July 19, 1941 (Saturday)

THE NASH FAMILY REUNION

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Real cool all day. Had fire

in fireplace all evening.

Nash Reunion.

25th annual reunion of

the Nash family held at

L.A.S. hall.

About 90 present. 10 came

from Ill. [?] Hat, Carrie,

Burdette, Ralph, Eloise, Rob,

Maggie, Mary, Luella, and

Sharleen (Harold's daughter).

A lovely pot - luck dinner

then program at church. Aunt

Rose who is 84 yrs old sang

a song - beautiful. Lena Califf,

Frank's wife, presented Eleanor

with the silver fruit dish

given by the association for her

efficient service as Sec - Treas

for the past 25 yrs. All had good time.

Rob, Maggie + Mary came home

with us. Staying all night.

Kate + Bill here for supper.

Played euchre til 2 o'clock

A.M.

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The 25th Annual Nash Reunion has come and gone. Edna worked hard for several days in preparation, enjoyed all of the festivities at the reunion and had guests back to her house for supper. Then, she stayed up until 2 AM playing euchre. She was 61 years old. I would have been ready for bed somewhere around 7 PM.

This journal entry kept me busy digging around on Ancestry.com to try and figure out who all of the reunion attendees from Illinois were; as well as the other people Edna mentioned.

Edna logically grouped husbands and wives and children together when she listed them in her journal. We would probably do the same. That order helped me significantly when attempting to figure out who everyone was.

Now that I am fairly confident I know all of the players, I have to list them here so it is forever documented.

Aunt Rose: Francis Rosalia Nash Califf

Let's start with Aunt Rose who, at the age of 84, sang a beautiful song.

At the time of this reunion, Francis Rosalia Nash Califf was the only child of Alden and Olive Nash still living.

You may recall from my post a couple of days ago that Alden built the Nash Hotel (between Youngstown and Cleveland, Ohio) in1840, before moving his family to Bowne Center in a covered wagon.

Francis Rosalia was born in 1857, after Alden and Olive arrived in Bowne Center.

Frank Alden Califf and his wife Lena (Pauline) were also at the reunion. Frank is the only child of Francis Rosalia (Aunt Rose). Frank was 66 and Lena was 58 at the time of this reunion.

Frank's wife Lena presented Eleanor with a silver fruit dish in recognition her work on the reunion association over the last 25 years.

There are a couple of possible Eleanors but I think it is most likely Eleanor Porritt Deifenbaker. Eleanor Porritt was born in 1891 to Lydia Johnson and John Porritt. Lydia's mother is Eleanor Nash Johnson (not one of the Eleanors in question as she had passed long before this reunion). Lydia Johnson Porritt is Henry's sister and Edna's sister-in-law. Eleanor Nash Johnson is Henry's and Lydia's mom. Eleanor Nash Johnson, Daniel Lorenzo Nash and Francis Rosalia were siblings, all children of Alden Nash.

Whew ...I hope that wasn't too confusing.

Let's get to the Illinois contingency. They were all part of the Daniel Lorenzo Nash family. Daniel, like Aunt Rose, is one of Alden Nash's children. Unlike Aunt Rose, Daniel did make the journey from Ohio to Bowne Center in a covered wagon.

I have many stories to share about Uncle Dan Nash. Those will have to wait for another post. They will be worth the wait.

Daniel died in 1935 and is buried in cemetery at Bowne Center. He was not living at the time of this reunion but his children made the journey to Bowne Center from Illinois along with several of their family members.

Edna wrote: "10 came from Ill. Hat, Carrie, Burdette, Ralph, Eloise, Rob, Maggie, Mary, Luella, and Sharleen (Harold's daughter).

Hattie Elda Nash Sharp

Hattie (Hat) Elda Nash Sharp was 73 when she made the trip to Bowne Center for the Nash Reunion. Hattie is the daughter of Daniel Lorenzo Nash. Hattie's husband Fred was no longer living at the time of the 1941 Nash Reunion.

Hattie's daughter Carrie and Carrie's husband Burdette Conley (both 47) and their children Ralph (16) and Eloise (18) made the trip.

Carrie, Burdette, Eloise and Ralph Conley

Elda's daughter Mary (46) and Mary's daughter Luella (18) are there, too.

Mary Sharp Reeves

Luella Reeves

Hattie's granddaughter, Sharleen (14) also came from Illinois. Sharleen (as Edna noted) is Harold's daughter. Harold did not make the trip.

Robert Nash and his wife Maggie also came from Illinois. Robert is Hattie's brother and Daniel's son.

Oh how I wish I could have been at that reunion and met all of these people. I am so glad my great grandmother wrote about it in her journal so that I could have a chance, 80 years later, to get to know all of them just a little.

On one of the walls in my house hangs a photo of the Nash Reunion from 1929, twelve years before the one Edna attended on this day in 1941. I can easily spot my great grandmother (Edna) in the photo and I wonder if she enjoyed that day as much as she did this one.

July 18, 1941 (Friday)

SHIP SHAPE ORDER AND A DOUBLE HEADER

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Kate's Birthday. 69 yrs. old.

Boys finished setting up

oats

Worked every minute trying

to get every thing done and

in "ship - shape" order for

company.

Henry + I wen to Lyds +

Alden's to-night to bring some

of Ill folks home with us

if they come to-night.

No one came to-night.

Hank and Orlo planning to

leave early in the morning

for Detroit to see the double

header ball game between

Tigers and Yankees.

A lovely shower of rain last

night - first in a long time.

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Edna has been cleaning and baking and getting ready for the big reunion (which is happening the next day) for days now. She wants everything in "ship-shape" for all of the family traveling to Bowne Center from Illinois.

During the evening, she and Henry went to Lydia and Alden Porritt's home anticipating the arrival of some of the Illinois family. They did not arrive.

Alden Nash Porritt as a young man

Lydia Porritt is Henry's sister. Alden is Lydia's son. (In case you hadn't yet noticed; there are a lot of Aldens in our family).

According to the 1940 US Census, Lydia was living with her son Alden and his family. Her husband John passed away in 1929.

Everyone is getting ready for the Nash reunion. Henry and Lydia's mother Eleanor was a Nash.

Edna and Henry were anticipating the arrival of family from out of state. They were probably relying on a message that arrived in a letter (or perhaps a short long distance telephone call) days or even weeks ago, notifying them of an expected arrival date. Today, we have the benefit of texts and mobile phones and GPS tracking to help us stay connected about changing travel plans and delays. Edna and Henry just returned home and hoped their family would all arrive safely the next day.

Hank is not going to the reunion. Instead, he is headed to Detroit the next day with Orlo to see the Tigers play a double header against the Yankees.

The Tigers lost both games. In game one they were defeated 9-3. In game two, the Yankees beat them by a score of 6 -2.

Bobo Newsome pitched most of the first game for the Tigers. Hal Newhouser and Schoolboy Rowe pitched in game two.

My dad's all-time favorite Tiger, Rudy York, was in the line-up for the Tigers that day. It was a good day for York, despite the Tigers two losses. He had two hits and two RBIs in game two (the only two runs scored during that game). York also had two RBIs in game one, accounting for two of the three runs scored that game.

Hank and Orlo also saw Charlie Gehringer play that day. Gehringer had one hit in each game.

Joltin' Joe DiMaggio

This was 1941 and the Tigers were playing the Yankees. That meant Joe DiMaggio was in the line-up.

It is 1941 and DiMaggio is in the line-up!

That is a big deal because 1941 is the year DiMaggio had his 56-game hitting streak, a record that still stands today.

I got excited thinking that Hank and Orlo might have seen one of those games. I looked up the dates of DiMaggio's hitting streak. It came to an end on July 17, 1941, just two days before Hank and Orlo saw him play in Detroit.

DiMaggio did not disappoint, however. He had three hits between the two games.

In fact, the day after his streak ended on July 17, DiMaggio had a single and a double off of the amazing Bob Feller and went on to have hits in another 16 consecutive games (two of which Hank and Orlo saw), giving DiMaggio hits in 72 of 73 consecutive games.

Hank and Orlo were witness to a bit of baseball history.

July 17, 1941 (Thursday)

EDNA BAKES ALL DAY. BOYS CUT OATS.

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Continued warm and

acts some like rain.

I did baking all day

long - baking extra getting

ready for Reunion.

Boys finished cutting oats

in big field and did

some shocking.

Henry in northern part of

County on Right of Way.

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Edna is still getting ready for the upcoming Nash family reunion and the "boys" are harvesting the oats. On this day, they finished cutting oats in the big field and start shocking.

While a love of farming (or interest in farming) may be passed down from generation to generation, being an actual farmer is not genetic. As much as I would like to be able to tell you, that like my family before me, I am a farmer; I am not. So, when Edna writes things like "shocking" the oats, I need to double check to make sure I read her handwriting correctly. Did she mean "shucking"? No! No, Jill. She did not mean "shucking." That is something I do to cobs of corn before putting it in the pot. The "boys" were "shocking" the oats.

In 1941, they were probably using a binder to cut the oats, not cutting them by hand. The binder would have been pulled by a team of horses or a tractor.

"For nearly sixty years, roughly 1880 to 1950, before the affordability and wide-spread use of combines, grain production in the American and Canadian Great Plains was dependent on harvesting with binders. Binders cut the grain stalks and then tied them into bundles with twine that farmhands later would gather into shocks to await threshing." -Agricultural History

Vol. 80, No. 1 (Winter, 2006), pp. 35-63 (29 pages)

After the cutting the field, farmers gathered the bundles of oats by hand and put them in to piles (shocks) so that the seeds faced upwards, allowing them to dry. Once dry, the seeds are separated from the stalk (threshing). From there, they are put into a grain bin and the stalks are baled as straw.

On this day in 1941 on the Johnson farm, the oats have been cut and shocking has begun. But the "boys' still have a lot of work ahead of them.