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Week 17 2026 - Working for a Living - Jay S Porter

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Jay Shepard Porter (my dad's first cousin 1x removed) was born on  April 7, 1898, in Salem , Oregon the eldest son of George Washington and Anna Mary (McGowan) Porter. His father had traveled from Iowa to Minnesota to Oregon as a young man and as an adult earned his livelihood as a farmer. Jay’s early years were shaped by the routines and responsibilities of rural life and the labor required before the onset of modern machinery. By about 1916, at the age of eighteen, Jay made a significant transition, leaving the family farm and relocating to the Multnomah district of Portland . This move reflected a broader pattern seen in many young men at that time who sought opportunity in larger towns. In Portland, Jay took employment as an express delivery truck driver, serving local industries such as the region’s woolen mills. The occupation “express driver” or “express truck driver” indicates work in the early commercial delivery system between manufacturers and customers, before modern ne...
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Week 16 2026 - A Quiet Life - Sheridan / Oliver Harris

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...He was a farmer and lived the quiet and peaceful life of a tiller of the soil, winning respect and esteem of the community in which he lived... I have generations of farmers in my ancestry. They farmed to survive. They did the work daily with a serenity that comes from communicating with nature. A feeling of a sense of pride for a job well-done. Oliver Harris was born November 18, 1824, in Stamford, Bennington County, Vermont on the family farm. He was the eldest of the eight children of Eseck and Prudence (Pratt) Harris.  He married Lucy E Wade (born October 28,1791 in Vermont) the daughter of Ransom and Lucy (Blandin) Wade. They were married February 8, 1842, in Stamford, Vermont. They were the parents of nine children: Joseph, Lewis, Lucy, Amanda, Salem, Everett, James, Martin and Minnie.  In 1865, his father Eseck deeded the family farm in Stamford to Oliver with the following stipulations:  the farm would yearly give his parents Eseck and Prudence the use of one c...
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Week 15 2026 - Unexpected - Porter

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Phyllis Maxine (Porter) Drummond was my dad's older sister. She was born February 20, 1915, in Manning, Carroll County, Iowa the oldest child of Harry Edward and Nellie (Dillingham) Porter. Many of my memories of her are not always complimentary. She could be sharp spoken; always had to dominate the conversation and many times she would make comments that would hurt your feelings. But I think she loved her family, especially her two younger brothers. She told many stories about their years living in South Dakota and Iowa, but those are for another missive.                                                                                                      Harry, Bill, Phyllis ca1919               ...
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Week 14 2026 - A Brick Wall Revisited - Sheridan

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Sometimes brick walls just won't fall. Back in the early 2010's I found this newspaper article while researching my Sheridan family in the Perrinton, Gratiot County, Michigan area. In the Maple Rapids Dispatch newspaper Friday, 1 June 1888 Vol X #35 Pg8 Col2 - from the Perrinton Mirador:  "Two sharp looking boys arrived on the noon train today, from Detroit, sent by the St. Anthony orphan asylum, to find homes with Michael Sheridan and Thos. Holland." Michael Sheridan was my great-grandfather, and Thomas Holland was his brother-in-law. Note: Thomas Holland was the town sheriff. With no 1890 census available, I found the 1894 Michigan census and found a 14-year-old male named Frank Morrison listed with the Patrick Sheridan family. His relationship to head of household showed adopted boy. He was born in Michigan ca 1880 and both of his parents were listed as unknown. Patrick Sheridan was my 2x great grandfather and why was young Frank listed living with him instead of ...
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Week 13 2026 - A Family Pattern - Dillingham

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The family pattern that comes to mind immediately is the name Nathaniel Dillingham. Although I can take the Dillingham name back into very early England history, our first immigrant arrived in 1632 to America. From "Dillingham's of Big Ivy, Buncombe County, N.C. and Related Families, " compiled by Margaret Wallis Haile, Gateway Press, Inc., Baltimore, 1985: "...Edward with his wife, Ursula, and three of their children came to Boston in 1632, settled in Lynn, and later in Sandwich, Massachusetts. Three daughters of Edward and Ursula remained in England. Edward made his Will, 1 May 1666, and it was proved June 5, 1667. The Will named his two sons, Henry and John. His other child who came to America was a daughter, Oseth, who married Stephen Wing. There are baptismal records in England of Edward and Ursula's children. These, with the baptismal, burial, and marriage records of Rev. Henry Dillingham's children--his other sons died in childhood--ship passenger list...
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Week 12 2026 - An Address with a Story - Porter

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Slowly coming awake in my small twin bed, through the open window I could hear a robin telling her story of the day. As I lay there smelling the freshness after the light rain showers that had occurred during the night, I could hear the radio on low. And the sound of an iron landing lightly on the ironing board along with Mom singing softly with the music playing. Or was she chatting with herself? That was a heartwarming thing that she did.  She always said it was okay to talk to yourself - as long as you didn't answer back. When I was four years old, my parents moved into a 'large' three-bedroom, one bath house. They had left a house in a small nearby town to be only two blocks from an elementary school, four blocks from the Junior High and about a mile from the High School. It was definitely more centrally located for us kids to attend school. The basement was a Michigan basement. All concrete, with built in ledges. An old coal room and coal furnace heated the house, but ...
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Week 11 2026 - A Turning Point - Sam Dillingham

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Sometimes life gives you a chance to make amends. My great-uncle Samuel Dillingham was handed such a possibility.  Sam was the second oldest son of Nathaniel G and Ellen (Berry) Dillingham. He was one of 14 children. He had a couple of siblings who were notorious for fighting and scrapping and getting into trouble with the law. So was Sam. Family stories (from the wife of Sam's grandson and also from his younger brother Bill/Willard Dillingham) state that Sam had a falling out with his family and ran away from home at the young age of 12. He is listed with his parents and siblings in the 1880 census (age 11) and in the 1885 state census (age 16). So maybe he came back home?  Sam was born 8 Dec 1869 in Cerro Gordo, Iowa. In 1894 in Manning, Iowa when he was age 24 he and another man named O. W. 'Hock' Hunter got into a fight and Sam was underneath when he pulled a knife and attempted to kill Hunter. A Grand Jury sentenced him to two years at the state penitentiary for assaul...
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