Tuesday, February 10, 2009

One Last Thing

Article about Emma Garner and Blanche Shriner

The above is an article from the Frederick News-Post from 10/23/1930. It mentions Emma Garner, Blanche Shriner and Blanche's mother, Flora. I think this is the best of all. It says they were members of the Church of God on Frizzelburg Road - which is still there and not far from Jasontown Road or Linwood. The link takes you to the entire page of the newspaper for that day - look under the article in the middle of the page, entitled, "Uniontown". You'll need to make the page at least 150% size to read it well.

Blanche Shriner's Sunday School Teacher


The letter written to Blanche was from her Sunday School teacher, Emma G. Garner. So after I found Blanche on Ancestry.com, I looked up Emma. I found her right away. She was 59 in the 1920 census, so in 1924, that made her 63. She lived with her brother and his wife in the house he owned on Linwood. He worked as a cashier in a bank and neither his wife nor Emma worked. I wonder if it was tough living with your sister-in-law. I hope it was wonderful and not difficult for Emma. Remember to click on the image above to make it bigger in order to read the information.

Now for the map of Emma's house in 1924:


View Larger Map

Two roads were listed on the 1920 census record - Linwood and McKinstry Roads. I couldn't find Linwood at first, so I tried McKinstry. That worked. Then I saw Linwood, which is no longer the name of a road, but a village perhaps. On this map above, I requested directions from Linwood to Jasontown Road, the intersection which Blanche Shriner lived 2 doors down from.

Emma's letter mentions that it has been a year since Blanche's father, Milton, has died, so he must have died in 1923. I looked for the Shriner family in 1910 and found out that Milton was really James M. Shriner, and that Edith was a younger sister (3 years younger than Blanche) who must have married and had a baby by 1924. Also, the younger brother listed as an invalid in 1920 is called Paul S. Shriner (S. must be for Shreeve) and he is 8 years old in 1910. Here is the 1920 census record:

This sleuthing sure is fun!! I wonder what churches were in the Village of Uniontown, MD in 1924.

Finally, I found Blanche in 1930. She is now living with her mother, who is 60 and works as a practical nurse, while Blanche is a housekeeper for a "private family." It appears that even though Blanche was 20 in 1920 and 30 in 1920, she is now 37 in 1930.....but if you look, you'll see the age written over, so it's hard to read. It should be 40. Caroline is now definitively listed as "granddaughter" - of whom? There were two unmarried sisters - Blanche and Bertha. It appears Bertha has moved on - perhaps married, or moved. Shreeve is not living with them - perhaps he has passed away, or gotten better and lives elsewhere. Caroline was listed in 1920 was a 28 month old daughter, but then that was crossed out and "grand daughter" was written. Edith is married and has a baby, but that would be listed under her husband's name on the census. It sounds a bit as if Blanche had somewhat of a hard life. She never married, she missed her father and she had to go to work when she got older. Here is the 1930 census record:


It would appear that Blanche died in April 1972. Her death certificate has her birthday as 8/31/1889. Her Social Security number was 218-01-9946, issued in Maryland before 1951. Her last residence was
17331 Hanover, York, Pennsylvania.


Monday, February 9, 2009

My Favorite Hobby


I belong to a Grace Livingston Hill reading group online. I never post, but I read the posts of the rest of the members - I guess you would call that "lurking". Anyway, one of the readers purchased a First Edition of Grace Livingston Hill's book, "Re-Creations" printed by Lippincott and published in 1924. Inside was a letter from a Sunday school teacher named Emma F. Garner to her student, Miss Blanche Shriner in Uniontown, Maryland. Evidently, Blanche was a Sunday school student who never missed a lesson in 17 years, hence the gift.
So, I got on Ancestry.com and looked up Miss Shriner. I found the above census record (click to "embiggen" and look for Milton Shriner).



Miss Shriner was 30 years old in 1920, which makes her 34 in 1924, the date of the book and the letter. She was single, as was her sister, Bertha, who worked as a servant for a "private family". Her 18 year old brother Shreeve was an invalid according to the 1920 census, and the baby of the family, Caroline B., at 28 months, was at first claimed as a daughter, then this was half marked out and "grand" was written above daughter. Hmmmmmm. I have a feeling that Caroline was a daughter and the census writer was making a judgement based on the age of the mother, who, at 50, could still have had a 28 month old child.

Miss Shriner's father was, I think, a huckster helper (I had a hard time reading the writing), which is a traveling salesman (think a man with a cart full of stuff, I think). I believe he worked for his neighbor, W. Guy Segafoose, 47, who owned a huckster business. It would make sense. They probably split routes - one went one way and one went the other. That's IF I'm correct in my assumption about the job, although the census record does say for both that they have "own route"s.

Here's the map of where I think they lived. They were on "Main Street", which today is Uniontown Road. They were 2 doors down from Jasontown Road.


View Larger Map

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Trouble With Numbers

It seems to me that a lot of Congresspersons (gotta keep up that political correctness.....yeah) and Presidentpersons have a real problem with numbers. I'm thinking that none of them did very well in math when they were in school, and now that they're "saving" the country from financial ruin, it doesn't bode well........


How's that? America has maybe a total population of 300,000,000. But EVERY MONTH 500,000,000 Americans lose their jobs.

I have a strong suspicion that Nancy Pelosi either smokes hash or does cocaine, neither of which aids her math difficulties.

And lets not forget:


Yes - even though the US, of which this man is PRESIDENT, has 50 states last time we counted, he visited 57. Perhaps the last 7 were somewhere on another planet where Nancy learned her math skills.