Duchess of Weaselskin

Durango, Colorado - It was a windy, Sunday afternoon in Durango when NW Okie went to watch the Iron Horse Criterium and Cruisers in downtown Durango, Colorado. That windy weather blew in such a cool-down for Monday. They say we are in for a hard freeze tonight here in Southwest Colorado, Monday, 30 May 2011. Do not let me forget to enclose my plants and vegetables in my greenhouse early this Monday evening!

Those images above, on the left and right are just a few of the photos NW Okie snapped with her digital camera and cell phone yesterday afternoon. I hear tell they (NW Okie & David) took a break from the wind and cyclists events to catch a cool one (Guinness Stout) at the local Irish Pub in downtown Durango, Colorado where the Pub was having a "Jam Session" of Irish music. I will stick the "Jam Session" towards the end of this "Duchess of Weaselskin" feature with more photos of the "Iron Horse" criterium and cruiser pics.

NW Okie did not get any photos of the train race between cyclists and the Durango Silverton Narrow Gauge railway. The train-bicycle race from Durango to Silverton had the roads blocked to travelers, except the bicyclists. To get pictures you might have been able to ride the train to Silverton from Durango.

During the early part of the afternoon Sunday, they let the bike cruisers decorate their bikes and themselves and give it a cruiser try around the criterium course in downtown Durango. There were some ingenious bikes and costumes. There were five Scotsmen wearing their kilts whom the judges declared the winners of the "Cruiser" because of their style of riding in sync and I suppose for their costumes.

NW OKie's Flickr Photostream slideshow:


Irish PUb Jam Session in Durango, CO


Good Day, Good Luck & Have A Safe Memorial Day! View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

This Day In History (May 30)

America - On this day, May 30, 1958, unidentified soldiers killed in World War II and the Korean conflict were buried at Arlington National Cemetery. READ Article Here.

On May 30, 1909, Benny Goodman, an American jazz clarinetist and orchestra leader, was born. Following his death on 13 June 1986, Goodman's Obituary appeared in The Times.

On this day in History (May 30):

• 1431 - Joan of Arc, condemned as a heretic, was burned at the stake in Rouen, France.
• 1539 - Spanish explorer Hernando De Soto landed in Florida.
• 1854 - The territories of Nebraska and Kansas were established.
• 1922 - The Lincoln Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C.
• 1982 - Spain became NATO's 16th member.
• 1982 - Cal Ripken Jr. of the Baltimore Orioles played in the first of a record 2,632 consecutive major league baseball games.
• 1989 - Student demonstrators at Tiananmen Square in Beijing erected a 33-foot statue they called the "Goddess of Democracy."

NW Okie's Ancestrial Lineage

Bayfield, Colorado - Last week we shared some ancestry lineage of our connection to President Andrew Jackson (Jackson's relationship to me is 1st cousin of husband of 1st cousin 1x removed of husband of 2nd great grand aunt, Nancy McGill, daughter of William Nathan (Jr.) and Nancy Anne (Luttrell) McGill.

We heard from another Craighead descendant on a genealogy forum that says, "Don't know if the following is helpful to your search but is found in the Craighead and McGill family histories: Nancy (last name unknown), born 1787, died 1867, was married first to William McGill of Hamilton Co., TN. They had eleven (11) children including a daughter also named Nancy. William Nathan McGill, Jr. died in May of 1832. Nancy Anne then married Thomas Craighead, of Soddy, TN, in 1835, who had five children from his first wife, Mary Gillespie. Thomas died in September 1839, and is buried at Soddy, Tennessee."

I did happen to find out that my 2nd great grand aunt, Nancy, the daughter of William and Nancy McGill, married Samuel G. Craighead, who was the son of William Craighead (1778-1835) and Jane "Jennie" Gillespie. William Craighead was a brother of Thomas Craighead. Thomas Craighead and Nancy McGill were married February 22, 1838.

I am still reading and searching about the CROCKETT side of the family to see if there is a connection to David "Davy" Crockett of Tennessee. I have NOT found any connection so far, but there must be a really distant connection between my CROCKETT's that married into the WARWICK and MCGILL side of our ancestry.

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Devine Homestead Near Fairvalley OK

Fairvalley, Oklahoma - Wes Devine shared some photos of his family's Old Homestead near Fairvalley, Oklahoma. The photos show the old house and storm cellar with Henry Devine's inscribed on it with the date 1922. I did not know that the old Devine Homestead set on the Eastside and south of our Fairvalley Ranch. See Googl map below of the Fairvalley area.


View Fairvalley, OK in a larger map

Wes Devine says, "It's been about fifteen years since I was there but my understanding is, that if you go one mile east of the curve on E0190 headed toward Waynoka to N2250 Rd, then south about one and half miles you're there. I looked at if from the Google Earth website with Bryant. He walked me down the road south to what looked like a Y or another curve back to the west. There is a pond on the left as your are going south at the Y. Bryant told me that the old house set in a grove of trees on the right, just to the north of the Y."

This picture of the cellar doorway with "J Bickford" etched in the concrete. They found that the name "Bickford" may referred to Joe Bickford, a carpenter from Alva, Oklahoma.

Wes Devine's son, Bryant, made a trip to Freedom and Fairvalley, Oklahoma this Memorial weekend. He went straight to the cemetery to visit his grandfather's grave. He was amazed of the amount of Devine headstones present. Wes says, "I had given him a list of names that are family related. He was taking several pictures when he was approached by a lady, whom asked if he was somehow related to the Devines. He stated he was in fact a Devine. She said that her last name was Devine also. To make a long story short, the Devine's are the ones taking care of the Fairvalley Cemetary (Larry and his wife Judy and their son Darrell). Larry Devine's Dad was Lewis Devine and a brother to Henry Devine (my grandfather).

"Larry and Judy directed Bryant to the old homestead where he took some pictures. They also said that Herman, May Hoyle and Henry Devine lived in this house. My grandfather Henry was still residing in the home when he passed away, at the age of sixty eight. The house is not much, but I can remember being in this house when I was very young. One of the things I remember was my granddad was making some corn or wheat mash. As a curious fellow, being very young and my dad being a jokester, he told me to taste it.

"It befuddles me that throughout my life I have never heard the name Lewis Devine and or family from my dad or aunts, so this was quite an accident and a great surprise. Here are some pictures of the house and the storm cellar with my granddad's name etched in the concrete dated 1922. Notice the old leaf spring for the top of the cellar doorway. The date stamp on the pictures are incorrect, it should have read 2011. " View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

St. Andrews, Scotland, UK

St. Andrews, Scotland - [Photo on the left is for a Rev. John McGill, L.L.D] -- Bob McGill in California sent us this interesting tombstone that he found in St. Andrews, Scotland. Bob says, "Thought you might find this interesting. I was walking around a cemetery in St. Andrews, Scotland and came across this McGill tombstone. I also found the that the McGill surname is under the second largest clan in Scotland: the McDonald Clan. I fell in love with Scotland!"

As we did a search on Google for St. Andrews Scotland we found that it was an ecclesiastical center of medieval Scotland. A religious community founded as early as the 6th and into the 8th century. The town and cathedral would be built were the object of many pilgrimages throughout the Middle Ages. View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Memorial Day 2011

America - Finally, Memorial Day 2011 lands on the last Monday of May (May 30, 2011) like it started out. It was formerly known as Decoration Day to commemorate US soldiers who died while in service. It was enacted to honor Union soldiers of the American Civil War. Did you realize that? It was later extended after World War I to honor Americans who had died in all wars.

Memorial Day marks the start of the summer vacation for many with Labor Day ending the Summer season.

Memorial Day was a ritual of remembrance, reconciliation after the Civil War. By the twenty century, it was an occasion for more general expressions of memory, as people visited the graves of their deceased relatives, whether they had served in the military or not. Did you get your Memorial Day flowers laid out this weekend on your family gravesides? View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Iron Horse Bicycle Classic

Durango, Colorado - According to the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic website, the Iron Horse Classic was the brain child of Tom Mayer and his older brother Jim. Jim worked as a brakeman on the D&SNG railroad which had run the steam powered locomotive between Durango and Silverton since the 1880's.

It seems Tom was a young bicyclists who grew up alongside the tracks to Silverton. This brought on a challenge to his brother Jim to race to Silverton. Tom on his bicycle and Jim on the railroad. As the story goes, when the train came by the house, the steam whistle screamed and Tom climbed on his steel framed 10 speed and pedaled up over the rim of the old volcano and descended into the caldera to the mining town of Silverton. The train took a shorter and easier route, but with limited speed, it was truly a race between man and machine. Hence the "Iron Horse Bicycle Classic" began in 1972 when a group of 36 riders decided to celebrate the first run of the train in the spring.

In those 40 years the Iron Horse has become one of the classic bicycle events in the West. With its centrally location, Durango is an early summer meeting of the riders from the cycling centers of Denver, Albuquerque, Phoenix and Salt Lake City. Over the years many events have been added to the classic train race, such as the criteriums, circuit races, road races, tours, BMX races, Trials, dual slaloms, team trailrides and mountain bike races.

This brings a full weekend of events every Memorial Day weekend for the past 40 years for Durango, Colorado, a town of only 16,000 people nestled in the mountains of Southwest Colorado.

Happy 40th Anniversary to the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic that began back in 1972! View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Virginia Magazine of History & Biography

Virginia - According to The Virginia Magazine of History & Biography, Vol. 4, by Philip Alexander Bruce, Virgiia Historical Society, William Glover Stanard, we find the following this history and biography of Virginia, dated July 1896, Vol. IV, No. I. This little history book is for those searching their ancestry that settled in the Virginia's. If you view the "Contents" you might find such things as "Abstracts of Virginia Land Patents" prepared by W. G. Stanard, beginning on page 75. For example, "(255) Sergeant Thomas Crompe [1], 500 acres in the county of James, in the Neck of Land [2] bounded on the east by Creek which runs between the Glebe Land and said neck of Land, and adjoining the land belonging to the orphans and heirs of Mr. Richard buck [3]; due said Crompe, 50 acres for his personal adventure, and 450 for the transportation of 9 persons (names below). September 28, 1635. By West. Jon Gorbing, Roger Armwood, Robert Ackerman, FRances Peale, Jon. Abott, Lewis Depina, peter Brill, Wm. Mallett, Thomas Tinchfield.

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