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Frederick J Stierwalt’s Kansas Homestead

The above photo was believed to have been taken in Mound Valley, Kansas sometime after 1891. During this period in the midwest, building a new home on your land claim was something to be proud of. After paying a small fee to claim a homestead settlers were given five years to build a home and farm the land in order to keep their claim. It was not unusual for families to feature their homes in photos during this time, but...

Maria Sequichie McIntosh Portrait

Maria Sequichie McIntosh (Wa lee yah)

The Life of Maria Sequichie Wa lee yah, also known as Maria Sequichie, was born to Charles and Martha Sequichie/Aquicha (Cummings) in the Saline District of the Cherokee Nation (current-day Oklahoma) in 1866. She was the granddaughter of Jennie Powell Sequichie who came to the Cherokee Nation on the Trail of Tears. Maria attended school at the Cherokee Female Seminary in Tahlequah, one of the first women’s boarding schools west of the Mississippi and then went on to Bacone University....

Claude “Bus” Stierwalt: WWII Letter from the Front

Claude Stierwalt, known as “Bus”, was born in Oklahoma in 1920 to Claude and Nina (Sequichie) Stierwalt. In July of 1942, he joined the Army Air Corps, serving as a Staff Sergeant throughout World War II. Family Photos Before the War Before Claude left for service the family gathered to take photos. Letter from Italy 1944 In 1944, while stationed in Italy, Bus wrote a holiday letter home to the family. His sadness at missing out on the holidays is...

Old Photo Identification: Ove Tintypes Update

Nearly two years ago I posted about a set of tintype photos that were passed down in the Ove family. Unfortunately, the photos had no names, dates, labels or other forms of identification. I have shared them with many distant cousins in hopes that the individuals in the photos could be identified, with no luck. Identifying Individuals in Old Photos There are ways of identifying the folks in those old nameless photos with a little sleuthing. Here are some simple...

Property where the Shull family lived

Alfred Samuel Shull: The final years

(Above) Longhorn Cattle graze on the property where the Shull Family lived south of Strafford, Missouri. Nearly two years ago I wrote about Civil War Veteran, Alfred Samuel Shull: Kansas Jayhawker. Click the link to read about Alfred’s life in Bloody Kansas, an area so volatile, it became a flashpoint for the Civil War. Last month I was excited to journey to the area of Southwest Missouri where Alfred and the Shull children settled after his first wife, Elizabeth, died....

Photos from the life of Charles “Dewey” Stookey 1899-1977

Charles “Dewey” Stookey was born in Oklahoma (formerly known as “Indian Territory”) in 1899 to Melvin Lee and Laura Ann (Harris) Stookey. His childhood was filled with sadness as most of his family died from sickness and disease before 1910. Only three of Dewey’s twelve siblings lived to adulthood, married and had families. After the death of both parents the surviving Stookey siblings Harrison, William, Eddie, Dewey, and Leona lived with their older brother Jacob and his wife Viola. Dewey’s...

Joseph and Agnes (Lebeau) Gregoire family circa 1911

Back row: Victor?, Robert, Herman, George, Harry?, Harvey?. Front Row: Father Joseph, Gertrude, Raymond, Mother Agnes (I am unsure about the identification of the boys with ? behind their names) Joseph gregoire family Joseph Gregoire was born in 1862 in St. George, Illinois. He was the oldest son of Julien and Aurelie (Boudreau) Gregoire and the first generation of our Gregoire family to be born in the US. His father, Julien, emigrated from Quebec in the 1850’s. Joseph married Agnes Francis...