 |
| Sigh. I really do have to dust Drumyngham more often. I shouldn’t admit this but this is the corner of my mom’s dresser. I do wonder why the dust settled so that it looks like it spells out the word “dust”! It couldn’t be Mom’s ghost, could it? |
In our previous post, I promised we’d use this post to
take a look at the dust that helps us tell our tale. I’ve whined and whined
about the lack of letters, diaries, newspaper articles, wills, ANYTHING that
might help us get a handle on the way things were back in the day. It is
therefore surprising, even to me, just how much information I’ve been able to
give you, and myself, about “our” earlier days. I thought it might be
interesting to stop for a moment, and take a look at just how I do weave
together what I think I know in order to tell you the stories of the Drums.
It all comes down to “dust”, the many little bits and
pieces that, by themselves tell us very little, but when seen collectively, in
context with other bits and pieces (more dust); they become, so to speak, dust
bunnies and the story begins to emerge. What follows are examples of what I am
talking about.
First up, Abraham Drum’s(George, Jacob, Philip)
first name.
George’s son, Abraham, was born 1797. I believe he was
the first member of this Drum Family Tree to have been born in the part of this
nation now often called “The Drums Valley”. Abraham
Drum served for a time as the County Sheriff, expanded his father’s
tavern into a hotel in Drums, the Drums Hotel, and then built a second hotel, the Stagecoach
Stop Inn, at Sand Springs about 3.5 miles north of his father’s hotel along
what is known today as Route 309 (Hunter Highway).
When I began to look into the lives that make up “our”
tree, one of the first things I did was ask fellow “Drumians” what they knew
about Drums and “us”. I got a number of leads that way. One came from a fellow
who told me that Abram Drum, who
once served as sheriff of Luzerne County, was the man for whom Drums was named.
George’s son, Abraham, did serve for a while as the Luzerne County Sheriff, but
did he ever really go by the nickname Abram? We know his grandson, Abraham
Alexander, did go by Abram at one time. Was my source perhaps confusing the
two?
Perhaps not. Early on in my investigations, I came across
two sources of written information that both seemed to confirm his use of this
nickname. Both of these sources promised many leads for my investigations into
this family. Both would certainly help me lift the fog of history enabling me
to learn a great deal about this family and our auspicious beginnings: Munsell
on Butler Township, a history published in 1880 and H.C. Bradsby’s History
of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, published in 1893. When I saw those two secondary
sources, I thought I had it made in the shade! Names! Dates! Information to
seek and confirm! Hoo-Ray!
Problem was that even though I now had three sources that
suggested Abraham used the nickname Abram, all three were still just secondary sources,
at best. Surely, I thought, I should have no problem finding primary sources
that would conform these sources’ information; certainly to at least confirm
Abraham went by Abram. I needed primary sources because all three of these
secondary sources came with issues! My oral history source was giving me
stories he had been told, second-hand or worse! As for Munsell and Bradsby,
here are examples of the issues I found in them.
From Munsell I learned, among other things:
The first tavern in this
place was built by George Drum, and kept as a hotel by Abram Drum in
1820, where the present hotel stands.[1]
(Emphasis is mine.)
This quote seems to suggest that a man named Abram Drum
took over George’s tavern in 1820. However, other sources told me that George
built the tavern in 1820 and his son Abraham took over the operation when he
added the larger section to make it a hotel in 1840. Perhaps it is a matter of poor
punctuation, however, if not, it also doesn’t bode well for the name Abram.
Bradsby told me:
A. A. DRUM, merchant,
Drum's. This gentleman was born January 25, 1854, near where he now resides,
and is a son of Josiah and Maria (Balliet) Drum, both natives of Butler Valley,
the former of whom was engaged in mercantile pursuits during his life at
Drum's. He was a son of Abram Drum, who settled in the Valley at a very
early date, and was also engaged in the mercantile business during the latter
part of his life.[2]
(Emphasis, again, is mine.)
From other sources I knew that Josiah was Abraham’s son
and that Josiah did have a son he named Abraham Alexander, who went by A.A. and,
sometimes, Abram. A.A. actually altered what he was called, it seems, almost
every decade. For a brief discussion on his name “changes” see the post called Somebody’s
got to do it! (The jobs we did.)
This passage seems to confirm, then, that Abraham (the
elder) did go by the name Abram. but we find ourselves facing a similar point
of confusion as seen with Munsell. In
the above example, Bradsby says Josiah was “a son of Abram Drum, who settled
in the Valley at a very early date”. As noted, at the time that I was
reading this passage for the first time, the only “Abram” I could find was A.A.,
himself, who did at one point go by Abram, but he lived long after any
“settling” was occurring. His grandfather, Abraham, was in the valley at a very
early date relative to other settlers, but I’m not sure you’d say he “settled”
here. Other evidence suggests he was the first Drum child BORN in the valley
where his father, George, settled “at an early date” in relation to valley
settlement – around 1796 when only six or seven other families were living in
the valley.
So, the question remained, did Abraham (the elder) ever
go by the nickname Abram? I was able to find no firsthand information that
would confirm him ever using that nickname, or being called by others, Abram;
no personal papers, not in Census entries, nothing.
Until a few weeks ago, that is! While once more sorting
through “the hat box collection”[3]
looking for something completely different, the name Abram Drum caught
my eye. It was on what appears to be a payment order or voucher, like a check, dated
March 12, 1853. It orders the treasurer of Butler, Luzerne County, to pay Stephen
Drumheller $11.68 for repairs he made to the “school house near Abram Drums”!
(Emphasis added).
Here it is.
I am really a bit uncertain why we have this document. Although
it mentions one of “us”, it does not appear to directly involve a Drum. I don’t
believe any of “us” was ever the Treasurer of Butler, but even if so, shouldn’t
this document be in some official file if that were the case? There is a family
connection involved but it seems rather a long way around to get from Stephen
to us such that one of “us” would retain this document. Plus, it doesn’t even
complete the loop!
Abraham and Molly Drum’s first child was a daughter, born
in 1824. They named her Mary. I do not have a marriage date, but Mary’s first husband
was William Drumheller, Stephen’s brother. As an aside, Mary married twice and
had children by both husbands. When William died, Mary married Abram Hetler. Now,
even after we realize Stephen was William’s brother and William’s wife was a
Drum, the daughter of the Abram mentioned in the note, no less, we are still
left to wonder why we have this document!
The 1850 Census does list Stephen Drumheller, a
25-year-old merchant, as a member of Abraham’s household. At the time, Abraham
was the proprietor of the Drums Hotel (or had just established the Stagecoach
Stop Inn at Sand Springs), implying Stephen was one of the hotel guests at the
time the census was taken. Also listed is a 13-year-old child named Evan H.
Drumheller. One assumes they were father and son traveling together. If Stephen
continued to reside with Abraham, perhaps this is how “we” acquired the
note. No, I don’t mean we stole it. I
just mean we were in proximity of the document, close enough that it could be
possible it got mixed into our papers.
Well, no matter how or why we have it, we do and this
piece of “dust” confirms that Abraham was, at one time, called Abram. Now before someone suggests that perhaps this
document is referring to A.A. after all, I’ll confirm it is not. Remember, Abraham
Alexander Drum, Abram for short, A.A. for even shorter, was born January 25,
1854, almost a year after the document was written.
A similar “what-was-he-called” problem surfaced around my
Great-Grandfather, Nathan Drum (1868 – 1934). I’d been told that he often went
by the nickname “Nate”. However, I had little that confirmed this as true. Then
I came upon this receipt for a purchase of carpets and rugs. Now I realize the
receipt says “Nat” and not “Nate” but I’m betting that in this case, the
receipt is misspelled (willfully or unwittingly missed the “e”).
In one of my mom’s scrapbooks, securely glued in place,
is this picture of a car in a yard. She pasted it beside other early 1930’s
photos and labeled the “driver” as my dad, Harry. He would have been 10 years
old in 1933. I know nothing about automobiles so, when I first saw the photo, I
had no idea what kind of car that might be.
Then I found this!
I don’t know what a “Cleveland Sedan” is. Like I said, I
don’t have a lot of Automobile knowledge, but I’ve googled it and checked
history books about automobiles, and I can find nothing on such a make and model.
My guess is that it was part of the Hudson line, a “Hudson Cleveland Sedan”, so
to speak.
The car in the photo, however, looks to me like the
photos I’ve found of the Make and Model “Hudson Essex Sedan”, perhaps a 1929 or
1930 model. And that all makes sense! It would seem perfectly in order for Elmer
and Ella, in 1932, to decide that they needed a “new” car. So, Elmer went to
“United Auto Exchange”, which appears to have been a used car dealership in
West Hazleton where their motto was: You’ll be Proud to Drive a ‘United’
Used Car”. It probably was the place Elmer got his Hudson Cleveland Sedan,
too, whatever that was. Once there, he traded the “Cleveland” in for a “new”
(used) Essex Sedan. When they got home again, my pre-teen dad proudly sat at
the steering wheel so Elmer or Ella could “make” a celebratory photo. Why not?
It was, after all, a “new” car!
Makes me wish we still had that car.
Sometimes the dust is just a fun thing to know. For
example, I think somebody in this line, maybe Ella Drum, my grandmother, liked
frogs. I base this on very little evidence, only two objects, really, so it may
not be the case at all, but it is interesting, none the less.
In our home we have an antique vase that looks like a
frog. If I have the oral history correct, Ella gave this vase to my parents in
1950 as a wedding present. Although it was an antique when Ella gifted it to my
mom, it was already an antique when Ella originally acquired it in 1919. That
year, when Elmer married Ella, they bought a farm in Fritzingertown from a
family named Embling. There were a number of items left in the house when they
took occupancy and this vase was one of them. At least that’s the story my mom
told me when I wondered how we came to have the vase.
 |
| The yard stick beside the vase appears to be below the edge by some few inches. In reality, I had it lined up with the top edge of the vase. Camera angle and the fact that the ruler in on the floor almost under the vase, resulted in an optical illusion. The vase stands approximately 10 inches frog-lip to floor. The base is, at its widest point, 3.5 inches across. The vase is slightly oval. |
Mom hated it. She called it “that ugly thing” and often
said, “I wish it would break!”. She kept it because it was a wedding present
from her mother-in-law. I think it is quite clever. I’m glad it didn’t break. I
like it a lot. I’m amazed it has lasted as well as it has through at least two
sets of children, Harry and Clara followed by Nathan and Ronnie!
So, my grandmother gave my mom an antique frog-vase for a
wedding present. That doesn’t necessarily mean she liked frogs. In fact, since
she gave it away, it might mean just the opposite! If so, then, why did she
have this cast-iron door stop? This is another thing I really like very much,
by the way.
You know, maybe it’s actually ME who likes frogs!
One piece of dust, by itself, usually raises lots of
questions. In this “chasing history” process, contrary to the insides of our
houses where we want LESS dust, in this case, we want MORE! The perfect example
of that is the problem of knowing George died in 1831 from an accidental
gunshot wound. Think of the questions THAT piece of dust raises! Without more
dust we are left with too many questions to even count!
Another example of this problem revolves around the
wedding of Elmer and Ella. Below we see a promissory note from 1919. Originally
saved by pre-teen me because of the Document Stamps on the left. Today it is of
greater interest to me due to what it says. “I (Elmer Drum) promise to pay
George Santee…sixteen hundred dollars…”.
It is dated July 2, 1919. It is signed Elmer Alonzo Drum.
George Santee was the father of the woman Elmer was going
to marry the following day, July 3, 1919, Ella Santee. Clearly, this was a loan
from the soon-to-be father-in-law to his about-to-be son-in-law. That is a
substantial sum of money. In today’s dollars, that would equal $23,842.50.[4]
They would have been able to throw a pretty big wedding for that amount! More
likely, however, Elmer needed the cash to purchase the farm from Mr. Embling in
which the couple planned to live. I’m sure that there is a way to confirm that
this is the case. I just haven’t figured that out yet. Thus, this dust stands
alone.
Speaking of money, however, here is something I did not know until I crossed paths
with some of this “Drum Dust”. In the earliest days of this country, we did not
have a national currency. We did acquire one eventually. Congress established
the U.S. Dollar system in 1792[5], four
years after the Constitution was fully ratified in 1788. However, even then it seems
We the People held to our old Pounds/Shillings/Pence systems for a while
longer.
Obviously when we were colonies of Great Britain, we used
the British money system. After all, we were British! Here we see a replica of
a “15 Shillings Note” issued by Pennsylvania that I got on one of my souvenir
scavenger hunts growing up. It says it was issued by Pennsylvania on October 1,
1773. It is English; note the mention of GEORGE the Third.
Once free of Britain, each colony established its own money
and Pennsylvania devised its own system of Pounds/Shillings/Pence. I discussed
this idea of Pence to Cents a bit more in an earlier post entitled The
Drums and their Times, Part 1 – 1800’s to 1870’s. The dust
involved here that brought all this to my attention were a number of receipts
and promissory notes, such as this one, pertaining to the execution of the will
of John Santee, an ancestor of Elmer’s wife, Ella (unless I missed a
generation, John was Ella’s grandfather).
Did you notice the words “lawful money of Pennsylvania”? That
is what caught my attention when I first saw it. Pounds and Pence! What about
Dollars and Cents? Thus, I learned that even as late is 1803, fifteen years
after the Constitution was ratified, and eleven years after the dollar system
was established in the United States, Pennsylvania was still using their own
system of Pounds and Pence, “lawful money of Pennsylvania”. I mean, who knew!?
Of course, although this was news to me, I’m probably one
of the very few people left who didn’t know it. However, the fact that other
people knew about this before I did does not diminish my surprise. I was
similarly surprised when I first came across this Silver Certificate from 1899.
I mean, it’s BIG! I know there are better specimens of this bill in existence
so this one’s “collector’s value” is quite low. Mom was so enthralled by it
that she chose to do what she always did with such things, she taped it into
her scrapbook (note the tape marks). Well, at least she didn’t glue it in. If
it had any value before that, given how “used” it already was, that tape
dropped its value to about zero.
But just to hold this oversized bill in your hand, tape
marks or not, a dollar that was once held by an ancestor (probably earned by
him!), probably Great-Grandfather Nathan, the coal-miner, well, priceless.
When U. S. money is discussed, the term “Greenback” is
often tossed about. The above bill did have a green reverse side. Older U. S.
money was often known as “Horse Blankets” due to their large size. The above
bill is an example of a horse blanket greenback.
There were a number of issues of paper currency through
the years that were both large and had green backs. Another example can be seen
in this Silver Certificate from 1923. Although it is not quite the size of a
real horse blanket for horses, one can see how it got its name.
 |
| The ruler came from the Hazleton Leader Store, a popular department store that made Hazleton famous, or visa-versa. |
And this one has a REALLY green backside!! Once again, a
fairly “used” specimen so of little value to a collector, but, for us, EXTREMELY
valuable because its REAL value comes from the fact that it probably spent some
time in Elmer’s wallet or Ella’s pocketbook! It was probably saved because 1923
was my father’s birth year.
Keeping money from a birth year seems to have been a
“thing” with some of “us”. These are Silver Certificates from 1957 – MY birth
year. Dad saved these, and a few more, for his “youngest”.
Paper money, however, was not the only kind of money “we”
held onto. Either all of us were quite cheap or at least one of “us” was a coin
collector, or both. Among the many pieces of dust left by those who came
before, is a bunch of change, a couple handfuls, in fact, depending on how big
your hands are. And the photo shows just some of the “collection”. There is
another bunch of similar envelops that hold coins from other countries and even
tokens, plugs, and wooden nickels! By the way, truth be told, some of these coins
were added by me, but still!
Again, as with the paper money shown above, most of these
coins hold very little “Collector’s Value”. Most are not even CLOSE to being
“mint”; in fact, there are a few that are almost worn smooth! Here’s one.
The coin on the left, that is. If you look at it very closely,
you can just make out “GRAT” along the top edge and, possibly, the shape of a
head, but that’s it. However, once again, to “us”, it is priceless.
Each one of these coins had to have, at one time, resided
in a Drum’s coin purse, was dropped on a night stand near a Drum bed when
pockets were emptied, perhaps on laundry day, or maybe placed under a child’s
pillow by the Tooth Fairy.
Most of the coins in this “collection” are just
run-of-the-mill pocket change type coins, maybe change left from the purchase
of a bushel of dried apples and a pound of bacon from Yost’s store.[6]
However, I still think one of us was a coin collector because of the nature of
those coins not covered by the term “most”.
In fact, a few of them do have real historic interest; one
is old enough to have been in the pocket of Progenitor Philip when he headed
out across the Atlantic in 1738! My guess, however, is that this Pistareen didn’t
come to us in Philip’s pocket. My bet is that it was found and kept by a
collector. I just can’t make myself believe “we” held on to it, passed it from
generation to generation on down through the years, because it had once been
carried by Progenitor Philip. I think importance of that nature would have been
noted someplace. Nothing designated this coin in any way as being “special”. This
coin was just one of all the rest, not held apart in any way that I recall.
 |
| Here we see “our” Pistareen, front and back (You tell me which is which). Slightly larger than a quarter, this one was minted, as can be seen on the coin (far left), in 1722. |
I do not actually recall how most of these coins came to
me. I do remember that the coins were all packaged in various ways and “saved”
that way. Some were in coin purses held in the Hat Box collection. There were a
number of coin purses found in drawers, a bag in a closet, an envelope in a
desk, etc., each given to pre-teen/teen me because of my interest in coins and
stamps, all coming at different times over the years. I do know that the two
Indian Head pennies, the highly worn French coin, and the “GRAT” coin shown
above were wrapped in a plastic bag inside the match box seen in this photo.
As a teen, I wasn’t thinking about how this coin, or that
coin, or how any of them had come to me. I was thinking about if any of them
had value and how to preserve whatever value each might still have had. I
wanted to know where it came from (what country), what year it was minted, etc.
and so forth. Eventually, I grouped them by type (nickels in one bag, pennies
in another. Coins of special interest to me I encased in cardboard coin cases).
Thus, I lost what evidence of its potentially discoverable “Drum History” that
there might have been. So, now, all I really know is that they each were once
owed by an ancestor-Drum.
Still, that Pistareen, the oldest coin in the collection,
it COULD have been in Philip’s pocket when he signed the oath of allegiance in
1738. Right?
And this one! This is one of the coins that pirates made
famous by fighting over them and calling them “Pieces of Eight”! This particular
one was minted in 1793 so it could easily have been in George’s purse or pocket
in 1796 when he first made his way into what became known as the “Drum’s
Valley”, right?
I was going to move on to “other” dust at this point, but
these coins, which have always been intriguing to me, still are today so let’s
chase this pile of dust bunnies about a bit more.
The coins intrigue me so much for two reasons.
1. I find their art work most compelling and beautiful.
The designs that grace their faces are as straightforward as “One Dime” to the
portrait of some long dead Potentate, President, or Native American Chief. The
symbolism is astounding. Flags, Eagles,
Gods, Temples, Stars; Liberty sitting, Liberty standing, Liberty walking.
2. Although part of the present pile are standard,
everyday coins that I personally found or were contributed by friends/family
who knew of my interest in coins; so, represent my additions to the collection.
But the others, those older ones; the ones that were found in coin purses in
drawers or envelopes in the back of desks, those hold extra-special interest
and value. Not Humanistic value, perhaps, but real FAMILY value! Most of those were
coins once carried by one of “us”. Did Nathan flip his Morgan Dollar in the air
trying to decide, heads or tails, between two options? Did that Piece of Eight REALLY
sit in the bottom of George’s pocket, becoming a comfort, a memory, of his
former home as he first made his way into this valley; so new and different to
him at the time?
That part of the collection is special because those
coins form a bridge across time between “our” fathers and ourselves. I’ve
focused in on a few to be shown below. Of course, we are showing both the front
and back of the coins, so two photos but of the same coin. Some are close-up to
see details so seem bigger than real life.
You’ll note a “modern” Quarter along side many of the
coins, both those shown above and those yet to be shown below. I was hoping it
would give you a better idea of how big, or small, each coin is. If I’d been
smart enough, I’d have used a Bi-Centennial Quarter my dad saved to keep the
theme alive, but no one ever said I was THAT smart! Actually, I thought of it
too late and was too lazy to re-take the photos.
First up is a “Half Cent” from 1825. Remember, this isn’t
just any old Half Cent. Both George and his son Philip were alive in 1825 so
either, or both, could have carried this particular Half Cent, leaving their
fingerprints on it! The Half Cent is an interesting denomination, too. I wonder
what one could buy with a half cent today. On the left side we see a teeny-tiny
Dime (how quickly I would lose such a coin!) and a “One Cent” coin, both from
1853. These could have been Philip’s. Perhaps they were his son John’s,
absent-mindedly stuck into his pocket after making a sale at the bar in the
Drums Hotel.
In the next photo we see a Morgan Dollar struck in 1886.
Nathan A. Drum was just getting his career started in 1886, celebrating his 18th
birthday that year. This coin COULD have been a birthday present or perhaps it
was the first Dollar he earned as a Coal Miner. We don’t know when he began as
a miner but we believe it was around 1890.
In the same photo we see two of the Republic of France coins
Nathan’s son, Elmer, brought back with him when he returned from fighting World
War 1.
The coin that caused me to think that one of “us”, other
than me, might have been a coin collector, can be seen in the following photo.
I believe it was Ella Drum’s Uncle, Jacob Santee, who added this coin to the
collection. He also was the owner of the book History of the World’s Fair.
Both the book and the Columbian Half Dollar are mementos of that extraordinary
event.
So, what does all this financial dust tell us? It
suggests to me that some of us were coin collectors (Numismatists) and some of
us were collectors of coins (cheap). Some of us were sentimentalists. All of us
loved money and some of us actually had some! And one of our close relatives
may have gone to the 1893 World’s Fair: The World’s Columbian Exposition held
in Chicago, Illinois.
I did have more dust examples:
·
A clock Uncle Jake Santee (Ella’s uncle) acquired
in 1904 (at least his name and “Oct. 1904” is written on the back) that is
similar to a picture in the Sears Robust Catalog of 1900, perhaps suggesting
how we got our goods (before Amazon).
·
Some items made by a blacksmith found among Great
Grandfather Nathan’s tools.
·
Baby clothes from my dad’s earliest years that
Mom pinned up on one of Drumyngham’s walls. Don’t ask. You’d understand if you
knew her.
·
…and a few others.
But I think I’ve pushed this dust pile probably too far
already.
Ok, one more piece of dust. It doesn’t really tell me
much but it is one of the most intriguing things I’ve ever seen, and I
practically grew up with it. It is my mom’s four-leaf clover collection. Yes, I
did say “collection”. Mom tended to be somewhat superstitious. Only for the fun
of it, let me share just a FEW of her superstitions.
·
If you were sitting in a rocking chair and got
up to leave, allowing the rocker to continue rocking, you were always sternly
told to go back and “stop that chair from rocking so the next person who sits
in it does not get sick!” To this day I stop rocking rocking-chairs from
rocking.
·
To this day I also go out of my way to make sure
a pole or other stationary object in my path does not get between me and the
person I am walking with. “You don’t want us both to have bad luck, do you? Go
back around that pole and pass it from the same side I did!”
·
Anything that depicts an elephant should never
be placed with its trunk toward the door. That’s bad luck, although it might
have been that the trunk had to be raised, otherwise it was ok. I don’t
remember.
·
If you are speaking and say someone’s name
instead of the one you meant to say, “Oh, that person must be thinking of me!”
·
If you drop your comb while combing your hair,
leave it there and get another one. Using that one again the same day you
dropped it will bring bad luck.
·
If hiccupping, say names of people you know
until the hiccups stop. The one who stopped the hiccups was talking about you!
Growing up with this woman was certainly interesting!
However, let’s get back to that four-leaf clover collection.
I have a small plastic box she kept in her dresser drawer that contains, if not
all, almost all of the four-leaf clovers she ever found, and a few five-leaf
and even 6-leaf clovers as well, kept for luck! In the box with the clovers, believe
it or not (but you can see it in the below photo) is a record of how many
clovers were collected each year. It looks like she started the yearly record
in 1974 because prior to that the record just says, “1956-1974 – 176” (as in 176
clovers were found during those years but this is actually the count through
1973. She has a count just for 1974, 35 four-leaf and 1 five-leaf). For the
Bi-centennial year 1976 she reports, “40 four-leaf, 2 five-leaf, 1 six-leaf”, and
so it continues year by year. 2002 seems to have been a big year for
five-leafs. For that year she shows 7 five-leafs in addition to 35 four-leafs.
We are in luck! Here they are, Eleanor Drum’s Clovers!
How lucky can you get?
Now that we’ve done the dusting, lets put everything back
on the shelves and turn to a new topic to explore; a topic that is, perhaps,
long overdue: “Our” Tree! You’ve probably noticed a little device I use to
place individuals mentioned in any given post, in the proper place on the tree.
After a name you’ll sometimes notice a superscript string of names. Those names
are the fathers lined up in order back to Progenitor Philip. I used it at the
start of this post, in fact, when I said, “First up, Abraham Drum’s(George,
Jacob, Philip) first name.”
For another example, my son would appear as: Philip(Ronald,
Harry, Elmer, Nathan, John, Philip, George, Jacob, Philip). I use the
fathers because they are easier to find; the mothers so often get lost in history
due to marriages and such. I don’t do well creating “genealogy trees”, but I
can list out everyone I am aware of who belongs in “our” tree, grouped by
parents, and, perhaps, give a bit of a bio for most to boot!
When I was little, I REALLY liked climbing trees so, here’s
an idea! Return to the Drums of Drums, PA on October 13, 2020 and Come Climb
“Our” Tree with me! The post might not LEAF you breathless, but it should
be interesting climbing the BRANCHES. Don’t you just love ROOTS?
Wait. October THIRTEEN!!?? Whew! Good thing this post
ended with a box full of GOOD LUCK!!!
[1] Munsell
on Butler Township, 1880, History of Freeland, PA, https://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/ct0u/munsell_butler.html
accessed 8/11/2016. Emphasis added.
[2] Bradsby, H.C., ed, History of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania
(Chicago: S.B. Nelson & Co., 1893). Part II – Biographical Sketches. http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/luzerne/1893hist/
accessed 6/7/2016. Emphasis added.
[3]
For an explanation of “the hat box collection” and a picture thereof, go to the
post “Faith – in God”: https://drumsofdrumspa.blogspot.com/2019/05/25-faith-in-god.html
[5] Coinage
Act of April 2, 1792, https://www.usmint.gov/learn/history/historical-documents/coinage-act-of-april-2-1792
accessed 6/18/2018
[6] In
1829, a citizen of Drums might find a bushel of dried apples being offered for
$.50, a pound of lard for $.10, or a pound of bacon for $.11. Now if they
wanted a pound of pickled pork, it’d set them back $.07, and a pound of veal
was only $.02! But then, as we have seen, a “One Cent” coin was much bigger
back then.
Annals of the Sugarloaf Historical Association,
Vol. 1 (Hazleton, PA: Sugarloaf Historical Association, 1934) p 81.
