Duchess of Weaselskin

Bayfield, Colorado - Thank goodness NW Okie left these short-nosed Duchess and Sadie Pugs back in the cool Colorado Rockies while she headed East towards the prairies of Kansas and Oklahoma. We hear that a few drops of moisture makes the air heavy and too muggy to breathe.

How dry is it in Oklahoma? It is so dry that the small ponds are in deadly need of a drastic refill ASAP! It is so dry that the delicate grasses in the pastures have turned golden and crunch under each step you take. Even lawns, yards in town show signs of how dry it is. Some churches have signs up that read, "Pray for Rain!" Will that really help? What about the good old Indian rain dances of the past?

Anyway, NW Okie left us pugs here in Colorado rockies to watch her tomatoes and other vegetables she has growing in her greenhouse. One of the "Early Girl" tomatoes turned red while she was gone and someone accidentally ate it. Was it an accident? Was it a small tomato with a big flavor? Will we ever know?

Then there is the ground squirrel (or whatever) that stripped clear all the parsley leaves off the plants and left only the steams. A bystander told this Duchess Pug, "Something ate every leaf off of the parsley plant without breaking the stalks or pulling up the roots. A very clean job of nibbling, if I do say so myself."

The same thing happened last year, also! Instead of hanging the parsley plant on a plant hook, we placed it on a garden stump, in an area that known squirrels were known to wander. I guess those squirrels should have the freshes breathe, huh?

God Night & Good Luck! Keep hydrated and cool in the Summer heat! View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

This Day In History (July 25)

America - On July 25, 1956, the Italian liner Andrea Doria collided with the Swedish ship Stockholm off the New England coast, claiming the lives of 51 people. The trans-atlantic liners Andrea Doria and Stockholm collided in a heavy Atlantic fog at 11:22 o'clock the night ofJuly 25, 1956, forty-five miles south of Nantucket island. All the 1,134 passengers aboard to abandon ship and it was reported to had been rescued at 4:58 A.M. Go to Article.

On July 25, 1848, Arthur James Balfour, the British statesman best remembered for issuing the British declaration of support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine, was born. Following his death on March 19, 1930, his obituary appeared in The Times. Go to Obituary

On This Day, July 25th

• 1593 - France's King Henry IV converted from Protestantism to Roman Catholicism.
• 1868 - Congress passed an Act creating the Wyoming Territory.
• 1952 - Puerto Rico became a self-governing commonwealth of the United States.
• 1965 - Where were you when Bob Dylan shocked his fans at the Newport Folk Festival by playing electric guitar.
• 1975 - The musical "A Chorus Line" opened on Broadway.
• 1978 - The first baby conceived by in-vitro fertilization was born in Oldham, England.
• 1984 - Soviet cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya became the first woman to walk in space.

NW Okie's Ancestry Corner

Alva, Oklahoma - Last Friday in the early morning hours of Mountain Daylight Time we headed East towards the Kansas and Oklahoma Summer prairies. We did get to reconnect with our horses, especially Nugget, my favorite palomino. Nugget is special because he was named after a palomino that my dad raised from a colt when we were just young children.

Dad would bring the first Nugget into town and we would ride him around the yard at 703 7th Street. You can view the rest of my horses at OkieLegacy Picasa web album at Linda'a Google+ account. Have you been invited to try Google+? If you are interested, then let me know and I will send you an invite!

How DRY is it in Oklahoma? As you can see by the photo on the right it is so dry that the small farm ponds are in drastic need of a drink. It is so dry that the grass has turned a pale yellowish white and crunches under your feet. It is so dry . . . hay the farmers cut for Winter is being used in Summer; cattle prices are low because farmers having to sell off their cattle; and feed crops planted earlier are really short compared to what it should be. Some have told me their last good rain was over a year ago.

Towards the early evening hours of Sunday you could get the feel of "hope" or possibly rain in the air as the clouds built, accumulated. Some areas across the state only received 12 hundredth of an inch, while the news reported that Freedom, Oklahoma had 90mph winds and an online weather site reported that Freedom had the most rain across the State of Oklahoma, measuring 3/4-inch. BUT . . . It will take more than that to replenish the pastures and ponds, though.

Good Day and Good Luck searching your ancestry! View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Clara Gorsching (1926-1929)

Oklahoma - In the OkieLegacy, Vol. 7, Iss. 30, dated 7/30/2005, Deanna Griffin (Gorsching) had an Inquiry concerning Clara Gorsching. It has been about six years since then and I do not know the email of Deanna today, but maybe someone out there reading this might be able to help these Gorsching descendants. If you do not want your email address posted for everyone to view, I would like to help you make the connection. If Deanna, Richard and Ciera would like to exchange emails, you could go through my email address (Linda - Email: mcwagner.lk@gmail.com) and I could hook each of you up together.

Deanna said, "Clara Gorsching was my Dad's sister. Her parents were Peter J. Gorsching (1890 - 11/22/1962) and Mattie Gorsching (Kiehn) (1893 - 3/19/1970). My Dad (Wesley Gorsching) has passed away but my mom said Clara Jane died of pneumonia. My Dad still has four sisters living. He had one other sister (besides Clara) and a brother that has passed away. My mother didn't know anything about the grave marker, but I can see if I can get in touch with any of the sisters to see if they know anything. You can e-mail me with any questions and If I find out any more information I will write back. -- Deanna Griffin (Gorsching)"

OkieLegacy Feature #3091 & #496 -- Ciera says, "I guess Clara Jan would be my great-great aunt. My great grandmother was born Ollie Gorsching. Her Daughter, Sharon Lea Nusz is my paternal grandmother. My great grandmother is Ollie Gorsching. I was mistaken before when I said she lives in OK (Oklahoma). She actually lives in AZ (Arizona) and reached the age of 90 a few years ago. I am unsure how we could exchange email addresses with out putting them out there for the the "whole world" (as Richard puts it) to see, but thank you for your response!" View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Fargo Springs & Springfield, KS

Kansas - As we were traveling East this last weekend along Highway 160 from cool Colorado Rockies through Western Kansas, we took a rest, stretch break at this little rest area near the JCTs of why 160 & 83 in southwestern Kansas. It had the following Kansas Historical Marker (erected by the Kansas Historical Society and State Highway commission) concerning Fargo Springs and Springfield.

The historical marker read as follows, "Fargo Springs and Springfield - The importance of railroads to the early settlement and prosperity of the West is nowhere better illustrated than in the stories of two Seward county towns, Fargo Springs, founded in 1885 about three miles south of here, was the first town established in the county.

"The next year Springfield was located where this marker stands. In June it was named the temporary county seat but in August, after an election, the government was moved to Fargo Springs. The vote was contested and when recanvassed in 1887 the county seat was returned to Springfield.

"Fargo Springs ended its brief existence in 1888. It not only had lost its fight with Springfield, but more disastrously had been by passed by the rapidly building Chicago, Kansas and nebraska railway, a part of the Rock Island. Springfield in turn failed to get its railroad and in 1892 lost the county seat to Liberal (16 miles south). In 1897 the Springfield and Fargo Springs townsites were officially vacated.

"Two towns withered and died -- unhappy proof of the vital need for rail connections in the vast and then undeveloped Western frontier."

From my research I have found that lots of small pioneer towns and communities withered and died as these two towns did when railway connections bypassed them. Some towns, such as Freedom, Oklahoma, moved south to be closer to the railroads. View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

The Library of Congress

America - C-SPAN's original feature documentary, "The Library of Congress, is a behind-the-scenes look at the national repository, providing the history of the institution, a tour of its iconic Jefferson Building, and glimpses of some of the library's rare book, photo, and map collections.

The film also featured some of the presidential papers housed at the Library of Congress, ranging from George Washington through Calvin Coolidge. Viewers learned how the library uses technology to preserve its holdings and expand public access to them, as well as how technology is helping to uncover new information about some of the items in its collections." View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Beginnings of Indian Territory West of Mississippi

Oklahoma - We found the following book online at books.google.com that give the formation of the state of Oklahoma (1803-1906), written by Roy Gittinger, Ph. D. (Professor of English history and Dean of Undergraduates in the University of Oklahoma), published back to 1917.

It states that the jurisdiction of the United States was first extended over Oklahoma in 1803, by the purchase of Louisiana from France. The southwestern limits of Louisiana were very indefinite, because the boundary between it and New Spain had never been established. President Jefferson included the following statement to Congress November 14, 1803, "The precise boundaries of Louisiana, westward of the Mississippi, though very extensive, are at present involved in some obscurity."

The agreement made with Spain some years later left all of the present state of Oklahoma in the possession of the United States except the narrow rectangle projecting west of the hundredth meridian, now known as the Oklahoma Panhandle.

The division of Louisiana into commonwealths of proper size began on March 26, 1804, when all of the new cession south of the thirty-third parallel was set off as the Territory of Orleans. All north of that parallel all north of the present state of Louisiana, became the District of Louisiana and was attached, for administrative purposes, to Indiana Territory. Through an act of March 3, 1805, the District of Louisiana was organized as the Territory of Louisiana. The Territory of Orleans took the name of Louisiana on its admission into the Union in April, 1812. Two months later Louisiana Territory became Missouri Territory.

In 1818 the inhabitants of a part of Missouri Territory began to ask for statehood. Because of the controversy growing out of this request was unsettled, Congress organized the Territory of Arkansas, in addition to the present state of Arkansas, all of Oklahoma south of the parallel of 36° 30'. this was done by an act of March 2, 1819. For the next 5 years Oklahoma south of a line drawn from the southwest corner of Missouri to the northeast corner of the Texas Panhandle was a part of Arkansas Territory.

The boundaries of this Territories touched the Spanish possessions were established by a treaty signed on February 22, 1819, ratified on February 19, 1821. The terms of this treaty drew a line between the United States and New Spain was drawn along the Red River to the 100th meridian, and thence extended north on that meridian into the present state of Kansas. The limits of the future state of Oklahoma on the south and west were being determined by treaty and the eastern border was beginning to take form. An Act of March 6, 1820, the western boundary of Missouri was established on a "meridian line passing through the middle of the mouth of the Kansas River."

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The Cherokee Outlet

Cheroke Outlet, Oklahoma Territ - The part of Oklahoma Territory that my ancestors settled in was the northwestern part (a.k.a. Alva Land District, or "M" county), of the Cherokee Outlet. Cherokee Outlet Map of Oklahoma TerritoryThe Cherokee Outlet (a.k.a. Cherokee Strip) was formed by the United States government to give the Cherokee Indians of Eastern Oklahoma a path or "Outlet" to hunting lands in the West. It ran along the northern part of Oklahoma Territory.

The Trail Drovers from Texas crossed the Outlet to move thousands of head of cattle to the railroads in Kansas for shipment back east. Many drovers of these cattle drives refused to pay the Indians for passage across their land, though. The Indians frequently would stampede the cattle and in confusion liberate a few head for themselves. This is about the time a group of cattlemen (a.k.a. "The Cherokee Strip Livestock Association") finally leased the Outlet for a period of years.

Of course, this was NOT the end of the troubles the Indians and the Association ran into. It just brought more settlers slipping into the "Strip" to establish farms.

After several years, the U.S. Government stepped in because of the pressure from the people wanting the Outlet opened for settlement. This is when the lease between the Association and the Cherokee Indians was declared null and void. The government pressured the Indians into accepting a $1.25 per acre buyout for their land. In the final negotiations, the dollar sum was fixed at 8-1/2 million or approximately $1.29 per acre.

The Outlet was divided into 4 districts

1. The westernmost segment was called "Woodward Land District" (formerly referred to as "N" county).
2. The next division to the east became the "Alva Land District" (earlier known as "M" county. In 1907, it split into three counties... Woods, Major and Alfalfa.)
3. Further to the east was the "Enid Land District" (previously "L" county and "O" county).
4. At the far eastern end of the Outlet was the "Perry Land District" (which had been "K", "P", and "Q" counties).