Duchess SW Colorado Domain

Our Oregon Junko and other wildlife says, "Thanks for the Southwest mix of wildbird feed. It sure helps when the early snows come along here in Southwest Colorado."

We received 2-3/4 inches of snow last Friday around these parts North of Bayfield. The ski resorts and higher elevations received lots more and are feeling pretty good with the few feet of snow that they have gotten over the week, also. I think I heard Wolf Creek Ski Resort opened up this last weekend.

Our NW Oklahoma reporter mentioned that 3.75 inches of rain fell in the Woods county area of Northwest Oklahoma from Wednesday evening 8p.m. thru 8a.m., Thursday morning. Sounds like you Oklahomans are staying soaked in the Northwest parts.

Hope Y'all remembered to set your clocks back an hour Saturday evening? It is that time of year, the 1st Sunday in November when we Fall back an hour to Standard Time and gain an hour we lost in the Spring. So … Why do we do it? Daylight Savings Time, that is! Arizona doesn't do it!
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Treadling On A Singer Redeye

Are there any Singer Treadlers out there? Have you ever tried treading on a Treadle sewing machine like your grandmother or great-grandmother might have used? Would you like to try?

Treadling on a Treadle sewing machine is lots easier than those dang electrically machines -- Treadles also conserve on electricity.

Quite a few months back I picked up a Singer Treadle machine to add to my own collection of Treadles. It was a Singer 66-1, serial number G0268595, sometimes called "Redhead" or "Redeye" that dates back to between 1924 thru 1926, has various gold ornamentation on it. The model 31 was similar to the design to the model 66.

The photo on the left shows the attachments that came with the Singer Model 66-1. Some are labeled and some are not. Have not ventured in to using each attachment yet, but gradually I will get it figured out.

Anyway … I recently cleaned and oiled my new Singer treadle machine so this amateur treadler could begin to learn to treadle on a Singer. At first this treading was not as easy as it looked. If you aren't careful, you might find yourself sewing backwards and breaking threads. BUT … once I got the hang and rhythm of it, the frustration ceased.

Operating Treadle & Machine

The instructions state, "First loosen the stop-action clamping screw, outside of the balance wheel. Then place your feet upon the treadle with the instep directly over its center; turn the balance-wheel toward you without the right hand while allowing the feet to move freely with the motion thus commenced. Continue this motion by an alternate pressure of the heel and toe until a regular and easy movement is obtained. Keeping the balance wheel going in a forward motion towards you.

It says do not attempt to learn to sew until you are proficient in the use of the treadle so that you can step and start it without turning the balance-wheel in the wrong direction.

After becoming familiar with the treadle movement, tighten the stop-motion clamping screw, raise the presser-foot with the lifter, start the balance-wheel towards you and continue the motion with the feet as described above.

After becoming proficient in this motion place a piece of cloth between the feed and presser foot, let the foot down upon it and operate the machine in this way until you have become accustomed to guiding the material.

Treadling Tips

I did go online in search of tips on "How To Teadle." NOW … If I had only paid more attention to my Grandma Mary Barbara (Hurt) Paris when I was just a younger Spring chick. BUT … how do we know to do that in our young innocent years when playing with our young cousins kept us occupied most of the time and out from under our parents gaze?

I doubt if any of us had lessons, unless it was from grandma. They say at some of the online treading web sites that you are not going to hurt the machine by using it. You might frustrate yourself, maybe … but not ruin the machine. Treadling is a lot like roller skating or bicycling … you learn by getting the feel of it, and that can only be done by wading in and falling a few times. BUT … instead of falling, you might head backwards instead of making the wheel go forward.

To this NW Okie it seems a lot like coordinating your heel/toe movement and getting your instep position just right on the treadle so you can get your rhythm down pat.

Some say the suggested exercise is to remove the thread from the top and the bobbin from the machine. Start the hand wheel in the direction that would move the cloth forward. In other words turn the balance wheel towards you. With your feet on the treadle get the feel of the movement underneath your feet.

They also say, "Do whatever you have to do with your feet, either one or two, to keep the machine going."

Sew a bunch of imaginary seams on real pieces of cloth. Stop the machine, turn the work, etc., but without thread. Once you get used to that, thread it properly, put the bobbin back in and make sure the machine is threaded right and will make stitches. You can do that by hand, just turning the wheel by hand.

Are you ready to sew some seams? NOW … they suggest you try back and forth, long seams. If you are ready, see how fast you can go. See how slowly you can go without losing the movement. Try some patterns, large squares gradually diminishing inwards … circles the same.

How tiny can you get in the middle and still keep the seams evenly spaced, corners square or curves smooth?

You can try all this type of stuff by turning the wheel by hand and let the pressure of your foot act as a brake.

Another hint they talk about is … "You can turn the wheel by putting your finger in a spoke, but DO NOT put it in too far … trust me … something will happen that hurts!"

The absolute best advice I found online was that when treading and finishing a seam, to end with the treadle pedal down at the front. When starting up again you push the pedal forward and this almost always starts the wheel in the correct, forward direction. Many sites have mentioned it. I have found it works! You can even watch the wheel out of the corner of your eye and catch it if it does go backwards.

Still another hint is to draw straight lines on typing paper, DO NOT thread the machine or bobbin and practice sewing along the straight lines. I found that if I take my eyes off the sewing area and glance towards the balance wheel, that I tend to drift off my line. Kind of like driving a car, huh?

If there are any professional treadlers out there reading this and thinks of something substantial to help all novice treadlers and beginners, please post your suggestions below.

We need all the treading help that we can find out there. I think I have mastered the the threading of the top thread and the bobbin, and fixing the length of the stitch. That was the easy part! I have not tried the other attachments that came with the Singer Model 66-1, yet! BUT … I will get around to it! Treadling works best on a hardwood floor, also. The piles on todays rugs interfer with the peddling.

NOW … I just need to learn to scratch my head and rub my tummy while I heel and toe the treadle on my Singer Model 66-1, Redeye. That is where my coordination and practice comes into play. Good exercise on the feet, ankles nod calves, also.
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Insight Into Grandpa McGill

We were looking through our old family photos this last week and found this old photo of our Grandpa William J. "Bill" McGill in his younger days seated on a courthouse lawn with one of his girl friends and another young couple. We can identify Grandpa without much trouble, but who are the others? AND … Where is this courthouse and lawn?

If you look close in the photo you will see the backsides of old model-type autos with the canvas tops lined up along the side of the courthouse square.

BUT … What courthouse? Where is it? Is it Woods county's courthouse or a courthouse in another part of Oklahoma? Kansas? Texas? Missouri?

At first glance, I thought the young lady with grandpa was young Constance Warwick, but I am not sure and absolute about that assumption now.

I do know that Grandpa Bill McGill went to Friends University in Kansas, around the 1904-05 era and played baseball at Minneapolis, Kansas.

We also know that the McGill ancestors came through McPherson, Kansas and settled around Pratt, Kansas before settling in Northwest Oklahoma.

Bill McGill traveled between Alva, Oklahoma Territory to Austin, Texas to play baseball with the Austin Senators around 1906 -- in 1907 he played baseball with the St. Louis Brown's, Major League.

So … perhaps this courthouse could be anywhere from Alva in northwest Oklahoma all the way down south to Austin, Texas and East towards Missouri and North towards Kansas.

Did Grandpa have a girl in every port he passed through? He was a distinguished looking gentleman, at that!

If anyone can help us identify the others in the photo or the old courthouse, we would love to hear from you.
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January 1901 Castle On the Hill

It has been awhile since I brought out this old photograph taken 22 January 1901, of the Castle On the Hill, or otherwise known as Northwestern State Normal School, in Alva, Oklahoma Territory.

I left it as a large file so if you click on the image you might click again in your browser and zoom in on the Students and Faculty down front and help identify some of your relatives in the picture.

I believe that Bill McGill and Constance Warwick and other relatives of the two are somewhere in the 1901 photo. See if you can find your ancestor's face.
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Steadman & Woods County Census - 1920 & 1930

The photo on the left is a view of the 1920 census, Alva, Woods Co., Oklahoma.

Steve was wondering if the 1920 census for his grandparents was available online and says, "I would like look my grandparents up in this 1920 census. That would be Wesley & Naomi Steadman, 819 5th street. Are these pages on the internet?"

Steve goes on to say, "Grandmother Steadman's maiden name was Shelton. I don't know Flo's maiden name, but she was the widow of Albert Shelton (grandmother's oldest brother) a.k.a. Uncle Bertie, who was a medical missionary to Tibet, and murdered in about 1920 as he was going to Lasha to meet the Dali Lama. Flo was Doris's mother and lived with Doris Still most of her life. Flo is Flora Belle Shelton and was always treated as one of the family.

"Prior to marriage grandmother worked in a flour mill and worked her way to the manager of the mill with a large staff of men. She had an expensive car and fur coat as a single woman at a time it was very unusual. Naomi was the best friend of Ruth Oliver Steadman, the first wife of Wesley and the woman who adopted mother. Grandmother never officially adopted mother, although she raised her from a 2 year old."

Yes, Steve, they are on the internet at Ancestry.com. Ancestry.com membership is not free, though. That is why I am sharing that information for the two census (1920 & 1930) here in the OkieLegacy eZine.

If you do not have an Ancestry.com membership and would like your ancestors looked up on Ancestry.com, send me the vital statistics of your ancestors, year, etc. and I will look it up and see what I can find for you.
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Henry Hugh McGill Info

Jan - Email: jesattler@comcast.net says, "Hi, Jay, I would like to discuss more about Henry Hugh Magill with you. My grandfather had a brother named Henry Magill born in 1854 in Northern Ireland and died in April 1930 in Colorado." -- OkieLegacy Comment, Vol. 9, Iss. 1
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Castle On the Hill Fire Memories

Natalie says, "My grandmother and great aunt attended college at Northwestern State Normal School. When the Castle on the Hill caught fire, they were renting a room from a lady who lived on Church Street. Granny and Aunt Luella ran to the campus in their nightgowns and robes. Granny said she remembered the art teacher was frantic to get inside. She had done a painting of her deceased daughter and left it in her classroom. She was just beside herself because she wasn't allowed to go in & get it."
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Warwickton (Hidden Valley)

On the National Register of Historic Places, Bath county, Virginia is the Old Warwickton place (Hidden Valley), located 2.1 mile North of Rt. 621, 1.1 mile North of intersection of Rt. 621 and Rt. 39 (Bacova vicinity).

The pdf Form 10-300 for the Warwickton shows the owner as U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, George Washington National Forest, Harrisonburg, Virginia, with location of legal description as Bath County Clerk's office, Warm Springs, Virginia.

In 1957 the representation in existing surveys shows a Historic American Building Survey Inventory, by the Library of Congress, Washington, D. C. Warwickton is a brick, two-story structure with hipped roof and four interior end chimneys. The pedimented tetra-style portico, placed over the central three bays of the five-bay facade, uses Greek Ionic caps with fluted shafts resting on a plinth; the plain entablature continues around the rest of the structure. The brickwork is in Flemish bond above the "watertable" with American bond below, both laid with narrow mortar joints typical of the period. The rear ell has seen at least two stages of evolution in its brick first story with frame enlargements. The doorway is an extremely close adaptation of Plate 28 in Asher Benjamin's Practical House Carpenter, Fourth Edition, 1835. 19th century building.

Statement of Significance

The area around Warwickton was one of the earliest settlements in this remote section of Virginia and was first acquired by William Jackson, for whom the Jackson River was named, in the middle part of the eighteenth century. On this property settled Robert Hall, the first known white settler in Bath County who built a log cabin there for his family sometime before 1750. In 1788 Jacob Warwick (1747-1826) purchased one thousand acres of part of the original Jackson tract and settled on this property, part of which was later to become the Hidden Valley land.

Jacob Warwick was one of the first settlers in Bath County, a noted Indian fighter and one of the principal land owners in the area. At his death his property descended to his son Andrew S. Warwick who married Mary N. Woods (1791-1822). They were the parents of Judge James Woods Warwick (1813-1897) who built the present mansion house, Warwickton, in Hidden Valley circa 1858.

Judge Warwick served in the Virginia legislature in 1880 and as judge of the county courts of Highland and Bath Counties for some years. At his death in 1897 the property passed to his second wife, Eliza J. Gatewood, and after her death the following year, the property was sold to the Jackson River Hunt Club.

Both Judge and Mrs. Warwick are buried in the family cemetery behind the house. In 1965 the United States Forest Service, under the Department of AGriculture, purchased the Warwickton tRact. One of the owners renamed the historic property "Hidden Valley" circa 1940, but the historic name is Warwickton.

Warwickton is an interesting example of the basic five-bay Georgian block adapted to the needs of a Victorian-Greek Revivial house builder in 1858. Other than the hybrid portico, the most unusual feature is the use of Asher Benjamin's stylebook in designing the entranceway, certainly an extremely rare source for architectural design in Virginia.

In addition to its unique details it is amazing that Warwickton dates from as early as it does, especially considering its remote site and grand proportions. The provincial handling of the portico combined without he inherently bold patterns of Benjamin blend well without he healthy feel of the Alleghany tablelands whose stark hills surround it.

The major bibliographical references is the Hardesty's Historical and Geographical Encyclopedia. 1884. Wheeler, Roy, Historic Virginia. Charlottesville, Va. Report of the U. S. Department of AGriculture, Forest Service on Hidden Valley.
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