It all started with a Prince

Not having a lot of multiple births in my family or accountants that are into multiple numbers, I chose to write about my great-aunt Lois Ann Dillingham. 'Loattie' was the oldest of 12 children of Sidney and Katherine (Sweet) Dillingham, my 2x great-grandparents. Of those 12 children, 10 lived to adulthood and there were no multiple births. She was the original 'Loattie' in the family although there were multiple descendants that also carried that nickname. She also married multiple times and had a total of 11 children. She was born June 23, 1837, in New York. The family had moved to Cherry Valley, Winnebago County, Illinois by the 1850 census, after a stop in Michigan for a few years. At the young age of 15, she married John Beard July 17, 1852, in Winnebago County, Illinois. They had four children: Catherine, Margaret, William and Alicia. William and Alicia both died in 1864 at ages four and three. John enlisted in the Civil War in the 52nd Illinois Infantry, Company ...

The Sheridan family has been in Perrinton, Gratiot County, Michigan since the 1850's when Patrick Sheridan filed for 80 acres of land in Gratiot County through the Bureau of Land Management in Ionia.  The first school in Perrinton was built in 1888 and had 52 total students with one teacher. The brick Perrinton High School was built in 1917 and was the one that my mom (Lorraine Sheridan) would have attended. 1939 was the last graduating class when Perrinton and Middleton consolidated and they built the Fulton High School that we know today.  At the time of my mother's High School years (1939-1942) the town's population was less than 400 persons.  Including students from Middleton along with Perrinton, 33 were in the graduation class of 1942. Mom's sister Alice Sheridan was in the first graduation class of the new High School in 1940. My mom's 'Autograph Book' from 1939 has comments from friends from her community.  Some were neighbors and others were just sc...

  As the sun was slowly lightening the morning sky, Pauline let herself into the storefront after inserting the large cumbersome key into the lock. The rustling of her skirts could be heard along with the chirping of birds in the trees. A horse neighed in the distance and a wagon rattled along the deserted street. The front window on the south side of the store was glistening in the early daylight. Pauline settled herself into the overstuffed chair located to catch those early rays and picked up a dainty green velveteen hat piece. She began slowly and steadily stitching the small piece of veiling just off side of center. After she finished this and added the green dyed marabou feather it would be placed on a wooden millinery stand in the window to show it off. Hopefully, it would also pull a few ladies in to check out her hats. She still had to finish black hats for Mrs. Baker and her daughter.  It was so sad that she lost Mr. Baker so unexpectedly. She was just waiting for th...

My maternal great-grandmother was Elizabeth (Holland) Sheridan. Elizabeth was the youngest child of Thomas and Mary (Shevlen) Holland both of which were Irish immigrants. She had an older sister Minerva and an older brother Thomas Holland, Jr. Her brother Thomas, Jr was born April 12, 1854, in Union, Cook County, Ohio.  By 1870 the family had moved from Ohio to Fulton, Gratiot County, Michigan where Thomas, Sr took up farming on 80 acres of land next door to the Patrick Sheridan family. (Now you know how our great-grandparents Michael and Elizabeth met) Thomas, Jr married Lillian Aurilla Fairchild at the young age of 19 on September 25, 1873, in Ithaca, Gratiot County, Michigan.  By the 1880 census they were living on a farm in Fulton and were the parents of four children: John, Charles, Minerva and George. The call for free land and open space must have caused them to want more for their young family. They sold their farm, packed up and followed along with others going West. ...

 My grandfather, Harry Edward 'Ed' Porter was born August 1, 1888, in Rochester Township, Cedar County, Iowa the oldest child of William and Carrie (Barnhart) Porter. I knew him fairly well as he lived until 1972 just a year after I graduated High School. Unfortunately, I never thought to ask him questions regarding his younger years and even his older years and his working history. Different stories abound - he was a carpenter, a laborer, a farmer, a cook, and the owner of a restaurant. A real jack of all trades.  He was raised in Iowa, married (twice) there and then after he married my grandmother Nellie Dillingham October 14, 1914, they moved to Flandreau, South Dakota where they owned a small restaurant and my dad was born. By 1920 they had moved back to Sioux City, Iowa where my dad and his siblings were raised. Well, they worked in a restaurant. I have never found proof that they owned it. Just the family stories. They lived above the restaurant and in the 1920 census he...

After a few long days flying Douglas DC-3 routes for North Central Airlines in the 1950s, Kenny found his way back to calm in a much smaller cockpit: the kitchen table.  The DC-3 demanded constant attention—radio calls crackling in, weather shifting without much warning, and the steady responsibility of carrying passengers safely through an era when flying still felt a little raw and unpredictable. By the time he parked the real aircraft for the day, his mind was often still running at cruise power, full of checklists, engine sounds, and invisible crosswinds. That’s where model airplanes came in. Building and flying them in his leisure time gave him a different kind of control—no passengers, no radios, just balsa wood, glue, and the satisfying logic of something he could shape with his own hands. He would sand wing ribs until they were smooth as bone, fit the fuselage together piece by piece, and let the familiar smell of dope (balsa lacquer) and Ambroid glue replace the noise o...