In the very, very beginning, she was not sure how to do this. She was not sure she could figure it all out. Even starting perplexed her. Where to start? How to start? What questions were there that needed answers?

In the very, very beginning, she had little clues to carry her. Just a few names needed to be checked out. Where would they lead her, those names? How would she figure out how to organize all that data about those names? Who were those names to her?

In the very, very beginning, she researched guidelines. She searched for others who had gone before her and conquered the steps and the organization. She studied their examples. She Goggled names and places while she gathered life stories. She made folders and files. How was she to create a structure to put this all together? Who could really help her? What lessons needed learning?

In the very, very beginning, she jumped in with both feet…an observation by her husband Daniel. She spent evenings, weekends, vacations looking for complete strangers who had blood connections to her. She devoted herself to this journey, this adventure, this birth… the birth of a new genealogist, the evolution of constructing a family tree, the advent of a lifetime of searching.

In the very, very beginning, it was I who did this. It was I who jumped in with both feet. It was I who became a genealogist. And so I remain these 20 years later.

1 December 1853 New Albin, Allamakee County, Iowa

Dearest Mother,
Sending our love to you this Christmas. In fact, I hope this reaches you in time to wish you the best of greetings.

As I write, baby Charlie sleeps beside me. He is all of nine months now. So sweet, so little. I spend most of my days caring for him as it is too snowy and windy to be outside. Andrew is busy outside tending the livestock and caring for the farm. I know he is daydreaming of where we will go next…that man has wanderlust in his soul.

Mother, I have made a resolution for myself. It is this: wherever my husband Andrew wants to venture next, baby Charlie and I will follow without complaint. It has been hard on us to move across the prairies to the next territory. We just made it here to Iowa. Now he talks of moving on to Minnesota. We have been married for less than 2 years and have moved twice.

I further resolve that one day the move will be our last one. I resolve we will build a real home, on a real farm, and live a real life in an established place. I resolve I will gather my children around me and teach them the ways of the Lord.

So, Mother, I wish you a Christmas filled with knowing that we love you and miss you all.

Lovingly,
Your daughter Mary Etta

Note: Mary Etta (Soule) Storer was my second great grandmother. After this date, she and Andrew and their children would move three more times in 22 years. They would raise nine children. In the year 1875, they finally made their permanent home in Osborne County, Kansas. Here they built a real home on a real farm and became successful sheep farmers.

31 August 1900 Bloomington, Osborne County, Kansas

Dearest Father and Mother,
In just a few days, Wash and I are going to do something we have been considering for some time. We feel our little community needs this. The people here need resting places for their beloved departed. We are selling 5 acres of our farmland to the Bloomington Cemetery Association. We will receive $15.

Even though it has not been an official burial grounds, several have been placed at rest. One soul, that breaks my mother-heart, is young Byon Prentess. He was only 11 years old who was laid to rest here almost 30 years ago. Another is Delbert Tunison who was murdered by his brother-in-law over two horses. His grave is unmarked. There is a Civil War veteran who lies here in another unmarked grave…his name is Amos Howell Boultinghouse.

My husband Wash and I are not sure how this started with this acreage becoming a burial ground. None of our kin are buried here. We feel that selling it to the Cemetery Association is fitting and right. We have placed a fence around part of the grounds and graves.

May the souls entrusted to this earth rise in peace and see the face of God.

Lovingly,
Your daughter Almina

Note: My great grandparents, Washington I and Sarah Almina (Nickel) Storer, sold the land on 1 September 1900 to the Bloomington Cemetery Association. Ironically, they are not buried there as they are at rest in the Osborne City Cemetery. There is a historic marker at the cemetery.

8 December 1955 Alton, Osborne County, Kansas

Being the baby of the family, I grew up with two sisters and a brother. Through the years, they had moved on to other places and homes. Letters flew back and forth from time to time. Phone calls to the farm came only if there were a family emergency. So, I discovered two friends I thought of as sisters. Boy, oh boy, did they have different personalities.

One of those gals was Margaret Simpson, who lived a few farms over. A bit younger than I, she was the wife and mother of two sons. She worked hard on that farm: taking care of the chicken coop, growing vegetables in her patch, raising her boys, and other jobs. At harvest time, there was always the chore of fixing the hands a huge hot noon meal. She loved to socialize so if I had time to run to town and stop at her place on the way home, she was there to greet me with a cup of coffee. She was president of the Homemakers Club and loved to organize the events. She was always calm in any emergency.

The other gal was Faye Simpson, who just happened to be Margaret’s sister-in-law. She lived a few farms over in the opposite direction. She loved doing man’s work on the farm and was always dressed in plaid shirts and overalls. Along with her husband, she loved raising horses. She and her husband would travel to Nebraska, Colorado, and Wyoming looking for Appaloosas for sale. She could make berry pies like no one else. Politics was her thing…not like the other women…she wrote letters to the editor of the newspaper…the topic was often about taxes. She was a firebrand of a woman.

When all of us wanted to have a leisurely afternoon, we spent it with other 25 members of the Busy Bee Club. We made friendship quilts, crocheted, knitted. We lunched and (hate to say it) gossiped about the news in the town. Underneath it all, I loved these two like sisters.

~Isabella Mary Boultinghouse Storer

Note: Isabella is my maternal grandmother. I had met Margaret and Faye all those years ago. I loved visiting their farms and riding their horses. I have one of the friendship quilts made by them in 1930.

1 December 1924 Bloomington, Osborne County, Kansas

Savoring the aroma of the coffee beans, I placed them in the grinder. Making that first coffee pot of the day has become such a ritual to me. As the owner of Mamie’s Cafe, I want to greet each day’s guests with strong cups of coffee. My customers like to check my cookie jar for fresh baked sugar cookies to complement their coffee. Often, my husband Lafe will wander in from outside chores to grab a mug. With the post office next door, the postmaster comes over for a cup to take back to his office. I carry a small stock of groceries, and often children will stop by to get supplies for their mothers. When the coffee is on the stove, Mamie’s is open.

~Naomi Ruth (Stevens) Boultinghouse
aka Mamie

1 October 1930 Alton, Osborne County, Kansas
Taking the coffee grinder off the shelf, I am always reminded of my mother Naomi. She gifted me with the grinder so I would be able to get a coffee pot going in the morning. Mornings on the farm get started early…getting up with the chickens I say. My husband Andrew likes to have a cup before heading out to the barn. He says it gets him oiled up so he can get all his work done. Shortly, he will be back to eat his breakfast and have another cup before he heads out on his horse to check the pastures. Soon, I will awaken my two small daughters Merna Mae (age 5) and Mary Lee (age 1). A farmer’s wife is never done with her work.

~Isabella Mary (Boultinghouse) Storer

1 October 1989 Greencastle, Franklin County, Pennsylvania
It was difficult breaking up Mother’s housekeeping goods as she was moving to a retirement home. We packed many things to go to auction. The treasures my sister Mary Lee and I divided up between us would not resemble heirlooms to some folks. Those treasures were items that touched the hands of our grandmother and mother…just everyday kitchen items. We picked items from cupboards, cabinets, and hutches. One of the items I chose was Grandma B’s coffee grinder. She had gifted it long ago to my mother, her daughter. I brought it back from Kansas…I knew my daughter MaryAnne would want it. My daughter is the family history storyteller, and she treasures these props. Let’s see how she uses it.
~Merna Mae (Storer) Slabik

1 December 2024 Waynesboro, Franklin County, Pennsylvania
Carefully, I had placed the coffee grinder above my kitchen cabinets. I had made a vignette with the grinder and a Golden West coffee can along with a wooden rooster and a chicken lamp. They are all symbols of my family: my Great Grandma B’s cafe, my Grandmother Storer’s chicken coop, my mother’s folk art, and my childhood wish of becoming a cowgirl. And so those story prompts inspire me…
~MaryAnne (Slabik) Haffner

A simple coffee grinder from a small town in Kansas carries with it a potload of memories and stories.