If this page is too dark for your browser,
there is a link at the bottom,
to take you to a lighter background
In honor of all the women
who have paved the
way to all those whose blood courses through
my veins
/ to all those who have, each
in her
own way / helped to create the person
I am today.
I give a HUGE thank you
to my cousins Ruth Stude,
Darrell
Smith, and Mary
Alice Moore for helping
with
the research on particular
lines and for
sharing
their photos with me.
I honor my grandmothers
who bore the line
which extends to me.
Each of them as strong as
the cast iron pots they cooked with.
My grandmother,
D. Marie Miller was
born in
Nebraska in 1902. She
was one of ten children
left motherless, when her
own mother died
in a car accident.
The mother
of six children
she became
a nurse
and cared
for her son
stricken with Polio
before
he could even walk.
And she
cared for her
husband until his death in
his
early 40'S, from a heart
condition.
This is
my great grandmother A. Irina Green. with my Grandmother
D. Marie Miller, as an infant
It was this ancestor
grandmother who died
from a crushed
chest,
when her husband,
who
was driving drunk
(during
prohibition),
lost control of their car.
I grieve
for her pain at
having to
leave her ten
young children
behind.
and I grieve for the
children left without
their mother.
Ida A Searl
is my
second great
grandmother.
She was born in 1861,
in Iowa and was the mother
of
at least seven known
children before she
died
at the tender age
of 27.
I haven't yet found anyone
with
a photo of
my third great grandmother,
Amantha Martha Jordan.
I'm including her here
because
she was an extraordinary
woman who lived a very
difficult
life. She was born
in Vermont in1811.
She left her home and family.
to
accompany her husband
With her she took her
five children.
The
family first stopped
In Nauvoo, Illinois.
While there,
Amantha
gave birth to another
son.
The family then moved to
IL,
Where she gave
birth to another daughter.
She was next uprooted to
continue the family's journey
by wagon train, walking across
the hot, dry plains to the
Iowa
Territory, stopping first
at
Council
Bluffs.
While
there, Amantha gave
birth
to five more children
before being obligated
to
uproot
herself and her
children from their home
once again.
This
time the family would
travel to their final
destination
which was
Salt Lake
City, Utah.
On this journey, Amantha and
her children walked
alongside a
mule team
and wagon as they made the
long
and perilous trek
across
the plains.
One can only wonder at
the toll it must
have taken
on Amantha to have
;birthed
12 children in 5
states under the most
primative conditions
imaginable, and when not
giving
birth; journeying
across
the plains,
pregnant, while tending to the
needs of all
her other children.
This
had to be a monumental
task in such a harsh
environment.
The weary family finally
reached
Salt Lake City,
Utah,
sometime in the early
1860'S. Unfortunately
any joy and happiness
she may have felt at
finally reaching the
destination,
where they
were
to make their new
home, was to prove very
short
lived for Amantha.
She had used
up all her
strength, energy, and
health, providing for
her family, and when her
tired
and worn out body
contracted Lung Fever
In 1866, she
was simply too
exhausted to fight it.
In 1866 Amantha
died from
the Lung Fever she
had
But as you are reading
these
words; her memory
continues
to live on.
My
second great grandmother,
Lydia Jane Snethen is another
pioneer
ancestor. She was
married four times, and the
mother
of six children.
Born in Indiana, she travelled
west and settled in Kansas,
where
she lived out the
remainder of her
life.
She
was a member of the G.A.R.,
and died in Kansas in 1913.
My third great grandmother
Suzanna Jane James
was
born in Indiana
in 1824.
Several different branches
of this line
have family lore
which says Suzanna is the aunt
of the notorious Jesse James.
more research will
be needed
in this area to either
prove or
disprove this claim.
Suzanna was the mother of 12
children.
This is my great
grandmother,
Bessie Susie Scheer.
She was 5 Foot, 2 inches
tall
with medium blond hair and
blue eyes.
She was born in
Kansas in 1881
and brought
12 children into
the world. Then
after raising
her
own 12 children, Bessie
Lovingly helped to raise
several of her
grandchildren.
Bessie died
in Nebraska in 1957.
