Noah Elwood Weaver - Adopter of New Technology - Biking to Work - RR to NCR

Noah Elwood's first bike according to my dad. Photo labeled 1902, likely at the family farm.

Here is a photo of my grandfather, Noah Elwood Weaver, wearing the hat from the Cincinnati, Hamilton, and Dayton Railroad office where he was a clerk, just down the hill from the family farm. This photo is labeled as his second motor bike from 1903-4. I remember talking with my father who supported my labeling of this. The initials E.H.E, are on the back. Certainly Edna Helena Eicher his girlfriend at the time, whom he eventually married in 1909.

CH and D office in Miamisburg where Noah Elwood, an apprentice clerk, is standing by the ladder. My father said this is where his dad worked prior to his marriage. According to the Ohio History Central Website, www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=794 "CH & D's main purpose was as a commuter line. A number of new communities were built along the rail line, and wealthy people moved out of the city of Cincinnati to live in these communities. Railroads allowed people who could afford to pay the fare to live further away from where they worked.'

Here is Elwood's first motor bike with his RR Clerk hat, that he is riding to the CH and D office in Miamisburg. Labeled 1903, age 18, with his mom, Hattie Weaver in the background likely at the family farm on Bindery Hill West of Miamisburg.

NCR, Dayton, Screw Dept, 1905-06 where Elwood is standing at the upper right. He was a clerk apprentice here as well. He later became an accountant and controller at the Envelope Company in West Carrollton and Miamisburg Paper.

Among my grandfathers things I found this simple pass for the doorkeeper at NCR. My sense is that his work at NCR, a very advanced company in the US, set the stage for him to become a very successful business person in the first half of the 20th Century.

Yeoman Ancestors - Creating Connections to the Earth and Wealth Moving West

My Weaver ancestors came to Pennsylvania Colony in 1751, Johann Enoch Weber, sailing on the ship Janet from Rotterdam, from Baden Wuettemburg Germany. I have no photos of that early era. I do have records of the family moving to Ohio, after Johann Jacob Weaver, who served in the Pennsylvania Colony Militia took his family west to the Greater Miami River area of the new territories open to settlement. That would be found in the Southwest part of Ohio on this map. Here they traveled in 1804-1805 and became earlier pioneers of the area after Ohio became a state.

Here are Henry Eicher and Helena Brandt, at the time of their marriage in 1875. Henry was a farmer in Montgomery County, Miami Twp. He farmed in the area the his father Franz Eicher farmed. Both were likely what is referred to as a yeomen. When researching my Weber, Weaver ancestors yesterday, the word "Yeoman", came up on the census in the late 1700's for Johann Enoch Weber's occupation. The definition is covered in a wiki link:
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/hns/yoeman/yman3.html
"Horace Greeley writes that above all professions, he would recommend farming to a son. Among his reasons is that farming is "that vocation which conduces most directly to a reverence for Honesty and Truth." More recent photos of the Weaver Family (late 1800's and early 1900's, are from my Grandfather Noah Elwood Weaver. Below is an active farmering photo of William B Weaver and his mother working the 110 acre farm that was in the family for 4 generations in Miami Twp, just above Miamisburg.

Here are a family of hired hands, a woman with an infant, Hattie Weaver, other hired hand child on top of hay, William Benton Weaver, last yeoman on the family farm, and the hired hand. (Hope this vertical photo could be horizontal :-())


Here is a photo of the Weaver and Eicher families at a time of rest and relaxation, at a cabin on Indian Lake in Ohio. Pictured: Noah Elwood Weaver, Edna Eicher Weaver, Paul Henry Weaver (my dad, likely at age 4 or so, would make it ca 1914), Henry Eicher, William Benton Weaver the last "yeoman" on the Weaver farm and Hattie Weaver, who fished into her 90's. :-)


When I began to upload photos, this photo came up. From the citified, no longer Yeoman Glessner tribe. These are products created by my Grandfather Harry Chappelear Glessner, Keen Shaving Cream, that I remember my mom talking about. Also Turpo, which I still have sample of. Prior to Harry, Leonard Cowles Glessner, my great grandfather, who married Emma Chappelear created the products, like Dr Drakes Cough Syrup. The Glessner- Chappelear line intersected in Farmer City IL in the 1870's, Len's first son, Lewis was born here. Len and Emma moved to Carlinsville IL and Sedalia MO, that latter city where Harry and his sister Mary Eleanor were born. Leonard moved back to Findlay OH at the time of the oil boom in NW OHio. He then founded the Glessner Medicine Company around 1900

Family Tree - Gathering the fruits of the nut trees in Ohio

Here are friends, Dexter and Karen whom I met at the Hollow Horn Bear sun dance last summer, at a Delaware County Ohio park, with some old growth deciduous trees that include oaks and hickories. While walking with them here, I noticed hickory nuts on the ground - which I soon learned from my cousin in Troy, are part of the German lineage family stories carried on through holiday sweets. A 21st Century Facebook Friend, David sent a joke about DESSERTS is STRESSED backwards. So here is to sweet and joyful memories that come up for me as I envision my ancestors sharing stories and creating new realities around the hearth and fires of 19th Century in the mid part of North America - AKA "Turtle Island"
When I visited Ohio in October, I remember driving from Louisville and the 25th MKP International Celebration to the lands of my ancestors. Crossing the Ohio River at Cincinnati what occurred to me, that my great great grandfather Eicher, Franz Eicher b Steinwenden Rheinland Pfalz 1819 married Margaret Bohlaender b Ellenbach Rheinland Pfalz 1821, married here in the Over the Rhine neighborhood of Cincinnati on Aug 22, 1843. Henry had walked from Germany through Nancy France in 1833 down the Seine from near Paris through Rouen to board a three mast ship at Havre de Grace that carried him to Baltimore. He met is brother Phillip in Hagerstown and the two of them walked in 1835 with their family on the National Pike then down along the Little Miami thence through Bellbrook by Hole's Creek to West Carrollton and Alexandersville. He worked on a canal boat on the Greater Miami, that likely was from Piqua called the "Exchange"with John Waltz of Alexandersville. His son Henry, b 1845 farmed in Miami Twp Montgomery Co and married Emelina Helena Paul, b 1856, on April 20th 1875

Here are the processed hickory nuts that my kissing cousin Jeannette Weaver sent to me after our visit in Troy in October. It occurs to me that the light ones are likely the shagbark species with the husk gone. I went on line, to check out the different kinds. Jeannette describes the pig nut hickories, that are more bitter and likely fed to the pigs. She remembers her dad and grandmother never bringing the nuts in until the first hard frost. Her dad would bring them in in a big burlap bag, to get them from the shagbark hickory. He would also use the bark for the smoker for his bee hives. Here is a link to learn more about the hickory nuts and the different species.
www.hiltonpond.org/thisweek030908.html

Here are the hickory nuts of two species that Karen Poremski gathered in Delaware County, where my Glessner, Bixby and Cowles family intersected in the early to mid 1800's. I look forward to cracking these open at Jesse Weaver's home Dec 4, when our family gathers at his St Cloud home to celebrate. The shagbark is supposedly the sweetist and I look forward to finding out what the darker nut is. Open to comments from anyone. When my parents, moved in 1938 to Minnesota from Ohio, they brought their stories and love for nature and the trees of Ohio and back east. Interesting that the cutting board here, is butternut wood. Learning more about the low hanging fruits of life. Easy does it.

Had a heart to heart conversation with my cousin Jeannette this morning, just to make sure I have her granddaughter's name right. Here are Wanda Grossnickle Bordeau, my cousin from Canada, Elizabeth Grace Weaver b April 27, 2010 and her grandma, my cousin Jeannette Allen Weaver sitting at the kitchen table at Fred and Jeannette Weaver's home in Troy Ohio, sharing family stories. And thanks for the journeys and stories of all my relations. Mitakuye Oyasin! Gratitude, Acceptance and Service.

Faribault Walnut Bookcase-Cathedral -Reunion Friends and Flooding Sept 25 2010

Creating a new reality together with friends. Sue and I lived in this big St Cloud home near SCSU from 1978 - 1999 together. When our paths separated and I moved to the Twin Cities in 1999 to create a life with more integrity for me, we continued to share our visions of being parents and staying connected with our sons, and friends in a good way. We agreed that this large walnut bookcase, purchased by my father, Paul H Weaver MD, from the supervisor at St Lucus Hospital in Faribault, and once part of the library at Seabury Seminary's Johnston Hall, built in 1888 from local limestone, would best be returned to Faribault to support the historical essence of Episcopal spiritual history in this prairie lakes town, that attracted my parents to settle here in 1939. Here are friends, Mike Ames and Gary Engler sizing up the project with Nate Weaver Saturday morning of the 25th at Sue and Nate's home.

Together we faced our fears of moving it for the third time (first Faribault to Duluth 1976, next Duluth to St Cloud 1978) and I rented a truck in Waite Park and we got plenty of steady friends to support us in this project. Here we are moving it out the front door. Sue, on her cell summoning back up support, Nate, Gary, Mike and this author.

After an uneventful drive down the freeway from St Cloud, noting no roads were closed from the rains in Faribault, three Faribault men, Jim Zotalis, Dean of the Cathedral, Patrick Justin, CFO of District One Hospital and Russell, the sexton of the Cathedral and Guild House are seen here to move the bookcase into the Cloister Walk then into the Guild House.

Here, with Patrick checking out the doors, the bookcase finds its place in the Great Hall of the Guild House, blending in with other historic aspects that Jim Zotalis shared with me about the history of the Episcopal Church in Faribault during the 1800's when "Athens of the West" was a description of a town that was the seat of the Minnesota Diocese. For more history see: www.thecathedralfaribault.com/History.dsp

After we unloaded the bookcase, I waited to meet David Currer and his partner Brian from the UK. It was David's first time backs to a Faribault High School Class Reunion. We had visited in the UK last fall when I attended the Mankind Project WEG and drove around the country side together in his sporty BMW. Sweet to finally meet Brian here in the town where David and I both
began some of our writing. Both of us wrote for the Yearbook, the Voyageur, another reflection of the French Heritage of Alexander Faribault, who was French and Dakota.

Here I am with the iconic sweep of the Viaduct in downtown Faribault, noticing the sandbagging during the floods. David and Brian are by the bridge to Teepee Tonka Park, the place I understand was a "big encampment" of the Dakota people after the 1862 Dakota Conflict when Alexander Faribault and Bishop Whipple provided shelter during a time of cultural persecution of the
indigeneous peoples of Minnesota. (Thanks Howard Heath of Hoyt Lakes for the Editing Suggestions - Glad you are awake:-))

Here is the extent of the flooding in Heritage Park, where I am standing near the Depot restaurant where they were pumping water from the basement.

Completing our tour, David, Brian and I drove to the Health Care Campus that includes District One Hospital and the iconic Johnston Hall with its limestone tower as a focal point of Faribault's East side, since its construction in 1888. The following Tuesday, I met with Patrick Justin and Dean Jim Zotalis to tour the building and then share my hope for its preservation and integration into this Campus at the District One Hospital Board Meeting. Hopefully, with financial support from a variety of sources the Ad Hoc Committee now forming through the Hospital Board, will draw on the expertise of holistic creative folks in the area, to create an integrative health care resource center that will serve the people for the next 7 generations. Peace, love, joy and beauty. Mitakuye Oyasin. D/Lakota "We are all related".

Lake Superior Bark Point - Flag River friends

I arrived Saturday after a drive up from the Twin Cities with my friend Stephen Sewell, a brother from my Mankind Project I group.
Awaiting us was the fresh vistas of the south Shore of Gitchi Gummi, an Anishinabeg name for this big cold mother of waters. These stone people reflect an incredible diversity that I experienced here. Peace and connection with eight other lovely men sharing from our heart about life's transitions in a good way.

Here is the view looking west and down Bark Point toward the Wisconsin Shore. The changing horizon and the waters of the lake and the wind refreshed us as we had no real agenda other than sharing from our hearts about our passions and life's missions. After an early afternoon sauna, I drove back west to Port Wing and up the Flag River to visit Rus and Cindy Hurt, whom I had not visited here since they moved here from Duluth in 1976! Rus lived in our basement at 1716 E 5th St on the east hillside part of Duluth and created a darkroom there, where he developed photos during his trips on the ore boats and up to Cloud Bay Ontario. Memories of Cloud Bay sour dough bread and the cultures we kept going in crocks back then in the 70's.

Here is Cindy in their home, built, I understand by a "one armed man who had worked at the local sawmill" according to Rus, and he got a settlement for his arm injury and got a lot of the beams for this home. Such a warm welcome with tea and great stories. Rus is a bowl wood turner and some of his creations are visible on the top of the light wood hutch. Rus then showed me a poster of his 1976 photo called "The Roll," taken on the Irving S Olds, an ore boat he was crewing on lake Huron, was in a strom in January. Check out Rus Website: http://rushurt.com/moments/moments1.html - For the famous image that is now featured as a 8 X 12 foot enlargement on permanent exhibit "On the Water, Stories from Maritime America" at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington DC.

Rus Hurt and Tom Weaver in front of the wood shed at the Hurt Flag River residence near Port Wing. Connection after 34 years!
Fun to share stories and see where seeds planted years ago ae coming to harvest in a good way. Thanks for the stories Rus and Cindy, and for listening to my life's journey over tea!