny, you couldn't hear anything smaller than that.

After we arrived, I came down with flu-like symptoms for a couple of days. I went to a doctor in Milan to see if there was anything else wrong. There wasn't, but he prescribed some medication to relieve the worst of the symptoms.

We went to the local drugstore to purchase the medication, and discovered it still had an old fashioned soda fountain. I may not have felt my best, but it was fun to sit at the counter and order a cherry phosphate soda (yes, they even used an old fashioned recipe).

I started feeling better after about three days. I remember visiting the office of the local newspaper, the Milan Standard to purchase two books they published about the history of Milan, and spending an afternoon at the local library doing research.

We also drove to Linneus, the seat of Linn County (which shared its northern border with Sullivan County), 25 miles (40 km) south of Milan. My Hayes ancestors had lived there, so I did some research in the courthouse. At some point during drive around the area, we saw a horse-drawn Mennonite carriage pass us on the road.

On July 4th, there was a big gathering at Lanny and Karen's. I remember a barbecue and watching fireworks, and meeting even more cousins.

My cousin Richard (Lanny's brother) and his wife Reva with my mother

The next day was a Sunday, and we attended morning services at the First Baptist Church of Milan with Lanny and Karen.

Later in the week, my mother's car was having a problem with the air conditioning, so we drove 32 miles (51km) east to Kirksville, where the nearest Dodge dealership was located. The car was still under warranty, so the dealership repaired it at no charge. We also had an oil change and tire rotation performed.

Returning to Milan via a country road, we came around a bend to find a black cow standing in the road. We stopped the car. After glaring at us for a minute, it turned and went back into the pasture. It looked like a nearby fence had been knocked over, which is how the cow came to be wandering loose.

Cow in the road

Speaking of cattle, my mother got to spray down Lanny's cattle with flea repellent. I declined that opportunity. I may have enjoyed my stay in the country, but I was still a city slicker when it came to some things, and trodding through piles of manure was unappealing. I did take part in feeding the cattle, though.

We visited more relatives in Boynton, a village comprised of only a few houses, 9 miles (14.5 km) north of Milan. At the beginning of the 20th century, it had been a thriving town with a railroad station. My great-grandfather Henry Elwood Crawford worked in the rail-yard there before moving to Yakima, Washington.

There was a water well right in the middle of the main road through Boynton, which is something that's remained firm in my memory. Lanny said the state tried to remove the well, but locals protested, and got up a posse to defend it.

The well in the middle of Boynton's main road

Lanny and Karen also took us to a town across the border in Iowa 36 miles (58 km) north of Milan for a day of shopping. I remember going to a Wal-Mart. I believe that was the day before we left.

It was a memorable time spent in Milan.

Sunset

Lightning storm

Mennonite carriage

29 June 1992: Springfield, Illinois to Milan, Missouri

I seemingly felt better when we left Springfield, Illinois than I had the afternoon before. Our destination was the town of Milan, Missouri, with a population of around 1,800 people, 233 miles (375 km) west.

One of the original reasons we had for the trip was to meet our long lost cousins who lived near Milan. What was once planned as a one week trip there and back to Seattle, Washington ballooned into an epic seven week tour of the United States and Canada, but now we were finally approaching Missouri.

Milan is the seat of Sullivan County, where multiple maternal family lines converged, including Crawford, Grindstaff, Hayes, McMillen, Mealman, Vaughn, West, and Woodruff. My maternal 2nd-great-grandfather Elihu Millikan Crawford M.D. established his medical practice near the small Sullivan County town of Boynton in the 1870s after graduation from Keokuk Medical College.

We traveled Interstate 72 and Missouri Route 5. Along the way, we crossed over the Mississippi River again, having previously crossed it eastbound nearly a month earlier.

West of the river once more, we drove through Hannibal, Missouri, where Mark Twain spent his youth and the setting for his novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I recall seeing his boyhood home.

We arrived in Milan in the early afternoon. We stopped in town to call our cousin Lanny and his wife Karen, who gave us directions to their cattle ranch outside of town. I remember it was only a few miles, but on unfamiliar and bumpy dirt roads it felt longer.

We finally arrived at their house and met them in person. We'd spoken on the phone several times, but it's different to finally meet in the flesh. It was very obvious right away that Lanny was a relative. There was a certain resemblance to my maternal grandfather Neal Eldred Crawford.

If I recall correctly, they took us out to dinner that first night. We would spend a total of seven days and eight nights at their house, getting to know them and allowing time for researching my ancestors in local records.

Total Travel Distance: 233 miles (375 km)

28 June 1992: Indianapolis, Indiana to Springfield, Illinois

We left Indianapolis, Indiana and continued westward. Our destination was Springfield, Illinois.

It was a three and a half hour drive on Interstate 465, Insterstate 74, Insterstate 72, and Illinois Route 97. We saw mile upon mile of flat farmland, one mile blurring into the next.

Upon our arrival in Springfield, we visited several sites associated with Abraham Lincoln. The most memorable was Lincoln's Tomb in Oak Ridge Cemetery. His wife and three of their four sons are also buried in the tomb.

Lincoln's Tomb

Lincoln's Tomb

Lincoln's Tomb

Lincoln's Tomb

Lincoln's Tomb

Interior of Lincoln's Tomb, showing his cenotaph

Receiving vault where Lincoln's coffin was initially placed after his funeral

After checking into our rooms at what is now the State House Inn, but was then a Best Western, we went to dinner at a nearby steakhouse recommended by the desk clerk. It was a hole-in-the-wall establishment that served excellent food at very reasonable prices.

Illinois State Capitol as seen from my hotel room

After dinner, I wasn't feeling well, so I went back to the hotel to rest while my mother and grandmother decided to take a stroll around downtown Springfield.

It was a Sunday afternoon, so the streets were quiet. After walking for awhile, my mother noticed two men following them. She grabbed my grandmother's hand and told her to be ready to run. They walked around a corner, and the men followed them, even closer behind now.

My mother said a tall man dressed in an all-white suit suddenly stepped out of an alley, and the two men just as quickly turned and walked back around the corner. When my mother and grandmother looked again, the man in white had also disappeared, but his sudden appearance may have saved them.

Total Travel Distance: 224 miles (360 km)

27 June 1992: Greensburg, Pennsylvania to Indianapolis, Indiana

We left Greensburg, Pennsylvania early in the morning. We had a seven hour and 382 mile (615 km) drive west to Indianapolis, Indiana ahead of us. We followed Interstate 70 out of Pennsylvania and into West Virginia.

I distinctly remember driving over tall bridges which traversed steep ravines and rivers. I couldn't tell you now exactly where along the route they were, just that they were there.

We only spent twenty minutes in West Virginia, but it was more than enough to put a scare into us. I was driving the car that day. I was in the passing lane to pass a slower vehicle when an old, dirty pickup truck came up behind me blaring its horn. The middle aged male driver was wearing a plaid jacket, a baseball cap, and his face looked like it had never met a razor.

As soon as I could, I moved to the right to allow him to pass, but that wasn't good enough for him. He moved right behind our car, tailgating at high speed while still laying on his horn, then swerved back to the left and drove past. As he drove past, I made a rude gesture with a particular finger. He swerved in front of our car and slammed on his brakes, forcing me to brake and pull to the side of the road to avoid hitting his truck.

It was then that I saw a shotgun in his rear window gun rack. His hand reached for the gun. A sudden burst of traffic came from behind us, so he decided to drive away. We waited a few minutes before we also drove away. That was the most jeopardous moment of the entire trip.

We were soon back in Ohio, still on Interstate 70. One of the cities we passed was Zanesville, where my maternal 3rd-great-grandmother Eliza Jane Vaughn (née West) was born in 1827. Of course, I didn't learn that until later, so we didn't have a reason to stop at the time. We stopped near Columbus for lunch, then continued on our way.

After we crossed into Indiana, we began noticing crosses off the highway in rural areas in a specific formation. Two smaller crosses flanking a larger one. Nothing sinister on first glance, although I was told later that the formation can signify the Ku Klux Klan. I don't know if that's true or not, though.

We continued through and past Indianapolis, Indiana 40 miles (64 km) west to the small town of Stilesville via Interstate 465 and U.S. Route 40.

The road to Stilesville, Indiana

In Stilesville, we visited the local cemetery to locate the graves of my maternal 3rd-great-grandparents Hugh and Catharine (née Mynatt) Crawford, who died near Stilesville during the Yellow fever epidemic of 1841.

Stilesville Cemetery, Stilesville, Indiana

Crawford Family Plot (front row only)

Graves of my 3rd-great-grandparents Hugh Caldwell and Catharine (née Mynatt) Crawford

(1805-1841 and 1810-1841)

We also located the graves of Hugh's parents, my 4th-great-grandparents English and Mary (née Caldwell) Crawford, and three of Hugh and Catharine's children (Harriet, Lydia, and Alfred).

Grave of my 4th-great-grandfather English Crawford

(1767-1842)

Grave of my 4th-great-grandmother Mary Crawford (née Caldwell)

(1774-1845)

Grave of my 2nd-great-grandaunt Harriet Londa Crawford

(1833-1841)

Grave of my 2nd-great-grandaunt Lydia Ann Crawford

(1828-1853)

Grave of my 2nd-great-granduncle Alfred Newton Crawford

(1831-1916)

Grave of Alfred's first wife, Louisa J. Crawford (née Brown)

(1834-1884)

The Crawfords came to the area in 1836 from near Knoxville, Tennessee, where five of Hugh and Catharine's seven children were born, including my 2nd-great-grandfather Elihu Millikan Crawford M.D.

After Hugh and Catharine died, followed by Hugh's parents, their six surviving children (Harriet also died in the yellow fever epidemic) were taken in by local families. Elihu was taken in by a blacksmith and became his apprentice. When they were young men, Elihu and his brothers Alfred and William walked to Iowa, where Elihu used his blacksmithing skills to earn money for his tuition at Keokuk Medical College, eventually receiving his medical degree.

After leaving the cemetery, we returned to Indianapolis, passing the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (home of the Indy 500 race) and the Hoosier Dome (then the home stadium of the Indianapolis Colts football team) along the way. We checked into our rooms at the Courtyard Indianapolis Carmel and ate dinner in the hotel restaurant.

Total Travel Distance: 462 miles (744 km)

26 June 1992: Upper Sandusky, Ohio to Greensburg, Pennsylvania

After eating breakfast at the hotel, we left Upper Sandusky, Ohio. On the way out of town, my mother complained that the bed linen in her hotel room had been dirty, making it the third time on the trip where there was an issue with one of our rooms.

Instead of continuing west, we instead headed east 240 miles along U.S. Route 30, Interstate 71, Interstate 76, and U.S. Route 30 again until we arrived in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. Greensburg was in western Pennsylvania, and just slightly over two weeks earlier we had been in the eastern Pennsylvania city of Philadelphia.

Greensburg is part of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area and the county seat of Westmoreland County, where my maternal 3rd-great-grandfather William David Kelley was born to Irish immigrant parents in 1828.

We arrived in the early afternoon, making our way to our reserved rooms at the Knights Inn, a motel chain notable for its Tudor era-themed properties.

After moving our luggage from the car to our rooms, we went to the courthouse and then the local library so I could research the Kelley family. Unfortunately, I came up empty handed. There were several Kelley families of the correct time period in the records, but I couldn't tie him to them.

After failing in my research, we returned to the motel and ate dinner at the Bob's Big Boy restaurant next door. I recall eating one of their famous Big Boy cheeseburgers, which was delicious.

Total Travel Distance: 240 miles (386 km)

25 June 1992: Windsor, Ontario, Canada to Upper Sandusky, Ohio

Our hotel in Windsor, Ontario, Canada offered a complimentary Continental breakfast, so we indulged ourselves before leaving.

We crossed the Ambassador Bridge over the Detroit River, and were back in the United States. We didn't stop in Detroit, Michigan, but my impression from the highway was one of urban blight.

As you may recall from the previous entry, the restaurant next to the hotel in Windsor had license plates from all over Canada and the United States on its walls. When we stopped for gasoline outside of Detroit, we discovered that someone had tried to remove the front license plate from the car during the night. One of the screws had been too tight, so they were unable to remove the plate, which was still attached but bent. We managed to get it back on properly, but now we had a good idea of how the restaurant got so many license plates.

We took Interstate 75 south to Ohio, then Interstate 280 south, Interstate 90 east, and State Route 53 northeast.

After this 113 mile (182 km) drive, we were in Marblehead, Ohio on the shore of Lake Erie, another of the Great Lakes. Our destination was Kelleys Island, a small island 4 miles (6.4 km) offshore. A car ferry runs between Marblehead and Kelleys Island, so we purchased a ticket and were ferried across the lake to our destination.

Postcard showing the Kelleys Island ferry

My grandmother and mother on the ferry's deck

My mother's Dodge Shadow on the ferry's deck

Approaching Kelleys Island

Postcard showing the Kelleys Island welcome sign

My maternal 3rd-great-grandfather William David Kelley (whose place of death we visited earlier on the trip) lived much of his adult life in Ohio and claimed a connection to the Kelleys for whom the island was named. He was reportedly able to accurately describe the interior of the island's Kelley Mansion, including a spiral staircase with a hidden space at the bottom.

Kelley Mansion

My mother and grandmother outside Kelley Mansion

Suit of armor on the front porch of Kelley Mansion

Postcard showing spiral staircase inside Kelley Mansion

Bottom of spiral staircase, showing the hidden space

Top of the spiral staircase

The story of his description was passed down for generations, and when we took a tour of the mansion we saw the distinctive features recounted in the family story. However, I've never been able to determine the exact relationship between those Kelleys and my Kelleys.

Kelley Mansion hearth

Kelley Mansion dining room

Kelley Mansion bedroom

Another Kelley Mansion bedroom

An original wanted poster for John Wilkes Booth, inside Kelley Mansion

After touring the mansion and its many rooms, we walked through the quaint village (population of only 300 or so), ate lunch at a restaurant called Bag the Moon, visited the local historical museum, and then we were back on the car ferry to mainland Ohio.

We followed State Route 163, State Route 269, State Route 2, and State Route 53 70 miles (113 km) southwest to the small city of Upper Sandusky, Ohio in Wyandot County.

Rural Wyandot County, Ohio

My maternal great-grandmother Gladys Annette Sanders (née Gatchell, a descendant of the Gatchells of Massachusetts referenced here and here, and also the granddaughter of William David Kelley) was born in Wyandot County in 1883. My grandmother burst into tears when we arrived. She was particularly close to her mother, and it was an emotional experience to visit her mother's birthplace.

Wyandot County was a nexus for several maternal ancestral lines, including Daugherty, Gatchell, Kelley, Moore, Snider, and Van Arsdale/Orsdall. The people who settled there and married into each others' families were very important parts of my family tree.

After checking in at the Comfort Inn, we went cemetery exploring. Our first stop was the Old Mission Cemetery in Upper Sandusky.

Old Mission Cemetery, Upper Sandusky, Ohio

Grave of my maternal 4th-great-grandfather Jacob B. Gatchell (1784-1868)

Grave of my maternal 3rd-great-granduncle Amos Pugh Gatchell (1814-1879)

Grave of my maternal 1st cousin 4 times removed Sgt. Jacob F. Gatchell (1839-1921),

a Civil War veteran

The second one was the rural York Street Cemetery near the village of Marseilles, 12 miles (19.3 km) southwest of Upper Sandusky.

York Street Cemetery, Marseilles, Ohio

Grave of my maternal 5th-great-grandfather Jacob Snider Sr. (1772-1858)

While driving between cemeteries, my favorite pen fell out of the car and was crushed beneath the wheels of my mother's car. It was the perfect pen for holding while taking notes, so I was unhappy about its sudden demise. We stopped at a store and purchased a new, albeit inferior, pen.

After the cemetery tour, we went to dinner at what I recall was an Italian restaurant and then returned to our hotel rooms for the night.

A humorous aside: does anyone remember the mildly racy 1980s computer game, Leather Goddesses of Phobos? The opening scenes of that game were set in Upper Sandusky, a location chosen at random by the game's author.

Total Travel Distance: 230 miles (370 km)