Fall is coming and with it, corn picking!

I've taken a couple of days off to recover from some dental work and "my readers" have been giving me fits calling me a slacker and other unkind things.   Please dear friends, there are going to be days when I don't have time to write or am other wise occupied.   Please be gentle!

As I write this afternoon, the temperature in Palm Springs is 103 degrees.    It's supposed to begin cooling off this time of year but for some reason Ol' Sol just continues to bearing down.   Growing up in Kansas, this was the time of year when there was often a definite chill in the air.   The first killing frost is usually about October 15, and when I was a child, everyone in our rural community was thinking about picking corn.

I'm going to continue to write about  my mother's family, so I'll use photos of them picking corn although I have photos of other lines of the family at work in corn fields.

This photo is very easy for me to identify, because I'm in it.   My mother's parents, Robert and Mildred McCauley Corbin, lived about 1.5 miles south of Maple Hill on a 20-acre farm that bordered Mill Creek on the south.  My grandfather had an old John Deere tractor with the big metal wheels that had lugs for traction.   For some reason it isn't in this picture but I know it was pulling the wagon.  I am standing in the wagon with my brother Gary Wayne, and I do not know why we both have scarves on our heads.   It must have been to keep the dirt out of our hair because I notice everyone else also has some kind of covering on their heads.   I look to be about five and Gary about three so I'm guessing this is about 1950.

From L to R:  Robert Corbin, Mildred Corbin, Lemon cousins Bonnie and Charlie Mitchell and my mom, Lucille Corbin Clark.   Squatting in front is Sarah Emma Corbin Justice, my mom's middle sister.

              


In the second picture, the cast of characters is the same except Leslie Justice, husband of Sarah Emma, is on the far right end.  I have a feeling this was a Saturday, because my Grandfather and Grandmother Corbin never missed Sunday Services at the Maple Hill Community Congregational Church in the town of Maple Hill.   Grandfather was chairman of the church Board of Trustees in 1950, and the church was in the middle of building the Fellowship Hall just to the south of the sanctuary.   Grandfather and Grandmother Corbin felt it was important for the family to be consistent in attendance.   My mother, Lucy, taught Sunday School every Sunday morning for many years.  Some of my earliest memories are of taking Saturday baths in the big wash tub and getting up early Sunday morning to go to Sunday School before services.   Our extended Corbin family usually filled one and at times two whole pews and it was so much fun growing up sitting between grandparents and aunts and uncles.

Grandfather Corbin obtained a job with the State of Kansas Department of Transportation maintaining the new Interstate 70 that was built across Kansas during the 1950s.   He also drove a school bus for the Maple Hill school system.   I remember being loaded on school buses and taken out to #10 which became the new Interstate 70.   It was thought that history was being made and the school children should be witnesses.   We enjoyed seeing the huge concrete machines and earthmovers at work---and we didn't have to go to school!! 

Incidentally, I remember my mother, Grandmother Corbin and Aunt Bonnie Mitchell telling me hat #10 was still gravel when I was born in 1944.  My birthday is November 16, and they said that it was snowing when my mom and dad started for Stormont Vail Hospital in Topeka.  Everyone was worried about whether or not they would get there safely---but they did!

Tenant farming was not a dependable source of income but once Grandfather got the state job, he and Grandmother felt they could become landowners.    That is when they bought the 20-acre farm which had belonged to Charles Montgomery Lemon and his son, Harry Lemon.   Harry Lemon was a good carpenter and he had built a two bedroom house with living room, dining room and kitchen.   Across the east side of the house he built a lean-to porch which was enclosed.    In the summer, that became the kitchen and dining room and many times we also slept on that porch to escape the heat.   There was no indoor bathroom and the well was just outside the porch door so water was fairly convenient.
Myself and other older grandchildren spent many happy hours with Grandfather and Grandmother Corbin.   I would often walk directly from school in Maple Hill and spent weekends there.  When Grandfther Corbin died in April 1958, grandmother made a very hard decision to sell the farm and move the house into the town of Maple Hill.   We all watch in awe as the house moved down the old gravel road up the hill and down mainstreet.   The house was then remodeled by Rick Andrews and provided my grandmother with a very comfortable home for the next 30 years.

I also remember my grandfather and mother bought a brand new 1953 Ford and immediately went on a long vacation with grandfather's sister, Edna Corbin (a Kansas Gas and Electric Switchboard Supervisor in Wichita) and grandmother's cousins, Charlie and Bonnie Mitchell, who lived in the remodeled Taylor Hotel in Maple Hill.   They went to Yellowstone National Park and enjoyed all of the wildlife and roads.   The car had "overdrive" and grandfather couldn't get over the wonderful mileage and the way it cruised up the mountains.  

My Grandfather Corbin and Charlie Mitchell were no strangers to picking corn.  They had both worked on rented farms most of their lives when picking corn was a required skill.    I have my father and grandfather's corn husking peg, which was worn over your thumb and the peg was used to rip the  ear of corn from the stalk.   The picker sort of stabbed the ear with the peg and then jerked to snap it off the stock.  Usually you were reaching for an ear with one hand while throwing the ear just pulled from the stock into the wagon with the other hand.   I don't see a bang board in this picture, but I remember this wagon and other corn picking wagons had bang boards on the far side of the wagon.   The picker would throw the ear of corn in the wagon and it would hit the board and "bang" before falling into the bed.  Maybe grandfather had taken it off because there were so many picking and on both sides of the wagon.  Charlie Mitchell, my Grandfather Corbin and my father John "Time" Clark, were all 75-bushel-per-day pickers.    That was a lot of work considering it was done one ear of corn at a time.

My Grandfather Corbin also picked corn for Horace and Raymond Adams at the Adams Ranch north of Maple Hill, and for Franklin Adams on his river ground three miles east of Maple Hill.   Depending on how dry the year might be, corn picking could start in September and continue until Christmas or even later if it was a very wet or snowy year.   It was long hard work and often undertaken when the weather was very, very cold.

I really miss my mom when it comes to dating photographs.   She seemed to be able quickly remember the time and occasion when almost any picture had been taken.   This is the Robert Corbin Family.    Shown L to R are:  George Samuel Corbin, Joan Corbin, Robert Corbin, Mildred McCauley Corbin, Lucille Corbin Clark, Vivian Mae Corbin Wild and Sarah Emma Corbin Justice.   Of the group, only my aunt, Joan Corbin Frazier is alive.

I do know when this photograph was taken because I am in this picture and was about one-year-old.  L to R are:  Vivian Corbin Wild, Lucy Lemon McCauley and her fourth husband, Jerod Strong, Margaret Lemon Miller and Mildred McCauley Corbin.  Standing in the back are my mother, Lucille Corbin Clark, holding Nicholas L. Clark, Sr., Sarah Emma Corbin and Joan Corbin.   I was born in November 1944, so these two photographs have to be taken in July or August 1945.  My Great Grandmother Lucy Lemon Strong was 75.

I'll include one more picture from the Lemon Family:   L to R on the front row are George Washington Lemon, his sister Margaret "Maggie" Lemon Miller, their brother Charles Montgomery Lemon, oldest of the children of Stewart and Luroncy "Lucy" Grandy Lemon.  In the back are William "Bill" S. Miller, son of Maggie and Lucy Mae Lemon McCauley.   Bill Miller was born in 1895 and he appears to be about 20 so I'm guessing this photo was taken about 1915.

L to R:  Lucy Mae Lemon McCauley Strong, Lucille Corbin Clark, Nicholas L. Clark, Sr., and Mildred McCauley Corbin.  At that time, Great Grandmother Strong and her husband lived on East Paramore Street in East Topeka, Kansas.  She would live for another 10 years and would have to go through one of the greatest natural disasters Topeka has ever seen, the 1951 Kansas River Flood.  Somewhere in my photo collection, I have a picture of Great Grandmother Lucy and Aunt Margaret "Maggie" Miller out on the front porch of Great Grandmother's house picking through what remained.  My great grandmother had come to Kansas in a covered wagon with her family.    They had all gone through the Great Grasshopper Plague of 1874 and had worked hard all their lives.   She had endured worse, she said.  Great Grandmother didn't believe in banks after the depression, and she had Calumet Baking Powder cans with tightly rolled bills under cabinets and loose stair boards.   She refused to leave the house even though the water crept well into the second story.  I was only seven, but I remember thinking how brave she was.

With that dear friends, I will bring these recollections to an end for today.   I hope they bring you enjoyment.  Forgive and report any mistakes!   Happy trails!!

My Mom: Lucille "Lucy" Corbin Clark

I hardly know where to begin.   There is so much to say about Mom.   She was first and foremost a loving wife and mother.  Mom totally subscribed to the old saying, "There's no such thing as shirt tail relations---either they are or they aren't family!"   Mom loved her brother and sisters and all of their families.   If it was within her power to grant a wish, she would do it and almost always by sacrificing her time, talents and resources to benefit others.

Mom was involved in the Maple Hill Community Congregational Church for more than 80 years, sang in the choir for 55 years, taught Sunday School for decades, served on the Board of Trustees, and was church historian for at least 20 years.   She loved God, but more than that, she lived her life just the way Jesus would have wanted her to live it, helping and forgiving others.

For 73 years, Mom was a member of the American Legion Auxiliary at Maple Hill.  Her father was a veteran of WWI, her brother was a veteran of WWII, as was our Uncle Leslie Justice, and my brother is an Army veteran and current member of James Elmer Romick American Legion Post in Maple Hill.  She and other family members worked tirelessly to build and pay for the American Legion Hall and when it collapsed during an ice storm in her final decade, it was a crushing blow to her.  She was a supporter of the Avenue of Flags at the Old Stone Church Cemetery west of Maple Hill, and never missed a Memorial Day/Decoration Day service.

She was secretary of the Maple Hill Grade School for 17 years and was much loved by the teachers and students who attended the little brick school.  One of the principals, Larry Longhoffer, said that Mom was the "glue" that held the school together.   She served as secretary, but she also served as a loving surrogate mother to teachers and students alike.  Mom was a peacemaker.  She would stand up for what she believed, but she was always trying to make right what needed attention whether it was family relationships or problems at school, church or in the community.

                                                                   Four Generations
L to R:  Standing Back - Amelia Mary Verona "Amy" Clark Allendorf and Nicholas L. Clark, Sr.
             Front Row:  William Henry Allendorf and Lucille "Lucy" Corbin Clark
             Taken at Cincinnati, Ohio on September 9, 2005.


I could go on, but Mom's final tribute was perhaps the most telling of her character and life.  More than 400 stood in line at the Piper Funeral Home to share their "Lucy Story" with myself and other family members.  More than 300 attended her funeral service at the Maple Hill Community Congregational Church on January 8, 2011.   Several stood and spoke of her love for God, family and country.   Mom would have been so embarrassed.   She always avoided the spotlight.

                                                                         Mom and I
L-R:  Lucille "Lucy" Corbin Clark and Nick L. Clark, Sr.  This photo was taken in July, 2008.

I certainly wouldn't call Mom rich in today's monetary terms, but I can't begin to recall the number of people who came up to me at Mom's wake and said things like:  "Your Mom bought groceries for me and my family when we didn't have any money."   "Your Mom bought medicine for us when we couldn't afford it."   "Your Mom took me to the doctor when I didn't have money for gas."   "Your Mom loved me when I thought the world was against me."   "Your Mom brought me food when I was shut in and sick."   "Your Mom made me laugh when I thought I'd never laugh again."  "Your Mom used to take me home from school when it was snowing or raining."   "Your Mom was always there for me.   When there was no where else to turn, she would always do whatever she could."  "Your Mom always believed in me and defended me when no one else would."   That went on for hours and our family cherished every single memory and person who came to pay their respects.  Perhaps her life-long friend Merle Lietz, put it best at her funeral service:  "Lucy always led the way and I don't know how in the world we're going to replace her.  Thank God for her Christ-like life, for her selflessness and for her love to all." 

Lucille Corbin was the oldest of the five children born to Robert and Mildred McCauley Corbin.   She was born on April 22, 1921 at Elbing, Butler County, Kansas.   Mom used to tell the story that when she was a little girl, she would ask her father where she came from.  Grandfather Corbin would always say that they found her under one of the big leaves on a cabbage plant in their garden.  Grandfather Corbin was working as an oilfield "rigger" for Standard Oil for a short time after he was married to Mildred McCauley.

                                                     Lucille Corbin in front of the Snokomo
                                                     School House about 1930.

Mom went to elementary school at Eskridge Elementary in Eskridge, Kansas and at the little stone school house at Snokomo.  As an aside, my paternal great grandfather, Peter Littleton Woody donated the land for the building of this school and contributed a goodly share of the $700 it cost to build.  The school is now an historic site and was restored by the Snokomo Silent Workers Club.  It is used for community gatherings.

Kick'em in the knee cap, sock'em in the jaw----Maple Hill Cowgirls, Ra, Ra, Ra!!"   Evidently basketball was rough then also!!


During high school, one of the boys mom dated was John Leander "Tim" Clark.   After graduation and as World War II approached they were married by Rev. Kenneth Tuttle in the parsonage of the Oakland Christian Church, Topeka, Shawnee County, Kansas on January 24, 1942.  As with many wartime weddings, theirs was very simple and they came back to Maple Hill, where Dad's parents and sister and brother-in-law had a luncheon in their honor.  

                         John Leander "Tim" and Lucille Corbin Clark's Wedding Picture
L to R:  Thelma Clark and John Hedges, Mable and Jim Clark and Lucille and Tim Clark, taken January 24, 1942.  In the background is the old Clements Hotel and home.

My dad was the youngest of two children.  Jim and Mable Clark were married in March of 1910, and Thelma Maree was born on August 11, 1911 and my dad ten years later on April 19, 1921.  My mom and dad were just four days apart in age.

My mom would often say she and Dad "lived on love" those first few years.   I'm going to bring this post to an end now and save their married life for another time.     Happy trails!

Here Goes Nothing!

I have been interested in history for as long as I'm able to remember.  While my brothers and cousins were outside playing, I would be sitting at the feet of my great grandparents, grandparents and relatives listening to stories about family history or asking questions about "the old days."   I just couldn't get enough history.

As I grew up, I enjoyed history in school and read history and biographical books.  I obtained a degree in American History from Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas and taught American History at St. Marys High School, St. Marys, Kansas.   In addition to family history, I began to collect history about my home community, Maple Hill, Kansas and about Maple Hill Township in Wabaunsee County, Kansas.   I wrote a feature column on local history named "Notes From Moundview Farm" for the St. Marys Star and the Alma Signal Enterprise.   I just lived and breathed history.

In 1968, I became a charter member of the Wabaunsee County Historical Society, Alma, Kansas and in 1970 was elected to its board of directors.  The organization was just founding the county's first historical museum and as a result of that volunteer work, I became very interested in museology, the study of museums.  With the encouragement of my family, I entered graduate school at the University of Idaho and obtained a masters of fine arts of American History with a minor in Museums Studies.

The U of I Museums Studies, under the leadership of Dr. G. Ellis Burcaw, was one of the finest and his Introduction to Museum Studies, was the only text available at that time.   I didn't really intend to do so, but my museum career centered on the building and founding of museums.  As a result I became executive or founding director of Heritage Hill State Park in Green Bay, Wisconsin, the Southern Oregon Historical Society in Medford/Jacksonville, Oregon, Minnetrista Cultural Center, Muncie, Indiana and Museums at Prophetstown, Lafayette/Battle Ground, Indiana.

Between 1968 and my retirement in 2000, I was actively engaged in history and genealogy as both a career and a hobby.   My goal in collecting and writing history was always to write.   Unfortunately, I was busy in raising a family, my career and other activities and never was able to do as much writing as I wanted.    I have so much family information and a large collection of historic photographs.  I now wish to use this blog to share that information with my family and readers.

I will be writing about Maple Hill, Kansas and Maple Hill Township in Wabaunsee County, Kansas and related subjects.  Like most historians, I will make every effort to use only factual information and when I am speculating, I will say so.   I will site sources at the end of articles.  Many of the photos I have gathered have been given to me by various owners or have been copies with the permission of owners.   I will share that information also.

Since I am now 66-years-old, I feel I must prioritize the sharing of family information.   My maternal grandmother, Mildred McCauley Corbin Clark and my paternal grandmother, Mabel Jones Clark, both left their photo albums and collections to me.   Both did so saying that I had always been interested in family history and they felt certain that I would share them with family.   I intend to do so in this blog.   I will accompany photos with oral history.   In some cases, I wrote down this oral history as told to me by various family members.   In some cases (and this is unfortunate) I have only my own admittedly flawed oral recollections.  I have tried to verify as much of this information as possible by conducting genealogy in a professional way through original research and web research.

Unfortunately, a major source of that information, my mother, Lucille Corbin Clark, passed away in January 2011 at almost 90 years of age.   Mother's mind remained crystal clear right up to her last minutes and I was always thankful to be able to pick up the phone and call her for enlightenment or verification.   I made about 30 hours of tape recordings of my two grandmothers and also made written interviews which are very helpful.   As psychological research has shown over past decades, oral histories are not perfect.   In fact, after ten years, psychologists tell us only about 25% of information is absolutely accurate.   We tend to remember extremes, the things that make us very happy or sad.  Every day life is often not remembered or is remembered inaccurately.   I am only able to promise that I will do my best to be accurate and to not include a great deal of person bias, guessing, or conjecture.

Listed here are the principal lines that I will be discussing:
Clark and Jones - the families of my father, John Leander "Tim" Clark
Corbin and McCauley - the families of my mother, Lucille "Lucy" Corbin Clark
Jones and Miller - the families of my paternal grandmother, Mable Jones Clark
Clark and Woody - the families of my paternal grandfather, James Peter "Jim Pete" Clark
McCauley and Lemon - the families of my maternal grandmother, Mildred McCauley Corbin Clark
Corbin and Todd - the families of my maternal grandfather, Robert Corbin

Without a doubt, the Clark and Jones lines have been the most difficult, two of the most common surnames.   I can trace those ancestors with accuracy only into the mid-1700s.

The Corbin family has many famous ancestors and once I had completed two or three generations of ancestors, I was able to trace the family back 26 generations to 1066 and the famous Doomsday Books in England (although the Corbins are most likely of Viking descent.)

The McCauley's are of Scot/Irish descent and immigrated to America in 1871 from the little village of Beragh, County Tyrone, Ireland.  Robert McCauley and his wife, Roseann McCrystal McCauley first stopped in Illinois for a very short time, and then moved on to a 360-acre farm in Mitchell County, Kansas.   The farm was about 10 miles from Beloit, Kansas.   I do not know if the family had means in Ireland, but their Mitchell County land was quite fertile and Robert became very comfortable.  The McCauley's were Catholics.   Their son, Samuel McCauley, married Lucy Mae Lemon and they lived on a farm in the Snokomo Community, near Maple Hill.

Our branch of the Miller Family has an excellent genealogist in Donna Sundsmo, and most of that work can be found on Ancestry.com.   The Millers are of German ancestry, moved to West Virginia, then Missouri and Kansas.    I have many pictures of Miller descendants which I will be sharing.

The earliest Clark ancestor I am able to verify is Charles Clark who was born in Pennsylvania in the last half of the 1700s, moved to Kentucky in the early 1800s, to Clay County, Indiana in the 1820s and to Wabaunsee County, Kansas in the 1870s.   Many "cousins" have worked on the Clark family history and most of us seem to hit a dead end in Pennsylvania in the mid-1700s.  There are just too many Charles Clarks.   I'm hoping that via this blog, I may be able to trace the Clark family further back in time.

My Woody line descends from William and Percilla Woody who settled in North Carolina and whose descendants then moved to Lumpkin County, Georgia.   From there my great grandfather, Peter Littleton Woody moved to Platte County, Missouri and finally to Wabaunsee County, Kansas in 1871.  The family has been traced by many into England.

I have a great deal of information about the Lemon family and many pictures.   My earliest known ancestor is Charles Lemon who was born in America but whose parents were Irish immigrants.  Charles moved to the Pontiac, Oakland County, Michigan area in the late 1820s and eventually lived in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Kansas where he died in Rice County, at nearly 100 years of age.  My immediate Lemon ancestors migrated to Kansas from Iowa in the early 1870s and mostly settled near Maple Hill, Wabaunsee County, Kansas.

My Todd line is of Irish derivation and comes through Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri to Kansas.  I want to dash an old myth at the beginning:  Mary Todd Lincoln is not one of our direct ancestors!  Our Todd family has no such famous ancestors to my knowledge and are mostly from hard-working farm families in both Ireland and America.

With that dear readers, I will bring this first post to an end.  I look forward to sharing information and photographs and also to hearing your comments and receiving your inquiries.   Happy trails!