This week's Sepia Saturday theme is dogs. After you are done here at Oregon Gifts, please visit my friends and read their stories over at Sepia Saturday. If you have some old photos and perhaps a story to go along with them, you are welcome to join us too.
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| Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews |
This picture is of my Great-Grandmother Maude Craig Traylor Bennett standing beside her sister Echo Craig. The little boy is my Grandfather (my Mom's Dad), Floyd Albert Traylor who is standing by a very happy dog (sorry that I don't know his name). Grandpa was born in 1912, and he looks to be around 2 here, so lets say that this picture was captured in 1914, for the sake of argument. Here is the blog post that I wrote about that gets us started on that side of my family: Groundhog's Day and Grandpa T.'s Birthday.
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| Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews |
The mother in this picture is my Great-Grandmother Talitha Letsom Hedrick. The children are my Grandma Florence Hedrick Traylor, my Great-Uncle John Hedrick and my Great-Uncle Homer Hedrick. The dog is Jack. This was taken at their farm, known as Jack Creek Ranch, located near Hardscrabble, not far from Drain, Oregon. Grandma T. looks as if she is around 8 here, so I am guessing that this photo was taken around 1920.
Talitha, or Litha, married Benjamin E. Hedrick. Great-Grandpa Ben wasn't in the picture above, so perhaps he was the one taking it. Here is Great-Grandpa Ben with his farm horses. I know that they are not dogs, but still thought you would enjoy seeing them.
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| Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews |
As I was going through The Letsom Letters, I came across one that was written to Great-Grandpa Ben from his friend William Larsen on May 23, 1906. William is just dropping his friend Ben a line, and telling him about how much he does not enjoy his logging job. I thought that you guys might enjoy reading it. It has nothing to do with dogs.
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| Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews |
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| Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews |
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| Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews |
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| Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews |
This last picture is of Cousin Danny Hedrick with Otis. It was probably also taken at Jack Creek Ranch when Danny and Lyle were visiting their Grandma Litha and Grandpa Ben Hedrick. Danny was born in1925, and though it is kind of hard to tell by this picture, I am guessing that he was around 10 in this picture and that it was taken in 1935. I might be a couple of years off here. Otis sure looks a lot like Jack.
I wrote a post about Danny and Lyle's mother, Flora, a couple of months ago, and you can just CLICK HERE to read it. This is an excerpt from Flora's diary in 1928, where she talks about a day of shopping with the boys. Danny was 3 at the time, and Lyle was 2. Lyle transcribed and typed it out years later, and has included it in The War Letters.
By the way, on the page before, Flora had noted that the neighbor's home had burned down. That must have made quite an impact on Danny, and that is why, for some reason, he said what he did. They were probably explaining to him why it was dangerous to play with matches and he was perhaps reminding himself not to burn their home to the ground. Note to self.
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| Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews |
So, there you go! Happy Sepia Saturday to all. I am still not doing well with this surgery and go back to the doctor this afternoon. My neck is all swollen now, and I hope that I do not have an infection. (I did, but am on meds and am feeling much better now.) I am still working on getting around to those of you who commented on my last week's posts. I appreciate you all so much.
Take care and God bless,
Kathy M.
After you are done here at Oregon Gifts, please visit my friends and read their stories over at Sepia Saturday. If you have some old photos and perhaps a story to go along with them, you are welcome to join us too.
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At Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy, if you miss a day, you miss a lot! All material on this post is copyrighted and not for use without my permission ...Please click here to go to my home page and see what is happening in Mayberry today.  |
20 comments:
Great post. What I noted was the name of one of the places - Hardscrabble!
I really enjoyed your photos and the comments and especially the last letter. I guess little 3 years old remain the same through the ages. Hope you get the post op stuff straightened out and recover completely soon!!
That’s a wonderful story about the lost boy in the letter, and so well told. Great dog pictures and some unusual names of both people and places. I’ve never heard of Echo being used as a name.
I love the way the boy and dog are looking at each other in the first photo.
The dog in the first picture is obviously a retreiver- all it wants isto play withe the bog. DOgs are an integral part of the family as your pictures show.
Get well soon Kathy.
What a great collection of photos with families and their dogs! I enjoyed reading the letters too. I wonder what "twisted hair" looked like - was that a braid? a perm?
Judging by its name Hardscrabble must have been a tough location to live. I looked at the Hardscrabble road using google maps, I noticed some farms so the Jack Creek Ranch may still exists.
What a treasure you have in that letter. 1906. One year before my father-in-law was born. How life has changed since then. I have to think that the man with the heart problems would probably have lived today.
I love this post, in part because it's in Oregon, but also because it's just such wonderful history. I marvel at all the details...the names, like Echo Craig and Talitha Letsom Hedrick. The logging letter is great too. What can I say? It's a treasure trove.
I kind of like that spelling of Dannie, as my youngest is Daniel, and we still call him Danny (at least I do) more than Dan....your grandfather had just the most adorable head of hair in that picture where he is so proud of the dog! Great sources to treasure here for sure!
Fantastic pictures! Dogs always look pretty happy in photos, don't they?!
What a great post - like a virtual trip to a museum. And I don't say this enough, thanks for helping to make Sepia Saturday the success it is becoming.
Love that first photo, come on stop standing around lets play the dog seems to be saying. I can imagine William Larsen writing that letter just to get his misery out. Sounds like a tough time.
Great pictures - I love the dog in the second picture, he looks like he's laughing.
I love the picture with your grandfather gazing at the happy dog. Lovely!
Do take care of yourself and don't worry about commenting!
I enjoyed seeing your photos and reading the letters. The top photo is especially charming, especially in the interaction between your grandfather and the dog.
Wonderful photos, cute dogs, and the story about Danny is priceless. How did he turn out?
Hope you're feeling better.
Barbara
Lots of interesting history here. I don't think I'd want to live in either Hardscrabble or Drain.
Interesting post, and I was amused to see your Great Uncle John holding onto Jack's ears :-) Jo (imagespast.wordpress.com)
I enjoyed this collection and I'm glad you included the horses. Splendid beasts!!
Get well soon!!
:)~
HUGZ
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