Hubbard Wilson McKoy's OBIT

I was thrilled to find an obit for Hubbard Wilson McKoy (your great³ grandfather) in the Mountain Democrat Newspaper which served El Dorado County, CA. H W McKoy died in 1895. This article reprints an obit from the Santa Cruz Sentinel, and comments upon it. It was an especially "meaty" obit, since it detailed his life in El Dorado county (in the area above Placerville.)


(Click to biggify the image)



McKoy also contributed to the growth and development of Felton:

Other major components of the industry in Felton at this time were the lime kilns; by 1878 Felton was putting out $200,000 worth of lime annually. Limestone powder is a necessary part of concrete and mortar. The lime was shipped to Santa Cruz via the new railway. Many prosperous companies had their start in this ear; the Henry Cowell Ranch kilns just south of town; the IXL Kilns and the Holmes Lime Kiln quarries to the west of town.

From this industry in the 1870's the town developed the usual suspects; in short order there came a general store, a hotel and a saloon (built by Walter Cooper and JM Merrill); a man named Hubbard McKoy, Vermonter, opened a private post office and hauled mail; the same McKoy later opened a blacksmith's with master blacksmith Potter Paschall in charge; James F Cunningham and McKoy opened another general store in 1871, in anticipation of the settlement's growth. A constable and a justice of the peace set up shop there in 1878. Even the school district, which had been founded in 1863 at Ashley's on the San Lorenzo River, changed its name to the Felton School District and moved into town in 1875 to reflect the facts of population density in the valley. For by 1880 the majority of people in the San Lorenzo Valley lived Felton."

source: http://www.feltonfire.com/pictures/feltonhistory.html

An Orne Family Photo & Nellie's Passport

I was extraordinarily fortunate this last month to have been put in touch with M. Dale, a wonderful contact who has encyclopedic knowledge of the Higgins and Orne families. She was extremely generous with her time, and provided photos and information I'd never have had access to otherwise.

One of the best items was this photo of the Orne family. Ellen Higgins Orne is in the center, surrounded by her children. The date of this photo is likely the period between 1904 and 1913 - the time after Eben died, but while Ellen was still living.

Your great-grandmother, Mayme Orne Ware is in the lower right (you can see a resemblance to Tim). Years later, she, Freeman ("Uncle Free"), Nellie and Emily were all living in the Los Angeles area --- and they were all L.A.-area residents at the time of their deaths. Mayme and Nellie married the Ware brothers. Charles Ware (Mayme's husband) died between 1920 and 1930. Thomas was still alive in 1930, the last public census (until the 1940 census is released in 2012).



I also found Nellie Orne Ware's passport application (Click image to biggify):

Carl Raysor's Family Who Came Before

Carl Raysor was married with a family prior to meeting and marrying Helen Maltesta. The only thing we knew about this was from what Helen told Arden after Carl's death: Carl was married before and had a family, but they all died. Arden thought they'd died in a fire, but couldn't recall clearly, and she said she was so shocked by the news that she never asked her mother another thing about it.

Last Fall I was able to locate what I thought were the records of his first wife and two children. I've finally received the documentation supporting those findings, in the form of death certficates and cemetery records.

Carl's first wife was Alice Frances Clifford of Sacramento. They married in 1913. In 1916, their first child, Frances Harriet Raysor, was born. She died in 1917 of tubercular meningitis. In 1921, a son, Carl Raymond Raysor, was born. He died in 1922 when he was about 9 months old, also of tubercular meningitis. In 1925, Alice died of pulmonary tuberculosis. She'd had it for seven years. All three are buried in Sacramento's IOOF Cemetery.

Meet your great great great Grandparents

Meet Joseph Higgins and Mary Greer Higgins, your great-great-great grandparents. I was really lucky this week to be put in touch with a woman who has comprehensively documented the Higgins line, and she has a lot of photos in addition to family lore - these are two of the photos from her collection. She's been extremely generous in sharing information about the Higgins and Orne families.

Around 1861, Joseph and Mary moved to the Dubuque, Iowa area from Morrill, Maine. Mary died in Iowa in 1862 at the age of 54. Mary's father, James Greer, fought in the Revolutionary War (his Revolutionary War pension file is 99 pages long, much of it hand-written, and I'm still parsing that data).