Thanksgiving Holiday

It might be a little early for the Thanksgiving holiday - but it's never too early to be thankful. I'd like to share some recent mail and e-mail and express my thanks.


A beautiful Thanksgiving Day card from my secret penpal! I can hardly wait to find out who this person is! They have send some wonderful mail over the past few months! I hope to be able to link to their blog soon! My thanks to Parsley for organizing the secret penpals!


A touching Thanksgiving Day and Get Well e-card from Pamela of The Dust Will Wait. I don't think there is anyway to say it better!


A touching "thinking of you" photograph from Betty and Koda of A Corgi in Southern California. A genuine Barbershop Cone-tet! And two big green boxies (the ultimate bass singers!)


Betty and Koda hit the jackpot! Dozens and dozens of brand new, never been in the wild, cones! This sweet sounding Choir is going to give the Harlem Gospel Singers and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir a run for their fifteen minutes of fame this holiday season!

And lastly (for now), I wanted to share some pages from the eclectic book ChicagoLady sent me. You can probably see why I find this book delightful!


Those Darn Squirrels! by Adam Rubin, illustrated by Daniel Salmieri Calrion Books, New York.

The story is about a grump named Old Man Fookwire. I clipped the page off when I scanned it in - the text reads:

"The only thing he liked was birds.

All summer long, the old man painted pictures of the birds that visited his backyard. There were whirley birds and bonga birds, baba birds and yaba birds. Even a rare floggle bird came by once or twice.

Fookwire's paintings weren't very good, but the birds never said anything."



"Not many people know this, but squirrels are the cleverest of all woodland creatures. In fact, they're fuzzy geniuses! They can make a house out of a tree, a bed out of a bunch of leaves, a box kite out of twigs, dirt, and squirrel spit. They are also excellent at math."

Old Man Fookwire does not like squirrels - in fact, he doesn't anything at all - other than birds. So you can imagine what happens when the crafty squirrels visit Old Man Fookwire's carefully tended bird feeders.

:)

Who's the Cool Dude?

Calera High School, Calera, Oklahoma - Class of 1915-1916

My mom's father is standing on the far right in the middle row. I wonder who else in this photograph? Does this school building still stand? What's with the "winter coats"?

I think the sport teams were called the Bulldogs. I think that suited my Grandfather. He was a stubborn guy - I think I inherited that from him - but not his tall and skinny genes!

My grandfather graduated and almost immediately entered the Navy and served during WWI. He met my grandmother while in Boston, MA.

Gramps seems to be a cool looking fellow in this photo!

Williamsport, PA - Birthday for Dad

This past weekend, my family converged on Williamsport, PA to celebrate my dad's birthday. We chose this location as it is central to Rochester, NY where my older brother lives and southeastern PA where the rest of us live. We enjoyed a very nice dinner and as a bonus, got to explore the town beforehand.

Williamsport was incorporated as a borough on March 1, 1806, and as a city on January 15, 1866.

In the late 19th century Williamsport was known as "The Lumber Capital of the World" because of its thriving lumber industry. It also was the birthplace of the national newspaper Grit in 1882. Williamsport once had more millionaires per-capita than anywhere else in the world. For this reason, the area's local high school, the Williamsport Area High School, uses "Millionaires" as its team nickname.

The city is also the original home of Little League Baseball, founded in 1939 as a three-team league.


Millionaire Row Street Sign

The wealthy families of Williamsport lived primarily on West Fourth Street - giving that street the nickname, Millionaire Row. Today, the street is home to many huge Victorian homes - in various states of preservation. Some of them serve as apartments for students attending the nearby Pennsylvania College of Technology, others are still private homes, and yet others are professional buildings.


Hermann Munster's House?

When we arrived in Williamsport, we parked on the western end of West Fourth Street and walked back toward the center of town - this Victoria home was across the street from where we parked. I was reminded of Munster's of 1313 Mockingbird Lane when I saw this home.

942-944 West Fourth Street. "Herdic Double." Built in 1875 by architect Eber Culver. To attract families to West Fourth Street, Peter Herdic built many double houses. They typically have a mansard roof and protruding center bay with a cupola on top. Second Empire Style.

Peter Herdic (1824–1888) was a lumber baron, entrepreneur, inventor, politician, and philanthropist in Victorian era Williamsport. He was the youngest of seven children born to Henry and Elizabeth Herdic on December 14, 1824 in Fort Plain, New York. Herdic's father died in 1826 and Elizabeth Herdic remarried shortly thereafter. She was widowed again prior to 1837. Herdic attended school for just a few years while he worked on his mother's 50-acre farm. Herdic left his mother's farm in 1846.

Herdic would go on to become one of the wealthiest men in Pennsylvania and was a major figure in the development of the lumber industry throughout North Central Pennsylvania. Herdic donated large amounts of land and money to various churches in Williamsport. Peter Herdic was the inventor of the Herdic cab (a precursor to the taxi), which was a two wheeled horse drawn carriage with side seats and a rear entrance. Peter Herdic died on February 2, 1888 as the result of a concussion sustained when he slipped and fell on ice while inspecting his waterworks in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania.


Notice the peacocks in the windows?

Much easier on the eye, was this home - I believe the style is called Italianate. An older gentleman was out front raking leaves and I asked if this beautiful building was his home. He replied, "It sure is!" and offered to let me and my mom take a peek inside the front door.


Eutermarks - Harrar House - 915 West Fourth Street

This house was built in 1870 by architect Eber Culver and was a wedding present for Lucy Filbert Eutermarks and purchased by the Harrar family in 1901. The original street address of 913 was considered unlucky and it was changed to 915.


Trinity Episcopal Church - 844 West 4th Street

Built in 1875 and consecrated in February 1876, it is the largest of the Episcopal churches in the city. The church was given to the parish by Peter Herdic.


Smith-Ulman House - 634 West Fourth Street

Historically known at the Smith-Ulman House and previously used as the rectory of Annunciation Church, this 1889 house with Italianate influence was built by Isaac Hobbs and is now the law firm of Raup, Wiley, and Mott.


William V. Emery House - 535 West Fourth Street

William V. Emery had Eber Culver design this handsome brick and cut stone home at 535 West Fourth Street in 1865. Emery was an associate of the Emery Lumber Company on West Third Street, which maintained a retail business for coal, ice, and lumber. Many retail lumber companies cut ice from the river in the winter and stored it in sawdust. On any warm day it was a special delight for children to chase the ice wagons, hoping to sneak a frozen sliver of the pure Susquehanna water.

There are more pictures in Flickr if you are interested in seeing them. I am working on identifying each home - but am not done yet.

Commander Franklin Mousley, USNR

To honor all the Veterans I've written about some of them before

My Great Uncle Russell

Veterans I Have Known

A Veteran No One Seems to Know

..and Robin Miller - A Local Veteran I Wish I Had Known and here

Today, I focus on just one - His career and service were not typical -


My Cousin (3 times removed) Franklin Mousley - "Old Stormy Weather"

Born in April of 1895 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he was a licenced wireless amateur by 1908.

He pioneered in wireless telegraphy while working with both the United Wireless Telegraph and the Marconi Telegraph Companies.

He had world-wide service on sailing vessels, freighters and passenger liners. he made five trips through the Strait of Magellan and Smythe Channel at the southern tip of South America. He was a Radio Operator, Purser, and Supercargo (The duties of a supercargo include managing the cargo owner's trade, selling the merchandise at the ports to which the vessel is sailing, and buying and receiving goods to be carried on the return voyage.)

He operated a trading post and store in Alaska and was the Office Manager for a Salmon Cannery; He experienced shipwrecks, earthquakes, WWI German commerce raiders, bubonic plague and fire at sea. Before the US entered WWI, he served on British and Japanese vessels then in the war against Germany.

He served as the Deputy Registrar for the Universal Draft (WWI) in southwest Alaska. During WWI, he was Chief-in-Charge of radio maintenance and personnel on US and Allied vessels in the port of Philadelphia. He spent six years at Norfolk, VA with the US Shipping Board, serving as the Supervisor of radio and submarine signal equipment on the main fleet's approximately 1,000 ships.

In 1926, he entered the foundry business with his father, Thomas Charles and brother Marshall and my Great-grandfather Harry Davis Mousley where he was a brass hardware saleman.

In 1930-31, he became the State Radio Commander of the American Legion (see newspaper article)

In 1930, he was a Delegate to the US Naval Reserve Communications Conference held in Washington D.C.,

During 1928-32, he organized and commanded the US Naval Communication Reserve, 4th Naval District**

**The boundaries of the Fourth Naval District, to be headquartered at League Island Navy Yard in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, were established on 7 May 1903 and consisted of the following geographic areas: Pennsylvania, the southern part of New Jersey (including the counties of Burlington, Ocean, and all counties south thereof), and Delaware.

During the WWII years of 1942-1943, he served as the Radio Security Officer, Panama Sea Frontier.

Promoted to Commander, in 1943, he served from 1943 to 1946 as the Radio Traffic Manager, Navy Department Communication Office in Washington D.C.

He retired from the Navy in 1946 and became a genealogist - it is he that left me with the materials I have documenting my family tree.

Franklin married twice:
1 - September 19, 1921 Norfolk, VA to Elizabeth Christina LaGiglia (b. April 1902 Nicosia, Catania, Sicily, Italy) They had one child, a boy named Thomas Samuel who died as an infant in 1923. They divorced while Franklin was based in Norfolk and Franklin left active service for a time to work in the family foundry business.

2 - September 3, 1937 Philadelphia, PA to Lillian Hutchington (b. September 1905 Philadelphia, PA) They had no children. Lillian Hutchington was an established singing voice in the Philadelphia "Girls Chorus". She died in 1990 in Poquoson, Virginia and is buried in Wallingford, PA.

I have not been able to discover when Franklin died or where he is buried.

Commander Franklin Mousley, USN was not a typical veteran and lived a varied and fascinating life. I thank him for all his efforts to get secure radio communications on ships of all sorts - and US Navy vessels in particular.