Massey Aerodrome Open Hanger Party

I'm going to a par-tay!!!

An open hanger party which promises food, lots of little airplanes taking off and landing and good cheer!

I'm driving down there to meet my dad who is flying down there from Allentown! He is going with the guy that gave him his Christmas present flight.


In case you are wondering - NORDO, short for "No Radio", is a North American aviation term for aircraft flying without a radio.

The term originates from the 5-character uppercase abbreviated notation "NORDO" displayed on controllers' radar scopes when an aircraft transmits the "radio failure" code on its transponder.

I'll probably take way too many pictures of airplanes and people eating like I did last time!

:)

Orange, Lemon, Strawberry, and Raspberry

This past Thanksgiving, I went to my older brother's place in upstate New York where 19 people assembled for a wonderful meal cooked by my sister-in-law. She did a marvelous job! The next day, with my older brother acting as a tour guide, we headed out to a local rail trail and walked 7 miles. I was tired out - but oh so pleased! This was the best I've done in several months!

After the walk, and a swim in the motel pool, I spotted this brochure in the motel "tourist rack". I was unable to talk any of my family into taking a trip to the Jell-O museum so I had to settle for a visit to their website.


From their website:

"The first four Jell-O flavors were orange, lemon, strawberry, and raspberry. Lime was introduced in 1930."

"In 1897, Pearle Wait, a carpenter in LeRoy, was putting up a cough remedy and laxative tea in his home. He experimented with gelatine and came up with a fruit flavored dessert which his wife, May, named Jell-O. He tried to market his product but he lacked the capital and the experience. In 1899 he sold his formula to a fellow townsman for the sum of $450.

The buyer already had some success in manufacturing and selling. He was one of the best known manufacturers of proprietary medicines. Orator Frank Woodward was born in North Bergen in 1856 and moved with his family to LeRoy, New York in 1860.

Sales were slow and disheartening for the new product, but income from Grain-O (a roasted-grain coffee substitute) remained steady. One day in a gloomy mood "O.F." offered Sam Nico the whole blankety-blank business for $35. In 1900, the Jell-O name was first used by the Genesee Pure Food Company.

...On November 5, 1923 the Jell-O Company, Inc. was organized and took over the entire assets of the Genesee Pure Foods Company with no change in management or control. The purpose of this change was to protect the value of Jell-O as a trade name... The intent was to keep it from becoming a common noun.

On December 31, 1925 the Jell-O Company, Inc. was sold to the Postum Cereal Company, Inc. ...becoming the first subsidiary of a large merger that would eventually become General Foods Corporation. And so the little Jell-O package which was born in LeRoy, New York in 1897 grew from childhood to adulthood. ...Today Jell-O is manufactured by Kraft/General Foods in Dover Delaware."

I sure wish I could of gone though...

Barlow-Bush and the DAR

I've written about my mom's Granny Bush before - she is the one that wrote a long letter in pencil to my mom's father back on December 11, 1943.

My great-grandmother Margaret "Maggie" Shipman was born in northern Alabama on Oct. 11, 1869 and was twice married. She had a son named George from her previous marriage to a Mr. Deary and was widowed when she married my great-grandfather Joseph Black Bush.

Joseph Black Bush was also a widow and had three daughters, Virgie (Virginia), Lizie (Elizabeth) and Tommie Nell (yes, she was a girl!) from his first marriage to a Mary Dunn.

Maggie and Joseph went on to have 6 children together. Maggie died on Jan. 31, 1958 having outlived two husbands and many of those children.

What has baffled me is the "name du jour" that these folks had! In the 1920 US Census, Joe Black and Maggie are shown living with daughter Maggie, and three sons, Samuell, born about 1902; Allis, born about 1907; and Barlow, born about 1910.

No one knows who Sam/Samuel was. Allis' correct name was Alvis, and Barlow is now thought to be the "Bill" mentioned in Maggie's letter. The 1930 US Census shows Joe and Maggie living with a son named Bill born about 1911. I think I would prefer to be called Bill over Barlow myself... so I really can't blame the man...

And so, researching this "blended" family is complicated by both parents being married with children twice and living in at least five states in the meantime.


Joseph Black Bush is the white haired man in the center - this photograph was taken in 1926 during a family reunion.

Joseph Black Bush was a "hell and brimstone" preacher. He moved from Fountain Run, Kentucky to Bonham, Texas which is about 35 miles southeast of Calera, Oklahoma where he would end up with Maggie. Maggie moved from Double Springs, Alabama to Shelbyville, Tennesee to Honey Grove, Texas (a short distance from Bonham, Texas) after failing to find a "nice place to live" in the 1889 Oklahoma Sooner Land Rush.


Joseph's father was Ambrose Barlow Bush, pictured above. He too, was married twice.


Joseph's mother was Jane Elizabeth Barlow Bush, pictured above. These pictures came from distant relative Nancy Bush (who was the mother of Kay Bush that I mentioned in my last entry).

Ambrose Barlow Bush was the son of James Bush and "Betsy" Jane Barlow.

Ambrose Barlow Bush was named after his maternal grandfather, Ambrose Barlow.


Ambrose Barlow was born in July, 1766 in Culpepper, Virgina and served as a Private in the infantry during the American Revolution. He died on August 13, 1839 near Fountain Run, KY.

..and now you see why the Barlow-Bush cemetery in Fountain Run, Kentucky was of great interest to my cousin - she would like to see (or take) some photographs of the gravestones there.

And that leads us to the Daughters of the American Revolution. Ambrose Barlow is my mother's great-great-grandfather.

But... the DAR story doesn't end there.

Joseph Black Bush's wife, my great-grandmother Maggie Shipman cames from a family that was in America nearly as long as the Bush family.


Her great-great-grandfather Edward Shipman and his father Daniel Shipman both served during the American Revolution.

Edward Shipman served under Colonel Anderson in the 96 District Militia in South Carolina. His father, Daniel Shipman served in the militia in Wilmington, NC.

Maggie's great-grandfather, Hezikiah Shipman, was married to Hannah Rhodes (born in 1970 in Transylvania, North Carolina). Hannah's father, Peter Rhodes, served as a soldier under Colonel Hambright, in North Carolina. Colonel Frederick Hambright is known for his gallant fight during the Battle of Kings Mountain, October 7th, 1780.

And finally, Maggie's mother, Paratine Avery's great-great-grandfather Charles Avery served in Virgina.

I think with at least five ancestors that served during the American Revolution, my mother, cousin, and my niece should have little trouble becoming Daughters of the American Revolution - the hardest part might be picking one of them to put in their applications.

Jim Town, Kentucky

My cousin Laurie, my mom's brother's daughter, lives in Riverside, California. She recently e-mailed me saying she had found some photos from a trip our grandparents took from the Boston suburb of Alston to Calera, Oklahoma back in the early 1950's. She is sending me the photos! I'm eager to see them - for my mom says this was the only time she ever visited with her father's extended family in Oklahoma. She remembers that her mother was dead set against taking this "foolish, money wasting" trip to see some folks she didn't care to know. My grandfather, stubborn as a always, said, "He was a'goin' and if she didn't git in the car she was a'goin' to be left behind!"

So Granny relented and got in the car - which broke down somewhere in New York state - and after a couple days, they were back on the road to Oklahoma - all the while my Grandmother was saying, "See John, that's what happens when you do these things, things break and cause trouble."

My mom and her nephew Larry didn't seem to care - they were going to see their grandmom. My mom remembers meeting a whole bunch of aunts and uncles and cousins and left me with a bunch of names to follow up with - but it is slow going since those strange "Okies" seem to call each other exclusively by nicknames and no one seems to know what their proper names were! Lowell Lloyd Bush, was called Tack, and his son Lloyd Frank Bush was called Bubie. Ugh!

My cousin Laurie has also been looking at this old Bush family reunion photograph (here) and we've worked out "who is who" for nearly all of them.

But.. what I started to post about was Laurie asked me to find the old Barlow-Bush Cemetery (she said, it might be the Bush-Barlow cemetery, she wasn't sure) in Jim Town, Kentucky... She had found out that several of our mutual ancestors were buried there - and that the cemetery was in rough shape and on private property. She wanted to know who the current owner was - and exactly where the cemetery was - her only clue was... "it is in Jim Town, Kentucky, that is what an old family Bible says."


Suitably challenged, I started doing some digging... and one of the first things I found out was there is no town currently named Jim Town in Kentucky. There is a Jamestown but it wasn't in the right place - and as I dug some more - I found references to a Barlow-Bush cemetery in Fountain Run, Kentucky.


Frowning a bit, I redoubled my efforts to determine what had become of "Jim Town". After an hour or futile searching, I stumbled across a historical account of "Jim Town". It was apparently named after a James Barlow. I figured I was getting warm since it was the Barlow-Bush (or Bush-Barlow) cemetery I was looking for...

...and in this historical account, the author told of how the name was changed, first to Jamestown, which the post office objected to since there was already a Jamestown (the one that I had found previously) so the town's postmaster Dr. James R Duncan decided to name it Fountain Run in 1847. Ah ha!


Fountain Run is located in Monroe County near the point where Allen, Monroe, and Barren Counties come together, hence its nickname, the "Crossroads of Three Counties." It is near the oxymornic sounding, Barren River Lake.


While looking around at old photos from the area - I found this one of a little boy sharing his ice cream cone with a dog. I would have done this search for the cemetery just to find this picture!

I made contact with a volunteer at the local historic society and she told me about a distant cousin of mine, Kay Bush, that lived near the Barlow-Bush cemetery and that she would put her in contact with me.

...and all of this led to the next discovery... concerning the Daughters of the American Revolution... and my next post.