Waning Road Trip - March 1939 - Part Two

Lane's Redwood Flat Postcard

I think the postcard below is the perfect James Waning postcard!  This was the man who lived to visit every kitschy roadside attraction - The Vortex, The Reptile Gardens, The Trees of Mystery!

Redwood Park Postcard

"Mar. 20

Dear Folks,

We are at a cabin about 18 mi. from San F.  Had supper and drove until 9:30 last nite.  Spent too much time in the big trees.  Some trees!  Stopped in this one for 1/2 hr.  Full of redwood novelties.  Weather clear - hot yesterday.  Raining hard this morning.

Jim & M."     

Redwood Highway

Note the "Redwood Highway" is a narrow, unpaved road!

Waning Road Trip - March 1939 - Part One

In March 1939, Jim and Margaret Waning left on a vacation to the Bay area.  They visited the Redwoods and then journeyed south to San Francisco.  This is the first of a series of postcards they sent back to Billy and Nett Waning (Jim's parents). 

This postcard is postmarked 19 March 1939 Orick, California.

Redwood Highway

"Dear Folks,

We are in Orick tonight.  Just south of Crescent City.  Came coast road.  Saw these trees.  One 32' diameter.  Weather foggy at C. Grove clear and fog in spots down coast.  Be in S.F. tomorrow easy I think.  Car working fine.

Jim & Margaret."

General Custer

Africa - 1928

I know that most of the eighteen and under set is celebrating Spring Break, but I thought it interesting to see what a young (age 15) James Waning was doing in his Geography class.  This is one of series of just over twenty colored maps which Gramps drew that year.  I think it is fascinating that his hand writing (printing) was unchanged as an adult, until the tremors in his hands made in impossible for him to write.

What a different world in 1928 - especially Africa, still mostly under the bonds of Colonialism and Imperialism (unlike the Texas Board of Education, I don't have any problem using those terms!)

James Waning was a sophomore and attended Mohawk Union High School for the 1927-1928 school year.

Cousins

Beth Emmert and James Waning

This photo was taken in Wendling, Oregon in 1926.  Beth is  about seven years old and James is fourteen.  They are both very dressed up - spiffy!  I especially admire Gramp's shoes! 

Great Day - Part Two

Quinten's last hockey jamboree for Cross Ice. Next year he moves up to Squirts!

A boy and his Pamp

Ready for action

Dad caught the celebration after one of Q's many goals. I love how the other team is laying on the ice, vanquished.

Great Day - Part One

The birthday girl and her pile of presents.

Kierstyn loves penguins and had asked me to make her a penguin cake.

One of Kierstyn's favorite gifts was a Reggie Bush bobble-head. It was Mikaila's idea.

Pamp and the kids. We have been having such a good time.

Happy Happy Birth Day Day!

Lexa, Kierstyn, and Kristi

Christian, Kierstyn, Will, and Matt - 1996

Matt, Kierstyn, and Will - 2005

Kierstyn - 2010

Our Grandfather's Grandfather

James Ambrose Waning

James A. Waning "hung out" in the Waning guest bedroom - at least his portrait did!  I don't know if you ever noticed it there on the wall as the room was quite dim and the portrait dark.   

James was born in Maine in April of 1836, the third of nine children of Jacob Waning and Lucinda Tozier.  Sometime before 1866 he married Margaret McManus, and together they had four children: Hattie, Joseph, Nellie, and Willard (Billie).

Margaret died of consumption in February of 1881 - she was only 36 years old.  Our great-grandfather Willard (Billie as he was known) was just six when he lost his mother.

Sadly Hattie and Nellie also died young, Hattie in 1892 at the age of 26, and Nellie sometime before 1903 when she was 31 or younger. 

Joseph Waning left Maine as a young man and moved to Massachusetts where he lived the rest of his life.  Billie too left Maine; first to Massachusetts, then Montana, and finally Oregon. 

James Ambrose ended up a widower with no children close by to care for him.  He spent the last years of his life living with distant relatives who cared for him - I need to look at letters I have from genealogical research I did in the early 1980's and I can provide the name of the folks who care for him.  James died the 9th of November 1915 at the age of 79.  

Wilsall Cowmen - November 1917

Ed Swandahl, Homer Mather, Austin Swandalh, and Billie Waning

I think this group of men are quite dashing in their own ways!

The back of the photo was titled "Wilsall Cowmen", and according to additional information on the reverse side, it was taken in November of 1917 in Chicago, IL.  I would image that our Great-grandfather, Billie Waning, and the three other men, had come by train with their cattle to take them to Chicago and to market.  Based on their dress, they had a bit of time to "cut up the rug" while in the Big Windy City!  It looks like a celebration, so perhaps they got a good price for their stock!   

In the 1910 census Austin Swandel is a 20 year old hired hand living in Little Elk School District in Meagher County, MT. By the 1920 census he lived in School District 21 in Park County as a stock farmer.  He was married to Ella, had become a naturalized citizen (Norwegian) and had a daughter Gladys.

In the 1920 census, Homer Mather is 34 years old farmer.  He was born in Iowa and is married to Clarabell, with two young girls, Mary and Doris and living in Horse Creek, in Park County.

In the 1920 census, Edward Swandal is single and 22 years old.  He is from Norway and had not yet become a citizen.  He was listed as a stock farmer living in School District 21 in Park County, MT.  

Fearless Females - Margaret Upton Waning

Margaret Upton - 15th birthday

17th June 1930

One of the genealogy blogs I read regularly suggested posting a photograph of a "Fearless Female" family member as Tuesday's post.  Well, to start off the series, who else would I nominate but Margaret Upton Waning?  I won't attempt to enumerate her many acts of courage - such as enduring a series of shots in her eye for the treatment of her macular degeneration!

I choose to honor Grams as a "Fearless Female" for her cross country car trip the summer of 1937. She drove her father's new Nash thousands of miles; from Oregon back to Blooming Prairie, Minnesota; on to Spring Creek, Pennsylvania; and finally Rochester, NY - visiting McAdam and Upton family members along the way.  

Long before interstate freeways came to be, Margaret made the journey on narrow, two-laned paved, gravel, and dirt roads.  She safely piloted the Nash which also carried her mother, Elsie, and her two younger sisters, Ellen and V'Ona.  She also was responsible for the daily maintenance of the auto. She mentions in a postcard about the vehicle over-heating. 

Later this summer I will write a more detailed post about this iconic journey!