19 April 2009

Strayer letters and news items

If you go to this web site you can read a letter from Mrs. Mary Emma Hughes of Medicine Lodge, KS to her mother, Mrs. Harriet Alice Strayer of Davenport, IA. The letter is dated 4-May-1884.

Mary Emma (STRAYER) HUGHES was one of the aunts of my maternal grandmother, Esther (JOHNSON) OGDEN. Harriet Alice (HOWARD) STRAYER was my grandmother's maternal grandmother. The letter also mentions Mary Emma's sisters, Mattie and Flo/Flora. These would be two more of my grandmother's aunts, Martha Ellen and Flora Alice. Mary, Martha and Emma are all sisters of my great-grandmother, Rosabell "Rose" (STRAYER) JOHNSON.

At this web site you can read another letter from Mary Emma. This one was written to her sister Mattie on 2-Jan-1903. The very first sentence mentions a letter Mary Emma received from her sister, my great-grandmother, Rose. I wish I could find that letter!

The last nuggets that I want to share are a couple of brief news item from the Milan (IL) Independent newspaper that I found here.

29-May-1902: Mrs. H.A. Strayer of Davenport , Iowa has been here visiting her son John Strayer.

That would of course be Harriet visiting my grandmother's uncle, John Howard STRAYER, brother to Rose, Flora, Mattie and Mary. Milan is south of Rock Island, which is just across the Mississippi River from Davenport, where Harriet lived.

And another entry from May 1902
"Mr. and Mrs. John Strayer have been visiting his brother, Lou Strayer, in South Rock Island ."

This introduces yet another of my grandmother's uncles: Louis B. STRAYER, the oldest of Harriet's many children.

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